§ I

One insurrection having been put down in Pampànga, another one follows in Pangasinàn. Mention of the great sufferings of our religious in Zambàles, in keeping their villages duly loyal to God and the king. [58]

... 2. From the beginning of the year 1660, the Indians of Pampanga, a province not far from the city of Manila in Philipinas, incited by many grievous annoyances unjustly caused by the superintendent of timber cutting, which was ordered to be done within their boundaries by the governor of the islands, Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, determined to withdraw themselves from the yoke of the Spanish dominion. Although that dominion is very mild per se, some subordinate government employes generally make it intolerable, for tyrannically availing themselves of the name of the king, they endeavor to trample everything under foot. The Pampangos elected as leader a master-of-camp of their own nation, one Don Francisco Manyàgo. He clutched the staff of office as though it were a scepter. Although this insurrection caused considerable fear in Manila at the beginning, since the Pampango nation is so warlike, yet since at the same time, its individuals are the most reasonable of the islands, the governor hastening thither in person together with many religious of various orders (for the religious form the most powerful army for quieting the Indians) the whole disturbance was readily quieted by means of negotiation. Justice was done them in their grievances, while no punishment was omitted, and was administered to the [59]seditious leaders. Fathers Fray Joseph de la Annunciacion, and Fray Juan de San Antonio, ex-provincials of our Family, together with fathers Fray Carlos de Jesus, and Fray Juan de San Diego, were of considerable aid in that pacification. Those fathers, exposing themselves to not few dangers, had the boldness to go to some of the principal Indians, who were their acquaintances, whom by dint of their persuasion, they succeeded in bringing back to reason. And by their means, discussion and friendly agreements having been introduced, those so harmful insurrections were put down.

3. But at the beginning of their insurrection, the Pampangos had written many letters to the provinces of Pangasinàn, Ilòcos, and Cagayàn, which lie farther north in the island of Luzon. In those letters they assured the inhabitants of those provinces that they had risen with so great force that they had no doubt but that they could gain Manila by force of arms. They besought those people to heed the common cause, for once that the Spanish yoke was thrown off, they could all get together in firm friendship and relations, and maintain their liberty, by electing a king to govern them, or become feared by the other nations under the form of a republic. Those were counsels which like a cancer in the human body, continued to spread in the civil affairs of those provinces, and the majority of the Indians followed them with only too great rapidity. Hence, when the Indians of Pampanga were quieted they were incapable of extinguishing the fire that they themselves had kindled.

4. In Pangasinàn, Ilòcos, and Cagayàn, the flame acquired too much force because of the fierceness [60]of the well arranged combustibles, which were applied by several Indian chiefs, who endeavored, under the specious name of liberty, to oppress in the most intolerable manner the ones who did not recognize the blessings which they had while they had the good fortune to call themselves a part of the Spanish monarchy. But in order that this history may not wander into parts that do not belong to it, we shall treat only of what happened in the province of Pangasinàn; for one part of that province, namely the territory of Zambàles, which is composed of ten villages, was then, and is also at present, cultivated in regard to spiritual matters by our holy Recollect order. On that account our religious necessarily suffered considerably, and they aided in the pacification of the Indians, as did the other holy orders in the villages entrusted to their care.

5. At the end, then, of the year 1660, the insurgents of Pangasinàn elected as their leader an Indian chief of the village of Binalatòngan, one Don Andrès Màlong. He having usurped the title of king, went to Campaña, escorted by nine thousand Indian warriors. This number was increased enormously within a few days; for it was either a boast of the rebels and they so published it, or it was a fact, his army was composed of forty thousand men. An Indian noble, by the name of Don Francisco Sumùlay, a very near relative of Màlong, was living in Bolinào, a village within our administration. On account of that relationship he looked upon his progress as his own, and helped him as much as he could to attain his purposes. He, in order to incite Bolinào and its environs to revolt, spared no effort that he considered fitting. But the father [61]prior, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios (or Blancas), opposed him openly and in secret, destroying with cunning whatever Sumùlay wrought deceitfully. No sooner did the restlessness and excited condition of the Indians force him to take prudent precautions, than he caused ten soldiers to disembark from a champan which was on its way to Cagayàn. The latter obeyed him for the captain agreed thereto, and because they knew how much the governor of the islands favored the above-named religious, and that he would approve whatever was done with the latter’s advice. The father found himself somewhat ready to offer resistance with those soldiers and with the faithful Indians, who by dint of his persuasions were not few; but he had not sufficient forces to attack the rebels or to seize the wicked Sumùlay, who was the cause of all the disorder.

6. The latter starting a rumor that the hostile Mindanàos were in the neighborhood, imagined that by that false report, and by setting fire to the convent and church at night, the soldiers would flee to the mountains, and that the religious and the loyal Indians of the village would imitate them. It would then follow that, since he would remain behind with the insurgents who were already thoroughly advised, he would be able, after having conquered the port and settlement at his safety, to kill all who were not of his party. Those ideas were not very badly conceived, and had they arrived at the desired success, would have been only too potent for the attainment of his malicious purpose. For, after the surrender of Bolinào, would doubtless follow that of all the territory of Zambàles, and then, the great difficulty of maritime aid from Manila to Pangasinàn, a circumstance [62]which gave great strength to the revolt. But the same arguments also served the father prior to procure the preservation of Bolinào with the greatest watchfulness. Hence scarcely had Sumùlay fired the edifice, when the soldiers and loyal Indians protecting it, and fortifying themselves as well as they could, maintained the village in the faith for their God, and in the loyalty due their king. It is a fact that while attending to that, the church was reduced to ashes, as were the sacristy and most of the convent. But that was considered as a little loss as it was well employed, so long as the enemy did not attain their purpose.

7. The above happened in the early part of December, when authentic tidings were not known in Bolinào of the insurrection, and only various movements were descried in the Indians which provoked fear. However, they had been compelled to dissimulate through lack of forces. But on the twentieth day of the above-mentioned month, the conspiracy was finally published in the village, and Simùlay and his associates notified the religious in the following manner. In front of the cells of the father prior and of his associate father Fray Luis de San Joseph, were placed two bamboos and at the end of them two cocoanuts. That is a barbarous ceremony of those countries by which to threaten one with decapitation. Simùlay thought that that would be sufficient to frighten the fathers and make them abandon the village, and especially since they now had no soldiers, as the soldiers mentioned above had proceeded on their way. But he was mistaken in his reckoning, for although father Fray Luis was of that opinion, and Indian chiefs were not wanting who [63]supported him, either because they were already infected with the rebellion, or, perhaps, in order to assure the lives of the fathers, were carried away by their good zeal, the father prior resolved to die rather than fail in his service to God and the king. He did not change his decision, however much the sign was repeated the following day. On the contrary, he considered the time suitable to ascertain and establish with cunning the degree of the fidelity of his parishioners. He convened the Indians in the atrium of the convent, and in eloquent and powerful arguments gave them to understand that God having entrusted their souls to him, he would not leave their land, although he knew that he was to suffer a thousand martyrdoms. “I am not ignorant,” he said, “that the aim of those who occasion these insurrections is to apostatize from the Catholic faith, and to return to their former paganism; but for that same reason, I must oppose myself to that with the greatest strength. Go ahead, send news of my constancy to the partisans of the rebel Màlong, if perchance there are any in the village, so that they may not tire themselves with threatening me with death. Assure them that I shall consider myself very fortunate, if I transform myself into a good martyr from so poor a priest. But meanwhile, I warn you, that I shall know by each one’s actions who are the rebels and who are faithful; and that accordingly the proper reward or punishment will follow each one, when the Manila fleet, which will not delay, subdues affairs properly.” By that effort some who were wavering in their loyalty were confirmed in it, while those who were on the side of the seditious ones did not dare to put their treacherous thoughts into execution. [64]

8. Very soon did experience show the great importance of the firmness of so valiant a religious. For on the night of that same day, after the convent was locked, some of the loyal Indians, who were guarding the outside of it, captured a strange Indian, who declared that he was bringing a message to the father prior, which was to be given into his own hand. He was taken into the father’s presence after observing the necessary precautions, where he delivered the message. It was from the father vicar of Lingayèn and contained extensive notices of the insurrection of Pangasinàn which had broken out, the murder of the alcalde-mayor, and the devastation of that part of so flourishing a province. He sent letters for his provincial and for the governor of the islands, in which a speedy relief was asked in order that the sedition might be stifled at its beginning. He besought the father prior to send them quickly to Manila, as it was impossible to send them from Pangasinàn overland. And now it is seen that if the father prior, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, had retired from Bolinào as fear persuaded him, that despatch would have been fruitless, and perhaps had those advices been unknown in Manila, Pangasinàn would have been endangered; but since he remained inflexible against the incentives of fear, he was able to take the fitting means, in order that the promptest and most efficacious aid might be obtained.

9. It was not considered advisable to entrust the conveyance of such letters to the Indians of Bolinào, and accordingly it was resolved to despatch father Fray Luis de San Joseph overland to Masingloc under the pretext that he was going on affairs connected with the spiritual administration, but his real [65]purpose was to deliver the messages to the minister of the said village, in order that the latter might despatch them. The religious exposed himself to evident danger of death; for the village of Agno, through which he could not avoid passing, was almost entirely in insurrection, and because in the stretch extending from the territory of Agno to that of Bàlcac, it was necessary to take the rough sea in a small fishing boat which carried no sail and only one oar with the religious himself at the helm. At last he reached Masingloc, after conquering so great an obstacle. Thence, not without the most serious dangers, the minister sent the messages to Manila, arranging to have them carried by father Fray Bernardino de la Concepcion, accompanied by three of the most faithful chiefs. One of those chiefs was appointed master-of-camp by the governor as a reward for so excellent a service, another, sargento-mayor, and the third, captain of the militia of his village; and they were exempted for life from paying tribute. And since the father vicar of Lingayèn despatched a second mail to Bolinào in case that the first should fail, the father prior, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, despatched the letters in a Chinese vessel which made a way-station there, and was on its way from the island of Hermosa to Manila. But while the army and naval fleet are being prepared in that city, in order to take relief to Pangasinàn, let us return to our villages of Zambàles, in order to see what is happening there, and the dangers by which our religious were afflicted. [66]

§ II

Continuation of the foregoing matter, with the declaration of what happened to our religious in Masingloc, Cagayàn, Agno, and Bolinào.

10. With the absence of the three said chiefs in Masingloc, the prior found himself greatly troubled and persecuted, for those who favored the rebellion, who had thitherto not dared to show their faces in public, showed openly the most foul face of treason on the day of St. Stephen. They threw the village into such consternation that if God had not aided it, it would have been impossible to restore it to its former quiet. It happened that, as some Indians had not been at mass on either the eve or day of the nativity, the prior meeting one of them afterward who was most esteemed for his bravery, chid him for his fault, although with demonstrations of paternal charity. He had no intentions of exasperating him, for he knew quite well that the Indian was inducing his countrymen to swell the number of the insurgents by persuasion and threat. But the Indian would not suffer the mild rebuke for that sin, which in other circumstances would have made him experience the severities of punishment, and deeming the occasion very suitable for the revolt of the village, he began to pretend implacable annoyance because the father admonished him. Following this, he became excessively angry, and hurled many insults at the evangelical minister, and concluded by crying out: “Long live Màlong! Death to the Spaniards and the fathers!”

11. By that means the Indian obtained his desires, for more than fifty armed companions gathered [67]about him. They proclaimed the traitor Màlong as king; hacked the Spanish coat-of-arms which was placed on the site where the principales met to administer justice; and they obliged the prior, whom it was a miracle of divine Providence that they did not kill instantly, to retire to his convent, where a guard was established by means of some Indians who could be gathered together, while many others who were of the loyal party, were oppressed in their homes. There they held the prior and those who accompanied them besieged, and did not allow them to communicate with the outside, and refused to allow any kind of food to be taken to them, trying by this means to restrict them to the heighth of necessity. Within the danger was so much greater, as it was less known by the loyal villages near by which could have sent them some aid. If the rebels did not attack the convent in order to kill the loyal ones, it was because they were afraid of some few arquebuses with which those of the inside threatened them. But they endeavored to set fire to the convent and church three times without being able to succeed, notwithstanding that the material of the building was but little less combustible than tinder, for it was all constructed of wood, bamboo, and nipa. Those who tried to burn that edifice, regarded that as a miracle. Moreover, one can well understand the necessity that they suffered for they had no place whence to get relief, not even for the necessities of life. Consequently they were placed at the will of the divine Providence, who as is His custom with those in tribulation, very quickly declared His patronage.

12. Having passed the time in this way until New Year’s eve, it was noted then that a medium-sized [68]vessel was anchored not far from the convent, and that almost all of its Indians having landed, engaged in a very interesting conversation with the insurgents. On that account, the prior and his men had an opportunity, to leave the convent without being perceived, to go to the beach, and make themselves masters of the above-mentioned vessel. They set sail without loss of time in it. Thus freed from their peril they took their course toward Manila. But as they were in need of food, they put in at Bagàc, where they met the three chiefs who had guided father Fray Bernardino, and were now returning to their village. They recounted to those chiefs the deplorable condition in which they were; and considering that the remedy for wrongs generally lies in quickness, they determined to take thirty well-armed Indians, whom the father minister of Bagàc prepared, and who were fortunately at that place; and then retracing their way, to attack Masingloc suddenly. They hoped that if they attacked the rebels when they appeared to be most secure, it would not be difficult to reduce them all to their former quiet. So did it happen, for the season favoring them, they disembarked on the night of the third of January in a bay one-half hour’s distance from Masingloc, and went overland to that village. At dawn of the fourth, they surprised the insurgents so completely, that overtaken by fear, the latter could not put themselves in a state of defense, while they even had no opportunity for flight. They were all seized, and the prior, although he was full of grief at the robbery of the sacristy and church, interceded for the prisoners, and succeeded in having all except three set at liberty. [69]Those three were the leaders and later paid for their wickedness on the gallows.

13. In Cigayèn (a village which had decreased very sensibly in houses and inhabitants since the violent death of the venerable father, Fray Alonso de San Agustin, in the year 1612), was father Fray Francisco de San Agustin, an especially zealous minister, who was applying all the persuasive powers of his eloquence to retaining the remnants of that great settlement in due fidelity to God and the king. But a chief, called Don Antonio Sìrray, desired the contrary, in order to keep things in confusion for his own profit. Knowing that he would have no opportunity so long as father Fray Francisco was living, he tried to kill him twice, but the religious man was delivered from his ambushes, for God took his part in a very visible and special manner. In the discussion that the two had together, (one persuading to good, and the other inducing to evil), it happened that Sìrray and all his partisans went to swell the army of Màlong. The loyal Indians with their families and possessions went to another village; father Fray Francisco retired to Manila. With that the village was completely abandoned and no more thought was expended on its rebuilding. Such harm do dissensions cause, when, because there is no strength to attack them, they increase to the highest degree when agitated by violence.

14. In Agno (a visita or annex of Bolinào), there was a chief called Don Juan Dùrrey, a very near relative of Sumùlay, and consequently he was bound up very closely to the rebels. Three Spaniards reached that place on Christmas day, who were [70]fleeing from the insurgents of Pangasinàn. They showed the Indians a diamond ring, as a reward or payment for something to eat, for they were suffering dire need. But scarcely had they sat down to table, when Dùrrey inhumanly killed them. As father Fray Luis de San Joseph (who was returning from Masingloc whither he had taken the messages as related above), was passing in the afternoon toward Bolinào, he noted the loud shouts in the village, caused by the feasting and dancing that they made according to their custom with the heads of the three Spaniards. He attempted to approach nearer in order to check their inhumanity, but an Indian instigated by the devil, scarcely saw the father when he threw two spears at him. It was regarded as a miracle that the father escaped the blow and was not wounded. Thereupon our valiant religious lifted up his voice, and loudly condemned so unjust actions in a fervent sermon. According to circumstances, the words on each occasion must have served as does music on the ears of the tiger. But in the midst of the necessary disturbance, he was enabled to tell them with the help of God, such things that Dùrrey with twelve others who followed him, had to leave the village. The others, humble and obedient to the voice of their shepherd, surrendered the heads in order that he might give them ecclesiastical burial. From that moment Agno remained in the greatest quiet, like the sea, which shows the most exquisite quietness and serenity after the most terrible storm.

15. But the place where the rage of the insurgents was felt more was in Bolinào. Màlong regarded its minister, father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, with irreproachable hatred, for he was not unaware [71]of his great labor in restraining the Zambals. They are so warlike a nation that they have always caused themselves to be respected not only in Pangasinàn, which province they glorify as a not despicable part, but also throughout the Philipinas Islands where they have been able to acquire renown through their arms. Having, then, as we have related, sent his associate to Masingloc, he considered that the Indians left him alone in the convent, and that they were going about cautiously talking one with another. He summoned one of the chiefs to him and chid him for that coldness. He learned from the Indian that Don Francisco Caucào, a cousin of the usurping king, had arrived from Binalatòngon with an order to the effect that the Zambals should declare against the Spaniards, under pain of being treated as rebels if they did not do so. The Indian added that Caucào was staying in Sumùlay’s house, and they were afraid that he intended to conquer their countrymen, and that was the reason why they were all so confused. Without allowing, then, the talk which generally increases dangers beyond what they are in themselves, the religious father set out for Sumùlay’s house in order to have an interview with Caucào, as well as for the purpose of examining and exploring the village, in order to see whether there were any ambuscades about it.

16. After he was assured that there were no strange enemies, he went into the presence of the Indian, who received him seated, without showing him the least sign of respect. The father asked him why he came, and he answered haughtily that his cousin Don Andres Màlong, the powerful king of Pangasinàn, looking with love on the Zambal nation, and not desiring [72]to treat them with the greatest rigor of war, sent him to inform them to recognize him as their seignior, and that on that same day some papers were to be read in the church in which that would be intimated; and that the father was to reply to a letter written by his cousin the king, conceding whatever was asked of him, for if he did not do so, it would cost him his life. Another of less valor than father Fray Juan would doubtless have been intimidated at the sight of such arrogance, especially when it be considered that he could not be sure of the people of the village. But the very injustice of the Indian giving the father courage, he said to the chiefs who had accompanied him: “What is this? What is this? Can it be possible to write of the loyalty of Bolinào, that a traitor, sent by a rebel to God, and the king, publicly induces you to insurrection, and that he remain unpunished? Come, seize him. But no, it is to his advantage to have been found in the house of Sumùlay, whose nobility is worthy of this attention. But I warn you, O wretch, that you do not leave the house which serves you as a sanctuary, and that you do not sow any discord in order to pervert the fidelity of the Zambals, until I have answered this letter of your vicious cousin; for if you disobey my order, and these men do not tear you to pieces, I shall be able to send you to Manila laden with irons and chains, where you will pay for your treason on the gallows.”

17. Caucào, Sumùlay, and all the others were full of dismay at hearing the argument of the prior: Caucào, because he thought that the village sided with the Spaniards since the father spoke with so great assurance; Sumùlay, because he imagined the same, [73]and because he thought also that the prior was ignorant of his evil designs, since he spoke so lovingly to him; and the others, because a rumor that had been shortly before cunningly spread to the effect that a fleet was already coming from Manila to punish those who had declared for Màlong, was thus corroborated. For, they argued, if it were not so, a poor religious would not have the courage to do so much. In short the father prior obtained his wish, namely, to puzzle them all in order to gain time. That done, the venerable man retired to his convent quite perplexed. Opening the letter, he beheld that Màlong expressed himself in the same manner as Caucào had done. He deemed best not to answer it, for while he was thinking how he would dismiss the messenger, he was advised that a champan had just anchored in the port, in which were two religious. He proceeded thither in order to receive them, and was met by fathers Fray Juan de Bergàra and Fray Juan de Fisla, who were retiring from Ilòcos, where the rebels were committing innumerable acts of cruelty, and had inhumanly taken the life of father Fray Joseph Arias, all of our observance.

18. He led them to the convent, arranging also that two Spaniards and six Tagálog Indians who could be withdrawn from the champan without their loss being felt therein, should accompany them with firearms. Then seeing that he was in a state of defense if anything should be attempted by the rebels, he had Caucào and Sumùlay summoned. They came at the first notice, but curiosity brought all the people of the village. Then the father tearing the letter of Màlong to pieces in the presence of the multitude, said: “This is the reply merited by such an arrogant [74]method of writing, and especially since it is the letter of a traitor. You,” he proceeded, addressing Caucào, “who have had the shamelessness to come on so insolent an embassy, well merit being sent a prisoner to Manila, and in order that I might do so, God has, perhaps, presented me with this champan. But since you would go to the gallows, the kindness of my estate does not allow me to cooperate in the death of my neighbor. Therefore, get you gone immediately to Binalatòngon, and tell your cousin that I pity him, since the fleet of Manila is already on its way to punish him. Assure him that his threats make me laugh; that his demand for obedience from the Zambal nation is irrational; and that I am sending him his relative Sumùlay in order to increase his army, besides twenty-five Indians of this village, who are, according to appearances, looking upon him with too much affection.” The father designated those persons by name, and added with a show of great anger: “Not a single one of those whom I have just named will remain in Bolinào, under penalty that whoever refuses to obey, he and the one who hides him shall be sent to Manila without fail, where justice will punish his resistance.” Thus did he say, and then turned his back with a show of so great anger that no one dared not to fulfil his orders. On the contrary, all those comprehended in the order, left the village immediately, for they feared the threat of punishment. By that means after thus getting rid of the evil humors of that body politic that troubled it, it remained in its former health, and the great and estimable blessing of peace followed.

19. After the execution of so heroic an action, the father prior endeavored to welcome his new [75]guests, whom he provided with all that was needful for the continuation of their journey to Manila. They set sail December 26, leaving Ours behind especially sad, because we were defenseless if the traitor Màlong attempted any new persecution. They were not deceived in their judgment, for the rebel angered at the lack of effect produced by his letter, sent an order to Don Juan Dùrrey, chief of the hamlet of Agno, to cut off the head of that illustrious man without fail and to send it to him. That chief went to Bolinào accompanied by another valiant Indian, and entered the convent for the feast of the new year. He found the prior praying outside of his cell, and the good religious imagining that he was come to ask aid, began to exhort him especially to be loyal and offered him pardon in the king’s name. God giving force to these words, Dùrrey changed his intention, and refused to kill the father of his spirit. But the Indian who accompanied him, shutting his ears, like an asp, to the voices of health, seeing that his chief would not do the deed, unsheathed a weapon called igua in those parts, and approached quickly in order to strike the father. But since the chiefs of the village who had come to speak with the prior on a matter of moment, entered at the same time, the Indian was completely embarrassed and both of them were greatly confused. Thus can God, by so casual happenings, set a hindrance to even greater fatalities, making use of the very occurrence of secondary causes in order to free His servants from the dangers that threaten them.

20. It appears that Màlong was not entirely satisfied with the order that he had despatched to Dùrrey; for, aroused to anger he also ordered Sumùlay [76]to return to Bolinào in order to cut off the prior’s head, as well as the heads of all the other religious whom he might find there. Sumùlay obeyed instantly, for he was confident that he still had some well inclined to him in the village. He arrived at night, and waiting until the morning of January 3, entered the convent at the time that the venerable minister was about to go out with a rattan staff in his hand in order to go to confess a sick man. Sumùlay attacked him with a short sword, without any waste of arguments. The poor religious, seeing himself involved in the worst kind of a conflict, but infused with valor by the divine hand, beat back the first blows with his cane, and defending himself with it, just as he might have done with the best kind of a sword, seeing that no one came to his aid, passed to the offensive. The cane had a long sharp steel point and the father gave the aggressor so powerful a blow or thrust in the breast, that he brought him to the earth grievously wounded. Then the prior called out, whereupon the village chiefs came up. However, they were remiss in arresting Sumùlay, but on the contrary favored his retreat, and allowed him to go away after he recovered from his wound. Consequently, when the prior returned from his confession (whither he had not omitted to go, despite all the confusion), Sumùlay no longer appeared. The prior had to put a good face on regarding the ill behavior of his parishioners, in order not to put the village in a worse condition, which, at least publicly, did not aid the seditious ones as much as they could have done. [77]

§ III

Arrival of the Manila fleet which was aided by our religious. Destruction of the rebels.

21. Having now related what happened in the villages of Zambàles, and the dangers which our religious suffered, let us turn our eyes toward Manila, and see what preparations the government was taking in order to meet so many depredations. Scarcely had father Fray Bernardino de la Concepcion delivered his messages, when Don Sabiniano Manriquez de Lara, governor of the islands, with extraordinary quickness mustered an army of two hundred Spaniards, besides four hundred other soldiers, consisting of Pampàngos, negroes, mulattoes, and mestizos. As general he appointed the master-of-camp, Francisco de Esteybàr, a Visayan noble, who in addition to his credit as so fine a soldier, appeared a most observant religious in his habits. He was ordered to march overland to Pangasinàn without loss of time. A fleet consisting of four champans, two galleys, and six medium-sized vessels, which were manned with many good soldiers, and a goodly supply of all sorts of firearms were also prepared. This fleet was put in command of General Don Phelipe de Ugalde, who was ordered to set out on the voyage at once, and go to the port of Bolinào, where he was to confer with the father prior, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, whose counsel he was to prize greatly. He was advised that he was not to attempt anything ashore, until the arrival of Esteybàr, and their forces were united.

22. Everything was done in so short a time (to the contrary of what is generally written of Spanish aid), that the father prior was advised by the [78]bantàyes or sentinels at dawn of January 5, that several vessels were seen to be headed to the port, which as was judged from their direction appeared to be from Manila. At nine in the morning the fleet anchored in the port of Bolinào, which is about one-quarter legua from the village. The father prior flew thither, with the rapidity of one who is in search of consolation, for he was most afflicted. Scarcely was he descried on the beach, when the general sent a skiff for him. He was taken by the skiff to the flagship, where he was received with repeated salvos of artillery. All the men expressed mutual joy, which sprung from the bottom of the heart, and were not superficial and born from the habit of deceit. Father Fray Bernardino de la Concepcion returned as chaplain of the fleet, because he urged the father provincial that he might do so, for he considered his absence from the field of battle, where his comrades were accomplishing so much for the crown, dishonorable to his valor in the spiritual militia. When the mutual congratulations which were exchanged between the father prior and those who composed the relief were exhausted, the general gave the former a letter from the governor. It read as follows:

“My Dear Father Fray Juan: Very sad has been the news that we have had here of your Reverence and of the other fathers, and we were even assured that you had all been killed. Consequently, the news from your Reverence served me as a special source of joy, notwithstanding the melancholy information contained therein of those insurrections. I trust implicitly through God that your person will be kept safe for the service of both Majesties. And I hope [79]that that fleet which I have been able to assemble quickly will keep you safe and that it will have your Reverence’s advice which I have ordered the general to receive as you are a person of experience in that district. The army in charge of General Esteybàr is ordered to make forced marches. And next to God, I look for success in all things to your Reverence because you are there. May God preserve you, etc. Manila, January 2, 1661. Don Sabiniano”

23. The general and the prior then discussed many points in regard to the order that was to be followed in the war. It was known that the weapons of the insurgents were poisoned arrows which caused death irremediably no matter how small a wound they made. And although there is not wanting an antidote to counteract that danger, yet that secret is known only by certain Indians who refused to disclose it because they desired the insolent multitude to conquer. But the vigilance of our religious had already shown its foresight in a matter of so great weight, and availing himself of a chief of Bolinào, one Don Antonio Dàcap, he had obtained from him the recipe for making the antidote; and he had even prepared a large quantity of it, which he gave to the general, in order that the latter might distribute it among the men of the fleet, so that they might suffer no harm from the arrows. Ugalde asked for some things which could not be prepared in Manila on account of the haste [of their departure]: namely, bamboo and cowhide for making parapets, small boats for use in shallow water; rice for the crew; spears such as the Indians use, and certain shields or bucklers which are called caràzas, in order to [80]make use of them in default of the firearms. He was provided with all that he asked immediately. After these arrangements were made, the father prior advised the general, notwithstanding the forced delay of the army as it was coming overland, to go immediately with his fleet to the port of Suàl; for although he could not begin operations until the arrival of Esteybàr, yet his appearance with his vessels in Pangasinàn in sight of Lingayèn, would be of great use in terrifying the rebels, and in encouraging the loyal.

24. The general did so, and although the prior desired to accompany the fleet, the former would not consent, alleging as a reason therefor that since Bolinào was so important a post, its conservation was considered necessary, and the presence of the father religious was inevitable for that, and also to provide the fleet with necessities in the accidents of war. On that ever propitious and sacred day of the Epiphany, after mass had been said, which was celebrated in the flagship by the father prior, the fleet left the port of Bolinào. At five in the afternoon it came within sight of Lingayèn, to the joy of the religious of St. Dominic, who had retired there from almost all of Pangasinàn, as it was the least exposed place. Until that moment they had been besieged by constant frights. The general did not dare to go ashore, as many crowds of people were seen on the beach, who appeared to be hostile; as well as because he had yet no news of the army, without which he had orders not to do anything, and he had no forces for that. On that account the fleet kept tacking to windward on one tack and another for the space of three days. But at the end of that time, a felucca was seen to [81]cross the bar of Lingayèn headed toward the flagship. The father vicar of the said village came aboard and informed the general that the Indians of that district, although they had risen, were maintained in their insurrection with great difficulty, and that without making pacts or contracts, desired to surrender to the piety of the king, according to the arrangements that he had already discussed with the chiefs. Consequently, in his opinion, the men could disembark without the slightest fear.

25. A council of war was called to discuss the matter. The said father vicar, and the father chaplain, Fray Bernardino de la Concepcion, were given a vote with the others, as was right. All were of the opinion that the general should land with all his soldiers in order that he might place himself in a position of defense for whatever might happen. But that was unnecessary, for the Indians received him with the greatest proofs of surrender, and from that time the village of Lingayèn, which is the capital of the province, was one of the most safe villages. The rebels who were there fled, as they were fearful of punishment. But at that same time, the sedition was very much alive in the rest of the province; for Màlong treated those who refused obedience to him with the utmost rigor unless they had forces with which to resist him. This rigor was seen in his native place Binalatòngan, which he reduced to ashes, and allowed his soldiers to sack, as the Indians fearful of the Spaniards opposed his purposes. In Ilòcos and Cagayàn, the provinces lying next to Pangasinàn, was another Indian Don Juan Manzàno, who acted as Màlong’s agent, and who was general of his armies. He burned villages, killed [82]Indians, and reduced everything to the most fatal pass, because he claimed that they denied obedience to our king.

26. On that account, Ugalde knew that the sword would be necessary in order to cut the gordian knot of so obstinate an insurrection. He, believing that since the Zambals were so valiant and were especially experienced in the mountains, where the rebels had their haunts, they could be of great use to the army, wrote the father prior of Bolinào to procure a goodly levy of them, and send them out as soldiers, with the assurance that he would give them help. That famous hero went through the villages of Zambàles with the greatest diligence, and collected about three hundred of the most faithful, valiant, and well-intentioned Indians. They, furnished with their accustomed arms, and the above-mentioned Don Antonio Dàcap, being appointed master-of-camp with the necessary captains (whose titles the general confirmed, as did afterward the governor, as a payment for their good services) were despatched to Lingayèn, where they arrived on the eighteenth of January. And in order that the joy of the fleet might be complete, on the afternoon of that same day, the desired news was received that the army of Esteybàr had entered the district of Pangasinàn without having met any considerable disaster in its difficult march. Thereupon, Ugalde arranged his troops, in order to go to join him. When the two armies were united they began to work together. They attacked Màlong first, and after several engagements, the traitor was obliged to retire together with those who remained of his men, to certain inaccessible mountains, where they imagined that they would be safe. [83]But here the valor of the Zambals shone forth, for directed by father Fray Bernardino who never deserted them, they pursued the rebels through crag and thicket, so that they compelled them, defiling gradually one after the other, to surrender. Finally Màlong himself fell into an ambush which was boldly set for him, and he was seized on February 6 whereupon the Pangasinàn war ended.

27. But in order not to leave this matter without conclusion, we must add that our army, immediately increased by some companies of Pangasinans (a nation that declared itself entirely favorable to the Spaniards as soon as Màlong was defeated), resolved after holding a council of war to go immediately to Ilòcos for the purpose of destroying Manzano. But he with few men because many had been lost in several frays, retired to some desolate places where he built a fort. Our captains attacked him, however, full in front, and inspired by their example the soldiers and Indians, and conquered him. Many of the enemy were slaughtered, and we on our side did not fail to lose many, because the resistance was especially obstinate. Manzano escaped thence with some few of his men, and hid in certain mountains, but the Zambals, Pangasinans, and Cagayans pursued him, and finally, the justice of our arms prevailed. For, in order that no spark might be left which might kindle a new fire, he was also seized on March 22. Thus was that difficult war ended, which had caused Manila many terrors, for it caused not a few fears to the Spaniards. Thereupon, the provinces continued to become pacified. The governor Don Sabiniano, in obedience to the action of the royal Audiencia, despatched a commissary-general of causes, so [84]that, forming a tribunal together with Esteybàr, Ugalde, and other necessary ministers, he might make a process in regard to those who had been most active among the rebels; and after giving such persons the necessary punishment, publish a general pardon, which would comprehend the remainder. It was reported then that the judges proceeded with too great rigor, but I should not be so bold as to impute that guilt to them, for they aimed to spread a warning, without it ceasing to be very necessary.

28. The least thing that was seen in the disorders of so unjust a rebellion was the deaths that were caused, notwithstanding that they were numerous. There was seen vengeance clothed with zeal; ambition usurping the staff of justice; tyranny proclaiming liberty; treason applauded with adoration; and he who never knew the law of reason, making laws. There were seen thefts, conflagrations, profanations of the temples, persecutions, scorn, and the evangelical ministers killed sacrilegiously; the Catholic religion abandoned in great part; and the door opened to apostasy and infidelity. For what time, then, is the purpose of inexorable justice, if it is not applied at such a time? That was no sickness that could be cured by mild means when only iron and fire were found capable of reëstablishing that vast body in health, rigor exercised there being a preservative medicine for the rest. And if, perchance, any innocent one paid what he did not owe, one must reflect that public vengeance was inflicted by the hands of men, who, although they try to work with equity, are after all only men, and that they would cease to be men, if they proceeded without the least defect in all things. At last among many others who suffered [85]the last punishment, Màlong was shot in Lingayèn, Caucào hanged in Binalatòngan, Sumùlay in Bolinào, Sìrray in Masingloc, Dùrrey in Agno, and Manzàno, in the village of Bacàrra, killed himself in order to escape the hand of the hangman. But if some of them left the marks of treason in the Zambal nation, which is ever valiant and loyal to the king, most of them in number and rank, washed away that stain more than clean. Everything yielded the great praise to the discalced Augustinians, who were able, by their exhortations, to restrain and maintain the loyalty of so many Indians of their districts, despising for that purpose many perils.

§ IV

Relation of the insurrection of the Sangleys or Chinese and how our religious aided in bringing about peace and victory.

29. Outside the walls of the city of Manila, under the cannon of the plaza, there is a very thickly populated settlement called the Parién, where a large number of Chinese live. Those people are known there under the name of Sangleys. Although heathen they have been allowed to reside there for the sake of commerce and because they are employed in almost all the mechanical trades. It cannot be denied that that nation fomented and maintained with aid and cunning the rebellions of the Indians which we have just related. That is apparent, because, when the alcalde-mayor Don Francisco Pulido was killed in Pangasinàn, some Sangleys were found among the rebels, who contrived that under cover of the small boats they might capture the large vessel where the alcalde-mayor was defending his [86]life very gallantly; and on the arrival of our naval fleet to explore the beach of Lingayèn, there were seen there many armed men, consisting of Sangleys and Indians, as is affirmed by Father Santa Cruz, in volume 2 of his Dominican history of the Philipinas.2 But it is still more fully shown by the many bodies of Sangleys which were found in the field whenever there was an engagement with the rebels, for on all occasions they served the Indians as auxiliaries. Let us examine the motive for the Chinese taking part in a war that concerned them so little.

[Here follows a brief description of China and an account of the victories of the Tartars about this time, the alliance of the pirate Kuesing with the legitimate Chinese king Junglie, and following the latter’s death, the retreat of the pirate to Formosa whence he expels the Dutch. His design to make the conquest is also related, and his embassy by Father Victorio Riccio to Manila, demanding “prompt vassalage, and a huge tribute from the islands, and threatening the most bloody war if Spaniards and Indians did not obey this obligation and recognize him as king.” The Chinese in Manila, hating the Tartars and favorable to Kuesing, begin to raise disturbances. Their anger is also further aroused by a commercial treaty between the Spaniards and the Tartar emperor of China. But little attention is paid to the Chinese of the Parián, however, but both interior and exterior fortifications are strengthened and constructed in case of an attack by Kuesing. The narrative continues:] [87]

34. For this purpose some scaffolds were built outside the wall so that the pioneers might work comfortably. This, which was a means for fortification, might, had not the divine aid intervened, have been the cause of the loss of the city, the center of the faith in Assia and a firm column of the Catholic religion. For the Sangleys determined with the utmost secrecy not to let the opportunity slip, but, on the contrary, to seize time by the forelock, and to climb in great numbers by night by means of those scaffolds which were not guarded in proportion to the danger. They thought that if they did so, and first gained the wall by an unexpected and furtive rush they could obtain the mastery of the city immediately without any opposition. In fact they would have planned well had it not been that God tied their hands. It happened, then, that the father sacristan of our convent going down one morning to arrange the altar of the Santo Ecce Homo (an image of which mention was made in volume iii,3 as well as the great devotion that Governor Don Sabiniano had for it), found at its divine feet a message reading as follows: “Governor, guard thy city, for they are trying to take thee by surprise.” The sacristan immediately put that message into the hands of the father prior. The latter, considering that no one had to hide himself in order to give such advice, (for, if it were true, any person would be assured of a not small reward), he formed the concept that that notice came from the hand of God; and above all that it would be well to inform the governor of it. [88]For where there are so many enemies, the most careful watch is none too much.

35. Consequently, he took the message to the governor, to whom he told the manner in which he had found it. The prudent superior not only esteemed the caution, but he doubled his care and vigilance by visiting the walls and sentinels hourly. But on the morning of the following day, another more detailed paper was found in the same place, which read as follows: “Governor, guard thy city. Remove the scaffoldings from the walls, and do not trust anyone, for the enemy are very near thee.” The father prior also took that message to the governor, alleging that because of his quality as a good vassal, he could not avoid giving him that annoyance. But the governor was not annoyed but instead thanked him again and again, and in his presence had an adjutant, one Don Joseph Zamora, summoned, and ordered the latter to remove the scaffolding of the walls, and double the guards in all the posts. It was afterwards learned how important the arrangement that has been practiced had been, for it was discovered when the deserved punishment was meted out to the insurgents that the surprise of the city was to have been attempted on the night following that day, but that they had not succeeded because what was to have served them as a ladder had been removed.

36. The Sangleys seeing the destruction of their designs, resolved, at the beginning of the year 1662, to arm suddenly one day, with the weapons which came first to hand, and to take the city openly, for they trusted too much to their valor. There is a gate in the city called the gate of the Parián, which gives [89]on the Sangley settlement, and innumerable numbers of that nation enter the city through it hourly. They would find it easy if some of them were to make themselves masters of this gate, for the others to enter the city armed. By a special Providence of God, as brother Fray Diego de Santa Ana, one of our religious lay-brothers, went to adjust an account with a certain Sangley, on the morning of the day on which they had resolved to make the attack, he observed that the Chinese were in great disorder, and he even heard some words indicative of arrogance, and that they were premeditating some sedition. The brother understood the Chinese language somewhat, and having conceived the said suspicion, he went about the Parián carefully and joined in conversation cunningly with several Sangley acquaintances. By that means originated the confirmation of his fears. He advised a captain of everything, who took him into the presence of the governor so that he might inform the latter. Upon receiving that information, the guards of the gates and of the walls were doubled without any confusion, and most opportune orders were given secretly for the artillerymen and soldiers to be prepared to resist any attack.

37. Scarce six o’clock could have struck, when the Sangleys advanced to the gate of the city in a confused mass, with such violence that doubtless they would have gained it, had our men not been so prepared for its defense. With the regular discharge of the artillery, and with the muskets of the guards, many of them were killed. At that misfortune the others retired as furiously as they had begun the attack. But honoring our discalced religious greatly [90]the governor was wont to say whenever he saw brother Fray Diego, that next to the patronage of the Santo Ecce Homo, the defense of the city was due to his opportune advice. The enemy having been repulsed in this manner, a portion of them, about two thousand, threw themselves into the river in order to cross it. About three hundred of them having perished there, the others fled to the mountains. As they passed it, they left our convent and church of San Sebastian reduced to ashes. Its building had been finished but a short time before, as it had been burned during another insurrection. It could not but cause time and trouble to reduce those rebels, but it was accomplished at last although accompanied with the shedding of much blood. They were pursued on one side by the Pampango Indians and on the other by the Zambals, who were led and captained by our religious. The remaining Sangleys, who reached the number of ten thousand, took their stand on the field in front of the walls, thus causing not a little anxiety to Manila. But they were so disposed that, anticipating a general pardon, conceded by the governor, with the exception of some few leaders, before nightfall they were all subdued, and that troubled sea was totally calm.

38. Father Palanco,4 a Dominican, declared very truly in the memorial which he presented to the king, on that rebellion of the Sangleys, “that all the Orders worked and aided with singular vigilance on that occasion exposing their lives to the service of both Majesties.” For the individuals of all the orders [91]endeavored to excel, as ever, in their zeal and deeds, now by taking arms to go to the defense of the walls, just as the most ordinary soldier might do; now imploring divine clemency with supplications and prayers; and anon assisting with advice and information. But there is no doubt that, as is inferred from the abovesaid, our Recollects had a great share in that victory, and that they shared considerably in the dangers of the war. Thus are they able without failing in their obligations as evangelical ministers, to serve their earthly king on all occasions, as professors of both militias.

[Sections v–vii relate the lives of various Recollects, both priests and lay-brothers, who died in Spanish convents at this time. No one of them had been in the Philippine missions.]

§ I

The missions of the Contracosta, whither the preaching has spread, are received into our province of Philipinas, and four convents are founded.

64. [The Philippines, says our author, may be regarded as the limits of the earth, and hence the text of Isaias xviii, 2, may be regarded as spoken of the Philippines, in which the gospel is to be published.]

65. In obedience to the insinuation of that text, even before the roots necessary for its subsistence had been fixed our discalced congregation despatched apostolic missionaries to the above-mentioned islands, in order that they might be illumined by the splendors of the evangelical doctrine, and enriched by the examples of its angelic perfection. It was not content with that first squadron, for the undertaking commenced has been prosecuted at various times, and a great number of its sons have been sacrificed to an undertaking as arduous as useful. We have already seen in the preceding volumes, the greatness of their actions in the conversion of the most terrible peoples of that archipelago, in Zambàles, Carahaga, Calamiànes, and the islands of Romblòn. In this volume we shall treat of the spread of the faith, which was extended into other villages, a proof that new zeal has ever been gathered, also born of the salvation of their neighbors. But at present we shall speak of a new field, which was handed over to the cultivation of our ever sure workers in the island of Luzòn and the Contracosta of Manila. And although [93]that field was abandoned afterwards for lack of evangelical ministers, there is no reason why endeavors so meritorious should be forgotten. Let our pen, therefore, be busied in the relation of these labors.

66. The island of Luzòn, which is the largest and chiefest of the Philipinas, has the appearance of an arm somewhat bent, according to the description of father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio.5 It has a circumference of more than four hundred Spanish leguas, and lies between twelve and nineteen degrees of latitude. Not far from the point of San Tiago, which we shall pretend to be the elbow of this arm, journeying thence toward cape Bogeador, lies the great bay of Manila, in the center of which this city is located. It is the capital of all the possessions of the Spanish scepter in these islands. Lapping the walls of Manila is a large river which empties at that place into the sea. By it one ascends to the Lake of Bay, and on the opposite shore of that lake one finds the village of Sinilòan. Thence to the port of Lampòn, which is located on the Contracosta of Manila, and comes to be as it were, inside of the arm, one need only pass the mountains of Daraètan, and Cabòan, which is a crossing of five or six leguas. Consequently, in order to go by sea from Manila to the port of Lampòn, one must sail about one hundred and forty leguas; but by ascending the river and crossing over the lake to Sinilòan, and crossing the mountains of Daraètan and Cabòan there is scarce twenty leguas of distance.

67. In the environs, then, of the port of Lampòn, [94]following the coast opposite the bay of Manila, are the districts of Binangònan, Balèr, Casigùran, and Palànan composed of various villages and collections of huts. The first three belonged at first to the alcaldeship or province of Mindòro. Since in the year 1588, the discalced Franciscan fathers Fray Estevan Ortiz and Fray Juan de Pòrras were destined to that jurisdiction, they gathered most seasonable fruits in the above-mentioned districts, having sown there the seed of the Catholic name. However, having been called to other parts by their obedience, they could not further the Church in those districts, much as they desired it. The venerable martyr, Fray Francisco de Santa Maria, completed the perfection of the work, by forming the three above-mentioned missions with a sufficient number of the faithful who were withdrawn from the darkness of paganism by the influences of a zeal so seraphic. Afterwards other workers of the same family extended their missions down the beach toward the province of Cagayàn or Nueva Segovia, and founded the village and district of Palànan. With that there were four missions situated on that Contracosta, and the Franciscan province kept the administration of them in their own hands for many years. They hoped that, although there were but few people and conveniences, as the mountains which were peopled by pagans were near by, they could continue ever to increase the flock of Christ, as they did do without ceasing, the sword of the evangelical preaching fencing with the advantage gained by repeated triumphs.6

68. But since in this time with which the history [95]is concerned, the boat of the above-mentioned province found itself with a great quantity of fish in its nets, and with few fishers in its number for the support of the work, they called to their aid the individuals of our holy province. Nothing more than a sign was necessary to make them hasten thither, expressing their thanks for the opportunity. Although I have been unable to ascertain the year with certainty, I have foundation for the conjecture that in the chapter celebrated in the year 1662, the Franciscan fathers invited our Recollect family to take the above-mentioned missions of the Contracosta. They alleged that they were unable to attend to so many villages, whose care devolved upon them, because of the lack of religious. They promised to cede those missions to the Recollects, and not to retain any right of reversion. Those missions were not very desirable, both because of the wretchedness of the earth, and because of the small number of tributes that they contained. For, although they had increased greatly with the new conversions, they only contained 4,800 Christian souls in the year 1738, as was asserted by the historian of that seraphic province.7 But our Recollect order has obtained a writ which was gained in Philipinas to occupy the least profitable posts so far as earth is concerned, but the most meritorious in the heavens. Consequently, those zealous fathers received that work immediately, and forthwith assigned evangelical ministers to cultivate the new vineyard, increasing the rational vines in it with the care and zeal which the seraphic workers had managed to exert thitherto. [96]

69. In consequence of this, the province chose father Fray Benito de San Joseph, Fray Francisco de San Joseph, and Fray Clemente de San Nicolàs, with three others whose names we have been unable to discover. They took formal charge of the districts and founded the following convents. Near the bay and port of Lampòn, somewhat inland toward the mountain, is located the village of Binangònan, and there the first house and church was established with the title of San Guillermo. Two religious were left there. The Tagálog language is spoken in that territory, although it belongs to the province of Tayàbas and to the bishopric of Camarìnes, or as it is called, Nueva Càceres. The ministers assigned to that village attended to various scattered collections of huts along the bays of Lampòn and Umirèy, as well as to the reduction of the infidels which extends along the neighboring mountains for the distance of twelve or fourteen leguas. Going thence following the coast to the north, one meets the river and village of Valèr. Another convent was founded there, titular and patron of which was St. Nicholas of Tolentino. It belongs to the same language, province, and bishopric, as the other. Only one religious was stationed there, although afterward, according to the times, two lived there. They tended to the mission which was very laborious because of its size, and labored in the conversion of the Aetas, heathen of the neighboring mountains, which allow passage from Valèr to the province of Pampànga through the territory of Patabàngan and Santòr, by a not long, but very rough road.

70. Sailing along the same coast toward Cape Engaño one comes to the bay of Casigùran, which [97]has a circumference of twelve leguas. On its shore is located the village of the same name. The third convent was erected there and was given the title of our father St. Augustine. It belongs also to the Tagálog language, the province of Tayàbas, and the bishopric of Camarìnes. Two religious resided there generally, and sometimes three, for they extended their administration to many leguas of coast, and their zeal for the spread of the faith to the extensive mountains near by, which being filled with Aètas, blacks, and Calìngas heathen gave worthy although most toilsome occupation to the messengers of the law of grace. From one extremity of the bay of Casigùran, the point called San Ildephonso protrudes three leguas seaward. At its head end the province of Tayàbas and the bishopric of Camarìnes. Having doubled that point, and after one has navigated ten or twelve leguas northward one comes to the village and district of Palànan, which belongs to the bishopric and province of Cagayàn or Nueva Segovia. The fourth convent is founded there, and bears the title of Santa Maria Magdalena. And although all the religious who could be assigned to that mission illumined it, considering the lack of them from which this holy province usually suffers, yet notwithstanding this, it could always be said that the harvest was great and the laborers few. For besides the Christians already reduced, the fathers had to contend with an innumerable number of heathen who overran the neighboring mountains for a distance of more than thirty leguas from the point of San Ildephonso to Cape Engaño.

71. I assert that I have several times heard from fathers Fray Valero de San Salvador and Fray Silvestre [98]de la Purificacion (who passed a considerable portion of their well-employed lives in those missions, and whom I knew in Manila, and who attained a venerable and exemplary age) that from the admission of that territory by our province to the year 1704, the multitude of infidels who were turned by the preaching of our brothers from the unhappy liberty of paganism to the mild yoke of the Catholic faith, was vast. For, notwithstanding that there were three or four epidemics in all those villages in the above-named period, which occasioned the death of an excessive portion of the old Christians, the settlements were replaced by those newly converted. Consequently, the lack was not observed, for the same number of tributes were collected for the king during the latter years as during the first. This same thing is attested by the documents and depositions that I have before me, which designate the Recollect religious who lived on the Contracosta with the character of laborers in the living missions because of the many souls that their apostolic zeal drew to the sheepfold of the Church.

72. But notwithstanding that, the fruit must have caused entire consolation as it was so visible, and given greater earnestness to continue. That fatal interruption of missions in which no workers of our Recollect family passed to Philipinas from España from the year 1692 to that of 1710, having occurred, the province found it impossible to give, as it had done hitherto six or eight religious for those missions because their exhaustion made them needed for other missions. Although our brothers were more than men in their zeal, in material work they could do nothing more than men. Therefore, it was impossible [99]to look after so great an employ as they had in their charge, since they had so few subjects. And already it is seen that if necessity obliged them to abandon any district, it must be that of the Contracosta. They did not regard that as a conquest proper, but as received in trust. It was so, for in the provincial chapter held in the year 1704, after that apostolic province had possessed those doctrinas and convents for more than forty years, it was resolved to abandon them all, and return them to their first masters, the religious of St. Francis, as they could not attend to their administration. Those seraphic workers, learning the reason; took new charge of those souls in order to attend to them with the bread of the instruction. On this account, the above-mentioned convents do not now belong to the order, and the villages of the Contracosta are not in our charge. But the narration of the so plausible readinesss practiced by our oldtime heroes has been deemed indispensable. In due time, namely, the year 1703, when the prodigious life of the venerable mantelata8 Juana de Jesus, whose virtue sprang from the teaching of our religious, is related, one will see that with that fruit alone all their evangelical attempts can be considered as well employed.

[The second and last section of this chapter deals with the life of Fray Agustin de San Ildephonso, who died in the convent of Toboso, Spain, during this year 1662. He was never in the Philippines.]

[Section i of chapter iii treats of the seventh general chapter of the order, which was held in Alcalá de Henares in 1663. Sections ii and iii narrate the [100]life of Fray Juan de San Antonio, an ex-provincial of the Philippines. Born of a noble family in Granada, he early showed great precocity and attained proficiency in his studies while very young. Being strongly called to the religious life he entered the Recollect convent at Granada, September 13, 1617, at the age of twenty and professed the following year. After a short course in theology he went to Mexico in 1619, whence after another course in theology in that city he was sent to Manila, where he was ordained priest after a third theological course, in 1621. The following year found him master of novitiates in Manila convent. Although his parents obtained permission for him to return to Spain, in 1624, he preferred to remain in the field which he had chosen. That same year he was prior of the convent of Igaquet and was later occupied in many missions, especially in Calamianes. In 1635 he was elected definitor, and desirous of preaching the gospel in Japan, made two attempts to penetrate that empire, both of which were failures, the second time sickness not even allowing him to leave the Philippines. He was elected prior of Manila convent in 1638 and after his three years’ term worked again in the missions of Calamianes and composed two hooks in the language of that district, one of moral sermons and the other an explanation of the catechism. In 1644 he was elected provincial almost by acclamation. His term was a busy one, and a number of churches and convents were erected during it. During the disastrous earthquake of 1645, he rendered distinct service. He began the repair of the Recollect church and convent of Manila, which had been partially destroyed by the earthquake. [101]At the end of his term he retired to his cell in Manila, but became implicated in some way with the civil-religious troubles that rose during the governorship of Diego Faxardo, and he was arrested in 1651 and sent to Marivelez. With the change of government, he returned to Manila, and then retired to the Cavite convent, where he died from an illness in January 1663. He was pure minded and austere in his devotions. The fourth and last section of this chapter narrates the life of a Recollect who died in 1663 at the convent of Zaragoza, Spain.]

[Chapter iii recounts the lives of three Recollect religious who died in the year 1664, only the first of whom was in the Philippines. This was Fray Joseph de la Anunciacion, and his life is discussed in the first two sections. He was born in Madrid and took the Recollect habit in that city, October 8, 1615. He was chosen for the Philippine missions and arrived at Manila in 1623. Most of his work in the islands was as Spanish preacher, and his work lay principally in the convents of Manila, San Juan, San Sebastian, Cavite, and Cebú. He did considerable work among the native Filipinos, the Chinese, mestizos, negroes, and mulattoes, ever in the Spanish language, but he was able to adapt himself well to their degree of intelligence. His preaching was especially effective in the city of Cebú which was more densely populated in his time than a century later. His influence was far reaching among all classes. Twice he was elected provincial of his order—April 8, 1635, and May 7, 1650. His terms were active and productive of good work. Recollects began their work in the island of Romblon under his directions, and he attempted to send missionaries [102]to Japan. During his term also Recollects were successful in pacifying many disaffected districts. His death occurred in the Cebú convent of which he was prior at the time.]

§ I

Abridged relation of the persecutions of our holy faith in Philipinas, from the year 1640 to the year under consideration, 1668, and which are not mentioned in the preceding volumes.

307. He who would like to know what manner of province is ours in Philipinas and its height of love to God and its neighbor, which that Lord has given to it, who is so well able to inculcate charity, must not be governed only by the immense zeal of its individuals in alluring souls into the sheepfold of the Church but as well by the continual persecutions which they have suffered in order that they might maintain that field of Christendom in the purity of the faith, despising their lives at each step in order to preserve it. The lack of fear of death, by which those valiant soldiers of the God of armies have sustained the field of battle against all the power of the gates of hell, is doubtless one of the greatest of miracles which divine Providence has hung in its temple in this world, to the no small glory of these provinces of España, that have become such marvels of charity through so good milk, that they consider [103]and have considered it an honor to suffer and even to die, in order to defend that harassed church. Many events in confirmation of this truth are drawn With most accurate brush in the preceding volumes of this history. By them one may see that our brothers have left us examples worthy of imitation by incessantly placing in practice the highest perfection of exposing their lives to death for the assistance and consolation of certain poor Indians, that they might encourage them in the continual invasions of the Moros. But notwithstanding the great skill that accompanied the painters of so idealistic canvasses, I find in a lower degree not a few pictures worthy of immortality, for without doubt the colors of the notices were lacking, which are so indispensable to form the pictures in the painting of history. I having obtained trustworthy relations of the many misfortunes that assaulted our fields of Christendom and their directors from the year 1640 until the present of 1668, which is under consideration, it would not be laudable to leave such trophies buried in forgetfulness, although the copy, which would have been most accurate if done by the brushes of the other writers, be disfigured.

308. To continue; Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuèra, governor of Philipinas, thought that by building and garrisoning some strongholds in Tolò [i.e., Joló], an island which is given over to the perfidy of Mahomet and is the nesting place of the robbers of the whole archipelago, he could restrain its inhabitants by preventing them from going to our villages with their fleets as they had done until that time, with the sequel of innumerable depredations. He put that idea into practice in the [104]year 1638, after the conclusion of the war with the koran, in the beginning of which when the sword was drawn the scabbard was thrown away. But neither his valor nor that diligence were sufficient for the attainment of his end. For in the year 1640, now by the Joloans themselves, and now by means of the Borneans their allies, and now by making use of their vassals who inhabited the adjacent islands, they tried to find in sea surprises some betterment of their fortune or some havoc by which to temper it. With that object they attacked missions belonging to our reformed order both boldly and treacherously in the districts of Calamiànes, Butuàn, and Cagayang; and it is a fact that we always had the worst of it in those wars. They committed depredations very much to their liking, with the boldness that their greed gave them and with the severity which their hatred to the evangelical law inspired in them. The captives who were taken in our villages on that occasion numbered three hundred and more. The churches were ruined, the holy images profaned, the evangelical ministers became fugitives in the mountains, the sheep were scattered as their shepherds could not attend to them with their watchful eye, the villages were reduced to ashes, and all of those fields of Christendom became the necessary object of the most bitter lamentation.

309. They did almost the same thing in the three following years, and there was no means of taking worthy satisfaction from enemies so inhuman who, like wild and hellish beasts, destroyed a great portion of the rich patrimony of Christ which had flourished in that country under the care of our discalced order. The devastation was so general that it appears to have been presaged by heaven with very extraordinary [105]portents. For on the fourth day of January, 1640, a volcano suddenly burst forth in the island of Sanguiz, not far from the cape of San Agustin in the island of Mindanao, which showed very rare and unusual results. For the ashes, rocks, and burning material which it cast up traveled for many leguas as far as Zebù. Noises like artillery were heard, which caused the Spanish garrisons to get under arms, and the day grew dark from ten in the morning, so that it seemed pitch black night. The same thing happened in another volcano in an islet opposite the bar of the river of Jolò. There was a furious hurricane in the island of Luzòn up toward the province of Ilòcos in the part where the Igolòtes live. That hurricane was followed by the most frightful earthquake, and the earth swallowed up three inaccessible mountains with as many settlements which were located at the foot of the mountains, and in the space left a large lake was formed. Such was the noise at the dislocation of the huge mass of those mountains, that it was heard not only in all the Philipinas Islands and in Malùco but also in the kingdoms of Cochinchina, China, and Cambòja, throughout a circumference of more than nine hundred leguas. So great was the persecution that it was believed to have been announced by the so great heaping together of surprises and misfortunes.9 [106]

310. But the time when the Moros gave full rein to their barbaric fury, was from the beginning of the year 1645, for then they were freed from the terror that had been caused them by Corcuèra who had just been succeeded in the government of the islands by the master-of-camp Don Diego Fajardo. The arrival also of two ships well manned with Dutchmen at Jolò and which had been asked for by Prince Salicàla, the heir to the scepter, for the purpose of destroying the strongholds which the Spaniards held in the said island, gave them at that time a motive for employing greater power in their piracies. Although the commandant of those strongholds, Don Estevan de Orella Hugalde, caused the enemy to return to their factories badly the losers, and without having obtained the end of their attempt, the Joloans were able, through their protection, to launch three squadrons which filled our villages with fear and confusion. It is no new thing in that continent for the heretics to lend arms to the pagans and to the Mahometans in order to put down the Christian name. A savage end it is to pit themselves for the private ends of trade and in a religious war, on the side of the koran and of idolatry, which they themselves condemn, against the gospel, which they persecute with fury. The three fleets went out then, for their campaign, and not having anyone to oppose them, the [107]enemy filled their boats with what they called spoils, took about two hundred captives, persecuted our religious as ever, with mortal hate, and destroyed fifteen villages, almost all of them of our spiritual administration, and they filled Calamiànes especially with bitterness and grief.

311. The Dutch were not content with protecting the Moros, in order that they might persecute the name of Christ, but they themselves tried to drive that name from all that archipelago. Among all the disunited members of the Spanish monarchy, which the Dutch have endeavored to cut off from it, (in order that their power might wax more formidable at the expense of another) they have ever cast their eyes on the honorable and wealthy dominion of the Philipinas Islands. That country is such for their designs and trade, that better could not be desired: both because from there they were assured of all the trade of China, Japòn, Cochinchina, Cambòja, and the Malùcas; and because they were guaranteed the best woods for the building of their ships that can be found on the whole round earth. For that reason, the Dutch have left no stone unturned in all times if it pertained to the maxim of their desire, as can be deduced from several passages which are to be found in the previous decades and are necessary for the intelligence of the history that is treated in them.10 The year, then, of 1646, they were seen with fifteen warships. With five of them they [108]besieged the district of Playahònda, while seven of them were stationed in the Embocadero or strait of San Bernardino, and the remaining three filled the islands of the Pintados with fear. Our villages of Masìnloc, Iba, Marivèlez, Romblòn, Bantòn, and Surigào, suffered more harm and vexation than usual, of which the greater part touched the religious ministers.

312. Two galleons left Cavìte and fought first with five ships and twice afterwards with seven, and obtained three victories which were clearly miraculous. For they destroyed the enemy, without receiving any special damage, and the enemy were compelled to abandon their attempts for the nonce. Although father Fray Balthassar de Santa Cruz attributes all of the prodigy to Our Lady of the Rosary with sufficient foundation,11 we, while confessing the might of so holy a warrior, must suggest that St. Nicholas of Tolentino had no small part in it, whom the soldiers, persuaded by two Recollects, as is mentioned in volume 3 of this history, who served as chaplains in our small fleet, also invoked as the sworn patron of those seas.12 But under shelter of the Dutch enemy, who continued their attempts with no more success the two following years, the Moros, always emboldened, transgressed all bounds, attacking ceaselessly the villages of the Spanish dominion. For, although Corralàt, king of Mindanào, kept quiet during so dangerous a season for reasons of his own convenience, and had even acted as mediator so that [109]Butria Bòngso, king of Jolò should make peace with our arms, which was done April 14, 1646, none of all that was sufficient to give quiet to that field of Christendom. Mahometan perfidy took the pretext that the Joloan Prince Salicàla and Paguyàn Cachile, prince of the Guinbanos,13 and seignior of Tuptup in Bornèy, should refuse to sign the peace. With that excuse those princes, aided in secret by those kings, peopled the sea with boats and caused unspeakable damage to Calamiànes, Camiguìn, and Romblòn.

313. That was not the only fatal consequence that followed from those inhuman premises which were set by the Dutch. For if we had thitherto seen the aliens fighting against the faith, from the year 1649 the very sons of the Church worked for its destruction. The Dutch incited the Indians, already Christian and subject, to withdraw themselves from the mild yoke of Spain, the country which had drawn them from the darkness of paganism, and kept them on the road to salvation. Nor were they deaf to the voices filled with the fraud most difficult to recognize, for since they carried the agreeable sound of liberty, they secretly induced them to undergo the most tyrannical subjection; and God permitting by His secret judgments excessive flights to audacity and shamelessness for the credit of the virtuous and the crown of the just; the most cowardly of nations were seen with surprise and the nakedness of the Indians was armed against the invincible sword of the Spaniards. The insurrection began in the village of Palapàg in the province of Hibabào in the island of Sàmar, whence the good outcome of the first action [110]traveling on the wings of unsteady report, found minds so ready throughout the islands of Pintàdos, that (just as if the counsel were common, and they were only awaiting the signal in order to do it), the temples were burned in many places, and sacred things profaned. The evangelical ministers fled, and the rebels retiring to the loftiest mountains, imagined that they could defend their former barbarity there.

314. Our reformed order had enough things to bewail in those revolutions; for in addition to the tragedies of Linao, which are related in volume 3,14 the villages of Cagayàng, Camiguin, Hingòog, Romblòn, Bantòn, and Cibuyàn added wood to the fire of the sedition. If the promised help of the Dutch had come over and above the boldness of the Indians, it is inferred that what had taken so many years to conquer would have been lost in a few days. But God who always punishes as a father those who try to serve Him, measured the times so accurately, that amid the echoes of the insurrection, the proclamations of the peace which had been arranged between España and Olanda resounded in Manila. With that the Catholic arms were freed from their chastisement, and all things returned to their pristine quiet. That was not the case with the Moros, who were then and for many years after, the perennial enemies of that afflicted field of Christianity. Barbarously blinded in their treacherous gains as if it were a thing done, they made a practice of going every year to take captives in the islands of our administration, often outraging the temples sacrilegiously and not a single one that was near the beach [111]escaped profanation and they utterly abused everything intended for religious worship, with great scorn to the name of Christian. They cut the sacred vestments, into robes and other garments [capisayos], and they destined the ciboriums and sacred chalices to the dirty use of their wine, tobacco, and buyo.

315. But it did not so happen, I return to say. For notwithstanding that they were a terror every year from that of 1649 to 1655 because of their piracies, now in some and now in other parts, they remained without the due punishment although so sacrilegious insults demanded it so justifiably. Without fear of our arms, they overran those seas at will, trusting their security to their swiftness; for their boats were built on purpose for piracy, and ours compared to theirs of lead. It happened not once only that they were taken because of carelessness between the bars of the rivers with forces sufficient to make one consider their destruction sure; but they got out laughing on one side or the other, amid the discharge of their artillery. And the forces of Manila, Zebù, Zamboàngan, and Carhàga, which were not despicable squadrons, served no other purpose than to scare off the evil, so that the persecution might be enormously expanded. They carried their insolence so far that two small vessels with but small crews, dashed into the bay of Manila one of the above years, and almost in sight of that capital, seized a caracoa from Iloilo with the rich cargo aboard it. Then they went out haughtily, and no one could take their prize from them, or punish their arrogance. In view of this one may infer how harassed were the [112]distant villages, and how filled with tribulations were our religious ministers, who ever occupied the most advanced and dangerous posts.

316. It even transcended the tragic representation of so doleful misfortunes, when in the year 1655 Corralàt, king of Mindanào, proclaimed war against the Christian name. He began his treachery by the inhuman murders of two fathers of the Society whom their rank as ambassadors, which is so greatly respected by the law of nations, did not aid. That prince was in Philipinas what Gustavus Adolphus, king of Suecia, was in Alemania, namely, the thunderbolt of Lucifer, the scourge of Catholicism, and the Attila of the evangelical ministers, who never practiced courtesy toward them except when force or some reason of state compelled him so to do. For his private convenience he had pretended that he was peaceful in public during the preceding years. But now with no other reason than his fury, he gave license to his vassals to infest the Christian villages; and they did it like a river which overflows its bed, after having rid itself of the embarrassment of its dikes. He was not content with that, but in order to give greater flights to his impiety, he excused it among the neighboring Moros under the name of a religious war; and under that title he invited to it the Borneans, Tidorans, and Joloans, so that confederated with him into one body they might unfurl the banners of the perfidious Mahomet, without stopping until they utterly destroyed the law of grace.

317. He incited so great an uprising against that straitened field of Christendom that, although the previous persecutions that the Moros had practiced [113]against it were so inhuman, (as may be seen in the places of this history cited in the margin)15 they were all assuredly less intolerable than those which were now incited; for now fury and barbarity were carried to the extreme. That was so fierce that disinterested pens did not hesitate to compare it with the last of antichrist; so persevering, that until the year 1668, of which this history is treating, and the year when the relations which we follow end, there was not a single instant of rest; so shameless that ruin was seen almost at the very gates of Manila; and so universal that but few villages of our administration escaped being the theater of war and the lamentable object of its misfortunes. This is a brief compendium of the tragic events which happened in the Philippine church, which was surrounded on all sides by the waters of contradiction, as is the territory of those islands by the salt waves of the sea. This is a sketch of the cold winds, which, notwithstanding the heat of its climate, parched in great part the wavy exuberance of that leafy garden, so abounding in the flowers of Christianity and the mature fruits of virtue. Let us now consider with the most possible brevity, a concise sketch of the glory which was obtained by our discalced order in return for the hardships which overwhelmed its evangelical workers at so calamitous a time. We warn the reader that we shall follow no other chronological order than chance offers. [114]

§ II

Of the hardships of our religious during these persecutions. The venerable father, Fray Antonio de San Agustin, dies at the hands of the Moros, in glorious martyrdom.

318. In the above-mentioned pillaging,16 which God permitted for so many years, the Moros were triumphant, the Catholic arms rebuffed, the Christian villages without other defense than that of heaven, and the Indians drowned in the sea of tribulations. Moreover, as the sword of the persecutor, also that of greed and vengeance, was moved by the hatred of our holy faith, the direction of its greatest force was toward the sowers of the gospel. Daily did religious who had been driven from their ministries and missions bring to Manila news of entire villages ruined, the outcries of priests who had been captured, and letters which announced the death of others. All was confusion, all lamentation, all chaos, where the enemies of God were trying to elevate their throne in the darkness upon so bloody and confused injustice. It has already been seen that our Recollects had to suffer greatly, since they occupy the vanguard of the army of God in Carhàga and Calamianes; but that was irremediable in so disastrous a storm. The ship was seen to be buffeted hither and yon by the waves; and it was impossible that the sailors should not suffer from the buffeting. The winds were both violent and hostile; the ship could not but be dashed from one side to another. The hurricane was both furious and fierce; necessarily the pilots had to suffer greatly.

319. Our provincials called out for relief, exciting [115]pity by the relation of their churches which had been burned and profaned; of their sheep that had been scattered, and many of them lost; and by their subjects who had been killed or captured, or at the least obliged to hide in the mountains, where deprived of all necessity, they suffered indescribable misery, traveling in the inconveniences and darkness of the night in order to fulfil their obligation as missionaries. But Manila is, as a rule, the place where least attention is paid to the wretchedness of the poor Indians and to the misfortunes of the gospel workers; for, since the citizens are busied in their Asiatic and American trade, the only thing that troubles them is any opposition to their profits. Very few are the Spaniards who risk themselves in small boats to seek profit from island to island; and consequently, they hear of misfortunes, which ought to cause the greatest horror, quietly and without any special disturbance. The passages from some islands to others being occupied and even embarrassed by Moro craft, the latter cause those who sail thither innumerable ruin; but many of the inhabitants of Manila have very little or, perhaps, no feeling. If news arrives that a religious has been killed or captured, some insolent tongue is not wanting to break out with the ballad as infamous as ancient, that the king brings us for this, namely, to suffer and die in defense of the law of God; as if it were compatible with the royal piety to abandon the defenseless ministers of Christ, however much they may expose themselves with heroic mind to endure a thousand martyrdoms. Nothing in short, matters to those people, if it do not touch their persons or interests: neither the misfortunes nor the violent deaths of [116]their neighbors, nor the outrages of his Majesty’s vassals, nor the losses of his royal treasury in the tributes which are lessened by such confusions, because the Indians are lost by the thousand.

320. Although the captain-general tries, as a good minister, to attend to such wrongs, it is quite common that he is unable to do all that he tries; now because of the depletion of the royal treasury, whose funds do not suffice to meet the calls upon it; and now since he must proceed with the advice of the council of war in which those have many votes who understand only what pertains to the exercise of merchants, although they sign their names with military titles. If the vessels in which they are interested are in danger, all difficulties are conquered, for there is no one who does not hasten with vote and money to fit out fleets to oppose the enemy. But if not then each proposition is a labyrinth, whence he who makes it cannot unravel himself, although Ariadne gives him a thread to guide him. Hence it follows, either that squadrons are not prepared of size sufficient to warn the aggressors, or if they are prepared, they set sail when it would be better for them not to, for they only occasion the vassals new trouble. Let no one imagine that the matter of these two numbers includes imagination or lack of truth. This is proved by authentic documents in what touches the past; while so far as the present century is concerned (during which the same persecutions have been repeatedly shown), experience has given me knowledge of such injuries, when I, as procurator-general and secretary of the province of Philipinas, found that I had to solicit relief for the persecuted Indians and for the afflicted religious. It is also certain that [117]the same thing happened in almost all the wars of which we are speaking, so that our oppressed missionaries had no other consolation than that of God, in the pains that it was indispensable for them to suffer, and which we shall now begin to relate.

321. We have already mentioned in various parts of this history, that when our Recollects arrived at the Philipinas Islands, in order to illumine them with the splendors of the faith, and to fight like well-ordained astral bodies against the sissara of the abyss, they chose with apostolic strength the most difficult districts, the islands of the most barbaric people, and the places where, if the light of the gospel had shone, it had allowed itself to be seen only in fitful gleams. Hence it is that our ministers are the most exposed to peril and danger among all those of the archipelago; for they are very distant, not only from Manila, but also among themselves from one another, and surrounded by enemies to the Christian name. Each district consists of many villages and even of distinct islands. Since all of them have a right to the bread of the doctrine, which is the only food for souls, the religious, in order to attend to that obligation, has to be in continual movement. He must travel by sea threatened by so many dangers to his life, among frights and chance; and he who considers it of value to endure them and despise them, can only form a just opinion of them. They do this without other profit than the spiritual, enduring to the uttermost penury, and the lack of necessities, in order to teach and instruct certain poor peoples whom they are alluring from the most wild barbarism in order to get them to live like men in a civilized Christian society. [118]

321. Let one add to all the above bodily hardships the lack of one to employ himself in so great charity, to whatever serves in this life as a consolation to the spirit. For there our religious is properly a hermit, although he may live among many people. Now, it is because he is deprived of the company of his brothers, for he is almost always alone in villages that are too large, and the nearest minister is fifteen or twenty leguas away and separated by rough seas, or inaccessible mountains, which render it impossible most of the year for them to have the comfort of seeing one another, or even to have communication with one another by means of letters, in order that they might console one another in their mutual troubles. Now, it is because the Indians make them no company for the blessings that human association brings with it, but serve only for an insupportable martyrdom; for, in addition to the fatigues incumbent on them as missionaries, they must attend to all their quarrels, grudges, necessities, and troubles. For these reasons and others that cannot be expressed at present, the governor of Philipinas, Don Fausto Cruzàt y Gòngora, when addressing the king in a report, did not hesitate to affirm that the discalced Augustinians, even in times of peace, and after the subjection of the villages of their administration, suffer the same hardships as do missionaries in the lands of the infidels. His Excellency, the bishop of Zebù, Don Manuel Antonio de Ocio y Ocampo, was wont to say, as I have heard from his own mouth, and not only once, that if he had authority for it he would not hesitate to canonize any Recollect, who happens to lose his life among the fatigues of his calling, while completely fulfilling his obligation in the [119]missions of those islands, as is the case with many.

323. And if this is endured in only the hardships annexed to the spiritual administration, what must it not be when the destructive tempests of the persecutions of the Moros, the greatest part of which assail our laborers, happen to come? Then there is no other relief than to flee to the mountains in order to live in passes and caves, seeking their preservation, not so much for their self-love, but because of that for others. There, through lack of food, too much heat, continual rains, and many other discomforts, they are generally so disfigured and so weak that rivaling Job, they only live because of a skin loosely stretched over their bones. How many contract incurable diseases there, who dragging along all their life with them prove themselves to be stages of the greatest pity! How many by trampling under foot evident dangers, in hastening to the consolation of their sheep, to confess the sick, to aid the dying, either gave themselves into the hands of the enemy to be the victims of their cruelty, or offered themselves a willing sacrifice to the precipices of the mountains and to the shipwrecks of the seas! How many, since the world is unworthy of their noble and Christian intercourse, and, it seems, tried to cast from itself, wander for months at a time, naked, an hungered, persecuted, followed on all sides by the shadow of death, without other consolation than that of God, in whose hands they desire to finish their lives, delivering to Him their wearied souls! And how many, finally, obtained the precious crown of martyrdom, after having coursed the sands of so many hardships, which were ended either by the edge of the sword, or by a spear-thrust, [120]or at the spindle of hardships, or at grief at seeing holy things so outraged, or by the inundations of penalties in atrocious captivities! Mention has been made of many in the preceding volumes, but some who will serve to ornament this volume were omitted.

[In the remainder of this section are contained accounts of several who suffered the martyrdoms above mentioned in their war of the faith, and all of whom are mentioned by Combés in his Historia de Mindanao, who is cited at length by our author.17 The first martyr (see Combés, book vi, chapter xiv) is not even named by Combés, nor can Assis give anything more definite of him. He was captured by the Moro pirates (presumably in 1645) and taken to their home. Induced by desire for a good ransom, his captors took the father to the Joló fort, but no agreement could be reached. Father Juan Contreras, then chaplain of the fort, tried to aid him in effecting his escape, but in vain. The captive was thereafter treated so harshly that he became ill, and in spite of a pitiable letter, which aroused great sympathy for him in the Spanish Joloan fort, and spurred on the soldiers to beg that he be ransomed at their expense, he remained in captivity until Alejandro Lopez of the Society went to Joló from Zamboanga and ransomed him for 300 pesos. In 1649 (see Combés, book vii, chapter xii; and Santa Theresa, no. 271 ff.), the father prior of Linao in Caraga, Fray Agustin de Santa Maria, was killed by the insurgents; and in the same troubles the [121]father prior of Camiguin, whose name is not given, was captured and maltreated. In 1658, (see Combés, book viii, chapter viii), the Moros caused Fray Cristobal de Santa Monica to flee, and killed Fray Antonio de las Missas, or de San Agustin (his religious name). This latter happened while San Agustin was returning from a trip to Cuyo and Calamianes as visitor. San Agustin was born in Manila, his father being Captain Francisco de las Missas, and his mother Fabiana de Villafanne, both Spaniards. He took the Recollect habit July 14, 1612. He served in several important posts, having as early as 1624 been prior of Bolinao and of Cebú. He was sixty-six years old at the time of his death.]

[The remaining two sections of this chapter continue with the persecutions of the Moros and the deaths of various Recollects. The first, Francisco de San Joseph, was born in Jaca, Aragon, and shortly after professing (June 12, 1632) he went to the Philippines. He was soon sent to the Visayans, where he held several important posts. He suffered greatly from the Moro raids for he was compelled more than once to hide in the mountains from that fierce folk. He was elected provincial in 1653 and during his term was a vigilant worker. At the completion of his term he was sent to the village of Cuyo as associate to the prior. His death occurred in the island of Romblón, where he was mortally wounded by the Moros, while endeavoring to repel an attack in the fort built by the famous Padre Capitan. He published an explanation of the catechism in 1654 in Manila, and left numerous manuscript works in both Spanish and Visayan. The father reader, Fray Francisco de San Juan Bautista, was born in Alagon [122]of rich and noble parentage. He professed in the Zaragoza convent, October 8, 1614, and went to the Philippines in 1619. He read philosophy and theology in Manila, and after the completion of a course in the arts was appointed secretary to Fray Onofre de la Madre de Dios. He served as prior of the villages of Marivelez, Cuyo, Bolinao, Calamianes, and Tandag, during his mission work there learning three languages thoroughly. He was essentially a worker and did not care to remain in either Manila or Cavite, but desired the mission fields where danger was thickest. He did not seek office, and it is related of him that he once delayed his return to the chapter meeting because he heard that there was talk of electing him provincial. Though he was twice definitor, he still sought the hardest work, laboring among both infidels and Christians. The Moros were especially vindictive to him and gave him many chances to acquire merit. Finally he fell sick on the desolate island of Paragua, and after reaching Manila through the efforts of some natives who braved the risks of the Moros, he died in that city. Another active worker was Fray Domingo de San Nicolás, who was born at Alcalá de Henares. The place of his profession is unknown, but he is first met in the Philippines. He labored in the provinces of Calamianes and Visayas, performing marvels until his feet having swollen on account of the damp, he was ordered to retire to Cebú convent. There, however, instead of resting he engaged in the work of the missions, for the laborers were few. He worked in many villages, and finally met his death in consequence of exposure from a shipwreck on the coast of Bohol, whither he had accompanied [123]a vessel hastily fitted out to secure information concerning a recent raid by the Malanao Moros in Cagayan village. Although some of the other occupants of the boat were drowned, the friar with others was saved by the natives of Bohol, and sent back to Cebú, where he died in a few days. Fray Bernardino de la Concepcion (whose family name was Durán) was born in Madrid, and took the habit in the same city, December 8, 1636. He went to the Philippines in 1651 with Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio. His mission field was principally in the south, and he served in the villages of Bislig, Cagayan, and Caraga. His work and the necessity of opposing the Moro Mahometans so wore upon him that he became unwell, but still he persevered in his labors for lost souls. The treacherous Mindanaos won over his servant one day in Caraga, and poison was administered through the agency of the latter, who also apostatized. The attempt failed, however, but Fray Bernardino was sent to the province of Zambales for a season. There he was of great use in aiding to quell the insurrection. The quiet that ensued after their pacification not proving to the liking of this intrepid warrior of the faith he begged and obtained leave to go again to the province of Caraga. Resuming his former vigils and labors there, he again fell sick and this time died, being at the time prior of Cagayan. He could speak the Visayan, Tagálog, and Zambal languages. Fray Carlos de Jesus, son of Nicolás Léconte, was born of Flemish parents. After various fortunes he went to Madrid, and although a brilliant life was offered him, for he was a scholar and fine mathematician, he took the Recollect habit in the convent of that city, January [124]2, 1648, being already at middle age. He also accompanied Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio to the Philippines in 1651. He worked in Calamianes and Caraga, where his military genius as well as his missionary traits shone out. He recalls the famous Padre Capitan by his exploits, for he drilled and led the Indians as well as looked after their souls, and his name became a terror to the Moros. In the village of Busuagan, however, his native followers fled when attacked by the Moros, and Fray Carlos was forced also to take refuge in a swamp filled with brambles and thorns. For five days (the length of time that the victorious Moros stayed in Busuagan) he remained in the swamp up to his middle in water, and wounded by thorns and molested by swarms of mosquitoes. Having retired to Manila because of illness brought on by such events, his recovery found him anxious to return to his mission field. The prudence, however, of the superiors, dictated his remaining in Manila as prior of the convent of that city which was then vacant. With his old-time ardor he threw himself into the work there, but the effort was too great for one in his weakened state and another illness seizing him he passed away. The lay-brother, Fray Francisco de San Fulgencio, the son of Diego de Covarrubias, was born at Simancas. He adopted the life of a soldier, and after serving in Spain went to Nueva España in the same capacity. Thence he went to Manila as alférez of one of the companies raised for the islands. A religious life appealing to him he adopted the Recollect habit (December 17, 1620), and shortly after his arrival in Manila, he was sent to Caraga to aid the fathers who were laboring in the missions there. At the [125]time of the insurrection, he was captured in the village of Bacoag, but after four months of almost unendurable captivity, was ransomed. After this he remained several years in Caraga, but was finally recalled to Manila. His life was most active, for he made five trips to Caraga, and three to Calamianes, with despatches or to accompany the fathers going to those posts, and often meeting with Moros on the way, was in continual danger. He was twice wounded and twice shipwrecked. His death occurred in the convent of Bagungbagàn.]

§ I

Information is given of the preaching of Ours in Zambàles; and that many Indians came newly to the Church.

396. ...Some people here in España imagine that the first illustrious champions of our reformed order who went to those countries [i.e., the Philippines], reared and finished the sightly structure of that Church, and that the missionaries, their successors, have been and are quite comfortable, and have no other occupation than to maintain what the first ones built. It is a fact that, according to the philosophic axiom that the conservation is equivalent to a second production, that would not be doing little even did they do no more. But as a matter of truth it must be said that if so holy a province rests [126]in the conservation of the conquests acquired, it also labors without end in the building and planting of other new conquests. To this point the history has shown many of them,18 and I shall narrate others below. But this year we have the profitable and difficult expedition which our ever tireless and laborious province made into the Zambàles Mountains, for the sake of obtaining not little growth for the Christian faith.

397. The mountains called Zambàles extend a distance of fifty leguas from Mount Batàn to the plains of Pangasinàn in the island of Luzòn. They are peopled by an innumerable race, who defend themselves from the Spanish arms almost within sight of Manila, because of the roughness of the ground, and maintain along with their heathenism, their barbarous customs. Who these people are can be seen in volume i, to which we refer the reader,19 We only warn him that the Indians of whom that volume talks, inasmuch as they live in the beaches and plains extending from Marivèlez to Bolinào, and being, consequently, needed in the trade with Spaniards and civilized Indians, are not so ferocious as those who without these mitigating circumstances, inhabit the rough mountains of which we speak. Not a few natives of several nations are found in that place. Some of them are born in the dense thickets and are reared in the most barbaric infidelity. Others are called Zimarrònes, and have apostatized [127]from the Catholic faith, after having fled from the nearby Christian villages. There is also an incredible number of blacks who, without God, without king, without law, without civilization, without settlement, live as though they had no rational soul. All of those Indians, notwithstanding that they wage most bloody wars among themselves, generally unite to oppose the Spanish arms, when the Spaniards have attempted their conquest, and stake their greatest reputation in shedding human blood.

398. The evangelical ministers have always fought with the sword of the divine word against that wild forest of men almost unreasoning, and with all the means dictated by charitable prudence, in order to convert it into a pleasant garden by means of the Catholic faith. The Dominican fathers stationed in the district of Pangasinàn, and in the villages called El Partido, which are located on the opposite side of Manila Bay, have always cast their net, and obtained not few hauls of good fish. The Observantine Augustinian fathers have also done the same from their missions in Pampanga, which border the above-mentioned mountains. The fathers of the Society have done the same from the village of San Mathèo, which is situated almost on the brow of the said mountains on the Manila side. And our discalced Recollects, equally with those who have done most, have labored in this undertaking at all times, without despising occasions. They have great opportunity for doing that, for, as a general thing, ten or twelve laborers live in the fifteen reduced villages of the Zambals, who occupy all the coast for a distance [128]of forty leguas from Bolinào to Marivèlez, and surround all the above-mentioned mountains by the sea side.

399. Thence, then, did the illustrious champions of our holy reformed order generally issue in order to overrun the rough territory of the mountains so that they might seize multiple spoils from the enemy of souls, and direct them to eternal life. As those people are very ferocious and difficult to convert, it was necessary to use gentle methods there, making use of caresses rather than of noise and din. Notwithstanding, on several occasions very many conversions of Indians, Zimarrònes and heathen, who were reduced to villages formed by the indefatigable solicitation of our religious, were obtained. Then, as appears from four letters of the definitory of that holy province, which were written to our respective fathers vicars-general—the first, June 20, 1646; the second, July 2, 1655; the third, June 14, 1658; and the fourth, July 4, 1668—more than one thousand five hundred souls (at the date of the last letter) had been drawn from the mountains, freed from the darkness of the heathen, and illumined with the splendors of the Catholic faith. And it has been impossible to discover who were the illustrious laborers who obtained so wonderful trophies, in order to enrich history with their names.

400. But the most abundant season of those fruits was seen to be during the triennium of April 21, 1668, to 1671. Our father, Fray Christoval de Santa Monica, governed the province during those three years. He having heightened and ennobled the missions of Zambàles, when other superior employments gave him the opportunity, had placed there [129]the whole of his affections. On that account, in addition to the great zeal that he had for the salvation of souls, from the very chapter, he made up his mind that during the term of his government, the utmost effort should be made to unfurl the standard of the faith in the Zambàles Mountains, and to have salvation carried to its inhabitants on the wings of charity. For that purpose he managed to have father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, a native of Zaragoza, a religious born, one would say, for the missions, elected prior of Bolinào. Later he appointed him vicar-provincial of the jurisdiction of Zambàles. That man, then, together with fathers Fray Martin de San Pablo, prior of Masinloc, Fray Agustin de San Nicolàs, prior of Marivèlez, and six other religious, who were appointed as helpers, fought against idolatry so tenaciously, that our holy faith was incredibly advanced.

401. He arranged the attack upon that proud Jericho (more impregnable because of the obstinacy of its inhabitants, than by the wall of its inaccessible mountains) by ordering that it be assaulted at the same time by several parts by different soldiers of so holy a militia with the bugles of the divine word. One began the conquest by the side of Bolinào, another at Masinloc, two by Playahonda, and two others by Sùbig and Bagàc. The father vicar-provincial went to all parts in order to direct actions, and to fight in person with his accustomed success. The father provincial also, with his secretary, then father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, made it a point of honor to take part in so dangerous a field, whenever the tasks of his office permitted, and they both fought as valiant soldiers. For [130]the expenses which were heavy for the maintenance of many missions and for the other things which accompany like expeditions, the province acted as proxy, for they did not wish to have recourse to the royal treasury which generally supports such undertakings. And to the labors which are indispensable in wars of that quality, and which were excessive there, those illustrious warriors set their shoulders, well armed with endurance, for they had already been exercised in other conquests and had always been victorious.

402. Thus did they work constantly until the end of the year 1670, and with so good result, that they converted that bitter sea of idolatries and superstitions in great part into a leafy land of virtues. On account of the insurrections which so great acts of wickedness caused in Pangasinàn, Zambàles, and Pampànga, as I have already written in chapter i of this decade, many whole families had fled from the Christian villages to the mountains, together with a very great number of Indians, who having abandoned the faith and subjection, lived there as the declared enemies of God and of the king. Of those it appears that more than two thousand souls were reduced, and another great number, which is not specified by the relations, of other people of several nations, who had either been born in heathendom, or had formerly deserted the Catholic camp. The evangelical workers were greatly elated with that fruit and rewarded for their unspeakable labors, and were encouraged beyond all manner to follow up such conquests and even to undertake other new ones. For, it is a fact that when the fruit of one’s preaching can be seen, it causes such joy in the missionaries, and [131]gives them so great courage for other undertakings that that alone can serve as a worthy reward in this life and infuses valor for other more difficult enterprises.

403. Those zealous laborers formed anew from the people whom they allured from the mountains, the villages of Iba, or as they are also called, Paynavèn, Cavangaàn, Sùbig, and Mòrong. In addition to this the ancient villages increased in population. Until the present time, there was not along all that coast, that belonged to our administration, more than three convents or ministries—one even in Bolinào, another in Masìnloc, and the third in Marivèlez—with the exception of that of Cigayàn, which was destroyed. But now two new convents were established, which were necessary for the greater convenience of the spiritual administration—one in Paynavèn, under the title of Nuestro Padre San Agustin, to which were assigned three annexes or visitas; a second in Bagàc with the advocacy of Our Lady of the Pillar of Zaragoza (which was moved to Mòrong some years later under the same title), and to it were assigned three other villages as visitas. All the above was completely accomplished in the year 1670, with which this history is concerned. That year can be marked by a white stone by that holy province and indeed by our whole Recollect congregation, because of the so great progress that was obtained in the propagation of the faith, the only aim to which their desires were expended. Next to God, successes so happy are due to the tenacity with which these zealous missionaries worked, for they trampled all dangers under foot, and to the good arrangements and holy wisdom of the father provincial, Fray [132]Christoval de Santa Monica, as well as to the zeal, courage, and care of his vicar, father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad.

404. In order to conclude this matter we must add that the same activity proceeded in the immediate years with equal fruit. For, as in the chapter of 1671, father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad was elected definitor, he besought the father provincial, Fray Juan de San Phelipe, very urgently, to allow him to make a mission to the Zambàles Mountains. Permission having been obtained, he went to the convent of Paynavèn and gave a new beginning to the conquest on the side toward Babàyan with results so favorable that he tamed the wild and inhuman hearts of many Zimarrònes and heathens. Hence, during the three years of his definitorship the recently-created villages were greatly increased by a considerable number of souls who were allured from the mountains and brought into the Church. As payment for this service, and in consideration of his many merits, he was elected provincial in the chapter celebrated in the year 1674. The first care of his successful government was to see that those missions should be kept up. He sent two of the best religious to continue that undertaking and finished the leveling of so impenetrable and rough thickets.

405. Those laborers (whose names will be written in the book of life, since, due to the omissions of the relations, they are lacking in the book of history) penetrated into the mountains of Zambàles in such manner, that they arrived within a short time at the contrary part of them toward Manila Bay. By so doing their approach to the villages of the district of Batàn, the administration of which, as we [133]have already stated, belongs to the Dominican fathers, was indispensable. The latter, reasonably, as they thought, took what had been done ill, saying that Ours were sowing the seed in a field whose territory did not belong to them; for, in these bodies of militia, more than in any other, it is easily perceived that triumphs are taken from the hands of the one to advance others in their obligations. Their father provincial, Fray Phelipe Pardo (later archbishop of Manila), assumed charge of that litigation, alleging before the royal Audiencia, that the conquest of that part of the mountains belonged to his province, as it was contiguous to their ministries. He petitioned that our discalced religious be ordered to retire. But our father, Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, opposed that demand so energetically that justice was compelled to decide that if the extension of the Catholic flock followed, it mattered very little which instruments were used, whether these or those ministers.

406. Divine Providence usually permits such rivalry, certainly holy in itself in the holy squadrons that serve the God of armies for the spiritual conquest of the world. Whenever judicial authority has determined in this way, experience has demonstrated that great progress follows in favor of the Catholic faith. For each side with the incentive of the other, dares to undertake greater enterprises, and repeated triumphs are obtained. So was it now; for seeing the door locked to their demand in the above-said court, the father provincial, Fray Phelipe Pardo, resolved to assign two religious of his order, so that they might, with the zeal that he infuses in all of his holy institute, make a mission thither by [134]way of Mount Batàn. They began that mission in the month of October, 1675, as is affirmed in his history of Philipinas by father Fray Balthassar de Santa Cruz, although he says nothing as to the reason for the expedition.20 Accordingly Ours went to another part, thus leaving a sufficient field for the Dominican fathers, for truly, there is room enough for all. This strife being the origin of the obstinate work of the missionaries of both families, who labored with all their might, they reduced many Zambals to the bosom of our holy faith, and filled their respective villages with new converts. Had so laudable a rivalry continued, excellently founded hopes that so glorious a conquest would be ended would have been conceived. But it was God’s will to have all the territory of Zambàles shortly after left for several years in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, while our laborers went to the territory of Mindòro, as we shall relate in chapter ix of the following decade. Thereupon the strife entirely ceased, and even the fruit, so far as our reformed order is concerned.

407. Father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad finished his provincialate in April, 1677, and then immediately went in person to continue the expedition that cost him so great anxiety. He penetrated the mountains on foot in various places in order to seek sheep there whom he might convey into the flock of Christ. Exposing himself to the will of their barbaric natures, without any fear of the perils or caring for the dangers to himself, he persevered there until he had to retire two years later for the reasons given [135]above. As we do not possess the necessary manuscripts, we cannot state the number of souls that were drawn down from the mountains from the year 1671 to that of 1679. The relations which we follow only assure us that as it was not considered advisable at that time to form settlements in the wildnesses of the mountains many reduced families were withdrawn thence, in order to live in the coast villages. Those villages have been augmented in tributes and inhabitants, to such a degree that those ministries were constituted with a great abundance of people and were the most flourishing of the province, as they were so thickly populated by souls who embraced the Catholic faith with fervor. In due time (decade 13, in the year 1741) this history will show forth another most fruitful expedition, which was made into the same mountains by our Recollect family, founding there villages and convents in order to attend to whatever pertained to them in the conversion of those Indians. Now we shall end this relation by giving due thanks to God, for He has in all times infused into our brothers a spirit fervent in undertaking, and in proceeding in such obligations.

[The second and last section of this chapter deals entirely with Recollect affairs in Spain.]

§ I

A great multitude of heathen Tagabalòyes who lived in the mountains near the district of Bislig, is converted in the island of Mindanào by the preaching of our tireless laborers.

600. [The author draws a parallel between the capture of Jericho by the Hebrews and the evangelization of the Philippines. When God pleases, the walls of idolatry must fall.] This maxim has followed our reformed order in the Philipinas, and has been proved many times. For contending almost continuously with paganism fortified in the mountains contiguous to the districts reduced to their administration, although they were disappointed by not few fatigues, without being able to sing victory, they were at last crowned with triumphs when it appeared fitting to divine Providence. We have seen and shall see several activities that prove this truth. At the present we are offered the feats performed in the mountains of Bislìg.

601. The district of Bislìg, which is the last and most distant from Manila among those possessed there by our reformed order, is located in Carhàga, in the island of Mindanào and consists of five villages. These are Bislìg, which is the chief one, Hinatòan, Catèl, Bagàngan, and Carhàga. At its beginning the province was named from the last one, as it was then the settlement of the greatest population. Two religious only are generally designated [138]for the spiritual administration of this district, and they have too much work in the exercise of it. For the villages are located at great distances from one another, the people are especially warlike, they are contiguous to the Moros, those irreconcilable enemies, while the sea of those districts on which they have to travel from one village to another, is extremely boisterous, rough, and at times impassable, and on its reef in the dangers already mentioned, several religious have lost their lives, as will be patent further on in this history. But, notwithstanding that the two religious assigned to those villages can scarcely attend fully to the direction of the Christian Indians, and although because of the dearth of religious from which our reformed order almost always suffers in those islands, but rarely could more subjects be employed there, those few following the maxim practiced there of one doing the work of many, they did not cease to solicit ever the conversion of the surrounding heathens, who are very numerous in those mountains.

602. There is especially so great a number of heathen Indians and barbarous nations in certain mountains that extend along the coast, from opposite Carhàga near Bislìg (a distance of about twenty-five leguas, while it is not known how far they extend inland), that even the Christian Indians do not know them all. The nearest nation to our villages is that of the Tagabalòyes, who are so named from certain mountains which they call Baloòy. They live amid their briers without submission to the Catholic faith or to the monarchy of España. Those Indians are domestic, peaceable, tractable, and always allied with the Christians, whom they [139]imitate in being irreconcilable enemies of the Moros. They are a very corpulent race, well built, of great courage and strength, and they are at the same time of good understanding, and more than half way industrious. That nation is faithful in its treaties, and constant in its promises, as they are descendants, so they pride themselves, of the Japanese, whom they resemble in complexion, countenance, and manners. Their life is quite civilized, and they show no aversion to human society. All those of the same kin, however extensive, generally live in one house, the quarters being separated according to the families. Those houses are built very high, so that there are generally two pike lengths from the ground to the first floor. The whole household make use of only one stairway, which is constructed so cunningly, that when all are inside they remove it from above, and thus they are safe from their enemies. Many of those Tagabalòyes live near the Christians, and those peoples have mutual intercourse, and visit and aid one another. They do not run away from our religious, but on the contrary like to communicate with them, and show them the greatest love and respect. Hence any ministers can live among them as safely as in a Christian village.

603. It is now seen how suitable are all these districts to induce so docile a nation to receive our holy faith. But for all that, very little progress was made in their reduction until the year 1671, and then it was that the care and the continual preaching of Ours obtained it. Besides the will of God, whose resolutions are unsearchable, there were several motives of a natural order, which made the attempts of the evangelical ministers fruitless. The first was [140]the continual wars with the Moros. That fact scarcely permitted the Christians and even the Tagabalòyes to let their weapons out of their hands. With the din of arms the Catholic religion, always inclined to quiet and peace, can generally make but little progress. The second consisted in the little or no aid rendered in this attempt by the alcalde-mayor, the military leaders of Catèl, and even some chiefs of the subject villages. All of the above were assured of greater profits in their trade and commerce, if those Indians were heathens than if they were Christians; and it is very old in human malice that the first objects of anxiety are the pernicious ideas of greed, and the progress of the faith is disregarded if it opposes their cupidity.

604. But the strongest reason for the failure of the desired fruit was the third. This reason is reduced, as we have already mentioned, to the fact that there were but two religious generally in the said district, and of those no one could be in residence at the villages of Catèl or Carhàga, the nearest ones to the said mountains, and they only went thither two or three times per year. Consequently, although they wished never so strongly to labor in the conversion of the heathen Indians, they could not obtain the fruit up to the measures of their desires. It happened almost always that the minister was detained a fortnight at most, in the said villages, the greater part of which was necessarily spent in instructing the Christians. And although, by stealing some hours from sleep, the minister employed some of them in catechizing the heathens, since his stay was so short, he could not give the work the due perfection, and left it in its beginning, as he had to go to the other [141]villages. He charged some Christians to continue in preparing and cultivating those souls so that they might be ready on his return to receive baptism. But human weakness, united to the sloth, which almost as if native to him, accompanies the Indian, was the reason that when the religious returned after an interval of four or six months, instead of finding the work advanced, he found that which he himself had done in it lost. And idolatry always triumphed, notwithstanding that he did not cease to make vigorous war upon it.

605. Thus time rolled on, and the Church obtained very little increase in those mountains, for the three above-mentioned reasons. The order could not conquer the two first, and there was less possibility for the third. For however much the order desired to apply on its part the only means whereby the desired fruit could be obtained, namely, the assignment of a religious to reside in the said places, who should look after the reduction of the Tagabalòyes, without attending to any other thing, it was continually unable to effect that, for in Philipinas the harvest is very great and the laborers few. I have detained myself in the consideration of these obstacles, which threaten the total devastation of the heathendom of Philipinas, and are transcendental to all the holy orders, who are striving to spread the faith in the said islands. For some believe (and more than two have expressed as much to me here in España in familiar conversation) that the reason why the heathenism of those countries has not been ended, is because the missionaries do not work with the same spirit as they did at the beginning. But they are surely deceived, for in addition to the many [142]other reasons that may be assigned, the three above-mentioned suffice to render the most laborious efforts vain. The same tenacity, zeal, and courage of the first laborers accompanies those who have succeeded them. Let the obstacles be removed, and one will see that (as has been experienced many times) Belial having been destroyed and cut into pieces, although many render him adoration, the Catholic faith triumphs in the ark of the testament. This happened at the time of which we treat in the mountains of Bislìg.

606. The year, then, of 1671 came, in which that holy province held their chapter and father Fray Juan de San Phelipe, a native of Nueva España, who had taken our holy habit in the convent of Manila, was elected provincial. That religious had lived for some years in Bislìg, and had known by experience how necessary it was for a missionary to live in residence near the mountains, where so great infidelity was fortified, in order to establish there the health-bringing dogmas of our Catholic religion. Scarcely was he elected superior prelate, since he had a sufficient number of subjects in order to attend to all parts, when he resolved to place one of them in residence at Catèl, and to order such an one solemnly that he should from there procure the reduction of those heathens by all means without engaging in other cares, however useful they seemed to him. He also gave very rigorous orders to the father prior of Bislìg to the effect that whenever they could without any omission in the spiritual administration of the other villages, he or his associates should go to reside in the village of Carhàga, and be there in residence as much as possible, all [143]three religious concurring in that great work and aiding one another mutually for the attainment of so well conceived desires. Finally he arranged matters with so much acumen that if the lack of religious had not rendered it impossible after such ideas had been put into practice, it is probable that they would have subdued all the heathens of those mountains.

607. In August 1671 that project was begun to be put into operation; and although we have not yet been able to get detailed information of the laborers, who were employed in it, on account of which we cannot place their names in this history, we shall have the consolation of knowing that they will not be omitted from the book of life. It is certain that all three religious conspired together in bringing to the delicious net of the Church those misguided souls, and they shirked no toil that might help in their object. They made raid after raid into those mountains; one from Catèl, one from Carhàga, and one from Bislìg, penetrating to their highest peaks, and their deepest valleys in all their extent from the promontory of Calatàn nearly to the cape called San Agustin. All three of them at the same time were careful to assist the Christians in the spiritual administration. They preached, catechized, attracted the people by argument, by art, by prudence. And as some truce occurred in the war with the Moros at that time, and as they obtained at the same time a very Christian alcalde-mayor who aided them and caused all his subordinates to aid them in so holy zeal, so much fruit was obtained that when the father provincial went on his visit in February 1673, he found that they had already baptized more than [144]three hundred adults without reckoning those who had been purified in the waters of grace in sickness and had immediately died. The latter were as many as one hundred counting great and small.

608. Thus did the above-mentioned father provincial, Fray Juan de San Phelipe, write to our father vicar-general under date of July 5, of the same year. And after, on June 26, 1674, he adds that, according to the relations sent to the chapter by the father prior of Bislìg, that district had increased by two hundred tributes. This, according to the reckoning in vogue there, means eight hundred souls. They had all been allured from the mountains and from the horrors of their paganism to become inhabitants of the villages already formed, and to live in civilized intercourse among the pleasant lights of the Christian name. This well premeditated idea has since then been followed as has been possible by the successors of our father, Fray Juan de San Phelipe, whenever the small number of religious has not rendered it impossible. For in some chapters of that holy province, repeated determinations are seen to place a minister in residence at Catèl, so that he may exercise the means conducive to that end. Hence it is that father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio has inserted the following narrative in his seraphic chronicle. He says: “Some of the Tagabalòyes are living now in old villages who have become Christians, and others are being reduced by the zeal and cultivation of the discalced Augustinian fathers, who hold them as inhabitants of Bislìg.”21 And it is confirmed that although the [145]district of Bislìg was formerly one of the smallest in the number of its parishioners, it is now one of the largest in Mindanào, and there is no other reason for its increase.

[The two following sections of this chapter detail several miraculous happenings that aided not a little in the conversion of the region inhabited by the Tagabalòyes. In 1662 when the Spaniards abandoned the island of Ternate, because of the Chinese pirate Kuesing, one of the religious images taken away with them was of the Virgin. That image was given by the governor of Ternate to the alcalde-mayor of Caraga, who in turn gave it to the garrison of Catèl. From its position there it was known as “La Virgen de la Costa” or, the Virgin of the hill, “for costa in the language of the country, is the same as castillo [i.e., redoubt].” The influence of this image was far reaching and it distributed many blessings and favors to its devotees in times of drought, in plagues of locusts, and during epidemics, and performed other miracles that gave it lasting fame. Another image of the Christ crucified was revered in a village near Bislìg, and was later given a place in the Recollect church at Manila. It was a small ordinary image such as was used on the altar during mass. As it was very ugly and misshapen the priest determined to bury it, ordering some of the natives to perform that task. But when the hole was dug, and they went to get the image, in its place they found the most beautiful and symmetrical image that they had ever seen, and nailed to the same cross. The transformation was announced to be of divine origin, and this image was accordingly revered as miraculous; and it proved itself to be so in the future. On [146]account of the miracles that occurred in the Caraga district the people became more devout Christians and many abandoned their ancient practices. The remainder of this chapter does not deal with Philippine matters; as do neither of the two following chapters.]

§ I

The evangelical trumpet resounds in various territories of Philipinas, and especially in the ridges of Linao, and in the mountains of Cagayàn, in the island of Mindanào, by the means of our missionaries; and many heathens are converted to the Christian religion.

714. It has ever been a very common complaint among historians of the order, and all make it, of time the destroyer of all things and of the neglect in leaving advisory news thereof. There is no doubt that for these two reasons the memory of many valiant deeds of excellent religious, who have filled our discalced Recollect order with honors in the Philipinas Islands, who have extended the Catholic faith untiringly at the cost of unspeakable hardships, and destroyed the abominable altars of heathen blindness, have been lost. But never more than at present does that complaint appear justifiable, when we begin to treat of the progress of Christianity in the districts [147]of Linào and Cagayàn, villages of the island of Mindanào, one of the Philipinas. There was the evangelical trumpet heard by dint of members of our reformed order, with memorable fruit.... Let us pass then to mention what we have been able to bring to light from the confused memories which time excused.

715. In the year 1674, father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, a native of Zaragoza, was elected provincial in Philipinas. That apostolic laborer had always had great zeal for the conversion of souls. Agitated by that sacred fire that burned without consuming his heart which fed it, he worked in his own person, as much as he who did most, so that all the heathens of that distant archipelago should embrace, believe, and reverence the faith of the true God, in whose name only is found salvation. For that purpose he went not only once into the highest peaks of Zambàles, in order to illumine their darkness with the Catholic light or to lose his life in so heroic an act of charity. He desired with unspeakable anxiety to be given the opportunity to make a sacrifice of his blood by shedding it in so good warfare, in confirmation of the truth which he was preaching. “When shall I have the desirable happiness,” he exclaimed to his pious fellow countryman, San Pedro Arbuès, “of being made a good martyr from a bad priest by the merciful God?” That desire we see already had made him leave every fear; and consequently, without any horror of death, notwithstanding that it represented itself to him as to all, full of bitterness, he placed himself in excessive dangers, in order that he might whiten with the water of baptism the souls of the inhabitants of those [148]ridges, so that in their darkened bodies they might obtain the beauty of grace. Thus was his practice throughout his life, not only in the above-mentioned district, but also in other places of the many which are entrusted to us in those vast territories, and if he did not effectively obtain the crown of martyrdom, yet the merited reward will not be lacking to such prowess.

716. He did that when he was not the superior prelate, but afterwards when he became provincial, he flew with his cares to undertakings of almost infinite breadth. He beheld very near the great empire of China, peopled by an incredible multitude of souls, almost all of them seated in the shadows of death, and their acute intellects ignorantly disturbed in the obscure darkness of their errors. The mission so often craved by our reformed order to those countries, was the first object of his zealous heart. He could not be satisfied with trying to send others as evangelical laborers, but he tried with the greatest seriousness to abandon the glory of the provincialate, in order that he might be employed personally in an expedition so much to divine service, and his inability to accomplish it cost him many a bitter sob. He became a sea of tears, when he thought of the distant kingdoms (also almost in sight) of Japòn, Bornèy, Sumàtra, Tunquìn, Cochinchina, Mogòl, Tartària, and Persia; for most of those who have their wealth and amenities live but as mortals basely deceived by their brutish worships, in order to die eternally in the more grievous life. To some of those places and especially to Japòn, he had practical ideas of sending missionaries, and even of going thither in person, and he made the greatest [149]efforts for that purpose. And although he did not obtain the end of his desires, because of the obstructions which the common enemy is wont to place to such works, such eagerness cannot but be praised very highly; and consequently, they will have been rewarded with great degrees of glory, because of what he was trying to communicate to the souls of others.

717. Since, then, he could not accomplish so well conceived love which extended itself to the salvation of the whole world, he set in operation the maxims which his burning charity dictated to him in regard to the extensive limits entrusted by the Lord of the vineyard of the Philipinas for the cultivation of our holy discalced order, with a so visible utility to the Church. In the first place he arranged with admirable prudence that certain missionary religious should incessantly travel through the villages of our administration, like swift angels or like light clouds in order to preach the obligation of their character to the Christian Indians. They were to advise them at the same time to take the sacraments frequently, of the horror of idolatry, of the love of the faith, of obedience to the Church, and to the appreciable submission to the Catholic king from which so many blessings would follow to them, and by which they would be delivered from innumerable evils. For that purpose he assigned two religious of the Visayan language, one of the Tagálog, and one of the Zambal—all of the spirit that such an occupation demanded. He ordered each one of them to make continual journeys through the large and small settlements of the district of his language, preaching the mission with the same formalities that they are [150]wont to observe in Europa. He also ordered the father priors of the respective districts to give such fathers every aid for that apostolic ministry, both temporal and spiritual, as such was for the service of God and the greater purity of our Catholic faith.

718. The profits and good effects that followed that undertaking happily instituted, and reduced to fact with rare success, cannot be easily explained. Oh would that the lack of religious almost transcendental in all times in that province did not prevent the prosecution and perpetuity of so holy a custom by which unspeakable harvests of spiritual blessings were obtained, although some temporal riches should be spent in it. It is true that the ministers of parish priests of our said order who live continually in the villages, attend to those duties without avoiding any toil. But since they always live among their parishioners, and treat them so near at hand, and since they exercise over them a certain kind of authority, greater than that which the curas in España possess, it will not be imprudent to observe (considering human weakness, and the cowardice of the Indians), that some will not go to confess to those said parish priests without great fear, the common enemy infusing them with fears lest the parish priests perhaps will punish them for the sins that they might confess. Let us add to this that there are no other confessors on whom to rely, especially in the districts which are at some distance from Manila. Also it is almost impossible as our ministries are located, for the Indians to go from one village to another for that purpose. For these reasons, I myself have experienced, and I have heard it asserted by many curates that too many sacrilegious confessions are made, for sins are [151]kept hidden out of shame, to the deplorable ruin of souls. All the above impediments cease undeniably so far as the missionaries are concerned. Hence one can infer the great fruit that would be gathered in spiritual matters by means of the profitable idea which was invented by our father Fray Joseph and put in practice in his time with the utmost ardor.

719. Besides that, by causing his subjects to multiply, since not in number, at least in their courage for work, the vigilant superior ordered those who were in the ministries to perform with the utmost effort what they had always done, namely, that they should not be content with directing the souls of the faithful to heaven, but should strive with might and main for the conversion of the heathen. And since the fire of love as regards God, their provincial, and their neighbors, burned with intensity in those gospel laborers, one can not imagine how greatly the activity of that fire, strengthened with the breath of the exhortation of so worthy a prelate, was increased and worked outside. We can assert without any offense to anyone else what has already been suggested in other parts of this history, namely, that our discalced religious in the Philipinas Islands, outstripped all the other religious in the so meritorious quality of suffering hardships.22 The villages most distant from Manila, those that offer less convenience for human life, those with the most ferocious people, and all surrounded by Moros, by heathens, and by other barbarous Indians, in regard to whom any confidence would be irrational, are the ones in our charge. And adding to this that one minister [152]generally has charge of many settlements, which are at times located in distinct islands, one can easily see how many fatigues, sweatings, and how much weariness will be caused by the spiritual administration of those who are enlisted in the Catholic religion. What will all that be then, if they have to attend also to the reduction of so great a number of souls, who live lawless in idolatry in sight of the law of grace! I repeat that our Recollects, equal in their zeal to the other gospel laborers, exceed them there without difficulty in the necessary opportunities for suffering. Moreover, if our brothers have the advantage at all times in this regard of other missionaries, those of the triennium of which we are speaking, excelled themselves, for they labored more than ever in the administration of the faithful and in the conversion of the heathen.

720. But the greatest efforts that the venerable father provincial put forth, and the places where the religious assigned for that work labored with excessive fervor, were in the districts of Butuàn and Cagayàn, which are located in the island of Mindanào. There was a heathen Indian called Dato Pistig Matànda, who had been living for many years on the banks of the river Butuàn between the villages of Linào and Hothìbon. He was of noble rank, a lord of vassals, and had great power and a not slight understanding, although he was corrupted with an execrable multitude of vices. He, instigated by the devil, had caused all the efforts of the evangelical ministers to return fruitless for many years; for idolatry maintained not only in the castle of his soul, but as well in all the territory of his jurisdiction, the throne which it had usurped, and [153]the continual assaults which were made without cessation against that obstinate heart by the members of our discalced order had no effect. Several religious had endeavored to make him submit to the sweet yoke of the evangelical law, and they availed themselves with holy zeal of all the stratagems which, as incentives, generally attract the human will to reason and open the door to grace in order that it may work marvels. Especially did the holy father Fray Miguèl de Santo Thomàs, make use of all the means that he considered fitting to reduce the Indian chief to the true sheepfold as well as those who were strayed from it in his following, during the whole time that he graced that river by his presence. But experience proved that God reserved the triumph solicited on so many occasions for the happy epoch of which we are treating at present, for his own inscrutable reasons. At that time then the divine vocation working powerfully and mildly, and availing itself as instruments of our religious who resided in Butuàn and in Linào, softened that erstwhile bronze heart and he not only received baptism, but also tried by all means to have his vassals do the same. Hence, leaving out of account a great number of children, the adults who were reëngendered in the waters of salvation and became sons of God and heirs of glory, exceeded three hundred.

721. At the same time another father, who had a residence in the village of Linào, notably advanced our Christian religion in places thitherto occupied by infidelity. The mountains of that territory are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part called Manòbos23—a word signifying [154]in that language, as if we should say here, “robust and very numerous people.” When those Indians are not at war with the Spaniards, they are tractable, docile, and quite reasonable. They have the very good peculiarities of being separated not a little from the brutish life of the other mountain people thereabout; for they have regular villages, where they live in human sociability in a very well ordered civilization. Although the above qualities, as has been seen, are very apropos for receiving the faith, notwithstanding that fact, although some of them are always reduced, they are very few when one considers the untiring solicitude with which our missionaries unceasingly endeavor to procure it. The reasons for so deplorable an effect are the same as we have mentioned in regard to the conversion of the Tagabalòyes Indians. But during the provincialate of our father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, either because those obstacles ceased, or because divine grace wished to extend its triumphs, the results were wonderful. A very great number of those Manòbos were admitted into the Church—how many is not specified by the relations which we have been able to investigate, but we only see that they were many; for it is asserted that while the district of Butuàn, to which Linào belonged, consisted before that time of about three thousand reduced souls, its Christianity increased then by about one-third, the believers thus being increased for God and the vassals for the king.

722. In the mountains of Cagayàn, shone also the light of disillusionment, without proving hateful but very agreeable to rational eyes, for it caught them well disposed. The zealous workers of our [155]Institute, shaken with the zeal of the venerable father provincial, devoted themselves to felling that bramble thicket which was filled with buckthorns of idolatry and even with thorns hardened in the perfidious sect of Mahomet. Three religious, who glorified that district, attended to so divine an occupation, stealing for it from the rest of the moments that were left to them from the spiritual administration which was the first object of their duty. They extended their work toward the part of Tagalòan, and even penetrated inland quite near the lake of Malanào through all the mountains of their jurisdiction. There like divine Orpheuses they converted brutes into men by the harmonious cithara of the apostolic preaching and those who were living, in the most brutish barbarity to the Christian faith, which is so united to reason. Thus did they reduce more than one hundred tributes to the villages of the Christians. That was a total of five hundred souls who were all drawn from their infidelity or apostasy. That triumph was so much more wonderful as at that time the war of the Malanào Moros against the presidio of Cagayàn was more bloody, and it is verified by experience that in all contests, the Catholic faith generally advances but little amid the clash of arms. But their increases, which we have related (as obtained in the triennium of the venerable father, Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, which was concluded in April, 1677) appear from several letters written in Manila by the most excellent religious in June and July of the above-mentioned year, and directed to our father the vicar-general, Fray Francisco de San Joseph, which have been preserved in the archives of Madrid. [156]

[Section ii of this chapter relates a number of miraculous occurrences in the villages of Butuàn, Linào, and Cagayàn, and their districts—miracles which were greater than the recovery of health on receiving baptism, at the reading of the gospels, or after drinking the water left in the chalice after the sacrament, all of which were very common and little regarded. Those miracles had great weight in reducing those people to the Christian faith. For instance the dato above mentioned, Putig (or Pistig) Matanda, was converted after the successful exorcism of demons that had troubled his village. It is related in this section that “for reasons that seemed fitting, the convent and church of Butuàn were moved to the beach from their previous location; but it was afterward reëstablished there, one legua from the sea upstream.” One of these years also the village of Cagayàn suffered greatly from the scourge of smallpox which was formerly so common in the Philippines. Section iii treats of Spanish affairs. Section iv deals with the life of Fray Melchor de la Madre de Dios who died in the Recollect convent of Talavera de la Reyna, Spain, May 30, 1677. He was born in Nueva Segovia or Cagayan in Luzón, his father being Juan Rodrigues de Ladera. While still young his parents removed to Manila where he studied until the age of twenty the subjects of grammar, philosophy, and theology. Although he was apt, he found himself below others not so clever as himself because the pleasures of the world appealed to him too strongly. Consequently, he quit his studies in disgust, and gave himself to trade, “the occupation of which is not considered disgraceful there to people of the highest rank.” But his evil [157]courses still prevailed and during his several trips to Acapulco he succeeded only in wasting his money. Returning to Manila after his final voyage, he gave up some of his worst vices, but still kept a firm grip of the world. He must have taken up his neglected studies again, but almost nothing is known of him until he reached his thirty-third year. It is said by some that he became a priest before joining the Recollect order, but there is a lack of definite knowledge on that score. At any rate he did not abandon his rather loose way of living. In the midst of his vices he had always been greatly devoted to St. Augustine, and his conversion finally occurred on the eve of that saint. Then a vision of the saint who appeared to him caused his conversion and an enthusiasm that never left him. He became a novitiate in the Recollect convent of Manila that same year 1639 and professed in 1640. After preaching with great clearness and force in Manila which had been the scene of his excesses, he was sent as missionary to the Visayan Islands, where he worked faithfully and well. But breaking down in health because of his strenuous life in the snaring of souls, he was compelled to retire to the convent of Cebú and then to that of Manila. It being impossible for him to accomplish much work longer in the Philippines because of his health, he begged and received permission to go to Spain for the remainder of his life. When he went is uncertain, but it was after 1656, for that year he was in Siargao in the province of Caraga. After his arrival at Madrid he was assigned to the convent of Talavera de la Reyna, where his memory was revered after death for his good works.] [158]

[Chapter viii notes the twelfth general chapter of the Recollect order held at the convent at Toboso. Philippine votes were lacking, due probably to the non-arrival of delegates in time. The remainder of the chapter does not concern the Philippines.]

§ I

Description of the island of Mindòro, and considerations in regard to its spiritual conquest, which was partly obtained before our discalced order assumed its administration.

... 785. Mindòro is located in the center of the islands called Philipinas. It is surrounded by all those islands, and is encircled by them in a close band as the parts of the human body do the heart. It has a triangular shape whose three ends are three capes or promontories, one of which is called Burruncàn and looks to the south, another looks to the north and is called Dumàli, while the third which looks to the west is called Calavìte. In regard to its extent, Mindoro comes to be the seventh in size among all the islands of that great archipelago.24 It [159]is about one hundred leguas in circumference. Its climate is very hot, although the continual rains somewhat temper its unendurable heat. In its rains it exceeds all the other nearby islands. However this relief bears the counterpoise of making the island but little favorable to health, because of the bad consequences of the heat accompanied by the humidity. But for all that it is a very fertile land, although unequally so because of its rough mountain ranges, and the thick forests. There are many trees of the yonote,25 and of the buri, from which sago is made, which is used for bread in some places. There are also wax, honey, the fruits of the earth, flesh, abundance of fish, and rice where the people do not neglect through laziness to plant it. That island was formerly called Mainit, but the Spaniards called it Mindòro from a village called Minòlo which is located between the port of Galeras and the bay of Ilòg.26

786. Its inhabitants had sufficient courage to cause all their neighbors to fear them. Especially at sea were they powerful and daring as was lamented at different times by the islands of Panày, Luzòn, and others, when they were attacked by the fleets of [160]Mindòro which they completely filled with blood and fire. But at the same time they showed a very great simplicity, which was carried to so great an extreme, as is mentioned by father Fray Gaspàr de San Agustin, that when they saw the Europeans with clothes and shoes—a thing unknown among them—they imagined that that adornment was the product of nature and not placed through ingenious modesty.27 That simplicity produced in them the effect of their not applying themselves to the cultivation of the earth, but of contenting themselves with wild fruit and what they could steal as pirates, or better said, robbers. The sequel of that so far as their laziness is concerned, has lasted even to our own times; for as says father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio, all who have discussed the matter, agree that they are the laziest people and the most averse to work of all the inhabitants in those islands, notwithstanding that they are corpulent enough.28 However, my experience of the Philipinas obliges me to say that so blamable a peculiarity is only too common to all of them, almost without any distinction of more or less. Neither could that courage of theirs save them from subjection to España, and if they earlier considered that subjection unfortunate in the extreme, now they regard it with the light of the faith as their greatest fortune.

787. A beginning in its conquest was made on the Mambùrao side in the year 1570 by Captain [161]Juan de Salcèdo.29 That conquest was completed so far as the seacoasts are concerned from the cape of Burruncàn to that of Calavìte at the beginning of the following year by the adelantado, Miguèl Lopez de Legazpi. The balance of the island has been subdued gradually by dint of the evangelical laborers with the exception of the mountains which are located in its center. From that time, then, the seacoast Indians of that island have been subject to the mild yoke of the Spanish crown, and have given signs of extreme loyalty. For, although the great Chinese pirate Limaòn attacked the Philipinas in the year 1574, in order to seize them if possible, there were some signs of insurrection in Mindòro, which was put down very quickly, even before one felt its effects which are generally very painful in popular uprisings. That good fortune was due to the moderation of the natives and to the temperance of Captain Gabriel de Ribera, who knew how to sweeten with very pleasing acts of kindness the bitter crust of justice. For that reason of the Indians being entirely well inclined to the Spaniards, the encomiendas of that great island were very desirable to the primitive conquistadors. In spiritual matters the island belongs to the archbishopric of Manila. In regard to civil matters, it is governed by a corregidor and captain of war, who generally has residence in it and extends his jurisdiction to the neighboring islands of Marindùque and Lucbàn.

788. Let us now speak of its spiritual conquest, which is the principal object of our consideration. In the year 1543 the Observant religious, the sons [162]of the best beloved Benjamin, our common father, San Agustin (to whom fell the first and greater part of the possession for the conversion of the heathen, so far as that archipelago is concerned) made the Philipinas Islands happy by their presence by commencing to establish their apostolic preaching;30 and later in the year 1565, they settled in order to complete what they had begun. Like stars rain-laden with the evangelical doctrine those most zealous ministers fertilized their Philipinas inheritance with their voluntary showers. So much did they do so, that when the new laborers, the sons of the seraph Francisco arrived at the field, there was scarce an island which had not produced most abundant fruit for the granaries of the Church because of the work of the first sowers; as is shown in several places of his history by father Fray Gaspàr de San Agustin;31 and that lover of truth, father Fray Francisco de San Antonio confesses it, thus honoring as he ought the Augustinian Hiermo [sic]. The island of Mindòro also shared in this good fortune. In its cultivation were employed fathers Fray Francisco de Ortèga and Fray Diego de Mòxica. They, after having founded the village of Bàco, endured innumerable misfortunes in a painful captivity, hoping for hours for that death, which they anxiously desired in order to beautify their heads with a painful martyrdom. But in order that one might see that although the former worked above their strength, much remained to be done by their successors, I shall cite here the exact words of father Fray Gaspar de San Agustin in his Historia. “The convent,” [163]he says, “that we had in that island [of Mindòro: added by Assis] was in the village of Bàco. Thence the religious went out to minister to the converted natives. The latter were very few and the religious suffered innumerable hardships because of the roughness of the roads and the bad climate of some regions.”32

789. The discalced sons of St. Francis (minors for their humility, but greatest [maximos] by the fires which they could cast from themselves in order to burn up the world) arrived in Manila in the year 1577. Thence like flying clouds, whose centers were filled with very active volcanoes, they were scattered through various parts of the islands. They were received with innumerable applauses of their inhabitants, who regarded them as persons who despised the riches of earth, and thought only of filling the vacant seats of glory. One of the places where their zeal for the salvation of souls was predominant was the land of Mindòro which had been ceded by the calced Augustinian fathers. There, not being content with what had been reduced, they extended the lights of the Catholic faith at the expense of great efforts, in the direction of Pola and Calavìte. Those who labored most in those places to communicate the infinite blessing to souls were fathers Fray Estevan Ortìz and Fray Juan de Porras, who were great leaders among the first religious of the seraphic discalced order who went to Philipinas.33 But since the fire is kept up in matter [164]in proportion as it abounds in commensurate inclinations, various fields having been discovered in other parts which were full of combustible dry fuel most fitting to receive the heat of charity, which gives light to the beautiful body of the faith; and seeing that that rational fuel of Mindòro would not allow themselves to be burned for their good, with the quickness that was desired: they thought it advisable to abandon the little for the much, and to go first to Ilòcos and secondly to Camarines where they hoped for more abundant fruits in return for their holy zeal.

790. In the year 1580 the religious of the holy Society of Jesus arrived at the islands. They, in the manner of swift angels ennobling and glorifying those hidden plains, expanded the habitation of Japhet, in order that he might possess the famous tents of Shem. Immediately, or very near the beginning, the superior detached excellent soldiers of that spiritual troop for the island of Mindòro, so that they might with the arms of the preaching destroy the altars dedicated to Belial by giving roots to the healthgiving sign of the cross. They obtained much; for after having penetrated the roughest mountains in search of heathens and Cimarrones they founded the village of Naojàn, with some other villages annexed to it. They enjoyed that ministry a long time with their accustomed success. The one who excelled in the missions of that island was Father Luis de Sanvictores, whose glorious memory and reputation for sanctity was conserved for many years among those Indians. They, notwithstanding the rudeness of their style, never spoke of him without praise. But that father having retired in order [165]to begin the conquest of the islands of Ladrones (which were afterward called Marianas), where he with glorious martyrdom gave the utmost encouragement, although others followed his attempts in Mindòro with great zeal; the Society finally abandoned that island into the hands of the archbishop.34 We cannot give the exact time of their resolution or the reasons which could move so zealous fathers to it, although we regard it as certain that they did it in order to employ themselves in other places where the evangelical fruit was more plentiful.

791. His Excellency the prelate immediately formed two curacies of the entire island, which he handed over to the secular clergy so that they might aid those souls. Later as the two could not fulfil that, a third cura had to be appointed. They carefully maintained what had been conquered, a territory that included the coasts along the north side extending from Bongabong to Calavìte. But because there were very few Christians, since it is apparent that they did not exceed four thousand, who were scattered throughout various settlements or collections of huts along a distance of eighty leguas of coast, it was not to be supposed that those missions would produce enough income for three ministers. Consequently, they had necessarily to be aided with other incomes, which were solicited from the royal treasury, and with other pious foundations. Neither was that enough, so that at times it was very [166]difficult to find seculars to take charge of those districts. Those ministries were, it is true, scarce desirable, both because of the smallness of their stipends, because they carried with them unendurable hardships, and because of the unhealthfulness of the territory. But finally, moved, either by charity or by obedience, there was never a lack of zealous seculars who hastened with the bread of the instruction to those Indians. The curacies were consequently maintained there until the year 1679, when our discalced order took charge of the whole island for reasons which we shall now relate.

§ II

Being obliged to abandon the ministries of Zambàles by force, our province of Philipinas assumes possession of the ministries of Mindòro, and obtains rare fruit with its preaching.

792. In the year 1606, that grain of mustard arrived in Manìla, and although it was small, it produced the tree of most surpassing magnitude. I speak of our first mission which was composed at its arrival of a small number of religious. By preaching the glory of God and announcing the works of His power, so few men founded the greatness of that holy province among the illuminations of blind heathenism. It cannot be denied that by that time the sound of the word of God had reached all the Philipinas Islands, which had been announced by the illustrious champions who had preceded us in that vast archipelago, to wit, the calced Augustinians, the discalced Franciscans, the Jesuits and the Dominicans. But there cannot be any doubt either that, notwithstanding that all the above orders [167]had worked in the conversion of souls, with the most heroic fervor, some new locations in which they could enter to work were not lacking to Ours. The harvest was great and the laborers few; and since, however much those destined for that cultivation sweated in continual tenacity, they could not go beyond the limited sphere of man, hence it is that the Recollects on reaching that great vineyard at the hour of nine, equaled in merit those who gained their day’s wages from the first hour. And in truth this will appear evident if one considers that even now, after so many years in which the sacerdotal tuba of the apostolic ministry has been incessantly exercised, not a few places are found in the said islands where the individuals of all orders are employed in living missions, and struggle with the most obstinate paganism.

793. The district where Ours first spread the gospel net was in the mountain range called Zambàles, in the middle part of which extending from Marivèles to Bolinào they obtained fish in great numbers, as has been told already in the preceding volumes. Those villages of Zambàles are located between ministries of the reverend Dominican fathers. For, since the latter held along the great bay of Manìla on the side called El Partido almost at the foot of Mount Batàn, several missions contiguous to Marivèles and on the other side of Bolinào, the best portion of the alcaldeship of Pangasinàn, they also included in their midst the settlements of the Zambals now reduced to a Christian and civilized life by the missionaries of the Augustinian reformed order. For that reason the Dominicans had desired and even claimed without going beyond [168]the boundaries dictated by courtesy and good relationship that our prelates yield that territory to them, as it was suitable for the communication of the Dominicans among themselves between Pangasinàn and Manìla and would make their visits less arduous. But since that was a very painful proposition to those who governed our discalced order, namely, the abandonment of certain Indians who were the firstborn of their spirit, and a land watered by the blood of so many martyrs, the claim could never be made effectual, however much it was smoothed over by the name of exchange, our province being offered other ministries, in which was shown clearly the zeal of its individual members.

794. The one who made the greatest efforts in this direction was father Fray Phelipe Pardo, both times that he held the Dominican provincialate in the years 1662 and 1673. Although all of his efforts were then frustrated, he obtained great headway by them to obtain his purposes later. For May 30, 1676, his Majesty presented him for the office of archbishop of Manìla. Thereupon he formed the notion that the new marks of the ecclesiastical dignity would be sufficient to add authority to argument. For, because of the respect to his person, surely worthy of the greatest promotion, we did not dare to condemn his attempt as unjust; and more even, when he obtained it, making amends to our reformed order for the wrong we received by a recompense which was fully justifiable in his eyes. A chance offered him a suitable occasion for his project in the following manner. Don Diego de Villatoro represented to the Council of the Indias that the island of Mindòro was filled with innumerable [169]heathens all sunk in the darkness of their paganism; and that if its conquest were entrusted to any order, it would be very easy to illumine its inhabitants with the light of the faith. Therefore a royal decree was despatched, under date of Madrid, June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of the islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindòro to the order which appeared best fitted for it, before all things settling the curas who resided there in prebends or chaplaincies. That decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manìla by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villarreal, October 31, 78, and since his Majesty’s fiscal had nothing to oppose, it was obeyed without delay, and it was sent for fulfilment to the said archbishop, December 14 of the same year. On that account, his Excellency formed the idea of taking Zambàles from us in order to augment his order and give the island of Mindòro to our discalced order.

795. He began, then, to discuss the matter without the loss of any time, and he did not stop until his designs were obtained, notwithstanding that he had to conquer innumerable difficulties. For, in the first place, our provincial, then father Fray Joseph de San Nicolàs, opposed it very strongly. The latter alleged that it would be a violation of the municipal constitutions of the Recollects to abandon the ministries of Zambàles, for the constitutions expressly stated that none of the convents once possessed should be abandoned except under certain conditions, which were not present in the case under consideration. Besides that the Indian natives of Mindòro, both Christians and infidels, scarcely knew that there was a question of giving them minister [170]religious and begged Jesuit fathers with great instance, for they preserved yet the affection that they had conceived for them, since the time that the latter had procured for them with their preaching at the cost of many dangers their greatest welfare, omitting no means that could conduce to their withdrawal from the darkness of their paganism. And when the Zambals heard that the Recollect fathers were to be taken from their villages, in order to surrender them to the Dominicans, they declared almost in violent uproar that they would not allow such a change under any consideration, for they were unable to tolerate, because of the love which they professed for their spiritual ministers, to be forever deprived of their company, by which they had obtained so great progress in the Catholic faith.

796. But the archbishop found means in the hidden recesses of his prudence by which to conquer such obstacles. For in unison with Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, governor and captain-general of the islands, he softened the provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolàs, and obliged him to agree to the exchange. He quieted the natives of Mindòro by means of their corregidor, so that they might receive the ministers of our discalced order, and availing himself of the services of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinàn, he silenced the Zambal Indians so that they should take the privation of their Recollects gracefully, and lower the head to the admission of the Dominican fathers. Thereupon, the sea of opposition having been calmed, and after the three seculars who were administering to Mindòro had been assigned fitting competencies, which were provided [171]for them in Manìla, an act of the royal Audiencia provided that our reformed order should be entrusted with the administration of the said island, with absolute clauses which established it in the said royal decree, and without the least respect the abandonment of the Zambal missions. Then immediately preceding the juridical surrender of them, which was signed by the above-mentioned father provincial, although it was protested by only the father lector, Fray Joseph de la Assumpcion, and father Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, a second act was passed by which the missions were assigned to the fathers of St. Dominic. Thus did the archbishop have a complete victory.

797. By virtue of those decrees, which were announced to our provincial, April 17, 1679, that holy province was dispossessed of all the Zambal mountain range, which then contained eleven villages. They were also dispossessed of the missions which father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad was then fomenting in the nearby mountains by the far-reaching fruits of his apostolic preaching, as we have mentioned worthily in another place.35 The individual members of the province of Santo Rosario hastened to take charge of the ministries and missions of the Zambals which had been surrendered to them by Ours without the least disturbance being observed publicly, although almost all of those governed by the said Father Trinidad threatened violence. Those juridical measures, with what was done in Manìla, served much later for the recovery of Zambàles without the loss of the new possessions of Mindòro. The necessary papers [172]were also despatched directed to the corregidor of Mindòro, ordering him to deliver the ministries of that island to the discalced Augustinians. Without loss of time, the father definitor, Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, assumed charge of the district of Bàco, while the bachelor Don Joseph de Roxas who possessed it left it. The curacy of Calavìte was taken possession of by father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion, who took the place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedrosa. The parish of Naoyàn was taken charge of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, the bachelor, Don Martin Diaz, being removed. All that was concluded before the end of the year 1679 without disturbance, lawsuits, or dissensions.

798. The above-mentioned religious were accompanied by three others of whose names we are ignorant. Immediately did that holy squadron commence to announce the testimony of Christ, with sermons founded on the manifestation of virtue, spirit, and example, and not on illusory persuasion which is built on naught but words, which are confirmatory of human wisdom. They considered especially that they had to give strict account of those souls whose direction had just been given them. Consequently, they watched over their flock, hastening to their sheep with the right food, without avoiding the greatest fatigue. Hence could one recognize the great good fortune of the island of Mindòro, for in the territory where three seculars at most, and generally only two, lived formerly, six evangelical laborers had enough to do. They were later increased to eight, and that number was never or but rarely decreased. Each of them on his part [173]produced most abundant fruits at that time, and under all circumstances the same has been obtained. For although the common enemy diffused much discord during the first tasks of their apostolic labor in order thereby to choke the pure grain of the divine word by making use therefor of a man, namely, Admiral Don Joseph de Chaves, encomendero of almost the entire island, at last by Ours exercising their innate prudence and their unalterable patience, the grace of God was triumphant, while the attempts of Satan were a mockery.

799. Father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio remarked very forcibly of our discalced religious that, “although they were the last gospel laborers in Philipinas, they have competed in their apostolic zeal with the first laborers in the fruits that they gathered from their labors in the reduction of the most barbarous islanders.”36 And the father master, Fray Joseph Sicardo, adds very fittingly, that “our discalced religious having received the great island of Mindòro, increased the Christianity of its natives by means of so zealous ministers.”37 Then, as appears from juridical instruments before me, although the Christians throughout the island when our reformed order assumed charge of it did not exceed four thousand, in the year 1692 they already exceeded the number of eight thousand, and in the year 1716 arrived to the number of twelve thousand. It is a fact that the persecution by the Moros happening afterward (of which something was said [174]incidentally in volume three,38 and which will in due time add much to this history) the number of believers was greatly lessened; for some retired to other islands, where the war was not so cruel, others were taken to Jolò in dire captivity, and others surrendered their lives to so great a weight of misfortune. Notwithstanding that, in the year 1738, when father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio printed his first volume, it appeared by trustworthy documents that Ours administered seven thousand five hundred and fifty-two souls in the various villages, visitas, missions, and rancherías in that island.39 Hence, one may infer that our zealous brothers have labored there especially in destroying paganism and reducing the many Zimarrònes or apostates who, having thrown off all obedience, had built themselves forts in those mountains. And if not few of both classes remain obstinate, it does not proceed certainly from any omission that has been found in our zealous workers, but from other causes which are already suggested in other parts of this present volume.

800. Neither can one make from this progress of the Catholic faith which was attained by the preaching of our religious, any inferences against the other laborers who began to subdue the island, or against the secular clergy, who administered it afterward. The Observant fathers, as a rule, employed there no more than one missionary or at the [175]most two. The number of the fathers of St. Francis was no larger, and they had charge at times of the district of Balayàn as well as of Mindòro. Since the fathers of the Society had so much to attend to in so many parts, two or three of them took care of Mindòro and Marinduque. Consequently, one ought not to be surprised that so small a number of laborers did not do more, but, that they had done so much must surely astonish him who considers it thoroughly. In the same way the parish priests, who succeeded them, were very few, and since the reduced Indians occupied so extensive a coast, they had scarce enough time to administer the bread of the doctrine to the Christians, so that they had none left to penetrate into the mountains in search of the Zimarrones or of the heathen Manguiànes.40 But, on the contrary, from the time that that island was delivered to our teaching, the number of missionaries has been doubled or tripled. It is evident that victories must generally increase in proportion to the increase of the soldiers in the campaign, even in what concerns spiritual wars.

801. This argument has more force, if it be considered that the evangelical laborers having increased afterward with so great profit, they asserted that at times the greatest strength accompanied by gigantic zeal was given up as conquered, by the continual toil indispensable in the administration of the faithful, for to that task was added the care of the conversion of the heathen. That toil was so excessive that the night generally came without the [176]fathers having obtained a moment of rest in order to pay the debt of the divine office. At times they had to neglect the care of their own bodies in order to attend to the souls of their neighbors. They were always busied in teaching the instruction to children and adults; in administering the holy sacraments, although they had to go three or four leguas to the places where the dying persons were; and in penetrating the rough mountains in the center of the island, in order to allure the heathens and apostates to the healthful bosom of the Church. To all the above (which even now is, as it were, a common characteristic of all our missionaries in Philipinas) is added the extreme poverty there, and the lack of necessities that they endured. For, the reduced product from those villages, in regard to the ecclesiastical stipend, which was formerly insufficient to support two or three curas with great misery, was now sufficient to support six or more religious. Consequently, they endured it with the greatest hardship.

§ III

Information of the convents which were founded in that island, and the miracles with which God confirmed the Catholic religion which Ours were preaching.

802. Trampling under foot, then, the above discomforts and others which are omitted, those illustrious champions attended to the exact fulfilment of the spiritual administration, employing themselves in the exercise of missionaries in order to reduce the heathens to the Catholic sheepfold. In the belief that it would be very conducive to the extension of the Christian religion to establish convents in the [177]new territory which they were cultivating, they began to set their hands to the work. The first foundation which they established was in the village of Bàco, where the corregidor was residing at that time, although that convent was later moved to Calapàn. Two religious were placed there in residence, and they looked after the spiritual administration in several rancherías. Those rancherías have increased with the lapse of time to a great number of Christians, and have become villages that are not to be despised, having been formed anew by the zeal of our apostolic laborers. The villages comprehended in that district in the year 1733 are the following: Calapàn, which is the chief one, where the convent is located; Bàco, Subàn, Ilog, Minòlo, and Camoròn, which are annexed villages or visitas, as they are called there. Our church of Calapàn is enriched with an image of Christ our Lord, which represents Him in His infancy; and on that account it is called the convent of Santo Niño [i.e., Holy Child]. That image is conspicuous in continual miracles and is the consolation of all the Indians of Mindòro. For a long history might be written by only relating the marvels which the divine power has worked by it; now giving health to many sick unto death; now freeing villages from locusts which were destroying the fields, now succoring not a few boats which driven by violent storms were running down the Marinduque coast, whose sailors were in the greatest danger of being drowned in the water, or the ship of grounding on the shoals of the land.

803. [One miracle is related of a Recollect in Calapàn who having acquired two hundred pesos determined to send it home to Spain to his mother [178]who was very poor, without saying anything to the provincial as he was in duty bound to do. Being very observant in his outward duties, he said mass before the image just previous to sending the money to America on a ship which appeared opportunely, but the image turned its back on him. Thereupon, being convicted of sin, he burst into tears, and was thereafter free from such temptations.]

804. The above case happened years after when the convent was established in Calapàn. Let us now examine other marvels, which happened at Bàco, near the beginning, which were of great use for the extension of the Catholic name. The father definitor, Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, who was the founder of that house, was surely a holy man, and was venerated as such in Manìla. Notwithstanding that, however, a corregidor took to persecuting him by word and deed. The servant of God bore the personal insults with great patience, although it pained him to the soul to see that the corregidor’s contempt was resulting in prejudice to the Catholic religion. He practiced several secret efforts ordered by charity in order to restrain the corregidor’s tongue, but seeing that they were insufficient, generally chided in a sermon the evil employment of sacrilegious mouths which, taking the gospel laborers as the object of their detractions, prevent the fruit of their preaching, although they should aid in the attainment of so holy an end. The chief culprit was present, toward whom without naming him the father directed his aim; and since, after one has once left the hand of God, he precipitates himself easily from one abyss to another (angered by the pain which was caused him by the medicine, which was [179]being applied prudently in order to cure him of his pain and indiscreetly abusing the authority which resided in his person), he rose in anger, with the determination to impose silence on the father who (if he was talking) it was, for his own [i. e., the corregidor’s] good. “Sacrilegious preacher” he exclaimed, but when he attempted to continue his face was suddenly twisted, and he could not utter a word, and he was extremely disfigured and was attacked by most intense pains. He was taken to his house, where the venerable father attended him, and by his only making the sign of the cross above the corregidor’s mouth the patient was restored to his former state of health in body, while in soul he was completely changed. The courage to make public penitence for his public crimes, and to return his credit entirely to so holy a religious did not fail him.

805. [The same father although very sick with fever did not hesitate, aided by spiritual forces, to go to a distance to administer to a sick person who had urgently requested his presence—a fact that conduced not a little to the conversion of the natives round about.]

806 [and 807]. The second convent was founded in the village of Naojàn by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, and St. Nicholas of Tolentino was assigned it as titular. Besides the said principal village, it had in its charge six annexed villages of visitas, namely, Pòla, Pinamalayàn, Balente, Sumàgay, Maliguo, and Bongàbong. However, with the change of the district of Mangàrin, of which we shall speak later, there was some variation in the distribution of those settlements. That ministry is one of the first in authority in the island, [180]because of the great number of parishioners to which it has increased, because a great multitude of heathen Manguiànes who have been converted to our holy faith, have gone thither to live, as well as a not small number of apostate Christians, who were wandering at liberty through those mountains. All that was obtained by the preaching of our laborers by whose efforts three of the said villages were reëstablished. [Two prodigies or miraculous occurrences which are related aided in the christianizing of this convent.]

808 [and 809]. Another and third convent was established in the convent of Calavìte by the efforts of father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion, and its titular was Nuestra Señora del Populo [i.e., Our Lady of the People]. It has the annexed villages of Dòngon, Santa Cruz, Mambùrao, Tubìli, and Santo Thomàs. Of those settlements, those that are on the coast which extends from Calavìte to Mangàrin, have been founded for the most part by dint of the zeal of our religious. They formerly had many Christians, although at present they have suffered a remarkable diminution because of the persecutions of the Moros which we have already mentioned. [An epidemic that was raging throughout this district when the convent was founded was checked miraculously. In the same district, a heathen Manguian chief who had opposed the new faith surrendered to the personal solicitation of Fray Diego de la Resurreccion, and became a good Christian, and afterward aided in the conversion of many others. The district was miraculously cleared of the pest of locusts which were destroying all the fields.] [181]

810 [and 811]. The fourth convent was erected in the village of Mangàrin under the advocacy of our father, St. Augustine. Its prior also governed the villages of Guàsig, Manàol, Ilìlin, and Bulalàcao. However, the provincial chapter of 1737 ordered that house removed to Bongàbong, for reasons that they considered most sufficient, namely, because Mangàrin was ruined by the continual invasions of the Moros, and because of its poor temperature, which put an end to the health of almost all the religious. For that reason, the distribution of the annexed villages of Naojàn, Mangàrin, and Calavìte in another manner was inevitable, so that the correct administration of the doctrina might be more promptly administered. But the convents above mentioned always were left standing, and serve as plazas de armas, where those soldiers of Jesus take refuge in order to go out in the island to war against the armies of Satan. It can be stated confidently that the district of which we have been speaking, has been conquered by our reformed order; for when we entered Mindòro, scarcely was the name of Christ known there, while at present there are many souls there who follow the banners of the cross, and all the power of hell, incited by Mahometan infidelity, has not availed to destroy the deep roots of its faith. On the contrary we have wondered greatly at the power of the divine grace in those neophytes, for after their belief has been proved many times, as gold in the crucible, in the fire of the most raging persecution it has gone up [a number of] carats in value and purity. [This district was also the scene of a miracle or prodigy that showed the force of God and the faith.] [182]

812. Besides the above-mentioned convents, a mission was begun some years later in the mountains of Mindòro for the purpose of reducing the Manguiànes heathen. Although many of them had been converted, allured by the zeal of various religious, still not a few remained in the darkness of paganism for lack of ministers, who could busy themselves without any other occupation in busying themselves in illumining them with the evangelical light. That was so abundant a field that it could keep many laborers busy. Thus the project was formed by the province to keep at least three subjects busy in it, so that each one, so far as he might be able, might put his hand to the plough, and without turning back, cultivate so extensive a land, which was capable of producing an infinite amount of fruit for the table of glory. But since the missionaries maintain themselves there at the cost of the royal treasury, which is almost always in a state of too great exhaustion, so well conceived a desire had to be satisfied with one single preacher, whom the superior government assigned for that purpose, although the province assigns others at its own expense, when its too great poverty does not prevent, or the lack of men, so usual there. The residence of those missionaries in the village of Ilog was determined upon and a suitable convent was established there. From that place, entering the mountains frequently, they began to fell their rational thickets, in order to fertilize them with the waters of irrigation of the divine grace, so that the seed of their apostolic preaching might be received. By means of the laborious eagerness of the sowers who have succeeded them, a great portion of that arid desert has been transformed into the most charming garden. When I left Philipinas in [183]the year 1738, it still existed as a most fruitful mission and there were well founded hopes that if Apollos water the plants established by Paul, it will receive the most abundant increase from God.41

813. [The way was blazed also in the mountain mission with miraculous occurrences that proclaimed the true God.] It appears impossible that their inhabitants should not come to know God and should not run breathless after the odoriferous delicacias of His goodness. There is still much to do in this regard, for a great number of infidels still live in the said mountains, and if thirty missionaries were assigned there, they would not lack employment. But let us praise God for what has been accomplished, petitioning Him to crown so memorable beginnings with a good end.

[The fourth section of this chapter does not treat of the Philippines.]

§ I

Our religious begin again to preach the faith in the islands of Calamiànes; and the great fruit which they gather in the conversion of many heathen.

823. [The Recollect missionaries of Philipinas can rightly be called apostolic because of their zeal.]

824. In the year 1661, the Chinese pirate Kuesing [184]sent an embassy to the Philipinas Islands, demanding nothing less than the vassalage of them all, and threatening the Spaniards who did not comply with what he called their obligation that they would feel all the weight of war on themselves. We have already treated of this matter in another place.42 So far as we have to do with the matter here, various measures were taken in the islands because of the fears caused by the threat, in order that they might be defended in case that Kuesing fulfilled it. One of those measures was the abandonment of the presidios of Terrenàte, Zamboàngan, Calamiànes, and others, in order that they might be able to employ their troops, artillery, and munitions of war in defending the most important places. That decree was opposed very strongly, but the objections although they were thoroughly based on reason could not prevent such action being taken. Consequently, at the end of 1662 or at the beginning of 63 the presidios were actually withdrawn, and the Christian villages were left more exposed than ever to the invasions of the Moros. That so fatal resolution was also necessarily accompanied by the withdrawal of the evangelical ministers, for the fathers of the Society abandoned Zamboàngan and other sites, and our Recollect family the Calamiànes. Although no special regret was shown for that action at that time by the superior government of Manìla, to whom belongs the duty of furnishing spiritual ministers to the subject villages, yet years afterward the wrong was recognized, and the remedy was procured in due manner.

825. The most fruitful preaching of Ours in the [185]islands of Calamiànes has been already related in volume II;43 as has also the conversion of their inhabitants, until then heathens; the marvels which divine Omnipotence worked there; the convents which were established for the extension of the Catholic faith; and the hardships endured by the missionaries in spreading it. Now, then, it must be noted that eight religious were well employed in all the islands of that jurisdiction, who looked after the spiritual administration of the Christian Indians and the conversion of the idolaters who were not few. But when they withdrew, only two remained in charge of the islands of Cuyo and Agutàya while the six betook themselves to Manìla or wherever their obedience assigned them. The place occupied by the six (where they labored to excess, as there were many Indians and they were spread out into many islands and settlements) was given to one single secular priest. He having his residence in Taytày, did as much as he was able in the other villages. But it is more than certain that he could do very little, if he did perchance succeed in doing anything. In this regard one can visibly see the spiritual wrong which followed those vassals of the king. Even an undeniable loss resulted to the royal treasury, for in a few years the Indian tributes were lessened almost by half. But notwithstanding that, neither Governor Don Diego de Salcedo nor the bishop of Zebù, to whom it belonged in its various aspects to supply the remedy of one and the other wrong, would manifest that they understood it.

826. Thus did things go on for seventeen years [186]until the year 1680, when the Indian chiefs of Calamiànes having united among themselves, presented a memorial to Governor Don Juan de Bargas Hurtado. In it, after mentioning the wrongs above mentioned, and the love which they always professed to our religious, their first ministers, they urgently petitioned that the Augustinian Recollects be assigned them as parish priests. The fact that the cura, Don Antonio de Figueròa, the only missionary in Calamiànes, in addition to having been presented for the curacy of Tabùco in the archbishopric of Manìla, had now been sick for two months and unable to administer the sacraments, lent force to that representation. On that account he petitioned with double justice that a successor be sent to him, but no secular ecclesiastic could be found who knew the language of the country, nor would risk the mission which was now of but very small profit. For those reasons, the abovesaid governor despatched an order to our provincial on May 11 of the said year, asking and charging him, and even ordering him in the king’s name, to assign religious of his order, in order that they might go to reassume possession of the villages of Calamiànes, so that they might attend to its spiritual administration. He hoped that by means of their wonted zeal, that province would be restored to its former splendor through their direction and teaching, and that the number of the Christians would increase in the proportion desired.

827. But notwithstanding that, the father provincial negotiated with his definitory in order to interpose a supplication in regard to the said act, and refused to send evangelical laborers, the total cause of such action being the lack of religious. He [187]alleged, then, that since his province had assumed charge of the ministries of the Contracosta and of Mindòro, where many subjects were employed; and in consideration of the lack of men which the discalced order suffered there, which could not be helped: not only was it clearly impossible for him to assign missionaries to Calamiànes, but also that he saw that it was necessary for the reformed branch to reiterate his petition made previously to the royal Audiencia, in regard to withdrawing the two ministers who were occupied in the island of Cùyo, as there was a notable lack in other villages. That allegation was sent by decree of the superior government to Don Diego Antonio de Viga, of the Council of his Majesty and his fiscal in the Audiencia of Manìla. On the sixteenth of the same month and year, he maintained that notwithstanding the representation made by the father provincial (since no other order contained ministers who understood the language of the Calamiànes), the necessary provision must be despatched, in accordance with the second and last warning, ordering the Recollect province to establish missionaries in Calamiànes and not to withdraw those of Cùyo. He was confident in the apostolic zeal with which they have ever applied themselves to the ministry, that notwithstanding their small number they would accomplish the task which demanded many laborers.

828. The governor conformed to the plea of the fiscal. Consequently, on the same day he despatched in due form a second decree in the king’s name, ordering the superior prelate of our province, in consideration of the extreme necessity of the islands of Calamiànes, to immediately establish the necessary [188]ministers therein for the spiritual consolation of those Indians. He added that Don Fray Diego de Aguilar of the Order of Preachers, the bishop recently appointed for Zebù (to whose miter the said islands belonged) despatched ex-officio his decree also charging our province with the administration of all the Christian villages established in Calamiànes, or that were to be established in the future; and says that he does so in consideration of the apostolic zeal of our reformed order and the spirit that always assists them in trampling under foot the greatest fatigues, so that many souls might be gathered into the flock of the Catholic church. Thereupon the father provincial, Fray Thomàs de San Geronimo, could offer no more resistance and sent father Fray Nicolàs de Santa Ana as vicar-provincial of Calamiànes, with two associates. The alcalde-mayor of the said province, Don Diego Bibièn Henriquez, placed them in possession of the ministry of Taytày (which is the chief one of them all) on the first of November, 1680, to the universal joy of the Indians. The latter showed by extraordinary festivals their joy at seeing that the direction of their spirits was in charge of the same fathers who had engendered them through the gospel. The king, by his decree dated December 24, 1682, confirmed the said possession at the petition of the father commissary of Philipinas, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, with great signs of his royal pleasure.

829. Of the three religious newly assigned, father Fray Nicolàs established his residence in Taytày; the second was located in the island of Dumaràn; and the third in the village of Tancòn. From those places they labored according to their strength, until [189]the arrival at Philipinas of the band of missionaries which was conducted by the father commissary, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, which entered Manìla in October 1684, when a greater number of missionaries could be assigned, as was very necessary for the direction of so many Indians. For the extensive territory which was formerly administered by only one cura, has later given worthy employment to five, six, or seven of our religious, to say nothing of the two at the least, who have been stationed continually in the islands of Cùyo. Hence one may infer how much the Catholic faith has been extended there, now by reducing into the villages the many natives who had fled to the mountains, after abandoning almost entirely their Christian obligations; now by undeceiving others who lack but little of becoming Moros, because of their nearness and intercourse with those people; and now by penetrating into the roughest mountains of Paràgua in order to draw the souls from the darkness of paganism to the agreeable light of the Christian religion.

830. In regard to these particulars, we consider it necessary to reproduce at this point a portion of a letter written May 28, 1683, to our father vicar-general, Fray Juan de la Presentacion, by the recently-elected father provincial of those islands, Fray Isidoro de Jesus Maria, a person well known in Europa for the literary productions which he has published. He speaks, then, as follows: “The urgings of the Indians of the province of Calamiànes to the ecclesiastical and secular government and to my predecessors, have availed so much, that this province has judged that the precept of Christian charity demands us to return to that administration, trusting [190]in God our Lord for the relief of the very great disadvantages which had compelled our religious who had administered and reared that field of Christendom from its beginning, to withdraw from that province. At the present it has increased by more than two thousand souls who have been drawn from the mountains in less than three years, as can be seen from the relations sent to the chapter. Greater fruits are hoped for, because in the past year of 82, the ambassador of the king of Borney in the name of his prince, arranged with the governor of these islands for the cession of a not small amount of land and number of settlements, which are subject to the said Bornèy—one in the island of Paràgua, one of the islands of Calamiànes. The confirmation of the pact with his ambassador is awaited from Bornèy, so that that district may really be incorporated with the rest which is subject to the king our sovereign; and consequently, to introduce by means of our religious, the Catholic faith among those new vassals of his Majesty.”

831. Then he goes on to treat of the unsupportable hardships suffered in Calamiànes by the evangelical ministers. I have thought it best not to omit his relation, in order that one may see how much merit is acquired in the promulgation of the faith amid such anxieties. “But the devil,” he continues, “who watches that he may not lose the souls of which he finds himself in quasi possession, has raised up at this time a cloud of dust, by which he has prevented and is preventing in many of these remote parts the obtaining of many souls and is occasioning the loss of others. For as I am advised by the letters of the religious of Calamiànes, under date of the [191]eighteenth of the current month and of the twenty-second of the past month of April, that the alcaldes-mayor who have governed that jurisdiction (and even more he who is governing it at present, who is a lad of 21, a servant of the governor and of these islands) cause so great and continual troubles both to the father ministers and to the natives of the country, that the latter, although Christians, have retired from their villages of Taytày, Dumaràn, and Paràgua to the mountains in order to escape their intolerable oppression. They exclaim that they are not withdrawing from obedience to his Majesty and that they do not intend to abandon their profession as Christians, but that they do not dare to live in the more than enslaved condition in which the alcaldes-mayor, carried away by their insatiable greed, confine them. The father prior of Taytày writes me that he has entered the mountains with every danger from the enemy, in search of his terrified and scattered sheep; and notwithstanding all the efforts and warnings that he has made and given them he has not been able to succeed in getting them to return to their villages, unless another alcalde-mayor be assigned to them, and relief offered for the extreme oppression that is offered to them. They answer the arguments of the father by telling him not to tire himself, ‘for we can ill hope,’ they say, ‘that he who tramples on the sacred dignity of a priest, will have any moderation with regard to us.’ They assert this because they saw that the last alcalde-mayor lifted his cane against father Fray Domingo de San Agustin, and struck him while he was putting on his clerical robes to say mass; and that the present alcalde-mayor treated the religious with indignity [192]even to the point of taking from them the one who takes them their necessary support, so that they have had to find for themselves the water that they drink. He has taken from them the sacristans and other servants of the Church without leaving them even anyone to aid them in the mass. He has forbidden the Indians to enter the convent or to assist in any of the things to which they are obliged. He has forbidden them to go out as they ought to the visitas, and to confess, preach, and catechize. It is all directed to the end that the Indians might not be busied in anything else than in getting wax for the alcalde-mayor. Hence this is the source and beginning of the troubles suffered by the poor Indians. They are not only not permitted to make use of their natural right, but are prevented from giving the due execution to his Majesty’s orders, from entering and going out, from trading and trafficking one with another, and one village with another, for if they have anything to buy or to sell, it must be entirely for the alcalde-mayor. These notices are necessarily communicated in the lands of the infidels. Just consider, your Reverence, what will be the condition of their minds, when we try to reduce them to the knowledge of our good God, and to the obedience of the king our sovereign. I have informed the governor in regard to this, and since I do not expect any relief from his hand, I entreat your Reverence to procure it from the royal piety with the memorial and documents adjoined. If not we shall have to appeal to God, for such troubles are of very frequent occurrence in various parts of these islands. We never cease to wonder when we see some Spaniards here who are so destitute of Christian [193]considerations, and so clothed in greed, God so permitting by His lofty judgments, in exchange for the martyrdoms that are lacking to us religious in Japòn.”

832. We believe, although we are not altogether sure, that the suitable relief was given on one and the other side, for in the following years, we find that the Catholic faith made very extraordinary gains in Calamiànes. This is proved by the reëstablishment of the ancient convents and ministries. It appears that the chapter of 1686 erected a new mission in the village of Tancòn which was later moved to the village of Culiòn. The chapter of 1695 established another distinct mission in the island of Dumaràn, and that of 1698 a third one in the island of Lincapàn; and we see that that of 1746 has added two other ministries, the first in the island of Alutaya, and the second in the village of Calatàn. That is sure proof of the increase of the Christians, when the evangelical laborers are so increased. In regard to the above we must mention what appears from acts and judicial reports which the superior government of Manìla sent to the Council of the Indias, and which are conserved in its secretary’s office in the department of Nueva España; namely, that when our province of Calamiànes was again given to us, all the islands contained only 4,500 Christian souls, but that in the year 1715 they amounted to 18,600. And even after the continual and furious persecution, which is mentioned briefly in the third volume44 had intervened, with which it is undeniable that the number of believers had decreased greatly, father Fray Juan [194]Francisco de San Antonio notes in the history of his province of San Gregorio de Philipinas45 that there were 21,076 Christian souls in the islands of Calamiànes and Romblòn in the year 1735. Hence subtracting about five thousand from that number for those of the island of Romblòn, there is a remainder of about sixteen thousand for Calamiànes.46 Let us give praises to God who thus maintains the zeal of those fervent laborers and crowns their fatigues with so abundant fruits.

[Section ii of this chapter mentions the virtues and holiness of some of the Indians of the missions of Calamiànes. The first mentioned was one Joseph Bagumbàyan, a native of Taytày, who was reared in the convent of that village by the Recollects. The rearing of such children is described as follows: “The holy orders of Philipinas are wont to take account of the sons of the chief Indians of the villages under their charge, in order to teach them [195]good morals from childhood, and rear them with those qualities which are considered necessary to enable them to govern their respective villages afterward with success, since the administration of justice is always put in charge of such Indians. They live in the convents from childhood in charge of the gravest fathers. The latter are called masters, although in strictness they are tutors or teachers who would right gladly avoid such service. In this meaning, and in no other, must one understand whatever is said about our religious having servants in the Philipinas. I have heard scruples expressed here in España over this bare kind [of service], when it ought to be a matter for edification to see that in addition to the truly gigantic toils that our brothers there load upon their shoulders, they voluntarily take this very troublesome one of rearing a few children who serve only to exercise the patience.” Joseph strove to imitate the fathers as much as possible, in self sacrifice and austerity, and desired to become a donné, “which was the most to which he could aspire, since he was only an Indian.” That, however, being denied him, he was enrolled in the confraternity of the Correa or girdle, and admitted as a spiritual brother of the Recollect order. He acted as teacher of boys for over fifty years, teaching them reading, writing, arithmetic, and music. At his death he was buried in the Recollect church at Taytày. One of the boys taught by Joseph was Bartolomè Lingòn. At the age of fifteen he was appointed to assist Fray Alonso de San Agustin or Garcias, who arrived in Philipinas in 1684 and was sent immediately to Calamiànes. Although he desired to remain unmarried, he was married at the request of the missionaries to a devout woman named Magdalena [196]Ilìng. He acted as the chief sacristan of the Recollect church in Taytày, ever taking great delight in the service of the church and his duties therein. He survived his wife three years, dying in January 1696. His wife had been born in Laguna de Paràgua but had lived in Taytày most of her life with a Christian aunt. Although she wished to devote her life exclusively to religion she was persuaded by the religious to marry Bartolomè. Her devotion led her to teach the girls of the village without pay. Of a gentle disposition she was yet unyielding on occasions of necessity and although tempted by an alcalde-mayor who was enamored of her beauty and made improper proposals to her, she ever maintained her virtue. At her death by cancer of the breast, she was buried in the Recollect church. The last two sections of this chapter have nothing on the Philippines.]

§ I

Relation of the anxiety which our province of Philipinas has always had to extend its apostolic preaching to China; and the great effort made in 1682 for that purpose.

[The story of the Recollect attempt to evangelize in China is one of failure, notwithstanding the earnest efforts made by that order to send laborers to that [197]empire. Shortly after the closing of Japanese ports to all missionaries in 1640, the Philippine Recollects began to work up the foreign mission field, but it was not until 1650 that they were able to present memorials to the Roman court, which proved unavailing as the Italians and French were already on the ground in many of the Asiatic countries. In 1667 the father provincial, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, received decrees in blank ordering him to send laborers to China, but the royal treasury was in no position to aid them, and the wars both in the islands and in China also prevented the proposed spiritual invasion. Many other mandatory decrees from the king met the same fate, but in the chapter of 1680, the order determined to make the mission if they had to supply all the funds themselves. Three men were told off to study the language in order to prepare for the work in China, and in 1682, one did actually get as far as Macan, but the opposition of the civil authorities there proved the deathknell to all hopes at that time. Again in 1701, and in 1704, abortive attempts were made to enter the great empire, the last being coeval with the arrival of the apostolic visitor Cardinal Tournon.]

[The second section of this chapter treats of Spanish matters.]

§ I

Of the missions of our religious who reached Philipinas during the years of these three decades, and [198]in especial of the mission which made its voyage this year 1683 to the not small luster of the Catholic religion.

... 908. The third volume has already related that a mission left España in the year 1660 in charge of father Fray Eugenio de los Santos.47 He brought in that mission, however, only eighteen choir religious and two lay brothers whose names I have been unable to ascertain, as the instruments with which I would have to do so have not come to me from España. They all reached Mexico in the above-mentioned year and since because of various accidents that happened during the voyage, in the islands and in the port of Cavite no ships came from Philipinas to Nueva España, either that year or the two following, the mission had to stay in the said city all that time incurring the expenses and fatal consequences that one can understand. In the year 1662 the viceroy of Mexico despatched a boat to the islands to get a report of their condition, for there was fear that they had been invaded by enemies. One of those missionaries ventured in that boat, and arriving at Manila it caused not a little rejoicing to the inhabitants there. The next year ships from Philipinas were seen in the port of Acapulco, and as a consequence fourteen religious took passage in them and arrived at Manila in August 1663, and not in 1684 as was wrongly reported in volume three. The five others remained in Nueva España, but they afterwards reached their destination and all served in those fields of Christendom where they were of great use.

909. Father Fray Christoval de Santa Monica, [199]after having been provincial of Philipinas, to which dignity he was elected in the year 1656, was appointed in 63, to come to España in order to collect and lead a mission. He came then, having received on the way not a few favors from St. Nicholas of Tolentino—favors which he received under the appreciable quality of miracles, but which we cannot specify for lack of documents. He negotiated in Madrid as successfully as could be desired, and collected a mission of twenty-four religious, all generally of good qualities and with the characteristics that are desired in that province. He set sail with that valiant squadron June 16, 1666. [After various miraculous happenings on the way, the vessel reached Vera Cruz in safety, whence the passengers went across the peninsula to Acapulco. August of 1667 the Recollects all reached Manila save two who remained in Mexico for another year because of sickness.]

910. In the year 1668, the venerable father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, of Blancas, was elected president of Mexico in the provincial chapter of Mexico, and father Fray Agustin de Santa Monica, commissary for España. The latter died aboard ship, and on that account, when the former arrived at Mexico, he found an order within two years to go to the court of Madrid in order to discuss some matters of not small magnitude, and to give his vote for the province in the general chapter. The authority and money for the conduction of a mission were long delayed, but at last he received them both at the end of 1674, whereupon he displayed so good zeal that he took passage with twenty-six religious in June 1675. He reached Mexico with his gospel militia, where he was ordered by the province to return to [200]España to conduct certain matters that could only be entrusted to his person. Thereupon, sending his accounts to Philipinas, the mission went to the islands in the year 1676 in charge of another prelate, and father Fray Juan bent his steps toward his new destiny.

911. Another father, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, a native of Cuenca, had gone to Philipinas in the mission of father Fray Christoval de Santa Monica; in the year 1680, that definitory appointed him commissioner to España. He sailed the same year from the port of Cavite in the galleon named “San Telmo.” [After a voyage tempered with the mercy obtained by St. Nicholas of Tolentino, in several dangerous situations, the father arrived at Acapulco, January 22, 1681, and was detained some time in Nueva España by the fever. Reaching Spain in November of the same year, he hastened to lay his supplications at the royal feet, and was given a decree calling for a mission of forty religious fathers and five lay brothers. “He also obtained a royal decree dated April 16 of the abovesaid year [1682] in which his Majesty continued the annual alms of one hundred and fifty pesos for the medicines which are used in our infirmary of Manìla; and another of the thirtieth of the same month, in which he also continued the alms of two hundred and fifty pesos and a like number of fanegas of rice per year for the maintenance of the four religious of Ours who were in charge of the Indians in Manìla.”]

914. In view of this, the edict for the mission was published by our father vicar-general. An excellent mission was collected at Sevilla for the purpose of taking passage in the fleet which was about to sail to [201]Nueva España in charge of General Don Diego de Saldìvar. Thereupon the mission sailed from Cadiz on the fourth of March, 1683, and consisted of the following religious.

1. The father commissary, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, native of Cuenca.

2. The father vice-commissary, Fray Fernando Antonio de la Concepcion, native of Aldea del Cardo, of the bishopric of Calahorra.

3. The pensioned father reader, Fray Juan de la Concepcion, known as Moriàna, an Andalusian.

4. Father Fray Agustin de San Juan Bautista, a native of Leganès near Madrid.

5. Father Fray Juan de la Encarnacion, of Talavera.

6. Father Fray Francisco del Espiritu Santo, of Xarayz in La Vera de Plasencia.

7. Father Fray Antonio de San Agustin, of Madrid.

8. Father Fray Juan de San Antonio, of Alcalà de Enares.

9. Father Fray Juan de San Nicolàs, of Daymiel in La Mancha.

10. Father Fray Alonso de San Agustin, of Villa de Garcìas in Estremadura.

11. Father Fray Joseph de la Encarnacion, of La Nava del Rey.

12. Father Fray Francisco de la Ascension, of Madrid.

13. Father Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, of Malaga.

14. Father Fray Pablo de San Joseph, of Tobòso.

15. Father Fray Joseph de San Geronimo, of Calcèna in Andalucìa. [202]

16. Father Fray Juan del Santissimo Sacramento, of Logroño.

17. Father Fray Vicente de San Geronimo, of Lupiñèn, near Huesca.

18. Father Fray Sebastian de San Marcos, of Tobòso.

19. Father Fray Gaspàr de San Guillermo, of Villanueva Messia.

Brother Choristers

20. Brother Fray Alonso de la Concepcion.

21. Brother Fray Diego de San Nicolàs, of Madrid.

22. Brother Fray Antonio de la Encarnacion, of Xetàfe.

23. Brother Fray Joseph de la Madre de Dios, of Tobòso.

24. Brother Fray Juan de San Agustin, of Oràn, Africa.

25. Brother Fray Francisco Antonio de la Madre de Dios, of Alcantara.

26. Brother Fray Francisco de Santa Maria, of Madrid.

27. Brother Fray Ignacio de San Joseph, of Buxaralòz, Aragon.

28. Brother Fray Joachin de San Nicolàs, of Añon, Aragon.

29. Brother Fray Joseph de Santa Getrudis, of Villafranca de Panadès, Cathaluña.

30. Brother Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, of Urrea de Xalon, Aragon.

31. Brother Fray Joseph de Santa Lucìa, of Caspe, Aragón.

32. Brother Fray Francisco de San Joseph. [203]

33. Brother Fray Pedro de San Miguèl, of Porcuna, kingdom of Jaen.

34. Brother Fray Raphaèl de San Bernardo, of Berja, kingdom of Granada.

35. Brother Fray Manuel de la Concepcion, of Sevilla.

36. Brother Fray Juan de la Ascencion, of Moral, in the archbishopric of Toledo.

37. Brother Fray Alonso de San Joseph.

38. Brother Fray Juan de Santa Monica.

Lay Brothers

39. Brother Fray Pedro de la Virgen del Pilar, of Barcelona.

40. Brother Fray Agustin de Santa Monica, of Ecinacorva, Aragon.

41. Brother Fray Roque de San Lorenzo.

42. Brother Fray Joseph de Jesus.

43. Brother Fray Juan de Jesus, of Alcazar de San Juan, La Mancha.

915. All the above, minus the one named at number 22 who died at sea, and those included under numbers 9, 12, and 14, who hid in Puerto Rico, in order that they might return to their provinces, as they did do, arrived with the great good-will of the fleet, at Vera Cruz, June 1, 1683, whence they went to Mexico with all possible haste. There they comported themselves with the greatest rigor, observance, abstraction, and example, so that the hospitium appeared a desert. Thus they succeeded in obtaining the favor of the viceroy, the count of Parèdes,48 [204]and the venerable archbishop Don Francisco de Aguiar y Seyjas, who visited the fathers in the hospitium, and that not only once. During that winter those who had not completed their studies, continued them, and in that the father lector, Fray Juan de la Concepcion and others who were not lectors, but were worthy to be, worked with especial zeal. By the fifth of March, 1685, they began to go out in bands to Acapulco, whence they set sail April 4, in the almiranta, called “San Telmo.” They anchored in the port of Sorsogòn, in Philipinas, on the fourteenth of July, and arrived in Manila some time in August. There they were given a fine welcome and were allowed some time to rest after so long a voyage. But they afterward began another greater work in that vineyard with the fulfilment which was hoped of not resting until they obtained their reward in glory.

[Chapter iv, treating of the general chapter of 1684, notes (p. 457) that the first definitor chosen for Philipinas was father Fray Francisco de San Nicolàs, and the second definitor, Fray Miguèl de Santa Monica; as first and second discreets (p. 458), were chosen father Fray Blàs de la Concepcion and father Fray Nicolàs de Tolentino.]

[Most of chapter v is taken up with the life of father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, called also Blancas. He was born in the town of Blancas, Aragon, of honorable parentage, his family name being Garcias. From his early years of a religious turn of mind, he at length attained the height of his desires by professing (June 15, 1635) in the convent of Borja. [205]In 1650, after having preached very acceptably at the convent of Zaragoza, he enlisted in the Philippine mission organized by father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio. On his arrival at Manila he preached at the convent in that city and engaged in other work (being also the confessor of the governor Sabiniano Manrique de Lara) until December, 1655. At that time his health giving out because of an accident, he went with the then father provincial, father Fray Francisco de San Joseph, to the convent at Bolinao in the Zambal district, leaving behind with the governor a folio MS. book which he had written during the preceding two years entitled Governador Christiano, entre Neophitos (Christian governor among neophytes), for spiritual guidance in all sorts of matters. In Bolinao, the change of climate and work restored the father’s health in a short time, but he remained in that place until the new provincial chapter in Manila. At that chapter he was chosen prior of the Manila convent against his wishes. Again in 1658 ill health compelled him to go to Bolinao, where he remained this time four years. His efforts to keep the natives there quiet during the times of the insurrections were of great fruit. He labored zealously in that district even visiting the schools in addition to the regular duties of a missionary. He received a number of devout women into the tertiary branch of the order. He was untiring in his efforts for both the spiritual and corporal good of his charges.]

§ V

Father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios founds a village of Indians, converted by dint of his zeal. He [206]is elected definitor and retires from the commerce of men to adorn himself with the perfection of his virtues.

... 984. In a site called Cacaguàyanan which means “the place of many bamboos,” six leguas or so from Bolinào there were for years back a not small number of Indians, who had fled from the surrounding villages, and who are there called Zimarrònes. They having abandoned in its entirety the faith which they had received at baptism, and accompanied by many heathen, not only rendered vain the attempts of mildness and of force which had several times been practiced to reduce them to a Christian and civilized life, but either by declared war, or by means of skilful cunning, did not cease to cause constant depredations in the Catholic villages which were subject to Spanish dominion. So true is the statement contained in various parts of this history, that our ministers of Philipinas, although they dwell in mission fields already formed, go forth to living war against infidelity, and although the Christianity of Zambàles was the first one converted by our discalced order, even there our religious have no lack of meritorious occupation. From the first time that our venerable father was in Bolinào, he worked with his accustomed zeal in order to place those people in the pathway of their eternal salvation. He had obtained from them that the Christians should be obedient to the law, and that the heathen should leave the opaque shades of paganism, so that it was conceded to him to found a new settlement in the island of Pòro with them, with a general pardon and the accustomed privileges. Moved by so good hopes the father went to chapter, and [207]since he had so much influence with the governor of the islands to whom the giving of such licenses pertains, he procured one for the founding of the village which he was attempting, with all the privileges that those Zimarrònes and idolaters could desire. But since the religious to whom it was charged, did not succeed in finding the means prescribed by prudence to unite spirits dissimilar in other regards, not only was the project not obtained, but their good-wills having been irritated, the desired attainment came to appear impossible.

985. So passed affairs, when renouncing the priorate of Manìla, as we have said above, that gleaming sun returned to illumine the hemisphere of Bolinào, and not being able to prevent the activity of his light, he immediately shed his reflected light even to the darkest caves where those Indians were taking refuge in the manner of wild beasts, fleeing from their own good and blindly enamored of the most unhappy freedom. Again did the father establish the compacts for their conversion. In the first step that he took in the undertaking, he made the greatest sacrifice of himself, by exposing his life to a danger which might make the most courageous man tremble, if he were less holy. For when he heard that the fugitive Christians and a great number of heathens and some Chinese idolaters were celebrating a solemn feast to the demons, in the above-mentioned place of Cacaguayànan, he determined to go thither in person with the intrepidity suitable to his valor, and almost alone to oppose so sacrilegious worship and at the same time reduce those who paid that worship. In these ceremonies called Maganitos in the language of the country, [208]intoxication is the most essential part of the solemnity. And since the Zambal Indians are extremely warlike, esteeming it the principal part of their nobility, unless they are illumined with the Catholic faith, to lessen with inhuman murders the species of which they consider themselves as individuals, adding to this that they consider it as an attention paid to their religion, to take away the life of any Christian who approaches their district, where they pay such adorations to their deities, then one can conjecture the great risk that beset that soldier of Jesus, when he attacked such an army of infernal furies, in order to withdraw them from a darkness so dense into the refulgent light of the Catholic religion.

986. But its good outcome deprived the action of the censure of temerity, which showed that it was governed by a special motion of the Holy Spirit, whose impulse at times trespassing the lines of what the world calls prudence, causes one to undertake projects which our finite reason qualifies as rashness. The fact is that when the venerable father arrived at the dense part of a solitary thicket in whose melancholy shades those Indians had gathered to worship as a god one who is not a god, he met them with the qualities of meek sheep, when he might have feared to find them like ferocious wolves, who would consider it a sport of their cruelty to rend him to pieces. Beyond any doubt the hand of God, who wished to preserve the life of one who despised it for His sake, was in this; for since the infernal fury with which the heathen clothe themselves on such occasions is assured, one cannot attribute their gentleness on this occasion to natural causes. That most zealous minister put his hand, then, to the double-edged [209]sword of the preaching, and fighting with it according to his wont so skilfully, made himself master almost without any resistance of those hearts which were filled with apostasy and infidelity, setting up in them the banner of our holy Catholic faith. The complete attainment of so famous a victory was retarded somewhat, because of the outbreak of the insurrection of Pangasinàn. In him was verified what experience has always demonstrated, namely, that a very quiet disposition is needed so that the divine word may be born in souls by the faith. But at last when all the heads of that monstrous hydra were cut off, the blessed father had the happiness to obtain the fruit of his zeal by constructing a new village in the site called Mangàsin. That was the most suitable place in the island of Pòro, and was called by another name Cabarròyan. From the beginning he counted eighty houses in it and a like number of families, all drawn from the captivity of the devil to the perfect liberty of the kingdom of Christ.

[The father preached many sermons to the Zambals in their own language, which he had begun to learn when he first went to Bolinào, so many in fact that they formed two MS. volumes in quarto; and of them copies were made for the use of those not so well versed as himself in the Zambal tongue. In April 1662 he was chosen definitor at the provincial chapter, and lived for the three years of that office in the Manila convent. At the following chapter in 1665, father Fray Juan was elected provincial against his will. His term was one that needed his strong rule, for there were troubles with the governor, Diego Salcedo, who offered obstacles to the smooth ordering of affairs. He materially advanced [210]his order and brought some new stability into the body which had suffered in the recent earthquakes, and the Chinese and native insurrections. At the completion of his triennium he was chosen president of the Recollect hospitium in Mexico. Setting sail for his destination, July 4, 1668, the port of Acapulco was reached only on the twenty-second of the following January, after a voyage replete with storm and sickness. Proceeding to his destination the father entered the hospitium of Mexico on the twelfth of February of the same year. In 1671, as related above, Father Juan de la Madre de Dios was ordered to cast the vote of his province in the general chapter held in Spain in 1672, and also to attend to various matters for his order. There his stay being somewhat prolonged because of lack of funds and other things he was made visitor general of certain Spanish convents, and was later elected to high officers of the order in Aragon. Returning to Nueva España with a band of missionaries he was again sent to Spain on business of the order, but a broken arm received while on his way from Sevilla to Madrid, caused his retirement to the Zaragoza convent, where he died January 10, 1685, at the age of 68. Throughout his life, he was most humble and led an austere existence.]

[Section ii of the following chapter treats of the life of father Fray Thomàs de San Geronimo. This father was born at the village of Yebenes, in the archbishopric of Toledo, his family name being Ayàla. He took the habit in the Madrid convent, July 28, 1646. Upon going to the Philippines he was sent to the missions of the Visayas. Devoting himself there to the study of the languages he learned several of the Visayan tongues, especially the Cebuan, [211]“the principal Visayan tongue.” In that language he translated the catechism, which was printed at Manila in 1730; compiled an explanation of the Christian Doctrine, which was printed in 1730; and composed a vocabulary in the Cebuan tongue, and another in the dialects spoken in Cagayàn and Tagalòan. In addition he left two volumes of sermons in the vernacular of the country. He served as prior for six years in the convent of Billig, Mindanao; six years in Cagayàn, and various times at the island of Romblon, and finally in Siargao. In 1680 he was elected provincial, and served his term so faithfully and well, visiting and working assiduously, that he was reëlected in 1686 against his will. But he was destined not to fill that office again for death took him May 19, 1686. After his first term he served in the island of Romblòn. He was a most zealous missionary. The remainder of the chapter and chapter vii following do not deal with Philippine affairs.]

§ I

Our province of Philipinas takes charge of the spiritual administration of three islands, namely, Masbàte, Ticào, and Burìas, with no little luster to the Catholic religion.

... 1108. In the great archipelago of San Lazaro, as one enters the Philipinas from Marianas, [212]the islands of Luzòn, Mindòro, Panài, Zebù, and Lèyte form among themselves an almost perfect circle which has a circumference along the beaches from the center of about two hundred leguas encircling the above-named islands, which are very near one another. Within this circumference, toward the part of Mindòro and Panay, are located the islands of Romblòn, and toward the part of Lèyte those of Masbàte, Ticào and Burìas, which belong to the bishopric of Nueva Càceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political matters. Masbàte, which is the chief island, is sixty leguas southwest of Manìla. It lies in a latitude of about sixty degrees, has a circumference of fifty leguas, a length of nineteen, and a breadth of five or six.49 The island of Ticào is about nine leguas long, four and one-half wide, and about twenty-three leguas in circumference.50 That of Burìas has a circumference of twenty-six leguas, four wide and twelve long.51 Masbàte has the reputation of having the richest gold mines that were found by the first Spaniards, and from which they benefited to a great extent. Their working has not been continued, either for lack of people suitable [213]for this work or for other reasons which do not concern us. That of Buriàs abounds in the palm called Buri, of whose fruit and even of whose trunk, the Indians make an extraordinary bread. That of Ticào produces many woods, excellent for the construction of medium-sized boats. The natives of those three islands are of the same qualities as the rest of the Philipinas. However, they have become very sociable because of the almost continuous intercourse that they have with the Spaniards, on account of the many who pass on their way to other countries.

1109. Those islands were reduced to the crown of España in 1569 by Don Luis Henriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, whose conquest made them thoroughly subject in everything to Captain Andrès de Ibarra. Thereupon, scarcely had the way been opened by arms, when the venerable father, Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant of our order, entered Masbàte to preach the law of grace. He, as is asserted by father Fray Gaspàr de San Agustin, may be called the apostle of that island, in consideration of the great amount of his labors therein for the extension of the Catholic faith. Other apostolic workers of the same institute followed his tracks later, and they went to Ticào and Burìas. Consequently, in the year 1605, the province of Santo Nombre de Jesus founded a mission composed of the above three islands. The first prior appointed was father Fray Francisco Guerrero, instructor of Christian doctrine, who was of well-known zeal. But our calced fathers kept the care of their administration only until the year 1609, when the intermediary chapter resigned that district and its [214]villages into the hands of the bishop of Nueva Càceres, Don Pedro de Arce, in order that he might appoint secular clergy as he wished, who could attend to the Christian Indians with the bread of the doctrine.52 From that time until the year 1688, various curas had successive charge of the administration of those souls in order to teach them the road of glory. But notwithstanding that that district had only two hundred and fifty families when they took charge of it (as the above-cited Father Gaspar confesses) whose number continued to decline afterward because of the Moro invasions, one cura could in no way be maintained, and scarce could one be found to take charge of that church.

1110. Things were in this condition, then, when the most illustrious master, Don Fray Andrès Gonzales, who deservedly ascended to the bishopric of Nueva Càceres from the ranks of the Order of Preachers, represented to the king on May 28, 1682 that in order that the villages of his diocese might be rightly administered spiritually, it would be indispensable to assign its curacies in another manner and give some of them into the charge of religious. In consideration of that he petitioned his Majesty to commit the approbation of the new plan considered to his governor of those islands, so that as vice-patron, he might proceed in it. The king conceded what that prelate asked by his decree dated Madrid, August 13, 1685, and his Excellency presented the new formation of districts to the governor with all its changes. By it he applied to our province all the mission of Masbàte, and its adjacent islands, as well [215]as the villages of Ingòzo, Catanavan, Vigo, and the rancherias contiguous, all located in the island of Luzòn, which hitherto had belonged to the curacy of Pìriz, so that another new mission might be formed under charge of our discalced order. The governor was the admiral of galleons, Don Gabriel de Cruceleygui, knight of the habit of Santiago. By an act of November 26, 1686, he approved in toto the idea of the bishop, and, as a consequence, the assignation made to us of the above-mentioned villages, so that we might administer them as curas. However, because of several troubles that resulted, our province accepted only the mission of Masbàte, and renounced the right that they might have had to the other villages of the island of Luzòn, for they could be administered by the fathers of St. Francis with less trouble.

1111. The constant reasons for the acts by which the bishop assigned to us the above-mentioned district were reduced to the fact that there was but one secular priest in it, and he was insufficient for its administration. For it was proved that only four persons had died with the sacraments within the long space of four years, while those who had passed to the other life without that benediction numbered one hundred and eighteen. Add to this that the baptism of small children had been delayed many months as the parish priest did not go but very seldom to visit the distant villages. This ought not to induce inferences against the well-proved zeal of those venerable priests, that they had neglected their duties in attending to the obligations of the ministry. For since there was but one ecclesiastic in all three islands, and those islands occupy so great [216]an extent, and the villages are so distant from one another, how could he attend to so many parishioners with the pastoral food? It is a fact that even after our religious had entered there and three or four were kept busy continually, scarce could they fully attend to all their duties as spiritual directors, without some inculpable lack being evident; and that notwithstanding that each one labored as many, for not few of them have lost their health because of the work, as we shall see hereafter. Consequently, one ought not to be surprised if those Indians were poorly administered before, for it is undeniable that one person cannot attend to so many laborious cares, as can many, although he may equal them in zeal.

1112. The bishop and governor convinced, then, in this matter, despatched the fitting provisions in November 1686 in order that our reformed branch might take charge of those souls. This plan was of great moment to the province, for the said islands, besides being the necessary passage way and very suitable station for those who voyage from Manìla to Carhaga and Zebù, are the stopping place of the ships which sail from Cavìte to Acapulco and return from Nueva España to Philipinas. It is very common for the ships to stop in their ports to get fresh supplies, and await suitable winds. On that account there originated the greatest convenience in possessing them in our custody, because of what makes for the spiritual: for the provincials, when they sail out upon their visits; for the commissioners when they come to España for missions; for the missions themselves when they arrive at the islands; and for the multitude of our religious who journey from one part to another, employed in the holy commerce of [217]souls. Without doubt those reasons somewhat aided the zeal with which our tireless workers in those countries have always procured the good teaching of the faithful, and the conversion of the faithless, at the cost of their own very great fatigue and of great penalties. On that account it was determined in the intermediary chapter of 1687 to accept the charge of that reasonable territory to whose labor God called them by the mouth of the bishop. And more when it was learned that, although the number of the Christians was greatly diminished, the interiors of the islands of Masbàte and Burìas were densely inhabited with innumerable Indians, apostates from the faith and assembled there not only from their villages, but also from other parts, in whose reduction a great service would be done to God and the king, and with this fruit the sweatings of the spiritual administration would be eased, which by themselves alone gave much to grieve over.

1113. Finally matters having been arranged, fathers Fray Juan de San Phelipe, the outgoing provincial, and Fray Juan de la Encarnacion, with another associate, of whose name we are ignorant, left Manila in May 1678 [i.e., 1688] to take charge of the above-mentioned district. They went to the village of Ticào, where they met the cura, then Bachelor Don Christoval Carvallo, who had been notified by the suitable acts in the month of August. The latter agreed without the least repugnance to surrender the churches and his administration. He did it gracefully on September 2 of the same year in the village of Mobo, a site in the island of Masbàte, which was, and is, the chief village of all the others, and that mission remained from that time on [218]subject to our discalced order. The Indians received the religious with signs of the greatest rejoicing. It is a fact that they knew our holy habit some years before, because some of our gospel missionaries had stopped in their port on account of storms, when they were passing by Masbàte on their way to their destinations, and had attended to instructing them and even administering them the sacraments. From that came the almost general joy with which the discalced Augustinians were received there; and from that reception originated the great fruit which they obtained with their preaching. The fathers endeavored to have the love shown them by the Indians increase, not being unaware that the good-will of the hearers is a very plausible disposition so that the work of the preachers may be useful. Knowing also that the good opinion of the evangelical minister gives great force to his words, in order that theirs might be increased they aimed to confirm them with works. They bore themselves as saints in private and public in order to give a good example in all things. With that method, one can believe the great number of Christians that were gathered to Catholicism in the said islands, as we shall relate later.

1114. But since it was necessary for this attainment to found some convent, they erected it that same year in the village of Mobo, which had the most inhabitants. It has Nuestra Señora de los Remedios [i.e., our Lady of Remedies] as titular, and a very costly church is being built which abounds in reredoses and other adornments with a sacristy provided with vestments [? jocalias] and ornaments. The house is very capacious and has [219]all the necessary rooms and has moreover cells for the religious who generally live in it. That convent was the refuge of the gospel ministers who lived in it in suitable number to look after the Christians in spiritual matters and to allure the apostates to the bosom of the Christian religion which they had abandoned. Thence, as swift moving clouds, they went out to fertilize the other villages with the water of their doctrine and having become hunters of souls, to overrun the deserts and mountains. Although there were not more than six villages in the three islands when our discalced religious entered to administer them, in a few years they established three more where they could shelter those who were being reduced to our holy faith. And hence the workers of that mission with inexplicable toil cared for a great number of souls who dwelt in the capital of Mobo, and in its annexed villages or visitas of Ticào, Burìas, Balino, Palànog, Habuyoàn, Tagmasùso, Buracàn, and Limbojan. In that extensive territory not few times did God explain His mercies with repeated miracles in confirmation of the faith which Ours were preaching. Some received with baptism the health of the body, and others found themselves freed from their pains by the prayers of the ministers, accompanied by the laying on of hands. However, inasmuch as the manuscripts give us these notices without specification, we cannot name the individual miracles.

1115. A very lamentable event for the islands which happened in the year 1726, was the reason for the founding of another convent in Ticào. It happened as follows. The galleon “Santo Christo de Burgos,” while making its voyage to Nueva España, [220]anchored at the port of Ticào in order to await good weather before taking to the open sea. But it was shipwrecked there by a storm which came upon it. On board that vessel was Don Julian de Velasco, a minister assigned to the Audiencia of Mexico. He managed to obtain his spiritual improvement from that disaster so transcendental to all classes of Philipinas by the practice of good works. He did not care to return to Manìla, although he could have done so, but remained with all his family in the said port until he could get passage the next year. Among what he was able to save of his lost possessions, he placed his first attention in seeing that the holy image of the holy Christ of Burgos which was on the ship as its titular, should not be lost; for it was his intention to place it at his own expense in some church, so that it might have public veneration for the benefit of souls. Scarcely, then, did he have that celestial treasure in his hands, when he exposed it to worship on the high altar of the church of Ticào with ornaments suitable to his devout affection. Thereafter followed the assignment of some income so that there might be a resident evangelical minister there, both so that a chaplain might not at least be wanting to the holy image, and so that the Indians might not lack more continual teaching. For that reason, the province afterward determined to found a convent in Ticào. To it were assigned the villages situated in the islands of Ticào and Burìas, and to the convent of Mobo those of the island of Masbate. The ministers were thus able to obtain more relief because their number had increased, although they still had much to do in order to attend to everything. [221]

§ II

Relation of the progress made by Catholicism in those islands by the preaching of our laborers; and the great hardships that they suffered for that end.

1116. In the year 1724, the province of Philipinas begged the king to confirm, by special decree, the possession that had been given them in his royal name of the islands of Masbàte. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Cáceres, on the eleventh of February, 1725, to make no innovation in regard to the spiritual administration of the said district until he should provide what was needful in his royal Council. He ordered them also to inform him of the progress that had been made by the faith in that territory since it had been in our charge. On that account some juridical investigations were made in Manìla in order to inform the king with acts. By them it appeared that, although there had been only one single parish priest in all the district of Masbàte before, since it had been placed in charge of the Recollect fathers, three religious at least had always lived there; and that, as was proved by the books of the royal treasury, in the year 1687, anterior to our possession, there were only one hundred and eighty-seven families in the whole mission, while in the year 1722, there were five hundred and eighty-five: so that in the space of thirty-four years they had increased by three hundred and ninety-eight. For that reason the governor, Marquès de Torrecampo, gave his king June 30, 1727, a very favorable report of our discalced order in the terms of this honorable clause. “The district [222]of Masbàte, in charge of the discalced Augustinians, has had an increase of 398 whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. They, not only in that district, but also in the rest of these islands, dedicate themselves to the propagation of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.”

1117. These increases will be of greater moment if we consider that, if the families be reduced to the number of four persons each, as is customary there, the said district consisted, at the time it was given to us, of 748 souls, and in thirty-eight years it had increased to 2,340, the increase amounting to 1,592 persons. But sixteen years later (namely, the year 1738, when father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio printed the first volume of the history of his seraphic province of Philipinas), those increases were almost doubled.53 Then directing his pen to the end that leads to truth, he assures us that there are new villages in the island of Masbàte with three thousand three hundred and forty-five souls; in that of Ticào, two, with four hundred and seventy-five persons; and one in that of Burìas, with one hundred and eighty. Whence it is inferred that three more villages were newly established: namely, in Masbàte, those of Navangui and Baraga; and in Ticào, that of San Jacinto, at the port so named, where the ships now stop for fresh supplies, before taking to the open sea. Also the number of souls has increased to one thousand six hundred and sixty by the impulses of the preaching of our reformed branch, aided efficaciously by divine grace. All the increase of this district since it has been in our charge has [223]been six newly-created villages, and three thousand two hundred and fifty-two souls brought to the Catholic bosom. And we even ought to infer that many more have been converted, for by the invasions of the Moros, which are told at length in the third volume,54 the number of the Christians could not but be lessened.

1118. It only remains now to ascertain whence proceeded those Indians who so increased the above-mentioned villages. It was stated in another place in the third volume55 that there was a great number of mountain Indians in the islands of Masbàte and Burìas, who are there called Zimarrones. They were feared, for they lived without God, or king, and were given up to the liberties of paganism. Those were certain men, if they can be called so, who having apostatized the faith, had taken to the deserts and high places, where they defended their native barbarity at every step, against those who were trying to reduce them and to procure their own good. They had gathered there, either they or their ancestors, from the villages of the same islands, as well as from Zebù, Leyte, and others, to escape the punishment due them for their crimes. Consequently, they were people especially fierce. Among them were found to be many heathens, as they had been born in those places where the sound of the preaching did not penetrate. The others were still worse, as they had abandoned Christianity. They did notable damage to the villages, and they even robbed the boats that were anchored in the ports or bays, treacherously taking many lives. The matter [224]had assumed such proportions that one could not cross those islands by their interiors; and to approach their shores was the same thing as putting in at an enemy’s port. But at present all the Zimarrones are reduced to the faith, and to the obedience of the king without any exception. Hence one can travel through the islands without the slightest risk, and boats can go thither even to the uninhabited places. From that and from no other beginnings have come the increase of that church, and there is not small praise to our reformed branch from it.

1119. That progress of the faith was preceded by many hardships that were suffered by the religious, some of which I shall state, noting that innumerable others are omitted, in order not to bore our readers by their relation, and because they resemble those that we shall relate. It has already been stated, then, that for the space of more than thirty years there was but one convent in the three islands, which was established in the village of Mobo, whence the gospel laborers went out to administer all the settlements of the district. For that purpose, it was absolutely necessary for them to sail many leguas by boisterous seas, or to travel by land in some parts by rough mountains, threatened in the one place with shipwreck and in the other by continual dangers. Since the new convent was established in the island of Ticào, the administration is more tolerable, although it is always accompanied by indescribable fatigues. For the religious of Mobo have to sail completely about the island of Masbàte in order to fulfil their obligations, or if they prefer to journey by land, as they are able, to one or two villages, they have to do it afoot with the [225]greatest discomfort, through inaccessible mountains, and exposed to dangers wellnigh insupportable. The missionaries of Ticào, besides having to coast a great part of that island have to go many times during each year to that of Burìas, crossing the very stout currents of the sea from the rapidity of which some of the missionaries have found themselves in the utmost consternation. On the other hand, all the time that the Indians remained Zimarrones, they allowed no passage to the zealous laborers without them risking their lives to innumerable dangers; and even after they had been reduced, the Moros were a substitute for them on the outside, and inside many sorcerers, who tried, some by violence, and others by their diabolical arts, to drive thence, and even from the world, the ministers of souls. And who can tell all that they suffered from all these causes? It was so great that some religious, never more alive than when they were dead, came to die in the campaign like good soldiers.

1120. Father Fray Ildephonso de la Concepcion was one of those who sweated most in that ministry, and one of those who entered to cultivate it in its early beginnings. By the ardor of his zeal, by the example of his life, and by his apostolic preaching, he reduced many apostates to the Catholic faith. Some of them were gathered into the villages already established, and others, up to the number of eighty families, founded through his influence, another new village on the opposite coast from Mobo. Going then, from one to another part of the islands, the solicitous fisher of souls had the boat in which he journeyed swamped twice, one-half legua from shore, while another time his boat was driven by [226]storms on some reefs and dashed to pieces; dangers in which many of those who accompanied him were lost, while the father escaped miraculously with his life after having endured a thousand anxieties. The Zimarrones, infidels, and bad Christians, given up to doing ill to whomever procured their total welfare, now as declared enemies, and again as wily friends, placed him almost continually in monstrous danger of exhaling his last breath. In order that he might visit promptly the new village which he had erected, he opened a road from Mobo to it through the interior of the island. He crossed it many times on foot, it being necessary for him to traverse very lofty mountains exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. He suffered indescribable things for the faith, with the great hardship that his vast zeal occasioned him, and which those Indians caused him with their obstinacy. Finally he fell grievously ill, his pains originating from the penalties of the said road which he frequented several times in the course of a single month, as well as from the heat and showers which he endured when going through the mountains in search of those rational wild beasts. He died through the apostolic zeal, in the manner in which all gospel laborers ought to depart this life.

1121. Father Fray Benito de la Assumpcion, a religious who seemed born for the labors and successes of the spiritual administration, followed that laborer in the care of that vineyard. He believed that, without passing the limits of prudence, it would be very seasonable for the souls of his parishioners to reduce them to living closer together in a fewer number of villages, and he thus tried to [227]bring it to pass. Especially did he propose to himself the plan that the Indians shortly before reduced to the new village which we have mentioned in the preceding number, should move to the capital or chief village of Mobo, for he formed the correct judgment that they would be better Christians if they had at all hours the good example of their ministers before their eyes. It is not so difficult to move a whole village in Philipinas as it would be in Europa; for the Indians build their houses without cost and easily. They also find in all parts lands suitable for their cultivation without any expense from their pockets. Yet notwithstanding that one cannot easily tell the vast labors, watches, and afflictions that come upon the religious when they attempt such reductions of the Indians. The latter desire with too great endeavor, to have their residence where they cannot be registered, in order to work with greater freedom, and excuse themselves if possible from all human subjection, and even from divine law, without caring greatly for their own spiritual interests, but each one going at will to his rancheria or field where it is not easy for the father minister to visit them or assist them with the holy sacraments during their sicknesses. For that reason all hell is conjured against the teacher of the doctrine, if he tries to place such reductions into effect, from which many spiritual interests would follow. That venerable father suffered so much with his undertaking that he caused universal wonder that it did not cost him his life, and the worst thing was that he could not see it accomplished.

1122. Not only in this, but also in other projects of known utility, did he have much to endure and [228]much from which to gather merit. With the zeal of Elias did he relentlessly persecute divine offenses, while he at the same time loved the persons most especially. It was the same for him to discover any trace of superstition or the slightest vestige of the badly extinguished infidelity, and to fly to its destruction with all his power. Amid continual risks of losing his life, he exercised his gigantic charity for many years in directing the souls of those islands to God, without any fear of death whose scythe he saw upon him many times. The Moros with their stealthy attacks, the infidels or apostates with open malice, and the evil Christians with their subterfuges and deceits made him almost continually suffer for justice. But he worked on manfully as one who had the refuge of his life in God, and consoling his weakened heart with the divine grace he supported the persecutions from which the Lord wove him a crown. In the above-named village a chief Indian named Canamàn irritated by the attempted reduction, and because the father checked him publicly for a certain scandalous concubinage, raised his head in open mutiny. With many followers he sought the father and persecuted him in order to deprive him of life. At that revolution the venerable religious was sorely grieved, and it was considered as a special prodigy that he could escape from so sacrilegious hands. Finally, for the same reason another Indian of the village of Ticào (exasperated by the just reprehension and punishment which that famous minister had applied to him as an indispensable medicine for his faults) caused him to be the holocaust of his burning zeal for the good of souls, by the hidden method of poison, through the potency [229]of which father Fray Benito lost his life, in order to obtain a better one in glory.

1123. After the above fathers, father Fray Diego de San Gabriel entered to take up the toil with the profit of increased fruit in the cultivation of that field. He was the amazement of charity in regard to God because of his care for self-perfection, and in regard to his neighbor, because of the way in which he desired his salvation. In order that he might attain that end he pardoned no toil, if it were fitting for the spiritual welfare of the Indians. He showered favors upon his parishioners by trying to take them to the kingdom of heaven. And although for this the latter loved him more, some were not wanting among so many who persecuted him, returning him evil for good. But like another David when they troubled him with their injuries, the venerable father clad himself in haircloth, humbled his soul in fasting, and occupied himself in prayer. By that means he delighted himself in God, taking pleasure in hardships as if they were the fountain of health. In order to induce his parishioners to the devotion of the most holy Mary he composed and published in the Visayan language a book of the miracles of our Lady of Carmen; and the most sweet Virgin repaid his good zeal by liberating him with circumstances that appeared miraculous from several shipwrecks, and from other innumerable multitudes of dangers. On the beach of the village of Balino a certain Indian gave him a cruel wound with a dagger, because he checked some faults in him. The father recognized as a favor of the Mother of Mercy, not only the fact that he was not quite killed, as might have happened, but also the [230]cure of the wound, almost without medicine. But at last, as he was sailing as secretary, which post he had obtained later, to visit those villages and others of Visayas, a storm coming down upon him swamped the boat and he was drowned, together with the father provincial, then our father Fray Juan de San Andrès.

1124. And now in order to conclude in a few words, a matter that we can not even with many words consider adequately, we add that the venerable fathers Fray Antonio de Santa Monica and Fray Thomàs de San Lucas said many times without a trace of boasting that, although they had been many times in the doctrinas and missions, in none of them had they found so much to suffer as in that of Masbàte. Father Fray Francisco de Santa Engarcia was twice in imminent danger of death; first in shipwreck and later because an Indian tried to kill him, for the reason that he had tried to get him to give up a certain concubinage. But God having freed him from those dangers, allowed him to perish in another through His occult judgments. It was a fact that that father when attending to the fulfilment of his obligation gave motive that certain of the Zimarron Indians whom he was endeavoring to establish soundly in the Catholic faith gave him certain death-dealing powders in his food, which although they did not deprive him of life rendered him insensible and he became most pitiably insane. Many other religious, whom we shall not mention for various reasons, suffered so much while ministers of those islands, by shipwreck, bad weather, and persecution, that if they did not obtain the crown to which they aspired by death, they were left with [231]their health totally lost, and lived amid continual aches and pains, until their last breath opened for them, after some years, a pathway to heaven in order that they might enjoy the reward of their well endured conflicts.

[The remaining sections of this chapter and the two final chapters of the book do not touch Philippine matters.]