Providence, if he should have furnished himself with the provisions needful to a comfortable subsistence; and therefore taking out of the treasury a thousand crowns, he employed it wholly for the relief of the poor who had received baptism.  Neither did he rest satisfied with this royal alms, he drew what he could also from his friends at Goa and Malacca; and it was a saying of his, “That the more these new converts were destitute of worldly goods, the more succour they deserved; that their zeal was worthy the primitive ages of the church; and that there was not a Christian in Japan, who would not choose rather to lose his life, than forfeit the love of Jesus Christ.”

The journey from Amanguchi to Meaco is not less than fifteen days, when the ways are good, and the season convenient for travelling; but the ill weather lengthened it to our four travellers, who made two months of it; sometimes crossing over rapid torrents, sometimes over plains and forests thick with snow, climbing up the rocks, and rolling down the precipices.  These extreme labours put Father Xavier into a fever from the first month, and his sickness forced him to stop a little at Sacay; but he would take no remedies, and soon after put himself upon his way.

That which gave them the greatest trouble was, that Bernard, who was their guide, most commonly misled them.  Being one day lost in a forest, and not knowing what path to follow, they met a horseman who was going towards Meaco; Xavier followed him, and offered to carry his mail, if he would help to disengage them from the forest, and shew them how to avoid the dangerous passages.  The horseman accepted Xaviers offer, but trotted on at a round rate, so that the saint was constrained to run after him, and the fatigue lasted almost all the day.  His companions followed him at a large distance; and when they came up to the place where the horseman had left him, they found him so spent, and over-laboured, that he could scarcely support himself.  The flints and thorns had torn his feet, and his legs were swelled so that they broke out in many places.  All these inconveniences hindered him not from going forward:  He drew his strength from the union he had with God, continually praying from the morning to the evening, and never interrupting his devotions but only to exhort his friends to patience.

In passing through the towns and villages where his way led him, Xavier always read some part of his catechism to the people who gathered about him.  For the most part they only laughed at him; and the little children cried after him, “Deos, Deos, Deos,” because, speaking of God, he had commonly that Portuguese word in his mouth, which he seldom pronounced without repetition; for, discoursing of God, he would not use the Japonese language till they were well instructed in the essence and perfections of the Divine Majesty:  and he gave two reasons for it; the first, because he found not one word in all the language which well