native country,
and brought them to Goa, that they might serve for guides to a missioner;
but, that these guides might be the more serviceable, he thought fit they
should learn to read and write in the Portuguese language. Anger, whom
from henceforth we shall name Paul de Sainte Foy, was easily instructed
in all they taught him; for, besides that he was of a quick and lively
apprehension, he had so happy a memory, that he got by heart almost all
the gospel of St Matthew, which Father Cosmo de Torrez had expounded to
him before his baptism.

In the mean time, Don John de Castro was rigging out a fleet, with design
to possess himself of Aden, one of the strongest towns of Arabia Felix,
and situated at the foot of a high mountain, which reached even to the
sea by a narrow tongue of earth. This port is of great importance to shut
up the passage of the Indies to the Turks and Saracens, who go thither by
the Red Sea; and from this consideration it was, that Albuquerque the
Great endeavoured to have mastered it in the year 15_13_, but the
vigorous resistance of the Achenois forced him to forsake the siege.
After that time, they were desirous, of their own accord, to have
delivered it up to the Portuguese, thereby to free themselves from the
tyranny of the Turks. Yet it was not then done, through the fault of a
captain called Soarez, who, having no orders to take possession of the
town, was so weak a politician as to refuse it when it was offered to the
crown of Portugal.

That people, whom the Turk used worse than ever, testified the same
inclination under the government of Castro; and it was on that occasion
that he sent a fleet towards the Strait of Mecca, under the command of
his son Alvarez de Castro. Eight foysts of Goa, full of soldiers, set out
for the expedition of Aden. Amongst these there was one very brave
fellow, renowned for his military actions, but blackened with all sorts
of crimes, and more infamous by his debauched manners, than known by his
valour. He seemed a kind of savage beast, who had no more of man in him
than the bare figure, nor any thing of a Christian besides the name.
Above eighteen years he had abstained from confession; and that he once
presented himself to the bishop of Goa, was less to reconcile himself to
God, than to take off the imputation of being either a Mahometan or an
idolater.

Father Xavier had cast an eye upon this wretch, and waited only an
opportunity to labour in so difficult