In the college we had begun, as I have said, to study the Latin grammar and moral theology.  Each of these branches was begun in the usual way, with public academic exercises and learned discourses. [69] As it was the first event of that kind to take place in the islands, the exercises were received with great favor, and were attended and enjoyed by all the dignitaries, and prelates, and by a great concourse of other people.  Divine worship, moreover, was notably increased upon the completion of the church—­which, in its construction and unusual design, proved to be very beautiful.  It was constructed on the model of the church of Jesus in our house of the professed at Rome, although considerably inferior to that.  This church was dedicated to the glorious St. Anne, the ceremony taking place on her feast-day in the year fifteen hundred and ninety-six, when an image of her was piously set up, and the most holy sacrament brought from the old church with great solemnity and devotion.  The chapel of our Lady was placed, as in the church at Rome, on the gospel side; and in it her image was set up with an elegant reredos, in the devout presence of many Spaniards and Indians.  In the other chapel, on the epistle side which is on the side next the house, and joined to the sacristy, were placed the holy relics, which at the instance of the Catholic king our lord, and the urgent request of Father Alonso Sanchez, were donated by the Apostolic See and had arrived in the previous year.  The tabernacle in which these relics now repose had already been constructed and finished; it embraces the whole width of the chapel.  It is of an incorruptible wood which they call in those parts molave. [70] It is adorned by eight columns, four on a side, grouped in a square, with base and pedestals which sustain, higher up, its architrave, frieze, and cornice, with finials and handsome architectural designs.  Between the columns there are five distinctly-marked compartments, two small ones on each side and a large one in the center—­all of them of like design and exquisite proportion, with finely carved doors and inlaid work, with cavities in which the holy relics are preserved with great propriety and honor.  The color of the whole work externally is black—­partly natural, on account of the quantities of ebony that it contains, which is very abundant in those regions, and partly derived from the varnish which is used to imitate that wood.  The mouldings, outlines, pinas, [71] and floriations are gilded, and there are other ornaments of gold and ivory.  The altar is below, with its two steps at the height of the pedestals which support the columns.  In the spaces between the columns, on both sides of the altar, were placed two images or statues of the glorious apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul; these are fastened in place by strong and curious locks and are covered with two pairs of curtains—­one pair of gauze striped with silk and gold, the other of finest damask with embroidery