He instructed the seamen daily in the principles of religion, of which
the greater part were wholly ignorant, or had at the best but a
smattering of it; and preached to them on every holiday, at the foot of
the main mast. All of them profited by his sermons, and in little time
nothing was heard amongst them, which was offensive to the honour of God,
or that wounded Christian charity; or touched upon obsceneness, or ill
manners. They had a profound veneration for him; with one word only, he
appeased their quarrels, and put an end to all their differences.

The viceroy, Don Martin Alphonso de Sosa, invited him from the very first
clay to eat at his table; but Xavier humbly excused it, with great
acknowledgments, and during all the voyage lived only on what he begged
about the ship.

In the mean time, the insufferable colds of Cabo Verde, and the excessive
heats of Guinea, together with the stench of the fresh waters, and
putrifaction of their flesh provisions under the line, produced many
dangerous distempers. The most common was a pestilential fever,
accompanied with a kind of cancer, which bred in the mouth, and
ulcerated all the gums; the sick being crowded together, spread the
infection amongst themselves; and as every one was apprehensive of
getting the disease, they had been destitute of all succour, if Father
Francis had not taken compassion on them. He wiped them in their sweats,
he cleansed their ulcers, he washed their linen, and rendered them all
the most abject services; but, above all things, he had care of their
consciences, and his principal employment was to dispose them to a
Christian death.

These were his perpetual employments; being at the same time himself
seized with continued fits of vomiting, and extreme languishments, which