No More Learning

His companion Fernandez did the same in another part of
the town. People heard them out of curiosity; and many after having
inquired who they were, what dangers they had run, and for what end,
admired their courage, and their procedure, void of interest, according
to the humour of the Japonians, whose inclinations are naturally noble,
and full of esteem for actions of generosity. From public places they
were invited into houses, and there desired to expound their doctrine
more at large, and at greater leisure. "For if your law appear more
reasonable to us than our own," said the principal of the town, "we
engage ourselves to follow it. "

But when once a man becomes a slave to shameful passions, it is difficult
to follow what he thinks the best, and even to judge reasonably what is
the best. Not a man amongst them kept his word. Having compared together
the two laws, almost all of them agreed, that the Christian doctrine was
most conformable to good sense, if things were only to be taken in the
speculation; but when they came to consider them in the practice, and saw
how much the Christian law discouraged vengeance, and forbade polygamy,
with all carnal pleasures, that which had appeared just and reasonable
to them, now seemed improbable, and the perversity of their wills
hoodwinked the light of their understanding; so that, far from believing
in Jesus Christ, they said, "That Xavier and his companions were plain
mountebanks, and the religion which they preached a mere fable. " These
reports being spread abroad, exasperated the spirits of men against them,
so that as soon as any of them appeared, the people ran after them, not
as before, to hear them preach, but to throw stones at them, and revile
them: "See," they cried, "the two Bonzas, who would inveigle us to
worship only one God, and persuade us to be content with a single wife. "

Oxindono, the king of Amanguchi, hearing what had passed, was willing to
be judge himself of the Christians' new doctrine. He sent for them before
him, and asked them, in the face of all his nobles, of what country they
were, and what business brought them to Japan? Xavier answered briefly,
"That they were Europeans, and that they came to publish the divine law.
For," added he, "no man can be saved who adores not God, and the Saviour
of all nations, his Son Christ Jesus, with a pure heart and pious
worship. " "Expound to me," replied the prince, "this law, which you have
called divine. " Then Xavier began, by reading a part of the book which he
had composed in the Japonian tongue, and which treated of the creation of
the world, of which none of the company had ever heard any thing, of the
immortality of the soul, of the ultimate end of our being, of Adam's
fall, and of eternal rewards and punishments; in fine, of the coming of
our Saviour, and the fruits of our redemption. The saint explained what
was needful to be cleared, and spoke in all above an hour.

The king heard him with attention, and without interrupting his
discourse; but he also dismissed him without answering a word, or making
any sign, whether he allowed or disapproved of what he said. This
silence, accompanied with much humanity, was taken for a permission, by
Father Xavier, to continue his public preaching. He did so with great
warmth, but with small success: Most of them laughed at the preacher, and
scorned the mysteries of Christianity: Some few, indeed, grew tender at
the hearing of our Saviour's sufferings, even so far as to shed tears,
and these motions of compassion disposed their hearts to a belief; but
the number of the elect was inconsiderable; for the time pre-ordained for
the conversion of that people was not yet come, and was therefore to be
attended patiently.

Xavier then having made above a month's abode in Amanguchi, and gathered
but small fruit of all his labours, besides affronts, continued his
voyage towards Meaco with his three companions, Fernandez, Matthew, and
Bernard. They continually bemoaned the blindness and obduracy of those
wretches, who refused to receive the gospel; yet cheered up themselves
with the consideration of God's mercies, and an inward voice was still
whispering in their hearts, that the seed of the divine word, though cast
into a barren and ungrateful ground, yet would not finally be lost.

They departed toward the end of December, in a season when the rains were
continually falling, during a winter which is dreadful in those parts,
where the winds are as dangerous by land as tempests are at sea. The
colds are pinching, and the snow drives in such abundance, that neither
in the towns nor hamlets, people dare adventure to stir abroad, nor have
any communication with each other, but by covered walks and galleries: It
is yet far worse in the country, where nothing is to be seen but hideous
forests, sharp-pointed and ragged mountains, raging torrents across the
vallies, which sometimes overflow the plains. Sometimes it is so covered
over with ice, that the travellers fall at every step; without mentioning
those prodigious icicles hanging over head from the high trees, and
threatening the passengers at every moment with their fall.

The four servants of God travelled in the midst of this hard season, and
rough ways, commonly on their naked feet, passing the rivers, and ill
accommodated with warm clothes, to resist the inclemencies of the air and
earth, loaden with their necessary equipage, and without other provisions
of life than grains of rice roasted or dried by the fire, which Bernard
carried in his wallet. They might have had abundantly for their
subsistence, if Xavier would have accepted of the money which the
Portuguese merchants of Firando offered him, to defray the charges of his
voyage, or would have made use of what the governor of the Indies had
supplied him with in the name of the king of Portugal: But he thought he
should have affronted Providence, if he should have furnished himself
with the provisions needful to a comfortable subsistence; and therefore
taking out of the treasury a thousand crowns, he employed it wholly for
the relief of the poor who had received baptism. Neither did he rest
satisfied with this royal alms, he drew what he could also from his
friends at Goa and Malacca; and it was a saying of his, "That the more
these new converts were destitute of worldly goods, the more succour they
deserved; that their zeal was worthy the primitive ages of the church;
and that there was not a Christian in Japan, who would not choose rather
to lose his life, than forfeit the love of Jesus Christ. "

The journey from Amanguchi to Meaco is not less than fifteen days, when
the ways are good, and the season convenient for travelling; but the ill
weather lengthened it to our four travellers, who made two months of it;
sometimes crossing over rapid torrents, sometimes over plains and forests
thick with snow, climbing up the rocks, and rolling down the precipices.
These extreme labours put Father Xavier into a fever from the first
month, and his sickness forced him to stop a little at Sacay; but he
would take no remedies, and soon after put himself upon his way.

That which gave them the greatest trouble was, that Bernard, who was
their guide, most commonly misled them. Being one day lost in a forest,
and not knowing what path to follow, they met a horseman who was going
towards Meaco; Xavier followed him, and offered to carry his mail, if he
would help to disengage them from the forest, and shew them how to avoid
the dangerous passages. The horseman accepted Xaviers offer, but trotted
on at a round rate, so that the saint was constrained to run after him,
and the fatigue lasted almost all the day. His companions followed him at
a large distance; and when they came up to the place where the horseman
had left him, they found him so spent, and over-laboured, that he could
scarcely support himself. The flints and thorns had torn his feet, and
his legs were swelled so that they broke out in many places. All these
inconveniences hindered him not from going forward: He drew his strength
from the union he had with God, continually praying from the morning to
the evening, and never interrupting his devotions but only to exhort his
friends to patience.

In passing through the towns and villages where his way led him, Xavier
always read some part of his catechism to the people who gathered about
him. For the most part they only laughed at him; and the little children
cried after him, "Deos, Deos, Deos," because, speaking of God, he had
commonly that Portuguese word in his mouth, which he seldom pronounced
without repetition; for, discoursing of God, he would not use the
Japonese language till they were well instructed in the essence and
perfections of the Divine Majesty: and he gave two reasons for it; the
first, because he found not one word in all the language which well
expressed that sovereign divinity, of which he desired to give them a
distinct notion; the second, because he feared lest those idolaters might
confound that first Being with their Camis, and their Potoques, in case
he should call it by those names which were common to their idols. From
thence he took occasion to tell them, "That as they never had any
knowledge of the true God, so they never were able to express his name;
that the Portuguese, who knew him, called him Deos:" and he repeated that
word with so much action, and such a tone of voice, that he made even the
Pagans sensible what veneration was due to that sacred name. Having
publicly condemned, in two several towns, the false sects of Japan, and
the enormous vices reigning there, he was drawn by the inhabitants
without the walls, where they had resolved to stone him. But when they
were beginning to take up the stones, they were overtaken by a violent
and sudden storm, which constrained them all to betake themselves to
flight: The holy man continued in the midst of this rack of heaven, with
flashes of lightning darting round about him, without losing his habitual
tranquillity, but adoring that Divine Providence which fought so visibly
in his favour.

He arrived at length at Meaco with his three companions in February 1551.
The name of that celebrated town, so widely spread for being the seat of
empire and religion, where the Cubosama, the Dairy, and the Saso kept
their court, seemed to promise great matters to Father Xavier; but the
effect did not answer the appearances: Meaco, which in the Japonian
tongue signifies a thing worth seeing, was no more than the shadow of
what formerly it had been, so terribly wars and fires had laid it waste.
On every side ruins were to be beheld, and the present condition of
affairs threatened it with a total destruction. All the neighbouring
princes were combined together against the Cubosama, and nothing was to
be heard but the noise of arms.

The man of God endeavoured to have gained an audience from the Cubosama,
and the Dairy, but he could not compass it: He could not so much as get
admittance to the Saso, or high-priest of the Japonian religion. To
procure him those audiences, they demanded no less than an hundred
thousand caixes, which amount to six hundred French crowns, and the
Father had it not to give. Despairing of doing any good on that side, he
preached in the public places by that authority alone which the Almighty
gives his missioners. As the town was all in confusion, and the thoughts
of every man taken up with the reports of war, none listened to him; or
those who casually heard him in passing by, made no reflections on what
he said.

Thus, after a fortnight's stay at Meaco to no purpose, seeing no
appearance of making converts amidst the disturbance of that place, he
had a strong impulse of returning to Amanguchi, without giving for lost
all the pains he had taken at Meaco; not only because of his great
sufferings, (and sufferings are the gains of God's apostles) but also
because at least he had preached Christ Jesus in that place, that is to
say, in the most idolatrous town of all the universe, and opened the
passage for his brethren, whom God had fore-appointed in the years
following, there to establish Christianity, according to the revelations
which had been given him concerning it.

He embarked on a river which falls from the adjoining mountains, and
washing the foot of the walls of Meaco, disembogues itself afterwards
into an arm of the sea, which runs up towards Sacay. Being in the ship,
he could not turn off his eyes from the stately town of Meaco; and, as
Fernandez tells us, often sung the beginning of the 113th Psalm, _In
exitu Israel de Ægypto, domus Jacob de populo Barbaro,_ &c. whether he
considered himself as an Israelite departing out of a land of infidels by
the command of God, or that he looked on that barbarous people, as one
day destined to be the people of God. As for what remains, perceiving
that presents are of great force to introduce foreigners to the princes
of Japan, he went from Sacay to Firando, where he had left what the
viceroy of the Indies and the governor of Malacca had obliged him to
carry with him to Japan, that is to say, a little striking clock, an
instrument of very harmonious music, and some other trifles, the value of
which consisted only in the workmanship and rarity.

Having also observed, that his ragged habit had shocked the Japonese, who
judge by the outside of the man, and who hardly vouchsafe to hear a man
ill clothed, he made himself a new garment, handsome enough, of those
alms which the Portuguese had bestowed on him; being verily persuaded,
that an apostolic man ought to make himself all to all, and that, to gain
over worldly men, it was sometimes necessary to conform himself a little
to their weakness.

Being come to Amanguchi, his presents made his way for an audience from
the king, and procured him a favourable reception. Oxindono, who admired
the workmanship of Europe, was not satisfied with thanking the Father in
a very obliging manner, but the same day sent him a large sum of money,
by way of gratification; but Xavier absolutely refused it, and this very
denial gave the king a more advantageous opinion of him. "How different,"
said Oxindono, "is this European Bonza from our covetous priests, who
love money with so much greediness, and who mind nothing but their
worldly interest! "

On the next morning Xavier presented to the king the letters of the
governor and of the bishop of the Indies, in which the Christian faith
was much extolled; and desired him, instead of all other favours, to
grant him the permission of preaching it, assuring him once again, that
it was the only motive of his voyage. The king increasing his admiration
at the Father's generosity, granted him, by word of mouth, and also by a
public edict, to declare the word of God. The edict was set up at the
turnings of streets, and in public places of the town. It contained a
free toleration for all persons to profess the European faith, and
forbade, on grievous penalties, any hinderance or molestation to the
new Bonzas in the exercise of their functions.

Besides this, Oxindono assigned them, for their lodgings, an old
monastery of the Bonzas, which was disinhabited. They were no sooner
established in it, than great numbers of people resorted to them: Some
out of policy, and to please the king; others to observe their carriage,
and to pick faults in it; many out of curiosity, and to learn something
that was new. All in general proposed their doubts, and disputed with so
much vehemence, that most of them were out of breath. The house was never
empty, and these perpetual visits took up all the time of the man of God.

He explains himself on this subject, and almost complains, in the letters
which he writes to Father Ignatius concerning his voyage to Japan. For
after he had marked out to him the qualities which were requisite in a
labourer of the Society, proper to be sent thither, "That he ought, in
the first place, to be a person of unblameable conversation, and that the
Japonese would easily be scandalised, where they could find occasion for
the least reproach; that, moreover, he ought to be of no less capacity
than virtue, because Japan is also furnished with an infinite number of
her own clergymen, profound in science, and not yielding up any point in
dispute without being first convinced by demonstrative reasons; that, yet
farther, it was necessary, that a missioner should come prepared to
endure all manner of wants and hardships; that he must be endued with an
heroic fortitude to encounter continual dangers, and death itself in
dreadful torments, in case of need," Having, I say, set these things
forth, and added these express words in one of his letters, "I write to
Father Simon, and, in his absence, to the rector of Coimbra, that he
shall send hither only such men as are known and approved by your holy
charity," he continues thus:

"These labourers in the gospel must expect to be much more crossed in
their undertaking than they imagine. They will be wearied out with
visits, and by troublesome questions, every hour of the day, and half the
night: They will be sent for incessantly to the houses of the great, and
will sometimes want leisure to say their prayers, or to make their
recollections. Perhaps, also, they will want time to say their mass or
their breviary, or not have enough for their repast, or even for their
natural repose, for it is incredible how importunate these Japonians are,
especially in reference to strangers, of whom they make no reckoning, but
rather make their sport of them. What therefore will become of them, when
they rise up against their sects, and reprehend their vices? " Yet these
importunities became pleasing to Father Xavier, and afterwards produced a
good effect. As the Japonese are of docible and reasonable minds, the
more they pressed him in dispute, they understood the truth the more: So
that their doubts being satisfied, they comprehended easily, that there
were no contradictions in our faith, nothing that would not abide the
test of the most severe discussion.

It was in the midst of these interrogations, with which the saint was
overburdened, that, by a prodigious manner of speech, the like of which
was scarcely ever heard, he satisfied, with one only answer, the
questions of many persons, on very different subjects, and often opposite
to each other; as suppose, the immortality of the soul; the motions of
the heavens; the eclipses of the sun and moon; the colours of the
rainbow; sin and grace; hell and heaven. The wonder was, that after he
had heard all their several demands, he answered them in few words, and
that these words, being multiplied in their ears, by a virtue all divine,
gave them to understand what they desired to know, as if he had answered
each of them in particular. They frequently took notice of this prodigy;
and were so much amazed at it, that they looked on one another like men
distracted, and regarded the Father with admiration, as not knowing what
to think or say. But as clear-sighted and able as they were, for the most
part, they could not conceive that it was above the power of nature. They
ascribed it to I know not what secret kind of science, which they
imagined him only to possess. For which reason, Father Cozmo de Torrez,
being returned from Firando to Amanguchi, the Bonzas said, "This man is
not endued with the great knowledge of Father Francis, nor has the art of
resolving many doubts with one only answer. "

The process of the saint's canonization makes mention of this miracle;
and Father Antonio Quadros, who travelled to Japan four years after
Father Xavier, writes it to Father Diego Moron, provincial of Portugal,
These are his words: "A Japonese informed me, that he had seen three
miracles wrought by Father Xavier in his country. He made a person walk
and speak, who was dumb and taken with the palsy; he gave voice to
another mute; and hearing to one that was deaf. This Japonian also told
me, that Father Xavier was esteemed in Japan for the most knowing man of
Europe; and that the other Fathers of the Society were nothing to him,
because they could answer but one idolater at a time, but that Father
Xavier, by one only word, decided ten or twelve questions. When I told
him, that this might probably happen because those questions were alike,
he assured me it was not so; but that, on the contrary, they were very
different. He added, lastly, that this was no extraordinary thing with
him, but a common practice. "

When Xavier and his companion Fernandez were a little disengaged from
these importunities, they set themselves on preaching twice a day, in the
public places of the town, in despite of the Bonzas. There were seven or
eight religions in Amanguchi quite opposite to each other, and every one
of them had many proselytes, who defended their own as best; insomuch,
that these Bonzas, who were heads of parties, had many disputes amongst
themselves: But when once the saint began to publish the Christian law,
all the sects united against their common enemy; which, notwithstanding,
they durst not openly declare, against a man who was favoured by the
court, and who seemed, even to themselves, to have somewhat in him that
was more than human.

At this time God restored to Father Xavier the gift of tongues, which had
been given him in the Indies on divers occasions; for, without having
ever learned the Chinese language, he preached every day to the Chinese
merchants, who traded at Amanguchi, in their mother-tongue, there being
great numbers of them. He preached in the afternoon to the Japonians in
their language; but so naturally and with so much ease, that he could not
be taken for a foreigner.

The force of truth, against which their doctors could oppose nothing that
was reasonable in their disputations; the novelty of three miracles,
which we have mentioned, and of many others which Xavier wrought at the
same time; his innocent and rigid life; the Divine Spirit which enlivened
his discourses;--all these together made so great an impression on their
hearts, that in less than two months time, more than five hundred persons
were baptized; the greatest part men of quality and learning, who had
examined Christianity to the bottom, and who did not render up themselves
for any other reason, than for that they had nothing farther to oppose.

It was wonderful, according to the report of the saint himself, to
observe, that there was no other speech but of Jesus Christ through all
the town; and that those who had most eagerly fought against the
Christian law in their disputes, were now the most ardent to defend it,
and to practise it with most exactness. All of them were tenderly
affectionate to the Father, and were ever loath to leave his company They
took delight in making daily questions to him, concerning the mysteries
of faith; and it is unspeakable what inward refreshments they found, in
seeing that all was mysterious even, in the most ordinary
ceremonies,--as, for example, in the manner wherewith the faithful sign
themselves with the cross.

The Father, on his side, had as ample a satisfaction; and he confesses it
himself, in a letter which he directed some time after to the Jesuits in
Europe: "Though my hairs are already become all hoary," says he to them,
"I am more vigorous and robust than I ever was; for the pains which are
taken to cultivate a reasonable nation, which loves the truth, and which
covets to be saved, afford me matter of great joy. I have not, in the
course of all my life, received a greater satisfaction than at Amanguchi,
where multitudes of people came to hear me, by the king's permission. I
saw the pride of their Bonzas overthrown, and the most inflamed
enemies of the Christian name subjected to the humility of the gospel. I
saw the transports of joy in those new Christians, when, after having
vanquished the Bonzas in dispute, they returned in triumph. I was not
less satisfied, to see their diligence in labouring to convince the
Gentiles, and vying with each other in that undertaking; with the delight
they took in the relation of their conquests, and by what arguments and
means they brought them over, and how they rooted out the heathen
superstitions; all these particulars gave me such abundant joy, that I
lost the sense of my own afflictions. Ah, might it please Almighty God,
that, as I call to my remembrance those consolations which I have
received from the fountain of all mercies in the midst of my labours, I
might not only make a recital of them, but give the experience also, and
cause them to be felt and considered as they ought, by our universities
of Europe, I am assured, that many young men, who study there, would come
hither to employ all the strength of their parts, and vigour of their
minds, in the conversion of an idolatrous people, had they once tasted
those heavenly refreshments which accompany our labours. "

These inward delights of God's servant were not yet so pure, but that
some bitterness was intermixed. He was not without sorrow for Oxindono
king of Amanguchi; who, though persuaded of the excellence of
Christianity, was retained in idolatry by carnal pleasures: and for
Neatondono, first prince of the kingdom, who, having noble and virtuous
inclinations, might have proved the apostle of the court, if some trivial
reasons had not hindered him from becoming a Christian. He, and the
princess his wife, respected Xavier as their father, and even honoured
him as a saint. They also loved the faithful, and succoured them in all
their needs. They spoke of our faith in terms of great veneration; but,
having founded many monasteries of Bonzas, it troubled them, as they
said, to lose the fruit of charity: and thus the fear of being frustrated
of I know not what rewards, which the Bonzas promised them, caused them
to neglect that eternal recompence of which the holy man assured them.

But how powerful soever the example of princes is usually in matters of
religion, yet on all sides Christianity was embraced; and an action of
Xavier's companion did not a little contribute to the gaining over of the
most stubborn. Fernandez preached in one of the most frequented places of
the town; and amongst his crowd of auditors were some persons of great
wit, strongly opinioned of their sect, who could not conceive the maxims
of the gospel, and who heard the preacher with no other intention than to
make a sport of him. In the midst of the sermon, a man, who was of the
scum of the rabble, drew near to Fernandez, as if it were to whisper
something to him, and hawking up a mass of nastiness, spit it full upon
his face. Fernandez, without a word speaking, or making the least sign
that he was concerned, took his hand-kerchief, wiped his face, and
continued his discourse.

Every one was suprised at the moderation of the preacher:--the more
debauched, who had set up a laughter at this affront, turned all their
scorn into admiration, and sincerely acknowledged, that a man who was so
much master of his passions, as to command them on such an occasion, must
needs be endued with greatness of soul and heroic courage. One of the
chief of the assembly discovered somewhat else in this unshaken patience:
He was the most learned amongst all the doctors of Amanguchi, and the
most violent against the gospel He considered, that a law which taught
such patience, and such insensibility of affronts, could only come from
heaven; and argued thus within himself: "These preachers, who with so
much constancy endure the vilest of all injuries, cannot pretend to cozen
us. It would cost them too dear a price; and no man will deceive another
at his own expence. He only, who made the heart of man, can place it in
so great tranquillity. The force of nature cannot reach so far; and this
Christian patience must proceed alone from some divine principle. These
people cannot but have some infallible assurance of the doctrine they
believe, and of the recompence which they expect; for, in line, they are
ready to suffer all things for their God, and have no human expectations.
After all, what inconvenience or danger can it be to embrace their law?
If what they tell us of eternity be true, I shall be eternally miserable
in not believing it; and supposing there be no other life but this, is it
not better to follow a religion which elevates a man above himself, and
which gives him an unalterable peace, than to profess our sects, which
continue us in all our weakness, and which want power to appease the
disorders of our hearts? " He made his inward reflections on all these
things, as he afterwards declared; and these considerations being
accompanied with the motions of grace, touched him so to the quick, that,
as soon as the sermon was ended, he confessed that the virtue of the
preacher had convinced him; he desired baptism, and received it with
great solemnity.

This illustrious conversion was followed with answerable success. Many
who had a glimmering of the truth, and feared to know it yet more
plainly, now opened their eyes, and admitted the gospel light; amongst
the rest, a young man of five-and-twenty years of age, much esteemed for
the subtlety of his understanding, and educated in the most famous
universities of Japan. He was come to Amanguchi, on purpose to be made a
Bonza; but being informed that the sect of Bonzas, of which he desired
to be a member, did not acknowledge a first Principle, and that their
books had made no mention of him, he changed his thoughts, and was
unresolved on what course of living he should fix; until being finally
convinced, by the example of the doctor, and the arguments of Xavier, he
became a Christian. The name of Laurence was given him; and it was he,
who, being received by Xavier himself into the Society of Jesus,
exercised immediately the ministry of preaching with so much fame, and so
great success, that he converted an innumerable multitude of noble and
valiant men, who were afterwards the pillars of the Japonian church.

As to what remains, the monasteries of the Bonzas were daily thinned, and
grew insensibly to be dispeopled by the desertion of young men, who had
some remainders of modesty and morality. Being ashamed of leading a
brutal life, and of deceiving the simple, they laid by their habits of
Bonzas, together with the profession, that, coming back into the world,
they might more easily be converted. These young Bonzas discovered to
Xavier the mysteries of their sects, and revealed to him their hidden
abominations, which were covered with an outside of austerity.

The Father, who was at open defiance with those men, who were the mortal
enemies of all the faithful, and whose only interest it was to hinder the
establishment of the faith, published whatsoever was told him in relation
to them, and represented them in their proper colours. These unmasked
hypocrites became the laughter of the people; but what mortified them
more, was, that they, who heard them like oracles before this, now
upbraided them openly with their ignorance. A woman would sometimes
challenge them to a disputation; and urge them with such home and
pressing arguments, that the more they endeavoured to get loose, the
more they were entangled: For the Father, being made privy to the secrets
of every sect, furnished the new proselytes with weapons to vanquish the
Bonzas, by reducing them to manifest contradictions; which, among the
Japonese, is the greatest infamy that can happen to a man of letters. But
the Bonzas got not off so cheap, as only to be made the derision of the
people; together with their credit and their reputation they lost the
comfortable alms, which was their whole subsistence: So that the greater
part of them, without finding in themselves the least inclinations to
Christianity, bolted out of their convents, that they might not die of
hunger in them; and changed their profession of Bonzas, to become either
soldiers or tradesmen; which gave the Christians occasion to say, with
joy unspeakable, "That, in a little time, there would remain no more
idolaters in Amanguchi, of those religious cheats, than were barely
sufficient to keep possession of their monasteries. "

The elder Bonzas, in the mean time, more hardened in their sect, and more
obstinate than the young, spared for nothing to maintain their
possession. They threatened the people with the wrath of their gods, and
denounced the total destruction of the town and kingdom; they said, "The
God whom the Europeans believed, was not Deos, or Deus, as the Portuguese
called him, but Dajus, that is to say, in the Japonian tongue, a lie, or
forgery. " They added, "That this God imposed on men a heavy yoke. What
justice was it to punish those who transgressed a law, which it was
impossible to keep? But where was Providence, if the law of Jesus was
necessary to salvation, which suffered fifteen ages to slide away without
declaring it to the most noble part of all the world? Surely a religion,
whose God was partial in the dispensation of his favours, could not
possibly be true; and if the European doctrine had but a shadow of truth
in it, China could never have been so long without the knowledge of it. "
These were the principal heads of their accusation, and Xavier reports
them in his letters; but he gives not an account of what answers he
returned, and they are not made known to us by any other hand. Thus,
without following two or three historians, who make him speak according
to their own ideas on all these articles, I shall content myself with
what the saint himself had left in writing. The idolaters, instead of
congratulating their own happiness, that they were enlightened by the
beams of faith, bemoaned the blindness of their ancestors, and cried out
in a lamentable tone, "What! are our forefathers burning in hellfire,
because they did not adore a God who was unknown to them, and observed
not a law which never was declared? " The Bouzas added fuel to their zeal,
by telling them,

"The Portuguese priests were good for nothing, because they could not
redeem a soul from hell; whereas they could do it at their pleasure, by
their fasts and prayers: that eternal punishments either proved the
cruelty or the weakness of the Christian God; his cruelty, if he did not
deliver them, when he had it in his power; his weakness, if he could not
execute what he desired; lastly, that Amida and Xaca were far more
merciful, and of greater power; but that they were only pleased to redeem
from hell those who, during their mortal life, had bestowed magnificent
alms upon the Bonzas. "

We are ignorant of all those particular answers of the saint, as I said
above: we only know from his relation, that, concerning the sorrow of the
Japonians for having been bereft for so many ages of Christian knowledge,
he had the good fortune to give them comfort, and put them in a way of
more reasonable thoughts; for he shewed them in general, that the most
ancient of all laws is the law of God, not that which is published by the
sound of words, but that which is written in hearts by the hand of
nature; so that every one who comes into the world, brings along with him
certain precepts, which his own instinct and reason teach him. "Before
Japan received its laws from the wise men of China," said Xavier, "it was
known amongst you, that theft and adultery were to be avoided; and from
thence it was that thieves and palliards sought out secret places,
wherein to commit those crimes. After they had committed them, they felt
the private stings of their own consciences, which cease not to reproach
the guilty to themselves, though their wickedness be not known to others,
nor even so much as prohibited by human laws. Suppose an infant bred up
in forests amongst the beasts, far from the society of mankind, and
remote from the civilized inhabitants of towns, yet he is not without an
inward knowledge of the rules of civil life; for ask him, whether it be
not an evil action to murder a man, to despoil him of his goods, to
violate his bed, to surprise him by force, or circumvent him by
treachery, he will answer without question, 'That nothing of this is to
be done. ' Now if this be manifest in a savage, without the benefit of
education, how much more way it be concluded of men well educated, and
living in mutual conversation? Then," added the holy man, "it follows,
that God has not left so many ages destitute of knowledge, as your Bonzas
have pretended" By this he gave them to understand, that the law of
nature was a step which led them insensibly to the Christian law; and
that a man who lived morally well, should never fad of arriving to the
knowledge of the faith, by ways best known to Almighty God; that is to
say, before his eath, God would either send some preacher to him, or
illuminate his mind by some immediate revelation. These reasons, which
the fathers of the church have often used on like occasions, gave such
satisfaction to the Pagans, that they found no farther difficulty in that
point, which had given them so much trouble.

The Bonzas perceiving that the people preferred the authority of Xavier
above theirs, and not knowing how to refute their adversary, made a cabal
at court, to lessen the Christians in the good opinion of the king. They
gave him jealousies of them, by decrying their behaviour, and saying,
"They were men of intrigue, plotters, enemies of the public safety, and
dangerous to the person of the king;" insomuch, that Oxindono, who had
been so favourable to them, all on the sudden was turned against them. It
is true, that as the Japonese value themselves above all things, in the
inviolable observation of their word, when they have once engaged it, he
durst not revoke that solemn edict, which he had published in favour of
the Christians; but to make it of no effect, he used the faithful with
great severity, even so far as to seize upon their goods, and began with
men of the first rank in his dominions. At the same time, the Bonzas,
grown insolent, and swelled with this new turn of tide, wrote letters and
libels full of invectives against Xavier. They said, he was a vagabond
beggar, who, not knowing how to maintain himself in India, was come to
Japan to live on charity. They endeavoured above all things to make him
pass for a notorious magician, who, through the power of his charms, had
forced the devil to obey him, and one who, by the assistance of his
familiars, performed all sorts of prodigies to seduce the people.

But neither this alteration in the king, nor these calumnies of the
Bonzas, hindered the progress of the gospel. The number of Christians
amounted in few days to three thousand in Amanguchi, and they were all so
fervent, that not one of them but was ready, not only to forego his
fortunes, but also to shed his blood for the defence of his faith, if the
king should be carried on to persecute the growing church with fire and
sword, as it was believed he would. The reputation of the apostle was
also encreased, in spite of the false reports which were spread
concerning him; and his name became so famous in the neighbouring
kingdoms, that all the people round about were desirous to see the
European Bonza.

Xavier had of late some thoughts of returning to the Indies, there to
make a choice himself of such labourers as were proper for Japan; and his
design was to come back by China, the conversion of which country had
already inflamed his heart. For discoursing daily with such Chinese
merchants as were resident at Amanguehi, he had entertained a strong
opinion, that a nation so polite, and knowing, would easily be reduced to
Christianity; and on the other side, he had great hopes, that when China
should be once converted, Japan would not be long after it; at least the
more unbelieving sort of Japonese often said, "That they would not alter
their religion till the Chinese had led the way. Let him carry his gospel
to that flourishing and vast empire; and when he had subdued it to Jesus
Christ, then they would also think of turning Christians. "

In the meantime, a Portuguese vessel, commanded by Edward de Gama,
arrived at the kingdom of Bungo, and news came to Amanguchi, that this
ship, which was sailed thither from the Indies, would be on its way back
again in a month or two. Xavier, to learn what truth there was in this
report, sent Matthew to those parts, who was one of the Japonian
converts, which accompanied him, and gave him a letter, directed to the
captain and merchants of the vessel. The saint desired them to send him
word, who they were, from whence bound, and how soon they intended to
return; after which he told them, "That his intentions were to return to
the Indies, and that he should be glad to meet them, in case they were
disposed to repass thither. " In conclusion, he desired them earnestly,
that they would borrow so much time from their affairs of merchandize as
to think a little on their souls; and declared to them, that all the
silks of China, whatever gain they might afford them, could not
countervail the least spiritual profit which they might make, by a daily
examination of their consciences. The ship was at the port of Figen,
about fifty leagues from Amanguchi, and within a league of Fucheo, which
some call Funay, the metropolis of Bungo. The Portuguese were overjoyed
to hear news of Father Xavier. They sent him an account of theirs, and
withal advertised him, that, in the compass of a month at farthest, they
should set sail for China, where they had left three vessels laden for
the Indies, which were to return in January, and that James Pereyra, his
familiar friend, was on board of one of them. Matthew came back in five
days time; and, besides the letters which he brought the Father from the
captain, and the principal merchants, he gave him some from Goa; by which
the Fathers of the college of St Paul gave him to understand, that his
presence in that place was of absolute necessity, for the regulation of
affairs belonging to the Society.

Then Xavier, without losing time, after he had recommended the new
Christians to the care of Cosmo de Torrez, and John Fernandez, whom he
left at Amanguchi, put himself upon his way towards Mid-September, in the
year 1551. He might have made this voyage easily by sea, but he loved
rather to go by land, and that on foot, according to his custom. He took
for his companions, Matthew and Bernard; two Christian lords would be
also of the party. Their goods had lately been confiscated, as a
punishment for changing their religion; but the grace of Jesus Christ,
which was to them instead of all, rendered their poverty so precious,
that they esteemed themselves richer than they had been formerly. Another
Christian bore them company; that Laurence sirnamed the Squint-eyed,
because of that imperfection in his sight.

The Father walked cheerfully with his five companions, as far as
Pinlaschau, a village distant a league or two from Figen. Arriving there
he found himself so spent with travelling, that his feet were swollen,
and he was seized with a violent headach, so that he could go no farther.
Matthew, Laurence, and Bernard, went on to carry news of him to the
vessel. When Edward de Gama understood that the holy man was so near, he
called together all the Portuguese who resided at Fucheo; and having
chosen out the principal amongst them, got on horseback with them, to pay
him their respects in ceremony. Xavier, whom a little rest had now
recruited, and who was suspicious of the honour which they intended him,
was already on his journey, but fell into that ambush of civility, which
he would willingly have shunned. The cavalcade came up to him within a
league's distance of Figen; and found him walking betwixt the two lords
of Amanguchi, who had never left him, and himself carrying his own
equipage. Gama was surprised to see a person so considerable in the world
in such a posture, and alighting from his horse, with all his company,
saluted him with all manner of respect. After the first compliments were
over, they invited the Father to mount on horseback, but he could not be
persuaded; so that the Portuguese giving their horses to be led after
them, bore him company on foot even to the port.

The ship was equipped in all its flourish, with flags hung out, and
streamers waving, according to the orders of the captain. They who were
remaining in her appeared on the decks, and stood glittering in their
armour. They gave him a volley at his first approach, and then discharged
all their cannon. Four rounds of the artillery being made, the noise of
it was heard so distinctly at Fucheo, that the city was in a fright, and
the king imagined that the Portuguese were attacked by certain pirates,
who lately had pillaged all the coasts. To clear his doubts, he
dispatched away a gentleman of his court to the ship's captain. Gama
shewing Father Francis to the messenger, told him, that the noise which
had alarmed the court, was only a small testimony of the honour which was
owing to so great a person, one so dear to heaven, and so much esteemed
in the court of Portugal.

The Japanner, who saw nothing but poverty in the person of the Father,
and remembered what had been written of him from Amanguchi, stopped a
little without speaking; then, with amazement in his face, "I am in
pain," said he, "what answer I shall return my prince; for what you tell
me has no correspondence either with that which I behold, or with the
account we have received from the Bonzas of Amanguchi; who have seen your
Father Bonza entertain a familiar spirit, who taught him to cast lots,
and perform certain magical operations to delude the ignorant. They
report him to be a wretch forsaken, and accurst by all the world; that
the vermin which are swarming all over him, are too nice to feed on his
infectious flesh; besides which, I fear, that if I should relate what you
say concerning him, our priests would be taken either for idiots, or men
of false understanding, or for envious persons, and impostors. " Then Gama
replying, told the Japonian all that was necessary to give him a good
impression of the saint, and to hinder him from contempt of his mean
appearance. On this last article he declared to him, that he, who had so
despicable an outside, was of noble blood; that fortune had provided him
with wealth, but that his virtue had made him poor; and that his wilfull
want of all things was the effect of a great spirit, which despised those
empty pomps that are so eagerly desired by mankind. This discourse
ravished the Japanner with admiration; he made a faithful relation of it
to his king; and added of himself, that the Portuguese were more happy in
the possession of this holy man, than if their vessel were laden with
ingots of gold.

The king of Bungo had already heard speak of Father Francis; and gave no
credit to what the Bonzas of Amanguchi had written of him. He was a
prince of five-and-twenty years of age, very judicious, generous, and
civil; but too much engaged in carnal pleasures, after the manner of the
Japonian princes. What he had heard from the relation of the messenger,
increased his longing to behold Xavier; and the same day he writ to him,
in these very terms:--

"Father Bonza of Chimahicoghin, (for by that name they call Portugal,)
may your happy arrival in my estates be as pleasing to your God, as are
the praises wherewith he is honoured by his saints. Quansyonofama, my
domestic servant, whom I sent to the port of Figen, tells me, that you
are arrived from Amanguchi; and all my court will bear me witness, with
what pleasure I received the news. As God has not made me worthy to
command you, I earnestly request you to come before the rising of the sun
to-morrow, and to knock at my palace gate, where I shall impatiently
attend you. And permit me to demand this favour of you without being
thought a troublesome beggar. In the meantime, prostrate on the ground,
and on my knees before your God, whom I acknowledge for the God of all
the gods, the Sovereign of the best and greatest which inhabit in the
heavens, I desire of him, I say, to make known to the haughty of the
world, how much your poor and holy life is pleasing to him; to the end,
that the children of our flesh may not be deceived by the false promises
of the earth. Send me news of your holiness, the joy of which may give me
a good night's repose, till the cocks awaken me with the welcome
declaration of your visit. "

This letter was carried by a young prince of the blood royal, attended by
thirty young lords belonging to the court; and accompanied by a venerable
old man, who was his governor, called Poomendono, one of the wisest and
most qualified of all the kingdom, and natural brother to the king of
Minato. The honour which was paid by the Portuguese to Father Xavier, so
surprised the prince, that, turning to his governor, he said aloud, "the
God of these people must be truly great, and his counsels hidden from
mankind, since it is his pleasure, that these wealthy ships should be
obedient to so poor a man as is this Bonza of the Portuguese; and that
the roaring of their cannon should declare, that poverty has wherewithal
to be pleasing to the Lord of all the world; even that poverty which is
so despicable of itself, and so disgraceful in the general opinion, that
it seems even a crime to think of it. "

"Though we have a horror for poverty," replied Poomendono, "and that we
believe the poor incapable of happiness, it may be this poor man is
so much enamoured of his wants, and so esteems them, that he is pleasing
to the God whom he adores, and that practising it with all imaginable
rigour for his sake, he may be richer than the greatest monarch of the
world. "

The young ambassador being returned to court, reported to the king with
what respect his letter had been received; and took upon him to persuade
that prince, that this European Bonza was to be treated with greater
honour, and far otherwise than their ordinary Bonzas; even so far as to
say, that it would be an enormous sin to level him with them; that for
the rest, he was not so poor as his enemies had suggested; that the
captains and Portuguese merchants would bestow on him both their ship and
all their treasure, in case he would accept of them; and that, properly
speaking, he was not to be accounted poor, who possessed as much as he
desired. In the mean time, the Portuguese being assembled, to consult how
Father Xavier should appear in court the next morning, all of them were
of opinion, that he should present himself with all the pomp and
magnificence they could devise. At first he opposed it, out of the
aversion he had for this pageant show, so unsuitable to the condition of
a religious man; but afterwards he yielded to the request, and withal to
the reasons of the assembly.
Those reasons were, that the Bonzas of
Amanguchi, having written all they could imagine, to render Xavier
contemptible, it was convenient to remove those false conceptions from
the people; and at the same time, to let them see how much the Christians
honour their ministers of the gospel, that thereby the Heathens might be
the more easily induced to give credit to them; so that the honour would
reflect on Jesus Christ, and the preaching would be raised in value,
according to the esteem which was given to the preacher.

They prepared therefore, with all diligence, for the entry of the saint,
and set out the next morning before day-light, in a handsome equipage.
There were thirty Portuguese, of the most considerable amongst them,
richly habited; with their chains of gold, and adorned with jewels. Their
servants and slaves, well clothed likewise, were attending on their
masters. Father Xavier wore a cassock of black chainlet, and over it a
surplice, with a stole of green velvet, garnished with a gold brocard.
The chalop and the two barques, wherein they made their passage from the
ship to the town, were covered on the sides with the fairest China
tapestry, and hung round with silken banners of all colours. Both in the
sloop, and in the barques, there were trumpets, flutes, and hautboys, and
other instruments of music, which, playing together, made a most
harmonious concert: the news which was spread about Fucheo, that the
great European Bonza was to enter into the town that morning, drew many
persons of quality to the sea-side; and such a multitude of people ran
crowding together, at the sounding of the trumpets, that the Portuguese
could hardly find footing to come on shore.

Quansyandono, captain of Canafama, and one of the principal of the court,
was there attending them, by order from the king. He received the saint
with great civility, and offered him a litter to carry him to the palace;
but Xavier refused it, and walked on foot, with all his train, in this
order: Edward de Gama went foremost bare-headed, with a cane in his hand,
as the gentleman of the horse, or Major Domo to the Father. Five other
Portuguese followed him, who were the most considerable persons of the
ship. One of them carried a book in a bag of white satin; another a cane
of Bengal, headed with gold; a third his slippers, which were of a fine
black velvet, such as are worn only by persons of the first quality, a
fourth carried a fair tablet of Our Lady, wrapt in a scarf of violet
damask; and the fifth a magnificent parasol. The Father came next after
them, in the habit which I have described; with an air composed betwixt
majesty and modesty. The rest of the Portuguese followed; and to behold
their countenance, their dress, and the beauty of their train, they
resembled rather cavaliers and lords, than a company of merchants. They
passed in this manner through the chief streets of the city, with sound
of trumpets, flutes, and hautboys, followed by an infinite multitude of
people, without reckoning into the number those who filled the windows,
the balconies, and the tops of houses. Being arrived at the great place,
which fronts the royal palace, they found there six hundred of the king's
guards, drawn up, some armed with lances, others with darts, all of them
with rich scymiters hanging by their sides, and costly vests upon their
backs. These guards, at the sign given them by their captain, called
Fingeiridono, advanced in good order towards the saint, after which they
divided into two ranks, and opened a passage for the Father through the
midst of them.

Being come to the palace, the Portuguese, who walked immediately before
the Father, turned towards him, and saluted him with great respect. One
presented him the cane, and another the velvet slippers; he, who held the
parasol, spread it over his head; and the two others, who carried the
book and picture, placed themselves on each side of him. All this was so
gracefully performed, and with so much honour to the Father, that the
lords who were present much admired the manner of it: and they were heard
to say amongst themselves, that Xavier had been falsely represented to
them by the Bonzas; that questionless he was a man descended from above,
to confound their envy, and abate their pride.

After they had gone through a long gallery, they entered into a large
hall full of people; who, by their habit, which was of damask, heightened
with gold, and diversified with fair figures, seemed to be persons of the
highest quality. There a little child, whom a reverend old man held by
the hand, coming up to the Father, saluted him with these words: "May
your arrival in the palace of my lord the king, be as welcome to him, as
the rain of heaven to the labourers, in a long and parching drought:
Enter without fear," continued he, "for I assure you of the love of all
good men, though the wicked cannot behold you without melancholy in their
faces, which will make them appear like a black and stormy night. " Xavier
returned an answer suitable to his age who had made the compliment; but
the child replied in a manner which was far above his age. "Certainly,"
said he, "you must be endued with an extraordinary courage, to come from
the end of all the world into a strange country, liable to contempt, in
regard of your poverty; and the goodness of your God must needs be
infinite, to be pleased with that poverty against the general opinion of
mankind. The Bonzas are far from doing any thing of this nature; they who
publicly affirm, and swear, that the poor are no more in a possibility of
salvation than the women. " "May it please the divine goodness of our
Lord," replied Xavier, "to enlighten those dark and wretched souls with
the beams of his celestial truth, to the end they may confess their
error, both as to that particular, and to the rest of their belief. "

The child discoursed on other subjects, and spoke with so much reason,
and with that sublimity of thought, that the Father doubted not but he
was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who, when he pleases, can replenish the
souls of infants with wisdom, and give eloquence to their tongues, before
nature has ripened in them the use of reason.

In these entertainments, which were surprising to all the assistants,
they passed into another hall, where there were many gentlemen richly
habited, and of good mein. At the moment when the Father entered, all of
them bowed with reverence; which action they repeated thrice, and so very
low, that they touched the ground with their foreheads, as the Japonese
are very dextrous at that exercise. And this reverence, which they call
Gromenare, is only performed by the son to the father, and by the vassal
to his lord. After this, two of them separating from the company, to
testify their general joy at the sight of him, one of them spoke in this
manner: "May your arrival, holy Father Bonza, be as pleasing to our king
as the smiles of a babe are to his mother, who holds him in her arms;
which certainly will be, for we swear to you by the hairs of our heads,
that every thing, even to the very walls, which seem to dance for joy at
your desired presence, conspires to your good reception, and excites us
to rejoice at your arrival; we doubt not but it will turn to the glory of
that God. of whom you have spoken so greatly at Amanguchi. " This
compliment being ended, these young lords were following the Father; but
the child of whom we made mention, and whom Xavier led by the hand, made
a sign to them, that they should go no farther. They mounted on a terrace
bordered with orange trees, and from thence entered into another hall,
more spacious than either of the former. Facharandono, the king's
brother, was there, with a magnificent retinue. Having done to the saint
all the civilities which are practised to the greatest of Japan, he told
him, "that this day was the most solemn and auspicious of all the year
for the court of Bungo; and that his lord the king esteemed himself more
rich and happy to have him in his palace, than if he were master of all
the silver contained in the two-and-thirty treasuries of China. In the
mean time," added the prince, "I wish you an increase of glory, and an
entire accomplishment of that design, which brought you hither from the
extremities of the earth. "

Then the child, who had hitherto been the master of the ceremonies to the
Father, left him in the hands of Facharandono, and retired apart. They
entered into the king's antichamber, where the principal lords of the
kingdom were attending him. After he had been received by them with all
possible civilities, he was at last introduced to his audience in a
chamber which glittered with gold on every side. The king, who was
standing, advanced five or six paces at the first appearance of the
Father, and bowed himself even to the ground thrice successively, at
which action all the company were in great amazement. Xavier, on his
side, prostrated himself before that prince, and would have touched
his foot, according to the custom of the country, but the king would not
permit him, and himself raised up the saint; then taking him by the hand,
he caused him to sit down by him on the same estrade. The prince, his
brother, was seated somewhat lower; and the Portuguese were placed over
against them, accompanied by the most qualified persons of the court. The
king immediately said all the obliging things to the Father which could
be expected from a well-bred man; and, laying aside all the pomp of
majesty, which the kings of Japan are never used to quit in public,
treated him with the kindness and familiarity of a friend. The Father
answered all these civilities of the prince with a most profound respect,
and words full of deference and submission; after which, taking occasion
to declare Jesus Christ to him, he explained, in few words, the principal
maxims of Christian morality; but he did it after so plausible a manner,
that at the conclusion of his discourse, the king cried out in a
transport of admiration, "How can any man learn from God these profound
secrets? Why has he suffered us to live in blindness, and this Bonza of
Portugal to receive these wonderful illuminations? For, in fine, we
ourselves are witnesses of what we had formerly by report; and all we
hear is maintained by proofs so strong and evident, and withal so
conformable to the light of nature, that whoever would examine these
doctrines, according to the rules of reason, will find that truth will
issue out, and meet him on every side, and that no one proposition
destroys another. It is far otherwise with our Bonzas; they cannot make
any discourse without the clashing of their own principles; and from
thence it happens, that the more they speak, the more they entangle
themselves. Confused in their knowledge, and yet more confused in
the explication of what they teach, rejecting to day as false what
yesterday they approved for true; contradicting themselves, and recanting
their opinions every moment, insomuch, that the clearest head, and the
most ready understanding, can comprehend nothing of their doctrine; and
in relation to eternal happiness, we are always left in doubt what we
should believe; a most manifest token that they only follow the
extravagancies of their own fancies, and have not, for the rule and
foundation of their faith, any permanent and solid truth. "

In this manner spoke the king; and it was easy to judge by the vehemence
of his action, that he spoke from the abundance of his heart. There was
present a Bonza, very considerable in his sect, and of good knowledge,
but too presuming of his understanding, and as much conceited of his own
abilities as any pedant in the world. This Bonza, whose name was
Faxiondono, either jealous of the honour of his profession, or taking to
himself in particular what the king had said of all in general, was often
tempted to have interrupted him, yet he mastered his passion till the
king had done; but then losing all manner of respect, and not keeping any
measures of decency, "How dare you," said he, "decide matters relating to
religion; you who have never studied in the university of Fianzima, the
only place where the sacred mysteries of the gods are explicated? If you
know nothing of yourself, consult the learned. I am here in person to
instruct you. "

The insolence of the Bonza raised the indignation of all the company, the
king excepted, who, smiling, commanded him to proceed, if he had more to
say. Faxiondono growing more arrogant by this moderation of his prince,
began raising his note by extolling the profession of a Bonza: "That
nothing was more certain than that the Bonzas were the favourites of
heaven, both observing the law themselves, and causing it to be observed
by others; that they passed the longest nights, and the severest colds,
in praying for their benefactors; that they abstained from all sensual
pleasures; that fresh fish never came upon their tables; that they
administered to the sick, instructed the children, comforted the
distressed, reconciled enemies, appeased seditions, and pacified
kingdoms; that, which was first and chiefest, they gave letters of
exchange for another life, by which the dead became rich in heaven;
that, in fine, the Bonzas were the familiar friends of the stars, and the
confidents of the saints; that they were privileged to converse with them
by night, to cause them to descend from heaven, to embrace them in their
arms, and enjoy them as long as they desired. " These extravagancies set
all the company in a laughter; at which the Bonza was so enraged, that he
flew out into greater passion, till the king commanded his brother to
impose silence on him; after which, he caused his seat to be taken from
under him, and commanded him to withdraw, telling him, by way of
raillery, "That his choler was a convincing proof of a Bonza's holiness;"
and then seriously adding, "That a man of his character had more commerce
with hell than heaven. " At these words, the Bonza cried out with excess
of rage, "The time will come, when no man of this world shall be worthy
enough to serve me; there is not that monarch now breathing on the face
of the earth, but shall be judged too vile to touch the hem of my
garment. " He meant, when he was to be transformed into one of their
deities, and that God and he should be mixed into one divinity, which is
the reward of a Bonza after death. Though the king could not hear his
madness without smiling, yet he had so much compassion on his folly, that
he took upon him to confute those extravagant propositions; but Xavier
desired him to defer it to a fitter time, till he had digested his fury,
and was more capable of hearing reason. Then the king said only to
Faxiondono, "That he should go and do penance for the pride and insolence
of his speech, wherein he had made himself a companion of the gods. "
Faxiondono did not reply, but he was heard to mutter, and grind his
teeth, as he withdrew. Being at the chamber door, and ready to go out,
"May the gods," said he aloud, "dart their fire from heaven to consume
thee, and burn to ashes all those kings who shall presume to speak like
thee! "

The king and Xavier prosecuted their discourse on several articles of
religion till dinner time; when the meat was on the table, the king
invited the Father to eat with him. Xavier excused himself with all
possible respect, but that prince would absolutely have it so. "I know
well," said he, "my friend and father, that you are not in want of my
table; but, if you were a Japanner, as we are, you would understand, that
a king cannot give those he favours a greater sign of his good will, than
in permitting them to eat with him; for which reason, as I love you, and
am desirous of shewing it, you must needs dine with me; and farther, I
assure you, that I shall receive a greater honour by it, than I bestow. "
Then Xavier, with a low reverence, kissing his scymitar, which is a mark
of most profound respect, much practised in Japan, said thus to him: "I
petition the God of heaven, from the bottom of my heart, to reward your
majesty for all the favours you have heaped on me, by bestowing on you
the light of faith, and the virtues of Christianity, to the end you may
serve God faithfully during your life, and enjoy him eternally after
death. " The king embraced him, and desired of God, on his side, that he
would graciously hear the saint's request, yet on this condition, that
they might remain together in heaven, and never be divided from each
other, that they might have the opportunity of long conversations, and of
discoursing to the full of divine matters. At length they sat to dinner:
while they were eating, the Portuguese, and all the lords of the court,
were on their knees, together with the chief inhabitants of the town,
amongst whom were also some Bonzas, who were enraged in their hearts; but
the late example of Faxiondono hindered them from breaking into passion.

These honours which Xavier received from the king of Bungo, made him so
considerable, and gave him so great a reputation with the people, that
being at his lodgings with the Portuguese, they came thronging from all
quarters to hear him speak of God. His public sermons, and his private
conversations, had their due effect. Vast multitudes of people, from the
very first, renounced their idols, and believed in Jesus Christ. The
saint employed whole days together in baptising of idolaters, or in
teaching new believers; so that the Portuguese could not enjoy him to
themselves for their own spiritual consolation, unless at some certain
hours of the night, while he was giving himself some breathing time after
his long labours. Loving him so tenderly as they did, and fearing that
his continual pains might endanger his health, they desired him to manage
it with more caution, and to take at least those refreshments which human
nature exacted from him, before he sunk at once under some distemper. But
he answered them, "That if they truly loved him, they would trouble
themselves no more concerning him; that they ought to look on him as one
who was dead to all outward refreshments; that his nourishment, his
sleep, and his life itself, consisted in delivering from the tyranny of
the devil those precious souls, for whose sake chiefly God had called him
from the utmost limits of the earth. "

Amongst the conversions which were made at Fucheo, one of the most
considerable was that of a famous Bonza, of Canafama, called Sacay Ecran.
This Bonza, who was very learned, and a great pillar of his sect, seeing
that none of his brethren durst attempt Xavier on the matter of religion,
undertook a public disputation with him. The conference Avas made in a
principal place of the town, in presence of a great multitude. Scarcely
had Xavier made an end of explaining the Christian doctrine, when the
Bonza grew sensible of his errors. The infidel, notwithstanding, went on
to oppose those truths, of which he had already some imperfect glimpse;
but being at length convinced, by the powerful reasons of his adversary,
and inwardly moved by God's good spirit, he fell on his knees, and
lifting up his hands towards heaven, he pronounced aloud these words,
Math tears trickling from his eyes; "O Jesus Christ, thou true and only
son of God, I submit to thee. I confess from my heart, and with my mouth,
that thou art God eternal and omnipotent; and I earnestly desire the
pardon of all my auditors, that I have so often taught them things for
truth, which I acknowledge, and at this present declare before them, were
only forgeries and fables. "

An action which was so surprising, moved the minds of all the assistants;
and it was in the power of Father Xavier to have baptized that very day
five hundred persons, who, being led by the example of the Bonza of
Canafama, all of them earnestly desired baptism. He might perhaps have
done this in the Indies, where there were no learned men to oppose the
mysteries of our faith, and to tempt the fidelity of the new converts by
captious queries. But he judged this not to be practicable in Japan,
where the Bonzas, not being able to hinder the conversion of idolaters,
endeavoured afterwards to regain them by a thousand lying artifices and
sophistications; and it appeared necessary to him, before he baptized
those who were grown up to manhood, to fortify them well against the
tricks of those seducers.

Accordingly, the saint disposed the souls of those Gentiles by degrees to
this first sacrament, and began with the reformation of their manners,
chusing rather not to baptize the king of Bungo, than to precipitate his
baptism; or rather he thought, that his conversion would be always speedy
enough, provided it were sincere and constant. Thus, the great care of
Father Xavier, in relation to the prince, was to give him an aversion to
those infamous vices which had been taught him by the Bonzas, and in
which he lived without scruple, upon the faith of those his masters. Now
the king, attending with great application to the man of God, and having
long conversations with him, began immediately to change his life, and to
give the demonstrations of that change. From the very fist, he banished
out of his chamber a beautiful youth, who was his minion, and also
forbade him the entry of his palace. He gave bountifully to the poor, to
whom he had formerly been hard-hearted, as thinking it was a crime to
pity them, and an act of justice to be cruel to them, according to the
doctrine of his Bonzas, who maintained, that poverty not only made men
despicable and ridiculous, but also criminal, and worthy of the severest
punishments. According to the principles of the same doctors, women with
child were allowed to make themselves miscarry by certain potions, and
even to murder those children whom they brought into the world against
their will; insomuch, that such unnatural cruelties were daily committed,
and nothing was more common in the kingdom of Bungo, than those inhuman
mothers: Some of them, to save the charges of their food and education,
others to avoid the miseries attending poverty, and many to preserve the
reputation of chastity, however debauched and infamous they were. The
king, by the admonition of the Father, forbade those cruelties on pain of
death. He made other edicts against divers Pagan ceremonies, which were
lascivious or dishonest, and suffered not the Bonzas to set a foot within
his palace. As to what remains, he was wrapt in admiration at the virtue
of the holy man; and confessed often to his courtiers, that when he saw
him appear at any time, he trembled even to the bottom of his heart,
because he seemed to see the countenance of the man of God, as a clear
mirror, representing to him the abominations of his life.

While Xavier had this success at the court of Bungo, Cosmo de Torrez, and
John Fernandez, suffered for the faith at Amanguchi. After the departure
of the saint, the whole nation of the Bonzas rose against them, and
endeavoured to confound them in regular disputes; flattering themselves
with this opinion, that the companions of Xavier were not so learned as
himself, and judging on the other side, that the least advantage which
they should obtain against them, would re-establish the declining affairs
of Paganism.

It happened quite contrary to their expectations: Torrez, to whom
Fernandez served instead of an interpreter, answered their questions with
such force of reason, that they were wholly vanquished; not being able to
withstand his arguments, they endeavoured to decry him by their
calumnies, spreading a report, that the companions of the great European
Bonza cut the throats of little children by night, sucked their blood,
and eat their flesh; that the devil had declared, by the mouth of an
idol, that these two Europeans were his disciples; and that it was
himself who had instructed them in those subtle answers which one of them
had returned in their public disputations. Besides this, some of the
Bonzas made oath, that they had seen a devil darting flakes of fire like
thunder and lightning against the palace of the king, as a judgment, so
they called it, against those who had received into the town these
preachers of an upstart faith. But perceiving that none of these
inventions took place according to their desires, and that the people,
instead of giving credit to their projects, made their sport at them,
partly in revenge, and partly to verify their visions, they engaged in
their interests a lord of the kingdom, who was a great soldier, and a
malecontent; him they wrought to take up arms against the king. This
nobleman, provoked with the sense of his ill usage at court, and farther
heightened by motives of religion and interest, raised an army in less
than three weeks time, by the assistance of the Bonzas, and came pouring
down like a deluge upon Amanguchi.

The king, who was neither in condition to give him battle, nor provided
to sustain a siege, and who feared all things from his subjects, of whom
he was extremely hated, lost his courage to that degree, that lie looked
on death as his only remedy; for, apprehending above all things the
ignominy of falling alive into the power of rebels, pushed on by a
barbarous despair, he first murdered his son, and then ript up his own
belly with a knife, having beforehand left order with one of his faithful
servants to burn their bodies so soon as they were dead, and not to leave
so much as their ashes at the disposal of the enemy.

All was put to fire and sword within the city. During this confusion, the
soldiers, animated by the Bonzas, searched for Torrez and Fernandez, to
have massacred them: And both of them had perished without mercy, if the
wife of Neatondono, of whom formerly we have made mention, and who,
though continuing a Pagan, yet had so great a kindness for Xavier, that,
for his sake, she kept them hidden in her palace till the public
tranquillity was restored; for, as these popular commotions are of the
nature of storms, which pass away, and that so much the more speedily, as
they had been more violent, the town resumed her former countenance in
the space of some few days.

The heads of the people being assembled for the election of a new king,
by common consent pitched on the brother of the king of Bungo, a young
prince, valiant of his person, and born for great atchievements.
Immediately they sent a solemn embassy to that prince, and presented to
him the crown of Amanguchi. The court of Bungo celebrated the election of
the new king with great magnificence, while Xavier was yet residing at
Fucheo. The saint himself rejoiced the more at this promotion, because he
looked, on this wonderful revolution, which was projected by the Bonzas
for the ruin of Christianity, as that which most probably would confirm
it. He was not deceived in his conjectures; and, from the beginning, had
a kind of assurance, that this turn of state would conduce to the
advantage of the faith: for having desired the king of Bungo, that he
would recommend to the prince his brother the estate of Christianity in
Amanguchi, the king performed so fully that request, that the new monarch
promised, on his royal word, to be altogether as favourable to the
Christians as the king his brother.

Xavier had been forty days at Fucheo when the Portuguese merchants were
in a readiness to set sail for China, according to the measures which
they had taken. All necessary preparations being made, he accompanied
them to take his leave of the king of Bungo. That prince told the
merchants, that he envied them the company of the saint; that, in losing
him, he seemed to have lost his father; and that the thought of never
seeing him again, most sensibly afflicted him.

Xavier kissed his hand with a profound reverence, and told him, that he
would return to wait on his majesty as soon as possibly he could; that he
would keep him inviolably in his heart; and that in acknowledgement of
all his favours, he should continually send up his prayers to heaven,
that God would shower on him his celestial blessings.

The king having taken him aside, as to say something in private to him,
Xavier laid hold on that opportunity, and gave him most important counsel
for the salvation of his soul. He advised him above all things to bear in
mind how soon the greatness and pomp of this present life will vanish
away; that life is but short in its own nature; that we scarcely have
begun to live, before death comes on; and if he should not die a
Christian, nothing less was to be expected than eternal misery; that, on
the contrary, whoever, being truly faithful, should persevere in the
grace of baptism, should have right to an everlasting inheritance with
the Son of God, as one of his beloved children. He desired him also to
consider what was become of so many kings and emperors of Japan; what
advantage was it to them to have sat upon the throne, and wallowed in
pleasures for so many years, being now burning in an abyss of fire, which
was to last to all eternity. What madness was it for a man to condemn his
own soul to endless punishments, that his body might enjoy a momentary
satisfaction; that there was no kingdom, nor empire, though the universal
monarchy of the world should be put into the balance, whose loss was not
to be accounted gain, if losing them, we acquired an immortal crown in
heaven; that these truths, which were indisputable, had been concealed
from his forefathers, and even from all the Japonians, by the secret
judgment of Almighty God, and for the punishment of their offences; that,
for his own particular, he ought to provide for that account, which he
was to render of himself, how much more guilty would he appear in God's
presence, if the Divine Providence having conducted from the ends of the
earth, even into his own palace, a minister of the gospel, to discover to
him the paths of happiness, he should yet continue wildered and wandering
in the disorders of his life. "Which the Lord avert," continued Xavier;
"and may it please him to hear the prayers which day and night I shall
pour out for your conversion. I wish it with an unimaginable ardour, and
assure you, that wheresoever I shall be, the most pleasing news which can
be told me, shall be to hear that the king of Bungo is become a
Christian, and that he lives according to the maxims of Christianity. "

This discourse made such impressions on the king, and so melted into his
heart, that the tears came thrice into his eyes; but those tears were the
only product of it at that time, so much that prince, who had renounced
those impurities, which are abhorred by nature, was still fastened to
some other sensual pleasures. And it was not till after some succeeding
years, that, having made more serious reflections on the wholesome
admonitions of the saint, he reformed his life for altogether, and in the
end received baptism.

Xavier having taken leave of the king, returned to the port of Figen,
accompanied by the merchants, who were to set sail within few days after.
The departure of the saint was joyful to the Bonzas, but the glory of it
was a great abatement to their pleasure. It appeared to them, that all
the honours he had received redounded to their shame; and that after such
an affront, they should remain eternally blasted in the opinion of the
people, if they did not wipe it out with some memorable vengeance. Being
met together, to consult on a business which so nearly touched them, they
concluded, that their best expedient was to raise a rebellion in Fucheo,
as they had done at Amanguchi, and flesh the people by giving up to them
the ship of the Portuguese merchants, first to be plundered, then burned,
and the proprietors themselves to be destroyed. In consequence of this,
if fortune favoured them, to attempt the person of the king, and having
dispatched him, to conclude their work by extinguishing the royal line.
As Xavier was held in veneration in the town, even amongst the most
dissolute idolaters, they were of opinion they did nothing, if they did
not ruin his reputation, and make him odious to the people. Thereupon,
they set themselves at work to publish, not only what the Bonzas of
Amanguchi had written of him, but what they themselves had newly
invented; "That he was the most wicked of mankind; an enemy of the living
and the dead; his practice being to dig up the carcases of the buried,
for the use of his enchantments; and that he had a devil in his mouth, by
whose assistance he charmed his audience. " They added, "That he had
spelled the king, and from thence proceeded these new vagaries in his
understanding and all his inclinations; but that, in case he came not out
of that fit of madness, it should cost him no less than his crown and
life: That Amida and Xaca, two powerful and formidable gods, had sworn to
make an example of him and of his subjects; that therefore the people, if
they were wise, should prevent betimes the wrath of those offended
deities, by revenging their honour on that impostor of a Bonza, and these
European pirates who made their idol of him. " The people were too well
persuaded of the holiness of Xavier, to give credence to such improbable
stories as were raised of him; and all the Bonzas could say against him,
served only to increase the public hatred against themselves. Thus
despairing of success amongst the multitude, they were forced to take
another course, to destroy him in the good opinion of the king.

About twelve leagues distant from the town there was a famous monastery
of the Bonzas, the superior of which was one Fucarandono, esteemed the
greatest scholar and most accomplished in all the learning of Japan: he
had read lectures of the mysteries of their divinity for the space of
thirty years, in the most renowned university of the kingdom. But however
skilled he was in all sciences, his authority was yet greater than his
knowledge: men listened to him as to the oracle of Japan, and an implicit
faith was given to all he said. The Bonzas of Fucheo were persuaded, that
if they could bring him to the town, and set him up against Xavier, in
presence of the court, they should soon recover their lost honour; such
confidence they had of a certain victory over the European doctor. On
this account they writ to Fucarandono, with all the warmness of an
earnest invitation, and sent him word. "That if he would give himself the
trouble of this little journey, to revenge the injury they had received,
they would carry him back in triumph, on their shoulders, to his
monastery. "

The Bonza, who was full as vain as he was learned, came speedily,
attended by six Bonzas, all men of science, but his inferiors and
scholars. He entered the palace at that point of time when Xavier, and
the Portuguese, had audience of the king, for their last farewell, being
to embark the next morning. Before the king had dismissed them, he was
informed that Fucarandono desired to kiss his hand, in presence of the
Portuguese Bonza. At the name of Fucarandono the king was a little
nonplused, and stood silent for some time, suspecting that he came to
challenge Father Xavier to a disputation, and devising in himself some
means of breaking off this troublesome affair, as he afterwards
acknowledged. For whatever good opinion he had of the saint's abilities,
yel he could not think him strong enough to encounter so formidable an
adversary; and therefore, out of his kindness to him, was not willing to
expose him to a disgrace in public. Xavier, who perceived the king's
perplexity, and imagined from whence it might proceed, begged earnestly
of his majesty to give the Bonza leave of entrance, and also free
permission of speaking: "for, as to what concerns me," said the Father,
"you need not give yourself the least disquiet: the law I preach is no
earthly science, taught in any of our universities, nor a human
invention; it is a doctrine altogether heavenly, of which God himself is
the only teacher. Neither all the Bonzas of Japan, nor yet all the
scholars extant in the world, can prevail against it, any more than the
shadows of the night against the beams of the rising sun. "

The king, at the request of Xavier, gave entrance to the Bonza.
Fucarandono, after the three usual reverences to the king, seated himself
by Xavier; and after he had fixed his eyes earnestly upon him, "I know
not," said he, with an overweaning look, "if thou knowest me; or, to
speak more properly, if thou rememberest me. " "I remember not," said
Xavier, "that I have ever seen you. " Then the Bonza, breaking out into a
forced laughter, and turning to his fellows, "I shall have but little
difficulty in overcoming this companion, who has conversed with me a
hundred times, and yet would make us believe he had never seen me. " Then
looking on Xavier, with a scornful smile, "Hast thou none of those goods
yet remaining," continued he, "which thou soldest me at the port of
Frenajoma? " "In truth," replied Xavier, with a sedate and modest
countenance, "I have never been a merchant in all my life, neither have I
ever been at the port of Frenajoma. " "What a beastly forgetfulness is
this of thine," pursued the Bonza, with an affected wonder, and keeping
up his bold laughter, "how canst thou possibly forget it? " "Bring it
back to my remembrance," said Xavier mildly, "you, who have so much more
wit, and a memory happier than mine. " "That shall be done," rejoined the
Bonza, proud of the commendations which the saint had given him; "it is
now just fifteen hundred years since thou and I, who were then merchants,
traded at Frenajoma, and where I bought of thee a hundred bales of silk,
at an easy pennyworth: dost thou yet remember it? " The saint, who
perceived whither the discourse tended, asked him, very civilly, "of
what age he might be? " "I am now two-and-fifty," said Fucarandono. "How
can it then be," replied Xavier, "that you were a merchant fifteen
hundred years ago, that is fifteen ages, when yet you have been in the
world, by your own confession, but half an age? and how comes it that you
and I then trafficked together at Frenajoma, since the greatest part of
you Bonzas maintain, that Japan was a desart, and uninhabited at that
time? " "Hear me," said the Bonza, "and listen to me as an oracle; I will
make thee confess that we have a greater knowledge of things past, than
thou and thy fellows have of the present. Thou art then to understand,
that the world had no beginning, and that men, properly speaking, never
die: the soul only breaks loose from the body in which it was confined,
and while that body is rotting under ground, is looking out for another
fresh and vigorous habitation, wherein we are born again, sometimes in
the nobler, sometimes in the more imperfect sex, according to the various
constellations of the heavens, and the different aspects of the moon.
These alterations in our birth produce the like changes in our fortune.
Now, it is the recompence of those who have lived virtuously, to preserve
a constant memory of all the lives which they have passed through, in so
many ages; and to represent themselves, to themselves, entirely, such as
they have been from all eternity, under the figure of a prince, of a
merchant, of a scholar, of a soldier, and so many other various forms: on
the contrary, they who, like thee, are so ignorant of their own affairs,
as not to understand who, or what they have been formerly, during those
infinite revolutions of ages, shew that their crimes have deserved death,
as often as they have lost the remembrance of their Jives in every
change. "

The Portuguese, from whose relation we have the knowledge of what is
above written, and who was present at the dispute, as he himself informs
us, in his book of Travels, gives us no account of the answers which were
made by Xavier. "I have neither knowledge nor presumption enough," says
he, "to relate those subtile and solid reasons, with which he confuted
the mad imaginations of the Bonza. " We only have learnt from this
Portuguese, that Fucarandono was put to silence upon the point in
question, and that, a little to save his reputation, he changed the
subject, but to no purpose, for even there too he was confounded; for,
forgetting those decencies which even nature prescribes to men, and
common custom has taught us in civil conversation, he advanced infamous
propositions, which cannot be related without offending modesty; and
these he maintained with a strange impudence, against the reasons of the
Father, though the king and the noble auditory thought the Christian
arguments convincing. But the Bonza still flying out into passion, and
continuing to rail and bawl aloud, as if he were rather in a bear-garden
than at a solemn disputation, one of the lords there present said,
smiling, to him, "If your business be fighting, why did not you go to the
kingdom of Amanguchi, when they were in civil wars? there you might have
found some one or other with whom you might have gone to hard-heads. What
make you here, where all things are at quiet? But, if you came hither to
dispute, why do you not carry on your argument with mildness and good
manners, according to the copy which is set you by the European Bonza? "

This sharp raillery had no effect upon Fucarandono: he replied to the
lord with so much impudence and haughtiness, that the king, whose
patience was tired with so much insolence, caused him to be put out of
the hall, saying, "That his coat of a Bonza was the only protection of
his life. " The affront which Fucarandono had received, was interpreted by
the Bonzas as an injury done to the gods, and as such they declared it to
the people, saying, "That religion was profaned, and that the king, the
court, and the whole nation, had incurred the wrath of heaven. " Upon
which pretence they shut up the temples, and would neither offer
sacrifice nor accept of alms. The multitude, which had already been
disposed to rise, began to get together, and had certainly taken arms, if
the king, by good management, had not somewhat calmed their spirits.

In the mean time the Portuguese, not believing themselves to be secure
against the rage of a superstitious people, and having just grounds of
apprehending that the affront which Fucarandono had received might be
revenged on their persons, returned with all expedition to their ship,
designing to set sail with the benefit of the first fair wind. At their
departure from the town, they intreated Father Xavier to follow them; but
he could not resolve to run off like a fugitive, or to forsake those new
Christians whose ruin had been sworn by the Heathen priests. How eager
soever those merchants were to get out of a country where their lives
were in so little safety, yet their fear for Father Xavier kept them
lingering there some days longer; they deputed the captain of the vessel
to him, who was to desire him, in their name, to make haste to them.
Edward de Gama, after a long inquiry, found him at last in a poor cabin,
with eight Christians, who, having been the most zealous in opposition of
the Bonzas, were in reason to expect the more cruel usage at their hands,
and were content to offer up their lives, provided they might die in the
arms of the man of God.

The captain urged him with the strongest reasons which he could invent,
and set before him all the dangers which attended him; that, being at
the mercy of the Bonzas, his death was inevitable; and that the means of
escaping would be lost when once the tempest should begin to rise. The
Father, far from yielding to these arguments, was offended at the captain
and the merchants for desiring to hinder him from the crown of martyrdom
which he had taken so long a journey to obtain. "My brother," said he to
Gama, with a fervour which expressed the holy ambition of his soul, "how
happy should I be, if I could receive what you reckon a disgrace, but
what I account a sovereign felicity! but I am unworthy of that favour
from Almighty God; yet I will not render myself more unworthy of it,
which assuredly I should if I embarked with you: For what scandal should
I give, by flying hence, to my new converts? Might they not take occasion
from it to violate their promises to God, when they should find me
wanting to the duty of my ministry? If, in consideration of that money
which you have received from your passengers, you think yourself obliged
to secure them from the clanger which threatens them, and, for that
reason, have summoned them on board, ought not I, by a stronger motive,
to guard my flock, and die with them for the sake of a God who is
infinitely good, and who has redeemed me at the price of his own life, by
suffering for me on the cross? Ought not I to seal it with my blood, and
to publish it by my death, that all men are bound to sacrifice their
blood and lives to this God of mercies? "

This generous answer wrought so much upon the captain, that, instead of
doubling his solicitations on Father Xavier, he resolved to partake his
fortune, and not to leave him. Having taken up this resolution, without
farther care of what might happen to his ship, or what became of his own
person, and accounting all his losses for a trifle while he enjoyed the
company of Xavier, he returned indeed to his merchants, but it was only
to declare to them the determination of the Father, and his own also;
that in case they would not stay, he gave up his vessel to them. They
were supplied with mariners and soldiers, and had plentiful provisions
laid in, both of food and ammunition for war. They might go at their
pleasure wheresoever they designed; but, for his own particular, he was
resolved to live and die with the man of God.

Not a man of them but subscribed to the opinion of the captain; and they
were one and all for following his example, and the fortune of the saint.
Suddenly they put into the port again, for the ship had lain off at a
good distance, for fear of some attempt which might be made upon it from
the town; soldiers were left for its defence, and the captain and
merchants came in company to Fucheo. Their return gave new vigour to the
Christians, and amazed the people, who could not but wonder that so poor
a man should be had in such esteem by his countrymen, that they chose
rather to run the hazard of their wealth, and of their lives, than to
lose the sight of him.

This prompt return broke all the measures of the Bonzas, whose courage
had been swelled by the flight of Gama, which had given them the
opportunity of making their cabals against the Christians; but when they
found that those designs might possibly miscarry, and that, on the other
side, they were again defied to a new conference on the subject of
religion, they thought good to accommodate themselves a little to the
times, and to renew the dispute betwixt Xavier and Fucarandono before the
court. To seem beforehand with the Christians, they made it their own
petition to the king, who freely-granted it, but on some conditions,
which were to be observed on either side. These articles were,--"That
noise was to be banished in dispute; no flying out to be permitted,
nor any provocation by sharp language: That the arguments and answers
were to be couched in precise terms, and drawn up in form of a just
dispute, as it should be agreed by the judges, who were to moderate: That
the approbation of the audience was to decide the victory: That if the
point were doubtful betwixt them, the suffrages should be taken, and that
he should be judged to have reason on his side who had the majority of
voices: Lastly, That whoever was willing to enter himself a Christian,
might profess his faith without hinderance or molestation from any man. "
These conditions were too reasonable to be accepted by the Bonzas. They
appealed from the king to the king better informed, and told him boldly,
that, in matters of religion, it was not just that the profane (that is
the laity) should be umpires; but when they found the king resolved to
maintain his point, they quitted theirs. The next morning was agreed on
for the conference, and some of the most understanding persons of the
court were appointed judges. Fucarandono made his appearance at the
time, attended by three thousand Bonzas. The king, who was either
apprehensive of his own safety amongst that religious rabble, or feared,
at least, that some disorder might ensue, permitted hut four of all the
squadron to enter; and sent word to the others, for their satisfaction,
that it was not honourable for so many to appear against a single man.

Xavier, who had notice sent him from the king, that his adversary was on
the place of combat, came, accompanied with the chiefest of the
Portuguese, all richly habited, who appeared as his officers, and paid
him all possible respect, attending him bare-headed, and never speaking
to him but on the knee. The Bonzas were ready to burst with envy,
beholding the pompous entry of their antagonist; and that which doubled
their despite was, that they overheard the lords saying to one
another,--"Observe this poor man, of whom so many ridiculous pictures
have been made to us; would to God our children might be like him, on
condition the Bonzas might say as bad of them as they speak of him! Our
own eyes are witnesses of the truth; and the palpable lies which they
have invented, show what credit is to be given to them. " The king took
pleasure in those discourses, and told those lords, that the Bonzas had
assured him that he should be sick at heart at the first appearance of
Father Francis. He acknowledged he was almost ready to have believed
them; but being now convinced, by his own experience, he found that the
character of an ambassador from heaven, and interpreter of the gods, was
not inconsistent with a liar. Fucarandono, who heard all these passages
from his place, took them for so many ill omens; and, turning to his four
associates, told them, "that he suspected this day would be yet more
unsuccessful to them than the last. "

The king received Father Xavier with great civility; and, after he had
talked with him sometime in private, very obligingly ordered him to begin
the disputation.