who were thoroughly prepared for and received baptism was very great, and the number of baptized persons who died from the disease reached a thousand souls.  Besides the church of this central station which was recently built, six other churches were erected in that district, not far distant from it.  In each one of them was a school with a goodly number of children, and a master to instruct them; and the pupils were so devoted to it that the threat that had most effect on them was to say their teacher would leave them.  Our fathers went through those villages, visiting the sick and aiding them, as well as they could, with remedies for both body and soul.  In the course of these visitations an incident occurred which well exhibits the forbearance with which God awaits our conversion, the ease with which we find Him when we seek Him, and the patience and perseverance which a minister of the gospel needs in teaching, convincing, entreating, urging, and waiting for the conversion of a soul.  One of the fathers had been visiting the sick of a certain village, and was on his way homeward, some distance away, to partake of a little nourishment and obtain repose, as night was closing in.  Turning his eyes to one side he descried a wretched house which he did not remember to have visited that day.  To satisfy himself of this he mounted a few steps of the ladder, and looking from the door into the interior of the house beheld a man stretched upon the floor.  Upon approaching he found him motionless and almost dead, but with enough consciousness to answer “No” to the father’s query if he desired baptism.  The father remained with him a long time, seeking to convince him.  Finally, seeing how little this availed, and that the hour was late, he concluded to leave him.  But grief at seeing that soul lost, and the secret strength which our Lord gave him, constrained him to wait, and to persist in urging the sick man—­an action so opportune that the latter at last said “Yes,” and listened to the short instruction which is wont to be given upon such occasions.  Thus, in sorrow for his sins he expired immediately after baptism, with an “Oh, God!” on his lips, torn from his very heart.

One of the islands adjacent to Ibabao is Maripipi, whose inhabitants were all baptized in one day in the following fashion.  This island is three leguas distant by sea from Ibabao, for which reason our fathers could not visit it as often as the people desired.  Seeing this, its inhabitants all resolved to embark in their boats and come themselves to seek holy baptism.  The chiefs disembarked at Tinagon, and, after them, all their followers with their wives and children, all of them eagerly seeking the sacrament; but the father told them, through a chief who acted as spokesman, that they must first learn the doctrine, and that when they understood it he would baptize them.  The chief’s only answer was to recite the doctrine, after which he said that he had learned it from the others.  With the evidence of such faith and good disposition, the father baptized them all; and, satisfied and joyful, they embarked again for their island.