Note 105 — Chapter XXXII
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Don Diego de Salcedo sustained that so grievous blow with so great steadfastness that he caused admiration in all people; for he was never heard to assign another reason for his imprisonment than that it was a present which God was sending him for his many sins. For it is considered certain that if he had cried out, when he was arrested, to the halberdiers of his guard, and if they had called upon the soldiers of the guardroom, a great disturbance would have happened, however much the master-of-camp tried to restrain them. I am witness of that, for I went often by order of the father commissary and prior to amuse him when he was sick. I admired his great courage and prudence, as well as his strong mind; and it seemed as if he had no resentment that could give him anxiety. One may believe that so great conformity to His most holy will was gained by the aid of God. That which I always heard to be a fact must have been true, namely, that that gentleman had great love and special veneration for the most venerable father Diego de San Víctores,105 of the holy Society of Jesus, whom the governor aided considerably by coöperation [with him] in his entrance into the Marianas Islands. It is said that he requested the said venerable father to ask God to give him in this world his purgatory for his sins. The venerable father replied that he should think well what he was asking, for the Lord’s aid is necessary when He bears down His hand, in order that one may not refuse to endure His paternal correction. The father told him that time after time, but Don Diego de Salcedo always persevered in asking the same thing. The venerable father must have obtained that heroic petition from God; for when he bade farewell to him on going to the mission of the Marianas Islands, it appears that he gave Don Diego de Salcedo to understand that the Lord had granted his petition. Therefore, that very submissive spirit and the prayers of the venerable father Diego Luís de San Vítores,one can believe, were the cause of his great patience and resignation.