d, and most commonly had so many patches on his cassock, that
the children of the idolaters derided him. He pieced up his tatters with
his own hand, and never changed his habit till it was worn to rags; at
least, if the honour of God, and the interest of religion, did not
otherwise oblige him. At his return from Japan to Malacca, where he was
received with so much honour, he wore on his back a torn cassock, and a
rusty old hat on his head.

The Portuguese, beholding him always so ill apparelled, often desired him
to give them leave to present him with a new habit; but seeing he would
not be persuaded, they once devised a way of stealing his cassock while
he was asleep. The trick succeeded, and Xavier, whose soul was wholly
intent on God, put on a new habit, which they had laid in the place of
his old garment, without discovering how they had served him. He passed
the whole day in the same ignorance of the cheat, and it was not till the
evening that he perceived it; for supping with Francis Payva, and other
Portuguese, who were privy to the matter,--"It is perhaps to do honour to
our table," said one amongst them, "that you are so spruce to-day, in
your new habit." Then, casting his eyes upon his clothes, he was much
surprised to find himself in so strange an equipage. At length, being
made sensible of the prank which they had played him, he told them,
smiling, "That it was no great wonder that this rich cassock, looking for
a master in the dark, could not see its way to somebody who deserved it
better."

As he lived most commonly amongst the poorer sort of Indians, who had
nothing to bestow, and who, for the most part, went naked, he enjoyed his
poverty without molestation. All his moveables were a mat, on which he
lay sometimes, and a little table, whereon were his writings, and some
little books, with a wooden crucifix, made of that which the Indians call
the wood of St Thomas.

He cheerfully underwent the greatest hardships of poverty; and, writing
from Japan to the Fathers of Goa, his words were these:--"Assist me, I
beseech you, my dear brethren, in acknowledging to Almighty God the
signal favour he has done me. I am at length arrived at Japan, where
there is an extreme scarcity of all things, which I place amongst the
greatest benefits of Providence."

Mortification is always the companion of poverty, in apostolical persons.
Xavier bore Constantly along with him the instruments of penance;
haircloth, chains of