The Japanese who came to Manila also repaired to our church; and I once saw them perform a very decorous and devout dance in a feast of the most holy sacrament.  Their mode of dress is decorous, and they sing, to a slow and solemn music, marking the pauses by strokes with a small fan grasped in the palm of the left hand; they move in time with this, only stamping their feet, inclining their bodies somewhat.  The effect is most striking, and invites devotion, especially in those who understand what they sing, which are all things pertaining to the divine.  In the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-seven, one of them named Gabriel, a native of Miaco, reared in the Society, brought with him to Manila as converts four other companions—­who, as soon as they arrived, were baptized with great solemnity in our church and confirmed by the bishop, who treated us with the same love and confidence as if he were of our religious order.  On the feast of St. Michael, the twenty-ninth of September of this same year, there was a jubilee in our church, and the bishop desired to celebrate the mass; on that occasion, six hundred persons received communion; for a country and a Christian community so new as that one, this was a very large number, and gave all the more consolation and edification to all.

In this same year occurred a miraculous conversion of an infidel.  This latter was crossing the river of Manila in one of those small boats so numerous in the islands, which do not extend more than two dedos [52] out of the water.  As there are many caimans in this river (which in that respect is another Nile), one of them happened to cross his course, and, seizing him, dragged him to the bottom with a rapidity which is their mode, by a natural instinct, of killing and securing their prey.  The infidel, like another Jonas, beneath the water called with all his heart upon the God of the Christians; and instantly beheld two persons clad in white, who snatched him from the claws of the caiman, and drew him to the bank, safe and sound; and as a result of this miracle he was baptized, with his two sons, and became a Christian.  The very opposite befell another Christian, who, forgetful of God, passed every night to the other side of that river to commit evil deeds.  God, wearied of waiting for him, sent his “alguazil of the water”—­which is the name that we give there to the cayman—­who, seizing him, executed upon his person the divine chastisement for his wickedness.  All this took place in Manila, in which place Ours were not long confined; they went forth, and dispersed through the islands, the number and variety of which we shall now describe in greater detail.

Of the number and size of the Filipinas Islands.  Chapter VI.