It is somewhat remarkable that João neglected to extend to his colonial possessions the blessings of the Inquisition. The New Christians had largely availed themselves of the opportunities presented by the colonial trade, and had established themselves in Goa and its dependencies. The comparative freedom there had doubtless encouraged them to observe less caution than at home, for St. Francis Xavier had scarce begun his missionary labors when he was scandalized by what he saw and, on November 30, 1545, he wrote urgently to the king as to the necessity of an inquisitorial tribunal. No response was made to his appeal. João died June 11, 1557, leaving the crown to his grandson Dom Sebastian, a child in his third year, under the regency of the dowager Queen Catalina, who resigned it, in 1562, in favor of Cardinal Henrique. The Regency was more mindful of the spiritual needs of the Indies than the late king and, in March, 1560, Henrique sent to Goa as inquisitor Aleixo Diaz Falcão who, by the end of the year, founded a tribunal which in time earned a sinister renown as the most pitiless in Christendom.[724] When Lourenço Pirez, the ambassador at Rome, learned through Egypt of this establishment, he expressed to the Regency his apprehension that this zeal for religion would prove a disservice to God and to the kingdom, for it would drive to Bassorah and Cairo many who would aid the enemy in both finance and war.[725] His prevision was justified more fully than he anticipated for, to the activity of the tribunal was largely attributable the decay of the once flourishing Indian possessions of Portugal. After exhausting the New Christians, it turned its attention to the native Christians, who rewarded so abundantly the missionary labors of the Jesuits, for Portugal did not follow the wise example of Spain in exempting native converts from the Inquisition. It was impossible for these poor folk to abandon completely the superstitious practices of their ancestors, and any relapse into these, however trifling, was visited with the rigor with which were treated similar lapses by the Conversos of the Peninsula. Even Philip II recognized the impolicy of this and, in 1599, he procured from Clement VIII a brief empowering the inquisitors to commute the penalties of relaxation and confiscation for relapse, up to a third relapse but no further, and the faculty was limited to the term of five years.[726]