388 A MEXICAN FREETHINKER. Book II. 
with me," he said; " none of them would have hurt you 
in my company." 
Santo Tomas was originally a Mission of the Jesuits, 
and all the Patres are buried in the church of the place ; 
among them the founder of the Mission, which must have 
been established at the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
The Alcalde showed us the church and took us into the 
vaults, where Dominguez had preceded us. When we 
entered, we found our servant standing before the em- 
balmed body of the canonized Padre, which he had taken 
out of its sarcophagus and placed upright against the 
wall, talking to it in the following manner. " So you are 
a saint : well, you can't have had much sense ; you have 
had too small a scull for that." And indeed the scull was 
remarkably small. The Alcalde laughed. We took care 
that the sacred remains should be carefully restored to 
their resting-place, and helped to close the tomb with its 
stone. 
Proceeding farther homewards we came by Cerro Prieto, 
leaving the small lake near it, this time, to the east. 
Among others, Don Guillermo visited here the robber 
chief; and had it been feasible we should have brought 
him away also as a peon, for he too was one of Don 
Guillermo's debtors. But great folks cannot be treated 
like small ones ; and, besides being captain of a brave band, 
the man was one of the first inhabitants of the place. 
However he received Don Guillermo with the greatest 
courtesy, and the business was settled with many polite 
expressions from both parties. Of course there was no 
payment, and indeed had it been made we should probably 
have had to relinquish it again on the road. 
We now came to Los Llanos, a village by a lake of the 
same name, which I have already mentioned. Don 
