There were at least a ’thousand persons in the Admiral, men of all conditions:  the father made himself all to all, thereby to gain some to Jesus Christ; entertaining every man with such discourse as was most suitable to his calling.  He talked of sea affairs to mariners, of war to the soldiery, of commerce to merchants, and of affairs of state to men of quality.  His natural gaiety, and obliging humour, gained him a general esteem; the greatest libertines, and most brutal persons, sought his conversation, and were even pleased to hear him speak of God.

He instructed the seamen daily in the principles of religion, of which the greater part were wholly ignorant, or had at the best but a smattering of it; and preached to them on every holiday, at the foot of the main mast.  All of them profited by his sermons, and in little time nothing was heard amongst them, which was offensive to the honour of God, or that wounded Christian charity; or touched upon obsceneness, or ill manners.  They had a profound veneration for him; with one word only, he appeased their quarrels, and put an end to all their differences.

The viceroy, Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa, invited him from the very first clay to eat at his table; but Xavier humbly excused it, with great acknowledgments, and during all the voyage lived only on what he begged about the ship.

In the mean time, the insufferable colds of Cabo Verde, and the excessive heats of Guinea, together with the stench of the fresh waters, and putrifaction of their flesh provisions under the line, produced many dangerous distempers.  The most common was a pestilential fever, accompanied with a kind of cancer, which bred in the mouth, and ulcerated all the gums; the sick being crowded together, spread the infection amongst themselves; and as every one was apprehensive of getting the disease, they had been destitute of all succour, if Father Francis had not taken compassion on them.  He wiped them in their sweats, he cleansed their ulcers, he washed their linen, and rendered them all the most abject services; but, above all things, he had care of their consciences, and his principal employment was to dispose them to a Christian death.

These were his perpetual employments; being at the same time himself seized with continued fits of vomiting, and extreme languishments, which lasted two whole months.  For his ease and refreshment, Sosa caused him to be accommodated with a larger cabin than was first appointed for him:  he accepted of it, but it was only to lodge in it those who were most desperately ill; as for himself, he lay bare upon the deck, without other pillow than the tackling.

He received also the dishes which the viceroy sent him from his table, and divided them amongst those who had most need of nourishment.  So many actions of charity gained him the surname of the Holy Father from thenceforward, which continued to him all his life, even, amongst Mahometans and idolaters.