They happened upon a fortress on their way, belonging to a prince called Ekandono, who was vassal to the king of Saxuma. It was situate on the height of a rock, and defended by ten great bastions. A solid wall encompassed it, with a wide and deep ditch cut through the middle of the rock. Nothing but fearful precipices on every side; and the fortress approachable by one only way, where a guard was placed both day and night. The inside of it was as pleasing as the outside was full of horror. A stately palace composed the body of the place, and in that palace were porticoes, galleries, halls, and chambers, of an admirable beauty; all was cut in the living stone, and wrought so curiously, that the works seemed to be cast within a mould, and not cut by the chizzel.

Some people of the castle, who were returning from Cangoxima, and who had there seen Xavier, invited him, by the way, to come and visit their lord; not doubting but Ekandono would be glad to see so famous a person.

Xavier, who sought all occasions of publishing the gospel, lost not that opportunity. The good reception which was made him, gave him the means of teaching immediately the true religion, and the ways of eternal life. The attendants of the prince, and soldiers of the garrison, who were present, were so moved, both by the sanctity which shone in the apostle's countenance, and by the truth which beamed out in all his words, that, after the clearing of their doubts, seventeen of them at once demanded baptism; and the Father christened them in presence of the Tono, (so the Japonese call the lord or prince of any particular place) The rest of them were possessed with the same desire, and had received the same favour, if Ekandono had not opposed it by reason of state, and contrary to his own inclinations, for fear of some ill consequences from the king of Saxuma; for in his heart he acknowledged Jesus Christ, and permitted Xavier privately to baptize his wife and his eldest son. For the rest, he promised to receive baptism, and to declare himself a Christian, when his sovereign should be favourable to the law of God.

The steward of Ekandono's household was one who embraced the faith. He was a man stepped into years, and of great prudence. Xavier committed the new Christians to his care, and put into his hands the form of baptism in writing, the exposition of the creed, the epitome of our Saviour's life, the seven penitential psalms, the litanies of the saints, and a table of saints' days as they are celebrated in the church. He himself set apart a place in the palace proper for the assemblies of the faithful; and appointed the steward to call together as many of the Pagans as he could, to read both to the one and the other sort some part of the Christian doctrine every Sunday, to cause the penitential psalms to be sung on every Friday, and the litanies every day The steward punctually performed his orders; and those seeds of piety grew up so fast, that some few years after, Louis Almeyda found above an hundred Christians in the fortress of Ekandono. all of an orderly and innocent conversation; modest in their behaviour, assiduous in prayer, charitable to each other, severe to themselves, and enemies to their bodies; insomuch that the place had more resemblance to a religious house, than to a garrison. The Tono, though still an idolater, was present at the assemblies of the Christians, and permitted two little children of his to be baptized.

One of these new converts composed elegantly, in his tongue, the history of the redemption of mankind, from the fall of Adam to the coming down of the Holy Ghost The same man being once interrogated, what answer he would return the king, in case he should command him to renounce his faith? "I would boldly answer him," said he, "in this manner: 'Sir, you are desirous, I am certain, that, being born your subject, I should be faithful to you; you would have me ready to hazard my life in your interests, and to die for your service; yet, farther, you would have me moderate with my equals, gentle to my inferiors, obedient to my superiors, equitable towards all; and, for these reasons, command me still to be a Christian, for a Christian is obliged to be all this. But if you forbid me the profession of Christianity, I shall become, at the same time, violent, hard-hearted, insolent, rebellious, unjust, wicked; and I camiot answer for myself, that I shall be other."

As to what remains, Xavier, when he took leave of the old steward, whom he constituted superior of the rest, left him a discipline, which himself had used formerly. The old man kept it religiously as a relique, and would not that the Christians in the assemblies, where they chastised themselves, should make a common use of it. At the most, he suffered not any of them to give themselves above two or three strokes with it, so fearful he was of wearing it out; and he told them, that they ought to make use of it the less in chastising their flesh, that it might remain for the preservation of their health. And indeed it was that instrument which God commonly employed for the cures of sick persons in the castle. The wife of Ekandono being in the convulsions of death, was instantly restored to health, after they had made the sign of the cross over her, with the discipline of the saint.

Xavier, at his departure, made a present to the same lady of a little book, wherein the litanies of the saints, and some catholic prayers, were written with his own hand. This also in following times was a fountain of miraculous cures, not only to the Christians, but also the idolaters; and the Tono himself, in the height of a mortal sickness, recovered his health on the instant that the book was applied to him by his wife. So that the people of the fortress said, that their prince was raised to life, and that it could not be performed by human means.

The saint and his companions being gone from thence, pursued their voyage, sometimes by sea, and sometimes travelled by land. After many labours cheerfully undergone by them, and many dangers which they passed, they arrived at the port of Firando, which was the end of their undertaking. The Portuguese did all they were able for the honourable reception of Father Xavier. All the artillery was discharged at his arrival; all the ensigns and streamers were djsplayed, with sound of trumpets; and, in fine, all the ships gave shouts of joy when they beheld the man of God. He was conducted, in spite of his repugnance, with the same pomp to the royal palace; and that magnificence was of no small importance, to make him considered in a heathen court, who without it might have been despised, since nothing was to be seen in him but simplicity and poverty. The king of Firando, whom the Portuguese gave to understand, how much the man whom they presented to him was valued by their master, and what credit he had with him, received him with so much the greater favour, because he knew the king of Carigoxima had forced him to go out of his estates: for, to oblige the crown of Portugal, and do a despite to that of Cangoxima, he presently empowered the three religious Christians to publish the law of Jesus Christ through all the extent of his dominions.

Immediately they fell on preaching in the town, and all the people ran to hear the European Bonzas. The first sermons of Xavier made a great impression on their souls; and in less than twenty days, he baptized more infidels at Firando, than he had done in a whole year at Cangoxima. The facility which he found of reducing those people under the obedience of the faith, made him resolve to leave with them Cosmo de Torrez, to put the finishing hand to their conversion, and in the mean time to go himself to Meaco, which he had designed from the beginning; that town being the capital of the empire, from whence the knowledge of Christ Jesus might easily be spread through all Japan.

Departing with Fernandez, and the two Japonian Christians, Matthew and Bernard, for this great voyage at the end of October, in the year 1550, they arrived at Facata by sea, which is twenty leagues distant from Firando; and from thence embarked for Amanguchi, which is an hundred leagues from it. Amanguchi is the capital of the kingdom of Naugato, and one of the richest towns of all Japan, not only by the traffic of strangers, who come thither from all parts, but also by reason of silver mines, which are there in great abundance, and by the fertility of the soil; but as vices are the inseparable companions of wealth, it was a place totally corrupted, and full of the most monstrous debaucheries.

Xavier took that place only as his passage to Meaco; but the strange corruption of manners gave him so much horror, and withal so great compassion, that he could not resolve to pass farther without publishing Christ Jesus to those blind and execrable men, nor without making known to them the purity of the Christian law. The zeal which transported him, when he heard the abominable crimes of the town, suffered him not to ask permission from the king, as it had been his custom in other places. He appeared in public on the sudden, burning with an inward fire, which mounted up into his face, and boldly declared to the people the eternal truths of faith. 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 AEgypto, 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."