But the Eternal Wisdom, which sometimes inspires his servants with great designs, does not always will the performance of them; though he wills that on their side nothing be omitted for the execution.  God was pleased to deal with Xavier as formerly he had dealt with Moses, who died in view of that very land whither he was commanded to conduct the Israelites.  A fever seized on Father Francis on the 20th of November; and at the same time he was endued with a clear knowledge of the day and hour of his death; as he openly declared to the pilot of the vessel, Francis D’Aghiar, who afterwards made an authentic deposition of it by solemn oath.

From that moment he perceived in himself a strange disgust of all earthly things, and thought on nothing but that celestial country whither God was calling him.  Being much weakened by his fever, he retired into the vessel, which was the common hospital of the sick, that there he might die in poverty; and the Captain Lewis Almeyda received him, notwithstanding all the orders of his master Don Alvarez.  But the tossing of the ship giving him an extraordinary headach, and hindering him from applying himself to God, as he desired, the day ensuing he requested that he might be set on shore again.  He was landed and left upon the sands, exposed to the injury of the air, and the inclemency of the season, especially to the blasts of a piercing north wind, which then arose.  He had there died without relief, had not a Portuguese more charitable than the rest, whose name was George Alvarez, caused him to be carried into hiscabin; which yet was little different from the naked shore, as being open on every side.

The indications of his disease being an acute pain in his side, and a great oppression, Alvarez was of opinion that they ought to breathe a vein; and the Father was consenting to it, by a blind submission to the judgment of his host, though he knew beforehand that all manner of remedies were in vain.  A chirurgeon of the ship, who was awkward at his work, and of small experience in his art, bled him so unluckily, that he hurt the nerves, and the patient fell immediately into swooning convulsions; yet they drew blood from him a second time; and that operation had all the ill accidents of the former.  Besides which, it was attended with a horrible nauseousness; insomuch, that he could take no nourishment, at least the little which he took, consisted only of some few almonds, which the captain of the vessel sent him out of charity.  The disease increased hourly, and he grew weaker every day; but his countenance was still serene, and his soul enjoyed a perpetual calmness.  Sometimes he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and at other times fixed them on his crucifix, entertaining divine conversation with his God, and not without shedding abundant tears.  He remained in this condition till the 28th of November, when the fever mounted into his head.  During this delirium he talked of nothing but of God, and of his passage into China, but in terms more tender and ardent than ever formerly.