On Sunday, 8 March 1551, a group of students from the Meninos Órphãos College took to the streets of Lisbon, singing devotional songs and accompanied by a crowd that followed them as far as the Ribeira. There, they boarded a small boat and sailed down the river to Belém, where they spent the night. On Tuesday, 10 March, with a favourable wind, they embarked on a long journey that would take them to Goa (India). From there, some continued their journey to Hormuz (Iran), while others travelled on to Malacca (Malaysia) and Funai (Japan), where they arrived in July 1556. Throughout these missions, they played an important role in the evangelisation of the local population, in which music played a significant part.
