Having been informed, that sundry of the inhabitants had retired themselves from the sea-side into the midst of the woods, and caves of the mountains, to shelter themselves from the rage of the barbarians, their neighbours and their enemies, who robbed the coasts, and put to the sword, or made slaves of all who fell into their hands, he went in search of those poor savages, amidst the horror of their rocks and forests; and lived with them as much as was necessary, to make them understand the duties of Christianity, of which the greatest part of them was ignorant.
After having instructed the faithful, he applied himself to preach the gospel to the idolaters and Moors; and God so blessed the endeavours of his servant, that the greatest part of the island became Christians. He built churches in every village, and made choice of the most reasonable, the most able, and the most fervent, to be masters over the rest, till there should arrive a supply of missioners. To which purpose he wrote to Goa, and commanded Paul de Camerine to send him Francis Mansilla, John Beyra, and one or two more of the first missioners which should arrive from Europe: he charged Mansilla, in particular, to come. His design was to establish in one of those isles a house of the company, which should send out continual supplies of labourers, for the publication of the gospel, through all that Archipelago.
While Xavier laboured in this manner at Amboyna, two naval armies arrived there; one of Portugal with three ships, the other of Spaniards with six men of war. The Spaniards were come from Nueva Espagna, or Mexico, for the conquest of the Moluccas, in the name of the emperor Charles the Fifth, as they pretended; but their enterprise succeeded not. After two years cruising, and long stay with the king of Tidore, who received them, to give jealousy to the Portuguese, who were allied to the king of Ternate, his enemy, they took their way by Amboyna, to pass into the Indies, and from thence to Europe. They were engaged in an unjust expedition against the rights of Portugal, and without order from Charles the Fifth; for that emperor, to whom King John the Third addressed his complaints thereupon, disavowed the proceedings of his subjects, and gave permission, that they should be used like pirates.
Yet the Portuguese proceeded not against them with that severity. But it seems that God revenged their quarrel, in afflicting the Spaniards with a contagious fever, which destroyed the greatest part of their fleet. It was a sad spectacle to behold the mariners and soldiers, lying here and there in their ships, or on the shore, in cabins, covered only with leaves. The disease which consumed them, kept all men at a distance from them; and the more necessity they had of succour, the less they found from the people of the island.
At the first report which came to Xavier of this pestilence, he left all things to relieve them; and it is scarce to be imagined, to what actions his charity led him on this occasion. He was day and night in a continual motion, at the same time administering to their bodies and their souls; assisting the dying, burying the dead, and interring them even with his own hands. As the sick bad neither food nor physic, he procured both for them from every side; and he who furnished him the most, was a Portuguese, called John d'Araus, who came in his company from Malacca to Amboyna. Nevertheless the malady still increasing day by day, Araus began to fear he should impoverish himself by these charities; and from a tender-hearted man, became so hard, that nothing more was to be squeezed out of him. One day Xavier sent to him for some wine, for a sick man who had continual faintings: Araus gave it, but with great reluctance, and charged the messenger to trouble him no more; that he had need of the remainder for his own use; and when his own was at an end, whither should he go for a supply? These words were no sooner related to Father Francis, than inflamed with a holy indignation, "What," says he, "does Araus think of keeping his wine for himself, and refusing it to the members of Jesus Christ! the end of his life is very near, and after his death all his estate shall be distributed amongst the poor." He denounced death to him with his own mouth; and the event verified the prediction, as the sequel will make manifest.
Though the pestilence was not wholly ceased, and many sick were yet aboard the vessels, the Spanish fleet set sail for Goa, forced to it by the approach of winter, which begins about May in those quarters. Father Xavier made provisions for the necessities of the soldiers, and furnished them, before their departure, with all he could obtain from the charity of the Portuguese. He recommended them likewise to the charity of his friends at Malacca, where the navy was to touch; and wrote to Father Paul de Camerine at Goa, that he should not fail to lodge in the college of the company, those religious of the order of St Augustin, who came along with the army from Mexico, and that he should do them all the good offices, which their profession, and their virtue, claimed from him.
After the Spaniards were departed, Xavier made some little voyages to places near adjoining to Amboyna; and visited some islands, which were half unpeopled, and desart, waiting the convenience of a ship to transport him to the Moluccas, which are nearer to Macassar than Amboyna. One of those isles is Baranura, where he miraculously recovered his crucifix, in the manner I am going to relate, according to the account which was given of it by a Portuguese, called Fausto Rodriguez, who was a witness of the fact, has deposed it upon oath, and whose juridical testimony is in the process of the saint's canonization.
"We were at sea," says Rodriguez, "Father Francis, John Raposo, and myself, when there arose a tempest, which alarmed all the mariners. Then the Father drew from his bosom a little crucifix, which he always carried about him, and leaning over deck, intended to have dipt it into the sea; but the crucifix dropt out of his hand, and was carried off by the waves. This loss very sensibly afflicted him, and he concealed not his sorrow from us. The next morning we landed on the island of Baranura; from the time when the crucifix was lost, to that of our landing, it was near twenty-four hours, during which we were in perpetual danger. Being on shore, Father Francis and I walked along by the sea side, towards the town of Tamalo, and had already walked about 500 paces, when both of us beheld, arising out of the sea, a crab-fish, which carried betwixt his claws the same crucifix raised on high. I saw the crab-fish come directly to the Father, by whose side I was, and stopped before him. The Father, falling on his knees, took his crucifix, after which the crab-fish returned into the sea. But the Father still continuing in the same humble posture, hugging and kissing the crucifix, was half an hour praying with his hands across his breast, and myself joining with him in thanksgiving to God for so evident a miracle; after which we arose, and continued on our way." Thus you have the relation of Rodriguez.
They staid eight days upon the island, and afterwards set sail for Rosalao, where Xavier preached at his first coming, as he had done at Baranura. But the idolaters, who inhabited these two islands, being extremely vicious, altogether brutal, and having nothing of human in them besides the figure, gave no credit to his words; and only one man amongst them, more reasonable than all the rest, believed in Jesus Christ. Insomuch, that the holy apostle, at his departure from Rosalao, took off his shoes, and shook off the dust, that he might not carry any thing away with him, which belonged to that execrable land.
Truly speaking, the conversion of that one man was worth that of many. The saint gave him in baptism his own name of Francis; and foretold him, that he should die most piously, in calling upon the name of Jesus. The prophecy was taken notice of, which has recommended the fame of this new convert to posterity, and which was not accomplished till after forty years. For this Christian, forsaking his barbarous island, and turning soldier, served the Portuguese, on divers occasions, till in the year 1588 he was wounded to death in a battle given by Don Sancho Vasconcellos, governor of Amboyna, who made war with the Saracen Hiamo. Francis was carried off into the camp; and many, as well Indians as Portuguese, came about him, to see the accomplishment of the prediction, made by the blessed Francis Xavier. All of them beheld the soldier dying, with extraordinary signs of piety, and crying, without ceasing, "Jesus, assist me!"