As in past years, our ordinary ministries were also exercised among the Spaniards; in particular, many general confessions were made, and friendly relations were established between certain prominent persons.  Among these latter was one notable case concerning a prebendary of the cathedral of Manila—­whom, for certain good reasons, I do not name; but his noble conduct on this occasion gives him sufficient fame.  Knowing that another prebendary of the same church, an aged and venerable man, was offended at him, he secured an opportunity to meet him in the house of an auditor of Manila, and in the presence of several dignified persons; there, after having expressed himself in such gentle and conciliatory terms as to appease all angry feelings, he knelt at the feet of his elder, and, taking his hand, kissed it.  Then they embraced each other; and thus began a very stable friendship between them, which I saw with my own eyes for many days—­confirmed, months later, by their very intimate and fraternal intercourse.

The progress in eradicating idolatry from Taitai, and the piety and constancy of its Christians.  Chapter LIII.

The pest, with its mortality, spread among all the Indians of that region, even to the villages of San Juan del Monte, Antipolo, and others.  This kept our fathers busy night and day, caring not only for the welfare of souls, administering to them the holy sacraments with much fervor and concern, but for that of their bodies, aiding them with medicines and the necessary comforts—­an important consideration with those people, in view of the value that they attach to kind treatment during illness and the pleasure that it gives them; indeed they often recover their health from very contentment at seeing that they are cherished and cared for.  The confraternities of that village and of Manila gave no less useful aid, on this occasion, to the sick and the dead, their members taking turns in caring for the sick and attending funerals, which were usually accompanied by more than two hundred persons bearing lighted candles; these attentions were especially bestowed on the dead who had belonged to the confraternity, who were also honored by special funeral rites.

Superstition and idolatry have been so thoroughly uprooted that there is hardly a trace or evidence of them left; if any had remained from former years, it was due to carelessness rather than to evil intent, and an end was put to them this year, through the favor of our Lord.  Even the little plates and other insignificant articles which they were wont to use in making sacrifices they brought to the fathers, to be broken and burned.  An Indian owned, growing on his land, a very luxuriant clump of the great reeds which they call cauayan [i.e., bamboo], which we have already described.  This man came to notify us that this clump had formerly been offered to an idol, for whose service its canes had been cut; and he himself condemned it to be burned to the very