In the padre's opinion not only all the Indians, but also the Mexicans living' among them, will soon relapse into paganism altogether.
Living under rough conditions as he does, it is a lucky thing for the padre that his physique is equal to emergencies.

Once at the neighbouring village of Tonachic (= where there are pillars) he admonished the people, in a powerful sermon, to mend their ways.

As they were coming out of the church, a scoundrel who resented the charges attacked him with a stick, but the padre managed to disarm him and gave him such a sound thrashing with his assailant's own weapon that the latter had to keep his bed for a fortnight.
He showed me his stately old adobe church, built in missionary times.

The ceiling, however, was infested with myriads of bats, the smell of which was quite sickening, and I was glad to get out again.

With him in this uttermost outpost of Christendom lived his aged mother and six sisters, and they treated us with all the hospitality their very limited means permitted.