king, who seemed at his baptism to have an understanding much above his years.  The rulers of the Christians on the fishing coast having afterwards made up an army, supplied with what ammunitions of war, and other provisions which the country could furnish, passed over into the Isle of Ceylon, under the conduct of the prince and the forty lords; but the usurper was so well established in his possession, that the Paravas were forced to retire with speed into their own country.  As for the young king, he was brought to Goa; and the Portuguese, who took the conduct of him into their hands, put him into the college of St Paul, where he was virtuously educated by the Fathers of the Society.  Xavier praised Almighty God to see the great men of the earth subjected to the empire of Jesus Christ, by the ministry of the children of Ignatius; and rejoiced with his brethren so much the more, because the bishop of Goa, Don Juan de Albuquerque, was so well satisfied of their conduct.

This wise and holy prelate communicated to the Father a letter, which he had written on that subject during his absence to the general of the Society.  The letter was in Portuguese, dated from Cochin, November 28, in the year 1550, and is thus translated into our language:  “The great performances of your children and subjects, in all the dominions of the East; the holiness of their lives, the purity of their doctrine, their zeal in labouring the reformation of the Portuguese, by the ministry of God’s word, and the sacrament of penance; their unwearied travels through all the kingdoms of India, for the conversion of idolaters and Moors; their continual application to study the tongues of this new world, and to teach the mysteries of faith, and principally at the Cape of Comorin,—­all this obliges me to write to your reverence, and to give testimony of what I have beheld with my own eyes.  Indeed the fathers of your Society are admirable labourers in our Lord’s vineyard; and are so faithfully subservient to the bishops, that their endeavours for the good of those souls with which I am intrusted, give me hope of remaining the fewer years in purgatory.  I dare not undertake the relation of all their particular actions; and if I durst adventure it, want time for the performance of it:  I will only tell you, that they are here like torches lighted up, to dissipate the thick darkness wherein these barbarous people were benighted; and that already, by their means, many nations of infidels believe one God in three persons:  for what remains, I freely grant them all they require of me for the good of souls.  Every one of them partakes with me in my power and authority, without appropriating any of it to myself:  and I look upon myself as one of the members of that holy body, though my life arises not to their perfection.  In one word, I love them all in Jesus Christ, with a fervent and sincere charity.”

The rest of the letter is nothing appertaining to our purpose, and therefore is omitted.