The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16
John Dryden




John Dryden

The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16





THE QUEEN.[1 - Mary of Este, wife of James II.]


MADAM,

The reverend author of this life, in his dedication to his Most Christian Majesty, affirms, that France was owing for him to the intercession of St Francis Xavier. That Anne of Austria, his mother, after twenty years of barrenness, had recourse to heaven, by her fervent prayers, to draw down that blessing, and addressed her devotions, in a particular manner, to this holy apostle of the Indies. I know not, madam, whether I may presume to tell the world, that your majesty has chosen this great saint for one of your celestial patrons, though I am sure you will never be ashamed of owning so glorious an intercessor; not even in a country where the doctrine of the holy church is questioned, and those religious addresses ridiculed. Your majesty, I doubt not, has the inward satisfaction of knowing, that such pious prayers have not been unprofitable to you; and the nation may one day come to understand, how happy it will be for them to have a son of prayers ruling over them.[2 - The superstitious and, as it proved, fatal insinuation, that the birth of the Chevalier de St George was owing to the supernatural intercession of St Francis Xavier, was much insisted on by the Protestants as an argument against the reality of his birth. See the Introduction to "Britannia Rediviva," Vol. X. p. 285. In that piece, our author also alludes to this foolery:Hail, son of prayers, by holy violenceDrawn down from heaven! —] Not that we are wholly to depend on this particular blessing, as a thing of certainty, though we hope and pray for its continuance. The ways of Divine Providence are incomprehensible; and we know not in what times, or by what methods, God will restore his church in England, or what farther trials and afflictions we are yet to undergo. Only this we know, that if a religion be of God, it can never fail; but the acceptable time we must patiently expect, and endeavour by our lives not to undeserve. I am sure if we take the example of our sovereigns, we shall place our confidence in God alone; we shall be assiduous in our devotions, moderate in our expectations, humble in our carriage, and forgiving of our enemies. All other panegyrics I purposely omit; but those of Christianity are such, that neither your majesty, nor my royal master, need be ashamed of them, because their commemoration is instructive to your subjects. We may be allowed, madam, to praise Almighty God for making us happy by your means, without suspicion of flattery; and the meanest subject has the privilege of joining his thanksgiving with his sovereigns, where his happiness is equally concerned. May it not be permitted me to add, that to be remembered, and celebrated in after ages, as the chosen vessel, by which it has pleased the Almighty Goodness to transmit so great a blessing to these nations, is a secret satisfaction, which is not forbidden you to take; the blessings of your people are a prelibation of the joys in heaven, and a lawful ambition here on earth.

Your majesty is authorized, by the greatest example of a mother, to rejoice in a promised son. The blessed Virgin was not without as great a proportion of joy, as humanity could bear, when she answered the salutation of the angel in expressions, which seemed to unite the contradicting terms of calmness, and of transport: "Be it to thy hand-maid, according to thy word."

It is difficult for me to leave this subject, but more difficult to pursue it as I ought; neither must I presume to detain your majesty by a long address. The life of Saint Francis Xavier, after it had been written by several authors in the Spanish and Portuguese, and by the famous Padre Bartoli in the Italian tongue, came out at length in French, by the celebrated pen of Father Bohours, from whom I have translated it, and humbly crave leave to dedicate it to your patronage. I question not but it will undergo the censure of those men, who teach the people, that miracles are ceased. Yet there are, I presume, a sober party of the Protestants, and even of the most learned among them, who being convinced, by the concurring testimonies of the last age, by the suffrages of whole nations in the Indies and Japan, and by the severe scrutinies that were made before the act of canonization, will not dispute the truth of most matters of fact as they are here related; nay, some may be ingenuous enough to own freely, that to propagate the faith amongst infidels and heathens, such miraculous operations are as necessary now in those benighted regions, as when the Christian doctrine was first planted by our blessed Saviour and his apostles.

The honourable testimonies which are cited by my author, just before the conclusion of his work, and one of them in particular from a learned divine of the church of England,[3 - The Reverend Richard Hackluyt, editor of the large collection of voyages to which Purchas' Pilgrim is a continuation.] though they slur over the mention of his miracles, in obscure and general terms, yet are full of veneration for his person. Farther than this I think it needless to prepossess a reader; let him judge sincerely, according to the merits of the cause, and the sanctity of his life, of whom such wonders are related, and attested with such clouds of witnesses; for an impartial man cannot but of himself consider the honour of God in the publication of his gospel, the salvation of souls, and the conversion of kingdoms, which followed from those miracles; the effects of which remain in many of them to this day.

But that it is not lawful for me to trespass so far on the patience of your majesty, I should rather enlarge on a particular reflection, which I made in my translation of this book, namely, that the instructions of the saint, which are copied from his own writings, are so admirably useful, so holy, and so wonderfully efficacious, that they seem to be little less than the product of an immediate inspiration. So much excellent matter is crowded into so small a compass, that almost every paragraph contains the value of a sermon. The nourishment is so strong, that it requires but little to be taken at a time. Where he exhorts, there is not an expression, but what is glowing with the love of God; where he directs a missioner, or gives instructions to a substitute, we can scarcely have a less idea than of a St Paul advising a Timothy, or a Titus. Where he writes into Europe, he inspires his ardour into sovereign princes, and seems, with the spirit of his devotion, even to burn his colleagues at the distance of the Indies.

But, madam, I consider that nothing I can say is worthy to detain you longer from the perusal of this book, in which all things are excellent, excepting only the meanness of my performance in the translation. Such as it is, be pleased, with your inborn goodness, to accept it, with the offer of my unworthy prayers for the lasting happiness of my gracious sovereign, for your own life and prosperity, together with the preservation of the son of prayers, and the farther encrease of the royal family; all which blessings are continually implored from heaven, by,

MADAM,



Your Majesty's most humble,

And most obedient subject and servant,

JOHN DRYDEN.





THE READER


Having already presented you with the Life of St Ignatius, I thought myself obliged to give you that of St Francis Xavier. For, besides that it was just that the son should attend the father, it seemed to me, that these two saints being concerned so much together, the history of the apostle of India and Japan would give you a clearer knowledge of him who was founder of the Jesuits. I may add likewise, that many considerable persons, and particularly of the court, have testified so great a desire to see a complete history of St Xavier in our language, that I thought my labour would not be unacceptable to them; and that in satisfying my own private devotion, I might at the same time content the curiosity of others.

The writings out of which I have drawn this work, have furnished me with all I could desire for the perfection of it, in what regards the truth and the ornaments of this history: for without speaking of Turselline and Orlandino, I have diligently read Lucena and Bartoli; the first of which Wrote in Portuguese with this title, "The History of the Life of Father Francis Xavier, and of what was done in the Indies by the Religious of the Society of Jesus." He informs us, that he had in his hands the authentic copies of the informations which were made by order of John III. king of Portugal, concerning the actions of the blessed Father Xavier, and the originals of many letters, written from the Indies on that subject, which are to this day deposited in the archives of the university of Coimbra. As for Bartoli, who is so famous by his writings, and who is accounted amongst the best of the Italian authors, he has extracted from the archives of the Casa Professa at Rome, and from the acts of the canonization, what he relates of our saint in the first part of the History of the Society, intitled, Asia.

Though these two historians have in some sort collected all that can be said concerning St Francis Xavier, I omitted not to take a view of what others have written on that subject; and chiefly the book of Nieremberg, which bears for title, "Claros Varones, or Illustrious Men;" the History of India, by Maffeus, and that of Jarrio; the Church History of Japan, by Solia; the Castilian History of the Missions, which the Fathers of the Society have made to the East Indies, and the kingdoms of China and Japan, composed by Lewis de Gusman; and, lastly, the Portuguese History of the Travels of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto.

But seeing St Francis Xavier himself has written some parts of those accidents which have befallen him in India and Japan, I have faithfully copied his letters, and from thence have drawn those particulars which have much conduced to my information, and clearing of the truth. These letters have also furnished me with materials to make the narration appear more lively and moving, when you hear the saint himself speaking in his proper words, and mixing his own thoughts and reflections with his actions. I had almost finished this my work, when I received from Spain and Italy two other lives of St Francis Xavier, which before that time I had not seen: the one very new, which was written in Italian by Father Joseph Massei; the other more ancient, written in Spanish by Father Francis Garcia. I found nothing in those two books which I had not observed in others; but read them with great pleasure, as being most exactly and elegantly written, each in their several tongue.

For what remains, amongst all those historians which I have cited, there is only the author of the new Italian Life, who has not followed the common error, in relation to the age of St Francis Xavier: for the rest of them not precisely knowing the year and day of his birth, have made him ten years older than he was; placing his nativity about the time when the passage to the East Indies was discovered by Vasco de Gama.

But Father Massei has taken his measures in that particular, from Father Poussines, that judicious person to whom we are owing for the new letters of St Xavier, and who has composed a dissertation in Latin, touching the year of our apostle's birth.

He produces, in the said treatise, a Latin paper, written in all appearance in the year 1585, and found in the records of the house of Don Juan Antonio, Count of Xavier. That paper, – wherein is treated of the ancestors and birth of the saint, and which very probably, as Poussines judges, is the minute of a letter sent to Rome, where Dr Navara then resided, to whom it refers you, – that paper, I say, has these words in it: Non scitur certò annus quo natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius. Vulgo tamen invaluit, a quibusdam natum cum dici anno millesimo quadragintesimo nonagesimo-sexto: which is to say, the year is not certainly known, in which Father Francis Xavier was born; but it is generally held, that some have reported he was born in the year 1496.

But it is to be observed, that these words, Non scitur certò annus quo natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius, are dashed out with the stroke of a pen. There is also a line drawn over these other words, Natum eum dici millesimo, quadragintesimo, nonagesimo-sexto: and this is written over head, Natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius anno millesimo quingentesimo sexto. Father Francis Xavier was born in the year 1506. There is also written in the margin, Natus est die 7 Aprilis, anni 1506. He was born on the 7th of April, 1506.

That which renders this testimony more authentic, is, that at the bottom of the letter, these words, in Spanish, are written by the same hand which corrected those two passages of which I spoke: Hallo se la razon del tiempo que el S. P. Francisco Xavier naciò, en un libro manual de su hermano el Capitan Juan de Azpilcueta: la qual sacò de un libro, de su padre Don Juan Jasso; viz. "The time when the blessed Father Francis Xavier was born, is found in the journal of his brother Don Juan de Azpilcueta, who extracted it from the journal or manual of his father Don Juan Jasso." 'Tis on this foundation, that, before I had read the Life written by Father Massei, I had already closed with the opinion of Father Poussines.

As to the precise day of the father's death, I have followed the common opinion, which I take to be the most probable, in conformity to the bull of his canonization. For the historians who have mentioned it, agree not with each other, on what clay he died. 'Tis said in Herbert's Travels to the Indies and Persia, translated out of the English, "St Francis Xavier, the Jesuit of Navarre, died the 4th of December, 1552." Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, the Portuguese, affirms, that he died at midnight, on Saturday the 2d of December, the same year. A manuscript letter, pretended to be written by Anthony de Sainte Foy, companion to Xavier for the voyage of China, the truth of which I suspect, relates, that the Saint died on a Sunday night at two of the clock, on the 2d of December, 1552. Now 'tis most certain, that in the year 1552, the 2d of December fell on a Friday; so that it is a manifest mistake to say, that St Xavier died that year either on Saturday or Sunday the 2d of December.

I should apprehend, lest a life so extraordinary as this might somewhat shock the profaner sort of men, if the reputation of St Francis Xavier were not well established in the world, and that the wonderful things he did had not all the marks of true miracles. As the author who made the collection of them has well observed, the mission of the saint gives them an authority, even in our first conceptions of them: for being sent from God for the conversion of infidels, it was necessary that the faith should be planted in the East, by the same means as it had been through all the world, in the beginning of the church.

Besides which, never any miracles have been examined with greater care, or more judicially than these. They were not miracles wrought in private, and which we are only to believe on the attestation of two or three interested persons, such who might have been surprised into an opinion of them; they were ordinarily public matters of fact, avowed by a whole city or kingdom, and which had for witnesses the body of a nation, for the most part Heathen, or Mahometan. Many of these miracles have been of long continuance; and it was an easy matter for such who were incredulous, to satisfy their doubts concerning them. All of them have been attended by such consequences as have confirmed their truth, beyond dispute: such as were – the conversions of kingdoms, and of kings, who were the greatest enemies to Christianity; the wonderful ardency of those new Christians, and the heroical constancy of their martyrs. But after all, nothing can give a greater confirmation of the saint's miracles, than his saint-like life; which was even more wonderful than the miracles themselves. It was in a manner of necessity, that a man of so holy a conversation should work those things, which other men could not perform; and that, resigning himself to God, with an entire confidence and trust, in the most dangerous occasions, God should consign over to him some part of his omnipotence, for the benefit of souls.




BOOK I


His birth. His natural endowments, and first studies. His father purposes to recal him from his studies, and is diverted from that resolution. He continues his studies, and sets up a philosophy lecture. He is preserved from falling into heresy. His change of life. His retirement, and total conversion. He consecrates himself to God, by a vow. What happened to him in his journey to Venice. What he did at Venice. He goes to Rome, and from thence returns to Venice. He prepares himself to celebrate his first mass. He celebrates his first mass, and falls sick after it. St Jerome appears to him. He goes to Bolognia, and labours there with great success. He relapses into his sickness, and yet continues preaching. He is recalled to Rome by Father Ignatius, and labours there with great success. The occasion of the mission into the Indies. He is named for the mission of the Indies. God mysteriously reveals to him his intended mission to the Indies. He takes his leave of the Pope, and what his Holiness said to him. He departs from Rome. How he employed himself during his journey. His letter to Ignatius. Some remarkable accidents in his journey to Lisbon. He passes by the castle of Xavier without going to it. He arrives at Lisbon, and cures Rodriguez immediately after his coming. He is called to court. The manner of his life at Lisbon. He refuses to visit his uncle, the Duke of Navarre. The fruit of his evangelical labours. The reputation he acquired at Lisbon. They would retain him in Portugal. He is permitted to go to the Indies, and the king discourses with him before his departure. He refuses the provisions offered him for his voyage. He goes for the Indies, and what he said to Rodriguez at parting.

I have undertaken to write the life of a saint, who has renewed, in the last age, the greatest wonders which were wrought in the infancy of the church; and who was himself a living proof of Christianity. There will be seen in the actions of one single man, a new world converted by the power of his preaching, and by that of his miracles: idolatrous kings, with their dominions, reduced under the obedience of the gospel; the faith flourishing in the very midst of barbarism; and the authority of the Roman church acknowledged by nations the most remote, who were utterly unacquainted with ancient Rome.

This apostolical man, of whom I speak, is St Francis Xavier, of the society of Jesus, and one of the first disciples of St Ignatius Loyola. He was of Navarre; and, according to the testimony of Cardinal Antonia Zapata, who examined his nobility from undoubted records, he derived his pedigree from the kings of Navarre.

His father was Don Juan de Jasso, a lord of great merit, well conversant in the management of affairs, and who held one of the first places in the council of state, under the reign of King John III. The name of his mother was Mary Azpilcueta Xavier, heiress to two of the most illustrious families in that kingdom; for the chief of her house, Don Martin Azpilcueta, less famous by the great actions of his ancestors, than by his own virtue, married Juana Xavier, the only daughter and remaining hope of her family. He had by her no other child but this Mary of whom we spoke, one of the most accomplished persons of her time.

This virgin, equally beautiful and prudent, being married to Don Jasso, became the mother of many children; the youngest of whom was Francis, the same whose life I write. He was born in the castle of Xavier, on the 7th of April, in the year 1506. That castle, situated at the foot of the Pyrenean Mountains, seven or eight leagues distant from Pampeluna, had appertained to his mother's house for about two hundred and fifty years; his progenitors on her side having obtained it in gift from King Thibald, the first of that name, in recompence of those signal services which they had performed for the crown. 'Tis from thence they took the name of Xavier, in lieu of Asnarez, which was the former name of their family. This surname was conferred on Francis, as also on some of the rest of his brothers, lest so glorious a name, now remaining in one only woman, should be totally extinguished with her.

That Providence, which had selected Francis for the conversion of such multitudes of people, endued him with all the natural qualities which are requisite to the function of an apostle. He was of a strong habit of body, his complexion lively and vigorous, his genius sublime and capable of the greatest designs, his heart fearless, agreeable in his behaviour, but above all, he was of a gay, complying, and winning humour: this notwithstanding, he had a most extreme aversion for all manner of immodesty, and a vast inclination for his studies.

His parents, who lived a most Christian life, inspired him with the fear of God from his infancy, and took a particular care of his education. He was no sooner arrived to an age capable of instruction, than, instead of embracing the profession of arms, after the example of his brothers, he turned himself, of his own motion, on the side of learning; and, as he had a quick conception, a happy memory, and a penetrating mind, he advanced wonderfully in few years.

Having gained a sufficient knowledge in the Latin tongue, and discovered a great propensity to learning, he was sent to the university of Paris, the most celebrated of all Europe, and to which the gentlemen of Spain, Italy, and Germany, resorted for their studies.

He came to Paris in the eighteenth year of his age, and fell immediately on the study of philosophy. 'Tis scarcely credible with how much ardour he surmounted the first difficulties of logic. Whatsoever his inclinations were towards a knowledge so crabbed and so subtle, he tugged at it with incessant pains, to be at the head of all his fellow students; and perhaps never any scholar besides himself could join together so much ease, and so much labour.

Xavier minded nothing more, than how to become an excellent philosopher, when his father, who had a numerous family of children, and who was one of those men of quality, whose fortunes are not equal to their birth, was thinking to remove him from his studies, after having allowed him a competent maintenance for a year or two. He communicated these his thoughts to Magdalen. Jasso, his daughter, abbess of the convent of St Clare de Gandia, famous for the austerity of its rules, and established by some holy Frenchwomen of that order, whom the calamities of war had forced to forsake their native country, and to seek a sanctuary in the kingdom of Valencia.

Magdalen, in her younger days, had been maid of honour and favourite to the Catholic queen Isabella. The love of solitude, and of the cross, had caused her to forsake the court of Arragon, and quit for ever the pleasures of this world. Having chosen the most reformed monastery of Spain for the place of her retreat, she applied herself, Avith fervour, to the exercises of penitence and prayer; and became, even from her noviciate, a perfect pattern of religious perfection.

During the course of her life, she had great communications with God; and one day he gave her to understand, that she should die a sweet and easy death; but, on the contrary, one of her nuns was pre-ordained to die in strange torments. The intention of God was not thereby to reveal to the abbess what was really to happen, but rather to give her an opportunity of exercising an heroic act of charity. She comprehended what her heavenly Father exacted from her, and petitioned him for an exchange.

God granted to her what himself had inspired her to demand; and was pleased to assure her, by a new revelation, that he had heard her prayers. She made known to her ghostly father what had passed betwixt God and her, and time verified it: for the sister above mentioned died without sickness, and appeared in dying to have had a foretaste of the joys to come. On the other side, the abbess was struck with a terrible disease, which took all her body, as it were, in pieces, and made her suffer intolerable pains; yet even those pains were less cruel to her, than those inward torments which God at the same time inflicted on her. She endured all this with wonderful patience and resignation; being well assured, that in the whole series of these dispensations there was somewhat of divine.

For what remains concerning her, from the first years of her entry into a religious life, the gift of prophecy shone so visibly in her, that none doubted but that she was full of the spirit of God; and 'tis also probable, that she left a legacy of her prophetic gifts to her spiritual daughters. For, after her decease, the nuns of Gandia foretold many things, which afterward the event confirmed; as, amongst others, the unhappy success of the expedition to Algier; of which the Duke of Borgia, viceroy of Catalonia, gave the advertisement from them to Charles V. when he was making his preparations for that enterprize.

It was six years before the death of Magdalen, that Don Jasso, her father, writ to her concerning Xavier. After she had received the letter, she was illuminated from above; and, according to the dictates of that divine light, she answered Don Jasso, that he should beware of recalling her brother Francis, whatsoever it might cost him for his entertainment in the university of Paris. That he was a chosen vessel, pre-ordained to be the apostle of the Indies, and that one day he should become a great pillar of the church.

These letters have been preserved for a long time afterwards, and have been viewed by many persons, who have deposed the truth judicially in the process of the canonization of the saint.

Don Jasso received this answer from his daughter as an oracle from heaven; and no longer thought of recalling his son from his studies.

Xavier, thereupon, continued his philosophy; and succeeded so well in it, that having maintained his thesis, at the end of his course, with a general applause, and afterwards taking his degree of master of arts, he was judged worthy to teach philosophy himself. His parts appeared more than ever in this new employment; and he acquired an high reputation in his public lectures on Aristotle. The praises, which universally were given him, were extremely pleasing to his vanity. He was not a little proud to have augmented the glory of his family by the way of learning, while his brothers were continually adorning it by that of arms; and he flattered himself, that the way which he had taken, would lead him onward to somewhat of greater consequence.

But God Almighty had far other thoughts than those of Xavier; and it was not for these fading honours that the Divine Providence had conducted him to Paris.

At the same time, when this young master of philosophy began his course, Ignatius Loyola, who had renounced the world, and cast the model of a learned society, wholly devoted to the salvation of souls, came into France to finish his studies, which the obstacles he found in Spain, after his conversion, had constrained him to interrupt.

He had not continued long in the university of Paris, before he heard talk of Xavier, and grew acquainted with him. Our new professor, who taught at the college of Beauvois, though he dwelt in the college of St Barbe, with Peter le Fevre, a Savoyard, was judged by Ignatius to be very proper for the preaching of the gospel, as well as his companion. To gain the better opportunity of insinuating himself into their acquaintance, he took lodgings with them, and was not wanting to exhort them to live up to the rules of Christianity.

Le Fevre, who was of a tractable nature, and was not enamoured of the world, resigned himself without opposition. But Xavier, who was of a haughty spirit, and whose head was filled with ambitious thoughts, made a fierce resistance at the first. The discipline and maxims of Ignatius, who lived in a mean equipage, and valued nothing but that poverty, made him pass for a low-minded fellow in the opinion of our young gentleman. And accordingly Xavier treated him with much contempt; rallying him on all occasions, and making it his business to ridicule him.

This notwithstanding, Ignatius omitted no opportunities of representing to him the great consequence of his eternal welfare, and urging the words of our blessed Saviour, "What profit is it to a man to gain the whole world, and to lose his own, soul?" but perceiving that he could make no impression on a heart where self-conceit was so very prevalent, and which was dazzled with vain-glory, he bethought, himself of assaulting him on the weaker side.

When he had often congratulated with him for those rare talents of nature with which he was endowed, and particularly applauded his great wit, he made it his business to procure him scholars, and to augment his reputation by the crowd of his auditors. He conducted them even to his chair; and in presenting them to their master, never failed to make his panegyric.

Xavier was too vain, not to receive, with a greedy satisfaction, whatever incense was given him of that kind: applause was welcome from whatever hands it came; and withal he was too grateful, not to acknowledge those good offices which were done him, by a person whom he had used so very ill: he was the more sensible of such a kindness, by being conscious to himself how little he had deserved it. He began to look with other eyes on him who had the appearance of so mean a creature; and at the same time was informed, that this man, of so despicable a presence, was born of one of the noblest families in Guypuscoa; that his courage was correspondent to his birth; and that only the fear of God had inspired him with the choice of such a life, so distant from his inclination, and his quality.

These considerations, in favour of Ignatius, led him to hearken, without repugnance, to those discourses which were so little suitable to his natural bent; as if the quality and virtue of him who made them, had given a new charm and weight to what he said.

While things were passing in this manner, Xavier's money began to fail him, as it frequently happens to foreigners, who are at a great distance from their own country; and Ignatius, who was newly returned from the voyages which he had made into Flanders and England, from whence he had brought back a large contribution of alms, assisted him in so pressing an occasion, and thereby made an absolute conquest of his affections.

The heresy of Luther began to spread itself in Europe: and it was an artifice of those sectaries, to procure proselytes in the Catholic universities, who, by little and little, might insinuate their new opinions into the scholars, and their masters. Many knowing men of Germany were come on that design to Paris, though under the pretence of seconding the intentions of Francis the First, who was desirous to restore learning in his kingdom. They scattered their errors in so dexterous a manner, that they made them plausible; and principally endeavoured to fasten on young scholars, who had the greatest reputation of wit. Xavier, who was naturally curious, took pleasure in these novelties, and had run into them of his own accord, if Ignatius had not withdrawn him. He gave an account of this very thing not long afterwards in a letter to his elder brother, Don Azpilcueta, of which Ignatius himself was the bearer; who made a voyage into Spain, for those reasons which I have set down in another place. And these are his words, which well deserve to be related.

"He has not only relieved me, by himself, and by his friends, in those necessities to which I was reduced; but, which is of more importance, he has withdrawn me from those occasions which I had to contract a friendship with young men of my own standing, persons of great wit, and well accomplished, who had sucked in the poison of heresy, and who hid the corruptions of their heart under a fair and pleasing outside. He alone has broken off that dangerous commerce in which my own imprudence had engaged me; and has hindered me from following the bent of my easy nature, by discovering to me the snares which were laid for me. If Don Ignatius had given me no other proof of his kindness, I know not how I could be able to return it, by any acknowledgments I could make: for, in short, without his assistance, I could not have defended myself from those young men, so fair in their outward carriage, and so corrupt in the bottom of their hearts."

We may conclude, from this authentic testimony, that Xavier, far from carrying the faith to the remotest nations of idolaters, was in danger to make shipwreck of his own; had he not fallen into the hands of such a friend as was Ignatius, who detested even the least appearance of heresy, and whose sight was sharp enough to discover heretics, how speciously soever they were disguised.

It was not sufficient to have only preserved Xavier from error, but it was farther necessary to wean him altogether from the world: these favourable dispositions which appeared in him, encouraged Ignatius to pursue his design, and gave him hope of a fortunate success. Having one day found Xavier more than ordinarily attentive, he repeated to him these words more forcibly than ever: "What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and to lose his own soul?" After which he told him, that a mind so noble and so great as his, ought not to confine itself to the vain honours of this world; that celestial glory was the only lawful object of his ambition; and that right reason would require him to prefer that which was eternally to last, before what would vanish like a dream.

Then it was that Xavier began to see into the emptiness of earthly greatness, and found himself touched with the love of heavenly things. But these first impressions of grace had not all their effect immediately: he made frequent reflections within himself, of what the man of God had said to him; and it was not without many serious thoughts, and after many a hard struggling, that, being overcome at length by the power of those eternal truths, he took up a solid resolution, of living according to the maxims of the gospel, and of treading in his footsteps, who had made him sensible of his being gone astray.

He resigned himself therefore to the conduct of Ignatius, after the example of Le Fevre, who had already reformed his life, and was inflamed with the zeal of edifying others. The directions of a guide so well enlightened, made easy to Xavier the paths of that perfection which were hitherto unknown to him. He learnt from his new master, that the first step which a sincere convert is to make, is to labour in the subduing of his darling passion. As vainglory had the greatest dominion over him, his main endeavours, from the very beginning, were to humble himself, and to confound his own pride in the sense of his emptiness, and of his sins. But well knowing that he could not tame the haughtiness of the soul without mortifying the flesh, he undertook the conquest of his body, by haircloth, by fasting, and other austerities of penance.

When his time of vacancies was come, he performed his spiritual exercises, which his lectures of philosophy had till then hindered. Those very exercises I mean, which Ignatius, inspired of God, had composed at Manreze; and of which I have drawn the model, in the life of that holy founder of the society of Jesus.

He began his retirement with an extraordinary fervour, even to the passing of four days entire without taking any nourishment. His contemplations were wholly busied, day and night, on divine matters. And an ancient memorial assures us, that he went to his devotions with his hands and feet tied; either to signify, that he was desirous to do nothing, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, or to give himself the same usage which was given to the man in the parable of the gospel; "who dared to appear in the wedding-room, without cloathing himself in wedding-garments."

By meditating at his leisure on the great truths of Christianity, and especially on the mysteries of our Saviour, according to the method of Ignatius, he was wholly changed into another man; and the humility of the cross appeared to him more amiable than all the glories of the world. These new insights caused him, without the least repugnance, to refuse a canonry of Pampeluna, which was offered him at that time, and was very considerable, both in regard of the profits and of the dignity. He formed also, during his solitude, the design of glorifying God by all possible means, and of employing his whole life for the salvation of souls.

On these foundations, having finished the course of philosophy which he read, and which had lasted three years and a half, according to the custom of those times, he studied in divinity, by the counsel of Ignatius, whose scholar he openly declared himself to be.

In the mean time, Ignatius, who found in himself an inward call to the Holy-Land, for the conversion of Jews and Infidels, discovered his intentions to Xavier, which he had already communicated to Le Fevre, and four other learned young men, who had embraced his form of life.

All the seven engaged themselves, by promise to each other, and by solemn vows to God Almighty, to forsake their worldly goods, and undertake a voyage to Jerusalem; or in case that, in the compass of a year, they could not find an accommodation of passing the seas, that they would cast themselves at the feet of our holy Father, for the service of the church, into whatever part of the world he would please to send them.

They made these vows at Montmartre, on the day of our Lady's assumption, in the year 1534. That holy place, which has been watered with the blood of martyrs, and where their bodies are still deposited, inspired a particular devotion into Xavier, and possessed him with a fervent desire of martyrdom.

Towards the end of the year following, he went from Paris, in the company of Le Fevre, Laynez, Salmeron, Rodriguez, Bobadilla, and three other divines, whom Le Fevre had gained in the absence of Ignatius, who, for important reasons, was obliged to go before, and who was waiting for them at Venice.

Somewhat before their departure, Xavier, who was sometimes too far transported by the fervency of his soul, had tied his arms and thighs with little cords, to mortify himself, for some kind of vain satisfaction which he took in out-running and over-leaping his young companions; for he was very active; and, amongst all the recreations used by scholars, he liked none but the exercises of the body.

Though the cords were very straight about him, yet he imagined they would not hinder him from travelling on foot. But he had scarcely begun his journey, when he was taken with extreme pains. He bore them as well as he was able; and dissembled them, till his strength failed him. His motion had swelled his thighs, and indented the cords so deep into his flesh, that they were hardly visible; insomuch that the chirurgeons, to whom his fellows discovered them, plainly said, that any incisions which could be made, would serve only to increase his pains, and that the ill was incurable.

In this dangerous conjuncture, Le Fevre, Laynez, and the rest, had recourse to Almighty God, and not in vain. Xavier waking the next morning, found the cords fallen down, the swelling wholly taken away from his thighs, and the marks of the cords only remaining on his flesh. They joined in actions of thanksgiving to the Almighty, for his providential care already shewn in their behalf; and though the ways were very rugged, in the inclemency of that season, yet they cheerfully pursued their journey.

Xavier was serviceable to his companions on all occasions, and was always beforehand with them in the duties of charity; whether it were, that, being naturally officious, and of a warm temper, he was more eager to employ himself for them; or that his health, miraculously restored, rendered him more obliging and charitable towards those by whose prayers it was recovered.

When they were arrived at Venice, their breathings were only after the holy places. Ignatius, whom they were ravished to see again, and whom they acknowledged for their common father, was of opinion, that while they were waiting the opportunity of going to receive the Pope's blessing for their voyage to Jerusalem, each of them should employ himself on works of charity, in the hospitals of the town.

Xavier, whose lot fell in the hospital of the incurable, was not satisfied only with busying himself all day, in dressing sick men's sores, in making their beds, and doing them more inferior service, but also passed whole nights in watching by them. But his care and pains were not confined to the succour of their bodies. Though he was wholly ignorant of the Italian tongue, he frequently spoke of God to them; and, above all things, exhorted the greatest libertines to repentance, by causing them to comprehend, in the best manner he was able, that though their corporal maladies were incurable, yet the diseases of their souls were not so; that how enormous soever our offences were, we ought always to rely on God's mercy; and that a desire of being sincerely converted, was only requisite in sinners for obtaining the grace of their conversion.

One of these sick alms-men had an ulcer, which was horrible to the sight, but the noisomeness of the stench was yet more insupportable; every one shunned the miserable creature, not enduring so much as to approach him; and Xavier once found a great repugnance in himself to attend him: but at the same time, he called to his remembrance a maxim of Ignatius, that we make no progress in virtue, but by vanquishing ourselves; and that the occasion of making a great sacrifice, was too precious to be lost. Being fortified with these thoughts, and encouraged by the example of St Catharine de Sienna, which came into his mind, he embraced the sick person, applied his mouth to the ulcer, surmounted his natural loathing, and sucked out the corruption. At the same moment his repugnance vanished; and after that, he had no farther trouble in the like cases: of so great importance it is to us, once to have thoroughly overcome ourselves.

Two months were passed away in these exercises of charity. After which he set forward on his journey to Rome with the other disciples of Ignatius, who himself stayed behind alone at Venice. They underwent great hardships in their way. It rained continually, and bread was often wanting to them, even when their strength was wasted. Xavier encouraged his companions, and sustained himself by that apostolic spirit with which God replenished him from that time forwards, and which already made him in love with pain and sufferings.

Being arrived at Rome, his first care was to visit the churches, and to consecrate himself to the ministry of the gospel, upon the sepulchre of the holy apostles. He had the opportunity of speaking more than once before the Pope: for the whole company of them being introduced into the Vatican, by Pedro Ortiz, that Spanish doctor whom they had formerly known at Paris, and whom the emperor had sent to Rome for the affair concerning the marriage of Catharine of Arragon, queen of England, Paul the Third, who was a lover of learning, and who was pleased to be entertained at his table with the conversation of learned men, commanded that these strangers, whose capacity he had heard so extremely praised, should be admitted to see him for many days successively; and that in his presence they should discourse concerning divers points of school-divinity.

Having received the benediction of our holy father for their voyage to the Holy Land, and obtained the permission for those amongst them who were not in sacred orders, to receive them, they returned to Venice. Xavier there made his vows of poverty and perpetual chastity, together with the rest, in the hands of Jeronimo Veralli, the Pope's nuncio; and having again taken up his post in the hospital of the incurable, he resumed his offices of charity, which his journey to Rome had constrained him to interrupt, and continued in those exercises till the time of his embarkment.

In the mean time, the war which was already kindled betwixt the Venetians and the Turk, had broken the commerce of the Levant, and stopt the passage to the Holy Land; insomuch, that the ship of the pilgrims of Jerusalem went not out that year, according to the former custom.

This disappointment wonderfully afflicted Xavier; and the more, because he not only lost the hope of seeing those places which had been consecrated by the presence and the blood of Jesus Christ, but was also bereft of an occasion of dying for his divine Master. Yet he comforted himself in reflecting on the method of God's providence; and at the same time, not to be wanting in his duty to his neighbour, he disposed himself to receive the orders of priesthood, and did receive them with those considerations of awful dread, and holy confusion, which are not easy to be expressed.

The town appeared to him an improper place for his preparation, in order to his first mass. He sought out a solitary place, where, being separated from the communication of man, he might enjoy the privacies of God. He found this convenience of a retirement near Monteselice, not far from Padua: it was a miserable thatched cottage, forsaken of inhabitants, and out of all manner of repair. Thus accommodated, he passed forty days, exposed to the injuries of the air, lying on the cold hard ground, rigidly disciplining his body, fasting all the day, and sustaining nature only with a little pittance of bread, which he begged about the neighbourhood; but tasting all the while the sweets of paradise, in contemplating the eternal truths of faith. As his cabin did not unfitly represent to him the stable of Bethlehem, so he proposed to himself frequently the extreme poverty of the infant Jesus, as the pattern of his own; and said within himself, that, since the Saviour of mankind had chosen to be in want of all things, they who laboured after him for the salvation of souls, were obliged, by his example, to possess nothing in this world.

How pleasing soever this loneliness were to him, yet, his forty days being now expired, he left it, to instruct the villages and neighbour-towns, and principally Monteselice, where the people were grossly ignorant, and knew little of the duties of Christianity.

The servant of God made daily exhortations to them, and his penitent aspect gave authority to all his words; insomuch, that only looking on his face, none could doubt but he was come from the wilderness to instruct them in the way to heaven. He employed himself during the space of two or three months in that manner: for, though there was no appearance that any vessel should set sail for the Holy Land, yet Ignatius and his disciples, who had obliged themselves to wait one year in expectation of any such opportunity, would not depart from the territories of the republic till it was totally expired, that they might have nothing to upbraid themselves, in relation to the vow which they had made.

Xavier being thus disposed, both by his retirement, and his exterior employments, at length said his first mass at Vicenza; to which place Ignatius had caused all his company to resort; and he said it with tears flowing in such abundance, that his audience could not refrain from mixing their own with his.

His austere, laborious life, joined with so sensible a devotion, which often makes too great an impression on the body, so much impaired the strength of his constitution, that he fell sick, not long after his first mass. He was carried into one of the own hospitals, which was so crowded, and so poor, that Xavier had in it but the one half of a wretched bed, and that too in a chamber which was open on every side. His victuals were no better than his lodging, and never was sick man more destitute of human succours. But, in requital, heaven was not wanting to him.

He was wonderfully devoted to St Jerome; and had often had recourse to that blessed doctor of the church for the understanding of difficult places in the scripture. The saint appeared to him one night, refulgent in his beams of glory, and gave him consolation in his sickness; yet, at the same time, declaring to him, that a far greater affliction than the present was waiting for him at Bolognia, where himself and one of his companions were to pass the winter; that some of them should go to Padua, some to Rome, others to Ferrara, and the remainder of them to Sienna.

This apparition fortified Xavier so much, that he recovered suddenly; yet whether he had some doubts concerning it, or was of opinion that he ought to keep it secret, he said nothing of it at that time. But that which then happened to him made it evident, that the vision was of God: for Ignatius, who was ignorant of what had been revealed to Xavier, having assembled his disciples, gave them to understand, that since the gate of the Holy Land was shut against them, they ought not any longer to defer the offering of their service to the Pope; that it was sufficient if some of them went to Rome, while the rest of them dispersed themselves in the universities of Italy, to the end, they might inspire the fear of God into the scholars, and gather up into their number some young students of the greatest parts. Ignatius appointed them their several stations, just as they had been foreshewn by St Jerome; and that of Bolognia fell to the share of Xavier and Bobadilla.

After their arrival at Bolognia, Xavier went to say a mass at the tomb of St Dominic; for he had a particular veneration for the founder of that order, whose institution was for the preaching of the gospel.

A devout virgin, whose name was Isabella Casalini, seeing him at the altar, judged him to be a man of God; and was led by some interior motion to speak to this stranger priest when his mass was ended. She was so much edified, and so satisfied with the discourse of Xavier, that she immediately informed her uncle, at whose house she lodged, of this treasure which she had discovered.

Jerome Casalini, who was a very considerable clergyman, both in regard of his noble blood, and of his virtue, went in search of this Spanish priest, upon the account which was given of him by his niece; and, having found him at the hospital, he importuned him so much to take a lodging in his house, that Xavier could not in civility refuse him. But the holy man would never accept of his table, of whose house he had accepted. He begged his bread from door to door according to his usual custom; and lived on nothing but the alms which was given him in the town.

Every day, after having celebrated the divine mysteries in St Lucy's church, of which Casalini was curate, he there heard the confessions of such as presented themselves before him: after which he visited the prisons and the hospitals, catechised the children, and preached to the people.

'Tis true, he spoke but very ill; and his language was only a kind of Lingua Franca, a confused medley of Italian, French, and Spanish: but he pronounced it with so much vehemence, and the matter of his sermons was so solid, that his ill accent and his improper phrases were past by. His audience attended to him, as to a man descended from above, and his sermon being ended, came to cast themselves at his feet, and make confession.

These continual labours, during a very sharp winter, threw him into a relapse of sickness, much more dangerous than the former; as it were to verify the prediction of St Jérome; for he was seized with a quartan ague, which was both malignant and obstinate; insomuch that it cast him into an extreme faintness, and made him as meagre as a skeleton. In the mean time, lean and languishing as he was, he ceased not to crawl to the public places, and excite passengers to repentance. When his voice failed him, his wan and mortified face, the very picture of death, seemed to speak for him, and his presence alone had admirable effects.

Jerome Casalini profited so well by the instructions and example of the holy man, that he arrived in a short space to a high degree of holiness: the greater knowledge he had of him, he the more admired him, as he himself related. And it is from this virtuous churchman chiefly, that we have this account of Xavier, that having laboured all the day, he passed the night in prayer; that on Friday saying the mass of the passion, he melted into tears, and was often ravished in his soul; that he spoke but seldom, but that all his words were full of sound reason, and heavenly grace.

While Xavier was thus employing his labours at Bolognia, he was recalled to Rome by Father Ignatius; who had already presented himself before the Pope, and offered him the service both of himself and his companions. Pope Paul the Third accepted the good will of these new labourers; enjoining them to begin their work in Rome, and preach under the authority of the Holy See. The principal churches were assigned them; and that of St Laurence in Damaso was allotted to Xavier.

Being now freed from his quartan ague, and his strength being again restored, he preached with more vigour and vehemence than ever.

Death, the last judgment, and the pains of hell, were the common subject of his sermons. He proposed those terrible truths after a plain manner, but withal so movingly, that the people, who came in crowds to hear him preach, departed out of the church in a profound silence; and thought less of giving praises to the preacher, than of converting their own souls to God.

The famine, which laid waste the city of Rome at that time, gave opportunity to the ten stranger-priests, to relieve an infinite number of miserable people, oppressed with want, and unregarded. Xavier was ardent above the rest, to find them places of accommodation, and to procure alms for their subsistence. He bore them even upon his shoulders to the places which were provided for them, and attended them with all imaginable care.

In the mean time, James Govea, a Portuguese, who had been acquainted with Ignatius, Xavier, and Le Fevre, at Paris, and who was principal of the college of Saint Barbe, when they lived together there, being come to Rome on some in portant business, for which he was sent thither by John III. King of Portugal, and seeing the wonderful effects of their ministry, wrote to the king, as he had formerly done from Paris, on the reports which were spread of them, that such men as these, knowing, humble, charitable, inflamed with zeal, indefatigable in labour, lovers of the cross, and who aimed at nothing but the honour of Almighty God, were fit to be employed in the East-Indies, to plant and propagate the faith. He adjoined, that if his majesty were desirous of these excellent men, he had only to ask them from the Pope, who had the absolute disposition of them.

John III., the most religious prince then living, wrote thereupon to his ambassador, Don Pedro Mascaregnas, and ordered him to obtain from his Holiness, six at least of those apostolic men, which had been commended to him by Govea. The Pope having heard the proposition of Mascaregnas, remitted the whole business to Father Ignatius, for whom he had already a great consideration, and who had lately presented to his Holiness the model of the new order, which he and his companions were desirous to establish.

Ignatius, who had proposed to himself no less a design than the reformation of the whole world, and who saw the urgent necessities of Europe, infected with heresy on every side, returned this answer to Mascaregnas, that often, which was their whole number, he could spare him at the most but two persons. The Pope approved this answer, and ordered Ignatius to make the choice himself. Thereupon Ignatius named Simon Rodriguez, a Portuguese, and Nicholas Bobadilla, a Spaniard. The first of these was, at that time, employed at Sienna, and the other in the kingdom of Naples, as they had been commissioned by the Holy Father. Though Rodriguez was languishing under a quartan ague, when he was recalled from Sienna, yet he failed not to obey the summons; and shortly after embarking on a ship of Lisbon which went off from Civita Vecchia, carried with him Paul de Camerin, who, some months before, had joined himself to their society.

As for Bobadilla, he was no sooner come to Rome, than he fell sick of a continued fever; and it may be said, that his distemper was the hand of heaven, which had ordained another in his stead for the mission of the Indies. For sometimes that which appears but chance, or a purely natural effect in the lives of men, is a disposition of the Divine Providence which moves by secret ways to its own proposed ends; and is pleased to execute those designs, by means as easy as they are powerful.

Mascaregnas, who had finished his embassy, and was desirous to carry with him into Portugal the second missioner who had been promised him, was within a day of his departure, when Bobadilla arrived. Ignatius seeing him in no condition to undertake a voyage, applied himself to God for his direction, in the choice of one to fill his place, or rather to make choice of him whom God had chosen; for he was immediately enlightened from above, and made to understand, that Xavier was that vessel of election. He called for him at the same instant, and being filled with the Divine Spirit, "Xavier," said he, "I had named Bobadilla for the Indies, but the Almighty has nominated you this day. I declare it to you from the vicar of Jesus Christ. Receive an employment committed to your charge by his Holiness, and delivered by my mouth, as if it were conferred on you by our blessed Saviour in person. And rejoice for your finding an opportunity, to satisfy that fervent desire, which we all have, of carrying the faith into remote countries. You have not here a narrow Palestine, or a province of Asia, in prospect, but a vast extent of ground, and innumerable kingdoms. An entire world is reserved for your endeavours, and nothing but so large a field is worthy of your courage and your zeal. Go, my brother, where the voice of God has called you; where the Holy See has sent you, and kindle those unknown nations, with the flame that burns within you."

Xavier, wholly confounded in himself with these expressions of Ignatius, with tears of a tender affection in his eyes, and blushing in his countenance, answered him, that he could not but be astonished, that he should pitch upon a man, so weak, and pusillanimous as himself, for an enterprize which required no less than an apostle: that nevertheless he was ready to obey the commands of heaven; and that he offered himself, with the whole power of his soul, to do and suffer all things for the salvation of the Indies. After which, giving leave to his internal joy to break out, and to diffuse itself, he more confidently said to Father Ignatius, that his desires were now accomplished; that for a long time he had sighed after the Indies without daring to declare it; and that he hoped, from those idolatrous nations, to have the honour of dying for Jesus Christ, which had been denied him in the Holy Land.

He added, in the height of these transports, that at length he saw that clearly, of which God had often given him a glimpse, under some mysterious figures. In effect, Xavier had frequently dreamed by night, that he carried on his shoulders a gigantic and very swarthy Indian; and opprest with this strong imagination, he groaned and sighed, in that uneasy slumber, as one out of breath, and labouring under an intolerable burden; insomuch that the noise of his groans and heavings waked those who were lodged in the same chamber; and, one night it happening that Father Laynez being awakened by it, asked him what it was that troubled him: Xavier immediately told his dream, and added, that it put him into a sweat, with big drops over all his body.

Besides this, he once beheld, either in a dream, or in a trance, vast oceans full of tempests and of rocks, desart islands, barbarous countries, hunger and thirst raging every where, nakedness, multiplicity of labours, with bloody persecution, and imminent dangers of death and of destruction. In the midst of this ghastly apparition, he cried aloud, "yet more, O my God, yet more!" and Father Simon Rodriguez heard these words distinctly; but however he importuned him to declare their meaning, he would discover nothing at that time, till embarking for the Indies, he revealed the mystery.

Such ideas, always present in his imagination, filled his familiar discourses with notions of a new world, and the conversion of infidels. While he was speaking on that subject, his face was on a fire, and the tears came into his eyes. This was testified of him by Father Jerome Dominic, who, before he entered into the Society, had conversed with him at Bolognia, where a strict friendship was made betwixt them.

As Xavier was advertised of this voyage to the Indies but the day before Mascaregnas departed, he had but time enough to piece up his cassock, bid his friends farewell, and go to kiss the feet of our Holy Father.

Paul III., overjoyed, that under his pontificate a gate should be opened to the gospel, in the Oriental Indies, received him with a most fatherly affection, and excited him to assume such thoughts, as were worthy of so high an undertaking; telling him for his encouragement, that the Eternal Wisdom is never failing to supply us with strength, to prosecute the labours to which it has ordained us, even though they should surpass all human abilities. He must, indeed, prepare himself for many sufferings; but the affairs of God succeeded not but by the ways of suffering, and that none could pretend to the honour of an apostleship, but by treading in the steps of the apostles, whose lives were but one continual cross, and a daily death; that heaven had employed him in the mission of St Thomas, the apostle of the Indies, for the conquest of souls; that it became him to labour generously, in reviving the faith in those countries, where it had been planted by that great apostle; and that if it were necessary for him to shed his blood, for the glory of Christ Jesus, he should account it his happiness to die a martyr.

It seemed that God himself had spoken by the mouth of his vicegerent, such impression had these words on the mind and heart of Xavier. They inspired into him a divine vigour; and in his answer to his Holiness, there shone through a profound humility such a magnanimity of soul, that Paul III. had from that very minute a certain presage of those wonderful events which afterwards arrived. Therefore the most Holy Father, having wished him the special assistance of God in all his labours, tenderly embraced him, more than once, and gave him a most ample benediction.

Xavier departed in the company of Mascaregnas the 15th of March, in the year 1540, without any other equipage besides his breviary. In giving his last adieu to Father Ignatius, he cast himself at his feet, and with all humility desired his blessing; and, in taking leave of Laynez, he put into his hands a small memorial, which he had written, and signed.

This memorial, which is still preserved at Rome, contains, that he approves, as much as depends on him, the rules and constitutions, which shall be drawn up, by Ignatius and his companions; that he elects Ignatius to be their general, and, in failure of him, Le Fevre; that he consecrates himself to God, by the three vows, of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in the Society of Jesus, when it shall be raised into a religious order, by the apostolical authority.

The conclusion of that affair was daily expected; and indeed it was happily finished, before the ending of the year, in that almost miraculous manner, as is related in the Life of St Ignatius.

His journey from Rome to Lisbon was all the way by land, and was above three months. Xavier had a horse allowed him, by order from the ambassador; but they were no sooner on their way, than he made him common. The Father often alighted to ease the servants who followed on foot; or exchanged his horse with others, who were not so well mounted. At the inns he was every man's servant, even to the rubbing of the horses, by an excess of humility, which, on those occasions, caused him to forget the dignity of his character. He resigned his chamber and his bed to those who wanted them; and never lodged but either on the ground, or on the litter in the stable. In the rest of his actions, ever cheerful, and pleasant in discourse, which made all men desirous of his company; but always mixing somewhat with that gaiety, which was edifying both to the masters and the servants, and inspired them alike with thoughts of piety.

They went by Loretto, where they rested at the least eight days; after which they continued their journey by Bolognia. From thence, Xavier wrote to Ignatius, in this manner:

"I received, on the holiday of Easter, the letter which you wrote and inclosed in the packet of my lord ambassador. God only knows my joy in receiving it. Believing, as I do, that we shall never entertain each other in this world, by any other way than that of writing, and that we shall never see each other but in heaven, it concerns us, that little time we have to live in this place of exile, to give ourselves the mutual consolation of frequent letters. The correspondence, on my part, shall be exactly kept; for being convinced, by the reasons which you gave me at our parting, that a commerce of this nature ought to be established, in a regular method, betwixt the colonies and the mother country, I have resolved, that in whatever parts of the world I shall reside, or any members of our Society with me, to maintain a strict communication with you, and with the fathers at Rome, and send you as large an account, as possibly I can, of any news concerning us. I have taken my opportunity of seeing the Cardinal of Invrea, as you gave me in command, and have discoursed at leisure with him. He received me with much goodness, and offered me, with great civility, his interest, for our common cause. In the midst of the discourse, which we had together, I threw myself at his feet, and kissed his hand, in the name of all our Society. As much as I can gather by his words, he extremely approves the manner of our living.

"As concerning my lord ambassador, he loads me with so many favours, that I should never conclude, if I began to relate them. And I know not how I could suffer the many good offices he does me, if I had not some hope of repaying him in the Indies, at the expence of my life itself. On Palm-Sunday I heard his confession, and after him many of his domestic servants; I communicated them afterwards, in the holy chapel of Loretto, where I said mass. I likewise confessed them, and gave them the communion, on Easter Sunday. My lord ambassador's almoner recommends himself to your good prayers, and has promised to bear me company to the Indies. I am more taken up with confessions here, than I was in Rome, at St Lewis. I heartily salute all our fathers; and if I name not every one of them in particular, I desire them to believe, 'tis neither from my want of memory, or affection.

"Your brother and servant in Jesus Christ, FRANCIS." from Bolognia, March 31. 1540.

The whole town of Bolognia was in motion at the approach of Father Xavier: they were wonderfully affected to him, and in a manner esteemed him their apostle: both great and small were desirous of seeing him, and most of them discovered the state of their conscience to him; many of them proffered themselves to go along with him to the Indies; all of them shed tears at his departure, as thinking they should never more behold him.

Jerome Casalini, curate of St Lucy, who had lodged him the year before, was most particularly kind to him at his return: he obliged him to accept of his house once more; and his church became as it were the public rendezvous, where Xavier heard an infinite number of confessions.

In the rest of this long journey, there happened two or three passages, which were sufficiently remarkable. A domestic servant to the ambassador, who rode before as harbinger, to take up lodgings for the train, a violent and brutal man, being reprehended by his lord for having been negligent in his duty, fell into a horrible fit of passion, as soon as he was out of Mascaregnas his presence. Xavier heard him, but took no notice of it at that time, for fear of provoking him to any farther extravagance. But the next morning, when the same person set out before the company, according to his custom, he spurred after him at full speed. He found him lying under his horse, who was fallen with him from a precipice, the man sorely bruised, and the horse killed outright. "Wretched creature," said the father to him, "what had become of thee, if thou hadst died of this fall?" These few words made him sensible of his furious expressions, for which he sincerely asked pardon of Almighty God; and Xavier alighting, mounted him on his own horse, and walked on foot by him, to their lodging.

Another time, the gentleman of the horse attempting to pass a small river, which was very deep and rapid, the current carried away both man and horse, and the whole company gave him for lost. Xavier, moved with compassion for the danger of his soul, because, having had a call from heaven to enter into a religious life, he had not followed the motions of grace, but remained in the world, began to implore God in his behalf. The ambassador, who had a great kindness for him, joined in that devout action, and commanded the whole train to follow their example. They had scarcely opened their mouths for him, when the man and horse, who were both drowning, came again above water, and were carried to the bank. The gentleman was drawn out, pale in his countenance, and half dead. When he had recovered his senses, Xavier demanded of him, what thoughts he had, when he was at the point of perishing? He freely acknowledged, that the religious life, to which God had called him, then struck upon his soul; with dismal apprehensions, for having neglected the means of his salvation. He protested afterwards, as Xavier himself relates, in one of his letters, that, in that dreadful moment, the remorse of his conscience, and the sense of God's judgments on souls unfaithful to their vocation, were more terrible to him, than the horrors even of death itself. He spoke of eternal punishments, with expressions so lively and so strong, as if he had already felt them, and was returned from hell. He frequently said, (as the saint has assured us,) that, by a just judgment of eternal God, those who, during their life, made no preparations for their death, had not the leisure to think on God when death surprised them.

The ambassador, and all his people, doubted not, but the safety of this gentleman was to be ascribed to the merits of the saint: but Xavier himself believed it to be the pure effect of the ambassador's devotion; for thus he writes to father Ignatius concerning it – "Our Lord was pleased to give ear to the fervent prayers of his servant Mascaregnas, which he made with tears in his eyes, for the deliverance of the poor creature, whom he looked upon as lost; and who was taken from the jaws of death by a most evident miracle."

In passing over the Alps, the ambassador's secretary alighting to walk in a difficult way, which he could not well observe, by reason of the snows, his foot happened to slip on a sharp descent, and he rolled down into a precipice: he had tumbled to the very bottom, if, in falling, his clothes had not taken hold on one of the crags of the rock, where he remained hanging over the depths without ability, either to disengage himself, or get up again. Those who followed, made towards him, but the horror of that abyss stopt short the most daring: Xavier only made not the least demur; he descended the precipice, and lending his hand to the secretary, by little and little dragged him up.

Being gotten out of France, and having passed the Pyreneans, on the side of Navarre, when they were now approaching Pampeluna, Mascaregnas bethought himself, that Father Francis, for by that name Xavier was usually called, had not spoken one word of going to the castle of Xavier, which was but little distant from their road: he remembered him of it, and was even so importunate with him, as to say, that since he was about to leave Europe, and perhaps never more to see it, he could not in decency dispense with giving a visit to his family, and taking his last leave of his mother, who was yet living.

But all the arguments of Mascaregnas wrought no effect upon a man, who, having forsaken all things for the love of God, was of opinion, that he had nothing remaining in this world; and who also was persuaded, that flesh and blood are enemies to the apostolical spirit. He turned not out of the road, but only said to the ambassador, that he deferred the sight of his relations till he should visit them in heaven; that this transient view would be accompanied but with melancholy and sadness, the common products of a last farewell, but in heaven he should eternally behold them with pleasure, and without the least allay of sorrow.

Mascaregnas had already a high idea of Xavier's virtue; but this wonderful disengagement from the world yet more increased the esteem which he had of him; insomuch, that before they reached Portugal, he sent an express to King John III. with no other errand, than to inform him of the holiness of this second missioner to the Indies.

They arrived at Lisbon towards the end of June; and Xavier retired to the hospital of All Saints, where Rodriguez, who came by sea, had taken up his lodging. He found him much weakened with a quartan ague, which had not left him; and embraced him just at the moment when his fit was coming on him. But whether it were, that the extreme joy which Rodriguez found, so unexpectedly to see him, dissipated the humour which caused his disease, or that the embraces of Xavier had from that time an healing virtue; certain it is that the fit came not, and from thenceforward the sick man entirely recovered of that distemper.

Three or four days after, they were both called to court. The king and queen, who were in company together, received Xavier as a saint, on the report of Mascaregnas, and entertained him with all imaginable shews of kindness. They asked them diverse questions concerning their way of living; by what accident their new Society came to be formed; and what was the ground and ultimate design of it; and at last desired to be informed by them, from whence proceeded that strange persecution, which was raised in Rome against their body, which had made so great a noise over all Europe. Xavier made answer to all these demands in few words, but so very pertinently, as much satisfied both their majesties: they gave great approbation, (as himself relates in his letter from Lisbon to Ignatius,) to what he said, concerning the discipline of our houses, the quality of our ministry, and the spirit and model of our foundation.

In the midst of the conversation, the king sent for the Prince of Portugal, his son Don Juan, and the Infanta Maria, his daughter, that the two missioners might see them. And from thence his majesty took occasion of relating to them, how many children he had still living, and how many he had lost, which turned the discourse on the education of youth; and before the fathers were dismissed, the king recommended to their care, an hundred young gentlemen, who were bred at court.

Though an officer of the palace had orders to prepare an handsome lodging, with good accommodation, for Xavier and Rodriguez, they returned to their hospital, and there continued. They would not so much as receive their entertainment of diet, which was assigned them from court, but went the round of the city begging alms at their appointed hours, and lived in poverty, according to the manner of life which they had prescribed themselves.

The fleet not being to set sail till the next spring, and these apostolical persons not knowing what it was to live in idleness, Xavier was not satisfied only to instruct those young gentlemen in piety, whom the king had committed to his charge; he gave himself an employment, and did at Lisbon what he had done at Venice, Bolognia, and Rome, for the space of two years and more. But, besides that he assisted the sick in the hospital day and night, visited the prisoners every day, and catechised the children many times in the week, he often discoursed with the principal persons of the court, and engaged them in the spiritual exercises of Ignatius.

At first he preached not in the churches, judging, that the ministries of the gospel ought to begin with less public actions; and went not into the pulpit, without being first requested by the king, who one day sending for him to the palace, acquainted him with the desire he had to hear him preach; and told him, "That the Bishop of Lisbon was of opinion, that they ought not any longer to defer his public exhortations."

Father Simon Rodriguez laboured also on his part, in the service of his neighbour, according to the same method, and with the same spirit.

In the mean time, Martin d'Azpilcueta, surnamed the doctor of Navarre, who was uncle to Xavier, on the mother's side, and who was chief professor of divinity in the university of Coimbra, having heard the news of his nephew's arrival, wrote earnestly to the king, that it would please him to send Father Francis to him. He added, that in case the Father might have leave to remain with him till the departure of the fleet, he would oblige himself to make two new lectures, at his own expence, the one in canon-law, the other in mystical divinity. And farther, that in few years afterwards he would follow Xavier to the Indies, and preach the gospel in conjunction with him, to the eastern idolaters.

These letters prevailed nothing; the man, who had refused so much as to turn out of his way to see his mother, was bent against the taking of a journey, and forsaking his important business to visit one of his relations. The king retained Xavier at Lisbon, at the request of Xavier himself; and the father wrote a letter of excuse to the doctor of Navarre, who had written two to him full of tenderness and friendship. As that doct&r was unsatisfied with that kind of life, which his nephew had embraced, so Xavier resolved him, on that point, in this manner. "For what concerns our institute, of which so many reports are now raised, I have but one word, at present, to say of it. 'Tis of little consequence, illustrious doctor, to be judged by men, especially by such, who will needs be judging before they understand the matter, and know the merits of the cause."

As to his intention of going to the Indies, he desired him to think no farther of it; for thus Navarre relates that passage in his manual: "I had resolved to have ended my days in those parts, if Xavier, in consideration of my great age, had not thought me incapable of those labours which attend his mission: and if he had not written to me at his departure, that I should comfort myself for his absence, by the hope of seeing each other in the celestial kingdom."

Our two missioners laboured not in vain at Lisbon. From the very beginning of their ministry, devotion began to spread amongst the people. All men ran to the blessed sacrament, which before was never thought on but in Lent: and this holy custom diffused itself insensibly through all the towns of Portugal Many, who had deferred their conversion from time to time, now on the sudden gave themselves up to God, and even renounced the world. The most inveterate enemies were sincerely reconciled, and the most impudent harlots abandoned their prostitute way of living.

But this change of manners was most particularly apparent at the court: the king, who was truly religious, and full of goodness, was the first to declare himself against those vices which usually infect the palaces of princes. And that he might introduce a reformation by degrees, not only into his house, bat also dilate it through his whole kingdom, he obliged all the young courtiers to confess themselves once a week; for he said, "That if the lords and gentlemen would accustom themselves, from their tender years, to the service and fear of God, they would live with greater Christianity in their riper age: and if persons of quality came once to give good examples of religion, the commonalty, who form themselves according to their model, would not fail to regulate their manners; and therefore the reformation of all degrees in the kingdom consisted chiefly in the virtuous education of young noblemen."

The example of the prince and the young courtiers drew the rest; and thereupon Xavier writes to Ignatius in these terms:

"Nothing can be more regular than the court of Portugal: it resembles rather a religious society, than a secular court. The number of courtiers who come to confession, and are afterwards communicated, every eight days, is so very great, that we are in admiration of it," and are in perpetual thanksgiving for it. We are so taken up with hearing confessions, that if we were twice so many as we are, there would be employment more than enough for us. We are sitting on the confession-seat all the day long, and part of the night, though none but courtiers are permitted to come to us.

"I remember, that I observed, when the king was at Almerin, those who waited on him, from all parts of the kingdom, about their own affairs, as the custom is, were in great admiration at this new court-mode; and when they beheld the young gentlemen at the sacrament of the altar, every Sunday and holiday, with great reverence, they thought themselves in another world. But the greatest part of them imitating that which they admired, drew near to the tribunal of penance, and the holy table. Had we confessors enow to attend the crowds that come to court, no man would venture to apply himself to the king for any business, before he had been first with God, and were well with him."

The two labourers in God's harvest were so exhausted with their pains, that at length they were constrained to accept of the diet which was provided for them by the king's appointment; for they judged their time was better employed in the service of souls, than in begging their daily bread about the streets. Yet they omitted not to ask alms once or twice a-week, that they might not disuse themselves from the spirit of mortification and poverty. With these considerations, they reserved but little of what was sent them from the palace, and distributed the rest among the poor.

On the other side, the perpetual labour of confessions reduced them to preach but very seldom, for want of leisure. But, all things duly examined, they thought it of more consequence to God's service, to administer the sacrament of penance, than to preach the word; because the court of Portugal was furnished with able preachers, but was much wanting in judicious confessors; which was the very observation that Xavier made in the letter above cited.

These visible and wonderful operations caused the two missioners to be respected as men sent down from heaven, and replenished with the spirit of the Most High; insomuch that all men gave them the surname of apostles, which glorious title still remains with their successors in Portugal. The king, on all occasions, shewed them a most particular affection; and Xavier, ravished with so many expressions of his goodness to them, gives this account of it to Father Ignatius.

"Our whole society stands obliged to his majesty, for his singular favour to us; as well the rest of you at Rome, as we in Portugal. I am given to understand, from the ambassador Mascaregnas, that the king told him, he should be very glad, that all the members of our company might be gathered together, and established here; though on that condition he employed a good part of his revenue for our entertainment."

"This pious prince," says Xavier in another of his letters, "who has so tender an inclination for our society, and who wishes our advancement as much as if he were one of us, has thereby engaged us for ever to his service; and we should be guilty of a most horrible ingratitude, even to be unworthy of life, if we made not a public profession of our service to him, and if every day of our lives we endeavoured not to acknowledge, by our prayers, as far as our weakness will give us leave, all the favours of so generous a protector, and so magnificent a benefactor."

The Prince, Don Henry, who was nominated cardinal not long after, and in process of time came to the crown by the death of Don Sebastian, had not less affection for them than the king his brother. Being grand inquisitor, he gave the fathers an absolute power in his tribunal; and permitted them to discourse freely with all the prisoners of the Inquisition.

Some of the greatest quality in the court were so much edified with the apostolic life of Xavier and Rodriguez, that they were desirous to embrace their institute; as some learned persons of the city had already done. In short, every thing succeeded with them so, that Xavier had some apprehensions concerning this tide of happiness: He bemoaned it sometimes to himself, and said, that prosperity was always formidable, even in the most pious undertakings; that persecution was more desirable, and a much surer mark of Christ's disciples.

The two missioners appointed for the Indies lived in this manner; and impatiently waited for the proper season of navigation. But the king weighing in his mind the great good which they had done, in so short a time, both amongst the nobility and the common people, was desirous to retain them still in Portugal. It seemed reasonable to him, that the interest of his own kingdom ought to be dearer to him than that of foreign nations; and that these new labourers would produce a larger increase in Catholic countries, than amongst barbarians.

Yet that he might undertake nothing without mature deliberation, he called a council, and himself proposed it to them. All of them approved the king's opinion, excepting only the Prince Don Henry; who strongly urged, that Xavier and Rodriguez having been nominated for the new world, by the vicar of our Saviour, it was in a manner to disturb the order of Providence, if he thwarted their intended voyage; that the Indies were equally to be considered with Portugal itself, since they had been conquered by the Portuguese, and were annexed to the imperial crown; that those idolaters had better inclinations towards Christianity than was generally thought; and that they would come over to the faith of their own accord, when they should see amongst them disinterested preachers, free from avarice and ambition.

As the opinions of kings are always prevalent, the reasons of Don Henry were slighted; and it was concluded in council, that the two missioners should not depart the realm. This resolution afflicted them the more sensibly, because they both breathed after those eastern countries; their last recourse was to write to Rome, and interpose the mediation of Father Ignatius. He accordingly moved the Pope in their behalf; but his Holiness refused to make an absolute decision, and remitted the whole affair to Portugal: insomuch that Ignatius sent word to the two fathers, that the king was to them in the place of God, and that it was their duty to pay him a blind obedience. At the same time he also wrote to Don Pedro Mascaregnas, that Xavier and Rodriguez were wholly at the king's command; and that they should always remain in Portugal, in case his majesty desired it. Notwithstanding which, he thought a temperament might be found, which was, that Rodriguez might be retained in Portugal, and Xavier permitted to go for India.

The king was satisfied with this proposal of Ignatius; and believed it to be inspired by God himself. Xavier, transported with joy at the news of it, gave thanks to the Divine Goodness, which had chosen him anew for the mission of the Oriental parts, or rather which had executed its eternal purpose, notwithstanding human opposition.

The time of embarkment being come, he was called one day to the palace: the king discoursed fully with him concerning the present condition of the Indies, and recommended particularly to him the affairs of religion. He likewise gave him in charge, to visit the fortresses of the Portuguese, and take notice how God was served in them; and withal to give him an account of what more was requisite to be done for the establishment of Christianity in those new conquests; and to write frequently on that subject, not only to his ministers, but to his own person.

After this he presented him the four briefs, which had been expedited from Home the same year; in two of which, our Holy Father had constituted Xavier apostolical nuncio, and endued him with ample power for the extending and maintenance of the faith throughout the East; in the third, his Holiness recommended him to David Emperor of Ethiopia; and in the fourth, to all the princes who possessed the isles of the sea, or the continent from the Cape of Good Hope, even beyond the Ganges.

John III. had requested these briefs, and the Pope had freely granted them, with design thereby to make the mission of Father Francis the more illustrious and authentic. The father received them from the hands of the king with profound respect; saying, that as much as his weakness was capable of performing, he should endeavour to sustain the burden, which God and man had laid upon him.

Some few days before he went to sea, Don Antonio d'Ataida, count of Castagnera, who supervised the provisions of the naval army, advertised Xavier to make a note of what things were necessary for him in order to his voyage; assuring him from his majesty, that he should be furnished to his own desire. They want nothing, replied the father with a smile, who have occasion for nothing. I am much obliged to the king for his liberality, and to you for your care of me; but I owe more to the Divine Providence, and you would not wish me to distrust it.

The count of Castagnera, who had an express order from the king, to make a large provision for Father Xavier, was very urgent with him, and importuned him so strongly to take something, for fear, said he, of tempting Providence, which does not every day work miracles, that Xavier, not to appear either obstinate or, presumptuous, demanded some few little books of devotion, for which he foresaw he should have occasion in the Indies, and a thick eloth habit against the excessive colds, which are to be endured in doubling the Cape.

The count, amazed that the father asked for nothing more, besought him to make a better use of the king's offers; but seeing that all his intreaties prevailed nothing, "you shall not be master in every thing," said he, with some kind of heat, "and at the least you cannot possibly refuse a servant to attend you, because I am sure you cannot be without one." "So long as I have the use of these two hands," replied Xavier, "I will have no other servant." "But decency," rejoined the count, "requires, that you should have one, if it were but to maintain the dignity of your character. How shameful would it seem to behold an apostolical legate washing his own linen on the deck, and dressing his own victuals?" "I will take upon me for once," said Xavier, "to serve myself, and others too, without dishonouring my character. So long as I do no ill, I am in no fear of scandalizing my neighbour; nor of debasing that authority with which I am entrusted by the Holy See. They are these human considerations, and false notions of decencies and punctilios, which have reduced the church to that condition in which we now see it."

This positive answer stopped Castagnera's mouth; but afterwards, he gave great commendations of Xavier, and publicly said, "that he found it much more difficult to combat the denials of Father Francis, than to satisfy the craving desires of other men."

The day of his departure being come at length, and all things in a readiness to set sail, Xavier went to the port, with his two companions, whom he carried with him to the Indies; namely, Father Paul de Camerino, an Italian, and Francis Mansilla, a Portuguese, who was not yet in priests orders. Simon Rodriguez bore him company to the fleet; and then it was, that, embracing each other with much tenderness, "My brother," said Xavier, "these are the last words which I shall ever say to you: we shall see each other no more in this present world; let us endure our separation with patience; for most certain it is, that, being well united with our Lord, we shall be united in ourselves; and that nothing shall be able to divide us from the society which we have in Jesus Christ.

"As to what remains, I will, for your satisfaction," added he, "discover to you a secret, which hitherto I have concealed from your knowledge: You may remember, that when we lodged as chamber-fellows, in the hospital at Rome, you heard me crying out one night, 'yet more, O my Lord, yet more!' you have often asked what that exclamation meant; and I have always answered you, that you should not trouble yourself about it: I must now tell you, that I then beheld, (but whether sleeping or waking, God only knows,) all I was to suffer for the glory of Jesus Christ; our Lord infused into me so great a delight for sufferings, that not being able to satiate, myself with those troubles which he had presented to my imagination, I begged of him yet more; and that was the sense of what I pronounced with so much fervency, 'yet more, yet more!' I hope the Divine Goodness will grant me that in India, which he has foreshewn to me in Italy, and that the desires which he inspired into me shall be shortly satisfied."

After these words they embraced each other anew, and parted both of them in tears. When Rodriguez was returned on shore, they gave the signal of departure, and set sail. This was on the 7th of April, in the year 1541, under the command of Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa, viceroy of the Indies; a man of known integrity, and consummate experience in what related to those parts, where he had formerly lived for many years. He was desirous of Xavier's company, in the Admiral, which was called the St James. Xavier went aboard on his own birth-day, entering then on his six-and-thirtieth year. He had resided eight months entire at Lisbon; and forseven years, and somewhat more, had been the professed disciple of Ignatius Loyola.

THE LIFE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER.




BOOK II


By what way he passes to the Indies. His employment in the ship. He arrives at Mozambique, and what he does there. He falls sick himself, and yet continues to serve the sick. His first prediction Verified by the success. He arrives at Melinda, and there confers with the Mahometans. He passes over to Socotora; his opinion concerning that people. He arrives at Goa. He visits the Bishop of the Indies. The estate of religion in the India at his arrival. His first work at Goa. The first fruits of his labours. His industry to gain the Concubinarians. He is told of the coast of Fishery, and goes thither. This coast is called in the maps La Pescaria. He works a miracle at Cape Comorin. He labours in the salvation of the Paravas. His manner of teaching the Christian faith. He establishes catechists and teachers of the faith to supply ids place. The fruit of his labours on the coast of Fishery. He makes use of children to cure the sick. The zeal of the children against idols and idolaters. The punishment of a pagan, who had despised the admonitions of Father Xavier. The original and character of the Brachmans. He treats with the Brachmans. The conference of Xavier with a famous Brachman. He works divers miracles. He declares himself against the Brachmans. The means whereby he destroyed idolatry. He returns to Goa, and for what reason. The beginning and establishment of the seminary of holy faith. The seminary of holy faith new named the College of St Paul. He returns to the coast of Fishery; his actions there. He goes to the relief of the Christians, on the coast of Fishery. He goes to the kingdom of Travancore, and there labours with great success. God communicates to him the gift of tongues. He is persecuted by the Brachmans. He goes to meet the army of the Badages, and puts them to flight. He prevails upon the king of Travancore to favour the gospel. He raises two from death.

While the Christian religion flourished in Asia, under the emperors of Constantinople, there were two ordinary passages, and both of them short enough towards the Indies: the one by Syria, over the Euphrates and the Persian Gulph; the other by Egypt, over the Arabian Gulph, commonly called the Red Sea. But after the Saracens had possessed themselves of those places, the European Christians finding those passages unsecure for travelling, sought out ways of a larger circuit, to avoid falling into the hands of their most mortal enemies.

The Portuguese were the first who bethought themselves of coasting all Africa, and one part of Arabia and Persia; by taking this compass, the Indies are distant from Portugal about four thousand leagues, and the passengers are constrained to suffer twice the scorching heats of the torrid zone, in going under the equinoctial line, which divides Africa almost in two equal parts.

Don Henry, son of King John I., the most skilful prince of that age in the mathematics, was he who attempted the discovery of those seas, and undertook to double the Cape of Good Hope, upon the account of traffic, which he desired to establish betwixt the crown of Portugal and the emperor of Ethiopia, commonly called Prester John. This enterprise having succeeded, the kings of Portugal, Alphonso V., John II., and Emanuel I., followed it so happily, that, by little and little, they completed the passage to the Indies.

This was the course that Father Xavier held with the fleet of Portugal. He found himself sufficient employment, during the time of the navigation: his first study was to put a stop to those disorders which are commonly occasioned by an idle life on ship-board; and he began with gaming, which is the only recreation, or rather the whole employment, of the seamen.

That he might banish games of chance, which almost always occasion quarrels and swearing, he proposed some little innocent diversions, capable of entertaining the mind, without stirring up the passions. But seeing that, in spite of his endeavours, they were bent on cards and dice, he thought it not convenient to absent himself, but became a looker on, that he might somewhat awe them by his presence; and when they were breaking out into any extravagance, he reclaimed them by gentle and soft reproofs. He shewed concernment in their gains, or in their losses, and offered sometimes to hold their cards.

There were at least a 'thousand persons in the Admiral, men of all conditions: the father made himself all to all, thereby to gain some to Jesus Christ; entertaining every man with such discourse as was most suitable to his calling. He talked of sea affairs to mariners, of war to the soldiery, of commerce to merchants, and of affairs of state to men of quality. His natural gaiety, and obliging humour, gained him a general esteem; the greatest libertines, and most brutal persons, sought his conversation, and were even pleased to hear him speak of God.

He instructed the seamen daily in the principles of religion, of which the greater part were wholly ignorant, or had at the best but a smattering of it; and preached to them on every holiday, at the foot of the main mast. All of them profited by his sermons, and in little time nothing was heard amongst them, which was offensive to the honour of God, or that wounded Christian charity; or touched upon obsceneness, or ill manners. They had a profound veneration for him; with one word only, he appeased their quarrels, and put an end to all their differences.

The viceroy, Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa, invited him from the very first clay to eat at his table; but Xavier humbly excused it, with great acknowledgments, and during all the voyage lived only on what he begged about the ship.

In the mean time, the insufferable colds of Cabo Verde, and the excessive heats of Guinea, together with the stench of the fresh waters, and putrifaction of their flesh provisions under the line, produced many dangerous distempers. The most common was a pestilential fever, accompanied with a kind of cancer, which bred in the mouth, and ulcerated all the gums; the sick being crowded together, spread the infection amongst themselves; and as every one was apprehensive of getting the disease, they had been destitute of all succour, if Father Francis had not taken compassion on them. He wiped them in their sweats, he cleansed their ulcers, he washed their linen, and rendered them all the most abject services; but, above all things, he had care of their consciences, and his principal employment was to dispose them to a Christian death.

These were his perpetual employments; being at the same time himself seized with continued fits of vomiting, and extreme languishments, which lasted two whole months. For his ease and refreshment, Sosa caused him to be accommodated with a larger cabin than was first appointed for him: he accepted of it, but it was only to lodge in it those who were most desperately ill; as for himself, he lay bare upon the deck, without other pillow than the tackling.

He received also the dishes which the viceroy sent him from his table, and divided them amongst those who had most need of nourishment. So many actions of charity gained him the surname of the Holy Father from thenceforward, which continued to him all his life, even, amongst Mahometans and idolaters.

While Xavier employed his time in this manner, the navy following its course, met with rocks and tempests, and contrary tides. After five months of perpetual navigation, it arrived at Mozambique, towards the end of August.

Mozambique is a kingdom situated on the eastern coasts of Africa, inhabited by negroes; a barbarous people, but less savage than their neighbours the Cafres, by reason of the trade which they continually maintain with the Ethiopians and Arabs. There is no port on all the shore to secure shipping from the winds; only one little island is shaped into a haven, both convenient and safe.

This isle, which is but a mile distant from the main land, bears the name of Mozambique, together with the whole kingdom. It was formerly subject to the Saracens, and a Xeriffe Moor commanded it; but since, the Portuguese have made themselves masters of it, and built a fort, to secure the passage of their vessels, and refresh their sea-beaten men, who commonly stay there for some time.

The army under Sosa was constrained to winter in this island, not only because the season was far spent, but also because the sick passengers could no longer support the incommodities of the sea. The place notwithstanding was not very proper for infirm persons, for the air is unwholesome; which proceeds from hence, that the sea overflowing the low-lands of the isle, at the spring tides, the mass of waters there gathered and inclosed is corrupted by the heats; for which reason, the inhabitants are commonly short-lived, but more especially strangers; upon which occasion, Mozambique is generally called the sepulchre of the Portuguese. Besides the intemperance of the air, at the same time, an infectious disease was raging in the country.

Being come ashore, Sosa gave immediate orders to carry the sick of every ship to the hospital, which is in the island, of which the kings of Portugal are founders. Father Xavier followed them; and, with the assistance of his two companions, undertook to attend them all. The undertaking was beyond his strength; but the soul sustains the body of apostolical men, and charity can do all things.

Animated with this new fervour, he went from chamber to chamber, and from bed to bed, giving remedies to some, and administering the last sacrament to others. Every one desired to have him by him; and all acknowledged, that only the sight of his countenance availed them more than a thousand medicines.

Having passed the day in continual labour, he watched all night with dying men, or laid himself down by those who were in most danger, to steal a short unquiet slumber, which was interrupted almost every moment: at the least complaint, or even at a sigh, he was awake, and ran to their relief.

So many fatigues at the length overwhelmed nature, and he fell sick himself of a fever, so violent, and so malignant, that he was blooded seven times in a little space, and was three days in a delirium. At the beginning of his sickness, many were desirous to have withdrawn him from the hospital, where the contagion was frightful, and offered him their own lodgings. He constantly refused their offers, and told them, "That, having made a vow of poverty, he would live and die amongst the poor."

But when the violence of his distemper was somewhat abated, the saint forgot himself to think on others. Sometimes, not being able to sustain his body, and burning with his fever, he visited his dear patients, and attended them as much as his weakness would permit him. The physician having one day met him, going hither and thither as his charity called him, in the middle of his fit, after having felt his pulse, plainly told him, that in all the hospital, there was not one man in more danger than himself, and prayed him that he would take some small repose, and but give himself a breathing time until his fever were on the declension.

"I will punctually obey you," replied the father, "when I have satisfied one part of my duty which calls upon me; it concerns the salvation or a soul, and there is no time to be lost on such an occasion." Immediately he ordered to be carried to his own bed a poor ship-boy, who lay stretched out on a little straw, with a burning fever upon him, without speech or knowledge. The youth was no sooner placed upon the saint's bed, but he came to himself: Xavier made use of the opportunity, and laying himself by the sick person, who had led a most dissolute life, exhorted him so strongly all that night to abominate his sins, and to rely on the mercy of Almighty God, that he saw him die in great contrition, mixed with saving hope.

After this, the father kept the promise which he had made to the physician, and took a greater care of his own preservation; insomuch that his fever abated by degrees, and at length left him of itself; but his strength was not yet recovered, when the navy put to sea again. The viceroy, who began to find himself indisposed, would make no longer stay upon a place so much infected, nor attend the recovery of his people, to continue his voyage. He desired Xavier to accompany him, and to leave Paul de Camerino, and Francis Mansilla, to attend the sick in the hospital; where indeed they both, performed their duty as became them.

Thus having made a six months residence on Mozambique, they embarked once more on the 15th of March, and in the year 1542. But they went not aboard the St James, in which they came thither, changing her for a lighter vessel, which made better sail.

It is here proper to observe, that the father, according to the report of the passengers who came with him from Portugal to Mozambique, began to manifest that spirit of prophecy, which he had to the end of his days in so eminent a degree. For hearing those of the St James commend that ship, as a vessel of the strongest built, and the best equipped of all the fleet, he said in express words, that she would prove unfortunate. And in effect, that ship, which the viceroy left behind him at Mozambique, in the company of some others, pursuing her course afterwards to the Indies, was driven against the rocks, and dashed in pieces towards the island of Salseta.

The galeon, which carried Sosa and Xavier, had the wind so favourable, that in two or three days she arrived at Melinda, on the coast of Africa, towards the equinoctial line. It is a town of Saracens, on the sea side, in a flat country, well cultivated, planted all along with palm-trees, and beautified with fair gardens. It has a large enclosure, and is fortified with walls, after the European fashion. Though the building is Moresque, the houses notwithstanding are both pleasantand convenient. The inhabitants are warlike, they are black, and go naked; excepting only that they are covered with a kind of an apron of cotton or linen, from the waist to the mid thigh. And indeed the heat of their climate will permit them to wear no more; Melinda being distant from the line but three degrees and some few minutes.

They have always maintained a good correspondence with the Portuguese, by reason of the commerce established betwixt them. The flag of Portugal was no sooner seen, but the Saracen king Came down to the port, attended by the most honourable persons of his court, to receive the new governor of the Indies. The first object which presented itself to Father Francis when he stept ashore, drew tears from his eyes; but they were tears of joy and pity mingled together. The Portuguese having there a constant trade, and now and then some of them happening to die, are allowed a burying-place near the town, full of crosses set upon their graves, according to ihe custom of the Catholics: and above the rest there was a very large one of hewn stone placed in the middle, and all over gilded.

The saint ran to it, and adored before it; receiving an inward consolation, to behold it raised so high, and, as it were, triumphing amongst the enemies of Jesus Christ. But at the same time, he was sensibly afflicted, that this sign of our salvation served less to edify the living, than to honour the memory of the dead. And lifting up his hands to heaven, he besought the Father of all mercies to imprint in the hearts of the infidels, that cross, which they had suffered to be planted on their ground.

His next thoughts prompted him to confer of religion with the Moors, that he might endeavour to shew them the extravagances of the Mahometan belief, and gain an opportunity of revealing to them the eternal truths of Christian faith. One of the principal inhabitants, and wonderfully bigotted to his sect, prevented him, and immediately demanded of him, if piety were not wholly extinguished in the towns of Europe, as it was in Melinda. "For, to confess the truth," said he, "of seventeen mosques which we have, fourteen are quite forsaken; there are but three remaining, at which we pay our devotions; and even those three are but little visited, and by few persons.

"This proceeds, without all question," added the Mahometan, "from some enormous sin, but what it is, I know not: and whatsoever reflections I can make, I am not able to find what has drawn upon us so dreadful a misfortune." "There is nothing more clear," replied Xavier; "God, who detests the prayer of infidels, has permitted a worship to moulder away, which is displeasing to him; and gives you thence to understand, that he condemns your sect." The Saracen was not satisfied with this reason, nor with any other argument which Xavier used against the Alcoran. While they were thus disputing, a Caciz, or doctor of the law, joined company with them, having made the same complaint concerning the mosques, how little they were frequented, and how cold was grown the devotion of the people. "I have taken my measures," said he, "and if in two years Mahomet comes not in person to visit the congregations of the faithful, who acknowledge him for God's true prophet, I will certainly look out for some other religion." Xavier took pity on the folly of the Caciz, and endeavoured all he could to convert him at that instant from Mahometanism; but he could not prevail upon an obstinate mind, blinded with the opinion of its own reason; and therefore the father acquiesced in the decrees of that Providence, which has fixed the times and revolutions for the conversion of infidels and sinners.

Having left Melinda, where they continued but few days, and still coasting Africa, they cast anchor at Socotora, which is beyond Cape Guardafu, and over against the Strait of Mecca. The Moors of that country call it the Isle of Amazons; and the reason they allege is, because it is governed by women. The inhabitants believe their isle to be the earthly paradise; which notwithstanding, there is scarcely to be found in all the world, a spot of ground less deserving that glorious title. The air is in a perpetual sultry heat, the soil is dry and barren, and, excepting only for the aoes which is there produced, and is indeed the best which grows in those eastern parts, even the name of Socotora would not be mentioned. It is not certainly known what religion they profess, so monstrous is their belief. They hold from the Saracens the worship of Mahomet, from the Jews the use of circumcision and sacrifices, and yet give themselves the name of Christians. The males bear the name of some or other of the apostles, the most part of the women are called Mary, and yet they have no knowledge of baptism. They adore the cross, and hang it in little about their necks. They chiefly venerate St Thomas; and it is an ancient tradition amongst them, that this holy apostle, in going to the Indies, was cast by a tempest on their coast; that being come ashore, he preached Jesus Christ to those of Socotora; and that from the wreck of that ship which brought him thither, they built a chapel in the middle of their island.

The condition of these islanders sensibly afflicted Father Xavier; yet he despaired not of reducing them to a right understanding of the faith, because, as barbarous as they were, they still preserved some footsteps of Christianity amongst them. Having no knowledge of their tongue, which bears not the least resemblance to any of our European languages, and is also wholly different from the Ethiopian and Arabic, at the first he was constrained to testify his sorrow to them by dumb signs, for their ignorance and errors. Afterwards, whether it were that some one amongst them understood the Portuguese, and served as interpreter to all the rest, or that counting from this very time he began to receive from above, the first fruits of the gift of tongues, which was so abundantly bestowed on him in the Indies on sundry occasions, he spoke to them concerning the necessity of baptism, and let them know, that there was no possibility of salvation without a sincere belief in Jesus Christ: but that the faith allowed of no mixture, and that to become Christians, they must of necessity cease to be Jews or Mahometans.

His words made a wonderful impression on the souls and hearts of those barbarians: some of them made him presents of their wild fruits, in token of their good will; others offered him their children to be baptised; all promised him to receive baptism themselves, and to lead the life of true Christians, on condition he would remain with them. But when they beheld the Portuguese galleon ready to depart, they ran in crowds to the water-side, and besought the holy man, with tears in their eyes, not to forsake them.

So moving a spectacle wrought compassion in Xavier; he was earnest with the viceroy for leave to stay upon the isle, at least till the arrival of the vessels, which he had left at Mozambique, But he could obtain no part of his request: and Sosa told him, that heaven having designed him for the Indies, it was to be wanting to his vocation if he endeavoured this exchange, and stopped in the beginning of his race; that his zeal would find a more ample field, wherein to exercise itself, than in Socotora, and people of better inclination than those islanders, naturally inconstant, and as ready to forsake the faith, as they were easy to receive it.

Xavier submitted to these reasons of the viceroy, which on this occasion seemed to interpret to him the good pleasure of Almighty God. Instantly they hoisted sail; but the saint was pierced with sorrow to behold those poor creatures, who followed him with their eyes, and held up their hands from afar to him; while the vessel was removing into the deep, he turned his head towards them, breathing out profound sighs, and looking mournfully upon them. But that he might leave nothing upon his conscience to upbraid him concerning the Socotorins, he engaged himself solemnly before Almighty God to return to them, so soon as possibly he could; or in case he could not, to procure for them some preachers of the gospel, to instruct them in the way of their salvation.

This last part of his navigation was not long. After having crossed the sea of Arabia, and part of that which belongs to India, the fleet arrived at the port of Goa, on the 6th of May, in the year 1542, being the thirteenth month since their setting out from the port of Lisbon.

The town of Goa is situated on this side of the Ganges, in an island bearing the same name. It is the capital city of the Indies, the seat of the bishop and the viceroy, and the most considerable place of all the East for traffic. It had been built by the Moors forty years before the Europeans had passed into the Indies; and in the year 1510, Don Alphonso de Albuquerque, surnamed the Great, took it from the infidels, and subjected it to the crown of Portugal.

At that time was verified the famous prophecy of St Thomas the apostle, that the Christian faith, which he had planted in divers kingdoms of the East, should one day flourish there again; which very prediction he left graven on a pillar of living stone, for the memory of future ages. The pillar was not far distant from the walls of Meliapore, the metropolis of the kingdom of Coromandel; and it was to be read in the characters of the country, that when the sea, which was forty miles distant from the pillar, should come up to the foot of it, there should arrive in the Indies white men and foreigners, who should there restore the true religion.

The infidels had laughed at this prediction for a long time, not believing that it would ever be accomplished, and indeed looking on it as a kind of impossibility that it should; yet it was accomplished, and that so justly, that when Don Vasco de Gama set foot on the Indies, the sea, which sometimes usurps upon the continent, and gains by little and little on the dry land, was by that time risen to the pillar, so as to bathe its lower parts.

Yet it may be truly said, that the prophecy of St Thomas had not its full effect, till after the coming of Father Xavier; according to another prediction of that holy man Peter de Couillan, a religious of the Trinity, who, going to the Indies with Vasco de Gama, in quality of his ghostly father, was martyred by the Indians on the seventh of July 1497, forty-three years before the beginning of the Society of Jesus, who being pierced through with arrows, while he was shedding his blood for Christ, distinctly pronounced these following words: "In few years there shall be born in the church of God, a new religious order of clergymen, which shall bear the name of Jesus: and one of its first fathers, conducted by the Spirit of God, shall pass into the most remote countries of the East Indies, the greatest part of which shall embrace the orthodox faith, through the ministry of this evangelical preacher."

This is related by Juan de Figueras Carpi, in his history of the order of the redemption of captives, from the manuscripts of the Trinity Convent in Lisbon, and the memoirs of the king of Portugal's library.

After Xavier was landed, he went immediately to the hospital, and there took his lodging, notwithstanding the instances of the viceroy, who was desirous to have had him in his palace. But he would not begin his missionary function, till he had paid his respects to the Bishop of Goa; whose name was Juan d'Albuquerque, of the order of St Francis, a most excellent person, and one of the most virtuous prelates which the church has ever had.

The father having informed him of the reasons for which his Holiness and the king of Portugal had sent him to the Indies, presented to him the briefs of Pope Paul III., at the same time declaring to him, that he pretended not to use them without his approbation and good-liking: after this, he cast himself at his feet, and desired his blessing.

The prelate, edified with the modesty of the father, and struck with that venerable air of sanctity which appeared in his countenance, took him up immediately, and embraced him with great tenderness. Having often kissed the briefs, he restored them to the father, with these words: "An apostolical legate, sent from the vicar of Jesus Christ, has no need of receiving his mission from any other hand; use freely that power, which the holy seat has conferred upon you; and rest assured, that if the Episcopal authority be needful to maintain, it shall never be wanting to you."

From that moment they contracted a most sacred friendship, whose union was so strict, that ever after they seemed to have but one heart and one soul: insomuch that Father Xavier undertook not any thing without consulting the bishop first; and the bishop, on his side, imparted all his designs to Father Xavier: and it is almost incredible, how much this holy correspondence contributed to the salvation of souls, and exaltation of the faith.

Before we pass farther, it is of consequence to know the estate of religion at that time in the Indies. It is true, that, according to the prophecy of St. Thomas, they who discovered the East Indies, had new planted Christianity in some parts of them, where all was in a manner quite forgotten. But ambition and avarice, in short time after, cooled the zeal of these new conquerors; instead of extending the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and of gaining souls to him, they thought of nothing more than of enlarging their dominion, and enriching themselves. It happened also, that many Indians newly converted to the faith, being neither cultivated by wholesome instructions, nor edified by good examples, forgot insensibly their baptism, and returned to their ancient superstitions.

And if any amongst them kept constant to his Christianity, and declared himself a believer, the Mahometans, who were uppermost in many places along the coast, and very wealthy, persecuted him with great cruelty, without any opposition on the part of the Portuguese governor or magistrates. Whether the power of Portugal were not yet sufficiently established, or that interest was predominant over justice and religion, this cruel usage deterred the new Christians fom professing Jesus Christ, and was the reason, that, amongst the infidels, all thoughts of conversion were laid aside.

But what yet appears more wonderful, the Portuguese themselves lived more like idolaters than Christians. For, to speak somewhat more particularly of their corrupt manners, according to the relation which was sent to King John III. of Portugal from the Indies, by a man in power, and worthy of belief; some few months before the arrival of Father Xavier, every man kept as many mistresses as he pleased, and maintained them openly in his own house, even in the quality of lawful wives. They bought women, or took them away by force, either for their service, or to make money of them. Their masters taxed them at a certain sum by the day, and, for fault of payment, inflicted on them ail sorts of punishment; insomuch, that those unhappy creatures, not being able sometimes to work out the daily rate imposed on them, were forced upon the infamous traffic of their bodies, and became public prostitutes, to content the avarice of their masters.

Justice was sold at the tribunals, and the most enormous crimes escaped from punishment, when the criminals had wherewithal to corrupt their judges.

All methods for heaping up money were accounted lawful, how indirect soever, and extortion was publicly protest. Murder was reckoned but a venial trespass, and was boasted as a piece of bravery.

The Bishop of Goa, to little purpose, threatened them with the wrath of heaven, and the thunder of excommunications. No dam was sufficient for such a deluge; their hearts were hardened against spiritual threatening and anathemas; or, to speak more properly, the deprivation of sacraments was no punishment to such wicked wretches, who were glad to be rid of them.

The use of confessions, and the communion, were in a manner abolished; and if any one by chance was struck with a remorse of conscience, and desired to reconcile himself to God, at the foot of a priest, he was constrained to steal to his devotions by night, to avoid the scandal to his neighbour.

So strange a depravation of manners proceeded from these causes. Its rise was taken from the licence of arms, which permit, and almost authorize, the greatest disorders in a conquered country. The pleasures of Asia, and the commerce of infidels, aided not a little to debauch the Portuguese, as starched and regular as they naturally are. The want of spiritual directors contributed largely to this growing mischief. There were not four preachers, in all the Indies, nor any one priest without the walls of Goa; insomuch, that in many fortified places whole years were passed without hearing a sermon or a mass.

Behold a draught, not unresembling the face of Christianity in this new world, when Father Xavier arrived in it.

The author of the relation from whence mine is copied, seems to have had some kind of foresight of his coming; for, in the conclusion of his memorial, he prays Almighty God, and earnestly desires the king of Portugal, to send some holy man to the Indies, who might reform the manners of the Europeans, by his apostolic instructions, and his exemplary virtues.

As for the Gentiles, the life they led resembled that of beasts rather than of men. Uncleanness was risen to the last excess amongst them; and the least corrupt were those who had no religion. The greatest part of them adored the devil under an obscene figure, and with ceremonies which modesty forbids to mention. Some amongst them changed their deity every day; and the first living creature which happened to meet them in the morning was the object of their worship, not excepting even dogs or swine. In this they were uniform, that they all offered bloody sacrifices to their gods; and nothing was more common, than to see bleeding infants on the altars, slaughtered by the hands of their own parents.

Such manifold abominations inflamed the zeal of Father Xavier. He wished himself able at the same time, to have applied remedies to them all; yet thought himself obliged to begin with the household of faith, according to the precept of St Paul; that is to say, with the Christians: and amongst them he singled out the Portuguese, whose example was like to be most prevalent with the baptised Indians. Behold in what manner he attempted this great enterprise of reformation.

To call down the blessing of heaven on this difficult employment, he consecrated the greatest part of the night to prayers, and allowed himself at the most but four hours of sleep; and even this little repose was commonly disturbed: for, lodging in the hospital, and lying always near the sick, as his custom had been at Mozambique, his slumber was broken by their least complaint, and he failed not to rise to their relief.

He returned to his prayers at break of day, after which he celebrated mass. He employed the forenoon in the hospitals, particularly in that of the lepers, which is in one of the suburbs of Goa. He embraced those miserable creatures one after the other, and distributed amongst them those alms which he had been begging for them from door to door. After this he visited the prisons, and dealt amongst them the same effects of charity.

In coming back, he made a turn about the town, with his bell in his hand, and gave a loud summons to the fathers of families, that, for the love of God, they would send their children and their slaves to catechism.

The holy man was convinced in his heart, that if the Portuguese youth were well instructed in the principles of religion, and formed betimes to the practice of good life, Christianity, in a little time, would be seen to revive in Goa; but in case the children grew up without instruction or discipline, there was no remaining hope, that they who sucked in impiety and vice, almost with their milk, should ever become sincere Christians.

The little children gathered together in crowds about him, whether they came of their own accord, through a natural curiosity, or that their parents sent them, out of the respect which they already had for the holy man, howsoever vicious themselves. He led them to the church, and there expounded to them the apostles' creed, the commandments of God, and all the practices of devotion which are in use amongst the faithful.

These tender plants received easily the impressions which the father made on them, and it was through these little babes that the town began to change its face. For, by daily hearing the man of God, they became modest and devout; their modesty and devotion was a silent censure of that debauchery which appeared in persons of riper age. Sometimes they even reproved their fathers, with a liberty which had nothing of childish in it, and their reproofs put the most dissolute libertines to the blush.

Xavier then proceeded to public preaching, whither all the people flocked; and to the end that the Indians might understand, as well as the Portuguese, he affected to speak that language in a gross and clownish dialect, which passed at that time amongst the natives of the country. It was immediately seen what power a preacher, animated by the spirit of God, had over the souls of perverted men. The most scandalous sinners, struck with the horror of their crimes, and the fear of eternal punishment, were the first who came to confession. Their example took away from others the shame of confessing; insomuch, that every one now strove who should be foremost to throw himself at the father's feet, knocking their breasts, and bitterly lamenting their offences.

The fruits of penitence accompanying these tears, were the certain proofs of a sincere conversion. They cancelled their unlawful bonds and covenants of extortion; they made restitution of their ill-gotten goods; they set at liberty their slaves, whom they had opprest, or had acquired unjustly; and lastly, turned away their concubines, whom they were unwilling to possess by a lawful marriage.

The saint acted with the concubinarians almost in the same manner as our Saviour dealt with the publicans and harlots. Far from treating them severely, the deeper they were plunged in that darling vice, the more tenderly he seemed to use them. On all occasions he declared himself their friend; he made them frequent visits, without fear of being upbraided with so infamous a conversation. He invited himself sometimes to eat with them; and then, assuming an air of gaiety, he desired the master to bring down the children to bear him company. When he had a little commended their prettiness, he asked to see their mother, and shewed her the same countenance, as if he had taken her for an honest woman. If she were beautiful or well shaped, he praised her, and said "she looked like a Portuguese: " after which; in private conversation, "you have," said he to her master, "a fair slave, who well deserves to be your wife." But if she were a swarthy, ugly Indian, "Good God!" he cried out, "what a monster do you keep within your doors! and how are you able to endure the sight of her?" Such words, spoken in all appearance without design, had commonly their full effect: the keeper married her whom the saint had commended, and turned off the others.

This so sudden a change of manners was none of those transient fits of devotion, which pass away almost as soon as they are kindled; piety was established in all places, and they who formerly came to confession once a year, to speak the best of it, now performed it regularly once a month. They were all desirous of confessing themselves to Father Xavier; so that, writing from Goa to Rome on that subject, he said, "That if it had been possible for him to have been at once in ten places, he should not have wanted for employment." His catechising having had that wonderful success which we have mentioned, the Bishop Don John d'Albuquerque ordained, that, from thenceforward, the children should be taught the Christian doctrine, in all the churches of the town. The gentlemen and merchants applied themselves to the regulation of their families, and banishment of vice. They gave the father considerable sums of money, which he distributed in their presence, in the hospitals and prisons. The viceroy accompanied the saint thither once a week, to hear the complaints of the prisoners, and to relieve the poor. This Christian practice was so pleasing to the king of Portugal, John III, that afterwards he writ to Don John de Castro, governor of the Indies, expressly ordering him to do that once a month, which Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa never failed of doing every week; in short, the Portuguese of Goa had gained such an habitude of good life, and such an universal change of manners had obtained amongst them, that they seemed another sort of people.

This was the state of affairs, when Michael Vaz, vicar general of the Indies, a man of rare virtue, and wonderful zeal for the propagation of the faith, gave Xavier to understand, that on the Oriental coast, which lies extended from Cape Comorin to the Isle of Manar, and is called the coast of Fishery, there were certain people called Paravas, that is to say, fishers, who had caused themselves to be baptized some time since, on occasion of succours which had been given them by the Portuguese against the Moors, by whom they were cruelly opprest; that these people had nothing more of Christianity than baptism, and the name, for want of pastors to instruct them; and that it would be a work well-pleasing in the sight of God to accomplish their conversion. He concealed not from him, that the land was barren, and so destitute of the conveniences of life, that no stranger was willing to settle there; that interest alone drew the merchants thither, in the season of pearl-fishing, and otherwise the heats were insupportable.

There could not have been made to Xavier a proposition more according to his heart's desire. He offered himself, without the least hesitation, to go and instruct that people; and he did it so much the more freely, because his presence was no longer so necessary at Goa, where piety was now grown into a habit, by a settled form of five months standing.

Having received the benediction of the bishop, he embarked about the midst of October, in the year 1542, in a galiot, which carried the new captain of Comorin; and took with him two young ecclesiastics of Goa, who had a tolerable insight into the language of the Malabars, which is spoken in the coast of Fishery. Sosa offered to have furnished him with money for all his occasions; but apostolic men have no greater treasures than their poverty, nor any fund more certain than that of Providence. He accepted only a pair of shoes, to defend him in some measure from the burning sands upon the coasts; and, at parting, desired the viceroy to send him his two companions, who were left behind at Mozambique, so soon as they should arrive at Goa.

The Cape of Cornorin is at the distance of about six hundred miles from Goa. It is a high promontory, jutting out into the sea, and facing the isle of Ceylon. The Father being there arrived, immediately fell in with a village of idolaters. He could bear to go no farther without preaching the name of Jesus to the Gentiles; but all he could declare, by the mouth of his interpreters, signified nothing; and those pagans plainly told him, that they could not change their faith without consent of the lord of whom they held. Their obstinacy, however, was of no long continuance; and that Omnipotence, which had pre-ordained Xavier to the conversion of idolaters, would not that his first labours should be unsuccessful.

A woman of the village had been three days in the pains of childbirth, and had endured great torments, without being eased, either by the prayers of the Brachmans, or any natural remedies. Xavier went to visit her, accompanied by one of his interpreters; "and then it was," says he, in one of his letters, "that, forgetting I was in a strange country, I began to call upon the name of the Lord; though, at the same time, I could not but remember, that all the earth is equally his, and all its inhabitants are belonging to him."

The Father expounded to the sick woman the principles of our faith, and exhorted her to repose her trust in the God of the Christians. The Holy Ghost, who, by her means, had decreed to save that people, touched her inwardly; insomuch, that being asked if she believed in Jesus Christ, and if she desired to be baptized? she answered, yes; and that she spake from the bottom of her heart. Xavier then read the gospel to her, and baptized her: – she was immediately delivered of her child, and perfectly recovered. This visible miracle immediately filled that poor cabin with astonishment and gladness: The whole family threw themselves at the Father's feet, and asked to be instructed; and, being sufficiently taught, not one amongst them but received baptism. This news being blown abroad through all the country, the chief of the place had the curiosity to see a person so wonderful in his works and in his words. He preached to them the words of eternal life, and convinced their reason of the truth of Christianity; but convinced though they were, they durst not, as they said, become Christians, without the permission of their prince.

There was at that time in the village an officer, sent expressly from the prince to collect a certain annual tribute. Father Xavier went to see him, and expounded so clearly to him all the law of Jesus Christ, that the pagan presently acknowledged there was nothing in it which was ill; and after that gave leave to the inhabitants to embrace it. There needed no more to a people, whom nothing but fear withheld from it; they all offered themselves to be baptized, and promised thenceforth to live in Christianity.

The holy man, encouraged by so happy a beginning, followed his way with more cheerfulness, and came to Tutucurin, which is the first town belonging to the Paravas. He found, in effect, that this people, excepting only their baptism, which they had received, rather to shake off the Moorish yoke than to subject themselves to that of Jesus Christ, were wholly infidels; and he declared to them the mysteries of our faith, of which before they had not received the least tincture. The two churchmen who accompanied him served him in the nature of interpreters; but Xavier, reflecting within himself, that these churchmen frequently altered those things which passed through their mouths, and that our own words, when spoken by ourselves, have more vigour in them, bethought himself of finding some expedient, whereby to be understood without the assistance of another. The way he took, was to get together some people of the country, who understood the Portuguese language, and to join them with the two ecclesiastics who were knowing in the Malabar. He consulted both parties for many days together, and, drudging at his business, translated into the Paravas tongue, the words of the sign of the cross, the apostles' creed, the commandments, the Lord's prayer, the salutation of the angel, the confiteor, the salve regina, and, in fine, the whole catechism.

The translation being finished, the Father got, without book, what he could of it, and took his way about the villages of the coast, in number thirty, about half of which were baptized, the rest idolaters.

"I went about, with my bell in my hand," says he himself, "and gathering together all I met, both men and children, I instructed them in the Christian doctrine. The children learnt it easily by heart in the compass of a month; and when they understood it, I charged them to teach it their fathers and mothers, all of their own family, and even their neighbours.

"On Sundays I assembled the men and women, little boys and girls, in the chapel; all came to my appointment with an incredible joy, and most ardent desire to hear the word of God. I began with the confessing God to be one in nature, and trine in Persons; I afterwards repeated distinctly, and with an audible voice, the Lord's prayer, the angelical salutation, and the apostles' creed. All of them together repeated after me; and it is hardly to be imagined what pleasure they took in it. This being done, I repeated the creed singly; and, insisting on every particular article, asked, if they certainly believed it? They all protested to me, with loud cries, and their hands across their breasts, that they firmly believed it. My practice is, to make them repeat the creed oftener than the other prayers; and I declare to them, at the same time, that they who believe the contents of it are true Christians.

"From the creed I pass to the ten commandments, and give them to understand, that the Christian law is comprised in those ten precepts; that he who keeps them all according to his duty is a good Christian, and that eternal life is decreed to him; that, on the contrary, whoever violates one of these commandments is a bad Christian, and that he shall be damned eternally in case he repent not of his sin. Both the new Christians and the pagans admire our law as holy, and reasonable, and consistent with itself.

"Having done as I told you, my custom is, to repeat with them the Lord's prayer, and the angel's salutation. Once again we recite the creed; and at every article, besides the Paternoster and the Ave Maria, we intermingle some short prayer; for having pronounced aloud the first article, I begin thus, and they say after me, – ' Jesus, thou son of the living God, give me the grace to believe firmly this first article of thy faith, and with that intention we offer thee that prayer of which thou thyself art author.' We add, – ' Holy Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for us, from thy beloved Son, to believe this article, without any doubt concerning it.' The same method is observed in all the other articles; and almost in the same manner we run over the ten commandments. When we have jointly repeated the first precept, which is, to love God, we pray thus: 'O Jesu Christ, thou Son of the living God, grant us thy grace to love thee above all things!' and immediately after we say the Lord's prayer; then immediately we subjoin: 'O holy Mary, mother of Jesus, obtain for us, from thy Son, that we may have the grace to keep this first commandment.' After which we say the Ave Maria. We observe the same method through the other nine commandments, with some little variation, as the matter requires it.

"These are the things which I accustom them to beg of God in the common prayers; omitting not sometimes to assure them, that if they obtain the thing for which they pray, even that is a means for them to obtain other things more amply than they could demand them.

"I oblige them all to say the confiteor, but principally those who are to receive baptism, whom I also enjoin to say the belief. At every article, I demand of them, if they believe it without any scruple; and when they have assured me, that they do, I commonly make them an exhortation, which I have composed in their own language, – being an epitome of the Christian faith, and of the necessary duties incumbent on us in order to our salvation. In conclusion, I baptize them, and shut up all in singing the salve regina, to implore the assistance of the blessed Virgin."

It is evident, by what we have already said concerning the instruction of the Paravas, that Xavier had not the gift of tongues when he began to teach them: But it appears also, that, after he had made the translation, which cost him so much labour, he both understood and spoke the Malabar tongue, whether he had acquired it by his own pains, or that God had imprinted the species of it in his mind after a supernatural manner. It is at least probable, that, being in the Indies when he studied any tongue, the Holy Spirit seconded his application, and was in some sort his master; for it is constantly believed, that in a very little time he learnt the most difficult languages, and, by the report of many persons, spoke them so naturally, that he could not have been taken for a foreigner.

Father Xavier having, for the space of a month, instructed the inhabitants of one village, in the manner above said, before he went farther, called together the most intelligent amongst them, and gave them in writing what he had taught, to the end, that as masters of the rest, on Sundays and Saints-days, they might congregate the people, and cause them to repeat, according to his method, that which they had learnt formerly.

He committed to these catechists, (who in their own tongue are called Canacopoles,) the care of the churches, which he caused to be built in peopled places; and recommended to them the ornament of those sacred buildings, as far as their poverty would allow. But he was not willing to impose this task on them, without some kind of salary; and therefore obtained from the viceroy of the Indies, a certain sum for their subsistence, which was charged upon the annual tribute, payable to the crown of Portugal, from the inhabitants of that coast.

It is hardly to be expressed, what a harvest of souls was reaped from his endeavours; and how great was the fervour of these new Christians. The holy man, writing to the fathers at Rome, confesses himself, that he wanted words to tell it. He adds, "That the multitude of those who had received baptism, was so vast, that, with the labour of continual christenings, he was not able to lift up his arms; and that his voice often failed him, in saying so many times over and over, the apostles' creed, and the ten commandments, with a short instruction, which he always made concerning the duties of a true Christian, before he baptized those who were of age."

The infants alone, who died after baptism, amounted, according to his account, to above a thousand. They who lived, and began to have the use of reason, were so affected with the things of God, and so covetous of knowing all the mysteries of faith, that they scarcely gave the father time to take a little nourishment, or a short repose. They sought after him every minute; and he was sometimes forced to hide himself from them, to gain the leisure of saying his prayers, and his breviary.

By the administration of these children, who were so fervently devout, he performed divers extraordinary works, even many of those miraculous cures, which it pleased God to perate by his means. The coast of Fishery was never so full of diseases, as when the father was there. It seemed, as he himself has expressed it in a letter, that God sent those distempers amongst that people, to draw them to him almost in their own despite. For coming to recover on an instant, and against all human appearance, so soon as they had received baptism, or invoked the name of Jesus Christ, they clearly saw the difference betwixt the God of the Christians and the pagods, which is the name given in the Indies, both to the temples and the images of their false gods.

No one fell sick amongst the Gentiles, but had immediate recourse to Father Xavier. As it was impossible for him to attend them all, or to be in many places at the same time, he sent there Christian children where he could not go himself. In going from him, one took his chaplet, another his crucifix, a third his reliquiary, and all being animated with a lively faith, dispersed themselves through the towns and villages. There gathering about the sick as many people as they could assemble, they repeated often the Lord's prayer, the creed, the commandments, and all they had learnt by heart of the Christian faith; which being done, they asked the sick, "If he believed unfeignedly in Jesus Christ, and if he desired to be baptized?" When he had answered "Yes," they touched him with the chaplet, or crucifix belonging to the father, and he was immediately cured.

One day, while Xavier was preaching the mysteries of faith to a great multitude, some came to bring him word from Manapar, that one of the most considerable persons of that place was possessed by the devil, desiring the father to come to his relief. The man of God thought it unbecoming of his duty to break off the instruction he was then making. He only called to him some of those young Christians, and gave them a cross which he wore upon his breast; after which he sent them to Manapar with orders to drive away the evil spirit.

They were no sooner arrived there, than the possessed person fell into an extraordinary fury, with, wonderful contortions of his limbs, and hideous yellings. The little children, far from being terrified, as usually children are, made a ring about him, singing the prayers of the church. After which they compelled him to kiss the cross; and at the same moment, the devil departed out of him. Many pagans there present, visibly perceiving the virtue of the cross, were converted on the instant, and became afterwards devout Christians.

These young plants, whom Xavier employed on such occasions, were in perpetual disputations with the Gentiles, and broke in pieces as many idols as they could get into their power; and sometimes burnt them, throwing their ashes into the air. When they discovered any bearing the name of Christianity, and yet keeping a pagod in reserve to adore in secret, they reproved them boldly; and when those rebukes were of no effect, they advertised the holy man, to the end, he might apply some stronger remedy. Xavier went often in their company, to make a search in those suspected houses; and if he discovered any idols, they were immediately destroyed.

Being informed, that one who was lately baptized, committed idolatry sometimes in private, and that the admonitions which he had received were useless, he bethought himself to frighten him; and in his presence commanded the children to set fire to his house, that thereby he might be given to understand, how the worshippers of devils deserved eternal burning like the devils. They ran immediately to their task, taking the command in a literal sense, which was not Xavier's intention. But the effect of it was, that the infidel, detesting and renouncing his idolatry, gave up his pagods to be consumed by fire, which was all the design of the holy man.

Another infidel was more unhappy; he was one of the first rank in Manapar; a man naturally violent and brutal. Xavier one day going to visit him, desired him, in courteous words, that he would listen to what he had to say to him concerning his eternal welfare. The barbarian vouchsafed not so much as to give him the hearing, but rudely thrust him out of his house, saying, "That if ever he went to the Christians' church, he was content they should shut him out." Few days after, he was assaulted by a troop of armed men, who designed to kill him: all he could do was to disengage himself from them, and fly away. Seeing at a distance a church open, he made to it as fast as he could run, with his enemies at his heels pursuing him. The Christians, who were assembled for their exercises of devotion, alarmed at the loud cries they heard, and fearing the idolaters were coming to plunder the church, immediately shut their doors, insomuch that he, who hoped for safety in a holy place, fell into the hands of murderers, and was assassinated by them, without question by a decree of the divine justice, which revenged the saint, and suffered the wretch to be struck with that imprecation which he had wished upon himself.

These miracles, which Xavier wrought by the means of children, raised an admiration of him, both amongst Christians and idolaters; but so exemplary a punishment caused him to be respected by all the world: and even amongst the Brachmans there was not one who did not honour him. As it will fall in our way to make frequent mention of those idol-priests, it will not be from our purpose to give the reader a description of them.

The Brachmans are very considerable amongst the Indians, both for their birth and their employment. According to the ancient fables of the Indies, their original is from heaven. And it is the common opinion, that the blood of the gods is running in their veins. But to understand how they were born, and from what god descended, it is necessary to know the history of the gods of that country, which in short is this:

The first, and lord of all the others, is Parabrama; that is to say, a most perfect substance, who has his being from himself, and who gives being to the rest. This god being a spirit free from matter, and desirous to appear once under a sensible figure, became man; by the only desire which he had to shew himself, he conceived a son, who came out at his mouth, and was called Maiso. He had two others after him, one of them whose name was Visnu, was born out of his breast, the other called Brama, out of his belly. Before he returned to his invisibility, he assigned habitations and employments to his three children. He placed the eldest in the first heaven, and gave him an absolute command over the elements and mixed bodies. He lodged Visnu beneath his elder brother, and established him the judge of men, the father of the poor, and the protector of the unfortunate. Brama had for his inheritance the third heaven, with the superintendance of sacrifices, and other ceremonies of religion. These are the three deities which the Indians represent by one idol, with three heads growing out of one body, with this mysterious signification, that they all proceed from the same principle. By which it may be inferred, that in former times they have heard of Christianity; and that their religion is an imperfect imitation, or rather a corruption of ours.

They say that Visnu has descended a thousand times on earth, and every time has changed his shape; sometimes appearing in the figure of a beast, sometimes of a man, which is the original of their pagods, of whom they relate so many fables.

They add, that Brama, having likewise a desire of children, made himself visible, and begot the Brachmans, whose race has infinitely multiplied. The people believe them demi-gods, as poor and miserable as they are. They likewise imagine them to be saints, because they lead a hard and solitary life; having very often no other lodging than the hollow of a tree, or a cave, and sometimes living exposed to the air on a bare mountain, or in a wilderness, suffering all the hardships of the weather, keeping a profound silence, fasting a whole year together, and making profession of eating nothing which has had life in it.

But after all, there was not perhaps a more wicked nation under the canopy of heaven. The fruit of those austerities which they practice in the desart, is to abandon themselves in public to the most brutal pleasures of the flesh, without either shame or remorse of conscience. For they certainly believe, that all things, how abominable soever, are lawful to be done, provided they are suggested to them by the light which is within them. And the people are so infatuated with them, that they believe they shall become holy by partaking in their crimes, or by suffering any outrage from them.

On the other side, they are the greatest impostors in the world; their talent consists in inventing new fables every day, and making them pass amongst the vulgar for wonderful mysteries. One of their cheats is to persuade the simple, that the pagods eat like men; and to the end they may be presented with good cheer, they make their gods of a gigantic figure, and are sure to endow them with a prodigious paunch. If those offerings with which they maintain their families come to fail, they denounce to the people, that the offended pagods threaten the country with some dreadful judgment, or that their gods, in displeasure, will forsake them, because they are suffered to die of hunger.

The doctrine of these Brachmans is nothing better than their life. One of their grossest errors is to believe that kine have in them somewhat of sacred and divine; that happy is the man who can be sprinkled over with the ashes of a cow, burnt by the hand of a Brachman; but thrice happy be, who, in dying, lays hold of a cow's tail, and expires with it betwixt his hands; for, thus assisted, the soul departs out of the body purified, and sometimes returns into the body of a cow. That such a favour, notwithstanding, is not conferred but on heroic souls, who contemn life, and die generously, either by casting themselves headlong from a precipice, or leaping into a kindled pile, or throwing themselves under the holy chariot wheels, to be crushed to death by the pagods, while they are carried in triumph about the town.

We are not to wonder, after this, that the Brachmans cannot endure the Christian law; and that they make use of all their credit and their cunning to destroy it in the Indies. Being favoured by princes, infinite in number, and strongly united amongst themselves, they succeed in all they undertake; and as being great zealots for their ancient superstitions, and most obstinate in their opinions, it is not easy to convert them.

Father Xavier, who saw how large a progress the gospel had made amongst the people, and that if there were no Brachmans in the Indies, there would consequently be no idolaters in all those vast provinces of Asia, spared no labour to reduce that perverse generation to the true knowledge of Almighty God. He conversed often with those of that religion, and one day found a favourable occasion of treating with them: Passing by a monastery, where above two hundred Brachmans lived together, he was visited by some of the chiefest, who had the curiosity to see a man whose reputation was so universal. He received them with a pleasing countenance, according to his custom; and having engaged them by little and little, in a discourse concerning the eternal happiness of the soul, he desired them to satisfy him what their gods commanded them to do, in order to it after death. They looked a while on one another without answering. At length a Brachman, who seemed to be fourscore years of age, took the business upon himself, and said in a grave tone, that two things brought a soul to glory, and made him a companion to the gods; the one was to abstain from the murder of a cow, the other to give alms to the Brachmans. All of them confirmed the old man's answer by their approbation and applause, as if it had been an oracle given from the mouths of their gods themselves.

Father Xavier took compassion on this their miserable blindness, and the tears came into his eyes. He rose on the sudden, (for they had been all sitting,) and distinctly repeated, in an audible tone, the apostles' creed, and the ten commandments, making a pause at the end of every article, and briefly expounding it, in their own language; after which he declared to them what were heaven and hell, and by what actions the one and other were deserved.

The Brachmans, who had never heard any thing of Christianity before, and had been listening to the father with great admiration, rose up, as soon as he had done speaking, and ran to embrace him, acknowledging, that the God of the Christians was the true God, since his law was so conformable to the principles of our inward light. Every one of them proposed divers questions to him; if the soul were immortal, or that it perished with the body, and in case that the soul died not, at what part of the body it went out; if in our sleep we dreamed we were in a far country, or conversed with an absent person, whether the soul went not out of the body for that time; of what colour God was, whether black or white; their doctors being divided on that point, the white men maintaining he was of their colour, the black of theirs: the greatest part of the pagods for that reason being black.

The father answered all their questions in a manner so suitable to their gross understanding, which was ignorant alike of things divine and natural, that they were highly satisfied with him. Seeing them instructed and disposed in this sort, he exhorted them to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ, and gave them to understand, that the truth being made known to them, ignorance could no longer secure them from eternal punishment.

But what victory can truth obtain over souls which find their interest in following error, and who make profession of deceiving the common people? "They answered," said the saint in one of his letters, "that which many Christians answer at this day, what will the world say of us if they see us change? And after that, what will become of our families, whose only subsistence is from the offerings which are made to the pagods? Thus, human interest, and worldly considerations, made the knowledge of the truth serve only to their greater condemnation."

Not long afterwards, Xavier had another conference with a Brachman, who lived in the nature of an hermit. He passed for the oracle of the country, and had been instructed in his youth at one of the most famous academies of the East. He was one of those who was knowing in their most hidden mysteries, which are never intrusted by the Brachmans, but to a certain select number of their wise men. Xavier, who had heard speak of him, was desirous to see him; and he, on his side, was as desirous to see Xavier. The intention of the saint was to try, in bringing over this Brachman, if he could gain the rest, who were proud of being his disciples.

After the first civilities which commonly pass betwixt two men, who mutually covet an acquaintance, and know each other by reputation, the discourse fell upon religion; and the Brachman found in himself, at the very first, so great an inclination for Xavier, that he could not conceal from him those secrets which a religious oath had bound him never to disclose to any. He confest plainly to him, that the idols were devils, and that there was only one God, creator of the world, and that this God alone deserved the adoration of men: that those who held the rank of wisdom amongst the Brachmans, solemnized the Sunday in his honour as a holiday; and that day they only said this prayer, "O God, I adore thee at this present, and for ever: " that they pronounced those words softly, for fear of being overheard, and to preserve the oath which they had made, to keep them secret. "In fine," said he, "it is to be read in our ancient writings, that all the false religions should one day cease, and the whole world should observe one only law."

The Brachman having disclosed these mysteries to Father Xavier, desired him, in his turn, to reveal to him what was most mysterious in the Christian law; and to engage him to deal the more freely with him, and without the least disguise, swore, that he would inviolably, and for ever, keep the secret. "I am so far," said the father, "from obliging you to silence, that I will inform you of nothing you desire to know, but on condition that you shall publish in all places what I tell you." The Brachman having given him his word, he began to instruct him by these words of Jesus Christ; "He who will believe, and be baptized, shall be saved." This he expounded to him at large; at the same time, declaring to him how baptism was necessary to salvation: and passing from one article of faith to another, he placed the truth of the gospel in so advantageous a light before him, that the Brachman declared upon the place he would become a Christian, provided he might be so in secret; and that he might have a dispensation from some certain duties of Christianity.

This so wicked a disposition made him unworthy of the grace of baptism; he remained unconverted. Notwithstanding which, he desired to have in writing the apostles' creed, together with our Saviour's words, which had been expounded to him.

He saw Father Xavier a second time, and told him he had dreamed he was baptized, and that afterwards he became his companion, and that they travelled together preaching the gospel in far countries; but this dream had no effect, and the Brachman would never promise to teach the people, that there was one only God, creator of the world, "or fear," says he, "that if he broke that oath which obliged him to secrecy, the devil should punish him with death."

Thus the master, though convinced, yet not submitting, the scholars all stood out; and in the sequel, of so great a multitude of idol-priests, not one embraced the Christian doctrine from the heart. Nevertheless, Xavier, in their presence, wrought many miracles which were capable of converting them. Having casually met a poor creature all naked, and full of ulcers from head to foot, he washed him with his hands, drank part of the water wherewith he had washed him, and prayed by him with wonderful fervency; when he had ended his prayer, the flesh of the diseased person was immediately healed, and appeared as clean as that of an infant.

The process of the saint's canonization makes mention of four dead persons, to whom God restored their life, at this time, by the ministry of his servant. The first was a catechist, called Antonio Miranda, who had been stung in the night by one of those venomous serpents of the Indies, whose stings are always mortal. The second was a child, who fell into a pit, and was drowned. The two others were a young man and a maid, whom a pestilential fever had carried off after a short sickness.

But these miracles, which gave to the father the name of saint among the Christians, and caused him to be called the God of Nature amongst the Gentiles, had no other effect upon the Brachmans than to harden their hearts, and blind their understandings. Xavier, despairing of their conversion, thought himself bound to publish all their wicked actions, and bring them into disrepute. And he performed it so successfully, that those men, who were had in veneration by the people, came to be despised by all the world; insomuch, that even the children laughed at them, and publicly upbraided them with their cheats. They began at first to threaten the people, according to their custom, with the anger of their pagods; but seeing their menaces turned to scorn, they made use of another artifice, to regain their credit.

What malice soever they harboured in their hearts against Father Xavier, they managed it so well, that, to see their conduct, they might have been taken for his friends. They made him visits; desired him to have some kindness for them; they gave him many commendations; they presented him sometimes with pearls and money. But the father was inexorable; and for their presents, he returned them without so much as looking on them.

The decrying of those idol-priests contributed not a little to the destruction of idolatry through all that coast. The life which Xavier led, contributed full as much. His food was the same with that of the poorest people, rice and water. His sleep was but three hours at the most, and that in a fisher's cabin on the ground: for he had soon made away with the mattress and coverlet, which the viceroy had sent him from Goa. The remainder of the night he passed with God, or with his neighbour.

He owns himself, that his labours were without intermission; and that he had sunk under so great hardships, if God had not supported him. For, to say nothing of the ministry of preaching, and those other evangelical functions, which employed him day and night, no quarrel was stirring, no difference on foot, of which he was not chosen umpire. And because those barbarians, naturally choleric, were frequently at odds, he appointed certain hours, for clearing up their misunderstandings, and making reconciliations. There was not any man fell sick, who sent not for him; and as there were always many, and for the most part distant from each other, in the scattering villages, his greatest sorrow was, that he could not be present with them all. In the midst of all this hurry, he enjoyed those spiritual refreshments and sweets of heaven, which God only bestows on souls, who regard nothing but the cross; and the excess of those delights was such, that he was often forced to desire the Divine Goodness to moderate them; according to what himself testifies in a letter to his father Ignatius, though written in general terms, and in the third person.

Having related what he had performed in the coast of the Fishery, "I have no more to add," says he, "concerning this country, but only that they who come hither to labour in the salvation of idolaters, receive so much consolation from above, that if there be a perfect joy on earth, it is that they feel." He goes on, "I have sometimes heard a man saying thus to God, O my Lord, give me not so much comfort in this life; or if, by an excess of mercy, thou wilt heap it on me, take me to thyself, and make me partaker of thy glory, for it is too great a punishment to live without the sight of thee."

A year and more was already past since Xavier had laboured in the conversion of the Paravas; and in all this time, his two companions, Paul de Camerine, and Francis Mansilla, were not come to his assistance, though they had been arrived at Goa some months since. The number of Christians daily multiplying to a prodigy, and one only priest not being sufficient to cultivate so many new converts in the faith, or advance them in Christian piety, the saint thought it his duty to look out for succour. And besides, having selected some young men, well-natured, and of a good understanding, qualified for the studies of divinity, and human sciences, who being themselves well modelled, might return with him to instruct their countrymen; he was of opinion, that he ought to conduct them himself, without deferring his voyage any longer.

On these considerations he put to sea, on his return, about the conclusion of the year 1543; and having got to Cochin by mid-January, he arrived at Goa not long after. For the better understanding of what relates to the education of those young Indians, whom Xavier brought, it will be necessary to trace that matter from its original.

Before the coming of Father Francis to the Indies, Christianity had made but little progress in those countries; and of an infinite number of Pagans, inhabiting the isle of Goa, and the parts adjoining, scarce any man thought of forsaking his idolatry. In the year 1541, James de Borba, a Portuguese preacher and divine, whom king John III. had sent to India, searching out the cause of so great a misfortune, found, that it was not only because the Europeans could not easily learn the Indian tongue, but also, because if an Indian happened to be converted, they exercised no charity towards him; and that the children of the faithful, who died poor, were destitute of succour in their wants.

He gave notice of this to the grand vicar, Michael Vaz, to the auditor general, Pedro Fernandez, to the deputy-governor, Rodriguez de Castel Blanco, and to the secretary of state, Cosmo Annez, who were all of them his particular friends, and virtuous men. These being in the government, considered of the means to remedy the growing evil, the foundation of which had been discovered to them by Borba; and he himself excited the people to be instrumental in so good a work. For, one day preaching, he passionately bemoaned the damnation of so many Indians, and charged it on the conscience of his auditory, that the salvation of that idolatrous people depended, in some sort, on them. "I pretend not," said he, "that you should go yourselves to the conquest of souls, nor learn barbarous languages on purpose, to labour in the conversion of Gentiles. What I beg of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, is, that each of you would contribute something towards the maintenance of the new Christians. You will perform by that, what it is not in your power to do by the preaching of the gospel; and gain, by your temporal goods, those immortal souls, for which the Saviour of the world has shed his blood."

The Holy Spirit, who had inspired his tongue, gave efficacy to his words, by touching the hearts of those who heard them. Many of them being joined together, it was resolved to form a company, which should provide for the subsistence of those young Indians newly converted; and that society at first was called, the Brotherhood of St Mary of the Light, (or Illumination,) from the name of that church where the fraternity assembled, to regulate that new establishment.

It is true, that, as great works are not accomplished all at once, in the beginning of this, there was only founded a small seminary, for the children of Goa, and those of the neighbourhood; but the revenues were increased so much afterwards by the liberality of Don Estevan de Gama, governor of the Indies, and by the bounty of John III., king of Portugal, that all the idolatrous children, who turned Christians, of what country soever, were received into it.

There was also a fund sufficient for the building a fair house and a magnificent church in a larger plot: and the seminary, over which Borba presided, was then called, the Seminary of Holy Faith.

Matters being thus disposed, above threescore children, of divers kingdoms, and nine or ten different languages, were assembled, to be educated in piety and learning. But it was soon perceived, that these children wanted masters, capable of instructing and forming them, according to the intention of the institute. God Almighty had pre-ordained the seminary of holy faith, for the Society of Jesus; and it was by a particular disposition of the Divine Providence, that the same year, wherein the seminary was established, brought over the sons of Ignatius to the Indies.

Accordingly, when Xavier first arrived at Goa, Borba offered him the conduct of this new establishment, and used his best endeavours to engage him in it. Xavier, who found an inward call to something more important, and who already was conceiving in his mind the conversion of a heathen world, would not coop himself up within a town, but in his secret intentions, designed one of his companions for that employment, which was presented to himself. In the meantime, Borba wrote into Portugal, to Simon Rodriguez, and earnestly desired from him some fathers of the new society, "for whom" he said, "the Almighty had prepared a house in the new world, before their coming."

During these transactions, Paul de Camerin and Francis Mansilla arrived at Goa, from Mozambique: Borba retained them both in the seminary, by permission from the viceroy; and that was the reason why they followed not Father Xavier to the coast of Fishery.

Xavier put into the seminary those young Indians whom he had brought along with him; and whatever want he had otherwise of his companions, he gave the charge of the Seminarists to Father Paul de Camerin, at the request of Borba, who had the chief authority in the seminary. For it was not till the year 1548, after the death of Borba, that the company possest it in propriety, and without dependence. It then received the name of a college, and was called the college of St Paul, from the title of the church, which was dedicated to the conversion of the apostle of the Gentiles. From thence it also proceeded, that the Jesuits were called in that country, the fathers of St Paul, or the fathers Paulists, as they are called in that country even at this day.

Father Xavier remained but a little time at Goa; and returned with all expedition to his Paravas, with the best provision of gospel labourers, which he could make. He was then desirous of sending a missioner of the company to the isle of Socotora, not being in circumstances of going thither in person; for he had not forgotten the promise, which he made to God in behalf of that people, when he left them. But the small number of companions which he had, was not sufficient for the Indies; and it was not till three or four years afterwards that he sent Father Alphonso Ciprian to Socotora.

Besides Mansilla, who had not yet received the order of priesthood, he carried with him to the coast of Fishery two priests, who were Indians by nation, and one Biscayner, called John Dortiaga. When they were arrived there, he visited all the villages with them; and taught them the method of converting idolaters to the faith, and of confirming those who were already Christians, in it. After which, having assigned to each of them a division at his particular province in the coast, he entered farther into the country; and, without any other guide than the spirit of God. penetrated into a kingdom, the language of which was utterly Unknown to him, as he wrote to Mansilla in these, terms.

"You may judge, what manner of life Head here, by what I shall relate to you. I am wholly ignorant of the language of the people, and they understand as little of mine; and I have no interpreter. All I can perform, is to baptize children, and serve the sick, an employment easily understood, without the help of an interpreter, by only minding what they want."

This was the preaching by which he declared Jesus Christ, and made the Christian law appear amiable in that kingdom. For amongst those barbarians, who reduce all humanity to the notion of not being inhuman, and who acknowledge no other duties of charity, than forbearing to do injuries, it was a thing of admiration, to see a stranger, who, without any interest, made the sufferings of another man his own; and performed all sorts of services to the poor, as if he had been their father, or their slave. The name of the country is neither known, nor the fruits which these works of charity produced. It is only certain, that the saint continued not there any long time; and that a troublesome affair recalled him to the coast of Fishery, when it was least in his intentions to return.

The Badages, who are a great multitude of robbers, in the kingdom of Bisnagar, idolaters, and enemies of the Christian name, naturally fierce, always quarrelling amongst themselves, and at war with their neighbours, after they had seized, by force of arms, on the kingdom of Pande, which is betwixt Malabar and the coasts of Fishery, made an irruption into the said coast, in the absence of Xavier. The Paravas were under a terrible consternation at the sight of those robbers, whose very name was formidable to them, not daring so much as to gather into a body, nor to hazard the first brunt of war. They took flight, and abandoned their country, without any other thought than of saving their lives. In order to which, they threw themselves by heaps into their barks, some of them escaping into little desart islands, others hiding amongst the rocks and banks of sand, betwixt Cape Comorin, and the Isle of Ceylon. These were the places of their retreat, together with their wives and children, while the Badages overran the coast, and destroyed their country.

But what profits it to have escaped the sword, when, they must die of hunger? Those miserable creatures, exposed to the burning heats of the sun, wanted nourishment in their isles, and on their rocks, and numbers of them daily perished.

In the mean time, the news of this excursion of the robbers, and the flight of the Christians, was spread about, and Xavier heard it in the country where he then resided. The misfortunes of his dear Paravas touched him in the most tender part. He made haste to their relief; and, having been informed that they were pressed with famine, he passed speedily to the western coast, and earnestly solicited the Portuguese to supply them in this their extreme necessity. He obtained twenty barks, laden with all manner of provision, and himself brought it to their places of retreat, where the poor Paravas, as many as were left alive of them, were languishing without hope of comfort, and expecting death to end their misery.

The sight of the holy man, whom all of them regarded as their common father, caused them to forget some part of their misfortune, and seemed to restore them to life. He gave them all imaginable consolation; and, when they had somewhat recovered their strength, he brought them back to their habitations, from whence the Badages were retired. Those plunderers had swept all away, and the Christians were more poor than ever; he therefore procured alms for them, and wrote a letter earnestly to the Christians of another coast, to supply their brethren in distress.

The Paravas being resettled by degrees, Xavier left them under the conduct of the missioners, whom he had brought for them, and turned his thoughts elsewhere. He was desirous to have carried the sound of the gospel into the more inland countries, which had never heard of Jesus Christ; yet he forbore it at that time, upon this account, that in those kingdoms where there were no Portuguese to protect the new Christians, the idolaters and Saracens would make war on them, or constrain them to renounce their Christianity to buy their peace.

Returning therefore by the western coasts, which were in the possession of the Portuguese, he travelled by land, and on foot, according to his custom, towards the coast of Travancore, which beginning from the point of Comorin, lies extended thirty leagues along by the sea, and is full of villages.

Being come thither, and having, by the good offices of the Portuguese, obtained permission from the king of Travancore to publish the law of the true God, he followed the same method which he had used at the Fishery; and that practice was so successful, that all that coast was converted to Christianity in a little space of time, insomuch, that forty-five churches were immediately built. He writes himself, "That in one month he baptized, with his own hand, ten thousand idolaters; and that, frequently, in one day, he baptized a well peopled village." He says also, "that it was to him a most pleasing object, to behold, that so soon as those infidels had received baptism, they ran, vying with each other to demolish the temples of the idols."

It was at that time, properly speaking, when God first communicated to Xavier the gift of tongues in the Indies; according to the relation of a young Portuguese of Coimbra, whose name was Vaz, who attended him in many of his travels, and who being returned into Europe, related those passages, of which himself had been an eye witness. The holy man spoke very well the language of those barbarians, without having learnt it, and had no need of an interpreter when he instructed. There being no church which was capable of containing those who came to hear him, he led them into a spacious plain, to the number of five or six thousand persons, and there getting up into a tree, that he might the farther extend his voice, he preached to them the words of eternal truth. There it was also, that to the end the compass of the plain might serve in the nature of a church, he sometimes celebrated the divine mysteries under the sails of ships, which were spread above the altar, to be seen on every side.

The Brachmans could not suffer the worship of the pagods to be abandoned in this manner; but were resolved to be revenged on the author of so strange an alteration. In order to execute their design, they secretly engaged some idolaters to lie in wait for him, and dispatch him privately. The murderers lay in ambush more than once, and in the silence of the night endeavoured to shoot him with their arrows. But divine Providence would not suffer their malice to take place; of all their arrows, one only wounded him, and that but slightly; as it were rather to give him the satisfaction of shedding some blood in testimony of the faith, than to endanger his life.

Enraged and desperate for having missed their aim, they sought him everywhere; and not finding him, they set fire on three or four houses, where they thought he might possibly be lodged. The man of God was constrained one day to hide in the covert of a forest, and passed the following night upon a tree, to escape the fury of his enemies, who searched the whole forest to have found him. There was a necessity sometimes that the faithful should keep guard about him day and night, and to that purpose they placed themselves in arms about the house where he was retired.

In the meantime, the Badages, who had ravaged the coast of Fishery the year before, animated of themselves against the Christians, and perhaps pushed forward by the devils, who saw their empire decaying day by day, excited also by the desire of glory, and above all things by the hope of booty, entered into the kingdom of Travancore, on the side of one of those mountains-which confine on the cape of Comorin. Their former success had rendered them so haughty and so insolent, that they flattered themselves with an imagination that every thing would bend before them. But not having now to do, as they had before, with simple fishers, they were come in good order, and well armed, under the conduct of the Naiche, or lord of Modure, a valiant and experienced captain.

The inhabitants of the maritime villages took fright at the noise of an hostile army; and retiring, for the most part with great haste and confusion into the inland country, carried even to the court the news of the invasion.

The king of Travancore, whom the Portuguese call the Great Monarch, because indeed he is the most powerful of all the kings of Malabar, collecting his army with all speed, put himself at the head of it, and marched towards the enemy. The battle, in all appearance, was likely to be bloody, and the victory seemed assured to those vagabond robbers, who were more in number, and better disciplined.

Father Xavier, so soon as he understood that the Badages were drawing near, falling prostrate on the ground, "O Lord," said he; "remember that thou art the God of mercies, and protector of the faithful: give not up to the fury of these wolves that flock, of which thou hast appointed me the pastor; that these new Christians, who are yet so feeble in the faith, may not repent their embracing it, and that the infidels may not have the advantage of oppressing those, who repose their confidence in none but thee."

His prayer being ended, he arose, and inspired with a more than human courage, which made him incapable of fear, he takes a troop of fervant Christians, and, with a crucifix in his hand, runs with them towards the plain, where the enemies were marching in battalia. When he arrived within distance of being heard, he stopped and said to them, in a threatening voice, "I forbid you, in the name of the living God, to pass farther, and on his part, command you to return the way you came."

These few words cast a terror into the minds of those soldiers who were at the head of the army; they remained confounded, and without motion. They, who marched after them, seeing the foremost advanced not, asked the reason of it; answer was returned from the first ranks, that they had before their eyes an unknown person habited in black, of a more than human stature, of a terrible aspect, and darting fire from his eyes. The most hardy were desirous to satisfy themselves concerning what was told them; they were seized with amazement at the sight, and all of them fled with a precipitate confusion.

The new Christians who had followed Xavier, ran to declare to the neighbouring villages this wonderful event. The fame of it was suddenly spread abroad, and the king, who was marching towards the enemy with great speed, heard the report of it on his way. He caused Xavier to be brought into his presence, and embraced him as the redeemer of Travancore; and after he had publicly thanked him for so eminent a service, he said thus to him: "I am called the Great Monarch; and, from henceforth, you shall be called the Great Father."

The saint gave the king to understand, that it was only Jesus Christ to whom he ought to pay his acknowledgments; and, as for himself, he ought only to be regarded as a weak instrument, who could do nothing of his own power. The Pagan king comprehended nothing of his meaning; and the two vices which are the common obstacles to the conversion of the great, that is to say, the concupiscence of the flesh, and pride of heart, hindered him afterwards from embracing of the faith; which notwithstanding, he caused an edict to be published throughout his kingdom, whereby all men were commanded to obey the Great Father, as they would his proper person; and that whoever desired to be a Christian, might be so without any apprehension of danger to ensue. He went so far as even to call Xavier his brother; and bestowed on him large sums of money, all which the servant of God employed in charities on the poor.

An edict so favourable to the law of our belief, made many Christians even in the court, though contrary to the example of the prince. But the miraculous actions of Xavier finished the conversion of the whole kingdom. Besides his curing all sorts of diseases, he raised four persons from the dead, two women and two men. The act of canonization relates no more of the resurrection of the women, but the bare matter of fact, without any circumstances; but the resurrection of the men is related at large, of which the substance is in the ensuing account.

Xavier preached in one of the maritime villages of Travancore, called Coulan, near Cape Comoriu. Some were converted by his first sermons; but the greater party remained in their ancient superstition, after having often heard him. The most obstinate, it is true, listened to him with delight, and found the maxims of the gospel to be most conformable to the light of reason: but the pleasure which they took in hearing, produced nothing; and they satisfied themselves with admiring the Christian law, without troubling themselves to follow it.

The father one day finding, that he spoke to them of God without working any thing upon their hearts, prayed fervently to the Almighty in their behalf; and, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, his countenance more than ordinarily inflamed, and with abundance of tears, besought him to take pity on those obstinate idolaters. "O Lord," said he, "all hearts are in thy hands; thou canst bend, as it pleases thee, the most stubborn, and soften the most obdurate; do that honour, on this day, to the blood and the name of thy beloved Son." Scarcely had he ended his prayer, when he was assured it was answered: turning himself to his audience, with the air of one inspired, "Well," said he, "since you will not believe me on my word, behold that which will make me be believed. What testimony do you desire from me, of those truths which I have declared to you?" At the same instant he recalled to his remembrance, that a man had been there buried the day before. Then resuming his discourse in the same tone that he began it, "Open," said he, "the sepulchre which you closed yesterday, and bring out the body; but observe carefully, whether he who was buried be truly dead."

The most incredulous ran hastily to take up the corpse; far from finding any the least sign of life, they perceived it began to putrify with a noisome scent. They took off the linen in which he was wrapped, and laid the dead man at the feet of the father, who was come to the place of burial. The barbarians gazed with astonishment on the dead body, and impatiently expected the event. The saint fell upon his knees, and, after a short prayer, addressing himself to the dead, "I command thee," said he, "in the holy name of the living God, to arise, for the confirmation of that religion which I preach." At these words, the dead arose of himself, and appeared not only living, but vigorous, and in perfect health. All who were present cried out, with a loud voice, "That the God of the Christians was omnipotent; and that the law which the great Father preached was true." In consequence of which, they threw themselves at his feet, desired baptism, and received it on the place.

The other dead person whom the apostle raised to life, was a young man, and a Christian, who died at Mutan, on the same coast, betwixt Carjapatan and Alicale. He had been dead above four-and-twenty hours, of a pestilential fever. Xavier met the corpse by chance, as they were carrying it to the grave. The parents of the dead man, who were of the greatest quality in all the country, accompanied the funeral pomp, with all their kindred, according to the custom of that nation. As comfortless as they were, yet upon sight of the saint, they recovered courage, and, embracing his knees, implored him to restore their son to life; being persuaded, that what was not to be effected by the power of nature, would cost him only a word speaking. Xavier, moved by their affliction, and excited by their faith, begged the assistance of the Most High, made the sign of the cross, and threw holy water on the dead, after which he took him by the hand, raised him up in the name of the Lord, and restored him living to his father and mother.

To preserve the memory of an action so wonderful and so authentic, the parents of the man they raised erected a great cross on the place where the miracle was done; and were accustomed afterwards to go often thither, and pray to God before it. These resurrections were so famous through all the country, and made so great impressions on the souls of the inhabitants, that the people came thronging from all parts to behold the great Father, and to receive baptism from his hands; insomuch, that the whole kingdom of Travancore was Subjected to Christ Jesus in few months; and the king, with some few of his chief courtiers, were the only remaining idolaters in the land, by a terrible judgment of Almighty God, who sometimes abandons princes to their unruly passions, and departs from the great, while he communicates himself to those of the lowest quality.




BOOK III


He writes into Europe for a supply of missioners. The saint's letter to the doctors of Sorbonne. Ambassadors from the isle of Manar to the saint. He sends a missioner to the isle of Manar. The constancy of the Christians of Manar. A miraculous cross, and its effects. The enterprise of Xavier against the persecutor. New motives for his journey to Cambaya. He persuades Michael Vaz to go to Portugal. His letter to the king of Portugal. The success of the voyage undertaken by Michael Vaz. He converts a debauched Portuguese. He engages the viceroy of the Indies to make war on the king of Jafanatapan. Divers predictions of the saint. He goes to join the Portuguese fleet, and raises one from the dead. He frees the island of Manar from the plague. The enterprise of Jafanatapan defeated. He designs the voyage of Macassar, and the conversion of many kingdoms. He goes to the sepulchre of St Thomas, to consult God concerning his voyage to Macassar. What happened to him in his passage to Meliapor. He comes to Meliapor; the monuments which he there finds of the apostle St Thomas. He is threatened by devils, and afterwards beaten by them. He learns the will of God concerning his design. The conversions which he makes at Meliapor. He brings a great sinner to repentance. Divers wonderful events which encrease his fame. He persuades a rich merchant to evangelical perfection. The new convert falls from grace, and becomes suspected to the Saint. His charity to a soldier, who had lost all his money at play. He arrives at Malacca; a digression concerning it. In what condition he found the town, and what he did in order to reform it. He labours with success at Malacca. He revives a dead maid. He receives letters from Europe by the new missioners who are sent him. He defers the voyage to Macassar, and designs another. He foreknows, and foretels the ruin of Malacca. He goes to Amboyna, and what happens to him in his voyage. He arrives at Amboyna: What he performs there. He converts the idolaters and Moors of Amboyna. A Spanish fleet arrives at Amboyna. He assists the Spanish fleet during the contagion amongst them. He passes into divers islands. He recovers his crucifix, which was fallen into the sea. He foretels the holy death of a new convert. He goes to the island of Ulate, and the miracle there wrought by him. He goes to the Moluccas. What happens to him in his way. He declares to the people the death of John Araus. He makes many converts at Ternate. Conversion of a queen at Ternate. He hears of the isles del Moro. Great endeavours are used to dissuade the saint from going to the isles del Moro. He complains of those who make opposition to his voyage to the isle Del Moro. He goes for the isle Del Moro, and writes to Rome. God reveals to him what is doing in a distant island. He arrives at Del Moro; the condition in which he found it. He gains the inhabitants of the isle Del Moro. He speaks to them of hell. He exhorts them to repentance. He says mass in the midst of an earthquake. He is admired by the barbarians. He is persecuted by a cruel and savage people. His sufferings in the isle Del Moro; and the consolations which he there received. He goes for Goa; and the reason that induced him. He returns to Ternate. His proceedings at Ternate. He endeavours the conversion of the king of Ternate. What hindered the king of Ternate's conversion. He labours with great fruit in the court of Ternate. He leaves to the islanders a Christian instruction written with his own hand. The counsel he gave the Ternatines at parting. He renews his labours at Amboyna. He is endued with the supernatural knowledge of some things. A cross, erected by Xavier, becomes famous. The constancy of the Christians in Amboyna.

The reputation of Xavier was not confined to the kingdom of Travancore; it was spread abroad through all the Indies; and the God of the Christians, at the same time, was had in so great veneration, that the most idolatrous nations sent to desire the saint, that he would come and give them baptism. His joy was infinite, to find the Gentiles, of their own free motion, searching after the way of eternal life; but, on the other side, he was afflicted that he was not sufficient alone to instruct so many vast countries as were gone astray from it.

Seeing the harvest so great, and the labourers so few, he wrote earnestly to Father Ignatius in Italy, and to Simon Rodriguez in Portugal, for a supply of missioners. He had such transports of zeal on that occasion, as to say, in one of his letters, "I have often thoughts to run over all the universities of Europe, and principally that of Paris, and to cry aloud to those who abound more in learning than, in charity, Ah, how many souls are lost to heaven through your default! It were to be wished, that those people would apply themselves as diligently to the salvation of souls, as they do to the study of sciences; to the end they might render to Almighty God a good account of their learning, and the talents which he has bestowed on them. Many, without doubt, moved with thoughts like these, would make a spiritual retreat, and give themselves the leisure of meditating on heavenly things, that they might listen to the voice of God. They would renounce their passions, and, trampling under foot all worldly vanities, would put themselves in condition of following the motions of the divine will. They would say, from the bottom of their hearts, behold me in readiness, O my Lord; send me wheresoever thou shalt please, even to the Indies, if thou commandest me.

"Good God, how much more happily would those learned men then live, than now they do! with how much more assurance of their salvation! and, in the hour of death, when they are ready to stand forth before the dreadful judgment-seat, how much greater reason would they have, to hope well of God's eternal mercy, because they might say, O Lord, thou hast given me five talents, and behold I have added other five.

"I take God to witness, that, not being able to return into Europe, I have almost resolved to write to the university of Paris, and namely to our masters, Cornet and Picard, that millions of idolaters might be easily converted, if there were more preachers, who would sincerely mind the interests of Jesus Christ, and not their own concernments."

It is pity that his letter to the doctors of Sorbonne is irrecoverably lost; for certain it is, he wrote to them from the midst of the Indies, to engage them to come, and preach the gospel. And for this we have the testimony of Don John Derada, one of the chief magistrates of the kingdom of Navarre, who, studying at Paris, saw the letter sent from Father Xavier, admired the apostolical charity with which it was replenished, and took a copy of it, as did also many divines, to whom it was directed.

Amongst those idolatrous nations, which breathed after baptism, and desired to be instructed, the Manarois were the first, who made a deputation to the saint.

The isle of Manar is situate towards the most northern point of Ceylon, and at the head of the sands of Remanancor. It has a very convenient port, and is a place of great traffic. But the soil is so sandy and so dry, that it produces nothing, unless in some few places, which also are cultivated with much care and labour. For Manar has no resemblance to Ceylon, though placed so near it: Ceylon being the most delicious and most fruitful part of all the East; where the trees are always green, and bear fruits and flowers in every season; where there are discovered mines of gold and silver, crystal, and precious stones; which is encompassed with forests of ebony, cinnamon, and cocoa; and where the inhabitants live to an extreme old age, without any of the incommodities which attend it, The wonder is, that, being distant from the equinoctial but six degrees, the air is temperate and pure, and the rains, which water it from heaven regularly once a month, joined with the springs and rivers which pass through it, refresh the ground in a greater measure than the scorching heats can parch it.

Father Xavier was employed in establishing Christianity in Travancore, when he received this embassy from Manar. As he could not forsake an infant church without a reasonable apprehension of its ruin, he sent to Manar one of the priests whom he had left on the coast of Fishery. And God so blessed the labours of that missioner, that the Manarois not only became Christians, but died generously for the faith; and this was the occasion of their martyrdom.

The isle of Manar was at that time under the dominion of the king of Jafanatapan; for by that name the northern part of Ceylon is called. This prince had usurped the crown from his elder brother, and enslaved his subjects. Above all things, he was an implacable enemy of the Christian faith; though in appearance he was a friend to the Portuguese, whose forces only could set bounds to his tyranny. When he understood that the Manarois were converted to Christianity, he entered into that fury of which tyrants only can be capable; for he commanded, that his troops should immediately pass over into the island, and put all to the sword, excepting only the idolaters. His orders were punctually executed; and men, women, and children, were all destroyed, who had embraced the Christian faith.

It was wonderful to behold, that the faithful being examined, one by one, concerning their religion, and no more required for the saving of their lives, than to forsake their new belief, there was not one amongst them, who did not openly declare himself a Christian. The fathers and mothers answered for the newly baptized infants, who were not able to give testimony of their faith; and offered them to the death, with a resolution, which was amazing to their executioners. Six or seven hundred of these islanders gave up their lives for the name of Jesus Christ; and the principal place which was consecrated by so noble blood, from Pasim, which it was called before, now took the name of the Field of Martyrs.

This dreadful massacre, far from abolishing the Christian law, served only to render it more flourishing. The tyrant had even the shame of seeing his officers and domestic servants forsake their ancient superstition in despite of him. But what most enraged him, was the conversion of his eldest son. This young prince, inspired of God, caused himself to be instructed by a Portuguese merchant, who had dealings at the court; which yet could not be so secretly performed, but that the king had notice of it. At the first news, he cut his throat, and threw the body into the fields, to serve for food to savage beasts.

But Heaven permitted not, that a death which was so precious in the sight of God, should be without honour in the sight of men, The Portuguese merchant buried his disciple by night; and on the next morning, there appeared a beautiful cross, printed on the ground, which covered the body of the martyr. The spectacle extremely surprised the infidels. They did what they were able, to deface, and (if I may so say) to blot out the cross, by treading over it, and casting earth upon it. It appeared again the day following, in the same figure, and they once more endeavoured to tread it out. But then it appeared in the air, all resplendent with light, and darting its beams on every side. The barbarians who beheld it, were affrighted; and, being touched in their hearts, declared themselves Christians. The king's sister, a princess naturally virtuous, having privately embraced the faith, instructed both her own son, and her nephew, who was brother to the martyr. But, while she directed them in the way of heaven, she took care to preserve them from the cruelty of the tyrant. To which purpose she addressed herself to the merchant above mentioned, and intrusting him with the lives of the two princes, ordered him to convey them to the seminary of Goa.

This Portuguese managed all things so discreetly, with the concurrence of the princess, that he escaped out of the island, with the two princes, undiscovered. He took his way by the kingdom of Travancore, that he might behold Father Xavier, and present to him these two illustrious new converts. The father received them as angels descended from above, and gave immortal thanks to God, for so noble a conquest. He fortified them in the faith, gave them excellent instructions, and promised so to mediate in their favour, with the viceroy of the Indies, that they should have no occasion of repenting themselves for having abandoned all things for the sake of Jesus Christ.

When the king of Jafanatapan had notice of the flight of his son and nephew, he broke out into new fury against the Christians, and put to death great numbers of them. Being apprehensive that his brother, from whom he had usurped the crown, and who now led a wandering life, might possibly change his religion also, and beg protection from the Portuguese, he sent officers round about, with orders to bring him into his hands, or, at the least, to bring back his head. But he failed of getting him in his power either alive or dead; for this unhappy prince, attended by ten horsemen, having passed to Negapatan, came by land to Goa, after having suffered extreme hardships, in a journey of more than two hundred leagues.

Father Xavier, who was informed of all these proceedings, thought it necessary to make advantage of these favourable opportunities without loss of time. He considered with what perfection Christians might live in a kingdom where they died so generously for the faith, with so imperfect a knowledge of it. On the other side, he judged, that if the injustice and cruelty of the tyrant remained unpunished, what an inducement it might be to other idolatrous kings, for them to persecute the new converts in their turn; that the only means for repairing the past, and obviating future mischiefs, was to dispossess the tyrant of the crown, which he so unjustly wore, and restore it to his brother, to whom it rightfully belonged; that, for these considerations, recourse ought to be had to the Portuguese to engage them, by a principle of religion, to take arms against the usurper of the kingdom, and the persecutor of the Christians.

In order to this, the father caused Mansilla to be recalled from the coast of Fishery; and having intrusted him with the care of christianity in Travancore, took his way by land to Cambaya, where the viceroy of the Indies then resided.

Besides these reasons, relating to the king of Jafanatapan, the saint had other motives which obliged him to take this journey. The greatest part of the Europeans, who were in the Indies, and chiefly the officers of the crown of Portugal, lived after so infamous a manner, that they made the Christian faith appear odious, and scandalised alike both the idolaters and the faithful.

The public worship of the pagods was tolerated at Goa, and the sect of the Brachmans daily increased in power; because those Pagan priests had bribed the Portuguese officers. The people professed heathenism freely, provided they made exact payments of their tribute, as if they had been conquered only for the sake of gain. Public offices were sold to Saracens, and the Christian natives stood excluded, for want of money, which does all things with corrupt ministers. The receivers of the king's revenues, who were to pay the Paravas of the coast of Fishery, constrained those poor fishers to deliver their pearls almost for nothing; and thus the exaction of a lawful tribute, in the constitution, became tyranny and oppression in the management. Men were sold like beasts, and Christians enslaved to Pagans at cheap pennyworths. To conclude, the king of Cochin, an idolater, but tributary to the crown of Portugal, was suffered to confiscate the goods of his subjects, who had received baptism.

Father Francis was wonderfully grieved to perceive, that the greatest hindrance to the growth of Christianity, in those vast dominions of Asia, proceeded only from the Christians. He bewailed it sometimes to God, in the bitterness of his heart; and one day said, "That he would willingly return to Portugal to complain of it to the king, not doubting, but so religious and just a prince would order some remedy for this encroaching evil, if he had notice how it spread."

Xavier had taken the way of Cochin, along by the sea coast. He arrived there the 16th of December, 1544, where he happened to meet with Michael Vaz, vicar-general of the Indies. In acquainting him with the reasons of his journey, he made him sensible, that the weakness of the government was the principal cause of the avarice and violence of the officers; that Don Alphonso de Sosa was indeed a religious gentleman, but wanted vigour; that it was not sufficient to will good actions, if, at the same time, he did not strongly oppose ill ones; in a word, that it was absolutely necessary for the king of Portugal to be informed of all the disorders in the Indies, by a person who was an eye-witness of them, and whose integrity was not liable to suspicion. Vaz immediately entered into the opinions of the father, and his zeal carried him to pass himself into Portugal, in a vessel which was just ready to set sail. Xavier praised God for those good intentions; and wrote a letter by him to King John the Third, the beginning of which I have here transcribed: —

"Your Majesty ought to be assured, and often to call into your mind, that God has made choice of you, amongst all the princes of the world, for the conquest of India, to the end he may make trial of your faith, and see what requital you will make to him for all his benefits. You ought also to consider, that, in conferring on you the empire of a new world, his intention was, not so much that you should fill your coffers with the riches of the East, as that you should have an opportunity of signalizing your zeal, by making known to idolaters, through the means of those who serve you, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind."

The saint, after this beginning, gave the king to understand the good intentions of Michael Vaz, and the ill conduct of the Portuguese, who were in the government of the Indies. He suggested to him the means of putting a stop to those disorders, and advised him, above all things, not only to recommend, by letters, the interest of religion, but rigorously to punish all those officers, who were wanting to their duty in that respect; "for there is danger," said he, "that when God shall summon your Majesty to judgment, that will then come to pass which you least expect, and which is not to be avoided; there is danger, great Prince, that you may then hear these words of an offended God. Why have you not punished those who, under your authority, have made war against me in the Indies, you who have punished them so severely, when they were negligent in gathering your revenues? Your cause will be little helped by your return of this answer to Jesus Christ; – Lord, I have not wanted yearly to recommend, by letters to my subjects, all that concerns thy honour and thy service. For, doubt not, it will be thus answered; – But your orders were never put in execution, and you left your ministers, at their own disposal, to do whatever they thought good.

"I therefore beg your Majesty, by that fervent zeal which you have for the glory of our Lord, and by the care which you have always testified of your eternal salvation, to send hither a vigilant and resolute minister, who will bend his actions to nothing more than to the conversion of souls; who may act independently to the officers of your treasury; and who will not suffer himself to be led and governed by the politics of worldly men, whose foresight is bounded with the profit of the state. May your Majesty be pleased a little to inspect your incomes from the Indies, and, after that, look over the expences which are made for the advancement of religion; that, having weighed all things equally on either side, you may make a judgment, if that which you bestow bears any proportion with that which you receive; and then, perhaps, you will find a just subject to apprehend, that, of those immense treasures, which the Divine Goodness has heaped upon you, you have given to God but an inconsiderable pittance.

"For what remains, let not your Majesty defer any longer the payment of so just a debt, to so bountiful a giver, nor the healing of so many public wounds. What remedy soever you can apply, what diligence soever you can make, all will be too little, and of the latest. The sincere and ardent charity of my heart, towards your Majesty, has constrained me to write to you in this manner, especially when my imagination represents to me, in a lively sort, the complaints which the poor Indians send up to heaven, that out of so vast a treasure, with which your estate is enriched by them, you employ so little for their spiritual necessities." The letter ended, in begging this favour of Almighty God, "that the king, in his lifetime, might have those considerations, and that conduct, which he would wish to have had when he was dying."

Michael Vaz negotiated so well with King John the Third, pursuant to the instructions of Father Xavier, that he obtained another governor of the Indies, and carried back such orders and provisions, signed by his Majesty's own hand, as were in a manner the same which the father had desired.

These orders contained, That no toleration should be granted for the superstition of the infidels in the isle of Goa, nor in that of Salseta; that they should break in pieces all the pagods which were there, and make search, in the houses of the Gentiles, for concealed idols, and whosoever used or made them should be punished according to the quality of his crime; that as many of the Brachmans as were found to oppose the publication of the gospel, should be banished; that out of a yearly rent of three thousand crowns, charged on a mosque at Bazain, a subsistence should be made for the poor, newly converted from idolatry; that hereafter no public employment should be given to Pagans; that no exaction should remain unpunished; that no slaves should henceforth be sold, either to Mahometans or Gentiles; that the pearl fishing should only be in the hands of Christians, and that nothing should be taken from them, without paying them the due value; that the king of Cochin should not be suffered to despoil or oppress the baptized Indians; and, last of all, that if Sosa had not already revenged the murder of the Christians in Manar, who were massacred by the king of Jafanatapan's command, Castro, who succeeded in his place, should not fail to see it done.

To return to Father Xavier; – he put to sea at Cochin, and sailed towards Cambaya. In the ship there was a Portuguese gentleman, much a libertine, and one of those declared atheists who make a boast of their impiety. This was motive enough for the holy man to make acquaintance with him. He kept him company, and was even so complaisant as to entertain him with pleasant conversation. The Portuguese was much delighted with his good humour, and took pleasure in hearing him discourse on many curious subjects. But if Xavier offered to let fall a word concerning the salvation of his soul, he laughed at it, and would hear no more. If the father mildly reproved him for his profane and scandalous way of living, he flew out into a fury against the holy practice of the church, and swore he would never more come to confession.

These ill inclinations did not at all discourage Xavier from his undertaking. He treated this hardened sinner after the manner that physicians use a patient raving in his sickness, with all manner of compassion and soft behaviour. In the meantime, they came to an anchor before the port of Cananor, and, going ashore together, they took a walk into a wood of palm-trees which was near their place of landing. After they had made a turn or two, the saint stripped himself to the waist, and taking a discipline, pointed at the ends with wire, struck so hard and so often on his naked body, that, in a very little time, his back and shoulders were all bloody. "It is for your sake," said he to the gentleman who accompanied him, "that I do what you see, and all this is nothing to what I would willingly suffer for you. But," added he, "you have cost Christ Jesus a much dearer price. Will neither his passion, his death, nor all his blood, suffice to soften the hardness of your heart?" After this, addressing himself to our blessed Saviour, "O Lord," said he, "be pleased to look on thy own adorable blood, and not on that of so vile a sinner as myself." The gentleman, amazed and confounded, both at once, at such an excess of charity, cast himself at the feet of Xavier, beseeching him to forbear, and promising to confess himself and totally to change his former life. In effect, before they departed out of the wood, he made a general confession to the father, with sincere contrition for his sins, and afterwards lived with the exemplary behaviour and practice of a good Christian.

Being returned to the port, they went again on shipboard, and continued their voyage to Cambaya. When they were arrived at that place, Xavier went to wait on the viceroy, and easily persuaded him to what he desired, in reference to Jafanatapan; for, besides that Sosa reposed an entire confidence in Father Xavier, and was himself zealous for the faith, the expedition, which was proposed to him, was the most glorious that the Portuguese could undertake, since the consequence of it was to punish a tyrant, to dispossess an usurper, and to restore a lawful king.

The viceroy, therefore, wrote letters, and dispatched couriers, to the captains of Comorin and of the Fishery, commanding them to assemble all the forces they could make at Negapatan, and make a sudden irruption into the tyrant's country, without giving him time to provide for his defence. He gave them also in charge to take the tyrant alive, if possibly they could, and put him into the hands of Father Francis, who desired his conversion, not his death, and hoped the blood of the martyrs of Manar might obtain the forgiveness of his crimes.

Xavier, encouraged by these hopes, returned towards Cochin, where he proposed to himself to follow his ministerial vocation, while the preparations of war were making. Coming back by Cananor, he lodged in the house of a Christian, who himself was religious, but his son debauched, and subject to all sorts of vices. The good man, sensibly afflicted at the ill conduct of his graceless son, wept day and night; and Xavier began at first to comfort him, saying, those vices were ordinary in youth, and riper age would reclaim him from them. Having done speaking, he stood mute awhile, and recollected himself; then, suddenly lifting up his eyes to heaven, "Know," said he, "that you are the most happy father in the world. This libertine son, who has given you so many disquiets, shall one day change his manners, he shall be a religious of the order of St Francis, and at last shall die a martyr." The event verified the prediction. The young man afterwards took the habit of St Francis, and went to preach the faith in the kingdom of Cande,[4 - Cande is a kingdom in the island of Ceylon.] where he received martyrdom from the barbarians.

Father Xavier, being come back to Cochin, was very kindly received by the secretary of state, Cosmo Annez, his intimate friend, who was there on some important business. Being one day together, and talking familiarly, Xavier asked Annez, if the year had been good for the Portugal merchants? Annez answered him, that it could not have been better: that not long since, seven vessels had been sent off, which were now in their passage to Europe, and richly laden. He added, that himself had sent the king of Portugal a rare diamond, which had cost six thousand ducats at Goa, and Avould be worth more than thirty thousand at Lisbon. Xavier had a farther curiosity to enquire, which of the ships had carried the diamond; and Annez told him, it was the ship called the Atoghia, and that he had entrusted the jewel to John Norogna, who was captain of the ship.

Xavier then entered into a profound meditation; and after he had kept silence for some time, all on the sudden thus replied; "I could have wished that a diamond of so great value had not been entrusted to that ship." "And for what reason?" answered Annez; "is it not because the Atoghia has once formerly sprung a leak? but, father, she is now so well refitted, that she may be taken for a new vessel." The saint explained himself no farther; and Annez, upon a second consideration, began to conjecture, both from the father's words, and afterwards from, his silence, that there was some danger in the matter, whereupon he desired him to recommend that ship to the protection of almighty God; "for in conclusion," said he, "the Atoghia cannot be lost without a very considerable damage to me. I have had no order," said he, "to buy that diamond; so that in case it should miscarry, the loss will be wholly mine."

Sitting one day together at the table, and Xavier observing Annez to be in great concernment, "give thanks to God," said he, "your diamond is safe, and at this very time in the hands of the queen of Portugal." Annez believed Xavier on his word; and understood afterwards, by letters from Norogna, that the ship opened in the midst of her voyage, and let in so much water, that being upon the point of sinking, the mariners had resolved to have forsaken her, and thrown themselves into the sea, but after having cut down the main mast, they changed their thoughts without any apparent reason; that the leak stopped of itself, and the ship pursuing her course, with only two sails, arrived safely in the port of Lisbon.

The man of God remained about three months in Cochin, and towards the end of May set sail for Negapatan, where the Portuguese fleet was now in a readiness. Passing by the Isle of De las Vaccas, which is near the flats of Ceylon, towards the north, he raised to life a Saracen's child, which is all that is known of that miracle. He was desirous in his passage to see the isle of Manar, where so many Christians had been massacred for the faith; and going ashore, he often kissed the ground, which had been sprinkled with the blood of martyrs at Pasim. While he rejoiced at the happy destiny of the dead, he had cause to be afflicted for the misfortune of the living: a contagious disease laid waste the island, and there died an hundred every day.

When the Manarois had notice, that the great father, so famous in the Indies, was at Pasim, they assembled together, above three thousand of them, for the most part Gentiles, and being come to the village, besought him humbly to deliver them from the pestilence.

Xavier asked three days, wherein to implore of God, for that which they had begged from him. During all which time, he only offered up to our Lord, and set before him the merits of those blessed martyrs, who had suffered for his name at Pasim. Before those days were ended, his prayers were heard, the plague ceased, and all the sick were restored to health at the same moment. So visible a miracle wrought on all of them to believe in Jesus Christ; and the apostle baptized them with his own hand. He could make no longer stay with them; for the naval army then expected him, and his presence was necessary to encourage the soldiers, and mind the captains of the performance of their duty.

He passed over from Manar to Negapatan; but there he found all things in a far different condition from what he hoped. The Portuguese navy diminished daily; and the commanders, who at the beginning had been so zealous for the Holy War, were now the first to condemn it. It was in vain for him to set before their eyes the honour of their nation, and that of God: interest did so blind their understanding, that they forgot they were either Portuguese or Christians: behold, in short, what overthrew so glorious an expedition.

While they were equipping the fleet, it happened that a Portuguese vessel, coming from the kingdom of Pegu, and laden with rich merchandise, was driven by tempest upon the coast of Jafanatapan. The king made seizure of it, and possessed himself of all within it, according to the custom of the barbarians. The captain and the ship's company foreseeing, that if, in this conjuncture, war should be made against the heathen prince, they should never be able to retrieve their wealth out of his hands, corrupted the officers of the fleet with large presents, to desist from their undertaking. Thus the tyrant, whom Father Xavier designed to drive out from his ill-gotten kingdom, was maintained in it, by the covetousness of Christians; or rather by the secret decrees of Providence, which sometimes permits the persecutors of the church to reign in peace, to the end a trial may be made of such as dare to continue constant in their faith.




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notes



1


Mary of Este, wife of James II.




2


The superstitious and, as it proved, fatal insinuation, that the birth of the Chevalier de St George was owing to the supernatural intercession of St Francis Xavier, was much insisted on by the Protestants as an argument against the reality of his birth. See the Introduction to "Britannia Rediviva," Vol. X. p. 285. In that piece, our author also alludes to this foolery:



Hail, son of prayers, by holy violence

Drawn down from heaven! —





3


The Reverend Richard Hackluyt, editor of the large collection of voyages to which Purchas' Pilgrim is a continuation.




4


Cande is a kingdom in the island of Ceylon.