place these same Indian members of sodalities went to the Indian hospital and there gave their aid to the sick by making their beds and digging up the ground for them—­a thing worthy of special admiration in this race, for they abhor visiting hospitals.  The sodality members, although poor, offer the usual alms to the church and to those who are in need.  They are given to hearing sermons and to fasting, being content for whole weeks with bread and water.  They are glad to go to our churches for confession and spiritual instruction, and obtain great spiritual benefit and edification.

A certain Christian woman who was for a long time held in slavery to the infidels in the islands of Mindanao and Borneo, which are given to the faith of Mahomet, could not be torn from the true belief, or be persuaded to the worship of idols, although she visited many of their places.

An Indian man, who along with some others had made his confession that he might receive the holy communion, declares that he had kept silent as to the circumstances of some sins; and that in a vision he saw a beautiful child offering to him the holy eucharist.  But when he answered that he was a great sinner, the child replied:  “Thou are indeed not worthy of the communion, for in thy confession thou hast hidden such and such a circumstance.”  Therefore when he awoke he hurried to our church, revealed the vision to one of the fathers, and desired to repeat his confession.

Another had so accustomed himself to the scourging of his body that one day when he was required to march with a troop of soldiers, he withdrew from it in the night, in order that he might not omit this holy exercise.  When the officer of the infantry, going his rounds at night, secretly perceived this, he thought the man was meditating some mischief, and silently followed him.  At last he saw him enter the cemetery of a church, and after pouring forth prayers to God, beat his back severely.  When the scourging was finished, the officer approached; and when he recognized this Indian, he was even more edified.  And when he asked him where he was from, he answered that he came from the city of Manila, and said that he was in the habit of confessing to Ours.  The captain, marveling that a tyro in the Christian religion should take such care of his soul’s health, gave him some money and told him to go back home, that he might not be perverted by the habits of the soldiery.

A priest with a brother as his companion was sent off as on a mission to some Seilan villages, which, being without parish priests, needed instruction.  When they reached there the plague was raging; and the father and brother freely assisted them, not only by the administration of the sacraments of confession and the communion, but by that of food, which was prepared in our church.