Father Gabriel Sanchez, in another letter to the father-visitor, writes thus:  “Glory be to our Lord, Christianity in this island is receiving much increase.  They all frequent the most holy sacraments with great fervor at Christmas, Epiphany, and other leading feasts.  So many were the confessions and the communions that it seemed to me like Holy Week.  They possess great confidence and faith, and through the most holy sacraments and the sacramental offices they are sure to receive (and his Majesty does bestow upon them even in temporal affairs) most signal favors.  An old woman, a good Christian, was so reduced by sickness, and brought so near to death, that she no longer possessed her senses, or power of speech; in short, there was no hope that she would live.  The sacrament of extreme unction was administered to her, and at once she began to improve, and at last regained entire health.  A few days ago they brought to us a sick man, so tormented and harassed by a severe malady that he could not even raise his head; he therefore made his confession while reclining, and with great difficulty.  But, as soon as he had ended it, he began to feel better, with the result that in two days he came to the church to render thanks to our Lord for the mercy that he had received, which he attributed to the holy sacrament of penance.  A few days ago a child of four years—­not realizing, as he was so little, what he was doing—­waded into the sea, and, despite the haste with which he was taken from the water, was almost drowned.  They brought him in haste to our house, that we might repeat the gospel over him, for they had no hope of preserving his life by natural means.  When they brought him to us he showed almost no sign of respiration, his face was black, and his stomach much swollen with the water which he had swallowed.  The gospel was read for him, and he was sprinkled with holy water; and then, in the presence of the many people who had assembled, he straightway recovered consciousness and became entirely well, in return for which they all gave many thanks to our Lord.  Another incident, which occurred quite recently, I cannot refrain from relating.  Our Lord has this day exercised His accustomed mercy in the case of two old men, very venerable and more than a hundred years old.  The greater part of their long lives they had spent in diabolical acts of outrage, murder, cruelty, and lawlessness; and yet our Lord had waited for them until now—­when, illumining them with His divine light, they were marvelously converted.  I was astonished at beholding the fervor, sincerity and grief with which they expressed abhorrence for their past life and sought baptism, which they received today after careful instruction.  To see the perseverance and constancy of this people has given great consolation to me.  I shall relate in brief a few things which certainly give strong evidence of that constancy.  An unmarried Indian woman was persecuted by a soldier with innumerable