There is perhaps a note of bitterness and disappointment in the last remark, but those that can understand the poor writer’s condition at the time will readily forgive it. For many weeks he had been watching by the death-bed of his companion, and afterwards was prostrated by extreme sickness himself. He had no one with him but the blacks, “who stole what they could and brought him when they thought of it, a porringer of broth”. One night his bed was attacked by a swarm of ants, and he had to be carried outside. Alarms of fire annoyed the poor invalid in the same way. Yet he was not forgetful of his commission from the Church in the way that he understood it. “Every day,” he says, “I baptised ten or twelve children; and not being able to sit up alone in my bed, was held up by two blacks, another holding the book, and another the basin.” The instruction given at baptism was by no means elaborate, even when the sacrament was administered to adults. Though but a short time in the country he had baptised an almost incredible number of natives. He says, as he looks back on the ‘great fatigues’ of his travels, that he would think his days well spent “if but one of 2700 children and youths he baptized obtained salvation through his ministry”. The good man, I have no doubt, had some misgivings as to whether the mere rite of baptism had permanently benefitted all that had received it. His stay in the country though brief would be long enough to raise doubts in his mind on that point. He does not speak hopefully of all the baptized. If he had been able to stay with them and teach them directly in their own tongue, this criticism would be much modified. Still the efforts of these missionaries would not be lost. They tried to do God’s work, and no one can have a higher motive. If there be anything in their methods that we now think inexpedient, let us learn the proper lesson, and let us remember the courage and zeal they manifested amidst their trials. Moreover, he does speak of a school where natives were taught the Portuguese language and received instruction in religion. Some of them, “though blacks,” showed considerable genius. The people, he tells us, did not trouble about laying up great stores of provisions; they scarce cared in the morning whether they should have anything at night. When they accompanied the Father on any of his journeys, sometimes he had nothing to give them because he had nothing for himself. Then they would take a piece of wood for a mattock and cut up the ground, and eat certain little white balls they found near the roots of the grass. He says, “I could not for the life of me swallow one of them, yet after such a wretched meal they would skip, dance, and laugh as if they had been at a feast”.