The Wykehamist
ly accepted by the Society( he became a lay member in 1578 after Stephens interceded on his behalf) but he did become a serial prisoner, running into trouble for his religious convictions. Stephens evaded the same life of incarceration( they had been briefly imprisoned together in Ludlow‘ for one foreafternoon’ s space’) and journeyed to Rome, where he was admitted to the Society of Jesus on 15th October 1575. After a two-year novitiate and a further period of study, Stephens was chosen to be part of the Jesuit mission in the East Indies. The only sensible travel option was by ship and therefore with the Portuguese, who had outposts in Hormuz and Goa, so he travelled from Rome to Lisbon in the spring of 1579, setting sail on 4th April. The journey was no small undertaking, for the little convoy of five ships did not arrive in Goa until 24 th October, more than six months later. But it provided material for a long letter to his father, dated 10 th November 1579, in which he described the sea journey he had just made. There are mentions of the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, the dangers of rounding the Cape, the wildlife they encountered, such as the Ship of Guinea( Portuguese man-ofwar), flying fish, albacore and many others.
of Jesus, but two chapters define his place in history. The first involved a party of four English merchants who had set out from Falmouth on 13 th February 1583, burdened with letters of introduction from the Queen to, among others, the‘ King of China’. Their object was to explore to the east but by helping them Stephens again helped draw attention to India, hastening its‘ discovery’.
Of the four merchants, two names stand out: John Newbery, their leader, who had been charged by Queen Elizabeth to carry her letters abroad and had been encouraged by Hakluyt to send back promising reports( he was probably the brother of Ralph Newbery, publisher of Hakluyt’ s Principall Navigations); and Ralph Fitch who publicised their expedition. The merchants’ route took them via the Mediterranean to Aleppo, following the itinerary expected by the‘ Venice’ and‘ Turkey’ companies, which wanted to encourage English traders to explore beyond the line of Crusader castles.
Somehow, this letter from Stephens became a celebrated description of the journey to India by sea. Richard Hakluyt, the 16 th century geographer and publisher of over 25 travel books, published the letter in his most famous and influential work The Principall Navigations, first published in 1589.
Compared to the exposed life of a Jesuit in Protestant England in the late 16th Century, Goa offered barely fewer dangers. Having been posted to Rachol as part of the mission to Salcete in 1579( where he remained, undertaking numerous roles until his death in 1619), Stephens narrowly avoided the Cuncolim Massacre of 1583, which took the lives of many, including five Jesuit martyrs, among which were Pietro Berno, his fellow novitiate and travelling companion from Rome, and the much-feted Father Rudolpho Acquaviva, mourned by no less a figure than the Emperor Akbar.
His numerous generous acts that endeared him to his flock are recorded by the Society
17 th-century incomplete handwritten copy of the Purana Chistão
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