While Xavier and his companions were labouring to acquire that knowledge which was necessary for their preaching the word of Jesus Christ to the people of Cangoxima, Paul de Sainte Foy, with whom they lodged, himself instructed his own family.  God gave that blessing to his zeal, that, besides his mother, his wife and daughter, many of his relations were converted and baptized by Xavier.  Within the compass of forty days, the saint understood enough of the language to undertake the translation of the apostles’ creed, and the exposition of it, which he had composed in India.  As fast as he translated, he got every parcel of it by heart; and with that help, was of opinion, that he might begin to declare the gospel.  But seeing that in Japan all the measures of the laws and customs are to be taken, and observed with great exactness, and nothing to be attempted in public without permission from the government, he would first visit the king of Saxuma, and chose the time on the day of St Michael the archangel He had put the whole empire under the protection of that glorious general of the celestial host, who chased the rebellious angels out of heaven, and recommended in his daily prayers to him, that he would exterminate those devils from Japan, who had usurped the dominion of it for so many ages.

The apostle of the Indies was not unknown at the court of Saxuma.  Paul de Sainte Foy had spoken of him there, in such a manner, as infused the desire of seeing him into all hearts, and caused him to be looked on with admiration when he first appeared.  The king and queen treated him with honour, testified great affection to him, and discoursed with him the better part of the night.  They could not but be astonished, that he and his companions were come from another world, and had passed through so many stormy seas, not out of an avaricious design of enriching themselves with the gold of Japan, but only to teach the Japonese the true way of eternal life.  From the very first meeting, the king cautioned Xavier to keep safely all the books and writings which contained the Christian doctrine; “for,” said he, “if your faith be true, the demons will be sure to fly furiously upon you, and all manner of mischief is to be expected from their malice.”  Afterwards he granted permission to the saint to preach the Christian law within the whole extent of his dominions; and farther, caused his letters patent to be expedited, by virtue of which, all his subjects had free liberty of being made Christians, if they so desired.

Xavier took advantage of this happy conjuncture, and deferred no longer his preaching in Cangoxima.  He began by explaining the first articles of the creed.  That of the existence of one God, all powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, was a strange surprise to his auditors, who knew nothing of a first Being, on whom the universe depended, as on its cause and principle.  The other articles, which respect the Trinity and Incarnation, appeared to them yet more