XII. At the settlement at Palapag there has been a conflict with hunger
and disease; yet the Indians have so conducted themselves that the
sick have not lacked the necessary services. Likewise Ours have made
such provision that the poor were cared for from the harvest; for at
their gate they daily served food to more than seventy persons. Their
newly-built church and their sodality make them hopeful of great
good, for their beginnings are such that six hundred of full age
have presented themselves at the sacred font for purification;
while I should reckon the number of children at eight hundred,
the greater part of whom have gone the straight way to heaven. One
of Ours was called to a little infant which was said to be sick,
to baptize it; and he refused, partly because he thought the matter
was not so pressing, partly because he wished to teach the Indians
the custom of bringing their little ones to the churches. At last,
overcome by the importunities of those who asked him, he went thither;
but when he could perceive in the child not the least sign of illness,
he was about to return without baptizing it. But when he looked at
the boy again he seemed to be silently warned by it not to deny it
that benefit. At last, when he had complied, and when everything
had been performed duly and in order, the child expired in the very
arms of its sponsor. By this event the father was rendered joyful,
but still more cautious not to think that time should be allowed any
advantage in matters of this kind; for, as he said, he would rather
suffer all the ills of sea and land if he might open heaven to this
single little boy. There have been seen other signs (not a few) of
the singular care extended by divine providence to this tribe and
Ours. Such a one was this. An Indian was wrapped in the folds of a
serpent eight feet long, but, groaning forth the saving name of Jesus,
he was released. Again: when there was a deficiency of that kind of
food which it is lawful to eat in the days of Lent, a boat on the