have excellent dispositions; and whenever any good habit or civilized custom is taught to them, they do not fail to practice it—­which is no small pleasure and comfort for those who teach them.  In the church they conduct themselves devoutly and reverently, kneeling on both knees with hands clasped across their breasts.  They attend baptismal services, at the conclusion of which they embrace the newly-baptized and, kneeling, recite with these a “Salve,” as a token of thanksgiving.  A pestilence, attended by pains in the stomach and head, had attacked this people, and was so fatal that entire villages of the island were being depopulated.  But our Christians, in the ardor of their faith, took holy water as a medicine and were healed, so that not one of them died.  An instance of this occurred, which I shall relate.  An infidel woman was reduced by this sickness to such a pass that they did not expect her to live throughout the night.  They summoned the father, and representing to him the woman’s danger, besought him urgently to baptize her at once.  The father did not think that such haste was necessary, or, at least, that the sick woman was entirely prepared for holy baptism, and so contented himself with repeating to her some of the catechism appropriate to the occasion, to wait until morning came.  As a further kindness, in order to cure her body, he asked her if she believed that the holy water, by virtue of Almighty God, our Creator, could heal the sick.  Upon her answering “Yes,” he gave her some to drink, and with that left her.  In the morning they came to tell him that she whom they had regarded as half dead was already healed.  A little girl had been reduced by the same disease to the last extremity, and they were already bewailing her as dead; the father hastened to the spot and grieving lest she should die without the sacraments, asked for holy water, that he might give her a possible remedy for body as well as soul.  Seeing that the child was unable to drink it, he asked those who were present if they believed that God our Lord, and not their idols, could by means of that water give health to the sick one, and all answered “Yes.”  The water was then applied to that part where they said the child felt the greatest pain; and, consoling her parents with good hopes, he left her; and within a few hours they sent to tell him that the child was well.  Accordingly, they use this holy medicine frequently in all their sicknesses, and it has become a general practice throughout all these islands.  I have often seen an Indian woman approach the basin of holy water with her babe in arms, and taking some in her hands, give it to the little one to drink, so ordinary and universal is this devotion.