in the higher ranks, has been followed by the same results. The rest
of the people have been marvelously stirred up by the renewed fervor
of the members of the sodalities, among other things; and by the new
confidence given them by letters from Rome received this year, to the
great delight and approval of all; which letters have much promoted
the worship of the most blessed Virgin, and have also kindled those
who are reckoned among the first in the city to accept the advice
to join a sodality. By these means cares have been turned aside,
and four bitter family quarrels, in which the very heart of life and
salvation was attacted, not without public scandal, were brought to
an end with the desired success.


Bohol Establishment

VII. The harvest of souls at Bohol has increased with the decrease
of the audacity of the enemy, and of the almost annual invasion by
the people of Mindanao. As many as a thousand have been baptized, if
children and adults are reckoned. In this number are several _bailans_,
or priests of idols; and one there was who, before his baptism, did
nothing but rage, and attack with teeth and nails those who passed by,
who came forth from the waters of the sacred font, gentle and in his
right mind. And when some Indians saw this, snatching the cause from
the fact, they went to the father and begged him to sprinkle a dying
Indian woman with the same healing waters. Our father, suspecting that
they made this request with the the purpose of enabling the woman
to avoid the trouble of learning the catechism refused, unless she
would first learn what Christians know. "Father," said they, "that
ought not to be the way in which you act; we want her baptized to
keep her alive." "And I," said one, "when I was lying near to death,