things of God, instructs those who wish to be baptized,
catechizing them morning and night in the church. He is so expert in
the catechism that none of us could excel him therein. Consequently,
they come from his charge marvelously well instructed; and, although
he is blind, he is so watchful over the large number of catechumens in
his charge, that he notes if even one person is absent, and reports
it to the father. The first time when he received communion, which
was on the feast of our Lady, he displayed such profound respect and
reverence that his body trembled while receiving the holy sacrament,
and so great devotion that the sight of it inspired that emotion in
others. This man deserves all the greater credit for what he is doing,
for having gone from one extreme to another; formerly he was one of
the heathen priests, whom they here call catalones, and now he has
become a preacher of our holy faith. This he relates, while uttering
fervent thanks and exalting the great favors and benefits which God
has bestowed upon him.

The increase of this mission has been very great, although it requires
arduous labors on the part of the fathers, who have been obliged to
go forth among mountains and rugged cliffs seemingly inaccessible;
for they go to seek the people in their huts and grain-fields, where
it seems as if the devil, in order to deprive them of instruction and
gospel truth, had persuaded them to seek wild and rugged places which
can be reached only with the greatest difficulty. In this work the
fathers have spent the greater part of their time, and have gathered
into settlements (to the consolation of their own souls) a great
number of people, of all classes. Old persons who seemed the living
and fearful images of death, men, women, and tender little children,
of all ages, have in this way become acquainted with gospel truth;
and as they see that we act disinterestedly in all things, even aiding
them in our poverty, they are attracted to us, and soon are ranked
in the number of the faithful.

The fathers have succored them in their sickness; and during a
pestilence which was prevalent in one of the places visited from this
mission, they went there twice to confess the people, although the
distance was great, and the roads so difficult that in the going to
that one place one must go through nine or ten precipitous ravines,
to pass which, as it was then the rainy season, they must walk
barefoot, the mud in many pla