own into a habit, by a settled form of five months standing.

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 rea