e philosophers, of whom St Paul
speaks, "having known God, did not glorify him as God." Nevertheless we
may probably believe, that these disputations in progress of time failed
not of their due; effect; and it is also probable, that they were the
seed of those wonderful conversions which were made in following years.

Father Xavier went the next morning to take his last farewell of the
king, who was more kind to him than ever, and parted from Japan the same
day, which was Nov. 20th, in the year 1551, having continued in that
country two years and four months.

Not long before, Clod had made known to his servant, that the town of
Malacca was besieged by sea and land; and that the king of Jentana, a
Saracen, was personally before it, with an army of twelve thousand men:
That neither the conduct of the governor, Don Pedro de Silva, nor the
succours of Don Fernandez Carvalio, had been able to defend it against
the attempts of the barbarians; that the Javans, a fierce and warlike
people, had mastered that place; that of three hundred Portuguese, who
were within it, above an hundred had been put to the sword, and the rest
of them had only escaped by retiring into the fortress. In short, that
Malacca was now become a place of horror, and that the enemy, wearied
with the slaughter, had reserved many thousands of the inhabitants for
the chain. The saint informed Gama, and the Portuguese of the ship, of
these sad tidings, before they left the port, and declared to them, that
the sins of that corrupt city had drawn down the curse of God upon it, as
he had foretold and threatened; but he desired them, at the same time, to
supplicate the Father of all Mercies, for the appeasing of his divine
justice, and he himself prayed earnestly in their behalf. Besides the two
Japanners, Matthew and Bernard, who had constantly followed the Father,
and would never forsake him, an ambassador from the king of Bungo
embarked with him in the same vessel. The business of this embassy was to
seek the friendship of the viceroy of the Indies, and to obtain a
preacher from him, who might finish the conversion of that kingdom, in
the room of Father Xavier.

They sailed along the coasts for the space of six days, and the
navigation was prosperous till they made an island belonging to the king
of Minaco, called Meleitor; from whence, crossing a strait, they put out
into the main ocean. At that time the change of the moon altered the
weather, and there blew