The Portuguese and Indians, who loved Xavier, added, that since those savages spared not their own countrymen and their parents, what would they not do to a stranger, and an unknown person? That they were first to be transformed into men, before they could be made Christians. And how could he imprint the principles of the divine law into their hearts, who had not the least sense of humanity? Who should be his guide through those thick entangled forests, where the greatest part of them were lodged like so many wild beasts; and when, by rare fortune, he should atchieve the taming of them, and even convert them, how long would that conversion last? at the longest, but while he continued with them: That no man would venture to succeed him in his apostleship to those parts, for that was only to be exposed to a certain death; and that the blood of Simon Vaz was yet steaming. To conclude, there were many other isles, which had never heard of Jesus Christ, and who were better disposed to receive the gospel. These reasons were accompanied with prayers and tears; but they were to no purpose, and Xavier was stedfast to his resolution. His friends perceiving they could gain nothing upon him by intreaties, had recourse, in some measure, to constraint; so far as to obtain from the governor of Ternate a decree, forbidding, on severe penalties, any vessel to carry the Father to the Isle del Moro. Xavier then resented this usage of his friends, and could not forbear to complain publicly of it. "Where are those people," said he, "who dare to confine the power of Almighty God, and have so mean an apprehension of our Saviour's love and grace? Are there any hearts hard enough to resist the influences of the Most High, when it pleases him to soften and to change them? Can they stand in opposition to that gentle, and yet commanding force, which can make the dry bones live, and raise up children to Abraham from stones? What! Shall he, who has subjected the whole world to the cross, by the ministry of the apostles, shall he exempt from that subjection this petty corner of the universe? Shall then the Isle del Moro be the only place, which shall receive no benefit of redemption? And when Jesus Christ has offered to the eternal Father, all the nations of the earth as his inheritance, were these people excepted out of the donation? I acknowledge them to be very barbarous and brutal; and let it be granted they were more inhuman than they are, it is because I can do nothing of myself, that I have the better hopes of them. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me, and from whom alone proceeds the strength of those who labour in the gospel."