Another conversion no less notable also occurred, which I shall relate.  An Indian chief from another island happened to pass through a village where the father was sojourning.  He went with the press of people to hear the father speak, and our holy faith so convinced him that he did not for a moment leave our fathers, asking them questions about his salvation.  So pleased was he with the instruction that they gave him, that without saying a word, keeping to himself this new secret of his vocation, he went back to his island, where he became a new preacher.  He persuaded his wife, children, and relatives, actually carrying away all his kindred; and went to the place where the father was, in order to enjoy the light of the gospel, which had not shone on that country of his.  He went in quest of the father, and carried him as a gift a turtle, the shell of which required two men to lift it—­so monstrous in size are the turtles in those seas; some of them I have seen and eaten.  This chief often made known to the father the state of his soul, and sought spiritual aid in very exact and clear terms; and if he forgot anything therein, he told of it in the same maner on the next day.  His preparation continued thus until, having given full evidences of his faith, he entered with all his household—­wife, children, sons-in-law, and servants, in all, twelve persons—­through the gate of holy baptism, into the flock of the great shepherd of souls, Jesus Christ our Lord.  He was a man of great valor, as will be seen from an incident which we learned concerning him.  A large crocodile often came to the neighborhood of his house; and the Indian, angered thereat, determined to punish the hardihood of the beast.  For this purpose, abandoning the usual means of catching those animals (that is, with a large hook), blinded by rage and trusting to his own valor, he assembled as many as twenty persons; and while they stood watching him, he leaped alone into the water, and swam toward the beast with a knife in his hand.  Then, diving beneath the crocodile, like another valiant Eleazar, [27] he gave it several knife-thrusts in the belly and killed the beast.  And, as a greater trophy, he was not, as was Eleazar, buried in his triumph, [28] but remained alive and sound—­without a wound, or any lesion beyond two insignificant scratches, one on his forehead, and one on his leg.  At this instant his followers hastened toward him, and dragging the beast to the shore, were hardly able, with the strength of all, to land it, although it was floating on the water.  They saw (and told me of it) a monster of incredible size, the largest that I have ever seen there, or heard of.  The animal measured, from its shoulders to the tip of its tail, five brazas, [29] and from the shoulders to the mouth one braza—­making its total length six brazas; and across the breast alone measured a full braza.