virtue of this innocent and chaste woman. Another Indian woman, left
a widow, was so devoted to the preservation of her chastity that,
without the advice of anyone, she made to God a vow of chastity, and
most strictly kept it. There are many other women who, though they make
no vow, preserve intact their chastity and virginity. Nor are the men
behind the women in the fervor and contrition wherewith they make their
confessions, and the rigor with which they scourge themselves and do
penance. One of those Indian women made her confession with so abundant
tears and signs of true contrition, that the father who confessed her
was greatly aroused and moved thereat, and afterward related that
the feelings of devotion caused by those so fervent tears and true
contrition remained with him for many days; and that when he wished to
humiliate himself or enliven his piety he had only to remember what
he had beheld in that Indian woman. For it is vastly different to
but talk of contrition for sins, and to contemplate its vivid image
and reality in a soul. Another woman came to the confessional and,
without noticing the multitude of people in the church, began her
confession, and continued it with so many tears and such grief for her
sins that she could with difficulty speak. She was thereupon seized
with a great longing to do penance, and desired to go at once through
the streets of the city, publicly scourging herself, as many do here
[in Europe] throughout Lent, in the early part of the night. A young
man in the confessional experienced such horror at his sins that,
incensed against himself, and without informing the father, he scourged
himself through the streets with such severity that he fell down as
one dead, and was considered as such. He came later to our house to
confess his offenses, and was as disfigured as if he were recovering
from a severe illness; but, not content with the former scourging,
he desired to inflict on himself another--for, as he said, his heart
was transfixed, as by a nail, with grief for his sins. The father,