The education of native males at the hands of friars was strongly religious. Incipient caciques and principales, following a different career track than commoners, were groomed from an early age to serve at the altar and trained in the offices of sacristan, chorister, and catechist. The future lords of the land learned to speak Spanish, as they had formerly in the governor's house, making them useful interpreters. Although learning how to write seems to have been optional, those who were trained as catechists could probably read Spanish and in some cases Timucua, while those who were choristers may have read Latin. Convent-trained caciques and principales treated their priests with filial deference, calling them "My Father," indulging their demands, and putting up with their patriarchal tempers. The traveller Andres de Segura met one such Hispanicized cacique and his wife on Cumberland Island and observed the strange ceremonial weeping with which their vassals welcomed them home. "He and the cacica were Christians and he spoke the Castilian language very well; he had excellent presence and countenance [and] was of great strength. He called himself don Juan. . . . He dressed well in the Spanish manner. And the cacica when she went out covered herself with a mantle like a Spanish woman (San Miguel 1629). (Bushnell SS)