w of Mahomet, though all the neighbouring villages
had received it. And the prince, or lord of that town, who chose rather
to continue an idolater, than to become a Mahometan, being molested by
the Saracens, had recourse to the governor of Ternate, who was called
Tristan d'Atayda, promising, that himself and his subjects would turn
Christians, provided the Portuguese would take them into their
protection. Atayda receiving favourably those propositions of the prince
of Momoya, the prince came in person to Ternate, and desired baptism;
taking then, the name of John, in honour of John III., king of Portugal.
At his return to Momoya, he took along with him a Portuguese priest,
called Simon Vaz, who converted many idolaters to the faith. The number
of Christians, thus daily increasing more and more, another priest,
called Francis Alvarez, came to second Vaz, and both of them laboured so
happily in conjunction, that the whole people of Momoya renounced
idolatry, and professed the faith of Jesus Christ.

In the mean time, the Portuguese soldiers, whom the governor of Ternate
had promised to send, came from thence to defend the town against
the enterprizes of the Saracens. But the cruelty which he exercised on
the mother of Cacil Aerio, bastard son to King Boliefe, so far
exasperated those princes and the neighbouring people, that they
conspired the death of all the Portuguese, who were to be found in those
quarters. The inhabitants of Momoya, naturally changeable and cruel,
began the massacre by the murder of Simon Vaz, their first pastor; and
had killed Alvarez, whom they pursued with flights of arrows to the sea
side, if accidentally he had not found a bark in readiness, which bore
him off, all wounded as he was, and saved him from the fury of those
Christian barbarians.

The Saracens made their advantage of these disorders, and mastering
Mamoya, changed the whole religion of the town. The prince himself was
the only man, who continued firm in the Christian faith, notwithstanding
all their threatening, and the cruel usage which he received from them.
Not long after this, Antonio Galvan, that Portuguese, who was so
illustrious for his prudence, his valour, and his piety, succeeding to
Tristan d'Atayda in the government of Ternate, sent to the Isle del Moro
a priest, who was both able and zealous, by whose ministry the people
were once more reduced into the fold of Christ, and the affairs of the
infidels were ruined. But thi