from heaven; yet I dare confidently say, that whatever torment
or death they prepare for me, I am ready to suffer a thousand times more
for the salvation of one only soul. If I should happen to die by their
hands, who knows but all of them might receive the faith? for it is most
certain, that since the primitive times of the church, the seed of the
gospel has made a larger increase in the fields of paganism, by the blood
of martyrs, than by the sweat of missioners."

He concluded his discourse, by telling them, "That there was nothing
really to fear in his undertaking; that God had called him to the isles
del Moro; and that man should not hinder him from obeying the voice of
God." His discourse made such impressions on their hearts, that not only
the decree against his passage was revoked, but many offered themselves
to accompany him in that voyage, through all the dangers which seemed to
threaten him.

Having thus disengaged himself from all the incumbrances of his voyage,
he embarked with some of his friends, passing through the tears of the
people, who attended him to the shore, without expectation of seeing him
again. Before he set sail, he wrote to the Fathers of the company at
Rome, to make them acquainted with his voyage.

"The country whither I go," says he in his letter, "is full of danger,
and terrible to strangers, by the barbarity of the inhabitants, and by
their using divers poisons, which they mingle with their meat and drink;
and it is from hence that priests are apprehensive of coming to instruct
them: For myself, considering their extreme necessity, and the duties of
my ministry, which oblige to free them from eternal death, even at the
expence of my own life, I have resolved to hazard all for the salvation
of their souls. My whole confidence is in God, and all my desire is to
obey, as far as in me lies, the word of Jesus Christ: 'He who is willing
to save his life shall lose it, and he who will lose it for my sake shall
find it.' Believe me, dear brethren, though this evangelical maxim, in
general, is easily to be understood, when the time of practising it calls
upon us, and our business is to die for God, as clear as the text seems,
it becomes obscure; and he only can compass the understanding of it, to
whom God, by his mercy, has explained it; for then it will be seen, how
frail and feeble is human nature. Many here, who love me tenderly, have
done what possibly they could to divert me from this voy