newly dead at Amboyna." They who were present observed punctually the day
and hour, to see if what the Father had said would come to pass: ten
or twelve days after, there arrived a ship from Amboyna, and the truth
was known not only by divers letters, but confirmed also by a Portuguese,
who had seen Araus die at the same moment when Xavier exhorted the people
to pray to God to rest his soul. This Araus was the merchant which
refused to give wine for the succour of the sick, in the Spanish fleet,
and to whom the saint had denounced a sudden death. He fell sick after
Xavier's departure; and having neither children nor heirs, all his goods
were distributed amongst the poor, according to the custom of the
country.

The shipwreck of Galvan, and the death of Araus, gave great authority to
what they had heard at Ternate, concerning the holiness of Father
Francis, and from the very first gained him an exceeding reputation. And
indeed it was all necessary; I say not for the reformation of vice in
that country, but to make him even heard with patience by a dissolute
people, which committed, without shame, the most enormous crimes, and
such as modesty forbids to name.

To understand how profitable the labours of Father Xavier were to those
of Ternate, it is sufficient to tell what he has written himself: "That
of an infinite number of debauched persons living in that island when he
landed there, all excepting two had laid aside their wicked courses
before his departure. The desire of riches was extinguished with the love
of pleasures. Restitutions were frequently made, and such abundant alms
were given, that the house of charity, set up for the relief of the
necessitous, from very poor, which it was formerly, was put into stock,
and more flourishing than ever."