After the Spaniards were departed, Xavier made some little voyages to places near adjoining to Amboyna; and visited some islands, which were half unpeopled, and desart, waiting the convenience of a ship to transport him to the Moluccas, which are nearer to Macassar than Amboyna.  One of those isles is Baranura, where he miraculously recovered his crucifix, in the manner I am going to relate, according to the account which was given of it by a Portuguese, called Fausto Rodriguez, who was a witness of the fact, has deposed it upon oath, and whose juridical testimony is in the process of the saint’s canonization.

“We were at sea,” says Rodriguez, “Father Francis, John Raposo, and myself, when there arose a tempest, which alarmed all the mariners.  Then the Father drew from his bosom a little crucifix, which he always carried about him, and leaning over deck, intended to have dipt it into the sea; but the crucifix dropt out of his hand, and was carried off by the waves.  This loss very sensibly afflicted him, and he concealed not his sorrow from us.  The next morning we landed on the island of Baranura; from the time when the crucifix was lost, to that of our landing, it was near twenty-four hours, during which we were in perpetual danger.  Being on shore, Father Francis and I walked along by the sea side, towards the town of Tamalo, and had already walked about 500 paces, when both of us beheld, arising out of the sea, a crab-fish, which carried betwixt his claws the same crucifix raised on high.  I saw the crab-fish come directly to the Father, by whose side I was, and stopped before him.  The Father, falling on his knees, took his crucifix, after which the crab-fish returned into the sea.  But the Father still continuing in the same humble posture, hugging and kissing the crucifix, was half an hour praying with his hands across his breast, and myself joining with him in thanksgiving to God for so evident a miracle; after which we arose, and continued on our way.”  Thus you have the relation of Rodriguez.

They staid eight days upon the island, and afterwards set sail for Rosalao, where Xavier preached at his first coming, as he had done at Baranura.  But the idolaters, who inhabited these two islands, being extremely vicious, altogether brutal, and having nothing of human in them besides the figure, gave no credit to his words; and only one man amongst them, more reasonable than all the rest, believed in Jesus Christ.  Insomuch, that the holy apostle, at his departure from Rosalao, took off his shoes, and shook off the dust, that he might not carry any thing away with him, which belonged to that execrable land.