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 Rh souls; with many other good and holy reasons, which he expressed very well." Lime was sent for, the Indian masons constructed an altar, and the Spanish carpenters a crucifix, which was erected in a small chapel (the ruins of which, it is said, yet remain). Then the "very reverend father," Juan Diaz, preached an excellent discourse, which, as it was in Spanish (a language the natives had never listened to before in their lives), was received "with great attention, and profit to their souls." Thus was a whole village of pagans converted into good Christians in a single day,—the natives reasoned that, as the Spaniards were stronger than they, and evidently favored by unseen powers, their god must be more powerful than theirs, and so they accepted the Spanish images with joy, carefully swept the temple, and attended upon the virgin.

As a curious circumstance, it is related that the Spaniards found these people, not only at Cozumel, but at various other points in this new territory, possessed of figures of the cross. From this the Spanish ecclesiasts have reasoned that these Indians were visited by Saint Thomas, during the wanderings of that revered person on earth, and received from him this emblem of the cross; but of this event the Indians have preserved no tradition.

One more allusion to the doings of the Spaniards here, and then we have done with Cozumel. Cortez often pondered over a question the natives oft repeated to his soldiers, when, pointing to the east, they would say "Castilian," as much as to ask if they were Castilians, or Spaniards. At last, after much inquiry, he heard, through his interpreter Julian—Melchor having died—that there were two Spaniards confined in the interior as captives. They had been cast upon the eastern shore of Yucatan, their vessels wrecked, and all their companions sacrificed save they two. Learning this, Cortez despatched a letter