The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 577 pages of information about The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16.

The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 577 pages of information about The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16.

Anger found himself possessed with a strong desire of going to see the holy man; but the length of the voyage, which was 800 leagues, the dangers of a tempestuous sea, and the considerations of his family, somewhat cooled him.  A troublesome affair, which he had upon his hands at the same time, at length resolved him.  For, having killed a man in a quarrel, and being pursued by justice, he could not find a more secure retreat than the ships of Portugal, nor a surer way of preserving his life, than to accept the offer they had made him.

Alvarez Vaz, who had most importuned him to take this voyage, and who had many times offered to bring him to Father Xavier, had not yet finished all his business, when this Japonese came to take sanctuary in his ship.  He therefore gave him letters of recommendation to another Portuguese, called Ferdinand Alvarez, who was at another port of Japan, and who was suddenly to set sail for Malacca.

Anger departed by night, attended by two servants.  Being arrived at the port, and enquiring for Ferdinand Alvarez, he lighted accidentally on George Alvarez, who was just ready to weigh anchor.  This George was a wealthy merchant, a man of probity, and who had an extreme affection for the Father.  He received the letters of Alvarez as if they had been addressed to himself, took the three Japonians into his ship, entertained them with all kindness, and brought them to Malacca; taking great satisfaction in the good office he should do in presenting them to the man of God, who might, perhaps, make them the first Christians of their country.  But the misfortune was, that they missed the Father, who was just gone for the Moluccas.  Anger, more disquieted in a foreign land than he had been at home, and despairing of ever seeing him, whom he had so often heard of from his friends, had it in his thoughts to have returned to Japan, without considering the danger to which he exposed himself, and almost forgetting the murder which had caused his flight, according to the custom of criminals, who blind themselves in those occasions, and whom divine justice oftentimes brings back to the same place where they had committed their offence.  Whereupon, he went again to sea, and having made some little stay in a port of China, he pursued his voyage.  Already some Japonian islands were in sight, when there arose a furious tempest, which endangered the sinking of the ship, and which in four days brought him back into the same port of China, from whence he had set out.  This was to Anger a favourable effect of God’s providence; for the same hand which drives the guilty to the precipice, sometimes preserves them from falling into it, and pulls them back, after a miraculous manner.

The Japonese, very happily for himself, met there Alvarez Vaz, just ready to set sail for Malacca.  The Portuguese, who loved Anger, reproved him for his impatience, and offered to reconduct him to the place which he had so abruptly left; withall telling him, that, according to all appearances, the Father by this time was returned from the Moluccas.  Anger, who still carried about him a troubled conscience, and thereby was easily induced to any proposition which tended to compose it, followed the advice of Vaz, and returned with him.

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The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.