rt himself. The flints and thorns had torn his feet, and
his legs were swelled so that they broke out in many places. All these
inconveniences hindered him not from going forward: He drew his strength
from the union he had with God, continually praying from the morning to
the evening, and never interrupting his devotions but only to exhort his
friends to patience.

In passing through the towns and villages where his way led him, Xavier
always read some part of his catechism to the people who gathered about
him. For the most part they only laughed at him; and the little children
cried after him, "Deos, Deos, Deos," because, speaking of God, he had
commonly that Portuguese word in his mouth, which he seldom pronounced
without repetition; for, discoursing of God, he would not use the
Japonese language till they were well instructed in the essence and
perfections of the Divine Majesty: and he gave two reasons for it; the
first, because he found not one word in all the language which well
expressed that sovereign divinity, of which he desired to give them a
distinct notion; the second, because he feared lest those idolaters might
confound that first Being with their Camis, and their Potoques, in case
he should call it by those names which were common to their idols. From
thence he took occasion to tell them, "That as they never had any
knowledge of the true God, so they never were able to express his name;
that the Portuguese, who knew him, called him Deos:" and he repeated that
word with so much action, and such a tone of voice, that he made even the
Pagans sensible what veneration was due to that sacred name. Having
publicly condemned, in two several towns, the false sects of Japan, and
the enormous vices reigning there, he was drawn by the inhabitants
without the walls, where they had resolved to stone him. But when they
were beginning to take up the stones, they were overtaken by a violent
and sudden storm, which constrained them all to betake themselves to
flight: The holy man continued in the midst of this rack of heaven, with
flashes of lightning darting round about him, without losing his habitual
tranquillity, but adoring that Divine Providence which fought so visibly
in his favour.

He arrived at length at Meaco with his three companions in February 1551.
The name of that celebrated town, so widely spread for being the seat of
empire and religion, where the Cubosama, the Dairy, and the Saso kept
their court, seeme