After burning Shint[=o] and Buddhist
temples, they fortified an old abandoned castle at Shimabara, resolving
to die rather than submit. Against an army of veterans, led by skilled
commanders, the fortress held out during four months. At last, after a
bloody assault, it was taken, and men, women and children were
slaughtered.[22] Thousands suffered death at the point of the spear and
sword; many were thrown into the sea; and others were cast into boiling
hot springs, emblems of the eight Buddhist Hells.
All efforts were now put forth to uproot not only Christianity but also
everything of foreign planting. The Portuguese were banished and the
death penalty declared against all who should return, The ai no ko, or
half-breed children, were collected and shipped by hundreds to Macao.
All persons adopting or harboring Eurasians were to be banished, and
their relatives punished. The Christian cause now became like the doomed
city of Babylon or like the site of Nineveh, which, buried in the sand
and covered with the desolation and silence of centuries, became lost to
the memory of the world, so that even the very record of scripture was
the jest of the infidel, until the spade of Layard brought them again to
resurrection.
Pages:
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440