Having received the benediction of the bishop, he embarked about the midst of October, in the year 1542, in a galiot, which carried the new captain of Comorin; and took with him two young ecclesiastics of Goa, who had a tolerable insight into the language of the Malabars, which is spoken in the coast of Fishery.  Sosa offered to have furnished him with money for all his occasions; but apostolic men have no greater treasures than their poverty, nor any fund more certain than that of Providence.  He accepted only a pair of shoes, to defend him in some measure from the burning sands upon the coasts; and, at parting, desired the viceroy to send him his two companions, who were left behind at Mozambique, so soon as they should arrive at Goa.

The Cape of Cornorin is at the distance of about six hundred miles from Goa.  It is a high promontory, jutting out into the sea, and facing the isle of Ceylon.  The Father being there arrived, immediately fell in with a village of idolaters.  He could bear to go no farther without preaching the name of Jesus to the Gentiles; but all he could declare, by the mouth of his interpreters, signified nothing; and those pagans plainly told him, that they could not change their faith without consent of the lord of whom they held.  Their obstinacy, however, was of no long continuance; and that Omnipotence, which had pre-ordained Xavier to the conversion of idolaters, would not that his first labours should be unsuccessful.

A woman of the village had been three days in the pains of childbirth, and had endured great torments, without being eased, either by the prayers of the Brachmans, or any natural remedies.  Xavier went to visit her, accompanied by one of his interpreters; “and then it was,” says he, in one of his letters, “that, forgetting I was in a strange country, I began to call upon the name of the Lord; though, at the same time, I could not but remember, that all the earth is equally his, and all its inhabitants are belonging to him.”

The Father expounded to the sick woman the principles of our faith, and exhorted her to repose her trust in the God of the Christians.  The Holy Ghost, who, by her means, had decreed to save that people, touched her inwardly; insomuch, that being asked if she believed in Jesus Christ, and if she desired to be baptized? she answered, yes; and that she spake from the bottom of her heart.  Xavier then read the gospel to her, and baptized her:—­she was immediately delivered of her child, and perfectly recovered.  This visible miracle immediately filled that poor cabin with astonishment and gladness:  The whole family threw themselves at the Father’s feet, and asked to be instructed; and, being sufficiently taught, not one amongst them but received baptism.  This news being blown abroad through all the country, the chief of the place had the curiosity to see a person so wonderful in his works and in his words.  He preached to them the words of eternal life, and convinced their reason of the truth of Christianity; but convinced though they were, they durst not, as they said, become Christians, without the permission of their prince.