132 



XANTIPPUS 



city ; and, when they could no longer defend them- 

 selves, they set fire to their houses, and destmyed 

 themselves. The conqueror wished to spare them ; 

 hut, though he offered rewards to his soldiers, if 

 they brought any of the Xanthians alive into his 

 presence, only 150 were saved. 



XANT1PPUS ; a general of the Lacedemoni- 

 ans, of an unpromising exterior, but distinguished 

 for his talents. His countrymen sent him with a 

 small army, in the first Punic war, to- assist the 

 Carthaginians against the Romans. The Roman 

 consul, Regulus, had beaten the Carthaginian fleet, 

 though much superior to his own, had effected a 

 landing in Africa, defeated the armies of Carthage, 

 and advanced as far as the city. The hard condi- 

 tions of peace prescribed by him exasperated the 

 Carthaginians. They gave the chief command of 

 their forces to Xantippus. He manoeuvred so as to 

 bring the Romans into a disadvantageous position, 

 overcame them, and even took their general, Re- 

 gulus, prisoner. The Carthaginians thus again ob- 

 tained the superiority over the Romans. But, 

 much as they owed to Xantippus, they entertained 

 a paltry jealousy that he would gain too much in- 

 fluence. They therefore sent him back to Lace- 

 dzemon, and are said to have given his attendants 

 secret orders to kill him on the way : according to 

 some accounts, they gave him a leaky vessel, in 

 which he perished. This charge, however, is by 

 no means proved ; and some Greek writers say that 

 he arrived safely in his native country There was 

 also an Athenian general of this name, who, with 

 Leotychides, defeated the Persian fleet at Mycale. 

 A statue was erected to his honour in the citadel 

 of Athens. He made some conquests in Thrace, 

 and increased the power of Athens. He was father tc 

 the celebrated Pericles by Agariste, the niece of Glis- 

 thenes, who expelled the Pisistratidae from Athens. 



XAVIER, ST FHANCIS, a celebrated Spanish 

 missionary, surnamed the apostle of the Indies, and 

 one of the first disciples of Ignatius Loyola, was 

 born April 7, 1506, in the castle of Xavier, at the 

 foot of the Pyrenees. His father was a gentleman 

 of Navarre. He was the youngest of many child- 

 ren, almost all of whom entered the army. He 

 himself, however, early manifested a disposition for 

 study. He pursued bis studies at the college of 

 St Barbe, in Paris, and taught philosophy in the 

 college De Beauvais, in the same city, at the time 

 when Ignatius Loyola entered this college to re- 

 sume his studies. Loyola was already occupied 

 with his plan of establishing a society for the con- 

 version of infidels, and endeavoured to induce Xavier 

 to take part in it. He at first declined ; but, after 

 Le Fevre, or Favre, had associated himself with 

 Loyola, he yielded. Laynez (q. v.), Salmeron, 

 Nicholas Alphonso, surnamed Bobadilla, and Rod- 

 riguez, a Portuguese, followed. All six, together 

 with Loyola, on the day of Assumption, in the year 

 1534, took the vows of poverty and chastity, to 

 which they added that of making a pilgrimage to 

 the holy sepulchre, and of devoting themselves to 

 the conversion of infidels. In case of failing in this 

 attempt, they were to do such service to the church 

 as the pope should direct. Towards the end of 

 1537, they met at Venice, according to agreement ; 

 and, at this time, their number had been increased 

 by the accession of three more persons. Soon af- 

 ter, Xavier was ordained priest, and, when John 

 ,111., king of Portugal, desirous of propagating the 

 Christian faith in his Indian possessions, requested 

 of Ignatius Loyola a suitable missionary, Xavier 



determined to undertake the office. April 8, 1541, 

 he embarked at Lisbon, and, in 1542, arrived at 

 Goa. According to the custom which he always 

 followed, he took lodgings in the hospital, where 

 he spent his leisure time in attending on the sick. 

 He preached, and converted to Christianity many 

 heathens, Jews and Mohammedans there, and on 

 the coast of Comorin, at Malacca, Tra vim core, 

 Macassar, in the Molucca islands, Malacca, Ceylon, 

 Cochin, and, in 1548, returned to Goa, where a 

 college of Jesuits had been established. Thence 

 he went to Japan ; but, not having been able to 

 learn the language of the country, he met with little 

 success. He ascribed this, in part, however, to the 

 simplicity of his appearance as a humble pilgrim, 

 and resolved to adopt a different fashion. He pre- 

 sented himself to the king of Japan in rirli attire, 

 furnished with letters from the viceroy of the Indies 

 and the bishop of Goa, and with rich presents. lie 

 now succeeded perfectly. The king not only gave 

 him permission to preach, but also issued an edict 

 which permitted every one to embrace the new 

 faith. He converted, according to his statement, 

 above 3000 souls, M'ho, twenty-five years later, 

 were found faithful to their religion, though en- 

 tirely detached from the rest of Christendom. At 

 a later period, other missionaries obtained still 

 greater success. Xavier resolved to introduce 

 Christianity into China. He embarked with a body 

 of attendants, and went to Malacca ; but don Al- 

 varez, governor of this island, refused to let the ex- 

 pedition proceed. Xavier, however, was not to be 

 stopped. He departed alone, in a Portuguese ves- 

 sel, for the island of Sancian, opposite to Canton, 

 twenty-five leagues from the continent ; but, after 

 having made all the preparations for his perilous 

 enterprise, he fell sick, and died, after a long and 

 painful illness, December 2, 1552, having spent ten 

 years and a half in his laborious missions. It is 

 said that he was buried on Ihe sea-shore, and lime 

 put into the grave to consume the body, which, 

 however, being afterwards disinterred, was found 

 entirely fresh ; and, according to the poetical con- 

 ception of the Catholics, which appears in so many 

 legends of saints, a sweet odour exhaled from the 

 whole body. A short time after, his remains were 

 deposited in St Paul's church at Goa. Many mir- 

 acles having been ascribed to Xavier, he was beati- 

 fied by Paul V., in 1619, and canonized by Gregory 

 XV., in 1622. His extant works are Five Books 

 of Epistles (Paris, 1631, 8vo.) : a Catechism; 

 Opuscula. Bartoli, a Jesuit, wrote, in Italian, the 

 life of St Xavier, which was translated into Latin 

 by Jannin, in 1709. Xuares also published Vida 

 tconologica del Apostol de las Indias, S. Francisco 

 Xavier (Rome, 1798). 



XEBEC ; a small, three-masted vessel, navigated 

 in the Mediterranean sea, and distinguished from 

 other European vessels by the great pi ejection of 

 the prow and stern beyond the cut-water and stern- 

 post. The sails are, in general, similar to those of 

 the polacre ; but the hull is different. Being gen- 

 erally equipped as a corsair, the xebec is constructed 

 with a narrow floor, for the sake of speed, and of a 

 great breadth, so as to be able to carry a consider- 

 able force of sail without danger of overturning. As 

 these vessels are usually very low built, their decks 

 are made very convex, in order to carry off the 

 water more readily. But, as this convexity would 

 render it difficult to walk thereon at sea, particularly 

 when the vessel rocks by the agitation of the 

 waves, there is a platform of grating extending 



