The four ships continued at Amboyna but twenty days, after which they set sail towards Malacca.  The merchant-ship, which was the best equipped and strongest of them, invited the saint to embark in her; but he refused, out of the horror which he had for those enormous crimes which had been committed in her.  And turning to Gonsalvo Fernandez, “This ship,” said he, “will be in great danger; God deliver you out of it.”  Both the prediction and the wish of the saint were accomplished; for the ship, at the passage of the Strait of Saban, struck against a hidden rock, where the iron-work of the stern was broken, and little wanted but that the vessel had been also split; but she escaped that danger, and the rest of the voyage was happily performed.

The Father staying some few days longer on the isle, visited the seven Christian villages which were there; caused crosses to be set up in all of them, for the consolation of the faithful; and one of these crosses, in process of time, became famous for a great miracle, of which the whole country was witness.

There was an extreme drought, and a general dearth was apprehended.  Certain women, who before their baptism were accustomed to use charms for rain, being assembled round about an idol, adored the devil, and performed all the magic ceremonies; but their enchantments were of no effect.  A devout Christian woman knowing what they were about, ran thither, and having sharply reprehended those impious creatures, “As if,” said she, “having a cross so near us, we had no expectations of succour from it; and that the holy Father had not promised us, that whatsoever we prayed for at the foot of that cross, should infallibly be granted.”  Upon this, she led those other women towards a river-side, where Xavier had set up a cross with his own hands, and falling down with them before that sacred sign of our salvation, she prayed our Saviour to give them water, to the shame and confusion of the idol.  At the same moment the clouds began to gather on every side, and the rain poured down in great abundance.  Then, all in company, they ran to the pagod, pulled it down, and trampled it under their feet; after which they cast it into the river, with these expressions of contempt, “That though they could not obtain from him one drop of water, they would give him enough in a whole river.”

A faith thus lively, answered the hopes which the saint had conceived of the faithful of Amboyna.  He compared them sometimes to the primitive Christians; and believed their constancy was of proof against the cruelty of tyrants.  Neither was he deceived in the judgment he made of them; and they shewed themselves, when the Javeses, provoked by their renouncing the law of Mahomet, came to invade their island.  While the Saracen army destroyed the country, six hundred Christians retired into a castle, where they were presently besieged.  Though they were to fear all things from the fury of the barbarians, yet what they