be
never so calm. The ship which carried the Father was one of those
vessels, which, in those parts, are called caracores, of a long and
narrow built, like gallies, and which use indifferently sails and oars.
Another vessel of the same make carried a Portuguese, called John Galvan,
having aboard her all his goods. They set out together from Amboyna,
keeping company by the way, and both of them bound for the port of
Ternate.
In the midst of the gulph, they were surprised with a storm, which parted
them so far, that they lost sight of each other. The caracore of Xavier,
after having been in danger of perishing many times, was at length saved,
and recovered the port of Ternate by a kind of miracle: as for that of
Galvan, it was not known what became of her, and the news concerning her
was only brought by an evident revelation.
The first saint's day, when the Father preached to the people, he stopped
short in the middle of his discourse, and said, after a little pause,
"Pray to God for the soul of John Galvan, who is drowned in the gulph."
Some of the audience, who were friends of Galvan, and interested in the
caracore, ran to the mariners, who had brought the Father, and demanded
of them, if they knew any certain news of this tragical adventure? They
answered, "that they knew no more than that the storm had separated the
two vessels." The Portuguese recovered courage at those words, and
imagined that Father Francis had no other knowledge than the seamen. But
they were soon undeceived by the testimony of their own eyes; for three
days after, they saw, washed on the shore, the corpse of Galvan, and the
wreck of the vessel, which the sea had thrown upon the coast.
Very near this time, when Xavier was saying mass, turning to the people
to say the Orate Fratres, he added, "pray also for John Araus, who is
newly dead at Amboyna." They who were present observed punctually the day
and hour, to see if what the Father had said would come to pass: ten
or twelve days after, there arrived a ship from Amboyna, and the truth
was known not only by divers letters, but confirmed also by a Portuguese,
who had seen Araus die at the same moment when Xavier exhorted the people
to pray to God to rest his soul. This Araus was the merchant which
refused to give wine for the succour of the sick, in the Spanish fleet,
and to whom the saint had denounced a sudden death. He fell sick after
Xavier's departure; and having neither children nor heirs
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