nd swam toward the beast with a knife in his hand. Then, diving
beneath the crocodile, like another valiant Eleazar, [27] he gave it
several knife-thrusts in the belly and killed the beast. And, as a
greater trophy, he was not, as was Eleazar, buried in his triumph,
[28] but remained alive and sound--without a wound, or any lesion
beyond two insignificant scratches, one on his forehead, and one
on his leg. At this instant his followers hastened toward him, and
dragging the beast to the shore, were hardly able, with the strength
of all, to land it, although it was floating on the water. They saw
(and told me of it) a monster of incredible size, the largest that
I have ever seen there, or heard of. The animal measured, from its
shoulders to the tip of its tail, five brazas, [29] and from the
shoulders to the mouth one braza--making its total length six brazas;
and across the breast alone measured a full braza.

There was another crocodile, smaller than this one, which inflicted
loss on the household of a reputable Spaniard of Manila; and this
man came therefore to our house to entreat that Ours would provide
him with a father who would make his Indians Christians. The affair
occurred thus: This Spaniard was in his encomienda, where his house
stood on the shore of a river much infested by these beasts. While he
was dining one day, a youth, one of those who waited on the table,
went to the river to wash some plates; but he did not finish his
task, for a crocodile suddenly sprang upon him and swallowed him. The
people [in the house] saw this tragic event, and the good man left
the table, grieved that the youth should perish without baptism,
and desirous to see if there might be some means of giving him the
sacrament before he should die in the belly of the crocodile. He soon
decoyed the animal by means of a little dog, a food of which these
beasts are very fond; and, having captured the crocodile and landed
it on the shore, he cut it open and found the boy within, whole but
dead. This man, who measured the beast (which was not a large one)
told us that it was fifteen [Spanish] feet in length, but that the
capacity of its stomach was extraordinary: for within it were found,
besides the corpse of the boy, a great number of eggs of various
animals, and fifteen human heads. Grieved by this sad event, he had
come to entreat that instruction might be supplied in his villages;
but this could not be done, as there was no one to give