for the
children. There he encouraged all, both children and adults, exhorted
them to adopt Christian customs, and rebuked in them anything that
seemed to be opposed to these. When the father reminded him that all
his household should be baptized, he attended to that matter with
surprising energy. He himself conducted them to the church, and with
efficacious arguments persuaded them to be baptized. In this way the
greater number of his household were baptized, the rest being deferred.

Another conversion no less notable also occurred, which I shall
relate. An Indian chief from another island happened to pass through
a village where the father was sojourning. He went with the press of
people to hear the father speak, and our holy faith so convinced him
that he did not for a moment leave our fathers, asking them questions
about his salvation. So pleased was he with the instruction that they
gave him, that without saying a word, keeping to himself this new
secret of his vocation, he went back to his island, where he became
a new preacher. He persuaded his wife, children, and relatives,
actually carrying away all his kindred; and went to the place where
the father was, in order to enjoy the light of the gospel, which had
not shone on that country of his. He went in quest of the father,
and carried him as a gift a turtle, the shell of which required two
men to lift it--so monstrous in size are the turtles in those seas;
some of them I have seen and eaten. This chief often made known to
the father the state of his soul, and sought spiritual aid in very
exact and clear terms; and if he forgot anything therein, he told
of it in the same maner on the next day. His preparation continued
thus until, having given full evidences of his faith, he entered with
all his household--wife, children, sons-in-law, and servants, in all,
twelve persons--through the gate of holy baptism, into the flock of the
great shepherd of souls, Jesus Christ our Lord. He was a man of great
valor, as will be seen from an incident which we learned concerning
him. A large crocodile often came to the neighborhood of his house;
and the Indian, angered thereat, determined to punish the hardihood of
the beast. For this purpose, abandoning the usual means of catching
those animals (that is, with a large hook), blinded by rage and
trusting to his own valor, he assembled as many as twenty persons;
and while they stood watching him, he leaped alone into the water,
a