Silence Read Free Page A

English and Dutch warships which open fire on our trading ships.
    ‘And yet our secret mission could with God’s help turn out successful,’ said Juan de Santa Marta, blinking his eyes fervently. ‘In that stricken land the Christians have lost their priests and are like a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Some one must go to give them courage and to ensure that the tiny flame of faith does not die out.’ At these words a shadow passed over Valignano’s face, and he remained silent. No doubt to this very day he was deeply troubled by the dilemma of his duty as a Superior and the fate of the unfortunate, persecuted Christians. And so the old man said no word, resting his forehead on his hands.
    From his room the harbor of Macao could be seen in the distance. The sea was red in the evening sun. Black junks floated on the water, scattered here and there like black smudges.
    ‘And one more point. We have an added duty: we want to find out the truth about our teacher Ferreira.’
    ‘About Ferreira we have had no further news. The reports about him are vague. Anyhow, at present we don’t have any plans for investigating the truth or falsity of what has been said about him.’
    ‘Is he alive?’
    ‘Even that we don’t know.   …’ Valignano raised his head and heaved a deep sigh as he spoke. ‘The reports he sent me regularly from the year 1633 have come to a sudden end. Whether he unhappily got sick and died, whether he is lying in the prison of the infidel, whether (as you are imagining) he won a glorious martyrdom, or whether he is still alive trying to send some report but unable to do so—about this at present we can say nothing.’
    Valignano did not so much as utter a word about rumors that Ferreira had succumbed beneath the torture of his enemies. Like us, he was loth to attribute such fanciful charges to his old friend.
    ‘Moreover.   …’ And now Valignano spoke with some emphasis, ‘In Japan there has now appeared a person who is indeed a terror for the Christians. His name is Inoue.’
    This was the first time we had heard the name of Inoue. Valignano went on to say that in comparison with the savagery of Inoue someone like Takenaka, the former magistrate of Nagasaki who had butchered so many Christians, was no more than a simple-minded person.
    And so to imprint on our memories the name of this Japanese whom we would undoubtedly meet after landing in Japan, we repeated the unfamiliar sounds again and again: I-NO-U-E.
    From the last report sent by the Christians in Kyushu, Valignano had a good deal of knowledge about this man. Since the rebellion of Shimabara he had become for all practical purposes the architect of the Christian persecution. Quite unlike his predecessor Takenaka, he was cunning as a serpent so that the Christians who until now had not flinched at threats and tortures succumbed one by one to his cunning wiles.
    ‘And the sad fact’, went on Valignano, ‘is that he was formerly of our faith. He is even baptized.’
    About this persecutor I will probably be able to give you more information later on, but what I want to tell you just now is that Valignano, prudent Superior though he is, was finally moved by our pleading—especially by that of Garrpe—and consented to our secret mission to Japan. So now the die is cast. For the conversion of Japan and the glory of God we have somehow made our way to the East; now we face a future which is certainly fraught with even greater perils and hardships than that sea journey around Africa and across the Indian Ocean. But ‘if you are persecuted in one town, flee to another’; and within my heart there constantly arise the words of the Apocalypse that honor and glory and power belong to God alone.
    As I have already told you, Macao is at the mouth of the great river Chu-Kiang. It is built on one of the many islands with which the entrance to the bay is studded, and like all the towns of the East there is no wall surrounding it, so that it