with insignia of dishonor commonly applied among the heathen to criminals, but of great glory to our Lord God, for whose love they suffered. When the servants of the Lord arrived at some of these places, they bound them in a shameful manner to stakes, in order to frighten the Christian inhabitants in this fashion; but with all their efforts they were not strong enough to conquer any Christian, or make him recant. Forty-seven, of all ages, were condemned to death; three were beheaded, and the rest drowned in the sea. Eighteen others, of all ages, they took to a mountain, where there were some very hot baths; and, binding them with ropes, they put them into the water, asking them again and again if they would not recant. Seeing their constancy, they bound them to stones, with which they were sunk in the sea. Twenty-six others, of varying ages, they also took to the said baths; and having especially distinguished ten of these by torments, they kept them for some time on the edge of the baths, repeatedly asking them if they would give up their religion. At the same time they poured upon their shoulders jars of that boiling hot water, drawing from them cries of pain; until, becoming convinced of their constancy, they drowned them in the said baths. Because the body of one of them was not burst open like the rest by the heat of the water, they cut it open in various places with a knife. In this torture he died, and, like the others, was flung into the baths. Adding to these two others who died of the terrible torture inflicted upon them, the number of those who died in the province of Tacacu, by fire, blood, and water was forty-seven. They went to rest and abide with Christ, and will always be able to say with David: _Transivimus per ignem et aqua e reduxisti nos in refrigerium_. [66] We would never finish if we undertook to tell in detail all the particulars of these martyrdoms, which we shall leave for a more extended relation, in which they may be viewed; and great consolation will be had from the fact that those Christians have endured such atrocious and unheard-of torments with such constancy, for the love of Christ.