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The Hostility of Hideyoshi.
Konishi, on the other hand, was less numerously and perhaps less
influentially backed by, and made the champion of, the European
brethren; and as all the negotiations between the invaders and the
allied Koreans and Chinese had to be conducted in the Chinese script,
the alien fathers were, as secretaries and interpreters, less useful
than the native Japanese bonzes.
Yet this jealousy and hostility in the camps of the invaders proved to
be only correlative to the state of things in Japan. Even supposing the
statistics in round numbers, reported at that time, to be exaggerated,
and that there were not as many as the alleged two hundred thousand
Christians, yet there were, besides scores of thousands of confessing
believers among the common people, daimi[=o]s, military leaders, court
officers and many persons of culture and influence. Nevertheless, the
predominating influence at the Ki[=o]to court was that of Buddhism; and
as the cult that winks at polygamy was less opposed to Hideyoshi's
sensualism and amazing vanity, the illustrious upstart was easily made
hostile to the alien faith. According to the accounts of the Jesuits, he
took umbrage because a Portuguese captain would not please him by
risking his ship in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and
because there were Christian maidens of Arima who scorned to yield to
his degrading proposals.
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