come at his Court
at Agra; and they laboured among the savages of the Spice Islands as
well as among the learned men of China and of India.

The greatest of all these missionaries, Saint Francis Xavier, was not
a Portuguese subject. But the Company of Jesus, of which he was the
pioneer missionary, contained many Portuguese, and he could not have
attempted what he did but for the support of the Portuguese
government at home and of the Portuguese authorities in India.

The idea of discouraging Christian missionaries, which formed a part
of the policy of the Dutch and English East India Companies, never
had an adherent among the Portuguese. They believed sincerely in
their religion, and the principal use they made of their influence
when they were firmly established in Asia was to spread it abroad.
Again and again orders were sent from Portugal that the missionaries
were to be assisted in every possible way.

The Franciscan friars who first came to India were engaged in looking
after the souls of the Portuguese soldiers, but they were followed,
and in increasing numbers after the successes of Saint Francis, by
priests and friars and Jesuits, who left Europe for the express
purpose of converting the heathen. The history of the Roman Catholic
missions in India, for which there is plenty of material, {192} would
need a volume in itself. It must suffice to point out that those
missions did not begin to attain their full development until after
the Portuguese had reached their highest political power during the
governorship of Dom Joao de Castro, and were beginning to decline.

In 1538 the Pope nominated for the first time a Bishop of Goa in the
person of Frei Joao de Albuquerque, a Franciscan friar, and a
relative of the great Governor. This holy man, who won a great
reputation for sanctity, died in 1553, and in 1557 the see of Goa was
raised to an archbishopric and conferred upon Dom Gaspar de Leao
Pereira. The archbishops soon rivalled the viceroys in wealth and
dignity, and in at least one instance, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, an archbishop also acted as governor. Other sees
were speedily established at Cochin, Malacca, and Macao, and many
missionary bishops were appointed for other parts of India, China,
and Japan. The first labourers in the mission field were the
Franciscans. They were soon followed by other religious orders, and
were exceeded in success and ability by the Jesuits.

In 1560, after t