But, madam, I consider that nothing I can say is worthy to detain you longer from the perusal of this book, in which all things are excellent, excepting only the meanness of my performance in the translation.  Such as it is, be pleased, with your inborn goodness, to accept it, with the offer of my unworthy prayers for the lasting happiness of my gracious sovereign, for your own life and prosperity, together with the preservation of the son of prayers, and the farther encrease of the royal family; all which blessings are continually implored from heaven, by,

Madam,
  Your Majesty’s most humble,
    And most obedient subject and servant,
                   John Dryden.

[Footnote 1:  Mary of Este, wife of James II.]

[Footnote 2:  The superstitious and, as it proved, fatal insinuation, that the birth of the Chevalier de St George was owing to the supernatural intercession of St Francis Xavier, was much insisted on by the Protestants as an argument against the reality of his birth.  See the Introduction to “Britannia Rediviva,” Vol.  X. p. 285.  In that piece, our author also alludes to this foolery: 
  Hail, son of prayers, by holy violence
  Drawn down from heaven!—­]

[Footnote 3:  The Reverend Richard Hackluyt, editor of the large collection of voyages to which Purchas’ Pilgrim is a continuation.]

THE AUTHOR’S ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.

Having already presented you with the Life of St Ignatius, I thought myself obliged to give you that of St Francis Xavier.  For, besides that it was just that the son should attend the father, it seemed to me, that these two saints being concerned so much together, the history of the apostle of India and Japan would give you a clearer knowledge of him who was founder of the Jesuits.  I may add likewise, that many considerable persons, and particularly of the court, have testified so great a desire to see a complete history of St Xavier in our language, that I thought my labour would not be unacceptable to them; and that in satisfying my own private devotion, I might at the same time content the curiosity of others.

The writings out of which I have drawn this work, have furnished me with all I could desire for the perfection of it, in what regards the truth and the ornaments of this history:  for without speaking of Turselline and Orlandino, I have diligently read Lucena and Bartoli; the first of which Wrote in Portuguese with this title, “The History of the Life of Father Francis Xavier, and of what was done in the Indies by the Religious of the Society of Jesus.”  He informs us, that he had in his hands the authentic copies of the informations which were made by order of John III. king of Portugal, concerning the actions of the blessed Father Xavier, and the originals of many letters, written from the Indies on that subject, which are to this day deposited in the archives of the university of Coimbra.  As for Bartoli, who is so famous by his writings, and who is accounted amongst the best of the Italian authors, he has extracted from the archives of the Casa Professa at Rome, and from the acts of the canonization, what he relates of our saint in the first part of the History of the Society, intitled, Asia.