_ 167 _ matter could be resolved by scholarship. However, if it turned out that we were unable to settle the question after debating, we would do what they said. They did not dare to do so because of the lack of truth is contained in the Mohammedan religion. Christ Our Lord, who always looks after his own, ordained that they should accomplish by force what they did not wish to do by virtue. Since the wife and daughter of this learned man, who were women of high status in the Zair Clan and relatives of Mohammed(A), recognized the weakness of the letter in not daring to defend his religion, they resolved to adopt our holy faith and came to me by night, guided by the Holy Spirit asking for the waters of Baptism. I arranged for these ladies to be lodged and removed from the danger of being abducted by the Moors, who were greatly upset because the women were catechumens. The husband came to me asking to see them. I challenged him to a debate about religion, to which the Moors had earlier challenged me. It was to be in the presence of his wife and daughter and if I managed to demonstrate the truth to him, he would be baptized with them. (A) The conversion of these women is not that referred to by Enrique de Macedo. Father Barzeu also refers to the latter in this letter.
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