The grand vicar not being able any longer to endure so outrageous and scandalous an impiety, at length excommunicated the governor, according to the agreement betwixt himself and Father Xavier.  He also excommunicated all his people, who basely flattered the passion of their master, and spoke insolently of the holy see.  This excommunication signified little to a man, who had no principles, either of honour, or of religion.  Without giving himself the least disquiet for the wrath of heaven, or talk of men, he made himself master of the ship Santa Cruz, and placed in her a captain, with 25 mariners, all of them in his interests, to go and trade at Sancian, where the Portuguese had established a wealthy traffic.  The ill success of the negociation, betwixt the grand vicar and the governor, was very afflicting to Father Xavier; his heart was pierced with sorrow, and he acknowledged to Father Francis Perez, that he never resented any thing with greater grief.  The deplorable condition of Don Alvarez in the sight of God, the ruin of his friend Pereyra, the embassy of China utterly destroyed,—­all these made him sigh from the bottom of his soul; and so much the more, because he imputed these so great misfortunes to himself; as he gave Pereyra to understand, who lay hidden at Malacca, and to whom he expressed himself in writing, because he knew not with what face to see him.

“Since the greatness of my sins,” says he, “has been the reason why God Almighty would not make use of us two for the enterprize of China, it is upon myself that I ought, in conscience, to lay the fault.  They are my offences, which have ruined your fortunes, and have caused you to lose all your expences for the embassy of China.  Yet God is my witness, that I love him, and that I love you also; and I confess to you, that if my intentions had not been right, I should be yet more afflicted than I am.  The favour which I desire of you, is, that you would not come to see me; for fear, lest the condition to which you are reduced, should give me too much trouble; and that your sorrow might be the occasion of increasing mine.  In the mean time, I hope this disgrace of yours may be of advantage to you; for I doubt not but the king will reward your zeal, as I have requested of him by my letters.  As for the governor, who has broken our voyage, I have no farther communication with him:  God forgive him, I pity him, and lament his condition; for he will soon be punished, and more severely than he thinks.”

But though Father Xavier wrote very pressing letters to the king of Portugal in favour of Pereyra, he wrote nothing against Don Alvarez; and Alvarez himself was witness of it, having intercepted the letters of the Father.  In effect, he found not the least expression of complaint against him, at which he was wonderfully surprised.  The man of God daily offered the sacrifice of the mass for him, and shed many tears at the foot of the altar, to the end he might obtain for him the favour of a sincere repentance.  He said one day, he should lose at once, his estate, his honour, and his life; and added, I beseech God that he lose not his soul also.