Concerning the persecution in Japon, I can only say that with the death of Daytusama, who was the chief cause of the expulsion of our fathers, [15] it was hoped that the persecution would cease or at least would abate.  On the contrary it has increased under the new administration of his son, who is so hostile to the law of Christ our Lord that simply because of our holy faith he has martyred one religious from each of the four orders there.  These four religious, among many others, had gone about secretly, as in England, with great labor cultivating that vineyard.  This event occasioned much rejoicing in the hearts of all the people of this city, the laity as well as the religious.  They talked of making fiestas and public rejoicings in thanksgiving that our Lord had adorned the four orders that are in these islands with four martyrs so distinguished.  But in order not to further provoke to wrath the ruler of Japon, who had ordered their death, and for other reasons, it was thought best to suspend for the present all kinds of fiestas.  Among those who suffered this fortune or fate was a father of our Society named Juan Bautista Tavora, a native of the island of Tercera.  He died in company with a father of San Francisco.  Afterward they martyred two others, one of Santo Domingo, and the other of San Agustin, and in order that respect might not be paid by the Christians to their bodies, the heathen threw them into the sea.  The bodies of the father of our Society and the father of Santo Domingo were placed together in one box; those of the two fathers of San Francisco and San Agustin in another.  These last were afterward found, but the first were not.  The account of all that happened concerning this matter I will place in the relation of that province [Japon] where these most happy deaths will be related at length.

I will conclude this account with one of the most singular events that have ever happened in the world.  Although it is discreditable to the Order of St. Augustine, it should be related here with all truth, because it is so public and will be so noised about through all the world.  When Fray Vicente de Sepulveda, [16] first cousin of Father Juan Laurencio, rector of the College of Mexico, finished his term of three years as provincial, the fathers of St. Augustine met in chapter in a convent near the city of Manila, to elect a new provincial.  They chose Fray Geronimo de Salas, [17] not without dissensions and discords between the two parties into which they are divided.  This provincial died twenty days after his election.  He died, as some say (and this opinion seems not without foundation, as we shall see further on), from poison that they gave him, and consequently his death was very sudden.  By the death of this Fray Geronimo de Salas, Fray Vicente de Sepulveda returned to the office of provincial, as their regulations provide.  It seemed to some religious who were not of his party that it was too much for him to govern three more