uch rejection,--let the search for gold or jewel be
postponed as may be, but the first duty under authority civil or
ecclesiastic must be the duty to the faith in the One God and Him
crucified:--it opened the portal in a god-fearing, orthodox manner to
any traffic deemed of advantage to the adventurers who bore the faith,
and the cross;--on the hilts of swords!

The visitors listened with ceremonial courtesy to the words of the
padre--and heard of the glories of the great Castilian king, the
chosen of God--the pure and undefiled, and, of the still greater
monarch above the skies, served by this king and by all righteous
people to all ends of the earth.

In reply to which godly disquisition, the spokesman of Na-im-be and
Te-tzo-ge invited the followers of the True God to a feast where only
strong men could come. The women of the dance in that feast were
strong and were young. Four days would the dance and the feast last.
The padre who spoke for the high god could choose which of his men
could enter the dance for that time.

The padre heard without special wonder, he had known many primitive
people; but Don Diego was lost in amaze as the details were spelled
clearly for his understanding.

"It is worship of Pan driven out of Greek temples to find lodging in
this wilderness!" and he crossed himself with persistence and energy,
and marvelled at the quiet of Padre Vicente. Or, "it is the ancient
devils of Babylon to which these heathen give worship--Saint Dominec
hear them! They would instruct their very gods in creation!--Blasphemy
most damnable!--Blasphemy against the Ghost!"

Whereupon he went in search of his secretary to make record of the
abomination, and found that youth witnessing the pagan baptism by
which Ysobel was made a daughter of her husband's clan--each way he
turned he found primitive rites bewildering and endless! All work done
was done in prayer to their false gods. From the blessing of the seed
corn laid away in the husk, until the time when it was put in the
earth,--and the first ear ready for the roasting fire--at each and
every stage he was told of special ceremonies required,--and as with
the corn, so with the human plant--at each distinctive stage in the
growth of a man or woman child, open ceremonial thanks was given to
their deities whose names were too depraved for any Christian man to
remember.

Where the pious Senor Brancedori had expected a virgin field for a
wondrous mission, he found