dignities and their revenues.

After this he petitions the king to send him a supply of preachers, and
those preachers to be of the Society, as judging them more proper than
any others for the new world. "I beg and adjure your majesty," says he,
"by the love you bear to our blessed Lord, and by the zeal wherewith you
burn for the glory of the Divine Majesty, to send next year some
preachers of our Society to your faithful subjects of the Indies: For I
assure you, that your fortresses are in extreme want of such supplies; in
garrison, and to the new Christians established in the towns and villages
depending on them. I speak by experience; and that which I have seen
with my own eyes obliges me to write concerning it. Being at Malacca, and
at the Moluccas, I preached every Sunday, and all saints' days twice;
and was forced upon it, because I saw the soldiers and people had great
need of being frequently taught the word of God.

"I preached then, in the morning, to the Portuguese at mass: I went again
into the pulpit in the afternoon, and instructed their children, their
slaves, and idolaters newly converted, accommodating my discourse to the
measure of their understanding, and expounding to them the principal
points of Christian doctrine, one after another. Besides which, one day
in the week, I assembled in the church the wives of the Portuguese, and
catechised them on the articles of faith, on the sacraments of penance,
and the eucharist. Much fruit would be gathered in a few years, if the
same method were constantly observed in all places. I preached also,
every day, in the fortresses, the principles of religion, to the sons and
daughters of the soldiers, to their servants of both sexes; in fine, to
the natives of the country, who were born Christians: and these
instructions had so good effect, that they totally renounced the
superstitions and sorceries which were in use amongst those stupid and
ignorant new converts.

"I descend into all these petty circumstances, to the end your majesty
may judge, according to your prudence, what number of preachers may be
necessary here; and that you may not forget to send many to us: for if
the ministry of preaching be not more exercised amongst us, we have
reason to apprehend, that not only the Indians, who have embraced the
faith, will leave it, but that the Portuguese also may forget the duties
of Christianity, and live afterwards like Heathens."

As Father Simon Rodriguez, wh