_ 166 _ religious instruction and lead them back to the church. I do the same for them as for Russians, Polesm, Greeks, Baniceros [Janissaries?] and others who deny the faith of Christ. Would to God that the devotion of our dearest brothers in Coimbra might be practiced here, so that the Holy Church of Christ might be the greater exalted. I weep copiously each day because all of you are missed in these parts. Dearly beloved, make haste. Since they are all Christians, what you are doing there? Whereas here there only exists the desire to be so and, for lack of labours, the mass is lost to them. After I had been off the letters, I sent to Portugal I sent to Portugal, the Lord granted many favours to the Company here. When Moors, had undertaken to debate with me on the subject of the most perfect religion, they instructed me to go with a native philosopher of theirs, well versed in medicine and astrology, to a very barren mountain of salt, devoid of water and vegetation, we were to be seen by nobody and the one who withstood hunger and thirst best would confirm the superior religion. I replied that this was to wish for miracles without justification, tempting God without necessity, since this
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