On this day a poor Indian failed to appear with the others at the church for the divine services, having gone to the river to bathe; there, by divine permission, a cayman seized him, and well nigh caused his death.  He was brought to the church covered with gashes, and in such agony that he could neither understand, nor hear, nor utter a word.  On account of his precarious condition, and as he was one of the catechumens, he was at once baptized.  Being urged to invoke the most holy name of Jesus, this man, who had not been able to speak one word, was granted such strength that twice he uttered distinctly, “Jesus, Jesus,” and died with that honey on his lips.

I will relate another and similar incident, equally interesting, although it occurred at a different time and in a different place.  A poor Indian one night, in his grain-field, suspecting no harm, received several knife thrusts, so grievous that it is considered almost a miracle that they did not instantly kill him; for all his abdomen was cut open, and his entrails lay on the ground.  In this condition he remained until morning, when he sent another Indian, who by chance left his route to pass that way, to summon the fiscal of the church, since the fathers did not reside in that village.  The fiscal went, and found the poor man in such misery that some dogs were actually beginning to devour him alive.  Asking with great earnestness for the sacrament, he was accordingly baptized, whereupon he at once expired.  It seemed that our Lord would wait no longer to receive him to Himself.

But to return to Lent at Dulac:  The good example set by a Spaniard who happened to be there during this holy time, was most valuable.  It was he who adorned, as we have mentioned, the receptacle of the most blessed sacrament, and who sent much wax to furnish its illumination; and he remained under arms, guarding the sepulchre, and marched in the procession with the Indians, bleeding severely under the scourge.  Not content with this, he went a second time along the streets through which the procession had passed (a long distance), scourging himself.  The Indians were greatly edified at this, and, as I have said, hastened to imitate him.

Not less readily did they imitate a virtuous action by one of our fathers, who performed it in order to preach to them by deeds as well as words, that he might at once constrain them and render good deeds easier for them; and, by the grace of our Lord, he succeeded in his purpose.  Those people are fastidious to such an extreme that they are annoyed and disgusted by any object offensive to the senses, especially to sight and smell.  They are passionately fond, on the other hand, of fine colors and flavors, and eager to see or hear agreeable things.  Accordingly, they cannot endure foul odors, and have great aversion for persons who are wounded or bruised; among them such persons suffer, in consequence, great privation and neglect, bodily as well as spiritual.  On