Japan and the Japanese

46 JAPAN. A. D. 15421550.
voyage he would for a long time accept of nothing ;
but at last, lost he
should seem too obstinate, he consented to receive some coarse cloaks,
to be used in passing the Cape of Good Hope, one for himself, and one
for each of the two companions who were to accompany him ;
like-
wise a few books, of which he understood there was a great scarcity
in India. To the offer pressed upon him of the service of a boy to
attend to his daily wants during the voyage, he replied, " While i
have hands and feet of my own I shall need no servant." The
matter still being urged, with the remark that it was unfitting for a
man in his position to be openly seen among the crowd of sailors
and passengers washing his clothes or cooking his daily food,
" You see," he answered, " to what a pass this art of preserving
one's dignity has brought the commonwealth of Christendom ! For
my part, there is no office, however humble, which, provided there
be no sin in it, I cannot upon occasion perform." This was a
specimen of his whole conduct throughout the voyage, which commenced
April 7, 1541, giving rise to a remark of the captain of
the fleet, that it was even harder to make Xavier accept anything
than it was to get rid of other men's importunities.
All this self-sacrifice, accompanied as it was by a most careful
attention to the wants of others, was not without its reward. It
gave Xavier not to mention his subsequent
canonization an
immense reputation with his fellow-voyagers, an 1 n irreat influence
over them, which he did not fail to exercise. Already, amid all
this early austerity, the principles of Jesuitism were fully devel-
oped.
Xavier addressed everybody, even the most notorious profli-
gates, with mild familiarity, no severity in his face, no harshness in
his words. lie even volunteered himself as a sociable co?npanion,
and thus acquired an influence the greater because it was hardly per-
ceived by those who submitted to it, so that he was generally said, by
those who knew him best, to have accomplished much more by his
familiar conversation than even by his public preaching, of the
effects of which, however, very extraordinary stories were told.
He arrived at Goa in May, 1542, and, taking lodgings at a hospital,
entered at once with great zeal on the duties of his office as
Pope's nuncio, provincial in India of the order of Jesuits, and apos-
tolical missionary, professing, however, entire submission to the
bishop of Goa. Passing through the streets, bell in hand, he called