er than words can depict. This [vision of the] Lord
gradually receded from them, rising toward heaven, until it reached
the moon, when it disappeared from their sight. This lovely vision
aroused in them deep love, and, when it departed from them, sadness
and sorrow. I sent to bid them calm their grief. On the following day,
in the church, those same young women, with their servants and those
of their household, arose before all the people; and when I asked them
what that meant, they recounted what had occurred to them the night
before. Yet they are simple and artless people, who were quite bashful
and timid when I questioned them. The next day we learned that this
vision, or cross, had been seen at the same time in another village,
one or two leguas distant from this one. What most impressed me in this
incident was that those persons, although virtuous before it occurred,
were afterward much more so, and in their exemplary and modest behavior
are the example and pattern for the other women; for they pass many
hours on their knees in prayer, they hear mass every day, and, while
we remained there, they made their confession every Saturday. The
incumbent of that benefice wrote me, several months later, that they
were persevering, and setting a rare example in virtue.

"The time for my departure and my return from Tanai arrived, in
accordance with the orders of holy obedience. Such was the sorrow,
and so many were the tears of those poor people that I was constrained
thereby to weep for compassion. They cast themselves at my feet,
and upon their knees besought me not to depart, saying: 'If we again
fall into sin, to whom shall we have recourse?' I consoled them as
best I could; and they accompanied me as far as the river, where
I embarked. Then they plunged into the water, and surrounded the
boat--men, women, and children--dripping with water, and shedding
tears. They brought me for the journey their offerings of rice,
chickens and other presents, which I did not accept, as it seemed
to me more becoming not to take them. I left them with much regret
at seeing so many souls exposed to danger and without a shepherd or
minister who knew their language. May God our Lord provide aid for
them, according to His mercy."

Seeing the excellent disposition of those people, and the harvest
which our Lord was gaining from the missions, the same Father Gabriel
Sanchez held another one among those people which he briefly mentions
in one