of removing them to the village and to have them carry thither their rice and their little possessions, desiring to accomplish what your Reverence so desires, and which is so expedient for the proper instruction of those people.  The great activity and solicitude of the father, who is my companion, was of great value to me in this as in all other matters; and the coming of the father rector and Father Diego Sanchez, who assisted us here until Lent, was most valuable, adding more energy and ability to our forces, and consoling and encouraging those people with suitable instruction.

“After Christmas I was summoned back to Manila, but in Lent was sent again to the village of Silang.  At that time I found the mission greatly increased by the many natives whom the fathers had recently brought together; they were coming to us each day from other villages (the entire village of Indan had joined us), all of them very needy, and almost half of them unbaptized.  On the feast of St. Gregory I baptized twenty-five persons, only one of whom, a sick woman, was of adult age, and on the feast of the Annunciation twenty-one, of whom nineteen were adults; at present another goodly number of them are being prepared.  The number of those baptized this year is about two hundred, and the confessions very numerous; and the number of those admitted to communion is about fifty, the choicest of whom are members of the confraternity.  We erected our altar of the sepulchre [25] as skilfully as we were able, and celebrated the offices [appropriate to the occasion], by the help of which this new people gained new light upon the services of Holy Week.  Those who took the discipline, going forth in a formal procession, were on Holy Monday, the singers, who did this by way of preparation; others desired to march on Holy Tuesday, but, as the day was stormy and the winds violent, I forbade them to do so.  They had their procession on Holy Wednesday; and others, in greater number, marched on Holy Thursday.  Our most important procession was on Holy Friday, in the evening; two images were carried—­one, a small crucifix (for we had no larger one); the other, an image of our Lady—­while the choir sang the litanies.  When this procession ended, people gathered in sufficient number to form another; this was caused by the lack of [woolen] tunics, which were removed by their wearers and lent [to those in the second procession].  In all the processions except the principal one, the music consisted of the Christian doctrine, sung by the children as they walked.

“I must continue the account which in other letters I have written to your Reverence of the favors which the Lord communicates by means of a print of our blessed Father Ignatius; for He is continually bestowing these favors upon those new Christians, on account of their strong faith in Him.  A woman was brought in to us, sick and unable to speak, and was dying before us without our being able to obtain from her a word or sign so that we could give her absolution; the statement of her friends, moreover, that she had asked for confession, was doubtful.  I was therefore anxious and grieved, until I brought her an image of our blessed father, and I said mass for the sick woman, and when I returned she was able to speak, and made a good confession; but utterance again failed her, and she died in peace.