, all his goods
were distributed amongst the poor, according to the custom of the
country.

The shipwreck of Galvan, and the death of Araus, gave great authority to
what they had heard at Ternate, concerning the holiness of Father
Francis, and from the very first gained him an exceeding reputation. And
indeed it was all necessary; I say not for the reformation of vice in
that country, but to make him even heard with patience by a dissolute
people, which committed, without shame, the most enormous crimes, and
such as modesty forbids to name.

To understand how profitable the labours of Father Xavier were to those
of Ternate, it is sufficient to tell what he has written himself: "That
of an infinite number of debauched persons living in that island when he
landed there, all excepting two had laid aside their wicked courses
before his departure. The desire of riches was extinguished with the love
of pleasures. Restitutions were frequently made, and such abundant alms
were given, that the house of charity, set up for the relief of the
necessitous, from very poor, which it was formerly, was put into stock,
and more flourishing than ever."

The change of manners, which was visibly amongst the Christians, was of
no little service to the conversion of Saracens and idolaters. Many of
those infidels embraced Christianity. But the most illustrious conquest
of the saint, was of a famous Saracen lady, called Neachile Pocaraga,
daughter to Almanzor, king of Tidore, and wife to Boliefe, who was king
of Ternate, before the Portuguese had conquered the island. She was a
princess of great wit and generosity, but extremely bigotted to her sect,
and a mortal enemy to the Christians, that is to say, to the Portuguese.
Her hatred to them was justly grounded; for, having received them into
her kingdom with great civility, and having also permitted them to
establish themselves in one part of the island, for the convenience of
their trade, she was dealt with so hardly by them, that, after the death
of the king, her husband, she had nothing left her but the bare title of
a queen; and by their intrigues, the three princes, her sons, lost the
crown, their liberty, and their lives. Her unhappy fortune constrained
her to lead a wandering life, from isle to isle. But Providence, which
would accomplish on her its good designs, brought her back at last to
Ternate, about the time when Xavier came thither. She lived there in the
condition of a private