Francis Xavier landed at Cochin on the 13th of January 1548. It happened that the good old Bishop of Goa was on the spot, being engaged in a visitation of some of the widely separated towns in his immense diocese, and it must have been a wonderful consolation for both of them thus to meet unex­pectedly after so long an interval. It was perhaps in conse­quence of the presence of the Bishop at Cochin that Francis wrote, almost immediately on his arrival, to the King of Portu­gal the letter which will presently be inserted. His last letter to the King had been written just three years before, and it was full, as we have seen, of most earnest exhortations as to the absolute necessity of the most rigorous measures to insure the propagation of Christianity in India and the protection of the converts. It would seem from the tone of the present letter that there were grave reasons for fearing, either that the King’s will was not sufficiently determined, or that his mind was not sufficiently enlightened as to his duties in this respect. King John, indeed, may well be supposed not to have understood, and perhaps no one not on the spot could understand, the immense difficulties in the way of the progress of religion which were raised by the avarice and tyranny of the Portuguese, and the connivance and apathy of the governors. In fact, a glance at the annals of Portuguese India, which show us how one war­like enterprise after another occupied the attention and the energies of the viceroys and governors, is enough to make it at least intelligible that the minds of the highest officials of the Crown in India were too much turned in this direction to leave them time to watch minutely over the interests of the native converts or those who might become converts, who would thus be left to the tender mercies of subordinate commandants like Cosmo de Payva, who would prove themselves very service­able officers in time of danger, and would thus be regarded with much favour at headquarters.

King John had not been deaf to the entreaties and exhor­tations of Francis, nor to the representations of the good Vicar Miguel Yaz, who, as we have seen, had undertaken the long voyage to Portugal with the purpose of pleading in person the cause of religion at the court. Miguel Vaz probably crossed in his voyage to Europe the path of Don Joam de Castro, the Governor of India, sent out in 1545 to supply the place of Martin Alfonso de Sousa. A long letter is extant from the King to Don Joam, written in March 1546, which may safely be considered as embodying the effects of the joint pleadings of Francis Xavier and Miguel Vaz upon the sovereign and his council. Many of the recommendations made by Francis were attended to. ^c Governor, my friend/ the letter begins, ‘ the es­sential duty of Christian sovereigns, which is to watch over the interests of religion, and make their whole power serve to the maintenance of the faith, obliges me to communicate to you a profound grief which I have of late felt.’ The King then states some of the causes of this grief. He has been told that idols are still publicly worshipped in many parts of his dominions, even in Goa itself, and in those places where the true faith ought to be most flourishing. He commands that the idols be sought for and broken in pieces wherever they may be found,, and that most rigorous punishments be proclaimed against those who make or decorate them, who celebrate heathen games in their honour, or who protect and conceal the Brahmins, their ministers. Moreover, that the heathen may be attracted to con­version, not only by conviction of the truth and hope of eter­nal reward, but also by some temporal favours, the new Chris­tians are for the future to enjoy all the liberties and immunities before enjoyed by Pagans. The King had been told that the natives are pressed into the service of his fleet. The Chris­tians are henceforth to be freed from this obligation, except in

the case of urgent necessity, and then they are to receive a fair indemnity for their labour. The abuse by which the Portu­guese were in the habit of seizing and buying slaves very cheap, and then selling them at a large profit to Mussulman merchants and other heathens, is to be stopped by the Go­vernor’s diligence. An ancient law of the city of Goa allowed exorbitant usury; this is to be abrogated. A church, begun under the invocation of St. Joseph at Bazain, is to be finished and endowed. The preachers and missionaries to the heathen are to be supported by an annual grant of 3000 pardams, levied on the mosques in the Portuguese dominions. The new con­verts made by Miguel Vaz at Chaul are to have 300 large measures of rice every year, to be distributed by the Bishop. Some exactions practised on the Christians of St. Thomas by the Portuguese merchants at Cochin are to cease. The Rajah of Cochin is to leave off certain superstitious rites which he had been used to insist on in the sale of pepper, which were scandalous to the new Christians; and as to his persecution of the natives who have embraced the faith, the King of Portugal writes to him personally, but the Governor is also to insist on his abandonment of all such persecution. The people of So­cotra are to be succoured against the Turkish cruisers, and Miguel Vaz is to be consulted as to the measures which are to be taken. The natives on the Fishery Coast are to be pro­tected against those Portuguese officers who have been in the habit of imposing intolerable exactions upon them, which made them in fact fish for the pearls for their masters’ profit and not their own; and if the Governor thinks that the coast can be sufficiently protected and the revenue received without the presence of any Portuguese vessels, these are to be recalled, and forbidden to frequent the coast in future, that the natives may be left to themselves in peace. Francis Xavier is espe­cially to be consulted on these points, and also as to the policy of leaving the new converts altogether without any labour im­posed on them as a matter of obligation to the Crown. As new converts from Paganism are frequently illtreated, and even despoiled of their goods by the heathen, Miguel Vaz is to be

consulted as to the measures to be taken to grant them sup­port and aid from the royal treasury, which assistance is to be distributed to them by the hands of their pastors. The fugitive prince from Ceylon is to be kindly received and supported at the royal expense, and his rights to the succession of the crown are to be carefully examined. But the Governor is not to wait for this to exact satisfaction from the Rajah of Jafana- patam for his detestable cruelty to his newly converted sub­jects, ‘ that all the sovereigns of India may know,’ says the King, ‘ how dear justice is to us, and how much we have it at heart to protect all the oppressed.’' Heathen artisans are not to be allowed to make images or pictures of Jesus Christ and the Saints. Churches are to be finished at Cochin, Coulan, and Calapour, and to be built at Naram and Coram, without regard to expense. Schools and places of meeting are to be built, whither heathens as well as Christians may come to hear ser­mons and be present at sacred functions. All idols are to be destroyed throughout Salsette and Bardez, and the minds of the heathen are to be prepared for this step. The letter, which is dated March 8, 1546, from Almeirim, concludes with some general recommendations as to the exemplary life of the missionaries, and the protection which is to be afforded to their neophytes.¹

So much is necessarily left in this letter to the discretion of the Governor, that it may be doubted whether it would have been quite satisfactory to Miguel Vaz, who probably accom­panied it on its journey to India, if he was not actually its official bearer. Joam de Castro was a fine specimen of the class of gallant Portuguese soldiers, who distinguished them­selves in India and elsewhere in those, the heroic, days of the history of that now degenerate kingdom ; but his government of the Indies was characterized rather by warlike exploits than by any great deeds for the advancement of the faith. He was thought to be guided more by secular policy than by considera­tions of the interests of religion. Francis Xavier must have learnt from the Bishop, when he met him at Cochin, that, as to the affairs of Ceylon and the Fishery Coast in particular, those who looked more singly to the cause of Christianity were not at all satisfied with the proceedings of the Governor. But there was a piece of bad news which the Bishop would give Francis, which must have afflicted him still more deeply. Miguel Vaz had lately died, as it was said, with suspicion of poison, at Chaul, the very place mentioned in the King’s letter to the Governor as the scene of his apostolical labours.² It appears that evil reports had been spread about, by which this good Bishop, whose right hand he had so long been, was blamed as having had some share in his death ! We shall see that Francis Xavier thought enough of the mischief which such reports might occasion to contradict them formally and of his own knowledge to the King, whose ears they were sure to reach, all the more as it was evident that this zealous Bishop was not regarded with a friendly eye by some of the Portuguese officials, to whose tyranny and exactions he probably opposed 'himself. But the death of Miguel Vaz must have been a very severe blow, and the feeling of its severity may in part account for the very strong and urgent language in which Francis now writes to the King, just a week after his arrival in India, in order, no doubt, that it might reach Goa in time to be sent to Portugal by the ships which sailed that year. This letter, how­ever, was the fruit of his own experience and reflections, as well as the report of the Bishop, and its language and recommenda­tions must be considered as referring not only to India pro­perly so called, but also to the settlements under the Portu­guese Crown in the farther East, where Francis may probably have met with that jealousy and punctiliousness among officials, of which he complains as a serious hindrance to the advance of religion.

The letter, which was probably begun at Malacca, is as follows :

To John III. King of Portugal.

Sire,

I believe and trust that your Highness will receive minute and distinct information as to what concerns religion and the worship and service of our Lord God in these parts of Malacca and the Moluccas, from the letters which I send to the Society in Europe. I have also sent with them answers to the letters which we have here received from you, Sire, whom we hold and acknowledge as the chief and the true protector of the whole of the Society of Jesus, and one who, by his love and benefits towards us, most amply fulfils the duties implied in such a title. As to the state of religion and the Christian people in India, the pious and religious men who are going from these parts to you, with the purpose of advancing the service of God, will most fully inform your Highness concerning them. Moreover, Father Joam de Villa Conde, a faithful minister of God, who has had much experience of what is going on in the island of Ceylon, is writing to your Highness concerning them certain things which it is of importance that he should tell you, and that you should know, for the relief both of your Highness’s conscience and of his own. These matters he discusses at full length, clearly and with the utmost truthfulness, partly in his letter addressed to your Highness, partly in documents and remarks which he sends with that letter. He has communicated all to me. Your Highness would therefore do a thing worthy of that wisdom which you show in other matters, if you make a right use of information so trustworthy, and give as soon as possible any commands that it may seem necessary to issue in order to discharge your duty in this regard. Lastly, I believe also that my own brethren of the Society, as well as others, write regularly to your Highness, and give you particulars and minute information of the Christian communities at Cape Co­morin, at Goa, and of the others in these countries of India which are in daily course of foundation and increase.

And now for what concerns myself in particular. I have thought long and much, I have long deliberated in my own mind whether I should or should not write a letter to your Highness to set forth what, as I look round on all that goes on here, and give all my most attentive consideration, it seems to me ought to be done in order to spread our holy faith widely in these parts and establish the same firmly. I felt impelled on the one hand to make the attempt by my desire to serve God and promote His glory, and on the other hand I was de­terred from being so bold by my want of hope that the effort would be worth the trouble, feeling no confidence that what I should propose would ever be carried into effect. And yet I seemed to myself not to have the power of keeping silence with­out neglecting my duty, since it was very evident that it was not without some counsel of God that I should have the grace of forming these conclusions so decidedly in my mind. Nor could I imagine any more probable reason why God should •have been fain to let me see these things, except in order that I might communicate them to your Highness. And yet again I felt the fear lest, if I were to lay before you what gives me so much anxiety, this letter of mine might perchance accuse your Highness before God, and make more severe for you the terror and risk of that last judgment of His, by taking away from your Highness the excuse of ignorance.

I pray your Highness to believe how much pain all this has caused me. My own inmost conscience bore me witness that I looked or desired for nothing here but to wear myself out with work, and sacrifice my life itself in bringing about the sal­vation of souls in these regions of India, so to lessen as far as is in my power the weight of that duty which is incumbent on your Highness, and, by discharging a part of that obligation which has been committed to your charge, make the account of your Highness’s conscience more easy, and give you greater security in that terrible hazard of the final judgment of God. And indeed your Highness’s great love for our Society well deserves that I should wish to do this for your sake, and that I should think it well purchased at the cost of any exertion or trouble of my own. And to confess the truth, Sire, my mind has been won­ derfully and very painfully torn and confused by these two heads of anxiety on such contrary grounds; fearing at one time lest I should fail in my own duty, fearing at another that I should increase your danger, I was drawn now to one and now to the other alternative. But at last I have come to make my decision in favour of one, and that one which bade me once for all do my duty and relieve my conscience by pouring out to your Highness the thoughts which I have so long kept back.

These, then, are the things which I have discovered from experience, long experience on the spot, in these regions of India, Malacca and the Moluccas, and which wound my soul and kill me with heart sickness. Let your Highness take for certain what I say, that in these parts, as elsewhere also, it is the general rule for many things to be omitted which it would be expedient for the service of God should be done, on account of certain rivalries which, though they are masked under an ap­pearance of what deserves respect, are in truth vicious and hurt­ful. On account of these, the men who have the management of affairs out here are set against one another by secret and small causes of offence. One man says, ‘ This is my business, and I will not allow another to have the credit of it.’ Another,, on the other hand, says, ‘ I don’t do this, and so I do not like you to do it.’ Then comes another with a different complaint, ‘ I bear the burthen of the day and do the work, while the favour and the fruits of it go to others.’ They get earnest and hot in their bickerings, and then each one works and writes for his own side, so as to gain his own advancement. Meanwhile time is wasted, occasions slip away, and the opportunity for promoting the honour of our Lord God is lost. And from just the same cause it often happens that occasions are neglected which would have brought much honour and great advantage to your Highness’ interests in India.

I have been able to think of only one remedy for the evil,, and if this remedy were applied, then, unless I am mistaken, many in these parts would become Christian, and those Chris­tians who are now exposed to injustice because they have no favour with men in power, would become so dear and such objects of care to the magistrates, that no one, whether Portuguese or Indian, would dare to molest or plunder them. This remedy is, that your Highness signify, either by letters to the Governor and Commandants in India, or by word of mouth to those whom you send out hither to be at the head of affairs—signify to them,. I say, clearly, and give them certainly to understand that, as to the increase of our holy faith, which is the thing which you desire above everything, you give that in charge to the Gover­nor or the local commandant, rather than to the religious per­sons or to the priests who are in India; that you confide in the Governor or the Commandant before every one else; that from him you will exact an account of this matter; that to him you will impute the whole that is done in it, good or bad, and will repay it to him in reward or in punishment.

And that this declaration of your Highness might be the less liable to be explained away, I for my part should wish that in it you should particularly name every one of us who are working in these parts, and declare that it is not on any one of us, nor on all of us together, that you lay any part of the burthen and obligation which weighs upon your conscience, but upon him alone who by your authority has the power of Governor or Com­mandant in any place where there is any occasion of advancing, the Christian religion; for that since God has bound your High­ness by the strictest possible obligation of providing for the eternal salvation of the nations who are subject to you, that duty ought not to be delegated by your Highness to any but those who are the vicars of your own authority in these parts, and those who represent in the dignity of the magistracy the person of your Highness; and that if you shall find that by the negli­gence of any one of these persons it has come about that no great number have embraced the Christian faith under his go­vernment in the place confided to him, you will visit on his- head the chastisement which may otherwise hang over your own on account of the neglect of so great an obligation, having beforehand given full and clear notice, that you have passed on the burthen of the whole of that most important duty, of taking care that the souls of the unbelievers who are subject to you be imbued with the Christian faith, to the shoulders of those who are your principal officers and ministers in these parts.

Therefore, Sire, whenever a Governor or Commandant writes to your Highness, let him state how the Christian religion goes on ; how many, who, what sort of persons, have become be­lievers from among the heathen; what hope or what means there may be of bringing others to the fold. Let him know that you will trust nothing but his own letters as to what is re­ported on these heads, and will not be content with any ac­counts from any other person whatever on these subjects. And if, in the province or place which any one has governed, our holy Church shall have been increased during the time of his com­mand by but a small number of neophytes, while at the same time it is certain that great increase may be made at all times and everywhere, if only the Commandant desire it, then let your Highness seriously, and on your royal honour, declare in the diploma in which you institute such persons and confer au­thority upon them, that you will exact punishment from them for such neglect.

And I should very much wish your Highness to confirm this by oath, and openly pledge yourself, calling in solemn form upon the Holy Name of God, that any officer of yours through whose means it may have come to pass that the faith has not been propagated, shall, when he returns to Portugal, be fined of all his possessions, all his money and property be spent on works of mercy, and he himself be detained for many years in chains and severe imprisonment. And that they may be under no misunderstanding about it, nor flatter them­selves that your threats will not be executed, I would have your Highness give them the clearest possible warning, both that most certainly and assuredly you will accept no excuses what­ever that may be alleged on this matter, and that no way re­mains to them of avoiding severe punishment and of finding favour with your Highness, except that of making as many Christians as possible in the places and during the time of their command.

Why all this is necessary, Sire, I could prove by many arguments from experience, very well indeed known to me. But I am unable to dwell on these, that I may not be troublesome to your Highness, nor have to relate my own griefs, past and present, without any hope of making it worth the labour of •doing so. I will only say this, that if the Governor or the Com­mandant, whoever he may be, were firmly convinced in his own mind that your Highness had said such things as I have been suggesting in perfect truth, and that your Highness would cer­tainly act as you had declared and sworn that you would; then in a single year the whole island of Ceylon, many kings of the Malabar coast, and the whole of the peninsula of Comorin, length and breadth, would embrace the Christian religion. But as long as the Governor and Commandants of your places in India •are not pressed by that fear of losing their rank and property unless they have made many Christians, do not let your High­ness hope for any great success in the preaching of the Gospel in the Indies. And be quite sure that in that case there will neither be many who come to baptism, nor will those who have •come advance much in religion; in short, that there is nothing that prevents every living soul in India from acknowledging our Lord as God, and of professing His holy doctrine, except the fact, that the Governors and Commandants who have neg­lected to take care of the matter have not been severely pun­ished by your Highness.

And I say again that, as I hardly hope that it will ever be so, I am almost inclined to repent having written what I have, especially when I think that perhaps your Highness will receive a more inexorable judgment at the tribunal of God on account of the very fact that I have given you this warning. I know not whether at such a time the objection that your Highness may perhaps allege, that you are not bound to believe what I write, will be admitted; and I assure your Highness in the most perfect sincerity and entire truthfulness, that I would by no means have written what I have concerning the Governors or Commandants of these parts, if I had been able in any way to persuade myself that I could keep these things unsaid without .sin.

I have not yet, Sire, fully made up my mind wh go to Japan \ but a great motive for my inclining tc going to that country is added by this fact, that I ai without hope that here in India I shall find that tr cient support from the officials which is necessary increase our holy faith and to preserve the Christi made.

I entreat and conjure your Highness, by the lo\ bear to our Lord God and the burning desire you what is pleasing to Him, to grant to your faithful si in India, and to me with them, this much of your royal favour, as to send hither next year a great mai of our Society; for I assure you, Sire, as a matter < est truth, that your royal garrisons in India are ii need of preachers, both on account of the Portugues in the garrisons and of the newly-converted Christian in the towns and villages dependent on them. I experience; and what I have seen and found m; me write this. When I was at Malacca and in the used to preach twice every Sunday or other holic obliged to do it, because I saw that both the soldi people there were in need of being frequently fed wi of God. So I used to give instruction from the p morning mass to the Portuguese; in the afternoo instruct their boys and girls, their slaves, and the fr natives, in discourses that each would understand, go the explanation of the heads of Christian doctrine • Then on a certain day in the week I used to pre chetical sermon on the Articles of the Creed and the of Confession and Communion to a congregation c the wives of the Portuguese, native, and half-bred. If of instruction were kept up vigorously everywhere and there would in a few years be a very great and profi from it to the service of God. At the same time, forts themselves, I used to preach the Christian do> to the children of both sexes of the Portuguese, a: their men and maid servants, and to the native and this instruction produced as its fruit at once, that the idola­trous superstitions and magic incantations which used to be frequently practised among those ignorant converts were alto­gether abandoned.

I state all this minutely to your Highness, that your own wisdom may judge how great need we have of abundance of preachers in these parts, and what will follow naturally, that you may not forget to provide such an abundance as we want. For it is certain that if the great penury of such means of grace which is now felt is allowed to go on for the future, not only will those who have lately been converted to our holy faith not reverence it, but, as a general rule, not even the Portuguese themselves will be Christians farther than in name. I am very much afraid,'Sire, that these desires of mine will not have their effect such as I wish them to have, and such as need requires; and knowing, as I do, the unhappy lot of India, I can hardly bring myself to any certain confidence that she will obtain the great good which I desire for her. It seems as if it were her natural lot, or rather, I should say, her congenital malady, not to be able to bear that any exactness in religion, or any excellence in the discharge of the duties of perfect virtue, should become a matter of common practice and flourish among the generality of her inhabitants.

On the 13th of January of the present year I arrived at Cochin from Malacca. There I found the Bishop, to see and converse with whom did me very great good, as I observed with what great charity he bears very severe bodily exertions, visiting one by one the garrison towns that he has in his diocese, and going also to see and labour among the Christians of St. Thomas. He certainly discharges his duties to the full as be­comes that true and good pastor of souls which he shows him­self to be by doing all this. For all these laudable works of his he gets exactly that reward from certain men in these parts which is the common recompense which the world is in the habit of meting out to the Saints. I was very much pleased, and indeed filled with a certain reverence, at seeing that holy man’s patience under the trials to which he was exposed. I

know well that a rumour is spread abroad in India against him by the children of the world—who, I believe, will even write to your Highness the evil suspicions which they entertain of him— which most unfoundedly asperses him on account of the death of Miguel Vaz. Now in this matter, Sire, I feel that I ought to bear this most true and sincere testimony in his favour; and I do so, that I may discharge a very serious duty. I affirm that I know for certain (though the way and manner in which I came to this knowledge cannot be told or written) I have it, I say, as a matter of entirely ascertained fact, that he can with no more justice be blamed for that matter than I myself, who was, at the time when it happened, in the Moluccas, and at an immense distance from this country. ⁴

I pray and beseech your Highness, by all the love you have for God, and all the desire you have to please Him, and to keep your own conscience pure from all contagion of stain, do nothing and order nothing in the matter which may give trouble to the good man I speak of; for if your Highness were to appear to give credit to this most calumnious falsehood, his detractors in India would gain authority and increase in confid­ence from your so doing.

Your Highness has appointed Pedro Gonsalvez, the Vicar General of Cochin, one of the dignitaries of your chapel royal, and has made his nephew one of the pages of honour in your palatial court. I count this as a favour done to myself; for the great obligations under which he has laid our Society force me to do this; so I assure your Highness that I and all of ours are particularly bound to you on this account. And this will less surprise your Highness, when I tell you that the house of the Bishop’s Vicar at Cochin is the house of abode of the So­ciety of Jesus. His goodness to us does not confine itself within the limits of any common hospitality or usual offices of friendship, but he goes so far in his liberality, that when he has spent upon our service whatever he has at hand, he borrows from others that he may spend on us still more. I beg your Highness, in the name of our whole Society, to order that the necessary letters may be sent from Portugal both to him and

to his nephew, in order that their regular pensions may be paid them faithfully. Both uncle and nephew are well worthy of this favour; the Bishop’s Vicar, because he watches for the eternal salvation of the faithful who are your Highness’s subjects; and his nephew, because he is here serving as a soldier under your Highness’s flag for his country and the commonwealth.

And now to end, I make this prayer: May our Lord God grant to your Highness to understand most thoroughly and in­timately, and to put in execution also at once, all that at the moment of your death you would rejoice to have done.

Your Highness’s useless servant,

Cochin, Jan. 20, 1548. FRANCIS.

We have two other letters of this same date, written to St, Ignatius and Simon Rodriguez respectively. The first shows the growing anxiety which Francis Xavier now felt about the government of the religious under his charge. Before his first departure for Malacca he had hardly begun to bear to any large extent the burthen of a religious Superior. Now, how­ever, his subjects were multiplying on his hands; they were in most cases as yet unknown to him, their spheres of labour were widely scattered, and he himself could not linger long at any one place without abandoning the great schemes of farther apostolical conquests, which were now taking possession of his mind. Simon Rodriguez seems, perhaps of necessity, to have sent out labourers from Portugal, many of whom had not been long in the Society, and who were as yet hardly formed in the perfect spirit of the Institute. We shall now see with what exquisite charity and wisdom Francis devoted himself to this new work, which his position at the head of the Society in the East imposed upon him. His first impulse, we shall see, was to implore Ignatius to send out some one who might be a spiritual guide to himself as well as to his brethren. In other respects the contents of the two following letters require but little commentary.

To the Reverend Father Ignatius of Loyola.

May the grace and charity of our Lord God Jesus Christ always favour and help us ! Amen.

God knows, my dearest Father, how greatly I long to see you in this life as well as in the next, that I may talk over with you a number of things which require help and remedy from you. No distance of place is an obstacle to obedience. I see that there are now many of our Society in these parts, and I see also that we are in great need of some good physician for our souls; and so, my best of Fathers, I pray and entreat you by our Lord Jesus, to look after us, your children here in India, as well as others, and send us some one of very great virtue and holiness, whose vigour and zeal may stir lip my torpor and sluggishness. 'I am in great hopes, as you understand thor­oughly, by God’s assistance, the state and inclinations of our minds, that you will take diligent measures in order that the languor in virtue, which has crept over all of us here, may be strongly stirred up, and that we may be roused to the study of perfection.

* This country wants from our Society nothing more urgently than preachers. Among those whom Master Simon has sent us there is not one, as far as I can hear, who is a preacher. Now the Portuguese out here in India, so strong is their friendship and goodwill towards us, desire in a wonderful de­gree to have some good preachers of our Society; so I conjure you, by God and His holy worship, to remember this just and pious request of theirs, and send hither some Fathers well fitted for that work, who may show the right path of salvation to those who have gone astray. Moreover, those of the Society whom you are going to send out for the work of carrying the •Gospel as missionaries among the heathen population must be men of such approved goodness as to be able to go either with companions or without them wherever the interests of religion may call them, as, for instance, to the Moluccas, to China, to Japan. The mere description of China and Japan and of their inhabitants, which I enclose with this letter, will let you easily see what sort of men such work requires.

You would hardly believe how eagerly we are looking for the Indulgences from the Holy Father, the privilege for the high altar of the Church of our College, and the faculties for priests to administer the holy chrism instead of the Bishop ; about all which I wrote to you in former years. As for the Lent, experience has taught me that there is no great need for any change to be made in that. The Portuguese inhabit places in India so very widely apart, that if the common good of all is to be considered, no change need be made. The winter season is by no means at the same time throughout all the Portuguese cities or towns; so that, considering what is good for all alike, it seems to me best that there should be no new law on the subject, although I see there are a good many who differ from me as to this. '

I have not yet made up my mind whether, after a year and a half from this, I shall go myself to Japan, with one or two others of the Society, or whether I shall send two of ours there first. I have quite decided either to go or to send others, and as things are now, I incline to the plan of going myself. I pray God to give me a clear intimation of His will as to what is most pleasing to Him. I thought it best to choose one of the three of our Society who are gone to the Moluccas to be Supe­rior of the rest, so I made choice of Joam Beira for the others to obey, as if he were yourself. They were very glad of it. I think of making the same arrangement as to the Comorin Pro­montory, and the other places where more than one of ours are placed. I beg that you by your own prayers and the prayers of those with whom you have influence may obtain the help of Heaven for us who are working in these barbarous regions; and that you may do this more earnestly, I pray the Eternal God to show you, by a light from Himself, how much need I am in of your help and guiding hand.

Cochin, Jan. 20, 1548.

To Master Simon Rodriguez.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ always favour and help us ! Amen.

I charge you, my dearest brother, for the love which you bear to Jesus Christ, to send us hither some preachers of the Society; men of that sort are most urgently wanted in India. Of all those whom you have hitherto sent I have seen none except Joam Beira, Father Ribero, and Niccolo Nunez the lay­man, who are in the Moluccas, and Adam Francis, who is here at Cochin. I have asked about the others, and people tell me that there is no one among them able to preach well. Another thing which I entreat you in the name of God is to be careful in choosing those whom you think of sending out hither to work for the conversion of the heathen. It is necessary that you choose men of proved goodness and tried virtue, men who for the space of some years have gained many and signal victories over themselves. They must also not be men of weak health, but strong; for the hard work in India requires not only the virtue of the soul but also the strength of the body. The King would gain great favour with God if he were to send to India as many preachers of our Society as possible, so ignorant and uninstructed is the whole race of the Indians. I write this to you on the strength of the experience I have now gained of all these parts.

However, if this affair of the propagation of the Christian religion among the heathen kingdoms seems to have its great difficulties, be careful not on that account to be frightened from carrying on the work which has been begun. In sooth, the first and greatest difficulty is in ourselves; so I consider that we should first take care of our own people, and then attend to the heathen. Now I beg you, do all you possibly can, for God’s sake, that next year we may have some good preachers. I don’t give you now any account of affairs in India, for it is only a week since I arrived from Malacca, and I have as yet not got much information about them. What I have found out is of a kind to

make me sorry to know it. Our brethren, I believe, write at length to you about all their matters. Those of our Society whom you send out for the conversion of the heathen ought to be men who can be sent with safety either with companions or alone, wherever need may be, either to the Moluccas or to China, or to Japan, or to the kingdom of Pegu, or anywhere else. Among the people in any one of these places, even men who are not of great learning, provided they are endowed with remarkable virtue, will be able to do very good service for ■God.

If there is one thing which, for his very numerous and very great deserts at the hands of our Society, I should like to have the King of Portugal warned about, since it is his business be­yond all to provide for the salvation first of his own people and those of the heathen who are in his dominions, I would desire that the King, both for the sake of the service of God and also to discharge a religious obligation of his own soul, should place in all the towns of India which are occupied by his garrisons good preachers, either of our Society or of the Franciscans or the Dominicans, who should be free and disengaged from other cares, to preach on the Gospel in the forenoon ofthe Sundays and festivals to the Portuguese, and in the afternoon should explain the Articles of the Faith to their servants and slave-girls as well as to the native converts, and should also once a week preach to the wives and children of the Portuguese on the Articles of the Creed and the Sacraments of Confession and Communion; for I have learnt by experience how great necessity there is out here for this kind of instruction.

If I thought that the King would not be averse to my most faithful and loving counsels, I would give him a most salutary bit of advice—for a quarter of an hour every day to meditate on that divine saying, ‘ What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?’ and to ask God to give him a thorough understanding of it, together with a strong interior feeling of its truth, and also to make that same sentence, ‘ What shall it profit a roan if he gain the whole world,’ and the rest, a kind of conclusion to all the prayers that he says. It is time

now to tear away from the King the mistake under which he lies; for the hour is nearer than he thinks, when the King of kings and Ruler of rulers is to call him to Himself to give an account, with that terrible call—‘ Give an account of thy stew­ardship !’ And so do you take care’to bring about that he really sends out to India what is necessary for the propagation of the faith in that country.

From the experience which I have had, I can see only one way and one means for propagating religion in India—that the King should severely and by an edict declare to all the Gover­nors of India that he trusts no one in India so much as those who with all their might strive to advance the limits of Chris­tianity; that he orders and commands them to take in hand diligently to bring the island of Ceylon to the faith of Christ, and to increase the number of converts in the promontory of Comorin, and for this purpose to seek the succour of religious men everywhere, and to employ the priests of our Society and any others whom it may seem good to use for the increase of the worship of God. If the Governors should happen to show themselves negligent and inactive in this matter, let him strike terror into them, and declare by an oath (he will gain great favour with God by swearing this, and much more by fulfilling what he has sworn), that unless they free his soul from the religious obli­gation under which he lies, by propagating the Christian religion in India as much as possible, he will punish their want of zeal as soon as they return to Lisbon by the confiscation of their goods for public purposes and by long imprisonment. If the King issue such a decree to the Governors, and at the same time treat with severity those who do not attend to .it, it is certain that a very large number will, by the help of God, become Christians ; but that otherwise no great progress will be made.

You have now what I think on the matter. As to other things I will say nothing. I only say that if what I ask to be done be done, our wretched converts will be defended against in­justice and plunder, and the other natives will without difficulty be brought into the fold of Christ. In the propagation of the faith of Christ among them, the work is really a mere mockery if the King’s or Governor’s authority is wanting to support us. Believe my word for it, for I have had more than enough ex­perience in the matter. Why it is so I know well, but I need not say. I want to see two things in India; first, the Gover­nors bound by the law I speak of, and second, good preachers in all the garrison towns of the Portuguese. Both these things would wonderfully advance the interests of religion at Goa and everywhere else in India.

May our Lord Jesus protect and keep us continually! Amen.

Cochin, Jan. 20.

As soon as Francis had finished these necessary letters, we can well understand with what affectionate interest and joy he would occupy himself in visiting his beloved Paravas on the Fishery Coast. It was now rather more than three years since he had left them. In the mean time they had suffered much, both from their inveterate enemies the Badages and from the tyranny and extortions of the Portuguese; but they had maintained their faith firmly, and shown much Christian fortitude and per­severance. Lucena³ describes the joy with which Francis was received by his spiritual children ; how, as he went round the villages which his watchful care had supplied with churches and priests, the people came forth to meet him in procession, singing the Christian doctrine as he had taught them, paving his pathway with their garments, or raising him on their shoulders and carrying him in triumph into the sanctuary. The faith of these neophytes had shone out in ways which remind us of the history of the primitive Church : some had cast out devils with the sign of the Cross, or cured the sick; others had endured tor­tures rather than deny our Lord; others had confuted Brahmins in dispute, or converted their fellow labourers or companions in slavery. They had a great number of churches of their own, and were watched over by four Fathers of the Society, with three active priests and three lay brothers. Mancias was gone; but his place was more than supplied by Antonio Criminale,. an Italian of the diocese of Parma, a man of consummate vir­tue ; Alonzo or Alfonso Cipriano, an old Castilian priest; and two others of the name of Enriquez, Francesco and Enrico, whether brothers or not we are not told. These two had been students in the University of Coimbra. Francesco had been won to the Society some three years before the time of which we are writing, after a sojourn of Pierre Lefevre in the college in that city, during which a great impulse had been given to study as well as to piety. Three very distinguished men had been admitted to the Society by Pierre Lefevre him­self, Louis Gonsalvez, Antonio Gomez, and Emmanuel Sa -_r while as many as twenty others, among whom was Francesco Enriquez, already a priest, had made up their minds to the same step, though various circumstances had prevented their immediate admission. Enrico Enriquez seems to have been younger than his namesake. He was rich, as it is recorded of him that when he became a religious he distributed a very large sum of money to the poor.⁵

After a rapid tour through the several missions, Francis col­lected his small band of workers at Munahpaud, where they spent a fortnight together in a sort of retreat. They were all somewhat young in the Society, and Criminale alone among them-had been more than a few months at the work among

⁵ Antonio Criminale had reached India in 1545, in the fleet which brought Don Joam de Castro as Governor of the Indies in place of Martin; Alfonso de Sousa. There were also two other priests, Joam Beira, already- mentioned, and Niccolo Lancilotti, an Italian. Beira had gone first to Cape Comorin, and then, summoned by Francis, to Malacca and the Moluccas. Lancilotti remained at Goa. The next year no priests seem to have been sent; but in 1547 five fathers had arrived—the two Enriquez and Cipriano named above, Francesco Perez, Manuel de Moraez, and Nunez Ribero. Perez remained at Goa, and Nunez Ribero was sent on at once with Beira to Malacca, where he met Francis Xavier on his return from the Moluccas, as related in the last chapter of the preceding book. His companion Nic­colo Nunez was not yet a priest. The catalogue of the college of Coimbra mentions four others as lay brothers, who sailed with the fathers who arrived in 1547. As many as ten of the Society were sent in the year 1548, which we have now reached, four of whom were priests. We shall have to speak of several of them hereafter.

the Paravas, a work which, as we have seen, required much sagacity, prudence, and temper, as well as great zeal and indus­try. Francis took great pains to help and support them as much as possible. It may be supposed that Mancias had been left with some kind of authority over those who had joined or were to join him, and his defection left the Fathers of the Fishery Coast without any kind of immediate superior. A letter of Enrico Enriquez, written late in the year 1548 to St. Ignatius, states that they had elected Antonio Criminale, and that this choice had been confirmed by Francis. We do not know whether it had been made before his arrival from the East, or whether it was now made at his instigation.⁶ After the re­treat was over, Francis left them a long paper of instructions, which is generally included among his letters, and which, on that account, we insert here.

(lix.) To the Fathers of the Society of "Jesus working among the Christians of the Comorin Coast.

The thing which I wish to commend to you above every­thing else is that you should employ special diligence and watchfulness as to the baptism of little children, so as not to leave any lately born child not regenerated in the saving laver of Christ in any of the villages or farm settlements in which you are either at present labouring or shall hereafter have any charge. I consider that to be the chief and most salutary of all the forms of ministry in which you can be employed in these parts, and therefore I would have you never commit it to an­other, or trust for it to any one but yourselves. Make search and inquiry for yourselves, and baptize with your own hands all those whom you find in want of that most necessary Sacra­ment. I know that the royal officers who have authority over the natives have received orders, and also that the heads of families have been strictly charged to give information, and to fetch those who are to administer Baptism as soon as they see their families increased by a new birth. But it is not well to rest upon this as a ground of security. The officials will have other things to do, and the fathers will forget. Meanwhile, the little ones will die without baptism. So you must go yourselves, make strict search and inquiry, asking from door to door whe­ther, since you have been there, any woman has given birth to a child, and whether for any cause at all there is to be found there a soul which has not yet had the holy water poured upon it. You Avill very seldom make these inquiries without fruit. The people Avill bring you their babies, you must make them Christians at once and secure the salvation of their souls, which unless you use all this diligence will be in great danger of losing eternal happiness.

Trust my experience; all, of any moment, that we can do among this nation, all that is worth our labour, comes in the end to these two kinds of service, baptizing infants, and teach­ing the children who have any capacity for learning. So I would enjoin upon you to look after this second with as much diligence as the first, or even greater. I mean, that you take all most efficient care that the instruction of children goes on without intermission. I mean, that you are to take care that this is done by others, for it is quite clear that you cannot do it yourselves. You ought not to have a fixed and permanent home in any one single village, but to be always free and ready to pass to all spots, one after another, and Avatch over the in­crease of the Church in these parts by visiting and making a circuit over the whole country, which very much needs such vigilance. Thus you cannot find time for the attention neces­sary to the holding of schools everywhere, day after day. So you must appoint in each village or station fitting teachers and canacapoli, as we have already arranged, and these must as­semble the children every day at a certain time and place, and teach and drive into them the elements of reading and of re­ligion, and the prayers which all must know by heart. And that this may be done with greater exactness, you must never omit, whenever in your circuits you visit any particular village, to have all the children assembled, and to make them give an

account, in the presence of their teachers, of what they have learnt, so as to put to the proof their diligence as well as that of their teachers, taking careful notice how much of the sacred prayers each one can recite without fault, and how far each one has got in learning and understanding the catechism. And you must give out that you will soon come back again to measure how far they shall have advanced beyond what they have now attained to, in proportion to the interval of time which will have elapsed, and that you will judge from that who has been work­ing hard and who has been idle. The expectation of your visit will sharpen the industry both of the teachers and of the scholars.

You must see that on Sundays all the men are assembled in the church to recite the prayers, and make particular inquiry whether the Patangatins frequent these assemblies. In the places where you happen to be on such days, you will yourselves pre­side at these meetings, and after they have all recited the usual prayers from memory, you will shortly and clearly explain what they have been saying. Then you will speak against the vices which are dominant in the place, showing by clear instances and images, such as the ignorant can understand, how foul and mischievous they are, and then heaping up threats of the anger and vengeance of God, to terrify those who delay to amend their lives, and these threats should be not only of that distant and future anger of God which will rage against them after this life, but of His anger now hanging over them, and all but fall­ing on them in diseases, plagues, early deaths, persecution from the heathen rajahs, who will despoil them, make slaves of them, put them to terrible kinds of torture; of the evils, in short, here and now, through which hardened sinners will have to pass -on their way to the eternal punishment of hell. Make inquiry also in every place, whether there are any feuds or hatreds ex­isting between people living there, and take great pains not only that the people are reconciled and lay aside all rancour •from their hearts, but that they also make public profession of this, in order to do away with the public offence given. So the men between whom there has been notorious discord must in

the assembly of the men (which, as I said, is to be held every Sunday), and the women likewise in the meeting of the women,, which is to be held on Saturdays, must be made by you to call all the others there present to witness that they are sorry for the wrongs they have done and ask pardon for them; that they wish for the future to forget any that they have received, and that they have firmly made up their minds to show all the offices of Christian and brotherly charity to those whom before they held as enemies and objects of hate.

As soon as the translation into Malabar of the explanation of the Articles of the Faith, which I have charged Father Fran­cis Coelho to provide, shall be finished, you must take diligent care that many copies of it, according to the number of the vil­lages or hamlets, be written out and dispersed everywhere, and that it be read everywhere by some one who has a good voice and can be understood by all, to the people collected in their regular meetings, the men on Sundays, and the women on Satur­days. And wherever any one of you may happen to be on Sun­days, let him add an instruction of his own to what has been read, explaining more clearly and distinctly any parts that may seem to have been less thoroughly understood by those whose minds are not very quick. Moreover, you must see that the alms and offerings due from people who have to pay what they have vowed after escaping from some danger of disease or misfortune, which are usually collected in these assemblies, of the men or of the women, be all distributed to the poor, and you must not allow even the very smallest particle of them to be spent on your own use.

Take care that it is clearly given out, every Sunday in the- meeting of the men, and every Saturday in the meeting of the women, that as soon as ever any one of any condition soever is taken ill in any of their houses, they are at once to let you know, that you may be able to bring early help and administer all the holy rites which are necessary for providing duly for the soul at such a time. And give out, that if any one fails in this duty, and so any relation of his or any inmate of his house dies- without the assistance of the sacraments, then without fail you

will not permit him when he dies to be buried in the cemetery of the church with the sacred service. When you visit the sick, you will order that the holy Creed be recited by them if they are able, if not, by some one of those present, in their language; and ask the sick man at each article whether he most assuredly and most constantly believes what is being said ? Then make him say the form of general confession, and the prayers which it is usual for all to know by heart, and after this, read the holy gospel over them.

When any one has died, you must go in procession from the church to the place where the corpse lies, with the Cross borne before you and the children with it, singing, as they go and re­turn, the prayers which they have learnt in the school of Chris­tian doctrine; when the dead body has been brought into the church, you will say the prescribed prayers, and again, according to custom, before the body is committed to the earth, and you must always make something in the way of a short sermon, ap­propriate to the occasion, to the crowd that is assembled for the funeral, admonishing them about the certainty of death, the uncertainty of life, how these thoughts ought to make them live a life of amendment, and not put off doing penance for sins, in which if they are caught by death, they will not be able to avoid eternal damnation; and how, on the other hand, if they persevere in the grace of God, they may justly hope, when they die, to pass into the joys of Paradise. You must charge them—the men on the Sundays, and the women on the Satur­days—to bring any sick children there may be to you into the church, that you may recite the gospel over them. That will have the effect of arousing and strengthening the faith both of fathers and mothers, and making them all love the Church and her sacred rites; and besides, it will be of great advantage to the life and health of the little creatures themselves.

Now as to lawsuits and disputes of right, which may spring up between the Christians. The first thing you must do is to work as gently and forcibly as you may, that both parties should talk their differences over together, and make the matter up in some fair and good manner between themselves. If there are

any who cannot be induced to do this, and if the matter be not of great importance, then on Sundays, after the prayers have ‘been said, you will put the affair into the hands of the Patan- .gatius, who are the wardens of the church of the place, that they may hear both sides, and settle the cause. You must never, except as little as possible and on very rare occasions, allow yourself to be engaged in taking cognizance of such matters, •for they would give you less leisure, and take away from the authority which is necessary for the discharge of the spiritual functions which are proper to our vocation. So, however much the contending parties may urge it upon you, offering to be bound by your arbitration, and asking you to hear them, excuse your­selves on the ground of more important duties, and prudently decline the expense of time which the hearing would cause you, as well as the odiousness of giving a judgment. Send the greater disputes to the Portuguese Commandant of that part of the country; or if the people concerned are very much more desirous to have a priest as arbiter, refer them in that case to Father Antonio Criminale.

Labour with all your might to gain for yourselves the love of the people. You will be far better able to help them if they •love you than if they fear you. Never order a punishment for any one, or inflict one, before you have consulted on the whole matter with Father Antonio Criminale, and never, even with .his consent, order any one to be apprehended or fined accord­ing to his deserts in anyplace where there is a Portuguese Com­mandant, without having informed him of the affair, arid brought him to your own opinion by laying your reasons before him. When a man or woman has been convicted of carving idols, the fit punishment to be legally inflicted on such should be ban­ishment from the place where the fault has been committed, and detention in another; but you must never send any one away on such an account without the assent of Father Cri­minale. When boys who are constant in attendance on cate­chetical schools deserve punishment, avoid giving it as much as may be without impairing discipline, for it is better to seem not to know, as you do, that they have done wrong as children

of that age will, than by any severity, however just, to rouse in their tender minds a feeling of dislike to you. When they have- taken an aversion to those who are to help and guide them as to their salvation, they will rush headlong into all excesses. You will generally get such children to be good far more easily by showing them a great deal of love than by any severity or violence.

Take diligent care never to speak hardly of the native Chris­tians in the presence of the Portuguese; rather always defend them and take up their cause when they are accused, making excuses for them and commending them as much as you are able. You should ask the Portuguese to consider favourably what a bad education these poor creatures who are lately con­verted from idolatry to Christianity have had from their child­hood upwards; how little time they have had free, during the short period since they embraced the faith—what with the many instances of the absence of priests, what with the invasions and alarms of invasions of the Badages—to give themselves seri­ously to the receiving the necessary instructions how to behave as Christians. Say that, if they take all these things wisely into account, not only ought they to be very indulgent in forgiving the defects of these uninstructed barbarians, but they may well wonder that they are not somewhat worse than they appear to be from the faults into which they fall, which are generally not of the most grievous kind.

You will be very kind to the Malabar priests, and provide for their good with all consideration, especially in matters be­longing to religion, taking care that they accustom themselves to go regularly to confession, that they offer the holy sacrifice with all propriety and very often, and that they set a right ex­ample of holy living to the people. And when you have had to complain of them, or to reprehend them if they have been guilty in any way, especially take great care that no vestige of this which can be shown to others remain, especially in any letters which you may write to any one.

You must endeavour to gain the friendship of the Portu­guese Commandant, showing him all observance and courtesy,

and avoid any unfriendliness with him on any account whatso­ever. Take the same pains in endeavouring to keep the good favour of all the Portuguese who are settled in these parts, showing no aversion to any one, and letting no one hate you, but rather endeavouring by all kindness, prudence, and true •charity to be men of peace, even with those who hate peace. And if any of them are disposed of themselves to draw back from you, still keep a hold of them by offices of kindness and good will, so that even against their will they may come to feel and allow themselves to be loved by you, and so be afraid to let any difference they may have with you break out into an open rupture. At the same time, this does not mean that you are right to connive at the unjust oppression with which they may sometimes persecute the Christians. When you see any­thing of the kind, then by all means rebuke them, but do it gently and with every sign of love. If you make no way in this manner, then carry your complaint to the Commandant, and •defend the right of the innocent victims of oppression with modesty, and as far as may be without losing your friendship with those against whom you plead. For the Commandant, I once more admonish you, on account of the importance of the matter, keep him at peace and well disposed with you at what­soever cost, and let nothing be too much for you to be willing to sacrifice for the sake of avoiding the giving him offence and of retaining his goodwill.

Let your conversation with the Portuguese be always about sacred things, such as relate to the salvation of souls and to advancement in virtue. Speak to them in private as well as in public about Death, Judgment, the punishments of Hell and •of Purgatory, urging them to frequent the sacraments of Pen­ance and Communion, and to keep the Ten Commandments of God’s law and all other things of that kind; for if in your •dealings with them you never turn aside to other topics of con­versation, one of two things will happen: either when they come to you they will enter on talk of the same sort—and this will do them very great good—or if they get tired of so much sad and serious conversation, they will leave off coming to see

you, and leave you free for many good hours of time which are much needed for the urgent occupations of the manifold duties which you have to discharge.

Remember, when occasions offer themselves, to write to the fathers and brothers of our Society at Goa, telling them what may give them consolation and animate them to good deeds, concerning the fruits of your ministry and the issue of your en­deavours for the glory of God. You must write also to the same effect to his lordship the Bishop, with all submission and rever­ence as to the prelate to whose authority and jurisdiction all these parts are subject. You must not go into any country or province, however much you may be urged by the rajahs and princes thereof, without the assent of Father Antonio Criminale and the Portuguese Commandant of the coast. If any of the rajahs invite you with extreme urgency, you must plead to them the obedience which you profess, making that your excuse, and urging that it renders it unlawful for you, without the command of your superiors, to leave the station at which you are placed. I once more admonish you, renewing my recommendation over and over again, to endeavour, wherever and with whomsoever you have to work, to make yourselves pleasing and amiable to men of all sorts, obliging all, and doing service to all and each, and never addressing any one except gently and modestly. This practical kindness, seasoned by courtesy of language, will win for you the love of all and open their hearts to you, and so afford you a great facility in gathering very glorious fruit of souls. May God grant you that blessing, and may He ever be with you all! Amen.

Yours wholly,

February 1548. FRANCIS.

When the circumstances of the case are considered, there is little to surprise us in the strong statement which occurs near the beginning of this letter, that the only kinds of ministry which were likely to be profitable in that country were the baptizing of infants and the instruction of children. It was not that Francis despaired of the adult population, which had just wel­comed him so joyously and gratefully, and many members of

which had during his absence given very remarkable proofs of the soundness and stability of their faith. But in any commu­nity, even in countries which have for centuries been Christian, the hope and security of the future lies in the young. A large portion of the human race dies in infancy; and thus the bap­tism* of infants, so many of whom are never to grow to man’s , estate, is and has always been in effect one of the chief means by which the Church has peopled heaven through the merits of our crucified Lord, and its importance for the future glory of God is marked by the peculiar malignity with which the powers of evil in the world have always exerted themselves in so many various ways to hinder and prevent it. Again, the adults in the population were exposed to so many difficulties, both as to procuring instruction in the faith and as to the practice of the Christian law—partly from old habit and asso­ciations, partly from the influence of the luxurious and sensual paganism all around them, and, not least, from the scandal given to them by those who bore the name of Christian, as well as from the persecution, whether from heathens or Europeans, to which they were themselves exposed—that their want of a Christian training from their early years must have made their hold on the faith very precarious. In Christian countries the adult population is seldom sound unless it has been well and religiously educated ; and here again we can trace the instinc­tive malice of the powers of evil in their resolute and unceasing efforts either to get hold of education for their own emissaries or to snatch it out of the hands of the Church. On the other hand, if the children were thoroughly grounded in the know­ledge of Christian doctrine and the use of Christian sacraments, not even all the disadvantages of the position of the native Christians in India would be able to turn them from the observ­ance of the law of God. When Francis Xavier wrote, he had , but little prospect of seeing the field on which he had bestowed so much labour cultivated by a numerous and intelligent body of priests; and so long as the evangelical workers remained few in numbers, able only occasionally to visit place after place among the settlements without fixing themselves anywhere, the full development of the Christian life in all its manifold and beautiful variety and profusion, could not be expected.

One other passage in the foregoing letter deserves a word of comment, as we might otherwise fail to understand the care­ful provision made by Francis Xavier for the progress of the mission^ The explanation of the Articles of the Faith, which he mentions as about to be translated into the Malabar tongue, was probably that long commentary on the Creed which has been printed in the preceding volume.⁷ If the text of the let­ter above is correct, we gather from it that this translation was committed to Father Francis Coelho, one of the native priests who were still labouring with those of the Society in the mis­sion. At the same time we are told that Francis gave a special commission to Father Francesco Enriquez to make a perfect grammar and vocabulary of the Malabar tongue, and thus at once to elevate, fix, and preserve it, and make it more useful as a means of communication among the tribes of different dialects, the tendency of which is to continual change and decay, and so to the isolation of one petty community from another. Father Enriquez obeyed, and within six months he had completely mastered the language, cast it into form, and arranged its voca­bulary , and his facility in writing and speaking it had become a marvel to the natives themselves.

From Munahpaud Francis appears to have passed into Cey­lon, where the interests of religion seem to have been in a cri­tical state, the particular circumstances of which it is difficult to understand without more clear statements than have come down to us. The Cingalese princes mentioned in a former chapter seem to have been baptized at Goa, and installed in their kingdoms by the present governor, Don Joam de Castro; and either in consequence of their conversion or from other causes the Franciscans had sent a small band of missionaries into the island. Several places on the coast were occupied by these missionaries.⁸ In the interior the King of Candy, who

is supposed by Lucena⁹ to have succeeded to the Christian prince, was well disposed to the faith, and only kept back from embracing it by the fear of a revolt among his subjects. He was thinking of putting himself under the protection of the Por­tuguese when Francis arrived,¹⁰ and was received by him with extraordinary honours. The issue of his visit was that an em­bassy was prepared, which was to offer to the Governor of the Indies the alliance of the King of Candy, who demanded a strong garrison of Portuguese soldiers to secure him on his throne, and who was ready to become a Christian and pay tri­bute to the King of Portugal. Other accounts state that the Rajah of Jafanapatam himself was touched by the remon­strances of Francis, and promised to become Christian if the Portuguese would accept his alliance. It appears certain that it was in company with an embassy fr&m one or other of these rajahs that Francis left the south of India about the end of February or the beginning of March, in order to seek the Go­vernor of the Indies at Goa. He arrived at that city on March 20th, but found Joam de Castro absent.

Francis and Don Joam de Castro.

The Governor of the Indies, Don Joam de Castro, has already been more than once mentioned as a gallant and even heroic officer, and one whose brief period of authority had been sig­nalized by great exploits and brilliant victories. The Portu­guese historian of the Indies pauses before he passes on from his account of Don Joam’s government to give us some cha­racteristic notes concerning him. He was now in the prime of life, in his forty-eighth year. He was the son of a high officer of the Crown, and his mother was the daughter of one of the chief nobles of Portugal. When quite young, Joam had served in Tangier; and on returning home had received from the King an encomienda of five hundred crowns a year, which was his prin­cipal fortune for the rest of his life. Later on, he served under Charles V. in the expedition against Tunis, at which time he refused his share of some money distributed by the emperor to the Portuguese officers, saying that he served the King of Por­tugal, and looked to him for his reward. Another time he was in command of a Portuguese squadron sent to co-operate with some Spanish force for the relief of Ceuta. On the approach of the Moorish fleet, the Spaniards were for retiring, with the ob­ject, real or alleged, of concerting their measures; but Don Joam de Castro refused to stir, and the Moors, thinking the allied fleets were still united, withdrew themselves, leaving him the honour of having driven them off. Don Joam sailed to India in 1528 as captain of a ship in the fleet of Don Garcia de Norona, who was going out as Viceroy. The King, who seems to have known his gallantry, offered Joam a grant of the captainship of Ormuz and a pension of a thousand ducats a year till he came into possession of the post. But he declined

the position, saying he had not yet deserved such promotion_r accepting at the same time the pension on account of his great , poverty, and begging the King to remember him for the cap­taincy when he should have earned it. Norona died in two years, and was succeeded by Estevan de Gama, the son of Vasco, and the immediate predecessor of Martin Alfonso de Sousa, as Governor of India. One ofEstevan’s expeditions took him up the Red Sea to Suez, on which occasion he went up to the famous monastery of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai, and knighted several of his followers, one of whom was Don Alvaro, son of Joam de Castro, who was also of the party. Joam seems to have returned to Portugal after the end of Estevan’s govern­ment; and there the Infante Don Luis recommended him to King John as governor of India after Martin Alfonso. He was a man of letters as well as of arms, a classical scholar, and a good mathematician. When on the Red Sea, he got divers to go to the bottom for the sake of finding out what it is that gives its colour to the water, as Faria y Sousa tells us. He adds that Don Joam wrote .a paper to prove that the water was red on account of the coral at the bottom, which opinion he himself combats, on the ground that coral is green until it comes up to the air, which hardens it and renders it red.¹ The same writer speaks highly of Don Joam’s modesty as a governor, his con­descension, and his integrity. Before sailing for India, he chanced to see a very fine suit of clothes in a tailor’s shop, and was told that it had been ordered by one of his own sons, who was to sail with him. He took the tailor’s scissors, and cut the suit into small pieces, telling the man to bid the youth who had ordered it provide himself with arms, and arms, and more arms.

If this anecdote was characteristic of the man, his govern­ment of India was quite in keeping with his character. He was always at war, and frequently exposing himself, even to rashness. We have already mentioned his great exploit of the relief ofDiu and the defeat of the besiegers in November 1546. He had received the news of the severe wound of his son Don Alvaro—who had been knighted on Mount Sinai, and was per-

haps the young man who had ordered the fine suit of clothes in Lisbon—with heroic composure, going in procession to give thanks to God that Diu was still in the possession of the Por­tuguese. After his victory at Diu, he dispatched a messenger with the news to Goa, desiring, says Faria y Sousa, ‘the city to lend him twenty thousand pardams for the use of the army, send­ing a lock of his whiskers in pawn for the money.’ The city returned the pawn with respect, and sent him more money than he demanded, and the women their pendants, necklaces, brace­lets, and other jewels. All was restored as it was sent, for the immediate need of the Governor had been already supplied by the capture of a rich ship of Cambaia, taken by Antonio Moniz Barreto on the coast of Mangalore. Brave and simple as he was, Don Joam was not free from the love of display, which may have been somewhat of a national failing. His arrival at Goa after the victory of Diu was splendidly celebrated. He was received with loud acclamations, and a splendid triumph prepared by the city, in imitation of those of Rome. ‘ The city gates and streets were hung with silk, the windows thronged with fine women; all places resounded with music and noise of cannon, and the sea was covered with vessels richly adorned. The Governor entered under a rich canopy, where, taking off his cap, they put on his head a crown of laurel, and a branch of it in his hand. Before him went the priest with the crucifix, as he carried it in the fight, and next to him the royal standard. Then Juzarcan (the Mussulman commander), his eyes fixed on the ground, perhaps that he might not see his prince’s colours dragged and ours flying, and between them six hundred prisoners in chains. The remainder of the procession was made up of various pieces of artillery, and other sorts of arms placed in •cars, forming most beautiful trophies. The Governor walked over leaves of gold and silver and rich silks, which their makers -or owners had spread out before him. • The ladies, each one for that day taking the part of Aurora, bedewed him from their 'balconies with fragrant waters and scattered flowers on him. The description detains us long,’ concludes the grim and curt annalist whom we are quoting; and he sums up and concludes the whole by a saying of ‘our manlike queen, Dona Cata­lina, who, when the victory and triumph were related to her, said: In short, Don Joam conquered like a Christian, and triumphed like a heathen.’²

When Francis Xavier arrived at Goa, with the envoy of the- King of Candy, of whom mention has already been made, Don Joam de Castro was at Bazain, some way to the north along the coast, engaged in military preparations and enterprises. The- north-western coasts of India had been the scene of his opera­tions in the year which had followed the relief of Diu, and he was soon to be engaged in organizing an expedition of which Aden was the object. It would appear that there was some reason to fear that the Governor was not disposed to take active measures for the simple furtherance of religion, or at least that influential members of the Council were likely to oppose such measures. The letter of the King of Portugal to the Go­vernor, written after the complaints made by Miguel Vaz and Francis Xavier, though not strong enough to force an actively christianizing policy upon the Indian officials, was strong enough to rouse their enmity against the advocates of such a policy. There had already been occasions on which voices had been raised in the Council, saying that it did not much matter whether the Indian princes in alliance with the crown of Portu­gal became Christian or remained heathen. The Rajah of' Tanore had sought baptism, and the Council, as we ga'ther from Lucena, had refused to take his part in the quarrels with neighbouring princes which ensued.³ The Governor himself’ had his hands full enough of warlike undertakings, and he was supposed not to favour the college of Santa Fe. It was neces­sary therefore for Francis Xavief to try the effect of a personal interview with Don Joam in the matter of the Rajah or King of Candy, whose cause he had espoused. Francis accordingly made a rapid excursion to Bazain, and was able at once to bring the Governor over to his own wishes. Antonio Moniz Barreto, already mentioned, one of the most dashing officers among the Portuguese, was sent with two hundred men to garrison Candy and protect the Rajah. The issue of the enterprize, however, was unfortunate, on account of the treachery and inconstancy of the Cingalese prince. He was persuaded by another rajah that the Portuguese would seize his kingdom as soon as he declared himself a Christian, and he determined, in consequence, to massacre his new allies as soon as they arrived. Barreto had already landed, and was on his march inland, when he was in­formed of this treacherous design. It was dangerous to recede directly, so he made his men burn all their superfluous baggage, and then fought his way on bravely for three days, against a force of eight thousand men, till he arrived at a friendly terri­tory without any loss.

Francis Xavier returned almost immediately to Goa, reach­ing that city early in April. His short visit to Bazain was not without its victory of apostolical zeal. His biographers tell us that he fell in there with a Portuguese noble, Rodrigo Secheira by name, whom, when in Malacca, he had found in the hos­pital, hiding himself in order to escape the hands of justice on account of a great crime which he had committed. It was probably a homicide, as Francis made his peace for him with his enemies, and also reconciled him to God by a general con­fession of his sins. But he exacted of him a promise to return to Europe. Secheira went as far as Goa on his way, and was there offered a lucrative post under the government at Bazain. He yielded to the temptation, and was soon immersed in his former vices. When Francis met him in a public place at Ba­zain, he had not been to confession for two years. Secheira came up to Francis with a smile on his face and an open hand, thinking to brave the matter off. Francis could be stern when he thought fit, and drew back as in horror. ^£ What, my son,’ he cried, ‘ are you still in India ? Is this the way you have kept your promise to God and to me ?’ And when Secheira began to excuse himself, he told him that whatever might be said about his not having returned to Europe, his having kej5t away from confession was inexcusable, and he could not have him for his friend as long as he was at enmity with God. Se-

cheira was at once overcome, made his confession, and began a new mode of life under the direction of Francis.⁴

Joam de Castro was so charmed with Francis Xavier, that he exacted of him what was in some respects a considerable sacrifice, a promise to remain some months at Goa to assist him in regulating the affairs of his soul. It appears that the Go­vernor returned to Goa about the same time with Francis. He seems already to have felt the approach of death, which was very soon to carry him off. He had already suffered from fever, and was also harassed by the misconduct or imprudence of some of his officers and soldiers. Aden, then as now a place of very great importance for any maritime power in the East, had been taken from the Turks by the petty Prince of Caxem, who, in fear of the common enemy, had put himself under the protec­tion of the King of Portugal. There was a hope of a triumph more substantial even than that of Diu, but Aden was lost to the Portuguese by the timidity of Don Payo de Norona, who was sent from Ormuz to help the new ally. Norona was afraid of treachery, and retired to his vessel on the approach of a Turkish army, which took the place and put the prince to death. The Governor had sent his son, Don Alvaro, with a considerable force to assist him, but he arrived too late. An­other object of the expedition was to eject the Turks from a fort which they had seized near Caxem itself, and here the Por­tuguese made the mistake, against the express will of their com­mander, Don Alvaro, of refusing all terms to the garrison, which was ready to treat, and even of detaining the envoys sent to make the proposals for surrender. The consequence was that the besieged made so desperate a resistance, that the fort was only taken at so great a loss of men to the Portuguese as to make their victory almost equivalent to a defeat.⁵

This expedition to Aden is memorable in the life of Francis Xavier as having afforded him an opportunity of a conquest more truly glorious than that at which Don Alvaro aimed. It was on this occasion that he embarked on board one of the •ships of the squadron without giving notice to any one, and with no other provision for the voyage than the breviary under ’his arm. He had made acquaintance in Goa with one of the class for whom he had so special a predilection—a rude rough soldier, of scandalous life, insolent temper, with the habits of almost every imaginable sin engrained, as it seemed, in his •very nature, whose very language was so laden with blasphemies as to offend all who came across him. He had not been to the •sacraments for eighteen years. Francis had poured forth num­berless prayers for this poor sinner, had wept and done penance before God'for his conversion. When the fleet was to sail he asked him to which ship he was to belong, and then, without more ado, took him by the arm, said how glad he was to find they were to be companions, and embarked along with him. Companions, indeed, they were, almost always chatting together and eating at the same mess. The soldier gamed as usual, and Francis stood by, always rejoicing over his successes and full of sorrow when he was unlucky. When the poor fellow broke out into blasphemies and indecent language, Francis seemed not to hear. The men were amazed at seeing his zeal so en­tirely kept under. It seemed as if the soldier had fascinated him. At last Francis took an opportunity to ask him.in con­fidence how long it was since he had been to confession. The soldier coloured and sighed. His heart was already won. It was eighteen years, he said, since he had confessed, but the fault was not all his own. He had been to the Vicar-General -of Goa to get rid of his sins, but the good priest had been so shocked at the tale which he heard, that he sent him away as if his soul could not hope for any share in divine grace. Francis took the Side of the soldier. He said that great charity should be used to sinners, for whom our Blessed Redeemer had shed His blood, and that each one had his own burthen to bear, and •so should be compassionate to others. At all events, he would

make no difficulty himself as to giving his friend all the com­fort in his power. If he had all the sins of the world on his conscience he would hear his confession willingly. He had full power to absolve him, and as for his penance, they would divide it between them, and the soldier should take as much of it as he liked for himself and no more. God in His infinite goodness desired his salvation, and asked of him nothing but a sincere repentance for having offended One Who loved him so much. The soldier was overcome, and begged Francis to help him in his confession. The fleet just then touched at some place on the coast, and several of those on board went ashore for a few hours. Francis and the soldier went into a grove near the beach, and were followed at a distance by some of the crew, curious to see what would happen. Francis sat down under a tree, and the soldier made his confession with many tears and sobs, striking his breast and giving every sign of sincere sorrow. After a time they were seen to part. Francis went farther into the wood, and after a time was followed by the soldier. It turned out that he had set his friend the light penance of a single Pater and Ave, but that he had withdrawn in order to bare his own shoulders, which he then began to scourge vio­lently with an iron discipline, until the blood ran down freely. The soldier heard the noise, and ran after him ; then, baring his own shoulders, he began himself to do penance for his sins, ‘ming­ling his blood,’ says the historian, ‘ with that of the Saint.’ After this, the two friends parted, Francis, to return to Goa, the sol­dier to fight under Don Alvaro, but not before he had received a number of rules for his future conduct from his friend, which he faithfully observed. On returning from Aden he became a religious, and was considered a model of penitence.⁶

The following letter—the only letter remaining to us of this spring and summer, the greater part of which was spent at Goa—introduces us to a friend of Francis Xavier, of whom we shall hear a good deal more in connection with the last great enterprise of his active life, the project of evangelizing China. Diego Pereira was probably about to sail from Cochin for Malacca and China, and Francis had intended to return to the Comorin coast if he had not been asked by Don Joam to re­main at Goa. The Francesco Perez mentioned in the letter was one of the Fathers who had lately arrived from Portugal. He had been a student at Coimbra, who, four years before this time had been won to the Society, along with many others of the University, by the preaching of Francis Strada. His com­panion’s name was Rocco Oliveira. We know nothing of his antecedents ; but he appears to have come from Portugal with Perez and the rest in 1547. He turned out an excellent teacher at Malacca. They arrived there on the 28th of May, and Oliveira opened his school on the very day after their arrival. He had soon nearly 200 scholars. Perez also laboured with great success in the pulpit and confessional. Among other good works of his Lucena mentions the conversion of another Jew Rabbi, who had been born and bred in Rome itself, and had resisted all¹ the influences of the Holy City.

shipboard, and he could hardly ever find himself on board a Portuguese ship without meeting several men such as the soldier described in the anecdote ; and it is less probable that the various stories of such conversions should be repetitions of one and the same history, than that there should have been scores of instances of the same charity on his part of which we have heard nothing. For this reason it seems better not to depart from the state­ments made by writers like those quoted above, who had seen the docu­ments on which the processes were founded. An anccdote very similar to that given above is related in the Rclatio to which we have often referred, on the authority of a Portuguese soldier named Figueira, who was a com­rade of the man converted. But in that case the number of years since he had been at confession is given as seven or more. Cochin is the place at which the vessel touched, and his confession was heard in a church which is named. Bartoli mentions a certain Leti as the witness in the case before us, the circumstances of which he gives as they are given above, and makes Cochin the place. Lucena names no place,'but seems to think that the embarcation was from Bazain.

(lx.) To Diego Pereira.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Amen.

It would have been much more what I wish if I could have seen you before your departure for China, instead of having to write to you at a distance; but the Governor has desired me to come hither to Goa, and I am obliged to do as he wishes. I had a plan of visiting my brethren of the Society on the Co­morin Promontory. It would indeed have been a joy to me if it had been allowed me to talk over with so true and faithful a friend as you a good many things which relate to my voyage to Japan which I hope to undertake in a year’s time from this. I have heard from good authority that a rich harvest of souls can be reaped in those parts, and the Christian faith propagated far and wide. And now I charge you for the sake of the friendship between us to provide yourself before you go to China with a certain ware which is of infinite value, but which the merchants who go to Malacca and China generally don’t seem to care for. The ware I mean is a good conscience, a thing which men of that sort know very little about. The merchants appear to per­suade themselves that it will be all over with their fortune alto­gether if they look to the affairs of their souls and of their consciences.

Nevertheless I have good confidence that, by the assistance of God, my very dear friend Diego Pereira will take with him a very large supply of this merchandize of a good conscience, and that he will gain great riches thereby, though the rest of the merchants by their neglect of these things will be reduced to indigence. I shall certainly never leave off praying God to guide you in safety to China, to bring you back to us in safety and much increased and enriched in all the good things of the soul, far more than in those of worldly wealth. I am sending from this to Malacca two of our Society, one whose name is Francesco Perez, a priest who is to devote himself, according to my me­thod, to preaching, hearing confessions, and instructing the chil­dren and the ignorant; and another who is not yet a priest, and

who is to teach the children of the Portuguese to read, so that they may in future read pious and holy books rather than those law reports which circulate at Malacca, the reading of which makes the children Malacensians instead of Portuguese. May our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, as I wish Him to be with myself.

Goa, April 2. FRANCIS.

The last sentence of this letter is somewhat obscure, but it appears to mean that the children had hitherto had nothing to learn to read from except the public reports of the law courts, which no doubt had enough to occupy them in a great mart like Malacca frequented by merchants of so many different nations. Oliveira was to teach the children to read out of translations of the Lives of the Saints, or other good books, so that their young minds might not be filled with the quibbles and chicanery of men who were striving with all their might to overreach each other.

This summer of 1548 was a time of unusual repose in the life of Francis Xavier. The request of Don Joam de Castro that he would remain some months at Goa was equivalent to a command, and he was thus prevented from returning at once to his brethren who were labouring on the Fishery Coast. We are not even told that he occupied himself at Goa in any ex­traordinary work of preaching or catechizing, though we may be sure that he was not inactive in the confessional. We find pauses like this, of far longer duration, in the life of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, when God in His Providence seems to have withdrawn him for months together from the exercise of his active ministry, in order that he might rest and occupy himself in meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Even at such times, as when in prison at Ceesarcea or at Rome, St. Paul could not fail to make himself felt in his influence on his neigh­bours, or in his letters to distant churches, several of which,, with a tender and glowing character of their own, were written in his captivity. Nor can we suppose that with Francis Xavier his period of rest was more than comparatively unoccupied. As the true test of holy activity is the gladness and readiness.

with which it falls back, when God so wills, upon the better portion of Mary sitting at the feet of our Lord, so also in apostolical men, their times of contemplation and close com­munion with God are the seedtimes and stages of preparation for future labours. In them these holy men seek out and have revealed to them the particular purposes of God for their more immediate future, and they store and strengthen themselves with the light and grace which are to guide and to sustain them in new enterprises for the glory of God, Who at such times is wont to overwhelm them with heavenly sweetness so as to grant them almost a foretaste of the joys of Paradise.

To these summer months belong a number of anecdotes of Francis Xavier which became current in Goa, and which have in many cases found their way into the Processes made for his canonization. He lived as retired a life as he could, spending great part of his days and nights in prayer, which he Usually made in a ‘ coretto’ 'or small ^£ tribune’ adjoining the church, from which he could see the altar of the Blessed Sacrament. His eyes were often inflamed with tears or seemed to glance fire; his face was all aglow, sometimes he scarcely knew where he was or what he was doing, or to feel heat or cold in the intensity of his concentration upon God. Often he would open his robe and bare his breast to the air, or pour cold water upon it, as if he felt an insupportable fire within, and he was heard to cry out in the garden of the college, where he would pace up and down, ‘No more, O Lord, no more !’ At other times he was seen gently raised in the air, and his face seemed to send forth rays of light. He was wont out of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament to administer Holy Communion upon his knees in­stead of standing, and once he was seen to float in this attitude along the rail to give the sacred particles to the people. It is to this time that the story belongs, which tells how Francis was wont to hide himself in a corner of the campanile of the church, that he might make his prayer more secretly and out of reach of interruption, and how when, on a certain day, he had an appointment at a fixed hour at the Governor’s palace, and had told a lad of the college to come and call him, the youth found

him so entranced that, hour after hour, he came back to endea­vour in vain to arouse him, until it was four in the afternoon before he succeeded in making him understand what he had to do. When the two went out at last on their errand, Francis roamed about here and there, unable to withdraw himself from the thought of God which so overpowered him, until at last he was forced to say, ‘ My son, let us go back, and visit the palace another day, for it is clear that God will have the whole of this day to Himself.’ Another time he was crossing a piazza so ab­sorbed in heavenly contemplation that he did not perceive a wild elephant running loose upon him, nor hear the shouts of the people who were warning him of the danger, which was only avoided by the sudden turn of the animal in another direction. Other wonders of a more usual kind are told of this time, how he had started up from the confessional on a sudden, and had run to a house in the neighbourhood where a poor man, in despair of finding a maintenance for his family, had begun to hang himself; how he had by a word delivered a lady who came to him in great anguish of mind from a troublesome temptation which she had long suffered; and how, with a poetic simplicity which reminds us of the anecdotes of St. Francis of Assisi, when a fine horse had been plunging and kicking savagely whenever an attempt was made to shoe it, he had gone up, stroked it, and tamed it. ‘ Brother horse,’ he said, ‘ how is it that so beau­tiful as you are, you will let no one put shoes on you?’ and the animal yielded to his words as the fierce wolf of Gubbio had yielded to his namesake.⁷

The month of June had hardly begun, when Francis Xavier had to discharge the last offices of Christian charity to his dying friend the Governor, Don Joam de Castro. He had already been ailing when he returned to Goa, and his heart had been afflicted by the failure of the attempt on Aden, and by the mis­conduct of the Portuguese at Chaul, in the blame of which his own son had a share. Faria y Sousa, who seems to lose no opportunity of a sour remark upon the great degeneracy which the immense temptations of their position in India brought on

⁷ Massei (from Bartoli and the Processes), lib. ii. c. 14.

amongst the Portuguese, tells us that Don Joam was dying of a disease, which in his own time killed no man, though in old times it had killed thousands; ‘for even diseases die,’ says the old annalist. This disease was ‘ a keen sentiment of the miser­able state in which he beheld India, without seeing any way to repair it,’ and some few instances of misconduct just now men­tioned. While he was in this state, a large fleet arrived from Portugal. It was the first which had been dispatched to the East since the news of the victory of Diu had arrived at Lisbon. The large number of seventeen ships had been fitted out to do especial honour to the occasion, and to the Governor, whose exploits were ringing in every ear throughout Portugal. ‘ It was the first time,’ says Faria y Sousa, ‘that any Governor of India had received honours from his King for any meritorious action.’ He does not seem to think much of the honours be­stowed on Don Joam. He was continued for three years in the government and raised to the rank of Viceroy, a title only exceptionally bestowed on the representative of the King in India. A sum of money was also given him over and above his salary, and his son, Don Alvaro, was made Capitan Major, or Admiral of the Indian Seas. Compliments and promises accompanied these honours. ‘ In those days,’ says the chroni­cler, ‘great deserts found rewards as niggardly as now great rewards find niggardly merits to earn them.’

But these rewards, such as they were, found Don Joam not in a state to enjoy them. He was dying fast—dying, as Faria y Sousa puts it, because he saw his country’s fame at its last gasp. However that may be, he died like a Christian hero, and we can see, in what is told of his last days, the influence of the presence of Francis Xavier by his deathbed. Don Joam had been free in his letters to the King as to what he said about persons in India, and on his deathbed he asked their pardon for what he might Jiave said against them. Finding himself unable to attend to public affairs, he nominated a coun­cil of government—the Bishop, the Governor of the city, the Chancellor, and two other officials. When he felt himself grow­ing worse he called them to him, as well as the Superiors of

the Dominicans and Franciscans, and Francis Xavier, and told them that though he neither expected nor desired to live, yet in the state in which he was it was necessary to be at some expense while he hung between life and death; that he had nothing of his own to provide himself with medicines and at­tendance, and that he begged them to order some part of the King’s money to be applied for that purpose. Then he had a missal brought him, and raising his eyes to heaven, swore on it that he had never taken for his own use the money of the King or of any one else, and that he had never made any con­tract or bargain to increase his own property. He begged that notice of this declaration should be entered on the King’s books. Soon after this, having received devoutly all the last sacraments of the Church, he expired in the arms of Francis Xavier. It was the sixth of June; he had been Governor for two years and eight months. ‘ They opened,’ says Faria y Sousa, ‘ a private desk of his, and what they found therein was a discipline clotted with blood, and three reals. Such was his treasure. He was most devout to the holy Cross. They buried him in the church of St. Francis, and there were some demon­strations of sorrow for him—which, however, were remarkable chiefly because it is so rare to find in India any one who grieves for anything except for the disappointment of his own ambi­tion or the failure of his own designs.’^s

The mention of the devotion of Joam de Castro to the holy Cross reminds us of some facts concerning him stated by Lucena, which may serve to make the slight sketch here given of him more complete, as well as to illustrate some character­istics of the Portuguese settlers in India. Lucena tells us that during the governorship of Don Joam a discovery of a curious slab of white marble was made at Meliapor in digging for the foundations of a hermitage amid the ruins which marked the spot of the martyrdom of the Apostle St. Thomas. On one face of this slab was a cross in relief, with a bird like a dove over it, with its wings expanded, ‘ as the Holy Ghost is usually repre­sented when descending on our Lord at His Baptism or our * Faria y Sousa, t. ii. p. z, cap. 5.

VOL. II. E

Lady at her Annunciation.’ This cross was erected over the al­tar in the chapel which was built in the new sanctuary. As it was discovered during his governorship, Don Joam ‘ took it as a heavenly sign of great victories, which God would grant him for the honour and glory of the Cross;’ and as in the year after the relief of Diu he obtained some wonderful successes at Sal- sette and in the neighbourhood, in which great numbers of Mussulmans had been slain with hardly any loss to the Portu­guese, ‘ he considered that the Apostle St. Thomas had gained him these triumphs, especially as the chief rout of the enemy had taken place on his feast day, and as that was the first oc­casion on which, he himself having requested of his Highness that so it might be, the Portuguese began to invoke in India the name of the glorious St. Thomas along with that of Sant­iago at the outset of their battles against the infidels.’ It was probably in this spring, perhaps during the weeks which Don Joam spent at Goa, before his death, in company with Francis Xavier, that the Governor, ^e imitating the arch of Titus and the column of Trajan, decorated the walls and gates and entrances of the city of Goa, and the Government House,’ and had an arch built of wrought stones which were brought from the mosque of Diu, with many cannon balls which the enemy had shot into the town on the top, and stone lions with shields bearing his arms on their breasts. The arch was against the wall of the Church of the Misericordia, and inside it was a representa­tion of St. Thomas with his hand in the side of our Lord; and this was solemnly carried to its place with a grand procession,

‘ borne and accompanied by the Chapter of the See, the religious orders, the College, the Court, the civil authorities, and the soldiery and artillery, with salvos of cannon and musketry and vocal and instrumental music, and all other kinds of solemn and festive celebration; all which was to the great glory of the Saint, and the great consolation and spiritual delight of his great devotee, our Father Master Francis, out of respect and favour to whom Don Joam would have it that this noble tri­umphal procession of the sacred Apostle should start from the College.’⁹

⁸ Lucena, Vida, 1. vi. cap. 4.

Don Joam de Castro died on the sixth of June, as has been said, and his death released Francis Xavier from any obligation •to remain at Goa. Francis had intended to revisit his brethren ■who were labouring on the Fishery Coast and in Travancore •as soon as possible. They were in continual danger, and most •of them new to their work. But navigation was almost impos­sible till the beginning of September, and we find that Francis did not leave Goa till that time. The three months’ interval was spent by him in his usual occupations, teaching the chil­dren and slaves the Catechism, preaching on Sundays and fes­tivals, and putting himself at the service of any poor soul that was in need of spiritual charity.

The Governorship of India was a post never left unfilled. Whenever a Governor or Viceroy died in India, the ‘ patents of succession’ were opened. After the decease of Don Joam, as the two officers whose names were first in order were absent from India, the government devolved upon the third, Don Garcia •de S&, a veteran of nearly seventy years of age, who had spent a great many years in India, and had very large experience both in •civil and military matters. His reign was to be even shorter than that of Don Joam. He was a man of vigour and integrity, and began by putting in order many matters which had been •left in a state of suspense during the later months of Don Joam’s government. Whether the hard fighting of Don Joam had used •up the munitions and armaments, or not, we are not told, but •Garcia de Sil distinguished himself for the careful provision which he made in this respect, having good and strong galleys built, and furnishing all the Portuguese fortresses with artil­lery and ammunition, as well as gratifying the soldiers with an

increase of pay. He was also a very equitable and just civil administrator. He was a good friend to Francis, and took some measures for the protection of his favourite converts on the Fishery Coast. Francis foretold his death privately to a friend in Malacca, Antonio de Sousa, two months before it happened. Garcia died in July 1549. It is mentioned of him that his in­tegrity was so great, that though he had held considerable offices ‘ he was forced to give all he had to match two daughters, and yet the best part of their portions was their beauty, and that he was their father.’¹

Francis also occupied himself during this interval in giving the Spiritual Exercises to several persons. The custom of ‘ making retreats’ in common, according to which a number of persons go through the Exercises together, had not yet become prevalent, and, in the same way, the Exercises were usually ex­tended, by those who made them, to the fall space of thirty days. The Japanese Anger and his companions seem to have gone through the Exercises somewhat later than this; Cosmo- Torres, already mentioned as having joined the Society, some­what earlier. But these were all now at the College of Santa Fe, and would no doubt be objects of peculiar interest and care to Francis. It was during this time that they were formed by his fervent and gentle guidance, and that, in their turn, the Japanese strangers communicated to him so much knowledge about their country as served to kindle in him more ardently than ever the desire to go thither and preach the Gospel. We thus find what we may call the domestic circle in which Francis moved, enlarged and increased in interest. When he first came to India, he had but two companions, and he had never been ‘ able to live much with them from the time of the commence­ment of his apostolical labours. Now the little band of mem­bers of the Society of Jesus was being multiplied, and Francis had to govern them, form them, and encourage them. For the rest of his short life, this now became one of his chief occupa­tions : even when in so distant a spot as Japan we shall find his thoughts occupied with them, and it is to his care for them*

¹ Faria y Sousa, Asia Portugtiesa, t. ii. p. 2, cap. 6.

Gaspar Baertz.

53

that we owe some of the most wonderful and most character­istic of his letters.

The number of his religious subjects was almost doubled by the arrivals of the year 1548. On the third of September a ship from Lisbon, under the command of the admiral Joam de Mendoza, brought the first detachment of a reinforcement of ten of the Society, the remainder being on board another vessel •of the fleet which arrived later. In all there were four Fathers, Gaspar Baertz, a Fleming, born at Goes in Zealand, Melchior Gonzalez, Balthazar Gago, and Antonio Gomez: the remaining six were either lay brothers, or scholastics not yet ordained— Joam Fernandez, Egidio Barreto, Paolo Vallez,² Francesco Fernandez, Manuel Vaz, and Luis Froes. Francis Xavier left Goa but a few days after the arrival of the first vessel, but he had time to make the acquaintance of Gaspar, who from this moment became one of his most useful and valued assistants in the work of preaching. His history was curious. He had studied philosophy and theology at Louvain, and had taken the degree of Master at the age of nineteen. After this, however, he became a soldier in the army of Charles V., and was wont in after life to reproach himself for what he considered his tepidity in the service of God by the recollection of the ardour with which, at the cost of so many risks and hardships and for so poor a reward, he had served an earthly king. It is not quite easy to trace him through the ten or eleven years of his life which passed between his leaving Louvain and his entrance into the Society; but he seems to have felt himself called to serve God for some time before the latter date, and either thought of or actually practised an eremitical life at Mon- serrato. Chance or business took him at last to Portugal, where he seems to have held some not very conspicuous office under the King’s Treasurer, who one day lost his temper with him and even loaded him with blows; whereupon Gaspar took up his stick, and presented it to him, begging him to take it and beat him with it again whenever, without being in a passion, he

² Paolo Vallez is said by Orlandini to have been already a priest. Hist. Soc. 1. viii. cap. 100.

thought that he deserved it, but imploring' him also that when- he thought fit to punish his servants he would not let his own passion be his counsellor. He entered the Society at Coimbra in 1546, and seems, like others, to have been moved to the step by the fervent preaching of Strada. While yet a novice, he showed on several trying occasions singular modesty and selfcontrol. It is probable that his learning was hardly known, as he could not speak Portuguese well, and had not been a student at Coimbra; at all events he concealed all his intel­lectual and acquired gifts so well, that he was thought stupid and uneducated, and was employed either in the kitchen or as keeper of the clothes of the community. One day the religious were accusing themselves of their faults in public to the Superior, Simon Rodriguez, and then Gaspar confessed that he had felt a strong temptation to desire to become a great preacher. Simon at once ordered him to get on a bench and preach to the community. After he had obeyed and blundered through an exhortation at which all were inclined to laugh, Simon asked him what he thought of his own sermon. Gaspar replied that, though he had got on so badly and might do worse other times, he did not give up the hope of being some day a preacher. Simon saw what was implied by his humility, simplicity, and sincerity. He ordered him to leave the employment of the lay brothers among whom he had worked, and to go over his studies again; then he had him ordained, and sent him out ta preach.

Gaspar seemed to have received the gift of preaching along with his ordination, for he turned out at once so successful and powerful in the pulpit that his sermons became famous for the conversions which they produced, and he was in great re­quest for what are technically called ‘ missions’ throughout the country. We are told that whenever he arrived at a place to^ which he was sent, even if it were already evening and he had had no time to prepare himself, he used to go up into the pulpit and preach with all the fatigue and weariness of a long journey on foot to weigh him down. He was passing from one mission at Figuereiro to another at Pedroga when the order met him. to-

Antonio Gomez,

55

embark for India. He went up into the pulpit at the lastnamed place, and preached one sermon with immense fervour and success, so that all the people were at his feet in an instant; he went on hearing their confessions all night, and until late in the forenoon of the following day; then he said mass, and went straight to Coimbra, whither he was summoned, and thence to Lisbon. On his voyage out to India he had displayed the same prodigies of charity, patience, and humility which had marked the outward voyage of Francis Xavier himself. He was always preaching, instructing, hearing confessions, or waiting on the sick, taking on himself all the lowest and most contemptible offices. The ‘ Capitan Major’ himself, Joam de Mendoza, put himself under his direction, and a violent storm which fell on the ship in the passage from the Cape to Mozambique, and which frightened the most courageous and skilful among the sailors, gave him the opportunity of converting some most hardened and abandoned sinners, especially women, who were on board. The storm at length seemed to cease at his prayers. When at last the vessel reached Goa, the whole crew and all the passengers could speak of nothing but the virtues and sanctity of Master Gaspar.³

Another of the new band of Fathers had a reputation as a preacher hardly, if at all, inferior to that of Gaspar. This was Antonio Gomez, who had been longer in the Society, having been received into it at Coimbra during Pierre Lefevre’s visit in 1545. He was thought one of the ablest men at Coimbra, and was Master in Philosophy and Doctor in Canon Law. When he entered religion, he distributed his large fortune to the poor.

³ See Eus. Nieremberg, Claros Varones de la Compania de Jesus, t. i. p. 45, 46 ; Orlandini, Hist. Soc. lib. viii. c. 100-105 > ^artoli, Asia, lib. v. p. 445 seq. Bartoli mentions Caspar’s having studied philosophy at Louvain, but does not speak of theology; Nieremberg speaks of both. It seems un­likely, though it is not impossible, that he would have been ordained and sent out as a missioner in less than two years after his entrance into the no­vitiate, unless he had already made his theological studies. The family name of ‘ Master Gaspar’ was probably as we have given it, Baertz or Bartz being a common name in Holland. lie is called Barzseus or Berzceus, Barzeo or Barzee, by the historians, according to the language in which they wrote.

Two years afterwards, we find him spoken of as a strenuous and successful preacher of missions in Portugal, where he went through the whole province ‘ Entre Douro e Minho’ from town to town with a single companion, preaching two or three times a day in the open fields, lodging in the hospitals, living on food which he begged himself, watching by night to prepare what he was to preach by day, and edifying all by his zeal, charity, and indifference to all earthly goods and comforts. Each of them, says Orlandini, heard about fifty confessions every day.⁴ Antonio was appointed by Simon Rodriguez to act as Superior to the rest, and even to govern after he had arrived at Goa. At the time when this arrangement was made no one in Portugal knew where Francis Xavier was, as he had not re­turned westwards from the Moluccas; but the appointment was unfortunate, and entailed a large amount of suffering and scandal on the Society in India. Gomez was in natural gifts and in education superior to Gaspar or any other of his com­panions, and no fault could be found with him on the score of zeal. But he was one of those instances which are for ever recurring in the history of the Church and of religious orders, of men with great and valuable gifts who are exalted before the time, without having grounded themselves in humility and solid virtue. Francis Xavier could hardly have been deceived as to the weak points in Gomez, though he speaks of him highly at first; never, however, with that warmth and tenderness which characterize his language to Gaspar and others. The appoint­ment made by Simon Rodriguez was one which he had no right to make, yet it embarrassed Francis Xavier, as we shall see, who did not like either entirely to ignore or to acquiesce in it.

* Hist. Soc. Jesu, 1. vii. cap. 67. He tells a charaeteristie story of one of these missions at Oporto. A bullfight was announced for one of the days of the mission. After the morning sermon Gonsalvez Vaz, Gomez’ companion, gave out that he should preach that afternoon at the time named for the bullfight, that he invited all to come, and that he hoped to see who were the servants of God, and who of the world and the devil, by observing who came to church and who went to the bullfight. He meant to preach all the same, he said, even if he had only one old woman to hear him. The church was crowded long before the time of the sermon, and the bullfight deserted.

Joam Fernandez.

57

More than one of the companions of Gaspar and Antonio Gomez were men of mark and singular worth. One of the most conspicuous was Joam Fernandez, who never rose beyond the •xank of a simple lay brother, and yet was of immense service to the young Church of Japan when he accompanied Francis Xa­vier thither. He was a rich young merchant of Cordova, traffick­ing in silks. Some business had taken him to Lisbon not more than fifteen months before the time of which we are speaking. A friend chanced to ask him to come to hear some service in the house of the Fathers; ^£ it would be the sweetest music he ■ever heard in his life.’ Joam consented, and found himself pre­sent in a ‘Congregation’ of more than two hundred men, who met once a week for purposes of devotion and penance. One -of the Fathers preached an exhortation, and then the lights were put out, and the members of the confraternity took the discipline together, amid groans and tears for their sins. Fernandez was a changed man at once; he resolved to give up the world, and become a religious. He asked to see Simon Rodriguez. Simon Rodriguez, doubting whether the rich young gallant before him would have the courage to persevere in the humble vocation of lay brother, which alone, on account of his want of higher education, was open to him, told him that he could only admit him after long and severe trials. But the first trial to which he was put was enough. He was asked whether he could bear to ride through the most frequented street of Lisbon, finely dressed as he was, upon a donkey’s back with his face to the tail? Without hesitating a moment, he went through the ordeal leisurely and rejoicing. Simon then received him at once, in June 1547, and he was sent out to India in the following spring, where Francis Xavier discerned his merit, cultivated his soul with care, and took him, as we shall see, as his companion to Japan.

Melchior Gonzalez had been rather more than two years in the Society, before he sailed from Lisbon: his life was to be short, but he was to leave behind him the fame of an in­defatigable and most devoted labourer. Balthazar Gago was .another Portuguese recruit: he had a far longer life before him

than Melchior, and he was to go to Japan, labour most success­fully, and after nearly losing his life more than once, to return broken and relaxed in spirit to Goa and to Europe. Paolo Vallez, Luis Froes, and Francesco Fernandez, were all to be­come famous for their sufferings and labours for religion. Be­sides those mentioned in the list of recruits sent from Portugal, there was another, beside Cosmo Torres, who had joined the Society in Goa, on whom Francis Xavier’s heart rested with particular affection. This was Alfonso de Castro, the son of rich and noble parents in Lisbon. He had known Francis Xavier and Simon Rodriguez on their first arrival in Portugal, and was one of the lads who were taught by them to go regularly to confession and communion once a week. He kept up these holy practices after the departure of Francis, and as he grew up to man’s estate, the desire of serving God in religion became strong and engrossing in his heart. He knew that his parents would not consent to part with him, so he determined to go to India and ask Francis Xavier to admit him. He had a com­panion of his own age and of the same mind, and the two young men arranged with the captain of one of the vessels of the fleet which was to sail to Goa, got off in secret from the shore, and hid themselves in the hold. They were, however, tracked and discovered, and then Alfonso pleaded his cause so earnestly and resolutely, that his parents and friends had not the heart to hinder his departure. They provided him with what was necessary for the voyage, and then the two companions were allowed to depart in peace. Alfonso, as soon as the ship had sailed, distributed all his provisions and outfit to the poorest among the passengers, and lived during the voyage on alms,, practising humility, charity, and other virtues in a way that gave the highest idea of his sanctity. On arriving at Goa, the two. friends threw themselves at the feet of Francis, and were re­ceived into the Society. Alfonso’s companion soon fell sick and died. Alfonso himself was cherished and carefully trained by Francis Xavier, who took him in the following year to Malacca, after he had been ordained priest, and then sent him to labour in the Moluccas, where he was soon to meet a glorious death.

Gaspar at Goa.

Only a few days after the arrival of Gaspar and his com­panions, and before the arrival of the ship which conveyed the little band led by Antonio Gomez, Francis set off once more for the Comorin Coast. His old enemies the Badages had been as active as usual in molesting the new Christians. Some of the missionaries themselves appear to have been in great danger* Meanwhile, the newly arrived Fathers began to work with all the activity of long restrained fervour. Their first occupation seems to have been to give the Spiritual Exercises to a num­ber of Caspar’s converts during the voyage. The ‘ Capitan Major’ himself was one of them; another was an officer whose name is not recorded, sent out to take the command of one of the king’s strongholds and settlements in the East; another was a doctor of canon and civil law; Diego Lobo, nephew of the Baron d’Alvito, was another; Luigi Mendez, four other young nobles, and a crowd of persons of inferior rank, are also mentioned.⁵ Of these, Luigi Mendez alone, as far as Bartoli could discover, entered the Society. Gaspar soon began to preach. Indeed, on account of his great reputation and the high character given of him by those who had sailed with him_r Francis ordered him to preach at once, before his own depar­ture, on the Nativity of our Blessed Lady (Sept. 8th), in the church of the College. A great crowd assembled to listen to him;. but his voice was so thin and weak that he was heard by only a very few. Francis bade him practise his voice in the church at night, and in a few days it was strong and clear enough for any use required of it. Gaspar spared neither his lungs nor himself. The College was badly furnished with teachers, so he took the class of grammar and of philosophy himself, and began also to give Scripture lectures in the book of Proverbs. He went on preaching also in the church. The second batch of Fathers, under Gomez, arrived the first week in October, after­having been in considerable danger near Mozambique, to avert which, they had produced a relic of one of the companions of St. Ursula. Gomez, in the absence of Francis Xavier, seems to have assumed the command of the College : at least we find

¹ Bartoli, Asia, 1. ii. p. 165.

Gaspar and others of the lately arrived Fathers acting in obedi­ence to him. Gaspar was very successful in conversions. Among others, he converted a rich Brahmin, whom in the course of his visits to the prison he found detained there for some crime not mentioned. This conversion made a great noise, and was celebrated with public rejoicings. ‘With the force of his spirit, says Gaspar’s biographer, ‘ he soon so moved the city of Goa, that it did not know itself, although it had sometime had the benefit of the preaching of St. Francis Xavier. Gaspar preached daily to the nobility in the palace, to the slaves in the streets and public places, to the poor in the prisons, to the people in different churches, with an eloquence so new and so truly Christian, producing so many tears and such changes of life, that our people who had known him in Portugal were astonished.

He kindled the fervour of the Portuguese, converted the heathen, edified and did good to all. It seemed as if he had an infused gift of speaking Portuguese, as he spoke it as if it were his native tongue, without even a foreign accent.’⁶

In the midst of all this fervour and religious renovation, a strange report spread through the city that Francis Xavier had been murdered by the Badages. The story was told with great particularity as to the circumstances of the tortures to which he had been subjected and the constancy with which he had borne them. The report served to bring out in public the uni­versal opinion of his sanctity. Every one had something to say about his perfection and his works of charity, his fervour, his confidence in God under danger, his unwearied patience in suffering, his humility, his gentleness and sweetness to others, his unsparing severity to himself. Miracles that had hardly been heard of, secret prophecies which he had made and which had come true, and a thousand little acts of personal tender­ness and instances of his prudence and wisdom in the guidance of souls, came to light now. A number of the Portuguese agreed to set out in order to redeem his sacred relics, as they . considered them, from his murderers, and others set on foot an application to the king to ask for his canonization from the

⁸ Nieremberg, Claros Varoncs, t. i. p. 47, 48.

Pope. The rumour was soon contradicted : while it lasted, it drew particular attention and veneration to the rest of the Fathers, and seems to have spurred on their religious zeal and spiritual activity, till the face of things at Goa was really changed for the better.

Scattered throughout the letters of this time which were sent home by the Fathers newly come to India, are notices of Francis which show the same instinctive appreciation of his marvellous and most attractive sanctity. ‘ I wish to tell you about Master Francis,’ writes Enrico Enriquez to Ignatius Loyola in the October of this year. ‘ Give great thanks to God our Lord, with all of our Society. For what St. Paul says, that he became all things to all men, that he might gain all, this Master Francis tries as much as he can et supra quod did potest to accomplish, and no pen can describe to your Reverence what a reputation he has in India, from which result much fruit and great praise to God our Lord, and all the people hold him for a great saint. He is never anywhere where he does not find superabundant occupations, so much so that a man thinks himself very well off if he can speak to him.’ ‘ He is a true Father,’ writes Manuel de Monies a few months later than this; ^c no one, I think, can see him without great consolation, the very sight of him seems to move to devotion : he is a man of middle height, he always holds his face upwards, and his eyes are full of tears, his look is bright and joyous, his words few and excit­ing to devotion, you hear nothing from his mouth but “Jesus” and “ O Most Holy Trinity.”... And then he broke out, “ O my brothers and companions, how much better is God to us than we thought of! Consider this and give great thanks and praise to God our Lord, that in so short a time as it is since our holy Society was confirmed, being only seven years, it has pleased Him to work in it all that we see, my dearest brothers : that some of us are in Rome, some in Valencia, others in Gandia, others in Coimbra, in the College of Santa Fe at Goa, and in Cape Como­rin, and Socotra, and Malacca, and the Moluccas, and others, whither I am going, in Japan.” These words he said,’ continues Manuel, ‘ with so much devotion, that he moved all of us who

were there to tears and devotion, only to hear his words so full of love and charity, said for an example to us and to make us all ■conceive greater fervour of spirit, and increased desires of suf­fering ; and to this end, he related to us the trials and tribula­tions which he had suffered in the countries whence he came, in which he did such things and left behind him so great a fame of sanctity and virtue, that it is not just to write of it whilst he lives. So great is the esteem in which he is held all over India, both by great and small, that the man who is most his friend ■counts himself the most fortunate.’ Another, Paolo Vallez, Avas sent on straight from Goa after his arrival with Antonio Gomez, and met with Francis at Cochin : ‘ Who can tell,’ he says, ‘ the delight which my soul then received? I know not how to sayitj except in poor words : this is truly a servant of God, and never was any like him ! I do not say his speech, but his very look kindles in men such a desire to serve God as cannot be ex­pressed. His mouth neverceased from saying, “Praised bejesus Christ!” with so much love and fervour as to enrapture all whom he spoke unto.’ Then he goes on to tell how Francis was never tired of asking about the fathers and brothers everywhere, es­pecially Simon Rodriguez the Provincial of Portugal, but Father Ignatius above all, and also Father Strada. Melchior Gonzalez writes in the same strain. He was one of those who saw Francis at Goa before he left for Cape Comorin. ‘ Francis is all full of divine love, and seems to feel nothing else. It would be im­possible to begin to describe his virtues; there would be no end to it—or to speak of his miracles and holy discourses. He is a ■man not old, and of good health, he drinks no manner of wine, and seems to feel no privation, because he is wrapt up in the wounds of his Lord. We may all say,’ he adds, ‘ that we have among us a living martyr, and I think he will soon be really a martyr, for he seems to me to seek nothing else.’

Notwithstanding their frequent trials and sufferings, the state of the Christians on the Fishery Coast was, in many respects, flourishing. About this time we are told that there were fifty thousand Christians there, with a number of churches ‘ well T)uilt, and furnished with their altars, frontals, cloths, lamps

which were always burning, in short, in everything the same as we have in Europe, only that those churches were more fre­quented by the Christian Paravas than ours by us.⁷ InTravan- core, on the other side of the Cape, things were worse for the time, and Francesco Enriquez was inclined to lose heart and go elsewhere. This brought him the following tender letter from Francis :

(lxi.) To Father Francesco Enriquez.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ ever favour and help us ! Amen.

I would much rather, dearest brother, talk to you face to face than by letter, and so give you some little consolation for all the toils and discomforts and trials you are bearing for the sake of Christ. You do not ask for consolation of that kind which forms the delight of men of the world who give themselves to all the pleasures of this world that they may live in gaiety and enjoyments. We must needs feel a great compassion for the lot of such. The men whose part w^re should envy must be those of whom, as the Apostle says, the world was not worthy.^s Do not grieve, my dear brother, that you make less progress than you could wish in your careful work among these new converts. As you tell me, the nation is addicted to idolatry, and the Rajah himself is hostile to our religion and bitterly per­secutes Christians. Well, you do more good than you think, by regenerating in baptism for the kingdom of heaven the in­fants whom you so diligently seek out and collect. For if you choose to look around you in mind, you will find that of all people in India, whether white or black, very few reach heaven except those who die before they are fourteen years old, and so depart from this life with their baptismal innocence.

Do not you see, dearest brother, that you are doing more good where you are than you think ? Surely we can see this in the case of the children whom you have baptized and who

^; Lucena,' Vida, 1. vi. c. 6.

* Orig. Dignits non crat mundus.

are now enjoying the bliss of heaven, which they certainly would not be enjoying if you had left those parts and had not begotten them by baptism unto Christ. In truth the everlast­ing enemy of souls hates you very much and strongly desires that you should go out of the country as soon as possible, so that for the future no one may be called to the Kingdom of Heaven out of the realm of Travancore. It is one of his snares to hold out to us a hope of greater good for the service of God elsewhere; he tries to tempt and turn away those who are working usefully for God where they are at present; and so I am afraid that he may be attacking you with this artifice of his in order to drive you away from that part of the country.

But you should remember that during the eight months which you have now spent there, you have saved more souls by baptizing infants at the point of death than in all the years during which you have been in Portugal and in India; so do not think it wonderful that Satan should give you so much trouble as he does. He does it and fights for it that he may draw you out of that country into another where you may look after the salvation of very few instead of many. Now I will give you some news which I think will be very pleasant to you, that a great many of our Society have arrived since September from Portugal. When I left Goa I ordered them to come and help me here; now I am returning to Goa on a matter of busi­ness, which if I can accomplish as I desire, I am in good hopes that a great number will become Christians. I wish you to pray to God that although our sins hinder us from being good servants of His, yet He Himself, out of His infinite goodness and boundless charity towards men, may condescend to use our work, such as it is, for the propagation of religion.

Punical, Oct. 19, 1548.

It is not quite easy to trace Francis through each month of the interval between his departure from Goa in September 1548 and his final sailing for Malacca in the next year. He seems to have returned to Goa by Cochin before the end of October, but he certainly spent a good part of the winter at Cochin; in

February 1549 he went to the Governor in Bazain, and in March he was again in Goa.

At Cochin, where he is stated by some writers to have spent at least two months, he received to baptism the young Rajah of the Maldive Isles, who was seeking the aid of the Portuguese against a rebellion in his rather uninviting dominions. Chris­tian though he became, the Portuguese authorities were not in­clined to help him, and he lived to an old age in Cochin. He was a witness to one of Francis’s miraculous elevations in the air while saying mass. We may now give the letters which remain to us belonging to this winter, reserving for the next chapter those which have more immediate reference to the arrange­ments made by Francis in India before his departure for Japan, the idea of which had been so long in his mind, and had gra­dually taken possession of him as that of the work which he was more immediately called on to undertake. The first letter was written from Goa during the visit mentioned as intended in the letter to Father Enriquez and before his departure for Cochin. This letter is a mere fragment, and we can only guess at its purport. It is addressed to a Father in Portugal, who had entered the Society in the spring of the year before this. His real name was Vasco Martinez; but when the foundation of the College at Coimbra was laid in April that year, it had been agreed, in honour of Ignatius Loyola, that the first person who joined the Society at Coimbra after the ceremony should take the name of Ignatius. Martinez bore the name most worthily. He seems to have written to Francis to ask him to use his in­fluence about a foundation at Villa Viciosa, which does not appear to have come to anything. The Rocco Martinez men­tioned at the end was probably the brother or cousin of the Ignatius to whom the letter is addressed.⁹

⁸ The register of the College of Coimbra mentions a brother, whose name is not given, as having gone out to India with the rest in 1546. He might well be in the College at Goa at the time that this letter was written.

VOL. II.

K

(lxii.) To Father Ignatius Martinez, of the Society of Jesus.

May the holy Name of Jesus be praised for ever ! that we may love Him as we ought.

Although I have urgently advised in my general letter,... yet I write this to you privately that the greatest possible care may be taken about this business on account of its great importance, especially as everything at present seems to be in much confu­sion. I am writing to his lordship about the College of Villa Viciosa. God grant that it may be done just as I have told him it ought, for otherwise nothing much will be done at all. I am also writing to our Father Ignatius to explain the reasons for doubt which people will raise, for they are certainly not light matters. But God remains always the same ; this is His cause, and He will Himself defend it

Our brother Rocco Martinez is ill with a fever. We do not think it dangerous. He writes to you himself. The ships will only wait so short a time that I cannot write more, and all that is of most importance is contained in my general letter to all. If I could do anything by private letter, I certainly would very willingly.

May the holy Name of Jesus ever assist us !

Goa, Dec. 22, 1548.

The ships which brought the Fathers from Portugal this year must have conveyed the letters from Ignatius at Rome and Simon Rodriguez at Coimbra which Francis was always anxiously expecting. It seems that among the despatches from Ignatius there were letters to Antonio Criminale, Niccolo Lancilotti, Paul of Camerino, and Alfonso Cipriano, promot­ing them, as it is called, to their final vows in the Society in the grade of spiritual coadjutors. Francis must have remained about two months at Goa before returning to Cochin, if, at least, we can depend implicitly on the date of the letter last

printed. That he must have spent some time with the Fathers who had arrived since he left Goa in September, is probable on every account, and we may discern some fruits of his ac­quaintance with Antonio Gomez in the description which he gives to St. Ignatius, in the letter next to follow, of the sort of person required for the post of Rector of the College at Goa. We may notice also how especially Francis insists on the ne­cessity of good practical judgment and prudence, and of the most delicate of all the virtues required in the missioner,—ex­quisite purity. We may reserve further remarks in explanation of this letter until after it has been put before the reader.

(lxiii.) To the Rev. Father Master Ignatius of Loyola, General of the Society of Jesus, Rome.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Christ always be with us! Amen.

My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts of the world which are so dist­ant from’ Rome. In the first place, the whole race of the In­dians, as far as I have been able to see, is very barbarous; and it does not like to listen to anything that is not agreeable to its own manners and customs, which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are averse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God. You

know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long possession.

This country, too, always tries the strength to live in, either on account of the great heats of the summer or of the excessive winds and rains of winter. In Socotra, the Moluccas, and Cape Comorin, the food and supplies are very poor, and the labour of body and mind very great indeed and beyond all belief, on account of the dispositions of the people you have to contend with. Then, also, the languages of these nations are not at all easy to learn; the dangers to life, both of body and soul, are many and very great. And yet, that all of our Society may give endless thanks to God, I am able with all truth to affirm that all your children of the Society out here in India have great care taken of them by God, so that we are by His mercy not only exempt from dangers of soul and body, but, what is a mat­ter of great wonder to all, we are beloved and well regarded by all the Portuguese, private persons as well as officials and ecclesiastical superiors, and also by all the Indians, Christians- and heathens alike.

Again, all the Indians, whether heathen or Mussulmans, as- far as I have been able to make oat hitherto, are very ignorant. So that those who are to go about in these parts for the purpose of propagating the Gospel, are not so much in need of learning as of virtue—above all of obedience, perseverance, patience, charity, and a very singular purity against numerous temptations to sin ; and lastly, of an uncommon gift of counsel and prudence in the management of affairs, as well as strong health and vigour of body and mind, so as to bear labour and afflictions. I have said this, because I think it necessary that diligent examination should be made as to the virtues of the workers who may here­after have to come to India. And if there are any of them whom you have not sufficiently proved in this respect, at least,. I beseech you, let them be men in whom you may place great confidence. Such are the men who are wanted in India—men

of singular purity and humility, with no appearance about them of pride or elation.

Any one whom you are to send to be Rector of the College at Goa, where he will rule the native students as well as our own people, must have, besides the other qualities which are necessary in Rectors, two recommendations in particular. In the first place, let him be conspicuous for singular obedience, so as to win by his obligingness and humility the good will of the government officials and ecclesiastical superiors. This is a place of all others where superiors of both kinds require the greatest possible degree of attention and obedience from those who are under them. If they see that we observe their wishes and obey their orders, they are wonderfully kind to us; but if they see any failing in this, they altogether turn against us. In the second place, he should be very easy and gentle; affable in behaviour and speech rather than grave or severe, so ' as both to desire and to be able to bind to himself in every way the hearts of all, and especially of the students and bre­thren whom he is to rule. On no account let him be a man who would rather be feared than loved, and who would take the line of keeping those of the Society who are committed to him under rule and subjection as if they were slaves. That kind ot sourness would make many leave us, and prevent any but a few from joining us.

For my part, I think that no force should ever be used, except perhaps that of love and charity, to keep any one against his wish in the Society, and I rather hold that those who dis­like the institute of the Society should be sent away, even when they do not wish it; but, for those who are fit and proper sub­jects, they should be kept in it by the bonds of charity and made to increase in virtue and merits, especially since in these parts they have to bear so many sorrows for the sake of Christ 'our Lord. In truth, as it seems to me, the Society of Jesus is nothing but a society of love and concord, from which all sour­ness and all servile fear are altogether foreign and alien. I say all this, that you may pick out a man fit and adapted for the burthen of the post. He ought, in short, to be such a man as

even in giving an order seems rather to desire to do what he is told than to command.

The experience which I have of these countries makes me think that 1 can affirm with truth, that there is no prospect of perpetuating our Society out here by means of the natives them­selves, and that the Christian religion will hardly survive us who are now in the country; so that it is quite necessary that con­tinual supplies of ours should be sent out from Europe. We- have now some of the Society in all parts of India where there are Christians. Four are in the Moluccas, two at Malacca, six in the Comorin Promontory, two at Coulan, as many at Bazain, four at Socotra. The distances between these places are immense; for instance, the Moluccas are more than a thou­sand leagues from Goa, Malacca five hundred, Cape Comorin two hundred, Coulan one hundred and twenty, Bazain sixty, and Socotra three hundred.¹⁰ In each place there is one of the Society who is Superior of the rest. As these Superiors are men of remarkable prudence and virtue, the others are very well content.

The Portuguese in these countries are masters only of the sea and of the coast. On the mainland they have only the towns in which they live. The natives themselves are so enor­mously addicted to vice as to be little adapted to receive the Christian religion. They so dislike it that it is most difficult to get them to hear us if we begin to preach about it, and they think it like death to be asked to become Christians. So for the present we devote ourselves to keeping the Christians whom we have. Certainly, if the Portuguese were more remarkable for their kindness to the new converts, a great number would become Christians; as it is, the heathen see that the converts are despised and looked down on by the Portuguese, and so, as is natural, they are unwilling to become converts themselves. For all these reasons there is no need for me to labour in these countries, and as I have learnt from good authorities that there

¹⁰ The distances given by St. Francis are sometimes various, and must always be taken as merely rough statements. There may be some inac­curacy, also, in the transcription of the letters on these points.

is a country near China called Japan, the inhabitants of which are all heathen, quite untouched by Mussulmans or Jews, and very eager to learn what they do not know both in things divine and things natural, I have determined to go thither as soon as I can.

I undertake this voyage with great happiness in my soul, and with still greater hope, because I feel quite confident that the labour we may spend on that nation will produce solid and lasting fruit. In the College at Goa, which is called the Col­lege of Santa Fk, we have three Japanese students who came thither with me last year from Malacca. They tell us wonder­ful things about Japan. They are youths of very good virtue and extremely sharp wit; Paul in particular, who is sending you a letter of very good length. In the space of eight months he has learnt perfectly to read, write, and speak Portuguese. He is now making the Exercises, and with very good fruit. He is quite well instructed in the Christian doctrine. I have really a very good hope that by God’s help there will be a large num­ber made Christians in Japan. I have made up my mind first to go to the king of the country, and then to the universities and seats of learning, and, as I hope, with great gain of souls. As Paul tells me, the religions of Japan are said to have been introduced from Chinghinquo, a city beyond China and Cathay, a year and a half’s journey from Japan. When I get to Japan I will write to tell you all about the manners and literature of the people and also about the religion and the doctrines of Chinghinquo. For in all the Chinese Empire and in all Cathay it is said that no other teaching flourishes except that which is handed down in this most famous university. So that when I have got well acquainted with their literature and the doctrine of this place of learning I will write to you about it all at good length. And I shall not fail also to write on the same subject to the University of Paris, that by means of the people there the rest of the universities of Europe may have information of these things. Of those of the Society here I think to take with me only one European, Cosmo Torres of Yalentia, who has joined us out here, and besides those three Japanese youths

whom I have mentioned. We shall set out, God willing, in next April.

Japan is more than thirteen hundred leagues distant from Goa. We must touch at Malacca and at-China on our way. I cannot find words to tell you how much fruit of divine con­solation and delight I enjoy in undertaking this business. It is well known that the voyage is exposed to very many and very great dangers from tempests, shoals, and pirates; so that the ship owners think it a great thing if one ship out of two hold her course to Japan. But I feel so moved and encour­aged in my inmost heart, that I could never think of abandon­ing my plan of going to Japan, even if I knew for certain that I should have to undergo greater dangers than ever before in my whole life, so great is the hope of propagating the Christian religion which has arisen in me from what Paul the Japanese tells me, or rather from what God Himself puts in my heart. How fit and prepared the country is to receive the seed of the Gospel you will be able to understand from Paul’s account of it, which I send you along with this letter.

In these parts of India there are as many as fifteen towns belonging to the Portuguese, in which many houses of the So­ciety might be set on foot if the King would give something out of the public revenues for their commencement. I have said something about this to the King in my letter. I have also informed Simon Rodriguez of everything, and have also told him that it would be very much for the interests of religion if, with your leave, he were to come out here himself with as many as possible of the Society, and a great band of preachers, inasmuch as by his coming, which of course would have the King’s favour,- several Colleges of the Society might be founded. And to me, my Father, it does seem that the coming to India of Simon, who is so high in favour with the King, will be very seasonable. For he will come with authority from the King, either to found colleges or to assist the Christians—both those that are so already, and those that would be, if there were any one to show them favour. I wish that you would write to Simon what you wish to be done in the matter; for Antonio Gomez

has told me that Simon has certainly made up his mind to come out to India with a great number of our people from Coimbra.

Both at Rome and elsewhere you have no lack of men of our Society who are not given to preaching or to literature, and who might be of great advantage to religion out here if only they had sufficient experience, and if they were furnished with the other virtues necessary for helping the heathen, but espe­cially with remarkable purity; and if they had also consider­able strength of body and mind, so as to bear the very great labours that have to be borne in these countries. So you must provide for us such workers according as seems good to you.

You would also do a thing well worth your while, and which would, as I hope, be pleasing to God, if you would send out to us all of the Society who are in India a letter full of spiritual precepts, as a sort of will and testament by means of which you impart to the least of your children who are at such a distance from the sight of you, the riches and treasures which you have received from God. Do it at your leisure ; but I do beseech you some time or other grant us this favour. Enrico Enriquez, a Portuguese priest of our Society, a man of excellent virtue and good example, who is now in the Promontory of Comorin, writes and speaks the Malabar tongue very well indeed; and so lie alone works with great profit as if he were a great many. His sermons and private conversations have made him a mar­vellous object of love and veneration to the native Christians. I beg of you to let such a man, so good, so laborious, so useful a worker in the vineyard of Christ, ^c who bears the burthen and heat of the day/¹¹ have the consolation of a letter from yourself.

There is a town called Cranganor, which belongs to the Por­tuguese, about twenty miles from Cochin, where Fra Vincenzo, of the most holy order of St. Francis, who is also socins to the Bishop of Goa, and a most true friend to our Society, has founded a really fine seminary, where quite as many as a hun­dred native students are maintained and formed in piety and learning. In his goodwill towards our Society Fra Vincenzo does not surpass the Bishop of Goa himself, who now has juris-

¹¹ Qtti portat pondus diei ct astus. (Orig.)

diction over the whole of India, who is very devoted to us, and who desires to have your friendship; and so I should like you to write to him. But to return to Fra Vincenzo. He told me> out of the kindness which exists between us, that he wishes to intrust and hand over his seminary to our Society 3 and he has asked me again and again to inform you of his intention, and to provide a priest of the Society who may teach grammar to- the students of this seminary, and preach to the inmates and to the people 011 Sundays and festivals. There is reason for this, because, besides the Portuguese inhabitants of the place, there are a great many Christians living in sixty villages in the neigh­bourhood, descended from those whom St. Thomas made Chris­tians. The students of the seminary are of the highest nobility.

In this town there are two churches, one of St. Thomas, one of St. James. Fra Vincenzo, whom I have mentioned, hopes very much that you will get each of them a plenary in­dulgence once a year from the Holy Father, on the feasts of St. Thomas and St. James, and the seven days after each. This would be to increase the piety of the natives who are descended from the converts of St. Thomas, and are called Christians of St. Thomas. And besides these indulgences, he expects you to send him a priest to be a master and preacher in the town. These boons will bind him so closely to us, that he will be our own devoted friend in life and after death. He has committed this business to me very urgently. I can’t tell you how he longs for the indulgences.

I will ask you one thing for myself: that some priest of ours may throughout the year say mass once a month for me at St. Pietro in Montorio, in the chapel where St. Peter the Apostle is said to have been crucified. I wish also that you would charge some one in the Gesii to write to us regularly and fully concerning the Colleges of the Society, the professed Fathers, their duties, and the work that the Society is doing and the fruit it is reaping. I have given orders at Goa that the letters from Rome be sent to Malacca, and that at Malacca they be copied and sent to me by many different hands to Japan.

And now, father of my soul, whom I venerate with all my

heart, I humbly pray you on my knees, for so it is that I write this letter, as if I had you here present to look upon, never to cease to implore God for me in your holy sacrifices and prayers, that as long as my life lasts He may give me the grace clearly to know and fully to carry out His own most holy Will. And I ask the rest of our brethren to be entreated to do the same for me.

Your least and useless son,

Cochin, Jan. 14, 1549. FRANCIS XAVIER.

The account of himself and of Japan referred to in this letter, as given by Anger, now called Paul of the Holy Faith, is still extant, as it was preserved both at Rome and at Coimbra,, though we are not aware that the documents have ever been printed. In the letter to Ignatius Anger gives a short history of his adventures and of the manner of his conversion. The substance of this history has been related in a former chapter. The other document, about Japan, is long and interesting, and, together with the statements made by Portuguese merchants trading with that country, must have formed the founda­tion of all the knowledge possessed by Francis Xavier con­cerning it until he landed on its shores. The most curious statement in the letter which has just been inserted is that about the place or university called Chinghinquo—or, as it stands in. the ordinary versions, Jenico—from which the religions off Japan, and, as Francis tells us in the companion letter to Simon Rodriguez, of China and Tartary also, are said to be derived. This mysterious university has puzzled most of the editors of the letters of Francis Xavier. The most reasonable explanation of the matter is, we think, to be found in the account of Japan drawn up from Anger’s statements, and sent to Europe, to which we have just now referred. In that account Anger gives the story of the origin of the religion in a country (tierra) beyond China towards the west, called ‘ Chinguinquo or Chenguinco,’ in which was born the holy prince Xaqua, whose history he then relates. This history is identical in all its main features- with that of Sakya-mouni, the founder of Bhuddism, the more

salient points of whose doctrine and whose five precepts are given in the document. The scene of Sakya-mouni’s history lies about the Ganges, but it may be doubted whether Anger’s statement was founded upon anything more than the dim know­ledge which he had that the religion of his country had come from the West.

It may be observed also that Francis speaks in this, as in the following letter, of arrangements which he contemplated as if they were already made, considering, no doubt, the lapse of time which would intervene between the dispatch of his letter and its reception by Ignatius. No members of the Society were as yet at Socotra. The following letter is dated on the same day as the last. It must be remembered that Francis could only send letters at very long intervals, and that he pro­bably wrote from time to time as he had leisure, and dated the letters when he was about to make up his packet. This next letter explains more fully his designs as to Socotra. The men­tion of Antonio Criminale reminds us that we have said but little hitherto about this distinguished Father, who was in a very short time from this to be the first of the Society to receive the crown of martyrdom in the Indies. He was still in the flower of youth—barely twenty-nine years of age. He was born in 1520, near Parma, and it was at that city that in 1540 he fell under the spell which the fervent and gentle spirit of Pierre Lefevre threw over all who came near him. Lefevre had been sent to Parma in company ofLaynez, and had given the Exer­cises to a large number of persons, among whom was a good priest, Pezzani by name, a friend of the young Antonio, whom he brought to Pierre Lefevre. Antonio made the Exercises, and put himself entirely under Pierre’s direction. The next year he went to Rome alone and on foot, as a pilgrim, and was received by Ignatius into the house of the Society on probation. He was about to be admitted, when his mother died, and his father called him home. Ignatius advised him to go, and he so won on his father by his holy, devout, unworldly manners after his return, that in a few days he obtained his consent to his entering the Society; and he set out again on foot to beg his

way to Rome, leaving behind him a wonderful increase of fer­vour and piety among his brothers and sisters. He was received into the Society in April 1542, and at once ordained sub­deacon. Then he was sent, with six other young men, one of whom was the well-known Pedro Ribadineira, the sportive, boisterous boy, who was a sort of spoiled child to Ignatius, on a long pilgrimage, which was to lead some of them to Paris for their studies, others, among whom was Antonio, as far as Coim­bra. He was ordained Priest in 1544, and came to India in 1545, with Don Joam de Castro, as has already been stated. Having been so much at Rome, he was well known to Ignatius, and this will explain the special mention made of him in the following letter. Moreover, Ignatius had just admitted him to his last vows, and we have still Antonio’s letter of thanks to him for this favour, dated a few weeks before the letter of Francis Xavier, with which it was probably enclosed.

(lxiv.) To the Rev. Father Master Ignatius of Loyola, General of the Society of Jesus, Rome.

May the peace and charity of Christ our Lord be always with us ! Amen.

My own and only Father in the Heart of Jesus Christ,—I have written to you three letters almost in the same words and at great length, which I have committed to the care of M. Simon. Antonio Criminale, with six others of the Society, is in the Promontory of Comorin. He is in truth, believe me, a holy man—a man made for work in these countries; and as you have many in Europe like him, I want you to send a good number of such out here. He is Superior of the others in the Comorin mission. He is wonderfully dear to the native Chris­tians and to the heathen and Mussulmans, and I can hardly tell you^how the fathers and brethren under him love him. Father Cipriano, who already suffers from old age, is to go to the island of Socotra; he is to leave at the end of January, and will take with him three of ours—one priest, the rest lay brothers. Socotra is an island about a hundred miles round, all its inha­

bitants are Christians, but such as have hardly anything Chris­tian but the name, as many years ago they were deprived of Catholic priests. They say that they are descended from the Christians converted by St. Thomas the Apostle. I am in hopes that by the labours of Cipriano and the others they will come to better things. The island is very poor in crops and provisions; a rough place enough and full of troubles. And yet Cipriano, who is already sixty years old, is going there with great good wall, full of confidence that he may do a good work for God there, and at the same time do penance for the faults of his youth. Although at first he alleged the excuse ot his declining age, Avhich is not able to bear much labour, yet he directly afterwards declared that he would go without any difficulty at all if there were need. Niccolo Lancilotti, although an invalid, is now better, and is at Coulan, a town of a good salubrious air, about eighty miles from Cochin. He is there at the head of the foundation of a College.

And indeed a great many Colleges of the Society would be started in these parts if Master Simon (as I have already said in a letter to you) were to be sent out with great powers from the King, and bring with him a large number of the Society, of whom six or seven should be preachers, and many fit for hear­ing confessions, giving spiritual exercises, receiving heathen into the Church, and all of whom should be men of selfcom­mand and experience in affairs. I have also written to the King concerning Master Simon, that his Highness may send him with power not only to begin Colleges, but also to confer favours on the native Christians and the heathen, whom ever so little an amount of favour would make willing converts to Christianity.

I send you the Japanese characters. The Japanese write in a very different manner from other nations, beginning at the top of the page and writing straight downwards to the bottom. I asked Paul the Japanese why they did not write as we do ? ‘ Why, rather,’ said he, ‘ do not you write as we do ? The head of a man is at the top and his feet at the bottom, and so it is proper that Avhen men write it should be straight down from

top to bottom.’ I also send you an account of Japan, and of the manners of the natives, which Paul has given me. He is a very religious and trustworthy man. Two months hence I shall sail for Japan with Father Cosmo Torres, Paul, and two other Japanese, if God so will. When I am there I will write you an account of what their books contain, for I cannot get at this from Paul, who w^Tas a layman, and so never had any ac­quaintance with the literary monuments of Japan, which are in a sort of different language, like books written in Latin among ourselves. May Jesus our Lord teach us to do His will,¹² and after we have passed through the troubles of this life, bring us into His blessed and eternal home ! Amen.

Cochin, Jan. 14, 1549.

The letter to the king, mentioned just above, must have been different from that which we are next to insert, which is written with even more than usual freedom and severity of language. Some persecution had probably been raging in Ceylon against the new Christians, and the inveterate evil of a conflict of in­terests and objects between the king’s officers and the Francis­can missionaries had produced the usual result of the frustra­tion of the work of the latter. We are not told whether the king spoken of was the Rajah of Candy, or the Rajah of Jafana- patam. The Franciscan Superior seems to have made up his mind to go to Europe himself to plead the cause of religion with the King. His name has already been mentioned in the letter of Francis to the King, written the year before this.

(lxv.) To John III. King of Portugal.

I do not write to your Highness all the calumnies, wrongs, and vexations with which the recent converts to our holy reli­gion out here are harassed and oppressed. The Father Fra Joam of Villa da Conde, who is on his way to you, will give your Highness a full and most true account of everything of this sort, and will put the whole matter, as it were, before your

^1J Doceat nos facere voluntatcm suam. (Orig.)

very eyes. He is a man to whom your Highness owes very many thanks for the great and innumerable labours which he has undergone in these countries of India in the service of God and of your Highness, to make more easy for you the account which the conscience and duty of your Highness exacts from you before God. But in measuring the deserts of Father Fra Joam, I would have your Highness take into consideration not only the exertions, the sufferings, the long watchings, and other bodily troubles, however many, great, and continuous they may have been, which he has had to undergo. All these things are mere child’s play and sport when compared with the distress of mind, the terrible torments which have torn his soul to pieces, in seeing with his own eyes, and without any power to prevent it in any way, how the Commandants of your Highness’s forts and the Procurator of your revenues savagely plunder and ra­vage and make a prey of these most miserable neophytes, these tender babes in the faith of Jesus Christ which they have only just adopted, and whom on that account these same Christian offi­cers, who subject them to every vexation, ought rather to have cherished and to have loaded with every benefit. Believe me, Sire, this kind of heart pang is bitterest of all,' far more than all the pains of the body; it is indeed, so to speak, a very dread­ful kind of martyrdom, more terrible than any torture which tyrants can inflict, to be forced to keep still and be patient when you see destroyed in one moment, by the fault of others, all the good that had almost been brought to its final crown and consummation by most strenuous exertions and most pain­ful perseverance of yourself and others, continued during a long space of time.

We have heard it reported here as certain, that the King of Ceylon is sending some very precious presents to your High­ness, in return for the many great benefits which he daily re­ceives from you. Now let your Highness understand as an undoubted fact, that in this man a most fierce and bitter enemy of Christ reigns in Ceylon, and, what it is almost a crime to say, is authorized and furnished with arms for injuring the cause of Christ and for oppressing our religion as much as he can, by

no power on earth more than by the favour and the gifts he receives from your Highness. These things are as true as truth itself. Your Highness and others will not perhaps like to hear them, and I certainly write them with very great reluctance, especially as I fear that I shall have done so to no purpose; and when we who are here form our conjectures as to the future from the experience of the past, there is very great reason for us to fear that after this it will be as it has been hitherto, and that your Highness will show greater favour to that declared and bloody enemy of Jesus Christ of whom I speak than to the religious priests who are working for Christianity in Ceylon. When people see these things going on before their eyes, the clear evident facts sometimes prompt them to free speeches about you, which, Sire, with your good leave, I wall here insert. They say that your Highness does not use your imperial power in India for the enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ, but only for the purpose of scraping together riches and securing for yourself, and those who belong to you, human and temporal advantages alone.

I pray your Highness to pardon me if I put things as they are, so clearly and without circumlocution; for I am compelled to do this by my sincere and true love for your Highness, and the desire which I have for your eternal salvation. I seem to myself to hear the sentence of God at the great Judgment Day giving out His decree, or rather declaring then to all what He has before decreed at your last moment, when you die; the stern necessity of which moment no one however powerful can avoid, no one, either by artifice of his own or the work of any one whatsoever, is able to escape. Nor, I beseech you, let your Highness think much of those commands, many and grave as they are, which you piously and with such fair show are in the habit of inserting in your royal letters to the Governor, the Commandants, and the other officials in India, ordering that before all things else care be taken for religion, and favour be shown to the Christians; for I, Sire, who am on the spot to see things as they really are here, am clearly convinced that no hope remains of any true and serious obedience being ever

VOL. II. o

paid to these commands. And on this account it is one, and not the least, of the reasons why I intend to go to Japan, that I may fly away to those islands in the extreme East, and there labour for God with greater usefulness than has been possible to me hitherto.

Father Fra Joam takes with him, in order to be communi­cated to your Highness, certain statements concerning the un­happy Christians of the Comorin Coast. I beg your Highness to have some pity upon them, and not to think it too much trouble to be a father to them; for they are indeed fatherless, on account of the late death of Miguel Vaz, in whom they have lost a most excellent and a most true father.

It is now five and forty years that a certain Armenian Bishop, by name Abuna Jacob, has served God and your High­ness in this country. He is a man who is about as dear to God on account of his virtue and holiness as he is neglected and despised by your Highness, and in general by all who have any power in India. God thus rewards his great deserts Himself, and does not think us worthy of the honour of being the in­struments whom He uses to console His servants. The Fran­ciscan Fathers alone take care of him, and show him kindness to which nothing can be added. But for this, the good old man would long ago have breathed out his soul, worn out by affliction. Allow me, Sire, to advise what I think would be well. I would very much recommend your Highness to order a letter to be written in your name to this good Bishop in kind and honourable terms, and to let an order which may be shown to the Governors and Procurators, your officers, be inserted in the same letter, enjoining on them, and especially on the Com­mandant of Cochin, to show him honour, give him hospitality, and treat him with favour and attention, especially whenever he asks for or is in need of anything. While I have been writing this I have seemed to myself to be serving and doing a favour, not so much to that pious Bishop as to your Highness. For at present, from the charity of the Franciscan Fathers, he wants for nothing, while your Highness is very greatly in want of the goodwill and intercession of a man very acceptable to God

as he is, and this benefit you will be able to earn by such an act of kindness as I mention. This Bishop very greatly de­serves such treatment on this account if on no other—that he has spent much labour in attending to the Christians of St. Thomas, and now in his all but decrepit old age he conforms himself most obediently to all the rites and customs of our holy Mother the Roman Church. I know that your Highness is in the habit of writing to the Franciscan Fathers, and this letter to the Armenian Bishop might be inserted in the same packet; and I would urge your Highness to write it full of all manner of expressions of your favour, esteem and affection for him.

And now may God our Lord impress deeply on the mind of your Highness a clear knowledge of His most holy will, and may He at the same time supply you with strength and give you His holy assistance, that you may fully and perfectly exe­cute the same in such wise as your Highness would rejoice to have done in the final hour of death, when, Sire, you will have to give to God an account of all your life up to that time! That moment, which will decide on your eternity, will come more quickly than your Highness thinks, and §o it is well to take measures in good time that you may go to meet it well pre­pared. Kingdoms and reigns pass away, and after them will succeed a new and most unexpected aspect of affairs, such as never yet came into the mind of your Highness, not even in thought or in the first beginnings of suspicion. For you will see yourself despoiled by death of your kingdom, cast out from all your possessions, and thrust forth into other realms, far different from these—realms of terror and darkness, into which it will be a very hard and a very bitter lot to be banished after having been torn away from those others of your own : more especially if—what God avert!—you were to be sentenced to remain outside Paradise, and to be denied all hope of ever en­tering there.

Your Highness’s useless servant,

Cochin, Jan. 26, 1549. FRANCIS.

The next letter which remains to us seems probably made up of more than one despatched to Simon Rodriguez by the

same ship which took the letters to the King and to Igna­tius. At least, the copy of the letter preserved in the College at Coimbra ends with the paragraph at p. 90 about Fra Vin­cenzo and Cranganor. We shall speak in the next chapter of the final arrangements made by Francis as to the posts and employments of the members of the Society before he left India, and need here only repeat the remark that neither the mission of Cipriano to Socotra, nor that of Antonio Gomez to Ormuz, of which place we now hear for the first time in these letters, really took effect. The rest of the letter needs no explanation.

(lxvi.) To Master Shnon Rodriguez.

I can find no words, my dearest Brother Simon, enough to^ express the amount of joy which the arrival of Antonio Gomez- and the others who came with him caused me. I must tell you that they are making great progress in piety, and that by the- good example of their lives, by the sermons they preach, by the confessions they hear, by the meditations they give, and by their private conversations, they advance the interests of re­ligion wonderfully, and every one is exceedingly pleased with them. There is indeed much need of such excellent men of our Society out here, especially in the city of Ormuz and in the town of Diu, places which want good preachers much more than Goa itself, so great is the number of Portuguese who are- there living in a way altogether degenerate from-Christian rules- and laws. So, in order to meet the necessity, I have deter­mined to send to Ormuz Antonio Gomez, a man highly gifted’ with powers of preaching and doing other kinds of work of our Society. Master Gaspar will remain in the College of Santa F£„ You will most certainly gain great favour with God if you come out to India with as many as may be of the Society, bringing seven or eight good preachers with you, and other men of much experience and moderation. There is no such great need of much learning for the conversion of the heathen, for the people in these countries are very barbarous and ignor­ant, so that men even of moderate learning may do very ser­

viceable work for God out here, provided they are men of greaf virtue and strength. In all the towns in India where we could place a preacher of our Society with another priest to help him in hearing confessions and doing the other functions of our Society, it would be possible to have a house of the Society for the sake of educating the children of the Portuguese and of the natives.

I have written to our Father Ignatius to give you leave to come, and also to the King to send you to India with a large company of our Society and with great authority from himself. If this shall come about, you may believe me that your coming will be of much greater advantage to religion than you think. Another thing about which I have written to the King, is to get him to provide for the children of the Portuguese whose parents have lost their lives in his service and left their children orphans and poor. For no one thinks of paying them the salaries and sustenance which are owing to their parents. So that it would not be out of the way to found some colleges in India where orphans of this sort might not only be supported, but also edu­cated. And as the King is bound also to look after the welfare of the natives, it would be for the interests of religion to give orders that the children of native Christians in certain places should have the Catechism taught them. So I am writing to his Highness to assign, if it seems good to him, about five thou­sand gold pieces out of the revenue of Bazain for the opening of a house of this kind. I hope confidently that the King, with the good help of God, will do all these things by means of your coming out.

I have lately heard of the country of Japan, which lies be­yond China more than six hundred miles. They tell us that the inhabitants are very clever, very desirous of learning not only religious truth, but also the natural truths which are a part of education. The Portuguese who have come back from Japan tell us this, and indeed it is proved well enough by cer­tain Japanese themselves, who last year came with me from Malacca to India, and have lately been made Christians at Goa, in the College of Santa Fe. You will be able to see this

well enough yourself from the account of Japanese matters which we have sent you, which we got from Paul the Japanese, who is called Paul of the Holy Faith, a man really of very ex­cellent virtue and perfect truthfulness. He is writing to you about himself and his affairs, and the benefits which God has bestowed upon him. So in the month of April next I in­tend to go to Japan with Cosmo Torres, a priest of our Society • for I am persuaded that the Christian religion will be propa­gated in those parts far and wide; add to this, that here I am doing nothing, and am not wanted, since, on account of our brethren who have come out this year, my work is by no means necessary to the Indians, more especially as in a short time you are either coming out yourself, or going to send out some one else in your place with a large body of our Society. I do hope very much that you will come yourself. I also think that just at your arrival I shall have reached Japan, and you will set things in good order here according to what I say in these letters, and then if God, as I hope, gives me a favourable opportunity of doing some good work in Japan, we shall see one another again at Goa.

Then as time goes on, a great many of our Society, by the good help of God, will penetrate into China, and from China into that famous University of Chinghinquo, which lies beyond China and Cathay. For Paul tells me that all the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Tartars get their religion from the city of Chinghinquo. The religion of Japan is contained in certain recondite books which the common people know nothing of, just as Latin books are not known to them among ourselves. For this reason Paul, who is a private person and knows nothing at all about the literature, says he has nothing to tell us about the religious doctrines of the country. When I get there, if God so- wills, I will write to you at full length what these sacred books of theirs contain. My plan is, as soon as I arrive in Japan, to go­to the king himself and the principal seats of learning, which are to be found in the royal cities ; and when I have made myself well acquainted with all these matters, I intend to write what I have found out, not only to India, but to the Universities of

Portugal, of Italy, and above all of Paris, and admonish them, while they are devoting themselves heart and soul to learned studies, not to think themselves so free and disengaged from responsibility as to take no trouble at all about the ignorance of the heathen and the loss of their immortal souls.

Pedro Gonsalvi, the Vicar of Cochin, who is a very great friend of our Society, is writing to commend to you some affairs of his own. I pray and beseech you not to fail to do all that you can in his case, both as regards the King and as regards the benefits which he asks for the Christians who form his people. You may be quite sure that h$ is a true and genuine friend of the Society; he takes into his own house with the ut­most kindness all of ours who have to be at Cochin. Another thing—I want you to get eight or ten casks of wine for the Fathers at Goa, and those who are dispersed over the whole East, to be used at mass. Wine is very necessary out here; but it is not only very dear but also extremely scarce. Our Fathers at Malacca, at Cape Comorin, at Socotra, and in the Moluccas have no wine for the holy Sacrifice except what is brought from India. The Bishop of Goa and the Franciscan Fathers have wine furnished them at the public expense from Portugal; and in the same way the King ought to assign a quantity of wine to the College of Santa Fk, whence it may be sent to the other Fathers.

Father Cipriano is to go this year to the island of Socotra with one priest and two lay brothers. In that island there is a certain Mussulman lord who has gained supreme power by violence and rules against all the laws of justice and right. He cruelly oppresses and persecutes the Christian inhabitants ; he takes their children from them and makes them Mahometans, besides overwhelming the parents themselves with infinite ills and troubles. I wish you very much to urge the King, in his great desire to protect religion, to do something at last in the way of looking after these Christians. He can do it without any expense and with no trouble, if he will give orders to his fleet on its way to the Indian seas to put down the Mussul­mans, who are really weak. The inhabitants have had all their

arms taken from them, and are oppressed by the yoke of a very severe bondage; and so they hate the very name of the Mus­sulmans. So I pray you, by Jesus Christ our Lord, to interfere in favour of the liberty of those Socotrians, since they are really in a state of such unjust slavery. The whole aspect of the island is really wretched. Some years ago, when I was on my way to these parts, the lot of the inhabitants moved my pity very much, so cruelly are they persecuted by the Arabs, who have the command of the seas. The whole matter, as I say, can be settled with no expense, at the simple command of the King. Alfonso Souza, who was formerly Governor of India, can give abundant testimony to what I say, as he has seen all these things with his own eyes.

I have sent Manuel Vaz¹³ back to Goa, thinking it not best to let him return to Portugal. After seeing Antonio Gomez at Goa, I have thought it better to make Master Gaspar Rector of the College; so that Antonio may be freed from all care, and be able to give himself entirely to preaching, hearing the con­fessions of the people, and giving the Spiritual Exercises. He has much more facility for these things than for government, especially as Gaspar is very good in bearing the burthen of the administration of the house. Give orders, I beseech you, that every year some of the Society are sent out hither after you, and let most of them be priests. Write also to Rome and to all places where the Society exists, that they may send to Coimbra some priests of great experience and noted virtue, who, not being highly gifted with learning or powers of speak­ing so as to be fit for preaching, or not being very useful in Europe for the work which is done in our Colleges, will be of great use out here in the conversion of the heathen. For al­though they may do a certain amount of good where they are, yet their industry will certainly be much more fruitful in good out here. If there are any besides who have completed their

. ^{U The text has} Michael, or Miguel, but it is a mistake, founded on the similarity of the name of the late Vicar. Manuel Vaz was a lay brother, who seems to have lost his vocation. He had come to India the year be­fore this.

•course at Coimbra, I think you should send them hither to us for the same reason. I entreat you, do not permit it to happen that any year should pass without our having a supply of the Society sent out. Those who are now at the College of Goa have not yet sufficient experience, learning, and virtue for the conversion of the heathen.

At Bazain the King, at the request of Miguel Vaz, who was formerly the Vicar General of India, allotted three thousand .gold pieces for the building of a house in which the children of the native Christians were to be instructed. It is thought here that the King wished the administration of that house to be •committed to our Society; for eight or nine of our Society, and six Franciscans, came out with Miguel from Portugal. But Miguel landed the Franciscans at Bazain, and gave to them, to •distribute and dispense, the money which the King at the re­quest of the Governor Joam de Castro had assigned for the •conversion of the heathen. I went lately to Bazain to arrange some affairs for the Christians of the Moluccas, and had some -conversation with the Franciscans. They are reduced to a very small number, and again and again begged me to send thither some one of the Society who might provide necessaries for the •converts out of the money so assigned, and might also admin­ister the Seminary; so I left Melchior Gonsalvez there with a companion.

Now that Miguel Vaz and Fra Diego de Borba are lately •dead, the management of the College at Goa has come to Cosmo Joam, who, having undertaken the care of the revenues and of the completion of the building, found himself so much occupied by business of the King’s, that since the arrival of Antonio Gomez he has made over the charge of the College altogether to the Society. It is now the proper time that the •cession should be confirmed by royal authority. I would have you get a diploma issued, and bring it with you to India.

There is a town of the King’s called Cranganor, fifteen miles from Cochin. There there is a fine College, which was built by Fra Vincenzo, the companion of the Bishop, where as imany as a hundred youths, children of the native Christians,

who are called Christians of St. Thomas, are educated; for there are sixty villages of these Christians of St. Thomas around the town, and from them the students I speak of are derived. If you ask what sort of a place it is, it looks really very hand­some, whether as regards the site or the elevation of the build­ing itself. Fra Vincenzo has done a wonderful work in these parts. He is extremely friendly to me and to our whole So­ciety. He assures me that he is taking measures to leave the administration of the College in our hands when he dies. He is very urgent in asking for a priest of our Society, well versed in grammar, to teach the pupils and to preach to the people on festival days. We must do as he wishes; and I beseech you to send out such a priest as he wants who may do just as he tells him in everything.

At Cranganor there are two churches; one of St. Thomas, which is very piously frequented by the Christians of St. Thomas, and another of St. James, adjoining the College. Fra Vincenzo wishes very much that Indulgences should be obtained for both these churches, to be a consolation for these Christians and to increase piety. So I beg you very much to procure, either through our people at Rome or through the Pontifical Nuncio at Lisbon, a yearly plenary Indulgence for each, beginning from the Vigil of St. James and the Vigil of St. Thomas respectively, and lasting for the eight following days. I would have this In­dulgence offered only to those who may have duly approached the Sacraments of Penance and holy Communion, and then piously and devoutly visited these churches at Cranganor. If you will manage these two petitions which I have made to you in the name of Fra Vincenzo, and if at the same time you send him a kind and obliging letter, you may be sure that you will bind him to yourself and to the Society for ever. I also beg of you again and again to write in the same way to the Bishop, who is a very great lover of our Society.

I have written to the King to ask him to make a certain priest, Estevan Luis Buralho by name, a chaplain of his High­ness. I have done this not so much for his own sake as be­cause he has some sisters who are orphans and poor, and if

their brother is looked upon with honour as having a post in the King’s Court he will easily be able to find husbands for his sisters. In making marriages out here there is a great de­sire for connection with men of good family who are in favour with the King; so if you manage this, you will have safely provided for three orphan girls. The mother of this priest is married again to Gonsalvo Fernando Concinati, and her son desires to gain favour at Court in order to make his stepfather also a good friend to himself and his sisters. He desires there­fore that the King should make this stepfather one of his own honorary Chamberlains, without salary, and he persuades him­self that if he becomes one of the Court in this way, he will treat himself and his sisters with the love of a father.

The Franciscans are all our best possible friends, but par­ticularly the Guardiano Antonio Casali. He will finish his turn of Superior in two years, and wishes very much to return to Portugal; so I beg of you to get him letters and faculties from the King, enabling him to go back as soon as his time is over, for he is now in his fifth year out here, working for God and the King.

Father Niccolo Lancilotti, whom I have sent to Coulan for the sake of his health, is getting better every day. He is a man just exactly made to please the people there. There is now a talk of establishing a College there, for the instruction first of the children of the Portuguese, and in the second place of the Christians of Comorin and of St. Thomas. The people of the town are not very numerous, and are badly off, so that they cannot even begin a seminary of themselves. I have written about the business to the King, showing him of what great advantage to religion such a College would be. Please to get the King to send orders to the Governor of India and to his own Procurator to build the house at the public expense,, and to build it large in size, so that many orphans both of Por­tuguese and native parents may be supported there. Coulan is a place where all things are very plentiful and very cheap, so that at no great expense a very large number of students might be supported.

If you come hither yourself, my dearest brother Simon, your coming will certainly be very greatly for the benefit of the Christian religion and also for your own delight, but this is all provided that you come armed with authority from the King both to advance the worship of God and relieve the na­tive Christians. So I admonish you again, to come richly sup­ported by the King and the Queen that you may keep the com­mandants and royal treasurers to their duty; that will be the one way for you to do service to India and the worship of Christ greater than any one would ever expect.

I have received joyful news from Malacca, as to the good work done by Francesco Perez and Rocco Oliveira for religion. You will learn all from their own letters. We have also the best of news from the Moluccas. JoamBeira and his com­panions are working under great hardships and in perpetual danger of life, to the great increase of the Christain faith. The report spread about concerning the murder of Beira seems, to me at least, to have nothing in it. Only a little before the time named he wrote me a most diligent account of all that he was doing, all his trials and dangers. After the ships left Ternate his companions wintered for three months at Am- boyna. Meanwhile Joam Beira came to Ternate from the Maurica to the commandant, to ask him to send a force of Portuguese to help the Christians there. On his return thither from Ternate, it is said that something very sad happened to him, but I can find nothing about it either in any letters that have come or upon any good authority. However, I can affirm for certain, that those who love God and their neighbour are tried out there, like gold in the furnace. I do not know whe­ther anywhere else in the whole Christian world those who serve God and work for the salvation of souls have so many labours and so many and so great dangers of death to try their virtue, as in that land of the Maurica. I wish you to pray God for those of ours who have gone there, and for those who are to go, for I have determined shortly to send two or three of our Society. It is my opinion that those islands of the Moor will give many martyrs to our Society, and they will soon have

to be called not islands of the Moor but islands of Martyrdom. So those of ours who desire to give their lives for Christ may be of good heart and rejoice, for they have now a training place of martyrdom ready to their hands where they may satisfy their desire.

The voyage to Japan and China, as all people warn me, is very full of sufferings and dangers. I have as yet had no ex­perience of it, but when I have made it—I shall sail,'as I think, in about two months and a half from this—I will write you word all about that and everything else. So when you come to India, with the goodwill of God, next year, as I suppose, you will re­ceive letters from me from Japan. Nunez Ribera is at Am- boyna, in a very safe town where there are a great many Chris­tians ; I understand from his letters that he is working with very good fruit. The two of ours who are in the Comorin Promon­tory are of great service to religion. You will be able to un­derstand this well enough from their own letters which I send on to you, in which they tell you fully all that they are doing. It has pleased God to call our dear and very sweet brother Adam Francesco out of this life to Himself, to give him the reward of his many and great labours here. His death answered to his life, and that, as far as I have heard from others and as I saw myself, was rich in holiness. He was a very pious man, and had a great and burning zeal fonbringing heathen to the flock of Christ. I commend myself to his prayers far more than I commend him in mine to God, for I hold it for certain that he is now enjoying the bliss for which he was born.

I am now on my way to Goa, to prepare myself a good time for my voyage to Japan next April. I shall go from Goa to Cambaia to the Governor of India, who is now at Bazain, that he may make arrangements for the interests of the Christians in the Moluccas, and provide for those of our Society whom I am soon going to send thither. One of these will be a preacher who may remain in the royal town, and preside over the com­mencement of a college where the children of the Christians of the Mauricas and of the Portuguese may be taught. Another house will also be begun there, where the orphan children

of Portuguese, as well as with the Japanese whom by God’s favour I shall send there, will be taught the Christian religion. And as our people in India are beloved and acceptable not only to the Bishop and his clergy, but also to the religious and all others, Christians and heathen alike, I am strongly induced to hope that our Society may be spread far and wide in these coun­tries.

So do you, my dearest brother Simon, make it your business to come out hither as soon as possible with great forces of our Society, partly preachers, partly also workers in other ways. Only avoid one thing—not to bring many young men, for out here we want men of from thirty up to forty years of age; men moreover adorned with all other virtues, but especially with humility, meekness, patience, and above all, purity. You know my old bad habit, that when I write to you I can never leave off. Well, this of itself ought to be enough to make you see what pleasure I take in such an occupation, but especially when I have set myself down to write after having been chal­lenged to do so by letters from you. So now I will end, though it is hard to know where to stop. But I do hope that some day or other we shall see one another again, in China or in Japan, or at all events in heaven, where, as I hope we have alike been called by the singular bounty and gift of God into a share of His celestial kingdom, we shall enjoy God the ever­lasting Fountain of all good things for ever and for ever ! Amen, j

Cochin, Jan. 28, 1549.

The next letters, the last sent to Europe at this time which remain to us, are letters of recommendation; but Francis breaks out, as of old, about what was nearest to his own heart, when writing to his most familiar friend, Simon Rodriguez. The mer­chants who arrived at Cochin from Malacca just at the same time of the year as Francis himself of the year before, had brought him the good news from Malacca of the progress of re­ligion, which is mentioned in the letter last printed.

(lxvii.) To Master Simon Rodriguez.

May the grace and love of Christ our Lord also help and favour us ! Amen.

Do not be surprised that I write to you so often. There are a great many here who are going to Portugal, and ask me for letters to take to you; and I am very glad to seize every opportunity of talking with you, and indeed I am so bold as to trust that what I feel so much fruit to my own soul in writ­ing will not be read by you without pleasure, on account of the love that is between us.

The persons who will deliver to you this letter are two hon­ourable and good men, excellent Christians, inhabitants of the city of Malacca, where they have their house and families. Their reason for their voyage is, that they have to discharge certain duties and obligations to which they were bound. They will tell you a great deal about the city of Malacca, about the labours of our Fathers there, and about the fruit which results from those labours. All these things they are perfectly well acquainted with, as being eye witnesses of all.

They take with them also letters from Father Francis Perez, in which I imagine he has done as he promised to do, that is, given a long, clear, and minute account of the results with which the functions proper to our Institute are there carried on. They will also tell you about the affairs of China and Japan, for they have been a long time at a place which lies so conveniently for traffic with those parts and countries that the people there know best of all what goes on in them. They say that all my friends and acquaintances wonder at me very much for trusting myself to so long and dangerous a voyage. I wonder much more at their little faith. Our Lord God has in His power the tempests of the Chinese and Japanese seas, which they say are as violent as any others anywhere in the whole world. To His power all the winds are subject, all the rocks and the whirlpools and the quicksands and shoals, which they say are to be found in

those seas in such great numbers, so dangerous, so sadly fam­ous for the shipwrecks they have caused. He also holds in His sway all the pirates of whose numberless hordes they tell us, and who are exceedingly savage and are wont to put to death with exquisite tortures all whom they take prisoners, and espe­cially all Portuguese. And as this our Lord God has all these things under His dominion, I fear nothing from any of them. I only fear God Himself, lest He should decree some just chas­tisement upon me on account of my negligence in His service, and because I am by fault of my own unfit and useless for the work of advancing the Kingdom and Name of His Son Jesus Christ among the nations who know them not. Except this, I fear nothing, and I count as naught all those other causes of fear, dangers, labours, and the like, which my timid friends vie with one another in pressing upon me as so very formidable. I laugh at them all in full security, and the simple fear of God alone extinguishes in me all fear of His creatures; for I know that they can hurt no one, except those to whom and as far as their Creator allows them to be causes of trouble.

But to return to our two friends. I pray you for all the regard you have for the love and service of our Lord God, that for the few days during which they are to be at Lisbon you take care of them tenderly, see that they are provided with a convenient lodging, and help them in all things according to your ability and their requirements. And when you have heard all the many things that they will have to tell you about India, and you send them back with their business all finished, then be careful to give them long and accurate letters to carry to us, informing us all about all the fathers and brothers of our Society who are in Italy, France, the Low Countries, Germany, Castile, and Aragon, and in particular about that blessed College of Coimbra which is so dear to me. These letters you should direct, I think, to our Fathers at Malacca. The original will be given to them by these two citizens of Malacca on their return home, and will be kept there, and copies of them will be sent to us from the port of Malacca—whence many ships sail yearly for China and Japan—by such a number of ways, that they will

reach us by some one of them at least which will escape all accidents. May our Lord God bring us together in His holy glory in Paradise ! Amen.

Your most devoted and loving brother in Christ,

Feb. i, 1549. Francis.

The other letter of introduction shows us a little more of the manner in which Francis was always trying to lead those who applied to him for any favour to look after the concerns of their soul as well as their temporal interests. It also gives the first hint of what afterwards exercised an important influence on his schemes and movements — an increased vigilance and severity on the part of the Chinese government as to the ex­clusion of foreigners, especially Portuguese, from their ports.

(lxviii.) To Master Simon Rodriguez.

May the grace and love of Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

The person who will deliver this letter to you is a man with whom I have a certain amount of acquaintance. He is going to Portugal in order to ask the King for a reward for some ser­vice which he has done to the state, and has urgently pressed me to give him letters of recommendation to you as to that business. Now I am quite aware, and I have not concealed from my friend himself, that it would be much more profit­able to employ himself in another branch of the art of petition­ing—applying, that is, to God, and obtaining from Him the par­don of his sins—than to go supplicating from a mortal king an earthly reward for his merits and good deeds. But it was not possible to persuade him, at least here, to give up his hopes and intentions. I am of opinion that when he lands in Por­tugal you should try whether the change of scene has changed his mind in this respect; and if perchance the evils and dan­gers of the voyage have made him more amenable to heavenly admonitions, then persuade him rather to stay in Portugal as a monk than to come out here again as a soldier. If you succeed, you will have done the poor wretch a very great kindness, and

VOL. 11. h

have made gain of a soul that was lost. But if his mind be still fixed on transitory things, and he be not able to rise to such a height of philosophy as I mention, then by all means let him have your help in obtaining his just demands, and use your in­fluence, as far as you may, that out of the rewards which he has earned by long service as a soldier he may have at least so much given him as may be enough for him to live on at home. And I beg you again and again, for the love of God, to attempt to get this done for His sake.

After I had written all the letters which I had determined to send to Portugal by the hand of Pedro Fernandez, who has discharged in these countries of India the office of Vicar to the Bishop, some ships arrived here from Malacca, bringing certain news that the Chinese ports are unfavourable and hos­tile to the Portuguese. This, however, will not frighten me from attempting the voyage to Japan, which I mean by the help of God to undertake, as I have already told you that I have made up my mind to do. There is nothing more fruitful of good to the soul in this life of misery than to live in the midst of great dan­gers of death, the true and only cause for braving which has been the simple love of God and of pleasing Him, and the sin­cere desire to extend our holy religion. Believe me, it is sweeter for a man to live in labours of this sort, than to pass his time in peace and leisure without them. May our Lord God unite us in His holy glory ! Amen.

Your most loving brother in Christ,

Cochin, Jan. 25, 1549. FRANCIS.

The six weeks or two months which Francis Xavier spent at Cochin at this time were not without their activity. Indeed, Francis was there at the special invitation of his good friend Pedro Gonzalvez, of whom we have found him speak so highly in his letters, and whose great desire was that his own people should for some time have the benefit of his apostolical zeal. He preached in the churches, instructed children, and visited the sick, as usual, and was as successful as was his wont in the conversion of sinners and in the reform of manners. Two

miracles of this time have been specially recorded. In the first instance it was a child of four years of age, who had been many weeks ill of a fever, and was given over by the doctors. The parents, without making any direct petition to Francis, brought him in to see the child. Francis made the sign of the Cross over him and recited a Gospel, and the child at once opened its eyes, gave signs of joy, and was found to be entirely cured. The other instance was of that knowledge of the interior state and conscience of another, which is one of the gifts sometimes communicated to the saints. Francis met opposite the church of St. Antony at Cochin an acquaintance of his, a man of bad life, who at the very moment was medi­tating the execution of some profligate design. The man came up and kissed his hand, and was received with great kindness. Then Francis changed his look, became very grave, and asked him how he was. ‘ As well as possible, thank God,’ was the reply. ‘ Well enough as to the body,’ said Francis, ‘ but how as to the soul ?’ And then he went on to tell his friend all that he had been devising in his most secret thoughts. No one knew it but the man himself, and he was at once struck with contrition, made his confession, and gave up his evil life.¹⁴

¹⁴ Massei, Vita di S. Francesco, 1. ii. c. 14, p. 246.

COLL. CHRISTI R^c ■ -A BIB. MaJuK TORONTO

The letters written by Francis Xavier after his return to Malacca from the Moluccas in 1547, show us how firm a hold the idea of an expedition to Japan had taken on his mind, almost from the first moment when he had met the Japanese Anger and his Portuguese friends. His was the heart and soul of an Apostle; and as St. Paul longed for Rome, or Spain, or even still more distant countries, while he was yet in Asia Minor, or Greece, or his prison at Caesarrea, so the tidings that told Francis of new islands where the Gospel had never been preached, seemed almost to put upon his conscience the duty of devoting himself to the work of carrying among them the name of Jesus Christ. Moreover, he had done for India, for Malacca, and for the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, that which was particu­larly his own work—the work of laying foundations and of be­ginning that system of preaching, teaching, catechizing, and training the people which we see him following everywhere. It called for all his devotion, energy, firmness, and prudence to initiate a system which required so much unostentatious labour on the part of the missioner, and which, if it could but be per­petuated, would certainly, as far as human measures could se­cure such a result, have made the growth of the new Christian populations to maturity and strength certain. But the system could be administered by men who could never have founded it, and it was the mission of Francis Xavier to found it in as many places as possible rather than to remain fixed in any one place after founding it. The labourers who were, to carry on his work had now been supplied him from Europe, if not in num­bers as large as he had desired, if not such in quality as his san­guine imagination had represented them to him when his ‘ pro-

Thoughts of japan. 1 o 1

phetic mind’¹ pictured to itself Antonio Araoz or even Simon Rodriguez himself coming out to India at the head of a large band of followers, at least sufficiently for the purpose of work­ing on the foundation which he himself had laid. With India, Malacca, and the Moluccas so well manned as they now were, or were soon to be, with priests of this Society, Francis might feel what St. Paul expressed when he wrote to the Romans from Corinth, that he had ‘ now no more place in these countries.’- Nor can we doubt that he was also strongly influenced by the disappointment with which he was met in every attempt to con­vert the natives of India on a larger scale than had hitherto been accomplished, and to penetrate into the interior of the great peninsula itself, partly on account of the misconduct and bad example of the Portuguese, partly on account of the avarice and tyranny of their superior officers, partly also on account of that hatred to the Christian name that was only too natural in nations which could not help looking upon it as iden­tical with the name of Portuguese.

The expedition to Japan, which presented itself to his mind with so many attractive features to recommend it, was therefore an enterprise which Francis might have concluded to undertake on grounds of simple reason. The Japanese were intelligent, noble, manly, liberal, anxious to learn and ready to be con­vinced of the truth. The field was open, and free from many of the obstacles which were felt so fatally in India and else­where. There were no Cosmo de Payvas, no rapacious slave robbers, no Portuguese settlers who might outdo the heathen themselves in licentiousness and fraud, no Jews or Mussulmans to dispute for the possible converts with the Christian preacher, or to add their own errors, vices, and dishonesties to the native corruptions of the manners and tenets of the pagans. Danger itself, the many forms of ‘ peril’ which St. Paul enumerates, ^x perils of waters, perils of robbers, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea,’³ had become attractive to Francis Xavier, since his experience in the Moluccas of the immense and most won­derful consolation with which God, who can never be outdone

¹ See vol. i. p. 99. - Romans xv. 23. ³ 2 Cor. xi. 26.

in generosity, is wont, by way of compensation, to overwhelm those who brave all things for His sake. And yet it is most certain, that neither the reasonableness nor the attractiveness of the enterprise decided Francis Xavier to undertake it. As he had waited so long at Meliapor and elsewhere, before em­barking on what he then thought was to be a voyage to Maca- zar, in order to gain a clear light and conviction that it was the will of God that he should at that time go thither and nowhere else, so during all the months which elapsed between his return to India from the East and his second departure for Malacca, he was studying and praying and seeking in every possible way to ascertain the particular direction of the Holy Ghost as to the voyage to Japan. This accounts for whatever appears like hesi­tation or indecision in him at this time, though all the while he was laying his plans and making his arrangements for the long absence which the voyage was sure to entail upon him. Even up to the very last, after he had written, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, to Ignatius and Simon Rodriguez about the certainty of his departure, even while he was at Malacca itself making his final arrangements, he was still commend­ing the matter with all earnestness to God in humble prayer for light.

Japan, which in our time has been almost revealed anew to the civilized world, whose ambassadors and students we have seen in our streets, whose works of art and ingenuity are filling us with admiration, while we are looking with intense interest on the new social and political developments of which it is being made the scene, had been first discovered by Europeans, seven years before the time of which we are writing, almost at the same moment when Francis Xavier put his foot on the shores of India. The famous adventurer, Fernand Mendez Pinto, has told us, in some amusing chapters of his history, how he arrived with some other Portuguese in the ship of a corsair at the isle of Tanixooma, the first land of Japan, as he says, and how he was nearly losing his life, because the son of the King of Boungo wounded himself and almost blew his thumb off by attempting to fire off the ‘arquebuse’ of the stranger who

Arrangements in India. 103

was lying asleep.⁴ It appears that about the same time that Mendez Pinto and his companions landed at Tanixooma, three other Portuguese had been driven by a storm into the port of Cagoxima, in the kingdom of Satsouma—that is, into the very home of Anger, the Japanese fugitive whom St. Francis Xaxier fell in with, five years later, at Malacca. These first chance visits of the Portuguese were soon followed by the establishment of a considerable traffic, and the way was thus paved for the intro­duction of Christianity. But it was a singularly favourable cir­cumstance that Anger and his companions should in the first instance have come to India and been instructed in the faith. Francis was thus enabled to enter Japan with devoted friends and disciples at his side, to whom the customs and language of the country were perfectly familiar. His daily intercourse with them at Goa and on the voyage must have furnished him with an unusual store of knowledge concerning the new nation to which he was about to preach, and we see from the detailed description given of Japan in the papers drawn up by Anger, or from his dictation, that he and his companions fully de­served the credit for intelligence and quickness which is given to them in the letters of Francis.⁵

Before the departure of Francis for Japan could be thought of, it was necessary that he should arrange the affairs of the Society in India, which he was to leave behind him for an al­most indefinite period, and with which he could only hope to hold very rare communications. The first few letters which we have remaining to us of the spring of 1549, after the dispatch of the vessels to Europe, show us how much this care pre-occu- pied' the mind of Francis Xavier. He had already discovered those defects in the character of Antonio Gomez which made it likely that he would be a bad and unfortunate Superior at Goa, especially if left to himself without Francis to guide him. On the other hand, Francis was very desirous of sending a thor­oughly active, and zealous, and prudent missionary to Ormuz,

¹ Mendez Pinto, t. ii. ch. 132 (French Translation). See also Charle­voix, Hist, dn Japon, t. i. p. 178.

⁴ We give this account of Japan in the Xotes to this 15ook.

the far famed emporium at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and before he left Cochin for Goa he seems, from the letters last in­serted, to have intended to send Gomez to this post, placing Gaspar Baertz in his place as Rector of Goa. We are told that on his arrival, this plan, which would have saved a great deal of misery at Goa, was changed, on account of the resolute humility of Gaspar, who implored so earnestly that he might not be set to rule his brethren, that Francis had not the heart to resist him. It is possible that Francis also saw danger in the alteration which he had contemplated, of sending Gomez by himself to Ormuz. At all events, the plan was changed, and Gaspar Baertz was sent to the lonely and difficult post where he soon won for himself the fame of an apostle.

Ormuz, or Hormos as it is called by Messer Marco Polo, stood in his time on the Kirmanian coast at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, but having been laid waste by the Tartars, the city was soon afterwards transferred to the island, five miles out at sea, which was so famous as a mart in the time of which we are writing. It had nothing but its position to recommend it, and since the town on the island was demolished in the 17 th cen­tury by Shah Abbas, it has been valuable only as supplying salt in great abundance. When Francis Xavier sent Gaspar to be its Apostle, there was a fine city on the island of some thirty or forty thousand inhabitants. It had two large harbours, sheltered from every wind, and was a sort of Venice in the East—a place where the merchants of Arabia, Persia, Armenia, India, China, and of the eastern coast of Africa, met with those of Europe. It is one of the hottest places in the world, and by nature one of the worst supplied even with the ordinary conveniences of life. It had hardly any fresh water, and all that was not imported was of bad quality. Scarcely any grass or trees would grow on the parched salt soil. A missionary who stayed there some time, as Bartoli tells us, ‘ used to say that this island had worse upon it than the curse pronounced on all the earth in punishment of Adam’s disobedience, that it should bring forth thorns and briars, because in this place not even these could grow. An old report said that once the island had been set burning by

subterranean fire for seven years together, and that on this ac­count its hills remained heaps of cinders, just whitened at the top. No birds or animals are seen there all the year round,’ he adds, ‘but every morning a dew falls which congeals into grains, has a very sweet taste, and is called “ manna.” ’ Against all these natural disadvantages the wealth and luxury of its inhabit­ants had striven so successfully as to make the city of Ormuz ■one of the wonders of the East. A proverb said that if the world were a ring, Ormuz would be the gem set in it. It was a city of fine streets and palaces, the houses were ingeniously contrived to shield off the intense heat of the sun, and the cool breezes, which happily blew daily, were conducted by a con­trivance of pipes through every room. The roofs were flat, and the inhabitants slept in the open air upon them, in large vessels full of water, with their heads only projecting.⁶ With all the heat, the climate is not unhealthy, and diseases are rare, says Bartoli, following other writers; he attributes the good health of the inhabitants to their perpetual perspirations. Ormuz seems to have been independent under its own king, when the great Albuquerque conquered it, assisting a deposed king to regain his throne, building a fortress, and making it tributary to the ■crown of Portugal. This was its political condition at the time •of which we write.

Its moral state was enormously and infamously bad. It was the home of the foulest sensuality, and of all the most cor­rupted forms of every religion in the East. The Christians were

⁸ Marco Polo, t. i. p. 102 (Col. Yule’s edition, 1872), speaking of this country about Hormos,—the ancient Ormuz, on the mainland, says," ‘The •residents avoid living in the cities, for the heat in summer is so great that it would kill them, hence they go out to sleep at their gardens in the country, where there are streams and plenty of water. For all that, they would not , cscape but for one thing, which I will mention. The fact is, as you see, that in summer a wind often blows across the sands which encompass the place so intolerably that it would kill everybody were it not that, when they per- ¹ ceive that wind coming, they plunge into water up to the neck, and so abide

■ lill the wind has ceased.’ On this Col. Yule remarks (p. 112), ‘The cus­tom of lying in water is mentioned also by Sir John Mandeville, and it was ladopted by the Portuguese when they occupied Insular Hormuz, as P. vlella Valle and Linschoten relate. The custom is still common during great heats in Sind and Mekran.’

as bad as the rest in the extreme licence of their lives. There were a few priests, but they were a disgrace to the Christian name. A zealous bishop had once lived there, and soon wore himself to death. Mahometanism was in great power, and pos­sessed a very magnificent mosque. The Arabs and Persians had introduced and made common the most detestable forms of vice. Ormuz was said to be a Babel for its confusion of tongues, and for its moral abominations to match the cities of the Plain. A lawful marriage was a rare exception. Foreigners, soldiers, and merchants, threw off all restraint in the indulgence of their passions. The children of Christian fathers and Jew­ish, heathen, or Mussulman women were brought up in the religion of their mothers. The riches of the place attracted every possible luxury to enhance the general licence. Avarice was made a science : it was studied and practised, not for gain, but for its own sake, and for the pleasure of cheating. Evil had become good, and it was thought good trade to break promises and think nothing of engagements, and the most extortionate forms of usury were common and avowed. One of the succes­sors of Master Gaspar at Ormuz said, that if a council of devils were to assemble to draw up formulas of robbery, they would never invent so many and so specious ways of defrauding as he saw contrived and practised every day by the merchants of Ormuz, who were called all over the East the ‘Doctors of Usury.’ He added, that if the famous Doctor Martin Navarrus— Francis Xavier’s uncle—were to come out thither, he would have to begin his studies again, and take his degree of Doctor a second time, so much would he have to learn about ex­changes and contracts of which he had never heard. In the midst of all this licence and dishonesty, human life was of little value, and assassins were easily to be found for a certain sum to make away with any one who had given offence to another in immoral intrigues or in money transactions."

Francis Xavier would gladly have given himself to this stronghold of Satan. He used to say, we are told, that it would

^: This account of Ormuz is mainly taken from Bartoli, Asia, t. i. 1. 5, pp. 442 seq.

Ormuz.

not surprise him if the whole island were some day to be sub­merged for the wickedness which reigned there. And in truth, at the present day, it is more of a desert than Babylon or Tyre. But Francis was called by God to Japan. It was against his practice to send any one of those under him to a place where he had not himself preached and laboured, but Ormuz was bad enough to make him depart for once from this rule. It re­mained to send some one in whom he could thoroughly confide, and to instruct him fully and minutely as to the plan on which he was to work, leaving him at the same time all the discretion which the circumstances of the case required. Francis had soon discerned the great worth of Gaspar Baertz, and though he had wished to place him at the head of the College at Goa, in many respects the most important post in India, he deter­mined to send this his best worker to Ormuz, in the same spirit in which he had himself been given to the Indian missions by Ignatius.

The instructions given by Francis to Gaspar are almost the most precious part of all that remains to us of their writer. At first sight they might seem to find their place by the side of his rules for the daily exercise of Christian virtues, or of his long explanation of the Creed given in the preceding volume. But they are not simple instructions—interesting as such would always be to us if they came from the pen of Francis Xavier. The reader will find Francis insisting much, in the paper which we are next to insert, on the necessity of a study and familiar knowledge of mankind for the Christian preachers and apostles, on the indispensable need of experience and acquaintance with the human heart acquired by constant and observant in­tercourse, if any really great effect is to be produced in gaining souls to God. He is almost severe—at least he seems to. have felt that what he had said needed some counterbalancing— against the mere study of books, however good and authorita­tive, as a preparation for the apostolic life and ministry. We may be sure, then, that in his instructions to Gaspar Baertz he has drawn largely on his own experience. It is his own method of dealing with men which he urges on his disciple.

We may therefore take a large part of the following treatise, as it may almost be called, as a sort of unconscious contribu­tion to our knowledge of Francis Xavier given us by his own hand. In many points this is obvious upon the very face of his instructions. The immense importance which he attaches to the care of the missionary’s own conscience as his first and most essential duty, the continual practice of works of humility and charity, which he recommends, the prudence on which he in­sists as necessary in all dealings with men, the attentive humble consideration to be paid to the Bishop’s Vicar and the priests of the place, and also to the Governor of Ormuz, the practice of preaching on board ship and on the Sundays and festivals when the place of destination has been reached, the labours which are to be undertaken for the conversion of the heathen, the custom of going round the streets by night to solicit prayers for the holy souls,—these and several other points which are salient in his instructions to Gaspar we already know to belong to the daily practical life of Francis Xavier himself. This being the case, it is easy to see that in other matters he is also relating his own experience and recommending the method pursued by himself. We learn thus what was the staple of his sermons, how he dealt with penitents in the confessional, how he behaved himself with the rough lawless class of sinners, the merchants, the soldiers, the seamen, or again with the officers of the revenue and the rich but good-natured voluptuaries who were thrown across his path or drawn to him by that irresistible attractive- ' ness which was his special gift, the dowry of his holiness and of his close loving imitation of Him who was the friend of pub­licans and sinners. Ormuz, wicked as it was, perhaps pre­eminent in wickedness, must yet have been a place not different in kind as to its inhabitants or their vices from Malacca, or Ternate, or even Cochin or Goa itself: and we may learn more than we already know of Francis Xavier, in his familiar inter­course with the many men which he reclaimed to God at those places, by these directions which he gives to Gaspar as to the stray sheep at Ormuz. Above all, we may be sure that in the heroic charity which he recommends in the confessional, when

he says that timid souls who cannot for shame reveal their sins are to be encouraged, by their confessor’s revealing even to them the worst sins of his own former life, we have a lesson which he would never have given if he had not practised it himself. The same may be said as to the manner in which novices and pos­tulants are to be dealt with, and the universal rules of prudence, sweetness, and the careful study of men’s characters before at­tempting to do them good, which are here inculcated.

If the letter of instruction to Master Gaspar be read in the light of these considerations, we shall come to understand its value, not only as embodying spiritual counsels of the most exquisite and refined wisdom, but as adding largely to our ac­quaintance with the character of Francis himself.

So long a document as that which we are now to insert could not, of course, have been written all at once, and we find* that, although there is a tolerably clear sequence and arrange­ment in several parts, the writer has now and then gone back to points on which he has touched before. The letter runs as follows :

(lxix.) To Father Gaspar Baertz, going to Ormuz.

Above all things be mindful of yourself, and of discharging faithfully what you owe first to God, and then to your own con­science; for by means of these two duties you will find yourself become most capable of serving your neighbours and of gaining souls. Take care always to incline, even beyond moderation,, to the practice of the most abject employments. By exercising yourself in them, you will acquire humility, and daily advance in that virtue. For this reason I would have you not leave to any other, but yourself take charge of, the teaching the ignor­ant those prayers, which every Christian ought to have by heart: an employment certainly by no means ostentatious. Have yourself the patience to make the children and slaves of the Portuguese repeat them word by word after you. Do the same thing to the children of the native Christians. Those who behold you thus diligently employed will never suspect

you of any arrogance—they will be edified by your modesty; and as modest persons easily attract the esteem of others, they will judge you more fit to instruct themselves in those mysteries of the Christian religion of which they are ignorant.

You must frequently visit the poor in the hospitals and poorhouses, and from time to time exhort them to confess themselves, and to communicate ; giving them to understand that confession is the remedy for past sins, and holy communion a preservative against relapses—that both of them destroy the causes of the miseries which they now suffer, and which they fear for the future, by reason that the ills they suffer are only the punishment of their offences. On this account, when they are willing to confess, you shall hear their confessions with all the leisure you can afford them. After this care taken of their souls, do what you can to help the poor creatures in what they want for their bodies; recommend them with all diligence and affection to the administrators of the establishment in which they are, or else procure them from others who can help them the relief which they need.

You must also visit and preach to the prisoners, and exhort them earnestly to make a general confession of their lives. They have more need than others to be stirred up to this, because many or most people of that sort have never made an exact confession since they were born. After this, ask the Brother­hood of Mercy to have pity on those poor wretches, and to labour with the judges to look into their causes and to provide daily food for the most necessitous, who oftentimes have not wherewithal to subsist. You must be of all the service you can to the Brotherhood of Mercy, showing yourself devoted to it, promoting it, commending it, and most readily working in every way in your power to help it.

If in that great port of Ormuz you have to hear the confes­sion of any rich merchants whom you find to have the posses­sion of ill-gotten goods on their consciences, and who are bound and willing to restore them, but yet cannot make restitution-to the persons who have been injured, either because they are dead, or because of themselves they know not who or where

they are, even though they force upon you the money for re­stitution, remit the whole thereof into the hands of the Brother­hood of Mercy, even though you may think of some necessitous persons on whom such charity might be well employed. Thus you will not expose yourself to be deceived by the insidious tricks of wicked men, who affect an air of innocence and po­verty ; men full to the throat of imposture and wickedness, but who cannot so easily deceive the Brotherhood of Mercy, to whom it will be much safer and more seemly for you to transfer the invidious and perplexing office of making all due inquiries; thus the alms will reach those who are truly poor, and the greedy lying of these avaricious impostors will be defeated. And besides, you will gain the more leisure for those functions which in a more especial manner belong to your state of life, which is devoted to the assistance of souls : otherwise this fre­quent and manifold care of the distribution of alms would de­prive you of no small part of the leisure which you will need so much. In fine, by this means you will prevent the com­plaints and suspicions of men, who from their own common badness, would be ready to think evil of you, as if, under the pretence of serving others, you were cunningly playing a game for yourself, and withdrawing for your own use a part of the money entrusted to you to give away, thus cheating the neces­sities of the poor and practising a wicked theft upon them.

In dealing with those whom in the various intercourse of life you come across, whether in spiritual or secular things, whether at home or abroad, whether it be in the way of speech or of company, whether their familiarity or friendship with you be only ordinary or of the highest degree, always bear yourself as if you had it in your mind that they might one day become your enemies instead of your friends. By this manage­ment of yourself, you will never let them be aware of any act or word of yours which, if they were to bring out at any time when in a passion, might make you blush for it as an exposure of yourself, or be sorry for it on account of mischief it might cause to your work and business. This perpetual watchfulness and care is made necessary for us on account of the wicked­

ness of this corrupt world, whose children are continually ob­serving the children of light with mistrustful and malignant eyes. And the same care is due also for the sake of your own spiritual advancement, which will make great progress if you regulate all your words and actions by continual and most at­tentive prudence.

By this same precaution you will guard the inconstant minds of your friends against the danger of change. In any case you will prepare for yourself in their minds many things which will be your defenders, for they will remember the up­rightness of your conduct, and they will conceive a reverence for you which will put them to confusion if ever they become your enemies. This consideration of the instability of men will also make you look more to God, despise yourself more, and cling to God, Who is ever present to us, with extreme humility and great sweetness of soul: practises which if we omit, we find a number of things stealing upon us which hurt the eyes of people who see us, and gradually alienate from us their goodwill. The examen, which we call particular, will do a great deal as to keeping up this carefulness. Take care never to fail to make it twice a day, or once at least, according to our common method, whatsoever business j^rou have upon your hands.

Before all things, devote your first and principal care to cleansing your own conscience and keeping it without stain. Let your diligence in preserving or in cleansing the consciences of others come after this of your own; for how can a man be of use to others who takes no care for himself? Preach to the people as frequently as ever you can ; for the usefulness of preaching spreads far and wide everywhere; and amongst all evangelical employments there is none from which greater fruit for the service of God and the good of men can be expected.

In your sermons beware of admitting any doubtful propo­sitions as to which there is difficulty, because doctors are divided. For the subjects of sermons should be chosen from clear and unquestionable truths, which tend to the regulation of manners and the reprehension of vices. Set forth the enormity of sin,

enlarge on the atrocity of the offence to God’s infinite Majesty which is committed by the sinner. Imprint in souls a lively horror of that sentence which shall be thundered out against guilty sinners at the last judgment. Represent with all the colours of your eloquence those most bitter pains which the damned are eternally to suffer in hell. In fine, threaten them with death, and especially with sudden and unexpected death, those particularly who neglect the service of God, and who, having their conscience loaded with many most grievous sins, think nothing of sleeping on in supine negligence in such a con­dition. You are to mingle with all these considerations the remembrance of the cross, the wounds, and death of Christ, by which He vouchsafed to atone for our sins; but you are to do this in as moving, pathetical a manner as possible, by figures and colloquies proper to excite emotions in the mind, such as cause in our hearts a deep sorrow for our sins, on account of the offence done to God thereby, even so as to draw tears from the eyes of your audience, who are then to be led to make re­solutions of cleansing their consciences as soon as possible by confession, and of celebrating their reconciliation to God by due reception of the holy communion. This is the one true idea which I wish you would propose to yourself for preaching profitably.

When you reprove vices in the pulpit be careful never to speak against or attack any person by name, especially those who are officers or magistrates. If they do anything which you disapprove, and of which you think convenient to admonish them, make them a visit, and speak to them in private; or when they come of themselves to confession, whisper to them in the secret tribunal of penance, what you have to say to them. But altogether avoid the speaking against them openly; for they are a sort of people who are commonly difficult and ir­ritable, and they are so far from amending upon such public admonitions that they are stung by them, and become furious, like bulls under a gadfly, and rush headlong to perdition.

Moreover, before you take upon you to give even private admonitions take care that you know them a little first, and have

some familiarity with the people whom you wish to correct, so to prepare your way: and then make your admonition either more gentle or more strong in tone according to the measure of your favour or authority with the friend you are reproving, so as to be more free and severe with one who is more bound to you, and more sparing and cautious with one with whom you are less familiar. Take care always to temper the sternness ot your reproof with the serenity of your air, a smiling countenance, and gentle glances, and much more by the civility of well-man­nered words, and the sincere protestation of your love, which is the only thing which forces on you that unpleasant but necessary attempt to deliver a friend from the stain which disfigures him. It is good also to add marks of submissive reverence to the pleasingness of your discourse, with tender embraces, and all other fitting marks of the sincere goodwill and unquestionable respect which you have for the person of him whom you are correcting. These things are the honey and preserves which are mixed with and which season the bitterness of the dose, unpleasant in itself, and which will turn out of no use if it be administered without some such condiment to men whose sto­machs are likely to be turned by it. For if a harsh voice, a rigid countenance, or threatening aspect and a lowering brow should be added to the natural disagreeableness of so unpleasant a matter as a reprehension, I am very much afraid that men of such fastidious delicacy and sensitive ears will not be able to restrain their bile. They have power at their back, they are accustomed to adulation; and it is more likely, in such cases that they will shake off all restraint and moderation, and send their inopportune censor about his business, with a good deal of abuse into the bargain.

For what concerns confession, how you are to advise others, and they to practise it, this is the method which I judge the fittest for these quarters of the world, where the licence of sin is very great, and the use of penance very rare. Whenever you find a person who wishes to unburthen in confession a conscience laden with a long accumulation of sin, exhort him in the first place to take two or three days of preparation, to examine his

Restitution.

conscience thoroughly, to go back to the first recollections of his childhood, then through all the various stages of age and occupation which he has passed through in all his life up to this time, making up the account of all his sins of deed, word, or thought, and if his memory require it, writing it down and reading it over. When he is thus prepared, you can hear his confession, after which it will generally be well that you should not give him absolution at once, but persuade him to think it over for two or three days, to withdraw his mind from his ordi­nary occupations, and by means of meditations adapted to excite him to sorrow for his sins, out of love to God Whom he has offended, to prepare himself to gain greater fruit from his sacra­mental absolution. During those three days you shall exercise your penitent in some of the meditations of the first week of the Exercises, giving him the points, and teaching him the me­thod of meditation and of prayer, and you shall counsel him also to help himself, by means of some voluntary penance, for example, of fasting or disciplining himself, to conceive in his inmost heart a true detestation for his offences, and even shed tears of repentance.

Besides this, you must take care, if the penitents have unjust possession of anything belonging to others, that they make restitution in this interval of time; or if they have injured the reputation of any one, that they retract what they have said; or if they are engaged in unlawful attachments and have been living in sin, cause them to break off those criminal engagements, and remove at once the occasions of their crime. However solemnly and seriously they may promise to do these things at a future time, it is not safe to trust them without the actual performance of their engagement. Let them perform beforehand what they declare that they will do. There is not any time more proper to exact from sinners these duties, the performance of which is as necessary as it is difficult. For when once their fervour and excitement of mind have grown cold, and their familiar entice­ments have begun to drag them back with fatal persuasiveness to the sins to which they have long been accustomed and which they have but just left off for the time, it will be in vain to ask

them to keep their promise. Before, therefore, you send them away absolved from all their sins, insist by all means on their anticipating these dangers. Otherwise, so frail is human nature, you will have to bewail to no purpose their speedy relapse to. wards the precipice, from the slippery declivity of which you have not far enough removed them.

In dealing with sinners in the sacred tribunal of penance, take heed lest by any hasty severity you frighten away those who have begun to discover the wounds of their souls to you. How enormous soever their sins may be, hear them, not only with patience, but with mildness; help out their bashfulness when they find it difficult to confess, testifying to them your compassion, and seeming not to be surprised at what you hear, as having heard in confession sins much more grievous and foul than theirs. And lest they should despair of pardon for their faults speak to them of the treasures of the infinite mercies of God. Sometimes when they have confessed some crime with great trouble of mind, hint to them that their sin is not altogether so great as they may think; that by God’s assistance you can heal even more mortal wounds of the soul; bid them go on without any apprehension, and make no difficulty of telling all. It is necessary to use this motherly indulgence, so to speak, in order to assist these poor souls in bringing forth their sins, for in truth it is a most painful labour which they undergo in bringing to birth the spirit of salvation, until at last they have emptied the whole terrible sink of their conscience.

You will find some of them whom the weakness either of their age or sex will make them feel more ashamed as to reveal­ing to you the foul lusts with which they have stained them-j selves. When you perceive that, meet them more than half wayJ telling them that they are neither the only nor the first person J who have fallen into such foul sins, that you have met with far! worse sins of that kind than those can be which they want the' confidence to tell you. Impute a great part of their offence to j the violence of the temptation, the seductiveness of the occal sion, and the concupiscence innate in all men. More than this! I tell you that in dealing with such persons, we must sometimesl

Doubts as to Faith.

^ll7

go so far and so low, in order to loosen the chains of this miserable shame in these unhappy persons whose tongues the devil has by his cunning tied up, as of our own accord to indicate in general the sins of our own past lives, so to elicit from these guilty souls the confession of the sin which they will otherwise hide, to their irreparable loss. For what can a true and fervent charity refuse to pay for the safety of those souls who have been redeemed with the blood of Jesus Christ? But to under­stand when this is proper to be done, how far to proceed, and with what precautions, is what the guidance of the Spirit and your experience must teach you at the time in each particular conjuncture.

You will sometimes meet with men—and I would that they may be few—who doubt of the power and efficacy of the holy sacraments, and especially as to the Presence of the Body ot Christ in the Eucharist. This comes from their not frequenting those sacred mysteries, from their continual intercourse with pagans, Mahometans, and heretics, or from the bad example given them by some Christians, and even (which I speak with shame and sorrow) by some of our own priestly order; for when they see some priests, whose life is not more holy than that of the common multitude, still go rashly and almost as a pastime to the altar, they imagine that it is in vain that we teach that Jesus Christ is present in the holy sacrifice of the mass, for that if He were there present, He would never suffer such impure hands to touch Him with impunity.

The way you should take to set these people right is as follows. First establish yourself in their friendship by courteous speeches and kind manners, and then endeavour by familiar questions to elicit their private thoughts. If you find in them the errors I have mentioned, then search out their causes, occa­sions, and beginnings. You will thus understand where to apply your remedy, and then do this with all diligence and vigour, alleging whatever, as the occasion suggests, may seem to be of use; take great pains to prove clearly the truth of that sacred dogma, and never leave off till you have conquered, and till they protest that they are most firmly persuaded with a faith certain

beyond all doubt that the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord and Redeemer are most truly present under the species of bread and wine duly consecrated. After that it will not be difficult to lead them to cleanse their souls in good faith by confession, and to receive more frequently the sacred banquet of the table of God with due devotion.

When in the sacred tribunal of penance you have heard all that your penitents have prepared themselves to confess of their sins, do not at once think that all is done, and that you have no further duty to discharge. You must go on further to inquire, and by means of questions to rake out the faults which ought to be known and to be remedied, but which escape the penitents themselves on account of their ignorance. Ask them what profits they make, how, and whence ? what is the system that they follow in barter, in loans, and in the whole matter of security for contracts? You will generally find that every­thing is defiled with usurious contracts, and that' those very persons have got together the greater part of their money by sheer rapine, who nevertheless asserted themselves so confi­dently to be pure from all contagion of unjust gain; having^ as they said, the true testimony of a conscience that repre­hends them in nothing. Indeed, some persons’ consciences have become so hardened that they have either no sense at all, or very little sense, of the presence of even vast heaps of robberies which they have gathered into their bosom.

Use this method with particular diligence towards the king’s ministers, commandants, treasurers, the receivers, and other officers and farmers of the revenue, whensoever they present themselves before you in the sacred tribunal—in short, with all who, under any title and right whatever, have anything to do with the charge and handling of the public money and dues. Interrogate all these people by what means they grow rich on the discharge and income of their offices- If they are shy of telling you, search and scent it out in every way, and the most mildly that you can. You will not have been long on the hunt before you come on sure tracks which will lead you to the very dens and lairs of their frauds and

monopolies, through which an inconsiderable number of men divert to their own private hordes emoluments belonging to the public. They buy up commodities with the king’s money, and at once sell them again with an enormous percentage for themselves, raising the price to an immense rate, which has to be defrayed out of the pockets of those who are under a necessity from their business of coming into the market as purchasers of that merchandise. Too often, also, they torture credi­tors of the treasury with long delays and cunning shifts, that they may be driven to compound with those sharks of the state by remitting a part of their due claim, while the others pocket the remainder, which they call the fruits of their in­dustry, being in reality the booty gained by their most unprin­cipled robbery.

When you have squeezed out of them the confession of these monopolies and the like, drawing them out by many and cautious questions, you will be more easily able to settle how much of other persons’ property they are in possession of, and how much they ought to make restitution of to those they have defrauded, in order to be reconciled to God, than if you should ask them in general whether they remember to have defrauded any one. For to this question they will immediately answer that their memory upbraids them with nothing. For custom is to them in the place of law; and what they see done before them every day, they persuade themselves may be prac­tised without sin. For customs bad in themselves seem to these men to acquire authority and prescription from the fact that they are commonly practised. You should admit of no such law ; but should declare seriously to such people, that if they will heal the wounds of their conscience, they must re­store and altogether give up their unjust possessions, which they have acquired by bad faith. And at the same time point out to them what these wrongly acquired possessions are, using the knowledge gained by their own confessions.

Remember to be especially obedient and docile in all things to the Vicar of the Bishop. When you are arrived at Ormuz, you must go to wait on him, and falling on your knees

before him, you should humbly kiss his hand. Neither preach, nor hear confessions, nor teach the Christian doctrine, nor exercise any other employment of our Institute without his permission. Never have any contention with him for any cause whatsoever, or differ from him. On the contrary, endea­vour by all submission, and all possible services, to gain his close friendship in such sort that he may let himself be per­suaded by you to go through the meditations of our Spiritual Exercises under your direction; if not all, at least those of the first week. In the same way cultivate the goodwill of all the other priests by every kind of good office and goodwill, and avoid like the face of a serpent every occasion whatsoever of dissension and conflict with them. Pay them all the greatest reverence and the most particular marks of respect, so as to win for yourself their love in return. From which it will natur­ally arise that they may be inclined to trust to you the care of their souls, and accept without dislike an invitation to make the Spiritual Exercises, if not for the whole month as we do, at least by retiring from the world in their homes during a certain number of days, during which you may visit them daily, and explain to them the subject of their meditations, taking them from those of the first week.

Pay a great respect and obedience to the commandant, and make it apparent, by the most profound submission, how cor­dially you respect him. Beware of any difference with him, on whatsoever occasion; even though you should clearly see that he fails in his duty in matters of the highest import­ance. Only when you perceive that your attentions have won for you his favour and good graces, be so bold as to visit him ■ and after you have duly declared, in the first place, your love for him, and the concern you have for his honour and safety, then, with all modesty and gentleness of countenance, speak of the deep sorrow which affects your heart to see his soul in danger and his reputation damaged by reports of discreditable doings of his noised about in the world. Then you shall make known to him the discourses of the people concerning him, which will probably be put in writing, and go to a far

greater distance than he would be willing they should, if he bethinks him not in time of giving satisfaction to the public. Nevertheless do not take this office upon you before you are well satisfied that his disposition to you is such that it appears solidly probable to you that he will take in good part your ad­monition, and that it will do him real good.

You must be much less ready to yield to the requests which many will make to you, that you should act as their ambassa­dor in carrying their complaints to the commandant. Refuse as firmly as you can such an office, giving as an excuse your continued occupation in preaching, teaching, hearing confes­sions, and in the study and thought which are required as pre­paration for these duties. These things will leave you no time for the laborious and tedious business of frequenting the ante­chamber of the great, and spending idle hours in their halls to await the rare moments of obtaining a difficult admission to their presence. You may add that even if you had the time, and if access to an audience was always open to you, you do not well know what would be the use of your interference, for if the commandant be such as they themselves charge him with being, it would be vain to hope that a man who is touched neither by respect to God nor by a due regard to his duty—as they themselves assert—would make any account of you if you were to suggest better things to him.

The whole time that remains to you after you have dis­charged your necessary duties should be spent in the conver­sion of the heathen to the Christian religion. In choosing be­tween different employments and ministrations, take care always to consider that those the usefulness of which is clearly of wider range are to be placed before others. This rule will teach you never to prefer the hearing of a confession to preaching in public, never to omit the catechetical instruction fixed at a cer­tain hour every day for the sake of exhorting any single person in private, or attending to any similar work which will benefit only one. During the hour which precedes the appointed time for the catechetical instruction you or your companion should go through the piazza and streets of the city, inviting all with

a loud voice to come and hear the explanation of the sacred doctrine.

You must write from time to time to the College at Goa, to- tell them what are the ministrations fitted to promote the glory of God you are exercising, what order you follow in them, and what fruit results from them in souls, God prospering your own weak efforts. Take pains that these statements are carefully made, so that our people at Goa may be able to send them to- Europe, where they will be a sort of specimen of our work in these parts, and of the favour of God Who condescends to grant some success to the trifling labours of this least Society of ours. Let nothing get into the letter which may give just offence to- any one, nothing that may not appear likely to induce the- readers at the very first sight of it to praise God and do Him service. You must also frequently write letters on the same sub­jects (with all due caution as to the person whom you address)' to his Lordship the Bishop and to Cosmo Aiiez; imparting to- each the happy news of the fruit which by the blessing of God results from the labours devoted to souls in those parts.

As soon as you arrive at Ormuz, I would have you go pri­vately to visit the best and most truthful men you can find there, who have also the greatest experience of the manners of’ the place and of its commerce. Inquire diligently of them what are the dominant vices there, what are the prevalent kinds of fraud in the matter of contracts and loans, and so on. When you have found out these things plainly and certainly,, you will be able to prepare for ready use arguments and re­marks fitted either to open the eyes or to rebuke the obstinacy of persons who may come to you, whether in familiar intercourse or in sacramental confession, as to the palliated practice of' usury, or of dishonestly gainful contracts, or of any other form or shape of the manifold and various wickednesses which are in vogue in that mart of Ormuz which is so full of merchants of every nation.

Every night go round the streets of the city, recommending, to the prayers of the living the souls of the dead who are suf­fering for their sins in Purgatory. Use few words in doing this,.

Affability.

but let them be well chosen for moving the compassion of the hearers, and begetting in them some religious feelings. Add some words also to try and rouse them all to pray for souls stained with mortal sin, and to obtain grace for them from God to emerge from so wretched a state. At the end of each exhortation give out the recitation of Our Father and Hail Mary, and say the first words of each yourself aloud.

Let it be a matter to which you pay continual and unre­laxed attention, to show yourself to all those with whom you have to do with a kind and calm countenance, getting rid of every sign of severity, overbearingness, arrogance, suspicion, sourness, anger, and threatening. Othenvise, if the people who come to you find that you are set against them by these signs of evil disposition, they will certainly be checked and will turn away from you, without giving you that confidence which is requisite in order that being with you may do them good. You ought much rather to put on an appearance of courteous affa­bility, using the gentlest and most winning smiles, and the like, whenever you have to reprove any one in private on account of some fault of his which requires admonition. At such times you ought to take the greatest pains in every way, that your countenance and look may both breathe all charity and kind­liness, through which alone you must give out that you are impelled to make the man whom you reprove your debtor for the great benefit of wiping away a stain which defiles him, and that it is not any aversion or feeling of dislike that makes you break out in reproaches against him.

If there are any priests, clerics, or laymen who desire to en­ter the Society and to make the Spiritual Exercises, and whom you think proper persons to do so, you can send them to Goa with a letter stating who they are and what they want. Or even if at Ormuz itself you think that they can profitably help you, you may then admit them to live with you, and put them to the proof, as far as may be, with the usual ‘ experiments’ of the noviceship.

On Sundays and festivals you should preach at two in the afternoon or a little after, either in the chapel of the Confra­

ternity of Mercy, or in the church, explaining the articles of the Creed to the men and maidservants and the free Christians and the children of both sexes of the Portuguese. Before this, send your companion through the streets of the city with a bell, and besides ringing it, let him give out an invitation to ad­monish all to assemble to hear the explanation of the Christian doctrine—unless, indeed, you prefer yourself to make this an­nouncement in the streets. Take with you to the place where the sermon is to be the summary of Christian doctrine and the •explanation of the articles of the Creed, as well as the rule I have drawn up for passing daily life in a Christian and holy manner, in which is set down the manner and method in which Christians who are desirous of eternal life are to worship and invoke God every day, how they are to guard themselves against falling into sin, and to do all those things which conduce to the certain gaining of the end of our being, the grace and hap­piness which we all desire.

Give a copy of this rule to those who come to confession to you, giving them as their penance for a certain number of days to do what is there prescribed. They will thus gain a habit, and custom will make them easily continue of themselves what they have at first taken up at the injunction of their spiritual father. For they will have found out how useful a thing it is, and will be attracted by its pleasantness, for that form, suggests short exercises of devotion, which are very good : and we have found by experience that many who have begun to use it after their confessions, have continued to do so to the great profit of their souls. For this cause I think it best that you not only should give it to those who have been to confession to you, but that you should communicate and commend it to any others who are taking some pains about their own salvation, even though they are the penitents of other priests. And as I see that you cannot easily have copies enough of that paper to distribute so largely, I would advise you to pest it up in some public place —suppose, the church of our Lady of Mercy—written out on -a board, so that any one who wants to use it may be able to write it out for himself.

When you have judged any to be fit to help the Society, and have duly admitted them into it, you must give them the Exer­cises for a month, according to our custom, and after this prove them by trials of such a kind as that there may be no appear­ance in them of any ridiculous exposure to the laughter of the public. You may tell them, for instance, to wait on the sick in the hospitals, and to shrink from no offices, however humble and disagreeable, which belong to such a place, and to attendance upon them in their cure. You may bid them also go to the prisoners in the gaols, and devote themselves with all the sedu­lity of religious charity to the consolation and recreation of those poor souls. And you may let them practise in public any other similar duties which unite our own humiliation to the work of doing good to others.

But do not either order or permit them to make sights of themselves to the public in such ways as would cause men to think them mad. I don’t wish the low mob to laugh at them and to take pleasure in the mimic, and, as it were, theatrical ex­posure of such men to ridicule. The people are to be reminded by the sight of them of their own duties, and to see in them laudable examples of what is right. It will be so if they never appear in public except in a dress or guise that belongs to some good work, as when they have satchels on their shoulders and go from door to door to beg for the indigent, or when in the sight of all they carry the contributions which they have col­lected to the asylum of the poor. These are the sort of victories over self and over the world which they should gain; and the people when it sees them should be moved to good, and the poor should enjoy the benefit of what they do.

But even to these trials, which are very disagreeable to nature, you must not expose them all indiscriminately. Find out first what each man’s courage is, and what he can do with­out trouble. All men have not equal strength—difference of disposition, of education, of progress in virtue, causes a great difference among novices, and this difference must be the first thing to be taken into account by any one who has to rule them, so that he may settle what sort of exercise suits each, that is, in

what each may be tried in such a way that it may be fairly hoped that he will make profit of the trial, according to the measure of God’s grace communicated to him. Unless the Master of Novices has the gift of discernment, it will easily hap­pen that some will be burthened beyond their strength, and so will despond, look back, and go away, while the same men, if they had had a more experienced guide, might hereafter have made great progress in religious virtue.

There is another evil in this illadvised enjoining of morti­fication which exceeds the power and condition of novices who are as yet tender babes in the spiritual course—for it causes in them an aversion to their master, and takes from them all con­fidence in opening to him their inmost hearts. But you, or any other who has to train young souls to religion, must provide, with all possible care, that when they feel in their minds the suggestions either of depraved nature or of the evil spirit, call­ing them away from the right path, they should declare them as soon as they arise, and be perfectly ingenuous in confessing them. Unless they do this, they will never free themselves from these snares, they will never make their way through these in­sidious obstacles to the height of perfection. On the contrary, these first seeds of evil which they have unhappily taken in and fostered by their imprudent silence about them, will gradually grow up into more troublesome disquietudes, until at last they will make them become weary of holy discipline, and force their poor conquered minds to look back to the place from which they came, shake off the yoke of Christ, and rush again into their old free way of living.

If, either from their own confessions or from any other signs, you find any to be violently disposed to vainglory, to indulg­ence of the desires of the senses, or to any other faults, you may use the following useful way of suggesting to them a remedy which may suit their danger. Tell them to take a certain time to get together arguments of every sort, which they may think most efficacious to use to some one who is either puffed up by arrogance, or given to self-indulgence, or under the influence of any other disease of the soul under which they may be them­

selves suffering, so as either to put him right if he has already gone wrong, or to guard him if he is in danger of doing so. Point out yourself the books or the passages, and be a guide to them in finding matter which may serve their purpose. When they have made their collection, order them to make sermons out of it, as if they were to have to preach them either in the church or in the street, or to the convalescent in the hospital, or to the prisoners in the gaol. Then make them actually preach these sermons. We may well hope that they themselves will, of their own accord, use the remedies which they have pre­scribed to others, and that these antidotes against what poisons the soul will sooner exert their power on the minds of the preachers, to which they have been so thoroughly applied by the deep study and careful thought which they have spent on the subject, than on the hearers, who only casually take cogniz­ance of the thoughts of others put before them without any pre­paration on their part. No doubt they will be ashamed to fall into a fault from which they have taken so much pains to de­liver other people.

You may, with due proportion, use a similar device to cure certain sinners of almost desperate perversity. These men say they cannot command themselves, so as to put away from them­selves the occasions of their sins, or to restore the property of others which they possess in bad faith. So, of their own will, they remain in a sinful conscience, deprived of the sacrament of absolution, and quite aware that they are justly denied it. And yet the disgrace of the sort of voluntary excommunication in which they know themselves to be involved, to the scandal of the public, makes them sometimes feel wearied of their ini­quity, and also from time to time, conceive some fears of the danger of eternal damnation in which they live.

First of all make these men friendly to you by significations of kindness, and then suggest to them in their good sense to think over what they would say to a friend who was struggling with the same difficulties, in order to cause him to rise up out of the mire and leap out of the ditch into which he had fallen. Ask them pleasantly to make a sort of school exercise of the

matter, and to take the trouble in familiar talk with you to see what their own wits will be able to do in inventing arguments to be used in persuasion of this head. Hear what they have to say, and approve of it, and then gently retort upon them what they adduce, and beseech them for the sake of the friendship which is between you to do the same kind office to themselves which they have done to others, and to take to their own hearts and apply to their own wounds the medicine which they think to have so much saving power in removing the diseases of their friends. God has created their souls to praise Himself, and so to gain their own happiness, and when He sees them rushing to destruction down the precipitous paths of vice, He gives them in His mercy this care for the salvation of others as a sort of handle by which they may be drawn back from death. They ought first to have true charity for themselves in proportion to the love which they bear to others; and He lets this last remain, so that they may be turned back thereby to take the necessary care for their own salvation which they have neglected so miser­ably. This same artifice is not to be dispensed with by us_r whom it becomes as long as life remains and as the opportunity of doing so is not taken away, to leave nothing untried in the way of bringing souls back to the service of their Creator, and prevent their eternal loss.

There will sometimes come to you in the confessional men who are engaged in impure attachments, or who are full to overflowing with booty which they have gained by rapine, over which they gloat with greedy devotion. As to getting them to send their mistresses away from their houses, or to restore to others what they have been despoiled of by their unjust prac- •tices, you cannot bring them to this either by love or reverence to God, of which they have absolutely nothing left, or by the fear of death or of hell, to all sense of which they are hardened. There is only one way of terrifying such persons, and that is by threatening them with the infliction of the only ills they are afraid of—the ills of this life. To such men therefore you should declare, that shortly, unless they make haste to appease the wrath of God, they will find themselves overwhelmed by cala­

mities, their goods lost by shipwrecks, the authorities prosecuting them, by calumnious lawsuits, tribunals condemning them, by long sufferings in prison, incurable diseases in the midst of the greatest poverty and destitution, their miseries mitigated by no consolation, infamy which will brand them and their posterity with an indelible stain, and the public hatred and execration of all, such as they remember well were the lot of such and such persons whom you may name, well known to them, and who deserved such evils no more than they do. Tell them that no one can despise God with impunity, and that His wrath is all the more irrevocably let loose on men in proportion as He has more patiently waited for their repentance. The image of such calamities may well strike them with a first impulse of the fear of God, which may be the beginning of wiser thoughts, instead of the madness in which they have hitherto been involved.

Whenever you are preparing yourself to talk with any one concerning the things which belong to the worship of God and the salvation of the soul, put in practice this precaution—not to say a word before you have divined and discovered by any sign you can note what is the interior state of the man’s mind. I mean whether he is quiet or under the influence of some strong passion—whether he is ready to follow the right path when it is shown him, or whether he is in error with his eyes open, irrevocably wedded to low cares and objects, to which he has been hitherto in the habit of postponing his religious duties, and seems likely to do the same for the future; whether he is the subject of temptations from the devil, or whether he is left to himself and his own nature—in fine, whether he is disposed to listen to an admonition, or whether he is rough and irritable to the touch, so that it may be feared that he will break out into a rage if he be handled too incautiously.

When you have got some presumptive knowledge on these points, you must adapt your address to the person accordingly. Speak gently to the angry, quietly to the troubled, use some appropriate artifice to insinuate your business into the mind of the preoccupied; be more free and expansive with well-dis­posed persons, who are likely to be docile and easily led to

VOL. II. K

anything that is good. At the same time, never be foolishly fawning to any one, never stop short at mere compliments, always skilfully mix up some wholesome medicine in what you give to the sick man, however much he may turn from it, so that by degrees he may be disposed to a better state. When any one is all on fire with excitement from a keen sense of re­cent injury, then do you also blame the deed of which he com­plains. If it be bad in itself, then use what reasonings you can to persuade him that the doer has fallen out of imprud­ence, and not sinned through malice. When you see that your man listens to you, and is not altogether displeased, you may add that God has perhaps permitted this in order to punish him for some similar offence which he has himself committed. Then ask him familiarly, whether he remembers ever to have injured any one in word or deed? Whether, at least, in his youth he was not somewhat illtempered with his parents, dis­obedient to his teachers, quarrelsome with his companions, and may not have given some one or other just cause to'com- plain of him ? And when he acknowledges this, tell him that he must think it fair that he is now paid off in kind. For now he has offered him by God a very precious opportunity of wip­ing out his former fault. If, on the other hand, his complaint be not just, take him in hand gently and gradually, pull to pieces the false arguments by which he persuades himself of what is so far from being the case. Then increase your bold­ness little by little, show him a little gentle anger, as he really deserves, and then, at last, when you feel you can do it safely, give him a more severe scolding. These artifices, by the bless­ing of God, sometimes charm away the illhumours of men so overwhelmed with troubles, and dissolve the sort of spell by which they have been bound, so as to leave them free and able to do what is right. When you have thus made your way easy, you must go on with confidence, and bring your work to the greatest perfection in your power, spending yourself to the utmost in your desire to do honour to God, and win for Him the love and reverence of the souls which He has created to love and to praise Him.

The injunction which I have given above—namely, that you should find out from men who are well acquainted with the matter what are the commercial frauds most common at Ormuz—I would not have confined either to that place in par­ticular, or to those specific heads of which I spoke. Wherever you are, even if it be only in passing and on a journey, always make it a point to try to find out as exactly as possible from good men who know the ways of common life, not only what are the prevalent crimes or customary tricks of cheating in such places, but the whole manners of the people there, the opinions and prejudices of the populace, what the nation is intent upon, what are the peculiar customs of the country, the mode of government, the method of the courts, the forms of suits, the quibbles of lawyers, and whatever has any sort of bearing upon the character of the state or of civil society there. Believe my experience, nothing of all this is useless for the physician of souls to know, in order that he may at once understand their I diseases, may easily provide remedies, and may always have at command a power of readily and quickly meeting all neces­sities.

This will teach you what to dwell upon most frequently in your sermons, and what to insist on urgently with your penit­ents. This knowledge will arm and prepare you for your pro­miscuous conversations with men, and you will be so fortified by it, as never to be amazed at anything as new, never to be put into a ferment at any unforeseen occurrence : it will make you feel at home in all the variety of questions that will arise one after another, it will make you dexterous in the multiplied business you will have to transact with men of all sorts, and also give you authority with all. When men of the world are admonished of anything by religious persons, they generally despise them, because they think that they have no experience of affairs. But if they find that any one is quite as well versed as they are and has as much experience as themselves in the common usages of civil life, they will hold such a one in ad­miration, trust themselves to him, and will not hesitate when he urges them even to do violence to themselves, and to carry

out whatever he advises them, even though it be arduous. So you see what great fruit may come from such knowledge, and therefore you must now consider that it is your business to labour in acquiring it as much as in old days you laboured to learn philosophy or theology. And it must be sought, not from dead books written on paper or parchment, but from liv­ing books—that is, from men who have had experience in affairs, and who know well the manners of the people. With this knowledge you will do more good than if you poured forth upon the crowd whole libraries of speculations.

Wherever this learning of which I speak has won for you any kind of authority or consideration with some, remember that the first proof of your authority must be to arrange and bring about without fail that they make an examination of all the sins of their whole life, and then confess them in the sacrament of penance, and after this endeavour to excite themselves to a true detestation of these sins in a retreat and by meditations adapted to them, drawing from them reasons for such detestation from the majesty of God and the love which all His creatures owe to Him. You may be sure that this is the foundation of every­thing good, this is the principal thing, to which all others must be postponed.

In the next place take pains to extricate them from the en­tanglement of legal disputes, which are the seedplots of hatreds and calumnies. Persuade them therefore to put an end to their lawsuits by the arbitration of friends, and so save a great deal of money, of trouble, and of reputation. If they ask you to be arbiter, do not refuse. You can find time for the matter con­veniently both for them and for yourself on Sundays or days- otherwise free from the transaction of business, when you can hear one after another the complaints or demands of the intend­ing litigants, and propose some middle plan of compromise, on. which it may be much better for them to agree than to run the daily risk of falling from their condition and making a sad shipwreck of their honour, with all the expense, the weary delay, the great hazards which they would run through the false­hoods of bribed witnesses, the deceits of impostors, the num­

berless snares of the gentlemen of the law, the labyrinthine mazes of cavilling pleadings, the heat and bustle of the'tribu­nals, the perpetual restless battle of alternate recriminations, which will roll on backwards and forwards like the tides of the Euripus. If you dwell on these things you will deliver your friends who are thinking of entering their causes in the courts from the itch for litigation, and it will be still more easy, in the case of persons who have already become acquainted with the air of the lawcourts and been wearied by the tumultuous con­tests of the tribunals, to make them entertain the advice of abandoning of their own accord suits which they have begun.

I know this will not please the attorneys and advocates and other forensic leeches of various denominations, who get great gains out of the number and length of lawsuits. When such persons complain of you on this account, you can partly despise their complaint, partly you should attack in your own way any of them whom you can reach, making them afraid to practice their mischievous tricks of protracting causes by interminable delays, and warning them of the urgent danger in which they lie of losing eternal happiness. And, that they may look well to an affair of so much moment, you can invite them to a few days of retreat to be spent in pious meditations.

You are to remain at Ormuz until you receive letters from me ordering you to go somewhere else. Write to me by the ships which go to Malacca, directing your packet to Francesco Perez. I wish you in these letters to tell me precisely and in particular whatever of moment has resulted from your labours. Francesco Perez will take care that they are sent on from Ma­lacca to me in Japan, if it shall please God to send me thither for the service of His Divine Majesty. If for the space of three years you get no letter from me, nevertheless remain all that time at Ormuz, however much you may be invited or called elsewhere by any other person, for for the next three years I think it well for the glory of God you should remain there, and I give you a direct order so to do.

After the three years have elapsed, if no letter from me reaches you, you must still remain at Ormuz until the Rector of

the College of Santa Fe bids you leave it. So you should then write to him at great length what you have up to that time done at Ormuz, what fruit you have gathered by the help of God, what you expect in future; tell him also the distinct command which I gave you when I went away as to your remaining there for three years, even although during that time you might have been called away by the Rector at Goa. For the rest, you may assure him that since the time fixed by me has expired, you are now entirely at his command, and ready to do at once whatever he may -order you. At the same time lay before him any thing which, after you have weighed all before God, may seem to you , worthy of consideration in deciding what is best either as to the opportuneness or as to the necessity of your remaining any longer in that post. When he answers this letter, do whatever he commands you without any excuse or delay. What I have told you as to sending your letter to me from Ormuz to Ma­lacca, do not understand as if it would be enough to do that once a year only. I wish you never to let a single ship sail from thence to Malacca without a letter from you to me, directed, as I have said, to the care of Francesco Perez.

When on board the ship in which you are to embark for Ormuz, I beseech you to take great care of the layman who is given to you as companion. Persuade him to go to confession, and when you have brought him by your exhortations to a bet­ter life, take diligent precaution that he may not go astray again. On board ship you must preach on the Sundays, and on other days when you think it well so to do. I leave all that matter to your own discretion, so as to decide, when you have con­sidered all circumstances, what is expedient for the moment. In your sermons make no display of erudition or of memory, reciting a great number of passages as proofs, or authorities from the old Fathers. Let a few of these, well chosen, be enough. Let a great part of your discourse be taken up with graphic descriptions of the interior condition and disorder of souls in a state of sin. Let your sermon set before their eyes, and let them see in it plainly as in a mirror, their own restless devices, their cunning artifices, their most vain hopes and imaginations,.

Study of Men and Books.

all the deceitful designs which they entertain in their souls. Add also the miserable ends to which all these things lead, un­ravel the sophisms of the captious suggestions made to them by their deadly enemy the devil, show them the way to extri­cate themselves from his toils, and heap upon them motives of fear to terrify them if they do not do this.

The truth is, that men listen attentively to those things above all which reach their inmost conscience. Sublime specu­lations, perplexed questions, scholastic controversies, soar not only above the intelligence of those who are creeping along on the ground, but also above their interest. They make a great deal of empty thunder and vanish away without any fruit. You must show men clearly to themselves, if you wish to have them hanging upon the words of your mouth. But to set forth what their own interior feelings are, you must first know them ■ and the only way to know them is to be much in their company, to study them, observe them, pray with them. So turn over and over again these living books; it is from these that you will gain everything—how to teach them with efficacy, how easily to act on and affect and turn and move sinners w^Thither it behoves them to be moved for their souls’ salvation.

Do not however neglect the study of dead books on account of this. Holy Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the sacred Canons, ascetical books, and those which treat of moral sub­jects, duties, rights, and their distinctions—all these must be diligently consulted at proper times. It is in them that we find how to remedy temptations, the arguments by which to per­suade, the motives of heroic affections, and examples of all that is praiseworthy taken from the lives of the Saints. But after all, these things have no warmth or life, and are of little avail, un­less the minds of the audience are first opened so as to admit them into their own depths. And the certain key thus to open them is that picture and representation of each one’s interior state of which I have spoken, skilfully drawn by a preacher who has full knowledge of the ways of men, and set in a good light before the eyes of everybody.

Since the King in his munificence has ordered that what

is necessary for your support at Ormuz should be provided at the expense of his treasury, you should avail yourself of this favour from our excellent Sovereign, and accept from his offi­cials alone the means of which you are in need. What others offer you, even of their own accord, reject; for it is of signal importance for the authority and liberty of one who has the charge of souls to be under no obligation on the score of the supply of his food, which is in fact to owe his life and breath, to any one of those whom it is his duty to direct in the way of salva­tion, and to correct and pull up whenever they go astray. The common saying is very true as to gifts of this kind : ‘ He that takes, is taken;’ for he loses all confidence as to finding fault with or using his right of censure with a man towards whom he has allowed himself to take up the humble position of a de­pendent, and thus bound himself to him by the reverence due to a patron. Hence it is that we are sometimes in such diffi­culties as to finding words in which to reprove people who feed us when they deserve reproof; or, if sometimes our zeal and sense of duty impose on us to do violence to our shyness in this respect, yet still we do not gain much good, for the people look down as with a kind of superciliousness as if they were our masters, and had lawfully purchased that position, as they think, at the cost of the benefits which they have conferred upon us.

This is true in general of all—but more particularly is it true of certain persons, concerning whom I think it necessary to put you on your guard. There are men who are deeply plunged in vice, and who will yet affect familiarity with you, and will even vie with one another in seeking to win your friendship by kind offices. It is not that they have any desire of profiting from your conversation and discourse so as to amend their own wicked ways, for they have made up their minds to abide in them to the last. It is that they wish to stop your mouth and tie your tongue, for their own consciousness of guilt warns them to be afraid of your censure. I think you should not altogether repel these persons, nor entirely reject their good offices. Do not refuse eve,n their invitations to dinner, or their

Residence at Ormuz.

^l37

presents, if they are slight and of little value, such' as water, fresh fruits, and the like, to reject which is commonly con­sidered among the Portuguese in the East as an insult to those who offer them. Let them see plainly, and even declare to them freely, that you accept their presents only on the con­dition that they are ready to take in good part admonitions and exhortations from you; that you also will promise to come and sup with them on the express understanding that they will prepare themselves on your invitation to make confession of their sins and approach the Eucharistic Banquet in Holy Com­munion. And those little presents of food and dainties which I said had better not be refused for fear of injuring your friend­ship, send as soon as ever you have received them to the sick in the hospitals or to the prisoners in the gaols or to other in­digent persons. The people will see and approve of and ap­plaud the use which you make of the presents that you receive, and will absolve you from all suspicion of liking delicacies or of seeking favours which may turn to your own profit.

As to where you are to live, you must decide when you get to Ormuz, considering the state of things which you find there, making your choice to live either in the public hospital, or in the house of the Confraternity of^tercy, or in a small house near the church, as shall seem most expedient. If it shall hap­pen that I call you to come to Japan, write at once to the Rector of the College here, in two or three different ways by the ships which sail to Goa from Ormuz, asking him to provide ■some one of ours who may be fit to help and console the peo­ple of the lastnamed city, and to send him as soon as possible fto take your place at that post.

Finally; I earnestly commend to you to take care of yourself beyond everything else. Never cease to remember that you are a member of the Society of Jesus. In all the particular occasions of doing work of various kinds which will present themselves at Ormuz, your own practice and experience on the spot will teach you what is most for the service of our Lord ■God. There is no better or surer teacher of prudence than ex­perience. Be careful diligently to commend me to Him Who is

the Lord of botli of us in your own daily prayers, and let those whom you direct in the service of God do the same. And let my last charge in this long exhortation be this—at least once a week read over carefully the whole of this paper, lest at any time you should fall into some forgetfulness of the things which are enjoined to you therein. May God our Lord accompany you on your voyage and lead you safe to your destination : and may He also abide with us who remain here ! Farewell.

Goa, March 1549. FRANCIS.

Gaspar Baertz seems to have left Goa for his mission at Ormuz towards the end of March, not long before Francis him­self started for Cochin, whence he was finally to embark for Malacca. In the course of the winter two new priests of the Society had been ordained by the Bishop of Goa; Manuel de Moraes and Alfonso de Castro, both of whom have been already mentioned. Manuel had been destined by Francis Xavier to accompany Cipriano on the mission to Socotra, and went to Cochin from Goa to meet his colleague; but at the last moment Francis changed his mind, gave up the idea of Socotra for the present, and sent Cipriano to Meliapor, determining to take Manuel with him to Malacca, and thence to send him to the Moluccas. Manuel sang his first mass at Goa soon after his- ordination ; Alfonso de Castro seems to have wished to make a longer preparation, and embarked without having yet offered the holy sacrifice.

The arrangement to be made at Goa, now that Gaspar Baertz was out of the question as Rector of the College there, appears to have cost Francis Xavier much anxiety. We have already seen that he had had to urge obedience and sub­mission to the secular Superiors of the College on Father Paul of Camerino.^s This difficulty no longer existed; and Father Paul was a man of very great virtue, humble, simple, sanctified,, laborious, and a great lover of poverty and abjection of every kind. He had never left Goa since his arrival, and was to labour there until his death, eleven years after the date at which we have now arrived. His chief work was the unostentatious ⁸ See Letter? 1. and lii. (vol. i. pp. 360-370).

hard drudgery of attending to the young native scholars of the College, to whose spiritual and bodily welfare he was devoted, and whom he succeeded in forming to sober Christian virtue and to great zeal for the Catholic faith. He was a man of comparatively little learning, and, it would seem, no talent for preaching; and his offer of himself to Ignatius, before leaving Rome, as a helper and even servant to the Fathers who were to be sent by the Pope to India, may perhaps have been one of the incidents which suggested the institution in the Society of the ‘ grade’ of Spiritual Coadjutor. Father Paul was quite in his element in the continual labours of humility and charity to which he had devoted himself, his constancy in which won him the esteem and veneration of all who knew him. We are told in particular of his devotion to the sick, especially the poor crea­tures, slaves and others, who were to be found lying in the streets, turned out of doors by their masters—these he used to carry himself to the hospital, and wait upon with a charity which moved those who saw it to intense fervour.⁹ Paul was hardly a man for government, and yet Francis Xavier had already discerned in Antonio Gomez the defects which might render him positively mischievous. Yet Antonio had been appointed Rector, as we have seen, by Simon Rodriguez. He was a Portuguese, and as such acceptable to the Fathers his fellow countrymen scattered over India, and he seems also to have stood very high in the favour of the Governor. It is pro­bable that, if Simon had never made the appointment, Francis Xavier would have kept Antonio in a subordinate place; as it was, he hit upon a middle course, which need not have involved any inconveniences if it had not been for the character of the two men who by it were placed almost side by side. This middle course was to continue Antonio Gomez in the Rector­ship of the College, but at the same time to make Father Paul the Superior of the whole Society in India in the absence of Francis himself, and therefore Superior also to Gomez.

The following letter was probably written to serve as a record

* The fullest account of Father Paul is to be found in Bartoli, Asia, lxvii. p. 734 seq.

of this arrangement, and we may discern in its earnest exhort­ations to peace and harmony the anxiety which Francis felt as to what might happen when his back was turned, and when he was too far off to remedy any trouble, even by letter. The ex­hortations of which we speak are addressed to Father Paul, but it is not difficult to see that they were meant more for Antonio Gomez than for him.

(lxx.) To Father Paul of Camerino.

As I am on the point of departing for Japan, I beseech and entreat you, the Superior of the College of Goa, by all the de­sire you have to please our Lord God, and by the love which you feel towards our Father Ignatius and the whole of the So­ciety of Jesus, first and above all things endeavour, by very great humility, very attentive circumspection, by always taking pain§ most maturely and rightly to make up your judgment in everything, to live in tranquillity, concord and love with Antonio Gomez and with all our brethren who are scattered in various places in India. From the intimate knowledge which I have of all the workers of the Society of Jesus who are at present serv­ing God and the Church throughout these countries, I am easily led to think that they do not need a Superior to guide them in the way of the service of God, but still, that they may not lose the opportunity of earning merit by means of obedience, and because the order of right discipline so requires, I think it con­venient that some one should be set over them to whom they are to be subject. And so, relying on your modesty, prudence, and knowledge, I have thought it the best thing to do to put you over them as their Superior and guide, to whose authority, with the limitations which I shall presently point out, all are to be subject, whether of our Society or the extern students at Goa or elsewhere, who have hitherto been accustomed to obey the orders and authority of the Rector of the College of Santa Fb. You then will exercise authority over them, until such time as some legitimate revocation of the same shall be duly signified to you.

And now here are the restrictions which I wish to place upon that authority, for certain just causes. In the first place,

I command that Antonio Gomez is to have full and absolute rule, with perfect right, over the extern students of the College, whether Portuguese or natives. I also appoint that he shall have the free administration of the revenues, and all the money of the College, to demand and receive it from those who owe it, and to spend it on what is necessary for the house as shall seem good to him. So you must not interfere in any way with his doing this, nor demand any account from him of it. Everything also that relates to the dismissal or admission of students, whether Portuguese or Indians, by him, you must leave to his cogniz­ance and judgment, approving as good whatever he may decide, and never interposing your own authority as to anything of the sort. If you have any difference of opinion with him as to any­thing of these, give your advice or make your reauest to him, but never prescribe anything in a matter of this kind in virtue of obedience. Moreover, I commit to him alone the punish­ments to be inflicted on boys of either kind, as well as the whole arrangement of the domestic discipline, and the distribution of all offices, and the appointment or choice or rejection of the servants of the College. And I order that he shall discharge all these duties in his own way, without any questioning or con­tradiction from you or any one else.

And here, once more, because the matter is so important, I beseech you, and, by the obedience which you have freely pro­mised to our Father Ignatius, by virtue of which I command you what I now w^rrite, I adjure you, and entreat you in every most efficacious way in my power, that there never come be-, tween you and Antonio Gomez any discord or disunion, any verbal altercation, any beginning or appearance of quarrel, but rather the truest brothership proved by signs from each of you that your wills are perfectly united, and that you have the greatest love for one another; that you are with one heart bent upon promoting, each one on his own part, with the utmost diligence, the common good of the whole household. And this- union of aim should be always manifesting and declaring itself,.

so as to cut away every occasion of offence and murmuring whether within or without the College.

Whenever any of our brethern who are working for the benefit of the people of the Promontory of Comorin, by con­tinually visiting their villages, may write to you, as Niccolo from Coulan, or Cipriano from Meliapor, or Melchior Gonzalez from Bazain, Francesco Perez from Malacca, or Joam Beira and his companions from the Moluccas, to ask for your help with the Governor or the Bishop whose favour may happen to be need­ful to them by reason of some business, or to beg of you for any other kind of help or service, spiritual or bodily, whatever it may be, of which they chance to be in need, then leave everything else and devote yourself to the carrying out their requests with the utmost diligence and charity. And speak to Antonio Gomez, that he may at once strenuously and with open hand do whatever lies in him to do in that regard. And when you write to those most laborious and harassed workers, who are bearing in the sun and dust the burthen and heat of the day at their own extreme cost and sweat, take care that you never let the smallest drop whatsoever of sourness find its way into your letter, but let it, on the contrary, breathe the most exquisite love and sweetness. Let all savour or shadow of re­proach, or complaint, or all mention of anything that may offend them or make them sad, be utterly absent from what you write. Supply them at once attentively and liberally with all they ask for as necessary for their support, their clothing, for the keep­ing up or restoring their health; for you must have deep com­passion on the great and continual labours which they undergo, working with all their might in the service of God, and which they bear up under day and night without any admixture of human consolation.

This I would say most especially of those who have the care of the Christian congregations in the Comorin Promontory and in the Moluccas, for these men are most truly weighed down by the overwhelming burthen of a most heavy cross. So, for God’s sake, lest they should break down under the weight, be most careful, with the utmost solicitude of which you are cap­

able, that they never ask in vain or ask twice over for anything >that you understand them to want, either for the comfort of the soul or for supplies for the body; for if these last fail them, it is certain that their souls also will grow faint and give way. They are in the ranks of the fight, you are safe in the camp, which you have to guard ; and I am so decided in my judgment that this duty of yours to help them in every way is so just and ought to be so entirely put before every other, that I do not hesitate to adjure you, in the name of God and of our Father Ignatius, to strive with all your might to leave nothing undone on your part in the way of the most extreme diligence in discharging it with the utmost alacrity, and giving them abundantly, and more than abundantly, what they demand.

And as to what regards yourself more particularly, my dear brother, I beseech you again and again to go on increasing in virtue by continual progress, letting your wholesome example be like a shining light before the eyes of all, as hitherto indeed you have always done. Never let an occasion of writing to me pass by. I shall expect from you long and full letters, tell­ing me a number of pleasant things about yourself, about the whole community, about your mutual concord, about the in­separable charity between you and Antonio Gomez, about each of our fathers and brothers who are working in the Comorin Promontory; about Cipriano, who is living at Meliapor, about those of the Society who have landed from the ships which are to come this year from Portugal, who they are, how many of them have a good talent of preaching to the people, who are priests, who are lay brothers. I require you to be particular in telling me which belong to these two classes, their number and kind, their names, their qualities, their strength, and the virtues which they possess; all must be written out at length. There are at least two certain ways by which you can keep up this correspondence with me. Twice every year a King’s ship leaves Goa: in September for Banda, in April for the Moluccas. Each of them touches at Malacca on its way, and there is our brother Francesco Perez, who will receive the letters directed to me, and will take care to send them to me in Japan, by opportu­

nities which will not fail him. And please take care to read over the paper which I leave behind me for you once every week, and to refresh your memory, not only of my commands, but also of me myself, in my absence; and I write this to be a spur to you to make you commend me to God in your prayers, and to have me recommended in the prayers of the brethren at Goa, and of all your devout penitents, male and female.

I have charged Antonio Gomez, that if any preachers come out from Portugal, he is to send some of them to our stations up and down India—Cochin, for instance, where there is so much want of a good preacher of our Society—also to the parts about Cambaia, or suppose, the city of Diu. I recommend the same matter to you also; so if the ships that are to come out this year bring any good supply of men of our Society who are good at preaching, arrange with Gomez about distributing them conveniently, so that by one or other of you they be with­out fail sent to the places I have mentioned. And as I am afraid that the many occupations which your manifold duties of government involve will not easily leave you any free leisure for writing diligently and minutely to me all these things which I desire to know, I think you should commit this as a business to our good Dominic, or to some other of the Portuguese in the house, and order him carefully to collect and make notes of all things that are worth knowing, the news of which from time to time may come to Goa by various hands, concerning our Fathers who are scattered in the various missions or stations, and particularly about Gaspar, who is at Ormuz. Just before the regular time for the departure of the ships for Malacca you can collect wliat he has written, and put it up in a packet directed to me, and add in your own hand anything that you may happen to have to inform me about in private.

As you have never yet had the opportunity of seeing with your own eyes the work that is going on in the various missions which depend upon this College, or what is the state of the places in which our Fathers are labouring, and as you have had no experience of the sort of life they lead in the Comorin Coast, at Meliapor, at Coulan, in the Moluccas, at Malacca,

and at Ormuz, I would never have you by an absolute com­mand bid any one of those who are working there come to you. For it may happen that on account of your ignorance of what is going on in those places you might by so doing give a fatal blow to some good work already begun, and there might be some matters on which great exertions have been spent, and which have thus been brought very near a prosperous issue after having had long to wait for it, which might be altogether thrown into confusion by your calling away those engaged in the work at an inopportune moment, and mischief might be done to the cause of the salvation of souls and of God’s glory which it would be very difficult to repair. This is the reason why I am writing as I am at this moment to Father Antonio Criminale, not himself to leave his post at the summons of any one what­soever, and not to permit any one of his fellow workers in teaching religion to the Christians of Comorin to leave his station, whoever it may be who recalls him, unless, looking at the circumstances on the spot, he thinks it can be done without any inconvenience. I give the same orders to the others who are on the same stations, neither themselves to leave work which they have begun, nor to permit their companions in labour to be taken away from their work and go elsewhere, for to do this would be to spoil great hopes and to lose precious opportunities of enlarging the kingdom of Christ, by retiring at an improper time and at a moment when to do so is greatly injurious to the interests of God’s service. So it will be more prudent for you never to interpose your authority in these mat­ters or to give in virtue of obedience a command as to which you are not sufficiently certain whether it is expedient that it should be carried out or not.

However, though I particularly forbid that any one of ours who is labouring in the missions should be ordered by you to come to Goa, unless you have first inquired as to their opinion in the matter and ascertained their consent, yet, on the other hand, if any of them from urgent causes come to you without your orders, I bid you receive them very kindly, treat them with special charity, and attend to their wants with all good-

VOL. II. I,

will, whether it be that they want some bodily remedies or re­lief, or whether their souls are out of order, and they have come either of their own accord, by reason of their own danger, or by the persuasion or bidding of their companions who may feel some brotherly anxiety about them, to seek some spiritual me­dicine, confession or correction, or a few days of retreat. All these good offices you are to show them with all fatherly charity, taking care that they do not perish, or get any hurt to their souls. And now, my dearest Brother Paul, I do most urgently entreat you to observe all these things which I have said in this letter.

Entirely yours,

April 1549. Francis.

We find in the foregoing letter an enumeration of the stations of the several Fathers in India, which records the final arrange­ments made by Francis before sailing for Malacca. Niccolo Lancilotti was at Coulan, Melchior Gonzalez at Bazain, and Cipriano at Meliapor. Antonio Criminale was still the Supe­rior of the Fathers on the Comorin Coast and in Travancore. The strict prohibitions issued by Francis against the removal of any of these missionaries from their post must have very much curtailed the powers, which would otherwise have been exercised by the Superior at Goa. We have seen the severe injunction laid on Gaspar Baertz with regard to Ormuz. The disposal of the Fathers who might arrive from Portugal after the departure of Francis is left to some extent to Antonio Gomez, who is apparently associated with Paul of Camerino in the go­vernment of these new subjects. We shall observe something of the same sort further on. It is probably to be accounted for by the fact that not only was Gomez a Portuguese, while Paul of Camerino was an Italian, but that Gomez, as has been said, had been appointed Superior by Simon Rodriguez, and it was probable therefore that the new comers, who were likely to be Portuguese themselves, would be addressed to him. Francis was therefore obliged to provide against any clash of authority in the way indicated, and he may well be supposed to have half foreseen the difficulties to which Master Simon’s unfor­

tunate appointment might ultimately lead. But he had now done what he could to secure the good conduct of the affairs of the Society at Goa, and provided by earnest injunctions the largest and most charitable succour possible for the hardworked missionaries throughout India in any need that might come upon them. Here, again, we may be sure that the rules which he gives to Father Paul were but the expression of his own overflowing lovingheartedness whenever he had the opportunity of assisting his brethren. The time was now come for him to sail again eastwards, and on the 25th of April he embarked at Cochin¹⁰ for Malacca, taking with him, as has already been said, Father Cosmo Torres, Joam Fernandez, Anger otherwise Paul of the Holy Faith, and the other Japanese, Emmanuel, a Chinese student of the College of Santa Fe, as well as Al­fonso de Castro, Manuel de Moraes, and a brother, Francesco ■Gonzalez. The three last were destined for the Moluccas. During the few days that the party spent at Cochin, Alfonso de Castro so won upon all who saw him and heard him preach, that the inhabitants petitioned Francis to leave him with them to found a college of the Society. But Francis was inexorable. Alfonso was destined to win a crown of martyrdom in the Mo­luccas.

¹⁰ It was on this voyage to Cochin that the anecdote occurred which is mentioned vol. i. pp. hi, 112, of Don Diego di Norona, who was at first scandalized by the familiar manner in which Francis conversed with the .-sailors, soldiers, and others who were on board with him.

Francis starting for Japan.

The voyage of Francis Xavier and his little band of com­panions from Cochin to Malacca was prosperous, though Lu­cena speaks of one storm in the course of the passage, when the captain was so alarmed at the danger which threatened his heavily-laden vessel that he had given the order to throw some of his cargo overboard, but was prevented by the intercession of Francis, who assured him that the wind would fall, and that they would sight the land before night. All came about as he had said. But this incident probably belongs to a later voyage to the same place. This voyage, however, had its memorable conversion. A man of noble birth was one of the passengers, and he was accompanied by a wojnan with whom he was living in a scandalous manner. Francis, as usual, made himself the in­timate and affectionate friend of this poor sinner, and paid him so much attention, without taking the least notice of the well- known profligacy of his life, that, as Lucena tells us, those on board the vessel were inclined to say of him as the Pharisee said of our Lord, that if he had been a prophet he would have known what sort of a person his chosen companion was. When they disembarked at Malacca the victory was won.

‘ Sir, it is now time !’ said Francis. The man was at his feet in a moment, he made his confession, provided for the poor wo­man, and began to lead a good life.

Francis was received with great joy at Malacca. He had not been at that city since a short time after the great defeat of the Acheenese fleet; and besides, the zeal and charity of Francesco Perez and Rocco Oliveira had produced a great change for the better in the population. They came to meet him at the port, singing the canticles of the Christian doctrine which he had taught them.

Francis himself, in a letter which we shall presently insert, ..gives an account of the extraordinary fervour and almost super­human exertions of Father Francesco Perez and his companion. The humility, poverty, and mortification in which they lived, preached as powerfully as the words which the Father uttered in the pulpit, and they had already received several applica­tions from men who desired to be admitted to the Society. As they had no power to receive postulants, they could only .give the applicants the Spiritual Exercises, and practise them in some of the trials which were usual in such cases. The most conspicuous of these recruits was a young Portuguese ot noble family, nineteen years of age, Joam Bravo by name. He had probably come out to India to seek his fortune either as a soldier or a merchant, and had chanced to sail to Malacca from Goa in the King’s ship, bound for the Moluccas, com­manded by a relation of his own, Don Diego Sousa, in which ship Francesco Perez and his companion had been conveyed. Bravo was* attracted to thoughts of a more perfect life, and to the Society, by observing the holy, mortified lives of Perez and Oliveira. After making the Exercises, he would have returned at once to Goa to seek his admission from the hands of Francis Xavier, but that the arrival of the Father at Malacca was known to be so close at hand that he might have crossed him on his way. Bravo, therefore, waited. Meanwhile, he strug­gled vigorously to conquer himself in all possible ways, waiting on Perez and the other as their servant, attending the sick in the hospital, going about the city to beg for food and alms: a greater humiliation to him than it might have been to others, as he was well known and had many noble relatives who laughed at him and reproached him. Francis Xavier received him into the Society, and took the pains to give him a care­fully drawn paper of instruction, which is happily preserved to us. Joam Bravo afterwards became a very eminent Father in the Society, and spent his life in the Indies.

The time passed by Francis at Malacca before embarking for Japan was rather more than three weeks, as we are told that he arrived on the last day of May. Before proceeding

further with our narrative, we may here insert some of the letters written during this interval of preparation. The first is to the King, in which Francis formally announces his intention of sailing, without fail, to Japan. It is pleasant to find him speaking so gratefully of the assistance afforded to him by the Governor of Malacca, Don Pedro de Silva, who remained ai­rways a firm friend to Francis Xavier. He was the third son of the great Vasco de Gama, the discoverer of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope. On his return to Portugal Vasco was made a Count, and also created Lord High Admiral; and we shall find Francis speaking of him under these titles. His eldest son was Estevan de Gama, of whom we have already heard, as Governor of India before Martin Alfonso de Sousa. The second son was Cristoval, the famous captain in the Portu­guese invasion of Abyssinia in 1541. Pedro was the third son. The fourth will appear later on in our history in colours as dark as those in which his three brothers are painted are bright. He was the Don Alvaro d’Ataide, the ‘Capitan’ of Malacca in 1552, who opposed to the utmost the embassy to China, on which Francis Xavier had reckoned to secure him an entrance into that country.

(lxxi.) To John III. King of Portugal.

Sire,—I had often heard and deeply considered the many and marvellous things which various persons—and those good judges in the matter, as having been themselves on the spot— report concerning a remarkable disposition which is observed in the island of Japan for the reception of our holy religion. Upon this I thought that I ought strongly and urgently to be­seech our Lord God to vouchsafe to let me feel some interior movement in my heart which might signify to me whether it were His holy will that I should go thither, and also to give me strength to accomplish what He might command me. It has pleased His Divine Majesty to grant my prayer. For I feel the most intimate certainty and conviction in my mind, that it is expedient for the service of God that I should go to

The ^c Capitan’ of Malacca.

Japan. This has given me a ready and vigorous confidence, and I have put an end to all delay in the matter by sailing from India, that I may follow the undoubted call of God, Who urges me on to this voyage by frequent and strong interior im­pulses.

We have now got as far as the port of Malacca on our way to Japan. There are two of our Society with me, and three Japanese Christians, lately converted, but very good. After having been fully instructed in the mysteries and doctrines of the life and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, they were bap­tized at Goa in the College of Santa Fe. They have learned to read and write in our manner, they recite the prayers of the Chunh, and make meditation at regular hours. What moves and affects them most of all is the consideration of the labours and sufferings of Christ, and the remembrance of His cross and death. They often meditate upon these things with very deep and strong sentiments and very tender affections. They have exercised their minds with very great attentiveness in the ascetic mediations of Father Ignatius, and have carried away from them most remarkable fruits in the clearer knowledge of God. They frequent of their own accord the sacraments of confes­sion and communion, and they feel urged to join us in this voyagi to their own country by great desires of leading their own people to the religion of Christ.

We, the six whom I have mentioned, arrived at Malacca on the lait day of May of this year 1549. The Commandant of the fortress of Malacca has received us with the usual kindness. He at once offered us most readily all the favour and assist­ance tiat could be expected from him towards the carrying out and promoting this expedition of ours,—undertaken, as it is, with g-eat hopes of serving God and pleasing your Highness : and hs sedulous carefulness in all good offices has gone far even oeyond the courtesy of his words. He has put himself to so much pains in seeking for us a comfortable ship, and pro­viding us with every other convenience for going whither we are found with all safety and ease, as to fulfil most abundantly all tie liberal and kind promises which he made to us on the

first day of our landing here. Nothing could exceed his ex­treme courtesy in readily and with full goodwill offering to us whatever was in his own power to give; and as for what had to be obtained for us from others, by canvassing, influence, and request, he has exerted himself so much in bringing people round to us by every effort in his power, and doing all he can to make them well disposed to us, and he so has worked in our cause in a way that has shown us signally his very tender charity towards us, that we feel ourselves quite unable ever to reward his goodness to us as it deserves. If he had been our own brother we could not have expected from him any greater or more efficient kindness. So that I pray and beseech vou, Sire, that, for the love which you have for God our Lord, your Highness will condescend to repay in our stead the very great debt we owe to Don Pedro de Silva on this account. He has commanded that we should be largely supplied with whatever is necessary for us, not only for our support during the voyage from this place to Japan, but also for our expenses anc sus­tenance during a considerable stay in that country, as well as for the building of a chapel in which we may offer the holy sacrifice of the mass to God. For this particular purpoie he has given us thirty measures of the best pepper picked out of the whole quantity that was then at Malacca. He has also given us many beautiful and very costly presents to ofer to the King of Japan, that he may be favourably inclined to us by means of them, and so be more easy in admitting us into his kingdom and tolerating us there.

I tell your Highness all these particulars, that you msy un­derstand what benefits and honours I receive from your faithful subjects in the Indies. I really believe, Sire, that I shall spedc the simple truth when I say that no one ever came to India wlo has received so much honour and favour from the Portuguese who reside there as has been shown by them to me. The whde of this I owe to your Highness, and to your frequent and efffcient recommendations of me to those who are the administrates of your Highness’s royal power throughout the countries cf the Indies. And as among them Don Pedro de Silva, the Com­

mandant of your fortress of Malacca, has been signally eminent in assisting me, paying me honour, and making me presents, and has bound me to him by a series of benefits which my own want of means and power forbid me from ever returning in kind as they deserve, I beg your Highness to allow me to find in your liberality the means of supplying the deficiency caused by my poverty. I shall gain all I want if your Highness will vouchsafe for my sake to show large and bountiful favour to this good officer, and to others who have made me so deeply their debtors, and thus repay back to them that which I owe to them without having the means of rewarding them.

May our Lord God of His infinite goodness and mercy fully .and thoroughly enlighten the mind of your Highness with the clear knowledge of His holy will, and give you moreover the grace perfectly to execute what you know to be pleasing to Him, exactly as you would rejoice to have done at the mo­ment of your death, when you will be placed before the judg­ment seat of God to give an account of all that you have done throughout your whole life. Most strongly do I again and again beseech you, Sire, not to be slow about at once doing, in preparation for that last trial and decisive moment, every­thing that can now be done in the way of dispatch and antici­pation. For at the time of our last sickness, and when death is at hand and draws nigh, then the wretched mind of the sick person is so fixed upon what it has to suffer for the moment, the anguish, the bitter and numberless sorrows which then press upon it, as by no means to have time to attend to other cares or thoughts except those which that terrible scene, which then for the first time presents itself to the soul, strikes home to it —thoughts very sad indeed and very tormenting, though to no profit, the images of which no one can form for himself unless he has had experience of them.

Your Highness’s useless servant,

■ Francis.

Malacca, on the I'east of Corpus Christi, 1549.

The next letter, written at the same time, is to the Fathers •at Goa.

(lxxii.) To Fathers Paul of Camerino, Antonio Gomez, and Balthasar Gago.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ be ever in our souls ! Amen.

I write these few lines to you hurriedly, for I am quite sure that you will not fail to be pleased to hear how our voyage has fared, and about our arrival at Malacca. We sailed from Co­chin on April 25th, having first experienced there an incredible amount of kindness at the hands of the Franciscan Fathers. They received us with the greatest show of charity, and there- was certainly no room for any suspicion that it was not sincere. We owe them very much on that account, and shall always ac­knowledge that we owe it. Our run to Malacca took us not quite forty days. We arrived there strong and vigorous, both myselt and Father Cosmo Torres and the rest; no one was ill, no one had even sea-sickness, or even the slightest tendency to inter­nal derangement. The weather during the whole voyage was very fair. No danger or even alarm from the Acheenese pirates. Such prosperity did it please our Lord God to grant to that our voyage, to Whom we one and all pay very great praises and thanksgiving on that account, and we beg also that you will do^ the same for us. We disembarked at this port of Malacca on the last day in May.

The Commandant and the whole city, from the highest to the lowest, received me with great marks of joy and goodwill. Onour first interview I commended to the kindness of the Commandant the voyage we intend to make to Japan. He at once in the most ample manner offered all that was in his power, and then carried out in deed with very great diligence- what he had promised. He has shown so much kindness and activity that he has wonderfully bound us and all our Society to him thereby. In all the pains which he took about our business his very great love to us was conspicuous. Indeed, for our sole sake and at his own expense he was willing to fit out

and send a Portuguese ship to Japan, and he would have done it also, if he had been able to find a vessel fit for the purpose. When this plan became impossible, he bethought him of a Chinese vessel of the form which they call a junk. The cap­tain of this is a Chinese, by name Ladro, and though an idola­ter, he has a home and family at Malacca. This man promised that he would take us straight to Japan, but the Commandant did not think that it was safe to trust too lightly to the word of a heathen, so he exacted a contract, by which the man pledged as the security for the promise he had made his wife and his whole household property, on condition that unless it be shown by letters in our own handwriting which he brings back from Japan that he has taken us thither straight according to the agree­ment, his wife whom he leaves at Malacca and all that he pos­sessed in the Portuguese dominions should become confiscated to the royal treasury. Besides this, the Commandant has furnished us in the most provident liberal manner with all things that we require for the voyage as far as Japan, and for estab­lishing a home there for ourselves. He has also spent two hundred gold pieces upon presents for the King of Japan, to make him favour us and our preaching. We sail to Japan in a straight course, without making any delay at all in the ports of China. We trust that God will prosper our voyage, and bring us in safety to that country where His holy Name may be glo­rified, being made known by us first of all to those blind nations.

On Trinity Sunday Alfonso duly offered his first mass to God, with solemn music and all full ceremonies, having a dea­con and subdeacon to assist him. A great number of clerics in surplices came in solemn procession to the house of the Confraternity of Mercy, where we were lodged, and conducted the new priest, whom we also followed, to the principal church of the town, and after the mass was over they brought us back to the same place. He was assisted in this function by the Vicar of the Bishop and our Father Francesco Perez, Father Cosmo Torres doing the part ofdeacon. The same day I preached a sermon to the people, who were wonderfully delighted and deeply moved to reverence at so grand a ceremony, having never

seen a first mass offered to God with so much ceremony so carefully observed.

I expect to receive from you a letter, lengthy and diligent, telling me clearly and particularly both all about the general state of the whole College, and how each one of the fathers and brothers who are living there are, how he is in health, what he is doing, what progress he makes, how industriously and how fruitfully he is labouring. You will grudge me a thing which produces the sweetest possible fruit in my soul, if you cheat me of any part of this information which I desire so much. Besides this, I desire to know how many of our Society have landed from the ships which have come from Portugal, of what quality they are, how many of them are priests, or clerics, or lay brothers, whether any of them have a gift for preaching, and how great a gift, and what other good endowments they pos­sess. I should like this subject of itself to fill two or three sheets of large paper. Lastly, tell me about all our brothers in the Comorin Coast, those who are at Coulan, Meliapor, Or­muz, and Bazain; write so as I may know everything as if I had it there before my own eyes. This letter I wish one of you two, Father Paul or Father Antonio, to write to me, and be­sides that, I wish you to tell each one of our fathers and bro­thers who are living with you, that I beg them very much not to think it too much trouble to write to me letters of their own telling me the state of their souls. Such is my special affection to each one that it will be a delight to me to hear what are the heavenly gifts by which each one is refreshed by God, what are his peace and joy of mind, what the alacrity with which he presses on to perfection by his service to God our Lord. I should wish also that some one of the native students—suppose Diego of Mozambique—should write to me in the name of all, and do not let our people wait till I extract from them letters in return by sending them letters of my own to begin with, for though I have quite charity enough for this, yet I have not leisure enough, as all may easily see. I wish this letter to be communicated to them all, and they each one to receive it as written to himself by name. All these letters which I speak

of are to be sent, as I have before told you, to Malacca to Francesco Perez, who will take care to send them on straight to me in Japan.

Remember yourselves, and take care, I beseech you, that all our Fathers and brothers remember also, earnestly to com­mend to God in their daily intercessions and prayers, the Com­mandant of Malacca as if he were myself. The benefits he has conferred upon us and upon the whole Society are so splendid, that we are altogether unable to repay him, unless we obtain help from the almighty beneficence of God our Lord to make up for our poverty and weakness, and so free us from the very disgraceful stain of ungrateful hearts. The letters from Lisbon or Coimbra or Rome from Father Simon or others which you will receive directed to me, I have already told you to send to Malacca by the ship which leaves Goa for Banda; but if they do not come to hand in time for that, then let them at least be put on board the King’s ship which is to be sent in April to Ternate, and by the same means and occasion do not forget to inform our Fathers in the Moluccas of all that has happened worth mentioning in Europe and in the Indies.

But if you shall see in the bundle of letters for me from Europe any that have the royal seal upon them, as to these I give you this particular order. You must unseal those copies of them which come to you by the first ship, and read them, then make them up again into a packet and send them to Ma­lacca. I wish these letters to be read first by you two, Father Paul and Father Antonio, for this reason—because I think there will be in them some mention of two matters of business for the full execution of which in my absence you will have of necessity to do something. A long time ago I wrote to the King about Donna Isabella, formerly Queen of Ternate, the mother of the King who reigned there before the present King. When I was there this lady became a Christian by my ministry.

I also wrote about Balthasar Veloz, a near connection of the King of the Moluccas whose sister he has married; a man full of great love to our Society, who is very diligent and very use­ful indeed in working for the conversion of the heathen to our

Lord. The King is always so kind to me that I have reason to hope that he will answer me on these two heads, and in­deed I expect that very probably certain royal diplomas which I have endeavoured to obtain in favour of both these persons who have deserved so well of religion will be sent along with these letters to me. If it turns out that I am not deceived in this, then I again and again entreat you to forward these diplomas, with the greatest care, to the charge of our Fathers at Ternate by the royal ship which leaves Goa for the Moluccas in April.

But if the King’s letters say nothing about this, and if there is not to be discovered in the whole packet any letter from the King directed to both or at least to one of these two persons, then I beseech you Father Paul and Father Antonio to go at once to call on the Lord Governor and pray him very earnestly to let examination be made whether in the packet of letters from the King to himself which has just arrived, there be found orders as to an annual pension to be paid to Queen Isabella; or as to a certain honour or exemption granted to Balthasar Veloz by favour of his highness. And if these are found, then prevail upon the Governor both to do of his own accord every­thing else that may be necessary to give a full practical effect to the liberality of the King, and also to intrust the diplomas to you, who will take care that they be delivered to those whom they concern. That which relates to the Queen Isabella it will be enough for you to commit to our Fathers who are stationed at Ternate; as for that which is for Balthasar Veloz, I think you should address that yourselves in a special packet with letters from you, filled with every kind of expression of gratitude and desire to serve him, taking great care to let him see that by doing benefits to those of ours who are within his reach, he binds to himself all the members of the Society in every place to a return of goodwill, which will always show itself by efficient service whenever occasion arrives.

And now, Father Antonio Gomez, I urge upon you in the strongest and most urgent manner I can, to show with all dili­gence to the Reverend Fathers of the Order of St. Francis and

St. Dominic—I had almost said, not only reverend, but to be honoured by us as the blessed in Heaven are honoured—the highest possible charity, the most humble veneration and the most obsequious devotion in every thing, not only paying ex­quisite respect to them as a body, but also proving to them each singly, as you have to deal with him, your true and most sincere love by means of every kind of courtesy and attention. And make it a rule that every kind of dissension with them, every beginning or appearance whatsoever of rivalry or jealousy, is to be avoided by you and by all of ours as you would avoid a wild beast or a venomous serpent. And as to this matter consider this—that in order to prevent feuds, and in order to extinguish in their very birth the enviousness and the suspicions which are the seeds of discord, nothing can serve more effica­ciously than that every one of our Society should show the ut­most modesty at all times, modesty not at all put on or false, but founded on that intimate lowliness of heart which induces of itself to all external humility. And I would have you by no means keep shut up in your own minds these your thoughts and affections towards those most honourable religious of those illustrious Orders, but show them in action, visiting them courte­ously from time to time, and as far as may be upon any occa­sions which you may take advantage of, or even which you look out for, winning their goodwill by all kinds of honour and atten­tion ; and let the public itself see this, so that those who desire to see priests contending with one another, may understand at once that they must hope for no spectacle of the sort from you or on account of you. Moreover you must make it a study to win to yourselves the very populace itself and every human being of whatever kind where you are, and cause all to bear you goodwill, for their own sake. For that is the only way for you to be able to help them for the salvation of their souls. And the principal means and hope of gaining this kind of popularity—popularity not sought for the sake of gain, but in the cause of religion—lies in this, that in all your words and deeds and gestures you show in your daily conversation the perfectly modest composure of a mind that despises itself, true

fraternal love amongst yourselves, and towards all others ir> general the most unfeigned charity, ever ready to show itself in acts.

This last matter, I mean as far as relates to love among our own people for one another, I wish you, Father Paul, who are the Superior of the rest, to consider as particularly addressed to yourself. Take it in good part that I pray you here again once more, and that I beseech you to leave nothing undone that can make you an object of love to our brethren who are under your rule, and to think it a much more important thing that they love you with all their heart than that they obey your very nod. What follows now is for all of ours in India. I now give them warning that they should be prepared in mind and ready at a signal, if perchance I should find that there is greater opportunity of working with ease and profit in Japan than where they are, and should call them to come in large numbers to the richer harvest there. I quite expect that I can hardly fail very soon to summon some of them thither, and that the rest will have to follow after no long interval, as soon as the first successes have given us a pledge for further hope.

All of you take the most constant care that the Bishop may always have towards you the most lively goodwill and the most hearty favour. I would not have you content yourselves with mere signs of honour and barren declaration of veneration as the proofs of your devotion to his service—you must go be­yond even all manifestations of the most submissive reverence to him, and as far as he may permit you, take upon yourselves a share of his labours, and by very readily putting on your own shoulders a part of that immense weight of work which is so heavy upon him, of his care of all the Churches, in as far as he may desire to let you bear the burthen for him, relieve the grey hairs of that excellent old man and father, the supreme ruler of what belongs to the Christian religion in these parts. You must accomplish to the very utmost all his commands, and execute his desires even if they are only hinted to you by a nod, and in this matter I would have you make no limit at all to your obedience to him, except only that which is the utmost limit

of your whole strength strained as far as is possible to you with all the exertions you are capable of.

In the next place, I must communicate to you the anxiety which torments me, that, as far as our moderate powers allow, we should repay the great debt which we owe to our excellent and most liberal King for the great benefits with which he so unceasingly honours us, and also to the Portuguese in India for the very great love with which they treat us. It is easy to see that it is not in our power to return their good favour in any other way than by prudently and constantly applying ourselves, by means of the ecclesiastical ministrations of our Institute, to the work of securing the eternal salvation of the Portuguese wherever they are, either passing from place to place or fixed as residents. This work especially requires good preachers, and it has been long a pain to me that such preachers are sadly wanted in many settlements of the Portuguese, which are now numerous enough and are in great need of such helps. Even if we had not a duty of gratitude to make us supply such a need, we should be obliged to it by a feeling of common charity.

Now this want is felt more especially in Cochin and Bazain. For this reason I feel obliged, Father Antonio Gomez, to order you in virtue of holy obedience, that when the preachers who are expected very soon from Portugal arrive, you send one of them at once to Bazain and another to Cochin, even if there come no more than two, and there should be no one left for the College at Goa. For you yourself can go on doing that work as you have done hitherto; and see that you make no delay at all about this. Besides that my own formed opinion and certain judgment make me give this order, I have also pledged myself as to this to his lordship the Bishop, to whom I now write that I have ordered that it should be so done, every other consideration being postponed. May God our Lord in His infinite mercy thoroughly impress upon our minds a clear knowledge of His own most holy will, and at the same time furnish us continually with strength to obey it, with all that utmost and full perfection with which we should rejoice to have obeyed it at the moment of our death.

VOL. II. M

I explained to you in the letters which I wrote from Cochin how necessary it is that a house should be given to the Society at Coulan, to which our fathers who are labouring in the in­struction of the Christians along the Comorin Coast may betake themselves, and from which they may start from time to time, and in which there may also be set up a school for the boys of those countries; to which also our missionaries who break down under the immense fatigue of that work they have to do, whose strength gives way from time to time and who contract very serious diseases, may be taken and receive all due care. So, my bro­ther Antonio Gomez, arrange with the Governor and with the Chief Treasurer to find some way of bringing about this good work, which will not bear delay, by sending as soon as may be to Father Niccolo at Coulan some money or some other means by which he may be able at once to set in operation so very urgent a business.

What I am now going to add concerns you, Father Bal­thasar Gago, for I want your help in a certain business. I have already charged Father Paul and Father Antonio to send me in­formation about our domestic affairs, under which name I may include all that relates to the persons, the houses, and the acts of our fathers and brothers of the Society in India. But it is necessary also, or at least very useful, that I should have in­telligence of what goes on in distant parts and what is done by extems. This business I have set apart for you, confiding very much in your charity towards me, so I pray you take the trouble for me to look through the letters and despatches concerning European affairs which are brought to India, and also to make inquiries of persons who come out hither, and then from what you have read and heard make a selection for me, under these heads which I mention. What is the condition of our Society at Rome? How much has the College at Coimbra increased? Whether in either place any, and how many, of ours offer them­selves to be sent out to help us here ? Does the business of the mission to ./Ethiopia go on well, or is it abandoned ? Has the Patriarch who was to have been sent out here,been as yet named? How soon is it said that he will sail? What is our

good Father Simon thinking of, or what is he doing? What are the reverend fathers of the Franciscan and Dominican orders undertaking in India ? What is the fruit which results from their labours for souls ? Have they had supplies of their own brethren sent out to them from Europe, especially of preachers? I wish also that you would particularly tell him whether our good friend Cosmo Anez is well and flourishing ? With what good success does our Lord God prosper his home and family? And then at the end tell me what I delight to hear about yourself, your health, your progress in the spiritual life, the desires you feel of doing great things and suffering hard things for the glory of Christ. And although I know that you will do all this of your own accord and very willingly for my sake, because you are so good and kind, nevertheless I add, in order that you may not be deprived of the merit of obedience, that I distinctly order you to do it. And lastly, I inform you that you must be ready and prepared, and look for a signal from me that you are to start, for I shall call you out here sooner than you think.

Once again I address myself to you, Father Antonio Gomez, charging you most urgently, that if our fathers on the Comorin Mission should bring to you their requests or complaints, or those of the Christians whom they have to look after, who are sometimes wretchedly oppressed by violence and injustice, from the Commandant, you exert yourself strenuously to help him, leaving every other business aside for this, in which you should get Ruy Gonzalez to help you; as he is the Patron and father to those poor people, and has much influence with the Go­vernor, he will be both able and willing to collect them power­fully.

And now it remains that I should beg the prayers of all of you to strengthen our great weakness in this perilous, doubt­ful, long, and laborious voyage of ours to Japan. I beseech you therefore all alike, as many as live in the College of Goa, to have the kindness to implore in your daily prayers and sacri­fices the special help of God for Father Cosmo Torres, for Joam Fernandez, for Paul the Japanese, and his two com­

panions, Manuel the Chinese, and Amador, and lastly for my­self.

We are told here a great many things about Japan which fill us with the greatest hope that our voyage thither will lead to results which will abundantly repay the labour. They say that you can see there far and wide the fields white with the harvest, that many of the people are wearied with their ances­tral superstitions, that many are desirous to hear about the law of Christ, the reputation of which has reached them with very great commendations \ they show us letters also of some mer­chants dealing in the kingdom of Siam, who testify that some Japanese had landed there and had been heard to say that their countrymen wished to see some European priests come amongst them to teach them the true doctrine concerning God. Such are our hopes, and we are eager to fly to the spot where they may become true, our hearts full of spirit and of that confidence which is a sort of augury and presage, and which finds nothing too great to promise to itself in the way of success. But may God grant that our own sins may not intercept the rich streams of gifts of grace and heavenly succours, without an abundant torrent of which all labour for the conversion of the heathen is. in vain! Farewell. Your most devoted brother in Christ,

Malacca, Feast of Corpus Christi, 1549. FRANCIS.

It is evident that Francis Xavier was anxious to start as soori as possible for Japan. He was already aware of what he after­wards mentions in his letters, that to reach Japan that year he must leave Malacca in June. We may attribute to the shortness of the interval which he had at his disposal the inability of the Commandant of Malacca to find a Portuguese ship in which he might embark. We are told by the historian of the life of St. Francis that many Portuguese merchants came forward to offer their vessels for this purpose. It was thought that the presence of the Apostle on board any ship would secure her safety from' the great dangers of all kinds by which the navigation to Japan was beset. But the ships were not ready for sea : repairs were wanting to one, another had not completed her cargo, another

was not yet manned. For some reason or other, every Chris­tian ship was at this moment unavailable. Paul of the Holy Faith is said to have made a pungent remark on this occasion.

^< All this happened,’ he said, ‘ by a singular providence of God. If the Japanese his countrymen had seen on the one hand Master Francis preaching the holy law of God, and at the same time and place had also seen, on the other, the Christian mer­chants doing things contrary to the same law, they would have formed their judgment of it rather from the deeds of the mer­chants than from the words of the preacher, and would have told Master Francis, how could it be that the Christians looked forward to the good things of heaven after death, if they lived now as if there were no goods but those of this world ? He thanked God,’ he said, ‘ that no European entered Japan along with Francis.’

The mention of the Bishop’s Vicar in the foregoing letter introduces us naturally to what the biographers of Francis Xavier tell us of another great triumph of his charity which was gained during this stay at Malacca. It has already been said that the city was never altogether converted by his preaching, and it was to be the scene of his last and most terrible disappoint­ment. It would appear that one reason at least for the com­parative stubbornness of a part of the population was to be found in that which is the greatest affliction that can befall a Christian community—the bad example and the negligence of the chief of the clergy. The Vicar of Ormuz, to whom Gaspar Baertz was instructed to pay so much submission and charit­able attention, was a man whose life was a scandal to religion. Alfonso Martinez, who had been Vicar at Malacca for thirty years, was another instance of a lax and negligent ecclesiastic, though we are not told whether his life had been positively bad in the ordinary sense of the term. He had always been a friend to Francis Xavier, who, on his arrival at Malacca this time, found him dangerously ill, and what was far worse, in a state of despair as to the salvation of his soul. He had lived all those years in a state of carelessness, and now that his last hour seemed to be approaching, he passed from indifference to melan­

choly, and from melancholy, as we have said, to despair. In vain did his friends try to rouse him to confidence in the mercy of God: he replied only by howls and groans, declaring that for him the time of mercy was past. At last, when he was told that Francis had arrived, it seemed as if a ray of hope had pierced the gloom of his heart, and he endeavoured to rise from his bed and dress himself that he might go to meet his dear friend. But he fainted away from weakness on making the effort. Francis was soon at his side, exhorting him to confes­sion in his own loving and forcible manner. But at first he was unsuccessful: a fresh access of despair fell on the poor soul which had so long neglected its duties, and Francis seemed to plead in vain. At last he turned to God in ardent prayer, and bound himself by vow to offer a large number of masses, in honour of the most holy Trinity, our Blessed Lady, the Angels, the Saints, and for the holy Souls of Purgatory. Martinez was softened, made his confession with great contrition, received the last sacraments, and expired peacefully in the arms of Francis Xavier. The Vicar mentioned as assisting at the first mass of Alfonso de Castro may probably have been the successor of Martinez, as we are not told that the latter held his office down to the time of his death.

The remainder of the letter which has last been inserted is remarkable, even among the letters of Francis Xavier, as an evidence of the thoughtful and tender anxiety with which his heart lingered over the brethren whom he had just left behind him in India. He had not long parted from them, and we can­not suppose that he had not given them, before leaving Goa, many of the injunctions, about writing to him both as to the external affairs of their mission and the state of their own con­sciences, which are here repeated. Even the little boys of the college are to let him know how they are. He would gladly write to each one of his brothers, but one letter must do for all. Again, all must pray much for the King, and for Pedro de Silva the good Commandant of Malacca. Great care is to be taken about keeping up the best relations with the Bishop and with the members, all and each, of other religious orders in Goa.

Then his mind runs off to the Queen Isabella of the Moluccas, and to Balthasar Veloz, for both of whom he has asked certain favours from the King, which the fathers at Goa are to see, if possible, secured to them without delay. Then again, he is not content with the letters which he hopes to receive from Fathers Paul and Antonio Gomez, the Superiors at Goa: he must have Father Balthasar Gago epitomize for him all the news which arrives from Europe, and all matters in India external to the immediate affairs of the Society. On the other hand, Francis says but little in this letter of his own expectations as to Japan, and we might suppose that it was written before the arrival of the good news as to the embassy from a Japanese prince ask­ing for instructions in Christianity which came to cheer him before he left Malacca; unless indeed, as was likely, some other letter was written to Goa at this time, which has not been pre­served.

Alfonso de Castro and his companions were to sail for the Moluccas, but perhaps would leave Malacca after Francis him­self. Our next letter seems to have been sent to Joam Beira at the same time.

(lxxiii.) To Joam Beira.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

The Fathers who are now leaving this fpr your parts will tell you with all fulness all about our brethren who are dispersed in various places in India, and who are everywhere, by the grace of God, labouring usefully for the propagation of the kingdom of Christ, as well as about those who are working in Portugal, and what fruit results from the labours of all. As I am sure of this, I can spare myself the trouble, by no means light, of writ­ing at great length to you what you will hear much more con­veniently and leisurely from them, who are fully furnished with all the information on these subjects, and will give it you in familiar conversation by word of mouth. As for myself, I have to tell you that I have now made up my mind and determined

to sail to Japan, since I have learnt from competent sources that the natives there appear to be admirably disposed to re­ceive the preaching of the doctrine of the Gospel in such a way as to give hope of great fruit.

We go together, six in number, three Europeans and three Japanese. These last are very honest men and very good Christians. They were baptized at Goa, and learnt, in the Col­lege of Santa Fe, to read and write in our language. Each of them has made the Exercises for a whole month, with very great fruit to his soul, and up to this time they have gone on adding to this fruit by daily and by no means small advances. They are all impelled to return to their country by their great longing to communicate to their friends and families the trea­sure which they have found for themselves, and of leading their fellow countrymen away from foolish superstitions and recon­ciling them to Christ, the only light and salvation of the world. It is said that some of the great people in Japan are thinking of sending an embassy to the King of Portugal, to ask him to send them some priests who may preach to them the law of Christ. We all go in very high spirits and confidence, hoping that some remarkable fruit will come from our voyage, the al­mighty power of our Lord God helping in His mercy our own weak efforts. I am now pretty well aware how much good can be done in these parts; and if, when I reach those islands at the end of the world, I come to think clearly that more return for our labours may be justly expected there, I mean to call you all to join me, and transplant you to work in places where a larger harvest may be reaped. So you must prepare your hearts and work up your zeal even now, that nothing may prevent you from obeying me without delay, as soon as you receive my letters calling you away to Japan.

Father Alfonso is to go to you, and his station is to be at the fortress of Temate, where he is to preach both to the Por­tuguese and their slaves and servant-girls, and also to the free native Christians. He is also to explain the Christian doctrine every day, as I used to do when I was there; and once a week he is to explain the articles of the Creed and the Ten Command-

merits to the wives of the Portuguese assembled in a separate congregation, and to teach them also the way of properly and profitably frequenting the sacraments of penance and holy com­munion. When I called to mind what I saw there when I was on the spot, it seemed to me expedient that Father Alfonso should stay at least a year at Ternate, and even for a longer time, if it seemed useful to you, forming your judgment from experience of the present. He is a clever and able person; and after he has fully discharged his ministry for the good of souls, I think he will still not lack leisure, industry, and influence for the transacting of any business of yours, or of the Christians in the islands in which you are stationed at various places for the purpose of instructing them, providing you in due time, from the mart there, with whatever you may want, and, as often as it may be necessary, gaining the favour of the Prince of Ternate, or of the Portuguese Commandant or Treasurer, on behalf of you or your friends.

Manuel de Moraes and Francesco Gonzalez are on their way to you, to be under your authority at the Moluccas. You have great reason to rejoice that these two, as well as Alfonso, whom I have already spoken of, are sent to you. They have all of them those gifts from w^rhich you may well expect great assistance. I am looking for letters from you telling me that j you have been gathering in a rich harvest into the garners of the Church where you are. Would that they might tell me that the Kings son had become a Christian ! I knew, when I left, that he was thinking of something of the kind. As to the islanders of the Moor, what will they tell me ? Will it be that there is a sign of hope that they are about to return to a better mind, and make peace with us ? As for your people at the Moluccas, I wish to know whether they show any inclination or disposition to believe the preaching of the Gospel. Also as to the neighbouring countries, if any good news of the same kind should reach you concerning them, I beseech you do not cheat me of it. How glad I should be to hear from you that a door was opened to the Gospel at Macazar; that Tolies or Celebes seemed not averse to the Gospel! Do not fail to

tell me how the Prince of Ternate behaves with regard to the Christians; whether he shows any, and how much, favour to the ministers of the Gospel and the whole affairs of religion. Tell me everything of this kind fully, so that one may be able to judge in what proportion the fruit corresponds to the labour spent in that part of the world, and whether it is expe­dient to send further supplies to increase the number of our workers there. Take care to inform our Father Ignatius at Rome, and Father Simon Rodriguez at Lisbon, as to how many idolaters have become Christians where you are, what progress the converts have made, what sort of constancy they show under persecution, what are the number of sermons de­livered and sacraments administered, what profit in souls results from the sacred administrations of the priests, and how assi­duous and strenuous they are in their ministrations. And also any other tidings of the same sort, which may be published in Europe and rouse the minds of those who hear them to give praise to God.

But in writings of the kind I speak of two things must be carefully observed: first, to make a selection of what you insert, leaving out whatever may give offence by casting reflections upon any one, and whatever it may cause unpleasantness to mention, and also to be prudent in adapting your whole style and tone to the gravity becoming an ecclesiastic; so that your accounts may be such as may be passed from hand to hand, made public, and communicated to externs as well as to ours, as soon as they arrive in Europe. For you must know and con­sider that such descriptions of what is being done in such re­mote parts of the world are much sought for and eagerly read throughout Spain, Italy, and elsewhere. So that it is very proper that we should take very peculiar care and caution as to what we write to be sent thither, in order that our letters, which will certainly fall into the hands not only of friends but also of persons not very favourable to us, sometimes even of those that have some jealousy or hostility to us, may, if it is possible, give satisfaction to all, and stir up all to give thanks to, and con­gratulate with, God and the Holy Church, and, at all events*

never afford any legitimate cause to any one of offence or sinis­ter interpretation. I would also have you write circular letters to the same purpose to all our brethren throughout India, to give them the good news of the happy success of what you are doing for the glory of God. '

When you have occasion to ask anything of the Lord Go­vernor or his lordship the Bishop, write privately to Antonio Gomez, and ask him to manage the business for you by a pri­vate interview. Ask him also for what you may want for the support and clothing of our fathers and brothers. I have told him to be at your service for things of that kind, and to take care that all the supplies which you let him know that you are in need of be duly forwarded to you by the ship which is usually sent every year from Goa to Ternate. Lastly, you must take care to keep me informed, by letters by no means perfunc­tory, but going fully into detail, as to all that may happen, good or bad, concerning your own labours, the issue of the preaching of the Gospel, domestic discipline, and the progress in virtue of all of ours; all which letters, as well as those which I have al­ready enjoined upon you, you must duly seal up and send to Father F. Perez at Malacca, to whom I have given in charge to avail himself diligently of the many opportunities which that crowded mart affords of ships sailing in every direction, so that the letters may be faithfully forwarded, and the correspondence between us, which is so necessary for the government of the Society, may be carried on.

If any of our Society should wilfully fall into a fault for which he ought to be expelled from it (and, as you know, an obstinate refusal to obey would be among the chief of such faults), then, according to the arrangements which I have made with his lordship the Bishop, and which I communicated to you last year, you will order such a one in virtue of holy obedi­ence and under pain of excommunication to present himself as soon as possible to his lordship, by whose authority he must hereafter be guided, because the Society will no longer ac­knowledge him as her child. And what I have thus ordered you/you must clearly let each one of those whom you have

with you know so to have been enjoined upon you, that every one may understand at what peril he may commit such a fault. And let no one flatter himself that, however much he may fail •in his resolution to gain perfection, and however slow and ob­stinate he may be, that he may nevertheless consider it certain that he will remain and persevere in the Society.

May God bring us together in His holy glory! for as for this life, our pilgrimage lies in such different directions that it •does not seem very likely that we shall at any time meet. Farewell.

Malacca, June 20, 1549.

P.S. A fear occurs to my mind, when I think of the occu­pations you have where you are, whether you have leisure enough to write the letters which I have spoken of to our Father Master Ignatius, Master Simon, to all our brethren in India, as well as about your own affairs to Goa. So I suggest to you the means of making the work shorter, which I now •state. You will have, as I have said, our good Alfonso at Ternate. I think that you should order to be sent to him from all the stations of ours throughout the Moluccas ac­counts, however hastily made up, as long as they are true and exact, of all that is done, stating what kind of ministerial func­tions our priests are discharging, with how much exertion, and what fruit of souls; whether they are exposed to any persecu­tions, of what sort and from whom, how much constancy they ■show in resisting them, and what victories and successes they gain by the aid of God. They should state also what are the ■dispositions and conditions of mind among the heathen in those parts, and what hope there is for the future from them. And as Alfonso is not only prudent, but also fluent, with a good style and hand, he, out of the accounts sent to him, will •make up letters in the name of you all such as it is well to send to Europe and India. Moreover, he will manage any business you may have, partly with the Commandant at Ternate, partly by means of Antonio Gomez at Goa. He will leave to you one only concern of which you cannot at all put off the bur­

then on to the shoulders of another,—the business, namely, of writing to me, as I by all means desire, and as it is necessary that you should write, as to the state, the spiritual progress, the talents, the virtues, or the imperfections of each one of ours who are fighting out there under your leadership.

It is said here that you have been killed in the Isles of the Moor ■ but these rumours can be traced to no authority. We do not mean to give ear to such evil reports; and we hope, on the other hand, that by the good favour of God our Lord you will live many years yet to work in His service. If, however, contrary to what we believe and desire, then I give orders that all of our Society who are at present in the Moluccas, or shall hereafter arrive there, are to obey Father Alfonso. As to this matter, I here subjoin an order, which is to be duly pro­mulgated, as follows : ‘ Father Ribera and Niccolo Nunez, if Father Beira should die, are to obey Father Alfonso. Manuel de Moraez and Francesco Gonzalez, who are in the Moluccas, 1 order you in virtue of holy obedience, that if Joam Beira should have happened to die, you acknowledge Alfonso de Castro as Superior, and obey him. But if, as I think most probable, and as I hope is the case, Joam Beira is still alive, I desire and command both of you to obey him exactly as your lawful Superior.' _Francis

The date of these last letters shows that the term of the short stay made by Francis and his companions in Malacca was nearly expired when he wrote them. The Feast of Cor­pus Christi fell that year on the 20th of June, and Francis was to sail on the 24th. Yet the number of letters which remain- to us, dated before his departure—though it is probable that some which he wrote at the time have not been preserved— shows us how much he must have been occupied with his cor­respondence during the last half week. We may, however,

■ well suppose, as has been already said, that he began *his letters long before he finished and dated them. The next two letters in the collection are addressed, the one to the Society at Rome, the other to the Society at Coimbra. They are almost abso­

lutely identical in their contents, and it seems at first sight more probable that Francis only wrote one, which was copied at Coimbra in a somewhat shorter form, and thus forwarded in copy to Rome, than that he wrote both the letters, as they remain to us, in full. But, on the other hand, it was undoubt­edly his custom to write the same letters twice or three times over, and we cannot think that the collectors would give us the letters twice over unless two separate copies had been made by Francis himself. We shall give the copy which seems to have been made last of the two, as it is somewhat fuller than the other.

We find mention in this letter of the desire of one of the princes of Japan to become a Christian, and of his sending an envoy to the Governor of the Indies to obtain teachers. The story about the Portuguese merchants who were put into an old haunted house by the Japanese is highly characteristic both of the times and of the country, which has retained even down to our time that jealousy of foreigners which shows itself in ex­cluding them as far as possible from unrestrained intercourse with the population and from residence amongst them. We may defer any remarks on the remainder of the letter until after its insertion.

(lxxiv.) To the Fathers and Brothers of the College of Coimbra.

May the grace and love of Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

I wrote to you at full length last January, and besides this, I feel confident that all our brethren who are scattered about in these parts, each one from his own station, has done the same, according to my orders to them, telling you what rich and happy fruit of souls this vineyard of the Indies produces, and how prosperously the Christian religion increases in growth, not only in the royal garrisons, but also in the other towns which belong to the heathen.

I came hither from India last April, in order to embark at this port of Malacca for Japan. I have two of our Society with me—one a priest, the other a lay brother—and also three Japanese converts whom I have first had well instructed in fundamental knowledge of the mysteries of our Lord Christ and of the Catholic Faith, and then baptized at Goa. They were instructed in the elements of the Christian doctrine in our College of Santa Fe, where they also learned to read and write in our language. They also made the Spiritual Exercises for a month with very great attention and extreme desire to profit from them. Nor was God wanting on His part to meet this goodwill of theirs which He had Himself prepared, for He gave them very deep feelings as to the immense benefits which they had received from the great liberality of Him their Creator, which they then gratefully thought over for the first time in their lives, blaming themselves for and weeping over their for­mer blindness as to acknowledging the same. This made them feel such burning affections of the love of God in return, of de­votion, and other like virtues, that all of us who used to live with them at that time would have thought ourselves very well off indeed if we had been affected in like manner.¹

They are now using with much care the proficiency which they have gained of reading and writing after our manner, in acquainting themselves with writings, generally those which explain the mysteries of our Lord, and in reciting at a certain hour every day the Psalms and other prayers of the Church. I asked them once, when they were doing this, what part of such volumes they felt the greatest delight in reading aloud, and they answered me that it was the history of the sufferings and

¹ This sentence is a little varied in the copy of the letter addressed to I Rome: •

¹ After duly receiving baptism, they exercised themselves with great I diligence and equal fruit in meditation on the truths relating to man and gto God. But by the singular goodness of God they were so strongly roused (to the knowledge of His heavenly bounties towards them, and they were loaded with divine grace to such a degree, that we may well wish that all of you might share in the great blessings which God, so to say, heaped upon them with a full hand.’

death of Christ.² What confirms what they said is, that we have observed them give all signs of tender compassion at any chance mention or remembrance of the pains and death of the Lord Jesus; and not only this, but turn to the thought of themselves, go back to it from time to time, and that they are invariably very deeply moved at that consideration. All the time that they were making that month of retreat at Goa, we used to see that they were visited by wonderful joy and hea­venly sweetness, and often melted into calm and happy tears.

Before they were put under the training of the Spiritual Exercises, we had kept them for several months at learning by heart the articles of the Christian faith and the mysteries of the life of Christ, and in making their minds familiar with the cause of the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the whole plan of the redemption of mankind. I have often asked them, which of all the sacra­ments of the Christian law seemed to them of most salutary use ? and they always answered that, on account of their use­fulness and universality of application, which extended to every kind and circumstance of condition and place, they gave the first rank of all principally to two sacraments, those of holy Penance and of holy Communion. They used to add, that all the doctrines of the Christian religion appeared to them to hold together so aptly among themselves, that they thought that no one of sound judgment could help approving of them if ever he came to know them. I have heard one of these men, who is called Paul of the Holy Faith, sighing deeply and exclaiming,

‘ O unhappy people of Japan, who adore the creatures which God has made in order that they may be your servants f I said to him, ‘ Paul, why do you talk so ?’ He answered, ‘ I pity my poor fellow countrymen, who give divine honour to the sun and moon, whereas those stars are servants to those who ac­knowledge the Lord Jesus, and by His command they give

¹ The Roman letter goes on as follows :

‘ They therefore make this their chief reading and meditation. As long as they were making the exercises they received so much heavenly joy from them, and so many pious tears, that the effect remained for many months.’

The Portuguese in yapan.

¹77

light to men by day and by night, that they may use that light to understand the glory of Jesus Christ the Son of God.’

But to return to our voyage. We arrived at this city of Ma­lacca, three of the Society with three Japanese, on the 31st of May of the year 1549. We were met as soon as we landed by consistent statements of many persons at once, who vied one with another in telling us wonderful news as to the very excel­lent hope that might be entertained of the great likelihood of success for the preaching of the Gospel in Japan. Their au­thority consisted in some letters which they showed us, lately received from some Portuguese merchants their friends who were trading in that country. In one of these letters it was stated that a certain Prince in these islands of Japan, a man of great wealth and power, wished to become a Christian, and had already sent an ambassador to the Governor of India to ask in his name that some teachers of the Christian religion might be i sent to Japan, by whom he might be instructed in the faith.

There were some other letters directed to me personally, which informed me that some Portuguese merchants on landing at a certain city in Japan, and seeking for a place of abode where they might lodge, had had assigned to them by the petty Prince of the district some buildings which had been left with­out inhabitants, because experience had proved that they were much infested by ghosts. The Portuguese entered them without knowing anything of this inconvenience, which the Japanese very cunningly said nothing about. For some nights they were continually surprised to find that when they lay down to rest the clothes and coverings of their beds were pulled off, without their being able to see any one. At last a servant of their party was frightened out of his wits in the dead of the night at the appearance of a terrible spectre, and cried out so loud in be­trayal of his fright that he woke them all up. They leapt up from their beds, seized their weapons, and ran to the poor fellow who was shouting, as if they were going to repel a night attack made by thieves. But they found the door fastened and the servant safe and alone. They asked him why he had made such a noise, and he could give no account of it, except that he had

VOL. II. n

seen a most terrible appearance, which, however, had vanished when he had made the sign of the Cross. After this the same servant set up a great many figures of the Cross in various places about the building and at the doors of the rooms. Mean­while, the neighbours, who knew all about it, came to ask how the strangers found themselves in the haunted house, and they were full of wonder at their remaining there so long without hurt. And as it chanced that they had heard the servant shout out in the night and the noise made by the^others in running to his assistance with their weapons, they asked the next day, what had been the reason of their panic that night? The Portu­guese then stated what had happened to them, and the Japanese confessed that the building had for a long time been considered as infested by a certain evil spirit. As that kind of plague is common in those parts, they asked the Portuguese, if they had any remedy at hand which would cure it, to be so kind as to say so and communicate it to them. The Portuguese answered that nothing was more efficacious for the driving away of mali­cious spirits than the sign of the Cross. Soon what had hap­pened and what they had said got to be spread abroad widely, and crosses made of paper, or wood, or any such substance, were to be seen at the doors of nearly all the houses in the town ; the natives, who were often wont to suffer great molesta­tion from the visits of hellish ghosts, making use with great eagerness of the defence which had been made known to them against such assaults.

The same letter, addressed to me, also added, that the Japan­ese nation appeared to be extremely well disposed to receive the preaching of the Gospel. It is very circumspect and pru­dent, judging of things by motives of reason, and also wonder­fully curious to learn anything new that is brought to it. For this reason I for my part have conceived a great hope, relying on the assistance of God, that very considerable fruit will result among some of the Japanese, perhaps in all of them, and that a great number of those wandering souls will join themselves to the fold of the holy Church, unless indeed our own sins hinder our Lord God from vouchsafing to use us as the instru­

ments of His glory. Still, I did not all at once act upon these fair auspices which seemed to invite me to the expedition. Since then, I have long and carefully deliberated in my own mind, looking out and searching by all possible indications for some sign of the will of God in this matter.

However, when once I had clearly recognised in myself the intimation and conviction that it was altogether the desire of God, and that it was a matter which His service required, that I should go to Japan, I gave myself up to the plan so entirely and irrevocably, that it seemed to me that if I were now to de­sist from what I had begun, I should be more wicked and more detestable than the very idolaters of Japan. I am confirmed in my purpose because I see that the enemy of the human race is setting a great many devices in motion in order to make me give up the thought of it, and this makes it by no means obscure that he dreads no small defeat and destruction to his own in­terests if it is carried out. He may make whatever disturbance and opposition he will, and we shall go on all the same in per­fect carelessness as to the empty bugbears he may raise. We have got ready all that is wanting for the celebration of the Holy and Unbloody Sacrifice, with which we intend to offer the Sacred Host, and so take possession of those countries and na­tions in the name of Christ our King. What may be the suc­cess attending our first beginnings, you will fully learn next year, if God wills, by letters which you will then receive from me.

I h;ive already made up my mind, as soon as ever I dis­embark, to go to the King of all Japan himself, wherever he may be, and lay before him the message which I have for him from the Supreme Emperor of all nations, our Lord Jesus Christ. I am told that the King has always with him a large band of men of letters, who are full of confidence in their own genius, learning, and eloquence. I do not fear much, relying on God, from the opposition of all their learning; for what good learn­ing can people have who do not know Jesus Christ?³ And as

³ The letter to Rome continues thus :

‘ But he who looks to nothing else but the grace of God, the preaching of the Gospel, the salvation of souls, what shall he refuse,' what shall he

we care for and seek for nothing else but the glory of God and the manifestation of Jesus Christ unto the salvation of souls, what kind of loss or danger can there be of which we ought to be so very much afraid? It is true that we are defenceless and un­armed, yet it is easy for God both to shield us from all harm in the midst of the hostile armies not only of the large nation we are going to, but also of the devils who are so much irritated against us, and also to help us to be conquerors. And if anything else please Him, we do not count it bitter, whatever it may be that is according to His will. In such case as this, it is victory even to fall, provided that the body alone fall, and the mind remain unconquered.⁴ There is only one kind of wound at all that is to be feared, and that is when the mind is wounded by giving consent to sin. But as God our Lord is wont to give to all sufficient grace to serve Him and to abstain from sin, we trust in the divine mercy that this grace will by no means be denied to us. All that is good or bad in us consists in our using well or using ill the grace of God, and we rest with very great con­fidence, first on the merits of our holy Mother the Church, the Spouse of Jesus Christ our Lord, and then specially on the merits of all who belong to the Society of Jesus, and of all the faithful of both sexes who are serving God under their advice or direction; so that, with all these embracing us under their patronage and assisting us by their prayers, we hope to be able to co-operate faithfully with and make good use of the grace which God our Lord will offer us in due time.

It is a great comfort to us to know that God, who judges the inmost feelings of the human heart, sees clearly with what wish, with what aim, with what prayer, and in search of what it is that we are moved to undertake this voyage to Japan. Our

fear? For if we shall find ourselves not only in the land of barbarians, but even in the realm of devils, yet no barbarism, no rage of demons will be able to hurt us, except by the permission and concession of Almighty God. ’

⁴ Letter to Rome :

‘ One thing alone we fear, least we offend God Himself; and if we avoid offending Him, we promise ourselves certain victory over our ene­mies, He favouring us.’

own consciences tell us that in that expedition we seek and desire nothing else at all, save only that we may lead the souls of men, created in the image of God, to the knowledge of their Creator, that the Supreme Author of all things may be praised as He deserves by the creatures whom He has made in His own likeness, and the frontiers of the empire of our holy Mo­ther Church, the Spouse of Christ, may be advanced and her realm enlarged. And so we go glowing with vigorous confid­ence, and we venture to presume and reckon on as a thing cer­tain and as if our hope had received a pledge of its fulfilment, that this voyage of ours to Japan will unfailingly issue in happy and joyful success. There are two things which support me against all the threats and preparations of the devil, who is al­ready threatening hostilities and letting us know clearly enough that he means war to the knife, in order to frighten us from our course. The first of these is, as I have just said, the con­viction that God knows with perfect clearness the rectitude of my intentions in undertaking the voyage. The second is, the most certain knowledge of the entire and absolute dominion of the will of God over all created things, so that no one of them can do anything at all except by the permission of God. And that this law binds the devils themselves, and that, however much they may wish to hurt any one, they cannot do so unless they first obtain leave from God, is clearly seen in the history of Job. The sacred Scripture bears witness, that his most sav­age enemy Satan could not in the slightest degree harm that holy man without the assent and pleasure of God.

I say all this because it is a matter of the greatest certainty that the passage from Malacca to Japan which we have made up our minds to attempt is beset with very urgent and imminent danger of death of a dreadful kind. There will be all the ex­treme violence of most furious storms, there will be danger that cannot be detected beforehand from hidden rocks and quick­sands, there will also be the risk of fierce attacks from the pirates who infest those seas. The fear of these perils is by no means a vain fear, as is proved by the number of examples increasing with the number of those who make the venture, in

which persons who have attempted this voyage have been ship­wrecked or reduced to slavery. It is commonly said here that it is a matter of experience, and which cannot by any human means be avoided, that out of all the ships which sail from this or any other neighbouring port for Japan, one in every three is lost by one of the three causes of destruction which I have mentioned—storms, rocks or shoals, and pirates.

I have often, in thinking of these things, had the fear come into my mind, lest most of the learned men of our Society, when they are sent out here to preach the Gospel, and come to experience for themselves the severe labours that are requisite, and the very great risk that there is to body and life, which, from the very condition of the enterprise we have in hand and the state of affairs as they are here, we are obliged to expose to continual danger, might have a kind of scruple about it, as if we were committing the fault of rashness, and as if all this were in some way to tempt God, which the sacred Scriptures speak of so severely. But when I have thought over the whole matter at full leisure, I did not find it difficult to get rid of the ob­jection, and to lay aside all fear. For I am confident that the fatherly Providence of God over our Society will in His own sweet way bring about, that all those noble gifts of learning and eloquence which the men I speak of have brought to our So­ciety, may be so tempered by our training and the holy discipline of religious life, as to be always under the control of the Holy Spirit, Who will animate these men as He does the other mem­bers of the Society.⁵ Unless this were to happen, I for my part should have great fears for them, nor should I be able to feel at rest, having before my mind continually what I remember to have heard our blessed Father Ignatius say, that the true children of the Society of Jesus ought to make great exertions in order to conquer themselves, and to seek out means of driving away from their minds those terrors of things that appear formidable,

^s The letter to Rome has it thus :

‘ But when I have recollected myself, I cease to fear, since I am confi­dent that the spirit of the Lord which dwells in the learning and learned men of our Society would moderate all this, otherwise learning would bring much more hurt than advantage.’

which hinder men from putting their full hope and entire con­fidence in God. For though a lively hope and faith of that sort be a gratuitous gift of God, which He bestows on those on whom it pleases Him to bestow it, nevertheless for the most part He gives it to those who keep a stem hold over them­selves, and who leave nothing undone by means of which they may obtain the full subjugation of all their feelings, out of their love for God, to considerations of His divine service and glory.

There is, believe me, a wide difference between those who trust in God while they are nevertheless furnished with all things which are necessary for the support and convenience of life, and those who do the same in extreme destitution and entire want of all the supports of life, into which state they have thrown themselves of their own accord for the sake of imitating Christ. And it follows from this that there is also a great dif­ference between those who place their trust and hope and con­fidence in God without being in danger of death, and those who trust in God and hope in Him, and at the same time of their own accord and free will expose themselves, in order to give Him pleasure, to evident danger of death, while they have it in their own full power and choice either to avoid such or to en­counter them. And to my mind it seems that a man who in this way has made his choice to live in continual danger of death, out of the mere desire to serve God, and casting aside all other motives or aims, will very soon feel a great weariness of this present life and a great desire for death, that he may thereby be graciously removed unto a better life, and may reign with God in heaven; since this life, as we call it, is rather one long death and a state of exile from that glory, for the enjoy­ment of which we are intended by our Creator.

Our good brothers and companions, the Japanese who are going with us to Japan, tell us that the ministers of religion there will be scandalized if they see us eat flesh or fish. We go therefore with our minds determined whatever may be the severity of the diet which it may be necessary for us to use, to take away all occasion of such offence. Those who come from

Japan tell us that there is in that country a great multitude of men of that sort, who lead what looks like a kind of religious life, and practise severe asceticism. They say that these men have very great authority with the people, so that high and low alike all hang upon their nod, and are ready to do any service at their command. I tell you this that in your prudence you may form an idea what great and fierce battles are ready for us in Japan, and that in your charity you may strive to obtain for us from Him Who is the Lord of all of us, by means of your daily sacrifices and prayers, the aid that is necessary in order to conquer such bitter foes. And I hope that in this way we shall be kept up by the merits and prayers of all the sons of the holy Society of Jesus.

They say that we shall set sail either on the feast of St. John Baptist of this year 1549, or on the night before. We have set­tled to sail straight for Japan, and for a distance of about two hundred leagues to run along the coast of the celebrated kingdom of China, never disembarking or approaching the shore, until we reach Japan. The sailors say that this may be on about the tenth or fifteenth of the following month.⁶ And when this hap­pens, by God’s favour, you must expect long and full letters from me, in which I shall inform you of the position and cha­racter of the country, the nature of the people who inhabit it, their disposition, manners, laws, superstitions, errors, studies, universities, and learning—of the exercises which are practised in acquiring it, and the method by which it is taught.

Our good Paul gave me great pleasure once, telling me about a certain monastery in his country, where there are a number of members of the community who devote themselves to literature. He said that there was one who was their supe­rior, a certain old man who appeared to excel all the rest in wisdom, and who from time to time makes an address to all the community assembled together. Then he bade each one of them by himself meditate for the space of an hour on some pre­scribed subject, such as this or another like it—what the soul might seem likely to say to the body at the last moment of their

⁶ i. e. (as in the letter to Rome) ‘ the middle of August. ’

separation ?⁷ what it will think, when it has been set free from its connection with matter, and finds itself in the severe pains of hell, or of the fire of Purgatory under the earth ? for even these men seem to have got hold of some kind of knowledge of these things. When the hour has been spent in considera­tion on this subject, the teacher I speak of is wont to question his disciples one by one, as to what each one has found out in his meditation, and to praise them more or less, according to the merit of what they produce, or even, if any one brings up something which is quite unworthy of notice, he gives him a scolding. He told me also that these cenobites are in the habit of preaching to the people about once a fortnight, that they have a large audience of men and women, and are listened to with much attention and emotion, that often a good part of the audience, especially the women, are moved to tears, particu­larly when, as is often done, the orator displays a painted re­presentation of the torments of hell. So Paul told me, speaking of what he had seen.

I asked him, whether he remembered any sentence which he had carried away from those sermons ? He answered that one of these preachers whom he was listening to had once said that a wicked man or a bad woman was worse than the devil, because what the devil could not do by himself, he did by the means of bad men and women, as is seen in thefts, in false wit­ness,⁸ and in other crimes, which are brought about at the per­suasion of the devil, and by the actions of bad men following that persuasion. All who tell us what they have seen of the Ja­panese agree in one thing, that they are a nation with an exceed­ing eagerness for knowledge. I shall tell you at full length what my own practice and experience among them may teach me. May God our Lord through His infinite mercy unite us in His

⁷ This sentence is rather differently given in the letter to Rome :

‘ As for example, when death at the last breath stops the voice, if the power of speaking were then given to the soul departing from the body, in what words would it address its body at that moment of separation ? Also if there were to be any one who had been recalled from hell to life, what would he seem likely to say to others ?

* The Roman letter has ‘ perjury. ’

glory! for in this life I do not well know when or how we can hope to see one another. However, obedience could bring I even that about, for obedience finds it easy, whenever it pleases, | to arrange things which appear in themselves to be most difficult ^!

The useless servant of all my brethren of the Society ofi j the Name of Jesus,

Malacca, June 22, 1549. FRANCIS.

It cannot surprise us if we find in the account given by Francis Xavier of the institutions of Japan features which are not prominent in the Japan of the present day, or at least in the very partial descriptions which have come to us, chiefly from the pens of diplomatists and political representatives of Euro­pean powers, who have seen almost nothing of the country, except the modern capital, Yeddo. This remark applies j more particularly to some passages in the letters which will be given in the next chapter, with regard to the universities or- I academies of Japan, and the communities of religious per- I sons of both sexes, the names of which, it is only natural to sup­pose, may have become altogether transformed in the successive stages through which they have reached us since they were taken down from the lips of Anger—or, as he was probably called in Japan, Han-Siro—by Francis or his companions. The passages about the dangers of the voyage, the sources of his- own confidence, and his consciousness of his own purity of in­tention, are probably the simple outpourings to his distant but much-loved friends, so few of whom, comparatively, he had j ever seen in the flesh, of the thoughts and feelings of which his mind was full ■ but they were not without their usefulness to those to whom they were addressed, especially at Coimbra, to which he had come to look as the nursery of the future mis- sioners of India and Japan. The same may be said of the doubt which Francis speaks of, more fully in the letter sent to Coimbra, than in the copy of the same which was addressed to- Rome, as to the view which learned theologians might take of the peril to which the missioners exposed their lives on such voyages as that which he was now about to undertake. He was-

perhaps thinking that he might have to call on some of those who had already arrived in India, or were on their way thither, to follow him to Japan, and he may well have wished that they should begin at once to practise that perpetual abnegation and self-conquest which alone could fit them to brave the dangers, both physical and moral, which awaited them in the enterprise. As to the concluding paragraphs of the letter, in which Paul of the Holy Faith is quoted as to the interior practices of the mon­asteries of bonzes, and as to the preaching to the people of some of the cenobites, there is nothing in these statements in­consistent with what is witnessed to by travellers both of earlier and later dates. Preaching was the great means for propagat­ing his religion employed by Sakya-mouni. The cenobite sys­tems of Buddhism, as well as the other religions existing by its side in Japan, have probably decreased in internal strength and vigour, as well as in external influence, since the time when Han-Siro took refuge in a monastery of bonzes, after committing a homicide; but even in the present day the practices of which he gave report to Francis Xavier are not unknown.

We have already said that the letter on which we are now commenting was written twice over, and addressed to the Society at Rome, as well as to the College at Coimbra. These letters, however, by no means exhausted the activity of Francis Xavier during this, short stay at Malacca, busy as he must have been about the arrangements for his voyage, and occupied as he could never fail to be, in a city where he was so well known, with works of charity and religious zeal. The next letter in our series is dated the same day with the foregoing. It seems at first sight to be a simple expression of the hearty admiration and joy of the writer at the labours and success of Francesco Perez and his associate; but we find as we proceed that Francis is to impose a command on Gomez and Paul of Camerino to send fresh labourers to the mission at Malacca, and that his com­mendation of Perez, the missioner already there, is intended to introduce the order almost as if it were a petition. There is a remarkable buoyancy and glow of hearty joy through all his writings at this time.

(lxxv.) To Father Paul of Camerino and Father Antonio Gomez, at Goa.

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be al­ways in our souls ! Amen.

As soon as I landed here I was struck with greater wonder than I can easily find words to express, at seeing with my own .eyes the immense harvest which in this city of Malacca, as in some large field of rich corn, is gathered into the barn of Christ by the labour and industry of the single evangelical workman Father Francesco Perez. Every Sundayand feastdayhe preaches in the morning to the Portuguese in the largest church in the •city. In the afternoon in the same place he diligently ex­pounds thq articles of the holy Creed to the less instructed free men or to the slaves of both sexes. Once in the week in the church of our Lady the Mother of God he preaches to a •large congregation of the wives both of the Portuguese and of the native Christians a sermon adapted to their capacity and •condition. And besides all this, every single day he teaches and explains in the most laborious manner the elements of the Christian doctrine to a very large crowd of boys in the church -of the Confraternity of Mercy. Besides these things, which might certainly be enough abundantly to occupy a single man, it would not be easy to count the number of penitents whose confessions he alone hears.

Here then is a worker in the Lord’s vineyard who is cer­tainly no sluggard or idler. We see him exerting himself so unweariedly and so continuously that he has to cheat himself of •the time necessary for eating and sleeping. I certainly hope ■that he will never hear from our Lord that reproach in the holy parable : ‘ Why stand ye here all the day idle ?’ for, in truth, no one can ever find him at any hour either of the day or night when he is not intent on the work of extricating souls from the snare of sin, and making them advance in the service of God our Lord, Who made them. When he preaches there is such a concourse that the largest churches will not hold the congrega­

tion. In familiar intercourse he is wonderfully courteous and affable, so as to attract at once all whom he comes across, and he is singularly popular with all, high and low alike. He is the beloved favourite of the Commandant and also of all the inhabitants, and is commonly honoured with the reputation of a truly apostolical man, very dear to God on account of his insatiable desire to gain souls to Him.

I confess to you, my brothers, that when I saw all this I was- ashamed of myself, when I beheld with my own eyes how great a store of rich spoils was being continually added, by the help- of God, to the treasuries of the Church by this one man of weak constitution and continual ill health. The consciousness of my own sluggishness smote me in my inmost heart with a feeling of shame and confusion. Just consider—the multitude of men who are continually being roused to the serious amendment of their lives by the private or public discourses of Francesco Perez is so great, that they would keep at least six priests well practised at hearing confessions well occupied all day long, with nothing else to do. And yet this same man, in addition to all these occupations, discharges fully and well all the duties of domestic chaplain, as it is called, in the Confraternity of Mercy,, and you know how constant and manifold those duties are- What can I say to this, except confess once more, that I and' those like me ought to be covered with shame, that we who are in health and strength do but little, while the weak and the in­valids are enriching themselves with the spoil of so many souls snatched from the jaws of hell?

Then there is Rocco Oliveira, the companion of Father Perez, who also works as strenuously and as usefully as the Father. He is master of a numerous school of boys. Some of them he teaches to read and write our language, to others he teaches Latin grammar. He has been so long at this that many of them have now finished their schooling, and have gone home again, having got through the whole course of which they are capable, and at home they show by the simplicity of their manners and the good examples they give in every respect, to the great joy and thankfulness of their parents, how great the

difference is between boys well taught and boys untaught. They read with ease, and understand as far as is necessary the com­mon summaries of the Christian doctrine; they recite the prayers of the Church from book, and this so modestly that all who see them are provoked thereby to give praises and thanks to God, for they carry themselves with as much recollection and composure of countenance as the novices of religious orders at home. No one can ever hear an oath or an improper word from them, not even of the lightest kind, such as is more easily pardoned. Among other edifying things of this kind which our good Rocco has established, is one which is very highly ap­proved of—he often brings out his schoolboys in a long pro­cession, answering one to another by twos and twos, with their eyes fixed on the ground, their walk grave and slow, singing the litanies, or other sacred chants of the same kind. These processions, which are very pleasant sights, are in great demand- among the people, especially for the purpose of adding dignity to funerals, whenever one of the Christians here happens to die. The elder lads take the bier of the deceased man on their shoulders, and carry it to the place of burial. There is not one of them who does not know perfectly the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Creed, as well as some other Christian forms of prayer, and who cannot repeat them at any moment without mistake. They all know how to serve mass reverently, and all hear it every day. They meet at school early in the morning, and after midday, after hearing the explanation of the Christian doctrine which Perez repeats every day, they go to school again, when Oliveira teaches them. After they have heard and repeated their lessons, and gone through the rest of their school work, they kneel down, and in a loud voice recite, all together, their holy prayers. When I see all this my mind is filled with in­comparable consolation. Pray God, I beseech you, to preserve the good that has already been gained, to promote what has been begun, to crown with increase these first fruits, to the praise and glory' of His holy Name, and to the more perfect service of His own divine Majesty.

Alfonso is going to the Moluccas, where he alone will have

to do what the two whom I have been speaking of, Perez and Oliveira, do here. It is with difficulty that I can move him hence, because, as I trust you will understand well enough from what I have just said, his work here was very necessary. But as that which is most urgent has to be attended to first of all, you must now assist this station of Malacca as soon as possible by sending it the aid which it so eagerly craves. So send to this place without delay a priest of ours, who is well versed in settling cases of conscience, that he may relieve Francesco Perez, who is oppressed by, such a number of different kinds of work, of at least some part of the burthen of hearing confessions every day. There is no other Portuguese settlement in India that can easily compete with Malacca in its need of good con­fessors. There is here an incredible confluence from all parts, on occasion of the various traffic, of a multitude of Europeans -and Indians alike. All the former and a great number of the latter profess the Christian religion, and on account of the frailty of our human nature they have great need of the remedy of sacramental penance, and, if they do not find priests to ad­minister it to them at the convenient moment, they live in very great and most urgent danger of losing the eternal salvation of their souls. So if within the year 1549 any priests of our Society arrive from Portugal, it will be easy for you to send to this place some one of own your community (whose place the newly ar­rived fathers may supply) by the ship which sails from Goa to Malacca in the month of April in next year, 1550. I say the month of April, for though I know there is another ship which usually sails thither from Goa in the month of September, I am still unwilling that the supply of a priest, which is so much needed for the city, should be put off to the later time of passage.

See, moreover, whether you have in the community any one of our brethren who, though he be a layman, has still so much education as to be able to teach boys to read and write. I should very much desire that such a person should be assigned as companion to the priest whom I have already appointed to come out here, that he may to some extent supply the place

of Rocco Oliveira, who must of necessity go to Goa next year, to receive there the priesthood, and when he has been ordained, to return as soon as possible to Malacca. So, now that I am about to set sail for Japan I leave this order, that in the year 1550 Rocco Oliveira is to be sent to Goa by the ship which regularly sails for that port in the month of November, together with our novice Joam Bravo, whom I desire to study grammar there. It is therefore my decided will, and so I command you, Father Paul of Camerino and Antonio Gomez, in virtue of holy obedience, to send to Malacca in the month of April next year, or if some unforeseen cause which cannot in any way be evaded should prevent this, then as soon as you possibly can, the two whom I have spoken of, a priest able to hear confessions, and another of the Society fit to direct the school.

I am writing to Father Niccolo to be Superior of and to watch over ours who are at Meliapor, and also those who are living on the Comorin Coast and at Coulan. In the same way I am ordering the missioners of Comorin to obey Father Nic­colo, and to have recourse to him about their own affairs, as often as either for themselves they need assistance, or for the Christians of whom they have charge they require favour and patronage, writing to him at Coulan or at Cochin, for on ac­count of business he is always passing to and fro from one of these places to the other. I have also given order to Father Niccolo, to ask from Goa for whatever he may be informed that the people at Comorin have need of. And I desire you, Father Antonio Gomez, to carry out at once whatever he requests, and I charge and enjoin you as earnestly as is possible to let your­self omit in that regard nothing which belongs to the very height of diligence and the most devoted charity. Father Nic­colo is to be subject to Father Paul, as when I quitted India I remember to have left him orders to be. The pupils of the College of Goa, whether Portuguese or natives, are to be go­verned as Father Antonio Gomez wills. Antonio Gomez him­self, as I have already ordered, must be subject to Father Paul of Camerino, who is also to be Superior of those who are sta­tioned at Bazain and at Ormuz, so far as I have given orders

Niccolo Lancilotti.

^I93

and explained distinctly to them. And I command both of you to take great pains that everything in India goes on in this order and discipline, and also to inform me of all that passes. Farewell.

Your most affectionate brother in Christ,

Malacca, June 22, 1549. FRANCIS.

The mention of Niccolo Lancilotti, who was stationed at Coulan, and who is in this letter appointed local Superior of the missioners on the Comorin Coast and at Meliapor, is so far surprising, as it seems to supersede the former appointment of Father Antonio Criminale in the latter capacity, at least as re­gards the labourers near Cape Comorin. Lqncilotti has already been mentioned in the letters more than once as an invalid, whose health was gradually recovering itself under the com­paratively salubrious air of Coulan, where he was posted. He felt his own want of strength keenly, if we may judge from a letter which he wrote to Ignatius Loyola,^s in which he speaks of him­self as an unfruitful tree, only encumbering the ground, while his brethren, strong and vigorous men, were doing so much on every side of him for the service of God. This inactivity and unfruitfulness, however, were by no means barren in results. He was usually the only priest at Coulan, and so had alone to bear the burthen of preaching to the Portuguese, instructing the heathen and intending converts, and keeping up the faith of those already converted. He had soon the care of the seminary projected, as we have seen, by Francis Xavier,⁹ and which was founded and maintained at the King’s expence, in accordance with the suggestion of the Saint. In the care of the boys, for whose benefit the seminary was instituted, he showed great de­votion and singular prudence : his pupils turned out more like religious novices than secular youths. He was also noted for remarkable gifts in the way of direction and government, was much valued by the fathers in India on that account, and highly trusted by St. Ignatius. It would seem that Francis Xavier had already discovered these rare qualities in the invalid missioner

⁸ Quoted by Bartoli, Asia, 1. vii. p. 728.

• See the Letter to Simon Rodriguez, ante, p. 91.

VOL. II. O

at Coulan. It is remarkable also that Antonio Criminale was already dead when Francis wrote the letter which we have last inserted. It seems hardly possible that he could have known this, though there might perhaps have been time for this news to reach him before he left Malacca; but it appears incredible that Francis, whose own perpetual prayer it seems to have been that he might have the grace to suffer martyrdom for the cause of Jesus Christ, should not have made any mention of the glo­rious death of his religious brother, if the tidings had reached him at this time.

Criminale had, in fact, laid down his life like a good shep­herd for his flock. The little island or peninsula of Remanancor, lying close to the land at the northeastern extremity of the Fishery Coast, seems to have been famous for a pagan shrine, served by Brahmins, and resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of southern and central India. Near this spot was a Portu­guese fort, at a place called Beadala, already mentioned in one of the letters of Francis Xavier.¹⁰ The Commandant of this had dug a trench across the narrow tongue of land which connected the pagoda with the coast, apparently by way of bravado and insult to the natives. The challenge was taken up, however, much to the cost of the Portuguese themselves, by the old enemies of everything Christian along the coast, the uncontrol­lable Badages. An army of six thousand men marched upon the fort, or rather on a much easier prey, the Christian popula­tion in the neighbourhood. The Portuguese garrison, number­ing only forty men, embarked and made off, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of Antonio Criminale, who happened to be on the spot, and who urged them to endeavour to come to some arrangement with the enemy. Several Portuguese were wounded in their flight, and five died. The alarm and misery of the unfortunate Christians thus abandoned to their fate can easily be imagined. The Father, urged to seek his own safety with the Portuguese, refused, and remained to share the fate of such of his poor flock as could not escape by sea. The accounts of his martyrdom are remarkable. As the Badages ¹⁰ Letter xxxi. vol. i. p. 225.

approached, he threw himself on his knees, his arms extended in the form of a cross, and his eyes raised to heaven. First one party and then another passed him, and struck by some sudden respect, left him unhurt; but before he could make his way to the church, he was wounded, stripped, and left lying with a lance through his body. He detached the lance, and went on slowly crawling to the church, when another party of the Bad- ages fell on him and dispatched him. He was only in his thirtieth year, and was the first of a long series of members of the Society who obtained the crown of martyrdom in the Indies.

We have still three more letters remaining to us, written by Francis Xavier during this short period of expectation at Ma­lacca ; and if those which have already been inserted tell us so much of his zeal for souls, his simplicity of intention, his intrepid­ity in the face of danger, and his tender care for his religious brethren, the three which.follow next in order reflect other fea­tures of his character, without some consideration of which our estimate of him would be incomplete. The first letter, which is addressed to the same fathers at Goa as the last, shows his in­exhaustible charity under a new and pleasant form. It is written with that peculiar liveliness of which we have seen instances in his letters to Le Jay and Laynez from Lisbon¹¹—instances which make us regret that we have fewer letters of this kind, addressed familiarly to friends without any fear of their being shown to others. We can almost picture to ourselves the rough, honest, truthful cavalier to whom Francis suggests, not only that it is time for him to settle down after so many adventurous wander­ings, but also that he should marry a certain virtuous and worthy young lady, an orphan at Goa, whom her future husband had never seen. We can imagine the commendations which Francis would bestow upon her in order to win his friend to promise on the spot to marry her. Then there is a different and scarcely less picturesque sketch presented to us—the good dame be­sieging the doors and parlours of the College of Santa Fe with daily attentions, sending in clothes or food as she guesses that the fathers or brothers may be in need, always ready to take

¹¹ Letter ix. vol. i. p. 95.

in a poor girl rescued from evil ways, to help a family in sudden distress, to nurse the sick, or to assist in the instruction of a convert. Such she used to be : but now misfortune has fallen upon her. She is a widow, and her only child, a fine marriage­able girl, good, simple, modest, and attractive withal, is an orphan, with but slender dowry, except that her father held an office under the crown—for which he probably had to pay— and in the patent which conferred it a clause has been inserted, by virtue of which she may take it with her as a marriage por­tion to any one who may win her for his wife. There is a little difficulty in the way of the arrangement contemplated by Fran­cis, as the office in question is rather beneath the dignity of his friend, whom he proposes as husband to the orphan girl, and he accordingly furnishes Antonio and Paul with excellent rea­sons, by means of which the Governor, Don Garcia da S&, or— as Francis had already predicted his speedy death—his succes­sor, may be persuaded to let the office be sold, and the money thus raised applied to swell the scanty portion of the intended bride. .

(lxxvi.) To Father Paul of Camerino and Father Antonio Gomez.

May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be always with us to help and favour us ! Amen.

Since I wrote to you at such great length, something has happened which has made me think it well to say a few words to you once more. You must understand that I have fallen in here with an old friend of mine. I have very few so dear to me. His name is Cristoval Carvalho. He is unmarried, sin­gularly virtuous, rich, of good family, altogether highly accom­plished, and of good parts. In the desire which I profess of helping on every one to salvation, I began to urge on my friend, for the sake of the affection between us, and to implore him for the love of God, to make up his mind to give up the rattling, desultory, wandering sort of life which he has been leading, so

full of danger to his property and even to his life, and, what is of much more importance, exposing him to the greatest peril of losing his eternal salvation. How long was he to go on passing from place to place, a stranger everywhere, never more than a chance guest wherever he happens to be ? would he never have a home of his own to be quiet in ? would he never find an unoccupied moment to recollect his thoughts and put his con­science in order ? and so on. Well, on all this he showed himself by no means inclined to despise my benevolent exhortations. Indeed, he confessed that he was beginning to feel somewhat bored by his perpetual w^randerings. He had been afloat long enough, and was now looking with a yearning heart for the port and fixed anchorage of a settled life. In fact, he was minded to plant his home somewhere or other; to collect under a rooftree of his own the ample means which he had gained by traffic of so many kinds, in which he had been prosperous enough, and there apply his wealth, which he had no occasion to go on increasing, in whatever way might be required by calls of charity and religion, and of gratitude to God Who had given it to him, as well as by the repose which was suitable to his years, which have now got on to the point at which decline begins, and by the care of his bodily health.

While we were talking of all this, there came most happily into my mind the remembrance of that good lady, whose maternal love for our Society, evidenced as it is by diligent and daily ser­vices, has made us dub her with the title of our ‘ Mother.’ So I proposed to Carvalho to marry the daughter of this good dame. I spoke, as I could with all truth, of the good disposition, the virtue, the high character of the girl. My man was by no means deaf to w^rhat I said; indeed, he was much moved by the very sincere praises which I gave to that good maiden and her qualities. In short, he promised that he would marry her. Now, I have no doubt at all, that he will be as good as his word; he has always been a man of such truthfulness, and be­sides, the unfailing and staunch friendship which he has always kept up with me is another security. Especially too, as he quite sees that the step will be a very excellent, useful, and

honourable one for himself—one that will enable him to lead a peaceful, happy, and tranquil life. So I have not hesitated to communicate the whole matter to our Mother, in a letter which I have written to her, as if it was quite sure to come off, if she consents to it; and I cannot doubt that she will do so, and think it a great happiness to gain so splendid an alliance with such a man as Cristoval, good as well as rich.

The affair is, as you see, in good train; but nevertheless there are many obstacles that intervene to prevent the execu­tion of such plans, and in this case I see clearly that the affair will not be easily managed, unless you take it up and urge it with all your might. So I pray and entreat you both to remem­ber the great devotion to us which that good Mother of ours has shown; her acts of daily liberality to us; her immense charity and goodwill; and then to consider that God now offers you a very precious occasion of repaying all her benefits to us by a return and recompense prompted by our gratitude to her, which is indeed only one favour against many, but which still will be so important in itself as to weigh in the scale as if it were a whole host of acts of kindness. So pray exert yourself to the utmost, both working yourselves, and also asking and using the credit and efforts of the first Treasurer,¹² to the same end, in order that that afflicted family may not lose the benefit of this most happy opportunity. Do, I pray you, all that you can, that, now that Divine Providence, in its care for the lonely state of that most honourable widow, and for the bereaved con­dition of her orphaned daughter, as good and innocent a girl as any in the world, offers this means of relief to each, they may each have the full benefit of it.

I don’t think you will have much trouble in bringing Cristo­val Carvalho to the necessary point. I know well his constancy and faithfulness, and I can’t fear for a moment that he will recall his word, or refuse to accomplish what he has promised me. As for the Treasurer, in order to get him to do what he can, it will be enough to allege, as you may with perfect truth, that the matter is one which he may most properly use his au- ¹¹ Probably Francis’ friend Co>mo AiTez.

thority to bring about, for it belongs, above all things else, to the praise and service of our Lord God. And in the next place it is one in which he ought to feel the highest concern, because upon it depends the good estate and the safety, the whole in­terests of the peace and hopes, of a family which has been left under his charge, of a lady of the highest character, who is his own relative, and of a young maiden who is really one in a thousand in point of worth, who looks to him as her guardian for help and patronage. I am in high hopes that when you say this to that good and prudent man, the Treasurer, God will, in His goodness, aid you, so that you may easily persuade him to what we desire.

And now you know very well that our Mother has in her possession a royal rescript, duly signed and sealed, granting her power to transfer the office under the crown which her husband, Diego Froez (to whose soul may God give glory !), held while he was alive, with all its emoluments, to any one to whom she may choose to give her daughter in marriage, and thus, in fact, to make the post a part of her dowry. This being so, it will be necessary to get the Governor to allow the office to be assigned to some one else, who will pay a sum of money for it, which may be applied to the completion of the girl’s dowry. The reason why this is necessary, is that Cristoval Carvalho is too high in rank and too rich not to think it beneath him to have anything to do with that employment, especially as, as I have said, he is tired of troubles and of business, and what he so looks for in his married life is ease and repose from his past labours. I feared from the first that this might be the difficulty in the matter—that perhaps people would be found at Goa to contend that such a rescript should be observed to the letter, exactly as it stands in the text, that thus what his Highness had written should be stuck to against his own intention, and against the manifest equity of the case, and to strive, by this false allegation, to prevent the King’s benevolence from taking effect, and to shut this orphan maiden and her widowed mother out of their fortune. If anything of this kind should oppose itself, I beg of you to act on the other side, exert yourselves to

the utmost, and use all the energy in your power, by yourselves, by means of the Treasurer, and by means of any one else whose credit and intercession may seem likely to be of any avail, in order to bring the Governor and the King’s offi­cials, in whose power the matter lies, to put this benignant interpretation on the will of his Highness in granting this pri­vilege. Every one can surely see that the King simply intended that the daughter of Diego Froez should have the advantage of the reward owing to her father. He could not have intended that, if it should chance that she should come to be married to a man who was not fit to administer _ her father’s office, this poor young lady should be mulcted of a large part of what her father has left behind him. I do hope confidently that God, Who is the Defender of the widow and the Father of the father­less, will help you to win this most equitable suit. And I am so earnest in desiring you to take it up and urge it so strongly, that I really think that you cannot, without incurring the guilt and shameful stain of ingratitude, which would fall in disgrace upon the whole of the Society, omit any possible industry or diligence in this matter of so much importance to our good mother, until you succeed in getting rid of all obstacles and bringing to a happy conclusion this marriage, which I am sure God approves; that so provision may be made for the good condition, comfort, and dignity of a lady who has conferred such singular obligations upon us, and of that virtuous modest maiden, her daughter.

You will find Carvalho himself very easy to manage, and docile in all that may be required of him. As I said, he has promised me, and he is a man of stainless faith, but more than this, he has let me see well that he thinks very highly of such a connection as that I am speaking of, and he has the greatest hopes of finding that this marriage will give him the rest he wants, the tranquil happiness for what remains of this life, which he so much longs for. And now I think I have said enough to explain this desire of mine, and unless I am mistaken, to make you approve it. I shall consider it a most joyful piece of news and a great favour to myself, if I hear from you that I have

gained my point. May God unite us in His glory ! for whether we shall ever see one another again in this life is at present very uncertain. Farewell.

Your brother in Christ,

Malacca, Eve of St. John Baptist, 1549. FRANCIS.

The next letter, written at the same time, .is on quite a different subject—the excellent qualities of one of the King’s officials at Malacca. He seems to have been auditor of the revenue, and as such to have had need of great integrity and up­rightness in deciding questions which came before him. Francis pleads earnestly with the King for some greater reward than his friend has as yet reaped in the salary or perquisites of his office.

(lxxvii.) To John III. King of Portugal.

Since your Highness, in your royal letters from Portugal, has commanded me to give you a written report of those who in these regions of India faithfully and diligently discharge the duty committed to them, I would have your Highness know that Duarte Barreto, who has lately been managing the affairs of your realm at Malacca, has in the discharge of his office left nothing undone which could have been looked for from a man of skill, industry and faithfulness. He has taken care of the interests of the revenue, he has done good service to the mer­chants, by deciding the cases before him justly without respect to persons, and he has moreover conducted himself in all re­spects in such a manner, that his administration as magistrate has done honour to your Highness among the natives in this part of the world, for men have taken him as a specimen, and have commonly thought that you are in the habit of sending to them as officials of your kingdom men whom you know to be very well furnished with those virtues which you most highly approve, and which you yourself possess in abundance.

For my part, I consider that the glory of kings and princes who have widely extended dominions is concerned in this, that they commit those parts of their dominions, which they cannot

administer themselves, to men to whom it may be honourable for themselves to be thought like, men of whom the people may think, when they have seen them and had experience of their honesty, gravity and justice, and learnt to honour and value those virtues in them, that they behold and have before them, in the deputies sent to live among them by their sove­reign, an express portrait of the noble and honourable qualities of their absent sovereign himself. Duarte Barreto belongs be­yond all others to that most excellent number and kind of ministers, who make their supreme happiness consist in ren­dering perfect service to their King. On this account he is a man who deserves that your Highness should deign to advance him in substance and in dignity, and whose very distinguished services you should think it well to seek occasion to remune­rate. In order to act as he has done, he has had to undergo a great deal of labour, and, as there are abundance of bad characters out here, to take up a good many quarrels and fight many battles.

The appointment at Malacca, of which I spoke, cannot well be considered as an adequate reward for his sedulous dili­gence during so many years. In the first place, it has happened by some chance that it brought him in very little; and in the second place, he was not able to hold it for the full term; and so he has left this place a poor man. Be good enough, there­fore, Sire, to make some provision for him, as a man who in truth has well earned any favour, however great, from your Highness. I pray that God may add many years to the pro­sperous and happy life of your Highness, and that He may grant you in His clemency to know in this life His most holy will, and mercifully supply you with abundant strength of soul to think and act and feel as you would rejoice to have done in your last moment.

Your Highness’s useless servant,

Malacca, June 23, 1549. FRANCIS.

One letter more remains to us, which from the particular manner in which it is dated seems to have been the very last work of Francis Xavier before embarking for Japan. The little

church of Our Lady of the Mount, near Malacca, was near the favourite abode of Francis when at that place, mentioned in the preceding volume.¹³ It was there that he was saying mass at the time when the insolent challenge of the Acheenese Com­mander to Don Simon de Melo arrived, which led to the or­ganization of the Christian armament, whose signal victory over the barbarians was announced by Francis in the pulpit at the moment at which it took place.¹⁴ There then, the night before he sailed, with his mind full of Japan and of the dangers of the voyage he was so soon to have, Francis must have stolen away from the countless friends who would be anxious to see him and force on him their offerings or good wishes at so critical a moment, and spent a part of his few remaining hours in quietly drawing up a rule of life for Joam Bravo, the newly admitted brother of whom mention has already been made. The next evening, ‘ about sunsfet,’ says Mendez Pinto, who was at Ma­lacca at the time, ‘ he embarked in a small junk belonging to a Chinese corsair called Necoda, and then the next morning set sail and departed.’ He was soon to be alone with his few companions amid the strange crew of superstitious idolaters in whose company he was to suffer so much, as we shall see when we come to speak of his voyage. The admiring crowds, the friendly generous merchants, Don Pedro de Silva, the son of the great Vasco de Gama, who had shown him so much kind­ness, Perez and Oliveira with their troops of penitents and happy Christian children streaming along the streets in proces­sion, all were soon to be as far from him as if he had left them behind in another world. And in the far distance beyond Malacca, there were others, still dearer and subjects of greater anxiety or affection from whom he was separating himself, with great likelihood of never meeting them again—his beloved children on the Comorin Coast, the missioners to whom he had entrusted them, Niccolo at Coulan, Cipriani at Meliapor, An­tonio Criminale, as he may have thought, among the pearl fishers, and then his old companion Paul at Goa, Antonio- Gomez, the subject of many an earnest prayer, and his chosen ¹³ Vol. i. p. 348. ¹⁴ Vol. i. p. 412.

disciple Gaspar Baertz at Ormuz, for whose benefit he had poured out so much of his own carefully stored experience of men, and of the means of leading them out of the mazes of sin and reconciling them to God. And far beyond these again there lay Italy and Rome, and Lisbon and Coimbra, each with their little knot of friends for whom his heart yearned, as it seems, all' the more intensely as the time since they had parted grew longer and longer, without making their associations and me­mories less fresh within him. There was Simon his peculiar friend and brother, there also that father of his soul, whose name seems to force itself upon his pen even in this last paper which he drew up, which describes so simply and plainly that daily rule of life which, in principle, was the great security for the unity of spirit between the widely scattered members of the Society, and those maxims of selfknowledge and selfconquest which he himself had learned so many years ago when he first became the dis­ciple and child of Ignatius.

(lxxviii.) To Joam Bravo.

My dearest brother,—I should wish you to follow with the greatest constancy every day the following order for your religi­ous life. In the morning, as soon as you are awake, meditate on a mystery of the life of Christ, beginning from His holy Nativity and going on in continuous order to His triumphal Ascension into heaven. You have the matterfor these meditations arranged in order in the book of the Spiritual Exercises. You must spend at least half an hour in this holy meditation, with the same at­tention and devotion of mind, and all the observances and rules which you remember that you used when you went through the exercises of your month’s retreat. You must go on every day to a new meditation, so that when, for instance, on Monday you have contemplated the Nativity of Christ, on Tuesday you must consider His Circumcision, and so on in order, until by the end of the month you have gone through all the actions of the Lord Jesus and come to the end of all, that is, the glorious Ascen­sion. After this you should begin again, and go through the

same round from the first, proceeding from one mystery to an­other that comes next to it, and so spend another month in going over the same steps as before. At the end of each of these exercises you must renew the vows which you have once made, especially those chief vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, making them, I say, over again, and offering them to God, reviving and rekindling the same deep fervour with which you made them the first time. Besides other fruits that you will gain, you will by this repetition of your vows blunt the assaults of concupiscence and of our infernal enemy, both of which will be always inciting you to evil things, and for this reason I think you should never omit this renewal.

After you have dined and rested a little afterwards, you must repeat your morning’s meditation, and spend half an hour upon it, considering again the same mystery, and you must add again at the end the renewal of your vows. This must be a fixed and immutable rule for you, always kept up amid all the variety of your actions during the day, and no avocation or occupation must be so important to you as to prevent you from giving a full hour every day to this pious meditation of the most holy life of Christ our Lord. And in this matter the division which I have arranged for you will be convenient, so that you may put aside half an hour out of the morning, and half an hour out of the afternoon for this purpose. It seems to me that the most free space for the last will be the time towards evening when Father Francesco Perez, with whom you live, holds his catechetical school : that will be a time when you will be at lesiure to attend to your afternoon prayer.

At night, before you go to sleep, you must examine your conscience, enquiring into the thoughts, words, and deeds of the whole day, and also whether you have left out anything of what you ought to have done. Examine all these things as if you were presently going to cleanse your soul in sacramental confession to a priest, and then conceive deep contrition for what you have done amiss, or for what you have omitted, out of regard to God, Whom you have offended thereby, and Whom you love above all things, and then pray Jesus Christ earnestly

to prosper you, and promise amendment. After all this, recite the Pater and Ave, and compose yourself to rest in such a way that sleep may steal upon you with your thoughts fixed on divine things, and your mind preparing itself to spend the next day in greater holiness.

When you wake the next morning, raise your thoughts at once to heaven, and while you are putting on your clothes and washing your hands and face, call to mind the faults into which you fell the day before, and ask of our Lord grace to avoid them that day. Then make your morning meditation, as you have done the day before, and in the same way go through your other duties in order. Be so constant in this method of life, as never to think it lawful for you to give up the least part of it, except when hindered by illness, and whenever as long as you are well and strong, you shall, under pretext of any intervening cause whatever, either have put olf or not fully performed any of these things presented to you, make it a matter of conscience and confess your fault before the Fathers, asking of your own accord to have punishment given you for your negligence in either omitting, or doing in a perfunctory way, a thing which has been so urgently enjoined upon you by your Superior.

For the rest, whatever you may have to do, wherever you may go, in whatever you may be engaged, whether occupation or relaxation, always be on the alert and endeavour strenuously to exert all your strength in striving to conquer yourself in everything, break your desires, embrace what your feelings shrink from, and especially to beat down your innate appetite for praise and superior excellence, and spare no pains at all until pride be tom out by the roots, and you are able to bear wil­lingly to be put down below everything and even to rejoice to be despised. Be sure of this, that without this submissiveness, without this command over the evil movements of the soul, you will do no good either to yourself or to others, nor will you be able to please God or to persevere in the Society of Jesus.

Obey the Father with whom you live in all things, and exe­cute with the greatest alacrity whatever he may order you, how­ever disagreeable it may be; never resist him, never make for

any cause whatever any exception to what he orders, and lis­ten to what he says and bend yourself entirely to his word as your director in all things, exactly as if our Father Ignatius were present and were to command the same things. What- I ever temptations, of whatever sort or manner, you find yourself assailed by, tell them at once with the greatest candour to your Superior, and persuade yourself, as of a matter of the greatest certainty, that there is no other way to avoid yielding to | them; and besides this advantage, there is another great gain j for the soul attached to this openness in confessing the secret movements of the heart. For by that means we gain great favour with God, a sort of favour which brings with it a pledge of great reward hereafter, on account of the generally trouble- i some victory which we win over our natural feeling of shame.

Yes, and a great blow is inflicted thereby on the hopes and in­, siduous machinations of our hellish foe, whose principal power : to hurt us lies in his remaining concealed, and who is disarmed I if he be dragged into light, and then it turns out that all his perverse expectations are dashed to the ground, and he is made a laughingstock of those whom he was plotting against, and who are safe and secure against him. Farewell.

Most cordially and affectionately yours,

Francis.

In the Chapel of our Blessed Lady of the Mount, near Malacca, the night before the Feast of the Nativity of St. Jolm the Baptist, 1549; just about to set sail for Japan.

(i.) Account of Japan sent to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, drawn from the statements of Anger (Han-Siro), the Japanese Convert.

In his letter to Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis mentions the ac­count of Japan given by his convert Paul of the holy Faith. We find this document, with another similar account, written by Jorge Alvarez (a Portuguese merchant), in the volume of letters preserved in the College of Coimbra. The first we give in a close translation :

Information respecting the island of Japan, given by Paul, formerly called Han-Siro, recently converted to our holy Faith, a native of the said island.

Northwards from China, and further east, the Portuguese merchants discovered an island called Japan, in the same latitude as Italy: it measures (according to the account given me) 600 leagues from east to west, and 300 in width. From that island came, in the month of April last, a man of great intelligence and sagacity named Angero, bringing with him two servants. Among other things, he asked information concerning our holy Faith, and having been instructed therein, after a short space of time he became a Christian, taking the name of Paul. He remained with us in this our College of St. Paul of the holy Faith, in Goa, where he learned to read and write Portuguese, and translated into his own language a short summary of the doctrines and practices es­sential to our holy religion. This man gave himself to prayer and contemplation, calling on and sighing for our Lord Jesus Christ; his goodness is so great that it cannot be easily told. Whilst a catechumen he gave, at our request, an account of the customs and laws of his country ; but since he was not initiated in the sects as some of his countrymen who are held to be learned, and he only knew the common language, on this account he related things only according to the current popular opinion. This in­formation I transmit to you as he told it to us, intending to write all more certainly by and by, and how our Father Master Francis has by that time been there, and has himself made personal ac­quaintance with the inhabitants and the writings of that country.

In the first place, he informed us that the whole island of Japan is subject to one king; under him there are great lords,

like our dukes and counts ; their number amounts altogether to about fourteen in all Japan ; and when one of them dies, his eldest son inherits the entire estate, the younger sons having some castle allotted them for their maintenance, on condition that they maintain obedience to the head of the family, so as not to divide the estate. The least of these nobles, he says, can send into the field 10,000 men, others 15,000, others 20,000 or 30,000. The chief ruler or king is called Voo; he is of a more noble race than the rest, and can only marry in his own family. He has jurisdic­tion in things spiritual as well as temporal, and over both seculars and religious, these last being very numerous in this country ; indeed, his authority seems like that of the Pope amongst us. Though he has authority over all, he never makes war or puts any to death ; all such things he leaves to another among them, who is like the Emperor, and is called Goxo, and with whom rests all the government, and who rules the island. He is under the obedience of the aforenamed Voo, and when he visits him, he kneels and bends his head on his thigh; and, though he has a great court of lords, captains, and soldiers, who superintend matters connected with carrying on war and justice, if the Goxo should do any evil, the Voo can cause him to be deprived of his kingdom and be­headed. The less obey the greater very much, on account of the stern justice they use. All crimes are by them punished with the same severity. The Voo lives as follows : he takes a wife of his own family, and when the moon begins to wane he begins to fast and to separate from his wife, and give himself to meditation and prayer for fifteen days, eating very little, and being dressed in white the whole time, and wearing a large crown upon his head, until the moon changes: but when she begins to increase, he at once begins to lead a life of pleasure with his wife, goes to hunt, and enjoys many other amusements. If his wife dies before he is thirty he may marry again, but not after that age; and the rest of his life he must keep perpetual chastity, and live like a religious, and at no time may he have intercourse with any woman but his wife.

Besides the great lords, the nation has other gentlemen, mer­chants and officials of every grade, as amongst ourselves. Gener­ally no one has more than one wife. If she prove unfaithful, and the husband can surprise her with her paramour, he is authorised to kill them both ; if he kill only one, public justice proceeds against the other, and puts him to death ; but if he kill neither, it is considered a disgrace to him. When a wife is believed guilty of adultery, yet cannot be taken in the act, she is sent home to her

VOL. 11. P

father’s house, and then the husband does not lose his honour, but may marry again, she herself being for ever dishonoured and not allowed to remarry. It is thought infamous for one who lives with his,wife to have intercourse with another woman. The no­bles send their sons to the monasteries to be educated as soon as they are eight years old, and they remain there until they are nineteen or twenty, learning reading, writing, and religion; as soon as they come out they marry, and apply themselves to politics.

There are in these islands three sorts of religious, who have monasteries like our friars, some within the cities, and some with­out : those in the cities do not marry, live on alms, and shave their heads and beards. They wear long habits with wide sleeves, almost like our friars; in winter they cover their heads, but the rest of the year they are always uncovered ; they eat together like^ friars, and fast many times in the year. These religious eat no animal food, in order to afflict their bodies and extirpate all sin­ful desires, and this abstinence is common to all the religious. They rise in the middle of the night to say prayers, which they chant for about half an hour, and then sleep till dawn, when they again arise, and say other prayers ; they also recite prayers at sunrise, at midday, and in the evening; at this last time they sound a bell, and all the people fall on their knees to pray, as we do at home. These religious pray in a language not understood by the common people, just as our priests do in Latin.

These religious preach frequently to the people ; their sermons are well attended, and they move both themselves and their hearers to tears. They preach that there is one Supreme God, Creator of all things ; and that there is a Purgatory, Paradise, and Hell, and that all souls, alike good and bad, go to Purgatory, and then se­parate, the good for the place where God is, the bad for the abode of the devil, who, they say, is sent by God into the world in order to chastise evildoers. These religious lead a very virtuous life, except that they are stained by an abominable sin connected with the boys they have to teach in their monasteries, although they teach the people that this is a great sin, and praise chastity. They wear long black robes from head to foot, and are very learned. Each house has a Superior, whom all obey, and they receive only virtuous persons to become priests. There is another sort of priests, whose members dress in gray; these likewise do not marry. They have religious houses for women, like nuns. It is said that they have intercourse together, but that the birth of children is prevented by certain drugs. All the houses of these religious men have nuns’ houses by their side. They are persons of little learn­

ing ; they pray in the same manner with those before mentioned, and sometimes they fast. There is also another sort of religious, who go clothed in black robes and do much penance. They go to prayer three times a day, at morning, at evening, and at fhidnight. All the houses of prayer of these religious are alike, and contain images made of wood and gilt. There are also pictures painted on the walls. All adore one God, whom they call Dinicho in their language, or sometimes Cogi. The second order of gray religious mentioned above, when they make prayer in their choir, make it together with the nuns, the friars on one side, the nuns on the other, chanting alternately, at midnight as at other times.

This excellent man also narrated to us the history of a man who is esteemed a saint among them, as we say. He said that there lived once in a land beyond China, called Chenguinquo, a king named Sanbon, whose wife was called Illagabuni. One night this king dreamt that a son was to be born to him, _t who should be a very great man and regarded as a god in all those lands. This dream he told to his wife, who nine months later had a son, whom they called Xaqua, at whose birth two huge winged serpents were seen to float over the palace, descend to where the child was without doing him any harm, and presently disappear. When Xaqua was nineteen years old, his father wished him to marry ; but he, impressed with the miseries of this life, fled by night to the mountains, where for the space of six years he lived a life of solitary penance. At the end of this time he reappeared amongst his countrymen, and began to preach with great fervour and elo­quence to all those people. His reputation for sanctity soon spread, and he acquired unbounded influence, so that he remo­delled the laws of the country, and taught the people how to adore God. It is said that Xaqua made 8000 converts, some of whom carried his doctrines into China, preaching his laws and religion; that they converted China and the kingdom of Chenguinquo, making the people destroy the idols and pagodas ; and that they were established in China and Chenguinquo, and thence came to Japan, making the people do the same; and even now fragments of ancient statues are found there, as they are found at Rome.

This Xaqua taught that there is one God, Creator of all things ; and exhorted his followers to accept five precepts : 1. not to kill ; 2. not to steal ; 3. not to commit fornication ■ 4. not to be passionate for things that cannot be remedied ; 5. to forgive in­juries. He also wrote many books full of much virtue and very useful, wherein he taught the manners which men ought to ob­serve, each according to his state.

He prescribed frequent fasts, and taught that penance is highly pleasing to God, and of great necessity for the salvation of sinners : he urged religious to be diligent in visiting the sick and exhorting them to make their wills; and when they see the sick person to be in danger of death, they are to preach to him of the goods of the other life, and tell him not to be pained about present things, since all is vanity. And when the sick man dies, the said religious are to come in procession, chanting, and take the body to the cloister of their monastery, always asking God to pardon his sins ; and they are to bury all poor and rich without any difference, nor receive anything for this as a reward, he being held a bad man who would receive it, though it is true that he ex­horted them, if the family of the dead offered some alms, to take them.

This good man also affirmed that in Japan they do penance in this way, fasting and observing chastity a hundred days con­tinuously, and then retiring into a wood situated on the side of a mountain, in which live some austere anchorites and in which many fearful sounds and horrible cries are heard, and strange fires seen. The penitents remained here seventy-five days, eating only as much rice as could be contained in the palms of the hands, and drinking water. At the end of the time they all united, and went to a desert beyond the forest, sometimes more than iooo at once, and kneeling before a pagoda each one confessed aloud the sins of his whole life, all the others being silent and very atten­tive, and after this each one swore on the idol to keep the confes­sions of the others secret. All the time they never sleep nor-un­dress, they wear a coarse rough dress, are tightly girt, have their heads uncovered, and never sit. Each day they walk five or six leagues in the neighbourhood of the forest, all together as in procession, and at certain fixed places they rest a long time and light a large fire and warm themselves. There is a master who guides all their prayers and penances, and if any one sleeps at this time of rest, the master beats him; and if any one falls ill and cannot go on, they leave him alone, and he dies abandoned, while the others continue their march. But if any one die before the others, they all help to bury him, and leave in writing on a post the name of the dead man and where he comes from. And these pilgrims carry a tablet on which is their name and that of their home.

Paul also says that these pilgrims often see many monstrous phantasms and diabolical illusions, the devils often presenting themselves amongst them, so that a hundred persons seemed two-

hundred, each person having as it were his own double by his side ; and the master seeing that some had not the tablet with their name, would bid his penitents be quiet and pray earnestly to Dinicho their god to deliver them from such company; and on this prayer the devils would disappear, and leave the penitents to finish their exercises in peace, at the end of which they were found weak, worn, and disfigured by their friends who come to revest them in their ordinary apparel and conduct them home.

Paul told us also that there are in Japan many sorcercrs and enchanters ; however, they are little esteemed by wise and prudent men; there are also very great astrologers, who foretell events to come. The natives write chronicles of their history, much as we do ourselves, and they resemble us also in their man­ners and subtlety of invention. Indeed, the author of our present information gives tokens of a mental power which many of us might envy; nor is his cleverness of an unpractical kind, being shown in action as well as in speech. He appears much shocked at the vices which he cannot but perceive amongst Christians. He thinks that all the Japanese will become Christians, because it is written in their law and in their books that all laws are to be one, and they expect a more perfect law than their own, and he cannot imagine one more perfect than ours. He says he is very happy in having received so great a blessing from God, in that he has been taken as the instrument to introduce Christian people into Japan, who may preach this holy law ; and although he is married, he offers himself to go to Japan and stay with the fathers who go there two years more, until some good beginning of a Christian community is made there, and until the fathers know the language.

He says that the climate is very healthy, and that hurricanes and earthquakes are of frequent occurrence. The fruits and metals are much the same as those of Europe; also the animals and birds, which are both very numerous ; there are few poisonous serpents. No wine is made from grapes, but a fermented liquor is distilled from rice, as from barley in Flanders ; there are wild vines in the woods which bear grapes. The people eat rice with meat and dsh as in India. Wheat is plentiful; it is not made into bread, but used for pastry and the like, rice being used as a substitute for bread. The flesh ofwild fowls is eaten, but not that of chickens; indeed no domestic animal is used as an article of food. He says that in this country there is a duke who has on his banner a sign like a cross, and none but his own family can bear it. The whole nation pray on beads as we do ; those who can read use little

books, and those who pray on beads say on each bead a prayer twice as long as the Pater nostcr. These strings of beads, or ro­saries, have one hundred and eight beads. They say that their learned men teach that each man has one hundred and eight sorts of sin, and that he must say a prayer against each of these. This prayer is in a tongue not understood by the people, as Latin with us. When they get up in the morning, they say nine words, raising the fingers of the right hand, to defend themselves against the devil. The religious make profession and vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and practise this in humility before they are received into religion.

The climate of Japan resembles that of Italy, and the natives are much like the Italians in height. They are discreet, magna­nimous, and lovers of virtue and letters, honouring learned men very much. Their customs of government in peace and war are like ours. Justice is very expeditious. A man is allowed to kill his own slave for an insult or injury. The supreme dignity of the Voo, who is like the Pope, descends to his eldest son or to his nearest relation by the father’s side. So it is with the other princes. The Goxo intervenes if these quarrel among themselves ; and if any one is contumacious or disobedient, he makes war on him and takes away his realm and cuts off his head; yet the dignity is not taken out of the family, but descends to his next heir. They use prayers, alms, pilgrimages, and fasts for the remission of sins of the living and the dead many times in the year, eating, when they fast, at the same hours that we do. In a mountain in the island there are 5000 religious, very rich, with many servants, well housed and clothed. They observe chastity so much that no woman is allowed to enter the monastery, nor anything female. Women after childbirth are fifteen days without any one touching them, and do not go to church for forty days. Poor women who have many children kill the youngest that they may not grow up to suffer poverty, and this is not punished.

He said also that 1600 years ago or more, the idols were de­stroyed in the kingdom of Jenico (Chenguinquo), by which you go to Japan, passing by China and Tartary, and also in this island, by means of the doctrine of Xaqua. When he preached about hell, he said that souls were tormented therein by the demons with divers torments, the damned being in perpetual flames, and other similar pains. He said there was a Purgatory, where the souls which have not done sufficient penance in this- life for their sins are detained until they are purified, and that in Paradise are the angels, who are contemplating the majesty of God. They believe:

that the angels are defenders of men, and for this reason they carry with them images of the angels, who, they say, are spirits made of other substance and elements than ours. They use many prayers in praise of God, and practise contemplation, especially the religious. They assemble round the altar when they chant, and they ring bells to assemble the people for the sermons, and sacrifices, and other common prayers ; and when any one dies they assemble to bury him or to burn him, with many lighted candles. All their laws and scriptures and prayers are in a lan­guage which is not the common tongue, as Latin with us. We asked this good man whether they practised sacrifices; and he said that some of the priests, especially the prelate, in certain vestments, come into the church, and in presence of the people they burn certain scents, like incense—aloe-wood sticks, and certain odoriferous leaves—upon a stone like an altar, chanting certain prayers. The churches of this people have the same privilege as ours, so that the officers of justice cannot seize or take any one from them, save only for theft. They have in their temples many images of saints (men and women) painted, of large size, with crowns and glory like ours ; and they venerate the saints as we venerate ours ; and although they adore one God, Creator of all things, yet they pray to the saints to intercede with God for them.

This nation eats all kinds of food, and does not practise cir­cumcision ; so that it would appear that the Gospel had been preached in the country, and that on account of sins the light of faith had been obscured, and that then some heretic like Mahomet had taken it away altogether. While I was writing this paper there came to me an Armenian Bishop, who has been more than forty years in these parts, who said that lie had read that the Ar­menians had preached in China in the beginning of the primitive Church. Nevertheless, it would be very well that the light of the holy faith and of the doctrine of the Gospel should be once more made to shine upon these nations ; and although from Rome to Japan there are 8000 leagues of journey, yet to those who love God and the salvation of souls all the toils and dangers of the world are pleasures. If God will, our Father Master Francis, to­gether with Paul (the author of this information), and two men of Japan who are already Christians, and three others, fathers or brothers of our Society, will, if God so please, sail to Japan this next April, and in two years your Reverence will have information of the good which we may hope to do in that country by the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord, Qui est benedictus in scecula sccculorum. Amen.

Cochin, beginning of January 1549. Laus Deo.

(2.) Account of Japan by Jorge Alvarez.

This notice is contemporaneous with the foregoing. We can only find room for an abridged account of it.

The writer, who appears to be the captain of a ship, begins by enumerating the principal ports of Japan, and goes on to give a brief account of the country. He describes it as beautiful and fertile, abounding in vegetable productions of every kind, these being for the most part the same as those indigenous to Portugal. The natives obtain three crops every year. They use horses for all agricultural purposes, as there are scarcely any oxen to be met with ; and indeed very few domestic animals of any kind. Game is abundant, and eagerly sought after as an article of food. The common people ensnare their prey by means of nets ; the upper classes employ falcons, the highest nobles being pejmitted to use eagles. Deer are always shot with arrows. Fish of every kind abound both in the sea and in the rivers.

There are hot springs in several places. One stream is re­markable for being intensly cold at its source, and becoming lower down just as hot; it makes its way through a bed of mud to the sea. In this mud the poorer inhabitants scoop hollows, which fill with tepid water ; in these they bathe themselves at sunrise and sunset. The women have a custom of dipping their heads three times under the water, some of which they carry away with them in wooden vessels, sprinkling it with their fingers through the streets as they return home, and on the floors of their houses, reciting at the same time certain words, ‘which,’ says the writer, ‘I could not understand, though I feel certain they were rather a devotional exercise than a mere ordinary custom, as not all the women prac­tised this.’

Japan is frequently visited by earthquakes. It is surrounded by numerous volcanic islands of various dimensions, which smoke all the year round, and not unfrequently emit fire. Hurricanes are of common occurrence at the time of full moon ; but in the month of September there always comes one hurricane more furious than the rest and of longer duration ; while it prevails, ships are fre­quently carried a long distance inland. These tempests, however, give warning of their approach, being invariably preceded by a fine rain, so that the natives are enabled to adopt measures for insuring their personal safety. The houses are low and firmly built for the sake of security, with straw-thatched roofs fastened on by means of large stones. They are divided into rooms and

anterooms : locks and bolts appear to be unknown. Each house is surrounded by an enclosure, which serves the purpose ofa kitchen garden ; and every abode is provided with a separate water supply; also with an oven, a loom, a wooden mill for grinding rice, and a stone mill for grinding corn. The stock of poultry belonging to each family is confined to a single cock and hen.

The natives are for the most part of middling height, hardy, well made and fair complexioned. The nobles wear their beards •cut short, after the manner of the Moors, the lower orders wear­ing theirs long ; all appear to shave their cheeks and the crown of the head, leaving the hair long behind. They keep their heads •constantly uncovered, the old men alone wearing, in cold wea­ther, a silken cap. The men wear an undergarment of flax, reaching to the knees, with sleeves as far as the elbows ; the lower part of the arm being always bare. Over this shirt is worn a sort of jacket, made of unbleached flax and somewhat elabor­ately adorned with various devices, coloured in white, gray, black, and blue, so as to distinguish the wearers. The costume is com­pleted by pantaloons of ample dimensions, open at the sides and fastened in at the waist by a leathern belt; and in muddy wea­ther a sort of half boot is added to protect the foot.

The Japanese seem upon the whole to have made a pleasing impression upon our sea captain, to judge from the account he now proceeds to furnish us with, and which we will give in his own words. ‘ This people is very proud, and easily offended : all, old and young, use cutlasses and other arms, which they are allowed to wear from the age of eight years. They are al­most all skilled in the use of arrows, and carry large bows, like the English. They protect their bodies by means of coats of mail and iron, close fitting, and painted. They are not a covetous race, but on the contrary liberal, and very hospitable to strangers, with whom they seem eager to make friends, and from whom they seek to gain information about other countries, although un­able to do so to any great extent, owing to their ignorance of the proper questions to be asked. They are very particular about having their hospitality returned ; those who came on board our ships were most anxious to gratify their curiosity in every respect. Theft they hold in peculiar abhorrence, even the least dishonesty being punished with death : whenever they hear of a thief being at large, the chiefs sally forth to hunt him down, and it is re­garded as a great honour to be the first to discover and kill him.’

We have next a few details respecting the food of the inha­

bitants, and the manner in which it is partaken of. They eat three times a day, and always very sparingly, eating but very little meat, and never the flesh of any domestic animal. Their food appears to consist chiefly of various kinds of grain, as rice, millet, and the like ; they seldom, if ever, make bread. Arrack, made from rice, is the universal beverage; but drunkenness is apparently unknown, for as soon as any one feels himself getting out of his own control, he ceases his potations, and betakes him­self to sleep. The Japanese eat sitting crosslegged on the ground, like the Moors, and use sticks like the Chinese : they eat out of earthenware bowls, painted black outside and red within. Cold water is never drunk, either in summer or in winter. There are many inns in Japan, where travellers can obtain refreshments, and pass the night also, should they be so minded.

No one can have more than one wife; the women are mar­ried by their parents, and great is the vexation if any match is not approved of by those in authority. Should any wife prove idle or faithless, her husband may send her home, if she have not already borne him children ; but after she has had children he may put her to death at once for either of these faults, with­out himself incurring any penalty. The result of such stringent regulations is that the women jealously guard the honour of their husbands, and are willing to live quietly and attend to their houses. There are no prisons, as every one is expected to execute justice in his own home. The rich men and nobles are allowed to pos­sess slaves; but these latter have so much liberty that if they da not desire to remain with their master, they have only to inform him of their wish, for in this case he is obliged to find them an­other owner ; or if he fail to do so, they are free to escape from him if they can ; if they run away without any warning, they are liable to be put to death. The Japanese have a special liking for coloured people, Caffres being their chief favourites: to see them they travel considerable distances, and they treat them with all possible distinction.

They are much attached to the person of their king, the highest nobles considering it an honour to ha've their sons em­ployed about the court; every one is expected to enter the pre­sence of royalty upon his hands and knees. Even among equals guests are received kneeling, the entertainers remaining in their humble posture until the new comers are seated. All persons, of whatever rank, who chance to meet the King out of doors, remain bent double until he has passed, and when persons of the lower orders encounter their superiors, they remove their shoes and bow

down in very lowly guise. They are accustomed to speak al­most in whispers, and ‘ despise us foreigners,’ remarks our inform­ant, ‘on account of our loud talking.’ They sit round in a circle in their houses, even at meal times : they are fond of music, their principal instruments being drums and fifes; they have fixed rules of entertainment, but are no lovers of games. They are good horsemen, their horses being numerous and small ; the princes and nobles have very fine horses, which they breed themselves.

The abodes of the chiefs are strongholds situated on an iso­lated hill, always about two leagues distant from the coast. The hill made choice of must not be rocky, and must possess a supply of water; when the dwellings are erected, the earth excavated to form the gangways is used to construct a wall, which encircles the whole group of buildings and is raised to a height greater than that of any of them, in order that they may be protected from the hurricanes. The dwelling of the chief is distinguished by its cen­tral position and greater height. ‘ I myself,’ says the writer, ‘visited the fortress of the king ; it contained nineteen separate houses, but no less than forty-seven gates opening into as many passages or streets. The enclosure encircling it was composed of sandstone ; the walls, of which the width was greater than the height, were of solid earth, strengthened by palisades ; the en­trance into this stronghold is high up and difficult of access, it is so narrow that horsemen can only enter in single file. In fact I have never seen any fortress, even of stone, which appeared more impregnable.’ The natives have in their houses idols, to which they pray as soon as they are up in the morning with their beads in their hands ; and at the close of their devotions they pass them three times rapidly through their fingers, accompanying this action with a threefold prayer—for preservation from evil, for temporal blessings, and for deliverance from their enemies. Some persons, in expiation of some crime committed in early life, or through the effect of some great sorrow, take vows of poverty and chastity, leaving their wives if they have any, dividing their goods between their idols and the poor. The women are comely, with fair skins and pleasing manners; they do all the work of the house, as weaving, cooking, and the like. Good wives are held in much esteem by their husbands ; indeed they altogether rule them and go hither and thither as they list, without ever thinking of asking leave of their lords. The women wear a long garment reaching from the neck to the feet, fastened in at the waist; over this they wear petticoats, like European women, and like them too they much admire long and thick hair, and spend a great deal of time

and care on dressing their heads. They shave the forehead to a considerable height, are Very Qevout, and go constantly to the temples to pray and recite their rosaries.

These Japanese have two kinds of temples. One kind adjoins the dwellings of the priests or bonzes, who live in community, each, however, having his own cell where he sleeps and studies. They all rise in the night and say office together, the oldest reading out, the others responding. Towards evening they sound bells, which they strike with hammers of iron or copper; they also use gongs, borrowed from the Chinese, as are all the sacred writings they possess, and many of their religious rites as well. From time to time they say their beads, like the laity. They live on vegetable food, and are much thought of both by small and great, so that even the king is to a certain extent subject to them. The least able members of the community are sometimes sent out to beg in the streets and villages, or made to employ themselves in helping the aged women who do their housework. Their houses of prayer are well kept; the idols being gilt, and having heads like those of the Cafifres, with pierced ears like the Malays ; these temples are surrounded by trees, and afford sanctuary for a certain number of days to every class of criminal, excepting only thieves. Some of the idols resemble Christian martyrs and confessors, as St. Stephen and St. Lawrence ; they are represented as shaven. Round the sides of-the temples are arranged cushions, on which the bonzes sit to pray ; the central space being appropriated to the people who kneel there, men and women together, and invoke the martyrs with uplifted hands.

Then we have farther details concerning these bonzes, which we will give in the writer’s own words :

‘ The bonzes are all shaved with razors; they have rooms built at a short distance from their monasteries, where they go twice a day to perform their ablutions. They heat the necessary water at stoves erected for the purpose, the wood for the fires being given them for the love of God. They wear wide shirts like those oflaymen, and over these a black habit reaching to the feet; they have stoles round their necks and wear caps like women, and no trousers. They are exceedingly anxious to hear about our religion and are much amused with our images, which they place on their heads ; they seem to wish to visit our country. There are orders of black and gray friars ; all practise community of goods. They can read and write Chinese, but not speak it, and are thus constrained to carry on communications with the

Chinese by means of writing, as these latter cannot speak Japanese. They celebrate the obsequies of the dead, and also pray for the sick in the following manner. All the fathers assemble in the temple, where they sit in order, the oldest nearest to the altar, and so on, the youngest being in the middle; they have a large trumpet, and after one of the oldest fathers has recited prayers, they blow this trumpet, and all respond in unison or in harmony. The ceremonies last from daybreak until midday; during this time food is brought to the bonzes by those who have engaged their services- and who make a point of being present with their relations.

‘These orders include women as well as men ; the women live in houses apart and take vows of chastity, any breach of which is severely punished ; they have no peculiar dress. Many mem­bers of the highest families enter these orders, some married women even leaving their husbands in order to do so.

‘There is also another order for men ; they have different and smaller idols, which are shut up in tabernacles and only brought out on festivals. These idols are kept in houses built in groves at some distance from any habitation, and are regarded with much veneration. The priests who serve these temples dress like the laity, and carry arms ; on their heads they wear square caps, re­minding one of the sail of a ship, and a small cape reaching be­low the beard. They are much given to witchcraft, and wear their beads round their necks, by which mark they may be known : they admit women to play a part in their worship, but are none the less obliged to observe strict chastity. They have no connec­tion with the other sort of bonzes, but resemble them in possessing no sacred books of their own, and in using the same kind of bells.’

Their manner of conducting funeral obsequies is told as fol­lows: ‘Four or five fathers repair to the temple, taking with them an old woman ; as in the former case, those at whose request the ceremonies are performed supply the officiating minister with food and wine. One of the priests opens the tabernacle, and having taken out a drum, a pair of castanets, a hoop with bells, and a woman’s gown and coloured scarf, he closes it again. The woman proceeds to put on the dress and fasten the scarf around her ; then she performs upon the various instruments, singing and dancing, while the bonzes join in the chorus for the space of half an hour ; at the end of which time they again eat’ and drink, and thus the ceremony ends. I have seen one of these idols; they are ugly and ill made. As far as our discoveries have at present ex­tended, there appears to be but one language in use throughout the country.’

[We need hardly enter into the many questions which might be raised by a comparison of these accounts of Japan, which are obviously written in the most perfect good faith, with the present state of the country, in many respects, no doubt, greatly different from its state in the sixteenth century. The first account, taken down from the lips of Han-Siro, afterwards Paul of the holy Faith, is clearly the work of a religious of the College at Goa, and may be somewhat coloured by the desire which such an enquirer would naturally feel to discover as many resemblances to Christianity as possible in the religion of the country to which so much attention was then drawn within the walls of the College. These resem­blances extended, in the mind of the writer, not only to external rites, but also to many religious doctrines. The merchant, Jorge Alvarez, whose name appears in the travels of Mendez Pinto, takes a more simply external view of the Japanese than the writer in the College. Both of them seem to speak more highly of the morals of the Japanese in general than modern travellers would speak. A great number of details in each account would be re­cognized as answering to what is found in the present day by readers familiar Avith late books about Japan, but it would be a task beyond our present purpose to attempt to point these out. The accounts must be taken as interesting in themselves, because they are among the earliest statements concerning Japan which can have reached Europe in the sixteenth century, and interesting also for our present purpose, because they show us what Francis Xavier had heard about this country and its inhabitants before he himself landed on its shores.]

BOOK V.

FROM THE SAILING OF FRANCIS FOR JAPAN TO HIS LAST RETURN TO INDIA.

I549-IS52.

Voyage to Japan and stay at Cagoxima.

Some of the biographers of Francis Xavier have introduced their account of his labours in Japan by a long description of the country, its history and natural characteristics, its popula­tion, and its political and religious institutions. Japan was as much of a new world to their readers as Mexico or Peru to the contemporaries of Cortes or Pizarro. In our time, as has been already said, Japan has become once more, at least partially, open to Europeans, and there is hardly a country in the East which has attracted so much attention, or about which so much has been written. It is true that the modem accounts of Japan and the Japanese are slight, superficial, and partial; we have been told very little that was not known in the seventeenth cen­tury concerning the country itself, as distinguished from its capital and the few ports which the late treaties have opened to Western visitors, and the more substantial parts of such know­ledge as has been laid before us seem rather to have been derived from Charlevoix or Kaempfer, than from the personal investigations of the writers of our time. We may, however, pre­sume that enough is generally known about Japan in our day, to excuse us from the task of attempting a new description, unsatisfactory as such an account must always be, when it is not based upon a personal acquaintance with the country.

The story of the seven weeks’ voyage between Malacca and Cagoxima is told by Francis himself in the first part of a long letter which he had an opportunity of sending, with others, to the Fathers of the Society at Goa, after he had been between two and three months in Japan. The accommodation on board the small junk must have been of the most inconvenient kind, and though the vessel was of course decked, there were pro-

VOL. II. Q

bably no cabins, no means of shelter, or privacy, or protection against sun and sea. The crew was composed of superstitious pagans, who might, humanly speaking, at any moment have taken it into their heads to throw the Christians overboard, and who must have had many temptations to illtreat them. This does not seem to have prevented Francis Xavier from remon­strating with them on their idolatrous practices, though they disregarded his words entirely. The physical sufferings of the voyage were thus the lightest part of what he had to bear. On the other hand, the navigation was prosperous, and the greatest danger which the missionaries ran was the risk of delay in some port of China, which would have deferred for many months their arrival in Japan.

The following letter (which we must divide, in order to give the account of the voyage by itself, before speaking of what passed when it was over) must have been written from time to time between the Feast of the Assumption—on which day St. Francis Xavier and his companions reached the harbour of Ca- goxima—and the beginning of November, when it was dis­patched to India. It is remarkable for the comparatively large space occupied by reflections and exhortations. This shows us how much and how practically Francis Xavier was already thinking of summoning some of his religious brethren to join him in Japan. Indeed it was accompanied by another letter, in w’hich three Fathers were actually summoned thither. We also see how interior perfection was the one quality which he de­sired above all others in his assistants, and how anxious he was to lose no opportunity of doing what was in his power to form in them the true apostolical spirit. The letter is spoken of by himself as a letter on ‘ the interior feelings of the mind,’ and he desires it to be sent round and read in all the missions of the Society in India. It must therefore be considered as an exhort­ation as well as a narrative.

(lxxix.) To the Society at Goa.

May the grace and charity of Christ our Lord always help and favour us !

I wrote to you at great length from Malacca about our voy­age thither after we left India, and about all that happened there as long‘as we remained. Now for the rest. We arrived in Japan, by the favouring help of Almighty God, on August the 15th, having set out from Malacca on the Feast of St. John Baptist at evening. We sailed on board the ship of a heathen merchant, a Chinaman, who promised the Commandant at Malacca that he would carry us to Japan. By the goodness of God we had very favourable winds. However, as perfidy so often rules barbarians like him, our captain at one time changed his intention, and began to give up keeping to his course to- 1 wards Japan,'and loiter about the islands that came in the way, for the sake of wasting time.

There were two things in this which we found especially hard to bear. The first was that God had given a most favour­able wind, and yet we were not using it, whereas if it failed, we should not have been able to hold on our course to Japan, but should have been obliged to winter on the coast of China, and, of necessity, wait over again for a favourable season and state of weather. The other was that the captain and sailors were always, against our will and in spite of all our efforts to prevent them, offering abominable worship to an idol which they had with them on the poop, and consulting the devil from time to time, whether it would be advantageous or not to sail to Japan? They would also ask him whether we should be able to hold on our course with favourable weather? and as they told us, the result of the lots was at one time good, at another unfavourable.

When we had sailed three hundred miles, we put in to a certain island, and there made ready our rigging and equip­ment for the very severe storms of the Chinese sea. Thereupon our sailors offered many superstitious sacrifices to the idol, and

fell again to casting lots, asking the devil whether we should have good winds ? By chance the lot so fell as to promise us a very favourable wind, so that we were not to stay any longer where we were. So without delay we heaved up our anchor and set sail in high spirits; they relying on their idol, which they worshipped with great devotion, burning candles and sticks of aloe-wood on the poop; and we trusting in the God Who rules heaven and earth and sea, and in Jesus Christ His Son, for the sake of propagating Whose religion we were on our way to Japan. But while we were thus on our way, these pagans took it into their heads to ask the devil whether their ship would return safely to Malacca from Japan? The lots declared that she would reach Japan, but would not return to Malacca. Hereupon the pagans came to a stand, and at last made up their minds to give up for the present the voyage to Japan, to winter in China, and to put off going to Japan till the next year. What do you imagine we thought and felt during that part of the voyage, while the devil was being consulted by his own worshippers as to our voyage to Japan, and the captain of the ship managed the whole business just as the devil willed and chose ? Well, as we were sailing on slowly, on a single day and night, off a port in Cochin China, belonging to the Chinese,¹ two very serious things happened to us.

It was the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene about vesper time, and as the sea was swelling, and the water became rougher on account of the wind, the ship being anchored off a shoal, Em­manuel the Chinese, one of our companions, fell head foremost, as the vessel rolled, into the sink of the ship, which was open. We all thought he was killed, for he had fallen from a great height, and the sink was full of water. However, by the good­ness of God he escaped death. He stuck some time in the pump, with his head downwards, and up to his middle in water, and at last with great difficulty and exertion we got him out, badly wounded on the head. He lay a long time without coming to himself, but by God’s great mercy he was at length restored to health. Just as we had begun to attend to his cure, ¹ Probably Touron: Leon Pages, t. ii. p. 142.

there comes another roll of the ship, and the daughter of the captain was cast overboard into the sea. The violence of the storm was so great that our efforts to help her were all in vain, •and she sank in the waves in the sight of her father and of all of us, close to the ship. There was so much wailing and groaning all that day and the night which followed, that everything seemed -very mournful and miserable, whether from the grief of the bar­barians, or the danger in which we were. For the pagans turned .at once to appeasing their idol with sacrifices and ceremonies; they spent the whole day and night, without taking any rest, in killing birds and placing dishes before the idol. And when the captain asked why it was that his daughter had perished ? the lots told him that if our friend Emmanuel had been killed in the sink, his girl would not have come to harm. You see what great danger we were in, as our life depended on the answer given by the devil and on the will of his servants.

What would have become of us, if God had permitted that most bitter enemy of ours to deal with us according to his own desires ? For my part, when I saw such great and open insults offered to Christ our Lord by those abominable rites, and yet could in no way hinder them, I prayed many times to God, that before we were lost in that tempest, He would deliver those men whom He had created in His own image from their very great and impious errors, or, if He was to permit them to remain in these same errors, at least that He would allot very severe torments to the common enemy of man who was the author of all those superstitions, every time that he incited the captain to consult him by lots or to worship him as God.

On the same day on which these troubles happened and during the night which followed, it befell me, by the good gift of God, to feel and experience a great many things concerning the very .great frights which the devil, when by God’s permission he has the power given him, is wont to inflict upon timid men exposed .to danger, as well as concerning the means of defence which we ought to use in such a case and at such a time against the assaults of the enemy. It would not be at all useless for you to know them, but for brevity’s sake I pass them by. The sum of

it all, and the most certain safeguard, is this, to have the greatest I presence of mind and courage against the enemy, utterly dis-' trusting yourself, and entirely relying upon God, so as to have all your strength and all your hopes placed in Him, and by no means in the world to allow yourself to seem to fear or to doubt I of your victory, with a patron such as He is and One so great 1 for your defender. It very often came into my mind that if I God had really increased at my prayer the punishment and pain I of the devil, then it was very likely that the latter might vent I his rage and hate upon me, for he very often threatened me I and gave me to understand that the time was come when he 1 would avenge on me the increase of his pain.

But the devil can never hurt any one at all, except as far j as God Himself permits it: so that at such times we ought j much rather to fear having any distrust in God, than to fear the 1 assaults of our enemy. For God does permit our foe to harass I and vex those who are led by their own timidity not to trust in I their Creator, who do not seek for strength in Him, and do not I place their hopes on Him. This plague of timidity makes many I men who have begun to serve God lead a sad and anxious life, in that they bear the sweet yoke and cross of Christ and yet I do not advance bravely and constantly. Timidity causes us 1 this evil, a very great, a very fatal and mischievous evil—that having begun to lean only on your own weakness, when there is need for far greater strength and for resources such as God alone can give, your courage fails in difficult matters, so that you do not make good use of the help of Heaven, which in­vites you to have a good hope of victory. On the other hand, presumptuous men,—who are led by their selfconfidence to rely more than is right on their own strength, and who despise lesser conflicts with temptation, although they have never trained I themselves in these to victory,—these are even more weak , than timid men when great dangers and sorrows beset them. For their undertakings have turned out in a way so entirely contrary to their expectations that they lose all heart and are ! dejected in small matters as well as in great. So that they go into conflicts of this kind with so much repugnance and so I

much fear, as to run a great risk of their salvation, or at all events of losing all tranquillity. For they do not acknowledge their own weakness, and thus they consider the cross of Christ too heavy to be borne, and their life must of necessity be anxious and bitter.

For how can we expect it to be with us, dearest brothers, at our last moments, unless we have practised ourselves in having a good hope and in confidence in God during our lives? At that time we shall certainly find ourselves surrounded by far greater dangers, temptations, and sufferings both of mind and body than ever before. For this reason it is right that those who have a desire to serve God should take great pains in little matters, and lower themselves and empty themselves as much as possible, so that they may have an utter distrust of them­selves, and an immense trust in God, and thus they may become accustomed, when great dangers of life or death or great trials present themselves, to have great hope in the goodness and mercy of God. And this they will gain, if they conquer them­selves in things, however little they may be, to which they have an aversion, and if they devote themselves altogether to the study of Christian humility, and so are entirely free from self­confidence, while they raise up their hearts to placing the very highest confidence in God.

For in truth no man is really timid and weak who knowingly leans upon the assistance of God. However many may be the hindrances to perseverance and perfection of virtue which the enemy of us all may place in your path, yet after all you will run a far greater risk in great difficulties and troubles if you dis­trust the aid of God, than if you confront the perils which our deadly foe raises against you. Would that pious men, in the place of those fears and terrors which the devil uses in endea­vouring to deter them from the service of God, would substi­tute the fear they ought to feel of God their Creator in case they should chance to give up what they have begun for Him. Would that they would once for all make up their minds that it will be far worse for them to neglect the will of our Divine Master than to brave what is in truth the impotence of the devil! 0 good

God ! if they would do this, how full of sweetness would their life be, and what progress would they make in virtue, taught by their own experience the knowledge that of themselves they can do nothing, but on the other hand that they can do all things with God to help them ! And how, too, would our foe be broken down and perplexed, seeing himself conquered by those whom he more than once before had overcome !

But now to return to our voyage. As soon as the tempest had relented, we raised anchor and set sail, resuming with many tears the course which we had interrupted. In a few days we reached a port of China, called Canton, and then the sailors and the captain himself thought that they would winter there. We opposed their decision, partly by prayers, partly by threats that we should complain of their breach of faith to the Commandant at Malacca. So God in His goodness put it into their minds not to stay longer in the island of Canton, but to weigh anchor and sail for Tchin-tcheon. God was also so good as to give us a continually favourable wind, and in a few days we drew near to this second port on the Chinese coast, Tchin-tcheon. They were just about to enter the port with the intention of spend­ing the winter there, because the season for sailing to Japan was nearly past, when on a sudden a boat puts out to us in a great hurry, telling us that the harbour is invested by pirates, and that it will be all over with us if we come any nearer. This bit of news frightened the captain, who moreover saw that the brigantines of the pirates were not more than four miles distant from us; and so, to avoid that immediate danger, he determined to shun that port. But now the wind was adverse to a return to Canton and favourable to sailing to Japan, and so we held our course thither against the will of the captain, the sailors, and the devil himself. So by the guidance of God we came at last to this country, which we had so much longed for, on the very day of the Feast of our Blessed Lady’s Assumption 1549. We could not make another port, and so we put into Ca­goxima, which is the native place of Paul of the holy Faith. We were most kindly received there both by Paul’s relations and connections and also by the rest of the people of the place.

[Cagoxima, the port at which Francis Xavier and his com­panions landed, lies on an arm of the sea which deeply indents the coast of the southern and most westerly of the islands of which Japan is made up. It has not, unfortunately for its in­i habitants, escaped, like so many other of the cities of the country, the notice of the foreign visitors of Japan in our own time. It chanced that a relative of its ruler, the Prince of Satsouma, was the daimio who thought himself insulted by an English party in the streets of Yeddo in i860, and as in the fray that ensued an Englishman was murdered, the strange logic of international law made it appear necessary that Ca­goxima should be bombarded and set on fire some months after the accident. Its great distance from Meaco, the seat of the Dairi’s government, made it seem an unfortunate necessity for Francis Xavier to land there; but it is probable that the misfortune was in truth a great advantage. Certainly, as Francis informs us in his letter, the people and the prince alike received him at first very well. Paul of the holy Faith was welcomed by his family and friends; and when he proceeded, some days after his landing, to pay his respects to the local prince of Sat­souma, a few miles off, he was very graciously and kindly re­ceived. The prince particularly admired a Madonna with the Holy Infant, a picture which had been brought from India, and which Paul took with him to show at court. The prince’s mother was charmed with it, and desired to have a copy made for herself. Paul talked a great deal with them both of India, the power of the Portuguese, and the Christian religion, and the princess asked him to let her have the chief heads of his new faith in writing. From this time Paul was actively em­ployed either in translating the Creed and Catechism into Japanese, or in spreading the knowledge of the Christian re­ligion among his own family and friends, a very large number of whom he ultimately succeeded in converting.

Meanwhile, Francis was preparing himself for his arduous enterprise very quietly and intently; practising great humility, praying a great deal by day as w^rell as by night, offering up con­stant austerities to aid his prayers, and learning the elements

of the language with all the docility, and far more than the patience, of a child. He soon got to know the Commandments and Creed in Japanese, and was able to give a short explana­tion of both. Paul's help was invaluable to him. In this way six weeks passed on. When St. Michael’s Day came, Francis chose it for his first open advance, a visit to the Prince of Sat- souma. The Prince received him hononrably, and a few days later gave him leave to preach the Christian law, which he allowed any of his subjects to embrace if they chose.

The first step was thus gained; but the public preaching was not long to continue unmolested. Francis had, in the meanwhile, done his best to secure another advantage. He had visited and even cultivated the bonzes. They were the teachers of the people, held in extraordinary veneration among them notwithstanding the wellknown impurity of their lives, and if, as was hardly possible, they could have been gained over, or induced to remain tolerant of the new religion, the most powerful impediment to its spread would have been removed. The letter before us hints at the cause, or rather at some of the many causes, on account of which the influence of the bonzes was sure to be thrown into the scale against the Christian teaching. It was not only that their occupation would be gone if the people were converted, but their habitual practice of impurity of the most unnatural kind, which they were even ready openly to defend, and which by reason of their sanction passed as a thing not forbidden by the natural law, was certain to steel their hearts against the arguments and evidences ad­duced in support of the truth.

It must be remembered, in reading the statements in this and other passages of this letter of St. Francis Xavier in which he speaks of the bonzes, and generally of the religion of the Japanese, that his acquaintance with the details of the forms of falsehood against which he had to contend was necessarily im­perfect and superficial. The writers of the century following the time of his preaching tell us many details about the reli­gious state of the couutry of which he could hardly have been aware. He looked upon it from outside, as a foreign Catholic

looks, for example, upon the Protestantism of Great Britain or Germany, with no intimate knowledge even of the nomencla­ture of the various sects into which the heterogeneous mass is really divided, and much less with any idea of the immense variety of forms of opinion and practice which exist side by side in any Christian country which has renounced unity and thrown aside dogma and Catholic tradition. Such a man would see no difference between a Ritualist and a Plymouth brother, he would imagine that the influence of Oxford and Cambridge would be paramount in the Free Kirk of Scotland and among the Welsh Methodists, and might suppose the Wesleyan meet­ing houses which he might see by the roadside to be under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In reality, of course, no latitude of syncretism which prevails among Christians can be like that which, in a country like Japan, would mingle into a whole, the incoherence of which would not at once be detected from without, the old native paganism of the worship of the Kamis, with the more splendid, and in many respects less corrupt, superstitions of Buddhism, with the doctrine of Confucius, imported from China, and with the other elements of which the popular religion was made up. It is most pro­bable that the people themselves knew but little of the theo­retical and doctrinal differences between the various religions which invited their devotion and imposed on their credulity.

The reason for these remarks will be obvious to any one who has made himself acquainted with the accounts of the several religions of Japan given by the later authors already named. The description given by Francis Xavier of the old bonze called Ningh-sit with whom he had so much conversa­tion, as it seems, with Paul for his interpreter, would seem to point to a member of the Buddhist hierarchy. Yet this same old man is said to have been doubtful about the immortality of the soul; a statement which would naturally imply that he was an official of the Sintos, that is of the adherents of the older pa­ganism of the Kamis, which seems to have been the indigenous religion of the race. But there were originally no priests, properly so called, in the religion of the Kamis. The shrines were

attended by secular persons, who wore a particular dress when occupied in religious rites, and who held aloof from the common people at all times, as possessing themselves something of a sacred character. Thus what bore the appearance of a priest­hood was developed, even in the religion of the Kamis, though ’■the ‘ bonzes’ were properly Buddhist ecclesiastics. In the same way, the religion of the Kamis came to have, what it had not originally, its external pomp of worship, processions, litanies, offerings, and images supposed to be miraculous. The funda­mental idea of Buddhism required these things quite as little as that of the earlier of the Eastern religions. They grew up around it because they are, in reality, the expression of the natural instincts of humanity in presence of what it supposes to be divine truth and power. The monastic and religious system, again, is more congenial to Buddhism than to the Kami reli­gion : and yet we find among the latter both religious men and religious women, the Kanousis and the Bikunis. It is therefore hardly worth while to inquire whether the Ningh-sit mentioned in the letter before us were really a Buddhist ‘ bonze,’ or a Sintoist. In the former case, we should have to suppose what is so often found among the official adherents of a false and imper­fect religion, that is, that scepticism as to one of the fundamental doctrines of his own creed had invaded his mind. Indeed, it is remarkable all through the slight but very significant and interesting accounts which have come down to us of the dis­putes waged by Francis Xavier with the bonzes and learned men of Japan, that the question so often turned, not upon what may be called the more positive and distinctive parts of the Christian faith, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the like, but upon matters which touch the natural law, the doctrines of natural religion, the Providence and the justice of God.

After these general remarks on the false religions with which Francis Xavier was now confronted as the Apostle of Chris­tianity, we may continue the letter of which a part has already been given.]

(lxxix.) Continued.

We shall write to you about Japan just as far as we get ac­quainted with it, and what we ourselves have learnt. In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses- in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly dis­position, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above every­thing else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, re­ceive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich; nor can any noble, however poor and needy, be induced to con­tract marriage with even the richest plebeian. They think that by coming down to ally themselves with plebeians they lose a great deal of dignity and estimation, and thus it is that they despise riches in comparison with dignity. They have a great many observances of courtesy among themselves. They are very fond of arms and weapons, and rely upon them very much. The highest and lowest alike always wear their swords and' daggers—even boys of fourteen years of age. They never bear an insult either in word or deed.

The common people pay very great respect to the nobles, and these in their turn think it a great honour to themselves to wait on the Kings and Princes and obey their word. They seem to me to do this rather from their desire of honour than out of fear, lest by not behaving thus they should lose anything of their own dignity. They are sparing and frugal in eating, but not in drink. The wine they drink is made of rice, for here there is no other. They abhor dice and gaming as things highly disgraceful, because gamesters are greedy of other men’s goods, and their desire of gain leads them on to the desire of stealing. They seldom swear, but when they do, they swear

by the sun. Most of them can read, and this is a great help to them for the easy understanding of our usual prayers and the chief points of our holy religion. They have not more than one wife. There are few thieves among them, and this is on account of the severity of the punishments inflicted for theft, as all thieves are put to death. So there is no kind of theft which they do not hate in a remarkable degree. They are wonderfully inclined to all that is good and honest, and have an extreme eagerness to learn.

They listen with great avidity to discourse about God and Divine things, especially when they can well understand what you say. Of all nations I have ever seen I cannot remember -ever to have found any, either Christian or heathen, so averse to theft. They do not worship any gods under the form of beasts. Most of them venerate certain ancient men, who, as far as I have been able to ascertain, used to live after the fashion of the old philosophers; most of them worship the sun, some the moon. They listen willingly to things consonant to nature and reason; and although they are not themselves free from crimes and wicked practices, yet, if you show them that their sin is contrary to reason, they readily acknowledge its guilt and obey the law of reason.

I find the common secular people here less impure and more obedient to reason than their priests, whom they call bonzes. These men are so given up to the most abominable kind of lust as to make open profession of it. This plague is indeed so common to all here, men and women alike, that the mere custom of it has taken away all their hatred and horror of the crime. We often speak against this detestable form of wickedness, and when we show them how wicked and how hateful to God the people are who commit such great impuri­ties, we find that others listen to us with favour and are well disposed, but the bonzes themselves, when we admonish them to abstain from such filthy lusts, try to turn the edge of what we object to in them by laughter and jokes. However severely we reprehend them, they are utterly hardened to all shame, as if their turpitude had gone so far that they no longer feel it at all.

There is a sect of these bonzes who have a dress externally not very unlike our own monks. They wear a habit of an ashen colour, with their heads and beards always shaven—it seems as if they were shaven every third or fourth day. Their discipline and rule of life are very lax. There are communities of women of the same sect, with whom they live promiscuously ; so they have a bad name among the people, who do not ap­prove of their great intercourse with the women. They say that when these women find themselves with child, they use medi­cines to procure abortion. And, as far as I can judge from the community which is here, I do not think the people have too bad an opinion of them. These bonzes hate and are at variance with some others, who dress rather like the clergy among ourselves.⁵

⁵ The following passage from Kaempfer (.History of Japan ap. Pinker­ton, Voyages, &c., t. vii. p. 788) will perhaps explain this passage on the ‘ bonzes’ and religious women here spoken of:

‘ Multitudes of beggars crowd the roads to all parts of the empire, but particularly on the so much frequented Tokaido. ’ [The Tokaido, or royal road from Nagasaki to Yeddo, was made by the famous Taicosama, the persecutor of Christianity, many years after the time of Francis Xavier.] ‘ Among them are many lusty young fellows, who shave their heads. This custom of shaving the head hath been originally introduced by Sotoktais, a zealous propagator of the Fotoge, or doctrine of the foreign pagan wor­ship’ [by this, Kaempfer means Buddhism], ‘ and was kept up ever since. For being vigorously opposed in the propagation of his doctrine by one Moria, he commanded all that had embraced his worship to shave part of their heads, to be thereby distinguished from the adherents of Moria ; and he likewise ordered that their male children should have their whole head shaved, after the manner of their priests, and by virtue of this solely enjoy the privilege of begging.

¹ To this shaved begging tribe belongs a certain remarkable religious order of young girls called Bikuni, which is to say as much as nuns. They | live under the protection of the nunneries at Kamakura and Meaco, to whom they pay a certain sum a year, which they get by begging, as an acknowledgment of their authority. Some pay besides a sort of tribute or contribution to the Khumano temples at Isja. Their chief abode is in the neighbourhood of Khumano, from whence they are called Khumano no Bikuni, of the nuns of Khumano, for distinction’s sake from other religious nuns. They are, in my opinion, by much the handsomest girls we saw in Japan. The daughters of poor parents, if they be handsome and agreeable, iipply for and easily obtain this privilege of begging in the habit of nuns, knowing that beauty is one of the most persuasive inducements to travel­' lers to let them feel the effects of their generosity. The jammabos, or

There are two things here which altogether astonish me. One is, that the most abominable sins are thought nothing of —and this has come about by the fault of their ancestors, who were corrupted by this plague of impurity themselves, and have left to their posterity the example of such foul lust. And it is very true that the daily habit of vice of this kind quite depraves

begging mountain priests . . . frequently incorporate their own daughters into this religious order, and take their wives from among these bikunis.’ Kaempfer goes on to speak of the manners of these bikunis as not want­ing in external modesty, though he says that they are free with any tra­veller who encourages them, and that they are really neither poor nor vir­tuous. Then he goes on to speak of the ‘mountain priests.’ ‘They have their head, or general of their order, residing at Meaco, to whom they are obliged to pay a certain sum of money every year, and in return obtain from him a higher dignity, with some additional ornament whereby they are known among themselves. They commonly live in the neighbourhood of some famous Kami temple, and accost travellers in the name of the Kami which is worshipped there, making a short discourse of his holiness and miracles, with a loud coarse voice : meanwhile, to make the noise still louder, they rattle their long staffs, loaded at the upper end with iron rings, to take up the charity money which is given them; and last of all they blow a trumpet made of a large shell. ... In some places they accost travellers in company with a troop of Bikunis, and with their rattling, singing, trum­peting, chattering, and crying, make such a horrid frightful noise, as would make one mad or deaf.’

If modem travellers are to be trusted, the Japanese are no longer so truthful and so averse to cheating as Francis Xavier states them to be. But they may naturally feel on the defensive with foreigners who force themselves upon them, as has been the case of late years. The other state­ments in the text, as to the practice of abortion, and the rivalries and feuds between different religious communities, are abundantly confirmed by other writers. Taicosama (Fide-Yosi) interfered by force to put an end to the rivalries spoken of.

‘Each one of the thousand divinities of the Buddhist mythology,’ says M. Humbert, ‘ had made room for itself in Japan, and had its temples, its- statues, its monastic confraternities. Bonzes, religious men, nuns, abounded throughout the empire, principally in the centre and southern part of Nip­pon. Each convent vied with its neighbour in industrious arts to obtain the greatest following. But gradually the rivalry became so outrageous, that jealousy, bitterness, hatred, poisoned the mutual relations of certain powerful and ambitious orders. Invectives were followed by acts. The imperial police threw itself across the first encounters of tonsured heads; but it was soon unable to oppose a barrier to the torrent. Bands of furious monks, in frocks and cassocks, armed with sticks, pikes, and flails, rushed at night on the property of the confraternity which gave them umbrage, ravaging all that they came across, ill-treating, killing or dispersing the

human nature, just as continued carelessness and sloth in the practice of virtue gradually undermine all pursuit of perfec­tion of life. The other thing is, that though the bonzes lead more depraved lives than the rest, and though all know this, they are still held in so much honour by them. The bonzes have besides many other errors; but that I may not detain you about them, I may say that the more learned any one among them is, the more shamefully does he err.

I have often conversed with some of them who are more learned than the rest, and especially with the bonze who in this place is respected and honoured by all, both on account of his reputation for learning and high place in their priesthood, and also on account of his great age, for he is already eighty. He is a sort of bishop among them, and is called Ningh-sit, which in the Japanese language means ‘Heart of Truth.’ Happy man, if the name really fitted him ! I have had many talks with him, and have found him uncertain and doubtful whether our soul be immortal, or whether it perishes at the same time as the body; and he was not consistent with himself, at one time affirming this, and at another denying it. I am very much afraid that the rest of these men of letters are much like him. You would hardly believe how singularly fond he is of me ; and in­deed both the bonzes and all the others are delighted with our company. What they wonder at above all is that we have come the whole way from Portugal to Japan, a voyage of more than six thousand leagues, for no other purpose than to deal with them about divine things, to set forth the Christian faith, and show them in their errors the way of eternal salvation. They all declare that it must have been God Himself Who gave us this mind.

One thing which I very much wish you to know, in order

conventual victims of their attack, and retiring only after having set fire to the four comers of the “bonzery.” Sooner or later, however, the aggressors were assailed in their turn at unawares, and underwent the same treatment. Six times in the course of the twelfth century the monks of the convent on the Ye'isan burnt the ‘ bonzery’ of Djensjosi: twicc the monks of this latter reduced to cinders the convent of the Ye'isan,’ &c. &c. Japou IllustrS, t. i. p. 276.

VOL. II.

R

that you may give great thanks to God is, that this island is well fitted and prepared to receive the Gospel. If we all knew the language, I do not doubt but that a great many Japanese would become Christians. God grant that we may soon acquire it well! as we have already for some time begun to understand it. In these six weeks, by God’s favour, we have got so far that we already give explanations in Japanese of the Ten Command­ments. Now my chief reason for writing all this so fully to you is, that you may rejoice and give thanks to God our Lord, for that new regions are thus laid open, in which your own in­dustry may some day find a large field for exertion, and that you may in the mean while furnish yourselves with solid virtues and a great desire of suffering many things for Christ. And what I could wish to sink deep into your hearts and always re­main there is this, that a ready and entire will to practise humility and lowliness, a will by which you devote yourself and your life to the glory of God, is a sacrifice more pleasing and acceptable to Him than even a great number of very important services rendered without a will of that kind.

Do you therefore be ready, for perhaps in less than two years I shall write and summon many of you to Japan. In the mean while meditate upon and cultivate humility with all diligence; conquer yourselves in all those things from which our depraved nature shrinks; and make it your constant work by God’s grace to know yourselves thoroughly. Self-knowledge is the nurse of confidence in God, and the motive of Christian humility. It is from distrust of ourselves that confidence in God is born, true and genuine confidence. This will be the way for you to gain that true interior lowliness of mind, which in all places, and especially here, is far more necessary than you think. I warn you also not to let the good opinion which men have of you be too much of a pleasure to you, unless per­haps in order that you may be the more ashamed of yourselves on that account. It is that which leads people to neglect them­selves, and this negligence in many cases upsets as by a kind of trick all that lowliness of which I speak, and puts arrogance j_n its place. And thus so many do not see for a long time how

much they have lost, and gradually lose all care for piety .and all tranquillity of mind, and thus are always troubled and anxious, finding no comfort either from without or within them­selves.

I do therefore pray and beseech you to cast away all con­fidence in your own powers, in human wisdom and reputation, and keep all your hopes and thoughts continually fixed on God' alone. If you do this, then I shall consider that you are suffi­ciently armed and prepared against all the troubles which may beset you either in the mind or in body. For God lifts up and strengthens the humble, those especially who in the practice of even humble and abject offices keep their eyes, as on a mirror, on their own weakness, and conquer themselves nobly in such practices. These are the persons who in the greatest labours and sufferings will show virtue and constancy, and neither Satan and his ministers, nor the storms of the sea, nor savage and barbarous nations, nor anything else, will be able to separate them from the love of Christ.⁴

For they know for certain, from their confidence and hope in God, that nothing can ever have power to hurt them without His permission, that all things are ruled and governed by God’s decree and counsel; they are shielded by the guardianship of God, and there is nothing that they can fear, save this one thing alone, lest they may offend Him. If sometimes it be that by the permission of their heavenly Lord they are harassed and vexed by the devil or by men, or by anything else, then they feel sure that their virtue is being put to the proof, or their vices or faults are being punished and expiated, and that thus they are either gaining an increase of merit or of humility. And so they give God all due thanks for these great benefits, and, that they may not be wanting in gratitude to those who furnish them with matter for the exercise of virtue and for gaining reward, they pray with all their hearts to God for peace and pardon for them. Such as these I trust you, by God’s help, will become.

For my part, I know a man who, when he had got the habit of placing all his hope and confidence in God, even in the very

* Latin, 'Toterit cos scfararc a caritate Christ!. ’ Rom. viii. 39.

midst of dangers, was in a wonderful way laden with heavenly gifts, which it would be long to give an account of. And as we must suppose that the trials already passed are lighter than those which are to come upon us, I pray and adjure by Jesus Christ those who are hereafter to come to Japan, that they prepare themselves for the hardest things, and break down and tame their own desires, which are the hindrances to such great good. Take heed to yourselves, dearest brothers, for there are many now tormented in hell, who after having by their discourses opened the way to heavenly bliss to many, yet have themselves at last come to those eternal punishments, because they have been inflated by the false and deceitful idea of their own ex­cellence, and so have wanted this humility of heart. But there is no one at all in hell of the number of those, who, when afflicted by the sufferings of this life, have made it their business to fortify their souls with that interior humility of which I speak.

Always keep in mind that saying of our heavenly Master ‘ What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suf­fer loss of his own soul ?’⁵ Take heed lest you have any confid­ence in yourselves, and because you are older than others in the Society, therefore prefer yourselves to those who have come later. I should feel much greater joy of heart if (as I hope may be the case) I should hear that any elder one among ours was very often thinking within himself how little progress he had made, after spending so many years in the Society; how much time he has lost, not only in remaining still but even in going back—since in the way of perfection not to make progress is to recede.⁰ Those who dwell on such thoughts are sure to feel ashamed and to reproach themselves with their indolence and sinfulness, and so, roused up by the spirit rather of interior than of exterior humiliation, gain courage and strength to make up for their losses. And so they become examples to those with whom they live, both novices and the rest.

Come therefore,—practise yourselves, all of you, assiduously

⁵ Orig. Latin, Quid prodest homini si nniversttm mundum lucretur animcc vero sua detrimentum patiatnr V Matt. xvi. 29.

* Orig. Latin, In via pcrfcctionis non progredi rcgrcdi cst.

in these meditations, when you feel the desire of being con­spicuous soldiers in the armies of Christ our Lord. And believe me, that those who may come here will have their virtue well tried, and whatever extreme diligence you may have used in acquiring virtue of any kind, you will find none that you have not use for. I do not mean by all this to make out that it is difficult and arduous to serve God, for we know that His yoke is easy and sweet. For if you seek God in truth,⁷ and enter vigorously the path which leads to Him, you will certainly find so much delight proceed from His service, as will easily mitigate and soften whatever sharpness or bitterness there is in conquer­ing yourself. O good God ! men do not understand what great and pure pleasure they forfeit because they do not resist vigor­ously enough the assaults of the devil—a thing which deprives our poor weak hearts not only of acquaintance with all the goodness of God, but also of the consolations of this miserable life—especially when such a life, without any of the sweetness which comes from God, is continual death rather than life.

I fear that the devil should beset some of you, putting be­fore you certain very great and wonderful exploits which you may achieve for the service of God in other places and occu­pations. What would he do, I wonder, if he got you into a position more open to his assaults? All his plans have this aim, to make you solicitous and anxious, so as to be no good ■either to yourselves or to others among whom you work. And so he whispers to you : ‘ What are you doing ? Do you not see that in your attempts here you are spending your work in vain ?’ This is a thought which tempts most of those who have given themselves to the service of God, and I urgently pray you over and over again to resist it bravely and constantly, for in truth this evil is so pernicious to piety and perfection in virtue, that it makes us not only run slowly in the course which we have begun, but also proceed as far as we do with great trouble and anguish of mind. So let each one of you, wherever he may be, study to help first himself and then others in this, and let him make up his mind that he can nowhere do more service- ⁷ Orig. Latin, Si qiurras Datrn in veritate.

able work for God than in the place which has been assigned him by his Superiors. And at the same time trust, that when the fit time comes, God will put it into the minds of those who govern you to send you to that particular place above all others where your work will be most fruitful. In this way you will be happy and ready, and make great progress in virtue, and spend all your time well; and time is a thing the value of which is ^ ery great indeed—though many do not know it—since of all our idle time so accurate an account has to be given to God. But men who are anxious and uncertain in mind neither make any progress where they wish to be, because they are not there, nor, where they are, do they do good to themselves or others, because their thoughts are elsewhere.

I would have all of you that are living in the College of Santa Fe exercise yourselves long and much in the knowledge of your own weakness, and fully open your faults to men who can help you by counsel and other assistance, such as your confes­sors, and other men of experience in the community. The rea­son for this is, that when you are sent to these parts you may be able to take care of yourselves and of others, by means of the experience and knowledge which you have gained from those who guide your lives. You may assure yourselves that you will be attacked by new kinds of temptation when you are sent out in pairs or even singly, and find yourselves by sea or by land surrounded by danger from storms or from savage men, —dangers of which you have before never even thought. So that if there be any who have not much and for long practised themselves in taming the evil motions of their hearts and in making themselves acquainted with the snares of our most crafty enemy, I leave to their own judgments to consider how great the danger will be in which they will find themselves when they are confronting and attacking the world which lies all in darkness and iniquity.⁸ And who will be able to escape the assaults of the enemy except those who have made much way in humility ? • _%

There is also another anxiety which worries me, namely,

' Latin, Qiti tohts posit us cst in maliguo. i John v. 19.

lest the devil, transforming himself into an angel of light,⁹ should deceive some of you by his tricks, setting before your mind the great obligations to God under which you live, and all the miseries out of which He has delivered you by calling you into the Society of His Son, and so lead you into a .vain confidence and security, so that you ask to be sent out here before the time, reasoning with yourselves in this manner, that if already in so short a space of time God has bestowed on you at Goa so many great benefits, He will certainly give you many more and much greater when you are sent out hither for the conversion of the heathen. And when the devil has cast this thought into your minds, he may easily persuade you that you are doing nothing where you are. _

But this attack of the enemy may be repelled in two ways. First, if you consider that there are many wicked men who, if they were to wash off the filth, so to speak, of their former life, and were to be placed in that same school of virtue in which you are, would not only change their manner of living, but would also, to your very great shame, surpass you in virtue and diligence. I say this to put you in mind of what is the truth, that is, that the reason why you abstain from more serious faults is that where you are there are no occasions of offending God, and many of enjoying Him. Persons who do not know whence this very great blessing proceeds are apt to attribute it to their own virtue, and so neglect things that seem small while they are in themselves great, while the persons who despise them so foolishly are small indeed, and themselves worthy of all con­tempt. In the second place, you must take diligent care to refer all your desires and judgments to your Superiors, having perfect confidence that it will turn out that God will give them in His goodness that mind and purpose in governing you which will be more profitable to your true interests.

Moreover, take care never to ask anything of them with importunity. Some do this, and urge their Superiors so much that they extort from them what they desire, however hurtful it may be; and if it be denied them, they complain openly that

* Latin, Transfigurans se in angehim htcis.

their life is unpleasant and bitter. Poor men ! they do not understand that all that bitterness and trouble arise and are in­creased from this,—that after having once given and devoted their will to God, they neglect their vow, and endeavour to turn their will the other way and regain it for themselves. The more they try, to follow their own will, just so much in propor­tion is their life more anxious and their mind more disturbed. There are many of these men who are so much their own masters that they hardly ever obey their Superiors willingly— except when they are commanded to do what they themselves wish.

For God’s sake take care not to be of this class. In all matters at home, carry out with the greatest care what your Superiors put upon you to do, and by the help of God, avoid the suggestions of the devil, who tries to persuade you that you can gain more profit in some other office, that so you may not well discharge the business which is given you to manage. This is a kind of artifice with which he is wont to assail those who are employed in letters and education.

I implore you again and again, for the sake of Jesus Christ, endeavour in all humble and abject duties to win great victories over the devil. And in doing what you are set to do, take even much more pains to resist the temptations which belong to the duty, than in making great bodily exertion and labour to dis­charge what is ordered you. For there are some who satisfy their duty exteriorly, but not internally, because they take no pains at all to keep under the evil movements of the soul, and to get rid of the impediments to the discharge of the duty which the devil puts in the way in order to retard them in the way of virtue. These men generally lead a sad and anxious life, and make no progress in piety and virtue. Let no one deceive himself. No one can ever excel in great things who does not first excel in small.

There are a great many errors of a number of persons to be met with in this matter, but those who chiefly fall into such faults are men who, under the guise of piety and of the desire of converting souls, take measures to escape from the light

cross—for light it is—of obedience in order to take up another far heavier. Miserable men ! they do not consider that one who cannot bear a slight burthen will much less be able to bear a great one. Those who with but little virtue and little power of obedience are eager to undertake great things, as soon as they find themselves oppressed by the weight of these matters, condemn their own folly and cast off the burthen altogether. Even of those who will come from the College of Coimbra to India, I fear there may be some who, as soon as they see them­selves in danger in those terrible storms of the ocean, may wish themselves rather in the College than in the ship. So it is— there is a certain kind of pious fervour which waxes cold even in the voyage to India.

Again, others, if they have kept their ardour till they have arrived, yet, when they go about through the countries, of the heathen and begin to be oppressed by troubles in one place and to be exposed to danger in another, then, unless virtue has taken deep root in their hearts, they easily give way, and so at last that fire of zeal which they brought with them is extin­guished, and the same men who when in Portugal were all in love with India, now that they are in India feel a great longing for Portugal. The same thing may come over some of you who are accustomed to the blessings and conveniences of the College, and have conceived a great and ardent zeal and are very eager to be sent forth to become hunters of souls. When they are in the midst of this conflict which they had so much desired, and when their ardour has cooled down a little, per­haps it may be that they will not be able to live, for the wish they have to be in the College again. Do not you see, then, what is the final issue of these sudden and premature fruits of charity, and how dangerous great attempts are, unless our strength corresponds to them ?

I do not, however, say this in order to repress your noble impulses to piety, or to deter your ardent minds from difficult enterprizes, so that you may not show yourselves excellent workers in the propagation of the Christian religion, and leave to your successors illustrious examples of virtue and holiness.

I only say it in order that you may endeavour to be great even in small things, and learn clearly from your temptations and con­flicts with the devil what your own strength is, and then alto­gether place your entire hope, confidence, and security in God alone. If you do this with constancy and perseverance, I have no doubt that you will daily increase in submissiveness and in piety, and will by and by gather in a very large number of the heathen to the fold of Christ, and all this with great agreeable­ness and tranquillity of mind, in whatever part of the world it. may be that you have to work.

For it may well be expected that men who have learnt what are the troubles and diseases of their own minds, and who take great care to heal them, should also charitably attend to the wounds of others, and help them in their dangers even at the risk of their own life. For men who make it their study to find out and cure their own evil affections find no trouble in dis­covering and curing those of others. So also those who are- moved by the sufferings of Christ our Lord find it easy to move others to the same feelings. And I do not see how you can communicate any emotion to another, unless the same be first thoroughly impressed and burnt in upon yourself.

But now let me at last return to the narrative we began about affairs in Japan, from which we have been digressing. In the native place of Paul of the holy Faith, in whom we have found a true and genuine friend, the governor of the city, the chief citizens, and indeed the whole place, have received us very kindly. Everybody came with great wonderment to visit the new priests from Portugal. They are not displeased with Paul for having become a Christian, but rather respect him for it, and all his kindred and others who have any relationship to- him congratulate him on having gone to India, and having seen things which no others of his countrymen have ever seen. The Prince of this place was six leagues away from Cagoxima, and when Paul went to pay his respects to him, he was very glad of his return, and showed him much honjour, asking himself also a great many things about the manners, the power, and the re­sources of the Portuguese. When Paul told him all about

them, he seemed to be very highly delighted with what he heard.

Paul had taken with him a very fine picture of our Blessed Lady with the Child Jesus sitting in her lap, which we had brought from India. When the Prince saw the picture which Paul had brought he was quite struck with wonder; he at once i fell on his knees and venerated it in the most pious manner, and ordered all who were present to do the same. After this ¹ his mother saw it and gazed upon it, and was filled with won­derful admiration and delight, and a few days after when Paul had returned to Cagoxima, she sent a man—and a very good person he was—to see about getting a copy of it taken somehow or other. However, there were no means of doing the thing at Cagoxima, and so the matter went no further. The same lady sent us a request by the same hand, that we would give her in writing the chief points of the Christian religion. So Paul de­voted some days to this work, and wrote out in his own native language a great many things concerning Christian mysteries and laws.

You may take my word for it, and also give God great thanks, that a very wide field is here opened to you for your well roused piety to spend its energies in. If we knew the Japanese lan­guage, we should long ere this have been at work at this large uncultivated field with great fruit of souls. Paul indeed has diligently preached the Gospel day and night to some relations and friends, and has thus brought to the faith of Christ his wife and daughter, as well as many kinsmen and intimate friends. And, as far as things have gone as yet, those who become Christians do not find themselves commonly blamed for what they have done. As the Japanese for the most part know how to read, they soon learn our prayers by heart.

May God grant that in order to explain His divine truths we may master the language as soon as possible, for then at length we shall be able to do some good work for religion ! At present we are like so many dumb statues in the midst of the people. They talk about us and discuss us a good deal among themselves, and we are able to say nothing all the time, not

knowing their language. We are making ourselves children over again in learning the elements of it. Would that we may match the simplicity and candour of children ! At all events Ave are at present making ourselves like them, both in learning the tongue of the country and in meditating on their simplicity.

We owe indeed a great debt to God for this, for bringing us into these heathen countries, where we may forget ourselves altogether. Everything here being in the hands of heathen and of enemies to the true religion, we have no one but God to hope in, no one but Him to have recourse to for protection. At home in Europe, where the religion of our Lord Christ flourishes, it somehow or other happens that the people we have to deal with, and created things, such as the love of our parents, our country, our relations, the intercourse we have with our friends, the conveniences of life, the remedies against disease, and the like, are so many hindrances to our fixing and placing our whole and entire hopes on God alone. But here, where we are so far from our home, among barbarians, utterly destitute of all human defence and resources, it is a matter of necessity for us to rely only on our confidence in God. And the thought of the very great benefits thus conferred on us by God is a source of no common shame and self reproach to us.

For we almost see with our bodily eyes the goodness of God towards us. So that whereas, having come to these parts out of a desire to extend our divine religion, we thought that we were doing something worthy of reward from God, we now clearly see that it was indeed a very special blessing which God conferred on us that we came. He, by bringing us to Japan, has set us altogether free from that love of human things, which was a snare and net to us, so that we had not had much hope in God. I beg you to help me to give thanks to our Divine Lord for such great favours, that I may not fall into the fault of ingratitude; a fault which turns aside the flowing source of God’s bountiful goodness, and hinders him who has been un­grateful for lesser gifts from receiving others still greater.

And moreover w^re think we ought not to hide from you other blessings also which we find granted to us by God out

here, in order that you may join us in giving endless thanks' to God the Giver. In other places the food is plentiful, and thus it excites the appetites and fosters them, to the detriment of frugality and temperance. Hence there commonly follow many serious evils either to soul or body. Intemperate persons suffer, on the one hand, many things and painful things from their doctors, and, on the other hand, make their life a troublesome one or perhaps even bring it to its end. And when they are under treatment they find their medicines much more disagree­able than they have ever found their good meals pleasurable. The troubles caused by their medicines are followed perhaps by other sufferings which are very far more severe ; for they are often obliged to trust their very lives to the doctors, and these make a great many mistakes and apply a number of useless methods of cure before they hit upon what really heals the disease.

For this reason I consider it a great benefit God has done us, in bringing us to this place where we are, which is al­together destitute of delicacies, and where, however much we may wish, we can give our bodies no indulgences at all. People here never kill fowls or eat them. The common food is veget­ables and rice ; wheat, fish, apples, and other fruits are con­sidered luxuries. Thus it is that on account of their temper­ance most people here enjoy very good health: you see a great many old people about. This in itself is enough to prove that our nature, which otherwise might seem to be quite insatiable, is really contented with little. For ourselves, we are in excellent bodily health : may God give us the same health in our souls !

There is also another thing, which I am almost compelled to mention to you. God seems to be holding before our eyes a certain great blessing, and I wish you to help us by your prayers and sacrifices to obtain it from Him. There are a great number of bonzes in Japan, who are very much looked up to by the people, although their vices are very well known by all. The reason why they are held in so much honour seems to be their singular abstinence as to food, for their laws forbid them to take any flesh or fish, or wine, they live on vegetables, apples,.

and rice alone, and they take food only once a day. These bonzes, as I said, are numerous. Their monasteries have but small revenues, but on account of their great frugality, and also because those of them in particular who dress like our clerics, keep at a great distance from all familiarity with women, which is a great crime with them, and devote themselves rather with all diligence to the expounding of certain histories or rather fables of their superstitions, they receive great veneration from their countrymen. Now the Christian truth is opposed in the highest degree to their bad tenets and errors, and so there is a chance that as soon as we begin to preach the Gospel and re­fute the lies which they teach, we shall have them all attacking us with great hostility.

We have indeed only one thing in view, which is to bring the Japanese to the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ our Lord, and we trust that we shall accomplish this by the help of Him whom we serve. And it does not seem that we have any danger to fear from the people itself, unless perhaps it be roused against us by the bonzes. Not even with them shall we enter into any conflict rashly, but at the same time we shall not be wanting in what is due to the glory of God and the sal­vation of souls. We know well enough that they cannot hurt us unless God permit it. But if it should be so that we lay down our life in so pious and good a cause we shall certainly count that among God’s greatest benefits to us, and we shall be grateful to our enemies themselves, for bringing us to the end of this continual death which is now our life and to the entrance of that life which is blessed and eternal. We are de­termined not to desist from proclaiming the truth by any threats or terrors of theirs. If God bids us rather lose our own life than give up the salvation of their souls, we are determined to obey His command, with His own good assistance and supplied by Him with strength and courage, for the sake of drawing the Japanese out of all the darkness of their superstitions into the light of the Gospel. I have very great hope that the help of God will not be wanting to us in such a matter, since we en­tirely distrust our own strength, and have placed all our hopes

in the might and supreme power of Christ our Lord, and in the patronage of His most holy Mother, of all the Angels, and •especially of the Archangel Michael the Prince of the militant Church. We also place much hope in that Archangel under whose protection and guard the country of Japan is placed, and to him and to the other Angels, guardians of men, we daily com­mend ourselves and our undertaking, that they may not cease to implore God for the conversion and salvation of the Japan­ese who are under their care. Moreover we continually im­plore the aid of all the blessed in heaven, in this horrible danger and loss of souls, and we supplicate for the preservation of so many images of God, pleading the merits of all these pow­erful intercessors to their Creator. And we do not doubt that whatever fault we may commit by negligence or carelessness in this very supplication for the aid of the heavenly host, is made up for by those blessed allies of ours, who offer with the great­est eagerness and diligence to the most Holy Trinity these poor desires of ours to do what is pleasing to God.

The protection of so many and so mighty defenders en­courages us far more to hope for victory, than do the great and frequent snares and threats of the devil deter us from this conflict. We should certainly do the most foolish thing in the world, if we were to rely on our own power or wisdom. But God in His good Providence allows so many terrors, sorrows, and dangers to b'e put in our way by our enemy, that He may break down our spirit, give us lowly hearts, and train us to submissiveness of mind and humility, so that we may never in future feel any trust in our own prudence, but all entire trust in His Divine Protection. And in this He shows at once very clearly His own goodness and how much He remembers us, for He continually sends us internal teachings that we may learn how entirely nothing is what we can do in our own strength, suffering our minds often to be molested by small troubles and dangers, in order that we may never trust in our­selves, and so wait on the support and aid of our most loving Father. For if people undertake anything with self confidence, they often find trifling hindrances more troublesome and more

difficult to overcome, than even very great dangers and cala­mities prove to be to those who distrust themselves entirely, and have placed upon God all their reliance.

It is a great matter for our consolation that you should not be ignorant of any serious care or anxiety that besets us, so that you may help us either by your sacrifices or by your pray­ers. God knows our many and great faults, and we are very- fearful that the fair wind of His Divine help may never carry our endeavours to their desired end, unless there be some great improvement in our life and manners. For this purpose we must use the prayers of all the members of our Society and of all that love it, that by their means we may be presented to the universal Church the Spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we trust that she will communicate to us her innumerable merits and commend us to her Spouse and to our Father Jesus Christ, and to His most holy Mother. And so They in their turn will obtain of the Eternal Father, the Source and Author of all goods, that He may always keep us in the path of duty, and, overpowering our faults by His own infinite goodness, may continue ever to heap upon us His heavenly gifts. For in truth for His sake alone it is that we have come to this strange country—and of this He is my best witness, Who sees clearly all our minds and intentions—and from a desire of delivering the souls of men from the long established bondage of the devil, who aims at being worshipped as God on earth, since he could not attain to that in heaven, whence he has been cast down, and so vents his hatred upon men and among them upon these miserable Japanese.

But now we must give you an account of our stay at Ca­goxima. We put into that port because the wind was adverse to our sailing to Meaco, which is the largest city in Japan, and most famous as the residence of the King and the Princes. It is said that after four months are passed the favourable season for a voyage to Meaco will return, and then with the good help of God we shall sail thither. The distance from Cagoxima is three hundred leagues. We hear wonderful stories about the size of Meaco : they say that it consists of more than ninety

thousand dwellings. There is a very famous University there, as Avell as five chief colleges of students, and more than two hundred monasteries of bonzes, and of others who are like coenobites, called Legioxi, as well as of women of the same kind, Avho are called Hamacutis.

Besides this of Meaco, there are in Japan five other prin­cipal academies, at Coya, at Negu, at Fisso, and at Homia. These are situated round Meaco, with short distances between them, and each is frequented by about three thousand five hun­dred scholars. Besides these there is the Academy at Bandou, much the largest and most famous in all Japan, and at a great distance from Meaco. Bandou is a large territory, ruled by six minor princes, one of Avhom is more powerful than the others and is obeyed by them, being himself subject to the King of Japan, who is called the Great King of Meaco. The things that are given out as to the greatness and celebrity of these universities and cities are so Avonderful as to make us think of seeing them first with our own eyes and ascertaining the truth, and then when we have discovered and know how things really are, of writing an account of them to you.¹⁰

They say that there are several lesser academies besides

¹⁰ It is of course almost impossible to identify the names of the places, or of the orders of religious persons, as given in the versions of Francis Xavier’s letters. The ‘ academies’ which he names above may probably have been monasteries of bonzes of different sects, in which learning was especially cultivated. We have sometimes felt tempted to think that the long residence of Francis at Paris and the immense debt which he felt to the University there, made him ready to see universities everywhere. As to Japan, however, there seems no doubt that there were numerous seats of learning. Meaco itself was almost a city of ‘bonzeries,’ in many of which letters were highly cultivated. The names mentioned in the text may some day be recognized. It is curious that in the abridged copy of this letter sent to Coimbra, of which we shall speak hereafter, the name Frenojama is inserted in the list of ‘academies.’ Frenojama was certainly the name of a seat of learning, as it is mentioned as such in the speeches of the bonzes with whom Francis Xavier disputed before the King of Boungo (see chap. iii. of this book). Bandau or Bandou, which Francis seems to have thought to be a separate island, was the name of a tract of country in the more northern part of the large island of Nippon (the chief island of Japan), and seems to have included the neighbourhood ofYeddo itself. It is mentioned as conquered by the Cambacundono in 1589. Charlevoix, Hist, du Japon, t. i. p. 538.

VOL. II. S

those which we have mentioned. If we see that the minds of all these natives are fit and prepared for Evangelical cultiva­tion, perhaps we shall write to all the chief universities of Chris­tendom, to relieve ourselves of a certain religious scruple which we feel by casting it upon them, in that they might so very easily, with the power of all their virtue and learning, prevent such immense loss, and-bring numberless heathen to the know­ledge and worship of their Creator and their Saviour. We shall write to their members, as to our Superiors and parents, to look upon us as their younger brethren, and at the same time explain what joyful and abundant harvests of souls maybe reaped here by means of them. Therefore we shall ask them again and again, that if any of them cannot come hither themselves, at all events they may countenance those who may have devoted themselves in this way to the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and will find awaiting them here greater and more solid consolation of soul than at home. And if the matter shall be of sufficient importance to require it, we shall also not hesitate to inform the Holy Father himself concerning it, since those who are prepared to come to the worship of Christ, the bosom of the Church, and the obedience of the Supreme Pontiff, must be a part of the charge of him who is the Vicar of Christ, the Father of all nations, and the Pastor of all Christians. And we shall also diligently invite all the pious religious orders so dear to God, who are burning with the desire of extending the Christian kingdom, to come out at once and slake that heavenly thirst for souls which they feel in these islands of Japan, as well as in the country of China, which is far larger than this, and which it is said that it is easy to enter from hence without any fear of hurt from the natives, if you have the public guarantee of the King of Japan, whom we hope, if so it please God, to find well disposed towards us, and whose friendship also we hope to use for that purpose. For the King of Japan is a friend of the King of China, and on account of the friendship between them he is said to have with him a ring and seal, in order that he may give to his subjects who are going to China a public passport signed by the royal seal. It is said that a good many

Japanese ships sail to China, with a voyage of ten or twelve days. We are in great hopes that if God gives us only ten years of life, we shall see many great results produced, partly by those who may come out hither to us, partly by those here whom they may bring to the knowledge and practice of the true religion. Within the course of next year, the fiftieth of this century, we shall write to you more at full length concerning the state of things at Meaco and at the universities, as far as relates to Christian interests. This very year two bonzes, who have been educated in the Universities of Meaco and Bandou, and several other Japanese with them, are going to India to learn the mysteries of our religion.

On St. Michael’s day we had an interview with the Prince of Cagoxima. He received us very honourably, and advised us to keep with the greatest diligence the precepts of our Chris­tian law. If he come to see that it is true and good, the devil will burst with rage. A few days after, however, he gave leave to all who are in his dominions and under his power to em­brace the Christian religion if they will. These bits of good news I have wrapped up in the last sheet of my letter, that you may the more rejoice and give thanks to God. This winter we shall spend, I think, in explaining the articles of the Creed at considerable length in the Japanese language, with the inten­tion of having the explanation printed, so that as we cannot ourselves be present everywhere to help everybody, the Chris­tian religion may be spread in as many places as possible, as most of the Japanese are able to read what we shall print, and our good Paul will most faithfully render into his native lan­guage all that may seem necessary for salvation.

Now therefore that so large a field is laid open for your virtue to work in, it is time for you to prove to God and the inhabitants of heaven how strongly you are impelled to piety and devotion. To do this you must manifest the most thorough humility of mind in your life and exterior, and leave all care of your own reputation to God. He of His own accord will win for you esteem and authority among men, or if He does not do this, it will be for your sake that He does it not, because He

sees that there is danger lest you should attribute to yourselves what belongs to Him. There is one thought which is a great consolation to me—that I persuade myself that you always re­mark so many faults in your own souls for you to reprehend, that you have a great hatred for all arrogance, and that at the same time you have the highest desire for absolute and con­summate virtue, so as not to leave room for anything on account of which others may blame you. In this way you will come to look on the praise of men as a cross, inasmuch as it reminds you of your own faults.

But now I will at last make an end of my letter, although indeed there could never be an end of my showing you how much I regard you, all and each. If the hearts of those who love one another with the love of God could be seen, then, dear brethren, you would certainly see your own images im­printed on my heart. And indeed, perhaps, if you were to use it as a mirror you would not be able to recognize yourselves therein, because I have a very high respect for your virtue, and you, on the other hand, have a great contempt for your own weakness, and on account of your remarkable humility you would never recognize yourselves in my heart, although there would be yotir images imprinted thereon for you to see. I beseech you, brethren, regard one another with true and genu­ine love, and never let any feeling of offence spring up among you at any time; turn with all diligence those noble desires, which you feel of working and suffering for Christ, to the study of mutual love and to the removal of all offence if any should chance to arise. You know well that divine saying of Christ our Lord, ‘ In this shall men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.’¹⁰

. May our Lord Christ show what His holy Will is, and give us out of His great goodness strength perfectly to accomplish it! Yours wholly in Christ,

Cagoxima, Nov. u, 1549. FRANCIS.

¹⁰ Latin, In hoc cognoscent omncs quod discipnli inei cstis, si dilcctionem habucritis inter vos. St. John, xiii. 35.

We are not told by what means this letter with the others which follow was dispatched to India: but we know that Portu­guese ships were frequenting the Japanese ports, especially one or two at no great distance from Cagoxima, and we may con­clude that the Domenico Diaz, mentioned in the letter below to Don Pedro de Silva, was either the captain of one of these vessels or a Portuguese who had accompanied Francis in this or another voyage, and who was leaving Japan by one of these ships. Up to the time at which the letters were written, all had gone on fairly as to the propagation of the Gospel in Japan: though we can see that Francis was anticipating opposition, and even persecution which might imperil his life and that of his companions. We need not therefore speak of the change of affairs at Cagoxima till we come to the next chapter. The letter which has last been inserted was accompanied by a long despatch, in most respects a duplicate of that of which we are speaking, to the Society at Coimbra.¹¹ This duplicate, however, leaves out the part of the letter more particularly intended for the members of the Society in India, all of whom it would al­most seem as if Francis thought of transplanting indue time to Japan. Francis also sent the following formal letter, ordering three of the Indian subjects to join him as soon as possible, though it could not be in less than a year and a half or two years. Gaspar Baertz and Balthasar Gago are already known to us. The third, Diego Carvalhez, is a new name, nor does the register kept at Coimbra of the fathers and brothers dis­patched from Portugal to the Indies tell us anything about him. It is probable that the omission of his name is to be accounted for by the fact that he was a Spaniard, and was not sent to India from Coimbra. At least there was a Diego Carvalhez who entered the Society at Alcala in x547. He had belonged to the household of Pedro Ortiz, of whom mention has already been made,¹² and who befriended the Society in its first years in Spain. Pedro had taken into his own house near Alcala a number of students of the Society who had fallen dangerously ill, and more than one of his household had sought admission

¹¹ See the Notes to this book. ¹² Vol. i. p. 45, 49.

into it in consequence of the edification which they had re­ceived from its members when on their sickbeds. Diego, who entered in 1547, seems to have been sent out to India before lie was ordained priest, as we find Francis arranging for his ordination before he was sent to Japan.¹²

(lxxx.) To the Fathers Gaspar Baertz, Balthasar Gago, and Diego Carvalhez.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

As I find that where I am in these kingdoms of Japan things are well disposed for a very considerable advancement of our holy Faith, and as my memory recalls to me that you have long been animated by burning desires to promote the glory of God by helping your neighbours to find salvation for their souls—I have come to conceive the confident hope from this knowledge which I have of you, that by the help of our Lord God you will not be wanting in virtue and interior humility, by the aid and protection of which you may be able to accomplish what you desire, and at last arrive at the fulfilment of what you have so long prayed for. I command you therefore, in virtue of holy obedience, in order that you may have the greater merit, that unless any one of you be hindered by his state of health, you, Master Gaspar, Balthasar Gago, and Diego Carvalhez,. come to Japan, to the city of Meaco, whither I am soon to go, and where I hope to meet you. And you, Balthasar Gago and Diego Carvalhez, all through the journey are to obey Master Gaspar, in whose prudence and humility I trust and confide that he will discharge the office of Superior with the attention and diligence which are meet. And as I am perfectly certain that as soon as you see this letter you will come hither with­out any delay, your piety, of which I have seen so many proofs_r so persuading me, and the perfect mind in which you are as to readiness to obey, even with danger of death, for the

¹² lie is said by Leon Pages to have died soon after the letter sum* moning him to Japan arrived. See Orlandini, Hist. Soc. Jesu, vii. 49.

love of Him Who first was made obedient for us even unto death; therefore I shall add nothing to what I have already- said as to you and your journey hither, hoping that God will bring you on your way and that I shall soon see you here safe and sound. Written with his own hand, by your most loving brother in Christ,

Cagoxima, Nov. n, 1549. FRANCIS.

The next letter, also sent at the same time, shows that his labours in Japan did not make Francis unmindful of the wants of India.

(lxxxi.) To the Society at Goa.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Amen.

If you have me so much in remembrance as I have you, we shall both find it easier to bear the longing we feel to see one another in the body, as we are nearly always present to one another in the mind. I commend to you, as urgently as I pos­sibly can, the garrisons of the Portuguese throughout India, which are without priests of ours. I do this on account of the extreme benefit and obligations conferred on all of us who are in India by the King of Portugal. If the preachers of the So­ciety from Lisbon have arrived at Goa, you will provide for these garrisons by their means ; if it is not so, then you will sup­ply them with others of the Society who by their virtue and humility may help the Portuguese, hearing confessions, holding discourses, training children and servants in Christian piety, rousing others to a good life by means of pious meditations, and discharging the other offices of our Society. Indeed good men are always preaching to the bad by the example of their life, and in this way they often do more good than others who preach in the pulpit—for there is far more power to move men in deeds than in words.

If you have in the College at Goa persons of our Society who are fit to teach the Christian doctrine to the young in all the churches in the city, I think you should send them at the

accustomed hours, so as to teach the Catechism every day, and on Sundays and Festivals to add an exhortation apposite to the part of the Catechism which has been explained, and at the same time to tell some of the remarkable doings of some Saint. The Rector of the College should do the same in the largest church of the town. If there are besides in the house other preachers who are fit to teach the children the rudiments of Christian doctrine, I shall be very much pleased if they so teach them, and if by the fragrance and example of their vir­tues they rouse others to the pursuit of piety. But let all use the common vernacular as spoken among the Portuguese, and which the native Christians and slaves generally use. This is also what I used to do when I was at Goa—for that kind of speech flows more easily into the ears and minds of the audi­ence. And let me know from time to time what is being done in this respect.

I most earnestly exhort you to attend first of all to your­selves. That is the principal thing. ‘For he who is bad to himself, to whom is he good ?’¹² How can any one take care of others who neglects himself? How will any one be atten­tive and diligent in other persons’ concerns, who is careless as to his own ? As for the pupils of the College, take care that the larger number of them be Japanese or Chinese; teach them good manners and to read and write; practise them particu­larly in Portuguese, that they may serve as interpreters here, where they will be of great use. I really think that there is no part of the world where greater fruits of souls can be gathered than in Japan and China. Two Japanese bonzes, who have given up their sacrilegious priesthood and have been converted to Christianity, will arrive at the College at Goa this year. Take care to treat them courteously and kindly, just as I used to treat Paul of the holy Faith, the Japanese, when I was with you. The character of the Japanese is such that no­thing in the world can bend or guide them, except kindness and benevolence. You will send me the three Fathers I have demanded. The letter about interior dispositions of mind, which

¹³ Latin, Qui enim sibi tiequam est, cni bonus erit ?

I have placed in the same packet with this, I should like to have sent round to the other houses of the Society in India and read aloud there. May Christ our Lord in His goodness and mercy unite us all in His eternal joys ! Amen.

Cagoxima, Nov. 5, 1549. FRANCIS.

The next letter is very characteristic of its writer. We have already seen how far Francis Xavier was from putting full •confidence in Antonio Gomez, whom he had yet felt almost obliged to leave in a post of so much power and responsibility as that of Rector of the College at Goa. It may at first, sight seem strange that he should address him as the Superior who had the management of the Fathers in India, and was to be looked to to carry out the orders as to the dispatch of some of these to Japan, given in the foregoing letter. As a matter of fact, Antonio Gomez was already upsetting the College of Santa Fe, and had almost entirely set aside the authority of the good and simple Father Paul. The proper place to speak of all that had passed at Goa will be when we come to the return of Fran­cis Xavier from Japan; but the letter on which we are now occupied needs for its full illustration some such knowledge of the character of the person to whom it is written as is contained in this simple statement of fact. Francis probably thought it best to address his letter to Antonio, adding the saving clause that it was also for Father Paul,—who was, after all, to give the final command which was to dispatch the missionaries to Japan, —both on account of the fact already mentioned, that Antonio was a Portuguese, and was looked upon as a representative of Simon Rodriguez, and also because he thus secured the exe­cution of his own orders more certainly than if the letter had been addressed to Paul alone. But we cannot read it at all care­fully without seeing that Francis measured Antonio with perfect sagacity. Cosmo Torres was wishing for him in Japan at once —perhaps Antonio might have been ambitious of so glorious a field of labour for himself. His faults were not want of energy or of self devotion, but of judgment, of humility, of charity, and .gentleness in dealing with men. His character would have been

a noble one, and capable of the greatest services, if he could have given up his own ideas and his own ways : in short, if he could have schooled his heart and soul in those lessons of hu­mility, self distrust, and obedience on which Francis insisted so much in his instructions to the missionaries. Francis would have him Avait, ripen, attend first to his own perfection, and thus become a fit instrument of the glory of God. His letter is full of charity, and at the same time not Avithout its note of sternness, especially in the passage in Avhich he AA'arns Antonio against disobedience.

One of its chief purposes, hoAvever, is connected Avith a dif­ferent subject. He is most anxious to secure a ready means of conveyance for the successive bands of missionaries AA'hom his ardent soul already saAv on their Avay over the dangerous seas Avhich lay between India and Cagoxima. He has an expedient ready at hand for this object, and so he has carefully made a list of the sorts of merchandize the sale of which Avas sure to be profitable in Japan, and Gomez is to flaunt this list in the eyes of the governor and of the officials of the revenue, in order to get them to take the necessary steps for establishing, as A\^re should now say, commercial relations between the Portuguese crown and the empire of Japan, a step Avhich would lead to- a considerable enrichment of the royal treasury and, no doubt, to large gains on the part of the officials themselves. If the arrangements which he proposes can be carried out, there Avill be a ‘ royal ship’ sent every year from Goa to Osaka, the port o£ Meaco, the Venice of Japan, as it has often been called. But if this cannot be, at least the governor may give the commis­sion of opening the Japanese trade, Avith a monopoly of the mar­ket, to one of his own friends, who Avill be quite ready, in view of the large return held out to his hopes, to equip a ship at his- own expense, in which case, as Francis puts it, there Avill be no fear of a rotten or unseaworthy vessel being sent. We shall, find that the subject is again broached in the next letter, to Don Pedro de Silva, the ‘ Capitan’ of Malacca. The careful pre­cautions on which Francis insists in order to prevent the ships Avhich may be dispatched to Japan from turning aside to the

nearer ports on the Chinese coast, may remind us of the dan­ger which he had himself undergone of losing many months on his voyage to Japan by the same sort of lingering.

(lxxxii.) To Father Antonio Gomez, of the Society of fes us.

May the grace and love of Christ our Lord be always with us to help and favour us ! Amen.

As the letter which I wrote the day before yesterday (com­mon to all of you of the Society of Jesus who are living at Goa) is so long and deals so much in detail with everything, there is hardly anything left for me to write to you in particu­lar except this one: that you are continually present to our mind and memory. Nor does my heart ever cease from ar­dently wishing for your soul more grace and spiritual progress than perhaps you desire for yourself. I should wish indeed that you should take care of all our brethren scattered over India, whom I have committed to your charge ; but be sure that above all others I recommend to you yourself, and that I have no greater desire, and consider nothing to be of greater importance, than that you should apply all your efforts to be always advancing and urging on to better things your own soul. And if I came to know that in this business you relaxed even the least point from the extreme of vigilance, I should not think you by any means fit to have committed to you the salvation of others, or indeed any affair at all of serious import­ance. But if, as I rather inclinc to think and as 1 pray God that He may grant, you are strenuously and vigorously con­tinuing to press on with relentless speed to the great end ever kept before your mind, of bringing about the greater glory of God by your own perfection, getting rid of all obstacles what­soever, and if I come to know this for certain, then I should by no means be without hope that the time may come when 1 may call you out hither, to send you to Meaco or Bandou, that is into the very strongholds and headquarters of the supersti­

tions of Japan, where you may find abundant means to fulfil the holy desires which you have conceived.

Be careful not to omit to write to me fully and at good length about all our brethren who live scattered about India, as well as those who are in Portugal and at Rome, telling me what each one is doing, and with what fruitfulness they are labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. I have great hopes of much fruit to my soul and of exceeding consolation in reading these letters of yours, and I pray you not to cheat me of this, and not to spare either paper or pains in doing it: especially as I, who, as you well know, have no great abundance of leisure at my disposal, have taken the trouble to inform you in a letter so lengthy as that which I made up yesterday of all that I think can be pleasant or useful for you to know. So I expect and request that you on your part will repay my diligence gratefully and in kind. I wish you to be careful and sedulous in arranging that the Fathers whom I send for from Goa to Japan should get themselves free at once, laying everything aside, and be ready at the appointed time. I wish you also to use in urging this matter the authority over such concerns which I have conferred upon you. You know the way of doing this efficaciously as well as kindly, adapting yourself to the capacity and character of each person.

Father Cosmo Torres, who is very fond of you, is writing to you, and in the vehemence of his affection for you is desiring for you a great many things, which I fear are not quite good for you just at present. No, let what is at present unripe come to maturity, and let us wait for the opportune moment, which will arrive in due time. Meanwhile, be assured of this, that I intend you for greater and nobler things than either you or this good Father who is so devoted to you desires. It will hardly fail to come about, that before three years are over you will have letters from me calling you out hither to go to one of the most famous universities of these kingdoms, where perhaps you will enjoy far greater showers of Divine consolations than you imagine, and will gather a very much more copious harvest of souls than any that you reap, however large it may be, from

your labours in cultivating the Indian mission. But about this at another time. What is now urgent is this. I was fearing that perhaps some rather tender affection might steal over you towards some one of those of the Society whom I am calling out hither, and so, under some specious pretext or other, you might think it lawful to make an exception and keep such a one with you, substituting another in his place. Now I tell you again and again, beware of attempting anything of the kind. Be quite sure that if, which God forbid, you were to do such a thing, you would grievously sin against your particular duty in a matter of the greatest importance, against the explicit com­mand of your Superior, and would become guilty of a fault which God would punish by no means lightly. For your own sake, as well as on other accounts, I desire to prevent this; and so I order you, in virtue of holy obedience, to send off at once every single one and all of those to whom I am writing by name and summoning them hither, leaving out no one and changing no one on any pretext whatever, and to take care that they may be ready for the voyage when the time comes for the ships which are bound for these parts to set sail. By the ships which sail from Goa for Ormuz—usually not before March—send thither a copy of my longer letter written on the day before yesterday, and at the same time the letter which I am writing to Master Gaspar in particular, bidding him come to us as soon as possible, so that he may have it early, and may be able to get himself ready to come out hither in good time before the April of the next year, availing himself of the vessels which usually sail to the East about that month. For we ourselves left Goa for our voyage hither in that same month of April.

If it should happen that any one of those whom I send for should die, then arrange about substituting another for him with Father Paul. And when you have both agreed in approv­ing of some one for this purpose, then order him on my part in virtue of holy obedience to come out with the others. For I think it good to lay this precept of taking the voyage, by virtue of the authority which I possess, on each of them, that they may not lose the reward of obedience. It seems to me

expedient that they should bring with them two lay helpers, or at least one. These lay brothers, besides being industrious and hardworking men for the duties of domestic service, however humble they may be, must also be men of tried virtue, as to whom we may be safely confident that they will be secure from ! falling into sin, whatever occasions may present themselves. This is so important a matter that I repeat my commands. You must choose, I say, for this work men whose constancy | in good has been perfectly proved by trial; men whose inno­cence maybe safely exposed even to the most attractive seduc­tions of temptation, for such are very abundant in this country, which presents so many most dangerous snares and pitfalls as to be in truth the ruin of those who do not walk cautiously,! and who are deficient either in attention so as to avoid, or in •courage so as to break through, the nets to catch souls which are most insidiously set on every side.

While these Fathers are making their preparations for de­parture, I should like you at full leisure to deal with the Go-■ vernor and get him to write a letter to the King of Japan, adding also some presents, to be given to him together with the letter. This will have much weight in recommending the preaching of the Gospel to these nations. When besides its innate power from above it is assisted by these external vouch-j •ers also, I have good reason to hope for it very great success,! so much that I believe that in a short time a flourishing Church, of Christ will be formed in Japan by the conversion of very) large numbers. Moreover, as we must win everyone by his¹ own bait, and as people who are accustomed to calculations of temporal profits are not so much moved by what is shown them as to spiritual gains, you must take care diligently to ex­plain to the guardians of the royal revenue at Goa, that they have now a very uncommon opportunity of opening a new source of income from Japan which will be of great advantage -and value to his Highness. It would be easy to obtain per­mission for a house in the maritime city of Osaka, the chief emporium of all Japan, to be publicly assigned to the officials of the King of Portugal, as well as storehouses for European

goods. These could be exchanged at a high profit for silver and gold of the best quality, large quantities of which are brought to Osaka from the mines of the country, which are very productive; a factory and exchange would be set up, all to the great benefit of the royal revenue of Portugal. Un less this hope be set before them, I am very much afraid—and I should like much that my suspicion should turn out vain and false—that the people who manage the King’s interests at Goa will not easily be induced to send a large vessel to Japan in his Highness’s name, for the single and simple purpose of con­veying preachers of the Gospel to that country. We shall be very glad indeed that Christ should be made known, even though it be as it were by a bye blow. We shall consider it a gain, if the Kingdom of Heaven be taken account for even as a sort of appendix to a search for wealth of this world, the minis­ters of religion who are necessary for the salvation of souls being safely conveyed to a spot where a ripe harvest invites them, on a ship principally destined to establish the relations of human commerce. If however, on account, perhaps, of the present state of India, affairs should not be yet far enough ad­vanced for the sending of an ambassador and a ship in the name of the King or of the Governor, he might still do a great favour to sonic one of his own kinsmen or acquaintance by granting him leave to make the embassy on his own account with the monopoly of trade with Japan, which would be of im­mense profit Unless I am mistaken, such a person would very willingly fit out at his private expense a good merchant vessel for this voyage, as he might look with great probability, indeed with a sort of certainty, for very large gain from such a ven­ture.

You can tell well enough what rich merchants there now are at Goa, and what is the fortune and the ambition of each of them. Get some one of them, and that you may tempt his palate with a foretaste of the gains to be gathered in Japan— which happen now to be so serviceable to religion—set before him, and indeed before any of them whom you think it may be of use thus to tempt, the catalogue which I send herewith of

the goods which could be at once sold here for a great price, of which there is abundance in India. The thing to be done would be to put a large quantity of these goods on board a ship to be dispatched hither, and if the owner were unwilling to run the risk himself, he might give the command to another, whom he could trust as his agent; and we will exert ourselves to the utmost to help on the rapid sale of the merchandize thus sent, and, from the knowledge we have at present, we are able to promise that great profit is open to any one who would under­take the speculation. Well, if you set all these things properly before the right people, there is sure to be some one roused by the promise of money to be so gained, so as to be ready to make any agreement that may be insisted on as the price of such expectations. Then there will be no danger lest an un­seaworthy ship should be chosen. They will take care that the vessel to which they mean to commit so large a part of their property be the best furnished that can be found, and they will spare no pains and no expense. Thus we shall gain on our side, that is, the preachers of the Gospel will be taken on board the same vessel, and be sent where there is so much need of them with the greatest possible security.

You have now my ideas as to the way of procuring a con­venient passage for our brethren from your parts to these islands. As to this, I will add a bit of advice gathered from our own ex­perience. Any one who wants to reach this safely and quickly, must sail from Goa in April and from Malacca in June. So you must take care that the ship which is to come here have all its freight and plenty of provisions on board, and leave Goa and Malacca at the dates I have mentioned, nor let its commanders let themselves be induced, by any consideration whatsoever, to turn aside from their course on the way to any port of China, under any pretext at all either of a profitable market for their goods or of taking in supplies, which they must be abundantly furnished with from other sources. Don’t let them even disem­bark on any of the islands which lie in their course for the sake of trading, except indeed under urgent necessity of watering, which must be done with the greatest haste and expedition. Let

them be assured, let them trust our experience, that any one who wants to avoid the most serious danger ought to sail on a straight course, and without stopping anywhere at all, from Malacca to Japan; and any one who does otherwise will run a good chance not only of a most prejudicial and tedious delay, but of incurring danger to life. And as to the amount of time which he will lose, to speak of nothing else, you can guess from a comparison of the result of taking the two courses respec­tively. The direct course from Goa to Japan, when the ship sails with the utmost slowness, takes four months and a half. If you turn aside to China, your ship will hardly reach Japan within seventeen months after it has left Malacca.

And as I know how much power avarice has over the minds of merchants, when it sets before them the attraction of a good prospect ready at hand, to make them disregard all promises and adopt sudden resolutions, I should think it worth while to scheme a little so as to take away the material cause for any trafficking in Chinese ports, and that you should take care that the vessel does not carry more pepper than what the merchants know can be well got rid of in the Japanese trade. If they are aware that they have on board so large a quantity of that staple that they can afford to get rid of their superabundance in the Chinese ports, and still have plenty to sell to the Japanese, then it will be hardly possible to restrain them, when they are so near the marts of China, from following the dictates of their own avarice and interrupting their course, however much the season may be against such a measure, however much the sailors may exclaim. So, when the ship which is to bring out the Fathers is being laden, you should get from the proper au­thorities an order that not more than eighty bags of pepper be put on board. That is about the quantity which can be quickly sold at Osaka at a very high profit.

There is also another precaution which I should like to be taken in order so much the more efficaciously to restrain the avidity of the merchant captains. Ask his Excellency the Go­vernor, who will make no difficulty to granting you such a favour, to order an express clause to be added to the rescript in which

VOL.' II. t

he commits to the commander of the vessel which is to come hither the charge of taking out our Fathers to Japan, in which it may be stated that he expressly forbids him to land at any port in China for the sake of trafficking. For as the last moment of favourable weather for those who wish to reach Japan from China is fixed at the first of August, so that unless on that day they sail with the regular winds, which blow for about a month after that, the people acquainted with nautical matters say that there is no hope of getting to Japan that year, it is manifest that merchants sailing from Malacca near the end of June will not be ready for the voyage across to Japan at the beginning of August if they entangle themselves in business in the Chinese ports, which would imply a delay which would lose them the opportunity of the run to Japan, and force them to wait again, till the next year comes round, for what they called the mon­soon, that is, wind and weather favourable for the voyage across, which will not recur till that stated time. And as this would be a severe injury to the preaching of the Gospel, which is above all other things dear to the King, the Governor could give full notice that if any one does this he will incur the penalty inflicted on those who knowingly oppose the King’s command, since he has only received the commission to convey the Fathers to Japan under the expressly stipulated condition of sailing thither straight without turning aside, otherwise the King wouldJiave intended them to be intrusted to another ship and another captain.

Send to the Fathers who are at Cape Comorin a written copy of the long letter which I wrote to you on the third of this month. As soon as we have any certain hope from Meaco, I will at once write to you fully, as also to our brethren at Coim­bra, and our Fathers at Rome. If Diego Carvalhez has not as yet been ordained priest, you must ask his lordship the Bishop to ordain him. Manage to make Ruiz Gonzalez your friend, and show him all possible kindness, for it is of importance to us to have his goodwill, since the Comorin Christians are under his charge, so that the Fathers of our Society who are looking after the religious affairs of the Promontory are daily in need

of his favour in many ways. I want to hear from you about Melchior Gonzalez, about the College at Bazain, the Francis­cans who before held it, whether any friars of that Order have lately come from Portugal, whether the College which has oncc been given up to our Society is still governed by ours, and whether it is expected that it will be so perpetually. So take care to inform me fully about all these things in your first letter. Tell me also about Father Niccolo, what fruit follows from his labours at Coulan, and whether he diligently presses on the affair which I so earnestly commended to him as a thing so highly necessary for teaching the children of the Comorin Chris­tians to read and write, and for the help of our Fathers who are sent to those parts. I again and again beg of you never to fail to help those Fathers as to anything that they are in need of; rather be yourself on the watch for them, anticipate their requests and even their desires, on all occasions making application to the Governor and the Treasurer, so that all that is necessary may be supplied them, and even, when there is urgent need, and no more ready way of assisting them presents itself, pro­viding for them in the mean time out of the home funds of the College. I desire also to hear from your letters whether the preachers of our Society who are expected from Portugal have yet arrived at Goa, how many they are, and with what gifts each of them is endowed. When they are distributed, you must con­sider before all other places the city of Cochin, for I know how much it is in need of the work of a good preacher. All these things that I write to you are to be considered as written to Father Paul also, to whom you will communicate them, and to whom it will belong to assign to the preachers the places to which they arc to be sent, and to send them thither by his authority.

Two Japanese bonzes are going to India from hence, who have been brought up in the Universities of Meaco and Bandou. Take care to be attentive to them in all things, with every mark of goodwill. The Japanese character is won by love and kind­ness. Take care by all ways in your power to be in very good favour with his lordship the Bishop and also with his Vicar,

showing them the highest love mingled with great veneration, serving them at a nod, and obeying them in all things. They are our superiors, and whatever we have to settle with them will be arranged incomparably more quickly and easily by obedience and humility. I beg of you again not to omit any particle of extreme diligence in dispatching to this country at the appointed time the Fathers whom I am calling hither. If God prospers our designs and helps our labours, you will some day receive from me letters which I shall write from Meaco before a year is over. May our Lord heap upon you all as much grace here and as much glory in Paradise as I desire for myself!

Cagoxima, Nov. 5, 1549.

The above has been dictated by me, and what follows I add with my own hand. For the love of our Lord God I be­seech you take most diligent pains to make yourself beloved by all and every one of our brethren. You will gain this if you console those who are with you with good and gentle words, and those who are at a distance with frequent and kind letters. I should very much wish you to have a fixed place and time for continually explaining the Christian doctrine to the igno­rant, and I should wish you to do this in the cathedral church, and that in the same place you should on Sundays and feast- days preach to the people in the morning, and in the afternoon explain the articles of the Faith to the slaves and to the chil­dren of the Christians in the language which they understand, as I used to do when at Goa. I desire this, that you may give an example to others. I also pray you most earnestly, write to me minutely about the interior state of your soul. You know how much I should rejoice, if I should learn from this mani­festation the things which I so anxiously and solicitously desire as to your progress towards perfection ! Among the many bits of extremely happy news which I might receive, I should count it among the first of all if I were to hear from the concordant witness of many that you were very much beloved by all the brethren of our Society, whether those who are under the same

roof with you, or those who are occupied elsewhere, far off or near, in other houses or in the missions. If I hear that they are all dear to you, that will be very pleasant, but it will only give me half the joy I want. In order that it may be full and complete, I must be persuaded both that you have a most ten­der affection for all of them, and also that you in return are extremely loved by them. Farewell.

Yours in the Lord,

Francis.

We have already spoken of Don Pedro de Silva, the Com­mandant of Malacca, to whom Francis Xavier professed him­self so deeply indebted for his assistance as to his voyage to Japan. His first batch of letters sent from that country is closed by one in which he thanks Don Pedro with all the effu­sion of his affectionate heart, and at the same time seeks to interest him in his own plan for the establishment of a regular commercial intercourse between the Portuguese authorities and the newly opened empire.' He also recommends to him some Japanese who were to visit Malacca.

(lxxxiii.) To Don Pedro de Silva, Commandant of Malacca.

We have at length reached Japan, sir, borne thither not more by favourable winds than by your good offices to us. For, next after the benevolent Providence of God, the prosperity of our voyage has been secured most of all, as we gratefully ac­knowledge, by the extreme kindness and liberality shown by you to us when we were making our preparations for departure. You provided us in the most loving manner not only with abundance of stores for the voyage, but with the best vessel of all that were to be had at the time, and with everything of the same sort that could be useful to us. You cut, by means of the continual favour shown us by one in so eminent a position of authority, all the knots and delays which presented them­selves in the business; and not only this, but to crown all your

goodness, you added many precious gifts, by means of which we might win for ourselves that goodwill from the princes of this country which is so necessary to us.

With these presents in charge, we arrived, by the help of God, on the 15th of August, the happy and auspicious day of the feast of our Blessed Lady’s Assumption, at Cagoxima, the native place of Paul of the holy Faith. On his account we were received with all goodwill by the chief magistrate, the prefect, and all the people of the place. That same Paul, our faithful companion, began immediately to show his zeal for the religion which he had so unfeignedly embraced. He spent his whole days and nights in setting the Christian doctrine before his parents, kinsmen, friends, of all age and class, persuading them of its truth, and this with so much effect that now, when I am writing, he has made Christians of his mother and wife, his male and female relations, and whole cousinhood of both sexes, besides a large number of his other friends and for­mer acquaintances. .

The soil of this country, as far as I have hitherto been able to perceive, is now so well and happily disposed to receive the* seed of heavenly doctrine, that we have the best right to expect a plentiful harvest of souls if only cultivation be not wanting. The nation is one with which reason prevails over passion very generally. They commit many sins, but the sins they commit do not establish a prescription against the authority of right reason, because they generally sin through ignorance ; so that it is easy to see that they will amend if they be taught. Thus even bad customs leave to reason its empire in some sort unim­paired, since they are not followed openly against its decree, but rather insinuate themselves in an irregular and underhand man­ner, as it were, without establishing themselves in possession. Thus it is that this nation has not much accustomed itself to indulge in full licence of following vice against the vain reclam­ation of reason, as is the case elsewhere, where men sin know­ing what they are about, and with unblushing malice.

We should by this time have already gone to Meaco, where the Emperor of Japan and the chief princes of the nation live_r

if we had had seasonable winds to allow of the voyage. We are told that after four months from this time the regular setting in of the winds which will take us thither is expected. Then, if God so grant, we shall sail to Meaco. There are many and wonderful reports about that city, the royal capital of Japan, which I shall entirely believe when I have seen it for myself. They say that the number of houses in it is reckoned at ninety thousand. Two Portuguese who have been there, one of whom is still in Japan, say that the city of Meaco seems to them larger than Lisbon. The houses are all of timber, built up with woodwork and floors one above the other, as in our coun­try. If it please God, in the next year from this I will tell you all about these matters in a long letter drawn from my own ex­perience. My mind is filled with much hope, that by the good favour of Jesus Christ a large part of Japan will embrace our holy religion, on account of the authority which reason, when it is clearly understood, exercises over the nation.

And a good part of this great fruit which we expect as so very probable will be set down to your liberality and kindness, by which, partly by your words and your own exertions, partly by the efficacious orders which you issued when it was neces­sary, and also by the giving those beautiful presents out of your abundance with which we might win the favour of the King of Japan, you delivered our plan of preaching the law of Christ in this kingdom from infinite difficulties, which we our­selves should have been too weak to overcome. This makes me trust that, by the help of God, you will finish and bring to the glory of full and complete success the work which your father, the Lord Conde Almirante,¹² so long ago began ; and that you will have all the greater merit with God, in that your father gained for the King of Portugal by the opening up or the frequentation of the route by sea to these nations of the East, hardly any other fruit than the advantage of temporal gain; whereas you, with far higher fortune, by so kindly assisting our voyage hitherwards, have brought about the eternal benefit of the extension of the kingdom of Christ and the spreading of the

¹² Vasco de Gama.

glory of God. I write this that you may understand how much you are bound to God for choosing you for so great a work, and for casting deep into your mind the seed of that most praiseworthy design of enlarging the frontiers of our holy religion in these parts of the world. Nor, believe me, will a man who seeks first the kingdom of God ever want abundance of opportuni­ties of human prosperity. For, unless I am mistaken', this ex­pedition of ours to Japan promises to produce rich results to the King and to his realm, the interests of which you devote yourself to with so much faithfulness and diligence.

Osaka is a maritime city, the chief seat of trade in Japan, two days’ journey from Meaco. With God’s help, it will be easy to obtain that right of domicile in that city should be given to the consuls of the King of Portugal, as well as power to build storehouses where they might keep merchandize from India and Europe, until they might be exchanged at leisure with the precious metals of the country of Japan, with manufac­tures and produce, but especially with silver and gold, which are brought for sale from nearly all parts of these islands in great quantity to that port, which is the richest that they have. In order that such commerce, which would be very profitable on both sides, may be the more easily established, I shall try to persuade the King of Japan to send an ambassador to India, who might see how great an abundance there is there of things most useful for the convenience of life, yet of which Japan is destitute, and on his return might arouse his countrymen to the desire of such things, and so render them more inclined to agree to conditions of mutual traffic. The result may be, that without difficulty an agreement may be made between the Governor of India and the King of Japan, both as to other regulations of commerce, and also particularly as to the estab­lishment at Osaka of a factory and register of the Portuguese revenue.

I have great confidence in our Lord Jesus, that before two years are over I shall write to you that we have at Meaco a church dedicated in honour of our most holy Lady the Mother of God, that henceforth those who sail for these islands may be

able, in the terrible storms of the Chinese Archipelago, to invoke the Blessed Madonna of Meaco. Now if you could trust me so far as to allow me to take the office of your agent in these parts, I would venture to promise that I will manage, whatever por­tion of your property or money you should like to commit to me in such capacity, to return you the same increased by an interest of more than a hundredfold, and with your profit quite secure from all dangers of shipwreck or sea voyage. This would be an amount of good fortune in traffic as to which there is no risk, such that no Captain of Malacca before you has ever made money more safely or more productively. Would you like to know of what kind of this most rapid and profitable investment I am speaking ? I will tell you without circumlocution. Make up your mind, I beseech you, to give us something to divide among the poor Christians of this country—those who are and those who are to be. This money so invested, I promise you, on the security of Christ Himself, will be returned to you in heaven multiplied a hundredfold, without being exposed to the uncer­tainties of winds and waves, or to the arms and snares of pirates. While I have been writing this I have been rather afraid that I might not find your mind at present ready to run the hazard of this investment which is to have its profit in hope. And yet nothing can be safer. I know, however, that you Command­ants of Malacca have such lofty notions, that although you are generally sufficiently alive to chances of gain in other ways, you usually neglect this most certain method of quick and large returns.

The corsair who commanded our vessel died here at Ca­goxima. He did his work for us, on the whole, as we wished, throughout the voyage, and yet we were not able to repay him by good offices either when we came to port or when he died. He himself chose to die in his own superstitions; he did not even leave to us the power of rewarding him by that kindness which we can after their death do to other friends who die in the profession of the Christian faith, in commending their souls to God, since the poor fellow by his own hand cast his soul •into hell, where there is no redemption.

Many Japanese are on their way hence to you. They have been induced to do this by what they have heard our friend Paul relate of the wonders of the power and virtue of the Por­tuguese. I pray and beseech you, by all that you owe to God and your own noble condition, receive them with all honour and liberality, and let them be lodged splendidly and comfort­ably with gentlemen of Portugal of wealth and high character, who have received injunctions from yourself to show them all kindness. This will do much, believe me, towards drawing them on to embrace the Christian religion, if they find by their own experience that Paul’s account of the Portuguese is true.

Domenico Diaz, to whom I give in charge my letter, to be delivered to you, is a very great friend of mine, as dear to me as I am dear to him. His kindness and goodness to us has been proved by me by continual services during our unbroken companionship in this long voyage. You will do me a special favour if you would discharge for me, since I cannot do so myself, the debt of kindness which I acknowledge that I owe to a man who has deserved very much at my hands. May our Lord God lengthen your life to many years, and take you back in health and prosperity to Portugal, as you and your lady wife desire! Farewell.

Your friend, with all my soul,

Cagoxima, Nov. 5, 1549. FRANCIS.

The arrival of this letter, together with that of the Japanese recommended by it to the good offices of the Capitan of Ma­lacca, was made the occasion of public demonstrations of joy. Don Pedro had the royal standard hoisted on the fortress, the guns fired a salute, and a grand procession was organized to go to the Church of our Lady del Monte to give thanks for the good news which seemed to promise the conversion of Japan. Magistrates and soldiers joined the Vicar General and clergy in this procession. The streets were hung with colours, and lighted up at night. The Vicar sang high mass in pre­sence of all the authorities. Soon after this, the Japanese strangers were baptized, Don Pedro de Silva himself standing as their godfather.

Firafido, Amanguchi, and Meaco.

The letters which have been inserted in the last chapter must have been sent to India by some Portuguese merchants trading on the coast at one of the ports not far from Cagoxima,. if not at that place. It appears that the Prince of Satsouma had not been altogether uninfluenced by their presence in the kind reception which he accorded to Francis Xavier, and in the per­mission which he had given him to preach the Christian law in his dominions. The Japanese princes seem to have been eager to gain the advantages of trade with Portugal for their own ports, and the prince looked for this temporal advantage in his toleration of the new priests from Europe. He was soon dis­appointed, and this downfal of his expectations prefaced the way for the change of his policy in regard to Francis Xavier. The port of Cagoxima does not seem to be well sheltered,¹ and was in this respect much inferior for the purpose of the Por­tuguese ships to that ofFirando or Firado, on an island of the same name, some fifty or sixty miles north of Nagasaki, which, at the time of which we are writing, had not yet been founded. Firando is said to be difficult of access oil account

¹ The ‘ bombardment’ of Cagoxima by an English force in 1867 was occasioned by a storm, which came on in the bay while the squadron which had been sent to demand satisfaction was lying there, after having seized some steamers belonging to the Prince of Satsouma. lie had made no resistance, but when the storm arose, ‘not doubting,’says M. Humbert {Japon Illustre, t. ii. p. 391), ‘that the gods who were the protectors of the- Great Niphon had of themselves aroused from the bottom of the sea the dragon of tempests, with whose aid he could not fail to annihilate the bar­barians, ’ orddred the batteries of the port to open upon the ships in their dis­tress. This caused the action, which ended in the burning of the captured ships, a number of junks, the docks, workshops, and powder magazines, and a part of the town itself.

of rocks and shoals, but a safe harbour when it is once entered.² It chanced that the Portuguese merchants discovered the supe­riority of Firando just at the time of Francis Xavier’s early so­journ at Cagoxima, and the change which they made in simple provision for the safety of their vessels brought on the storm which must have been for some time gathering over the mis­sioners in the dominion of Satsouma.

We do not know the exact moment, after the leave given by the prince for the public preaching of the Gospel and for his subjects to embrace Christianity, at which this change of affairs took place. Some time probably elapsed after Francis Xavier dispatched his letter. Meanwhile he had been preaching freely; he had, as we have seen, had many friendly interviews with a chief of bonzes, the Tunda, as he is said to have been called, of one of the Buddhist monasteries in the neighbour­hood. Francis Xavier does not tell us himself of other inci­dents which attended his preaching, which have come to us on the testimony of eyewitnesses. No reader of his life will be surprised to find that now again his apostolate was illus­trated by miracles. The most famous of these could not have been the first, for it was wrought in favour of the only daughter of a nobleman whom, in his agony of bereavement after her death, the new converts urged to recommend his case to the God of the Christians, and to have recourse to the prayers of the great teacher of the Portuguese. The father went to Fran­cis Xavier, and threw himself at his feet; but sorrow choked his utterance, and he could say nothing. Francis retired for a few moments with Joam Fernandez into the little oratory in which he said mass, and after a short, fervent prayer, came back to the poor suppliant and told him to go, that his prayers were heard. He said nothing more, and the nobleman was grieved and hurt. In this frame of mind he went homewards, and was met, first by a servant, who told him that his daughter was alive, and then by the girl herself, who ran to him and threw herself on his neck. She said that as soon as she had breathed her last, two horrible demons had seized her and were about

² Humbert, Japon llliislrt, t. i. p. 17.

to cast her into hell, when two men of venerable aspect came and rescued her, and the next moment she found herself safe and well. The father took her to the house where Francis Xavier and Fernandez were staying, and as soon as she saw them, she cried out that they were the two who had delivered her. Both father and child were at once instructed and bap­tized. Another miracle, different in character, is recorded of this time. A Japanese had been insulting and jeering at Fran­cis, who turned to him and said gently, ‘ God preserve your mouth, friend !’ The man was struck at once with a horrible and noisome cancerous disease in his mouth. These and other miracles served to increase the credit of the missioners, and it seemed likely that large numbers would become Christians at Cagoxima.

The change was not long in coming. The bonzes, who had hitherto at least listened to the new doctrines, and two of whom had even become converts, took the alarm, and went to the prince, threatening him with calamities of all kinds if he allowed the worship of the ancient gods of their country to be scorned. It may be questioned how far their influence might have weighed with him, but for the chance coincidence of their remonstrance with the abandonment of Cagoxima as a mart by the Portuguese. The prince was incensed at what he con­sidered ingratitude, withdrew his permission as to the teaching of the Christian law, and forbad any one, under pain of death, to become Christian.

It does not appear that this edict of the Prince ofSatsouma was followed by any active measures of persecution : but the whole attitude of the people changed with regard to the Chris­tian teaching. For many months Francis Xavier confined him­self to the careful instruction of the neophytes who had already been gained, chiefly the family and friends of Paul of the holy Faith, who were able to assemble from time to time for prayer and worship, to studying the language of Japan, and to transla­tion into that tongue of the summary of the Christian doctrine and of the mysteries of our Lord’s life, of which mention has al­ready been made. The rest of his time was spent in prayer and

in the exercises of penance. This was the laying of the founda­tion of that famous Church of Japan which was to give an almost unexampled instance of heroic fortitude and constancy under persecution. The converts became more and more firm in the faith, and seem from the first to have been possessed with the spirit which afterwards animated so many thousands of Japanese martyrs. They were singularly devoted to their new faith and its teachers.³

Meanwhile the months passed on, and there was as yet no favourable opportunity of proceeding to Meaco. This is ex­plained by a passage in a letter written by Father Cosmo Torres, the companion of Francis Xavier at this time, who states that the Prince of Satsouma had promised to find them a ship for Meaco, but that afterwards he advised them to delay until the wars raging at that time around the capital might be over. Perhaps the prince’s interest in the voyage had cooled down, but the wars were no fiction. At the beginning of September 1550 Francis determined to pass to Firando. The same reason which had turned away from him the favour of the Prince of Sat­souma might secure him that of the less important and powerful

³ We have at this time a considerable gap in the account of the resi­dence of Francis at Cagoxima. It is very possible that this city was his ordinary place of abode, but it is not necessary to suppose that he made no excursions to places in the neighbourhood, and there are certainly notices of his activity elsewhere for which it is difficult to find a more convenient time than this. Thus he is said to have been walking once by the sea­shore, where some fishermen were dragging in their nets, which, to their great affliction, were empty. Francis blessed the nets with the sign of the Cross, and bade them cast them again into the sea. This time the nets were found full to abundance, and that part of the sea remained afterwards remarkably productive. Another anecdote speaks of a town which was visited by a severe pestilence, which was delivered by his prayers. The conversion of a large number of the people was the consequence, lie also cured a deformed child, taking him in his own arms, healed a leper and gave sight to a blind man by making the sign of the Cross over him, and wrought several other miracles recorded in the Processes, which are not assigned to any place or time. See Massei, 1. iii. c. 7, who quotes the evidence of Martino Lupo from the Processes, and the Resumo Ilistorico (Goa 1861), by Felippe Neri Xavier, an exceedingly useful little work, 011 account of the number of its references to scarce books about the East, and its stores of local information. We regret not to have known of it until the present chapter was passing through the press.

lord of Firando,⁴ and he might find there some Portuguese mer­chants who might give him news of India and perhaps even letters from Europe. The Christians of Cagoxima were in deep affliction at losing him. Paul of the holy Faith was set over them as a sort of head.

Francis travelled on foot, carrying himself the little bundle in which was contained all that was necessary for the celebra­tion of mass. He took with him his European companions, Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez, a convert named Bernard, the pro­phet of Cagoxima, and another Japanese. He had not gone many miles on his road when he was invited by one of the great lords of the country, whose name is given as Ekandono or Eshandono, to visit him in one of the great castles which are de­scribed by travellers in Japan.⁵ Ekandono had heard wonders of the ‘ bonze’ from the west who had been teaching a new re­ligion at Cagoxima, and was eager to see and hear him. Francis preached with great earnestness and power, and was able to

⁴ Francis speaks, however, of Firando as belonging to the kingdom of which Amanguchi was the capital.

⁴ ‘ The castles of the Japanese nobility arc built either on great rivers or upon hills and rising grounds. They take in a vast deal of room, and consist commonly of three different fortresses or enclosures, which either cover and defend, or, if possible, encompass one another. livery enclosure is surrounded and defended by a clean deep ditch, and a thick strong wall built of stone or earth, with strong gates. . . . The principal or innermost castle or enclosure is called son mas, that is the true or chief castle. It is the residence of the prince or lord who is in possession of it, and as such it is distinguished from others by a square, large, white tower, three or four stories high, with a small roof encompassing each story, like a crown or garland. In the second, called ninmas, that is the second castle, are lodged the gentlemen of the prince’s bedchamber, his stewards, secretaries, and other chief officers, who are to give a more constant attendance about his person. The empty spaces are cultivated, and either turned into gar­dens or sown with rice. The third and outwardmost is called soiogamd, that is the outwardmost defence, as also ninnomas, that is the third castlc. It is the abode of a numerous train of soldiers, courticrs, domestics, and other people, everybody being permitted to conic into it. The white walls, bastions, gates, each of which hath two or more stories built over it, and above all, the beautiful tower of the innermost castle, are extremely pleasant to behold at a distance.’ Kaempfer’s Ilist. of Japan (l’inkerton), p. 772. A similar description is given by M. Humbert, Japon Illustre,, t. i. p. 33, and an engraving, p. 27.

baptize seventeen persons before he left the castle. Among these, though in secret, was the lady of the house and her eldest son. Ekandono himself was doubtfully inclined, but allowed of their baptism. Francis left them a copy of the Japanese ex­planation of the Christian doctrine, and carefully regulated the exercises of piety and manner of life of the little community.

Neither Francis nor either of his two companions mention this incident,—indeed, his own account of his work during that year is unusually concise, as we shall see. But this little Christian community was found many years afterwards (in 1562), in a state of innocence and fervour, which shows the blessing which rested upon the work of Francis Xaxier, as well as the instructions which he gave and the system which he established in order as far as possible to secure the perseverance of con­verts under such circumstances. In the year last mentioned, Father Luis d’Almeyda was sent to visit the Christians in Firando, Cagoxima, and Boungo—a kingdom in the neighbour­hood of Satsouma of which we shall have more to say presently. On his way he was told to call at the castle of Ekandono, and his letter gives a description of it which seems to justify the wonder with which it filled him. It had, he says, ten distinct bulwarks or walis connected by drawbridges, ‘ so high that the head swims when you look down,’ and a very deep ditch : all was said to have been cut out of the rock by sheer work, but Father Luis thought it could hardly be the work of man. In the centre of these outer fortifications rose the principal castle, where the visitor was received with much joy, especially by the lady of the nobleman who owned the castle, and fourteen others whom Francis had baptized himself. They came round him, he says, ‘asking for news of Father Francis, and of the progress of Christianity in other parts of Japan, rejoicing much in the good tidings which I gave them, for it was many years since they had seen Father or Brother of the Society. He that after God kept them in the faith was an honoured old man, a sort of “ majorduomo” of the castle, whom all loved very much on account of his virtue.’ He and the lady related many mira­cles which God had wrought since Father Master Francis went

away, for he had left them some devout prayers and litanies written by his own hand (which the lady kept as relics), and these they used to apply to sick persons and so heal them. One of these sick had been Ekandono himself, whose life had at one time been in danger, and who had been at once cured. Once a week the Christians all met to take the discipline to­gether with a discipline which Francis had left behind; but the old man considered it so precious that he would not let any one give himself more than three strokes with it, lest it should be worn out. Almeyda baptized some children, two of whom were lads, sons of Ekandono, whom he found perfectly prepared for baptism by the instructions of the old man, whom, on returning a week or two after, he found just dead. He preached several times, and converted some of the heathen in the fortress, one of whom was so very clever, that he wrote down at once all the instructions which Almeyda gave him, and made a book of them. He and the eldest son were left in charge of the rest. On Sundays and feastdays they all met, and a chapter of the book about the Christian doctrine was read, about which they talked for an hour. They frequently assembled for prayers. The Christian doctrine was taught constantly, and the harmony and fervour among them was truly wonderful. Ekandono himself told the Father that he was only prevented from becoming a Christian by fear of the prince.⁰

Firando was the scene of a sort of triumph for Francis Xavier. A Portuguese ship was trading there; the captain re­ceived Francis with a salvo of artillery, and conducted him with all honour to the prince, who gave him leave to preach freely. Conversions were now very numerous. In a few days there were more Christians made than had been gained in

* Massei mentions a still more striking instance of the long time during which the memory of Francis Xavier’s preaching was kept up without the presence of missionaries, in the case of a place called Canadabe, thirteen leagues from Cagoxima, where fifty-five years after his visit—which was probably made at this time—a number of Christians were found, among whom was the daughter of the chief nobleman, who was baptized, when a little girl, by Francis, and had since consecrated herself to God by a vow of chastity. Massei, 1. iii. cap. i. p. 294.

VOL. II. U

Cagoxima during the whole year. But Francis determined to press on to Meaco, or at least to other parts of the country, as if to explore it in the interests of the faith. He left Cosmo Torres at Firando, to continue the work already begun, and took with him Joam Fernandez and his two Japanese converts.

‘ You may well imagine, my fathers and brothers,’ writes Cosmo Torres to the Society at Goa, ‘ how I felt at being left and sepa­rated from his company, knowing the great dangers and toils which they would incur, for they left Firando at the end of October, when the great snows and frosts of this country begin. But as to Father Francis, for the great fire of the love of God which is in him for the manifestation of the holy Catholic faith, neither the frosts, nor the snows, nor the fear of the unknown race, could hinder him from undertaking this most dangerous journey. When they had to go by water, over certain parts of the sea there were many pirates, and on account of these they had to hide themselves below the decks of the boats in order not to be recognized; and when they travelled by land they went as servants of certain gentlemen on horseback, and had to run at a gallop to keep up and not lose their way. When they came by night to the inns, dead with cold and hunger and wet through, they found no sort of comfort there.’ He, goes on to speak of their sufferings from the deep snow or from rough roads and thickets, and from the stones thrown at them by the boys and rabble, and the like. ‘ With all this they never ceased preaching and confessing our holy Catholic faith.. . and you may see,’ he adds,‘ what beginnings our Father) Master Francis has made in this country, and us who followed him he encouraged more by deeds than by words; and how­ever much we toiled and suffered we were always ashamed in comparison to his labours, the which, not to be over long, I do not relate minutely and in particular—the insults, and the hun­ger, and the cold which he endured, going about that country for four months, always on foot, and often unshod, for the great streams that there are.’

This description hardly applies in its fulness except to the long journey which we shall presently have to speak of from

Amanguchi to Meaco ; but the picture of the fervour and love of suffering shown by Francis at this time would apply to the whole of his stay in Japan. From Firando he embarked for Facata, a port on the southern and smaller of the great islands

• of which Japan consists, off the western coast of which the island of Firando lies, and from thence sailed again to Simono­seki,⁷ the port of Amanguchi, the capital of a considerable state on the larger island of Niphon. Amanguchi was at that

• time one of the largest and most populous cities of Japan, the I mart through which the commerce between the other islands I passed, and the capital of one of the most fertile provinces ol Niphon. It was a very wicked place, infamous beyond measure, on the same account as Ormuz. Its condition moved the zeal of Francis Xavier. He began to preach in the streets and 'public places, though without moving more than the curiosity of the crowd. His preaching, however, led to invitations to come and explain his doctrine in private houses, to which he willingly consented. He disputed with the utmost freedom and courage. On these occasions he practised in a signal manner that fearlessness of all human things which he recommended in his letters. Joam Fernandez related afterwards how Francis, usually so humble and meek in demeanour, confronted the pride and arrogance of the rich and noble Japanese who used to interrogate him, bearing himself in a most lofty and dignified •manner, as became the ambassador of the God of Truth. At times, Joam himself had to answer them in the same bold un­compromising manner, and he confessed that while he did so he sometimes expected to see the sword of his questioner flash from the scabbard, to make the heads of both Francis and himself roll in the dust. Francis encouraged him by telling

⁷ Simonoseki, like Cagoxima, has become unfortunately famous in the ihistory of the lately renewed intercourse between Japan and the European •nations, as the scene of an aet of violence on the part of the stronger parties .11 that intercourse. Simonoseki is in a position of very great importance, »:ommanding the strait named after it, which separates the greater island )f Niphon from the second, Ximo. The strait is the passage from the west nto the inland sea of Japan, on which a number of ports, among others Dsaka, lie, and through which is one of the routes to Yeddo itself. Its bat- eries have been destroyed by an allied squadron.

him that the only way to dominate those lofty spirits was to fear nothing at all that they could do. In truth, it appears that he won, at all events, their respect by his demeanour; though the bonzes heaped insults upon him, and the common people ran after him, abusing him, turning him into ridicule, and pelting him with stones and filth. At last, his presence and way of proceeding in the city came to the ears of the * prince, who sent for him and asked him why he had come to Arnanguchi. Francis made him a long harangue. After set­ting forth the chief points of the Christian doctrine, he began to inveigh against the vices of the nobles, who had received from God greater blessings than others; and then he went on to reproach the prince himself for his indulgence in unnatural j vices, giving scandal to all his people, and preparing for him-1 self a sentence of eternal damnation from the Supreme King 1 of all, before whom the greatest monarch of the world is but a I worm. The prince listened attentively, and let him go unhurt.⁸1

Francis continued preaching in Arnanguchi for several weeks, I but without any effect. Very few became Christians. He left the city at the beginning of December 1550, and began, with Fernandez and the two Japanese converts, that toilsome and apparently fruitless journey to Meaco which has already been mentioned in the extract given from the letter of Cosmo Torres. The country was overrun by armed bands, belonging to the forces employed in a civil war then going on; there were abund­ance of robbers besides, and at certain passes and ferries money had to be paid by travellers. It was either on this account— that he might pass free as a servant—or because of a diverg­ence from the road, which was necessary on account of robbers, and that he might be able to regain the road without fail, that Francis offered himself as a servant to one of a company of merchants, who made him carry his baggage, running at the same time by the side of his horse. Not far from Meaco, he fell severely ill, but soon recovered, and pursued his way. Meaco he himself describes as an immense city, but with a

* Francis is said on this occasion to have signally confuted a bonze of great reputation.

great part of it in ruins on account of the civil war. He was unable to obtain an audience either of the Dairi or Cubosama, the spiritual and temporal heads respectively of the empire. We are told by his biographers that a large sum of money was asked as the price of admission, and that he was altogether unable to raise it. He preached in the streets, but the people either were too preoccupied with the war which was going on to attend to him, or listened merely out of curiosity. He laid the foundations of the future Church of Meaco by his sufferings rather than by his successes. Ten years later, that Church was to begin to flourish. It is probable, however, that Francis learnt by this visit to the capital much as to the state of things in Japan which he had not before suspected. He may have seen that even if the Dairi or Mikado gave him leave to preach, his authority would not practically extend far beyond the walls of his own residence; that Japan was not a kingdom like Spain or Portugal, in which the sovereign was everything, and his word absolute law even to the extremity of his dominions. There was a significant contrast between the apparently secure tenure and exercise of power which he observed in the petty princes of Satsouma and Naugato—the kingdom of which Amanguchi was the capital—and the titular magnificence of the Mikado— great as was still his authority when supported by the Cubo­sama—which could not preserve his own capital from the ruin­ous effects of war. On leaving Meaco, Francis Xavier seems to have determined to adopt a somewhat different line of con­duct from that which he had hitherto thought of. He would make his advances at the courts of the local sovereigns, and he would lay aside for that purpose, not indeed his humility, meek­ness, poverty, and mortification, but something of that outwardly despicable appearance, which in itself he held so dear, but which he knew how to lay aside in order to serve the cause of Him for whose sake he loved it.

The journey to Meaco, therefore, was not entirely unfruit­ful even of other results than the sufferings and humiliations to which it had exposed Francis Xavier. He had baptized a few dying children, whom he had found exposed by the roadside,

and he had reaped a plentiful harvest, as we have ’said, of per­sonal sufferings; in some cases even his life had been in danger, as he had been assailed by the crowds to whom he could not forbear from speaking of the Gospel, and more than once was wounded by arrows and almost stoned to death. He seems to have returned from Meaco by sea, taking boat probably at Osaka, and this may account for his returning to Firando rather than to Amanguchi. At Amanguchi, however, he made up his mind to begin his new career of preaching. He took with him the letters and presents from the Governor of the Indies, the Bishop of Goa, and the Captain of Malacca, which had been originally intended for the Mikado himself. He dressed him­self in a manner more becoming the Envoy of Portugal, and, with his companions as attendants, demanded an audience of the Prince or King of Naugato. He was very well received by the King, who was charmed with the presents—among which Cosmo Torres tells us were a * manicordio e relox,’ a musical instrument of some sort, and a watch, with other more costly articles. Oxindono, as he was called, was unwilling not to show all courtesy to the representative of the secular and re­ligious authorities of that half unknown power in India and the Eastern Archipelago which had so strangely risen up of late years, to interest and alarm the various countries at whose ports its ships were so continually presenting themselves, laden with strange merchandize of the most costly sorts, and whose prowess in arms seemed quite on a par with its spirit of mercantile ad­venture. The next day an edict was placarded in the city of Amanguchi, allowing of the preaching of the Christian religion, and an empty ‘ bonzery’ or monastery was assigned for the resi­dence of the new teachers. A large present of gold and silver, which Oxindono sent to them, had previously been refused by Francis. •

We have now reached a point in the history of Francis Xavier’s stay in Japan at which we may again use his own words. The following letter is remarkable for its comparative brevity, and for the absence of all reflections and exhortations. It seems almost as if it were merely the draft of a letter, sum­

ming up the events of the last year very shortly, and written at a time when Francis was uncertain whether he might find a means of sending it to India. There are no personal appeals or injunctions. Another hypothesis may be that it was written after he had had some incomplete tidings as to the state of things at Goa which required his presence, and which made him unable to pour himself out with his usual freedom when writing to his religious brethren.

(lxxxiv.) To the Society at Goa.

Last year, dearest brethren, I wrote to you from Cagoxima concerning our voyage, our arrival in Japan, and what had been done in the interests of Christianity up to that time. Now I will relate what God has done by our means since last year. On our arrival at the native place of our good Paul, we were received very kindly indeed by his relations and friends. They all of them became Christians, being led by what Paul told them; and that they might be thoroughly confirmed in the truth of our religion, we remained in that place a whole year and more. In that time more than a hundred were gathered into the fold of Christ. The rest might have done so if they had been willing, without giving any offence to their kinsfolk or re­lations. But the bonzes admonished the prince (who is very powerful, the lord of several towns), that if he allowed his people to embrace the Christian religion, his whole dominion would be destroyed, and the ancestral gods of the country, which they call pagodas, would come to be despised by the natives. For the law of God was contrary to the law of Japan, and it would therefore result that any who embraced that law would repudiate the holy founders of the ancient law of their forefathers, which could not be done without great ruin to the town and realm. Let him look, therefore, with reverence on those most holy men who had been the legislators of Japan, and, considering that the law of God was opposed and hostile to the law of his fathers, let him issue an edict forbidding, un­der penalty of death, that any one in future should become a

Christian. The prince was moved by this discourse of the bonzes, and issued the edict as they had requested.

The interval after this was spent in instructing our con­verts, in learning Japanese, and in translating into that tongue the chiefheads of the Christian faith. We used to dwell shortly on the history of the creation of the world, as seemed useful for the men we had to deal with; as, for instance, that God was the Maker and Creator of the universe, a truth which they were entirely ignorant of, and the other truths necessary for salva­tion, but principally the truth that God had taken on Himself the nature of man. On this account we translated diligently all the great mysteries of the life of Christ until His Ascension into heaven, and also the account of the last judgment. We have now translated this book, for such it was, into Japanese with great labour, and have written it in our own characters. Out of this we read what I have mentioned to those who came to the faith of Christ, that the converts may know how to worship God and Jesus Christ with piety and to their souls’ health. And when we went on to expound these things in our discourses, the Christians delighted in them very much, as seeing how true the things were which we had taught them. The Japanese are certainly of remarkably good dispositions, and follow reason wonderfully. They see clearly that their ancestral law is false and the law of God true, but they are deterred by fear of their prince from submitting to the Christian religion.

When the year came to an end, seeing the lord of the town to be opposed to all extension of our religion, we determined to pass to another place. We therefore bade farewell to our converts; they loved us so much that they shed many tears, and giving us great thanks for having shown them the way of eternal salvation at the cost of so much labour of our own, were very sorrowful at our departure. We left with them Paul, their own townsman, who is an excellent Christian, to finish their instruction in the precepts of religion. We then went to another town, where the lord of the place received us very kindly; there we remained a few days, and made about a hun­dred Christianr. None of us knew Japanese; nevertheless, by

reading the semi-Japanese volume mentioned, and talking to the people, we brought many of them to the worship of Christ.

I charged Cosmo Torres with the care of these converts, and went on with Joam Fernandez to Amanguchi, the seat of a very wealthy king, as he is thought among the Japanese. The city contains more than ten thousand households; all the houses, are of wood. We found many here, both of the com­mon people and of the nobility, very desirous to become ac­quainted with the Christian law. We thought it best to preach twice a day in the streets and cross roads, reading out parts of our book, and then speaking to the people about the Christian religion. Some of the noblemen also invited us to their houses, that they might hear about our religion with-more convenience. They promised of their own accord, that if they came to think it better than their own, they would unhesitatingly embrace it. Many of them heard what we had to say about the law of God very willingly; some, on the other hand, were angry at it, and even went so far as to laugh at what we said. So, wherever we went through the streets of the city, we were followed by a small crowd of boys of the lowest dregs of the populace, laugh­ing at us and mocking us with some such words as these : ‘ There go the men who tell us that we must embrace the law of God in order to be saved, because we cannot be rescued from destruction except by the Maker of all things and by His Son ! There go the men who declare that it is wicked to have more than one wife !’ In the same way they made a joke and play of the other articles of our religion.

We had spent some days in this office of preaching, when the king, who was then in the city, sent for us and we went to him. He asked us wherever did we come from ? why had we come to Japan ? And we answered that we were Europeans sent thither for the sake of preaching the law of God, since no one could be safe and secure unless he purely and piously worship God and His Son Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Saviour of all nations. Then the king commanded us to ex­plain to him the law of God. So we read to him a good part of our volume; and although we went on reading for an hour

or more, he listened to us diligently and attentively as long as- we were reading, and then he sent us away. We remained many days in that city, and preached to the people in the streets and at the cross roads. Many of them listened to- the wonderful deeds of Christ with avidity, and when we came to His most bitter death, they were unable to restrain their tears- Nevertheless, very few actually became Christians.

Finding, therefore, that the fruit of our labours was small, we went on to Meaco, the most famous city in all Japan. We spent two months on the road, and passed through many dan­gers, because we had to go through countries in which war was- raging. I say nothing of the cold of those parts, nor of the roads so infested by frequent robberies. When we arrived at Meaco, we waited for some days that we might obtain leave to- approach the king, and ask of him to give us permission to pub­lish the divine law in his kingdom. But we found all ways of access to him altogether closed. And as we discovered that the edicts of the king were generally thought little of among the: princes and rulers, we laid aside our design of obtaining from him any such license, and I determined to sound and try the minds and dispositions of the people themselves, so as to find out how disposed that city was to receive the worship of Christ. But as the people were under arms, and under the pressure ofr a severe war, I judged that the time was most inopportune for the preaching of the Gospel. Meaco was formerly a very large city; but now, on account of the perpetual calamities it has undergone in war, it is a great part in ruins and waste. At one time, as they say, it contained one hundred and eighty thou­sand dwellings. It seems to me very likely that it was so, for the wall which encircles it shows that the city was very exten­sive indeed. Now, although a great part of it is in ruins, it yet contains more than a hundred thousand houses.

When we found that the city of Meaco was neither at peace nor prepared to receive the Gospel, we returned to Amanguchi, and we presented to the king there the letters and presents- which had been sent as signs of friendship by the Governor of India and the Bishop of Goa. The king was very much de­

lighted both with the letters and with the presents, and that he might reward us, he offered us a great amount of gold and sil­ver. These gifts we sent back, and then asked him that, if he desired to make some acceptable present to the strangers who had come to his city, he would give us leave to announce the law of God to his people : saying that nothing could possibly be more pleasing to us than such a gift. This he granted us with the greatest goodwill.

He accordingly affixed edicts in the most crowded places of the city, declaring that it was pleasing to him that the law of Heaven should be announced in his dominions; and that it was lawful for any, who desired, to embrace it. At the same time, he assigned an empty monastery for us to inhabit. A great many used to come to us to this place for the sake of hearing about the new religion. We used to preach twice a day, and after the sermon there was always a good long dis­pute concerning religion. Thus we were continually occupied either in preaching or in answering questions. Many bonzes were often present at the sermons, and a great number of others, both of the common people and of the nobility. The house was always full of men,—so full, that at times some were shut out for want of space. Those who asked us questions pressed them so well home, that the answers we gave enabled them thoroughly to understand the falsehood of their own laws and founders, and the truth of the Christian law. After dis­putes and questionings for many days, they at last began to give in and betake themselves to the faith of Christ.

The first of all to do this were those who in the discussions and questions had shown themselves our most strenuous adver­saries. Many of these were persons of good birth, who, when they had embraced Christianity, became our friends with an amount of warmth which I can find no words to describe. And these new Christians told us with the greatest faithfulness the mysteries, or rather the absurdities, of the Japanese reli­gion. As I said at first, there are as many as nine sects in Japan, and they are very different one from another in their teaching and ordinances. When we got to know the opinions-

of these sects, we began to look up arguments by which to re­fute them. So we used to press hard by daily questions and arguments the sorcerer bonzes and other enemies of the Chris­tian law, and we did this so efficiently, that at last they did not venture to open their mouths against us when we attacked and refuted them.

When the Christians saw the bonzes convicted and silenced they were of course full of joy, and were daily more and more confirmed in the faith of our Lord. On the other hand, the heathen, who were present at these discussions, were greatly shaken in their own religion, seeing the systems of their fore­fathers giving way. The bonzes were much displeased at this, and when they were present at the sermons and saw that a great number became Christians daily, they began to accuse them severely for leaving their ancestral religion to follow a new faith. But the others answered that they embraced the Chris­tian law because they had made up their minds that it was more in accordance with nature than their own, and because they found that we satisfied their questions while the bonzes did not.

The Japanese are very curious by nature, and as desirous of learning as any people ever were. So they go on perpetually telling other people about their questions and our answers. They desire very much to hear novelties, especially about re­ligion. Even before our arrival we are told that they were perpetually disputing among themselves, each one contending that his own sect was the best. But after they had heard what we had to say, they left off their disputes about their own rules of life and religions, and all began to contend about the Chris­tian faith. It is really very wonderful that in so large a city as Amanguchi in every house and in every place men should be talking constantly about the law of God. But if I were to go into the history of all their questionings, I should have to write on for ever.

The Japanese have a very high opinion of the wisdom of the Chinese, whether as to the mysteries of religion or as to manners and civil institutions. They used to make that a

principal point against us, that if things were as we preached, how was it that the Chinese knew nothing about them ? After many disputations and interrogatories, the people of Amanguchi began to join the Church of Christ, some from the lower orders and some from the nobility. In the space of two months quite as many as five hundred have become Christians. Their num­ber is daily being added to; so that there is great cause for joy, and for thanking God that there are so many who embrace the Christian faith, and who tell us all the deceptions of the bonzes, and the mysteries contained in their books and taught by their sects. For those who have become Christians used to belong, one to one sect, another to another; the most learned of each of them explained to us the institutions and rules of his own way of belief. If I had not had the work of these converts to help me, I should not have been able to become sufficiently acquainted with, and so to attack, these abominable religions of Japan. It is quite incredible how much the Christians love us. They are always coming to our house to ask whether we have anything at all which we wish them to do for us. All the Japanese appear naturally very obliging; certainly the Chris­tians among them are so very good to us that it would be im­possible to exceed their extreme kindness and attentiveness.

May God in His mercy repay them with His favour, and give us all His heavenly bliss ! Amen.

Amanguchi [July 1551].

The incidents which are but slightly sketched in the fore­going letter are dwelt upon much more fully in other letters which were not dispatched by Francis to Europe until after his return to India. We must here, therefore, to some extent, an­ticipate what might otherwise have to be said by way of com­mentary on those letters. It is clear that after his interview with the Prince of Naugato, the position of Francis was greatly changed in the eyes of the people. He now reaped the harvest which he had sown some months before at Amanguchi in the midst of humiliation and ill success. He preached frequently and copiously; and after the sermon, as he tells us, there was a dispute concerning religion that sometimes lasted for several

hours. From his later letters we gather that he was hardly left time to recite his breviary, or to take his food or rest, on ac­count of the throng of persons who came to the monastery which had been allotted to him as a residence, in order to ask questions and propose difficulties concerning religion. We have here two facts which must have taxed his energies to the utmost, and the companions and witnesses of his labours tell us that now, as on former occasions—perhaps even in Japan, for there is nothing to limit their evidence to his sojourn at Amanguehi alone—Francis Xavier was assisted by the peculiar gift of apos­tolic men like himself: his sermons were not those of a foreigner who had scarcely learnt the language of the country in which he was speaking, but he spoke freely, flowingly, elegantly, as if he had lived in Japan all his life. There is evidence also that at this time he preached fluently in Chinese to the merchants of China who traded in the port of Simonoseki.

Another wonderful form of the same gift is also mentioned in the accounts of Francis while at Amanguehi, which reminds us of the manifestation of miraculous power on the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles spoke in one language and were understood in several, persons from so many different parts of the world hearing their words each one as if spoken in the lan­guage of his own country. When several questions were put to Francis at the same time by different persons in the crowd, he made one answer which satisfied all. In after years, when other missioners succeeded him in Japan, the people complained that they did not answer their questions as immediately as the first teacher of Christianity they had seen.

Everything that we hear about the Japanese at this time shows how foreigners were struck with the extraordinary inquisi­tiveness with which their active intelligent minds flew upon the theological and philosophical questions raised by the introduc­tion of a new religion. We have seen how Francis himself thought it a matter of wonder that the whole city should be talking of the law of God. It was not the languid critical curiosity which St. Paul found among the idle speculators at Athens. Japan was a new soil for the seed of divine truth to

fall upon : it had not as yet rejected the faith, and amid the mass of corruption and error which it presented to the eyes of its Apostle there were singular elements of good, which he seems to attribute to the natural uprightness and reasonable­ness of the national character. The Japanese, as he describes them, were a sturdy honest race, not effeminate, not frivolous, not childish. False religions had long overlaid the remains of primeval truth which had been handed down from the earliest fathers of mankind; the religious and devotional instincts which are innate in man had been attracted by fabulous deities, behind whose imaginary powers lurked the indefatigable enemies of the human race; and the natural law itself had, in more than one of its most immediate developments, become obscure and hid­den in their minds. Thus inhuman cruelty was the rule as to children, who, either before or after they were born, were mur­dered by their parents without its being considered a crime. Suicide was in some cases even honourable. Unnatural lusts reigned throughout the whole of society. Francis Xavier, as we have seen, was perfectly conscious of this; and yet in the true spirit of that large and noble theology which he had so eagerly studied in Paris, and which came to be now so service­able to him in a land which no European had heard of when he was a student, he could excuse much of what he saw on the plea of ignorance, and he rested his hopes of the conversion of many on the ground that they did not knowingly sin against reason, heinous as were the crimes which they committed. This account of their state is quite consistent with the serious ear­nestness with which these Japanese at Amanguchi applied themselves to theological discussions; and it made the work of missioners a real battle, a continual conflict of reason and argu­ment, in which hot answers, exaggerated statements, or illogical syllogisms, were sure to bring confusion even upon the advo­cates and defenders of truth.

This was something Francis had never met with since he left Paris, and his mind was evidently deeply impressed, not only with the necessity of immense interior humility and morti­fication in those who were to combat for the faith, in order to

secure the assistance of God, but also of trained intellect and capacity in wielding the weapons of theological argument, that the human part of the means of warfare might not be wanting. The Japanese were hungry for truth: they had minds that could see the difficulties which revelation presents, especially when it is historically considered; and the men who were to feed them with truth must be able to stand up against questionings, some of which, coming straight from the unsatisfied cravings of the human mind, breathed all the subtlety of the scholastic dispu­tations with which he had been familiar when he first made the acquaintance of Ignatius. In India there was nothing of this. If Francis could have penetrated, as Robert de’ Nobili after­wards penetrated, the more refined and recondite teaching ot the Brahmins, he might have found something more intellectual to cope with than he ever found. To him the Indians were a soft, vicious, ignorant, barbarous race, with little mind and no strength of character. If we can imagine a barbarous and hide­ous Corinth, India was like such a Corinth to Francis when he went there to do the work of St. Paul. If the Athens of St. Paul had been the Athens of the days of Socrates, young, vigor­ous, fresh, not more blooming with every artistic beauty than glowing in every vein with the purest and most active intellectual life, then Japan might be compared to such an Athens when Francis Xavier became prematurely grey in disputing with her children. •

We shall see how strongly Francis Xavier speaks in his letters to Ignatius Loyola and Simon Rodriguez of the neces­sity of sending only picked men to deal with the active in­telligent society on which he had come, as it were, by surprise. Another great element of difficulty in the way of the Gospel preachers must have been more obvious to him from the first —the opposition which was sure to arise from the powerful order of bonzes, under which name, as has already been said, he includes the ministers of all those different religions and sects which divided the Japanese among themselves to such an extent, that controversy was no new employment to them when Christianity appeared to draw the attention of all and the ani­

mosity of many on itself. When he wrote the letter which we have last inserted, he seems to have made some progress to­wards the intelligence of the different sects of this nation. It would seem that the ‘ concertation’ concerning religion, which he speaks of as ordinarily taking place after his sermons, was not a simple answering of questions and objections on his own part, but that he and his companions carried the war into the country of the enemy by asking of their opponents explanations of recognized facts, such as the existence of the world, and the like, and that they were glad also to ascertain from others the common answers given by the bonzes and learned men on such matters. The records of the College of Coimbra contain a very long paper, which professes to be a translation in Portuguese of an account given to Francis Xavier by Joam Fernandez of the questions discussed between Cosmo Torres and himself on the one hand, and a number of Japanese interrogators on the other, after Francis himself had left Amanguchi. The questions turn on all sorts of points,—the nature of God, creation, the dif­ference between men and beasts, the nature and immortality of the soul, the devils and angels, the way of sanctity, what hap­pens after death, hell, Paradise, and the like. Joam himself was the ‘chief speaker’ on these occasions, as he had learnt the lan­guage faster than Father Cosmo, and he most faithfully recounts the various objections and difficulties, ending by commending himself through Francis to the prayers of all the good brethren and fathers at Malacca and Goa, in the hope that they would soon come out and take up the controversy themselves.

Francis mentions in his subsequent letters the difficulty which had most weight upon the minds of his first converts at Amanguchi—the objection, namely, that, if no one could be saved without the observance of the law of God, it appeared strange that so good a God should have deferred till that time the publication of His law in Japan. Francis tells us first, in general, that he answered the difficulty so as to remove all scruple from their minds; and, a little later in the same letter, he mentions how he had shown them that God never left men without His law written in their hearts, or the witness of their

VOL. II. X

consciences, and that thus salvation was possible for them; as also, that if they were lost, it would have been by their own fault. The whole range of the controversy, as far as we can gather it, or imagine it with any certainty, is most interesting; and Francis Xavier was thus, in fact, called upon to make his ‘ Apology for Christianity’ as the earlier fathers had been called on to make the same to the heathen philosophers and emperors before whom they pleaded. In doing this he began a work which in China and India, as well as in other countries, was taken up by members of the Society in subsequent years, and which will only be duly appreciated and recognized when, if ever, the good Providence of God may reward the many labours spent and the many lives laid down in those countries for the sake of the Gospel by making those magnificent regions of Eastern Asia the homes of great and flourishing Churches of Jesus Christ.

We could hardly expect not to find these busy prosperous months of preaching at Arnanguchi illustrated by the miracles which so constantly accompanied the apostolic labours of Fran­cis Xavier. The two Japanese converts already mentioned gave their testimony that he had healed many sick persons by the sign of the Cross or by holy water. Other prodigies are re­corded. The most conspicuous prodigy of this time, however, was, in general, the holy mortified lives of the ambassadors of Christ, and in particular the meekness of Joam Fernandez, who, when a man approached him one day as he was preach­ing as if to whisper something into his ear, and then spat in his face, gently wiped away the spittle with his handkerchief, and went on with his sermon. It is said that this instance of humility and serenity brought about the most remarkable con­version of the time, that of a young doctor of great reputation for learning, who was about to enter among the bonzes. He was baptized by Francis Xavier, taking the name of Laurence, and was soon afterwards received into the Society. His name became famous in the annals of the infant Church of Japan.

The King of Boungo.

The letter of Francis Xavier to the Society at Goa which was last inserted does not speak of any intention on his part of returning to India. It is, however, likely that as soon as he found the serious nature of the intellectual work before the missioners who were to attempt the conversion of Japan, he became aware of the necessity of selecting carefully the men to whom the task was to be committed. Japan was by far the most promising as well as the most arduous field of labour which he had as yet met with; and Francis Xavier was not a man who would spare any pains to meet all the difficult require­ments of the work before him. Freed from many of the draw­backs which shackled the ministrations of the missioners in India, he found himself in presence of a nation of reasoners dominated, as to religious matters, by a strong and organized hierarchy of bonzes, in high credit with the people on account of their supposed learning, of the prestige of centuries, of the immense influence which the popular superstitions gave them, and of the external sanctity of their lives, though this last ele­ment of their reputation was not free from flaw and suspicion. Such a race of men were sure to bring very great power into the field against Christianity, which would destroy the sources of their wealth and influence by the same blow which shattered their fabulous creed. He had relied hitherto, as we have seen from his letters, on the men whom he had left behind him in India, or whom he had sent to the Moluccas, to be the future missioners of Japan. But after his experience at Cagoxima, Firando, and Amanguchi, he felt that he must seek for greater learning¹, greater readiness in theological disputation, if not for greater sanctity and selfdevotion, than he had as yet at his com­mand in the men who were to continue his work ; and on this

account it is by no means improbable that he would have re­turned to India to seek such among the fathers who must have arrived from Portugal during his absence, even if there had been no imperative reason for the westward voyage in the cir­cumstances of the Society over which he was bound to watch. It is certain that after he had been two years in Japan, he be­gan to think it necessary once more to turn his eyes towards Malacca and Goa.

Religion had now made very considerable advances in Amanguchi. Francis was very cautious in admitting converts until they had been well instructed and proved, and yet we find, either at the date of which we are speaking or a little later, the Christians in the city numbering as many as three thousand souls. The bonzes lost their young disciples in troops, and the instruction given to the converts was so solid and at the same time so intelligible, that laymen and even women were found able to meet the ministers of their former religion in ar­gument, and easily confute their sophistries and fables. On the other hand, whenever, to regain their credit, they attempted to meet Francis himself on the ground of argument, they found themselves confounded, silenced, and made ridiculous. They betook themselves, therefore, to endeavours to influence the King or Prince of Naugato by the fear of the calamities with which the just anger of the native gods of Japan would be sure to visit him and his states if the new religion were any longer tolerated. Oxindono could not revoke his edicts : he had ac­cepted Francis as an envoy bearing presents from the Governor of India, and it is probable that he would have feared alienat­ing the Portuguese merchants, to conciliate whom seems to have been generally an object among the petty kings of Japan at this time. But he secretly persecuted the converts, confis­cating their goods, and the like—a measure, however, which only increased their fervour; and Francis Xavier was able to bear them witness that there was no one of them who was not ready to lose all that he had, and even his life itself, for the sake of his faith. This spirit of martyrdom was characteristic of the Japanese Christians from the very beginning; and it tes­

tifies to the thorough instruction given to them by the mission­ed, as well as to the influence of the apostolic sanctity and greatness of soul which were conspicuous in their first great teacher. Meanwhile the bonzes of Amanguehi were serving the cause of the Gospel in another way—by spreading over the country a number of libellous charges against the new preachers and their doctrine, and thereby turning the public attention forcibly upon them.

It must have been about the end of August 1551 that Francis learnt that a Portuguese ship was staying at Figi, the port of Fucheo, capital of the kingdom of Boungo, of which in­cidental mention has already been made. The kingdom of Boungo lies on the northeastern coast of the large island of Ximo or, as it is called in modern maps, Kiou Siou,—the same part of the Japanese group in which Satsouma and its capital Caxogima are placed. The King himself appears to have sent to inform Francis of the arrival of the Europeans and to beg him to visit him. Mendez Pinto, who was one of the Portuguese merchants belonging to the ship, reckons the dis­tance from Figi to the point of Kiou Siou opposite to Simono- seki as about sixty leagues. The captain of the party, Duarte (Edward) Gama, was charged with some letters to Francis, from which he could learn how much his presence was re­quired in India. As soon as Francis Xavier heard of their arrival, he sent a Christian convert to them with the following letter:

(lxxxv.) To the Merchants at the Port of Figi.

The direction of this letter will not, as is usual, bear the names of you to whom it is addressed, and you will be the less surprised at this when you learn, what is the truth, that the very reason why I write is to know your names. I pray you to be so kind as to tell me who you are ? what is the name of the ship which has brought you hither ? did you leave every­thing at peace and quiet at Malacca when you set sail ? I beg

of you to be so good as to write us a short answer informing us- of these things. Meanwhile, I beseech you not to take it amiss if I suggest to you to steal a little spare time from the occupa­tion of your business in order to spend it upon the examination of your consciences. Believe me, that, after all, is the one mer­chandize by far the most profitable of all merchandizes, and the profit which comes from it comes very much quicker, and is much more abundant, than that which is the fruit of the ex­change of the wares of Europe with the skins or silks of China, although it be true that the profit of that lastnamed trade is- cent per cent, as much as the capital itself. I was thinking, if it so pleased God, of making an excursion hence to salute you, as soon as I receive your answer. May our Lord God in His immense clemency keep us all with His divine Hand ever over us, and preserve us, by His grace, in this life, constant and firm in the service of His Supreme Majesty ! Amen.

Your brother in Christ,

Amanguchi, Sept. i, 1551. FRANCIS.¹

¹ Mendez Pinto, who gives a narration of all that passed while he be­longed to the party of merchants at Figi, as well as during the subsequent voyage of Francis Xavier, quotes the letter rather differently from the text that we have followed, which was found at Macao by Father Philippucci. The latter part of the letter js much the same in both versions, and it is quite possible that Mendez Pinto’s copy maybe correct, the beginning of the original having been perhaps tom off as a relic before the time of Father Philippucci’s visit. Mendez Pinto gives it as follows:

‘ May the love and grace of Jesus Christ, our true God and Saviour, dwell always in your hearts, through His holy mercy ! Amen.

‘ By some letters of advice which the merchants of this city have received, they have been informed of your happy arrival in this country. But inas­much as the news has not seemed to me so true as I desire in my soul that it may be, I have thought well to assure myself thereof truly by means of the Christian whom I send to you. Wherefore I pray you very urgently to let me know by him whence you at present come, also from what port you have set sail, and at what time you reckon upon returning to China, for I would much wish, if such were the good pleasure of God, to endeavour as far as is possible to me to pass this year from hence to India. You will also oblige me greatly if it please you to let me know your names and that of your ship by the same means, and also of the captain who commands it, giving me also certain tidings whether all is in peace and tranquillity at Malacca.’ [Then follows the exhortation to devote some time to the regu­lation of their conscience.] Voyages de Mendez Pinto, t. iii. c. 208.

This letter of Francis Xavier caused great joy to the Portu­guese. Such was his reputation all over the East, so much in particular had his open affable charity endeared him to the sea­faring class, among whom much of his time was necessarily spent, that we are told that his arrival anywhere was welcomed joyously by merchants and sailors, who always showed him special marks of reverence and love. The merchants imme­diately sent him news from India and Malacca—probably the letters which had been confided to them by Francesco Perez —and informed him that they were to sail in about a month for China; that there were three on board who were bound for Goa at the beginning of the next year, and that one of their company was Diego Pereira, his own intimate friend. Francis immediately set out with three Japanese Christians, one of whom, it appears, was the young doctor, Laurence, having first summoned Father Cosmo Torres to join Joam Fernandez in charge of the Christians of Amanguchi. After journeying on foot to within a few miles of Figi, he fell ill, his feet were swollen, and he had a violent headache; so he sent on the Japanese to inform the merchants of his approach. The Portuguese at once set out to meet him, riding themselves and leading a horse for him to mount if he would. * Having set out,’ says Mendez Pinto, ‘ we had hardly gone a little more than a quarter of a league when we met him coming in the company of two Christians, whom within a month he had con­verted to the faith, men of the highest quality in the kingdom. For this reason the King of Amanguchi, availing himself of their conversion as of a specious pretext, had confiscated the income they had of two thousand taels, which are worth three thousand ducats. Now, inasmuch as we were all in our holi­day dress, and mounted on good horses, we were quite struck with confusion to meet him in so sorry a plight; for besides that he was on foot, he carried 011 his shoulders a bundle in which were all the things necessary for saying mass. It is true that the two Christians who followed him relieved him from time to time, and helped him to carry this burthen. To say the truth, the thing astonished us and saddened us much. But

because he would never accept any of our horses, we were ob­liged to accompany him on foot, although it was against his will; and this served for a great example to the two new con­verts. When we arrived at the river of Figi, where the ship was at anchor, he was received with all the show of joy that it was possible for us to offer him, insomuch that all the artillery was fired off four several times, consisting of sixty-three “berches,” falconnets, and other pieces, so that the noise was very great, on account of the hollow rocks which were thereabout. But the king, who at that time was at the city, astonished at so ex­traordinary a thing and at hearing us fire in this way, imagined that we were fighting some squadrons of corsairs which were reported in the city to be upon the coasts, and sent at once in great haste a man of quality to ask us what it was. He ad­dressed himself to Duarte de Gama, and gave him the king’s message, with some offer of aid agreeable to the occasion. But the captain answered him, in words full of courtesy, thank­ing him kindly for his offers, that we were rejoicing at the arri­val of Father Francis, because he was a holy man, for whom the King of Portugal, our master, had great respect. The gen­tleman was no less astonished at what he heard than at what he saw. “ I must confess to you,” he said to Duarte de Gama, “that I shall go back in great confusion, and not knowing what answer to give to my king; for our bonzes have assured him that this man of whom you speak to me is not a saint, as you say, but that it is certainly true that they have sometimes seen him talking to the devil, with whom he has a secret under­standing; and that for the rest, he does by witchcraft some mar­vellous things, whereat ignorant persons are astonished; and that he is so miserable and so poor, that the very vermin with which he is covered have pity on him, and will not eat his flesh. So that I have considerable fear that they will lose all the credit which they have with the king when he knows the contrary of what they say, and that he will never more see them or listen to them; for it seems most likely indeed that a man whom you prize so much, and whom you receive with so much rejoicing and honour, is in truth such a one as you

say, and not such as the bonzes have pictured him to the king.” ’

The messenger returned to the King of Boungo, who imme­diately sent a young noble of his own family with a letter to the ‘father bonze of Chimahicogim’—the Japanese name for Por­tugal—begging him to come and see him. Mendez Pinto gives the letter in full, and there is no reason for supposing that his version is not, in the main, authentic. The young noble who bore it came down the river in a sort of state barge, well at­tended, and was received with a salute of fifteen cannon, which pleased him greatly. It was determined that Francis should proceed to Fucheo, up the river, on the morrow. The Portu­guese captain and his friends insisted on being allowed to escort him with every possible mark of honour; and although Francis resisted out of humility, he had to give way, probably thinking that it was important for the interests of religion that an im­pression should be made on the King and on his subjects.²

The description of the progress of Francis Xavier to make his visit to the King of Boungo is a perfectly characteristic bit of Mendez Pinto’s narrative, and illustrates also that love of display which was as inherent in the character of the Portuguese as was loyalty to their King and to their faith. Every one, says Mendez, did his best on the occasion. ‘ We embarked in the shallop of the ship, and in two pinnaces (manchuas), which had their standards and their banners of silk, on board which also there were trumpets and hautboys, which sounded alter­nately—a novelty which seemed so great to the people of the country, and astonished them so much, that when we arrived at the quay, we had a difficulty in landing, for the great num­ber of people who had crowded together there. There met us the Quamsyandono, Captain of Canafama, and by the express order of the King he had a litter with him in which he wished to place the Father. But he would not accept of it on account of his respect for us, and walked straight to the palace accom­panied by a number of nobles and thirty of us Portuguese. There were also our servants, in number as many as ourselves,

* Mendez Pinto, t. iii. c. 209-213 (for all related in this chapter).

all finely dressed, and having gold chains round their necks. Father Francis had a full cassock of black camlet, a surplice over it, and a stole of green velvet brocaded with gold. In his suite walked our captain with a baton in his hand, as major- duomo, and there followed him five of the most honourable and richest of the merchants, who, as if they had been the Father’s servants, carried with much ceremony certain things in their hands, as for example, one carried a book in a cover of white satin’ (this book was the translation of the ‘ Catechetical Instruction’), ‘ another some slippers of black velvet which we happened to have with us, another a Bengal cane with a gold enchasing, another a picture of our Blessed Lady wrapped in a scarf of violet damask, and another a parasol to be held over a person when walking; and in this order and array we passed through the nine principal streets of the city, where there was so great a crowd that every place was full of people to the very roofs of the houses.’

Mendez goes on to relate how, when they arrived at the court of the palace, they found a hundred men drawn up, armed with darts and lances and scimitars richly adorned. They next came to a long gallery, and here the merchants knelt before the Father, and each presented to him the article which he had been carrying, filling the Japanese nobles who were looking on with admiration at the dignity and majesty of the person to whom they thus paid homage. Then they came to a great hall in which were a number of gentlemen clothed in satin and damask of divers colours, with short swords covered with plates of gold. Here a child of between six and seven years of age, led by an old man, approached the Father, and made him a little speech, praying that his arrival at the King’s palace might be as pleasant to both of them as the rain which God sends from heaven when the ricefields suffer from drought. Some sentences of this kind passed between Francis and the child, who seemed to speak with an intelligence far beyond his years, and then they went on through another chamber, where a number of ‘lords of the kingdom rose up to make theirgro- menares to the Father, as they call their compliments,’ putting

their heads thrice to the ground; then through another long gal­lery, bordered by orange trees, to another hall where the King’s brother received the visitors; and at last, after an almost endless series of rooms, they arrived in the presence chamber of the iKing, who advanced five or six steps to meet Francis, would not let him kneel to him, but, on the contrary, paid to him himself the respectful salutation of the gromenctre.

We must, however, forbear from giving the full narrative of this remarkable interview. The King received Francis with the utmost respect, made him sit by his own side, and provoked a bonze who was present to rebuke him severely and to break out into a long and passionate eulogium on his own order. The King at last lost patience, and ordered him out of the room.

[ The bonze departed, calling down the anger of heaven upon such kings. Then the King made Francis Xavier sit at the same table with himself, and also entertained the Portuguese visitors. Francis knelt to kiss his scimitar, a sign of great respect in Japan, and prayed that the God of heaven might reward him for his goodness by giving him His own grace, that he might make profession of His holy law as His true servant, and come after death to enjoy His presence eternally. The interview ended with great expressions of amity on both sides.

This Civan, King of Boungo, whose name meets us con­tinually in the early annals of the Church of Japan, was a young man of about twenty-two years of age, brave, intelligent, and just. His reputation was very high among the princes of Japan. His life was stained by some great impurities, of that abomin­able kind which was so prevalent in his country. Except this great blot, his character was untarnished. He is said, a few years before this time, to have interfered with his father in, favour of some Portuguese merchants, whose ship with her rich cargo the King was advised by some of his counsellors to seize. Civan defended the strangers out of compassion and' a natural love of justice. They found out their danger after it was over, and also discovered to whom they had owed their safety. Some of them conversed with the young prince about the Christian religion. He had also heard of Francis Xavier,.

at the time of his preaching at Amanguehi, and was well dis­posed to receive him for his own sake, and not alone on motives of policy.³ .

This interview between Civan and Francis Xavier removed •all difficulty as to the public preaching of Christianity in the i kingdom of Boungo. Francis began immediately, and his efforts I were eminently successful. Converts came to him daily. A great sensation was produced by the conversion of a certain j Saqay Gyran, a learned bonze of Canafama, who, after disputing a good deal in public with Francis, gave way one day in the ' presence of a large audience, and made a public profession of his faith in Jesus Christ. Francis was so continually occupied with the Japanese that the Portuguese complained. They could only see him late at night and in the early morning, when he was at their service to hear their confessions. He told them, however, that they must never wait for him at meal times, as the food in which he delighted was to be occupied in restoring souls to their Redeemer. He was still very cautious in admit­ting new converts to baptism until he had fully instructed them, and he kept many waiting rather than expose them too soon to the trials which were sure to fall upon them. He had long confer­ences with Civan, and though he did not succeed in making him a Christian, he prepared him for conversion by inducing him to amend his life. The prince dismissed one who was the •object of an impure attachment to him. He had before been niggardly in dealing with the poor, on account of the false teaching of the bonzes, who held that poverty was a sin; he now became a great almsgiver, and he even issued an cdict against the prevalent custom which shocked so much the tender heart of Francis, by which infants were frequently put to death

³ Charlevoix, Hist, du Japon, 1. i. § 8, p. 213, says that this prince ■was the same mentioned by Fernand Mendez Pinto in the passage already referred to (see ante, p. 103) as having met with a severe accident when trying to fire ofF an arquebuse. The age there mentioned would certainly suit Civan; but the prince is named by Mendez Pinto as Arichandono, and is said to have been the second son of the King of Boungo. If he were the same as Civan, it seems strange that Mendez Pinto should not say so, as he might himself have been recognized and welcomed by the prince.

Revolution at Amanguchi.

3*7

(either in their mothers’ womb or as soon as they were born. The bonzes were furious, and decried and calumniated Francis IXavier to the utmost of their power; but to no effect, on ac­count of the cordial support afforded to him by Civan.

Meanwhile, a sudden and terrible danger threatened Father >Cosmo Torres and his companion Joam Fernandez at Aman­guchi. After the departure of Francis, as we learn from a letter ^written to him by Joam, the Japanese bonzes and others, who had learnt to be afraid of the powerful words with which he had been wont to silence their objections, thronged around Father Cosmo, hoping to find him less of a master in argument We have already mentioned the long list of questions which Joam faithfully transmitted to Francis Xavier. The bonzes of Amanguchi are said to have been so confounded with their ill success in argument with Joam and Father Cosmo, and their inability also to move Oxindono to take any active steps against the missioners, that they incited a sudden revolt against the prince on the part of one of his great lords, which took him by complete surprise. Whether the bonzes were at the bottom of the movement or not, Oxindono lost heart, and perhaps over estimated the danger. He acted like a true Japanese : he shut himself up in his palace, had it set on fire, stabbed his son with his own hand, and then cut himself open. The confusion which followed was a perilous time for the new Christians and still more so for their teachers, but it seems to have been soon over. There was a short interval of plunder and massacre, but no Christians suffered. The missioners were sought for, but they were safe. The wife of a chief noble forced some bonzes, who depended upon her gifts, to receive the two strangers for a time ; and then, for still greater security, she concealed them in her own palace.⁴ The storm soon passed away, and when order was restored the nobles of the kingdom of Naugato met to elect a new sovereign, and fixed upon the brother of the King of Boungo, who was already predisposed to favour the Chris­tians. It must have been about this time that Francis deter-

⁴ This lady was the wife of Nectandono, and is mentioned, with her husband, in the letter of Francis to Europe (below, p. 341).

mined to build a small church for the use of the Christians at Amanguchi. He borrowed the necessary money from the Portuguese merchants at Fucheo.

The time was now approaching when the Portuguese ship must sail for the coast of China, whither the captain was bound to convey the merchants who had embarked in his vessel. Francis went to take leave of the king, and had a long and ear­nest conversation with him on the topics which had been dis­cussed between them in their frequent conferences. He spoke particularly of the uncertainty and shortness of life; he bade him think of the handful of dust and ashes which was now all that remained of so many great kings and emperors of whom the history of Japan told him, and urged him, before it was too late, to provide for his own soul. His words were not to bear their fruit for many years. Civan was withheld by considera­tions of policy and prudence, perhaps also by the fascination of passion not altogether put away. Francis Xavier was on the point of leaving him, when an attendant announced that the famous bonze Fucarandono was outside desiring to speak with his Highness. Fucarandono was one of the great lights of the country: he had attained a grade in the hierarchical system of the Buddhists which but few reached, and had been for thirty years a teacher in one of their most renowned seats of learning. He was then the superior of a monastery called Mias Gimaa, some few leagues from Fucheo, and had been requested by his brethren at that place to come and help them in their contest with the European teacher. The name of Fucarandono appeared to disconcert the king, who was afraid, from his very great re­putation, that he might prove too difficult an adversary even for Francis. Francis begged that he might be asked to come in, and Fucarandono entered.

The accounts of the various conferences and disputes be­tween Francis Xavier and this famous bonze, which are given at considerable length by many of the biographers of the for­mer, appear to be originally derived from the narrative of Men­dez Pinto, from which we have already quoted. As Mendez was very unlikely to invent arguments of the kind, and as he

candidly confesses that he does not always remember the ans­wers given by the Father to the objections and questions urged upon him, we may feel more secure in accepting his statements than if they had come to us from the pen of some theological writer of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, in which it was not considered unlawful even for historians to follow the example of writers such as Thucydides, Livy, or Tacitus, and put speeches of their own into the mouths of the persons con­cerned in some actual scene. Mendez, like many travellers in regions unknown to the men of their own day, was once thought a great romancer, but the verdict of modern criticism is more favourable to him than that of some of his own contemporaries. But if he has ever yielded to the temptation of telling ‘ travel­lers’ tales’ in his most amusing book, it has been on subjects very different in character from that of these conferences at which he was present; and we may fairly accept his narrative as giving us a most interesting insight into the sort of points as to which the controversy was waged, in which moreover he is entirely i consistent with Francis Xavier’s own statements.

After the first compliments, which were ceremoniously paid on both sides, the King asked the bonze why he had come. Fucarandono replied that he had come to see and take leave of the Father of Chenchico⁵ before he left. He then asked Francis, says Mendez, whether he remembered him ? ‘ Cer­tainly not, for I have never seen you before,’ said the Father. It seems to have been a part of the doctrine concerning the transmigration of souls held by these bonzes that it was a reward of virtue to remember what had passed in a former stage of existence, and a mark of weakness or wickedness to forget it. This was probably the reason why Fucarandono began on this point. He then asked Francis whether he had any more of the stuff which he had sold him at Frenojama fifteen hundred years ago, when he had sold him fifty ‘ picos’ of silk ? Francis asked

⁵ Here again we have the name Chenchico, which has given us much trouble on account of Francis Xavier’s statement about the University of i ‘ Jenico’ or Chinghinquo (see ante, p. 75), from which the religions of China, Tartary, and Japan were derived. We are inclined to conjecture that the word must simply be a name for the ‘ West.’

him quietly how old he was ? Fucarandono replied that he was fifty-two. ‘ How then is it possible that fifteen hundred years ago you were a merchant, and that I sold merchandize to you ? And if it is true what you bonzes preach publicly, that Japan was only peopled six hundred years ago, how can you have traded at Frenojama fifteen hundred years ago, since you would have us believe that at that time the country was a desert?’

The bonze, rather disconcerted, went on to lay down his doctrine about the eternity of the world, the endless number of lives through which all human souls pass, and the like, as well as on the blessing of a good memory. All this the Father, says Mendez Pinto, refuted thrice over with words so clear, reasons so evident, and comparisons so apt and natural, that the bonze was struck with confusion, ‘ of which reasons,’ he adds, ‘ I shall not speak here in order to avoid prolixity, and much more be­cause I avow that my wit is not capable of understanding them.’ Fucarandono then went on with the general subject, and after­wards asked Francis Xavier why he forbade the unnatural lusts so common in Japan. Here again Mendez tells us that the Father reasoned so clearly and so forcibly as to carry with him the approval of those who were present, whereupon the bonze be­came furious, and broke out into outrageous language. The bystanders interfered, and the prince himself—whose dinner time had arrived—told him abruptly to leave the room, and that if he had not been a bonze he would have had his head cut off.

This dismissal of Fucarandono, however, entailed grave con­sequences, which enable us to understand more completely the position of the King towards the bonzes, and the danger to which even he was exposed in favouring the Christian teachers. The bonzes broke out into open hostility to the Court, and if they had been able to find, as at Amanguchi, one or more powerful lords to take up theirquarrel, the danger which Cosmo deTorres and Joam Fernandez had incurred would have been repeated in the case of Francis Xavier. As it was, the bonzes put Fucheo under a sort of interdict. They shut up their temples, refused to offer any sacrifices for the people, and even declined alms,

as if heaven was irrevocably offended by the toleration of the new preaching. The people began to move, and the King was obliged to act with great prudence. The Portuguese, brave as they naturally were, took the alarm, and all went on board their ship. It must be remembered that their departure was already fixed upon; still, there can be no doubt that they thought them­selves and Francis in great danger. He had retired to a poor hut with a few native Christians, and was there quietly waiting the issue of the affair. Duarte de Gama, the captain, went to find him and urge him at once to take refuge on board the ves­sel. We have seen more than once how Francis had spoken of the blessedness of dying for the faith and the name of Jesus Christ; how it had been remarked of him that he seemed al­ways to have martyrdom in his heart and on his lips. The moment of which we are speaking was perhaps that moment in his life at which he seemed to be nearer to the fulfilment of his desire than at any other. He told the captain that he knew that he was unworthy of the great favour of being put to death for such a cause. He begged him to excuse him to the mer­chants on whose part he came, that for the present he could not follow their advice, as by so doing he should give great scandal to the new converts to the faith, and give them a very bad ex­ample, by which the devil and his adherents would profit. He begged Duarte, therefore, to set sail in all freedom in order to discharge his engagements to his passengers; but for himself he was obliged to do otherwise out of regard to his merciful God, Who in order to save him had Himself died upon a cross.

There was no resisting the appeal implied in these words. The captain went back to the ship, and offered to make it over with all its cargo to the passengers in quittance of his engage­ment ; they might take it and go—he would remain with the Father, and never abandon him. His resolution was contagious. The merchants all resolved to wait, whatever happened. The ship, which had left her moorings in preparation for sailing, returned to her former place, and the Christians were as much encouraged as the bonzes were mortified at seeing the readi­ness with which rich men of the world like the merchants were

VOL. II. y

willing to risk their property and lives in the service of Francis Xavier.

The decision of the Portuguese merchants had a great effect on the enemies of Christianity. The tumult caused by the bonzes seems to have subsided as rapidly as it had arisen, and they themselves were driven to new measures, more in accord­ance with reason and right in their opposition to Francis. It is to this that we owe the account of one of the most curious scenes in his life, the details of which are, however, very imper­fectly given to us by the friendly chronicler, Mendez Pinto. The biographers of Francis, and the historian of the Church of Japan, have endeavoured to fill up the gaps in the narrative of the Portuguese adventurer, and something may be gathered from the statements made by Francis himself in his letters to Europe. Except, however, this last source of information, the accounts given by Bartoli, Charlevoix, and others, of the con­ferences of which we are about to speak, must be considered rather as representing what probably took place than what is certainly recorded.

The conferences in question were the result of a renewed attempt on the part of the bonzes to silence and confute the Christian preacher. That they should have adopted this policy may be taken as an evidence of the truth of what Francis Xavier so often asserted about the Japanese, both as to their extraordinary love of discussion and as to their general readi­ness to bend to the decision of reason. We have no cause for supposing that there were not among the bonzes, as among the rest of the Japanese, many who were sincerely in search of truth, and eagerly desirous to submit to it at any cost to themselves, though they had a more direct interest than any other class in the population in the maintenance of the national religion, and perhaps also, as Francis Xavier says, were frequently more impure in their lives than those whom they taught. Their in­fluence over the people was undoubtedly very great, while at the same time the whole conduct of the King of Boungo and his lords seems to show that the aristocracy were ready enough to see them turned to ridicule and reduced to silence, and were

not afraid to act violently against them. But in any parallel case, as in theirs, we should probably find more reasonable­ness and goodness of intention than we might at first sight sus­pect. From whatever motive, however, the bonzes had proposed that the dispute between their great champion Fucarandono and Francis Xavier should be renewed. The King at once assented, and as the Portuguese ship could not delay long, the confer­ence began immediately.

On the first day, to all appearance, some attempt was made to intimidate the King, or at least his foreign guests. Fucaran­dono appeared at the palace gates escorted by three thousand bonzes, all of whom desired to be present at the disputation. The King, however, refused admittance to all but four with Fu­carandono himself. Francis came at the same time, escorted by the Portuguese merchants and their captain, who had re­solved to show him, if possible, still more honour on this occa­sion than when they had accompanied him on his first visit of ceremony to the palace. They were gorgeously dressed with chains of gold, and they waited on him as his servants, kneel­ing to him when he spoke to them, and carrying in their hands their caps garnished with pearls. The bonzes, says Mendez, were filled alike with displeasure and astonishment. Certain rules of the discussions had been agreed upon at the request of Francis, in order that they might not degenerate into mere con­versation, or be interrupted by violence and outrageous language. These rules were, that they should speak with moderation and without abusive language; that the disputants should accept the decision of the bystanders as to what was reasonable; that at the end of the disputation judgment should be given by a majority of voices; that the bonzes should not directly nor indi­rectly hinder those who wished to become Christians; that when a contradiction arose in the argument, appointed judges should decide upon it; and lastly, that what was proved by actual reason and accepted by the common judgment of men should be acknowledged as true.

The disputes lasted five days, and we have, as has been said, but very imperfect reports of what took place, especially

of the answers and arguments alleged by Francis Xavier him-1 self. It is, however, not difficult to gather a general idea of the line which the controversy took. The first disputation was opened by Fucarandono in a tone less haughty and more gen- tie than that which he had before used. The King had asked the general question, Why the bonzes objected to the preach-' ing of the new law? Fucarandono stated the objections very naturally. The new law was altogether contrary to theirs, and tended to the discredit of the service of the old gods of the country; the precepts of the foreign teacher condemned things which had always been permitted by their old Cubocamas; he gave out publicly everywhere that the salvation of men was only to be found in the doctrine which he himself preached ; and that the ‘ holy Fatoquins, Xaca, Amida, Gizon, and Canom, were enduring perpetual torments in a profound pit in the house of smoke, handed over by the justice of God to the old serpent of the abode of night.’ Francis desired that the objections to his teaching might be put one by one, so that he might answer them in the same way. This was agreed to, and Fucarandono asked him ‘ Why he spoke against the gods ?’

Mendez Pinto sums up the answer given by Francis in a few lines, and then tells us that all who heard him, except the bonzes themselves, were so convinced of the reasonableness of what he said, that Fucarandono was not allowed even to reply upon his answer. We can only gather from this that Francis Xavier enlarged upon the nature and attributes of God as they may be known, according to the doctrine of Scripture, from the visible creation, and from our experience of providence and conscience; that from this he went on to argue that these at- . tributes could only belong to one Supreme Author and Creator of all things, and that therefore Xaca, Amida, and the rest : could not have any right to the divine character. The contro- i versy, as so often happens, was then turned to a very different • subject, though one which, no doubt, was of great practical im- r portance to the bonzes who were arguing against Christianity. ’ They were in the habit of giving ‘ letters of credit’ on heaven, t by means of which, for the payment of a certain sum of money,.

the mourning relatives of deceased persons enriched in the next world those whom they had lost in proportion to their offerings. Francis was asked why he objected to these ‘cochu- miacos,’ as Mendez calls them. The question obviously opened the whole subject of heavenly rewards and of the means by which they are gained; and Mendez tells us that Francis Xavier spoke of good works wrought in faith and charity, of the Incarnation and Passion of our Lord, of redemption through His death, of baptism and perseverance; and also that he turned his argument against portions of the doctrine of the bonzes, the unreasonableness of which might easily be under­stood by any one, such as their denying salvation to women, their condemning all the poor to reprobation, and the evident worldly interest which they had in keeping up such a system as that of their letters of credit. Here again Mendez tells us that the audience were altogether on the side of the Christian argument.

This seems to have been the last point discussed during the first of these solemn disputations, over which the King himself presided, and at which a great crowd of nobles was always present. Of the following days we have even less of a detailed account in the narrative of Mendez Pinto. He tells us that some of the things which they put to Francis Xavier were very subtle and high, such as the human mind could not have ima­gined, while others were childish and easy things which any one could have answered. Sometimes they related to the most important subjects, and at others to the most trivial. He men­tions a few as specimens, and they are very interesting to us. Before going to the disputation Francis used to beg the prayers of the Portuguese, both, as he said, on account of the weak­ness of his own mind, and also because the devil spoke by the mouth of these enemies of the law of God. Mendez mentions the following difficulties. The first was the resumption of a point which had been touched on before, the doctrine of the bonzes concerning poverty. ‘ God was the enemy of the poor,’ they said, ‘ since He refused to them the good things which He gave to the rich. This was an evident mark that He did not

love them.’ This it was not difficult for Francis to refute, and the Portuguese reporter tells us that the bonze who argued this point was obliged to acknowledge his defeat. Another took his place with an ingenious piece of frivolity, which perhaps ap­peared to his companions as a miracle of cleverness. ‘ The Father,’ he said, ‘ had certainly come a great distance to teach the Japanese; but to what profit if his doctrine were false? There are, according to what he tells us, two Paradises,—one in heaven, one on earth, and one only can be enjoyed by any one. Now, Paradise is not the place of labour, but the place of repose. But man evidently has his Paradise here on earth. Kings, princes, great men, rich men, all rest in the enjoyment of their dignities, their wealth, their power; even the poor have their natural enjoyments. The creatures whose lot it is here to labour are the poor animals, beasts of burthen, and the like; their life is passed in toil and affliction, and the Paradise of the next world must be for them, and not for men, who are so prone to sin.’

This was intended, it would seem, to be an absurd conclu­sion deduced from what Francis Xavier taught about the bless­ings of the next world being the reward of sufferings endured here. Another objection of the bonzes was meant to meet his doctrine about the creation of all things by God—a doctrine entirely new to the Japanese—and the consequent dependence of everything upon Him. If God was to be so much honoured and thanked for having created all things, as the Father said, then Amida must have still greater honour for having preserved them. For they might have been good at the beginning, but they soon became degenerate and corrupt through sin, so that all would have fallen to nothing, but that Amida was bom of them. They said, says Mendez Pinto, that Amida was born eight hundred times, in order to give perfection of being to the eight hundred species of things which exist in the world. This statement looks like a mistake on the part of Mendez. It was Buddha, and not Amida, who was said to have been eighty thousand times born, in order to give substance and perfection to the eighty thousand species of the world. This argument

appears to have produced a quarrel among the bonzes them­selves, who, as Mendez tells us, were on the point of coming to blows in the presence of the King and the whole audience.

There is a family likeness about these objections, as well as a great air of probability. On the following day, the King came himself to invite Francis Xavier to the dispute, speaking of it as a kind of sport like hawking, and telling him that there were still two birds left for him to deal with. It would seem that the bonzes had prepared a long paper, full of objections of the same sort as those which have just been mentioned; but the King interfered, saying that the Portuguese could not be kept waiting from their homeward voyage for ever, and that the bonzes must cut the matter short. They then requested that they might simply ask Francis some very good things which they desired much to learn of him, and that there need be no disputation. Certainly the last conferences turned on more important and fundamental objections than those before urged—objections which will always be found in serious and thoughtful minds to whom the Christian doctrine of the uni­verse is presented, if they have not some high and reverential ideas concerning the nature and attributes of God, and His position and rights with regard to His creatures and the govern­ment of the universe which He has made for His own glory.

The bonzes, says Mendez, came to the Father and begged him to forgive them the past, and then asked him their new questions. It astonished them, they said, if God foresaw things past as well as future, by reason of His infinite know­ledge, how it was that He did not when creating the angels foresee the disorder which Lucifer and the rest would cause by their disobedience, so as to prevent the necessity of His divine justice having to condemn them to perpetual punish­ments. If He foresaw that, what could be the explanation why His divine mercy did not prevent an evil from which so many other evils would follow, so many offences against the Divine Majesty? But if to justify Him it is said that He did not see it, then what the Father taught concerning Him was false. Francis answered their difficulty, declaring to them

‘very largely,’ says the reporter, what was the truth in this matter; but they contradicted him with reasonings so subtle, that he turned to Duarte de Gama, who was by his side, and said, ‘ See ! what these people say does not come from them­selves, but from the devil who instructs them on this subject; nevertheless the confidence which I have in God makes me hope that He will answer for me.’ The bonzes seem to have got hot upon the answers which Francis gave, as the King re­buked them for their violence, and told them to listen to reason, and not bark like so many dogs; at which the nobles present began to smile, much to the disgust of the Japanese disputants. Mendez relates next how Fucarandono went back after this to objections of a more frivolous character. He had heard Francis invoke God under the name Dius or Dcus, and it seems that diusa in Japanese means a lie. In the same way the Japanese word sancte means something foul or profane. The objection was therefore urged on Francis that he called the Creator and Lord of all things a lie, and that in the Litanies of the Saints, which he used to recite with the Christians after mass, he called the Saints by a bad name. After hearing the explanation given by Francis, the King himself advised him to use another word, Beatc instead of Sancte.

Later on the dispute went back to more serious and funda­mental difficulties. The bonzes raised the question about God’s foreknowledge of the sin of Adam and its consequences. Why did He not prevent it? Again, they objected to the great de­lay which had taken place in bringing about the healing of the sins of the world by means of the Incarnation. If God was to send His Son to redeem the descendants of Adam after his fall, why did He not show more diligence in succouring so extreme a need ? And, they added, if it were replied that the delay was in order that men might learn the enormity and hideousness of sin, this was not enough to excuse God from a want of care and attention in waiting so long. All these diffi­culties, says Mendez, the Father answered with reasons so clear and pertinent that it was impossible to reply to him. The con­ference ended by the King rebuking the bonzes again for their

want of reasonableness. The Christian law, he said, was founded upon reason, and those who opposed it ought not to be so unable to meet it upon that ground. He took the Father by the hand, and, followed by all his Court, led him to the house where he usually abode with the Christians around him, the bonzes threatening meanwhile the vengeance of Heaven upon a king who allowed himself to be so easily misled by a sorcerer and worthless adventurer.

This is what is actually known to have passed in their cele­brated conferences. Several of the points raised in them are mentioned by Francis Xavier himself in the letter which we shall presently insert, though he seems to be speaking of the questionings addressed to him while at Amanguchi. The mix­ture of ingenious trifling with the serious difficulties which have been so often urged in every age and in every part of the world against the government of God in relation to His permission of evil, the delay of redemption, and the partial distribution of sav­ing truth, is very remarkable and very characteristic. Mendez Pinto’s narrative has every note of faithfulness and sincerity. The answers attributed to St. Francis Xavier by so many of his biographers do not rest on exactly the same authority as the questions of the bonzes as here given ; but they are perfectly in harmony with his own statements, as well, of course, as with Catholic theology. Here, at the farthest end of the known world, he found the benefit of those long years of intellectual and theological training which he had spent in the University of Paris. The Japanese bonzes were intelligent and clever; but the force of their objections did not lie in the ability of those by whom they were urged. It lay partly in the nature of the subjects to which they referred, inasmuch as the plan of God in the government of His creatures is a scheme which human in­telligence can never entirely comprehend, though faith and reason alike enable us to see that that scheme contains nothing ₍ that is unjust or unmerciful or in any way inconsistent with the [ character of God as He has revealed Himself to us. It lay partly also in the fact that the whole idea of God as a Creator, and, consequently, as absolute Lord over His creatures, who

have no rights before Him except such as result from His own ineffable holiness and the essential conditions of the nature which He has given them, was an entirely new thought even to the wisest of the Japanese, as well as in the constant tendency of human nature in its present condition to exalt itself and make itself the centre and arbiter of the world. And whenever even Christian minds are untrained in true thoughts and reflections concerning the dominion and the nature of God, and in the practice of that humility which is the natural attitude of a crea­ture in respect to its Creator, there will be a danger of their not seeing at once the answers to such difficulties as those now mentioned which are given by our Lord and His Apostles. More than this: after all has been said that Scripture and Ca­tholic theology teach us to say with regard to the government and providence of God, there will always remain that inade­quacy in our conceptions of both which leaves us much to adore without attempting fully to explain it, in that reverential spirit which made St. Paul exclaim after unravelling one great difficulty of this kind, the reprobation of the Jews: ‘O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God ! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and His ways how unsearchable !’⁵

Francis Xavier embarked with the Portuguese immediately after the close of these conferences. He first took an affection­ate and solemn farewell of the King, exhorting him once more to think most seriously over the danger of delay in embracing the religion of the truth of which he appeared to be convinced. We know from the letters of Francis Xavier how he could re­buke the good King of Portugal, on whose support, humanly speaking, the whole of the Indian missions depended, and he would certainly not be likely to be less freespoken in the pre­sence of the young King of Boungo. After his farewell, and a tender parting from the new Christians, Francis set sail on Nov. 20, 1551. He took with him the two Japanese Christians, Bernard and Matthias, who had already been for some time his- companions, as well as an envoy from the King of Boungo to­

* Rom. xi. 33. .

the Governor of the Indies, asking for the Portuguese alliance, and for Fathers of the Society to teach Christianity to his people.

The following letter was not written till the January of the following year, after Francis had arrived in India. But it sums up so completely the history of his sojourn in Japan that it will be better to insert it here, rather than defer it till after the ac­count of his homeward voyage.

(lxxxvi.) To the Society in Europe.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ be ever with us ! Amen.

By the favour of God we all arrived at Japan in perfect health on the 15th of August 1549. We landed at Cagoxima, the native place of our companions. We were received in the most friendly way by all the people of the city, especially the relations of Paul, the Japanese convert, all of whom had the blessing to receive the light of truth from heaven, and by Paul’s persuasion became Christians. During our stay at Cagoxima the people appeared to be wonderfully delighted with the doc­trines of the divine law, so entirely new to their ears.

Japan is a very large empire entirely composed of islands. One language is spoken throughout, not very difficult to learn. This country was discovered by the Portuguese eight or nine years ago. The Japanese are very ambitious of honours and distinctions, and think themselves superior to all nations in mili­tary glory and valour. They prize and honour all that has to do with war, and all such things, and there is nothing of which they are so proud as of weapons adorned with gold and silver. They always wear swords and daggers both in and out of the house, and when they go to sleep they hang them at the bed’s head. In short, they value arms more than any people I have ever seen. They are excellent archers, and usually fight on foot, though there is no lack of horses in the country. They are very polite to each other, but not to foreigners, whom they

utterly despise. They spend their means on arms, bodily adornment, and on a number of attendants, and do not in the least care to save money. They are, in short, a very warlike people and engaged in continual wars among themselves; the most powerful in arms bearing the most extensive sway. They have all one sovereign, although for one hundred and fifty years past the princes have ceased to obey him, and this is the ■cause of their perpetual feuds.

In these countries there is a great number, both of men and •of women, who profess a religious rule of life; they are called bonzes and bonzesses. There are two sorts of bonzes—the one wear a grey dress, the others a black one. There is great rivalry between them, the grey monks being set against the black ones, and accusing them of ignorance and bad morals. There are also two kinds of bonzesses—some wearing the grey ■dress, some the black; they are subject to the bonzes of their own rule and colour. The number of these bonzes and bon-, zesses in Japan is immense, and almost incredible to those who have not seen it for themselves. I have heard on testimony worthy of belief that there is a sovereign in whose dominions there are eight hundred convents containing thirty persons at least, bonzes or bonzesses; there is an infinite number contain­ing four, or six, or eight persons each; and I am inclined to be­lieve it, as far as my own observation goes. The system of the sects prevailing in Japan is derived from China, an empire which occupies the opposite continent. The Japanese have thence received written traditions concerning the founders of the different sects, who are said to have lived for two or even three thousand years in voluntary penances in complete soli­tude. The principal of these are Xaca and Amida.

There are altogether nine rules for both men and women, all differing in their laws and precepts; each one is free to apply himself to that which he likes best. Hence it follows that under the same roof the husband, wife, and children belong to different sects; and generally speaking this custom occasions no disorder, every one being at liberty to live according to his own persuasion. Nevertheless disputes and controversies often

exist among them, each person endeavouring to prove his own rule superior to the others, and sometimes they have been knosvn to come to blows on the subject.

All of these sects observe a wonderful silence about the creation of the world and of souls. They all speak of abodes of the virtuous and of the wicked; but not one gives any ex­planation of the nature of the place assigned to the good, nor by whose power it is that the souls of the wicked are cast down to hell. They confine themselves to holding up the example of the founders of the sects, who they say, for the redemption of an infinite number of human beings who do not expiate their sins by any suffering, have tormented themselves by un­heard of severities, lasting for an immense length of time.

At the same time they assert that all persons who, without having done penance for their sins, have invoked the fathers and founders of their sects, will be exempt from all suffering; but that this is only the case when they invoke them with per­fect confidence, and place all their trust in them. They are convinced that the intercession of these holy persons can actu­ally snatch them out of hell. But the sects of which I speak tell numberless fables and prodigies concerning their founders, w^Thich are too long to relate. Some of them set forth 300, others 500 precepts; but they all agree in this, that there are five principal and essential precepts which it is indispensable to keep. The first is not to kill, and not to eat anything which has been killed; the second is not to steal; the third not to commit adultery; the fourth not to lie; the fifth to abstain from wine. These laws are common to all the sects. At the same time, the bonzes and the bonzesses, when preaching to the people about these laws, persuade them that profane per­sons, occupied with worldly business, are unable themselves to observe these five precepts; but that they themselves are ready to make satisfaction for ail the evil or inconvenience which may happen to them in consequence of breaking them, on con­dition of the people giving them convents, yearly revenues, and’ money for all necessary uses : in short, of paying them every kind of honour and homage. These conditions being fulfilled

by the people, they engage to observe the whole law in their stead. The rich and noble of the country therefore, in order to enjoy a greater licence of sinning, give the bonzes everything they want. Hence the Japanese hold them in great veneration, as every one believes that by their prayers souls are delivered from hell, the bonzes having taken upon themselves to make satisfaction as to these laws for the whole people.

On certain days the bonzes preach publicly. The sum of all their discourses is that none of the people will be con­demned to hell, whatever may be the number of their past and present crimes, for the founders of their sects will take them out of the midst of those flames, if perchance they are con­demned to them, especially if the bonzes who have made satis­faction for them constitute themselves their intercessors. And indeed the bonzes boast greatly to the people of their own holiness, on the ground of their obedience to the five laws. At the same time, they also say that the poor who are unable to show kindness to the bonzes have no hope of escaping hell. And they say women are as badly off if they neglect the five pre­cepts. For they say that each woman, on account of her monthly courses, is covered with more sins than all men put together, and that thus so foul a creature can hardly be saved. They go on to say that there is some hope even for women of escaping from the prison of hell, if they give a great deal more than the men to the bonzes. They further declare that persons who in their lifetime have given money to the bonzes will after their death re­ceive ten times as much in the same coin, for the necessities of their new life; and there are numbers of men and women who entrust considerable sums to the bonzes, in order to receive tenfold in the next world, and the bonzes give them a security in notes, which they write. The ignorant people have no hesi­tation in believing in this multiplied interest on funds thus in­vested. The notes of the bonzes are carefully preserved, and people about to die order them to be buried with them, in the belief that the devil will fly at sight of them. The bonzes have thousands of other impostures which I cannot speak of without pain. One thing is very amusing, that though they take money

from everybody by way of alms, they themselves never give anything to any one. I omit, for the sake of brevity, the in­finite number of ways they have of getting money given to them. But I cannot help grieving and feeling indignant at all the tribute the people pay to men like these, and all the honour in which they hold them.

But to return to what we did in Japan. In the first place, we landed, as I told you, at Cagoxima, Paul’s native place, where by his constant instructions he converted all his family to Jesus Christ, and where, but for the opposition of the bonzes, he would easily have converted the whole town also. The bonzes persuaded the King, whose authority extends over a good part of the country, that if he was to sanction the intro­duction of the divine law into his dominions, the result would be infallibly the ruin, not only of his entire kingdom, but also of the worship of the gods and of the institutions of his an­cestors 3 and that he ought for the future to forbid any one becoming a Christian, on pain of death.

After the lapse of a year, seeing this prince openly opposed to the progress of the Gospel, we bade farewell to our neo­phytes at Cagoxima, and to Paul, in whose care we left them, and went on thence to a town in the kingdom of Amanguchi. Here a great number of persons having become converts to the Christian religion, I gave them Father Cosmo Torres to in­struct them. I myself went on with Joam Fernandez to Aman­guchi, the capital of the kingdom, an immense city containing more than ten thousand houses. Here we preached the Gospel to the people in the public streets, to the princes and nobles in their own residences. Many heard us eagerly, others with reluct­ance. We did not always escape unhurt, having many insults offered us by the boys and the crowds in the streets. The king of the country summoned us to his presence, and, having asked the reason of our coming, invited us of his own accord to ex­plain the law of God to him ; he listened to us with deep at­tention for a whole hour while we spoke to him of religion.

But as we saw but little fruit of our zeal and labours at Amanguchi, we went to Meaco, the metropolis of all Japan,

and the seat of empire. This journey took two months, and after going through infinite fatigue and danger, we reached Meaco at last. It is said that Meaco formerly contained 180,000 families; now, through the calamities of war, it only contains rather more than 100,000. In this city we could get no admittance to the sovereign ; and as we saw that the minds of the inhabitants were too much disturbed by the great troubles caused by the war to be inclined for discourses on re­ligion, we at once returned to Amanguchi.

The King was made favourable to us by the letters and presents sent by the Bishop and the Governors from India and Malacca, and we obtained from him without difficulty the pub­lication of edicts declaring his approval of the promulgation of the divine law in the cities of his dominions, and permitting such of his subjects as pleased to embrace it. When he had done us this favour he also assigned a monastery to us for a residence. Here by means of daily sermons and disputes with the bonzes, the sorcerers, and other such men, we converted to the religion of Jesus Christ a great number of persons, several of whom were nobles. Amongst them we found some able to in­form us, and we made it our business to gain acquaintance with the various sects and opinions of Japan, and so know how to refute them by arguments and proofs prepared for the purpose.

The bonzes seeing themselves betrayed by their own ad­herents and conquered in public disputes, were in the greatest trouble and bursting with indignation, especially because the new converts openly declared that they were induced to profess the Christian religion by perceiving that the bonzes, who were the teachers of the religion of their fathers, could not defend it.

The Japanese doctrines teach absolutely nothing concerning the creation of the world, of the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, the earth, sea, and the rest, and do not believe that they have any origin but themselves. The people were greatly astonished on hearing it said that there is one sole Author and common Father of souls, by whom they were created. This astonishment was caused by the fact that in their religious tra­ditions there is nowhere any mention of a Creator of the uni­

verse. If there existed one single First Cause of all things, surely, they said, the Chinese, from whom they derive their religion, must have known it. For the Japanese give the Chinese the pre-eminence in wisdom and prudence in everything relat­ing either to religion or to political government. They asked us a multitude of questions concerning this First Cause of all things; whether He were good or bad, whether the same First Cause were the origin of good and of evil. We replied that there exists one only First Cause, and He supremely good, with­out any admixture of evil.

This did not satisfy them; they considered the devils to be evil by nature, and the enemies of the human race; God there­fore, if He were good, could never have done such a thing as create beings so evil. To these arguments we replied that the devils were created good by God, but became evil by their own fault, and that in consequence they were subject to eternal punishment and torment. Then they objected that God, Who was so severe in punishing, was not at all merciful. Again, how could He, if He created the human race in the manner we taught, allow men sent into the world to worship Him to be tempted and persecuted by the devil ? In like manner, if God were good, He ought not to have made man so weak and so prone to sin, but free from all evil. Again, it could not be a good God, they said, Who had created that horrible prison of hell, and be for ever without pity for those who suffer therein the most fearful torments for all eternity. Lastly, if He were good, He would not have imposed on men those difficult laws of the ten commandments. Their religious traditions, on the contrary, t lught that all who should invoke the authors of their religion would be delivered even from the torments of hell.

They were quite unable to digest the idea that men could be cast into hell without any hope of deliverance. They said, therefore, that their doctrines rested, more than ours, on clem- iency and mercy. In the end, by God’s favour, we succeeded in solving all their questions, so as to leave no doubt remain­ing in their mind. The Japanese are led by reason in every­thing more than any other people, and in general they are all so

VOL. II. z

insatiable of information and so importunate in their questions, I that there is no end either to their arguments with us, or to their talking over our answers among themselves. They did not know that the world is round, they knew nothing of the course of the sun and stars, so that when they asked us and we explained to them these and other like things, such as the causes of comets, of the lightning, and of rain, they listened to us most eagerly, and appeared delighted to hear us, regarding us with profound respect as extremely learned persons. This idea of our great knowledge opened the way for sowing the seed of religion in their minds.

Only one of the nine sects prevailing in Japan teaches that souls are mortal, but this sect is considered detestable by the followers of the rest. Its adherents are extremely vicious and corrupt, and cannot endure to hear hell mentioned.

In the course of two months, after numerous conferences, we baptized about five hundred persons at Amanguchi, and every day, by the mercy of God, others are added to the num­ber. The converts are very zealous in exposing to us the tricks and frauds of the bonzes and sects of Japan; they show so diligently great affection and respect towards us that we have great confidence that they are true and solid Christians.

Before their baptism the converts of Amanguchi were greatly troubled and pained by a hateful and annoying scruple—that God did not appear to them merciful and good, because He had never made Himself known to the Japanese before our arrival, especially if it were true that those who had not worshipped God as we preached were doomed to suffer everlasting punish­ment in hell. It seemed to them that He had forgotten and as it were neglected the salvation of all their ancestors in permit­ting them to be deprived of the knowledge of saving truths, and thus to rush headlong on eternal death. It was this painful thought which, more than anything else, kept them back from the religion of the true God. But by the divine mercy all their error and scruple was taken away. We began by proving to them that the divine law is the most ancient of all. Before re­ceiving their institutions from the Chinese, the Japanese knew

by the teaching of nature that it was wicked to kill, to steal, to swear falsely, and to commit the other sins enumerated in the ten commandments, a proof of this being the remorse of con­science to which any one guilty of one of these crimes was cer­tain to be a prey. We showed them that reason itself teaches us to avoid evil and to do good, and that this is so deeply im­planted in the hearts of men, that all have the knowledge of the divine law from nature and from God the Author of nature before they receive any external instruction on the subject. If any doubts were entertained on the matter, an experiment might be made in the person of a man without any instruction, living in absolute solitude, and in entire ignorance of the laws of his country. Such a man, ignorant of and a stranger to all human teaching, if he were asked whether it were or were not criminal to kill, to steal, or to commit the other actions forbidden by the law of God, and whether it were right to abstain from such actions, then, I say, this man, so fundamentally without all hu­man education, would most certainly reply in such a manner as to show that he was by no means without knowledge of the divine law. Whence then must he be supposed to have re­ceived this knowledge, but from God Himself, the Author of nature? And if this knowledge is seen among barbarians, what must be the case with civilized and polished nations ? This being so, it necessarily follow that before any laws were made by men the divine law existed innate in the hearts of all men. The converts were so satisfied with this reasoning, as to see no further difficulty; so that this net having been broken, they received from us with a glad heart the sweet yoke of our Lord.

But our greatest enemies are the bonzes, because we expose their falsehoods. As I have said, they used to make the people believe that it is impossible for persons in general to keep those five commandments which I mentioned, and that, therefore, they would observe them for the people, on condition of the people giving them maintenance and honour. They give their word that if any one has to go down into hell he will be delivered by their intervention and labour. We, on the contrary, proved

to the people that in hell there is no redemption,⁶ and that no one can be rescued from it by the bonzes and bonzesses. Con­vinced by our arguments, the people complained that the bonzes had deceived them. At last, by the help of God, the bonzes themselves were forced to confess the truth that they could not save any one from the punishment of hell by their prayers, but that unless they gave out that they had this power, they would infallibly be reduced to die of hunger.

And indeed, soon after this, the bonzes, as the assistance they received from their disciples gradually failed, experienced great difficulties as to their maintenance, and had to live in a state of degradation. We have had such sharp disputes with them on the subject of hell, that it does not seem likely that they will ever be reconciled to us. A great number have already left their rule and returned to secular life; and these men ex­pose to us the frauds and tricks of the bonzes who live in the convents. Thus (at Amanguchi, at least) the credit of the bonzes and bonzesses diminishes much every day. The Chris­tians have assured me that of a hundred convents which there used to be there, a great part will soon cease to exist, being deprived of the alms of the inhabitants.

Formerly the bonzes and bonzesses who had broken one of their five precepts were punished with death by the princes and nobles of the places where they lived, whether they were found guilty of offences against morals, or theft, or of falsehood, or whether they had committed homicide, or caused the death of any living creature, or eaten flesh of such, or drunk wine. But at present this discipline is entirely relaxed and corrupted ; the greater number drink wine, eat meat secretly, make a trade of lies, openly indulge in fornication, and commonly have boys living with them, whom they corrupt in the flower of their youth. This they themselves profess, and they declare it to be no sin, and the people on their authority indulge in the same abominable crime. They commonly say that if it is lawful for the bonzes, why not for secular people? Besides this, they keep a number of women in their monasteries, who they say

* Lat. Orig. /« inferno nullam esse redemptionem.

are the wives of the men who till their farms. This gives great scandal to the people, who look with suspicion on the great in­tercourse the bonzes have with the women. The bonzes also visit the bonzesses at all hours, for purposes of business, and re­ceive visits from them in the same way. The people look on this with an evil eye. They say there is a certain herb which the bonzesses eat that they may not become pregnant. For my part, it does not astonish me that the bonzes are covered w^rith so many and so great sins. They are a set of men who have the devil in the place of God, and it is a matter of necessity that they should commit crimes innumerable and abominable.

All the Japanese use a long rosary of beads in their pray­ers, invoking the founder of their sect at each bead. The dif­ferent sects recite their series of prayers, some more frequently, others more seldom. The principal founders of the religions, as we have mentioned, are Xaca and Amida. The grey bonzes and bonzesses and most of the people chiefly venerate Amida; the rest of the people do not leave Amida out, but render most honour to Xaca. I have carefully inquired whether this Xaca and Amida were persons celebrated for their wisdom, and have begged the Christians to give me an account of their lives in writing. At last I have discovered from their books that they were not men at all, for they are said to have lived a thousand or even two thousand years. Xaca was born eighty thousand times over; and many other such things are handed down by tradition about them which can never have happened. So that I conclude that they were not men, but mere inventions or portents of the devil.

I earnestly beg all who read this letter of mine, by the zeal they have for the propagation of the worship of God, to pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will give us the victory over these two demons Xaca and Amida, and over the others like them, especially since at present their credit is waxing weak at Aman­guchi, not without the special providence of God. A principal nobleman of this kingdom and his wife, a person of great merit, have shown us so much affection, that their efforts have never been wanting to us in spreading our divine religion; but al­

though they both know its truth, they can neither of them be induced to embrace it. Their reason is that they have built at their own expense a great many monasteries for bonzes, and assigned them revenues in order that the bonzes may con­stantly pray to Amida to preserve them from the calamities and miseries of this life, and bring them one day to that hap­piness which he himself enjoys.

These two gave a hundred reasons besides for not becoming Christians; but the principal was that having always been great worshippers of Xaca and Amida, and having given for their sakes large gifts to the bonzes, and built a great number of monasteries, they would, if they were to pass over to the Chris­tian religion, lose the accumulated good of so many years of devotion, and all the fruit of their past life. They are con­vinced that all the money they have given to the bonzes in the names of Xaca and Amida will be returned to them with large interest after their death, together with an abundant recom­pense of their worship and devotion. So, not to lose these ad­vantages, they steadily refuse to be converted to Jesus Christ.

The Japanese believe that in .the abode of the blessed there will be splendid banquets and all the good things of life in plenty and elegance, * so that the more pleasing a person has been to Xaca and Amida, the higher he will be in greatest glory. All these stories make up the mysteries and fables of the bonzes, who, with the object of destroying the effects of our preaching, used to preach themselves in their own temples, and most shamefully revile both us and our God in the midst of a vast multitude of hearers. The God of the Christians, they said, is something unknown and unheard of; He can only be the greatest and most abominable of devils. We were the disciples of this demon, so that every one should take care not to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ, for that no sooner should He be adored as God than Japan will perish. They also made a captious interpretation of the name of God, saying that it is the same as ‘ Diusa,’ which in their language means a lie; ‘ so let them look to themselves, and be diligently on their guard against us.’

Such and many other such impious calumnies they uttered against God, Who nevertheless, in His infinite mercy and cle­mency, turned all to His own glory and to the good of souls. In fact their false charges against us increased our authority with the people, and the number of our Lord’s worshippers was daily swelled. The people saw clearly, and said openly tha' the jealousy of the bonzes was the cause of their accusations against us.

I have tried long and diligently in this country to discover from all indications whether the Japanese have ever had the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and I have at last found from theii books and conversations that they have never heard anything at all of Him. At Cagoxima, where we remained a year, 1 noticed that the prince and his relations had a white cross in the armorial bearings of their family, but that they were entirely ignorant of the name of Jesus Christ.

When I was at Amanguchi with Father Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez, the King of Boungo, one of the most powerful of the country, wrote to ask me to go to him; a Portuguese vessel had come into his harbour, and he wished to talk with me on certain subjects. So, both to find out how he was affected towards our holy religion, and to pay a visit to the Portuguese, I set out at once for Boungo, leaving Cosmo and Joam with the Christians. The King gave me a most gracious reception, and it was a great pleasure to me to meet with the Portuguese. While I was at Boungo the devil stirred up a great war at Amanguchi. A powerful nobleman declared war against the King, drove him from his capital, and stripped him of his domini©ns. The latter seeing no way of escape, and not choosing to fall alive into the hands of a furious adversary, so lately his subject and servant, plunged a dagger into his bowels, and killed himself, at the same time causing his son who was with him to be put to death, and ordering both bodies to be burned, that the enemy might find no remains to insult. All was done as he ordered. You may judge from the letters written to me by our brethren at Amanguchi, which I send you, how great was the peril they incurred in that war. After

the King’s death, the nobles and grandees of the kingdom having successfully ended the war, and seeing that the state of Amanguehi could not stand without a sovereign, sent ambas­sadors to the King of Boungo, begging him to send his own brother to Amanguehi, whom they would make king. The King of course complied with their request, and so his brother be­came King of Amanguehi. The King of Boungo commands numerous and very warlike troops, and as things go with Ja­panese kings, has vast dominions to govern. He has a great liking for the Portuguese. No sooner was he informed of the power and character of the King of Portugal than he wrote to him asking to be admitted into the number of his friends, and sending him a rich suit of armour as a token of friendship. He has also sent an envoy to the Viceroy of India, offering him with many compliments his friendship, alliance, and good offices; this messenger, who came to India with me, has been most honourably and liberally received by the Viceroy. Before I left Japan, the King of Boungo promised the Portuguese and myself to take Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez under his protection. The sovereign elect of Amanguehi bound him­self in the same way, when he enters into the possession of his kingdom.

During our residence in Japan, that is to say for two years and a half, we lived at the expense of the munificent King of Portugal. His Highness had ordered more than a thousand gold crowns to be given to us as alms for our journey to Japan. It is incredible how much this excellent monarch has favoured us, and how much he has spent and daily continues to spend on our colleges and residences, and for the supply of all our necessities.

I had been some time at Boungo, when the opportune pre­sence of the Portuguese vessel invited me to give up the idea of returning to Amanguehi; and I made up my mind to sail from Boungo for India, in order, after so long a separation, to re­visit our fathers and brothers, and to provide members of the Society fitted for the work of cultivating the Japanese mission, as well as other necessary things quite wanting out there. I

reached Cochin on the 24th January, and I was received in the kindest manner by the Governor. Next April some fathers will be sent to Japan from India, and the King of Boungo’s ambassador will return home in their company. I have very great hopes that, by the favour of Jesus Christ, there will be a plentiful harvest in these countries; for a nation so ingenious, moderate, so desirous of instruction, so much guided by right reason and so well adorned with other eminent qualities, ought to be, as it were, a rich and fertile field from whence copious and joyful results may be expected.

The university of Bandou, situated in an island of Japan, which has given its name to its country, is the most famous of all; and a great number of bonzes are constantly going thither to study their own laws. These precepts are derived from China and are written in Chinese characters, which are differ­ent from the Japanese. There are two kinds of writing in Japan, one used by men and the other by women; and for the most part both men and women, especially of the nobility and the commercial class, have a literary education. The bonzes, or bonzesses, in their monasteries teach letters to the girls and boys, though rich and noble persons entrust the education of their children to private tutors.

The bonzes are persons of acute mind, and are very fond of studying, especially what relates to the future; they are fond of considering what will happen to them, what will be their end, and all questions of this nature. There were some of the bonzes who, in the course of their meditations, had come to believe that there was no way of saving souls in their system. They argued in this way : It is necessary above all things that there should exist a single origin of all things; now, in their books there is not a word on the subject, for there is a won­derful silence in them all as to the creation of the universe; and therefore if any of their predecessors were acquainted with this first principle—a thing not confirmed by any authority, written or traditional—they must have kept the knowledge to themselves and hid it from their descendants.

Now, men of this sort were wonderfully delighted with the

divine law. One of them embraced the faith of Jesus Christ at Arnanguchi, after being many years in the university of Ban­dou, where he had a flourishing reputation for learning. Before we came to Japan he had thought of becoming a bonze; after­wards he changed his mind and married. The reason he as­signed for this change was, that he had seen the falsehood and emptiness of the Japanese religions, and therefore did not be­lieve in them at all, but he was bound to pay his homage to the Author and Creator of the universe. Our Christians were overjoyed at his accession, for he was and was thought to be the most learned man of the city.

Later on, if God wills, fresh members of the Society will be sent to Japan every year, and a house of the Society will be es­tablished at Arnanguchi, where the fathers will learn the lan­guage of the country, and acquaint themselves with the doc­trines and rules of the different sects. By these means the good and learned members of the Society who are to come hither from Portugal to aid the university of Bandou, will find brothers there acquainted with the language and the religions of Japan. This will be an immense advantage to the European fathers to whose lot this mission may fall.

At present Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez are entirely occupied in teaching the mysteries of our religion, and in preaching to the people on the wonderful deeds of our Lord. Many of their hearers are so affected by the history of the life of Jesus Christ, that they cannot hear the account of His pas­sion and death without weeping and tears. Cosmo writes the sermons in our language, and Fernandez, who knows that of the country well enough, translates them into Japanese. Through their labours the Christians are advancing greatly in piety. The converts, who used formerly to recite that series of prayers on their beads, invoking each the founder of his own sect on the several beads, have now learnt how to worship Jesus Christ, and are being formed in piety, and change their old supersti­tions into prayers in the honour of God.

They are so attentive and anxious for information in matters of this sort, that when taught to make the sign of the Cross,

they insist on understanding what is the meaning of the words,

‘ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’—why, as the right hand is lifted to the head, we say,

‘ In the name of the Father; why, when it is lowered to the breast, we add, ‘ And of the Son;’ and why, lastly, when it is moved from the left to the right shoulder, we say, ‘ And of the Holy Ghost' They are delighted with the explanation of all these things. When they are taught to say, ‘ Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison,’ they want to know the meaning of the words. And in saying our Lady’s rosary, after the Angelical Saluta­tion, at each small bead they repeat the names of Jesus and Mary as an invocation. They learn all these, as well as the other prayers and the Creed, by degrees, out of a written copy.

One of the things that most of all pains and torments these Japanese is, that we teach them that the prison of hell is irre­vocably shut, so that there is no egress therefrom. For they grieve over the fate of their departed children, of their parents and relatives, and they often show their grief by their tears. So they ask us if there is any hope, any way to free them by prayer from that eternal misery, and I am obliged to answer that there is absolutely none. Their grief at this affects and torments them wonderfully; they almost pine away with sorrow. But there is this good thing about their trouble,—it makes one hope that they will all be the more laborious for their own sal­vation, lest they, like their forefathers, should be condemned to everlasting punishment. They often ask if God cannot take their fathers out of hell, and why their punishment must never have an end. We gave them a satisfactory answer, but they did not cease to grieve over the misfortune of their relatives; and I can hardly restrain my tears sometimes at seeing men so dear to my heart suffer such intense pain about a thing which is already done with and can never be undone.

Opposite to Japan lies China, an immense empire, enjoying profound peace, and which, as the Portuguese merchants tell us, is superior to all Christian states in the practice of justice and equity. The Chinese whom I have seen in Japan and elsewhere, and whom I got to know, are white in colour, like

the Japanese, are acute, and eager to learn. Their intellect is superior even to the Japanese. Their country abounds in plenty of all things, and very many cities of great extent cover its sur­face. The cities are very populous; the houses ornamented with stone roofings, and very elegant. All reports say that the empire is rich in every sort of produce, but especially in silk. I find, from the Chinese themselves, that amongst them may be found many people of many different nations and religions, and, as far as I could gather from what they said, I suspect that among them are Jews and Mahometans.

Nothing leads me to suppose that there are Christians there. I hope to go there during this year, 1552, and penetrate even to the Emperor himself. China is that sort of kingdom, that if the seed of the Gospel is once sown, it may be propagated far and wide. And moreover, if the Chinese accept the Christian faith, the Japanese would give up the doctrines which the Chinese have taught them. Japan is separated from Liampou (which is a principal town in China) by a distance of about 300 miles of sea. I am beginning to have great hopes that God will soon provide free entrance to China, not only to our Society, but to religious of all Orders, that a large field may be laid open to pious and holy men of all sorts, in which there may be great room for devotion and zeal, in recalling men who are now lost to the way of truth and salvation. I again and again beg all who have a zeal for the spreading of the Christian faith to help by their holy sacrifices and prayers these poor efforts of mine, that I may throw open an ample field to their pious labours.

I have nothing to say concerning India: the brothers there are charged to render you an account of what is going on there. I have just returned hither from Japan, bringing back a suffici­ent amount of bodily strength, but hardly any strength in virtue and spirit; but I place all my confidence in the goodness of God and the infinite merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, that I may bring to its accomplishment, as I have designed it, this most irksome voyage to China. My hair has become quite white, but I am as active and robust as I ever was in my life.

.The labours which are undergone for the conversion of a people so rational, so desirous to know the truth and be saved, result in very sweet fruit to the soul. Even at Amanguchi,

■ when the King allowed us to preach the faith and a vast con­course of people gathered round us, I had so much joy and vigour and delight of heart, as I never experienced in my life before. I saw how by means of our ministry the spirit of the bonzes was broken down by God, and the most glorious victory over most formidable enemies was gained. I delighted also to see the joy of our neophytes at the defeat of the bonzes, and their evident zeal to attack the pagans and draw them to bap­tism, as well as their exultation when the battle was won, as they talked over their victories among themselves, when the super­stitions of the heathen were put to flight. These things made me so overflow with joy, that I lost all sense of suffering.

Would to God that these divine consolations which God so graciously gives us in the midst of our labours might not only be related by me, but also some experience of them be sent to our European Universities, to be tasted as well as heard of! Then many of those young men given up to study would turn all their cares and desires to the conversion of infidels, if : they could once taste the delight of the heavenly sweetness which | comes from such labours, and if the world knew and was aware how well the souls of the Japanese are prepared to receive the Gospel, I am sure that many learned men would finish their studies, canons, priests, and prelates even, would abandon their rich livings, to change an existence full of bitterness and anxiety for so sweet and pleasant a life. And to gain this happiness they would not hesitate to set sail even to Japan.

As I arrived at Cochin at the time the ships were about to depart, and as the great number of friends who have come to salute me have frequently interrupted me in the midst of my . letter, I have written in great haste and with much disturbance. So now I will end—though I know not how to end when I am writing to my dearest fathers and brothers, and about my joys in Japan too, the greatness of which I could never express, how- I ever much I might wish to do so. I end my letter then, begging

and imploring God to vouchsafe to unite us some day in the bliss of heaven. Amen.

The least of your brothers in Jesus Christ,

Cochin, 29th January 1552. FRANCIS.

It would be tedious, as we have already said, to attempt to compare all the statements made by Francis Xavier in his ac­count of Japan with later information on the same subject. What we can discover as to the names of the national deities as they sounded in his ears, illustrates sufficiently the confusion which the great mixture of religions in the country had thrown not only into the accounts given to strangers, but probably over the minds of the people themselves. Xaca must be taken to represent Sakya-mouni, or Buddha. Amida seems to be the personification of the old Japanese idea of a supreme divinity, represented under nine different forms which symbolized his essential perfections.⁷ If we go back to the names as given in the disputes with Fucarandono, we find Gizon and Canom placed side by side with Xaca and Amida. Gizon may per­haps be Izanami, the goddess whose mirror plays so important a part in the worship of the Kamis, and Canom the subordinate deity who has the most frequented temple in Yeddo, as also the famous temple at Kioto of the 33,333 idols.⁸

Before we take final leave of Japan in this volume, we may mention for the last time the good Paul of the holy Faith. We have a short letter from him written to the College at Goa in 1549, at the time when everything seemed favourable at Cagoxi­ma, and sent with the first letters of Francis Xavier from that city. Paul simply asks for prayers and relates the conversion of his kinsfolk. He begs that his friends in India will intercede for them that they may persevere, ‘ since it is not enough for our salvation to begin to serve God, but we must persevere unto the end. Though we are far apart in body, it seems to me that we

⁷ See Humbert, Japon Illustri, t. i. p. 264.

⁸ Ibid. t. i. p. 150 and 265. Sir Rutherford Alcock speaks of the temple of ‘ Quanwon’ at Asaska, the suburb of Yeddo. The idol there has thirty-six arms, to express the power of the supposed deity. Capital of the Tycooyi, ii. 307.

are always united in spirit, and in body also we shall be united in the day of judgment, when we shall all live again—may God grant that it be to reign with Jesus Christ!’ Mendez Pinto tells us that Paul was obliged to go into exile by the persecu­tions of the bonzes some months after Francis Xavier left him, that he went to China and was murdered by robbers near Liampou. But the Christians over whom he had been set in charge remained firm and constant under all trials, not the least of which was the entire want of priests and religious teachers. They had been thoroughly instructed, and possessed the summary of Christian doctrine which Francis had left them. Many years after this, when they came to be visited for the first time by a priest, they were found to have kept up their faith and religion in great purity. This statement will surprise no one who is familiar with the annals of Catholic missions, and the fact which it records is typical of the history of the Church of Japan. It is now believed that when in our time Japan was partially opened to Europeans so many generations after the great persecution of Christianity which seemed to have drowned it in blood, and when no Catholic priest had been in the country for more than two centuries, there were still communities of Christians who had kept up their practice of the Gospel law, the Catholic Creed, and the administration of baptism. And even the renewed persecution of the present day will not, as we may confidently hope in God’s mercy, avail to stamp out in this noble, intelligent, and faithful race the remains of the religion of Jesus Christ, so long ago painfully planted in the soil of Japan by the modern Apostle of the East.

Voyage from Japan to Itidia.

We have already seen that the voyages of Francis Xavier were generally marked by some extraordinary victory of his charity, or some indication of the prophetic gifts with which he was from time to time endowed. This homeward voyage from Japan, in the last weeks of 1551, became more famous in the East than any other of which we have spoken; and in this case we happen to have abundance of the most unexceptionable tes­timony as to the efficacy of his prayers and the blessing which his presence seemed to cause to all who were in his company. The vessel in which he embarked at the port of Figi was bound for Canton, or rather for the island of San Chan, which was the station where the Portuguese traffic with Canton was carried on. Mendez Pinto, whom we shall find more at home on nautical subjects than on the theological questions discussed between Francis Xavier and the bonzes in the presence of the King of Boungo, was, as has been said, one of the Portuguese passen­gers on board the ship in which Francis embarked. Mendez tells us how at first they hugged the Japanese coast for some time, and then struck across the open sea in the direction of China. After a week, however, the moon changed, and the wea­ther changed in consequence. A violent storm fell on the vessel, and she was obliged to put about and run before the wind in a north-north-westerly direction ‘ through an unknown sea which no one had ever yet navigated,’ as Mendez says. For five days they were at the mercy of the storm, and saw neither sun nor star, and the helmsman lost all reckoning.¹ On the second day of the five something had to be done to clear the deck of all

¹ Mendez says that they were running towards Papua, Celebes, or Min­danao, which hardly seem to lie in a northern or north-westerly direction from their course, and are sufficiently widely apart one from another.

encumbrances,² and the ship’s boat was secured at the stern, . fastened by two strong cables, with fifteen men in her. Night came on, and they were unable to get on board the ship again. Francis Xavier was the life of the whole party during the storm,

> working himself in clearing the decks, encouraging and com­forting the rest. ‘ After God,’ says Mendez, ‘ he alone was the captain who encouraged us, and made us take breath so as not to sink under the labours and abandon ourselves entirely to chance, as some wished to do if he had not hindered them.’ About midnight loud cries to God for mercy were heard from the boat: the ropes by which she was held to the ship had given way, and she was left behind in a moment. The cap­tain’s nephew, a lad whom he loved most tenderly, was with the party in the boat, and his uncle endeavoured to get the ship round in order to seek for the boat. The result was the imminent danger of the vessel herself; she lay across the waves, was deluged by the heavy seas, and was almost swamped. At the moment of greatest peril Francis was on his knees in the captain’s cabin, and he called aloud on Jesus Christ, the Love of his soul, to succour them, for the sake of the five wounds which He had suffered on the Cross. The ship righted and got once more before the wind, but the boat was lost to sight. Francis Xavier, however, bade them to be of good cheer, as within three days ‘ the daughter would come back to the mother’ —by which words, say the Auditors of the Rota, who have summed up the evidence from the sworn witnesses examined in the Processes, he signified darkly that the boat would return to the ship. He is said to have been especially anxious to save two Mussulmans, who were in the boat with the rest. When daylight came, nothing could be discerned from the ship but the sea covered with foam. The rest of the story we may give chiefly in Mendez Pinto’s own words, though

¹ ‘ II fut resolu de rompre toutes les oeuvres du chapiteau jusqu’au tillac, afin que pas ce moyen le navire fut plus a son aise, et qu’il fut mieux obeye au gouvernail.’ Mendez Pinto (French translation, t. iii. p. 422). Some writers understand the ‘ chapiteau’ to be the forecastle. It appears that the object was to cut away all the upperworks, which might have retained any heavy seas which flooded the deck.

VOL. II. * A A

his account has often to be completed by that of other eyewit­nesses.

‘ It was a little more than an hour after daylight, when the blessed Father Xavier, who had retired to the captain’s cabin, came on deck, where were the master, the pilot, and seven other Portuguese. After having given good-day to all with a joyous and serene countenance, he asked them if they did not see the boat approaching, to which answer was made No; and then he asked the master pilot to send one of the sailors aloft to see if he could not discover it. At the same time one of those present said, “ It will appear when we have lost another like it.” On which the Father answered him : “ O, Pedro Velho” —such was his name—“ O, Pedro Velho, how little faith you have ! What! think you that anything is impossible to our Lord ? For me, I have so much confidence in Him and in His most sacred Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom I have promised that I will say three masses in her blessed house of the Mount at Malacca, that I hope that they will prevent the souls which are in that boat from perishing.” At which words Pedro Velho was so confounded and astonished that he said nothing more. However, the master pilot, to satisfy the re­quest which the Father had just made him, went up himself with another sailor to the top, when, after having looked round on every side for nearly half an hour, they made their report that nothing appeared. On which the Father answered, “Come down then, since there is nothing more to be done;” and hav-| ing called me to the forecastle³ where he then was, very sad as far as we all could judge, he told me that I would oblige him if I warmed a little water for him that he might drink it, as he had a weakness of stomach. But I was so unhappy that my sins hindered me from doing him this good turn, because the day before, when the hurricane came on, they had thrown the stove , overboard to lighten the deck. Then he complained to me that he had a great pain in his head, on account of the sick­ness which came on him from time to time; and I answered! him : “ It cannot be otherwise than that your Reverence should

³ * Cliapiteau. ’ Mendez 1’into.

be so indisposed, because for three nights you have not slept and you have not eaten a single morsel,” for one of the ser­vants of Duarte de Gama had so told me. “ I assure you,” re­plied the Father, “ that I am sorry for the unhappiness of this young man, to see him so disconsolate; for all the last night, after the boat was lost, he never ceased weeping for the loss of Alonzo Calvo his nephew, who is in it with the rest of his com­panions.” Seeing, then, that the Father was yawning every mo­ment, I said to him, “Your Reverence would do well, meseems, to retire awhile into my little cabin, for perhaps you might get some rest;” an offer which he accepted, saying, “ So be it, then, for the love of God.” Thereon he begged me much to send a Chinese servant whom I had to shut the door after him, and not to stir, in order that he might open it for him when he called ; and this he said to me about six or seven o’clock. After having retired into my cabin, he remained there all day iintil sunset, and as I once happened to call my servant who was at the door, as I said, to ask him to give me a little water, I inquired of him also whether the Father was asleep ? “ He has not slept at all,” he answered, “ and he is still on his knees on the couch weeping, with his head down.” On which I told him to go back and sit at the door, and go to him as soon as he called him. In this way the Father remained unceasingly engaged in prayer until sunset, and then at last left the cabin, and came to where all the Portuguese were sitting down on the deck under the bulwarks, on account of the great rockings and rollings of the ship.

^£ After having saluted them, the Father asked of the pilot if the boat was to be seen ? To which the other answered that naturally it was impossible but that it had been lost amid such high seas ; and that even supposing that it pleased God to save it by a miracle, it was more than fifty leagues off. “ So it seems naturally,” said the Father; “but I should be very glad, since nothing could be lost by that, if you would go up aloft again, or send some sailor up, who might cast his eyes over the whole surface of the sea.” The pilot told him that he would very willingly go; and he went up with the master’s mate, more

to satisfy the desire of the Father than from any thought he had of being reasonably able to discover what he wished. They were both up there a good long time, and at last they affirmed that they had seen nothing at all over the whole sea. This grieved the Father very much, as all could judge, so that he bent his head upon the bulwark, and was for some time sighing as if he would fain shed tears. Then after he had taken a little breath, as if to try to rest under the sadness which he felt, he raised his hands to heaven and said, with tears in his eyes, “ O, Jesus Christ, my true God and Lord, by the merits of Thy sacred death and passion, I pray Thee to have pity on us, and to save the souls of the faithful who are gone astray in that boat!” ‘ Then he leant his head again upon the bulwark and remain­ed so for the space of two or three Credos, as if he were asleep; and then a little boy, who was seated up in the shrouds, began to cry, “ Miracle ! miracle ! here is our boat!” All those of the ship came running at these words, and at that same mo­ment they saw the boat on the sea, not farther than a gunshot off, a little more or less; insomuch that astonished at a thing so new and extraordinary, they began all in a throng to weep like children, so that they could not hear one another in the ship for the loud cries that they made. They all came to the Father to throw themselves at his feet; but he would not permit it, and retired into the cabin of the captain and shut himself up inside that no one might speak to him. All those who were in the boat were immediately received into the ship, with all the rejoicing and happiness which was natural in such a case. And therefore I forbear now to relate here the particulars of this wel­come, because it is a thing which can better be imagined than written. And so after the little time was over which remained before itwas full night, which came about half an hour afterwards, the Father sent a little boy for the pilot, and told him to praise God who had done these marvels, and that he should at once get the ship ready, because the bad weather would soon end. So at once all was done to satisfy the Father’s desire with all possible diligence, and at the same time were performed the devotions which he enjoined; and it followed that before

the great yard was hoisted and the sails set, the hurricane ceased entirely, so that we found a good wind from the north, and con­tinued our voyage to the joy and contentment of every one.’⁴

This is what Mendez Pinto tells us of this famous miracle. His memory was doubtless accurate as far as it went, but he seems to have omitted one or two circumstances which other witnesses have recorded. The first of these is that Francis Xavier, when he came on deck after his many hours of prayer in the cabin, insisted on sail being shortened, in order to slacken the speed at which the vessel was running before the wind. The large sail was therefore lowered, and the crew as well as the Father had to suffer the severe tossing of the vessel which was the consequence for some considerable time. The other accounts⁵ tell us that at last the men got impatient, the master gave orders to hoist the sail, but Francis would not allow it, that he bent his head down on the yard and wept and sobbed, as Mendez tells us in the text. Another circumstance omitted by Mendez is that when the boat appeared in sight, it was seen to come straight on the ship as if steered by an invisible hand, notwithstanding the roughness of the sea, and that when it touched the side, it stopped as of itself. Finally, a number of witnesses swore that when the party from the boat came on board, they declared that they had had Father Francis with them all the time, that he had been their only support and guide and comfort, and that his presence had inspired them with so much courage and serenity that they had been free from all alarm. It is certain that the two Mussulmans were con­verted by the miracle, and received baptism.⁰

* Mendez Pinto, t. iii. p. 430.

⁴ Summed up by Bartoli, Asia, t. i. p. 277.

⁸ The evidence for this celebrated miracle is epitomized in the Rclaiio, to which we have before referred. The Relalio tells the story in the first in­stance (without adding the circumstance of the bilocation of Francis) on the authority of Duarte Gama (‘ vir nobilis et regire domfls patritins’), Galeotto Pereira (‘ regiae domus patritius’), Antonio Martinez, a sea captain, Antonio Uiaz, the man who went aloft to look out—all of whom were present and gave their testimony juridically. There were forty-eight other witnesses de auditu, many of whom had heard eyewitnesses tell the story. After proving that the fact was miraculous, the Relatio goes on to say, ' Many of the wit­nesses and writers add that Xavier appeared to those who were in the boat,

The ship arrived soon after at San Chan, but it was much shattered by the storm, and moreover was to spend the winter in a port of Siam instead of sailing straight for Malacca. But two other Portuguese ships were still at San Chan, having waited for a fortnight for a favourable wind to take them to Malacca. One of them was the ship of Diego Pereira, the intimate friend of Francis Xavier. Pereira offered him a passage to Malacca: and Francis at once embarked, taking an affectionate leave of the good Portuguese merchants who had been of so much sup­port to him in his difficulties in the kingdom of Boungo. It was noted that as soon as he set foot on Pereira’s ship the wind became favourable. They sailed for Malacca immediately. Dur­ing this voyage it was that Francis matured his plan for an at­tempt to introduce Christianity into China. The letter which was inserted at the end of the last chapter shows how much his thoughts were now turned in this direction. He was bent upon furnishing the Japanese mission with learned as well as pious workmen, men who could defend their religion intellec­tually and meet the subtle difficulties suggested by the bonzes, as well as preach to the people by example as much as by word of mouth. Meanwhile, he would himself cut at the root, as it were, of the Japanese objections by bringing about, if it were possible, the conversion of that great, intelligent, cultivated, and peaceful empire which seems to have attracted his imagination from the first moment that he heard of its influence over the rest of the Eastern nations. The boldness with which Francis Xavier always aimed at accomplishing his work thoroughly, even though to do so involved the most arduous enterprize, as well as the temporary suspension of his own activity on what happened for the moment to be the frontier, so to speak, of the advancing kingdom of the faith, is thoroughly characteristic of him, and is one of the numberless points in which we find his spirit so identical with that of the father of his soul, St. Ignatius.

tossed about by the waves, and in the utmost danger, and that when they were taken up into the ship they told the sailors and passengers that Xavier had been all the time with them in the boat, and had kept her up in the midst of the seas, and that they were filled with astonishment when they found that at the same time he had been in the ship.’ •

We shall find that Ignatius soon after this time was intending to recal Francis himself from the East for a time necessarily by- no means short, on account of the immense distance which he would have had to travel, in order that his presence in Europe might secure the more perfect organization of the attempts forthe conversion of the Indies and the countries lying beyond them. So Francis Xavier himself was now anxious to leave Japan for a time to other labourers, and direct his own efforts to China. He found a sympathetic friend in Diego Pereira, with whom he now held long talks while the ship was moving with a favour­able wind along the coast of the country which the heart of the Apostle was now yearning to invade. Pereira seems not to have been of noble birth, but he had risen by his skill and in­dustry to the possession of large wealth, and was devoted to Francis and his schemes for the advancement of the Gospel. We have seen how Francis had suggested in the case of Japan that an ambassador should be sent by the Governor of the Indies in the name of the King of Portugal, who might nego­tiate for commercial relations as well as help on the introduc­tion of Christian preachers. He had also suggested that if the state of affairs in India forbade the dispatch of a regular em­bassy, the commission might be handed over to some friend of the Governor’s, who might be willing to undertake the expedi­tion at his own expense, looking for his reward to the great commercial gains which he might make thereby. Francis con­ceived a plan exactly like to this for the opening of relations with China. The Governor or Viceroy of India might be asked to send an ambassador to the Court of China, and in the train of this ambassador Francis himself would go, and thus find a way to begin the preaching of the Gospel under the licence of the Emperor himself. He was ready, indeed, to enter China in any possible way, even if his fate was only to share the im­prisonment of a number of Portuguese merchants who had been seized in this country, the coasts of which were most severely guarded against all foreigners. But it would be far better, far more likely to secure success as to the free preaching of the Christian law, if he could go as the companion of the envoy of

a king whose name was so formidable all over the East as the King of Portugal. *

Diego Pereira entered heartily into the plans of Francis, and offered his ship and his fortune to carry them out, if he could be named ambassador of the Portuguese crown to China. It was arranged between them that Francis should obtain the ap­pointment from the Governor of India, and as Pereira had to leave Malacca immediately after arriving there for a mer­cantile voyage to Sonda, he was to give the Father letters to his agent at Goa to prepare all the costly donatives which in those days were necessary for embassies in the East, and to defray liberally all the other expenses of such an undertaking. Meanwhile, the vessel, called the Santa Croce, was not to escape the danger which we find so constantly haunting the voyages of Francis Xavier. She was caught by a typhoon before reaching Singapore, and was for a time in great peril. Francis retired for a few moments to pray alone; then he came on deck, raised his hands and solemnly blessed the vessel. ‘ The Santa Croce,’ he said, ‘ shall never perish at sea, but only on the shore where she was built, where she shall fall to pieces of herself. Would to heaven that so it was to be with the other ship which sailed with us from San Chan !’ In a few minutes the danger was over, but the ship had not proceeded far on its route before she came to a part of the sea where planks, merchandize, portions of wreck, and dead bodies were floating. The other ship had gone to pieces in the storm from which she had escaped.⁷ .

⁷ Massei here quotes the evidence of Domenico Caldeira in the Pro­cesses, which seems to refer to this ship. He says that on his return from Japan Francis had already put his bundle containing the sacred vestments and other necessaries for the celebration of mass on board a ship which was bound directly for India. Pereira’s ship was only bound for Malacca, and there was much doubt whether they would arrive there in time to catch another ship for India. But the captain was heard to speak of the voyage in blasphemous language—‘ he would get to India, God willing or not.’ Francis remonstrated with him, and asked him to say rather that he would reach India, if so it pleased God. He then told Caldeira to take his baggage out of the ship and to embark it in another, which must have been the Santa Croce. When he saw the wreck of the other covering the waters, he pointed out to his companions the danger which they would all have run if they had remained on board her. ,

The prediction here mentioned about this famous ship, the Santa Croce, is one of those selected by the Auditors of the Rota out of the many similar prophecies witnessed to in the Processes afterwards made for the canonization of Francis Xavier. ‘ The ship,’ says the Relatio, ‘ survived Father Francis for twenty years, and old as it was, rotten and shattered by the waves during so many voyages and storms, it always escaped safely. The sailors and merchants, trusting to the aforesaid prediction, used eagerly to embark their merchandize therein, and sailed from place to place without any fear of shipwreck ■or loss. Whenever it came into port, the ship was received with salutes and shouts of joy, and all India called it the ‘ ship of the holy Father.’ At last it was sold to a certain captain of Diu, who after many voyages took it into the port of Cochin, and it was there hauled ashore in order to be repaired, on which it fell to pieces, and nothing but a heap of timbers re­mained of it.’ Diego Pereira himself was one of the witnesses who are quoted in evidence both of the prediction and of its accomplishment.⁸

⁸ There are several anecdotes about this ship, as was only to be ex­pected. Massei, 1. iii. p. 378, tells some of them. The Santa Croce once 1 .sailed from Malacca to Cochin laden almost to the water’s edge, and after sailing about twenty-four miles, began to leak. The people on board fired guns of distress, as she was sailing with a fleet of merchantmen, but no •one would consent to relieve her of part of the cargo. The captain turned back to Malacca, and was received with shouts of scorn and hisses, for having doubted of the promise of Francis Xavier. He turned back, then and there, and arrived safe at Cochin. Another story is that a certain Jorge Nunez took a plank of the old ship after she went to pieces, and worked it 1 into a small vessel of his own, which also enjoyed a sort of charmed exist­ence amid the storms and perils of the Indian seas. Francis Xavier also made a prediction similar to that of which we are speaking as to Francesco d’Aghiar, the steersman of the ship of Duarte Gama, in which he came from Japan, and which experienced the terrible storm just now related. Francis promised D’Aghiar that he should never perish by water, and that no ship which he navigated should perish in any storm at sea. D’Aghiar after this used to

1 sail in the most rotten vessels, without the least fear, and was always free from danger. A story is told in which his ship, a very poor one, escaped alone of a large fleet, and another of his singing cheerily in the midst of a very dangerous storm, answering, when interrogated as to his extra­ordinary confidence, that he feared nothing in any ship whatever, on ac­count of the promise made by Master Francis. Bartoli, p. 278.

Malacca, to which port Francis was now drawing near, had suffered severe calamity since he had left it. We may remem­ber the apparent anxiety with which he had inquired about Malacca in his short letter to the Portuguese merchant at Figi. Some of his biographers tell us that before leaving Japan he had urged Duarte de Gama to hasten his departure in order to succour the place: and it seems certain that a rumour that some great misfortune had befallen it was current at San Chan before the Santa Croce sailed, so that Diego Pereira had hesi­tated as to venturing to make for that port. His fears were relieved by Francis, who told him that the danger was over, and that he should find a single ship, that of his relative An­tonio Pereira, not yet departed for India. What had happened was this. Malacca, as we have seen, was an exposed station, with no Portuguese settlement or garrison within easy reach; and, on the other hand, in the near neighbourhood of several very powerful native or Mussulman states, the rulers of which were always on the watch, ready to seize an opportunity of swooping down on so important and yet so unprotected a po­sition. We have already mentioned the King or Rajah of Bintang, who, but for the Portuguese conquests, would have been the sovereign of Malacca. This potentate, at the head of an army of ten thousand men, with two hundred ships, swollen by contingents from a number of the Mussulman states and from Java itself, laid siege to Malacca in the summer of

1551. The Portuguese garrison in all numbered about three hundred men, and after much hard fighting they were obliged to retire into the citadel, leaving a great part of the city at the mercy of the enemy, who ravaged it with fire and sword. The siege of the fortress lasted for nearly three months, during which Francesco Perez was continually exposing himself, cru­cifix in hand, at the head of the defenders, who were reduced at last to great straits for food, especially for water. The enemy at one time gained an important position, which seemed to involve imminent danger to the fortress itself, and more than once attempted to carry it by assault, though they were re­pulsed with great loss. At last Fernandez de Carvalho, who

I had opportunely arrived with a squadron of three ships earlier in the siege, made an unexpected attack on the besiegers, a part of whom had withdrawn on account of a rumour purposely I spread abroad by the Portuguese of a descent to be made on I their own territory, and succeeded in dislodging them from [their positions, and putting them to flight. Two thousand of I the enemy were killed, and they left behind them their artillery and stores; but a third part of the defenders had lost their '»Hves, while the invaders had carried off, before their final de­feat, an immense booty in property and slaves. The misfor- Itunes of Malacca did not cease with the siege, as the enemy

■ (had poisoned a well before retiring, and a number of the in­I habitants who had taken refuge in the fortress lost their lives , from drinking the water.⁹

The siege had ended while Francis was still in Japan, i! When the Santa Croce arrived off Singapore (where at that k jtime there seems to have been no settlement, though the straits i keem to have been a sort of rendezvous for ships), a light vessel } was found there bound for Malacca, by means of which Francis sjforwarded the following hurried note, to secure himself an im- ;;tnediate passage to India.

(lxxxvii.) To the Society at Malacca.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord be ever ;t«-ith us to help us and favour us ! Amen, i To-day is the fortieth day since we left Japan, where the } Christian religion, by the favour of God, is advancing in a ft-onderful way. I have left all of the Society whom I brought x ivith me safe and sound, by the goodness of God, at Aman- ct guchi (a large city, the capital of a kingdom), that they may i take care of the people there, many of whom have already

■ ^: become Christians, and many more are daily becoming such.

' * Sec Bartoli, Asia, t. i. pp. 279, 280. Faria y Sousa (Asia Portu-

¹ \uesa) tells the story somewhat differently from Bartoli, and we have fol- ifl lowed him in several particulars.

Other things I will explain when I see you; but get ready, I beseech you, for me, some of the things necessary for the voy­age to India, and provide that one of the ships bound for India may await our arrival. For it is of great importance for the glory of Christ our Lord and the salvation of souls, that I should go on at once to India from Malacca. Send Joam Bravo with your answer to my message hither to me as soon as possible. I will tell you by and by all about Japanese affairs, which I know for certain it will be most pleasant and delightful for you to hear about. But enough for the present. May God be with us all! Amen.

From the Straits of Singapore, Dec. 30, 1551.

Francis Xavier was received at Malacca with great joy. The survivors of the siege came to tell him that if he had been on the spot the calamity would not have happened. Don Pedro de Silva, still ^£ Capitan,’ as it appears, welcomed him affection­ately. The Japanese envoy whom he had with him was enter­tained with as much splendour as the circumstances would per­mit. Francis communicated to Don Pedro, and also to his brother, Don Alvaro d’Ataide,¹⁰ who seems to have been at the time in Malacca, his designs as to the embassy to China and his intention of proposing Diego Pereira for that undertaking to the Viceroy, Don Alfonso de Norona, who had arrived in India in 1.550. As far as we can gather, no kind of opposition was given by either of the brothers.

Francis sailed almost immediately for Cochin. He arrived

¹⁰ There is some uncertainty as to the time at which Don Alvaro suc­ceeded his brother as ‘ Capitan’ of Malacca. Pedro was certainly in com­mand at the time of the siege.' Alvaro came out from Portugal in the fleet which brought Don Alfonso de Norona in 1550. He is said by some to have been at Malacca at the time of which we are speaking, and to have] agreed with his brother in supporting the embassy suggested by Francis. On the other hand, Don Pedro did not leave Malacca till after Francis Xavier, and seems even to have been there when he returned a few months later. And Faria y Sousa (Asia Portuguesa, t. ii. p. 2, cap. 10), a little after this date, speaks of a dispute between the two brothers, Don Alvaro endeavouring to enter on his office before his brother’s term had expired. It is quite certain that he did not succeed as ‘ Capitan’ till after Francis Xavier’s short visit at the beginning of 1552.

n time to catch the Portuguese ships which were to sail for Europe, and his first occupation was to write hastily to Ignatius lioyola and Simon Rodriguez and the Society in Europe as to he needs of the mission of Japan. The two following letters, herefore, really belong to this part of our subject, though they vere written after Francis had returned to India. We have .lready given the long letter to the Society, dispatched at the ame time.

The opening of the letter to Ignatius needs a word of com- nentary. Francis Xavier had hitherto been Superior of all the nembers of the Society working in the Indies, but the Indian nission had not been made a separate ‘ Province’ until 1549, ifter his departure for Japan. Some of the difficulty which Fran­cis had felt as to the appointment of Antonio Gomez, of which ve have more than once spoken, may have come from the fact hat India was then to some extent under the Province of Por- ugal. In 1549 Ignatius Loyola had erected India into a Pro- rince, and had made Francis Xavier its Provincial Superior. The ‘ patents’ by which the appointment was formally signified

o him seem to have accompanied the letter from Ignatius to yhich he alludes so tenderly in the opening sentences of his nvn letter which we now insert. At the same time he received .nother document, communicating to him all the privileges of he General of the Society, except that of admitting fathers to he profession of the four vows.

(lxxxviii.) To my holy Father in Jesus Christ, Ignatius at Rome.

May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ ever help aid assist us ! Amen.

O, my true Father ! I'have just received at Malacca, on my return from Japan, the letter of your holy charity. The news yhich I hoped for, and which it has given me, of the life and J ;ood health of one so dear and so venerated, have filled my oul with a joy known to God alone. I have read there many

words breathing all your sweetness and piety; I have reread them many times for the comfort and the good of my soul. I go over them again in my mind, feeding on them, so to speak, continually; especially those last words which are, as it were, the seal of charity, and which conclude your letter, * Yours en­tirely, so that no length of time will ever be able to make me forget you, Ignatius.’ I have read these words with tears of delight, and as I write them I weep at the blessed remembrance' of past days, and of the sincere and holy love with which you have always enfolded me, and which still follows me. I consider that God was pleased to deliver me from all those great toils and dangers in Japan, chiefly because your prayers and fatherly intercession in my behalf induced Him to favour me.

No words can express all that I owe to the Japanese. It is by their means alone that our Lord, by an interior illumina-j tion, has penetrated me with a knowledge of my countless sins. Up to this time, wandering outside of myself, I was ignorant of the abyss of miseries which were concealed in my conscience;] until, in the labours and trials of that country, the eyes of myl soul have been at last opened and the Divine Goodness has allowed me to see clearly, and touch* as it were, by living ex-| perience and sensible impression, how very much I require! another person to be given to me, to exercise the most sedul-l ous care over me. Consider therefore what your holy charity I is doing in putting under my guidance so many holy souls of I the fathers and brothers of the Society residing in these coun-l tries. Nothing but the Divine Mercy has made me sensible in a manner transcending all evidence how ill prepared I am with the most necessary qualities for this minis tty of direction. I ought rather to have hoped to be placed under the care and authority of my brothers, than to be charged with directing them.

Your holy charity adds that you greatly desire to see me once again before the close of this life. Our Lord, who reads the depths of my soul, knows the keen and sweet emotion of tender love which this affectionate expression of your precious love has roused in my inmost heart. And as often as I turn over these words in my mind (which is very often) unbidden

tears fill my eyes, and break forth gently and irresistibly at this one sweetest image on which my heart dwells, that it is possible I may again clasp you in my arms : a thing difficult enough to bring about, as I see, but nothing is impossible to holy obedi­ence.

In the name of the passionate zeal for the service and glory of our Lord God with which you are animated, I ask one favour of you, which if I were in your presence I would implore be­fore your holy feet on my knees : it is that you would send here some man thoroughly well known and approved by your holy charity to be made Rector of the College of Goa. Such a man chosen by yourself, and so to say formed by your hands, is very much required by that College.

With regard to Japan, the reason why I am convinced that you should send there persons of great excellence and eminent both for virtue and learning, to be sent to the universities of that empire, is this. There are many there, unlearned though prudent men, who possess good judgment, and when they are convicted of their errors they take refuge in the answer that there are a multitude of learned persons in their country also who have devoted their lives to deep research, and to the reading of all kinds of books. These learned ones, they say, deny the truths which we maintain, and must have their arguments con­futed and be gained over to us, in order that others who rely on their authority may be themselves converted. Therefore letters and science are indispensable.

The most remarkable strength of soul and patience, and indeed all virtues in perfection, are absolutely necessary for those who are preparing for such great conflicts. They will come, a few poor foreigners, to match themselves against the whole glory and reputation of a haughty people relying on its pride in itself and its institutions, entirely ruled by the bonzes, the first per­sonages in the country as to dignity and esteem. Their bold­ness will expose them to a thousand sufferings when the hornets they have irritated shall fly upon them. They will find that they cannot do with impunity what is the first and most neces­sary thing to be done,—to tear to pieces the sophistries of the

bonzes, to confound their falsehoods, to expose the unworthy and secret artifices with which they suck the purses of the credulous people.

From my experience when on the spot, I can well imagine how the mad fury of these false priests will break out on seeing before them a man who is able to deny to their face the power of which they boast, to snatch by their secret rites from the flames of hell souls already condemned to them ; and if their ridiculous pretensions are publicly convicted of falsehood, their chief source of gain will cease to exist. And when their shame­ful and unnatural crimes, the detestable obscenity of which is in their eyes a matter of joke, perhaps even a subject of praise, are branded with just and severe reprobation, then it is only natural that these raging boars, pierced by the spear in their filthy mire, will run in fury and madness on the men who have cast pearls before them. As I have before said, the preachers of the truth on these and other like subjects in this country cannot fail to be violently attacked and severely tried, and they will surely be tasked to the utmost to ‘ possess their souls in pa­tience,’ to use the words of the Gospel; and this patience they must acquire by practice, and be powerfully armed therewith before they expose themselves to such dangers. I am writing to Father Simon, or in case of his absence to the Rector of the College of Coimbra, to send no one for the Japanese universities who has not been seen, examined, and approved by your holy charity.

I cannot repeat too often that our brothers will have to en­dure conflicts and trials beyond all common expectation. Visited constantly and most unseasonably, they will not have a mo­ment of the day (often not of the night) free from importunate inquirers; questions will follow one upon another incessantly; the nobles will send for them, and it will be impossible to re­fuse to go to them. These distractions will rob them of time for daily prayer, meditation, recollection of the soul in God, and other spiritual exercises of the kind. They will not have time to celebrate mass at least for some days after they first show themselves, on account of the crowd of visitors; they will barely

have leisure for accomplishing the obligation of Office, or for necessary food and sleep. * One of the faults of this people is without any shame to take up the time of foreigners, especially people who come from a distance, whom they generally treat contemptuously and make game of them wantonly, even when they are harmless and in no way troublesome. But if these foreigners venture to attack and blame openly what the com­mon people reverence and admire, if they lift up their voice against the different sects of false religions, if they satirize and strike with the censor’s rod the public crimes of the nation, and do it thoroughly and earnestly, if they declare obstinately that no one who has gone down into the fires of hell can be delivered from them by any sacrifice or almsgiving or rites per­formed by their living relations and friends; then they will cer­tainly have to undergo a violent tempest of ill will; even the wisest of the natives will be exasperated at their thinking so hardly as to the souls of persons, dear to them, who are already dead; they will, for the most part, despise the new religion as imperfect and impotent, as confessing at once to inability of applying any remedy to souls already condemned. People’s minds here are filled with cares and questions as to this point, because the literature and the old traditions of the country abound in stories of hell and do not say anything about Pur­I gatory.

Now all this being so, it is self evident that what we want here are powerful intellects, practised in dialectics, gifted with a popular eloquence, quick to follow error in its shiftings and even to anticipate them, able to snatch the mask from lies which plausibly bear the semblance of reality, to unravel sophistical arguments, and to show the incoherence and mutual contradic­tion of false doctrines. As a matter of fact, these bonzes are wonderfully ashamed and confused if the want of harmony and even the self contradiction of their dogmas are brought to light, or when they are so caught in the bonds of an invincible argu- i ment that they cannot escape from it. To these intellectual gifts must be added bodily strength—capable of resisting the severest cold of winter. Bandou, the chief Japanese university,

VOL. II. _B B

is situated in the most northern part of these islands, and the others are not far off. It is found out here that natives of a colder climate are distinguished beyond others for skill and genius. As to the food, rice is almost the only thing to eat, though there is a little wheat and a few vegetables, greens, and other things of that sort, dry and not very wholesome. The only wine is made from rice (the making is an art); it is very scarce, and so extremely dear. But the most troublesome trial of all is the continual anxiety caused by daily perils.

Old men are unsuited for the work in this country; they would not have the necessary strength for the labours which are indispensable. Neither are young men desirable, except those in whom the defect of age is supplied by great virtues, proved openly by severe trials; otherwise they would rather ruin themselves than be of use to others. All kinds of tempta­tions and occasions of sin abound in Japan. Added to this, men’s minds are more delicate here than anywhere else, and are easily scandalized by the very slightest appearance of an imperfect example in persons who claim to teach others. I am writing all these particulars as minutely as they are here set down to Master Simon, or if he should be absent, to the Rector of Coimbra.

I should be most glad if your holy charity would be so good as to write to Coimbra desiring that the missionaries in­tended for Japan may be first sent to you at Rome. I have often thought that Belgians or Germans, acquainted with Portu­guese or Spanish, would be well fitted for this destination. The men of both these countries bear fatigue well, and are prepared by their temperament and education to bear the cold of Ban- dou. It has seemed to me as very probable that there must be a great many fathers, natives of these two countries, in the different Colleges of Spain and Italy, where perhaps they are not so very useful, not being masters of the native elegances of the language of the country. If they were transplanted to Japan, they would do very efficient service there, and gain the reward of great fruit of souls. I have thought it also my duty to suggest to your holy charity, if this idea pleases you, to order

that more strict prudence be exercised in the choice of persons to be sent from the Spanish and Portuguese Colleges to live in India. It would be better that only two fathers should sail yearly for India, provided they were persons such as this coun­try requires; in the first place sufficiently advanced in spiritual perfection, and then possessing the eloquence and learning in­dispensable for preaching and hearing confessions. These also I should wish by your order to make a pilgrimage to Rome be­fore sailing hither; for those trials of journeys help to form them, show them the extent of their strength, inure them to labour, and strengthen them to endure future perils by the remembrance of the past dangers which they have safely escaped. Lastly, we shall gain this also: that they will not be new to the fatigues of missionary labours, as we find men to be who come hither from their own homes carried quietly on board ship, without hav­ing any practice at all in going about the country as pilgrims.

Besides this, there are here so many inducements to self indulgence, such strong and seducing allurements, not only to sloth and idleness, but even to wickedness, that it seems right that the virtue of those who are to be exposed to these spiritual dangers should first be proved by most careful trials; lest un­happily unsuitable persons should creep in among our mis­sioned, who instead of the comfort we might have expected from their arrival and residence amongst us, would occasion us the most grievous trouble, and do things in consequence of which we are obliged to dismiss them from the Society. Let your holy charity see, I beseech you, whether it will be well yourself to admonish Master Simon on this point.

No one of those of ours now at Arnanguchi, or of those at present in India and intended to go to Japan, God willing, next year or in some following year, seems to me fitted to be sent to the Japanese universities. But they will spend their time in studying the language, and in learning the doctrines of the different sects, so that when the fathers whom we expect come from Europe, sent as from your own bosom, they may make use of the others as faithful helpers and interpreters in disputing with the bonzes. I hope very confidently that the Church of

Amanguchi will grow and develope very largely. It already has a great many Christians; and many among them are excellent: new converts are being instructed and baptized every day. I live in the firm hope that our Lord will preserve to us Father Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez, and not suffer them to be put to death by the idolaters—first, because they seem to have already escaped the first and most instant dangers, and the fury of the bonzes, excessively irritated in their earliest attacks, appears to have softened with time and to be gradually waning; also because there are so many Christians there, several of them of distinguished rank and power, who watch very zeal­ously day and night over the safety of our missioners. Joam Fernandez, though a simple layman, is most useful on account of the fluency he has acquired in the Japanese language, and of the aptness and clearness with which he translates whatever Father Cosmo suggests to him. At present he is entirely occu­pied in explaining all the mysteries of Jesus Christ to the peo­ple in daily instructions.

As I perceive in the Japanese a happy disposition for ap­proving the Christian religion when sufficiently explained to them, and for persevering with constancy therein when they have received it, as well as handing it on to their posterity, I think that even the greatest labour would be well employed in cultivating them. As to this thought, I find much strength and consolation in the hope I place in your holy charity, which bids me ask that you will send some fathers of great sanctity whom we may fitly oppose to the teachers of the superstitions of Japan. One of the principal motives to induce you to do so, is the superiority, which is very evident to me, of the Japanese nation over all the others at present discovered in these parts. I do not think that there is any other nation living under its own laws and not subject to the King of Portugal as to which we may hope that the Christian religion will take root and remain firm and lasting. As far as I know, the Japanese nation is the single and only nation of them all which seems likely to preserve unshaken and for ever the profession of Christian holiness if once it embraces it; but this will doubtless

not be without great sufferings and heroic conflicts on the part of the preachers of the Gospel.

China, an immense empire, enjoying profound peace, regu­lated by a number of very wise laws, is governed by a single sovereign whose will is absolute. It is a most opulent empire, abounding in everything necessary for human life. A narrow strait separates it from Japan. Its people are remarkable for intelligence, and employ themselves in study, chiefly of laws and human jurisprudence, and also of political science. The ambition of the greater part of the people is to gain a deep knowledge on this subject. The faces of the natives are pale and beardless, and their eyes are small. They have generally kind open dispositions, and are lovers of peace, which flour­ishes and is firmly established among them, without any fear of wars. Unless some new obstacles should arise and alter my plans, I hope to sail for China in this year 1552, whither I am attracted by the hope of being able to do good work in furthering greatly the service of God to the benefit of both the Chinese and Japanese nations. As soon as the Japanese learn that the Chinese have embraced the faith of Jesus Christ, there is reason to hope that the obstinacy with which they are at­tached to their own false sects will be lessened. So I am full of confidence that by the labours of our Society, the Chinese and Japanese will abandon their idolatrous superstitions and adore Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all nations.

I may tell you by the way of a singular and strange thing which is observed as to the mutual intercourse of these two nations. Their languages are different, so that people who speak the one do not understand the other. But an educated Japanese can read and understand what a Chinese writes, only, when he reads it aloud, what he says is unintelligible to the writer him­self if he be there. For the Chinese letters are not like the characters we use, which express the various sounds of the human voice, but they represent the things themselves, and so are innumerable. And those people in Japan who affect to be learned learn the signification of these letters, that is the ob­jects which they designate, not the word or name which they

represent. And in order to make elementary instruction easier and the labour of teachers lighter, they have hit upon this compendious method. They set forth on a board the Chinese letters, putting upon each a picture of the thing which they signify —as, for example, they put a representation of a man upon the character which is fixed on to signify a man, and so on. So the Japanese, when they read, have the representation to guide them, and in their minds they think of the thing which the Chinese who has written the character had in his mind; but when they come to read aloud what is before them, they utter the Japanese words which signify the thing. The Chinese hear them, and do not know in the least what they mean. And so in turn, if a Chinese reads to a Japanese the same writing, the latter will not understand a word of what he says.¹¹

We have written a book in the Japanese language explain­ing the origin of the world, and all the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ. We have transcribed this book into Chinese characters, and intend to carry this copy with us when we go into China, so that while we are learning the language of the country we may be able to show the Chinese a sample of the truths we bring to them written in characters which they know. I pray and beseech your holy charity, in the name of your love for God and your zeal for His service, yourself to recommend me earnestly to God in your daily prayers and holy sacrifices, and make the rest of the Society do the same. I ardently solicit (and your holy charity will be my interpreter and mediator in this matter) that the suffrages of all the fathers, especially the professed, and their powerful intercession with our common Lord, may be procured for me. These prayers, in union with the merits of the whole militant Church, and with the prayers

¹¹ On this adoption by the Japanese of the Chinese characters, see Sir Rutherford Alcock, Capital of the Tycoon, i. 167. There is a better account in M. Humbert, Japon I I lust rtf, t. ii. p. 33seq. The same excellent work curiously confirms the statement made a little above about the arms of the Prince of Satsouma. These are figured in M. Humbert’s book, t. i. p. 392, as a broad circular hoop of black with two equally broad transverse bands crossing the white circle in the middle. The cross is therefore there, but in black.

of all the blessed who in their lifetime were of our Society, and the petitions of the whole of the Church triumphant, may obtain for me from our Lord God the grace clearly to know in this life what His holy Will desires of me, and the assistance and strength necessary for accomplishing in all fulness and perfection whatever it may be His order or command that I should do.

The least of your sons, and the farthest from your presence,

Cochin, Jan. 29, 1552. FRANCIS.

The next letter, to Simon Rodriguez, accompanied that to Ignatius.

(lxxxix.) To Master Simon Rodriguez.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us !

I am anxious to inform you of different matters relating to Japan, so as to give you a notion what kind of labourers are required for that country. Men, in the first place, of tried ex­perience, proved by suffering and dangers, should be chosen, in order to win the people to the true faith. At Bandou, and in the other universities, great conflicts and great persecution await them from the bonzes. So I say they will be violently assailed, and to such a point, that there may be risk, lest in seeking to save others they lose themselves, unless they possess great strength of soul and confidence in God. They will have to endure very severe cold, Bandou being much further north than Amanguchi; they will also have to put up with want of food, there being almost nothing to eat but rice and vegetables, and a few like things. For such an undertaking, as you see, it is self evident that men of great virtue and of good physical constitution are required.

I think it would be advisable to send some Belgians and Germans, who are accustomed to cold and bodily suffering, and being away from their native country, and not knowing the language, can do no great work in preaching in Portugal or else-

where. You have many such in Italy, Spain, and France. I should wish them also to be well practised in argumentative conclusions, in solving captious objections, so as to be suffi­ciently learned publicly to confound the bonzes, whose authority is of greatest weight in the universities—in fact to make them contradict themselves openly. I shall send some of our people hence to Amanguchi to learn the Japanese language, and get some idea of the doctrines and errors of the nation, so that other more eminent subjects of the Society sent hither may find them able companions and interpreters, and then go to attack the universities, and that, even though not sufficiently ac­quainted with the language of the nation, these fathers may dispute themselves with the bonzes by means of interpreters, until they themselves know Japanese. I beg you to let our blessed Father Ignatius know about the men whom you are going to send to the Japanese universities.

A great concourse of men go from all parts of Japan to the university of Bandou, to gain learning. When they return to their country, they teach their fellow-countrymen what they have acquired. I am told that Bandou is a very large and well populated town; its inhabitants are famous for their noble blood, but also for military prowess, although many of gentle and peaceful nature are to be found. I entreat you to take care to send us brothers of proved virtue and modesty for this place.

To give some idea of the difficulties which those destined for Japan will encounter when they appear in the universities, they will be continually assailed with questions and disputes one after another, they will be the sport of the people, mocked and laughed at by every one. They will have no leisure time for meditation or the contemplation of divine truths, none for saying mass, especially at Bandou and Meaco, scarcely even the necessary time for reciting the Divine Office. The mission­aries’ dwelling will be constantly thronged with a crowd of natives—sometimes visitors, sometimes inquirers, sometimes people sent by the nobles, to invite them to a visit without ever admitting any excuse.

In fact so many importunate people come at every instant

that barely a moment can be found for bodily needs, for taking a little sleep or food. Satan will lay snares for them in won­derful ways, and our brethren deprived of their hours of divine meditation and office, and above all of the fruits of the most Holy Eucharist, if they have added to this the persecution of the bonzes, the excessive inconvenience of the cold, the in­sufficiency and difficulty about food, and the absolute hopeless absence of all human consolation and aid,—these, I say, who have to undergo so many and such great miseries, must be en­dowed with singular virtue.

You must, then, be very careful in the choice of subjects to be sent to Japan. Old men are not suitable because they are wanting in strength, and young men are not because they lack experience. Believe me, the zeal and virtue of those who en­roll themselves for Japan will be indeed abundantly tried, and more than enough; but, on the other hand, they will be filled in a marvellous way with heavenly consolations if they bear their trials and fatigues courageously, and use the grace and help of God, which are given most largely in the greatest difficulties, to win the victory over our everlasting enemy.

I again implore you, my dearest Brother, to send to India such subjects as, although few in number, may be of great service; as there are at present in Europe so many houses of the Society, two at least might be chosen every year from each house gifted with a natural talent for preaching, and who might render even still greater service by their example than their words. India is indeed of all countries the one where such subjects are the most necessary. I would have you charge the fathers who are sent, to admit no one into the Society amongst their fellow travellers. If a certain number of sub­jects are received in India, to be applied later on to Humani­ties, it ought only to be those who are possessed with a good foundation of learning and virtue and come to us merely to finish their studies. You send away a great number of subjects from the colleges in Europe ; and we would rather have them here than receive out here into our number men who only know how to read and write.

Most desirable it would be if no one were to come from Portugal to India before finishing his studies, and no one be received into the Society here excepting subjects required for domestic purposes. Studies out here are a very slow concern; those who undertake studies here must wait a great many years before they will be fit to preach, hear confessions, and be of use to the Society and people of the country.

O my Simon ! may God unite us in the heavenly country, since for His sake we live so far apart on earth ! However, what if we are to meet again in the kingdom of China ? I ear­nestly beg of you to ask our Lord to give me the grace to open the gates of China to others, for I am fit for nothing myself. You must treat the affair concerning the Fishery Coast (which Enrico Enriquez has written to you about), I mean about the Commandant, with his Highness; it is very important for the good of religion.

Cochin, Jan. 30, 1552. FRANCIS.

The last paragraph appears to refer to a topic unfortunately by no means new in the letters of Francis Xavier—the ex­actions and vexations which the Christian converts on the Fishery Coast had to suffer at the hands of the Portuguese officials. We may well suppose that the memorial as to the Commandant or ‘ Captain’ of the Fishery Coast, to which refer­ence is made, is a document which has come to light in our time, and was first printed by M. L^on Pagfcs at the end of the second volume of his translation of the letters. The com­plaints of the Christians therein contained are, at all events, of the same character with those alluded to by Francis Xavier, who seems to have forwarded some document of the sort drawn up by Enrico Enriquez. The pearl fishers say that the Captain makes them pay him a certain tribute on account of their fish­eries, even when they do not fish, and also to fish in a way which they do not like. They ask to be allowed to pay the dues only on the fishing which they actually make, and not to be compelled to fish against their will, ‘for such,’ they say, ‘is the right which the Governor Garcia de Sh. conceded to them

and they ask his Highness that this order may be carried out. Again, the Captain exacts a tax from them on the fish which they catch, and on which they live. This is an entirely new impost, and they demand to be relieved from it. Again, the Captain exacts dues from them on the cowries which they trade with to Africa, and makes them sell to him for a third part of the price which foreign traders offer for them. This abuse also they beg may be forbidden for the future. Again, the Captain and his friends used to claim a monopoly of the sale of rice, and to sell it to the natives at an arbitrary price, forcing them to take it whether they would or no, and then prosecuting them until they had paid him. In the same way the Portu­guese official put dues upon their coasting trade, on which the transport of their provisions depended, their boats being not allowed to sail except under his licence. Further, he moved them about arbitrarily from village to village, never leaving i them fixed for long in the same place, and exacting certain fees whenever they were thus transplanted. On all these points they appeal to the justice of his Highness for relief, and they also ask that fugitives from neighbouring territories, who may be driven out by tyranny or persecution, may be welcomed and allowed to live in peace in the settlements of the Fishery 'Coast, in order that by this means they may be encouraged to place themselves under the protection of his Highness, and that the number of converts to Christianity may be increased. The memorial concludes by saying that all these things have been already ordered by Garcia de Sh. the Governor, and have also been made the subject of petition by Ruy Gomez de Camynha, a resident at Goa, who holds the office of procurator of their interests.¹² And the Christians pray that his Highness

¹¹ We are inclined to think that the Ruy Gomez mentioned here is the person whose name is written Ruy Gonzalez in the letter to Antonio Gomez and others inserted above (p. 163). The office mentioned is the same as . that named here. It is evident that the translations of letters like those of Francis Xavier are sure to be less accurate in the proper names than in other matters, and in the transcripts—perhaps even in the originals— the names Gonzalez and Gomez would both be represented in the same abridged form, the first and the two last letters alone being given.

will grant their requests as a special favour, in which the in­terests of the service of God and the increase of the faith are concerned.¹³

It would not be easy to draw a more complete picture of official tyranny and exaction than that which is given, as it were, in outline in this document. The Christians were evid­ently looked upon by the Captain of the Fishery Coast as a race of slaves, with no rights and no friends, out of whom he and his friends were simply to squeeze what they could. The mention in the document of Garcia de Sk as a former governor of the Indies, fixes the date of these complaints at the year

1552, though it is just possible that they may have been drawn up between the time at which Francis returned from Japan and his last departure for India in the following April. It is therefore certain that neither the orders of the King, in his letter to Joam de Castro, nor the injunctions of the governor who succeeded Joam, had been able to effect any change for the better in the conduct of the Portuguese officials at a dis­tance from the capital, and the strong language used in some of the letters of Francis Xavier to the King is abundantly jus­tified.¹⁴

¹⁵ See Leon Pages, t. ii. p. 523 seq.

¹⁴ M. Leon Pages prints, at the end of the document to which refer­ence has been made above, a short letter from Francis himself, which ap­pears to be appended to the memorial. If there is no uncertainty as to the connection between the two papers, we must of course suppose the shortest, which is from Francis himself, to have been drawn up at this time. This hypothesis, however, is not altogether free from difficulties! drawn from internal evidence, as the note is addressed to a Vicar General who seems to be either going to Portugal or to be about to write to the King, and mentions as a very desirable thing the coming of Simon Rod­riguez to India armed with certain power from his Highness. This, al­though not incompatible with the later date of 1552, seems more naturally to belong to the year 1549. It appears to us, therefore, uncertain at what date the letter should be fixed. It was as follows :

Memorial for the Vicar General of the things regarding which he should treat with the King, for the good of the Christians in India.

Your Reverence should remind the King to send a great number of preachers of the Society of Jesus into these countries, and secondly into the garrisons in India. There is a great want of preachers, as your Reverence well knows.

What a service would his Highness render to God, if he sent to these countries of India Simon, with a great many members of the Society of Jesus ! Indeed, his coming would produce great fruits among the souls of the Portuguese in India, and make many Christians in Japan, which is peopled with infidels. At the same time it would be a great favour from his Highness if Master Simon were invested with civil jurisdiction over all the Christians of this country, so that no one else should have authority over them except those appointed by Father Master Simon, besides those persons ¹ designated by his Highness to occupy these offices. Indeed the captains [ invested with this jurisdiction over the Christians of the country, only use t it to commit wrong and to seize property from the legitimate owners against their will, thus scandalizing the Christians of the country, and preventing the conversion of unbelievers, because of the ill treatment which the latter see inflicted upon those who are already Christians.

In the event of Master Simon’s not coming, your Grace may obtain l from the King that he should confer on the Bishop this civil jurisdiction I over the Christians of the country, and that none shall have jurisdiction

• nor authority over them, savejthose appointed by the Bishop or by his High- 1 ness. And these officials will remain in their employment so long as they I fulfil their duty : so that the Bishop can dispose of these officials, and in- Ivest other persons with their appointments when the first do not fulfil

1 their duty.

[One line is almost entirely effaced.]

(i.) Letter to the Society at Coimbra from Cagoxima, ’ November $th, 1549.

A letter is extant from Francis Xavier to the Society at Coimbra, under the same*date as the long letter already given (p. 227 seq.) addressed to the Society at Goa. It seems probable that both letters were written by Francis himself, rather than that the letter to Coimbra was an abridgment sent on from India—especially as the letter to Goa contains so much of exhortation and instruc­tion for the fathers and brothers immediately subject to Francis' himself. It is not, however, worth while to reproduce the letter to Coimbra in full, as it is in substance, as has been already said, a simple repetition of the narrative parts of the longer letter to India. It consists, in Father Menchacha’s version, of eight para­graphs or sections. The first contains the account of the voyage towards Japan, as far as the accident by which the daughter of the corsair was drowned. In the passage which follows, as to the incident of the answer given by the idol, that if the Christian Emmanuel had died the girl would have escaped, Francis leaves out the curious statement about his own prayer that the devil’s torments might be increased, and says, ‘ I took to earnest prayer, and asked God very often that before we were swallowed up by the waves, He would deliver those men made by Him after His own image and likeness from their false and erroneous opinions and impious superstitions ; for it is a foul sight and a thing alto­gether intolerable that the perpetual enemy of the human race itself should be adored in the place of God by men who are made to praise God.’ The second paragraph relates succinctly the rest of the voyage and the reception of Francis and the others at Ca­goxima. The third, which is very long, gives in abridgment what is said in the former letter as to the characteristics and manners of the Japanese, the bonzes, their unnatural impurities, the different orders of religious, the bad lives of the bonzes, who live with women of their own order, the wonder which Francisl felt at the way in which the most abominable sins were thought nothing of, and at the credit in which the bonzes were, notwith­standing their vices. It ends with a short account of his inter-

Course with Ningh-sit. The fourth paragraph sums up a few of his thoughts about the opening of a great field of labour, and the necessity of great selfdiscipline, patience, and submission, as a preparation for it, which occupy so large a space in the letter to India. It is curious that it has the following sentence : ‘ It will, perhaps, very probably turn out that I may call a number of you out hither within the next two years.’ The fifth paragraph takes up the story of their residence at Cagoxima, Paul’s visit to the Prince of Satsouma, and what passed about the picture of our Blessed Lady. It also mentions their need of the language, the way in which their position makes them trust entirely to God, and the benefit of the great scarcity and simplicity of food in Japan. The next paragraph sums up very briefly the anticipations of Francis as to the opposition of the bonzes, and his own readiness to sacrifice his life for the salvation of the Japanese. The seventh paragraph is an abridgment of what is said in the former letter as to his journey to Meaco, and as to the Japanese universities (in the list of which the name Frenojama is inserted), and as to his intention of writing to Europe when he has found out how things are in these universities. Where he speaks of inviting members of other religious orders, he adds, ‘ if they come out even in the greatest numbers, there will still be room left for the endeavours and labours of more.’ He then mentions the conver­sion of the two bonzes, who are going to India, and his own visit to the Prince of Satsouma, as well as the edict of toleration issued by that prince. The last paragraph of the letter is a sort of con­densation of the exhortations to humility and mutual charity which occur at the end of the letter to Goa.

(2.) The Evidence as to the possession of the gift of tongues by Francis Xavier.

The Relatio super sanctitate et miraculis Francisci Xaverii, to which reference has been made in the Preface to the first volume of this work, as well as elsewhere, is too long a document for us •to analyze in the present volume, which already threatens to exceed its destined limits. We may, however, give at least one specimen of its chapters, and the mention of the exercise of the ¹ gift of tongues’ by Francis at Amanguchi may serve as the occasion for the insertion of a short epitome of the argument as summarily represented by the Auditors of the Rota in their chapter on this subject.

The chapter begins by asserting, as from the evidence col­lected in the Processes, that Francis Xavier had this gift, which he exercised in two ways. First, he spoke the languages (which he had never learnt) of natives to whom he went to preach the Gospel as freely and elegantly as if he had been born and edu­cated in the midst of those nations ; and in the second place, it not unfrequently happened that men of different nations heard him at the same time, each in his own language. This happened elsewhere, and particularly in the port of Jafanapatam, and was considered as a great miracle, which made people venerate him,- and also converted many.

The fact asserted being thus divided into two parts, fourteen witnesses are referred to who prove both parts at once. One of them, Emmanuel Fernandez, an old man of eighty at the time of his examination at Cochin, said that he knew Father Francis on the Fishery Coast, and in the port of Jafanapatam on the Coro­mandel Coast he had seen Francis preaching to the natives in their own tongue, and that all marvelled that he spoke so well, though he had just come there, and their language was very diffi­cult to learn. And in the same town and port there were persons of divers nations and various tongues, and in a certain sermon which the said Father delivered in the presence of this witness, all affirmed that they heard him, each as if he were speaking in their proper and natural language. Emmanuel himself was witness that as soon as he came into a region he could speak any tongue, and this was considered a great miracle, and many were converted thereby. Another witness testifies to have heard of the miracle from persons who were present at Jafanapatam when Francis preached as mentioned above, and also to the common opinion and fame which prevailed concerning this matter, and how it was commonly said along the whole Fishery Coast that as soon as he had come there he had preached in the language of the Paravas as if he had been born there. Another, examined at Lisbon, testi­fies to the public report, and that he had heard himself from per­sons worthy of credit of the possession of the gift of tongues by Francis Xavier, so that when he spoke in one language he was heard by people of different nations in the native language of each. Several other witnesses are enumerated for this. Then a witness whose examination was taken at Bazain, Rodrigo Diaz Pereira, one of the King’s nobles (Aulae Regias Patritius), states that he sailed with Father Francis in the same ship to Banda, that is, to one of the Moluccas, and had seen many heathen converted to the faith by the labours and preaching of the Father, and that he used

:to preach the faith to them in their own language. Another wit­ness follows who deposes to the same from common report. An­other says that he heard from his uncle Gaspar de Cerqueiros Abreu, commander of the ‘Japanese expedition,’ that he had often heard Father Francis preaching in Japan or to the Chinese, and that while he understood him in his own native Portuguese, all the others who were present understood him each in his own lan­guage, though they were of other nations. Another witness, ex­amined at Goa, declares that he had heard from persons worthy of credit, and particularly from four brothers who had been com- ipanions of Francis when in India, that when he first went to Japan and knew little or nothing of the language, yet though he preached without an interpreter, partly in Spanish, partly in Latin, bartly in Portuguese, with a few Japanese words mixed up, he was understood by all as if he had spoken in the native lan­guage of each, and that the same happened in the Isles of the Moor and on the Fishery Coast. Another bears witness that it was notorious and testified by persons who had heard Francis’s sermons, that in the places on the Comorin Promontory and the Fishery Coast he used to preach in the native language so per­fectly and easily that it seemed, as it were, his own by birth, and lhat all understood the exhortations which he made in public, nor >svas there any one who did not, on account of the appropriateness of the language which he used, and so it was commonly said that the Whole people would have become Christian if he had not gone on so soon to other parts. Another witness says that those who were Xavier’s companions and heard his sermons affirmed that he spoke in the idiom or language of all the men whom he went among in India, as one who really had the gift of tongues, speaking to the people of Malabar or the Moluccas without an interpreter, and breaching with as much ease in the Molucca dialect as in Portu­guese, being himself from Navarre.

The auditors of the Rota then proceed to show how wonderful this gift must have been, quoting the promise made by our Lord as to the signs which shall follow those who believe, and also the words of St. Paul that tongues are a sign, not to believers, but to un­believers. As to the sign, it is proved in this case by the evidence which establishes that it was held for a great miracle, and that many were converted by it; and hence it is clear that they must have been certainly aware that Francis Xavier could hot have learnt the languages, and they would not otherwise have marvelled at his being able to speak them. They illustrate this from the pase of the Jews, who marvelled how our Lord knew ‘letters,’

VOL. 11. , CC

never having learnt them, and they say that St. Chrysostom states that this was miracle enough to have converted them. Then they mention a calculation that the languages of the nations among which Francis preached were at least thirty in number, very diffi­cult to acquire, and such as no one even with long study can perfectly master so as to speak elegantly and fluently. On the other hand, Francis Xavier was only ten years and a half in the East, two and more of which were spent in Japan. Again, the writers remark that to speak a language elegantly and to speak it easily are different things, as also to speak it simply without great elegance; but the two first named habits require very long practice and are acquired with great difficulty, whereas Francis Xavier had no time even to have practised speaking in the languages,, which he used nevertheless to speak as soon as he arrived in any place where they were spoken. They argue also, from his great occupation in other things and from there being no places where these languages were taught, that he could not have acquired them naturally. The auditors then prove that the second form of the gift—the speaking in one language and being understood in many—was a real instance of the gift of tongues and also was held as a miracle, from the account of the gift as it was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. They also quote St. Cyprian (Serm. de Sp. Sto.) on this subject, and also Bozius de Signis Eccle- sice. They end by arguing that it was highly probable that Francis Xavier would have had this gift, inasmuch as it had been given to the Apostles to enable them to be of use to those to whom they were sent, and the power of being understood by many of different languages at the same time seemed necessary to them, so also as this servant of God was sent to the East for the salva­tion of its peoples, it seems to follow that as in other respects he had received the spirit of the Apostles, so also in this respect he should be like unto them.

(3.) Disputes at Amanguchi between Cosmo Torres and the Bonzes.

We had prepared a translation of the letter of Joam Fer­nandez to Francis Xavier, giving an account of the questions proposed at Amanguchi to Father Torres, and of the father’s answers. But want of space compels us to sacrifice this interest­ing document, with many others. It seems to have been used by the author of the Histoire de I’Eglise de Japon, and we may refer to the English translation (1705), t. i. p. I20seq.

BOOK VI.

FROM THE LAST RETURN OF FRANCIS TO INDIA TO HIS DEATH AT SAN CHAN.

/

Rapid and active as were the movements of Francis Xavier at all times of his life, when he had once come to a decision as to the course which it was the will of God that he should imme­diately pursue, the swiftness, energy, and industry which cha- , racterized him from the time that he had grown prematurely grey under his labours and privations in Japan seem wonderful even in him. It may well have astonished the Portuguese mariners of the time that he should have reached Cochin within very little more than two months after his departure from Fucheo. Except during the five days of terrible tempest which gave him the occasion to display so many features of Christian charity in ^ the voyage from Japan to San Chan, the winds and seas seem almost to have been at his command. He stayed, as we have seen, but a few days at Malacca. Francesco Perez and Joam ¹ Bravo would tell him of the news from India, which showed him how greatly his presence was required there ; and indeed, if he met at Malacca the letter from Ignatius appointing him Provincial Superior, he would have needed no other spur to hasten his steps towards the country where so many of his sub­jects were awaiting his direction. He made his arrangements with Diego Pereira for the expedition to China with great dis­patch, and their arrangements required that he should be once more at Malacca before the summer was far advanced. He had j thus not many weeks to spare before he must be again on his I way to the furthest East.

He had been absent from India not far short of three years I —a long time from the active, bustling, and changeful existence

■ of. the Portuguese settlers in Asia. He had left Don Garcia de I Sh. Governor of the Indies. Garcia de Sk had died about the time that Francis had reached Cagoxima, and had been sue-

ceeded by Jorge Cabral, a gallant officer, who, as Faria y Sousa tells us, hesitated to accept the charge, expecting to be soon superseded by the arrival of a new Governor sent direct from Portugal.¹ In fact, before the end of the following year, 1550, Don Alfonso de Norona arrived from Europe with the title of Viceroy to take the government from his hands, much to the loss of India, if we may judge from the tone of the Portuguese chronicler. The new Viceroy was the son of the Marquis de Villa Reale, and must have known Francis Xavier when in Por­tugal. At all events, he was sure to do his best to help him in all that concerned the advancement of the faith, as far as his own powers extended.²

In many respects, though not in all, the news which Francis might have learnt at Malacca and at Cochin concerning the Society in India was such as might fairly rejoice his heart. His religious brethren had been generally labouring with great suc­cess and edification to all, while the troubles which he was called upon to remedy were in the main the work of one or two men at the most. The general results of the Indian mission were so satisfactory, there had been so great and so fruitful a display of charitable selfdevotion and religious zeal, that about a year before Francis left Japan, his friend the Bishop of Goa had written to St. Ignatius at Rome, thanking him for the ser­vices rendered by his children, and speaking of them in terms of the highest praise. We have already mentioned the heroic death of Antonio Criminale, which took place while Francis was waiting at Malacca to embark on his Japanese voyage. Another member of the Society had been martyred on the day on which he landed at Cagoxima. This was Nunez Ribero, whom he had sent to the Moluccas in 1548. We have seen in

¹ Jorge Cabral was Capitan at Bazain at the time of the death of Garcia de Sa, when the patents of succession were opened, appointing him to the Governorship. Faria y Sousa (t. ii. p. 2, c. 7) gives a long argument be­tween Cabral and his wife Dona Lucrecia Fiallo, who seems to have per­suaded her husband to accept the office, * non siempre son danosas las mugeres,’ says the historian.

² Lucena (Vida, 1. ix. c. 18) calls him ‘antigo divoto do Padre M. Fran­cesco. '

what strong language Francis had spoken of the immense hard­ships which were to be endured in the mission of the Moluccas, and of his expectation that those islands would soon be the scenes of martyrdom. The story of Nunez Ribero reads like a com­mentary on the words of Francis. He laboured with the most boundless charity, both for the Portuguese sailors of the ships which had to wait a certain time at Amboyna, where he was stationed, and afterwards for the natives. He gave away every­thing, even his own most necessary clothing. He lived in a state of privation which made the external conditions of his ex­istence almost those of the savages to whom he was devoting himself. His life was more than once in danger from violence, and once he had nearly lost it after a shipwreck for want of food and shelter. He was at last poisoned at the instigation of some Mussulmans.

We are, however, forced to conjecture that the mission of the Moluccas was not entirely'pFosp^rous, in the truest sense of the term. We find that two of those whom Francis had sent thither from Malacca, when he himself was about to start for Japan, had in some way misconducted themselves—probably they had committed some grave breach of obedience. These two were Manuel de Moraes and Francesco Gonzalez. We also find that Joam Beira himself was afterwards obliged to sail for India, in order, as it seems, to transact some business of im­portance to his mission with the Viceroy at Goa. At this time, therefore, the young priest Alfonso de Castro was alone at his post in those dangerous isles.

Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, had been the scene of the heroic labours and glorious sacrifices of Gaspar Baertz, who had shown the true apostolic spirit, and carried out most perfectly the instructions which Francis Xavier had given him.³ Gaspar was now at Goa, awaiting the time at which he had been ordered to sail for Japan, and Father Joam Gonzales

* Father Gaspar’s work at Ormuz could not be done justice to in less than a separate chapter. It fills fifty pages of Bartoli’s first volume of Asia. It is one of the many collateral subjects which want of space com­pels us to abandon.

Rodriguez had taken his place at Ormuz. The most conspicu­ous conversion in India had been that of the Rajah of Tanore, already mentioned, which had been mainly due to the zeal and skill of Antonio Gomez. The movement towards a reform of manners among the Portuguese, which had been begun by Francis himself, and urged on by the Fathers who had arrived from Portugal in 1548 with Antonio, had been continued, and it was now a rare thing for any one to venture on a voyage, whether for commercial or military purposes, without first recon­ciling himself to God by the reception of the sacraments. The King of Portugal had been so well pleased with the labours of the Society, as formally to commit to the care of its members all the seminaries of various kinds which he had founded through­out India, and was more than ever bent on providing in Portu­gal for an abundant supply of missioners for the East.

There was much, therefore, of good tidings to greet Francis on his return from Japan. But the picture was not altogether without its dark side. At Cochin itself, where he was received with all demonstrations of joy and reverence, there were many hearts sore with indignation against others of the Society. When Francis had last visited Cochin, the inhabitants had entreated him to leave them Alfonso de Castro, that he might begin the foundation of a college for the benefit of the town. Francis had been unable to grant the request, but it seems to have been renewed, as to the foundation of a college, in his absence, to the Fathers Paul and Antonio Gomez; and as the latter had already usurped that fulness of authority in India from which Francis had so carefully excluded him, he had gone to Cochin himself to make arrangements in the matter. A church dedi­cated to our Lady the Mother of God had been made over to him by the Confraternity to whom it belonged; but after a time the donors repented of their gift, and asked for the church back again. Gomez acted with a high hand. The Governor, Jorge Cabral, was his devoted friend, and when the complaints and murmurs became louder on his refusal to surrender the church, Gomez was not afraid to use his influence with the secular authorities, and have the chief movers on the part of the Con­

fraternity cast into prison. Such an act of violence was unheard of in India, and was entirely contrary to the spirit of the Society. The first act of Francis Xavier was to set this trouble right. He begged the Vicar and the local magistrates to meet him, and assembled also the members of the Confraternity. Then he came before them with the keys of the church in his hands, and throwing himself on his knees, protested that he made no claim, nor would accept anything at all, except what their pure bounty chose to bestow upon him, and at the same time he asked par­don in the humblest manner for what had been done in his absence. The whole company was moved to tears. The Con­fraternity immediately assembled in formal council, and made a solemn and irrevocable donation of the church to the Society.

Francis next punished the two refractory members of the Society who had returned from the Moluccas, Manuel de Moraes and Francesco Gonzalez, who seem to have been wait­ing at Cochin, were sent on to Goa at the same time with the following letter.

(xc.) To Father Paul of Camerino.

May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Amen.

Father Paul,—Manuel de Moraes and Francesco Gonzalez are leaving this to go to you. As soon as they arrive and you have read this letter, you must go to his Lordship the Bishop at his palace, and tell him that you give back and restore to his authority the first mentioned father, who on account of his priestly character is specially subject to him, being no longer under the obedience of any religious society, inasmuch as I have informed you by letter that he is duly released from his vows and | dismissed from the Society. Let his Lordship therefore make I use of this subject, gifted with considerable talents for the eccle-* siastical ministry, entirely as he pleases, with full right, since! the Society has cut him off from her own body, and given him,

back to his Lordship’s authority with full liberty; you must then tell Moraes himself that you dismiss him from the Society having received orders to do so from me. You must also send away Francesco Gonzalez, and tell him too that henceforth he must consider himself independent of us. You must’ not allow these two to live at the College any longer, or to have any in­tercourse with our brothers, even of acquaintance and conver­sation. It is very painful to me that they have done things which oblige me to come to this extreme decision, and what is more grievous still, I very much fear that they are not the only subjects to whom I must show the same severity. God our Lord knows how pierced to the heart with anguish I am in writing you this letter.

I had hoped on returning hither to enjoy a little repose from the many toils I have undergone elsewhere, but now, in­stead of consolations, I find more distressing troubles : suits undertaken out of wrongheaded excitement, quarrels, public differences, which cause offence to the people, and the like. These things are not indeed what I recommended when absent. As far as I see, many obey imperfectly or not at all. May God be praised for ever, and in all things !

You must write to Melchior Gonzalez, who is at Bazain, ,telling him to go at once to Goa, for I order him to do so. You must receive Balthasar Nunez into the house, and keep him there until my arrival. Do not receive a yOuth named Thomas Gonzalez, who is starting for Goa, until I come. Tell him, however, in the mean time, that if he wishes to serve God in the Society he must go to the Hospital, and there wait on the sick until I arrive, which, by God’s grace, I hope will be soon. Go and visit the Bishop from me, and kiss his hand in my name. Tell him that I long above all things to present myself to his illustrious Lordship, hoping to receive sweet fruit and consolation to my soul from his most delightful company, and that I hope then to express by word of mouth how obliged I am to him for all his favours and kindnesses, which have been too great for me ever to repay or even sufficiently to estimate. I have a great longing to see again our brothers at Goa, and

i especially our fathers, from whose conversation I expect no j little consolation. Adieu.

Yours entirely in Jesus Christ,

Cochin, Feb. 4, 1552. FRANCIS.

Early in February, Francis himself arrived at Goa. A large numbers of fathers and other members of the Society were await­ing him at the College of Santa Fib, for several had been ad­mitted in his absence by Father Paul of Camerino; others had come to Goa, as Gaspar Baertz, in consequence of letters from 1 himself, or from some other cause, and no less than twelve had j arrived from Portugal in the preceding year. Francis on land­ing proceded first to the hospitals of the city to visit the sick—his general custom when he returned from a distance— and thence to the monasteries of other religious orders. After this he went on to Santa F£, where he was received with tears of joy and devotion. After embracing the fathers and brothers ¹ collected at the door, he asked if they had any one in the house who was sick. He was told that there was one, whose life was despaired of by the doctors. He went up at once to the sick man’s cell, laid his hand upon his head, read a Gospel over him, and gave him his blessing. The sick man, who had heard of his arrival, and had been praying to see him, recovered almost, immediately, and lived for many years afterwards.

The majority of those assembled at Santa Fb had never ' seen the grey-haired man of five and forty whom they received with so much reverence. We may gather from what Francis I wrote to St. Ignatius about reserve in admitting novices in India, that there had been somewhat too much of freedom used j in this respect by the good Father Paul of Camerino, and, in­deed, one of the first things done by Francis Xavier on this visit to Goa, was to send away a number of novices whom he judged useless for the Society. Some of those, however, who had entered the order at Goa during his absence were noted for their services in after time. These were Simon de Vera and Fernand de Osorio, both of whom died in the Moluccas after very great labours in the cause of religion. Another, Pedro de

Alcageva, was to become famous for the care with which he brought home to India the body of Francis Xavier himself, as well as for many years of most faithful ministrations to the young boys of the College. Simon Rodriguez had sent thirteen from Lisbon, many of whom afterwards rendered glorious ser­vices to religion. Melchior Nunez Barreto, a priest, was the Superior of all on the voyage. He had two brothers in the Society, one of whom was Joam Nunez Barreto, the Patriarch of Ethiopia. Melchior had been eight years in the Society when he left Portugal, having entered religion on the same day on which he had received the cap of Doctor in the University •of Coimbra. We shall find Francis selecting him at once for an important post at Bazain. The same may be said of Father Antonio Eredia, who was at first appointed by Francis to be the Rector at Cochin, and afterwards transferred to a still more laborious work at Ormuz, where he displayed the same heroic charity which Gaspar Baertz had learnt from the instructions and examples of Francis himself. There was another Father Manuel de Moraes or Moralez, to take the place of him whom Francis had just dismissed. The number was made up by Gonsalvo Rodriguez, Cristoval de Costa, Melchior Diaz, and Alexio Madeira, all of whom seem to have been priests. The rest were brothers, though some of them were afterwards or­dained. One Brother, Jorge Nunez, lost his life during the voyage, having caught a dangerous disease while attending on the sick.

The College of Santa F&, as has been already hinted, had been seriously injured by the Rector, Antonio Gomez, and Francis found the city full of complaints on that score. Antonio seems to have brought from Europe his own ideas about the proper management of a College, drawn from the University of Paris and the College of Coimbra. We have seen that Francis Xavier had thought it best to leave the arrangement of the College entirely in his hands. Antonio used his power without any moderation, and his manner was as haughty and peremptory as his measures were violent. First the order of time and the domestic arrangements were changed ; then a severe accuracy

and perfection of regularity were exacted, under pain of sharp punishments, of the lads of the Seminary, as if they had been the novices of a religious order, rather than children but recently acquainted with the elements of the Christian faith. Disorders and discontent broke out among their ranks ; complaints were made to persons outside the College; some boys ran away, or tried to scale the walls by night At last Antonio Gomez dis­missed the entire number of boys who remained, and filled the College with children of the Portuguese. The whole city was Lscandalized; but Antonio was strong in the support of the ex­isting Governor, Jorge Cabral, and for the time nothing could '•be done. Father Paul of Camerino, forbidden by Francis iXavier himself to interfere with Gomez in the management of jthe College, could do nothing, and Gomez had even practically [Jusurped the power which belonged of right to Paul himself, and Sassumed the government of the whole Society in India.⁴ I Gomez seems to have had other faults, at which the bio- praphers of Francis only hint. He was a hot-brained man, I given to prophecies and fanciful prognostications, some of which jpe was obliged publicly to apologize for. His great favour with Torge Cabral, certain unpopular acts of whom were attributed I :o his counsels, brought about a strong set of popular feeling jligainst him when the new Viceroy had been installed, and

I ⁴ Bartoli (Asia, t. i. p. 321, 322) tells the story in a somewhat different flvay, saying that Gomez had begun his innovations, as well as claimed kuthority even to cocrce by force any who resisted his will, before Francis kavier left India for Japan in 1549. He says that Francis then deposed rim, but that Gomez, strongly supported by some official personages, who loped by his means to recover the favour of the king which they had for- eited, managed to get himself retained in Goa, and even confirmed in his Luthority in the College. It is always hazardous to differ from Bartoli, yho, besides being an accurate writer, had access to documents—which, however, he seldom quotes—which may not be accessible to us. Still it ippcars that the letters of Francis, which are our best guide in such mat­ers, do not lead us to suppose any violent outbreak on the part of Gomez before the date when Francis left India in 1549. And Bartoli, in the places o which we have referred, speaks of the Governor Jorge Cabral as the ijeat support of the innovating Rector. Jorge Cabral did not succeed as governor till after Francis Xavier left for Japan. It is, however, quite possible that Bartoli may be right, as his account is not absolutely incon­sistent with the letters to which we refer.

t

when the late Governor was on his way to Portugal, and so could not himself bear the odium which, rightly or wrongly, he had incurred. Gomez, however, had still very powerful friends at Goa. When Francis arrived, he at once deprived him of all authority, making Gaspar Baertz Rector of the College. He then dismissed the Portuguese lads, who had supplanted the native boys as the inhabitants of Santa Fb. Gomez appears to have been foolish enough to endeavour to screen himself from punishment by the intercession of his friends outside. The Viceroy himself is said to have been interested in protecting him. Francis Xavier was not likely to yield an inch to such influences. He determined to send Gomez away to Diu, with peremptory orders not to move from the place without leave. Every effort was made that he might be allowed to remain in Goa, but Francis was absolutely inflexible, and even now made up his mind, unless he saw great amendment, to dismiss him from the Society. He gave him, however, a chance, as we have said, sending him to Diu, far to the north, and he may perhaps have thought it better that he should be sent to Europe before his dismissal. It seems that he afterwards determined that he should be dismissed in India. Antonio’s end was very miser­able. He set sail, after his dismissal, for Portugal, with some idea, as it would seem, of appealing to Ignatius Loyola; but the ship in which he sailed was wrecked, and he lost his life.

The letters of the fathers from India of this date speak of the joy and devotion caused in all hearts by the presence and con­versation of Francis Xavier. Melchior Nunez speaks of him as a man who though living upon earth seemed to have his con­versation in heaven ; of his immense charity and zeal for souls, which made him ready to do anything in the world to serve them; of his great confidence in all dangers and trials; and of his joyous affable conversation, while at the same time he was so recollected that it seemed as if he was in continual prayer. ‘ His great desires for the honour of God fill me with astonish­ment,’ says Melchior, ¹ as also his wonderful patience in bearing with the defects of others, his humility and condescension.’ He adds that Father Gaspar was very like Francis in his confidence

and affability. Francis undertook many works for the glory of God in the city, and also paid great attention, as we are told, to the religious community under his charge, frequently assem­bling them, and speaking to them on spiritual subjects, the love of their vocation, the practice of self-knowledge and self-abase­ment, as well as of all other virtues, but especially of obedience. We shall have to insert presently some of the instructions which, as these letters tell us, he wrote for the fathers who were going to a distance.

In truth, we now find ourselves, as in the case of the time spent by Francis Xavier among the Paravas and in Travancor, at a period of his life the narrative of which might be very short except for the abundance of the letters and instructions which remain to us from his pen. He seems to have remained at Goa till the time came for him to sail for Cochin, there to embark for Malacca, and the intervening weeks are marked by very few incidents. But he was now, more than at any time of his life, chiefly occupied with the arrangement of the province confided to his care by St. Ignatius. The Provincial Superiors of the Society are usually fixed within the limits of their govern­ment, and find little time to devote themselves to external works for the advancement of religion. Francis Xavier, how­ever, had to provide for the administration of his province during what might perhaps be as long an absence as that which had been ended by his return from Japan. The Society had suffered much during that last absence, and it was his duty, as well as his anxiety, to provide against the recurrence of such troubles. The extraordinary circumstances of the case, under which he had to discharge the functions of an Apostle as well as of a religious Superior, abundantly account for all that he did, and we shall see that Ignatius Loyola himself considered —while he was as yet ignorant of the fact—that if he had gone to China he had done what he was prompted to do by the Holy Ghost. Afterwards, when Melchior Nunez was Provincial, and . left India for Japan, Ignatius did not approve it. We must look on it as a Providential blessing, that Francis Xavier was called to a distance so soon after entering more formally

than before on the regular duties of a Superior. We have thus I gained what we might otherwise have lost, the detailed instruc-| tions in writing which he gave to more than one of his religious I subjects at this time. Put by the side of his long instruction I to Gaspar Baertz, already inserted, and with certain passages | of his letters, these instructions may be said almost to form a code for the guidance of religious workers and religious Su­periors. They are among the purest effusions of his loving and tender heart, of his heavenly wisdom, of his wonderful experi-j ence of men, and they show us in a particular manner the identity of his spirit as to all matters relating to religious life with that of St. Ignatius himself. At the time when Francis' left Europe, the rules of the Society were unwritten, except as to its great principles, and the system of government, neces­sarily the result of experience growing into form as the order developed, was as yet in its infancy, except, again, as to its principles. Yet we find the most perfect harmony between the instincts of Francis Xavier as expressed in these instruc­tions, and the system of Ignatius as unfolded in the Constitu­tions.

These considerations may excuse us if we arrange the letters and documents of this time not quite in their chronological order, though we shall depart but little in this respect from the ordinary arrangement. But it may be well to group together the letters to the same persons, or to the same class of persons. We shall begin with a short series of letters addressed to the father lately mentioned, Melchior Nunez, whom Francis sent to take charge of the mission and College at Bazain. The Col­lege, of which mention has already been made,⁵ seems now to have been handed over to the Society, and to have had con­siderable revenues attached to it for charitable and missionary purposes. The first part of the letter which now follows is the formal document by which Melchior is appointed Superior.

* (PP- 89. *75-)

(xci.) To Father Melchior Nunez Barreto.

I, Francis, knowing well, Father Melchior Nunez, your virtue and prudence, and confiding therein, command that this whole house of Bazain be subject to you, and by my authority I order you to take in hand the government of this entire community, and the receipt and administration of the revenues belonging to this house assigned for the maintenance of the members of our So­ciety who are dispersed in different parts. I command that from the day you duly enter upon the possession of this government which I commit to you, not only all the fathers and brothers re­siding at Bazain shall recognize you as their Rector, and obey you i absolutely as such, but also the members of the Society who may come thither occasionally on their way to Diu; or elsewhere, as long as they remain, are to be subject to your authority, unless it be shown by a paper in my own handwriting that I, or that the Rector of the house of Santa F6 at Goa, have exempted them. During my absence you will obey the said Rector as you would obey our Father Ignatius. This is my deliberate order, and as a signification and proof of this my will, I sign this paper with my own hand.

Goa, College of St. Paul, Feb. 29, 1552. Francis.

I will add here the advice and orders which I should wish you to follow in the fulfilment of your office.

I will begin by the care of the revenues, which the King and the Governors of India in his name have generously granted to the Society, not only for the wants of our members at Bazain, but also for those here at Goa and the residences depending upon it. In the first place, I wish you diligently to find out from Melchior Gonzalez, who has now for a long time been charged with collecting and spending these revenues, exactly how much of such money he has received, what has been actu­ally paid, what remains to his account; and you must give me an exact report in writing of what you thus discover, as I am anxious to know it. Tell me also with perfect exactness pre­cisely the sum in specie that the same Father Gonzalez may hand over to you when you enter on your office.

Next, in disposing of these sums, you ought to have great consideration for the needs of our brethren here, and of the

j VOL. II. DD

house of Goa, which is burthened with debt, as well as the re­sidences of Cochin, Coulan, and Comorin, which all receive, or rather expect to receive, their support from Goa. Our unfor- * tunate brethren there ask for aid oftener than they receive it, and for the most part are forced to battle for a length of time with destitution, my intimate knowledge of which makes me very miserable. Although his Highness amongst his many chari­ties has granted them certain pensions, yet these are generally! not paid, on account of the embarrassments of the treasury,! pensions on which are but niggardly discharged in this country. So I consider it just that you should spend, out of the annual rents you have received or are to receive at Bazain, just what mere necessity requires for the food and clothing of your own | community, without going beyond such necessity; and I beg of you, in the name of God’s service and of charity, to bear in mind that it is not right that you and yours, because you are j at the source of our supplies, should enjoy a superabundance J, whilst our brethren, who bear the burthen and heat of the day,! and who have just as much right to what comes from that source, being far off, are forced to grow'old before the time in misery and squalor. I beg of you therefore to cut things down even to the quick, so as to be able to have a considerable sum over and above your own wants to pass on to those charged with the administration of the College of Goa, who may em­ploy it in aiding our brethren of Cape Comorin, Coulan, and Cochin, who are spreading the kingdom of Jesus Christ with infinite labour and suffering; so that if any thought of building where you are should rise 'in your mind, beware of doing so, without seeing an actual and absolute necessity. 1

Moreover, with regard to the daily expenses of yourself and of our brethren and the pupils of the Seminary, use suchj ¹ frugality as may allow the expenditure to be as small as pos- | sible. But understand that I do not by this enjoin on you to , be parsimonious in an odious and unbecoming degree. I even _: forbid you positively to retrench anything from the real neces- ¹ sities of the house and its inmates; all I ask is, that considering and pitying the extreme distress under which the evangelical •

labourers (especially on the Coast of Comorin) are suffering, you should, out of charity, limit yourself to what is absolutely required, until at least there is some provision made for the wants of this much afflicted Church. I say, with the tears in my eyes, that many children die there unbaptized, simply be­

> cause funds are wanting to enable our priests to exist in the poorest manner. If they were on the spot, and able to be ! going about incessantly, as they ought, everywhere round those most unfortunate settlements, they would always be in time to 1 regenerate the children to Christ before their death.

With regard to the way of collecting your rents, this is what I thought of advising: it does not seem suitable that you should collect them yourself, or by any of ours. You must use the services of one or more of your lay friends, making them, as it ¹ were, your procurators for this business. In the first place, make your choice of good pious men, regular in their religious duties,

1 for the purpose—men who, in common life, are considered just and upright, and show their piety by frequenting the sacraments of Confession and Communion. It would even be advisable to give these persons some meditations to make, out of those of ' the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises. I am, in the next place, desirous that wealthy people with some property of their own should be made choice of for this matter, if there be any such to choose from. My reason for preferring them to a poorer class is chiefly that a great part of income of this sort has to be gathered from people of small means, such as artisans, who barely live by the daily work of their hands; most of them are unable to pay at the given time, and if the collectors do not allow the payment to stand over, the poor men are prosecuted at great loss to themselves; but they will easily get indulgence from wealthy men, especially if they are virtuous and inclined to be merciful; and such men can easily advance the money out I of their own substance, looking to receive it in due time, while • men of smaller means are inexorable, exacting the rigour of the

1 law, taking pledges, and seizing ₄the property of their unfortu- inate debtors if they have not ready money at hand to pay at

I the given time.

But, above all, for the ardent longing you have to obey and be pleasing to God our Lord, I beg and entreat of you to give no one any offence or just cause of complaint. You will do as I wish if the people see that you are always modest, humble, quite removed from all kind of pretension. So you ought to begin your government, by giving proofs to the world of your profound abasement, fulfilling openly the most humble employ­ments in the hospitals and prisons, ministering to the poor, teaching the ignorant people and young children. These works please all, and will endear you at once to the people, and when they have conceived an affection for you they will not easily be inclined to interpret badly your words and actions. Be careful, however, after having made a good beginning, not to let yourself j grow weary, out of confidence in your past successes. But go on generously, making it your aim to become more and more perfect, and let the people see that this is your determination. If your industry slackens, you cannot remain where you were in favour and grace; you will sink to a lower level than that from whence you rose, since in these matters if any one ceases to advance, he is carried backwards even against his will.

The next letter to Nunez is a few weeks later. He was a very successful missioner at Bazain, labouring indefatigably for the improvement of the Christians and the conversion of the heathen, and spending a large part of the night in prayer, and in the day preparing his sermons. He preached, we are told, twice on Sundays and feasts, and four times during the week besides; his sermons produced great conversions, and he had often, on leaving the pulpit, to devote the rest of the day to hearing the confessions of those who were brought to repentance by what he had said. We find Francis commending his method of pre­paration and preaching, which he must have submitted to him by letter, and also acquiescing in his difficulties about appro­priating the revenues of his College, which seems to have been liberally endowed by the King, to the needs of other houses. This is a sufficient commentary on the two letters which follow.

(xcn.) To Father Melchior Nunez.

I beg you most earnestly and desire of you that, for the love which you bear to Jesus Christ, and for the desire which you have for the glory of God, you make it your study everywhere to be ‘ a good savour’ of Christ, and set yourself as an ex­; ample of all virtues to the city in which you are, and avoid altogether giving any offence to the people. You will succeed i in what I say, if moderation and Christian humility shine out in all you do. So at the beginning you must exercise yourself i diligently in humble and abject offices, and then the people of the town will be won to you in this manner, and will take what­ever you do in good part; much more, of course, if they see that you persevere in the cause with daily increased ardour. Wherefore I earnestly pray you not to forget your own progress i in virtue : for you are well aware that one who does not make progress in virtue, goes backwards.

I again, then, ask of you and beg of you for the sake of God, let your example excite the people to piety. If you are well furnished with humility of mind and with prudence, I do not doubt that you will both reap good results from your labours and become a really good preacher. Humility and prudence are the parents and teachers of many great deeds. You must visit very often the hospitals and the prisons. These offices of i Christian humility, besides that they are pleasing to God and helpful to men, have also the effect of making people esteem highly those who practise them and respect them much, even though they have not the office of preachers nor any facility of preaching.

You must diligently gain to yourself and keep as diligently the love of the Commandant, the Vicar, the clergy, the Brethren of Mercy, the King’s magistrates, and indeed the whole city. This general regard is of great moment to enable missioners to turn in the right direction the wills of men, both by preaching and by hearing confessions, and paying visits. It is my great desire that in your work of cherishing and increasing this new

Christian community, you should be aided by the authority and assistance of the Commandant, the Vicar, and the Brethren of the Confraternity of Mercy. Take pains, therefore, that what­ever increase may accrue to the worship of God by means of you be all attributed to their exertions. Thus it will be that they will give more help to your endeavours, and hinder them less. You will also gain another thing—that in your diffi­culties and contentions you will have many more friends and protectors, and fewer adversaries, or rather none at all. For who will venture to attack you, when you are known to be covered by the protection of men of such position ? So if at any time you are writing to the King of Portugal about the pro­pagation of the faith, you must make honourable and grateful mention of their remarkable zeal for Christian interests, and if you think well you may show them your letters, and by all means ask the King to let them know that their good offices towards us and towards religion have been very pleasing to his Highness, and to speak in the letters in approbation of their zeal in such a way, as to attribute to them chiefly, after God, all the increase that has been made in the divine worship and the Christian religion.

You must never write to the King except about matters re­lating to religion, and to the conversion of the heathen. As to all other matters, you ought to write to the Society in Portugal. In order to avoid giving offence to people, I should wish you not to collect the revenues of the College and of the new con­verts, either in person or through any other of the Society, if this can be avoided, but rather by means of some pious man fit for the commission. For I do not suppose it would be difficult to find some wealthy person to act as agent, so that he may neither manage the business at any risk to our income, nor be too vexa­tious in his exaction from the poor. Such a man you should instruct in meditation on divine truths, then lead him on to fre­quent the sacraments, and then, with his own goodwill de­sire, set over the business of which I speak. May God in His goodness unite us in Heaven !

Goa, April.

(xcm.) To Father Melchior Nunez, at Bazain.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord be ever with us to help and favour us ! Amen.

A namesake of yours, Melchior Gonzalez, has given me your letter, which I have read with no small pleasure. May God give you the grace to scatter a ‘ good odour’ on Society where you are, now that there is so much feeling of offence against us among the people there. I pray and conjure you with all the earnestness I can, by all the desire which you have to serve and please God our Lord, take the most efficacious means in your power to concilitate people to yourself and to the Society, and to leave nothing undone, however difficult, that comes in your way to do to this end. If you are humble and prudent, I am in great hopes that by God’s help you will gain great fruit there. I send to you from this Francesco Enriquez, that he may stay at Tana with Manuel. Osorio may remain with you for house­hold duties, and Barreto to teach reading and writing; you yourself, meanwhile, being occupied in spiritual ministrations, and in conversing piously and holily with men of all sorts, as well as in explaining the Christian doctrine and in preaching.

As for your sermons, I have been very much pleased with what you write to me as to your system of preparation, as to the form and whole method which you have determined to follow in them. I think you should keep to this method, and practise yourself in the manner you suggest as often as possible, for I hope in good confidence that the favour of God will not be wanting to you, that if you are humble you will turn out a great preacher. Send Francesco Lopez to this College by the first ship which sails hitherwards from you. Take care often to read over the written instructions I have given you as to the way of carrying on the advancement of the Gospel where you are. You will learn many other things from you own practice and the ex­perience of events, if you are humble and prudent, if you care­fully watch what occurs, considering and comparing all with the advice and orders which you have received from hence. Fran­

cesco Enriquez is to live at Tana, whither he is now sent, under your authority. I should wish you to give him an order of obe­dience most diligently to avoid giving offence to any one, and to show himself meek and signally patient on all occasions. You must also inquire from others, by means of watchers whom you can trust, whether he or any one else of ours give to anybody a just cause ot offence. If you find that it is so, meet the mat­ter at once without delay, applying some fitting remedy to the evil. Thus it is that I would have you watch first over yourself, and then over others. But if you should find any one of ours guilty of a' serious sin which goes so far as to give public scan­dal, and to irritate the people against us not altogether without reason, then at once dismiss him from the Society; for I now from this moment consider as dismissed those whom you may dismiss. For I have so much confidence in your prudence, that I am certain that no one will be sent away by you except for just cause.

As to the annual income of your College, take care that it is spent rather in the building up of spiritual temples than of those which are sensible and material. Of this second class of sacred buildings, which have to be raised up of wood or stone, you must spend money upon none, except such as are abso­lutely necessary, such as you cannot refuse to build without the very gravest public inconvenience. If any plans of building are set before you with no other recommendation than that they will improve the splendour of decoration or present a more stately outside, decline them on the ground that it is requisite to postpone them to more urgent calls, and they can well be put off to more convenient times. Whatever you may have over and above from your income, spend, as I told you, in educating native boys in wholesome knowledge and good manners. For these are spiritual temples in which God is better honoured than in others, since when these boys have grown up to be men, they will by means of their good example, and by spreading the teaching which has been given them, be instruments for God of matters which most greatly concern His glory and the salvation of men.

A few days ago I sent you from hence Paul of Guzerat, who has been a pupil of this College for many years. He is a good speaker in the language of the people, and is sufficiently fur­nished with learning to teach the elements of the faith to the Christian natives. He would also be able to preach usefully to the people, if some of ours who are not so ready as he is in the vernacular would supply, as occasion requires, his lack of fuller erudition, by putting his arguments in proper shape and giving him matter for his sermons.

I quite approve of what you say in your letter about the revenue of the College, that you think we should faithfully take care that it be spent according to the intention of the King, as signified in the document of its foundation. That is just what I also wish by all means to be done, both because it is an obligation of justice to do so, and in order that the people may not be scandalized, seeing—which God forbid—that this is neglected. But after you have abundantly provided for the needs of all the poor who are at Bazain, according to the pre­scription of the royal diploma, then, if there is any surplus, there can be no doubt that it would be rightly spent, and spent not against the King’s will, in contributing to the aid of the poor boys we have here, especially those who are natives of Bazain, and those who may hereafter be useful there, as we see in the instance of this Paul of Guzerat. So if out of the collection of clothes which is usually distributed every year from the funds of your College to the poor at Bazain you have any bundles of stuff which are not wanted by the people there, you may send I them to us, if at least this can be done without any complaint i or offence on the part of any one. For we have here a seminary , full of lads, for whose clothing the arrival of such a present would be very convenient—on the condition, however, as I said, that nothing at all be taken away from any of the poor at Bazain, who have the first right to the benefit of this bounty of his Highness. You must see, therefore, that the wants and desires of all these are faithfully satisfied, in order that our consciences may be free from burthen and for the greater ser­vice of God. If, when this obligation has been fulfilled, no

crumbs remain for you to scatter in this direction, then we will make up our minds to bear contentedly the absence of such aid.

For the rest, apply yourself entirely to the exercise of preach­ing and of hearing confessions, visiting and consoling the sick in the hospital, and the prisoners in the gaol, and in other like works of charity to your neighbour, being always ready to run to all duties of the kind as often as you are invited to them by the managers of the Confraternity of Mercy, whose special busi­ness they are. If you practise such ministrations with charity and humility, the result will be, by the good gift of God, that you will have favour and authority with the citizens, and how­ever little natural eloquence you may possess, yet that little which you are able to bring to bear will do much, because it will be strengthened by the companionship of zeal and modesty, and by means of it you will produce a great movement among the minds of the people, and gather in very rich fruits. Only take care—and this I press upon your attention again and again—take care to keep up the closest union and friendship with the Bishop’s Vicar and the other priests in the place, with the Commandant, the magistrates, and the King’s officials, and conduct yourself prudently, kindly, humbly, and with thor­ough goodwill towards the whole population. Believe me, the best hope of success in preaching is not to be placed in ex­quisite learning, or elegant diction, or in display, or in a sort of scenic exhibition of eloquence. The head and sum of the art lies in being approved of by those whom you address, and in pleasing them, and in gaining the keys of their hearts before you knock at the doors of their ears. If your audience love you, you will persuade them to do whatever you will, and you will easily win a great many souls to God if you never alienate any one from yourself.

Next September, at which time I hope to be at Malacca, let me find full and copious letters to meet me there from you, informing me distinctly and minutely of the fruit of your minis­trations. You should write also to the fathers of this College, and of course much oftener, on account of your near neigh­

bourhood and of the multitude of persons who pass from the one place to the other. May our Lord God bring us together in the glory of Paradise ! Amen.

Your brother in Christ,

Goa, April 3, 1552. FRANCIS.

We may place next in order a letter addressed to the father who had been sent to Ormuz to take the place of Gaspar Baertz. We know but little of him, and even his name is vari­ously given. He seems either to have been admitted into the Society in India by Father Paul, or to have come from Spain, and not from Portugal in the usual way. It would appear that he had shown himself at Ormuz rather as a disciple of Antonio Gomez in some of his less mischievous characteristics than a follower of Master Gaspar. He was likely to give offence and go wrong unless he was corrected betimes. Francis Xavier, therefore, speaks to him with the utmost plainness, and even threatens him with dismissal from the Society, while at the same time he assures him that he believes him to be strong enough in virtue not to take the reprehension badly. We are glad to know that this Joam Gonzalez Rodriguez lived to serve the cause of religion with great earnestness and success.

(xciv.) To Father Joam Gonzalez Rodriguez.

God our Lord knows how much I should have preferred to converse with you face to face rather than write to you from a distance. There are many things which can be treated much more quickly and more effectually by word of mouth than by letters, always so slow in themselves, and silent in the event of an unforeseen objection. I was delighted to hear what I did of you from persons who had recently left you, but I should have felt rather more joy if I had received from their hands a letter from you, telling me of the fruits of your labours at Ormuz, or, to speak more modestly, the fruits which God has vouchsafed to produce through you, as also those which He would produce if He could trust you more fully, but which He

is compelled not to bring about, in consequence of the oppo­sition He meets with from the faults and imperfections by which you oppose His desires. These obstacles on your part hinder Him from manifesting Himself by you. You ought to accuse yourself unceasingly of this impediment to grace, and to grieve in humiliation and penance that by your own fault you are not a fitting instrument in the hand of God for the great and glorious works which He had prepared. Hence there is an immense loss, for which you alone are to blame, both of glory, which would have gone back to God were it not for you, and of spiritual fruit in the souls under your charge, from falling on which divine graces and blessings very great and without number are hindered, simply because you are not what you ought to be. Dwell -therefore diligently on the thought of the very severe account which will be required of you at the day of the last great judgment of all the good things which God was desirous of bestowing and was ready to give, but which you have hindered Him from giving.

One thing I command you absolutely—to be very obedient to the Bishop’s Vicar, so as neither to preach, nor hear confes­sions, nor celebrate mass without his approbation and con­sent; and never forget that this is not my advice only, but my order. You are forbidden (in virtue of holy obedience) to disagree with the Vicar Episcopal from any cause whatever, or even to have any quarrel with him. Labour with all zeal at those occupations which you can discharge in peace and har­mony with him. I am confident, on account of what I think of his virtue and charity, that if he sees you humble and obe­dient, he will be more ready to grant you liberally the faculties which you require than you will be to ask for them. You must show great veneration and respect to the other priests; carefully avoid ever showing a low opinion of any, or giving the slightest offence by contemptuous conduct. Make all your friends, and give them the example of perfect obedience to the Vicar Episcopal—that so the whole people may learn to emu­late the priests in paying that full and entire obedience to the Vicar which is due. I would have you think so much of the

fruit of such an example as to be convinced that by showing others this humility you will do them much more good than by a hundred sermons. Be careful to avoid all singularity, showing yourself off to the world, and seeking to catch popu­lar favour ; rather let it be seen that you turn with horror from all aiming at fame and vainglory. A great many members of our Society have suffered very much from this ostentation and vain desire to appear singularly perfect. I have sent away several from the Society since my return from Japan, because I found them infected with this fault amongst others. Take heed to yourself to be diligent to avoid committing such a fault, which might lead to your being dismissed also. In order to live in the Society with those sentiments of humility which are suitable to it, bear in mind how much more necessary the Society is to you than you to the Society. Watch then, always, never to forget yourself; if any one forgets himself, can one hope that he will be mindful of others ? I write these lines inspired by my real and tender love towards you, and because I hear frequent little bits of bad news that you are observed to be less humble, less inclined to obey, than is needful for the example which you should give to the people of Ormuz.

I have begged Master Gaspar to write to you, because he knows the town and inhabitants of Ormuz by great experience, gained by the long sojourn he has made there; and I hoped that he could give you good and useful advice touching your conduct in that place as suits the interest of the greater service of our Lord God. You ought then to have the same respectful feeling as to his letters that you have as to mine. I say more, —I command you to comply with the advice his letters con­tain, as if I had written them myself, and to obey the orders they may contain. I wish you not to let yourselfbe entangled in cases of marriage, nor ever to absolve, without the counsel and consent of the Vicar Episcopal, those who have contracted clandestine alliances; and I command you thus in virtue of holy obedience. When Master Gaspar went to Ormuz, I gave him in writing certain rules to follow when there. I hear he left you a copy of these instructions at Ormuz. I beg you to

read it over every week, so that you may always have fresh in your memory the precepts therein collected, and that your actions may be guided thereby. I feel sure that this will help you to walk according to a sure method in the service of God. I

So much am I convinced that the interest of God’s greater I service requires you to show perfect obedience and submis­sion to the Vicar, that I order you, by virtue of holy obedience, as soon as you receives this letter so enjoining you, to go and kneel down before him, and humbly implore him to forgive you all the acts of disobedience and other faults besides by which you have grieved him up to this time. You must then kiss his hand, declaring that in so doing you do what I have ordered you to do. At the same time let him tell you what he wishes you to do, and you must obey his orders scrupu­lously. That this perfect unity between you and the Vicar Episcopal may not be of short duration, but remain good and firm always, you must visit him once a week and kiss his hand, as a pledge both of your submission and obedience to him. Take care never to fail in this duty, even if your nature rebels, and though you are obliged to do violence to your judgment and inclination in performing it. For all this must be done, in order to confound the malice of the devil, the father of dis­cord and disobedience.

Be careful in preaching never to attack or wound any one, directly or by allusion, nor to put forth opinions and doctrines with too much refinement or speculation in them, or such as to show off learning. Leave all quibbles and affectation of that kind, and speak of the sins which are most commonly com­mitted in the town; attack them with an ardent zeal for the divine glory, but with a modesty equal to your zeal. Do not reprove in your sermons even public sinners, known to be such, and taking no pains to hide their sins. Seek them in private, and give them fraternal advice.

In all your conduct consider this, that it will give me more pleasure to hear that you have obtained the very smallest re­sult, even such as that expressed by this line, ,

which does not cross the whole page, without trouble or giving

offence to any one, than that you had obtained an immense result, such as may hardly be represented by a line stretching across the whole page, thus :

' if this great success has to be wrung forth by noise and con­tention, amid the complaints of many who consider themselves hurt, or even of a single such person. And so persuaded am I that this is a matter of supreme importance, and so that on this depends all hope and means of really procuring the ad­vancement of souls for the greater glory of God, I earnestly beg you to let all this advice sink into your heart, and to prac­tise it, performing all your duties, especially your sacred duties, with calm and love and every sign of charity, with no violence or angry aggression or contention with those opposed to you.

I wish you to write to me at good length, telling me in minute detail the results which God has vouchsafed to work, by your means, in the city of Ormuz. Let me know distinctly how far you are living in a friendly manner with the Vicar, how well you get on with the other priests, how respectful you are towards them, and how they in return show you affection; and lastly, how much favour you are in with the people, or whe­ther, on the contrary, there be any uncomfortable reports or complaints current against you. Send your letter to Goa; for though I have settled to be leaving in three weeks, I will tell the fathers of the College to take care to send it on to China, whither I am going. I shall long to receive it, and I shall hope for great delight from its telling me the good news which I wish to hear.

With God’s grace, the affairs of Japan prosper wonderfully. Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez remain there, devoting themselves to the instruction of the very numerous natives who have embraced Christianity, and who are every day embracing it. Both understand the language of the country, and by the constant use of this necessary instrument are reaping very abun­dant fruits. Some of ours will go this year to help them, and share their labours, which are so vast that I cannot express them in writing. They surpass beyond comparison all those

(wonderful as they may be) which the other members of the Society undergo in this country. I tell you this that you may endeavour continually to obtain for them the Divine assistance in your daily prayers and sacrifices. When you write to the College of Goa, do not omit to add to the same packet a letter addressed by yourself to his Lordship the Bishop—short, in­deed, but expressing in the most marked manner your very profound veneration and devoted submission to him, and give him therein an account of all that you have done at Ormuz. You owe him this, both because he is our superior and also be­cause he is full of the greatest charity towards us, and favours us greatly in every way in his power.

I have written to you with so much freedom because you are a man of no common virtue and perfection; one who thinks it a favour to be admonished, and would rather be reprehended usefully than be fed with empty flattery and adulation, because his judgment and good sense make him able to distinguish' be­tween wholesome bitters and poisonous sweets. I should have used blandishments and expressions meant to please, if I had thought I was addressing a weak-minded and feeble person; but I have trusted to your strength and solidity, and have not hesitated to throw aside all dissembling, and let you see with­out disguise into my inmost thoughts. Thank God, I beg of you, for having made you such that I have been able, without imprudence, to put before you the simple truth without any condiment The wisdom which you have acquired in so high a degree by means of long continued progress renders it easy for you to disdain the flattery which would seduce you to evil, and makes you prefer rather to be scolded, than to be praised to your hurt and insincerely by people who fear to offend your weakness and foolishness. It is well for children and begin­ners, but it would be an insult to practised soldiers in God’s service to think that they required pampering with the milk of children or the soft indulgence due to nurselings. Believe me, I have not taken up my pen to write to you so simply and crudely without first imploring the light of the Holy Spirit. I have felt His inspiration moving me to write in all confidence in

that way which suits men who are perfect, and who have passed beyond the weaknesses of beginners and of those who are but little advanced in their career. As, by the mercy of God, we shall soon see one another in the glory of Paradise, I will not add a word more, save to beg you never to forget with what great love for you, as God is my witness, I have written this letter, and so to receive it with equal tenderness of reciprocal affection. In reading it, look to that same thing on which my eyes were fixed as I wrote i₍t; that is to say, the greater glory of God our Lord, and the greater good of your soul, so very dear to me. Farewell.

Your brother in Christ,

College of Santa F&, at Goa, March 22, 1552. FRANCIS.

You must show this letter to the lord Vicar of the Bishop.

It seems natural to place immediately after this letter of charitable reproof, the edge of which is taken off by the great display of affection which accompanies it, another letter of the same kind, in which some of the expressions and arguments of the former are reproduced. This letter is to Father Alfonso Cipriani, the pious old Castilian, who entered the Society and came out to India as an old man, and whom, after the design to send him as missioner to Socotra had fallen through, Francis had appointed to labour at Meliapor. Cipriani had known Ignatius, as it seems, at Barcelona before the latter went to Paris, and had renewed his familiarity with him at Rome, where he had also become acquainted with many of the first fathers of the Society. He was a man of indefatigable zeal and mor­tification, and burning with desire to advance the kingdom of God. Some letters of his to Ignatius exist, written while he was at Meliapor, where he laboured for twelve years, until his death in 1559, when he was about seventy years of age. He speaks in these letters of the extremely bad moral state of Meliapor, especially of the Portuguese and ‘ old’ Christians, who seem now to have fallen off from the fervour which had been kindled in them at the time of the visit of Francis Xavier. He declares that Francis went to Japan and China, driven by

VOL. II. EE

the injury done to all apostolical work by the scandalous lives of the Christians; and he says that he himself loses four where he gains one, and that the Indians used it as an argument against the Christian preachers, that their fellow Christians, who were supposed to believe in and to hope for eternal good, showed themselves so reckless in their pursuit of temporal plea­sures and possessions as to hesitate at no iniquity for the sake of securing them. As for Meliapor, he says that he expected to see the judgment of God descend upon it; and in truth he lived to see it visited by terrible chastisements.

Such was Alfonso Cipriani—ready enough to complain even in violent language against the vices and moral miseries around him, but resolute and patient withal in cultivating the field of labour allotted to him under all possible disadvantages. He was held in great reverence by the people, even when they did not listen to his reproofs, and he is said to have suddenly become a very powerful preacher in the exercise of his zeal. Unfortunately, the scandal given to the people had to be laid at the door of some civil authorities in Meliapor, and even at that of the Bishop’s Vicar himself. Cipriani was not a man to hold his tongue when his heart was full, and he spoke from the pulpit against the guilty parties. It would seem from the let­ter of Francis Xavier, that there was also a quarrel between the Vicar and Father Alfonso, in which the latter had gone to law with his ecclesiastical Superior.⁴ This is enough to render the following sharp but most loving reprehension intelligible :

*

(xcv.) To Father Alfonso Cipriani.

Very ill indeed have you understood the directions which I gave you to be followed in Meliapor. You show clearly what little good has remained to you,—that you have profited very

⁴ Bartoli, Asia, tom. i. p. 729, gives a long account of Father Cipri-j ani (or Cipriano, it is uncertain which), who was thought to enjoy some supernatural gifts besides his great virtues. But he does not mention the legal proceedings, which seem, however, implied in the letter of Francis.

little,—from your intercourse with our blessed Father Ignatius. I blame you exceedingly for having also taken proceedings by legal writs and actions of lawyers against the Vicar. Ah, this is always the way in which you yield to your violent nature, pulling down with the left hand whatever you build with the right. You must know that I have been displeased beyond belief by the rudeness and discourtesy with which I hear that you have behaved at Meliapor. If the Vicar does not act as he ought, most certainly he will not be taught better by such reproofs from you, especially when they are pressed upon him so imprudently as has been the case now. You have been so long accustomed never to cross your own will in the very least degree that wherever you are you offend every one, and give very clear proofs of your intractable and churlish disposition to all who have to deal with you. God grant that one day—even if late—you may repent of these imprudent acts!

I entreat you, by your love for God our Lord, to learn to control that hard and stubborn mind of yours, and to make up by good works in the future for the faults you have hitherto committed. And do not flatter yourself by ascribing these savage movements of passion to natural severity of character. This is no fault of disposition, but of extreme negligence and culpable disregard of your greatest duties, which you owe to your own conscience and to your neighbours,—those of obe­dience, moderation, and charity. If you do not believe this on my word, you may assure yourself that you will see it most clearly at the hour of your death. I earnestly entreat you, in the name of our blessed Father Ignatius, to learn—during these few days remaining to you before that last hour—to learn and to practise self possession, meekness, patience, modesty, and submission. Understand that all things are brought about by humility. If you cannot do as much as you wish, do what you can accomplish in quietness and goodness. In these parts of India there is no gaining anything by violence; and the good which might undoubtedly be done by patience, submissiveness, and moderation is stifled in its very birth by foolish outbursts of anger, quarrelsomeness, and violent passion. Good that is

done without offence or disturbance, even though in itself not

greater than this little line , is much better and greater than

good gained in another way, though it appears ever so much larger, so as to be expressed by a line which reaches across the whole page.

I greatly fear that all I have now said may not be sufficient 1 to bring you back into the right path ; but I know, and I wish I you too to know, and I tell you beforehand for certain, that \ when you come to pass from this life to the next you will suffer very sharp stings of conscience for this bad and indiscreet con- 1 duct of yours.

Francesco Gonzalez Fernandez seems to me like you in I everything—harsh, irritable, and impatient; you are both made I after the same type, and are in the habit of giving the specious I names of zeal and religion to the outbreaks of your unbridled! passions. That speech of yours certainly has a very grand I sound : ‘ What ? can we endure in silence to see injury done | to God’s glory, and obstacles placed in the way of saving souls ?’ How then ? do you repair that injury, or do you heap I fresh mischief upon it, by the storm and tumult of detestable I quarrels ? I repeat it—you will never obtain from the Vicar by threats and contentions what you cannot obtain by modesty 1 and humility.

By that piety and obedience which you both acknowledge I that you owe, and will not deny that you wish to pay, to our < Father Ignatius, I beseech both of you, immediately after read­ing this letter, to go to the Vicar, and, prostrate on the ground before him, each of you humbly to ask his pardon for every­thing which you have done not pleasing to him; then kiss his hand; and if you wish to give me a very great consolation, let me hear that you have both humbled yourselves so far as of your own accord to kiss his feet; by which you will seal by so much surer a proof your repentance for past faults, and your promise that you will be modest for the future, and do nothing contrary to his will while you are at Meliapor. Believe me that to have done this will be a very great comfort to you at

the hour of death. Put your confidence in our Lord God, and do not doubt that if your moderation is known to all men, you will easily obtain whatever you ask which is for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

The manifest error of you two, and of all like you, consists in this : you think that the mere name of the Society of Jesus gives you a sort of hereditary right to great consideration from every one, before you have gained it by great and remarkable proofs of the lowliest humility. Doubtless you remember the great veneration shown by all, both high and low, to our Father Ignatius ; and you think it just that you should be treated by all with the same respect yourselves, although you have given no proof at all of those virtues by which he merited such con­sideration. What you should have done was first to imitate the good works of our Father, and try to win those more ex­cellent graces of his which moved our Lord God to give him such favour in the sight of all men; for that is a vain and fool­ish confidence of yours which leads you, who have given little or no public proof of eminent virtue, to expect that these fruits of respect and popular favour, which are the reward of very great self abasement, will fall to your lot who are so forgetful of religious humility, as even to be angry if people do not pay you this respect, and show themselves in all things obedient and submissive to your will.

I well know that you will be eloquent in excusing these errors, and that you would assure me that if I were with you, I should not consider that there is any fault in all this, sincc you only engaged in this suit from a motive of pure love of God, and zeal for the salvation of souls. But now from this time forth I give you warning and desire you to be fully con­vinced, that you will only waste your breath in excusing this fault, however skilfully, to me; and you may rest assured that in my opinion your cause will be certainly lost, and I add be­sides that by trying to defend an action which cannot be ap­proved you would cause me great displeasure, in addition to your fault; and I must confess, on the contrary, that nothing would be more delightful to me than to hear that you have

freely acknowledged and condemned the fault you have com­mitted in all this.

No—let the past, which is beyond recall, be corrected, as far as possible, by penitence, and let every precaution be taken in providing for the future. For the rest, I beg you above all things to take great and continual pains that there may be no more suits or contentions with the Vicar, the priests, the Gover­nor, or any magistrates whatever, no matter how evident and public their faults may be. I would rather that you should apply a gentle remedy, as far as you can in conscience do so; abstain from all remedies which cause disturbances, and are worse than the disease itself, and do not risk losing by anger and violence all the fruit which you might bring to maturity by humility and meekness.

So far this letter has been written at my dictation ; in what) follows you will recognize my hand and heart. O Cipriani! if you knew with what love I write those words to you, you would surely remember me night and day, and it may be that you would not be able to restrain your tears in thinking of the most tender and ardent charity burning with which I take you to my heart. O, would to Heaven that the hidden secrets of our hearts could be revealed in this life ! then, believe me, my brother Cipriani, you would clearly see how deeply your name is en­graved in the inmost depths of my soul. Farewell.

Yours wholly, so that I never can forget you,

April 1552. Francis.

The next letter is an instruction to Father Antonio Eredia, one of those who had last arrived from Portugal, to whom Francis at this time intrusted the mission at Cochin.

(xcvi.) To Father Antonio Eredia.

Here are the instructions which I prescribe to you to follow in Cochin. First of all, endeavour as far as in you lies, by all industry, and with all your might, to gain to yourself the love of all the people, of the priests, the religious, and more es­

pecially the brothers and managers of the Church of our Lady the Mother of God; using the utmost diligence, and employing all ways and means, to convince them that your only desire is to further their wishes, and to do your part in increasing the devotion and veneration of the people towards that holy temple of the Mother of God. Visit them, therefore, frequently with all courtesy, and in your spiritual necessities, doubts, and troubles, have recourse to them, and consult them with confidence.

Make known to the Brothers of Mercy the corporal necessi­ties of the poor who ask your help, pleading the cause of the sufferers before them, and obtaining from that Confraternity the assistance which you are unable to afford yourself owing to our want of means, which you must not conceal. Explain also to the poor, that what you give them is not out of your purse, but that it comes from the liberality of the Confraternity of Mercy. When on such occasions they come to you to make known the penury under which they are, you should take the opportunity of explaining to them that other need of which they are less sensible, and which they take less pains to relieve—of spiritual help for the soul: help which, if they desired it, they could always have abundantly and at hand; exhorting them earnestly not to neglect this, but to turn their thoughts to God, to adore and pray to Him, and to obtain His mercy by having recourse to the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist: show them that you are ready to help them in this, and assure them that when they have performed this first duty, you will not fail to obtain them help for their other temporal wants as to food and money in the manner already mentioned.

In your promiscuous intercourse with persons of all condi­tions, take great pains that your behaviour be such that all equally may see in you a modesty free from pride. Never speak to any one except kindly and respectfully, showing carefully to both priests and seculars the degree of regard due to each, and remembering the words of St. Gregory, that humility begets love, and pride begets hatred. If any fruit should follow your labours, be careful not to desire any praise for yourself, and if it should be given to you, not to appropriate it, but to attribute

it all to those who have advised and assisted you, gratefully and frankly acknowledging that they are the principal authors of those good works. If you desire the good name and credit of our Society to flourish, and if this is the end of your efforts, you must be firmly convinced that you will only help to and attain your object by giving great proof in your intercourse with every one of humility and modesty altogether removed from all appearance of pride. For seeing you truly humble, peo­ple will suppose that the other members of the Society whom they do not see are like you who are present before them, and will then form a true idea of the religious of the Society of Jesus, and regard our Institute with that approval and affection which every one readily gives to those who despise themselves. I

This is the only way to spread abroad a good opinion of our Society, as you will more easily perceive by remembering that those who were the first to make this Order famous by the labours which they undertook for the honour of the Church, ] did so indeed by the practice of every virtue, but more especi­ally by showing themselves everywhere the brightest examples of the contempt of human glory, and of true humility, which they regarded as the foundation of the other virtues. By imi­tating them you will show yourself wxwthy Of bearing the name, and will promote the reputation of the Society. In any other way you would go astray, and you would be the means of de­stroying the work which they have built up.

Remember, above all things, that influence with the people, and the favour and applause of the multitude, are the gift of God alone, Who gives it to those only whom He sees to be so well fortified in solid virtue that He may fairly trust them to make good use of so powerful a talent for their own salvation and for that of those to whose advantage they devote them­selves. On the other hand, those whom God sees disposed to usurp the credit of any success that may attend their ministra­tion, and to make a boast of it, He is wont to deprive of their gift, not giving them popularity, and not allowing them to be borne along by the fair wind of public favour, lest His gifts should be despised, being ascribed to human efforts, and lest the ignorant

multitude, incapable of distinguishing between saints and im­perfect persons, should attribute the honour due to true apos­tolic labourers to tepid men, careless in God’s service and decked out by undeserved and false praises with a fallacious appearance of exquisite virtue. Pray, therefore, continually and fervently, that our Lord God may give you grace to know and feel in the inmost depths of your soul of how many and great hindrances- to the spread of the Gospel you have been the cause, and how your faults had prevented God from making Himself known -as He would wish to the people intrusted to you, and whom-you have so ill cared for: since through your own defects you, are wanting in the influence essential and fitted to convince them of necessary truths; and that because you have not merited that heavenly gift by the requisite fervour and fidelity. , .

When, at the hour appointed for us by our Society for the daily examen of conscience, you go through all your actions for the purpose , of discovering your faults, do not fail to examine yourself very strictly on your-manner of preaching the word of God from the pulpit, of administering the Sacrament of Penance in the sacred tribunal, and lastly, on your familiar conversations and daily .intercourse with all classes of persons. Look very closely into what you have from negligence omitted to do, or what you have done badly, and resolve seriously on the neces­sary amendment,, which you must then carry out with great fidelity. For if.as soon as you have perceived your fault you strive to correct it, our merciful Lord will not fail to accompany your repentance with. His voluntary gifts, and to turn even your past errors to your great profit by loading you with His graces.

I do not, however, wish you to place, as many do, your hope of winning the affection of the people in human arts, or to take cunning measures for getting yourself liked and spoken well of by the multitude, so as to act and speak in a way that flatters and pleases them. Such arts are utterly unworthy of a preacher of the Gospel; and besides that they take with them as an inseparable companion that most dangerous craving for the empty praise of the people, are also injurious to Christ our

Lord, whose honour they ought to seek and look to before everything else. And such preachers prefer their own credit, seeking their own fame as the first thing; and when once they have obtained it, as if they have obtained all that they want, they relax that fervent zeal which they ought to have, to do their utmost to promote the greater glory of God by a real conversion of souls. ,

I charge you to weigh what I have said most attentively in your mind, and to flood and penetrate its inmost recesses with these good sentiments : and if, in meditating on divine things, our most merciful God should favour you, as is His wont, with some heavenly illumination, do not let it escape from your mind, but note it down in some little book to assist your me­mory. Believe me, that a great part of the real spiritual profit of God’s servants consists in such observation, and in carefully recalling to mind pieces of knowledge of this sort given to them in mental prayer and meditation. And if any one who has from time to time been favoured with these flashes of divine light writes down the truths revealed by them, he will read them over again after a while, with a very great increase of affection and advantage—that is to say, when he has himself experienced what he had set down in writing. He will then ^ recall to mind those beautiful thoughts, and taste again those keen feelings which had passed from his memory; or at least he will gain from their clearer consideration the salutary vigour which will enable him to labour fervently, and to think wisely according to the needs of his present circumstances. Great in­deed is the difference of savour and spiritual sweetness in ordi­nary readers of those things written by the saints when fresh from their conversations with God, and in those who read again in them what they have themselves experienced and made their own ! But it is certain that the reading of such things is of small profit to those who have not this sort of memory and interior of them.

I advise you, therefore, strongly to make a little journal, and to note down carefully in it the secret illuminations with which God has enlightened your mind in your daily medita-

tions. Value them very highly, and esteem yourself unworthy of them, humbling yourself, as you ought, all the more deeply be­cause of these labours with which He exalts you.

Take great and practical pains to acquire a good number of wise and faithful friends, even among seculars, who are sharp sighted enough to observe the faults you commit in preaching, in hearing confessions, and in all other such functions, and also free enough to point them out to you with all sincerity; so that, knowing your defects by these means, you may correct them properly, and avoid them for the future.

In the administration of the Sacrament of Penance avoid a perfunctory haste, and show a patient attention to your busi­ness, so as to urge on your penitents to greater and more cer­tain progress; and if, in this way, you should have to do with persons requiring and capable of receiving spiritual help, and who are also in tolerably easy circumstances, so that they are both desirous and able to give some time to the affairs of their souls,—then, after hearing their confession, persuade them to wait for a few days, and to employ the time in conceiving a real hatred of their sins, and sorrow for having offended a God infi­nite in power, and supreme in all that attracts love. To this end, you should set them to meditate on death, judgment, and the pains suffered by the lost in hell; by means of which me-_r ditations they will understand in what fearful evils they have entangled themselves by sin, and conceive so great a hatred and disgust of their past transgressions, that they will shed real tears of penitence from a contrite heart, and make a purpose of amendment, such that it may be reasonably hoped that they will sin no more in future.

Especially is this method to be observed with those who are living in occasions of sin, and among hindrances to good works, and who, therefore, considering the frailty of human nature, cannot be safely believed wheu they promise amendment of life, without some pledge of security. Such are persons who have been at enmity, and have not yet been reconciled to their enemies: those who have not yet so abandoned intercourse with the objects of criminal attachments as to be considered >

safe from falling^when they find themselves on the slippery ground of the recurrence of dangerous occasions: lastly, those who are in possession of the property of another, and have hitherto sought pretexts for delaying restitution. You should engage all such persons, after confession, in pious exercises suited to their state, and not give them absolution till you consider that they have made satisfaction, and on dismissing them exhort them to come frequently in future to the sacred tribunal of Penance.

As often as you should happen to hear the confessions of persons who, knowing that they are in possession of money un­lawfully acquired, bring it to you, to be given at your discre­tion to the poor, the -owners not being to be found, you must not use the very smallest part of it for yourself or for the Col­lege, however pressing may be your penury-: nor may you even distribute it to needy persons or families at your own discre­tion : but hand over the whole sum to the Prefects of the Con­fraternity of Mercy, to be bestowed as they think best. By this means the door will be closed against suspicions, which, besides being dishonourable to you, would lessen the respect in which the promotion of God’s glory 'demands that you should be held.

In familiar interviews and conversations with persons of whatsoever condition, to promote whose spiritual good is your daily labour, behave always with such prudence and circum­spection that in talking with them, however much you may trust to their intimacy with you, no word may pass your lips for which you could be Justly blamed if they should ever be estranged from you : a thing which is possible, and which you ought to suppose certain. This is a most important caution, not only for your good but also for that of those under your charge.

When persons who have made their confession with mani­fest signs of penitence beg for absolution, you ought not to give it till they have made the requisite satisfaction, especially as to three kinds of sin: i. e. enmities, attachments, and unjust possession of the goods of another. Bid them first be pub­

licly reconciled to their enemies, put away every occasion of sinning against purity, and restore ill-gotten gains to the right­ful owners ; then let them do whatever else may be necessary for greater security. Do not let them think promises enough, but insist on their fulfilment: for with these people, who are as ready and liberal in making promises as they are slow and backward in keeping them, one should always make bargains with*the earnest money in hand. Endeavour as much as is possible, with the help of God, to defend and increase the good odour and the good name of the Society by great humility, holiness, zeal for souls, and labours undertaken on their be­half : for they who gained for our Society the celebrity which it enjoys did so, with the blessing of God, in the way I have pointed out. I pray that He may be with you always. Amen.

Your brother in Christ,

Goa, April 2, 1552. FRANCIS.

The next letter explains itself. Andrew Carvalhez must have been admitted to the Society in India, and consequently needed an introduction to Simon Rodriguez in Portugal, when about to return thither for his health.

(xcvii.) To Father Simon Rodriguez, of the Society oj Jesus.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord ever help and favour us ! Amen.

Very soon I shall write to you at length touching the affairs of the Society in this country, but I must send this short letter separately for a particular reason. It concerns Andrew Car­valhez, who will be the bearer of it. I think it necessary to send back to you this excellent young man on account of his health. He was getting on very badly in India, and at his age and with his temperament the doctors hoped that his native air might restore his strength, which is exhausted by illness, and make him once more as strong as ever. On returning

from abroad, I found by the concordant testimony of all here that he is equal in intellectual gifts, in progress of studies, and in endowments of grace to any one of ours out here. Our older fathers hope much from this youth because of the virtues which God our Lord has already given him, and which in His mercy He will cause to increase. I think it is as they say, and willingly make you a partner in my joy, desiring and praying that this brother may grow into thousands of thousands,⁴ and produce for the Society the fruit we expect. I beg of you, therefore, by your love and devotion towards God our Lord, my dearest Brother Simon, to receive Andrew Carvalhez in Portugal with all the love and charity with which I and he also hope that you will receive and tend him. As to the news in these parts, I will write to you copiously and minutely, by the help of God, before setting sail for Cochin. My departure will, I think, take place in a fortnight. May God our Lord unite us in the glory of Paradise, for when in this life we shall be able to meet and embrace I certainly do not see ! Be sure of one thing, my sweetest Brother Simon,—that I carry everywhere your image very deeply engraven on my heart, and that this image makes you ever present to my thoughts. The desire to see you with my bodily eyes, with which I so long felt almost to impatience, has become less hard for me to bear because of the consolation which I have in beholding continually in my heart your much loved person. Farewell.

Yours in Christ,

Goa, March 27, 1552. FRANCIS.

We next come to a series of letters written to Gaspar Baertz, who was to take the place of Francis Xavier as the Superior in India during his absence, as well as to fill that of Rector of the College of Goa, unless some one should arrive from Europe sent by Ignatius himself for that purpose. We may place at the beginning of this series a spiritual instruction, which con­tains advice to Gaspar simply as a preacher, and makes no mention of the rectorship or government of others. Like so

³ Lat. orig. crescat in mille viillia. Gen. xxiv. 60.

much of what he wrote to the same admirable religious, every word seems to come with intense feeling from the very heart of Francis.

(xcvm.) To Father Gaspar Baertz.

You ask me, my dear Gaspar, that as I am continually re­commending humility, and as you yourself understand the : great value and importance of that virtue, to go farther, and suggest to you some method of practising it. It is a subject 1 which I take great pleasure in speaking of, both because I would do much to gratify you, and still more because I hear some­thing of the applause of your sermons which sounds in your ears; and I sometimes fear (love is always full of anxiety and fears), that perceiving how much you please every one, you may begin not to be displeased with yourself. In this letter, therefore, I will set down what occurs to my mind as likely, if I mistake not, to be of use to you as a sort of talismanic antidote, to hinder the bad effect of the pleasant poison of vainglory, which creeps secretly into unwary souls, borne by the flattering breath of popular applause.

Be careful, above all things, to make the very favour which your preaching finds with the people an occasion of continually greater and greater humiliation : understanding clearly, and ac­knowledging, that in this there is nothing of your own; and faithfully giving the entire praise to God, as the sole Author of whatever ability you may possess, and whatever profit your-hear­ers may derive from it. Farther, you should confess that for all this fruit of your labours you are a debtor to the people : for, in truth, you may and should believe that our Lord God, moved by the devotion of these good folk thirstily craving to learn what concerns religion and the salvation of souls, bestowed on you, though unworthy of such a favour, the skill and power to instruct them properly, so that they may profit according to their desire. You, therefore, are merely the minister of the bounty of another, which is in no way attributable to you, since all luminous intelligence and vigorous action in you, all

docility and sensibility in your hearers, are gifts granted by God, not to your merits, but to those of the Church and the pious people to whom you preach. And this should be a motive for your loving the people, and feeling under the greatest obliga­tion to them, because our Lord has, for their sakes, communi­cated to you eloquence and learning: which if you claim for your own, and ascribe to your merits, you would be guilty of injustice and ingratitude, unworthily forgetting from Whom and for whose sake you have received these gifts.

Besides this, you may well consider that any really valuable fruits resulting from your labours ought to be attributed to the prayers and suffrages of the members of the Society, who, fight­ing for God in different parts of the world, implore the divine assistance on the endeavours of their brethren fighting elsewhere: and because they do so with exceeding charity and humility, our Lord God deigns to grant their prayers by sometimes using the sons of the Society as the instruments of His glory and of the salvation of souls. If you get this thought well fixed in your mind, you will certainly never let yourself be tickled by the acclamations and praises of those who admire the eloquence of your sermons : but the more highly you are exalted, the more you will abase yourself; knowing most surely that you will one day have to give a very strict account of this talent which has been intrusted to you, with danger to yourself, for the good of others, in the exercise of which talent you will be able to see nothing altogether your own, except very many faults of imprudence, negligence, and ingratitude to God who gave it to you, to the people for whose good He gave it, and lastly to your mother,¹ the Society of Jesus, whose prayers have prevailed with our most gracious Lord to bless your labours with some success.

It will also be useful to compare the abundance of the har­vest reaped with the far greater abundance which there would have been had it not been hindered by your fault. You should therefore most fervently and urgently implore God to grant your mind a ray of heavenly illumination, which may shine therein so clearly as to show you how continually your defects and daily falls place great obstacles in the way of the goodness of God,

so as to hinder it from attaining its end through the fault and imperfection of the instruments He employs; thus forbearing to reveal Himself more clearly, and to bring about those great things which He had intended to do by your means for His glory and the salvation of men. And when these sentiments are firmly impressed upon your mind, I should like you to manifest them to God, who reads the heart, rather than to de­clare them in words to men. They will be, as it were, goads with which to drive away vainglory, and being pricked by them you will be attentive to yourself and recollected, and not only be preserved from an indolent security, but rather forced to set a guard over yourself, watching most carefully on every side that you may not sin by imprudence, never stumble and fall, never be a scandal to the people either in public conduct or private intercourse. For, as I have said, it is right that you should regard them with gratitude and respect as the cause of the grace granted to you by God.

In the next place, when you meditate on all these things, 1 earnestly advise you to write down, as a help to your memory, those heavenly lights which our merciful God so often gives to the soul which draws near to Him, and with which He will also enlighten yours when you strive to know His will in medi­tation, for they are more deeply impressed on the mind by the very act and occupation of writing them down. And should it happen, as it usually does, that in course of time these things are either less vividly remembered or entirely forgotten, they will come with fresh life to the mind by reading them over; the original thoughts themselves will be revived by recourse to these records, and as though you had again discovered the mine from which you originally got them, you will dig deeper into its veins, and what was before the loftiest height to which your thoughts had risen will serve as the foundation of a new and still nobler spiritual edifice. For thus does the Divine Wisdom, which by a simple instinct of free mercy loves to communicate itself to men, rejoice to lead those who watch for its guidance from light to light, and out of twilight, by ever brightening rays, and through splendours ever increasing, into the full glory of vol. it. v F

the noon. And as God is wont to give His choicest favours in greatest and most constant plenty to those who seek in meditation for ways of depressing still more and more their own vileness, do not doubt that by perseverance in this holy practice of humility and of an intimate knowledge of your faults you will be enriched with still greater advances, not only as to your own perfection, but also to the procuring of the salvation of others; and you will know by experience this most certain truth, which is not understood by all, that it is only in his sin­cere self contempt that the whole hope lies that a preacher of the Gospel will gain real and great fruit in souls, and that that cannot be abundant or solid fruit which destroys him who reaps it, aiming at the good of others at the cost of ruin to himself.

O, then, for the love of God, by all that you owe to our Father Ignatius and the whole Society of Jesus (and you well know how much you are indebted to both), I pray and entreat you again, and once more again, as earnestly and forcibly as I can, persevere constantly in these practices of self abasement. For should you interrupt them (which God forbid!), I should fear that you would lose your soul (may God avert such a calamity!): as you cannot deny that you have either heard from others of, or yourself seen, many persons who, not being well grounded in humility, have, after having preached to others, become them­selves reprobate. I warn you again and again, beware lest you should increase their number ! Never let these most miserable instances, which you have yourself known, pass from your memory. Recall them frequently to your mind, bringing lei­surely before it the sad mournful images of so many on whose words, as they preached from the sacred pulpit, far greater crowds hung than now listen to you; who preached more grace­fully, more eloquently, more admirably than you, by whose ser­mons many more persons were convinced and converted from idolatry and from sin than you have brought to a better life : and nevertheless (unhappy men !), after God had made use of them as instruments to snatch multitudes from the tyranny of the devil and from the brink of hell, and to bring them into the Kingdom

i of Christ and to the blessedness of Heaven, their own lot was ! that most wretched one, themselves to be thrust down by a most just condemnation into everlasting flames, for that they arro­gantly attributed to themselves the glory which was due to God alone—for that they caught at the breath of popular favour and empty applause—for that, puffed up by the praise of men, their hearts swelled with self conceit: and that thus, towering with haughtiness and arrogance, they became the marks of the thun­derbolts of Heaven, which are hurled against the proud.

Let those, therefore, who witness these terrible warnings be struck with a holy fear, and form themselves in humility. Let each look to himself, and carefully examine his own purposes and desires. Whoever fairly balances what he has received and what he has returned will certainly see that he has no cause for boasting, but abundant cause for fear and humiliation: for in this great business of the salvation of souls, however success­fully it may have been conducted, what is there that we can justly ascribe to ourselves, or congratulate and honour ourselves upon ? O no, there is nothing—nothing whatever of our own : except the many faults of imprudence and disloyalty which we have mixed with our good beginnings. This is our share : for the conversion of souls is the work of God, who loves to mag­nify the wonderfulness of His goodness by the weakness of the instruments'He uses : thus choosing us, the meanest of His ser­vants and most worthy of all contempt, to manifest the glory of His Name to men.

Lastly, take care that it never enters your mind to compare /ourself with other members of the Society whose labours make ess show, and in consequence to despise them as obscure, and ncapable of great thing's. You ought, on the contrary, to be irmly convinced that the origin of your distinction is precisely .he lowliness and hiddenness of those who discharge mean jfflces in the house : for it is certain that these humble brothers >f yours, who are engaged in mean employments for His glory, )btain for you from Him whom they so devoutly serve the itrength and power which make you so distinguished; and you ire more deeply indebted to them than they to you. If you

are inwardly penetrated with this conviction you will never de­spise them, but will heartily love them and venerate them, put­ting yourself far below them, to the great advantage of your own soul. Your brother in Christ,

Francis.

The following three papers, though commonly reckoned among the letters of Francis Xavier, are in reality formal docu­ments, conferring on Gaspar the Rectorship, of which mention has already been made.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.

i. I, Francis, the unworthy Superior of the Society of Jesus in this province of India, relying, Master Gaspar, on your humility! virtue, prudence, and other gifts, which make you a sufficiently fit person to.rule others, command you in virtue of holy obedience to assume the government of this College of Santa Fe at Goa,-and to be the Superior thereof with the name and power of Rector. I also order that all the Portuguese fathers and brethren of the So­ciety of Jesus, who are on this side of the Cape of Good Hope, and beyond this at Malacca, the Moluccas, Japan, and anywhere in these regions, be under your authority. Those also who here­after may come from Portugal, or from any other part of Europe,] to these provinces or houses to be placed under my rule, I will that all of them be subject to your authority, unless our Father Ignatius should send here anyone nominated to be Rector of this College of Goa. I have asked him by letter, setting forth at full length the reasons why it appears necessary that he should do so, to send hither some one of large experience in whom he has great confidence, to be Superior of this College, and to rule'all ours who are in the surrounding missions or stations dependent thereupon.! If, therefore, any one of our Society should arrive at Goa with a commission duly signed which he can show from our Father Igna­tius, or any one else who is General Superior of the Society of Jesus, for the purpose of undertaking the government of this house and of the missions which are under it, I then command you in virtue of holy obedience, and I leave the order for you here in writ­ing, at once to yield your place to such a person, give into his hand without any delay the management of the College and all attached to it, and make yourself his subject, and obey him in all things. * j

But if any one coming from Portugal were to say that he was

sent for this purpose, and yet did not show his letters signed by our Father Ignatius or any else, Superior General of the Society of Jesus for the time being, I forbid you to acknowledge him as Rector, or to transfer to him the government which I have in­trusted to you. But if he seem a man fitted to govern, and you yourself require such assistance, then you may delegate to him your authority, and commit to him as vicar your power, revocable at pleasure, always saving your own right and superior dominion, to which he no less while he rules in your place than the rest who obey him and you must be subject. For it is my decided will, and by the power given to me, I order that you, Master Gaspar, and you alone, until the General of the Society arrange otherwise, shall govern this College of Goa with authority supreme next after mine, and be the ruler, as I have said, of all ours who dwell in these regions. And 1 command all of them, in virtue of holy obedience, to be subject to you, Master Gaspar, the Rector of the College of Goa, in order that there may be no room for the incon­veniences which might otherwise follow, and which to our great disturbance have, as we know, followed on former occasions.

And if any one should be refractory against this my appoint­ment, which has been made after mature deliberation, and is now declared to all, or if he should endeavour to elude it by any cavil or by any arbitrary interpretation, either giving himself out as Rec­tor, or refusing to you all due obedience, I command you, by vir­tue of holy obedience, to dismiss that person from the Society, with whatever excellent gifts in this respect he may be endowed ; for he lacks the most important gifts of all, humility and obedi­ence.

What I have said about your substituting some one as vicar to yourself, I have put in that you may be more free sometimes to make excursions from Goa, to visit the Colleges at Cochin, Bazain, and Coulan, and the mission of Cape Comorin. Experi­ence has taught me that great fruit to ours who are living in those places, and a great return in the way of the service and glory of God our Lord, comes from such visitations of Colleges and resi­dences. I think, therefore, that you should often make them ; but in such a way and at such times that the College of Goa may lose as little as possible from your absence.

In order that no one of ours may perhaps think that these things which I have thus far enjoined are of light moment, and so may venture to disregard them or think too little of them, I .again bid you and command you by the authority which I possess, that, if any one of ours fail to obey you as if you were myself, you

dismiss him at once from the Society; and do not let the thought trouble you for a moment, that perhaps it may seem as if by and by the Society might be sorry to have lost any such person on ac­count of his distinguished gifts of eloquence, learning, or any other talent. Refractory persons of this kind will always bring to our Order much more harm than advantage. Those who consult our best interests most justly care little for small gains which have to be purchased by very great mischief, which may very well be set in the balance against the wonder or even the offence and murmuring caused among the people, who are likely enough to blame us for the dismissal of workers whose fair outside is a cloak for hidden faults. Therefore never hesitate or doubt for a moment boldly to cut off from our body limbs that do it harm ; and be at your ease, on my authority, as to what people will say or their empty fears. Another thing of the same kind—I forbid you also, by virtue of my authority, never to readmit on any account into our Society any one whom I have dismissed before I go to China ; and, more­over, send an order through all places subject to your government that no one of our Society anywhere is to admit such persons un­der his roof even as a guest.

The revenues already assigned to the Colleges—the extraor­dinary gifts which the King sometimes makes, and all the dues and resources of this community, whatever they are, which belong to it by the liberal concessions of our lord the King or of the Governors who are here his representatives—all these you must collect and exact with great attention and care^ either by yourself or by other fit persons whom you appoint so to do. Take great care that they be fully and entirely collected and faithfully spent in food and other necessary things for the fathers and brothers of the Society who live in this house, or who are sent from it to other places ; for unless they are helped from hence with all ne­cessary supplies for the body, they are quite unable to devote themselves as is requisite to the work for souls for the sake of which they are sent out. And whatever over and above inevitable expenses remains of the annual income of the house must be put aside for the purpose of getting rid of debts. The rest must be spent on living and other such purposes, but only necessary pur­poses, for ours who live both in the College and in the residences thereto attached, as well as of the boys whom the natives send us to educate, and the orphans of the country.

Signed, as a proof that this is my true order,

Francis.

Given in this College of Santa F6, April 7, 1552. ■

2. After what has been written above, three other things appear to me worthy to be particularly recommended to you. I com­mand you, Master Gaspar, Rector of this College of Santa Fb, in virtue of holy obedience, not to go for the space of three years complete outside the island of Goa, unless within that space of three years some one of ours should arrive duly sent by the Su­perior General of the whole Society of Jesus, with letters wit­nessing thereto, to assume the government of this same College. As soon as such a one arrives, and you have' resigned to him the government of this College, then you are released from this my precept, and, if the new Rector, to whom you as well as others will be subject, sends you, you may freely go whithersoever he bids you. I again charge and order, in virtue of holy obedience, all those who in these regions of India acknowledge me as their Superior, to obey you also, Master Gaspar, and to be subject to your government. And if any one refuses to obey you, you will just show him this letter of mine, in which I order all who are my subjects to show themselves as obedient and submissive to you as to me, if I were there present, and then, if he persist in his contumacy, dismiss him from the Society and have nothing more to do with him.

I again charge and command, in virtue of holy obedience, all and every one of the Society of Jesus placed under my authority, that if any one should arrive hither, chosen by our Father Igna­tius, or any other General Superior of the Society of Jesus, as Rector of this College, and duly appointed as such—which will be seen by letters signed by our Father himself—that all at once acknowledge him as their legitimate Superior, and make them­selves subject to him and obey him as they would me if I were present. But if any one refuse to do this, then I beg and charge the Rector aforesaid, unless the General Superior has otherwise ordered, to dismiss such disobedient person from the Society. And that there may be no doubt as to this my full and deliberate will in making these orders, I here sign this paper with my own hand.

Goa, April 7, 1552. FRANCIS.

3. Whereas the Supreme Pontiffs have granted certain faculties and privileges to the Society of Jesus to be communicated by the Superiors General, and whereas our Father Ignatius has sent me copies of the rescripts in which their concessions are enumerated, and has also given me power to impart to those of ours who I think will make good use of these favours, the enjoyment of these

Pontifical concessions, either by myself, or by others, I, thinking] that you, Master Gaspar, Rector of this College of Goa, and those who are under your authority, will by this communication of these faculties be more fully empowered to gain so much greater return of good in the souls of those among whom you work, do therefore communicate the same fully to you, and, relying on your well approved prudence, I also commit to you to be in my stead, so that you may dispense and impart all the privileges of every kind granted to us by the bulls of the Popes to those to whom, and in as far as you shall judge to be expedient to the greater service of our Lord God to impart them.

Goa, April 7, 1552. FRANCIS.

The following document is of the same character with the preceding.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Considering with myself the shortness of our life and the great I uncertainty of the day and hour to each person of death, which is most certain to come to all men, fearing also lest this house may incur some disturbance if it were necessary for it to choose for itself a Rector in the place of Master Gaspar, if he were to be taken away | by death before our Father General has appointed a Rector to this College, I have thought that it was my duty to anticipate as far as I can, before 1 leave for China, the inconveniences which might arise from such an unforeseen event, by settling at once something , certain and naming the person who in the mean time, until it shall be known from P.ome that anything has been settled by the Gene­ral of the Society, is to govern this community, as well as the . other stations of the Society from the Cape of Good Hope to the extreme East, and whom all of ours, priests, clerics, and lay bro­thers, must obey in all things as their Superior.

If therefore anything, as I said, should happen in the course of nature to Master Gaspar, let Manuel de Morales be Rector of the house, and if he be absent at the time, let him be fetched at once, to come hither and take possession of the government. And from that time let all the fathers and brothers, both at Goa and elsewhere, begin to obey him as the lawful Rector of all. But until he arrive, let Father Paul be Rector in his place, who will resign the government to Father Manuel de Morales as soon as he shall come hither, and from that time put himself subject to the said Father Manuel, as the rest. And if before he become Rector, or after he has begun to be Rector, the said Manuel de

Morales be carried off by death, then let Master Melchior Nunez be Rector, whom I now appoint and desire to be acknowledged ^!by all as Rector with the same right, if perchance it should please 'God to transfer Father Gaspar Baertz and Father Manuel de Mo­rales from this life to the joys of Paradise before our Father General of the Society of Jesus has appointed a Rector to'this College.

These things I have thought well thus to decree, both in order to obviate other evils which might arise, and also to avoid the neces­sity of collecting into one assembly all the fathers who are occu­pied in preaching the Gospel in various and very widely separated places throughout India, who I do not think can be called away from the stations and ministrations in which they are working without grave inconvenience to the souls of those under their charge, and equal detriment to the service of God. P'or these rea­sons I command and enjoin, in virtue of holy obedience, all the Fathers of the Society of Jesus who are in India, to put into exe­cution what is prescribed in this paper; and since I so decree and order of set purpose and after mature deliberation, to the greater glory and service of God our Lord, in order that no one who sees this paper may doubt about my will, I have signed it with my own hand the 7th of April 1552. Francis.

The next letter is sometimes called an instruction as to ‘ the manner for avoiding all offence to men,’ addressed to the same Father, Gaspar Baertz. It is confined, however, to two chief heads, each requiring consummate prudence—that of dealing with disputes between husbands and wives, and that of attacks made upon the religious of the Society by members of other orders.

(xcix.) To Father Gaspar Baertz, Rector of the College at Goa.

As to the manner and method to be followed in intercourse with men so as to avoid all offences, I have thought it right to give you these precepts, which I much wish you to put in prac­tice, and to require of all members of the Society under your authority. None belonging to us should converse with women, whatever may be their age, rank, or condition, except in a public

place, such as the church. They should not visit them in their own home unless they are in danger and extreme necessity, or on account of an illness which threatens death, for meeting which in a Christian way they require to be prepared by the con­fession of their sins. Even then they should not be visited save in the presence of their husbands or relations ; but if they have no relations at hand, let it be before respectable persons of the neighbourhood, but never without witnesses, such as, in case of need, could give their testimony to what they have seen. If, then, it should happen that a woman who has no husband and has lost her parents has to be visited in her own house, no member of our Society should enter unless accom­panied by a respectable man, known as such both among the relations and acquaintances of the woman, and among the neighbours and inhabitants of the city or village, so as to pre­vent all suspicion and to cut short gossip. But they should not be visited, even with these precautions and this company, ex­cept in the case I have named, of extreme danger and of very serious illness. And whenever a woman who is not in danger of death may seem able, either then with some exertion, or after a short time, to go out of her house, she should be waited for at the church.

On this point, again, it is necessary to be careful, even with those who are most seriously ill, not to multiply the visits of any beyond what is required by urgent necessity. And alto­gether you must be severe in this matter, cutting things, as we say, down to the quick, so as to suppress and make as rare as possible for our brethren all communication with that sex, these interviews being of little profit and of very great danger, the uncertain hope of a generally moderate benefit to the divine service being only too often purchased with the doubtful chances of losing innocence and fair fame. I also do not wish our fathers to employ too much time and leisure in instructing even the mothers of families who frequent our churches, how­ever great inclinations they may seem to have to good. The reason for my judgment is that women are generally incon­stant in their purposes and full of talk in their conferences -_r

the result is a great loss of time in intercourse with them, and but very little fruit of any sure or solid advantage.

How far better it is to give more time to their husbands, and to take pains in instructing and exciting them to all noble deeds ! Men, it is certain, are naturally more, able to take in good advice when given; more constant in their resolutions to follow it. What you accomplish with them is solid and per­manent. If they have promised a thing, they will fulfil it. If they are won over to God, they will set in order their wives and families. They should be your chief objects; and the labourers of the Society ought to spend more time and more diligence in cultivating them, for where the seed is sown more thoroughly the harvest is more abundant. This prudence, believe me, is a great destroyer of gossip, nonsense, trifling, and small piques, so insist strongly on its invariable practice by all under your charge. If any quarrel should exist between husband and wife, and charity suggests that ours should interfere to make peace, let these arbiters of conciliation be sure that for the success of their work, it is far more important to listen patiently to, and admonish diligently, the husband than the wife.

Let them set to work on the husbands, and leading them dexterously away from the subject of the moment, persuade them to purify their soul at once by a general confession, for which they may prepare themselves by a short retreat and by meditation on some of the subjects of the first week of the Exercises. After our father shall have heard the husband’s con­fession of all the sins of his life, let him gently lead him to consent that sacramental absolution shall be deferred for a few days, during which he may exercise himself in holy meditations and works of penance, and in serious deliberations as to future amendment of life. When in these sentiments, and with strong resolutions to give himself up entirely to God’s service, he will easily be persuaded to follow advice for the purpose of securing internal peace with his wife. The source of evil oncc checked, and the causes of resentment removed, you will be surprised to see that in applying a remedy to one person you have cured two at once.

Should it happen that when one of ours is occupied in a matter of this kind, the wife comes to him apart and says she has great •desires of serving God, but that an impediment to this lies in the necessity of living with her husband, as being bad and disso­lute, and of disorderly habits, and that she has legitimate rea­sons for separating from him, such as she believes could be .proved judicially and would suffice to obtain legal authority for a separation—as to all these reasons, and more which such persons are wont so cleverly to bring forward, you must take care not to be moved thereby to approve of this thought of -divorce. You should remain firm in advising them to stop with their husbands. These tender longings for religion soon grow languid in that inconstant sex, and later on they will condemn their own design and your advice. Supposing them to be con­stant, still the danger to the husband and the public scandal which is almost inseparable from such cases are evils too serious to be overbalanced by the fruit of the devotional advantage of a single soul, who wishes in married life to anticipate the benefits of widowhood. Again, in these cases, carefully avoid blaming the husband before others, even when it is clear that he alone is to blame. See him alone, and gently exhort him to make a general confession, and then take occasion, from his own self-accusation, to scold him, but mildly, and so as to make him understand you are sorry for his own sake for the injury he has done to himself by his fault, rather than that you are moved by the accusations of his wife, who has complained of him. Consider it a thing above all things to be avoided that the husband should feel or suspect that you rather favour the wife most and care more for her interests, for such an opinion •would give a most severe blow to all hope of success. There­fore, however much the fault may be the husband’s, never let him even hear you say so ; but when you have led him to make the avowal to you himself, then you may, without difficulty, blame him for that of which he accuses himself. But even then •your sentence must be free from all bitterness. Therefore, -censure what he himself confesses with sorrow, so as to show him that you rather grieve with him than are angry with him.

Let love, kindness, and charity towards the sinner be con­spicuous in your words and countenance. Everywhere men require to be treated with gentleness, but nowhere more than in India. They are as touchy as glass to offence, any violence makes them recoil and break; to gentleness they bend, you can turn them as you will. You will obtain everything here by prayer and affectionate manners, nothing by threats or severity. Again I repeat this advice; take heed again and again. If a husband and wife take you as umpire, and plead their cause in person or by advocates in your presence, never let yourself blame the man before others, however nearly his fault may be brought home to him. The passionate minds of women eagerly take hold of such words, and are incredibly inflated thereby. They are always on the look-out for opportunities of humbling their husbands, and when they seem to feel that the cause is going in their own favour, if hints of an inclination to their side are allowed to fall from no other than the religious men chosen by themselves as arbitrators, they openly triumph, and let them­selves loose with greater freedom for the future in complaints, accusations against their husbands, and excuses of themselves, heaped one on another without end, all to be poured with that mad loquacity of theirs into the ears of the imprudent priests who have encouraged them.

I go so far in thinking that the husband should not be blamed in the wife’s presence, that I even think that the priest should not appear to believe the wife’s defence when she relates the domestic quarrels, pleading her own cause and trying to per­suade him that no part of the blame is to be imputed to her.. Even if her statement be probable and true, it is well that she should not be excused by him who presides at the reconcilia­tion. He should rather warn her seriously of the paramount duty imposed on the wife of honouring her husband and bear­ing with his ways. This is the law, let him add, which God Himself has laid down for all women, and which in general they unconsciously transgress, led astray by emotions of anger or other passions, too confident of their own innocence, and excessively indulgent to themselves, and so they give their hus­

bands cause for anger, while they ought rather soothe them and conciliate them by their patience, submission, and obedience. They should therefore accuse themselves, even when their con­science seems to acquit them. At the same time they should earnestly endeavour to love and practise serenity of soul, in­dulgence, obedience, humility, so as to live in submission to their husbands, as the Apostolical Epistles teach Christian women.

After having thus cleared themselves with the husbands, against all suspicion of favouring the wives, our brethren must in turn be careful not to offend the wives, by whom they might be suspected of unjust partiality for the husbands. They must not seem to believe in the shame cast by the latter on their wives. But they should observe an equal balance, not letting the scale fall to either side, reserving an ear for the accused, as the saying is, condemning no one unheard, and take the de­fence always into consideration as well as the accusation. Thus administering their office they will not only avoid offending either party, which would compromise the termination of the matter, but will also approach nearer the truth. In fact, with 'disputes of this kind, both parties are generally in fault, one more, the other less; each in their turn have a share in the fault, so the quietest way is to reprove them both, not entirely absolving either, receiving with hesitation and caution what each alleges in self-justification. This is a simpler method of gaining the end of reconciliation, and at the same time shuts the door against the murmurers and discourses of reckless tongues.

After all, when any one finds that he has tried all he can in vain in these matters, let him send the parties whom he despairs of reconciling either to his Lordship the Bishop, or to his Vicar: and let him do this without exasperating either, or speaking to either harshly. For our human weakness is prone to break out into complaint against those from whom any one seeks what he thinks fair and does not get it. &o that unless the unsuc­cessful mediator be very prudent, he may let a sharp word or two escape him which may touch one or both of the litigants,

as being averse to reconciliation or unjust. He will get nothing by this but the hatred of the one whom he has hit, or perhaps the contempt of both parties, who will see the imprudence of their chosen arbitrator, and acknowledge too late their mistake in choosing him. So that in order that you may not lose the friendship of one or both of the dissentients, as well as your own time and toil, endeavour by all show of patient kindness, and by prudently complimentary language, to send them both away at peace and goodwill at least with yourself.

And, as a general rule, I entreat you to be always recol­lected and self possessed in your intercourse with all kinds of men. Never forget that we are held up as a spectacle before this perverse world, that we are always watched by the assi­duous and inquisitive eyes of envy, and of malice always in­clined to evil judgment, ready to seize every occasion of thinking j and talking ill of us, both from men’s own inclinations, and from the instigation of the evil spirit our restless and watchful enemy : and be convinced that of all the steps of imprudence that is the most fatal which, besides present evil, plants the seed of future mischief. We seem to ourselves to be hurried on by pure zeal for the Divine glory, and yet with our intention di­rected good, w^re fall, and careless of acts and words, so long as we are urging on the work of religion, we do and say what we shall afterwards blush or grieve for under a burning sense of the serious evils which have resulted, which we should have fore­seen by circumspection or provided against by moderation, yet which have been allowed to take place by our rashness, and furnish us with abundant matter for useless and tardy repent­ance.

Dread especially giving yourself up to the anger which may be provoked by a thousand occasions, at the sight of so many crimes, but which yet causes the headlong fall of over zealous men unless they step very carefully on this slippery ground, unless they restrain their tongue from bitter speeches, by the bridle of a modest gentleness: without which all the keenness of reproof will evaporate in emptiness. How many persons have ever been improved by excited reprehension from a man white with

passion? Never reproach those who must be corrected except with calmness; let no anger appear in the few words in which you address yourself to the cure of people who have themselves fallen through excitement, otherwise you would give an example of the evil rather than a remedy. The generality of men ascribe all anger to vice : they are so far from being ready to believe that divine charity alone kindles the zeal of religious persons who are intemperately violent against sinner?, that they look upon this violence as a proof that these persons are just like other men, and that they let themselves be carried away hither and thither by their own vehement passions as much as the commonest of the people.

With religious of other orders, and in general with all priests who for any reason may dispute with you, you will always show yourself full of deference and humility according to the precept of the Apostle, giving ‘place to wrath’ and agita­tion if any sign of it should appear in them, and do this not only in cases where your own conscience reproaches you, but also where you clearly know that you are innocent and they in fault: nor even then desire any greater revenge on those who trouble you unjustly than a humble silence, which modestly refrains from vindication of its rights, when you perceive that all you could allege would be in vain, because their ears are closed against you by prejudice and anger. Retire into your own hearts at such times, and sigh over the condition of these people hastening to their own fall by violating right and justice; upon whom God will sooner or later take vengeance more sharply and severely than you or they suspect. Therefore pour forth your prayers for them continually before God, touched at the sight of their weakness and thoughtlessness : above all things avoid giving way to the trouble you feel, revenging your­selves on them beforehand in thought or silent desire of evil you might wish them, or in conversation or word before others, exposing their injustice much less by any actions which in turn do them hurt.

Regard alljthose feelings which flesh and blood, with the de­praved instincts of our nature, rouse in the imperfect, as infi-

nitely dangerous and injurious to you, unless you banish them. Be certain, without any doubt at all, that God is wont to shed profusely His most precious graces and blessings upon those who, for the love of Him, patiently suffer heavy charges with­out any wish for revenge, and who overcome by the sweetness of divine charity all inclination to return the injury. Then it is that God, so full of mercy, feels, so to speak, obliged to compensate abundantly for that of which they have been de­prived by injustice; to load with honours and benefits those whom calumny disfigures and violence despoils, while their tran- ■ quil and peaceful souls remain unmoved by indignation, how- | ever great may be the wantonness of the assault. He will take 1 peculiar care to inflict in His own good time the shame and confusion they have merited upon the authors of the mischief, who so unjustly oppose you, who disturb your pious enter- prizes. But He will not do all this if you take any part your­selves in the matter, and either by angry feelings in your wounded heart, or complaints put into words, or by doing anything in your power to put your persecutors to pain, endeavour your­selves to inflict vengeance upon them.

If it should happen, from which may God preserve us! that ia dispute should arise between you and any other religious, be careful above all things to avoid disputing with them before the Governor or Commandant, or in presence of any secular what­ever. Laymen are wonderfully scandalized at hearing and seeing such outbreaks in men who are consecrated to God. If these religious have declaimed against you from the pulpit, or have defamed you in public conversation, you will apply to his Lord­ship the Bishop, and you will beg him, if he thinks fit, to call them before him, and after having heard the cause before the • two parties, to decide what may seem expedient to make up the quarrel, and put an end to a scandal so mischievous to the people. You will tell his lordship that I myself beg him to attend to this work himself, and put an end in good time to my divisions of this nature, lest they should be brought before secular magistrates, or in any way get abroad among the people, ,vhich should be avoided if possible.

VOL. 11.

GG

For the rest, even should these religious have declaimed* against you in the pulpit, I absolutely forbid your making in your turn your apology and defence of your own rights from the same place. Let it suffice for you, as I have said, to place the matter before the Bishop, and to prevail on him to summon your adversaries, listen to them in your presence, and after taking thorough cognizance of everything to terminate the busi-| ness in some way or other, checking by his wisdom and au­thority the scandals which might arise, and which would cause immense harm among the people. On this point, you should observe that the honour of the Society does not consist in ener­getically defending our rights before the people, in winning our cause by arguments before men, or in gaining the applause of our audience at an unbecoming time and place. The whole affair stands or falls by the judgment of God. If God should disapprove of what we do, the false favour of the world would I not efface our real stain before God. Let us look to this be- ^! yond all else, that we be at one with God as to our line of ¹ duty, that we act by His inspiration, that we truly rejoice that! we are approved by Him. Now God would never approve of I our prolonging our disputes to the great disturbance of the I public. He desires His own to give place to wrath, to appease I tumults, to live in calmness, to, be peaceable even with those who hate peace.^s

Not only do I earnestly advise you to behave thus under such circumstances, but I prescribe and command it by my authority. I repeat it, you must not plead your own cause,! even when publicly attacked, but have recourse to his Lordship the Bishop, and stand by his decision, earnestly imploring him not to hesitate in restoring peace in the land where the enemy has sown discord.

Finally, aboye all, I commend to you yourself: be careful always to remember that you are a member of the Society ol Jesus. This thought will suggest to you on all occasions what you ought to do. Farewell.

Goa, April 15, 1552. FRANCIS.

⁸ Ps. cxix. 7.

We come next to what is in fact a long instruction on the method of government to be pursued by a Superior of the Society, both as regards the internal discipline of his house and his relations with others abroad. Here again we have, as in the instruction given to the same Father Gaspar when going to Ormuz, the results of the careful thought, prayer, and expe­rience of Francis Xavier as to some of the most important duties which can fall to the lot of a religious. We need not dwell on the evident carefulness and consideration of all pos­sible circumstances and issues with which this document is drawn up, nor the forethought as to future arrangements which it displays.

(c.) To Father Gaspar Baertz.

In order that you may be able to discharge worthily, to your own spiritual advantage as well as that of others, the go­vernment of the College at Goa and of our brethren in those parts which I have intrusted to you, I think it right, just as I .am starting on a very distant journey, to leave you the follow­ing precepts in writing, which I entreat you to read very fre­quently during my absence, keeping them constantly present to your memory. For I think that these suggestions will be a useful guide and counsel to you in all your administration of such matters, so as to direct you profitably towards that end which is our sole aim, the greater glory of God.

Above all things, strive to keep your mind firmly established in the consciousness of your own abasement, according to those precepts which, at your request, I have already given you on this subject. Recall them by daily meditation, dwelling on them so that they may sink deeply into your soul, that thus the points I suggested, and the other lights on the subject with which God in His mercy may favour you in meditation, may be indelibly engraved upon your mind. Behave with great modesty, affability, and indulgence towards those fathers who reside with you, as well as those who live elsewhere under your authority, with no severity or sternness, except to those whb

might take unfair advantage of your meekness or humility. In the latter case, looking to their good alone, and not that you may support your authority, or punish them for despising it_r let them feel your power just so far as is necessary, in order that by moderately chastising them you may raise them from their fall by needful correction, and that the scandal given to our brothers who have witnessed the fault' may be removed by the wholesome example of its repression.

Let every fault against obedience committed by the fathers- or brothers be visited by some penance. In this matter no exception is to be made for priests over clerics and lay bro­thers. Should any one under you treat you with pride, and if_r puffed up by a vain opinion of himself, he should meet your orders with a lofty brow and arrogance and haughtiness, be stern with him, showing him the severity of a master rather than kindness and affability. Impose public penances for daily faults on these rather than on others; above all, be care­ful that they do not see any weakness in you, or that you fear them, and so will allow other faults to pass unpunished, but especially those against authority. Nothing confirms contu­macious subjects in their boldness and prompts them to rebel­lion more than any proof they may have seen of weakness on the part of their superiors. If they perceive them to be anxious and timid, hesitating to impose punishment upon subjects who refuse the respect and obedience due to their superiors, there is no end to their inflation, which reaches even insolent au­dacity. The success of their conduct encourages them to per­severe therein, and the evil will continually increase, each step- being fraught with great mischief to the common peace. You must therefore carry out with great exactness what I prescribe,, not allowing any personal consideration or fear of the opinion or observations of the world to prevent you from doing as you ought.

Among inferiors there are some who, without being self willed, sometimes neglect the commands of their superiors through weakness and forgetfulness, without any contempt for these orders, but from indolence and carelessness. You should

correct these more gently, softening the severity of reproof by ■a kind countenance and deportment, while, as a penance for their fault, inflicting only a slight punishment. If among the lay brothers you observe any who set themselves above their rank, with some appearance of arrogance, be most careful to humble them, setting them to the meanest offices in the house; and as long as you notice in them this vain opinion of them­selves, treat them in a grave, severe, or as it might seem, a contemptuous manner. This coldness will cure their inflation 3 and if it brings about more humility on their part, you can relax your disdainful manner, and when they are reduced to due modesty, you will instantly soften the severity of your aspect, as if to thank and rejoice with them ; in order that, by a comparison of the different effects of different conduct, they may learn what is best, and at the same time disabuse them­selves of a terrible mistake, by which such persons sometimes delude themselves, fancying they are necessary to the Society. The Society however does not want proud people; and this, if they are wise, they will learn from the severity shown them by their superior as long as they claim too much for them­selves.

Take care never to admit into the Society any subjects lacking industry, of poor judgment, limited intelligence, or in­different strength, men not fit to manage anything well. Nor, again, those whom you may suspect to be inclined towards the religious life rather by weariness of their own indigence, than by zeal for God’s service. To those whom either you or Father de Morales may admit, I wish that you yourself should give the month’s retreat, and in this duty do not let any one else take your place. During the whole of this time you will watch them with scrupulous attention, studying them until you know them thoroughly. After the Exercises, put them to humble occupations, for example, the care of the sick in the public hospitals, domestic work in the kitchen, or other lowly offices of the same kind. Whilst they are making the Exercises, you will make them render you a most exact account of the efforts they have made to acquit themselves well of the usual

meditations according to the prescribed method. If you find that they do this with sloth and tepidity, you may either send them back whence they came, relieving the Society at once of a useless weight, or, if you have a ray of hope as to their amendment, you may withdraw them for a few days from the practice of these holy meditations, taking away from them, as­a punishment, a privilege of which their negligence has rendered them unworthy, so that this humiliation may cover them with confusion, and lead them to desire more earnestly to return to this course with their companions, and persevere with them for the required space.

As to the making vows you will observe the following plan. First, you will tell all the persons whom you may have received to probation, not to bind themselves by any engagement before God, without having first communicated with you, and obtained' your consent. Insist on this chiefly at the beginning of the Exercises. Those who have been sufficiently tried, and who are to make the vows in due form, these may bind them­selves in precise terms to poverty, chastity, and obedience., But warn them beforehand that this engagement on their part, and the obligation of the vows, only bind them by virtue of that act of religion while they remain in the Society. That if (from which God preserve them) they are excluded from it on account of any fault, by the Rector, or by any one who has power from him, they will remain entirely released from all obligation of such vows. Let them make their vows in your presence, pronouncing the form given to you in writing, the words of which express their oblation of themselves. You will also prescribe to them beforehand the other rules to be observed, one of which should be that they read aloud the formula of the vows at mass, when the priest is going to ad­minister communion, and then at once receive the Blessed Sacrament. This rule, which makes the obligation of their vows depend on their remaining in the Society, is the more indispensable in this country of the Indies, because there are here fewer monasteries belonging to other religious orders, into which subjects might pass who, having made their profession

in our Order, are found to be unfit for it. Therefore, that the Society may be free to rid herself of hurtful members, without which power she cannot exist, it is most expedient to declare to those who take the vows, that the engagement they contract by these religious vows is dissolved by their legitimate dis­missal from the Society by the Superiors thereof.

You will write to our brethren who live in different parts of this country, forbidding any of them, in any place, to receive a person into the Society without consulting you, and warning them that such admission is invalid, because they do not possess the legitimate power for it. If, therefore, subjects pre­sent themselves to them, whom they consider suitable, they should write to you what are the talents and qualities which they possess for working for the service of God in the Society. When you have answered that you do not object to enroll these persons in the Society, there is nothing to prevent their receiv­ing a certain hope that they may obtain their wish, so they may be sent to you at Goa, or, if you prefer it, you will desire that one of our brothers, who is capable of it, may give them where they are the month’s retreat, and that then they may begin to be put to the interior trials of our Institute. Still, as a general rule, it seems to me preferable, when there is no insuperable obstacle, that they should be summoned to this College, where I think they can be examined with greater facility and certi­tude. Notwithstanding, I leave the matter altogether to you; and in this and all other matters you will always act truly and simply in whatever way seems to you to lead most directly to the greater service of God.

You will carefully exhort .all the superiors of houses or dwell­ings of the Society in this country,—whether those where our brethren are charged with the direct care of souls, being the only directors of vacant churches deprived of their ordinary pas­tors, or those who are working as auxiliaries to the ordinary priests of the place,—to write every year to our blessed Father Ignatius, and accurately and at full length, explaining to him in detail whatever good God vouchsafes to work by their means, in those places and among those people where they are em­

ployed. But let them carefully avoid inserting in these ac­counts anything which could offend any one who might read them. Let them leave out faults which cannot be remedied, which it is no use to speak of, and which cause a scandal; the telling of which might occasion in the readers a useless sorrow, and bring on the writers a just charge of imprudence. Let them be content to say what it is well should be known, and what is worthy of mention; the propagation of God’s kingdom, the triumphs of grace, the idolaters converted'to the religion of Jesus Christ, and the guilty reclaimed from the path of their iniquities. And let them add any hopes that may appear of further and immediate progress. They should also send letters to all the members of the Society in Europe, with the same contents and composed in the same way, informing them, for the honour of God and their, mutual consolation, of the success of their labours, without any offensive allusion or every illtimed complaint, any indiscreet revelation of what ought to be kept in silence. Some of these letters may be addressed to the So­ciety at Coimbra, who will have them conveyed throughout Spain. The others, to ours at Rome, and to the fathers and brothers of the Society dispersed in all the countries of Europe. You will yourself write privately to the Rector of the College at Coimbra, as to the state and success of your College at Goa, telling such things as you think may please him: but in the style of your letters do not think of his judgment, but remember that a great number of people belonging to every class will judge of your language, for letters of this kind are eagerly sought and widely spread. Your modesty and prudence will both make you dread and avoid censure from them. And you should endeavour that your reports of events in India may satisfy public curiosity, so as not only to give no offence, but also to do good no the readers.

I think you should also carefully write to inform our blessed Father Ignatius, how important it is for the extension of God’s glory here in the Indies, and for the greater spiritual benefit of souls, that he should obtain from the Pope spiritual favours for our brethren in these countries, such as plenary indulgences

offered to those who have worthily approached the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. It would be necessary that these opportunities held out to the people of obtaining these sacred benefits should recur several times in the year, that is, on the most solemn feasts, and that they should not be offered in one short space of time for every place at once. Since there is here but a small number of priests, especially of such as are capable of skilfully deciding cases of conscience, where there is 1 a great number of penitents, a sufficiently long time is neces­sary for them to open all the secrets of their soul and to ac­t complish due satisfaction. The fathers also, after imparting to one town or place the advantages of the Papal Indulgence, should have leisure to proceed to another for the same purpose.

Remind our Father also to take care that, if possible, the grants of these favours should be sent to us in due form with the necessary signatures and seals affixed for the authentication in the regular way, so as to be shown to the suspicious. In these countries some people can with difficulty be persuaded to receive as certain indults of this kind, unless there are incon­testable proofs and guarantees. It would also be useful that these diplomas should express formally in so many words the Pope’s intention that the benefit and fruit of these graces should extend to all the faithful of every sex, age, and condition, set­tlers, natives, or travellers who are found, for whatever reason it may be, beyond the Cape of Good Hope as far as the extreme East.

You will more easily induce our Father Ignatius to consent to take this trouble, if you give him, as you can with truth, a magnificent account of the spiritual fruits, really great and mar­vellous, which the Jubilee that he previously dispatched us from Rome produced here. This Jubilee was limited to a short space of time and fettered by restrictions, and yet it produced such great good. You can argue what "still greater advantages we may hope for from plenary Indulgences rightly allotted, granted for a period of several years, and recurring with the solemnity of certain feasts. In this matter I would have you put forth all your powers of persuasion, using the most strenu­

ous efforts, so that Father Ignatius may feel that he should do his utmost in obtaining us these graces. You will add that I also join with the utmost energy in your solicitations, and that I shall esteem it a singular favour to myself, if he yields to my entreaties, and vouchsafes to obtain for these people so precious an opportunity of spiritual advantages. You will also write to Master Simon, or to the Rector of the College at Coimbra, beg­ging that they will themselves treat of this matter with the King, explaining to him the immense fruits which must infallibly re­sult from the promulgation of these Indulgences, so as to prevail on his Highness to help us by writing to Rome, or rather settle the matter at once by his high influence and favour with the Pon­tiff, arranging that these indults be consigned to Father Igna­tius, addressed to the College of the Society of Jesus at Goa, so as to be given out at the discretion of the Fathers of this College. The consequence will be that the people, won by the favours which these fathers have obtained and will dispense to them, will regard them with greater honour a.nd respect, so that their labours will be more acceptable, and so more profitable to all sorts of people.

When people seek admittance to the Society, do not, I advise you, hasten to receive them, however fit, at too early I an age \ reject absolutely those that you know belong to any of those classes which our Father Ignatius has by name excluded I for ever from entrance into our Order. One of these is, as you I know, to be of Jewish extraction. Be careful also not to admit I anyone unless he is eminently gifted with the qualities suitable] to some one of the special ministrations of our Institute. If | they are uneducated, I absolutely forbid their being received I among the spiritual workers, however great may be their ability, I and when a number of persons who are unexceptionable offer I themselves, avoid accepting too many. Choose a few amongst I a great number, the worthiest among the worthy, taking into! consideration at the same time the number of our residences! and offices, and also the ordinary casualties, so that there mayj be enough to send where necessity calls, to supply the places! of those who fail by sickness or death, and yet not more than!

are wanted, so as to be doing nothing and burthening the • house.

You must be careful never to allow any of ours to be raised to the priesthood if he is not sufficiently learned, and unless the innocence of his life be thoroughly proved to you by the experience of several years. Father Ignatius has forbidden this most expressly. Even had he kept silence, the thing speaks for itself, and the sad remembrance of those serious annoyances which have occurred to us from this source should be enough to make us avoid it. Do not be deceived by the hope of perfection in religion which may be remarkable in , an ignorant man, as though that compensated for the defect of knowledge. These hopes are often proved fallacious by ex­perience. Circumstances cause the mask to be dropped, and such persons show themselves what they really are. I wish, therefore, that you should be lynxeyed in penetrating the secret depths of souls, so as not to be misled at once by a few tears shed in prayer, or by the sighs wrung from some of these in holy meditations. Wait until real experience has convinced you that these subjects practise an active control over the de­praved inclinations of nature, over anger, ambition, selfwill, and that they have a perpetual horror for every kind of vainglory, be­fore you make up your mind that they deserve the credit of a sanctity perfect in every respect, and, so to speak, consummated.

The order of charity requires us to give our care first to persons of our own community, and then to externs. See, then, in the first place, that you fulfil the duties of a genuine father towards our own people, to the native children and orphans who are pupils of this house, providing carefully all that they want either for soul or body. When this duty is accomplished you can expend whatever remains of time and strength in the service of others. I command you this in the name of our Father Ignatius, and I advise it with all the earn­estness' that I can command. Indeed, I am deeply assured that this counsel is of the utmost importance. It seems to me that those who desire only to please men and who are satisfied with a vain appearance, without caring for a moment to be

pleasing in the sight of God, Who pierces the depths of the soul, are no worse than those who, taking no heed of com­plaints at home, seek the favour of the town, falsely thinking that they have fulfilled their duty, whilst they are neglecting its first and principal obligation, in order to devote all their energies in the most preposterous manner to secondary and accessory works. Those who do this are in the most complete error, and lest you should be of the number I desire you recall this advice of mine daily to your memory.

I see that the office which is intrusted to you is so manifold and full of detail that it is evident that you can never discharge alone all its duties yourself. As it is necessary that you should use deputies who will take charge of a number of particular matters for you, I wish you to have two rules as to this. First, in any function only to employ those who you know are com­petent to fill it. Secondly, to watch vigilantly over all, to de­mand frequently an account of what they have done, and if they have committed any fault not to let it pass unpunished. Consider that you are placed on high to watch over all, and according as in this duty you have been either strict and in­defatigable, or careless and negligent, so you will have pro­vided well or badly for your inferiors, and either have fulfilled your duty, or have rendered yourself guilty of bad administra­tion of your power.

The greater part of this care of yours should be given to those functions which are of the widest utility. You should, therefore, attend first and principally to the sermons addressed to the people by ours, to the hearing of confessions, to their familiar conversation and intercourse with those without. Fin­ally, to the handling of charitable works. The preachers you must form to a true idea of their function, and approve or cor­rect them as is needed. Confessors you will admonish and instruct, seeing how they do their business. Then, as far as may be, see that the familiar intercourse of the brothers with people of various conditions shall be fruitful and religious, by giving ad­vice beforehand or by examination afterwards, so as to procure ■in every point the perfection suitable to our Institute.

Take carc to keep yourself informed by certain and frequent intelligence as to the state and doings of our brothers who are going about to preach, or those who are dispersed in the various residences about there. Write to them frequently, and care­fully explain the most minute details. Desire them in turn to write to you often and at full length. Attend diligently to this correspondence. Study at leisure the letters you have received. Think over your own before writing them, and consider, what j is really the case, that a great part of your duty consists in this I diligence. You will also inquire of any strangers who arrive from places where ours reside, how they go on, in what respect they are held, what they may have heard people say of them, and the like.

Write to me at Malacca most fully about all the affairs of the College; about each of the fathers sent out to preach the Gospel; about the country where each is; with what ardour, with what success they are working: be careful not to do this in a summary way. Enter into everything and descend to the most minute particulars. Say also what is the political condi­tion of these countries, for of this also it is well we should be informed. Do not forget to give an account of what other re­ligious bodies are doing for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Add the last news from Portugal; what report or let­ters tell us of our brethren at Coimbra, at .Rome, and all over Europe. As to the letters directed to me which may reach you, especially those from Master Simon and from our friends at Rome, you will take care if there are, as is usual, several copies of them, to address one to Malacca to Father Francesco Perez; for I will tell him to get it transcribed and to send me copies by more than one way. If you have only received one copy, you will open the letter, have it transcribed by a trustworthy secretary, and keeping the original, send the copy to Father Perez. Remember to do this every year. You must insist that the fathers living at Bazain, Cochin, Coulan, on the Comorin Coast, and at Meliapor, write to me once every year carefully and at length. I can by no means allow this duty to be ne­glected either by you or them.

I desire most earnestly that you and all our fathers should show yourselves full of obedience and submission to his Lord­ship the Bishop. Take special care never to cause him, under any circumstance, the least annoyance; on the contrary, study in all things to serve and please so kind and indulgent a Father, who for so many reasons deserves that we should show our filial devotion to him in every way. You will tell the fathers who live away from Goa to write sometimes to show their veneration to the Bishop, and to inform him briefly of the spiritual fruit which, by the help of God, they reap from their labours. They should add all they can say with truth in praise of the Bishop’s Vicars in the places where they are residing, carefully praising whatever they are doing for the public good. Let them give liberal praise to all that is done by the other religious and priests for the good of the Church, by preaching or other sacred func­tions. If they have nothing favourable to say let them hold their tongues, and not consider it their business to lay before the Bishop any complaints against his Vicars or the other evan­gelical labourers. There will never be wanting people to do this. Should they find it necessary to treat with the Bishop upon any other business, I would not have them put it into these letters, which I wish to be designed to give consolation and refreshment to this good Father. If they have business of this kind, let them write about that at another time.

Admonish, in my name, all of ours to show everywhere a great obedience to the Bishop’s Vicars, telling them how pain­ful it would be to me to hear from any quarter that there had been any sort of difference between the Vicars and the Fathers of the Society, who labour in places under them. Add that in the letters they write to me I wish them to say what good un­derstanding they have with the Vicars. Further, it would be an immense pleasure if they could get the Vicars to write to me testifying to the value and the abundance of the fruit ga­thered by our fathers who are employed in their districts. I now again enjoin you, on account of the importance of the matter, take care that our fathers, especially where there are Portuguese garrisons, whose mission is there, live in perfect

union with the Vicars, and that they never on any account enter into any difference with them. In order that this recommendation may have more weight with them, mention particularly in your letters that, before setting sail for China, I left you in this College an order to expel from the Society any belonging to us who should offend against the Vicars, or who should in any way have been at variance with them.

After my departure, apply to the Bishop, if he thinks fit, to write regarding the Jubilee to those parts where the fathers of the Society are, desiring them to promulgate it, that those spi­ritual fruits of which it gives promise may come to light.' This Jubilee has been extended to the whole of the present year 1552, that the benefit of it maybe enjoyed without difficulty by all in the Portuguese settlements throughout the Indies with a great dearth of opportunities for cleansing their souls by confession. This delay will allow of their being all attended to in order, by sending our fathers to different places, accord­ing to requirement. It was that motive which made me ask for an extension to the whole year of the faculty of acquiring so signal a grace.

Should it happen that among the fathers who come from Portugal this year there are some gifted with an unusual talent for preaching, I think you had better send one with a lay bro­ther to Diu, giving him the instructions which I formally wrote for the fathers at Ormuz. There are, as you know, two of them; for I gave you a number of precepts when you went there for the first time, and I added some others for him who succeeded you in your mission. I know that some copies of each remain. You will let them who go to Diu have a copy, earnestly ad­vising them to read it frequently, and to fulfil it to the letter. If among our brethren who are expected to arrive from Por­tugal by the next vessels there should be one, I do not say of very great experience in preaching, or giving fair hopes of pro­ducing great effects in the pulpit, but not unlearned, one who seems likely from his strength of mind and body to be able to endure great labours, you will send him to Malacca by the fleet which starts from Goa by the April monsoon, so that from Ma­

lacca he may sail for Japan by the first opportunity, and then work together with Cosmo Torres. But see that he takes with him a small sum of money, collected when here as an alms to serve for maintenance for him and the others, for .evangelical workmen in that country as yet reap no fruit but hard work. They have abundance of good to do and evil to suffer, but nothing on which to live or give their bodies any comfort. Exert yourself, therefore, to assist them in these two points, using, I beg of you, your utmost zeal and efforts; and specially strive also to obtain from God, by the prayers and sacrifices of yourself and others, that He will deign to show favour to those going thither both amid the innumerable perils of that vast and dangerous ocean, as well as living there amid the miseries and trials which are to be found in Japan.

If all the fathers brought by the fleet expected from Portugal this year should be equally excellent in eloquence and learn­ing, so that there should be none amongst them who does not seem likely in the gift of speech to surpass our brother Antonio Eredia, who now fills the office of preacher at Cochin, I would have you send one of these fathers immediately to Cochin to replace Eredia, carrying him your orders that he should repair to Japan. But before making this decision, consider carefully whether it is really probable that this father will acquit himself of the preaching at Cochin with more fruit and advantage than Eredia; for if this is not certain, and if it seems prudent to sup­pose that the newly arrived is only equal and not superior to Eredia, I see no reason for making any change. Therefore, leaving Eredia where he is, you should, I think, send the last arrived preacher to Japan.

I give you much the same orders regarding Melchior Nunez, who is now Superior of the College at Bazain, fulfilling the office of preacher in the same town. I wish, I say, if the Portuguese vessels bring a good number of eminent preachers, that one might be sent to succeed Nunez; a man capable of producing great effect among the people, stirring up souls by his dis­course, and at the same time able to manage with the necessary prudence and discernment the domestic administration and the

disposal of the funds which his highness has granted the Society lit Bazain for the support of evangelical labourers. In this lease let Melchior Nunez, set free from the administration of ■Bazain, sail by the April monsoon to Malacca, and hence to Ijapan. From my knowledge of Melchior Nunez’s eminent Iqualities, too good for the work at Bazain, I should be glad I that such a man, set free from that charge, and replaced by a ■competent successor, could be transferred thither. The great lleaming which he possesses in so high a degree will make him Imuch more useful there than at Bazain. If this were done it Iwould be useless to remove Eredia from Cochin for other rea­sons, but especially because the great poverty of Japan does

I^not, for the present at least, require more than one additional labourer. Whatever happens, leave no stone unturned, as they gay, omit no effort or exertion to dispatch at least one of ours to Japan this year to share the labours of Cosmo Torres.

Both you and all ours of the College at Goa must preserve true friendship with the reverend fathers and friars of the Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, keeping this friendship ilive by all the kind offices of religious charity in your power. You will beware, as far as in your power, not to give any of these religious a ground of quarrel. If the dissension begins on their side, and break out in the pulpits, I implore you, in God’s name, to abstain from answering them before the people. Let them say what their zeal may inspire : but do you practise in silence the virtues of charity and obedience. I expressly forbid pou to prolong the discussion noisily under any pretext at all; however much you are injured, however unjustly you may seem to be calumniated, I will not have you utter a word in public, such as might give your hearers the least idea of your vexation and of your sense of injury. Nothing can be enough :o balance the scandal that conflicts of this nature cause among the people.

If, however, it should seem to you that thus to allow the de­clamations of your adversaries to be repeated with impunity vere to cause scandal as well as offence against God, while thfs

VOL. II. H H

people, in uncertainty as to which they should believe of the two parties, should incur danger to their souls, you should place the matter before the Bishop, begging him to summon before him your public traducers, and after having heard their accusations in your presence, and listened to your defence, to terminate the difference by his own decision, so as to restore peace and compose those quarrels which disturb the congrega­tion. For we, as well as these fathers, aim only at one sole object, which is the increase of the worship of God, and the progress of souls in the way of salvation. By thus invoking the authority of the Bishop between you, you will, as far as you are concerned, take sufficient precaution that the Divine Mai jesty may not be offended, and that the simple faith of the peo-i pie be not offended by such discussions; and when friendshipl has been restored between you and those fathers, your efforts should be directed towards keeping up and increasing the union; you will sometimes visit them, and show them all the good offices of religious charity.

You must, by every proof of goodwill, make friends of the parish priests in the town, and the Superiors of the churches,! under whatever title, in order to please them; you will, if in your power, do all they may ask of you, preaching in their churches as often as they ask you; and upon every occasion when you meet them, both your actions and words should abundantly prove your entire devotion towards them.

Never let either yourself or any of ours be entangled in worldly business under any pretext whatever. When such re­quests are made to you, reply that, after the ministration of God’s Word and the Sacraments, there remains to you hardly* the space of time necessary for prayer and study, for preparing, yourselves for the holy functions of public preaching, and for deciding cases of conscience in confession. Without invert-1 ing the order of charity, you cannot postpone the care of souls and the service of God to the pursuit of earthly advantage or low temporal gains. Thus you must rid yourselves of all troubles of this nature; unless you do this, you will cause' great harm to yourself and to the Society. Be sure that this is

the door which gives the world entrance into religious houses, to the immense ruin both of religion and of religious.

In intercourse with persons who visit you, prudently con­sider what are the views of each. Some come for the sake of their spiritual progress, others in hope of temporal advantage. We even see people sometimes with whom the sacrament of Penance is an opportunity of seeking gain, who approach the ears of God’s minister to recite the secret miseries of their poverty, and to reveal their indigence rather than their sins. I exhort you to avoid persons of this sort with great care ; and, that you may not leave them longer in error, tell them at once that you cannot assist them either by giving them money or by gaining them favour with men. Cut short summarily all interviews with these people, for they are full of talk; and if you give ear to them, they will take a deal of your time, to no I purpose. Such people have lost all sense of spiritual losses;

1 their whole mind is simply bent on the desire for the material 1 help of which they are in need. Dismiss people of this kind, whatever their sex, condition, or position, with a few words. Keep them at a distance, as drones who would rob your stores ¹ of honey. Their thoughts are all of this earth, and if they 1 get possession of a person, they will much sooner draw him down from heavenly thoughts and make him give up the salu- itary helping of souls, by their importunate demands for cor- iporal assistance, than will he, with all his effort, raise them out of that mire of low cares in which they are fast stuck.

I urge this advice on you the more earnestly because I am sure it is most absolutely necessary for you. Do not consider a moment the complaints and murmurs which may be made against you by these speculators, who seek worldly advantage out of religion—who will attempt perhaps to avenge them­selves by accusations against you for your firmness in not yield­ing to their desires as they wished. Let them feel that you en­tertain not the slightest fear or anxiety as to their opinion or resentment; let them never detect in you any softness or ap­prehension at their empty talk. That would show you are not sufficiently detached from the world; as if you could de­

liberate whether you should please and make yourself agree­able to it, or to Jesus Christ, to whom you are bound by your vows; which would seem a sort of abandonment of the ranks of the Lord’s army—a disgraceful apostacy from your purpose of irrevocably pursuing what is most perfect.

In the care of the boys of the seminary who are the chil­dren of natives, or orphans, you must diligently see that they want nothing, either as to food, clothes, or remedies, when sick. Watch very carefully that they receive a solid and regular instruction, both in the elements of Christian doctrine and in letters, according to the intelligence of each. Remember that the intention of the founders, who erected this College with the King’s money, and the repeated and precise orders of his High­ness, are to the eftect that in the seminary of Goa native chil­dren should be trained in good habits and in a liberal educa­tion. Be careful therefore to discharge in all these points the duty which has devolved upon you. You know well what the complaints of old were. Avoid carefully exposing yourself and the Society to similar accusations.

Every time vessels sail for Portugal you must write to his Highness short and careful letters, informing him of all the spiritual fruits which have been gathered at Goa and in the other parts of India by the labours of the Society. For this purpose you must collect an account beforehand of all that has been done in different parts; and you must take the chief points, and so form an account such as you may hope it will please his Highness and his court to read. In other letters you must recommend to the King the material affairs of the College, telling him what it wants, in order to bear the expenses which fall upon it. State the sum to which the secure revenues of the year amount, and the extraordinary gifts, and when they come in. It is important that these details should be stated with precision, because I understand that the King sometimes bids that certain extraordinary receipts should be assigned by the officers of finance to the College of Goa; and I do not know whether the fidelity of the ministers has always corre­sponded to his Highness’s liberality. The King, hearing from

you all that you have received, will take care that if anything less than what he ordered has been paid, it shall be made up to you. You will add that the fathers who are sent from this College to preach the Gospel in different parts, on their arrival at the mission intrusted to them, are frequently prevented, by the want of the merest necessaries, from rightly discharging their duty; and then you can suggest that it seems to you worthy of his Highness’s piety and munificence that he should deign to send a rescript, duly attested and sealed, command­ing that in all Portuguese garrisons where there are stations of the Society our fathers should receive out of the royal treasury and stores both food and such other subsidies as may be neces­sary. His Highness should also order another rescript to be dispatched, commanding the Captain at Malacca to send to our fathers residing at Japan a sufficient sum for their main­tenance, drawn from the royal treasury. In fact they can ex­pect little or no help from the natives, on account of the barrenness of the country and the poverty of the inhabitants, which results from it. Write yourself to Master Simon, or the Rector of the College of Lisbon, most urgently recommending to them these three matters : the income of the College of Goa, the support of the fathers who dwell in Portuguese garri­sons, and the support of the mission of Japan, that they may themselves speak to his highness on these matters, and pro­mote them by continual pressure.

I remind you again, and I beg you to remember that the letters which you send—to the King especially—should be written with prudence and deliberation, for they are seen and judged by a great number of people. Adieu.

Goa, April 1552. FRANCIS.

The next letter is a kind of companion to the foregoing, relating more particularly to the management of temporal concerns and the particular circumstances of the College at Goa, which appears to have been mismanaged by Antonio Gomez in financial as well as in more important respects. Francis repeats, as we shall see, the warning against an in­

dulgence in the too common taste for overbuilding which he had given to Melchior Nunez, and dwells with great urgency on the necessity of relieving the missioners among the heathen in every possible way.

(ci.) To Father Gaspar Baertz.

With regard to the temporal administration of this house which is intrusted to you, I have thought it right to advise you as follows separately and more distinctly.

You will collect carefully, and having gathered them to­gether, keep by you the charters and title-deeds, wherein the foundation and property of the College are set forth, such as the rescripts of our lord the King assigning to this College the re­venues taken from the pagodas; the donations and other grants named in his Highness’s letters signed and sealed in due form, and attested and confirmed by the former Governors of India; in short, all the authentic documents and original papers. In your intercourse with the secular procurator of the house and with Cosmo Anez—who in everything that concerns the re­venues of the College has great authority, because of the im­portance of his office, as well as the fullest experience—have as frequent and as familiar interviews and dealings with them in the way of all friendly offices as may be required by the interest of the College. Spend as much time and be as intimate with them as may be necessary in order to put on a firm footing the revenues of the College, which are now in a shaky state, and on which we find we cannot depend; for a great part of those annual sums which previously belonged to the priests of the pagodas and are now allotted to the support of the mis­sioners, is never paid, the persons bound obstinately refusing payment, and in many other instances the clear rights of the College have come to naught by unjust violence and a hardy refusal of satisfaction. You should, therefore, urge upon Cosmo and the others to arrange some efficacious remedy for these abuses.

I used to think it would be well—you will judge whether it is so or not—that letters should be obtained from the ecclesiastical 1 authorities, in which threat of anathema should be proclaimed in the usual solemn form against all who refuse to pay the in- ¹ come due to this College, or in any way keep back property 1 belonging to it; this threat to be carried out, if in a fixed time ¹ they have not restored what they possess unjustly, and set their > conscience right by returning their unlawful spoils to the legiti­mate owners. But these and other measures of the same nature, which might be taken amiss by the people—such as to arrest and imprison the farmers of the revenue who neglect to pay the pension charged upon it—must be carried out by externs, so as to bring less odium on the Society.

All the funds of the house should be in your own hands, under lock and key; you alone should put in and take out; you alone should disburse, to the persons employed by you, the sums you think necessary towards the expenses of our brethren, the pupils, and the preachers labouring at a distance for religion. Poor men ! they most commonly suffer extreme misery from the want of the absolute necessaries of life; and what is the worst, they are obliged to give up great undertak­ings, to the immense prejudice of the souls under their care, sinking under the pressure of want, after waiting long in vain for promised assistance. I pray you to provide against such misfortunes by a fair and prudent distribution of the college revenues, which you will, as is reasonable, first employ for the ne­cessities of the house, for our own brothers and the externs in it; then send part to our people at Cape Comorin and in the Isles of the Moor, who are languishing in the most grievous want; to those also at the Moluccas and Japan, that they may be en­abled to live at least poorly; for without some help they will be obliged to leave undone most important works, and to sacri­fice vast hopes, to the great injury of God’s kingdom. I have mentioned those who live away from Portuguese settlements, and in the midst of natives, because their condition is in this way the hardest. Those who reside in the King’s garrisons, or in other places of settlement or resort for Europeans, will never

be allowed'to want, nor to give up their labours for the salva-l tion of souls for want of maintenance—misfortunes which may I well befall those who dwell away amid barbarous populations, I partly hostile and partly in misery themselves. These labourers I will die of hunger if they do not receive assistance from their I brothers at a distance.

Above all things, I greatly desire that you should attend I carefully to pay off the debts contracted by the College \ for it I is wrong to retain the property of another when we can restorel it—a fault which seriously offends God and soils the consci-1 ence, as well as being a scandal to the people. For this reason, I I urge it again and again on you, let there be no neglect, but ' use all your energies and efforts not to delay the fulfilment of so urgent and just a duty. In order to be able to do this, do I not undertake any new buildings, nor even finish those that I are begun. True, our dwelling is confined, but that which is most necessary should be done first. When the debts are paid, I you can by degrees raise your walls and put on your roof.

And in general see that you take infinitely less care of those edifices which are raised with stone and mortar than of the spiritual temples of God; these temples are your brethren and I the pupils intrusted to your faithful care, whom you should I feed, watch over, and especially urge on to advance in virtue; I this is the sovereign duty committed to your zeal. I know I that there are some buildings which cannot be deferred, such I as the wall round the garden of your house, and the shutting I up of entrances, if there be any left but the principal door* For the shutting up of religious houses by a perfect and com­plete enclosure concerns the discipline and good name of the house to such an extent, that labour for that purpose upon it ] cannot be legitimately delayed. Such things, then, must be carried out at once, and at any cost.

Then Twish to warn you against any tenderness, or bash- ] fulness in refusing, which may come over you when a crowd of poor externs beg you to assist them from the College funds,, or when farmers of the revenue come and ask you to remit a part of your pension, alleging a thousand pretexts, and urging

their own penury. Others will come to you in the confessional, and pour out the history of their family needs, their want of food for themselves and their families, and will implore you to supply their wants. I sympathize with them myself, but I forbid you to be softened by such cases beyond what reason and God permit. To give an alms with the property of others is a rob­bery. Now, in order that when you hear such requests you may cast upon me all the invidiousness of refusal, from this moment I tie your hands, and in virtue of my authority com­mand you in so many words to tell all these petitioners that this house is overloaded with debt, and is hardly able for the daily support of the brethren and of the pupils. It has also other burthens : it has to support the fathers who preach the Gospel at a distance; it ought to supply the public hospital, and many other such works. For these reasons, I have ordered you in formal terms, and under obedience—which you cannot transgress without offending God—to give nothing to any one from the College revenues, for all that might thus be withdrawn would be taken from the wants of our house, to which all that we receive of the entire annual income does not suffice. But avoid particularly that expensive kind of penitents who in the Sacrament of Penance seek their temporal advantage and the nourishment of their bodies rather than spiritual remedies. I advise you to get rid of them with a few concise words. These people are much more sensitive to the wounds of fortune than to those of the conscience, and their philosophy is quite of the earth ; they are entirely occupied with the hope of coaxing out a little money, and are deaf if you speak to them of their spiritual progress. If you do not send them away, you will yourself be distracted and called off from the more important things.

Many Portuguese heads of families ask that the College lands should be given them to farm. Is this for the interest of the College ? I doubt it; and I fear that these concessions, if they are often made, will some day be a serious injury to the community. Examine the question prudently; take full coun­sel with the procurator and friends of your house, and resolve,

upon whatever may seem best. This College owes some debts, but it has still more owing to it. I wish that you should know to a letter who your creditors are, and the sums owing to them; and make the same inquiry as to your debtors. Make careful lists of each. I allow you, however, to be less scrupulous in finding out what rights you have against others than in ascer­taining and settling as soon as possible what others have a right to claim from you. You should set about this most earnestly; and when persons ask gifts of you, you can give this reply,—that you are in debt, and are bent upon discharging your debts as soon as possible; that you are bound to 'employ for this all the means that remain after the necessary expenses of so numerous a community; that nothing, in fact, isieft to be distributed in any way, as you would like, among those to whom you would wish well, and whose poverty you compassionate, since every­thing is expended upon the food, clothing, and medical treat­ment of the members of the community, the guests, seminary pupils, and the sick in the hospital; without speaking of the necessary buildings, and other countless sources of expense. This should be no specious pretence or excuse; you should do as you say, watch night and day to stint a little from the daily expenses, as far as may be, thus to pay your creditors. Expe­rience should teach you economy; what you have found ad­vantageous be careful to repeat, and avoid all that you have discovered to be disadvantageous or of little use.

Study carefully the people to whom you intrust anything, for seldom do we meet with faithful agents. As far as you can, prefer those who are in the habit of going to confession to you at least once a month, and who at the same time go to com­munion. I wish that a great part of the substance of the letters that you are to send me at Malacca in the month of September, and which Francis Perez will take care of, should be these two heads: first, what is owing to you; second, what is owing by you. Add all about your domestic affairs, the fruit of your work and that of the other brothers; whether, and how far, the inhabitants of Goa have profited by your preaching and other ministrations; what news has come from Portugal, and what is

going on as to peace or war; all that concerns our fathers living away. Write all these matters to me in a full and circumstantial manner; employ a secretary whose writing is correct and easily read. Choose as the collector of your revenues some honour­able and rich merchant, generally one amongst those who is most highly thought of in the town; especially avoid choosing a poor person, lest we incur lawsuits. Consider whether it would not be cheaper to get two slaves to wash the clothes in­stead of sending them out to be washed. Also, whether it would not be desirable to keep a brother who perfectly understands the cultivation of vegetables for the care of our garden, rather than employing an extern. I see a good deal is spent on the food and salary of the gardener and of the two negroes who work under him. This charge could be given to one of our lay brothers, giving for his assistance two slaves, purchased for this purpose. In this and other such matters reflect carefully what is best, inquiring into them yourself, and taking the advice of experienced strangers who fear God and who take an interest in the College.

Out of the payment which Alvarez Alfonso owed us, 500 pardams have been remitted ; this gives you still greater right to insist on the speedy payment of the 500 which he still owes. Don’t be prodigal with funds which are not your own. Re­member the hunger and privations endured by our brothers who, in the houses dependent on ours, are melting under the heat and burthen of the day. Remember the others at Japan, at the Moluccas, and at Cape Comorin, who are exposed without consolation to the severest trials.

I request you to send to Cioran⁹ on Sundays Dom Augus­tin, the secular priest, giving him a fair stipend. I disapprove of either of our brothers residing there, and you must call home the one who is there now.

As to those who may be received into this house, you must

* Cioran or Choran was an island a few miles from Goa, on which there was a little property belonging to the Colleges with a church dedi­cated to our Lady. The text refers to the arrangements for serving this church by means of a secular priest, instead of one of the fathers.

seek to know, during their first probation, what mode of life they have led in the world, what trade they have practised or know, so that you may understand what function, or duty, or office in the house can be securely confided to them. From time to time tell Manuel de Morales to preach to the people in the cathedral, giving him warning and preparing him be­forehand, that he may acquit himself worthily in that pulpit. You can also, if you think fit, share this work with him, taking it week about. Think of this, and decide on what seems best to you. Do not forget my orders about Balthasar Nunez, and since it seems to me of the utmost importance, I command you under holy obedience to carry them out fully, making him go through the spiritual Exercises and putting him to the lowest offices within the house, not out of doors. I commend to you most earnestly the Japanese who are here. You must see that they sail for Portugal in a safe and comfortable vessel. It appears to me well that you should yourself give the Exer­cises to the brothers who are on probation for entering the Society, and then, after having thus learnt deeply to know them, keep those whom you may think suitable to the Society, send ing away those whom you find unfit. Never allow yourself to be persuaded by any entreaty, or the intercessions of any num­ber of friends, to accept a subject not possessing the qualities necessary for usefulness to the Society.

Find competent persons to attend as far as is required to the farm situated in the Isle of Cioran, with the rural labourers and workmen there. You cannot see to this either yourself or through any of ours. I have already advised you to send Dom Augustin there every Sunday. As for other things required there, intrust them to chosen persons worthy of confidence. As soon as Francesco Lopez arrives at this house, tell him to make the Exercises, hear his general confession yourself, and put him to work in the kitchen, or at some humble occupation of that nature. Return to Matthew, as soon as he asks for them, 36 pardams which he lent me at Japan. Fix a day for Alvarez Alfonso to pay his debt to us, and let it be kept to: it may be after Easter. Francis.

The fathers and brothers of the Society, in whatever part of the Indies they may be, must not write any letter to Portugal, either to his Highness or to any one out of the Society, without their sending such letters open to this College. The letters must all be put into one packet here and addressed to his high­ness, or into another directed to Master Simon, or to the Rector of St. Anthony at Lisbon.

April 1552. Francis.

Another paper left with Father Gaspar Baertz related to Antonio Gomez and Andrew Carvalhez, the letter of whom we have seen already commended by Francis to Simon Rodri­guez. There seems to have been some reluctance on his part to return to Portugal. As to Antonio Gomez, the paper shows that Francis had finally determined to cut him off from the Society, and provides for the execution of this intention.

(cn.) To father Gaspar Baertz.

I command you, in virtue of holy obedience, to do as fol­lows after I am gone as to two of our Society. If during the course of this year Antonio Gomez leaves the residence at Diu where he now is, and goes elsewhere, under any pretext or circum­stance whatever, then open the first paper I leave and do what I prescribe therein, sending a copy or this, which I have written, to the said Antonio Gomez, and keeping the original by you; and in a letter of your own to him you will intimate to Gomez the orders which I give him in the said paper which I leave closed in your hands.

After the vessels going to Portugal have set sail and put to sea, even if until then Antonio Gomez has remained quietly in the residence at Diu, you mil open the second letter, which I now leave sealed, and send him a copy of this also. You mil show the original to the lord Bishop, and you will beg him to be good enough to certify the conformity of the copy with the original. With this attestation of the lord Bishop, you will send the copy to Gomez, and you will beg the Bishop for the future

to write to him as his own subject and of his own authority to < order him'to go or to act as he shall himself decide. Still it I would, in my opinion, be better that he should be allowed to remain at Diu.

If Andrew Carvalhez, whom for good reasons I had ordered to return to Portugal, should deliberately not come to Goa at the right time, and let the ships sail without him, I order you to expel him at once from the Society, and I formally forbid you I to allow him, for any reason whatever, to be raised to the holy I orders of the Diaconate or Priesthood in India, even if the j Bishop should come to Cochin this year. And if the same I Andrew Carvalhez should come to Goa contrary to the orders 11 have given him, you will not receive him into the College, as I being no longer one of ourselves. For if, contrary to my I orders, he should come to Goa, I mean him from that moment I to be excluded from the Society. You will signify this to him in due form, and you will send him away. At the same time I you will, in my name, implore the lord Bishop, with most I earnest entreaties, not to admit him to the Diaconate or Priest-1 hood.

April 1552. Francis, j

One more letter to Father Gaspar Baertz remains to be in-1 serted here. It is a sort of memorandum, summing up in brief J the chief heads of advice and instruction which Francis hadl given him, and as such might seem almost superfluous in ourl collection. Still it has one or two touches of its own, and we J therefore place it by the side of the others.

(cm.) To Father Baertz.

These last counsels I repeat and sum up on the eve of my I long and doubtful voyage, as if, dear Gaspar, I could never I sufficiently forearm you. You will understand that I do so on account of the extreme solicitude caused by my love for you, I and so will take in good part my repeated charges. Above all things, take care for yourself, and watch over your own soul. *

You know how true it is: ‘ He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good ?’ Always show sincere charity and amiable modesty to the fathers and brothers under you; banish severity and austerity of manner except towards those who you feel will abuse your kindness. To such you may put out a little sharpness for their own good, not to revenge yourself, especially if it appears that selfesteem has made them proud. For it is to their interest, for their own sake and our neighbours’, to put down their pride. But those who have only sinned through ignorance or weakness, you can often forgive with advantage to themselves, and without hurting discipline; to the arrogant, indulgence is poison : it makes them wonderfully insolent and ready to upset everything, if they find their rector wanting in vigour and courage.

To admit many indiscriminately into the Society is not a help, but a burthen to it; a small number of energetic subjects gifted with superior spiritual or corporal powers would be worth a whole host of others. Do not burthen yourself with a number of useless subjects, but reinforce the body with men of real value. Constantly exercise those who are recently admitted in profound selfabnegation, and in a thorough mortification of their corrupt inclinations. Set them also to humble avocations outside, to begging from door to door for the poor, to serving the sick in public hospitals, and to all works of this kind, which are generally held in esteem. But, according to my opinion, you should never order them to make a public spectacle of I themselves by actions or dress that would make them ridicu- [ lous. It often happens that these extraordinary actions cause in the beholders a surprise which borders on scandal, and in those even who have held themselves up to the contempt of the world, a secret sense of pride, as though they had performed something heroic. Take care rather to make them practise mortifications, the good effects of which are well known : such as to make them confess, in presence of their brothers, the faults they have committed in the duties prescribed to them, and to perform the penance after receiving it. Thus the mind is humbled in a salutary manner, and zeal is quickened. But

all these trials should not be employed until a previous know­ledge has been gained of the disposition and strength of sub­jects; for all measures do not equally suit all persons; what is profitable to one is hurtful to another. The prudence of a di­rector consists in prescribing to each what suits his nature.

You will not let any member of the Society be raised to the priesthood unless he be distinguished by profound knowledge and eminent virtue, tested during several years. Those who are ordained priests without this careful caution will never be what the Institute nor the expectations of men require. And would to God we had seen fewer examples of the results of such neg­ligence ! You should exert yourself to improve strangers as well as our own brothers; but in order, remembering that towards persons in the house you are discharging a debt, while to stran-i gers you are doing good gratuitously. Due order requires us first to satisfy justice, and only afterwards to bestow our care on others. God will hold you responsible for our brothers! whom He has intrusted to you. The good you do to others is ₍ in addition to your duty, and is only meritorious in one who does not lavish it until after having entirely satisfied all neces­sary claims. Those are guilty who neglect the principal work and expend their zeal on accessory labours, like a man who, being depraved in his own interior, should content himself by merely imposing on men by exterior virtue, and who would thus heap God’s anger upon his own head. Such also would be a man who does nothing at home, but in public puts on an air of strenuous activity, through a foolish and fatal ambition. The more widely he scatters his activity, the more greatly will I he err. Avoid then this fault, and give your utmost pains, first to what is most important, and in the next place, to what is I secondary.

As to the way of helping our neighbour, the more general j it is, the more perfect. So let the most important of offices in ■ your eyes be preaching, public instruction in the elements of the Christian religion, and hearing confessions. In hearing , confessions examine attentively in what disposition the persons* have approached you; for there are some who seek their own

interest under the appearance of piety; they pretend to come and seek remedies for their conscience, when they really have in view to get help for their material existence. In these per­sons generally I have detected the most imperfect sense of spiritual miseries; your words are scattered to the winds if they refer to the cultivation of the soul and the hope of a future life. These people are attached to earth, and so they will remain; they altogether savour of earthly things. Send such people off without delay, and have no fear as to their complaints, nor any hope ever to come to an understanding with them. Your efforts and aims run in contrary directions—they are of the world, and you belong to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Ought not a soldier of Jesus Christ to blush at dreading the murmurs of the profane vulgar? Should he not be insensible to the judgments of those who prefer earth to Heaven? Follow our Lord to Whom you are vowed, and despise the complaints of men who belong to the opposite camp. I say more : be care­ful that these men should never see in you any fear of their hostile talk. Bear yourself boldly, so that all may understand that you neither value the praise of these men, nor fear their blame.

April 1552. Francis.

But few incidents remain to be placed by the side of this long series of letters written by Francis Xavier during his last stay at Goa. We are told that at this time he received an offer of a College for the Society at Chaul, one of the spots occupied by the Portuguese on the coast. Chaul was to the north, about one hundred and twenty miles from Goa. Francis refused the offer. He had only thirty subjects in India, and he did not wish to multiply Colleges too much, especially when the Portu­guese were a mere garrison.

The affair of the Chinese embassy, on which so much of the hopes of Francis for the future depended, encountered no obstacle at Goa. The Viceroy willingly gave the patents which constituted Diego Pereira ambassador of Portugal to the 'Chinese Court, and he added strong letters to the Commandant

i VOL. II. I 1

of Malacca, ordering him to favour the expedition in every possible manner. Diego had given Francis letters of credit on his agent in Goa for thirty thousand ducats, and these went to prepare the embassage on a magnificent scale, in the purchase of rich presents to be made to the Chinese Emperor in the name of the King of Portugal, as well for the other necessary ex­penses. The royal treasury also contributed to the outlay, and as we learn from a letter which Francis wrote on the eve of his I departure from India, large sums were raised among pious and charitable persons for the general purposes of the voyage, which I included also among its objects the liberation of a number of I Portuguese captives from the prisons in China. Everything! seemed to promise well, and we do not find any note of antici-1 pation or dread of failure either in the letters of Francis himself 1 or in any other record of the time.

The following letters to St. Ignatius, to Simon Rodriguez, and to the King of Portugal were written at Goa during the week 1 before Francis finally left that city. They were sent at the same I time with the two Japanese converts, whom Francis mentions!, whom he had determined to send to Europe, that they might 11 be able to take back to their own countrymen some intelligence! as to the grandeur of Europe and of Rome. A lay brother,! | Andrea Fernandez, accompanied them. He was sent by Francis Xavier to confer with Ignatius by word of mouth ; and it is perhaps on this account that the letters do not contain morel | details as to the arrangements in India and what had happenedi in the Society since Francis returned from Japan. Ignatius ! had desired that some confidential person should be sent to I him from India, in order that he might be more fully informedi| of the state of the Society than was possible by letter, and that a the person sent might plead the cause of the Indian missions' fl authoritatively and intelligently at Lisbon and at Rome. This order from Ignatius had arrived while Francis was in Japan,] 5 and Antonio Gomez had appointed Father Melchio'r Gonzales ft to go to Europe. But Gomez felt unwilling to deprive India, ft of so active a worker, and recalled the order at the last moment* ft Francis Xavier, however, carried it out, sending Andrea Fer- K

nandez, who performed the task admirably, and returned in due ¹ time with a large company of fathers.

The mention of the Jubilee in the letter to Ignatius needs a word of comment. In 1550, the year of Jubilee at Rome, Ig­natius had obtained from the Pope the faculty to communicate the spiritual advantages which were to be gained, in the ordin­ary course, only by visiting the shrines at Rome during that year, to the Superiors of the Society in the Indies, and other coun­tries subject to the crown of Portugal, with leave to publish the Indulgences and to fix the conditions which the faithful were ’ to fulfil instead of the visit to the Roman basilicas. The Ju- Ibilee was kept in India in 1551, and with very great fruit. Francis hints at some little want of formality in the papers by 'which the faculty was conveyed. It is probable that the com­mittal of the publishing the Indulgences to the priests of the Society may have caused some jealous questionings as to the strict legality of their powers. Francis also procured the ex­tension of the time to the whole of 1552.

(civ.) To my Father in Christy St. Ignatius.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

Last January I wrote to you about my return from Japan to India, about the great number of heathen who have there been converted to Christ, about the hard work done by Cosmo , ITorres and Joam Fernandez, whom I have left at Amanguchi, •: land who diligently instruct the Christians,—those who already ; Jare such and those who are daily being received. In a few pays two of our Society are going to Amanguchi, who are partly Ito help Torres by their labours, partly to be taught the Japan­ese language, so that when fathers of approved virtue arrive ■there from Portugal, who are to go to the Japanese universities, :hey may have ready these others as faithful interpreters whom :hey may use. Already by the goodness of God a house of the Society is established at Amanguchi—all that distance from

Rome; for it is more than 4200 miles from Goa and 6000 leagues from Rome. After six days, if God approves, we shall go—three of the Society, two of whom are priests—to the kingdom of China.

This kingdom, which is very large, lies opposite Japan.* It is crowded to a very great degree with men of sharp wits and much learning. As far as I have been able to find out, studies flourish there, and in proportion as a man is more learned, in that same degree does he surpass the rest in rank and influence.

It is well enough ascertained that the religions which exist in Japan have been brought from China. We go full of hope and confidence in God, and we trust that the name of Christ will at last make its way into China. I beg of you not to cease praying for those of ours who are in Japan, and for those also who are going to China. When, by the favour of God, we have arrived in China, I will write to you fully as to our reach ing it, and as to our hope of propagating religion there.

I have made Gaspar, the Belgian, Rector of the College at Goa. He is a man of approved virtue, and laden with hea­venly gifts, a very good preacher, singularly beloved by our own people and the whole city. I have ordered both father: and brothers in these parts to obey him. So I go to China with a joyful heart, and free from all anxiety about affairs at home. If perchance while I am absent God should call Gaspafi out of this life, I have left with him a paper signed by myself^ in which a rector is appointed in his place by me. The greao distance between China and Goa has warned me to do this. I

I have also thought it for the interests of religion to orderll before my departure for China, that next year a certain person||| one of our Society, should be sent from this to Portugal, and|| from Portugal to Rome, with letters for you, that you may hear what he will tell you—how very much these countries require men practised and proved in the toils and dangers of life. Men of that sort do a great work in the extension of the worship of God, but the rest, even if they are learned, do very little in- j deed if they are but poorly experienced in labours and trials! From what I have seen in Japan, two things are quite neces*'

sary, both for all who are to labour for the salvation of the Japanese, and especially for ours who are to go to Japanese j universities. These two things are, first, a great experience, gained by having passed through many troubles and dangers, and by great self knowledge. For in Japan they will have to bear more severe frosts, more inconveniences in the way of want of means, and other like matters, than anywhere in Europe; added to which there will be vexations and ridicule from the natives, who think that foreigners are hardly men, and especi­ally from the bonzes, who persecute the preachers of the law of God most bitterly; though it is true that in all these suffer- I ings God makes Himself wonderfully sweet to us.

J It does not seem as if it would be safe to take the vest- | ments and other things necessary for saying holy mass to the Japanese universities, on account of the distance of the journey and the robbers who infest the roads. As therefore in all these I trials and hardships the consolation of the Holy Sacrifice and Communion must be wanting, it is easy to see how much virtue and strength of soul the men must have who may be sent to these seats oflearning. Secondly, they must be well furnished with cleverness and knowledge, in order to give easy and apposite an­swers to the questionings of the Japanese. It is of great import­ance that they should be well learned in philosophy, especially in dialectics, that they may be able to refute and convict the obsti- 1 nate argumentation of the Japanese—I mean to show them their £ own inconsistencies, and that they contradict themselves. I f should like them also to know some astronomy, for the Japan­ese are wonderfully desirous of knowing all about the wanings I and eclipses of the sun and moon, ^vvhy the moon so often grows larger and smaller; or again, whence comes the rain, the I snow, the hail, what comets are, and what are the causes of I thunder, lightning, and the like. It is incredible how far the I explanation of such things goes towards conciliating their good will. These things I wanted you to know about Japanese af­fairs and manners, since when you want to choose the men who are to be sent, the first thing is to know the customs of the place to which you are to send them.

It has often occurred to me to think that Belgian or Ger­man fathers would do very well for the missions in Japan, inas­much as they can bear cold and toil, especially also as in Italy and Spain they can have no field for preaching, being ignorant of the language of the country. For although they must not be altogether without Spanish or Portuguese, in order that they may understand our own people in Japan, still they can learn that language in the course of their journey to India and Japan, which will take them at least two years.

There is one thing which I much wish you to know: we want out here some principal man of the Society, a man who knows well and loves much our Institute, a man who has had of old much intercourse with yourself. Such a man is indis­pensable to this College at Goa, and to all of the Society scat­tered out here in so many different places, if at least they are to be brought into conformity to the laws and constitutions of our Institute. It is not necessary that he should be a preacher; even if he had no gift of that kind, he would be of use and ad­vantage to us. I pray and beseech you by Jesus Christ, ap­point some one chosen by yourself as Rector of this College. Even if he be not so wonderfully learned, yet any one whom your judgment has chosen will be the proper man whom this house requires. The fathers and brothers out here are in won­derful expectation of such a ruler, one who has been long and much with you. If he were to bring with him Indulgences for eight days, by which the people may be invited on certain feasts to go to the sacraments of confession and communion, he would do a thing very pleasing to them, and very advan­tageous to the worship of God.

It can hardly be told how many people have been saved by the Jubilee which you sent out. All such Indulgences I would have you send to us, contained in Pontifical rescripts, duly and authentically sealed, with the seals attached. There are people here who question such Pontifical graces if any of these formalities are wanting. Some tried to find fault even with the Jubilee which you sent, saying that it was not attested, nor ratified by the Pope’s authority, because it had not the

usual marks. However, by God’s approval, it obtained its proper force and authority.

It concerns the interests of God that the priests of our So­ciety who are to come out here should first be diligently proved. We want here well tried priests. I have written to warn Father Simon, or if he is absent, the Rector of the College of Coimbra, not to send us fathers who are of no use in Portugal; for they will be of no more use in India. But it would be I much better if you were to give an order that no priest at all of the Society were to go to India until he had made a pilgrim­age to Rome, and been there approved by the Father General.

It would be very very pleasing to me if you would order some one of ours to give me an account of all the fathers who came to Rome with us, as well as of the rest. He should also write to us diligently and fully about the increase of the So­ciety, the number of our colleges, houses, and professed fathers, the distinguished men who have been enrolled in the Society, the men noted for learning and erudition who have joined. A 1 letter such as that would give us a great deal of relief and con­solation among the great labours by land and by sea which we have to bear in Japan and China. May God bring us together in the happiness of the blessed in heaven, and in this life also, if it be for His glory ! If that were enjoined me, it could be done easily by the power of obedience. People all tell me that I could get to Jerusalem from China. If I find this to be true, I will let you know how many leagues of journey there are, and how many months it would take.

The least of your sons, and the furthest exiled from you,

April 9, 1552, Goa. FRANCIS.

This letter was accompanied by two to Simon Rodriguez. The first and most important urges him, among other things, to use all his influence, both with Ignatius and with the King, to bring about what Francis so much desired at this time—that select men of great virtue and learning should be sent to India and Japan, and that the Society in India should have the ad­vantage of the presence of a Superior at Goa who had lived

long with Ignatius himself, and who was well acquainted with the Constitutions and practices of the order. The journey of Simon to Rome in 1550,¹⁰ to which allusior} is made in the letters, was undertaken partly with a view to the formation and promulgation of the Constitutions, which Ignatius had been long occupied in composing, and which he now desired to lay before the fathers assembled in a General Congregation. They were unanimously approved, but the prudence of Ignatius would not allow him to publish them at once, till they had been gradually introduced and tested by experience.

(cv.) To Father Simon Rodriguez, in Portugal.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Amen.

On my return from Japan to the Indies, I wrote to you from Cochin on Japanese affairs. Now I want to inform you of my departure for China, which will take place a week hence. I take with me three members of the Society, two priests and one lay brother. We are starting full of confidence in the loving goodness of God, in good hope pf advancing the religion of Jesus Christ. I will tell you about our voyage, upon our ar­rival at Malacca.

Two members of the Society are being sent to Japan this year, to learn the Japanese language 3 so that any fathers of eminent virtue and experience coming from Lisbon to Goa may find in Japan members of the Society acquainted with Japanese. The letter will set forth to the Japanese intelligently and clearly the Christian doctrines and other instructions which they receive from the European fathers. This will be a great help to those fathers who are destined to attack the Japanese universities, so as to bend the whole nation to the delightful yoke of Jesus Christ.

You have reason to return thanks to our Lord 'Jesus

The Congregation was held at the end of 1550 and beginning of 1551, seeGenelli, Life oj St. Ignatius (Engl, trans.) pt. ii. ch. i. p. 212.

Christ that we have here several of the Society, both fathers and brothers, who have rendered, and who daily render, great services to the Christian religion by preaching, hearing confes­sions, the reconciliation of differences, and other works of piety. My soul has received ineffable consolations on this account. I have appointed, as Rector to the College at Goa, Father Gaspar, whom I highly value for the perfection of his humility and obedience. He has a wonderful talent in the pulpit every time he preaches, which is very often; the church resounds with the weeping and groaning of the people. Thanks be to God, the only Giver of good things.

The brother who brings you this letter has been sent to ex­plain to you by word of mouth how greatly not only Japan and the Chinese Empire—if, as I hope, by God’s help, the Gospel should find entrance there—but India itself requires fathers of our Society, men of thorough experience, of high virtue and faithfulness, and of singular strength of mind and body. Such, above all, should be the subjects destined for Japan, China, the Moluccas, and Ormuz.

The fathers who come hither into these parts to help on the salvation of souls must be gifted with these two qualities. First, they should be inured to fatigue; the more any one has of this the more useful will he be, both to himself and others. Secondly, they must have sufficient learning for preaching, hearing confessions, and giving crushing answers to the num­berless questions of the Japanese and Chinese bonzes. The priests who would be of no use in Europe would be use­less here. On this account I have thought it well to send you this Brother Fernandez, to treat of these matters with you, and to choose on your advice fit men, before he goes to our Father Ignatius at Rome.

I am making the same statement to our Father, and I ask him first to send an experienced and approved father of the Society, one that is familiar with himself and thoroughly acquainted with our Institute, to be Rector of the College at Goa, and have under him all our people dispersed in the East, and to teach and explain to the others the laws and constitutions of the

Society and of our method of life. I also ask our father to send out to the Indies fathers of great experience, even without deep learning and without particular powers of preaching, who may easily resolve and satisfy the questions of the Ja­panese and Chinese bonzes.

It will be a great thing for the interests of religion that next year he should send, besides a Rector for the College, four or five well experienced priests of the Society, who if not preachers, should at least be capable of bearing fatigue. There must, I think, be many such in Italy and Spain among those who have finished their studies and are now working for souls. Such sub­jects are very much required in these parts. Young men, who have only just left the shelter of college, and who as yet have been untried and unproved by the labours and troubles of life, might very easily do no good to others and perish themselves, for they can have no experience of the trials to be undergone in Japan.

I have said that there we have to suffer the extreme of cold. And there are so few helps and appliances for keeping out the cold, that there is not even a bed to sleep on. There are great difficulties also about food. There are continual and violent attacks from the bonzes and the people, many temptations to sin, much derision and insolence from the populace. Finally, in my eyes the most grievous trial of all, among the Japanese universities, the long distances do not allow of our carrying the articles necessary for the Holy Sacrifice, and so one has to suffer the privation of that heavenly Food, which ‘ strengthens the heart of man,’¹¹ and which is the only conso­lation for every trouble. This is the greatest misery we have in these parts. At Arnanguchi, where the Society has a resi­dence, mass can be celebrated; but at the universities, whither our fathers from Arnanguchi must go, it is not so. It would be impossible to carry the sacred vessels for the Holy Sacrifice without danger along roads infested by robbers. I should sadly fear therefore that if any subjects were sent to the mission of Japan, who were not fortified with virtue sufficient to resist the

¹¹ Ps. ciii. 15. "

weight of such extreme trials, that they would be almost infal­libly ruined.

I think that for enduring the excessive cold and other trials of these countries the Belgian or German priests of the Society would be very fit; having had years of such experience, these subjects seem suitable above all for Japan and China. But I doubt not that, as this is a thing which serves to His glory and the salvation of souls, God will afford you the means of effect­ing it, and of sending out as fit subjects as possible for these countries. Again and again I entreat you, select persons who have been practised in labour and danger, so that, with God’s help, they may triumph over all these miseries and sufferings. Those whose virtue has never shown itselfin trial and persecu­tion are never rightly trusted with any great commission.

I beg you to speak to the King, if it seems good, and get him to write to our Father Ignatius, to ask for some experi­enced fathers for the Japanese mission, as well as a man of eminent virtue and prudence to be at the head of this College and of the Society in the Indies. In these countries the Society is wonderfully scattered and dispersed abroad. It has to work in Persia, Cambaia, Malabar, on the Fishery Coast, to Malacca,

• the Moluccas, the Isles of the Moor, and the archipelago of Japan. All these places are immensely distant from Goa. Since our fathers and brothers dwell in such remote and widely sepa­rated regions, the Rector of the Society at Goa, if he is to provide for their necessities, watch over their safety, and remedy their infirmities, ought certainly to be a man of great experi­ence and exalted virtue.

It seems to me the best thing that the bearer of this letter should take to Father Ignatius your letter and his Highness’s at the same time as mine, for I have written about the matter to our Father. It appears to me that the subjects I wish for could be taken without inconvenience from houses of the So­ciety in Europe. Fathers of little talent for preaching are not i much wanted there. The subjects that we receive into the Society here are only useful for business and household work. There is scarcely one sufficiently educated to be fit to be a

priest. I tell you this that you may understand that some priests should be sent to us every year.

O, Simon, my dearest brother, do you see how great the work is that we have in hand ? And if God wills that the light of the Gospel should be carried to so judicious and docile a people, you too will do well, I think, to come yourself to China, to slake your thirst for the salvation of souls. If, by the help of God, I penetrate there, I will write to you about the cha­racter of the people, and the hopes there are of planting the Gospel among them. I feel such an ardent wish to see you again before I die, that I am always thinking to myself how I may have my wish ; and I may have it, perhaps, if China were opened to us. Meanwhile I again and again most earnestly entreat you to send us next year such fathers as I have de­scribed ; you can hardly imagine how necessary they are, but I wish you to trust my experience. I have desired Father Gaspar to write diligently to you about all that goes on here of the benefits done to souls.

Since I hope to write to you at length from Malacca, I will only add one thing. I am expecting a good long letter from you about your journey to Rome, and as to the thipgs done and decreed in that holy assembly. There is nothing in the world about which I desire more to be informed, having been unable, in punishment of my sins, to be there myself. If, as I much fear, on account of your occupations, you cannot your­self give me all these details, I beg you to commit the matter to some one who accompanied you in the journey. I shall be most sincerely grateful.

I also wish you to arrange that the Rector of the College at Coimbra should let me know by letter the names of all the fathers and brothers under his direction, their virtues, their learning, and their dispositions. And as I fear that the pres­sure of his duties may not leave him the leisure for such a thing, I beg him to see that it is done by some one else who is acquainted with the subject, that I may not be ignorant of the ardent zeal to suffer for Jesus Christ which animates my brothers. Certainly they have some reason to remember me,

since last year I went all over Japan for their sakes; and now I am going to China to prepare for them a way to come and convert those nations, that this immense field once laid open, their great piety and virtue, incited by the fire of divine love, may have ample room to work.

May God please to join and unite us in the company of the Saints, and in this world too, if it should be for His ser­vice !

Goa, 7th April 1552. ^FRANCIS.

I beg you to send the brother who bears this letter to Rome without delay, so that next year he may return to us accompa­nied by many fathers. For if the Christian religion gain admis­sion into China, and if my life lasts, in three or four years I intend to return to the Indies, so as to take with me some of our fathers and brothers as companions in so glorious an en- terprize, and then I shall return thither to pass the rest of my days and end my life in Japan or China.

The postscript to this letter shows what might have already , been conjectured from the previous letter to Ignatius, that Francis Xavier meant China or Japan—probably the former— to be the chief field of his future labours. He would open that country to Christianity, as he had opened Japan; then he j would return to India for reinforcements, and taking with him some of the fathers whom by that time Simon and Ignatius would have sent out to him, he would return to China, pos­sibly to make his way backwards along the overland track, which had been travelled by a number of European adven­turers in the previous centuries, to Asia Minor, Jerusalem, and Rome. Such was his dream—we shall see how far it was fulfilled. The next letter recommends the two Japanese con­verts to the special care of Simon : the mention of the warning to be addressed to Charles V. not to permit Spanish fleets from New Spain to attempt intercourse with, or the conquest of, Japan, is extremely curious. It almost seems as if Francis had some presage in his mind of the mischief which was to result from the collision of Spain and Portugal in the extreme East.

(cvi.) To Father Srnon Rodriguez in Portugal.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

Matthew and Bernard, two Japanese, have followed me to the Indies, with the intention of repairing to Portugal and Italy, and particularly Rome itself, to see the Christian religion in all its majesty, and then to return to their country to recount to their fellow citizens what they have found and seen. I commend them to you as earnestly as I can commend any one in the world. Take care that they may come back with their desires fully and happily satisfied; for their testimony will win high authority for us and for the Christian name.

The Japanese despise other nations in comparison with themselves; this has prevented their entering into commercial relations with any other people until the arrival of the Portu­guese about eight or nine years ago. The Spaniards call these islands the ‘ Silver Isles;’ and some Portuguese in Japan told me that the Spaniards in going to the Moluccas sail by Japan; that if any one of their vessels attempted to touch there it would inevitably be lost, and that the Japanese give as a reason that the sea of Japan, on the side towards New Spain, is filled with shoals, so that vessels are stranded and lost.

I write this that you may bring about that their Highnesses the King and Queen may write to warn Charles the Emperor and King of Spain not to send his fleets from New Spain to take possession of the Silver Isles; his vessels would, as things are now, all be lost Even if they got there safely, if they were to try to take possession by force, they would have to do with a people as warlike as they are greedy for pillage, and who seem able enough to capture even a large hostile fleet. ( Besides, the country is so barren and waste that foreign armies would be easily vanquished by famine alone. There are also such frightful storms around these islands, that Spanish vessels without a friendly port for shelter would certainly be lost.

I repeat that the Japanese have such a love for weapons

of war, that the mere desire to pillage the Spaniards’ arms would, judging from their character and habits, be enough to make them massacre the Spaniards to a man. I wrote all this long ago to his Highness, but perhaps his occupations may have effaced the whole thing from his mind. So in order to satisfy my conscience on the matter, I beg you to remind him of | them. It would be deplorable to hear that numerous fleets from New Spain, bound for the Silver Isles, had perished at sea. With the exception of Japan, there are no isles in this part of the East which contain silver mines.

Again I urge you to receive the two Japanese in such a way that they may learn a great many wonderful things about our I churches, our universities, and the other marvels of Europe, to I tell to their people at home. I am confident that they will be astonished at the wealth and power of Christians. Bernard, and Matthew also, have lived much with me at Japan. They are poor, but full of faith. They attached themselves to me in Japan, and they followed me on my return to the Indies, with the intention of going to Portugal, and thence to Rome. Japanese of noble rank feel no desire to visit foreign countries, though some of our neophytes, men of honourable position, think of going to Jerusalem, to visit the place of our Lord’s birth and passion. Matthew and Bernard are among the first of these, but whether, after seeing Rome, they will go on to Jerusalem, I do not know. .

I should have liked to send two of the learned bonzes to Portugal, so as to give you a specimen of Japanese intellects, as sharp and sensible as any in the world; but they being noble, and at ease, will not consent to leave their country even for a time. I tried to bring other neophytes with me, who abandoned the idea for fear of the difficulties of a sea voyage, especially for such a great distance.

I beg you then to send these, Matthew and Bernard, on to Rome, that they may come back with some of our fathers; and testify to their countrymen as to the immense distance exist­ing between the greatness of Christians and of the Japanese. May God grant, if it is for His service, that some day we may

see one another again in China, or if not there, at any rate in the Kingdom of Heaven, where I mean to enjoy with still greater pleasure the fruits of your sweet and tender friendship, which I have so long been without.

Goa, April 9, 1552. FRANCIS.

The letter to the King, written at this time, the last letter addressed to him by Francis Xavier which has been preserved to us, needs no comment.

(evil.) To John III., King of Portugal.

On my return from Japan this year I wrote to your High-B ness from Cochin, giving my letter to the vessels that were! sailing for Portugal. I then gave an account of the present! state of religion at Japan and of how fit and favourably dis-* posed the Japanese nation is to embrace the religion of Jesus ( Christ. I added that the King of Boungo is an admirer of your royal virtues, and sends you a magnificent cuirass in token of his friendship. I said that two members of our So­ciety will soon start for the town of Amanguchi in Japan, where we have already a residence and church, and where two of ours of great goodness and faithfulness are engaged in in- J structing neophytes. May God grant that by means of your Highness’s most admirable munificence the Christian religion! may be widely propagated in these countries also ! I said j too that I had resolved on going to China, because we see i signs which justify great hopes of spreading the Christian faithl there. I

In five days I shall leave Goa for Malacca, on the way toj China, with a brother of our Society, and also with Diego Pereira, ambassador to the Emperor of that country. We are taking this Sovereign rich presents, bought by Diego Pereira,] partly with your Highness’s funds, partly with his own. But we carry him another present, such as perhaps within the memord of man no king has ever offered to another king,—I speak of

the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If the Emperor of China under­stands its full value, he will certainly prefer it above all his treasures, however great they may be. I have a hope that God will cast a look of mercy upon this large empire and nation; that He will open the eyes of those men created after His own image to the knowledge of their Creator, and of Jesus Christ ! the common Saviour of all.

Three of us altogether of the Society start with Pereira for China, in order to set at liberty the Portuguese who are in captivity there, to obtain the alliance of the Emperor of China for the Portuguese, and lastly to wage war with the devil and his followers. We shall inform the Sovereign first, and then I his subjects, in the name of the King of Heaven, that hence- «forth they must no longer worship the devil, but God, the i Creator of men, and Jesus, their Redeemer and Lord. It may seem a bold undertaking to go to an unbelieving nation and a very powerful Sovereign in order to reprove them and to preach the truth to them,—a thing in our time full enough of danger even with Christian kings and princes, not to speak of bar­barians. But what fills us with confidence is that the design has been inspired by God Himself, who is the aim and end of all my thoughts, and He has filled us with the happiest hopes, so that trusting to God's mercy, we doubt nothing as to His divine power, which is infinitely higher than the power of the Chinese King, and of all the kings of the world.

As the matter is altogether in the hand and power of God, there is no cause for fear or doubt. We certainly ought to fear nothing, except to offend God and so incur the punish­ment due to the wicked. Therefore it seems a greater extreme of audacity for men, who see most clearly their own sins and crimes, to take up the preaching of His law, than to go to foreign nations to reprove and teach the truth to most power­ful kings. That which increases still more my hope and confi­dence is the thought that for so great a work as the offering of gospel light and truth to a barbarous nation, blinded by vice rnd superstition, belonging, if I may use the expression, to a lifferent universe, God has chosen men so utterly without skill

VOL. II. . KK

and without virtue as ourselves. So what is necessary is, that since it has so pleased God to order it, in answer to the prayers and alms of your Highness, I should have a will ready to cor­respond to all this courage and confidence, which God in His goodness has given me, in preaching His holy law.

I have asked various graces of your Highness in favour of those who here rule your realm; all have been granted liber­ally on your part. I return you, for them all infinite thanks. And now I ask you another favour in the name of all true Chris­tians; Portuguese and Indian, and in the name even of the hea­thens, particularly of the Japanese and Chinese. I ask with all the urgency I may that in your admirable zeal for the worship of God and the salvation of souls, you will deign to have sent to us this year as many priests as possible : men of capacity, who at home and abroad have worked for the salvation of souls with great credit for virtue and piety—such subjects, in fact, as India requires. For men without experience of or­dinary life, whatever may be their learning and knowledge, arc of no great use in these countries. Therefore, most excellent Sire, I again and again implore you, by your singular charity towards God and towards men, the images of God, deign to j write very carefully to Rome to Master Ignatius, the Father of our Society, to send to the Indies a good number of priests, prepared to bear much suffering both of body and soul, even if they be deficient in eloquence for preaching, because such men are required for the Indian missions, especially for thosel of Japan and China.

With these fathers let him send a Rector for this residence and College, a man of tried and known virtue whom we can trust, and who perfectly knows our rules and Institute; for such a man is very necessary here. You may be sure that such priests will be of great use in the Indies, Japan, and China; and these countries require men capable of bearing severe and frequent combats. They should therefore possess solid virtue and sufficient learning to reply to all the difficulties which may be proposed to them by some of the most subtle people in the world, that is to say, the Japanese and Chinese. In order to

make the difficulties presented by these countries better under­stood, I have thought it best to send a brother to Father Simon in Portugal and to Father Ignatius at Rome, with letters from me.

It remains that for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls, your Highness should deign to write to Father Ignatius to instigate his zeal, already so ardent, that he may satisfy abundantly and at once the interests of divine glory and of your piety, by sending us at least six such men as I desire, as well as the Rector whom I have described. I am sure they will be very efficacious for the glory of God and the salvation of these nations.

I place such confidence in your Highness’s great goodness, that I doubt not you will add to all your other singular bene­fits this last, which will be the filling up and crown of the rest. •

From your Highness’s useless servant,

Goa, April xo, 1552. FRANCIS.

The time was now come for Francis to take leave of Goa. It is said that on parting from his friends he let them see that I he knew that, as St. Paul said to the priests of Ephesus, ‘ they should see his face no more.’ One of the penitents of Francis, Dona Catalina de Chiaves, began to weep when he told her that this was his last visit, and to comfort her, he added that she should see him again before she died. She survived him for some years, and shortly before her death he appeared to her and filled her with joy.

But nowhere was his departure felt so deeply as in the Col­lege of Santa FI*. The letter from Goa, to which we have already referred, after speaking of the instructions which he wrote for the fathers who were going to a distance, mentions how he used to exhort the inmates of the College to the service of God and to desires of greater perfection, ‘ as one who was taking his leave as if he should never see or converse with them again, giving us spiritual conferences in which were many doctrines precious and helpful to the soul. . . . And when the time of his

departure was coming, he used at night to give spiritual con­ferences to the brothers, which much consoled them; and the last things which he commended to us after his last discourse with many tears, were constancy in our first vocation, most profound humility, which arises in all from knowledge of self,, and above all things holy obedience and promptitude in fol­lowing it out. This large charge he repeated many times, as of a virtue much beloved by God and very necessary in the Society. He made Provincial of the parts of Asia Master Gas­par, to whom he gave all his power, and made him Rector of the College of Goa, to provide from thence for all other parts. And then he put himself on his knees before him and offered him obedience on his own part and on the part of all who were absent, giving us an example of that obedience of which he had just been speaking; and all the fathers and brothers did the same with great consolation and joy, because such a pastor had been given them. And having done these things, Father Master Francis departed with his companions on the Maundy Thursday, after the function was over.’¹² These last words put before us a touching picture. There is no function in all the range of the offices of the Church more tender and loving than that of Maundy Thursday, when the altar puts on again its white festive dress for a short time; when the Gloria in Excelsis rings through the sanctuary still haunted by the mournful strains of the Tenebra of the evening before; when but one mass is sung, and so all the faithful, priests as 'well as laymen, crowd to the altar rail to receive the Blessed Sacrament on the day of its first institution from the hands of the Superior of the church. Francis himself would probably say the mass and give communion to all his brethren, to the students of the college, to the throngs of the faithful to whom he was so dear. Then he would bear in solemn procession, while the Pange lingua was being sung, the consecrated host which was to be consumed on the following morning of Good Friday to the altar of the Sepulchre, there amid lights and flowers to be adored without ceasing until the time came for ^IS ‘ A quinta feira de Endoenjas, acabado officio.'

the cererhony of the next day. He would kneel awhile to adore his Lord on the altar, and then depart, with his heart full of love and thankfulness, never to return alive.

Francis spent a few days at Cochin, as usual in his voyages to and from Goa. He was overwhelmed with news about the state of affairs on the Fishery Coast. The labours and suffer­ings of the missionaries there were little known, on account of their being usually alone; but Francis had experienced these himself, and we have seen how anxious he was that all possible assistance should be secured to them. One of them was just dead—Paolo Valle, of whom he speaks in the next letter, which was written at this time from Cochin to Gaspar Baertz. Paolo had been taken prisoner by the Badages, and detained by them for a month, suffering the greatest privations and outrages. At last the Christians managed to rescue him, but they were pur­sued, and only saved themselves and the father by taking to their boats. Paolo was almost worn to death; a low fever attacked him, and after lingering for three months, he died on the 1 st of March in this year. We subjoin the letter to which we have just referred.

(cvm.) To Father Gaspar Baertz.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord help and favour us! Amen.

Since my arrival at Cochin I have received many letters from Coulan and Cape Comorin. All these letters inform me of the extreme misery of our brethren who serve religion in these parts, in lack of all resources corporal and spiritual. From Cape Comorin they announce the death of Father Paul, a man of great perfection in virtue. There now only remains Father Enrico Enriquez, and throughout the country there is no other priest of our Society. He begs most earnestly that a com­panion should be sent to help him in the administration of the Sacraments, for he is not equal to it alone on account of the number of the Christians and the long distances. Think whc-

ther you can manage to set free Father Antonio Vaz and Brother Antonio Diaz, whom you could send, after winter, to the Coast of Comorin, where they are in such miserable need of workers. Should it seem to you that Antonio Vaz is little suited, or if he seems necessary where he is, think about Fran­cesco Lopez, whom I have lately sent to Bazain. As far as I can now judge, I should be very glad to know that one of these brethren were sent to Cape Comorin with Antonio Diaz, or some other lay brother of tried virtue whom you could securely send as companion with any priest who may go to that mission. In the name of all your love for God, I entreat you to use your utmost zeal in this matter, for it is of the greatest importance.

Father Niccolo, at Coulan, is beset by grave difficulties and is reduccd to extreme poverty, being destitute of provision for fifty native children of the house and two or three Portuguese besides ; especially as youths from the Coast of Comorin who get ill are often sent to him to be taken care of; and as the College of Coulan is but poorly endowed, Father Niccolo asks with much justice to have some present help from the royal grants formerly bestowed on the College, which have not been duly paid—in fact, these grants are seldom paid the year that they are due. Speak, I pray you, to the Viceroy, that he may receive the back payments now that they are so necessary to him, since he has not before been paid all that the King as­signed him ; and if the Viceroy thinks fit, let him send a royal command to the Commandant of Coulan, to pay at once a hundred pardams to the College, which may somewhat relieve the present misery of that house. I implore you for the love of our Lord God, take care that on the first opportunity of sailing after the winter a priest of the Society, with a lay brother, may embark for Comorin, as I have said, and that they may pass by Coulan, and there, in virtue of the royal order of which they are the bearers, receive from the Commandant the sum of a hundred pardams to be given to Father Niccolo.

Make a list of the sums due from the King to the College at Goa, and exert yourself with his majesty’s ministers, espe­cially the Viceroy, to procure such letters and orders as may

seem necessary for obtaining a full settlement. Use the same precautions for the house at Ormuz and at Bazain. Especially take great care to avoid managing these affairs too gently or timidly; they should be carried on in an energetic and almost obstinate manner. The whole race of receivers and revenue people, who under whatever title dispense the King’s funds, is a hard set, and the most legitimate requisitions, if proffered gently and bashfully, are eluded by them; they will give no­thing but what is dragged from them. Therefore they should be approached with no softness of mien but with a confident speech, nor should delays be easily granted: they have un­limited devices for rendering these delays eternal; and as they only boast among themselves when they succeed, to treat them with moderation is to violate our duty; you must dun them importunately and recklessly, and do not hesitate almost to altercate and quarrel with them until their promises have passed into action. Otherwise you will scarcely ever prevent large sums out of the King’s treasury, destined by his majesty’s pious wishes for the use and necessities of religion, from being inter­cepted and appropriated by avaricious and perverse ministers, to the immense and irreparable injury of religion and the salva­tion of souls. You must think justifiable any way that secures success in so highly important an affair.

Employ every effort for discharging the debts of your house as soon as possible. I wish that in the letters you dispatch by the vessels that sail for Malacca next September, you should send me a list of the liabilities of the College at Goa, and that every time you write to me you should let me know what is owing to you, and what you yourself owe. It will be very useful to know both at once, and to compare the two. When the revenues due to the College are received from those who have to pay them, tax farmers or other debtors, be on your guard against a foolish unjust compassion, so as to allow them to re­tain a portion, which, as we know, has happened several times in preceding years through most criminal negligence, on which account, and nothing else, at Cape Comorin, Coulan, and at Cochin, a great number of pious works undertaken for the good

of souls, which would have prospered had they been continued, have been interrupted for want of the assistance expected from Goa. This assistance could not be sent, on account of most unreasonable concessions made to the people indebted by the collectors of the revenues of the College at Goa, upon which all the other houses depend. On this account you should your­self watch, and use all the means at your disposal for prevent­ing any weakness of the procurator as to exacting the full debt, indulging the avarice of men to the danger of his own conscience and God’s service.

It will be necessary for you to assist Father Antonio Eredia. On the very first opportunity when winter is over, you will take care to send him to Cochin 250 or 300 pardams. This sum is just now quite indispensable for him to complete the enclosure of the buildings, and to carry on various other works of abso­lute necessity, without which a community could not be kept together or exist. For until now, it has been a miserable and most difficult undertaking to lodge decently our brethren and visitors in the house at Cochin. In reading this letter, do not imagine that while I am thus engrossed regarding the College at Cochin, I lose sight of the embarrassments of Goa; believe me, they are present to me, I know and remember them. But comparing all the circumstances, I think the most indispensable duty is to help those among our brothers who are in the greatest distress. I have therefore reduced the sum I ask for to what I have named to you, and which is strictly necessary for them. They want much more, but we must put one inconvenience against another; do you guide yourself by the promptings of a prudent charity, and having first provided for the wants of the inhabitants of your house, whether Portuguese or natives, then extend your protection to those at Cochin, Coulan, and Comorin.

I beg you to calculate exactly what Alvarez Alfonso owes to this College. Find out also the value of those sums which, through mistaken kindness, the receivers of our revenues,have remitted, to him in past years. How they settled it with their consciences I know not. I should be very anxious if I thought

I had to render an account, as they will have to do, of this

foolish indulgence, the deplorable result of which has been to cause the utter lack of means for the propagation of God’s kingdom, and support of evangelical labourers on the coast of Comorin, Coulan, and Cochin. Insist upon his paying all he owes, so that you may spend it first for the necessities of your house and then for the places dependent on it, which I have just named. How necessary it is that temporal means should not be neglected, you have an instance in my present jour­ney, which is of immense interest for God’s glory, and which I should not have had the means of undertaking had you not exercised your utmost zeal in collecting alms at Ormuz, which alms have been my chief resource. What w^rould have hap­pened had your zeal flagged ? We must have given up every­thing, and allowed to vanish, just as it seemed within our grasp, so splendid an opportunity of extending God’s kingdom. And would this opportunity ever have returned ?3 it enough on this subject.

If some fathers from Portugal reach you this year, remember to use your best efforts to surmount all obstacles; and contrive that next year one of them at least shall sail for Japan, as companion there to Cosmo Torres, according to my instruc­tions left you in writing : I now only remind you of it. I wish you to give a lay brother of the Society as companion to this father; be careful also that both are abundantly furnished with means for the journey. After the expenses of the voyage some­thing must be left to provide for their maintenance at Japan, for the country is fertile to us in labour and spiritual fruits, but sterile in money and resources of every kind. I beg you, as you love me, take this matter to heart. For I desire most ar­dently, and consider it of the first importance, that another priest of the Society should be sent as soon as possible to assist Cosmo Torres.

If the hope I speak of from Portugal should fail, because in the expected vessels no father is found who is capable of this mission, still, I pray you, see whether in any other way you can obtain the same object. For instance, if a subject should present himself for entrance into the Society who was already

a priest, or capable of receiving holy orders, whom you would have no difficulty in preparing for them, and whom, after the trial of a short novitiate, you might, on account of the emer­gency, judge fit to send to Japan,—if you meet with a subject of this kind, or if you find at your disposal one of the fathers of whom I have spoken, I will take care that the opportunity is not wanting for his journey from Malacca to Japan. I will see to this in my own journey by begging the Captain of Malacca graciously to further the plans of whichever of our brothers may arrive from Goa, on the way to Japan.

In considering as to the admission of subjects who seek an entrance into the Society, you will study very carefully the qualities of soul and body with which they may be gifted; and you must never burthen the Society with subjects useless at home and abroad. After having received subjects for the no­vitiate, if, when you have profoundly studied their character, you discover that they are void of gifts of soul and faculties of body, according to the measure necessary for their utility in the Society, hasten to send them home again. Regarding the novices that you employ in the house upon such offices as require frequent intercourse with strangers, and freely going backwards and forwards, such as the duties of purveyor, dis­penser, and others of like nature, watch over them diligently, and observe most carefully what example they give outside as to sobriety, self restraint, and modesty; notice with what fidel- J ity they manage their business, and expend the money intrusted to them, and whether they render an exact and scrupulous ac- j count of their receipts and outlays; for you know how dan­gerous is the administration of such offices, and how imprudent it is to commit them to persons who are not firmly established ( in great self command, faithfulness, and sanctity of life—virtues j which form at the same time their safeguard and our guarantee j against all danger of a fall on their part. Indeed, their fall , would be at once a supreme dishonour to the Society, and a i great scandal to our neighbours.

As for Balthasar Nunez and the lay brother who has come \ from Bazain with Melchior Gonzalez, take care to exercise

em long and seriously in the most humble duties of the use, for instance, in the kitchen and other employments of e same nature; and do not allow them to go out. If in the urse of these trials you discover that they are unsuitable to e Society, you will send them away to look after their own siness. When Francesco Lopez returns from Bazain, you ould give him the Exercises at leisure, and also break him by the humblest labours of the house. Pay constant atten- ■n and the most active vigilance to the improvement and iritual progress of these three subjects. This advice of mine inot unfounded: I have reason to fear that these three per­ns are not such as I could wish, or such as they ought to be r the glory of God and their own perfection..

Be equally watchful over the others, and proportion the gree of your attention to the character of each, occupying urself incessantly in fortifying, encouraging, and improving em. When, as I have ordered, you send a priest and a lay other to Cape Comorin, you will send also by them one of e chalices which I have left you. My reason is, that I re- 2mber that a few years ago a Christian belonging to this jast of Comorin sent a sum of money to Goa, to be spent in e purchase of a chalice. The managers of the College re­ived this money, and used it for the necessities of their house, d up to this time have never sent the chalice. Let it be sent •w, and this obligation cancelled. The other chalice which mains can be given next year to the father who sails for pan, for there is only one chalice there.

When you write to me at Malacca, do not be sparing of >ur time or paper, and do not hufry as though it were a duty ifilled by task. Give a full and particular account of every- >ing, with the smallest details. I have hopes of great spi- ual consolation from the perusal of your letters; for they

11 inform me of all I wish to know regarding all my brothers, 10 in your College are fighting in the cause of God, and in e surrounding residences. Employ a secretary who writes a iod and legible hand. You will direct the packet to Fran- sco Perez, at Malacca; but it is absolutely necessary you

should send me your letters in the month of September, b;fc the vessel which then sails for Banda. Francesco Perez wil diligently take care to convey them to me in China.

You will write to our good Cipriani, who resides at Me liapor, telling him he should live in perfect harmony with al . the world, especially with the Bishop’s Vicar and all the priestk in that residence; and you had better express yourself to hirl* with precision and without circumlocution, and distinctly inforJ ₍ him that I have left you in writing a formal command to exp« - from the Society those subjects who are disobedient to the St perior or Rector of this College; you will add that, on accouu of this order, no personal consideration of any one at all wi prevent your fulfilling what is commanded in so absolute^!}; manner. Make this statement to him ad terrorem, and that hj may watch over himself, and understand that such a threrl extends even to him.

Estevan Luis Buralho, who has reached the diaconatej i holy orders, is coming to your town. I love this young ma very much, and I hope that by the grace of God he will I and by become a good religious. Do all that he asks of yc in my name, and speak to the Bishop in his favour as often ;j~ he asks you or requires. It is not only the hope I entertal which has attached me to him; it is also a duty of gratitu(l which compels me to do all I can in order to repay favours 1*1 has rendered me in a thousand cases, serving and assisting n*j upon every opportunity, as often as I asked him. I confi<| to you the payment of my debt of gratitude, and I trust yJ will discharge it perfectly and energetically.

May our Lord sanctify you, and call you to His glAl Adieu.

Cochin, April 24, 1552.

Father Antonio Eredia here has a book which is useful I him, but which will be far more necessary to me where I A going. This book is Constantinus,¹³ which I find I must depril

¹³ Constantinus was the name of the author of a Greek-Latin Lexifl of that century.

n of, and take it to China. I remember having seen here

o other copies, one in the possession of Francesco Lopez, the ler in the hands of Father Manuel de Morales. I beg you send one of these two as soon as possible to Father Antonio >edia, for he has the greatest need of this book. Exert your- f zealously with the Bishop, to induce him to summon to » presence a priest of Malabar named Antonio Ferrano, and order this priest, under threat of anathema, to appear on a rtain day before his tribunal at Goa; for Ferrano puts ob- tcles to the preaching of the Gospel in the place where he and proves himself a public adversary and dangerous enemy the fathers who labour for the increase of religion on the oast of Comorin.

Entirely yours in Jesus Christ,

Francis.

The day after this letter was written, Francis Xavier took 5 final leave of India. He had with him Father Balthasar kgo and four lay brothers, Duarte Silva, Pedro Alcageva,.

I.varo Ferreira, and Francesco Gonzalez. He had also with m a young Chinese named Antonio, who had been educated the College of Santa Fc. He was to serve Francis as in- fpreter, but it turned out, as might have been expected, that e few years which he had spent at Goa had made him almost tget his native tongue.

CHAPTER II.

Francis and Don Alvaro d'At aide.

We have seen with what a joyous buoyant heart Francij Xavier had embarked in 1549 for Japan. The expedition t< China, to which he was now looking forward, was certain! fraught with fewer dangers, and seemed far less likely to b< thwarted in its course or unsuccessful in its issue than tha former voyage. China was a peaceful, civilized empire, a| famous for justice and equity as for its tranquillity and power There might be some difficulty at the ports, perhaps; but whei) it became known that an Envoy of the great King of the Wes had been sent to treat with the Emperor, it was not to be exl pected that any lack of courtesy would bar the onward path 0 the friendly mission. Francis himself was in the vigour of lif and strength. The white hairs of age had come before thei time to his head, but he was still in the prime of his years, hi heart full of great plans, the execution of which could not ov« task the powers which had hitherto made his preaching sj efficacious, and given him a sort of empire over all whom In had come across. His influence was firmly established ove| whatever was Christian in the East; he had never been unabij to obtain what he asked from the Portuguese authorities; and thj ineffable charm of his humility and charity made merchant! ; and sailors, and soldiers, the rich and the poor, we may almos ; say the good and the bad alike, eager to befriend him and t< serve him. No one seems to have doubted that he woul<' return from China, as he had returned from the Moluccas an< from Japan, with the glory of success to enhance the prestige < which he already possessed all over the East. If any one ha< been asked to predict how his designs were to fail, he woul< t

have thought of accidents by sea or land, tempests and hurri­canes, the audacity of pirates, or the impenetrable jealousy of Chinese officials, and would never have conceived it possible that a Christian and Portuguese hand would be raised to bring about the frustration of his hopes.

Francis Xavier, however, knew that he was certain to meet with opposition, because he was engaged in a great design for God’s glory. It was afterwards known that even when he was first speaking of the matter with Diego Pereira on his voyage from San Chan, he had predicted that they would certainly have great trouble. Now, when he landed at Malacca on this last voyage from Goa, he instantly begged his religious brethren to pray for the Chinese expedition, as he felt instinctively that the devil was preparing to thwart it. Francis had parted with Diego Pereira at the beginning of the year at Malacca. Diego had had to take his ship, the famous Santa Croce, to Sonda, and to return to Malacca in time to meet Francis when he came back from India with the diplomas and letters con­stituting his friend the Envoy to China, as well as with the rich presents and other necessaries for the expedition. Don Pedro de Silva was now no longer ‘ Capitan ;’ his brother Don Alvaro was on the point of entering on his government, which meanwhile was administered by another official. Alvaro was proud and illconditioned, as we may gather from his having endeavoured to oust Pedro before his period of Captaincy had elapsed. He was probably also poor, and anxious to make money while in authority at Malacca. We are not told whether he had at first entertained the notion that he himself, and not Diego Pereira, was the proper person to represent the Portu­guese Crown in the embassy to China. But he had a secret grudge against Diego Pereira, who, before sailing for Sonda, had refused to lend him a sum of ten thousand ducats. It is only a matter of conjecture whether Francis Xavier was aware of this ; but he had armed himself against any possible difficulty on the part of Don Alvaro in two ways—first, by procuring for him some favours from the Viceroy, who conferred on him, at the request of Francis, the ‘ Capitanato’ of the sea, a naval com­

mand, independent of the Captaincy of the fortress, and involv­ing not only power but emolument, and certain other privileges, not specified; and secondly, by procuring the stringent orders, which have been already mentioned, from the Viceroy, enjoin­ing on Don Alvaro and all other officers of the Crown to further to the utmost of their power the intended Embassy, and threat­ening them with severe punishment in ease of disobedience. With these precautions Francis may have felt that he had little to fear in the way of human opposition to his designs—which yet was to come, as it were, from a hand which he had armed himself, for it was the power of the ‘ Capitan' of the sea’ which was to be used against him.

The voyage was prosperous. It is probably here that we I must place the anecdote referred to in a former page,¹ when, near the Nicobar islands, the weather became so bad, and the ship seemed to be in so much danger, that the captain was j giving the order to throw overboard the cargo; but Francis Xavier interfered, promising that the wind would soon fall and . they should come in sight of land. When the prophecy came true, all were rejoicing and congratulating themselves, but Francis was sighing and sorrowful. ‘ Pray for Malacca,’ he said; ‘ it is infected by the plague.’ It was true. On arriving _{ at Malacca, where Francis was received, as usual, with im­mense joy, they found the plague raging. The ship’s crew was attacked, and forty soon died.

Francis devoted himself at once to the service of the plague stricken, as if he had come to Malacca for no other purpose. As the hospital was full to overflowing, he gave up to them a part of the residence of the Society, and provided rooms in j other houses where fifty or sixty were received at a time. He was always ready to hear the confessions of the sick, and to assist the dying. It was the common opinion, that to die in his arms was to be secure of salvation—so efficacious and en­couraging were the exhortations and suggestions with which j lie aided the poor sufferers to leave this world for the presence of God. He went about the city begging alms for the poor : i

•p. 148.

he carried the sick to the hospitals himself, and then waited upon them as a servant. Among the sick was Don Alvaro himself, and Francis attended him with particular affection and diligence, saying mass for many days in the room in which he lay ill. It seemed as if he had gained his heart. Don Alvaro had not as yet given a single sign of opposition; on the contrary, he had spoken of the Embassy as likely to pro­duce great public good. But, for the moment, the minds of all were too full of the plague and its ravages to attend to other subjects.²

Diego Pereira returned to Malacca after Francis had been some time on the spot. Francis sent to warn him before he landed, not to assume any pomp or state as ambassador, but to appear in the city as simply and modestly as possible. His arrival forced Don Alvaro to raise his mask, at least partially. The ^£ Captaincy of the sea’ gave him some authority over the vessels which put into the port, and he availed himself of this —it was the first exercise of his authority—to seize the rudder of Pereira’s vessel, which he had placed in front of his own palace. His excuse was that he understood that an attack 'was impending from the Gial, the warlike and hostile tribes in Java, which had furnished a large contingent to the army Iwhich had besieged Malacca the year before. This pretext, however, was soon taken from Don Alvaro. A Portuguese ship arrived from the Archipelago with the news that the tribes in question were at war among themselves, and so had no time to think of an attack on Malacca. The ‘ Capitan’ was therefore forced to bring to light the malignant project which he had long ago conceived.

‘ As this quarrel/ says Mendez Pinto, who was at Malacca at the time, ‘ was founded upon hatred and avarice, the devil set fire thereto more and more; whence it came that after the

² Massei, p. 3, cap. 10, p. 298, mentions here two miracles which are found in the Processes. In the first case Francis detected a sin that a lad had committed by the tom and dirty state of a * cotta’ he had on. In the second case he raised from the dead the only son of a devout woman. The lad had sucked the point of a poisoned arrow, llis name was Francis, and he afterwards became a frate of the Franciscan Order.

VOL. II.

LL

Father had laboured thereat for twenty-six days, with much dili-1 gence, the Capitan would never grant to the Father what he asked him, nor permit Diego Pereira to take him to China, as was ordered expressly in the patents of the Viceroy, besides that I he spent large sums upon that design. And the better to ■ colour his malice he was ever giving new explanations to the I patents of the Viceroy, throwing out by way of raillery that this I Diego Pereira whom the Viceroy meant to speak of was a! gentleman who was living in Portugal, and not that other whom I the Father presented to him, who had been the simple valet of 1 Gonzales Contino, and was not a man of quality enough to be j sent as ambassador to as great a monarch as was the King of I China. This is how this affair passed, and by reason of it I some of the most honourable of the place, moved by a piousl zeal for the honour of God, and seeing that things were getting! worse and worse, and that the Capitan would notTisten to! reason, nor consider what was represented to him, assembled! together one morning, and besought him not to incur the fault! of a thing which would do such great mischief to the honour of I God, and for which he would have to give a very strict account! in the next life. Moreover let him think what all the peo-| pie would spread abroad concerning him, if he would really hin­der so holy a man as Father Xavier from going to preach thel law of God to those Gentiles, without considering that it thereby! appeared as if our Lord Jesus Christ would use His service to I open in that country a door to the Gospel for the salvation ofu souls. But the Capitan, instead of being moved by these words,! only answered that he was old enough not to need counsel; that! if the Father was willing to take so much pains for God, let himl go to Brazil or to Monomotapa, where there were unbelieversl as well as in China. For the rest, he had sworn that as long f as he was Capitan, Diego Pereira should never go either as I merchant or ambassador, and if God asked him to give account! for this he would do so. He added to this that the voyagei which Diego Pereira wished to make to China under the shadowl of the Father, in order to gain a hundred thousand ducats of profit, belonged properly to no one but himself, as recompensed

Don Alvaro d’Ataide.

S'S

for the services of his father, the Conde Almirante, and not to a servant of Gonzales Contino, whom Father Francis without reason wished to support in so bad a design. Saying this, he dismissed them. Then the Superintendent of the Finances, the Factor (Fazor), and the officers of the customs, seeing the extravagant answer which the Capitan had given, went all to­gether one morning to tender a representation (requete) in the name of the King, saying that there was an ordinance-made by preceding Governors, which expressly enjoined that on no ac­count was hindrance to be opposed to the departure of any vessel that wished to set sail, provided that it undertook to re­turn and pay the dues; and that according to this ordinance, Diego Pereira had put in a memorial to them, in which he set forth in writing that he bound himself to give to the King, of the profits ofhis ship, thirty thousand ducats for the necessities of the fortress, of which he paid the half down, and gave secur­ity for the rest against his return. That being so, they prayed the Capitan not to hinder the voyage, protesting that if he made it fruitless without cause, as was the case, the King would seize this money from the goods of the Capitan himself. He answered that if Diego Pereira bound himself to pay the King thirty thousand ducats, in consideration of the representation which they made, he for his part bound himself to give them thirty thousand cuts with the staff of a halberd there before him; and saying this, he ran to a rack of pegs to take it down and do what he said, which made them get to the door very fast.’³ Mendez then speaks of the marvellous patience of Francis Xavier under all this storm. ‘ He never made any other answer when he heard these things, but to cast his eyes to heaven and say, “Blessed be Jesus Christ!” words which he uttered with the same ardour with which they rose from his heart, not without sometimes shedding tears in abundance. And it was said publicly in Malacca, that if the good father desired, as it very much appeared that he did, to be martyred for the love of God, this persecution was to him in place of a great martyrdom! And, without falsehood, I must avow that as often as I call to

* Mendez Pinto, Voyages, t. iii. p. 435 seq.

mind how I have seen with my eyes the great honours which the King of Boungo, Gentile though he was, paid to the blessed Father in Japan, only because he had heard say that he was a man who imparted knowledge of the law of God, as I have heretofore related, and the evil treatment which I afterwards saw inflicted on him in Malacca, I am quite beside myself with astonishment, and believe in truth that there is no good Chris­tian who must not be equally astonished.’⁴

Things went so far in resistance to Don Alvaro, that Fran­cesco Alvarez, the officer actually holding the government, though not the Captaincy of the sea, gave orders that the rudder of the Santa Croce should be removed from his house by force; and it was only when Don Alvaro prepared a body of armed men to oppose the execution of this order, that Francis Xavier interposed, saying that material force must not be used for an enterprize for the glory of God. He was already offering prayers, masses, and penances continually for the conversion of Don Alvaro. He had used the good offices of Don Pedro de Silva, who seems not yet to have left Malacca, but in vain— they were as useless as his own entreaties.

It was then that, for the first time since he had left Portugal, Francis Xavier made public the character of Apostolic Nuncio with which he had been invested by the Pope at the request of the King. When he landed in India he had informed the Bishop of the briefs which he possessed, but from that time he had kept silence on the subject, and had never acted on his power. He now communicated the briefs to the Vicar of Malacca, Joam Suarez, and begged him to inform Don Alvaro of the danger he was in, inasmuch as all who impeded a Nuncio Apostolic in carrying out his mission were solemnly excommu­nicated by the Pope. He would not ask for any fresh excom­munication to be launched against Don Alvaro, but he would not allow it to be passed over in silence that he was already excommunicated by the Church and the Roman Pontiff, if he persisted in his opposition to the voyage to China.⁵ It appears

⁴ Mendez Pinto, Voyages, t. iii. p. 435 seq. _

^s See below-, letter to Father Gaspar Baertz, p. 528.

that the Vicar was not as hearty in the matter as Francis could have wished. He was worshipping the rising sun in currying favour with Don Alvaro, and the power of the Portuguese Com­mandants was so unlimited on the spot and during the tenure of their office, that we can understand without justifying the weakness of Joam Suarez. However, the excommunication was formally intimated to Don Alvaro. The Vicar took with him Francesco Perez, the Superior of the College, and the Auditor General Francesco Alvarez, already mentioned, and went to the Capitan. He explained the case, reading to him the document furnished him by Francis Xavier, and told him that he was excommunicate unless he gave way. He urged him as his pastor, entreated of him as his friend, and implored him as his servant, not to impose on him the obligation of publicly declar­ing him excommunicated. After the Vicar had finished, Fran­cesco Alvarez read the order of the Viceroy as to the Embassy, and pointed out especially, for the second time, that the pos­sible case of his resistance was there declared to be one of the gravest crimes,⁶ and liable to most severe punishment.

Don Alvaro was not to be turned from his purpose by any entreaties or by any threats. He treated the Pontifical briefs with the same disrespect as the order of the Viceroy; indeed, he went so far as to accuse Francis Xavier of having forged the former. To the disgrace of Malacca, it must be said that there were not wanting people to take his part against Francis, who was insulted in the streets and unable at last to set foot outside the College. He preserved his usual serenity and gentleness of manner, and not a word of complaint escaped his lips. He spent whole nights before the Blessed Sacrament in the church, praying for Don Alvaro, and offered up mass frequently for his conversion. But there is a power in obstinate malice and en­vious spite which God sometimes does not choose to break, and which no power but His can bend. Don Alvaro remained unshaken. At last he consented—perhaps it was a sort of com­

* ‘ segunda vez lhe toumon a notifiar a pen a do caso major.' Resumo Historico, ii. 167. The document drawn up for the Vicar of Malacca is quoted in full in this work.

promise with his conscience, by which he persuaded himself that he might escape the guilt of hindering an Apostolic Nuncio in his' mission—to allow Francis to go to San Chan in the Santa Croce without Diego Pereira. There would be no em­bassy, but the missioner would be allowed to proceed on his path. Alvaro even seized the ship and the merchandize, leaving only a small part to Pereira, and he put on board along with a portion of Pereira’s crew some people of his own. These last were either privately instructed, or disposed by the example of their master, to show little respect and kindness to Francis and his companions. Pereira seems to have behaved nobly; he readily sacrificed his goods to his enemy, and at the same time his people were ordered to attend carefully to all the wants and requests of Francis and his companions, and to furnish him with any money .or merchandize he should desire, as the means of securing a landing on the coast of China. This seems to be the proper place for inserting the touching letter which Francis addressed to Pereira at this time.

(cix.) To Diego Pereira.

May the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Amen.

Since it has come about, from the greatness of my faults, that God has not been pleased to employ both of us for the expedition to China, the whole blame must be laid upon my sins; they have been so many and so great as to have stood in the way not only of myself, but of you, your interests and money, which you had spent on the preparations for this,em­bassy. However, God is witness of my goodwill for His service and for you ; and were it not for the sincerity of that goodwill, the grief which I feel at this moment would be greatly keener than it is. I am now going on board ship, where I shall wait un­til it is time to set sail, so as to be out of sight of your people, who are always coming to me in tears, and who complain that the failure of the embassy is a fatal blow to them. May God

forgive him on whom lies the responsibility of so many and such great misfortunes !

I only ask one thing of you, and that is, not to come to see me, and so add to my sorrow by the sight of your grief and misfortune. Yet I am confident that this calamity will turn to your advantage; for I doubt not that the King, to whom ■ I have made the request by letter, will worthily reward your admirable-zeal for the religion of Jesus Christ. I have ceased to have any dealings with the Commandant, who has not hesitated to oppose a voyage which would have done so much for the spreading the Christian religion. May God forgive the man ! I grieve for his lot, for he will have to suffer a far severer punishment than he can ever have imagined. May our Lord preserve your health, and direct, guide, and accompany my present endeavours ! Amen.

From our house at Malacca, on the point of embarking in your ship.

June 25, 1552. Francis.

The last words of this letter allude to the fact that Francis took up his abode in the ship for some time before he sailed. We have two other letters of this time, which show the thought­ful charity and noble gratitude of the writer. The first is about a case in which a man had to be persuaded to avoid scandal for the future by marrying a lady with whom he had been living.

The other letter from Malacca is about a sum of money which Francis had borrowed from Don Pedro de Silva. Don Pedro was soon to start for India, and Francis is most anxious that the money should be ready for him the moment that he landed.

(ex.) To Master Gaspar Baertz of the Society of Jesus, Rector of the College of Goa.

May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Amen.

Master Gaspar, I am writing to his Lordship the Bishop on an important matter concerning a friend of mine. His name

is Alvaro Gentili. Considerations concerning his duty and eternal salvation require him at once to contract a lawful mar­riage with a woman with whom he has lived unlawfully, and who has borne him children. He still hesitates, however, and requires a final push to make him accomplish this necessary business. I have observed that his mind is much occupied with esteem and reverence for his lordship; and I doubt not that if the supreme influence of so venerable a personage be added'*to the many reasons which I have put before him to bring him to do what is right, and to my constant entreaties, he will break off all delay and do what God requires of him.

I beg of you, then, to talk over this matter with the Bishop, and to induce him—which you will easily do—to be so kind as to write to Alvaro Gentili, exhorting him seriously, and if necessary commanding him, to do at once what his personal honour, his station in life, and the position of his children, re­quire, by publicly marrying their mother. I suspect there is another reason which makes still more necessary the exhorta­tion I am begging you to get the Bishop to make to Alvaro Gentili. From his ambiguous answers about the matter which is so obviously advantageous to him, I have come to think that he is himself desirous of this marriage, but that he is deterred by his consciousness of some concealed canonical impediment, such as we know often to exist secretly in matri­monial cases. However, if such a thing does exist, he has not mentioned it to me. I merely suspect it, from my experience in similar cases. I have„told my suspicions to his Lordship the Bishop, so that, having this information, he may have more ready at hand the effectual remedy for this poor soul, by being so good, in virtue of the authority he possesses, to remove the impediment, and so get rid of all obstacles to the remedy which the affair requires. I beg of you to be diligent and urgent in this business with the Bishop, and do not fail to write by the vessels which sail from Goa to Malacca in April (which is the proper time for favourable winds) to my friend Alvaro Gentili, of whom I speak, informing him of what you have either already done with the Bishop in his business, in

consequence of what he has told you, or of what you hope to be able to accomplish with regard to the impediment, if any such exists, and if our friend will consent tc) declare it frankly to you himself. In this way I think it will be well to .meet Alvaro’s hesitation half way, as he seems to hang back from some secret motive of delay, which he will have less hesitation in acknowledging if you can give him hopes that he may be released by ecclesiastical authority from any difficulties of this nature. Once more I commend to you all this business with all the earnestness and efficacy I am capable of. May God unite us in the glory of His Paradise ! Adieu.

Yours entirely in Jesus Christ,

Malacca, July 13, 1552* FRANCIS.

(cxi.) To. Father Gaspar Baertz.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

You must know, Master Gaspar, that I am indebted to D. Pedro de Silva far more than I shall ever be able to repay, even by the most energetic efforts.. Indeed, when he was in command at the fortress of Malacca he showed me such favour in everything concerning the service of God, that I cannot re­member any one who has helped me with so much true kind­ness since I came to India. 1 had come to Malacca, to pass from thence to Japan. D. Pedro, within two days, by his ener­getic diligence, procured me for this voyage the best ship that was to be had at the time, nor could I under the circumstances expect a better. Besides this, he gave me presents in kind, to the value of 200 crowns, bought with his own money, as an offering to the Sovereign of Japan, for the purpose of winning his favour, which was so needful, for the propagation of the faith of Jesus Christ. Would that God had permitted that D. Pedro de Silva should be Governor of Malacca this year also, then D. Diego Pereira’s embassy to the Chinese empire, on which we had fixed our hopes so much for a great extension

of our holy faith, would certainly have had a more favourable issue. How differently his own brother, D. Alvaro, has acted towards me, in taking from me the means of sailing for China, and depriving me of the vessel placed at my disposal by the Governor! May God forgive him ! But I greatly fear that the Divine Majesty, so grievously insulted by his injustice, will visit him with a far severer punishment than he expects or imagines.

But to return to his brother Don Pedro, so different from him. He has lately lent me, in the most obliging manner, 300 gold crowns, of which I stood in need at the present moment, for paying off an old debt contracted in Japan. When I was in that country I thought it absolutely necessary to have a church built in the town of Amanguchi, and for this purpose 11 borrowed 300 gold crowns from some Portuguese merchants who were trading there, and spent the money on that work. The time for paying my debt had passed, and my creditors came to call upon me to redeem my word. Don Pedro came forward to assist my poverty with the most ready kindness, lending me the money just as I wanted it, and almost as a free gift. As soon therefore as he sets foot in Goa, I desire and order you to hasten to pay to him this sum of 300 crowns. You will draw it from the rents and revenues of the College, or from the pension of 2000 gold crowns granted by the King out of his treasury to the house of Santa Fk at Goa, not only for the benefit of the inmates of that house, but for the aid of the various missions and establishments for the propagation of the Gospel in different countries of the East, of which the Japan­ese mission is one of the most useful.

Take care that there be no delay in discharging this debt. Go and see Don Pedro immediately you know of his arrival, and give him his money with every expression of gratitude. I should be muqh distressed if by any delay of yours in perform­ing so pressing a duty—one which I so earnestly enjoined on you, and which ought to come before all others—Don Pedro were obliged to jog your memory, and to ask you for payment. That would be very bitter news for me, and I am sure you will

ave me that pain, by executing most promptly, and in spite f all difficulties, this order of mine; and if you were—I do not ly to neglect it, for that I cannot fear from you—but to let nything at all stand in the way as a pretext for not fulfilling , I should consider that my most serious orders have little eight in your eyes.

May our Lord God unite us in the glory of Paradise! 'arewell.

Yours entirely in Jesus Christ,

Malacca, July 16, 1552. FRANCIS.

The memory of the last days spent by Francis at Malacca •as afterwards treasured by those who had been most frequently •ith him, as that of a time full of instances of his charity, his srene firmness, and the supernatural gifts with which he 'as so richly endowed. Several prophetical declarations which e made at this time were afterwards remembered. One of his romises to Diego Pereira was, that neither he nor his children iiould ever want, and the fulfilment of this prophecy was re- larkable. Diego himself, as was to be expected, was amply ecompensed by the King of Portugal for all his sacrifices. Many ears after, a son of his, Francesco Pereira, fell into poverty, and ne day had no provisions in his house. ‘There passed by that ouse,’ says Massei, ‘a youth of very fair aspect, selling bread nd fruit and many other kinds of provision, and Francesco 'ent to the door and took in abundance what was enough for imself and all his family. But not finding in his purse any money D make payment, he took a robe of his wife’s to give as a pledge istead. But the youth, with words of graceful kindness very far bove the condition which seemed to be his, refused all, and 2ft in great courtesy the best part of what he was carrying, and 0 disappeared. Francesco could never find him again, for all he great pains which, he took thereto, and so it was thought hat he was an angel sent by God to fulfil the promises made >y His servant.’⁷

Another celebrated prophecy related to Don Alvaro him-

⁷ Massei, p. iii. cap. x. p. 405.

self. Francis declared that before he finished his government, God would strike him in his substance, his reputation, and his person, in such a way as to make those who should hear it tremble. It was not difficult to predict that Alvaro would I incur the inevitable lot of the persecutors of the Church and i of the servants of God; but Francis Xavier’s words foretold i almost the particulars of the chastisement which God was sure, . sooner or later, to inflict. It was also remembered by Francesco ! Perez and the other members of the Society at Malacca, that one day while in company with Francis — it seems to have < been just before his departure, when he was taking leave of them — they had seen him suddenly throw himself on a bed and remain for some time, to all appearance, senseless. Then : he rose up ‘ all wearied, and like a man who had dreamtj 1 very painful things,’ and exclaimed, ‘God forgive you! God*! forgive you !’ naming one of the principal members of tho|. Society in Europe. It was long afterwards known that at that. time there had been great troubles in the Society in Portugal^ » on account of the person named.⁸

We must place at this time the last interview which pass^ s between the good Father Joam Beira and Francis Xavier. Joana i was on his way to India, in order to secure the taking of son* t measures against the King of Temate, who was behaving iflo a hostile manner to the Portuguese and to Christianity. Ha had much to say to Francis, and appears to have opened ■ ‘J him some very sweet lights and inspirations which he had rl 3: ceived in prayer. We shall find Francis presently referring tw: these. Another dear brother whom he was to part from fo.«!' ever was Francesco Perez. He had caught the plague himsel ip; in his service of the sick, and lay at the door of death. Whel

• The person was no other than Simon Rodriguez himself. He ha> J’ governed in Portugal with immense popularity, but not quite in accordant 1 with the constitutions which Ignatius had been drawing up. It therefor became necessary to transfer him to another sphere of labour, in Spair which was done with the consent of the King. The troubles were cause ¹ by the unwillingness of many of the Portuguese subjects to obey the nei Superiors both of the College of Coimbra and the Province; and it wa ’ thought that Simon, in a visit he paid to Coimbra, had not done a that he might have done to calm the agitation.

^rrancis Xavier went to take leave of him, he showed signs of adness, as he had hoped to die in the arms of his spiritual ather. He begged that he would not forsake him. Francis old him that there was no need for him to wait in order to lelp him to die. He was to recover, and live many years abouring for God. A few days after the departure of Francis Cavier, Perez recovered, and lived to fulfil the prediction for seven and twenty years.⁹

At length the day came for the Santa Croce to sail. Fran­ks once more left the ship, and went up to his favourite ;hrine of our Lady del Monte. There he remained in prayer mtil sunset, while a crowd gathered around to see him for :he last time. At last he was told that the anchor was >veighed, and that sail was being set. He went down the hill ;o the shore, accompanied by numberless friends weeping and entreating him not to risk himself in so perilous an under­taking as that of an attempt to enter China. He said he was going whither God called him, and consoled them with loving admonitions and warnings. Before he reached the strand, the Vicar General, Joam Suarez, came to take leave of him. He seems to have been a timid man, wishing to do his duty and at the same time stand well with Don Alvaro and others like him. He asked Francis whether he had taken leave of the ‘ Capitan’ ? would it not be better ? and might not people think that he had been moved by human feeling if he left with­out saluting Don Alvaro? Francis answered with firmness and dignity. He and Don Alvaro would meet no more in this life; they would see one another again in the Valley of Jehosha- phat on the day of the terrible judgment, when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would come to judge the living and the dead, and they would both stand there before Him, and Alvaro would have to give an account of what he had done in preventing him

» Another prophecy of this time related to Gaspar Mendez di Vascon- cello, whom Diego Pereira had intended to send on board the Santa Croce to look after his merchandize. Francis told him that Mendez would not go, as he was to stay at Malacca and die shortly. Mendez at the time was in full health, but he fell ill before the ship left, and died four days after she had set sail.

from going to preach to the unbelievers the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had died on the Cross for sinners. Very soon, indeed, would Don Alvaro feel the beginning of the chas­tisements for his sins; chastisements which would fall on his honour, his property, and his person ; and as for his soul, might Jesus Christ our Lord God have mercy thereon ! They came | then to the open door of a church which looked upon the sea, and there Francis knelt down and prayed aloud to Jesus Christ, the Love of his soul, by the sorrows of His most holy death and passion, by the precious wounds which He was always present­ing for us to His Eternal Father, and the merits thereof, to have pity on and to save the soul of Don Alvaro, that he might find mercy and pardon before the Lord. He bent himself down to the ground, and prayed in silence for a while; then he rose up, took off his shoes, and beat them against one another and against a rock by the shore, that he might cast off from his feet the very dust of Malacca. The people were stupefied, but the Vicar spoke a last word, ‘How? is this parting for ever? ^ for I surely hope in our Lord that you will soon come back to us with much peace !’ ‘ As it pleases the mercy of God!’ Francis answered, and mounted the side of the boat which was to take him to the ship.

CHAPTER III.

San Chan.

The Santa Croce was not long in reaching Singapore, and there she must have remained for two or three days, since we have some letters dated thence by Francis Xavier, which he sent back by some vessel bound for Malacca. In them he speaks more freely than in .the few short notes which he had written at Malacca. It is probable that he feared that his letters might be intercepted. Indeed we are told that Don Alvaro actually seized a bundle of his correspondence with Europe, expecting to find therein some attacks upon himself, but there was nothing. Nevertheless, Francis had written to the King to commend Diego Pereira to his notice, and it could hardly be but that he must have said something about the manner in which the em­bassy to China had been defeated. These letters have not been preserved to us; indeed, we have no letters to Europe later than those written before Francis left India for the last time.

The letters from Singapore require but little commentary. Francis is most anxious that the Bishop of Goa should be got to send to Malacca the formula declaring that Don Alvaro dAtaide has incurred the penalty of excommunication by his conduct in the matter of the Chinese mission. We may con­sider this as sufficient proof that the Vicar, Joam Suarez, had not been bold enough in this respect to satisfy Francis: and indeed, we find a confirmation of this in one of the subsequent letters to Diego Pereira. Suarez perhaps objected that he had not seen the bulls appointing Francis to be Nuncio Apostolic. The bulls were at Goa. Or again, he may have pleaded that as Francis himself was allowed to proceed, and Pereira alone was detained, it could not be said that the Nuncio had been

hindered in his mission. The want of courage which Suarez then manifested may have been a real support to Don Alvaro, and may have had a share in making Francis form the resolu­tion, which we shall soon see him putting into words, to with­draw the members of the Society altogether from Malacca. The following letter explains very clearly the exact line taken by Francis in dealing with Don Alvaro. He did not ask that he should be excommunicated; but that as he had already in­curred the penalty of excommunication, by virtue of the Pope’s bulls, the ecclesiastical authorities should declare that such was the case.

(cxn.) To Father Gaspar Baertz, Rector of the College at Goa.

May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ always help and favour us ! Aihen. »

You will hardly believe, dear Master Gaspar, what trials were in store for me at Malacca. I cannot write them to you myself; I have desired Francis Perez to give you an account of them. You may believe what he writes, incredible as it may seem. I am going to the islands of China, which lie near the city of Canton, destitute of all human help, but protected, as I hope, by that of God. I am in hopes that pagans will open to me the way of entering the Chinese continent, since Chris­tians have closed it against me, fearless of the sentence of the Church and of the anger of God which they have incurred. You will, then, use all diligence that his Lordship the Bishop may send to his Yicar in Malacca the formula of excommuni­cation, by virtue of which the Governor of Malacca and the other persons who have caused the failure of a plan so useful to the Christian religion, may be publicly and by name declared to be cut off from the Sacraments of the Church.

I desire that it may be expressed in this decree that I have been sent to India by his Holiness Paul III. as Apostolical Legate, the bulls conferring which authority on me have been verified by the prelate himself. My reason for acting in this

way is that in future no one may oppose the propagation of the Christian religion and the designs of pious men for that pur­pose. I would never ask of an ecclesiastical superior to ex­clude any one from the communion of the faithful; but I will do all in my power to let the world know that men who have already incurred excommunication by the decrees and bulls of the holy Pontiffs are so excluded. I will never consent in any way to connivance as to not publishing their miserable condi­tion ; that the publishing it may one day bring them to themselves, and lead them to seek a remedy for the wounds of their souls, and also that they may not have the audacity in future to delay any member of the Society who may be going in the interests of religion to the Moluccas, to China, or to Japan. So use every means that this edict may arrive at its destination.

Of the four of the Society whom I brought with me, I have sent three to Japan — Balthasar Gago, Duarte de Silva, and Pedro de Alcaceva. They are in a good ship, and their weather hitherto has been good. I pray God to bring them safely to Amanguchi, where Cosmo Torres and Joam Fernandez are at present. I have kept with me one of ours and Antony the Chi­nese. Both are seriously ill, to my great annoyance and their own. Thanks be to God ! Remember to send another of ours to Japan next year. He must be a priest, and also a man of learning. The subjects for Japan and China ought always to be learned and well read. ' If you have not a priest, send an­other, some clever man able to learn the Japanese language. At the same time, you should get by way of alms for our bre­thren in Japan a certain sum, either out of the treasury or from the Confraternity of Mercy, or from other pious persons, in order to help to some degree the penury and want in which those poor sufferers live.

Send F. Joam Beira without delay back to the Moluccas, where his presence is so necessary, together, if possible, with a priest of the Society, a man well furnished not so much with learning as with virtue; for in the Moluccas goodness of life is required more than learning. So the fathers who are sent thither later ought to be more approved and tried.

vol. 11. MM

I again enjoin you to observe diligently the injunctions which I left with you; in the first place, those which regard the salvation of your soul, and your own perfection; in the second place, those relating to the administration of the Society. Should it happen, which God forbid, that I am not able to penetrate into China, I shall return to Goa, if I am alive, in the month of January next year. Meanwhile be sure to write me full details of everything concerning the affairs of India and Portugal; send me news of the Bishop, of the Franciscans and Dominicans; offer respectful greetings to all of them in my name, and beg them not to fail to recommend me to our com­mon Lord in their holy sacrifices and prayers. Ask the same favour of the spiritual friends of our Society. Indeed, we who are living in China or Japan need a more than ordinary pro­tection from God. May He in His mercy bring us to our heavenly country, where we shall certainly enjoy a far more tranquil life than in this place of exile ! Amen.

Straits of Singapore, July 20, 1552. FRANCIS.

The next letter is to Joam Beira, who, as has already been said, was on his way to Goa. Its contents need no further commentary than the facts already stated.

(cxm.) To Father Joajn Beira.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

Joam Beira, by all the love which you have for God’s service, I order and implore you not to communicate to any one in the world the interior feelings which God has communicated to you ; I mean those gleams of knowledge with which your soul has been enlightened from Heaven, on matters not involving the spiritual progress and salvation of the Christians of the Mo­luccas and the Islands of the Moor, or of others whose direc­tion has been committed to you. As to matters concerning the advantage and spiritual progress of the Christians, you will discuss them with the Lord Viceroy, and do your utmost to

obtain from him the orders and letters patent which you may judge necessary for those objects. And if you think you will succeed more easily by means of the authority and influence of the Lord Bishop, then go to him to present your request, and entreat him to induce the Lord Viceroy to extend the royal protection to the Church of the Moluccas, and to grant in favour of that Church the proper orders and rescripts in order to defend it from the injustice and plots of the King of the Moluccas, whom you consider hostile thereto.

Try to settle this business at Goa as quickly as possible, that you may be ready to return as soon as possible. I should like you to be ready to avail yourself of the ships which sail in May from Goa to the Moluccas, that you should take some of our priests with you. If there should be no priests at your disposal, you could bring some of our brothers who have had some education, and are destined for the priesthood, or even simple laymen. These last, if they are well disposed and in­telligent, are more easily guided because of their greater hu­mility, and so they are, I think, to be preferred for the main­tenance of peace and union among our brothers of that resid­ence. Settle too with Father M. Gaspar that at least one priest or one layman of the Society shall be sent regularly every year to the Moluccas. Pray do not let anything prevent your start­ing for the Moluccas in May; you are ardently desired there, as your absence is sensibly prejudicial to the interests of religion.

Take this letter with you to Goa, that it may be read, if necessary, to our brethren who are in authority there. I feel sure that when they know my intentions, they will not oppose your return in virtue of this order; but be careful not to reveal to anybody in Goa the things which you told me at our private conference in the church at Malacca. I am writing to Father Gaspar, urging him to help in every way, and to facilitate the speedy settlement of the affairs for which you have made this voyage, so that you may get through your business and be at liberty to seize the first opportunity of returning to the place from whence you came. But be sure not to start without the Viceroy’s letters patent, drawn up in correct form, and revoking

in so many words the privileges granted to the King of the Moluccas by Don Joam de Castro, because that King shows such flagrant bad faith as to fulfilling what he had promised in return, in not granting the advantages stipulated in favour of the Christians and the Portuguese. In short, his conduct is in direct contradiction to his words and engagements.

May God reunite us in the glory of Paradise !

Your brother in Jesus Christ,

Straits of Singapore, July 21, 1552. FRANCIS.

The two following letters relate mainly to a Japanese whom Francis had picked up, and whom he hoped to turn into a use­ful interpreter for the fathers who might in the course of the next year proceed to Japan.

(cxiv.) To Father Master Gaspar Baertz.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always I help and favour us ! Amen.

Master Gaspar,—Antony the Japanese is now sailing for H Japan with Balthasar Gago and Pedro de Alcageva, to act as 1 their interpreter till they reach Arnanguchi. At my request _t. John the Japanese has consented to render the same service I to the Father, or the brother, not yet a priest, as the case may I be, who is to be sent to Japan next year, and he will accom- I pany him to Arnanguchi. I beg you, in the name of God, to . obtain for this good convert, who is in a very destitute state, I an alms to the sum of about 30 pardams, and to buy with it I for him such articles as he will know can be readily and profit- I ably sold in Japan. This little capital will enable him, for the future, to live in a quiet way in his own country on his earn- I ings. I was obliged to give him hopes of this advantage, to induce him to return to his native land, which he was obliged by extreme poverty to leave. But to inspire him with more j zeal, so that he may serve our brother, who is soon to start, with fidelity and attachment, I think that, besides the gift I ]

lhave just mentioned, which you will get for him from the Con- I fraternity of Mercy, or from some rich and charitable person, ;you ought to receive him into your house, to feed him, and to attach him closely to the Society by great charity. As I hope that what I have said will be enough to show you how just my irequest is, and how much I have it at heart, so I will add no- i thing to this expression of my wishes, feeling sure that they | will be faithfully followed.

May our Lord God bring us together in the glory of his Paradise !

Straits of Singapore, July 22, 1552-

Master Gaspar,—I think that the sum collected by way of ;alms which you are to send to Japan for the relief of our bro­thers, who are employed in that new vineyard of Jesus Christ,

1 ought to be entirely converted into gold coin of the highest and best standard; you had better therefore take the opinion of experienced persons in choosing from the different gold coins, and keep, for this purpose, those which are acknowledged to be of the purest metal. I have heard it said that the Vene­tian gold was the most esteemed on this account. Ascertain by the opinion of persons acquainted with the subject, whether there is money to be found of the same standard. In Japan gold is exchanged to great advantage if it is of the best specific weight and standard, for the purest metal is in request for the enchasing of weapons, which is almost the only use to which gold is put in that country. Let our brother who is to be sent to Japan next year, that is to say in 1553, be trained to very great patience, for he will require an invincible patience to withstand the countless trials, first of the voyage, and then of the living, and abode. See also that he takes enough Portuguese cloth for himself and for the brothers whom he will find in the country, that they may be protected from the extreme cold of the winters, which are there far more severe than anywhere else.

Your most loving brother in Jesus Christ,

Francis.

(cxv.) To John the Japanese.

John the Japanese, my son,—I am writing to Father M.l Gaspar, to procure for you from the liberality of pious persons at Goa the sum requisite for getting for you such articles as j may be sold with profit in Japan, for I do not wish you to re-l turn to your country as destitute as you left it. You will go] hence to Goa with Father Joam Beira, by the vessels which sail] at stated times from Malacca to India. On your arrival give the letter which I send to you, with this one, to Father Gaspar, I the Rector of the College at Goa; it concerns you. Be careful I to serve the fathers who are to come from Goa to Japan withl zeal and fidelity till you all reach Amanguehi. I exhort you I to confess all your sins frequently to a priest, with great sorrow! lor having offended God, and a firm purpose of amendment. I I also wish you often to receive the Holy Eucharist with the I deepest reverence and desire of fortifying yourself against the I danger of losing the grace of God. To avoid this great evil, askl often for the Divine assistance, and when you are exposed to! occasions of sin, strive with all your strength to remain steadfast! in the service of God ; remember that if you commit sin, you I will have to suffer for it very severely in this world, or the next.I You must therefore fear the falling into sin as the most terrible! of misfortunes, by which you incur the eternal punishment of hell. When you are in Japan do not fail to greet Mark and j Paul affectionately for me. May God make you holy and I happy, and bring you to the glory of His Paradise !

Straits of Singapore, July 22, 1552.

Say from me to Father Francis Perez, showing him thisl letter, that when you are setting sail for India, he is to write I to Cochin to Father Antonia Eredia, charging 'him in my name to collect some alms for you in that town, either from] the Confraternity of Mercy, or from persons who are under his | spiritual direction. Let the said Father F. Perez know that I 1 shall be very glad if, in expectation of your return from India,1 he will collect at a favourable opportunity and keep for your |j

use, a little money to be given to you on your arrival from Goa and departure to Japan; give him this letter to read, that he may know of my wish. He will help you more or less accord­ing to his ability, and if anything should prevent your taking letters from Perez to Eredia, you can show this letter, when you reach Cochin, to Eredia, rector of the college in that town. It will be sufficient to inform him of my intentions on your behalf, and he will do all in his power to raise something for your assistance. Once more I charge you to take every care of the fathers who will go with you to Japan, and to obey and serve them with perfect fidelity.

I add this with my own hand: My son John, serve the fathers, who will go with you to Japan with the utmost care, .and accompany them to Amanguchi.

Your friend from the bottom of my heart,

Francis.

On the outer fold of the letter is written ‘ To my son John.’ 'On another: ‘John my son, Joam Bravo will read this letter to you.’

The letter to Diego Pereira (of which we have another short epitome, which was probably sent in duplicate) shows all that extreme and affectionate consideration with which Francis now regarded him.

(cxvi.) To Diego Pereira.

Senor,—Having so lately seen you who are so very dear to me, and so tenderly loved, I cannot help being torn by a longing regret, and by the thought and picture of the danger in which I have left you, exposed daily to mortal contagion under a sky where the air is poison, and infected by the breath of so many plague stricken sufferers. This anxiety brings you constantly to my thoughts, and pierces my heart with bitter fear, lest some­thing should happen to you, as is the lot of man, far different from your deserts and my prayers for you. In this ship, all your people, knowing your wishes, treat me with great kind­

ness and honour, supplying me with everything necessary in abundance, not only for myself, who am in good health, but also for my companions who were sick, as you know, when we left. But all these sick, by the Divine mercy—for we know that even when God’s hand is raised to strike us, He is merciful, and, coming from His hand, even ills have the virtue of graces— all these sick, by the Divine goodness, are daily getting worse. How sick at heart I am, and what bitter anguish consumes me, is known only to the Lord, AVho consoles and afflicts us according to His good pleasure, Whose providence dispenses both joys and sorrows in an admirable manner; to Whom be praise and glory from all creatures in heaven and on earth for ever !’

I send you, Senor. the letters which I have addressed to his Highness and to the Viceroy of India, open, and with the seal detached, in order that you may be able to read them, and then close them up. Indeed I could have wished, for your sake, that my letter to the King could be taken to Portugal this very year by some confidential friend of yours, who could present it to the King, obtain and bring back the royal decree; for I am not rash, I think, in taking for granted that this decree will be what it is important to us both that it should be, and you know how necessary it is that it should reach us quickly. You can show this letter to Don Pedro—it will doubtless be a pleasure to him to see how I have spoken ofhim to his Highness. You will have observed that I have made two copies of the letter, one sealed, the other open, to be closed by you after you have read it. You will send them in different dispatches, and by different ships. I think, if you see no objection, that one of the two might be intrusted to Don Pedro himself, as he is going to the King. I should like the other to be given to the care of some one chosen by you—some very trustworthy friend whom you consider will handle most faithfully and prudently a matter so nearly affecting your fortune and honour. But I leave the whole thing to your will and wisdom.

I do most earnestly entreat you, Senor, to be careful of your life, your health, and also of your temporal condition; first of

all, keep out of the way of contagion and of all dangerous com­munication with persons attacked by the pestilence, or with those who serve them; in the next place, be careful of your fortune, and do nothing imprudent—regulate all things with circumspection and mature judgment; do not, while accepting the good offices of those who profess friendship to you, confide too readily in any one, or go further than is safe with him till experience has shown you his true sentiments; lest, as is often the case, a false appearance of goodwill should have been as­sumed for the purpose of imposing on you.

Above all things, Senor, I conjure of you and beg it of you as * a special favour, that the more you are pressed by adversity, the more you will turn to God in your heart. This is the only way by which you can gain consolation and courage, now that troubles and storms have fallen on you. In the name of your filial love to God, and of the comfort which you take pleasure in giving me, I entreat and beg of you as a favour, for which I shall be your debtor, that now that your heart is tossed by storms from the keen sense of .your great affliction, caused by the recent injustice which has been done you so undeservedly, you will set apart some time to compose yourself, and after cleansing your soul by sacramental confession, go to the sacred banquet of the Body of our Lord in holy Communion, and so submitting every feeling of your soul to the providence of God, accept as good what He has been pleased to permit; hoping at the same time, as I do myself, not only that this violent storm will not injure you, but that it may be for the whole of your life an abundant and fruitful source even of temporal advant­age and of public honour.

I keep, and shall take with me to China, Francesco de Villa; both because I stand in the greatest need of his services, and that I consider that no one is more capable of looking after your affairs on board, and of helping Thomas Scandelho, your agent. When, by God’s help, we are on Chinese soil, we will send him back to Malacca by the first ship that sails. And if it is not God’s will to open China to us, and I am refused an entrance there, I shall avail myself of the first opportunity to reembark

for Malacca, and return to that town from the Chinese shores; should I happen to arrive there before the sailing of the vessels j which are returning to Portugal, I would go to India in one of them.

I have been thinking that it would be well, Senor, if you wrote yourself to the King at full length, and minutely dwell-j ing on all the advantages which could not fail to accrue to the Portuguese interests from the establishment of commerce with China, and if a residence were obtained for the King’s officers j in the port of Canton. I should like you to write on the same subject, and as carefully, to the Viceroy of India. For I am writ­ing myself to the King in the same tone, as you may see by the letters which I send open. You will read and seal them, making them into a single packet with yours, which will con­tain similar information, and you will address it thus: ‘ To our Lord the King, from Father Master Francis.’ Be careful, above all things, that the person to whom you intrust the de­livering the despatches into the King’s own hands is thoroughly attached to us—a man of sufficient authority and management, and also one whom you know to have important reasons obliging him soon to return to India, so that we may be sure that he will come by the first ship returning from Portugal to Goa, and thus enable us to have our business finished at once.

If our Lord God deigns to open the way for me into the ■Chinese empire, do not fail, Senor, as soon as you know that it is so, to write to me often, and by every opportunity; for however I may fare, it will give me the greatest consola­tion to have news of the health and doings of one so dear to me.

May our Lord grant you as much consolation in this life and glory in the next as I desire for myself! Farewell.

Straits of Singapore, August i, 1552.

The Bishop’s Vicar at Malacca has begged me to write on his behalf to his Highness. I am complying with his wish, although I have been told that, in the affair of our Embassy to China, he did not accomplish all that was in his power for

our service, or rather for the service of all; and that he sa­crificed the interests of God and of the propagation of our holy religion to the favour of Don Alvaro, the Captain of Malacca, to whom he wished to show himself devoted, for the sake of some worldly advantages which he hopes to purchase by his flattery. It is indeed a great mistake in which any one lives, who neglects God, from Whom all good comes, and hopes to gain what he wants or desires by means of men. • Indeed it is my way to revenge myself on those who have offended me by loading them with all the benefits in my power; for God will infallibly send them the punishment they have deserved: and you will see, Senor, by very remarkable instances, that God will punish very severely all who have opposed me when

I was labouring in His service. But in truth, Senor, I declare to you, that at this moment I feel a deep compassion for these men, and I tremble lest far heavier punishments than they ex­pect should be hanging over their heads. Be so kind, Senor, as to give into the Vicar’s own hands the letter in which I re­commend him to the King, so that he may send it with his own.

If God brings me into the empire of China, as I hope from His mercy, I shall inform the Portuguese who are there of all that they owe you. I shall tell them of all your efforts, all your expenditure, the object of which was their help and conso­lation ; lastly, according to your desire, I will salute them all in your name : and as you intend to continue to help them, I will lead them to hope that if in any way you are able, through God’s help, to overcome the obstacles which have hitherto hindered your pious intention, you will be with them within the next year. I beg you, Senor, for your own sake, often to visit our fathers at Malacca; I feel sure that their society and conversation will alleviate the mental sufferings which agitate and distress you. Once more farewell.

Your very true friend, Francis.¹

¹ The duplicate of this letter, referred to above, is much shorter, and is dated July zzd. It consists of three paragraphs in Father Menchacha’s ■edition. The first mentions, very briefly, the fear Francis expresses on .account of the danger in which he has left his friend, the kindness shown

The voyage from Singapore to San Chan—the last voyage of Francis Xavier—was made memorable by several prodigies, and we find incidents of this kind crowded into the few last months of his life, as if he was to be magnified before men, after having incurred so severe a disappointment at Malacca. After leaving Singapore, the vessel was becalmed for fourteen days. There were in all five hundred souls on board, and the fresh water was soon consumed. No land was to be seen. The ship lay motionless on the sea, the torrid summer’s sun streaming fiercely down upon it from a, cloudless sky. Boats were sent out to search for some island that was thought to be not far off, but after they had ventured as far as they could go with safety,, they returned without any results.² In this terrible strait, the captain and crew—they were in great part Don Alvaro’s people, and so hostile to Francis—remembered that they had the ‘holy Father’ on board, the power of whose charity and miracles had rung through the whole East. They went to Francis, and besought him to help them in their need. Francis placed a crucifix before them, and bade them all kneel with him and sing the Litanies of the Saints. Then he retired for a short time into his own little cabin to pray, after which he came forth and bade them be of good courage. He had a boat lowered, and went into it with a child. He told the child to take some of the sea water and taste it. It was salt. Then he bade him try

to him on board the ship by Pereira’s people, as also to his companions who are so ill that their sickness daily grows worse, the desire of Francis that Pereira will frequent the sacraments and visit the fathers at Malacca, and his hope that all will turn to his honour and profit. The second paragraph, without mentioning the Bishop’s Vicar, speaks of the great mis­take made by those who seek the advancement of their interests from men and not from God, as also of the best way of vengeance, that of trying to do good to those who have injured us. Francis then speaks of his inten­tion of telling the Portuguese in China what they owe to Uiego Pereira. In the last paragraph he begs Pereira to let him have news of him. If he does not reach China, he will perhaps return to Malacca, and thence to India. He sends with this letter a letter of his own to the Viceroy, which Diego must send on by a faithful messenger, and write himself also to the King and the Viceroy in the sense mentioned above.

^: Bartoli says they were near Formosa, but could not get to land. Asia, t. i. p. 338.

again. This time it was sweet. On this Francis went on deck and ordered the crew to fill all the barrels and vessels they had with the sea water. They obeyed him, but when they tasted the water it was still salt. Then Francis Xavier blessed the water in all the vessels with the sign of the holy Cross, and it was found to be sweeter and fresher than the water of Bangan, as. the sailors said. Bangan was the name of a spring at Goa, the water of which was highly prized. There was enough water, after abundantly supplying all present needs, for the people on board to keep some of it as a treasure, and in this way it became famous over the East, being often used for cures and the like, as if it were the water of some miraculous well.³

The calm ceased, and the Santa Croce was able to pursue her course to San Chan. The remainder of the voyage was full of wonders, which, as we have said, seem crowded to an un­usual degree into these last weeks of the life of St. Francis. A Mussulman lost his child, a boy of five years old, who fell over­board at a time when the ship was running fast before the wind, and when it was impossible even to make an attempt to save him. The poor father was in despair for three days, till he chanced to come across Francis Xavier on the deck. It seems that Francis had not heard of the accident. He asked the father whether he would believe on Jesus Christ if his child were restored to him ? The man declared that he would, and after a few hours he met his child as bright and joyous as ever,

³ This miracle is one of those which were specially selected from the Processes by the Auditors of the Rota as being beyond all doubt and cavil. They tell the story much as it is told in the text, which is mainly taken from Bartoli (Asia, t. i. p. 338, 339), except that they leave out the incident of the little boy in the boat who first tasted the water. The eye­witnesses, whose names are given, and who swore to the truth of the facts at Cochin, are two whose names occur in the letters of St. Francis at this time,—Domenico Caldeira, who was ninety-eight years old when he was examined ; and Joam ISotelho, who was eighty-five. Botelho was one of those who drew the water out of the sea at the order of Francis, and lasted it before it was blessed, finding it salt, and then again after it was blessqd, when it was sweet. There were a great many other witnesses who had hfeard the story from eyewitnesses perfectly worthy of credit, but these two seem to have been the only survivors within reach of the persons actu­ally present.

running to him on the deck. He kept his promise, and was baptized with all his family. The ship put into Tchin-tcheon, the same port at which Francis had touched on his voyage to Japan three years before, and the marvels related by the crew and passengers drew universal attention to the holy Father. He preached to people of all nations, and baptized sixty Mus­sulmans. While he was administering baptism on the deck of the vessel, the bystanders remarked that he seemed to be of almost gigantic stature, so that he could reach forward to pour the sacred water of regeneration upon the heads of those who were kneeling behind the rest at a distance from him. When they had left Tchin-tcheon and proceeded on their voyage, they ran past San Chan without knowing it. Francis warned the crew of the fact, but they would not believe him. After a time, however, they lay to and sent a boat to look for the island. It was missing for some days, and they began to give it up, till Francis told them that it would soon return with some fresh provisions on board, sent as a present by the Portugese mer­chants already on the island. All came about as he had said, and the ship reached its destination.

The little island of San Chan, which has been made so famous to Christians as the resting place, for a short time, of the body of St. Francis Xavier, is described as half wild and barren, covered with brushwood, haunted by tigers, and in­habited by a poor and simple population. As the Portuguese ships were not admitted to Canton, San Chan was a^ rendez­vous for them as well as for the junks of the Chinese traders, who exchanged goods with them. The Portuguese were not allowed to settle even here; but they ran up huts of wood and branches during the few months of their stay in the island. Life at San Chan during this time was wild, jovial, and even licentious. Occasions of self indulgence abounded, money was plentiful, the restraints imposed upon the Portuguese even in India were wanting, and religion was but little more thought of by many Christians than by the pagans. There were gaming and drinking, as well as other kinds of debauchery; and even those who did not go headlong into a course of vice, gave them­

selves up to enjoyment. The Portuguese, as always, received Francis with great joy. They built for him in a couple of days a little chapel, with a hut attached to it. Here he said mass daily and administered the sacraments, spending the rest of his time in teaching children, making up quarrels, and other such offices of charity. One of the gifts, the exercise of which cha­racterizes this last stage of his life, was that of the knowledge of the future. Among a number of instances which were re­corded afterwards, there is one which so beautifully expresses his generous grateful charity, as well as the relations in which he stood to the rich Portuguese merchants, that it can hardly be passed over. We have already incidentally heard of Pedro Velho, a merchant who was among those who had shown Fran­cis so much respect and kindness while in the kingdom of Boungo, and who was reproved by him during the passage from Japan to San Chan for his want of faith. He was now trading at San Chan with a large sum of ready money, such as it seems to have been necessary for the merchants to carry with them in those days, and his chest was always readily opened on application from Francis Xavier. It seems that he was on very familiar terms with Francis, who used to exhort him to do penance by taking the discipline, and when he refused, alleging the tenderness of his skin, Francis would go and inflict the penance on himself. One day Francis was in want of a sum of three hundred ducats for a good girl, to whom he wished to give the money as a portion, in order to save her from the tempta­tions to which her youth and beauty might otherwise expose her. He went to Velho, who was playing chess with another merchant. ‘Ah, Father Francis,’ said he, ‘this is a bad time to come and ask me for money, when I am doing my best to get some of my neighbour’s.’ ‘ All times are good for doing good, Pedro,’ said Francis ; ‘ and now you have your purse in your hand, you can give more easily.’ ‘ I must get rid of you,’ said Velho, pretending to be in a pet. ‘ Here is the key of my chest; go and take whatever you want.’ The chest con­tained a sum equal to forty-five thousand scudi. Francis took the money which he required, and gave back the key with many

thanks. When his game was over, Velho thought he would go and see what Father Francis had taken ; but he found that his money bags were as full as before. Nothing seemed to have been touched. He went to Francis to complain that he had played him an unfriendly trick. Francis assured him that he had taken as much as he wanted. ‘ Little or much,’ said Velho,

¹1 find nothing gone; and when I gave you my key, my in­tention was that we should go shares in the whole money, and that you should take your half; God forgive your Reverence !’ The good man spoke with his whole heart in his face : he had really meant as he said. Francis’s countenance lighted up as with a heavenly fire, as was his wont when he uttered his num­berless prophecies and revelations. ‘ Pedro,’ he said, ‘ your offering has been accepted by our Lord, who weighs the most secret intentions of the will. He will pay you in due time.l And now I promise you on His part, that never while you live shall you want what is becoming to your station. You will have times when you may be in danger of poverty, but you will always have good friends to succour you; and besides this, you shall not die without first knowing the hour of your death.’j Francis afterwards told him that he should know death was at hand, and prepare for it, when the wine tasted sour in his mouth/

Pedro Velho became a changed man from that day. He had lived hitherto as an honest but easygoing merchant, en­joying life, though keeping away from grievous sin; now he became almost a religious in his care as to the perfection of his daily actions, and in the restraint which he put upon his senses. He lived for many years, and was always saved from want, when | his fortune had been bad, by the kindness of his friends. He gave a good part of his substance to the poor, and had many masses celebrated for his soul. At last one day at Macao, at an entertainment in the house of a friend, he asked for a cup of wine, and found that it tasted sour. He asked another friend to taste it, and this one found it sweet and good. Then Velho knew that the time was come for the prediction of Francis Xavier to be fulfilled. He arranged his affairs, prepared his

soul for death, and went about bidding his friends goodbye as if he were going on a voyage, only asking them to come to the church and be present at his funeral. He had the requiem mass sung, laying himself on a bier with burning candles around him. The last absolution was given by the priest, and when his servants went up to lift off the pall with which their master had covered himself, Pedro Velho was cold and motionless : he had died during the mass.⁴

Francis reached San Chan in the last week of August 1552. He had not been long on the island before he fell ill of a fever, which kept him to his bed for a fortnight. Towards the end of October he wrote the letters which are next inserted, and which show the state in which his prospects as to China were at the time.

(cxvii.) To Diego Pereira.

God in His most bountiful mercy has brought us and your shiper, Senor, safely in this port of San Chan. You will receive information, from those who are able to give it, of the state and conditions of trade, and of the actual and future results which commerce may offer. I, who am unlearned in these matters, deem it more prudent to say nothing. I will only write to you concerning my own affairs. I am daily expecting a merchant, who has undertaken to take me to Canton. I have agreed to give him as his price twenty piculs of pepper; the picul is a weight peculiar to the country, and is equal to 120 Portuguese pounds. May this affair succeed, as I hope it will, for the service and greater glory of our Lord God !

If there is one man in the whole of this undertaking who deserves reward from Divine Providence, it is undoubtedly you; and you will have the whole credit of it. With the ut-

⁴ This prophecy is selected by the Auditors of the Rota 111 their J\e- 1 latio. They place it, however, at Macao, where there was no settlement I till some years after this time. The historians who had seen the Processes place the fulfilment of the prophecy at Macao, and this perhaps explains the difficulty. The witnesses for the truth of the prophecy and its fulfil­ment are very numerous, including the son-in-law and two daughters of ! Pedro Velho himself.

VOL. II.

N N

most generosity, you have advanced the expenses for my jour­ney and that of my companions as far as this island, as well! as the price to be paid, as I said, for my conveyance to the- Chinese continent and the province of Canton. Thomas Scan- delho, your agent, accomplishes faithfully your orders, and gives me all I ask. May God reward him for his great charity, and. for the continual acts of kindness which he performs on all’i possible occasions!

The Chinese merchant, whom I expect to conduct me to the territory of Canton, is well known to Manuel de Chaves, having kept him at his own house at Canton for several days, when he escaped from prison. This makes me feel confident that he will not be unfaithful to his word; and I have more­over discovered, in my dealings with him in this port of San Chan, that he thinks a good deal of the 120 measures of pepper, as I said. I hope, through means of Manuel de Chaves (whom I expect to find at Canton at liberty, and preparing to return to India) to write to you at length about the issue of the aftair of our passage, and the reception I meet with at Canton. I

If (which God forbid !) this Chinese merchant were not to keep his word, and no means remained of going this year to i the continent of China, I am undecided what to do. I am not I certain whether I should go back to India, or to the King of Siam, whs, they tell me, is preparing a solemn embassy to the Chinese Emperor, and possibly I might find some place or I other in its train. If I return to India, I see no hope of success as long as Alvaro de Gama rules at Malacca. We should obtain nothing just or favourable there, and nothingl would go well with regard to the expedition to China, unless! God, who is all powerful, does by His supreme might some,l thing which we do not at all expect. I do not write my inmost thoughts on this subject; I only say one word—that II fear very much that God will punish Don Alvaro more severely! than he dreams of, if, indeed, his punishment has not already! begun.

I wrote to you a long letter from the Straits of Singapore, I and I feel confident that my letter has reached you safely, for

I gave it into the hands of Manuel de Fonseca, a servant of Antonio Pegado, who is very trustworthy. I have nothing farther, then, to say touching iny affairs, excepting that I have just recovered from an attack of fever which had lasted a fort­night. If the voyage to China comes about, you will receive ample news by the letters I shall send from Canton by Ma­nuel de Chaves, with others, full of particulars for the King. If circumstances were to hinder me from going on this voyage, Diego Vaz, of Aragon, offers kindly to take me with him; he proposes going to Siam, and he has just bought a Chinese junk for the purpose. I am inclined to this plan, because by occa­sion of the Siamese embassy I think I see that access to China and Canton is possible, and from thence I might write to you by Manuel de Chaves. This idea pleases me so much, that I almost lean towards the voyage to Siam. I beg you, therefore, if you find a favourable opportunity for sending letters to Siam, to take the trouble to do so, and let me know what you have resolved to do since I left, and in what state your affairs are— whether your embassy seems likely to come off at least next year, for then I would wait for you at Coma'i',⁵ or in some other port belonging to Canton. May God deign to grant it! With what delight we should embrace at finding one another on the soil of China, the object of our most earnest desires ! If God wills otherwise, and if we are not to meet again in this life, may He, the most loving Lord of us and of the whole world, deign in His infinite mercy to allow us to meet some day in the glory of His Paradise, where we shall be for ever happy together! Farewell.

San Chan, October 21, 1552.

Francesco de Villa renders you all possible service on board ship. I ought to testify his deep gratitude towards you. He_x declares publicly that he owes his estate and fortune to you, and that he is indebted to you for the bread that he has to eat. He will return to you with Manuel de Chaves, and will

* It was, according to all appearance, the anchorage of Kc-moi, in a small island opposite Amoy, depending on the province of Fo-kiew. Leon Pages.

beg to be excused for having come hither without having had your leave. If there is a fault in the matter, it must be im­puted to me. Once more farewell.

Your true friend from his heart,

Francis.

(cxviii.) To Francesco Perez of the Society of Jesus.

Francesco Perez, I command you in virtue of holy obedi­ence, as soon as you have read this letter, to leave Malacca and get ready as soon as possible to embark for India in one of the vessels which will sail by the next monsoon. If this letter reaches you after the ship have left, go by the vessel which sails by Coromandel to Cochin, where you must remain, employing yourself in preaching, confessing, and teaching the Catechism, as you did at Malacca, observing the order and method which I recommended and put down on paper when I left Malacca for Japan. If the difference of place demands a change, follow the rule which I gave in writing to Antonio Eredia, whom you are to succeed in the care and government of the College at Cochin. At the same time I order Eredia himself, or any other father, who since my departure may for any cause have been placed at the head of the house at Cochin, to go to Goa as soon as he has seen this letter, which you will show him, and there hold himself in readiness till he be sent to Japan. The day you enter the College of Cochin the Superior will give up his authority, and you must take his place, govern­ing the house with the powers of Rector, depending, however, to the degree I have prescribed, on the Rector of the College of St. Paul at Goa. At Cochin, in accordance with the Insti­tute of the Society, and with the talents which have been given you, you will employ your whole strength in procuring the glory of our Lord God, and in helping both our brothers and externs to advance in the ways of salvation and perfection. And although I am convinced that you will perform these things or any others greater and more in number, without hesitation, and at the mere sign of my will, still in order to add to your merits

I make use of the authority with which I am invested, and command you and Eredia also, or whoever may be Rector of the house at Cochin, in the name of obedience to do all that I have said in this letter. The Rector will immediately resign the government of the house and proceed to Goa by the first opportunity, and you will take his place. You will have under your authority not only all our brothers, both priests and lay­men, who are now at Cochin, but those also who may come there at any time, whatever may be their rank and station and dignity, with the exception of any one whom the Rector of Goa from certain causes may perhaps desire to be exempt from your authority. And let all know that I command this in virtue of obedience. Do not you then fail to leave Malacca at once, and to go and take the government of the College at Cochin, both which things I order you to do.

Port of San Chan, October 21, 1552. FRANCIS.

(cxix.)' To Francesco Perez of the Society of Jesus.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always •help and favour us ! Amen.

By the grace of God we have reached the port of San Chan, 120 miles from Canton. On disembarking I had a hut made, in which I offered the Holy Sacrifice every day till I fell ill. I suffered altogether for a fortnight from the fever, and now by God’s goodness I am restored to health. I do not want for holy occupations. I hear confessions, appease quarrels, and do other things of that sort. A great number of Chinese mer­chants from Canton come to this island for the sake of com­merce, and the Portuguese have often dealt with them dili­gently to procure my passage to Canton; but they have all flatly refused, declaring that it would be at great risk to their lives and property if the governor of that town should hear of it, and it was impossible to persuade them to receive us on board their junks.

However, doubtless by God’s arrangement, we have met 'with a honest Canton merchant, who has come to an agree­

ment with me for 200 gold pieces. He promises to take us in a little vessel, which is to carry no one else but his own sons and a few faithful slaves; so that if the governor of the town ever gets to hear of the affair, he will not be able to find out from the crew who it was who took us to Canton. He has also promised that we shall be in his house for three or four days, with our books and baggage; and then very early one morning he is to take us to the gate of the town and put us on the road leading to the government house. I shall go straight to the governor, telling him that I am come to announce the divine and heavenly law to the Emperor of China, and then I shall produce the Bishop of Goa’s letters addressed to that monarch. All the Chinese merchants are always glad to see us, and say they shall be very glad if the matter is accomplished.

I am aware, as all tell me, of the twofold danger of this enterprise. It is possible that the Chinese merchant after re­ceiving the gold may leave us in a desert island, or throw us into the sea to conceal his crime; and again, if we reach Can­ton, the governor may put us to all kinds of unheard of tortures, or make slaves of us for life. It is a capital crime for a foreigner to enter any part of China without a passport. But there are other dangers besides, greater and more unknown, all of which I cannot enumerate to you, but I will mention a few of them.

The first, then, is mistrust of God’s goodness and provi­dence ; especially when I have only come to this country in obedience to God, and from pure love of Him, to declare to the Chinese nation the most holy law of God, and to preach to them His only Son Jesus Christ, the Author of our salvation. Since He in His mercy has given us this mind, to doubt of His help and protection in the midst of the dangers which are before us would be a greater and more real danger than any that could be brought on us by His enemies. For neither the devils nor their satellites and servants can hurt us, j without the permission of Almighty God. If God is our de­fender, how easily will He dispel all perils ! And besides, we shall follow the precept of the Lord Jesus, ¹ He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth

it unto life eternal?* words which are in accordance with those other words of Jesus Christ, ⁱ No man putting his hand to the J>lough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.'⁷ As, then, we see that these spiritual dangers are more serious and more certain than any perils of the body, we prefer to face those of this life rather than incur everlasting death. In truth wc have resolved and are positively determined to enter China. May God only prosper our footsteps for the spreading of His Faith; and then let the devils and their army do their worst! I care not for them. ‘ If God be for us, who shall be against us f⁸

I hope that the ships which are sailing soon for India will bring you letters from me, announcing my entry into the city of Canton. My companions are perpetually sick. The Chinese lad I brought here to act as my interpreter has, I find, forgotten his native tongue; but I have found another well acquainted not only with the language, but with the literature of his country, who has offered of his own accord to accompany me in my voyage. May God reward him for it in this life, and after death ! I beg you to pray that God will keep him firm in his intention and purpose.

All the good Chinese who know us take pleasure in our company, and earnestly desire that we may penetrate into China. They have already got an idea that the books which they see us carrying everywhere contain better doctrine than theirs ; and thougl^ it is possible that it may only be from their love of novelty, they would like to see us enter their country. Notwithstanding, as I told you, these Chinese refuse altogether to take us there themselves. I am daily expecting the merchant with whom I made the agreement. God grant that he miay not fail me ! Should that misfortune happen, I know not what I should do, whether I shall return to India, or go to Siam, to join the embassy which the King of Siam is said to be shortly about to send to the Emperor of China. I will let you know

⁸ Lat. orig. Qiti amat animam suam in hoc mundo per Jet cam, etqui edit animam suam in hoc hi undo in vitam ictcrnam custodit cam. S. John xii. 25.

⁷ Qui pouit mcinum suam ad aratrum et respicit retro, non est aptus regno Dei. S. Luke ix. 62.

* Si cnim Dcits pjo nobis, quis contra nos I Rom. viii. 31.

what we shall do by a ship that sails for Malacca after a few days. May Jesus Christ our Lord grant us His help and guid-. ance, that we may one day come to the possession of the glory of heaven!

The least of your brothers in Jesus Christ,

Island of San Chan, October 22, 1552. FRANCIS.

(cxx.) To Father Gaspar Baertz.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always help and favour us ! Amen.

I do not know whether it was from Malacca or from the Straits of Singapore that I wrote to tell you what had happened to me. God has brought us safe and sound to San Chan, a Chinese island about 120 miles from Canton. Here I am in daily expectation of a Chinese merchant with whom (in conse­quence of severe edicts forbidding-the entrance of a foreigner without a government passport) I have agreed for 200 pardams to be taken to Canton. May God permit this plan to come about! I have heard that the Emperor of China has been sending persons into different countries to learn their manners, institutions, and laws. So there is reason to hope (and this the Chinese themselves tell me) that the King will not despise the Christian religion, or reject it at once. If God grants me life, and deigns to make use of us for His work, I will let you know about it. For the present, I charge you to watch over your soul, for in truth if you do not I can have no hope of you.

Remember to read again and again and observe very strictly the rules which I left with you, especially those as to self humiliation, in which I recommended you to exercise yourself bvery day. Fear above all things lest, in looking round on all that God is pleased to do by means of you and our brothers, you should learn to forget your own soul. My great love for you all makes me wish very much that you would consider very seriously within yourselves [how many things, through your fault, God has not done. I would rather see you occupied with this thought than with that of the great works of which

you are the instrument. The first thought would cause you to Ifeel shame and humility, by making you sensible of your im­perfections and miseries; the latter might be the means ofyoar [running into danger of pride and presumption, trusting in good deeds with which you have nothing to do, and in wonders of [grace which are the work of God alone. Pray consider how many persons this pernicious error has led into danger, and how fatal it would be to the whole Society if such a contagion i should ever spread in it.

I also charge you to receive very few subjects into the So­ciety; choose those who are capable of devoting themselves to literary studies, or of attending to the w’ork of the house. I assure you it would be better to buy slaves—yes, slaves—for domestic employments, than to admit into the Society persons unfit for it. If any of those whom I have sent away are at Goa, be sure not to receive them back on any pretence, for they are not suited to our Institute. If any one of them should com­pletely reform his life, and give sufficient proof of it, by public penances, voluntarily accepted and long persevered in, so as to have made in your judgment full satisfaction, you may send him to Portugal to the Superior of the Society there, with a re­commendation from you; for I am satisfied that none of these persons are fitted for India.

And jhould any member of the Society, priest or layman, be guilty of any serious fault, which has given scandal to others, send him away instantly, and do not allow yourself to be per­suaded by any one to receive him back, unless perchance his sense of guilt, his repentance, and voluntary penance, have been such as to save him from this calamity. Otherwise, on no account receive him; not if the Viceroy and the whole of India were to ask you to do so. I remind you also to send to the Moluccas and Japan none but well tried brothers, of great virtue and experience ; these are the kind of workmen wanted in these countries.

Recommend me very much to all the fathers and brothers of our Society, and to all our friends. Greet the Dominican and Franciscan Fathers from me, and beg them riot to cease

to intercede for me with God in their prayers and holy sacri­fices.

May God direct us continually, and call us some day to the enjoyment of His everlasting bliss in heaven ! « I

The least of your brothers in Jesus Christ,

San Chan, October 25, 1552. FRANCIS.

The plan which Francis mentions in these letters, accord-1 ing to which he was to be landed on the Chinese shore, and after three or four days left to shift for himself with the mandarin who governed at Canton, was necessarily alarmingj to the Portuguese merchants. The year before this, one of their ships had been driven ashore on the Chinese coast. It had been mercilessly confiscated, and the whole crew thrown! into prison. The Manuel de Chaves whom Francis mentions! was probably the captain or owner of this ill-fated vessel.! Indeed, the Chinese prisons were full of Portuguese, the lib-1 eration of whom had been made one of the main objects of the projected embassy of Pereira. If Francis were to give him-l self up to the mandarin after landing, the Chinese merchant! might escape, as Francis had pledged himself by an oath not to reveal his name to the authorities. But the latter were very likely to make his appearance an excuse for a descent on San Chan with an armed force, which might seize whatever ships! and merchants it could find there, and thus punish what was looked upon as an invasion. This accounts for the strong opposition which we are told was made by the Portuguese to the design which Francis had conceived, which, however, he j would certainly have executed, if the Chinese merchant had not I played him false. His intention to carry out at all costs the heavenly inspiration which had guided him to the coasts of China is an instance of what frequently meets us in the lives ₍ of the Saints.

The servants of God are strongly and unmistakably! prompted to undertake some great work for His glory, and then in His inscrutable providence He does not permit the execution of the design, giving them the merit of the inten­

tion, and of the faithfulness and perseverance with which they have followed it out against the greatest difficulties and dangers. China was not yet to open her gates to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The magnificence and sound policy of the attempt remain the same, for if it had been given to Francis Xavier to found a flourishing Church'in that great Empire, the Christian­ization of the extreme east of Asia would have been secured. It was such a design as only an Apostle could conceive; its failure entailed a long series of calamities, and the loss of a precious opportunity which has never recurred. The power of Portugal was already beginning to wane, and the European in­fluence in the East was at no distant date to be transferred to Holland and to England, Protestant powers, the first of whom made no scruple of letting her envoys trample on the Cross for the sake of securing a footing in Japan, while the latter has at least never thought it unwise to sacrifice the interests of Christianity to those of commerce or political power. Again, it would have been a bad example to future missioners if Francis Xavier had abandoned his design on China merely because he could not enter its ports as a member of a Portuguese em­bassy. These thoughts may not have been in his mind : but he at least intimates that he was guided by that true instinct of sanctity which bids the servants of God never look back when they have put their hand to the plough, never to yield to the obstacles of various kinds which the devil raises against them, but to make such opposition a fresh motive for their persever­ance, an additional reason for implicit trust in the power of the God whose cause they have in hand, and Who is wont to bring about the mightiest results by the weakest instruments and when all human hope of success has faded away.

Francis calmed the alarm of his Portuguese friends by pro­mising not to land on the Chinese coast till their ships were safe on the high seas on their way to Malacca. The appointed day for the coming of the Chinese merchant was the 19th of November. Before that time, all the ships except the Santa Croce had left San Chan. They took with them the last set of letters which remain to us from the hand of Francis.

(cxxi.) To Father Francis Perez of the Society of Jesus.

May the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord always- help and favour us ! Amen.

As Gaspar Mendez’s ship was weighing anchor, I gave Francesco Sanchez, one of the passengers,*a letter for you, which I hope has reached you; and I beg you to take to heart the orders which it contains, and which I here repeat, and to give all heed and attention to carry them out. I have been expect­ing for a week the merchant who is to take me secretly to the city of Canton. I have the fullest confidence in his return, | unless some hindrance should occur beyond the power of man to overcome, and I rely on the great value of the reward which I have promised him, and which he highly appreciates himself -_r for the quantity of pepper which I have agreed to have delivered to him, if he conveys me safe and sound to Canton, will easily obtain for him a profit of more than 350 gold pieces of our money. I have to thank my very dear friend Diego Pereira for- the means of buying my passage to China at so high a price, and he has of his own accord, and with great generosity, placed at my disposal this large quantity of very valuable merchandize. I May God reward him ! as I cannot, for I shall owe him a debt,. I can never repay all my life. I beg you all to use your most zealous endeavours to render signal services to this excellent. man in every part of India where it is possible to serve, sup­port, or assist him, whenever any of you may have the oppor­tunity; to embrace eagerly every means of doing him kindness,, j without sparing your utmost pains. The most earnest efforts of our united body will never be enough to repay only this last sacrifice which he has made at so great a cost to himself, one. so beneficial to the propagation of our holy faith, in order to introduce us into the empire of China, hitherto impenetrably closed against the Gospel. By this means the Society of Jesus will obtain the object of all its constant prayers—the power or spreading the kingdom of Jesus Christ and bringing into the Church the many nations of that immense empire: and as results- are rightly attributed to their origin, it will really owe all these

Iblessings to the generosity of one single man, Diego Pereira, Uvho out of his own fortune has provided the funds so necessary

(for my voyage, that is to say for the beginning of this great work.

Pray inquire of him whether he has hopes of surmounting Ithe obstacles in the way of his embassy, and if he is coming I to Canton next year. I desire this as greatly, as I expect it llittle. God grant that my small hopes may be contradicted by i a more fortunate issue than I look for! God forgive the man ► who is the cause of so great a misfortune ! I greatly fear that | before long a terrible vengeance from the God he has offended i will overtake him, and it may be that he is even now about to ex­perience its first effects. I am writing to Pereira himself, so [that if he obtains a more favourable result than I dare hope I for he may be good enough, on sailing for China, to take with I him some of our Society, whom Father Gaspar will send to him [from Goa, if he has notice given him some time beforehand. I have told him this by letter. But if, as I think most likely, Pereira, despairing of the success of his mission, should pass ¹ by Malacca, and direct his course towards Sunda, then it will no longer be necessary for the priest who would have gone with him to China to sail from Goa to Malacca in May. You should give notice of this, as I have told you in good time, to Father Gaspar, the Rector of the College at Goa; and I wish ¹ you to be clearly informed of Pereira’s intentions before your departure for Malacca. I have dismissed Ferreira from the Society, as he was not fitted for it; when therefore you arrive at Cochin, and have taken the management of the College, I command you, in virtue of obedience, not to receive him into the house. Do all you can to urge him to enter the Franciscan or Dominican Order: and if you succeed, ask those fathers to grant him admission. Write also to Father Gaspar Baertz at Goa; saying, that by virtue of my authority I absolutely forbid his receiving Ferreira into the community or under the College roof; only let him do all he can to help him as to his admission into the Order of St. Francis or St. Dominic.

If by God’s grace I am able to reach Canton, I will do all

in my power that you may hear of it from me next year, by letters which I will send you to India, which I will dispatch,! if possible, so as to catch the vessel sailing to Coromandel. I shall use for this Pereira’s ship on its return to Malacca; I only pray it may reach Malacca in time. If all this can be success-j fully arranged, you will be able to hear at Cochin during March of my arrival at Canton. With this view, it may be well, when you leave Malacca, to ask Vincent Viegas to be good enough, as soon as he hears that Pereira’s vessel has returned from the Chinese coast, to ask for and take charge] of any letters from me which it may bring, and to send them to Cochin by way of Coromandel. And that these letters may not be left at Coromandel, especially if, as I think will be the case, there is no immediate opportunity of sending them further! by sea, you will do well to beg Diego Pereira himself before! hand to send you my letters to Cochin, together with his own,l so as to be forwarded, in case of necessity, overland from Coro­mandel.

With regard to your departure for Malacca. A day or so before you start, I think you should ask Vincent Viegas to take charge of our house in the city, and of the little chapel in the , suburb attached to it dedicated to Our Lady the Mother of God. j Ask him, then, to allow you to commit these two houses of the Society to his care and custody. And lest, in the course of time, either he himself, or any other in his name, should think! of acquiring any right of property in these two places, you j must put in his hand the copy of the deed of gift, by which! the Bishop has made over these two buildings in regular legal form to the Society of Jesus in perpetuity; and at the samel time you must get Vincent to give you an acknowledgment,! declaring that he takes these two houses under his charge and protection simply as a trust, and for their preservation, and that he is ready to restore them to the Society when required j to do so. You must take with you the original of the Lord Bishop’s deed of gift and diploma, that they may be sent in the safest way from Cochin to Goa, to be kept in the latter town in the archives of St. Paul.

I most positively order you to adhere resolutely to your determination of leaving Malacca, and I expressly forbid your being you to let yourself be persuaded to. remain there by any entreaties however pressing, or by deceitful promises from any one. You must not continue wasting your labours, which, as things are, may be far better employed elsewhere, on a town so ungrateful and unworthy of your help, as has for some time been the case. If you think well, you can leave with Vincent Viegas, the good priest I have mentioned to you, our Brother Bernard, who can occupy himself as he has hitherto done, in teaching children the rudiments of grammar and the elemen­tary prayers, as well as the Catechism. But in this matter I leave all to your discretion; you will settle as seems best to you, either to take him or to leave him. I should not like Ferreira, who has been dismissed from the Society, to sail for India in the same ship with you : do your best that he may embark in another. If there is none to be found, or if he refuses to part from you, and begs you earnestly to take him with you, you may consent to do so, on the express condition that he must solemnly promise to enter some other religious order. After he has entered into this formal engagement, you can receive him, and charitably do all you can to help to con­firm him in his resolution.

The interpreter who consented, as I told you, to come with me to China has been frightened, and given up the idea. He remains here, having abandoned me; we are determined to run all risks, relying on God’s help. There are three of us—Antony of the holy Faith (a Chinese educated at our college), Cristo- val, and myself. Pray much to God for us, for we are going to expose ourselves to the almost certain danger of the most dreadful slavery. But our consolation is in this thought with which we are deeply penetrated,—that it is infinitely preferable to be a captive in chains for the pure love of God than to purchase the most delightful liberty by basely and ungratefully deserting the sufferings and the Cross of Jesus Christ. Should it happen that the Chinese merchant, on whom depend our hopes of going to Canton, should change his mind through fear or any other

reason, and break his word, I have resolved in this last case to sail for the kingdom of Siam, for which voyage I have a favour­able opportunity. In fact, I have heard that a ship was being fitted out there for Canton, and if I can get on board, by God’s protection I hope before the end of the year to land on the shore which is the object of so many prayers to me. Salute very heartily all our friends for me, and especially Vincent Viegas, and beg them to commend me to our Lord. May He remain with you, and accompany me ! May He bring us all to the glory of Paradise ! Farewell.

Your brother in Jesus Christ,

Port of San Chan, November 12, 1552. FRANCIS.⁹

(cxxii.) To Diego Pereira.

I have nothing, Senor, to write to you at present, except to repeat over and over again the assurance (which however often it were expressed, would be always inadequate to my obliga-j tion) of my gratitude for the daily and hourly kindness which] your affection and charity are constantly lavishing on me with! out end or measure; you have, even in your absence, thought of means of exercising these virtues through your servants and representatives, who assist and do me services in all ways and at all times. Among them is Thomas Scandelho, your agent, who supplies me so affectionately and generously with everything IJ ask for, that it is easy to see that he knows and shares the ex-' treme tenderness and goodness which you entertain for me, not only always ready, but always eager and anxious to give me even more than I ask and more than I want. May our Lord God reward you, for He alone can ! I am unable to pay my debt to

⁹ Father Menchacha gives another letter here, which is obviously a du­plicate of that to Francesco Perez (October 22). It is addressed to Fran­cesco Perez and Antonio Eredia, and formally orders the first to go at once to Cochin and assume the Rectorship there, and the second, or any one who may be in his place, to surrender his post to Perez, and go to Goa, there to prepare for the voyage to Japan as soon as Father Gaspar Baertz orders it.

you, and must owe it for the rest of my life; but though I can never pay the principal, I will not fail, at any rate while I live, to pay you as it were a daily instalment, and interest according to my ability, by continually praying our Lord God to pre­serve you from all evil, and never to suffer you in this life to be deprived of His grace, but to keep you always flourishing both in body and mind through all accidents of health and unfavourable chances of fortune, always constant in the faith, •diligent in the duties of holy religion and divine worship, so that He may one day crown your merits, and receive your soul to the glory of His Paradise. And as in spite of my endeavours I can never satisfy myself as to this, I call on all my brothers the fathers of the Society of Jesus, who are serving the holy Church in different places in India, to be my helpers and as­sistants : certainly all would have performed this duty of their own accord; nevertheless I have, so to speak, added spurs to their willingness by ordering them to show you all the offices of most friendly goodwill as an eminent patron of our Society, and commend you to God in their daily prayers and sacrifices as a mainstay of the Christian religion in this country, on whom rests the chief hope of seeing the holy law of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, preached in the empire of China, and of spreading His glory to the ends of the earth. Indeed our Lord Himself, Who knows so well your ardent zeal for His service, Who so truly values your labours so profitable for the extension of His kingdom, could not fail, independently of the prayers of His servants, to encircle you and your interests with His constant favour and protection, and to further the accomplishment of your desires to this holy end of helping the preaching of the Gospel and the calling wandering souls to the faith of Jesus Christ. If, Senor, the affair of your embassy to the Sovereign of China intrusted to you by the Viceroy of India should be at length successfully arranged next year, I beg of you to deal with Francesco Perez (whom I have ordered to set sail for Goa) so that he may procure from Father Gaspar Baertz, the Rector of the College of Goa, a priest of our Society, whom you may vol. 11. 00

take with you when you embark for China. I should wish the valuable vestments which, as you know, we had prepared for that expedition, to be given to him to bring them with him. When our project failed, I left them at Malacca in the care of Francesco Perez; that father will deliver them to you on seeing this letter, which will sufficiently acquaint him with my inten­tions. I will send the chalice, a part of the same set, which I brought with me, by Thomas Scandelho, so that you may, if you think well, give them all to the father who is to accompany you on your embassy.

I would go to Malacca with your people, if I could hope that you would start for China next year. Now, I am following a more probable hope of going there this very year, which rests on a merchant of Canton; and if (which God forbid !) he should fail me, I have now made up my mind to accompany an Aragonese named Diego Vaz, who, as I told you, is going to the kingdom of Siam. From thence, I rely on being able easily to reach Canton next year by a Chinese junk. Thus should it happen that your embassy really starts next year, I' hope that we shall meet again, God knows with what consola­tion, at Coma'i or at Canton. Pray write to me, if you have an opportunity, to the kingdom of Siam, saying what you have decided, for under any circumstances I shall much like to know the state of your affairs from yourself. As to the particulars of my agreement with the Chinese merchant who is to take me into the city of Canton, I do not give them to you yet: it will be more convenient and satisfactory to do so when the matter is over. You may look for them in letters which I hope to send you by Manuel de Chaves. If our fathers at Malacca, Goa, or elsewhere, can render you any services towards the favourable conclusion of your embassy, do not fear using them; you will find Francesco Perez, Gaspar Baertz, and all the others, wher­ever they are, eager at the first expression of your wishes to serve you with all their power; they know perfectly how much I have this at heart. But—and this is the chief point in their eyes—they are firmly convinced that this matter concerns, above all, the glory of our Lord God, and the release of a vast number of

unfortunate Portuguese, who are suffering a wretched captivity in the Chinese prisons. I have just learnt with excessive pain that my excellent friend Francesco Pereira de Miranda has quite lately, through some melancholy chance, fallen into the same misery. I most gratefully and sorrowfully remember all my obligations to him, for the good offices and kindnesses which he loaded me with so charitably when he was with us at Firando in Japan, with a numerous band of companions who were under his command, and who shared all his kindly feelings towards me. .

I have by mistake taken with me the letters which the Viceroy of India sent for you to deliver to the Sovereign of China, and I now send them back to you with this. Once more I beg you, Senor, not to fail to write to me to the kingdom of Siam; for, as I say, I am fully resolved, should the hopes fail which I have built on the Chinese merchant—which God forbid! —to go to the kingdom of Siam, and endeavour to get into China by that way. Should our Lord God deign to favour at least this last enterprise, I shall go to wait for you at the court of the Chinese Emperor, unless I am thrown into prison at Canton. In short, then, in any case, if the Divine favour opens to me the way to China, you will find me in one of two very different places, in one of two very dissimilar conditions—a captive in the prisons of Canton, or at Pekin (which it appears is the residence of the Sovereign of China), awaiting your arrival, and endeavouring to discharge the office of an avant courier or pioneer for your interests.

I add no more, except to say, what is the exact truth, that I so ardently desire to know what you are doing, how your health is, the state of your affairs and hopes, that if I were rich I should not think the news bought too dear with much gold, and would give profusely any most precious gifts as its price, especially as my confidence as to the high favour in which our Lord Jesus Christ holds you makes me hopeful that if the news were true it would be what I most eagerly desire. May our Lord God, if He sees it advisable for the interests of His holy service, grant us to see one another again in the empire of China ! If

He has ordered otherwise, may He at least reunite us one day in the blissful abode of Paradise ! Farewell.

Your servant and entire friend from the bottom of my soul,

San Chan, November 12, 1552. FRANCIS.

(cxxiii.) To Father Gaspar Baertz.

I have written to Francesco Perez, telling him to leave Ma­lacca at once, and go to India with all his brothers. I think that at this time that city is unworthy of so great a blessing, after having been the occasion of so great a misfortune, hin­dering by exceeding wickedness our voyage to China and the extension of God’s glory. I again enjoin you to carry out my last order with great zeal and diligence; that is to say, to ar­range with the Lord Bishop that he may have the excommuni­cations incurred by those who prevented our voyage to China solemnly pronounced in Malacca; for I was on my way to China in the character of Apostolical Nuncio. I insist on this point on two grounds : .first, because I want the Governor of Malacca to be made to understand the gravity both of the crime he has committed and of the penalty he has incurred, so that he may not in future act to any one else as he has acted to me; secondly, that no one may venture to stop those mem­bers of our Society who may later on go to Malacca, to the Moluccas, to Japan, or to China, in the interests of religion. And as nowadays most men are more restrained by disgrace be­fore the world than before God, I desire all such persons to be frightened by such a mark of infamy and ignominy from acting with such outrageous audacity.

I also pray you to observe strictly all the other directions which I left with you, especially that one of receiving into the So­ciety only very few andthose fit men,to examine and tryfor along time those who are received, and to test their virtues thoroughly and frequently. I am afraid that a good number have already been received, and continue to be received, whom it would be much better to refuse and dismiss. I wish you, therefore, to be towards such persons what I myself was with several at

Goa, and here have been with one of my own companions whom I have thought unfit for the Society, and so sent him away and excluded from it. You must follow this line of con­duct with zeal and constancy, and not be frightened by any consideration from persevering in it, even if it involved your remaining alone.

I cannot express to you how enraged the devil is that the Society should invade China. I have no doubt whatever, and so may say with confidence, that the enemy of the human race cannot endure to see the doors of that empire opened to us. It is beyond belief how cunningly he has fought, and is still fighting at this moment, to disappoint our efforts. But I have great confidence that our Lord Jesus Christ will render futile all the snares of Satan. It certainly will be for the honour and glory of God that a weak creature should have conquered the presumption of the devil, and laid low his intolerable pride. May God in His infinite mercy grant us this ! May He abide with you arid direct me, and at last lead us all together to heaven !

Port of San Chan, November 13, 1552. FRANCIS.

(cxxiv.) To Fathers Francis Perez at Malacca and Master Gaspar Baertz at Goa.

By this letter I expressly command and earnestly beg* you, Father Francis Perez, who, according to my previous orders, are to sail from Malacca to India, to send this letter of mine to our brother Gaspar at Goa, and to obtain as soon as possible from the Lord Bishop, through Father Gaspar or our other brothers at Goa, the canonical proclamation' of the excom­munication incurred by Don Alvaro, the Commandant of Ma­lacca, by having prevented my going to China. I think the way to proceed is, for our brothers to go to his Lordship and his Vicar, and show them the bulls of the Sovereign Pontiff concerning the institution, confirmation, and the privileges of the Society of Jesus, and separately show them the Pontifical brief written on parchment, in which the Sovereign Pontiff ere-

ates and appoints me by name his Legate in these regions of India; for which purpose it must be taken from the secret archives of the College of St. Paul at Goa.

After showing them these documents, they should both be asked, seeing that—contrary to the manifest privileges of the Society of Jesus, granted by the decrees of Sovereign Pontiffs, and contrary to my own personal authority, by right of the office of Apostolic Legate conferred on me—Don Alvaro de Gama, the Commandant of the city of Malacca, has violently opposed my going to China to preach the Gospel there, disre­garded the formal authorization of the Viceroy of India which I presented to him, and has made it useless by his rebellious obsti­nacy ; seeing farther that he has despised the order and authority of Don Francesco Alvarez, then in command of the royal citadel and fortress of Malacca, and also Receiver General and Keeper of the royal treasury, when the latter guaranteed my rights, and declared the formal will of his Highness, and audaciously per­sisted in his disobedience; and seeing that by these offences Don Alvaro de Gama, besides the crime of rebellion against his Highness, has plainly incurred the ecclesiastical anathema set forth in the bulls of the Sovereign Pontiff: we therefore pray that this same may be declared in the accustomed form, and that in the place where the crime was committed the au­thor of it be pronounced to be publicly separated from Catholic communion, and cut off from the body of the Church, in pun­ishment for his so hateful wickedness.

Let a rescript of his Lordship the Bishop, in which this is clearly drawn out, be sent to Malacca, together with letters from the same prelate to his Vicar in that place, charging him to take good care that those letters of his be read from the pulpit, according to custom, on a Sunday, to the people assem­bled in church. I have two reasons which I wish you to make this demand, and that everything may be done as I say. The first is that, as far as is in me, and out of my pity for him, I wish to consult the interests of the author of this bitter in­justice : for indeed he is still ignorant into what an abyss he has plunged himself; and it is most likely that the public pro-

• clamation of the terrible anathema which he has so rashly brought upon himself will fill him with terror at the thought of •so great a calamity, and inspire him with some sentiments of penitence, which may be the beginning of his salvation, and might excite in him a salutary desire of meriting by due satis­faction the lawful absolution of the Church at the hands of her competent ministers.

The other reason which moves me to take this step is my wish to hinder for the future any such audacious attempt of wicked persons, which would be so hurtful to the preaching of the Gospel. For I see by experience that the apostolic la­bourers of our Society will often find opportunities of embark­ing at the different Indian ports for Japan, the Moluccas, or •other countries, to preach the law of Jesus Christ, and that the officers, invested in such places with the authority of royal governors, may be tempted by avarice, jealousy, or other bad passions, to thwart and insult them, by causing the failure of •their plans, as has happened to myself. In order, therefore, •that these officers may not imagine that such crimes will re­main unpunished, this bad example must be made infamous by its terrible issue, and must be branded with so much igno­miny that those persons whom the fear of God does not in­fluence may be made to shrink from its imitation by the disgrace before men, the dishonoured name, the mark of shame burnt an on his forehead, which will render this poor man so utterly infamous for ever. I am convinced that some of these persons let themselves go with more audacity to such wickedness partly from forgetting the severe punishments attached to this kind of •crime, through the sordid cares in which their souls are plunged, .and partly often through their disgraceful ignorance of the disci­pline of the Church, in which they are wonderfully uninstructed. It is necessary to put visibly and palpably before them an ex­ample of the Church’s severity inflicted on a person of note, that by this salutary warning they may be held back when insti­gated to perpetrate a deed so injurious to religion; and that perceiving the danger they incur in this way of sin, they may jestrain their licentiousness by fear.

The letter of the Bishop, or of his Vicar General, declaring the Commandant of Malacca separated from the Sacraments- of the Church and under anathema, should be taken to Malacca by Joam Beira, or by any other of our brothers who are going there to embark for Japan. At Malacca he must place it in the hands of the Bishop’s Vicar. In order that this latter may not put off carrying his orders into effect, you must obtain the Bishop’s promise to write, or to order his Vicar General to write i in his name, a special letter to the Bishop’s Vicar at Malacca,] charging him under pain of anathema not to delay publishing in the Church the excommunication incurred by Don Alvaro. | As for yourselves, beware in the name of God of neglecting this order of mine, and so of committing the great sin of violating obedience. Let me hear before the end of the year how dilil gent you have been in this, and what has been the issue of this affair.

With regard to myself, I have written this letter in the midst of preparations and anxieties relating to my passage from this island to the Chinese continent. The voyage will be most painful under my present straitened circumstances; it is full of a thousand dangers, of very doubtful issue, and full of terrors. How it will turn out I know not, but I have a firm confidence, and a strong inward assurance, that however things may go, the result will be good. If—which God forbid !—my hopes of the Canton merchant captain, whom I expect every moment, | should fail, I am determined, as I told you, to go by sea to Siam, whence there is some expectation of being able to get to China. Should this hope too come to nothing, through some accident, then I shall return to India. But my mind presages j that I shall not be driven to this last resolution, and I persist in believing that my first hopes will be fulfilled, and that I shall have my prayer and place my foot at last on Chinese ground. I

One truth has been proved to me by the clearest evidence,, and I tell it you confidently, and wish you to be fully convinced of it. The devil has an unspeakable dread of the Society of Jesus entering China, and every effort in this direction seems to wound the very apple of his eye; it makes him rage with

impotent fury, and lash himself up, and boil over with passion. Take my most certain word for it, in this port of San Chan, where fresh obstacles to our passage to China are raised every hour, he keeps contriving them in swarms, one after another, as though he thought the first nothing, and that new ones were always needed; and if I were to describe them by letter, or by work of mouth, I should never end. I per­ceive most clearly that the war cry has sounded in the camp of hell, and the spirits of darkness, all in consternation, are arrayed against us as if to defend their last entrenchments. But let it be no less certain to you, that I am confident, relying on the unfailing help and grace and favour of our Lord God, that Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, will expose to the scorn of the whole world the enemy of mankind, disappointing his wishes and making his vain hope void; and the glory of the Divine Majesty will shine all the more brightly because the instrument of these wonders will be one so mean, because that by means of me, the least and the vilest of men, He will over­throw that insolent spirit, so bold in his pride, and expose him to the most shameful defeat and universal derision.

It is to you especially, Master Gaspar, that I now particu­larly address myself. I most earnestly beg of you not to fail I to fulfil exactly and completely everything which I commanded you on my departure, whether by word of mouth or by writing, in the form of instructions. Be careful to forget nothing, nor to neglect carrying it out at the proper time : as if supposing me perhaps dead, you might imagine yourself free and independent and no longer under obedience to me. I remember a case of this kind when certain persons fell into this error in consequence of my long absence. In truth I shall not die before the time ap­pointed by God; long indeed it is that life has been a burthen to me, and to die my prayer; but it is idle for men to speculate curiously as to the hour of my decease, which is settled before­hand in the eternal decrees, and which the foolish opinions of men cannot hasten or retard. This counsel is given to fortify you against the temptation of trusting too much to your own judgment; as you may remember a time when you allowed yourself to follow your own opinion irrespective of my instruc*¹) tions. Whether you did the best thing in the world on that occasion, or whether you made a mistake, God knows; but I should not like by any chance on my return next year to find in India anything that I should have to punish.

And pray pay particular attention to what I am about to add. Be very severe, I would almost say be most fastidious, in choos­ing persons to be received into the Society. The few who have stood the sharp test, as I may say, of the first examen should then go through all the successive experiments of the novitiate at home. Indeed I have seen in certain persons, who had passed through the first beginnings, things which made me mistrust the judgment of those who could have admitted them. They were persons who, as experience shows, ought to be excluded from our Society, from consideration of our own good character and tranquillity. It was impossible for me not to make an ex­ample of this sort in the person of Alvaro Ferreira,¹⁰ whom I have struck off the list of our brothers. Should he come to you, be sure not to receive him into your house, but you may give him the help of your advice and influence to enable him to, enter another religious Order. But you must absolutely refuse to receive him back into our Society, however pressingly he may entreat you; and you must understand that you are for­bidden this by the obedience which you owe me; for after mature deliberation, and by my authority, I order you not to receive into our house Alvaro Ferreira, whom I know to be in no way suited to the ways of our Society.

Should it happen that when this letter reaches Goa another than Gaspar Baertz is Rector, let him, whoever he may be, un­derstand that the directions I have given to Gaspar apply equally to him.

Port of San Chan, November 13, 1552. FRANCIS.

¹⁰ A Captain Alvaro Ferreira was martyred at Achen in 1565, with four other Portuguese, because they would not abandon the faith of Jesus Christ. Perhaps he may have been the same religious who was not able to remain in the Society, but to whom Cod afforded the opportunity of con­fessing the faith, and gave the grace of martyrdom. Leon Pages.

A few days after these last letters were written, Francis Xavier was again struck by the fever. It was Sunday the 20th 'f November, after he had said mass. The mandarins at Janton had stopped the supplies of food on which the sojourners at San Chan mainly depended. There was thus a scarcity If provisions on the island, and Francis suffered real privation, he people of Don Alvaro, of whom the greater part of the crew of the Santa Croce was composed, still showing him but •canty kindness, out of fear of displeasing their master. At the lame time the day passed on which the Chinese merchant had jiromised to appear. The interpreter on whom Francis had eckoned had already given up the design for want of courage. I^o hopes remained; and the fever came to bid him prepare ,0 meet his Lord. He had long known that his death was at jiand : he had taken leave of his friends, even in India, as if he l^ere never to see them more. While at San Chan, he had once |>een in company with six others, Portuguese merchants. Francis lad said to them that they must look after their souls : ‘ within I. year,’ he said, ‘the greater number of us will be dead.’ Five |>fthe seven, besides himself, died within the year.

When the fever first attacked him, Francis had come on board the Santa Croce as to a kind of hospital: but the motion j)f the ship made it difficult for him to keep his thoughts fixed [>n God, and he begged to be taken ashore. He was appar­ently lying on the ground in the open air, when Jorge Alvarez, i he same, as it seems, whose account of Japan we have printed jibove, could not bear to see him so abandoned, and took him nto his own hut. It gave him hardly any shelter from the cold Ivind and rain, but it was something. On the Tuesday, he good Jorge thought it would be well to bleed the patient. Francis knew that this could but be a fresh torment, but he :onsented, and the operation was repeated a second time. His lierves were lacerated, and he fainted under the pain.

Then there came on a great nausea, so that he could not eat (even a few almonds, which the captain of the ship sent him as ji present. So he went on suffering through the week; lying in the wretched cabin, gazing up to heaven through a small window in the side, and talking with the tenderest devotion to a littl crucifix which he held in his hand. On the Monday week afte his illness had begun, he became delirious for a time: hi wanderings were all about his expedition to China. After thi he lost his speech, but on the Wednesday he regained it, an his mind no longer wandered. He begged that the vestment and sacred vessels which he had used for mass, as well as hi manuscript of the Christian doctrine in Chinese letters, and thi rest, might be taken on board the ship. Antonio, the Chines) lad from the College, and Cristoval, the other mentioned in hi last letter, were his only attendants. Antonio related afterward) how on one of these days, Francis had fixed his eyes on CrisJ tovel, and began to weep, saying, ‘ O miseravel, O miseravel Some months after the poor boy fell into a habit of sin, and die* suddenly and miserably. This was Francis’s last prediction. H spoke a good deal in ejaculations, but chiefly in Latin, so th lad could only remember what was not new to him, such as hi favourite exclamations, ^lO Sanctissima Trinitas,’ ‘Jcsu Fill Davl miserere mei,’ and ‘Monstra teesse matron! So the fever went or and he grew weaker and weaker. He could take nothing for som days before the end came. At last, on the Friday, the 2d c December, about two in the afternoon, he fixed his eyes lovingl upon his crucifix, his face lighted up with joy, sweet tears poure< from his eyes, and he breathed his last, repeating the words c 1 the Te Deum, ‘In te Domine spcravi, non confundar in cetcrnutfn The body of Francis Xavier remained unburied till the Sun day after his death. Some of the Portuguese belonging to th ship were touched at the sight of his corpse; but it does no seem that the majority showed any great devotion. The fea of Don Alvaro was strong upon them. The good pilot, how ever, Francesco d’Aghiar, was there, and he did what was i; his power in honour of the Saint whose companion he ha< often been. Jorge Alvarez, also, had a coffin made, iij which the body was placed, clothed in the priestly vestments I but it was thought well to cover it, and fill the coffin, wit J quick lime, in order that the flesh might be consumed, and th 1 bones taken to India. Late on the Sunday evening the coffin as lowered into a grave dug on the top of a low spur of hill, l^.ose to the shore. There was a level space on the summit, I id here they planted a wooden cross, at the foot of which was | ie grave, with two mounds of stones, one at the head and the ther at the feet. No one followed Francis to the grave but s.ntonio the Chinese, two mulattos who bore the coffin, and Francesco d’Aghiar.

It is possible that the utter abandonment and destitution |,'t which Francis had died to some extent encouraged the Portu­guese in their neglect. One of Don Alvaro’s men wrote to him [ft Malacca saying that Master Francis had died, and had done o miracle in his death; that he had been buried at San Chan I ke any one else, and that they meant to bring his body to jVlalacca when they set sail, that the people there might not say mat they were not as good Christians as themselves. Mean­while time went on, and after the middle of February the time Pame for the ship to depart. Antonio the Chinese asked the laptain to have examination made as to the state of the bones If Francis Xavier. But when the coffin was opened, and the |jme removed, the body was found entire, fresh, the flesh soft jnd succulent, the veins full of blood. The Portuguese who Biade the examination tried to cut off a small piece from near [he left knee, and found that blood flowed freely. Even the lestments were unhurt by the lime. The prodigy at once con­certed the indifference of the Portuguese into veneration and levotion. The men of the crew crowded round, weeping, and legging pardon for their neglect and coldness. The body was aken as it was, in the coffin, on board the Santa Croce, which |et sail immediately, and after a perfectly prosperous voyage, leached Malacca on the 22d of March 1553.

It was late in the evening, but the news of the arrival flew through the city. There were none of the Society there. Francesco Perez and his companions had punctually obeyed he order of Francis as to leaving Malacca. Some priests were sent on board that same evening by the Vicar; they exa­mined the body, and testified to its wonderful preservation. The lext day a solemn procession was organized, and the body was carried to the Church of our Lady del Monte, the shrine which we have more than once mentioned as so much beloved by Francis. The clergy, the nobles, the people, even, it was re­marked, the heathen and Mussulmans themselves, all thronged with torches and candles to honour one whom they regarded as their Apostle. The plague had been still raging at the time when the Santa Croce came into the harbour—while the sacred body was being carried through the streets it ceased all of a sudden. The city also had been suffering from want of pro­visions, and a supply came in just at this moment.

Don Alvaro dAtaide alone was indifferent to the arrival of the body of Francis Xavier. He was at play with one of his officers when the procession passed. He went to the window, made a scornful remark on the devotion and simplicity of the people, and resumed his game. We may as well add here the sequel of his history. A little more than a year after the time I of which we are writing, Don Antonio de Norona, a son of the Viceroy, was sent as Capitan to supersede Don Alvaro, againsitl whom a number of charges had already been, and were after­wards, made. One of these charges rested on his disobedient to the Viceroy’s orders. Don Alvaro was put in prison, and his goods confiscated. Such severity was exercised against those of his party, that a number fled from Malacca, and took refuge ini the Mussulman states. Don Alvaro was sent to Portugal. He I had already a sort of leprosy creeping over his body, and while i in prison at home a bad abscess broke out in his neck, and his whole body became so corrupt that no one could be found to go near him and wait upon him. In this state the poor man died; helped, as may be trusted, by the prayers for the salva­tion of his soul of the Saint who had predicted so accurately the inevitable temporal chastisement which his public opposition to the Church had brought upon him.

The body of Francis Xavier was buried in the doorway lead­ing to the sacristy; but it was taken out the coffin, and covered with earth. The grave is said to have been too short; certainly a wound was made on the shoulder, whence blood flowed fresh and fragrant. So things remained till August, when Joam Beira arrived at Malacca with two companions, on his way back to his mission at the Moluccas. He could not bear to leave Malacca without seeing the body. Diego Pereira and some other devout friends of the Saint disinterred it secretly. It was found perfect and fresh as before, emitting the most ex­quisite fragrance. A cloth spread over the face was stained with blood, and there was a wound in the side, from stones which had fallen in when the earth was pressed down. Diego Pereira now had a magnificent coffin made, in which the body was laid, the head resting on an embroidered cushion, and the whole covered by a coverlet of cloth of gold. It was put in a secure place, and Joam Beira left one of his companions, a lay brother, Manuel Tavora, to take charge of the corpse until it could be moved from Malacca. Soon after Pedro dAlcageva arrived, on his way back from Japan, and it was by him that the transfer to Goa was finally arranged.

The two brothers set out late in 1553, on board an old un­seaworthy vessel, the worst, it was said, that was then navigat­ing the Eastern seas. More than once on the voyage she was saved in a preternatural manner. Once she got aground on a shoal, and once she ran against a rock. The last time the danger was so imminent, that the crew gathered round the sacred body in the cabin, imploring the intercession of Francis as if he had been alive among them. In January the vessel arrived at Cochin, where the body was venerated by Francesco Perez and a crowd of others. It touched at Baticala on its way northwards, where a lady who was desperately ill heard of the arrival of the body, and declared that she should recover if she could see it. She was taken on board the ship, and was imme­diately healed. The captain seems to have put into Baticala on account of adverse winds from the north; and he despaired of reaching Goa before Holy Week, which that year fell very early. He went on in a boat to Goa, to announce the approach of the treasure which his ship contained. The Viceroy imme­diately equipped one of the large swift galleys of the country, and sent the Superior of the College of Santa F£, with two other .religious and some choristers and orphans, to escort the body at once to Goa. Gaspar Baertz was already dead—he had been long ailing, and had finally broken down on a Sunday in the October before, while he was explaining in the pulpit of the Cathedral the Gospel of the day :^1X ‘ The kingdom of heaven is like unto a king, who would take account of his servants.’ He had died on the 19th of October, having just sent for Mel­chior Nunez, who, according to the orders of Francis Xavier, was to succeed him; for Manuel de Morales, whom Francis had put first in the order of succession, had worn himself out in Ceylon, and though ordered to Goa for his health, had died there two months before Gaspar himself.

The galley to which the body of St. Francis was now trans­ferred left Baticala amid salvos of artillery from the ships lying there, and the chanting of the Benedict us Dominits Dciis Israel by the youths sent from the College, and reached the harbour of Goa on the Thursday in Passion Week, March 15th. The galley anchored opposite a church of our Lady at Re­bandar, about half a league from Goa itself; and as it was night, a message was sent on to the Fathers of the College to be ready to meet the body when it arrived at the quay the next morning. It was taken into the church, where Melchior Nunez said mass very early the next morning; and almost before they had time to arrange for the start to Goa, six large boats arrived with Diego Pereira and a number of other Portuguese gentle­men and merchants on board, with torches in their hands, come to do honour to the Saint whom they had known and loved. Before they reached the quay, the number of these boats had swollen to twenty. On the quay was the Viceroy with-his Court, the Council, the Envoys of allied Asiatic princes, and a crowd of nobles and people, the Chapter, the Brethren of Mercy, and the religious community of the College. The orphans car­ried in front a large crucifix veiled (for it was Passion Week), and once more the sweet strains of the Benedictus rang through the air. The procession through the streets was impressively touching, ^£ so much,’ says an eyewitness, ‘ that in all that as­sembly of Christians tears and sobbings were so universal, that the mere sight thereof was enough to make a sinner become truly converted.’ The procession marched from the gate of the city straight up the great street, which from one end to the other was .richly hung with tapestries and silken cloths, the win­dows crowded with ladies, while below the doors were filled with vessels of incense and fragrant scents. Flowers were showered ’ in the- path, all the forts fired their cannon, the church bells rang joyously. So it went up to the College of St. Paul, ‘ and although that day was the Friday of Lazarus,¹² the College never­theless made great festival, all the altars were richly appar­elled. There were quantities of lamps and candelabras and crosses of silver, and the like. The sacred body having arrived in the church was placed near the High Altar, and a solemn Mass was sung with concert of voices and instruments, con­formable to the solemnity of so great a feast.^lU

Others relate how many wonderful cures were wrought upon the sick as the body was borne through the streets. Among the persons healed was Dona Juana Pereira, probably one of Diego’s family, who recovered at once from an illness of three months; and also a child which lay at the point of death with a blessed candle lighted in its hand. The body lay in the sanctuary with the face, hands, and feet uncovered, in order to satisfy the devotion of the people, whom it was difficult to keep from it. That day the mass of the Holy Cross was sung by the Chapter, and on the Saturday the mass of our Lady, by the Franciscan friars. On Sunday the body was placed in a cavity made in the wall of the sanctuary, near the gospel end of the altar.

The ships which came that spring from Portugal brought a letter from St. Ignatius, written at the end of the preceding June, in answer to that of St. Francis Xavier of January 29th, 1552. St. Ignatius begins by rejoicing over the good news as to the opening of Japan and China to the preaching of the Gospel. Then he goes on to say that lie regards as a wise measure what Francis has mentioned as possible, his sending to Japan and China Gaspar Baertz and others j and if he has himself gone to China, as he has spoken of as probable if the affairs of India permit, that also he regards as good, being per­suaded that it is the Eternal Wisdom Who guides him. But, he adds, as far as his own lights go, he thinks Francis will do , more for God by remaining in India and sending others, as he then may be able to make his work felt in more countries than one. Still further, he says, considering the greater glory of God I and the greater good of souls in India, and the dependence of I India on Portugal, he has made up his mind to order him by I holy obedience to return to Portugal on the first favourable I opportunity; and so he commands him in the name of Jesus I Christ, though his return to Europe be in order to his going I back again as soon as possible to India. Moreover, in order I that when people oppose his departure he may be able to j make them understand the reasons for the determination, Ig- I natius adds certain heads—the good effect which the presence I of Francis may produce on the King, as to the progress of the I faith in India, Guinea, and Brazil, the need which the Holy 1 See has to be thoroughly informed as to the state of affairs in I India, the necessity that Francis should come to choose and I form for himself subjects in Portugal and Rome, and the good 1 which he might do in the affair of the mission to Ethiopia. I As for his subjects in India, he could govern them meantime I as well from Portugal as from China or Japan. Such was the I provision made by Ignatius for that long desired meeting, of I which both he. and Francis Xavier had spoken so tenderly! in their letters—a meeting the enjoyment of which was only I to be granted to them in the kingdom of heaven.

The body of St. Francis Xavier still rests at Goa, in the I church which formerly belonged to the religious of the Society! which he loved so much, and which one of the successors of I his friend, King John III., was persuaded by a despotic minis-! ter to persecute so savagely. His work lived after him, and is I living still,—although it would be difficult to say whether the! ignorant opposition of heathen barbarity or the more culpable j malice of enemies calling themselves Christians has done the most to mar the fulfilment of his glorious designs for the con­version of the East.

We may trust that India has not been allowed to retain him without a special intention of the good Providence of God in favour of the nations for whom he laboured so devotedly. We may hope that the presence of his relics on those distant shores may be an earnest that the day is to come when the darkness which has hitherto covered the largest, the richest, the most populous of the world’s continents may be rolled back, when the early dreams of Ignatius and his companions about the East may be more than fulfilled, and the countless churches of Christian Asia may form the brightest gems in the diadem of the Spouse of Christ. Two glorious names, that of St. Thomas their ancient, and that of St. Francis their modern, Apostle, will then receive preeminent honour from myriads of rejoicing believers, whose grateful praises will faintly reflect the reward decreed to them above, where ‘ they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that instruct many to justice as stars for all eternity.’¹⁵

THK END.