him as a father, they bewailed
him universally, and, in all truth, there was not one who did not show
great affliction. The corpse remained in such manner that it caused
gladness to all who looked at it. Various opinions were expressed as
to whether they should bury it in the sea or not. The laymen promised
that they would deposit it in a fitting place, until they should cast
anchor in the islands now near. Father Fray Joan de San Geronimo did
not consent to this, in order to avoid innovations--and especially when
they were going to countries where they had no home, and where they
knew no one. Therefore, placing the body in a closely-sealed wooden
box, with an inscription written on a certain sheet of lead, which
denoted his name, country, and virtues, amid their lamentations and
tears the body was cast into the sea, without having added the weight
which is used to draw the body to the bottom of the water. On account
of that carelessness the box should have remained on the surface of
the water, without being able to sink at all; but on that occasion the
Lord permitted that the waves should receive such deceased without any
violence. As the ship was in a calm, consequently, all were witnesses
that it settled to the bottom very gradually, and easily. Certain
violent fevers were raging in that vessel, from which about forty
had already died, at the time that the noted Aragonese and observant
religious finished the navigation of his life. But from that instant
all had health, becoming better and recovering very soon. That was
attributed to his prayers in heaven in fulfilment of the word that he
gave them, during the last moments of his life, namely, that he would
commend them to God in glory, provided that he went there, as he had
good hopes of doing. After the conclusion of the services for a death
so fortunate and so bewailed, they soon arrived--May tenth--at the
islands that they were seeking. Having disembarked first, according to
the order that they bore, on the island of Zibu, the discalced were
lodged in the convent of our calced fathers, the venerable bishop,
and that example of prelates, Don Fray Pedro de Agurto, as we saw
in his life, having gone out to receive them in procession. That
most illustrious man desired that the new missionaries should not
go further, and offered them a foundation and whatever they wished,
in order to exercise themselves in the conversion and salvation of
the infidels. It was impossible