These pious inclinations appeared to Father Xavier as an excellent groundwork for the planting of the gospel.  He wept for joy at the happy news; and adored the profound judgments of the Divine Providence, which, after having refused the grace of baptism to the king of Travancore, when all his subjects had received it, began the conversion of Sion and of Supa by that of their sovereigns.  He even believed, that his evangelical ministry exacted from him, to put the last hand to the conversion of those kingdoms.

In the mean time, he thought it his duty, that, before he resolved on the voyage of Macassar, he should ask advice from heaven concerning it; and to perform it as he ought, it came into his mind to implore the enlightnings of God’s spirit at the sepulchre of St Thomas, the ancient founder, and first father of Christianity in the Indies, whom he had taken for his patron and his guide, in the course of all his travels.  He therefore resolved to go in pilgrimage to Meliapor, which is distant but fifty leagues from Negatapan, where the wind had driven him back.  And embarking in the ship of Michael Pereyra, on Palm-Sunday, which fell that year, 1545, on the 29th of March, they shaped their course along-the coasts of Coromandel, having at first a favourable wind; but they had not made above twelve or thirteen leagues, when the weather changed on a sudden, and the sea became so rough, that they were forced to make to land, and cast anchor under covert of a mountain, to put their ship into some reasonable security.  They lay there for seven days together, in expectation of a better wind; and all that time the holy man passed in contemplation, without taking any nourishment, either of meat or drink, as they observed who were in the vessel with him, and as James Madeira, who was a witness of it, has deposed in form of law.  He only drank on Easter-Eve, and that at the request of the said Madeira, a little water, in which an onion had been boiled, according to his own direction.  On that very day, the wind came about into a favourable quarter, and the sea grew calm, so that they weighed anchor, and continued their voyage.

But Xavier, to whom God daily imparted more and more of the spirit of prophecy, foreseeing a furious tempest, which was concealed under that fallacious calm, asked the pilot, “If his ship were strong enough to endure the violence of bad weather, and ride out a storm?” The pilot confessed she was not, as being an old crazy vessel.  “Then,” said Xavier, “it were good to carry her back into the port.”  “How, Father Francis,” said the pilot, “are you fearful with so fair a wind? you may assure yourself of good weather by all manner of signs, and any little bark may be in safety.”  It was in vain for the saint to press him farther, not to believe those deceitful appearances; neither would the passengers follow his advice, but they soon repented of their neglect.  For far they had not gone, when a dreadful wind arose, the sea was on a foam, and mounted into billows.  The ship was not able to withstand the tempest, and was often in danger of sinking, and the mariners were constrained to make towards the port of Negapatan, from whence they set out, which, with much ado, they at length recovered.