The galeon, which carried Sosa and Xavier, had the wind so favourable, that in two or three days she arrived at Melinda, on the coast of Africa, towards the equinoctial line.  It is a town of Saracens, on the sea side, in a flat country, well cultivated, planted all along with palm-trees, and beautified with fair gardens.  It has a large enclosure, and is fortified with walls, after the European fashion.  Though the building is Moresque, the houses notwithstanding are both pleasantand convenient.  The inhabitants are warlike, they are black, and go naked; excepting only that they are covered with a kind of an apron of cotton or linen, from the waist to the mid thigh.  And indeed the heat of their climate will permit them to wear no more; Melinda being distant from the line but three degrees and some few minutes.

They have always maintained a good correspondence with the Portuguese, by reason of the commerce established betwixt them.  The flag of Portugal was no sooner seen, but the Saracen king Came down to the port, attended by the most honourable persons of his court, to receive the new governor of the Indies.  The first object which presented itself to Father Francis when he stept ashore, drew tears from his eyes; but they were tears of joy and pity mingled together.  The Portuguese having there a constant trade, and now and then some of them happening to die, are allowed a burying-place near the town, full of crosses set upon their graves, according to ihe custom of the Catholics:  and above the rest there was a very large one of hewn stone placed in the middle, and all over gilded.

The saint ran to it, and adored before it; receiving an inward consolation, to behold it raised so high, and, as it were, triumphing amongst the enemies of Jesus Christ.  But at the same time, he was sensibly afflicted, that this sign of our salvation served less to edify the living, than to honour the memory of the dead.  And lifting up his hands to heaven, he besought the Father of all mercies to imprint in the hearts of the infidels, that cross, which they had suffered to be planted on their ground.

His next thoughts prompted him to confer of religion with the Moors, that he might endeavour to shew them the extravagances of the Mahometan belief, and gain an opportunity of revealing to them the eternal truths of Christian faith.  One of the principal inhabitants, and wonderfully bigotted to his sect, prevented him, and immediately demanded of him, if piety were not wholly extinguished in the towns of Europe, as it was in Melinda.  “For, to confess the truth,” said he, “of seventeen mosques which we have, fourteen are quite forsaken; there are but three remaining, at which we pay our devotions; and even those three are but little visited, and by few persons.