e is Sovereign over all those pirates which cruize the seas,
and exercise their cruelties on the Portuguese: and for this reason I
cannot fear them; I only fear lest God should punish me for being too
pusillanimous in his service; and so little capable, through my own
frailty, of extending the kingdom of his Son amongst those nations who
know him not."

He speaks in the same spirit to the Fathers of Goa, in giving them an
account of his arrival at Japan: "We are infinitely obliged to God, for
permitting us to enter into those barbarous countries, where we are to be
regardless, and in a manner forgetful of ourselves; for the enemies of
the true religion, being masters every where, on whom can we rely, but on
God alone? and to whom can we have recourse besides him? In our
countries, where the Christian faith is flourishing, it happens, I know
not how, that every thing hinders us from reposing ourselves on God; the
love of our relations, the bonds of friendship, the conveniences of life,
and the remedies which we use in sickness; but here, being distant from
the place of our nativity, and living amongst barbarians, where all human
succours are wanting to us, it is of absolute necessity that our
confidence in God alone should be our aid."

But the saint perhaps never discoursed better on this subject, than in a
letter written at his return from the Moluccas, after a dangerous
navigation. His words are these: "It has pleased God, that we should not
perish; it has also pleased him, to instruct us even by our dangers, and
to make us know, by our own experience, how weak we are, when we rely
only on ourselves, or on human succours. For when we come to understand
the deceitfulness of our hopes, and are entirely diffident of human
helps, we rely on God, who alone can deliver us out of those dangers,
into which we have engaged ourselves on his account: we shall soon
experience that he governs all things; and that the heavenly pleasures,
which he confers on his servants on such occasions, ought to make us
despise the greatest hazards; even death itself has nothing in it which
is dreadful to them, who have a taste of those divine delights; and
though, when we have escaped those perils of which we speak, we want
words to express the horror of them, there remains in our heart a
pleasing memory of the favours which God has done us; and that
remembrance excites us, day and night, to labour in the service of so
good a Master: we are als