hen some Indians saw this, snatching the cause from
the fact, they went to the father and begged him to sprinkle a dying
Indian woman with the same healing waters. Our father, suspecting that
they made this request with the the purpose of enabling the woman
to avoid the trouble of learning the catechism refused, unless she
would first learn what Christians know. "Father," said they, "that
ought not to be the way in which you act; we want her baptized to
keep her alive." "And I," said one, "when I was lying near to death,
was by the command of another father sprinkled by an Indian cantor,
and as soon as I was sprinkled immediately I began to recover. Then
that madman, as you know, washed away his madness in the same font; and
this companion of mine, who was already despaired of, when he received
baptism was restored to himself and his kinsfolk." The father yielded
to all these arguments, ordered the sick woman to be carried into the
church, and after putting the questions demanded by the occasion and
the need, cleansed her with that purifying sacrament: she immediately
began to improve, and soon recovered all her former strength. Every
day several feel the healing power of this font. An equally great
miracle is that the chiefs of this tribe, who have been very ill
disposed towards us, and from whom not even the lives of Ours were
safe, have been so suddenly changed at the sight of one of our fathers
that they not only--themselves, without being urged--have submitted
to the Christian ordinances, but also seek out the barbarians,
even in the mountains, where they wander and are dispersed like
wild beasts; and partly by the exercise of their authority, partly
by persuasion, bring them down to the villages, and offer them to
the fathers for instruction and baptism. Together with these there
were once offered more than seventy idols, the spoils of the bailans,
which were publicly burnt by Ours before the uplifted cross. The same
thing has been done again and again elsewhere, especially at Jalibon,
Ingaon, Orion, and Canliron, where the joyful Indians in this manner
took vengeance upon the evil demon who had so often deceived them by
the delusions of idols. The bailans are conspicuous in this zealous
attack upon the enemy. They go so far as to scourge themselves [14]
until they draw blood, in order to atone for their sins; and thus they
who formerly opened the door to all kinds of impiety are now the means
above all others by w