s priest remained not long upon the island,
and the people, destitute of all spiritual instructions, returned soon
after, through their natural inconstancy, to their original barbarism.

In this condition was the Isle del Moro when it was spoken of to Father
Xavier; and for this very reason, he determined to go, and preach the
gospel there, after he had stayed for three months at Ternate. When his
design was known, all possible endeavours were used to break it. His
friends were not wanting to inform him, that the country was as hideous
as it was barren: That it seemed accursed by nature, and a more fitting
habitation for beasts than men: That the air was so gross, and so
unwholesome, that strangers could not live in the country: That the
mountains continually vomited flakes of fire and ashes, and that the
ground itself was subject to terrible and frequent earthquakes. And
besides, it was told him, that the people of the country surpassed in
cruelty and faithlessness all the barbarians of the world: That
Christianity had not softened their manners; that they poisoned one
another; that they fed themselves with human flesh; and that, when any of
their relations happened to die, they cut off his hands and feet, of
which they made a delicate ragou: That their inhumanity extended so far,
that when they designed a sumptuous feast, they begged some of their
friends to lend them an old unprofitable father, to be served up to the
entertainment of their guests, with promise to repay them, in kind, on
the like occasion.

The Portuguese and Indians, who loved Xavier, added, that since those
savages spared not their own countrymen and their parents, what would
they not do to a stranger, and an unknown person? That they were first to
be transformed into men, before they could be made Christians. And how
could he imprint the principles of the divine law into their hearts, who
had not the least sense of humanity? Who should be his guide through
those thick entangled forests, where the greatest part of them were
lodged like so many wild beasts; and when, by rare fortune, he should
atchieve the taming of them, and even convert them, how long would that
conversion last? at the longest, but while he continued with them: That
no man would venture to succeed him in his apostleship to those parts,
for that was only to be exposed to a certain death; and that the blood of
Simon Vaz was yet steaming. To conclude, there were many other isles,
whi