Note 45 — Chapter XLIII

They derived some relief from their sufferings from one happy circumstance provided them by God, who seemed to have designed all these wanderings. This was that in the midst of these wildernesses they found a tiny village of Christian Indians; for this jurisdiction was under the charge of other ministers, but was very little visited by them, since it was at so great a distance and over so rough a road. They baptized two children, and heard the confessions of some adults—among them that of a woman who had not confessed for some years, having no one to confess to. Though she seemed well and healthy, she died that same day. This was a marked token of her predestination. They finally reached the principal village of the province, which is called Ytui, and takes its name from the village. The Indians received them with great demonstrations of joy, after their manner; and they remained there for eight days resting, and receiving visits from all the villages in the province, who sent ambassadors to bid them welcome with some presents of the fruits of the country. They set out afterwards to visit all the villages in it. Great and small, they visited eleven, that they might become acquainted with the temper of the Indians. In all they were received with the same tokens of pleasure. From what they saw and learned from the Indians, they had much to say in their report of the excellence of the country. They said that it was cool, so that by day the sun’s heat was pleasant at times, and a covering was agreeable at night. This is something new in these islands, which have the fault of being very hot. They reported that the country was so fertile that when Indians desired to plant their rice they only burn over a part of the mountain45 and, without any further plowing or digging, they make holes with a stick in the soil, and drop some grains of rice in them. This was their manner of sowing; and, after covering the rice with the same earth, they obtained very heavy crops. They said that some good fruits grew there, and that in their opinion that country would yield all the fruits of Spain, if the seeds of the latter were planted. There were, they affirmed, pleasant valleys with quiet rivers and streams in them from which the natives obtain some gold, and that the Indians are wont to wear golden earrings. They are not acquainted with silver, and do not care for it. They have no sort of money, so that all their sales and purchases are carried on by barter. They keep their villages very clean and in good condition—a new thing among the Indians. They also remarked that there was great fraternity between different villages. This is something even more unusual, for generally these nations live after the law of “Might makes right” [viva quien vence], at the expense of their heads. Hence these Indians walk alone over their roads without fear of being injured or robbed, for they are very safe in this respect—so much so that they leave the rice which they gather, each one in his own field, heaped up in the spike and covered with straw. They go there and carry what they want to their houses, to grind and eat, without fearing that anyone will take what is not his. They readily offered all their infants to the fathers to be baptized, so that within about three months, during which the religious went about visiting the villages, they baptized some four hundred. It would have been the same with the adults, if it had not been necessary to prepare them with the catechism. The fathers have been slow in this, because they have been obliged to translate the prayers into the native language, of which they have not a good command. They are spending their time in learning it, and on this account and no other are delayed in beginning baptism. In order that so few ministers may be able to teach the Indians, it is necessary to bring them together into a smaller number of villages, conveniently arranged so that the people may be visited and helped in their necessities. Since the country is very mountainous, the fathers have determined to bring and gather them in large settlements, at sites convenient for their fields, near a river which rises in this country, and which, increased by others, grows to be a very large stream, crossing the whole of Nueva Segovia to the ocean.46 This river, on account of its fish (upon which most of the Indians live), is also of great value to them. This is the only point as to which they are somewhat obstinate, because they are greatly grieved to leave their ancient abode. However, most of them have accepted it, and it is hoped that the rest will come, and in this way in a short time much will be gained by the aid of the Lord. Through the mountains next to this province, which are many and very rough, there wander a tribe of Indians known as Alegueses, a vagabond people having no settled places of abode. Father Fray Thomas sent word to them by an Indian chief of Ytuy that if they wished to come and settle one of the new sites which he indicated, he would receive them there as sons, and do them all the good he could. They answered in the affirmative, and he waited for them for some time; but before they came the holy man finished his days, full of years and of heroic works, as will soon be seen. This is the work which these apostolic men of God accomplished in only three months, as appears from the aforesaid report. They conclude their report with another case similar to that referred to above, of the woman who died so soon after she had confessed. In the goings-out and comings-in of the fathers among the Indians that they might become acquainted with them, they found in one village, called Palar, a very aged Indian woman who was dying. She had eaten nothing for five days. Father Fray Thomas went to see her, and began to talk with her of becoming a Christian for the salvation of her soul. He expounded to her briefly what she had to believe, and called upon her to repent of her sins. She answered as well as might be desired, and he accordingly baptized her on that day, which was the last day of her earthly life and the first day of her Christian one. It was a happy day, so far as can be judged; for, being newly baptized, she had merely to be recorded in purgatory. Not only in these new provinces where the dawn of the gospel’s light now begins to shine do extraordinary cases happen like those which have been mentioned, to the great glory of God and the joy of his ministers; but they also occur in many others where the dawn has risen high but has not yet bathed all the horizon, though it is covering it, little by little. From the province of Nueva Segovia father Fray Geronimo de Zamora,47 a native of the city of Zaragoça, wrote me a letter dated February 25, 1633. In it are these words: “Before Lent I went up the river of Mandayas” (this is the name of a part of that province), “to try to teach many Indians who were without Christian instruction in heathen darkness, but who paid tribute to the king our lord as his vassals, without even being sons of the Church. I asked them if I might visit them, and they received my request kindly and asked that I or some other father should remain among them. In token of the heartiness of their wish, they gave me, as a sort of hostages, ten sons of their chiefs to be baptized; and after having sufficiently instructed them, I baptized them, to the great joy and delight of my soul. I hope in God that in this way thousands of them may be redeemed from the power of the devil, for there is no one who will declare that they are not his.” He afterward asked aid from his neighbors to draw the net which was laden with so many fish as are promised by the casts already made there. Many are needed, but we may say here, “Where are those good men?”