Another of our fathers held a mission in that island, during the vacation in the Latin studies in the College of Sebu; and, among other things, he writes thus about his short stay there:  “So great is the heavenly influence which God sends upon this village of Tobigon, and the abundance of gifts which He bestows upon it, that I have not dared to go hence, and cut the thread of a progress so auspicious, thinking it best to remain and behold the marvels of God.  The church is full night and day, and there is no leisure to leave the building, and hardly to eat when I must; and it is necessary to have my food brought to me from a distance.  All are eager to become Christians and be baptized.  During the two weeks that I have spent here, among those to whom we have been able to give instruction, one hundred and fifty adults have been baptized, and today we are to baptize about forty catechumens; the rest will be left until our return.  Their affection for us is great; they bring their children and sick that we may bless them, and in the street they fall upon their knees to receive the benediction.  They make frequent use of holy water for their houses, at their meals, in their grain-fields, and for their sick; indeed, to drink a swallow of it they consider an efficacious remedy.  In short, all that I see in them is piety and devotion—­which is all the more precious since they are Christians so recently converted.  An old man asked on his knees for baptism, and, as it was necessary to defer the sacrament, he said with his hands crossed upon his breast:  ’Father, teach me how to invoke God, since I do not know how to pray and thou wilt not baptize me; for I truly reverence Him in my soul, and desire to serve Him:’  Another old man—­a chief, whom all respect—­who hitherto had been obdurate, has just asked me for baptism; he is very hoary, and so old that it seems as if he could not, from very age, utter a word.  I go to his house to instruct him, for he is too feeble to come to the church.  I shall soon baptize him, and another old man of his age; and it seems to me a certain proof of their predestination that God should have kept them so long, and now have inspired in them so ardent a desire to be saved.  The Lord be blessed, amen! for His marvels, who from the stones can raise sons of God and heirs of heaven, at the time and hour that pleases Him, and by instruments most inadequate, so that all may know that it is the work of His power.  Up to this time we have in this island three thousand three hundred Christians, and I am confident in the Divine goodness that by next year there will not be one man who is not baptized.”

The mission held in Tanai.  Chapter LXXI.