He and the Savoyard Pierre Lefevre, who shared his lodging, had already, in 1529, made the acquaintance of Ignatius of Loyola - like Xavier a native of the Spanish Basque country.
The peak of the Rhune, to the south of St Jean de Luz, rises only to 2950 ft.; and on the border of the Basque country the mean height of the summits is not much greater.
In order to gain a practical knowledge of the language and complete his investigations into it, he visited the Basque country itself, the result of his visit being the valuable "Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain by the help of the Basque language" (Priifung der Untersuchungen fiber die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache), published in 1821.
