s, winds,
or rocks; but God would make a trial of his faith. He had already almost
crossed, without the least hazard, the great gulph which is betwixt
Meliapor and Malacca, when suddenly there blew a furious storm, the sails
were torn, the rudder broken, and the mast came by the board, and the
vessel afterwards being driven against the rocks, was split: The greatest
part of the seamen and passengers were drowned; some of them held upon
the rocks, where they were cast away, and the merchant himself was of
that number; but, being upon the wide sea, and not having wherewithal
to supply nature, to avoid dying by hunger, they took a resolution which
only despair could have inspired; having gathered up some floating planks
of their wrecked vessel, and joining them together the best they could,
they put themselves upon them, and abandoned their safety to the mercy of
the waves, without other hope than of lighting on some current which
might possibly carry them on shore.

[Footnote 1: Or beads.]

The merchant, full of confidence in the blessed Virgin, had still
preserved the chaplet of Xavier, and feared not drowning while he held it
in his hand. The float of planks was hardly adrift upon the waves, when
he found he was transported out of himself, and believed he was at
Meliapor with Father Francis. Returning from his extacy, he was strangely
surprised to find himself on an unknown coast, and not to see about him
the companions of his fortunes, nor the planks to which he had entrusted
his life. He understood, from some people who casually came that way,
that it was the coast of Negapatan, and, in a transport mixed with joy
and amazement, he told them, in how miraculous a manner God had delivered
him from death.

Another Portuguese, by profession a soldier, called Jerome Fernandez de
Mendoza, received a considerable assistance from Xavier, in a different
manner, but full as marvellous. Fernandez, having put off from the coast
of Coromandel, in a ship belonging to him, wherein was all his wealth, to
go to another coast more westward, was taken near the cape of Comorin, by
the Malabar pirates, equally covetous and cruel. To save his life, in
losing his goods, he threw himself into the sea, and was happy enough, in
spite of his ill fortune, to swim to land, on the coast of Meliapor.
Meeting there Father Francis, he related his misfortune to him, and
begged an alms. The father was almost sorry, at that time, for his being
so poor