the demon, and touching the bonds of the
Christian champion with the wand she carried, not only was he at once
freed, but the bonds were added to those of his opponent, so that the
enemy found the young Christian not only free, but their own champion
with double bonds. They were not content with this first defeat,
and attributed it to some human trickery which they did not believe
demonstrated the superiority of the divinity. They therefore asked
that four men of venerable age and tried morality should be chosen
from each tribe, and should stand on either side of each young man, in
order to verify whether or not there was any trickery. O what
purity of soul and blessed simplicity, worthy of the golden age!
El Comendador and his advisers yielded to this condition with a
confidence equal to that with which the sufferer from an effusion of
blood sought the remedy for his malady; or Peter, whose place, Most
Holy Father, you occupy, marched upon the waves when he beheld our
Lord. The conditions being accepted, the young men were bound and the
eight judges took their places. The signal was given, and each one
called upon his zemes, to come to his assistance. The two champions
beheld the zemes with a long tail and an enormous mouth furnished with
teeth and horns just like the images. This devil sought to untie the
young man who was acting as his champion, but at the first invocation
of the Comendador the Virgin appeared. The judges, with wide open eyes
and attentive minds, waited to see what would happen. She touched the
devil with the wand she was carrying and put him to flight, afterwards
causing the bonds of her champion to transfer themselves to the body
of his adversary. This miracle struck terror into the Comendador's
enemies, and they recognised that the zemes of the Virgin was more
powerful than their own.

The consequence of this event was, that when the news spread that
Christians had landed in Cuba, the Comendador's neighbours, who were
his bitter enemies, and had often made war upon him, sent to Enciso
asking for priests to baptise them. Enciso immediately despatched two
priests who were with him, and in one day one hundred and thirty men
of the Comendador's enemies were baptised and became his firm friends
and allies. We have in another place noted that chickens had greatly
increased in the country, owing to the care of our compatriots. Each
native who had received baptism presented the priest with a cock or
a h