oss. From that time the natives
began to have a deeper idea of the mysteries preached to them by the
religious, since they saw the proof of them with their own eyes.

Another miracle almost similar happened in Nueva Espana, when that
great pirate Franco Draque [i.e., Francis Drake] was coasting those
shores. He was English by nation, but had been reared many years
in Espana; [32] so that the proverb which says, "Rear a crow, and
it will tear your eye out," might be fulfilled. When this man was
passing through the Strait of Magallanes, and coasting the southern
shores, then much neglected, many were the depredations that he
committed. He set fire to whatever he found, and burned it in his
fury. When he arrived at the coast of Colima [in Peru], there was a
shipyard in one of those ports, where a frigate was being built for
the pearl-fishery. It was already completed below its cabin. Draque
ordered it fired, and such was its material that it was quickly
converted into ashes. Hut a cross which had been raised above the
cabin was uninjured by the fire, as a thing against which flames have
no power. Running through the land and along the coasts, the citizens
of the town of Colima came to the cabin, and among its ashes saw the
cross, clean and shining. This gave them no little consolation, and
they regarded that occurrence as a miracle, namely, that the fire that
had destroyed so great a structure, had reserved only the cross. The
citizens did not keep it, but cut it into splinters, and divided it
among themselves. Although one cannot but praise their zeal in this,
yet it would have been better had they adorned a church with it,
so that the memory of the miracle would last longer.

Chapter XII

_Of several who were baptized_

[The miracle of the cross and the efforts put forth by the fathers bore
fruit, and the natives began to request baptism. The first to receive
the holy sacrament was a niece of Tupas, who was named Isabel. The
ceremony was celebrated with great pomp, "for among the Indians,
no sense is so strong as sight. This is so great a truth that they
regard as nothing any Castilian whom they see abased and ragged. On
the contrary, when they see any Castilian who makes a show, they
immediately call him 'Captain,' and canonize him under this name,
although he does not deserve to be even a soldier. The same is true
in regard to the religious, of which I could say much because of my
experience therein of mor