The Missions at Octon and to the Malucas

XIII. In addition to our accustomed labors with the Spaniards and
Indians of Arevalo, there has been another of no small importance
with a large force of troops, who undertook an expedition to the
Malucas. No trifling benefit was carried to the foreigners by Father
Francisco Gonzalez, who had been called back thence to the town of
Zebu to take the four vows. On his journey he brought back into the
way the Indians everywhere, who were turning aside to their madness
and their idols. He reestablished Christian customs, baptized children
and adults, made stable their fickle and inconstant marriages, and
did many more things of the same kind--which, though unwritten, are
understood. The following event should not lack a pen. A man entangled
by lewd delights, but moved by the fact that he had no example among
the repentant people, or by the influence of a festival just then
announced, had settled himself to a proper life; but rising in the
middle of the night he went out from his house, and was longing for
his accustomed delights. While he was doing so, behold two specters,
very large and horribly black, wrapped in hanging cloaks, appeared to
him. The unhappy man dared to annoy them by approaching and speaking
to them. Without answering, they snatched him up and carried him high
in air, filling everything with his screams and cries, and struggling
in vain. His neighbors, awakened and following the sound of the voice,
went round the whole village without finding anything. At last at dawn
they found the man among the thick bramble-bushes on the mountains,
his body all bruised, and himself half-dead and speechless. When they
found him, they took him to our church, and the prayers of many were
offered for him, and remedies were applied. At last he recovered his