AUSTRIALIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO 177 



the parents wanted their boys back, showing a strong 

 affection that sought, though in vain, to buy them 

 with any number of fat pigs. Then, in their rage, they 

 came to destroy the Church, and Quiros had to send 

 hurriedly an armed party to prevent them. One of the 

 boys besought that he might be allowed to return to his 

 father. " Silence, child," replied the Captain, " you know 

 not what you ask. Greater good awaits than the sight 

 and the communion of heathen parents." And, indeed, 

 when the boy died a few months later, he died a baptised 

 Catholic, saved from the claws of the Devil, assured of 

 eternal salvation. 



The triumph reached its climax in the Festival of Corpus The festival 

 Christi. The church was bravely decorated with green 

 boughs. " For an altar-piece there was a painted Christ 

 crucified on a great cloth, with four candles at the sides 

 and incense-sticks burning." Outside were triumphal 

 arches, " enlaced with palms and flowers, while the ground 

 also was strewn with flowers." Under two other arches 

 were placed two altars with their canopies, and the image 

 of St. Peter and St. Paul. " The day was clear and serene, 

 and, as the sun rose over the crowns of the trees, its rays 

 entering through the branches, the difference in the fruits 

 of each plant was shown in great profusion. The birds 

 sang and chanted ; the leaves and branches moved gently 

 in the breeze, and the whole place was agreeable, fresh, 

 shady, with a gentle air moving and the sea smooth." 

 Three Masses were said, and the festivities began ; a 

 very picturesque sword-dance by eleven sailor lads, dressed 

 in red and green silk, with bells on their feet, who danced 

 with much dexterity and grace to the sound of a guitar 

 played by a respected old sailor ; then " another dance 

 by eight boys, all dressed like Indians in shirts and breeches 

 of silk, coloured brown, blue and gray, with garlands 

 on their heads and white palms in their hands, singing 

 their canticles to the sound of tambourines and flutes " ; 

 then more splendid ceremony with much discharge of 

 firearms ; and, " when the smoke cleared away there 

 w r ere seen among the green branches so many plumes 



W.A. M 



