were condemned to death; three were beheaded, and the rest drowned in the sea.  Eighteen others, of all ages, they took to a mountain, where there were some very hot baths; and, binding them with ropes, they put them into the water, asking them again and again if they would not recant.  Seeing their constancy, they bound them to stones, with which they were sunk in the sea.  Twenty-six others, of varying ages, they also took to the said baths; and having especially distinguished ten of these by torments, they kept them for some time on the edge of the baths, repeatedly asking them if they would give up their religion.  At the same time they poured upon their shoulders jars of that boiling hot water, drawing from them cries of pain; until, becoming convinced of their constancy, they drowned them in the said baths.  Because the body of one of them was not burst open like the rest by the heat of the water, they cut it open in various places with a knife.  In this torture he died, and, like the others, was flung into the baths.  Adding to these two others who died of the terrible torture inflicted upon them, the number of those who died in the province of Tacacu, by fire, blood, and water was forty-seven.  They went to rest and abide with Christ, and will always be able to say with David:  Transivimus per ignem et aqua e reduxisti nos in refrigerium. [66] We would never finish if we undertook to tell in detail all the particulars of these martyrdoms, which we shall leave for a more extended relation, in which they may be viewed; and great consolation will be had from the fact that those Christians have endured such atrocious and unheard-of torments with such constancy, for the love of Christ.

“Let us speak of the persecution which another pagan tono set in motion against the Christians in his lands, adjacent to those of Tacacu.  They buried three of the martyrs whom the tono of Tacacu had condemned, and three others were captured who were going there; he ordered them to recant if they wished to save their lives, or else they would be subjected to various torments, but these they suffered rather than lose the life of the soul.  Besides this, the Japanese persecuted the Christians of that town, and others near by, trying every means in their power to divert them from our holy faith.  Some of them were steadfast, and others wavered.  The tono, however, ordered them not to kill anyone then as a Christian, and this order was obeyed—­although two widows, named Maria, gave a noble [word illegible in MS.] in order to show that they were more constant.  They insulted these women in many ways, putting them to shame; and finally, as they were triumphant over every injury and torment, they were set free.  Then they hastened to the city of Nangasaqui, the chief of Christian communities in Japon, where on August 16, 1627, they arrested and burned alive father Fray Francisco de Santa Maria, and the lay brother, Fray Bartholome, both Franciscans, together with their