This befell a father and a brother while journeying along a sandy tract, greatly fatigued by the heat of the noonday sun, without any restorative or food, and parched with thirst—­in short, deprived of everything that might serve them as a relief or comfort; yet enduring their suffering and with devout meditation offering to God that hardship, even desiring that it might be increased if his Majesty might thus be served.  Unexpectedly and suddenly they descried a man seated in the midst of the sand, with a collation of fresh cocoanuts and other fruits; and so gracious and serene was his appearance that he inspired admiration and pleasure.  When the fathers and those who accompanied them accepted from him those delicacies, refreshing their heated bodies and appeasing their hunger, this man displayed unusual satisfaction and joy, inviting them to partake of more, since what he possessed was theirs, and he was a servant of the Spaniards.  With this they continued their journey (which otherwise would have been very wearisome), giving thanks to Him who had thus succored them in their dire necessity.  Although at the time the father took little notice of this incident, afterward recalling the circumstances, as well as the gracious manner of the man, he became convinced that he must have been some angel.  Nor was he far out of the way, considering the occasion on which he succored them, when they could not go any farther on account of the oppressive heat of the season, and the lack of food; the spot where they had encountered him, a place where it had never occurred that they found an Indian so solitary and, moreover, unknown; and then his gracious manner and serene countenance, and his generosity and liberality in sharing with them what he had, saying that it all belonged to the fathers, and that he was a servant of the Spaniards (at a time when there was not one Spaniard in the island):  all this induces the belief that the incident was something more than ordinary, or, at least, a token of our Lord’s especial providence.  There can be no doubt that the incident was most pleasing to Him, on account of the unusual and extraordinary harvest which He permitted to be gathered in the village from which the father had that day set out.  I shall not relate this in detail, in order not to repeat the same events, and to pass on to what yet remains to be narrated, which is much.

The many conversions to the Christian faith in Carigara and its district.  Chapter LXXIV.

We deem it a special providence of our Lord that while the native language of the Indians of our various residences is the same, and it is easy for our workers to remove from one place to another, since they are not, in doing so, obliged to learn several tongues—­there is, at the same time, such variety in the stations and missions.  Some of them may be visited entirely by sea, such as those of Tinagon or Samar; others wholly by land, as the mission of Alangalang.  Again, others may be reached partly by sea, partly by land, such as Dulac, Carigara, and Bohol.  This is a great convenience, in assigning the missionaries according to the abilities and temperament of each, allotting to those who cannot journey by land, stations on the coast, and inland posts to those who can endure the hardships of the roads.