Went daily to say
their prayers; but now, by command of the emperor, all these trees are
cut down, the altars destroyed, and the ground all levelled, it being
his firm resolution utterly to root out the remembrance of all matters
connected with Christianity.
[Footnote 67: The Dairo was formerly the sovereign of Japan, uniting the
supreme civil and spiritual power, committing the military affairs to a
kind of generalissimo, who usurped supreme authority, and reduced the
Dairo to be a kind of sovereign pontiff or chief-priest. - E.]
In the months of November and December, 1618, there were two comets seen
all over Japan. The first, rising in the east, was like a great fiery
beam, rent to the southwards, and vanished away in about the space of a
month. The other rose also in the east, like a great blazing star, and
went northwards, vanishing quite away within a month near the
constellation of Ursa-Major or Charles-waine. The wizards of Japan have
prognosticated great events to arise from these comets, but hitherto
nothing material has occurred, excepting the deposition of
Frushma-tay, already related.
I am almost ashamed to write you the news which the Spaniards and
Portuguese report, though some of them have shewn me letters affirming
it to be true, of a bloody cross having been seen in the air in England;
and that an English preacher, speaking irreverently of it from the
pulpit, was struck dumb:
