The Bossier banner., 1892-02-04
A PLACE OF DEATH.
An Episode In the Japanese Prosecutions {
Christian Converts.

Christian Converts.
Every visitor to the beautiful harbor |
of Nagasaki Japan in the south of the
Japanese peninsula, is shown, as the |
steamer moves slowly up to the anchor
age beneath the foreign settlement, the |
lofty rock of Pappenberg, near the en-
trance, with one enormous cliff descend
ing sheer for some hundreds of feet into
deep water and in external appearance
not unlike the huge cliff known as Gal
lantry bower near Clovelly. From the
top of this cliff the traveller is told in
every book referring to the subject
thousands of Christian converts were
cast into the sea or dashed to pieces in
the fall, during the bloody prosecutions
about the middle of the seventeenth
century and the place has, therefore,
acquired a gloomy notoriety all over
the world. The late Laurence Oliphant
told a story in his Narrative of Lord
Elgin's Mission to China and Japan"
and described Pappenberg as the Tar
peian rock of Japan. Every writer in
Japan has accepted the story to this
day and the tale of human cruelty and
human sufferings, of which this frown-
ing precipice has been the witness, has
excited the awe and pity of persons to
whom Japan itself is no more than
name. 1t appears now, however,
that Pappenberg had nothing to
do with this tragedy. DR.. Riess,
professor of the university of
Toxic, has recently Investigated the
course of the Christian rebellion in
H.
one of the most interesting episodes in
the history of European relations with
Japan. 1t was after the suppression of
this rebellion that the executions at
Pappenberg are alleged to have taken
| place. In paper read before the Ger
man Asiatic society of Japan, DR.. Riess
| shows that the rock was not used for
| the purpose; no mention of it is made in
any of the contemporary records, and,
seeing what the course of the rebellion
was, it would have been absurd to have
dragged the prisoners there. What hap,
pened, however. was far worse, though
| the scene was different Shimabara is
peninsula near N Nagasaki, the interior
of which is occupied by a volcanic
mountain mass called Onsen, which is
said to have one of the largest craters
in the world, and which is about 1890
feet high. Its slopes and base are full
of boiling sulphur springs in constant
state of effervesence. The frightful
prosecutions of the Christians in the
peninsula which led to the rebellion are
referred to by DIR. Riess:
The new lord of Shimabara,' he
| OF
suRara Shigetsugu, who succeeded him
in 1880, are held up in the reports of
Christian eye witnesses as exceptionally
cruel prosecutors of their Christian sub
iects The peninsula became the scene
of an organized inquisition, with the
noblest of martyrs for its ever-persist-
ent confessors of faith. Pages has care
fully reproduced the pathetic martyr
ologies of these heroes from the reports
of the fugitives who gave evidence be-
fore the commission of missionaries es
tablished at Macao and Manila. | have
selected but one, the most noteworthy
of these torturings and that which
exacted the greatest mum ber of victims
as an example. In this case the zealou:
Christians were led to Onsen, one of the
massive rock barriers that precipitously
overhang the ever-seething sulphur
springs, and from thence were hurled
into the boiling depths below. Japan
ese sources coincide with the mission
ary reports that this was form of exc
: cution most commonly employed, ane
that it remained in use for Ion!
period. The irony suggested by tn
name, in that those who awaited Heavel
should be cast into depths known a
: the nethermost hell (Oji-go-ku, liter
ally greatest helD, gave this method o
? infsicting punishment special charm
in the eyes of the prosecutors. "
t 1t remained fresh in the traditions O
S the Europeans resident in Japan, an
t has given rise to the legend that Par
f penburg was the scene of the tragedy
s Chicago Times.