Other voyages and sufferings of father Fray Diego Aduarte under the
direction of his superiors and for the preaching of the gospel.
[This chapter contains an account of the unsuccessful expedition
to Camboxa undertaken by Don Luis Perez Das Mariñas, as narrated
in book i, chapters xlix and l, of this history. In that narrative,
given by father Fray Diego, he breaks off in the account of his own
experience at the point where he was separated from the rest of the
company, having gone to Macan to be cured of his illness while the
others returned to Manila.]
He was not able to remain very long in Macan because many Chinese
mandarins frequently came to that city, and to the convent where
father Fray Diego was, since the city is in China itself; and it did
not seem to him that he was safe from the inspector. As there was no
opportunity for him to make a voyage in any other direction, he set out
for Malaca, a city of India about as far from Manila as Macan is. As
we shall see, he went away partly that that ship and all in it might
not perish. They set sail in the middle of January; and as they were
crossing from the gulf of Haynao to the coast of Cochinchina, Champa,
and Camboja, there was a furious storm at the same place where he
had met a storm two years before, and on the same night, between the
eighth and ninth of February. [This stripped the ship of its rigging,
and threw them into great distress; however, as it was strong and
steered well, it soon righted itself and reached Malaca. Here father
Fray Diego remained, and the vessel sailed again for Goa, but came back
again after struggling for forty days with heavy seas and unfavorable
winds. Having lost this opportunity it was obliged to winter there,
and departed with the next monsoon, in the middle of the following
December. In it there went three Portuguese religious of our order,
taking with them father Fray Diego, who, because of his poverty, was
not provided with ship-stores. After they had passed the famous island
of Zeilan (i.e., Ceylon), and were in latitude six, they encountered
so heavy a sea that they were driven back to the equator, under the
lee of the Maldive Islands, where a ship never lands. Caught in that
archipelago of reefs and atolls, the Portuguese are long delayed
before they can make their way out. At last they reach the harbor
of Kocchi in India, "after having spent five months in sailing four
hundred leguas;" and, if they had arrived a few hours later, could
not have entered the port over the bar, although they emptied the
ship. Father Fray Diego waited in India for the season when he could
voyage to España.] He was not idle, but was occupied with many devout
exercises, which he had continued even when he was at sea. Yet this
was not what he most desired, and not what was most suitable to his
wishes, and to his calling as a religious. Hence when he found himself
in convents of devoted religious, his spirit was greatly rejoiced;
and he strove there to lay up some provision of devotion for the
long voyage, in the service of God and of these new conversions,
which he proposed to undertake to España for preachers. He visited
first the Christians converted by the apostle St. Thomas, whose
Christianity has endured from his time to the present in India, and
is now purged from its errors, which it incurred only for lack of
Catholic preachers. There are in that country matters to arouse great
devotion, and anyone who was so devout as father Fray Diego could not
go that way without visiting them, even at the cost of many days of
journey and hardship. This was not in vain, but brought with it much
spiritual reward. He embarked January 15, 1603, in the "San Roque,"
a very large ship with four decks and two quarter-decks. They had
favorable weather to the latitude of Cape de Buena Esperança [i.e.,
of Good Hope]; and thus a long vacation from hardships was provided
for father Fray Diego, who had been inured to suffering them in the
service of Him who was his comfort in them. [But here they encountered
first calms, and then fearful tempests, which almost wrecked the ship;
and, to save their lives, they were compelled to lighten the ship,
casting into the sea pepper and rich stuffs valued at fifty thousand
ducados. Finally, they passed the Cape of Good Hope on May 12. The
rest of the voyage was peaceful, save that they encountered a storm off
the coast of Portugal; but they escaped from this and landed at Vigo,
which is in Galicia, September 17, after having passed eight months
in navigation. They all went barefoot to church to give thanks to the
Lord, who had delivered them from so many and such great perils; and
father Fray Diego went to visit the church of the apostle of España,
[70] which is fourteen leguas from there, because it would not have
been proper to miss this devotion on account of so short a journey.]