again, he soon died.  Didacus also attained the same vows, having been two and twenty years a servant of the Society; of this number he devoted not a few to the seminary of St. Joseph.  He was a man who set a good example, and was of extraordinary diligence.  So desirous was he of the salvation of the Indian races that he said:  “If Spain were only two leguas away, I should not care to go thither.  Nothing would induce me to exchange my lot with any brother in Europe”—­which saying he repeated oftener as death approached.  He died of a fever, contrary to the expectation of the physicians, but not to his own; for he declared that he should die when his illness attacked him, and so he passed away.  Some persons who took refuge from external danger, under the protection of the Blessed, our fathers Ignatius and Xavier, were preserved alive.  To three women Ignatius granted easy childbirth; and one Basque they relieved of toothache, when he prayed to them.  Xavier came to the aid of a Spanish commander of a battalion of soldiers, who was near to death; and prolonged his life in return for two wax candles promised him.

II.  As for the rest.  Among those of all ages, Christianity advances daily throughout the population of Manila, so that the devotion of youths cannot be affected by entreaties or overcome by reward—­especially among those who glory in the name of members of sodalities; while women do not at all fall behind men in fervor and piety.  Although on account of their sex they cannot join men’s associations, they think that they have the right to perform the same acts which would be praised in the members of sodalities.  There are some of the Spanish women who fast three times a week; they sleep on the ground; in their private chambers, among their intimate friends, they scourge themselves until they draw blood.  One woman who was delivered by the Virgin from a grievous illness vowed that everything she and her women could make with the needle should be wrought to adorn our church.  She has already finished many articles; and, because she seemed to have vowed beyond her strength, she was directed to cease.  Her answer was that she had taken her vow to do this, so that if Ours refused the work she would bestow it on some other church.  Other decorations have been added to this church, so that it is almost unique in the islands; and, as a result, the religious services which are wont to be held on the three days of the Carnival [12] have been attended by much larger congregations.  For, before, bare tiles scarcely covered it; and the dripping water penetrating when it rained, the church was defiled by a multitude of bats.  By the contributions of very many pious men a new ceiling has been added to the roof, adorned and wrought with various decorations, so that it gives dignity and splendor to the place—­a work worth many a piece of gold, because it seems very great, considering the poverty of the city.  Those Indians, too, whom many years ago the Society supported near this city, have now set up in a newly-built church a statue of their patron Saint Michael, together with a new and beautiful image of the Virgin Mother of God, and other statues—­marks of no small piety in a small town.