believe he may have been the first apostle to the Philippines), Xavier converted a Japanese man named Han-Sir. Japan had been reached only five years earlier by Europeans, and Xavier was astonished at Han-Sir’s reports of Japan’s sophisticated culture. Hoping to reach “the best people yet discovered,” as he called them, he sailed with Han-Sir, two other Japanese men, and two fellow Jesuits. As in India, he was well-received and thousands converted. Convinced that he had the beginnings of a flourishing