Father Miguel Gomez [38] was sent to a tribe at a considerable distance.  At first he gave all his attention to learning the names of those who had not yet been washed in the holy waters of baptism; and there were brought to him sixty, besides some others who are known as Visaians.  And to all these, after he had sufficiently demonstrated the vanity of idols and the truth of the Christian belief, he imparted baptism, with so great a degree of consolation to them all, although they were old men, that they all marveled.  But before dawn, behold some others, men and women of very great age, who had hidden by the gate of our house that they might be initiated by means of the same sacrament.  Accordingly sixty, along with six children, were initiated; and in this number was included the chief of the place, a man already more than sixty years old.

Residence of Bohol

This residence is subject to the preceding one, that of Zebu.  The harvest reaped in it your Paternity will learn from the letter of Father Valerio Ledesma [39] herewith enclosed.  He says:  “In accordance with the direction of your Reverence I visited the island of Bohol and gave my first attention to collecting the people, who were scattered everywhere, into one place.  To many I suggested means of peace, and proposed efficacious remedies; and at last I succeeded in getting a thousand men, the greater part of whom had been trained in the use of arms, to leave their mountains, from which it had been impossible to draw them before, and to assemble at one spot.  We also attempted to attract a number of barbarian inhabitants of the mountains, who had never looked upon any mortals before they saw our fathers, making use of all of the offices of humanity and of the allurements suitable to their nature, and we succeeded.  We assigned them a settlement near the river, where they have now built a church, to which they flock on Sundays.  We have baptized one hundred and twenty of their children, or even more.  The adults have not only laid aside all of their fierceness, but pray for baptism with the greatest ardor, singing chants, and night and day recite the Christian faith.

“On the day sacred to St. Anne, to whom the church was dedicated, the conversion of a certain old chief, on whom they all look as a father, made a beginning for the conversion of the rest.  He on bended knees begged me with the most humble prayers that I would bathe him in the sacred fount.  His example greatly confirmed in their purpose those who were ready for baptism, and excited others to desire it; so that one after another, to the number of more than one hundred, came as suppliants for baptism.  In Visaia I baptized eighty-nine adults at one time, and a few days later ninety-four—­partly children, partly adults; and on another day all the rest of the natives.  Leaving here I crossed a mountain; and the Lord obtained as spiritual gain twenty-nine children, with faces like those of angels;