and promised so to mediate in their favour, with the viceroy of the Indies, that they should have no occasion of repenting themselves for having abandoned all things for the sake of Jesus Christ.
When the king of Jafanatapan had notice of the flight of his son and nephew, he broke out into new fury against the Christians, and put to death great numbers of them. Being apprehensive that his brother, from whom he had usurped the crown, and who now led a wandering life, might possibly change his religion also, and beg protection from the Portuguese, he sent officers round about, with orders to bring him into his hands, or, at the least, to bring back his head. But he failed of getting him in his power either alive or dead; for this unhappy prince, attended by ten horsemen, having passed to Negapatan, came by land to Goa, after having suffered extreme hardships, in a journey of more than two hundred leagues.
Father Xavier, who was informed of all these proceedings, thought it necessary to make advantage of these favourable opportunities without loss of time. He considered with what perfection Christians might live in a kingdom where they died so generously for the faith, with so imperfect a knowledge of it. On the other side, he judged, that if the injustice and cruelty of the tyrant remained unpunished, what an inducement it might be to other idolatrous kings, for them to persecute the new converts in their turn; that the only means for repairing the past, and obviating future mischiefs, was to dispossess the tyrant of the crown, which he so unjustly wore, and restore it to his brother, to whom it rightfully belonged; that, for these considerations, recourse ought to be had to the Portuguese to engage them, by a principle of religion, to take arms against the usurper of the kingdom, and the persecutor of the Christians.
In order to this, the father caused Mansilla to be recalled from the coast of Fishery; and having intrusted him with the care of christianity in Travancore, took his way by land to Cambaya, where the viceroy of the Indies then resided.
Besides these reasons, relating to the king of Jafanatapan, the saint had other motives which obliged him to take this journey. The greatest part of the Europeans, who were in the Indies, and chiefly the officers of the crown of Portugal, lived after so infamous a manner, that they made the Christian faith appear odious, and scandalised alike both the idolaters and the faithful.
The public worship of the pagods was tolerated at Goa, and the sect of the Brachmans daily increased in power; because those Pagan priests had bribed the Portuguese officers. The people professed heathenism freely, provided they made exact payments of their tribute, as if they had been conquered only for the sake of gain. Public offices were sold to Saracens, and the Christian natives stood excluded, for want of money, which does all things with corrupt ministers. The receivers of the king's revenues, who were to pay the Paravas of the coast of Fishery, constrained those poor fishers to deliver their pearls almost for nothing; and thus the exaction of a lawful tribute, in the constitution, became tyranny and oppression in the management. Men were sold like beasts, and Christians enslaved to Pagans at cheap pennyworths. To conclude, the king of Cochin, an idolater, but tributary to the crown of Portugal, was suffered to confiscate the goods of his subjects, who had received baptism.
Father Francis was wonderfully grieved to perceive, that the greatest hindrance to the growth of Christianity, in those vast dominions of Asia, proceeded only from the Christians. He bewailed it sometimes to God, in the bitterness of his heart; and one day said, "That he would willingly return to Portugal to complain of it to the king, not doubting, but so religious and just a prince would order some remedy for this encroaching evil, if he had notice how it spread."
Xavier had taken the way of Cochin, along by the sea coast. He arrived there the 16th of December, 1544, where he happened to meet with Michael Vaz, vicar-general of the Indies. In acquainting him with the reasons of his journey, he made him sensible, that the weakness of the government was the principal cause of the avarice and violence of the officers; that Don Alphonso de Sosa was indeed a religious gentleman, but wanted vigour; that it was not sufficient to will good actions, if, at the same time, he did not strongly oppose ill ones; in a word, that it was absolutely necessary for the king of Portugal to be informed of all the disorders in the Indies, by a person who was an eye-witness of them, and whose integrity was not liable to suspicion. Vaz immediately entered into the opinions of the father, and his zeal carried him to pass himself into Portugal, in a vessel which was just ready to set sail. Xavier praised God for those good intentions; and wrote a letter by him to King John the Third, the beginning of which I have here transcribed: —
"Your Majesty ought to be assured, and often to call into your mind, that God has made choice of you, amongst all the princes of the world, for the conquest of India, to the end he may make trial of your faith, and see what requital you will make to him for all his benefits. You ought also to consider, that, in conferring on you the empire of a new world, his intention was, not so much that you should fill your coffers with the riches of the East, as that you should have an opportunity of signalizing your zeal, by making known to idolaters, through the means of those who serve you, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind."
The saint, after this beginning, gave the king to understand the good intentions of Michael Vaz, and the ill conduct of the Portuguese, who were in the government of the Indies. He suggested to him the means of putting a stop to those disorders, and advised him, above all things, not only to recommend, by letters, the interest of religion, but rigorously to punish all those officers, who were wanting to their duty in that respect; "for there is danger," said he, "that when God shall summon your Majesty to judgment, that will then come to pass which you least expect, and which is not to be avoided; there is danger, great Prince, that you may then hear these words of an offended God. Why have you not punished those who, under your authority, have made war against me in the Indies, you who have punished them so severely, when they were negligent in gathering your revenues? Your cause will be little helped by your return of this answer to Jesus Christ; – Lord, I have not wanted yearly to recommend, by letters to my subjects, all that concerns thy honour and thy service. For, doubt not, it will be thus answered; – But your orders were never put in execution, and you left your ministers, at their own disposal, to do whatever they thought good.
"I therefore beg your Majesty, by that fervent zeal which you have for the glory of our Lord, and by the care which you have always testified of your eternal salvation, to send hither a vigilant and resolute minister, who will bend his actions to nothing more than to the conversion of souls; who may act independently to the officers of your treasury; and who will not suffer himself to be led and governed by the politics of worldly men, whose foresight is bounded with the profit of the state. May your Majesty be pleased a little to inspect your incomes from the Indies, and, after that, look over the expences which are made for the advancement of religion; that, having weighed all things equally on either side, you may make a judgment, if that which you bestow bears any proportion with that which you receive; and then, perhaps, you will find a just subject to apprehend, that, of those immense treasures, which the Divine Goodness has heaped upon you, you have given to God but an inconsiderable pittance.
"For what remains, let not your Majesty defer any longer the payment of so just a debt, to so bountiful a giver, nor the healing of so many public wounds. What remedy soever you can apply, what diligence soever you can make, all will be too little, and of the latest. The sincere and ardent charity of my heart, towards your Majesty, has constrained me to write to you in this manner, especially when my imagination represents to me, in a lively sort, the complaints which the poor Indians send up to heaven, that out of so vast a treasure, with which your estate is enriched by them, you employ so little for their spiritual necessities." The letter ended, in begging this favour of Almighty God, "that the king, in his lifetime, might have those considerations, and that conduct, which he would wish to have had when he was dying."
Michael Vaz negotiated so well with King John the Third, pursuant to the instructions of Father Xavier, that he obtained another governor of the Indies, and carried back such orders and provisions, signed by his Majesty's own hand, as were in a manner the same which the father had desired.
These orders contained, That no toleration should be granted for the superstition of the infidels
