Japan and the Japanese

XAVIER'S MISSION THITHER 47
the children, women and servants, to be catechized, and, to help the
memory and catch the ear, he put the catechism into rhyme. But
it was not merely to the Christian population that he confined his
labors. He had to encounter the scornful fanaticism of the Mahom-
etans, who, setting out from Arabia, had preceded the Portuguese
by centuries in commercial and military visits to the coasts of
India and the eastern islands, and who had in many places largely
diffused their
religion. He had to meet the insolent bigotry of the
twice-born Brahmins, who, through the system of castes, held society
fast bound, helpless and stationary, in the fetters of an all-pervading
superstition. Jewish scoffers were also to be met. In fact, all sects
seemed to be brought together in southern India, including even an
ancient form of Christianity, a remnant of the followers of Zoroaster,
from Persia, and in Ceylon, Buddhists. After a year's stay at Goa,
Xavier proceeded to the southern point of Hindostan, about Cape
Comorin, the pearl-fishers of which region had, for the sake of
Portuguese protection, professed the Christian religion, of which,
however, they knew nothing but the name. Having preached for
a year or more in this district, he passed to the neighboring terri-
tories of the Coromandel coast, where there already existed the
remains before referred to of an ancient Christianity, originally
propagated, it seems probable, by Nestorian missionaries, of the fifth
or sixth century, but which the Portuguese insisted upon ascribing
to St. Thomas, the apostle, about whose life and labors in the East a
whole volume of fables was, between them and the native Christians,
speedily manufactured.
Incapable of staying long in one place, from India Xavier soon proceeded
to Malacca, where he arrived towards the close of 1545, and
whence the next spring he set out on a missionary journey through the
Moluccas. It was on his return from this last expedition that he
first met with the Japanese Angiro,
at Malacca, as related, after
Pinto, in the preceding chapter, with whom he arrived at Goa
in March, 1548. The Japanese were placed, as has been men-
tioned, in the seminary of St. Paul ; and so delighted was Xavier
tvith their progress and fervor, as to resolve to undertake, after
visiting his churches at Cape Comorin, a new mission to Japan.
We have seen the account given by Pinto of the origin of the
acquaintance between Xavier and Angiro. The biographers of the