left him, seeing that he would do nothing for us; and within
two days was told that this man was dead, having gone where he must
expiate his obstinacy as well as his pride and cruelty.

For the better understanding of the second case, we must assume that
one of the ways in which God has been best served in that mission
is in persuading the Indians who have two or three wives to abandon
them and to content themselves with one. The means used to accomplish
this end was to condemn polygamy, to the assembled natives, as a
state unworthy of the nobility of man, saying that they ought not to
make themselves beasts and brutes by having so many wives. Our Lord
granted a fortunate outcome to this effort, for the men were thus
persuaded to give up their wives. The Indians were so impressed by this
teaching that once when a swarm of locusts lit in the grain-fields
of a certain village, they accounted for it by saying that God had
sent this pest on the people of that village, because the men were
wont to keep two wives. There was an Indian chief of high rank in the
island of Leite, by the name of Umbas, one of the most prominent among
the chiefs on account of his riches and the good government which he
maintained in the villages under his rule, and the thoroughness with
which he fulfilled all his responsibilities; he was esteemed by not
only the Indians but the Spaniards. All eyes were turned to him, and
consequently, had he but become a Christian, large numbers of people
would have followed his example, for he was regarded by the rest,
even in distant parts, as a pattern to follow. This Indian had two
wives, and being frequently urged, with many entreaties and arguments,
to abandon one of them, so great was his love for his sons that he
could not make up his mind to divorce one of the women, preferring
not to be separated from their children. He was urged in the church,
before all the people of the village, to divorce one of his wives;
but he only answered that he had already been told this. Many of
our fathers, as well as his encomendero, therefore besought him
with great earnestness to be baptized, but all in vain. But finally,
seeing that all the rest (and especially one of his sons, also much
esteemed and beloved) were abandoning their wives, he said that
he would do the same after he had harvested his rice, for which
the time had arrived--alleging as a reason that since he and they
had toiled together in the sowing, they shou