to tell them, "That as they never had any knowledge of the true God, so they never were able to express his name; that the Portuguese, who knew him, called him Deos ;" and he repeated that word with so much action, and such a tone of voice, that he made even the Pagans sensible what veneration was due to that sacred name. Having publicly condemned, in two several towns, the false sects of Japan, and the enormous vices reigning there, he was drawn by the inhabitants without the walls, where they had resolved to stone him. But when they were beginning to take up the stones, they were overtaken by a violent and sudden storm, which constrained them all to betake themselves to flight: The holy man continued in the midst of this rack of heaven, with flashes of lightning darting round about him, without losing his habitual tranquillity, but adoring that Divine Providence which fought so visibly in his favour.

He arrived at length at Meaco with his three companions in February 1551. The name of that celebrated town, so widely spread for being the seat of empire and religion, where the Cubosama, the Dairy, and the Saso kept their court, seemed to promise great matters to Father Xavier; but the effect did not answer the appearances: Meaco, which in the Japonian tongue signifies a thing worth seeing, was no more than the shadow of what formerly it had been, so terribly wars and fires had laid it waste. On every side ruins were to be beheld, and the present condition of affairs threatened it with a total destruction. All the neighbouring princes were combined together against the Cubosama, and nothing was to be heard but the noise of

arms.

The man of God endeavoured to have gained an audience from the Cubosama, and the Dairy, but he

could not compass it: He could not so much as get admittance to the Saso, or high-priest of the Japonian religion. To procure him those audiences they demanded no less than an hundred thousand caixes, which amount to six hundred French crowns, and the father had it not to give. Despairing of doing any good on that side, he preached in the public places by that authority alone which the Almighty gives his missioners. As the town was all in confusion, and the thoughts of every man taken up with the reports of war, none listened to him; or those who casually heard him in passing by, made no reflections on what he said.

Thus, after a fortnight's stay at Meaco to no purpose, seeing no appearance of making converts amidst the disturbance of that place, he had a strong impulse of returning to Amanguchi, without giving for lost all the pains he had taken at Meaco; not only because of his great sufferings, (and sufferings are the gains of God's apostles) but also because at least he had preached Christ Jesus in that place, that is to say, in the most idolatrous town of all the universe, and opened the passage for his brethren, whom God had fore-appointed in the years following, there to establish Christianity, according to the revelations which had been given him concerning it.

He embarked on a river which falls from the adjoining mountains, and washing the foot of the walls of Meaco, disembogues itself afterwards into an arm of the sea, which runs up towards Sacay. Being in the ship, he could not turn off his eyes from the stately town of Meaco ; and, as Fernandez tells us, often sung the beginning of the 113th Psalm, In exitu Israel de Egypto, domus Jacob de populo Barbaro, &c. whether he considered himself as an Israelite departing out of a land of infidels by the

command of God, or that he looked on that barbarous people, as one day destined to be the people of God. As for what remains, perceiving that presents are of great force to introduce foreigners to the princes of Japan, he went from Sacay to Firando, where he had left what the viceroy of the Indies and the governor of Malacca had obliged him to carry with him to Japan, that is to say, a little striking clock, an instrument of very harmonious music, and some other trifles, the value of which consisted only in the workmanship and rarity.

Having also observed, that his ragged habit had shocked the Japonese, who judge by the outside of the man, and who hardly vouchsafe to hear a mari ill clothed, he made himself a new garment, handsome enough, of those alms which the Portuguese had bestowed on him; being verily persuaded, that an apostolic man ought to make himself all to all, and that, to gain over worldly men, it was sometimes necessary to conform himself a little to their weakness.

Being come to Amanguchi, his presents made his way for an audience from the king, and procured him a favourable reception. Oxindono, who admired the workmanship of Europe, was not satisfied with thanking the father in a very obliging manner, but the same day sent him a large sum of money, by way of gratification; but Xavier absolutely refused it, and this very denial gave the king a more advantageous opinion of him. "How dif ferent," said Oxindono," is this European Bonza from our covetous priests, who love money with so much greediness, and who mind nothing but their worldly interest!"

On the next morning Xavier presented to the king the letters of the governor and of the bishop of the Indies, in which the Christian faith was

much extolled; and desired him, instead of all other favours, to grant him the permission of preaching it, assuring him once again, that it was the only motive of his voyage. The king increasing his admiration at the father's generosity, granted him, by word of mouth, and also by a public edict, to declare the word of God. The edict was set up at the turnings of streets, and in public places of the town. It contained a free toleration for all persons to profess the European faith, and forbade, on grievous penalties, any hinderance or molestation to the new Bonzas in the exercise of their functions.

Besides this, Oxindono assigned them, for their lodgings, an old monastery of the Bonzas, which was disinhabited. They were no sooner established in it, than great numbers of people resorted to them: Some out of policy, and to please the king; others to observe their carriage, and to pick faults in it; many out of curiosity, and to learn something that was new. All in general proposed their doubts, and disputed with so much vehemence, that most of them were out of breath. The house was never empty, and these perpetual visits took up all the time of the man of God,

He explains himself on this subject, and almost complains, in the letters which he writes to Father Ignatius concerning his voyage to Japan. For after he had marked out to him the qualities which were requisite in a labourer of the Society, proper to be sent thither, "That he ought, in the first place, to be a person of unblameable conversation, and that the Japonese would easily be scandalized, where they could find occasion for the least reproach; that, moreover, he ought to be of no less capacity than virtue, because Japan is also furnished with an infinite number of her own clergymen, profound in science, and not yielding up any point

in dispute without being first convinced by demonstrative reasons; that, yet farther, it was necessary, that a missioner should come prepared to endure all manner of wants and hardships; that he must be endued with an heroic fortitude, to encounter conti nual dangers, and death itself in dreadful torments, in case of need." Having, I say, set these things forth, and added these express words in one of his letters, "I write to Father Simon, and, in his absence, to the rector of Coimbra, that he shall send hither only such men as are known and approved by your holy charity," he continues thus:

"These labourers in the gospel must expect to be much more crossed in their undertaking than they imagine. They will be wearied out with vi sits, and by troublesome questions, every hour of the day, and half the night: They will be sent for incessantly to the houses of the great, and will sometimes want leisure to say their prayers, or to make their recollections. Perhaps, also, they will want time to say their mass or their breviary, or not have enough for their repast, or even for their natural repose; for it is incredible how importunate these Japonians are, especially in reference to strangers, of whom they make no reckoning, but rather make their sport of them. What therefore will become of them, when they rise up against their sects, and reprehend their vices?" Yet these importunities became pleasing to Father Xavier, and afterwards produced a good effect. As the Japonese are of docible and reasonable minds, the more they pressed him in dispute, they understood the truth the more: So that their doubts being satisfied, they comprehended easily, that there were no contradictions in our faith, nothing that would not abide the test of the most severe discussion.