found in a little island forty lepers loathsome with filth and stench, unclothed, and without food, lacking everything.  To all of them first the teaching of Christ, then baptism, and finally food and clothes were given.  But one man found God sterner, who, though warned by Ours to desist from his impious habit of swearing, yet never obeyed.  He was often wont to use an expression by which he devoted himself to the crocodile; and not long after, being made the prey of one, he taught others by his evil fate to do that which he had refused to do before.  As compared with his death all the more happy was that by which Father Alfonso Roderico was taken from us.  He had professed the four vows, and was dear alike to Spaniards and to Bisayans.  He was so devoted to the good of both that he was not satisfied with the narrow space of twenty-two years, during which he was permitted to live among us, but at his death used the very words of St. Martin:  “Lord, if I am still needed by thy people, I do not refuse to labor.”

XI.  The attention of Ours at Tinagon has wisely been given to the women, since they are more ready to take an interest in sacred things, and are more seldom absent from the village—­except when one or another makes her escape from the hands of some procurer, preferring to pass the nights in the forests and mountains in the midst of serpents, rather than at home to suffer danger to her chastity among men that are as deadly.  As for the other affairs of this establishment, they may nearly all be included under two examples, one of divine compassion, the other of divine justice.  An Indian woman was carelessly crossing a stream, and was carried off by a ferocious crocodile.  She screamed, she cried, she prayed to God for pardon, and for only so much time as should serve her to make her confession.  Her husband, who was not far away, ran up quickly, threw himself into the water to attack the monster, struck it, and at last dragged his wife from its claws; but she was so mangled and lacerated that there was no hope for her life.  What were the good people to do in a village without a priest, and far distant from the residence where the fathers lived?  The woman was in such a condition that it was impossible to take her there before her death.  Yet a way out of all these difficulties was easily found by the wise God of mercy, for by His guidance there came into the village, while they were still doubting what to do, a priest of our Order, quite unaware of what had happened.  As soon as the matter was reported to him, he went to the dying woman, consoled her in her affliction, and sent her to Heaven, confessing and sorrowing for her sins.  The other case differs little from that which we recorded earlier as occurring at the Carigara establishment.  A fellow whom no fear or warning could improve, and who would not control his wicked habit of swearing and blaspheming, was one day testifying in a legal case.  He devoted his head to the crocodile, if the matter were other than as he testified, adding that he could confirm his testimony by calling in others as witnesses.  As he was crossing a stream to summon them in behalf of his case, he was carried off by a crocodile; and—­a certain proof of the damnation of the man—­it was later discovered by the testimony of others that he had borne false witness.