“In very truth, being, as I am, the worst of all men, I am ashamed to have shed so many tears of joy, through an excess of heavenly pleasure, when I was just upon the point of perishing:  insomuch, that I humbly prayed our Lord, that he would not free me from the danger of my shipwreck, unless it were to reserve me for greater dangers, to his own glory and his service.  For what remains, God has often shewn me, by an inward discovery, from how many perils and sufferings I have been delivered, by the prayers and sacrifices of those of the society, both such as labour here on earth, and such who enjoy the fruits of their labours in the heavens.  When I have once begun the mention of our society, I can never leave; but the departure of the vessels constrains me to break off:  and behold what I have judged most proper for the conclusion of my letter.  If I ever forget thee, O Society of Jesus, let my right hand be unprofitable to me, and may I even forget the use of it! Si oblitus unquam fuero tui, Societas Jesu, oblivioni detur dextera meu.  I pray our Lord Jesus Christ, that since, during the course of this miserable life, he has gathered us into his society, he would reunite us in a blessed eternity, in the company of saints, who behold him in his glory.”

After he had written these letters, and given some time to the service of his neighbour, he took the way of Comorine, doubled the Cape a second time, and arrived at the coast of Fishery.  The Paravas, who were his first children in Jesus Christ, were overjoyed at the sight of their saint, and good Father, as they called him.  All the villages came to meet him, singing the Christian doctrine, and praising God for his return.  The satisfaction of the saint was not less than theirs:  but above all things his consolation was unspeakable to see the number of Christians so much augmented, by the labours of his brethren.  There were in that place many of the society, of whom the chief were Antonio Criminal, Francis Henriquez, and Alphonso Cyprian; for Father Xavier having written from Amboyna for the greatest number of missioners whom they could spare, towards the cultivation of those new plants at the coast of Fishery, all those who came from Portugal, after his own arrival in the Indies, went thither, excepting the three who went to the Moluccas, and two who stayed at Goa, for the instruction of the youth.

The fervency of those new converts did not less edify Xavier than their number.  In visiting a certain village, they shewed him a young man, a native of the country, who, having embarked in company of a Portuguese, had been cast, by tempest, on the coast of Malabar.  The Saracens, who inhabit that place, having murdered the Portuguese, would have forced his companion to renounce his faith.  Thereupon they brought him into a mosque, where they promised him great store of money and preferments, in case he would forsake the law of Jesus Christ, and take up that of their