Untitled - Libr@rsi

1651 - 52] RELA TION OF ibso -51 61
the excellence of our faith, and of the trouble
that I had taken to come and instruct them,— giving
them clearly to understand that I was a person of
consideration, but that I exposed myself to all those
fatigues through the desire of their salvation. These
accustomed to such dis-
Savages gradually grew
courses, and brought me several of their children to
be baptized. On the following day, they and all the
Christians erected a large Cross, and began to build
a Chapel, and to prepare a Cemetery for the dead,
close by. I taught in that Church, from morning
until night; our Neophytes, on their side, did their
iDest; and, within a few days, we observed a marked
change. Here are some proofs of it.
In the first place, as soon as the call for prayers
was heard, all hastened thither, [119] like famished
persons to a feast. Secondly, when we went to get
them to come and be instructed, they put everything
aside,— no matter what there might be to prevent
them, or what time of the day it was. Thirdly, they
brought me the drums and other superstitious instruments
which the Jugglers, who practice the trade of
sorcery, use when they have recourse to the Demons
whom they invoke. Fourthly, as the day did not
sufi&ce for them, they came for me at night to teach
them in their cabins, where I was listened to as if I
were an Angel from Heaven. Fifthly, the older
people exhorted the youths to listen attentively, and
to remember my instructions well, in order that they
might, when they had more leisure, learn from the
young men what these should have learned from me.
The fervor was general. Although many asked [120]
for baptism, during the ten days that I spent there, I
did not deem it advisable to grant this so soon,—