llowing words: "I cannot believe that Don
Alvarez can be so hardened, but that he will be mollified, when he shall
know the intentions and orders of the holy see." He desired the grand
vicar, in the same writing, to send that very paper back to him, together
with the answer of Don Alvarez, that both the one and the other might be
an authentic evidence to the bishop of Goa, that he had omitted nothing
for advancing the embassy; and that if it succeeded not, the fault lay
not at his door. Suarez proceeded with the governor, according to all the
directions which had been traced out to him by the Father. But nothing
could work upon Alvarez. He laughed at the threatenings, and broke out
into railing language against the person of Xavier, saying loudly, "That
he was an ambitious hypocrite, and a friend of publicans and sinners."

The grand vicar not being able any longer to endure so outrageous and
scandalous an impiety, at length excommunicated the governor, according
to the agreement betwixt himself and Father Xavier. He also
excommunicated all his people, who basely flattered the passion of their
master, and spoke insolently of the holy see. This excommunication
signified little to a man, who had no principles, either of honour, or of
religion. Without giving himself the least disquiet for the wrath of
heaven, or talk of men, he made himself master of the ship Santa Cruz,
and placed in her a captain, with 25 mariners, all of them in his
interests, to go and trade at Sancian, where the Portuguese had
established a wealthy traffic. The ill success of the negociation,
betwixt the grand vicar and the governor, was very afflicting to Father
Xavier; his heart was pierced with sorrow, and he acknowledged to Father
Francis Perez, that he never resented any thing with greater grief. The
deplorable condition of Don Alvarez in the sight of God, the ruin of his
friend Pereyra, the embassy of China utterly destroyed,--all these made
him sigh from the bottom of his soul; and so much the more, because he
imputed these so great misfortunes to himself; as he gave Pereyra to
understand, who lay hidden at Malacca, and to whom he expressed himself
in writing, because he knew not with what face to see him.

"Since the greatness of my sins," says he, "has been the reason why God
Almighty would not make use of us two for the enterprize of China, it is
upon myself that I ought, in conscience, to lay the fault. They are my
offences, which have rui