hear them talk about the things of God and the life eternal.  The woman was so impressed by what she heard that, fleeing from her husband and abandoning her home and child, she came to our house and asked to be instructed for baptism; her request was granted, and by this means the husband was also converted.  His conversion is a valuable one, since it is very difficult to incline the people of his nation toward the truths of our holy faith.

Some Indian women, during a pest of locusts, erected in their sowed field a cross containing some relics; and our Lord was pleased to honor the emblem of His death, as well as the faith of these, His new faithful ones, for the locusts passed on without causing them any loss.  The owner of the land gave, in gratitude, all its harvest as alms—­which he was able to do, as he possessed some wealth.

Although these incidents, and many others which are not here related, show that our Lord is desirous of drawing these peoples to Himself by the bonds of Adam, namely, by love and mercy, He also chooses to show them that He is a God of justice.  This He made evident in the dreadful fate of a man and wife who swore to be faithful to each other during his absence, and, supplemented their oaths with terrible curses which are in use among them.  Yet the woman, overcome by the devil, was false to her compact and promise of fidelity; and while the unhappy adulterers were thus sinfully engaged, both were struck dead, and were found thus by persons who told it to the father.  By his orders the matter was suppressed, as much as was possible in so frightful an event.

Of the villages of Antipolo and San Juan del Monte.  Chapter XXXX.

So great was the increase of that mission throughout those two years [1597-98], by the continual arrival of people who came to us, as we have already stated, from those mountains and deserts, that besides two entire villages which were established near Antipolo, at a distance convenient for the instruction of the people, more than a hundred persons came down from the mountains with some children, who were at once baptized.  Among these were three ministers of their idols, who, upon arriving at Antipolo, went to Father Almerique, and, making avowal of the evil employment which they had up to that time practiced, renounced it before him and many others who were then present.  They promised never again to resume it, and asked that this declaration be given them in writing, as a proof of their conversion, and that no one in times to come might attribute to them guilt for what they had done in the mountains when they had no knowledge of the true God.