_Progress of the Corean War—Success of the Japanese—Konishi
Settsu-no-kami, Viceroy of Corea—Edict of the Emperor for disarming
the Converts in Shimo—Disgrace and Downfall of the Royal Family of
Bungo—Terazawa, Governor of Nagasaki—His Conversion and Friendly
Acts—A. D. 1592-1593._
Though the emperor did not himself pass into Corea, he sent thither
such reinforcements as to raise his army there to the number of
two hundred thousand men. But the Coreans having abandoned their
cities and fled to inaccessible places, burning everything, even to
provisions which they could not carry away (thus setting an example
long afterwards followed by the Russians on a similar occasion), this
great force was soon reduced to extremities, by which its numbers were
rapidly diminished. The Chinese also came to the assistance of the
Coreans; and the grand admiral, with forces so reduced as to be greatly
inferior in numbers, was obliged to encounter these new enemies in
several desperate engagements. Compelled at last to retreat, he fell
back upon a garrison which he had left to keep up his communications
with the coast, the command of which he had entrusted to Yoshimune,
king of Bungo. But that feeble prince, in a moment of terror, had
abandoned his post; and, the grand admiral’s communications thus cut
off, nothing but his distinguished firmness and courage saved his army
from total destruction. After a drawn battle under the walls of the
Corean capital, terms of peace were agreed upon, according to which
five of the eight provinces of Corea were assigned to the Japanese; and
the commerce between China and Japan, which by the act of the former
had for some time been broken off, was again renewed.[58]
The admiral was named viceroy of Corea, and the converted princes were
still detained there at the head of their troops. The missionaries,
thus separated from their protectors, were filled with new alarms by
an order of the emperor for disarming all their converts in Shimo. The
king of Bungo, as a punishment for his cowardice, was stripped of his
estates; and in the end he and his family, reduced to absolute poverty,
were obliged to retire to Nagasaki, and to live there on the charity
of the Jesuits. His territories were assigned to pagan lords, and the
converted inhabitants soon felt the consequences of the change. Indeed,
throughout Shimo the converts suffered greatly by the absence of their
princes, of whom several died about this time. But, in general, the
Catholics stood firm; and several of the Jesuit fathers having made
their way to Corea, new converts were made in the ranks of the army.
The missionaries also found a new friend in Terazawa, a young man
appointed governor of Nagasaki, and who, not long after, was secretly
baptized. He represented to the emperor that, if the Portuguese
merchants were still to be admitted to trade at Nagasaki, they ought to
be allowed some priests, since it was the influence and authority of
the priests that kept the merchants in order, settled their quarrels,
and obliged them to strict justice in their commercial transactions;
and, upon the strength of these plausible representations, Terazawa
obtained leave for the Jesuits to rebuild their house and church
at Nagasaki. Father Gnecchi, also, in consideration of his age and
infirmities, was allowed to remain at Miyako, though without any
church, or permission to celebrate divine service openly.