The padre had kindly arranged for my presentation to his Grace, Archbishop Gillow.  Reaching Oaxaca late on Sunday afternoon, we called at the Palace.  His Grace is a man of good presence, with a face of some strength and a courteous and gracious manner.  He appeared to be about fifty-five years of age.  After the padre had knelt and kissed the ring, the archbishop invited us to be seated, expressed an interest in our trip to Mitla, hoping that it had proved successful.  He then spoke at some length in regard to his diocese.  He emphasized its diversity in climate and productions, the wide range of its plant life, the great number of indian tribes which occupied it, the Babel of tongues within it, its vast mineral wealth.  A Mexican by birth, the archbishop is, in part, of English blood and was educated, as a boy, in England.  He speaks English easily and well.  He showed us many curious and interesting things.  Among these was a cylindrical, box-like figure of a rain-god, which was found by a priest upon his arrival at the Mixe Indian village of Mixistlan.[A] It was in the village church, at the high altar where it shared worship with the virgin and the crucifix.  The archbishop himself, in his description of the incident, used the word latria.  We were also shown a little cross, which stood upon the archbishop’s writing-table, made in part from a fragment of that miraculous cross, which was found by Sir Francis Drake, upon the west coast.  That “terrible fanatic” tried to destroy it, according to a well-known story.  The cross was found standing when the Spaniards first arrived and is commonly attributed to St. Thomas.  Sir Francis upon seeing this emblem of a hated faith, first gave orders to hew it down with axes; but axes were not sharp enough to harm it.  Fires were then kindled to burn it, but had no effect.  Ropes were attached to it and many men were set to drag it from the sand; but all their efforts could not move it.  So it was left standing, and from that time became an object of especial veneration.  Time, however, destroys all things.  People were constantly breaking off bits of the sacred emblem for relics until so little was left of the trunk near the ground that it was deemed necessary to remove the cross.  The diggers were surprised to find that it had never set more than a foot into the sand.  This shows the greatness of the miracle.

[A] Survivals of Paganism in Mexico.  The Open Court. 1899.

The padre had been assigned to the parish of Chila, a great indian town, near Tehuacan.  Early the next morning he left for his new home.

Not only did the padre, while in Oaxaca, urge us to call upon him in his new parish; after he was settled, he renewed his invitation.  So we started for Chila.  We had been in the tierra caliente, at Cordoba.  From there we went by rail to Esperanza, from which uninteresting town we took a street-car line, forty-two miles long, to Tehuacan.  This saved us time, distance, and money, and gave us a