ics
revere Xavier, and Baldeus speaks of him in these terms, in his History
of the Indies: "If the religion of Xavier agreed with ours, we ought to
esteem and reverence him as another St Paul; yet, notwithstanding the
difference of religion, his zeal, his vigilance, and the sanctity of his
manners, ought to stir up all good men, not to do the work of God
negligently; for the gifts which Xavier had received, to execute the
office of a minister and ambassador of Jesus Christ, were so eminent,
that my soul is not able to express them. If I consider the patience and
sweetness wherewith he presented, both to great and small, the holy and
living waters of the gospel; if I regard the courage wherewith he
suffered injuries and affronts; I am forced to cry out, with the apostle,
Who is capable, like him, of these wonderful things!" Baldeus concludes
the panegyric of the saint, with an apostrophe to the saint himself:
"Might it please Almighty God," says he, "that being what you have been,
you had been, or would have been, one of ours."

Richard Hackluyt, also a Protestant, and, which is more, a minister of
England, commends Xavier without restriction:[1] "Sancian," says he, "is
an island in the confines of China, and near the port of Canton, famous
for the death of Francis Xavier, that worthy preacher of the gospel, and
that divine teacher of the Indians, in what concerns religion; who, after
great labours, after many injuries, and infinite crosses, undergone with
great patience and joy, died in a cabin, on a desart mountain, on the
second of September, in the year 1552, destitute of all worldly
conveniences, but accumulated with all sorts of spiritual blessings;
having first made known Jesus Christ to many thousands of those Eastern
people."[2] The modern histories of the Indies are filled with the
excellent virtues, and miraculous operations, of that holy man.

[Footnote 1: "The principal Navigations, Voyages, Discoveries, &c. of the
English, &c." second part of the second volume.]

[Footnote 2: The reader is referred to the original English for the words
themselves; the translator not having the work by him.]

Monsieur Tavernier, who is endued with all the probity which a man can
have, without the true religion, makes a step farther than these two
historians, and speaks like a Catholic: "St Francis Xavier," says he,
"ended in this place his mission, together with his life, after he had
established the Christian faith, with