account, to above a thousand. They who lived, and began to have the use
of reason, were so affected with the things of God, and so covetous of
knowing all the mysteries of faith, that they scarcely gave the father
time to take a little nourishment, or a short repose. They sought after
him every minute; and he was sometimes forced to hide himself from them,
to gain the leisure of saying his prayers, and his breviary.

By the administration of these children, who were so fervently devout, he
performed divers extraordinary works, even many of those miraculous
cures, which it pleased God to perate by his means. The coast of Fishery
was never so full of diseases, as when the father was there. It seemed,
as he himself has expressed it in a letter, that God sent those
distempers amongst that people, to draw them to him almost in their own
despite. For coming to recover on an instant, and against all human
appearance, so soon as they had received baptism, or invoked the name of
Jesus Christ, they clearly saw the difference betwixt the God of the
Christians and the pagods, which is the name given in the Indies, both to
the temples and the images of their false gods.

No one fell sick amongst the Gentiles, but had immediate recourse to
Father Xavier. As it was impossible for him to attend them all, or to be
in many places at the same time, he sent there Christian children where
he could not go himself. In going from him, one took his chaplet, another
his crucifix, a third his reliquiary, and all being animated with a
lively faith, dispersed themselves through the towns and villages. There
gathering about the sick as many people as they could assemble, they
repeated often the Lord's prayer, the creed, the commandments, and all
they had learnt by heart of the Christian faith; which being done, they
asked the sick, "If he believed unfeignedly in Jesus Christ, and if he
desired to be baptized?" When he had answered "Yes," they touched him