They departed toward the end of December, in a season when the rains were continually falling, during a winter which is dreadful in those parts, where the winds are as dangerous by land as tempests are at sea. The colds are pinching, and the snow drives in such abundance, that neither in the towns nor hamlets, people dare adventure to stir abroad, nor have any communication with each other, but by covered walks and galleries: It is yet far worse in the country, where nothing is to be seen but hideous forests, sharp-pointed and ragged mountains, raging torrents across the vallies, which sometimes overflow the plains. Sometimes it is so covered over with ice, that the travellers fall at every step; without mentioning those prodigious icicles hanging over head from the high trees, and threatening the passengers at every moment with their fall. The four servants of God travelled in the midst of this hard season, and rough ways, commonly on their naked feet, passing the rivers, and ill accommodated with warm clothes, to resist the inclemencies of the air and earth, loaden with their necessary equipage, and without other provisions of life than grains of rice roasted or dried by the fire, which Bernard carried in his wallet. They might have had abundantly for their subsistence, if Xavier would have accepted of the money which the Portuguese merchants of Firando offered him, to defray the charges of his voyage, or would have made use of what the governor of the Indies had supplied him with in the name of the king of Portugal: But he thought he should have affronted Providence, if he should have furnished himself with the provisions needful to a comfortable subsistence; and therefore taking out of the treasury a thousand crowns, he employed it wholly for the relief of the poor who had received baptism. Neither did he rest satisfied with this royal alms, he drew what he could also from his friends at Goa and Malacca; and it was a saying of his, "That the more these new converts were destitute of worldly goods, the more succour they deserved; that their zeal was worthy the primitive ages of the church; and that there was not a Christian in Japan, who would not choose rather to lose his life, than forfeit the love of Jesus Christ." The journey from Amanguchi to Meaco is not less than fifteen days, when the ways are good, and the season convenient for travelling; but the ill weather lengthened it to our four travellers, who made two months of it; sometimes crossing over rapid torrents, sometimes over plains and forests thick with snow, climbing up the rocks, and rolling down the precipices. These extreme labours put Father Xavier into a fever from the first month, and his sickness forced him to stop a little at Sacay; but he would take no remedies, and soon after put himself upon his way.