Thus the master, though convinced, yet not submitting, the scholars all stood out; and in the sequel, of so great a multitude of idol-priests, not one embraced the Christian doctrine from the heart.  Nevertheless, Xavier, in their presence, wrought many miracles which were capable of converting them.  Having casually met a poor creature all naked, and full of ulcers from head to foot, he washed him with his hands, drank part of the water wherewith he had washed him, and prayed by him with wonderful fervency; when he had ended his prayer, the flesh of the diseased person was immediately healed, and appeared as clean as that of an infant.

The process of the saint’s canonization makes mention of four dead persons, to whom God restored their life, at this time, by the ministry of his servant.  The first was a catechist, called Antonio Miranda, who had been stung in the night by one of those venomous serpents of the Indies, whose stings are always mortal.  The second was a child, who fell into a pit, and was drowned.  The two others were a young man and a maid, whom a pestilential fever had carried off after a short sickness.

But these miracles, which gave to the father the name of saint among the Christians, and caused him to be called the God of Nature amongst the Gentiles, had no other effect upon the Brachmans than to harden their hearts, and blind their understandings.  Xavier, despairing of their conversion, thought himself bound to publish all their wicked actions, and bring them into disrepute.  And he performed it so successfully, that those men, who were had in veneration by the people, came to be despised by all the world; insomuch, that even the children laughed at them, and publicly upbraided them with their cheats.  They began at first to threaten the people, according to their custom, with the anger of their pagods; but seeing their menaces turned to scorn, they made use of another artifice, to regain their credit.

What malice soever they harboured in their hearts against Father Xavier, they managed it so well, that, to see their conduct, they might have been taken for his friends.  They made him visits; desired him to have some kindness for them; they gave him many commendations; they presented him sometimes with pearls and money.  But the father was inexorable; and for their presents, he returned them without so much as looking on them.

The decrying of those idol-priests contributed not a little to the destruction of idolatry through all that coast.  The life which Xavier led, contributed full as much.  His food was the same with that of the poorest people, rice and water.  His sleep was but three hours at the most, and that in a fisher’s cabin on the ground:  for he had soon made away with the mattress and coverlet, which the viceroy had sent him from Goa.  The remainder of the night he passed with God, or with his neighbour.