with the accompanying horror that only sailors can imagine--that that boat (for it was not even a patache, but a very weak vessel) capsized, because of the currents and the violent wind that they encountered in the midst of the open expanse, after a few contrary blasts, and filled with water. It was the Lord's will that the buffeting of the sea should soon strip it of weight, carrying away whatever it contained. Thereupon the men in it remained astride of the said timbers and cates, and many of them were up to their breasts in water, rigging it. In such wise they allowed themselves to drift along with the said current, wherever it chose to take them, sustained only on those timbers poorly fastened together with rattan. Night came; day followed; and in all that time they were unable to make the land--on the contrary, the currents carried them away from it. When they got out of one current they were seized by one opposed to it, so that they were continually going, round and round in those waters. Father Fray Arcadio, who was still convalescent, suffered the most; and doubtless would soon have given up, had it not been for the said father commissary. A bamboo enclosure was made as well as possible on those timbers and there the father found some retreat from the water, mainly in the arms of the said father commissary. The latter's name was Fray Antonio Godinez, son of the religious province of San Diego in Mexico. With the same suffering did they pass the following night--without water to drink in the midst of so much water, nor more food than a few grains of rice, which the wrath of so rigorous a fortune that assailed those miserable beings had forgotten. At last, on the third day, the Lord, as a Father of mercy, listened to them and they reached the land; where, more beaten by the waves of the sea than assisted by what the rowers could do, they reached the sacred sand in a stripped condition. Three men were drowned, who tried to quit the boat too soon, and the sea made them pay for their ingratitude with their lives; for their weakness had already forbidden them [from reaching land]. It is always a rule of sailors that only wood can swim on such occasions. All is as God ordains; but already deposit was made of life, and a good account, by means of his Majesty, must be given. Our religious landed, or rather those who shared his fortunes drew him ashore half dead. But the land performed its miracles, and they hastened to the first village, where they all recovered and were despatched to Manila. The pious commissary lost there all the papers of his commission, so that, when he reached the province, great difficulties were raised, and he returned without making his visit. Father Fray Arcadio reached this our province, where he was gladly received, and the prelate assigned him to the study of the Chinese language, in which he took the courses that will be related at the end of this chapter.