The fathers obtained permission to celebrate the holy mystery of the mass, although it had to be done outside that rock, the dwelling-place of the Indians.  They selected the shore of a small river near the sea.  There with their own hands they raised an oratory and an altar, where they celebrated mass with great labor, because they had to carry on their shoulders all the things necessary for the work, without any one aiding them.  Then they went up, and locked themselves in their little lodging, which served them as cell and choir, going out only to discuss with the leading Indians the knowledge of the true God.  By that good example, they steadily gained great love, and the people presented to them some food.  Ours repaid them by fervently preaching our holy faith to them.  The Indians brought their little children so that they might be taught the holy mysteries and the Christian doctrine; and these made no poor beginning in this, although the old fathers, accustomed to their vices, were unwilling to accept it.

Those Indians were vassals of King Corralat (of whom we shall speak later) to whom they paid tribute.  Collectors came yearly along the level land from his court to the river to collect the tribute.  That king was a Mahometan, and consequently hostile to Christians.  He learned that our religious were in the lands of his dominion as guests, and ordered that they be killed without any objection.  More than one thousand men came to do that, but they were not bold enough to execute the order of their king, for the natives had acquired so great affection for Ours that they went out in their defense.  The matter was arbitrated and it consisted in the gospel workers paying tribute to the king.  They gladly assented to it, for the charity of the fathers extended to all things.  The payment of the tribute cost them great trouble, as it was large, and they had to work with their hands, as they had no support from other directions.

Corralat did not become quiet with that, or rather it was the devil who, angry at the great fruit that Ours were gathering in the vineyard of the Lord, was trying by that means to drive them out from it.  The Mahometan king proclaimed war against the villages of that river.  During it the religious suffered great frights, pains, and hardships, fleeing to different parts, in dangerous boats, laden at times with the sacred ornaments; hiding in caves, in need of food and without comforts; and guarding themselves for a better occasion, in order to employ their lives in the service of God and the spread of His faith.  His [Divine] Majesty was not displeased with that earnest zeal, for he freed them all from those dangers; while the Indians were so energetic in their defense that they refused obedience to the tyrant king, and begged aid from the Spaniards who were established at the fortress of Caragha and from those at Zibu, which was given them immediately.  Beyond doubt that was a plan of the divine pity to enlighten those