Being come to the palace, the Portuguese, who walked immediately before the Father, turned towards him, and saluted him with great respect.  One presented him the cane, and another the velvet slippers; he, who held the parasol, spread it over his head; and the two others, who carried the book and picture, placed themselves on each side of him.  All this was so gracefully performed, and with so much honour to the Father, that the lords who were present much admired the manner of it:  and they were heard to say amongst themselves, that Xavier had been falsely represented to them by the Bonzas; that questionless he was a man descended from above, to confound their envy, and abate their pride.

After they had gone through a long gallery, they entered into a large hall full of people; who, by their habit, which was of damask, heightened with gold, and diversified with fair figures, seemed to be persons of the highest quality.  There a little child, whom a reverend old man held by the hand, coming up to the Father, saluted him with these words:  “May your arrival in the palace of my lord the king, be as welcome to him, as the rain of heaven to the labourers, in a long and parching drought:  Enter without fear,” continued he, “for I assure you of the love of all good men, though the wicked cannot behold you without melancholy in their faces, which will make them appear like a black and stormy night.”  Xavier returned an answer suitable to his age who had made the compliment; but the child replied in a manner which was far above his age.  “Certainly,” said he, “you must be endued with an extraordinary courage, to come from the end of all the world into a strange country, liable to contempt, in regard of your poverty; and the goodness of your God must needs be infinite, to be pleased with that poverty against the general opinion of mankind.  The Bonzas are far from doing any thing of this nature; they who publicly affirm, and swear, that the poor are no more in a possibility of salvation than the women.”  “May it please the divine goodness of our Lord,” replied Xavier, “to enlighten those dark and wretched souls with the beams of his celestial truth, to the end they may confess their error, both as to that particular, and to the rest of their belief.”

The child discoursed on other subjects, and spoke with so much reason, and with that sublimity of thought, that the Father doubted not but he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who, when he pleases, can replenish the souls of infants with wisdom, and give eloquence to their tongues, before nature has ripened in them the use of reason.