Tanai is a beautiful and thickly-settled river in the great island called Negros, on the side which forms a strait with the island of Sebu.  This part of the island is under the parochial care of Don Diego Ferreira, the bishop’s vicar there, and first archdeacon of the cathedral of Sebu.  This priest, in his great affection for our humble Society, and influenced by seeing the results of our fathers’ labors in those islands—­aided by the demand of the natives of Tanai themselves, who had at various times asked for us—­so urgently requested our presence there that at last the authorities were obliged to consent.  Overjoyed that they had assigned this field to Father Gabriel Sanchez, whom he held in great esteem, the said Don Diego went in person to Bohol with a ship, expressly to convey Father Sanchez, and carried him to their Tanai.  What this faithful minister of Jesus Christ accomplished there the Indians themselves made known, and the archdeacon lauded it in various letters, being most grateful to God and to the Society for this service that we had rendered him.  We gave him therein no little aid in carrying his burden of the many souls which are under his care, alone as he is, without any other assistance or instruction than ours.  But Father Gabriel Sanchez, with his accustomed plainness, has written a more detailed account of some particular cases, while making a report of his labors to the superiors, as is the custom among us.  In a letter to the father-visitor, dated in November of the year one thousand six hundred, he writes thus: 

“The archdeacon of Sebu, who holds the benefice of Tanai—­a venerable and meritorious man, as your Reverence well knows—­went in person to the island of Bohol, twelve leguas away, to beseech Father Alonso de Umanes, our superior, to send, for God’s love, a father to teach his people the law of God, since he himself did not know their language.  I was chosen, and it pleased our Lord to give us a good foothold in the island; on the very first day we found all the people gathered on the beach, awaiting us with music and other tokens of joy.  We went to the church, and there I began to address them and discuss our holy faith.  At the first or second sermon, your Reverence might have seen almost all the people suddenly changed.  Indeed, as they had not before had any minister who could address them in their own language, they had not, as I learned, been able to form any conception of the things of God.  When the light penetrated their souls, they were astonished; and, full of joy, they began to ask one another, ‘What is this?’ They gazed on me (poor wretch that I am), as on one descended from heaven.  As the greater number of those who assembled there were Christians, but had not made their confession nor did they even know si Spiritus Sanctus est, I discussed with them the remedy of confession, explaining its purpose, and arousing their affection for it.  Within one month about four hundred persons made their confessions, with the