e virtues of Christianity, to the end you may
serve God faithfully during your life, and enjoy him eternally after
death." The king embraced him, and desired of God, on his side, that he
would graciously hear the saint's request, yet on this condition, that
they might remain together in heaven, and never be divided from each
other, that they might have the opportunity of long conversations, and of
discoursing to the full of divine matters. At length they sat to dinner:
while they were eating, the Portuguese, and all the lords of the court,
were on their knees, together with the chief inhabitants of the town,
amongst whom were also some Bonzas, who were enraged in their hearts; but
the late example of Faxiondono hindered them from breaking into passion.

These honours which Xavier received from the king of Bungo, made him so
considerable, and gave him so great a reputation with the people, that
being at his lodgings with the Portuguese, they came thronging from all
quarters to hear him speak of God. His public sermons, and his private
conversations, had their due effect. Vast multitudes of people, from the
very first, renounced their idols, and believed in Jesus Christ. The
saint employed whole days together in baptising of idolaters, or in
teaching new believers; so that the Portuguese could not enjoy him to
themselves for their own spiritual consolation, unless at some certain
hours of the night, while he was giving himself some breathing time after
his long labours. Loving him so tenderly as they did, and fearing that
his continual pains might endanger his health, they desired him to manage
it with more caution, and to take at least those refreshments which human
nature exacted from him, before he sunk at once under some distemper. But
he answered them, "That if they truly loved him, they would trouble
themselves no more concerning him; that they ought to look on him as one
who was dead to all outward refreshments; that his nourishment, his
sleep, and his life itself, consisted in delivering from the tyranny of
the devil those precious souls, for whose sake chiefly God had called him
from the utmost limits of the earth."

Amongst the conversions which were made at Fucheo, one of the most
considerable was that of a famous Bonza, of Canafama, called Sacay Ecran.
This Bonza, who was very learned, and a great pillar of his sect, seeing
that none of his brethren durst attempt Xavier on the matter of religion,
undertook a p