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Updated: May 25, 2025
But seeing that in Japan all the measures of the laws and customs are to be taken, and observed with great exactness, and nothing to be attempted in public without permission from the government, he would first visit the king of Saxuma, and chose the time on the day of St Michael the archangel He had put the whole empire under the protection of that glorious general of the celestial host, who chased the rebellious angels out of heaven, and recommended in his daily prayers to him, that he would exterminate those devils from Japan, who had usurped the dominion of it for so many ages.
The saint applies himself to the study of the Japonian tongue. He baptizes the whole family of Paul de Sainte Foy. He goes to the court of Saxuma, and is well received. He begins to preach at Cangorima, and converts many. He visits the Bonzas, and endeavours to gain them. He proves the soul's immortality to the chief of the Bonzas. The Bonzas rise against him.
Neither was his memory less honoured in Japan than in the Indies. The Christians of the kingdom of Saxuma kept religiously a stone, on which he had often preached, and shewed it as a precious rarity. The house wherein he had lodged at Amanguchi, was respected as a sacred place; and was always preserved from ruin, amidst those bloody wars, which more than once had destroyed the town.
The Father told his friend what progress the faith had made in little time in the kingdoms of Saxuma, of Amanguchi, and of Bungo; and what hopes he had conceived, to convert all those islands with great ease, when once the Chinese should be brought to acknowledge Jesus Christ.
They happened upon a fortress on their way, belonging to a prince called Ekandono, who was vassal to the king of Saxuma. It was situate on the height of a rock, and defended by ten great bastions. A solid wall encompassed it, with a wide and deep ditch cut through the middle of the rock.
It happened, that even their exemplary lives so edified their countrymen, that they gained over many of the idolaters; insomuch, that in the process of some few years, the number of Christians was encreased to five hundred persons; and the king of Saxuma wrote to the viceroy of the Indies, to have some of the fathers of the Society, who should publish through all his territories a law so holy and so pure.
The apostle of the Indies was not unknown at the court of Saxuma. Paul de Sainte Foy had spoken of him there, in such a manner, as infused the desire of seeing him into all hearts, and caused him to be looked on with admiration when he first appeared. The king and queen treated him with honour, testified great affection to him, and discoursed with him the better part of the night.
The six jesuits who were sent to Siam in 1685, in their relation of the religion of the Siamois, which much resembles this of Japan, guess, with more probability, that these opinions were the corruptions of the doctrine preached in the Indies by St Thomas. Paul de Sainte Foy goes to wait on the king of Saxuma. That which passed at the court of Saxuma.
To resume our history: immediately after the arrival of Xavier and his companions, Paul de Sainte Foy, whom formerly we called Anger, went to pay his duty to the king of Saxuma; on which Cangoxima is depending, and whose palace is about the distance of six leagues from it.
What would posterity say, when they should hear, that the king of Saxuma, who held his crown from Amida and Xaca, overthrew their altars, and deprived them of the honours which they had so long enjoyed?
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