In the mean time, the Portuguese soldiers, whom the governor of Ternate had promised to send, came from thence to defend the town against the enterprizes of the Saracens. But the cruelty which he exercised on the mother of Cacil Aerio, bastard son to King Boliefe, so far exasperated those princes and the neighbouring people, that they conspired the death of all the Portuguese, who were to be found in those quarters. The inhabitants of Momoya, naturally changeable and cruel, began the massacre by the murder of Simon Vaz, their first pastor; and had killed Alvarez, whom they pursued with flights of arrows to the sea side, if accidentally he had not found a bark in readiness, which bore him off, all wounded as he was, and saved him from the fury of those Christian barbarians. The Saracens made their advantage of these disorders, and mastering Mamoya, changed the whole religion of the town. The prince himself was the only man, who continued firm in the Christian faith, notwithstanding all their threatening, and the cruel usage which he received from them. Not long after this, Antonio Galvan, that Portuguese, who was so illustrious for his prudence, his valour, and his piety, succeeding to Tristan d'Atayda in the government of Ternate, sent to the Isle del Moro a priest, who was both able and zealous, by whose ministry the people were once more reduced into the fold of Christ, and the affairs of the infidels were ruined. But this priest remained not long upon the island, and the people, destitute of all spiritual instructions, returned soon after, through their natural inconstancy, to their original barbarism. In this condition was the Isle del Moro when it was spoken of to Father Xavier; and for this very reason, he determined to go, and preach the gospel there, after he had stayed for three months at Ternate. When his design was known, all possible endeavours were used to break it. His friends were not wanting to inform him, that the country was as hideous as it was barren: That it seemed accursed by nature, and a more fitting habitation for beasts than men: That the air was so gross, and so unwholesome, that strangers could not live in the country: That the mountains continually vomited flakes of fire and ashes, and that the ground itself was subject to terrible and frequent earthquakes. And besides, it was told him, that the people of the country surpassed in cruelty and faithlessness all the barbarians of the world: That Christianity had not softened their manners; that they poisoned one another; that they fed themselves with human flesh; and that, when any of their relations happened to die, they cut off his hands and feet, of which they made a delicate ragou: That their inhumanity extended so far, that when they designed a sumptuous feast, they begged some of their friends to lend them an old unprofitable father, to be served up to the entertainment of their guests, with promise to repay them, in kind, on the like occasion.