Since in his voyage to Goa he was to visit the fishing coast, he would not take the three Japonians with him, and gave the care of conducting them to George Alvarez. He only wrote by them to the rector of the College of St Paul, giving him orders to instruct them with all diligence. He put on board the ship of another Portuguese, called Gonsalvo Fernandez, twenty or thirty young men whom he had brought from the Moluccas, in order to their studies in the same college; after which, himself embarked in another vessel, which went directly for Cochin.
In passing the Strait of Ceylon, the ship which carried Xavier was overtaken with the most horrible tempest which was ever seen. They were constrained, at the very beginning of it, to cast overboard all their merchandize; and the winds roared with so much violence, that the pilot not being able to hold the rudder, abandoned the vessel to the fury of the waves. For three days and nights together they had death continually present before their eyes; and nothing reassured the mariners but the serene countenance of Father Xavier amidst the cries and tumults in the ship. After he had heard their confessions, implored the help of heaven, and exhorted all of them to receive, with an equal mind, either life or death from the hand of God, he retired into his cabin. Francis Pereyra, looking for the man of God in the midst of the tempest, to have comfort from him, found him on his knees before his crucifix, wholly taken up and lost to all things but to God. The ship, driven along by an impetuous current, already struck against the sands of Ceylon, and the mariners gave themselves for lost, without hope of recovery; when the Father coming out of his cabin, asked the pilot for the line and plummet, with which he was accustomed to fathom the sea; having taken them, and let them down to the bottom of the ocean, he pronounced these words: "Great God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, have mercy on us!" At the same moment the vessel stopped, and the wind ceased; after which they pursued their voyage, and happily arrived at the port of Cochin on the 21st of January, 1548.
There the Father gave himself the leisure of writing divers letters into Europe, by a vessel of Lisbon, which was just in readiness to set sail. The first was to the King of Portugal, John III.: the letter was full of prudent counsels concerning the duties of a king: he advertised him anew, that his majesty should be guilty before God of the evil government of his ministers, and that one day an account must be given of the salvation of those souls which he had suffered to perish, through neglect of application, or want of constancy in his endeavours; but he did it with all manner of precaution, and softened his expressions with Christian charity.
"I have long deliberated," said he, "whether I should certify your majesty of the transactions of your officers in the Indies, and what ought further to be done for the establishment of our faith. On the one side, the zeal of God's service, and his glory, encouraged me to write to you: on the other, I was diverted from that resolution by the fear I had of writing to no purpose; but, at the same time, I concluded, that I could not be silent without betraying my ministerial function: and it also seemed to me, that God gave me not those thoughts without some particular design; which probably was, that I might communicate them to your majesty; and this opinion, as the more likely, has at length prevailed with me. Nevertheless, I always feared, that if I should freely give you all my thoughts, my letter would only serve for evidence against you at the hour of your death, and would augment against your majesty the rigour of the last judgement, by taking from you the excuse of ignorance. These considerations gave me great anxieties, and your majesty will easily believe me: For, in fine, my heart will answer for me, that I desire not to employ all my strength, or even my life itself, for the conversion of the Indians, out of any other prospect than to free your majesty's conscience, as much as in me lies, and to render the last judgment less terrible to you. I do in this but that which is my duty; and the particular affection which you bear our Society well deserves that I should sacrifice myself for you."
After he had informed his majesty, how much the jealousies and secret divisions of his officers had hindered the progress of the gospel, he declares, that he could wish the king would bind himself by a solemn oath, to punish severely whosoever they should be who should occasion any prejudice to the farther propagation of faith in the Indies; and farther assured him, that if such who had the authority in their hands were made sensible, that their faults should not escape punishment, the whole Isle of Ceylon, all Cape Comorine, and many kings of Malabar, would receive baptism in the space of one year; that as many as were living in all the extent of the Indies would acknowledge the divinity of Jesus Christ, and make profession of his doctrine, if those ministers of state, who had neglected the interests of the faith, had been deprived of their dignities and their revenues.
After this he petitions the king to send him a supply of preachers, and those preachers to be of the Society, as judging them more proper than any others for the new world. "I beg and adjure your majesty," says he, "by the love you bear to our blessed Lord, and by the zeal wherewith you burn for the glory of the Divine Majesty, to send next year some preachers of our Society to your faithful subjects of the Indies: For I assure you, that your fortresses are in extreme want of such supplies; in garrison, and to the new Christians established in the towns and villages depending on them. I speak by experience; and that which I have seen with my own eyes obliges me to write concerning it. Being at Malacca, and at the Moluccas, I preached every Sunday, and all saints' days twice; and was forced upon it, because I saw the soldiers and people had great need of being frequently taught the word of God.
"I preached then, in the morning, to the Portuguese at mass: I went again into the pulpit in the afternoon, and instructed their children, their slaves, and idolaters newly converted, accommodating my discourse to the measure of their understanding, and expounding to them the principal points of Christian doctrine, one after another. Besides which, one day in the week, I assembled in the church the wives of the Portuguese, and catechised them on the articles of faith, on the sacraments of penance, and the eucharist. Much fruit would be gathered in a few years, if the same method were constantly observed in all places. I preached also, every day, in the fortresses, the principles of religion, to the sons and daughters of the soldiers, to their servants of both sexes; in fine, to the natives of the country, who were born Christians: and these instructions had so good effect, that they totally renounced the superstitions and sorceries which were in use amongst those stupid and ignorant new converts.
"I descend into all these petty circumstances, to the end your majesty may judge, according to your prudence, what number of preachers may be necessary here; and that you may not forget to send many to us: for if the ministry of preaching be not more exercised amongst us, we have reason to apprehend, that not only the Indians, who have embraced the faith, will leave it, but that the Portuguese also may forget the duties of Christianity, and live afterwards like Heathens."
As Father Simon Rodriguez, who governed the Society in Portugal, had great credit at the court, Father Xavier writ to him at the same time, desiring him, he would support his demands with his interest. He recommended to him in especial manner, "That he would make choice of those preachers, who were men of known virtue, and exemplary mortification." He subjoined, "If I thought the king would not take amiss the counsel of a faithful servant, who sincerely loves him, I should advise him to meditate one quarter of an hour every day, on that divine sentence, 'What does it profit a man to have gained the world, and to lose his soul?' I should counsel him, I say, to ask of God the understanding and taste of those words, and that he would finish all his prayers with the same words, 'What will it profit a man, to gain the world, and to lose his soul? 'Tis time," said Xavier, "to draw him out of his mistake, and to give him notice, that the hour of his death is nearer than he thinks: that fatal hour, when the King of kings, and Lord of lords, will summon him to judgment, saying to him these dreadful words, 'Give an account of your administration.' For which reason, do in such manner, my dear brother, that he may fulfil his whole duty; and that he may send over to the Indies all needful supplies, for the increase of faith."
Xavier also wrote from Cochin to the fathers of the society at Rome; and gave them an account, at large, of his voyages to Malacca, to Amboyna, to the Moluccas, and the Isle del Moro; with the success which God had given to his labours. But he forgot not the relation of his danger in the Strait of Ceylon, and made it in a manner which was full of consolation to them.