Very great difficulty was found, at first, in bringing the Indians to confess. They regarded it as a shameful thing for them to report to the confessor all the evil things they had done and thought, and they also feared to give the religious power to annoy or blame them by means of their confession. "When a dozen persons were gathered together for their first confession, there was not one of them who was willing to begin, for everyone wished the other to make the experiment. At last the fathers summoned an Indian who came from Pangasinan, and who had longer been a Christian and was better acquainted with the fathers. The Indians asked him many questions about the matter, all of which he answered well, encouraging them greatly; he told them that in his country the Christians confessed without any evil results following. At last one Indian woman, more courageous than the rest, ventured to go to make her confession where the father was patiently waiting in the church--commending the matter to God with all his heart, because it was very plain that the hesitation of the Indians was on account of the fear they felt. She confessed, went away very well satisfied, and, returning to the rest, told them what had happened. They asked her a thousand new questions, especially if the father was angry when she told her sins, and whether he had scolded her. She answered 'No,' and that, on the contrary, he had treated her very kindly and lovingly; so they all determined to make their confessions, and began them heartily." So they come now and make their confessions; and in general it is not necessary to summon them, for they anticipate the confessors, and sometimes even beg that their confessions may be heard, as a penance. They showed the greatest faith and sincerity in their confessions, striving to be reconciled with all their enemies before making their confession. The religious generally encouraged them to make their confessions on the day of their patron saint; and one Indian woman, named for St. Anne, was unwilling to confess on that saint's day. When the father asked her the reason, she answered that she had had a quarrel with one of her neighbors, and that they did not speak to each other; and she begged the father to reconcile them. After he had done that, she very readily made her confession. It frequently happens that a man accused in a court of law denies the accusation, and that the religious is unable to draw anything else from him; while in confession the same man will clearly accuse himself of the same fault which he had previously denied, and will deny again if the same question is asked him on another trial. It not infrequently happens that if they have any ill-will against the religious, or have said anything against him, they confess to that very man, telling him of the ill-will that they have felt against him.] CHAPTER XXXIX