ch swollen with the water which he had swallowed. The gospel was
read for him, and he was sprinkled with holy water; and then, in
the presence of the many people who had assembled, he straightway
recovered consciousness and became entirely well, in return for
which they all gave many thanks to our Lord. Another incident, which
occurred quite recently, I cannot refrain from relating. Our Lord has
this day exercised His accustomed mercy in the case of two old men,
very venerable and more than a hundred years old. The greater part
of their long lives they had spent in diabolical acts of outrage,
murder, cruelty, and lawlessness; and yet our Lord had waited for
them until now--when, illumining them with His divine light, they
were marvelously converted. I was astonished at beholding the fervor,
sincerity and grief with which they expressed abhorrence for their
past life and sought baptism, which they received today after careful
instruction. To see the perseverance and constancy of this people
has given great consolation to me. I shall relate in brief a few
things which certainly give strong evidence of that constancy. An
unmarried Indian woman was persecuted by a soldier with innumerable
plots, yet she always resisted him valiantly. Once in particular, he
sent her by a servant some twenty escudos; but she drove the servant
away, and threatened that if he should come again she would fling
him and his money through her window. The soldier, rendered bold
by the fury of his passion, as he had a headstrong disposition, and
realizing that he could not gain his damnable purpose by bribes, had
recourse to threats. As these did not suffice, he laid violent hands
on her, seriously hurting her; but our Lord came to her assistance,
and she emerged victorious from the struggle, leaving the wretch in
confusion and shame. Another woman was no less persecuted, a man
offering her, among other gifts, a gold chain that was worth more
than thirty escudos; but she rejected all his gifts with Christian
courage. Then, fearing the fury of her persecutor and her own great
danger, she persuaded her mother to accompany her, and they fled to
some grain-fields, where she remained in hiding until he who was
molesting her had left the village. Another, a young girl hardly
eighteen years of age, and so poor that she could procure only a
little rice for her support, was persecuted by many men, who offered
her large sums of money to relieve her poverty; one