“The country whither I go,” says he in his letter, “is full of danger, and terrible to strangers, by the barbarity of the inhabitants, and by their using divers poisons, which they mingle with their meat and drink; and it is from hence that priests are apprehensive of coming to instruct them:  For myself, considering their extreme necessity, and the duties of my ministry, which oblige to free them from eternal death, even at the expence of my own life, I have resolved to hazard all for the salvation of their souls.  My whole confidence is in God, and all my desire is to obey, as far as in me lies, the word of Jesus Christ:  ’He who is willing to save his life shall lose it, and he who will lose it for my sake shall find it.’  Believe me, dear brethren, though this evangelical maxim, in general, is easily to be understood, when the time of practising it calls upon us, and our business is to die for God, as clear as the text seems, it becomes obscure; and he only can compass the understanding of it, to whom God, by his mercy, has explained it; for then it will be seen, how frail and feeble is human nature.  Many here, who love me tenderly, have done what possibly they could to divert me from this voyage; and, seeing that I yielded not to their requests, nor to their tears, would have furnished me with antidotes; but I would not take any, lest, by making provision of remedies, I might come to apprehend the danger; and also, because, having put my life into the hands of Providence, I have no need of preservatives from death:  for it seems to me, that the more I should make use of remedies, the less assurance I should repose in God.”

They went off with a favourable wind, and had already made above an hundred and fourscore miles, when Xavier, on the sudden, with a deep sigh, cried out, “Ah, Jesus, how they massacre the poor people!” saying these words, and oftentimes repeating them, he had turned his countenance, and fixed his eyes towards a certain part of the sea.  The mariners and passengers, affrighted, ran about him.  Inquiring what massacre he meant, because, for their part, they could see nothing; but the saint was ravished in spirit, and, in this extacy, God had empowered him to see this sad spectacle.

He was no sooner come to himself, than they continued pressing him to know the occasion of his sighs and cries; but he, blushing for the words which had escaped him in his transport, would say no more, but retired to his devotions.  It was not long before they beheld, with their own eyes, what he refused to tell them:  Having cast anchor before an isle, they found on the shore the bodies of eight Portuguese, all bloody; and then comprehended, that those unhappy creatures had moved the compassion of the holy man.  They buried them in the same place, and erected a cross over the grave; after which they pursued their voyage, and in little time arrived at the Isle del Moro.

When they were come on shore, Xavier went directly on to the next village.  The greatest part of the inhabitants were baptized; but there remained in them only a confused notion of their baptism; and their religion was nothing more than a mingle of Mahometanism and idolatry.