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

by John Dryden

Even in the beginning of the week, they had almost evident signs of the victory, by the news which came of the king of Bintan; who having sent on all sides to be informed, whether the Portuguese had been defeated, being advertised from the river of Parlez of what had passed, forsook Muar, and retired with expedition, bewailing the misfortune of his allies, and ashamed of his ill-timed enterprize.

The frigate dispatched away by Deza, under the conduct of Emanuel Godigno, arrived exactly on the day mentioned by the saint. The fleet followed shortly after, and made a triumphant entry into the port, with trumpets sounding, and a general discharge of all their artillery. The town received them with repeated shouts of welcome; and Father Francis, who was at the head of the people on the shore, held forth a crucifix in his hand, to give both the inhabitants and soldiers to understand, that they owed their victory to Christ alone.

Both the one and the other joining their voices, gave solemn thanks to the Saviour of mankind; but they also broke out into the praises of the saint, upon the truth of his predictions, and could not hold from publishing, that it was he who had obtained from heaven this wonderful success.

The burden of these praises did no less hasten the saint's intended voyage to Goa, than the necessity of those affairs which called him thither. He had remained four months together at Malacca, since his return from the Moluccas, and was just on his departure, when the ships, which early come from China, arrived in the port. A Japonese, whose name was Anger, came with these vessels, expressly to see Xavier. He was about thirty-five years of age, rich, nobly born, and one whose life had been sufficiently libertine. The Portuguese, who two years before had made the discovery of Japan, had been acquainted with him at Cangoxirna, the place of his birth, and understood, from his own mouth, that, having been much troubled with the remembrance of the sins of his youth, he had retired himself amongst the solitary Bonzes; but that neither the solitude, nor the conversation of those heathen priests, had been able to restore him the tranquillity of his soul, and that thereupon he had returned into the world, more disquieted than ever with his remorse of conscience.

Some other Portuguese merchants, who at that time came to Cangoxima, and who had seen Father Francis at Malacca, the first voyage he had made thither, made an intimate acquaintance and friendship with Anger. 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.

Anger found himself possessed with a strong desire of going to see the holy man; but the length of the voyage, which was 800 leagues, the dangers of a tempestuous sea, and the considerations of his family, somewhat cooled him. A troublesome affair, which he had upon his hands at the same time, at length resolved him. For, having killed a man in a quarrel, and being pursued by justice, he could not find a more secure retreat than the ships of Portugal, nor a surer way of preserving his life, than to accept the offer they had made him.

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.

Anger departed by night, attended by two servants. Being arrived at the port, and enquiring for Ferdinand Alvarez, he lighted accidentally on George Alvarez, who was just ready to weigh anchor. This George was a wealthy merchant, a man of probity, and who had an extreme affection for the Father. He received the letters of Alvarez as if they had been addressed to himself, took the three Japonians into his ship, entertained them with all kindness, and brought them to Malacca; taking great satisfaction in the good office he should do in presenting them to the man of God, who might, perhaps, make them the first Christians of their country. But the misfortune was, that they missed the Father, who was just gone for the Moluccas. Anger, more disquieted in a foreign land than he had been at home, and despairing of ever seeing him, whom he had so often heard of from his friends, had it in his thoughts to have returned to Japan, without considering the danger to which he exposed himself, and almost forgetting the murder which had caused his flight, according to the custom of criminals, who blind themselves in those occasions, and whom divine justice oftentimes brings back to the same place where they had committed their offence. Whereupon, he went again to sea, and having made some little stay in a port of China, he pursued his voyage. Already some Japonian islands were in sight, when there arose a furious tempest, which endangered the sinking of the ship, and which in four days brought him back into the same port of China, from whence he had set out. This was to Anger a favourable effect of God's providence; for the same hand which drives the guilty to the precipice, sometimes preserves them from falling into it, and pulls them back, after a miraculous manner.

The Japonese, very happily for himself, met there Alvarez Vaz, just ready to set sail for Malacca. The Portuguese, who loved Anger, reproved him for his impatience, and offered to reconduct him to the place which he had so abruptly left; withall telling him, that, according to all appearances, the Father by this time was returned from the Moluccas. Anger, who still carried about him a troubled conscience, and thereby was easily induced to any proposition which tended to compose it, followed the advice of Vaz, and returned with him.

Coming on shore, he there found George Alvarez, the same person who had brought him the first time to Molucca. Alvarez, surprised to see him once again, told him, that Father Xavier was returned from the Moluccas, and immediately brought Anger to his presence. The Father, who foresaw, not only that this Japonian should be the first Christian of that kingdom, but also, by his means, the gospel should be preached in it, was transported with joy at the first sight of him, and embraced him with exceeding tenderness. The sight of the saint, and his embracements, gave such consolations to Anger, that he no longer doubted of receiving an entire satisfaction from him. Understanding, in some measure, the Portuguese language, Xavier himself assured him, that the disquiets of his mind should be dissipated, and that he should obtain that spiritual repose, in search of which he had undertaken so long a voyage; but that before he could arrive to it, it concerned him first to understand and practise the law of the true God, who alone could calm the troubles of his heart, and set it in a perpetual tranquillity. Anger, who desired nothing so much as to have his conscience in repose, and who was charmed with the great goodness of the Father, offered himself to be directed in all things by him. The servant of God instructed him in the principles of faith, of which his friends, the Portuguese, had already given him some knowledge, as far as men of their profession were capable of teaching him. But to the end his conversion might be more solid, he thought it convenient to send him and his servants to the seminary of Goa, there to be more fully taught the truths and practice of Christianity before their baptism. The Father had yet a further purpose in it, that these first fruits of Japonian Christianity should be consecrated to God by the Bishop Don John d'Albuquerque, in the capital city of the Indies.