embraced the faith, will leave it, but that the Portuguese also may forget the duties of Christianity, and live afterwards like Heathens."

As Father Simon Rodriguez, who governed the Society in Portugal, had great credit at the court, Father Xavier writ to him at the same time, desiring him, he would support his demands with his interest. He recommended to him in especial manner, "That he would make choice of those preachers, who were men of known virtue, and exemplary mortification." He subjoined, "If I thought the king would not take amiss the counsel of a faithful servant, who sincerely loves him, I should advise him to meditate one quarter of an hour every day, on that divine sentence, What does it profit a man to have gained the world, and to lose his soul?' I should counsel him, I say, to ask of God the understanding and taste of those words, and that he would finish all his prayers with the same words, What will it profit a man, to gain the world, and to lose his soul?' 'Tis time," said Xavier, "to draw him out of his mistake, and to give him notice, that the hour of his death is nearer than he thinks that fatal hour, when the King of kings, and Lord of lords, will summon him to judgment, saying to him these dreadful words, Give an account of your administration.' For which reason, do in such manner, my dear brother, that he may fulfil his whole duty; and that he may send over to the Indies all needful supplies, for the increase of faith."

Xavier also wrote from Cochin to the fathers of the society at Rome; and gave them an account, at large, of his voyages to Malacca, to Amboyna, to the Moluccas, and the Isle del Moro; with the success which God had given to his labours. But he forgot not the relation of his danger in the

Strait of Ceylon, and made it in a manner which was full of consolation to them.

"In the height of the tempest," said he in his letter, "I took for my intercessors with God, the living persons of our society, with all those who are well affected to it; and joined to these, all Christians, that I might be assisted with the merits of the spouse of Christ, the holy Catholic Church, whose prayers are heard in heaven, though her habitation be on earth: afterwards I addressed myself to the dead, and particularly to Piere le Fevre, to appease the wrath of God. I went through all the orders of the angels, and the saints, and invoked them all. But to the end that I might the more easily obtain the pardon of my innumerable sins, I desired for my protectress and patroness, the most holy Mother of God, and Queen of Heaven, who, without difficulty, obtains from her beloved Son whatsoever she requests. In conclusion, having reposed all my hope in the infinite merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being encompassed with this protection, I enjoyed a greater satisfaction, in the midst of this raging tempest, than when I was wholly delivered from the danger.

"In very truth, being, as I am, the worst of all men, I am ashamed to have shed so many tears of joy, through an excess of heavenly pleasure, when I was just upon the point of perishing: insomuch, that I humbly prayed our Lord, that he would not free me from the danger of my shipwreck, unless it were to reserve me for greater dangers, to his own glory and his service. For what remains, God has often shewn me, by an inward discovery, from how many perils and sufferings I have been delivered, by the prayers and sacrifices of those of the society, both such as labour here on earth, and such who enjoy the fruits of their labours in the heavens.

When I have once begun the mention of our society, I can never leave; but the departure of the vessels constrains me to break off: and behold what I have judged most proper for the conclusion of my letter. If I ever forget thee, O Society of Jesus, let my right hand be unprofitable to me, and may I even forget the use of it! Si oblitus unquam fuero tui, Societas Jesu, oblivioni detur dextera mea. pray our Lord Jesus Christ, that since, during the course of this miserable life, he has gathered us into his society, he would reunite us in a blessed eternity, in the company of saints, who behold him in his glory."

I

After he had written these letters, and given some time to the service of his neighbour, he took the way of Comorine, doubled the Cape a second time, and arrived at the coast of Fishery. The Paravas, who were his first children in Jesus Christ, were overjoyed at the sight of their saint, and good Father, as they called him. All the villages came to meet him, singing the Christian doctrine, and praising God for his return. The satisfaction of the saint was not less than theirs: but above all things his consolation was unspeakable to see the number of Christians so much augmented, by the labours of his brethren. There were in that place many of the society, of whom the chief were Antonio Criminal, Francis Henriquez, and Alphonso Cyprian; for Father Xavier having written from Amboyna for the greatest number of missioners whom they could spare, towards the cultivation of those new plants at the coast of Fishery, all those who came from Portugal, after his own arrival in the Indies, went thither, excepting the three who went to the Moluccas, and two who stayed at Goa, for the instruction of the youth.

The fervency of those new converts did not less edify Xavier than their number. In visiting a certain village, they shewed him a young man, a native of the country, who, having embarked in company of a Portuguese, had been cast, by tempest, on the coast of Malabar. The Saracens, who inhabit that place, having murdered the Portuguese, would have forced his companion to renounce his faith. Thereupon they brought him into a mosque, where they promised him great store of money and preferments, in ease he would forsake the law of Jesus Christ, and take up that of their prophet Mahomet. But seeing their promises could not preyail, they threatened him with death, and held their naked weapons over his head to fright him; but neither could they shake his resolution with that dreadful spectacle: then they loaded him with irons, and used him with extraordinary cruelty, till a Portuguese captain, informed of it, came suddenly upon them with a troop of soldiers, and rescued the young man out of their hands. Xavier embraced him many times, and blessed Almighty God, that his faith was imprinted so lively in the heart of a barbarian. He heard also, with great satisfaction, of the constancy of some slaves, who, having fled from the houses of their Portuguese masters, and living amongst Gentiles, far from being corrupted with the superstitions of the Infidels, complied exactly with the obligations of their baptism, and lived in a most religious manner. It was reported to him of these slaves, that when any of them died, they suffered not his body to be burnt, according to the custom of the Pagans, neither would they leave it without sepulture; but buried it according to the ceremonies of the church, and set up a cross over the grave. Though these infidels, whom they served, did not

hinder them from continuing in Christianity, and that every one of them in particular was resolved to persevere in his faith, even in the midst of idolatry, yet they had a longing desire to return into the company of the faithful, where they might be supplied with those spiritual succours which they wanted, and lead a life yet more conformable to their belief: so that as soon as they had the news of Father Xavier's return, who had baptized the greatest part of them, they came to desire him, that he would make their peace with their masters, whom they had left to free themselves from slavery, and declared, that they were content once more to lose their liberty in prospect of the salvation of their souls. Xavier received them with open arms,. as his well-beloved children, and afterwards obtained their pardon.

After he had visited all the villages, he made some stay at Manapar, which is not far distant from Cape Comorine. As the only end which he proposed to himself, was to plant the gospel in the Indies, and that in order to it he must there establish the society, he began to regulate all things according to the principles, and in the spirit of Father Ignatius, general of the order. Having reassembled all the labourers in the gospel of that coast, he examined their several talents and virtues, in familiar conversation with them, by causing them to give an account of what passed betwixt God and them in their own hearts. After he had assigned to each of them the places which were most convenient for them, both in regard of their bodily strength, and of their spiritual endowments, he constituted Father Antonio Criminal superior of all the rest and to the end they might be more capable of serving that people, he ordered every one of them, with all possible care, to apply himself to the