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Updated: June 5, 2025
He took for companions Father Cozmo de Torrez, and John Fernandez, besides the three Japonese, Paul de Sainte Foy, and his two servants, John and Anthony. It is true, there embarked with him in the same galley, Emanuel Moralez, and Alphonso de Castro; but it was only that the Father might carry them to Malacca, from whence both of them were to be transported to the Moluccas.
For discoursing daily with such Chinese merchants as were resident at Amanguehi, he had entertained a strong opinion, that a nation so polite, and knowing, would easily be reduced to Christianity; and on the other side, he had great hopes, that when China should be once converted, Japan would not be long after it; at least the more unbelieving sort of Japonese often said, "That they would not alter their religion till the Chinese had led the way.
In consequence of this, he desired to be informed from whence the cross derived that virtue, and for what cause the devils so much feared it. Thus, by little and little, he entered into the mysteries of faith. But as the Japonese are extremely curious, not content to be instructed by soldiers and merchants, he thought of sending for preachers, and in that prospect sent an ambassador to the Indies.
In these entertainments, which were surprising to all the assistants, they passed into another hall, where there were many gentlemen richly habited, and of good mein. At the moment when the Father entered, all of them bowed with reverence; which action they repeated thrice, and so very low, that they touched the ground with their foreheads, as the Japonese are very dextrous at that exercise.
For the most part they only laughed at him; and the little children cried after him, "Deos, Deos, Deos," because, speaking of God, he had commonly that Portuguese word in his mouth, which he seldom pronounced without repetition; for, discoursing of God, he would not use the Japonese language till they were well instructed in the essence and perfections of the Divine Majesty: and he gave two reasons for it; the first, because he found not one word in all the language which well expressed that sovereign divinity, of which he desired to give them a distinct notion; the second, because he feared lest those idolaters might confound that first Being with their Camis, and their Potoques, in case he should call it by those names which were common to their idols.
As they were in two bodies of at least two thousand each, unarmed, wounded, and fatigued, and without any means of defense; and the sargento-mayor had two hundred Spanish arquebusiers, and three hundred others from Pampanga who are natives of these islands, armed with arquebuses and muskets, and eight hundred well-armed Japonese, besides five or six thousand natives with lances, pikes, halberds, partizans, javelins, and bows and arrows, their strength was so great that, without the Sangleys facing them, the natives killed them attacking first one troop and then the other, with perfect safety and not the slightest danger.
Alvarez Vaz, who had most importuned him to take this voyage, and who had many times offered to bring him to Father Xavier, had not yet finished all his business, when this Japonese came to take sanctuary in his ship. He therefore gave him letters of recommendation to another Portuguese, called Ferdinand Alvarez, who was at another port of Japan, and who was suddenly to set sail for Malacca.
In a native rebellion organized sixteen years ago by certain Indians, at which time several chiefs who were implicated were executed, they were in communication with the Japonese, and one Japonese was hanged.
In conversing with them, he understood what he had formerly learnt by hearsay, from George Alvarez, and other Portuguese, that the empire of Japan was one of the most populous in the world; that the Japonese were naturally curious, and covetous of knowledge, and withal docible, and of great capacity; that being generally ingenious, and very rational, if they were instructed in the morals of Christianity, they would easily submit to them; and that, if the preachers of the gospel lived according to gospel rules, the whole nation would subject itself to the yoke of Jesus Christ, not perhaps so readily at first, but in process of time, and after clearing of their doubts.
And this Japonese, discovering to them the perplexity of his soul, which augmented daily more and more, they told him that in Malacca there was a religious man, eminent for his holy life, well experienced in the conduct of souls, and most proper to settle his perplexed conscience; and that if he would try this remedy, they would facilitate the means to him, and bring him to the saint, of whom they had spoken: That it was Father Francis Xavier, their friend, the refuge of sinners, and comforter of troubled minds.
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