the things of our Lord is ever increasing, as well as the pleasure of
the people in them; and our fathers are steadily gaining their love
and gratitude. A father once told them that for a certain feast it
was their share to adorn the church; immediately they set themselves
to the task, and the one who began it was a pagan, who did his share
of the work. Our method of preaching to these people is not so much
by means of arguments and consecutive discourses, which make but
little impression on them, as by a sort of spiritual conference,
in which the father briefly presents to them one or two points,
repeating these and asking questions concerning them. Thus his hearers
become proficient, and the result is plainly seen; more than seven
hundred have been baptized this year--most of them in two villages,
where the faith has penetrated with notable results, the people being
well inclined to if. This has been especially evident in one village,
where the fiscal is a chief acknowledged by all its people, whom our
Lord has been pleased to use as the instrument for much good to those
souls. What he has accomplished and is still accomplishing in that
doctrina causes me unusual edification and consolation; for in truth,
if I may judge by what I myself see when I go there, and by the common
account of all, both Spaniards and Indians, even one of our fathers
who might have been stationed in that village could not have wrought
such results as he has done. And this I say without exaggeration;
God provides it all, and blessed be He! This village of Paranas [2]
is on the coast, and contains a few Indian fishermen, but there are
many Indians in the mountains, divided, scattered, and far away;
some of these have established their abodes on the coast, but they
frequent it but rarely, and are (or rather were) a very churlish and
fugitive people. Yet Don Gonçalo (that is the name of the fiscal) has
taken hold of them in such a way that he does what he will with them,
and that, too, by so quiet, gentle, and efficacious means as to cause