The joy which the Portuguese had conceived at the arrival of Father Xavier, was immediately changed to sadness, when they understood that he had only taken Sancian in his way to China.  They all endeavoured to dissuade him from it, and set before his eyes the rigorous laws of that government; that the ports were narrowly observed by vigilant and faithful officers, who were neither to be circumvented nor bribed with presents; that the Mandarins were cruel to all strangers; that, the year before, some Portuguese seamen being cast by tempest on the coast of Canton, had been severely whipped, and afterwards inclosed in dark dungeons, where, if they were not already dead, they were still exercised with new punishments; that, for himself, the least he could expect was perpetual imprisonment, which was not the business of an apostle, who designed to run from place to place, and propagate the faith through all the East.  These arguments made no impression on the saint; he had fortified his resolution with more potent reasons, and answered the merchants in the same tenor in which he had written to Father Francis Perez, that he could not distrust the Divine Goodness, and that his distrust would be so much the more criminal, because the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit pushed him forward to teach the Chinese the gospel of the living God.  “I am elected,” said he, “for this great enterprize, by the special grace of heaven.  If I should demur on the execution, or be terrified with the hardships, and want courage to attempt those difficulties, would it not be incomparably worse than all the evils with which you threaten me?  But, what can the demons and their ministers do against me?  Surely no more than what is permitted them by the sovereign Lord of all the world; and that in giving up myself in this manner, I shall obey my Lord Jesus, who declares in his gospel, ’That whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever will lose it for my sake, shall find it.’  Our Saviour also says, ’That he who, having put his hand to the plough, shall look behind him, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven.’  The loss of the body being then without comparison less to be feared than that of the soul, according to the principles of Eternal Wisdom, I am resolved to sacrifice a frail and miserable life for everlasting happiness.  In fine, I have set up my rest, I will undertake this voyage, and nothing is capable of altering my resolution.  Let all the powers of hell break loose upon me, I despise them, provided God be on my side; for if he be for us, who shall be against us?” The Portuguese being of opinion, that this fixed intention of the man of God was partly grounded on his ignorance of the dangers, which he believed they magnified to him beyond their natural proportion, sent some Chinese merchants, with whom they traded, to discourse the business calmly with him; but the matter went otherwise than they had imagined.  Those Chinese, to whom Xavier failed not to speak of Christianity, and who were men of