the men deserve another. A very old man dropped
from his hands the slip of paper given to him monthly,
on which was written the name of the saint whom he
had received by lot. Grieved at his loss, the
good old man ran back to the village of Taitai, which
is about a mile from his own; and thence (as he did
not find the father who used to distribute that kind
of slips of paper) he went on to Antipolo, over a rough
and hilly road. When he reached there, after
going four miles, he first asked the father’s
pardon for his carelessness; and then begged him not
to refuse to give him another in place of his lost
patron. This fact shows plainly enough with what
zeal these tribes strive after the greater matters
of salvation. In another place an Indian was
lying sick, and had received communion and been anointed
with the holy oil. Early in the evening he began
to be in such agony that the people in the house took
him for dead, and, after laying out the body, put
him on his ancestral bier. After they had watched
the whole night about his body, when dawn returned
he returned also, stammered something, and about noon
uttered his words articulately. Then he said
first that he seemed to have been dead three years,
because of the cruel torments which he had himself
suffered in hell, and which he had seen an infinite
number of Indians suffer. There demons—as
it were, smiths—kindled forges with bellows,
poured melted iron over the wretched souls, and in
the midst of their pitiful howlings burnt them forever
with never-ceasing tortures. After he had seen
these things, he said, he had been led by a venerable
old man away to a higher place, by reaching which
(for he thought it was heaven) he was filled so full
of bliss that he was unwilling to leave it. But
when he was commanded, he returned to life, to inform
the living about each place to which men are consigned,
that of the blessed and that of the damned; and this
command, he affirmed, was laid upon him under a heavy
penalty; for there are among mortals not a few who
by the pretense of virtue deceive themselves and others,
and although they are looked upon as good, yet are
very far from the service of God. Then he added
that his conductor told him to bid his fellow-townsmen
be of good courage, for the church they were then
engaged in building would be better and stronger than
the others. The Indian, after he had said these
things, recovered, and a general confession was appointed.
He continues to this day to show by his life and example
that those things which he reported were no dreams.
The improvement of morals which has followed in many
others who heard of these things has almost entirely
put an end to pretexts for doubt and suspicions of
deceit.