Upon
this, she led those other women towards a river-side, where Xavier had
set up a cross with his own hands, and falling down with them before that
sacred sign of our salvation, she prayed our Saviour to give them water,
to the shame and confusion of the idol. At the same moment the clouds
began to gather on every side, and the rain poured down in great
abundance. Then, all in company, they ran to the pagod, pulled it down,
and trampled it under their feet; after which they cast it into the
river, with these expressions of contempt, "That though they could not
obtain from him one drop of water, they would give him enough in a whole
river."

A faith thus lively, answered the hopes which the saint had conceived of
the faithful of Amboyna. He compared them sometimes to the primitive
Christians; and believed their constancy was of proof against the cruelty
of tyrants. Neither was he deceived in the judgment he made of them; and
they shewed themselves, when the Javeses, provoked by their renouncing
the law of Mahomet, came to invade their island. While the Saracen army
destroyed the country, six hundred Christians retired into a castle,
where they were presently besieged. Though they were to fear all things
from the fury of the barbarians, yet what they only apprehended was, that
those enemies of Jesus Christ might exercise their malice against a cross
which was raised in the midst of all the castle, and which Father Xavier
had set up with his own hands. To preserve it, therefore, inviolable from
their attempts, they wrapt it up in cloth of gold, and buried it in the
bottom of the ditch. After they had thus secured their treasure, they
opened the gate to the unbelievers, who, knowing what had been done by
them, ran immediately in search of the cross, to revenge upon it the
contempt which had been shown to Mahomet. But not being able to find it,
they turned all their fury upon those who had concealed it, and who would
not discover where it was.

Death seemed to have been the least part of what they suffered. The
Mahometan soldiers cut off one man's leg, another's arm, tore out this
man's eyes, and the other's tongue. So the Christians died by degrees,
and by a slow destruction, but without drawing one sigh, or casting out a
groan, or shewing the least apprehension; so strongly were they supported
in their souls by the all-powerful grace of Jesus Christ, for whom they
suffered.

Xavier at length parted from Amboyna; and