At this time our religious in Hermosa were engaged in the most laborious work of all these ministries, the learning of a new and extraordinary language without grammar or vocabulary, or any other aid even in the country itself; for at the beginning they were not able by payment to keep an Indian who would merely permit them to listen to him as he spoke and to catch up a word here and there. Although at the beginning these people were like wild beasts, without the least trace of human civilization, the religious have now domesticated them to such an extent that they can go among them--although a few years before no stranger could enter their country without their drinking his blood like fierce wolves. Some infants have been baptized, and the children of some villages, though not baptized, know the creed and pray every night at the foot of the cross. The children learned to laugh at the old superstitions, which have a strong hold on their elders. The hardest thing of all has been to bring them back to their old villages, from which they fled in fear of the arms of the Spaniards; but as they learned the gain to be acquired from trading with the Spaniards--which is a lodestone that attracts hearts of iron--they are returning to their old abodes. The religious have erected two little convents and churches, about like shepherds' huts in appearance. One is near the presidio of San Salvador, in a native village called Camaurri, and is dedicated to St. Joseph. The other is half a legua from the village of Tanchuy (i.e., Tamsui), and is dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary.]
The foundation of the first church among the Indians of Tanchuy, a district of the island of Hermosa, and the events which happened among those Indians.