plots, yet she always resisted him valiantly.  Once in particular, he sent her by a servant some twenty escudos; but she drove the servant away, and threatened that if he should come again she would fling him and his money through her window.  The soldier, rendered bold by the fury of his passion, as he had a headstrong disposition, and realizing that he could not gain his damnable purpose by bribes, had recourse to threats.  As these did not suffice, he laid violent hands on her, seriously hurting her; but our Lord came to her assistance, and she emerged victorious from the struggle, leaving the wretch in confusion and shame.  Another woman was no less persecuted, a man offering her, among other gifts, a gold chain that was worth more than thirty escudos; but she rejected all his gifts with Christian courage.  Then, fearing the fury of her persecutor and her own great danger, she persuaded her mother to accompany her, and they fled to some grain-fields, where she remained in hiding until he who was molesting her had left the village.  Another, a young girl hardly eighteen years of age, and so poor that she could procure only a little rice for her support, was persecuted by many men, who offered her large sums of money to relieve her poverty; one of them offered her more than forty eight-real pieces.  But she made answer that our Lord, in whom she trusted, would relieve her need; that she did not care to live by any means that would offend Him, but in serving Him was well content in her poverty; and that she was confident that our Lord would not abandon her.  Another poor woman resisted with equal courage no less vexatious importunities, refusing a quantity of gold worth more than eighty escudos, thus leaving her persecutor in amazement.  Another woman, fearing that she would have to defend her body by force from so many and violent importunities, removed it from danger, and herself from any occasion of offending God, by fleeing to the mountains, where she wandered about for almost four months, suffering, although with much satisfaction, many hardships and privations; nor did she return to the village until she learned that he who had brought her to such a plight had departed thence.”

The good conduct of the Christians of Botuan.  Chapter LVI.

I shall, continuing as I began, relate the prosperous condition of Christianity in Botuan in the same words which Father Valerio de Ledesma and his companion, Father Manuel Martinez, used in writing this year to the father-visitor.  The letter of Father Valerio gives the following account:  “Glory to our Lord, the inhabitants of this town are well instructed.  There are nearly eight hundred Christians, and nearly all the rest of the people are catechumens, engaged in learning the necessary truths.  We hold back these persons that they may prize more highly the mercy which God is showing them, and understand more thoroughly the Christian doctrine and acquire good habits.  All the rest of the people have the best