oyages to
places near adjoining to Amboyna; and visited some islands, which were
half unpeopled, and desart, waiting the convenience of a ship to
transport him to the Moluccas, which are nearer to Macassar than Amboyna.
One of those isles is Baranura, where he miraculously recovered his
crucifix, in the manner I am going to relate, according to the account
which was given of it by a Portuguese, called Fausto Rodriguez, who was a
witness of the fact, has deposed it upon oath, and whose juridical
testimony is in the process of the saint's canonization.

"We were at sea," says Rodriguez, "Father Francis, John Raposo, and
myself, when there arose a tempest, which alarmed all the mariners. Then
the Father drew from his bosom a little crucifix, which he always carried
about him, and leaning over deck, intended to have dipt it into the sea;
but the crucifix dropt out of his hand, and was carried off by the waves.
This loss very sensibly afflicted him, and he concealed not his sorrow
from us. The next morning we landed on the island of Baranura; from the
time when the crucifix was lost, to that of our landing, it was near
twenty-four hours, during which we were in perpetual danger. Being on
shore, Father Francis and I walked along by the sea side, towards the
town of Tamalo, and had already walked about 500 paces, when both of us
beheld, arising out of the sea, a crab-fish, which carried betwixt his
claws the same crucifix raised on high. I saw the crab-fish come directly
to the Father, by whose side I was, and stopped before him. The Father,
falling on his knees, took his crucifix, after which the crab-fish
returned into the sea. But the Father still continuing in the same humble
posture, hugging and kissing the crucifix, was half an hour praying with
his hands across his breast, and myself joining with him in thanksgiving
to God for so evident a miracle; after which we arose, and continued on
our way." Thus you have the relation of Rodriguez.

They staid eight days upon the island, and afterwards set sail for
Rosalao, where Xavier preached at his first coming, as he had done at
Baranura. But the idolaters, who inhabited these two islands, being
extremely vicious, altogether brutal, and having nothing of human in them
besides the figure, gave no credit to his words; and only one man amongst
them, more reasonable than all the rest, believed in Jesus Christ.
Insomuch, that the holy apostle, at his departure from Rosalao, took of