immediately; do not leave me or permit me to die and lose the blessings which thou hast told me that I will obtain by becoming a Christian.”  The religious consoled her and answered that he would baptize her in due time.  She continued to urge him to wash away her sins without delay.  Consequently, seeing so much faith, he baptized her, and left her and her children very happy.  And, although she did not appear sick, she died shortly afterward without anyone having any warning of it.  Upon another occasion another woman also came to the convent, and urgently requested the same father for baptism.  He asked her why she desired it so urgently.  She answered that one of her eyes pained her, and that she was very much afraid of dying suddenly without having the health to save herself.  The father performed his duty in catechising her as well as he was able, and immediately administered the sacrament; she was very glad of this, and returned to her house, where they shortly afterward found her dead, without knowing that she had other illness or cause for death than the above mentioned pain in that eye.

Thus when a beginning was given to that convent, the religious discussed, as was unavoidable, the regulation of a new method by which it, as well as the other convents that should be founded in the lands and villages of the reduced Indians, should be governed.  It could not be perfected at one time, for experience, that mistress of seasons, was, little by little, showing what was most advisable for them.  Accordingly, they have established efficient laws in various assemblies and provincial and private chapters, so that those houses have shed a luster in the example of their virtues—­even though they do not have an excessive number of religious, because of the lack that they generally suffer of those who are necessary.  It was, therefore, ordered, in the first place, that all the laws and statutes of our congregation be observed, without violating the most minute points of the rules and regulations in force in Espana—­especially in regard to the two hours of mental prayer and the matins at midnight—­even should there be but one religious; since he could say them with the Indian singers who reside and always live in the enclosure or within the walls of the convent.  Each of the religious was prohibited strictly, and under well-imposed penalties, from engaging in any trade or commerce, directly or indirectly, however slight it might be.  In addition, it was ordered that no one should use any piece of silver or gold, even though it should be a medal, because of the suspicion that it might arouse in the Indians who should see them, when they were preaching gospel poverty.  They were forbidden to beg the loan of money, or to ask their stipends in advance from the encomenderos, contenting themselves with the little that they had; and living with the greatest possible frugality, in order that their lives might conform to their discalcedness and their abstraction