The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

by John Dryden

Xavier then resented this usage of his friends, and could not forbear to complain publicly of it. "Where are those people," said he, "who dare to confine the power of Almighty God, and have so mean an apprehension of our Saviour's love and grace? Are there any hearts hard enough to resist the influences of the Most High, when it pleases him to soften and to change them? Can they stand in opposition to that gentle, and yet commanding force, which can make the dry bones live, and raise up children to Abraham from stones? What! Shall he, who has subjected the whole world to the cross, by the ministry of the apostles, shall he exempt from that subjection this petty corner of the universe? Shall then the Isle del Moro be the only place, which shall receive no benefit of redemption? And when Jesus Christ has offered to the eternal Father, all the nations of the earth as his inheritance, were these people excepted out of the donation? I acknowledge them to be very barbarous and brutal; and let it be granted they were more inhuman than they are, it is because I can do nothing of myself, that I have the better hopes of them. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me, and from whom alone proceeds the strength of those who labour in the gospel."

He added, "That other less savage nations would never want for preachers; that these only isles remained for him to cultivate, since no other man would undertake them." In sequel, suffering himself to be transported with a kind of holy choler, "If these isles," pursued he, "abounded with precious woods and mines of gold, the Christians would have the courage to go thither, and all the dangers of the world would not be able to affright them; they are base and fearful because there are only souls to purchase: And shall it then be said, that charity is less daring than avarice? You tell me they will take away my life, either by the sword or poison; but those are favours too great for such a sinner as I am to expect from heaven; yet I dare confidently say, that whatever torment or death they prepare for me, I am ready to suffer a thousand times more for the salvation of one only soul. If I should happen to die by their hands, who knows but all of them might receive the faith? for it is most certain, that since the primitive times of the church, the seed of the gospel has made a larger increase in the fields of paganism, by the blood of martyrs, than by the sweat of missioners."

He concluded his discourse, by telling them, "That there was nothing really to fear in his undertaking; that God had called him to the isles del Moro; and that man should not hinder him from obeying the voice of God." His discourse made such impressions on their hearts, that not only the decree against his passage was revoked, but many offered themselves to accompany him in that voyage, through all the dangers which seemed to threaten him.

Having thus disengaged himself from all the incumbrances of his voyage, he embarked with some of his friends, passing through the tears of the people, who attended him to the shore, without expectation of seeing him again. Before he set sail, he wrote to the Fathers of the company at Rome, to make them acquainted with his voyage.

"The country whither I go," says he in his letter, "is full of danger, and terrible to strangers, by the barbarity of the inhabitants, and by their using divers poisons, which they mingle with their meat and drink; and it is from hence that priests are apprehensive of coming to instruct them: For myself, considering their extreme necessity, and the duties of my ministry, which oblige to free them from eternal death, even at the expence of my own life, I have resolved to hazard all for the salvation of their souls. My whole confidence is in God, and all my desire is to obey, as far as in me lies, the word of Jesus Christ: 'He who is willing to save his life shall lose it, and he who will lose it for my sake shall find it.' Believe me, dear brethren, though this evangelical maxim, in general, is easily to be understood, when the time of practising it calls upon us, and our business is to die for God, as clear as the text seems, it becomes obscure; and he only can compass the understanding of it, to whom God, by his mercy, has explained it; for then it will be seen, how frail and feeble is human nature. Many here, who love me tenderly, have done what possibly they could to divert me from this voyage; and, seeing that I yielded not to their requests, nor to their tears, would have furnished me with antidotes; but I would not take any, lest, by making provision of remedies, I might come to apprehend the danger; and also, because, having put my life into the hands of Providence, I have no need of preservatives from death: for it seems to me, that the more I should make use of remedies, the less assurance I should repose in God."

They went off with a favourable wind, and had already made above an hundred and fourscore miles, when Xavier, on the sudden, with a deep sigh, cried out, "Ah, Jesus, how they massacre the poor people!" saying these words, and oftentimes repeating them, he had turned his countenance, and fixed his eyes towards a certain part of the sea. The mariners and passengers, affrighted, ran about him. Inquiring what massacre he meant, because, for their part, they could see nothing; but the saint was ravished in spirit, and, in this extacy, God had empowered him to see this sad spectacle.

He was no sooner come to himself, than they continued pressing him to know the occasion of his sighs and cries; but he, blushing for the words which had escaped him in his transport, would say no more, but retired to his devotions. It was not long before they beheld, with their own eyes, what he refused to tell them: Having cast anchor before an isle, they found on the shore the bodies of eight Portuguese, all bloody; and then comprehended, that those unhappy creatures had moved the compassion of the holy man. They buried them in the same place, and erected a cross over the grave; after which they pursued their voyage, and in little time arrived at the Isle del Moro.

When they were come on shore, Xavier went directly on to the next village. The greatest part of the inhabitants were baptized; but there remained in them only a confused notion of their baptism; and their religion was nothing more than a mingle of Mahometanism and idolatry.

The barbarians fled at the sight of the strangers, imagining they were come to revenge the death of the Portuguese, whom they had killed the preceding years. Xavier followed them into the thickest of their woods; and his countenance, full of mildness, gave them to believe, that he was not an enemy who came in search of them. He declared to them the motive of his voyage, speaking to them in the Malaya tongue: For though in the Isle del Moro there were great diversity of languages, insomuch, that those of three leagues distance did not understand each other in their island tongues, yet the Malaya was common to them all.

Notwithstanding the roughness and barbarity of these islanders, neither of those qualities were of proof against the winning and soft behaviour of the saint. He brought them back to their village, using all expressions of kindness to them by the way, and began his work by singing aloud the Christian doctrine through the streets; after which he expounded it to them, and that in a manner so suitable to their barbarous conceptions, that it passed with ease into their understanding.