The capture of the holy martyrs
[The two fathers set out, traveling slowly, encouraging the Christians
and recovering some of those who had recanted. The number of those
who came to be confessed was very great, and the religious heard
their confessions at the risk of their lives. The fathers rejoiced
to lay aside their secular garments; and the Christians who saw
them in religious habits were greatly delighted. Five persecutors
came to arrest the fathers, who received them with great joy and
gave them presents. Father Fray Alonso wrote a letter to the tono,
informing him that the fathers had come to give him an opportunity
to repent of his great sin in martyring the fathers who had been
executed, and to deliver him from the pains of hell. Some Japanese
boldly offered themselves for martyrdom. The Christian inhabitants of
the city showed the greatest devotion to the fathers, crowding about
them and offering themselves for martyrdom with them; and they showed
the greatest grief at the thought that the fathers were to be taken
from them by death. The tono of Omura was in the greatest grief and
perplexity, feeling that there would fall on him the obligation to
martyr Christians after Christians who would come to offer themselves
in his kingdom. He finally determined to take their lives, but with
the greatest secrecy, in order to prevent an uprising in the city. The
fathers were accordingly taken to a desolate island named Usuxima; and
in spite of the efforts of the heathen to keep the place secret, they
were followed by a great number of Christians, who confessed to them.]