Read Ebook: The Philippine Islands 1493-1898: Volume 32 1640 Explorations by early navigators descriptions of the islands and their peoples their history and records of the Catholic missions as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts showing the political ec by Aduarte Diego Bourne Edward Gaylord Commentator Blair Emma Helen Editor Robertson James Alexander Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 211 lines and 56568 words, and 5 pages

Toward the end of November in this year, on St. Andrew's day, a terrible earthquake occurred in these islands. It extended from Manila to the extreme limits of the province of Nueva Segovia, a distance of two hundred leguas. This earthquake, which was such as had never been seen before, did great damage throughout all of this region and made a great impression. In the province of Ylocos palm-trees were buried, leaving only their tops above the ground. Some mountains struck against others, with the great force of the earthquake, overthrowing many buildings and killing people. Its greatest violence was in Nueva Segovia, where the mountains opened and new fountains of water were uncovered. The earth vomited out great masses of sand, and trembled so that people could not stand on their feet, but sat on the ground; and were as seasick on land as if they had been in a ship at sea in a storm. In the high lands of the Indians named Mandayas a mountain fell and, catching a village below it, overwhelmed it and killed the inhabitants. One large tract of land near the river which previously had contained little mountains, as it were, most of it being at a considerable elevation, sank downward, and is now almost level with the margin of the water. The movement in the bed of the river was so great that it raised waves like those at sea, or such as are aroused by the blasts of a furious wind. The stone buildings suffered the greatest damage. Our church and convent in the city were totally overthrown, the very foundations giving way in places, because of the sinking of the earth. It was no small comfort to be able to find the most holy sacrament in this most pitiful ruin, with the consecrated loaves unbroken and unharmed. There were nine religious at that time in the convent, three of whom were outside of the house--the rest escaping, not without a special providence of God. Father Fray Ambrosio de la Madre de Dios was protected in the arch of a window, everything on all sides of him having fallen. There were persons who declared that they had seen above the walls of the enclosure a matron in the dress and mantle which our Lady is accustomed to wear. It was no new thing for the sovereign princess to come to the protection of her friars in their great distress; but because of the great disturbance, and the carelessness ordinarily shown about such things in religious orders, the verification of these facts was neglected. Only one religious, named Fray Juan de San Loren?o, who was sick in bed, had his arm broken by a beam which fell upon it; and only one Indian boy who was waiting upon him was killed. This religious lived for some years, and offered a noble example of patience in enduring the cruel miseries and the terrible pains occasioned by the blow, of which he finally died.

Some very virtuous fathers who died at this time

"I, Fray Juan Naya, being afflicted by this severe infirmity, and seeing that I am very much hindered from carrying on the ministry for which I came from Espa?a, vow and promise, as humbly and devoutly as I may, to the most blessed Virgin Mary, my Lady, that I will minister to the Indians in this ministry, remaining and assisting in it at the command of my superior, in reverence and honor for this most sacred Virgin, my Lady, for seven continuous years from the day of her Visitation, the second of July, 1605, if she will deign to obtain for me from her most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, comfortable and sufficient health for me to be able to accomplish that which is necessary in this ministry; and I vow that, if I shall gain this health, I will exercise the ministry." This humble supplication was heard at that tribunal of mercy, and our Lady of Compassion granted him his health so completely that at the end of the month he was well and strong enough to learn the language, and in three months was fit to render service and labor in it. As a memorial of this marvelous goodness, he kept this vow written in his breviary, and, as often as he read it there, he used always to give devout thanks to her who had gained that health for him; and with great devotion he fulfilled his vow, to the great gain of the Indians in this province. At the end of the seven years he was afflicted with a flux of the bowels, with abundance of blood; and on the same day of the Visitation he made another vow to serve four years more in the ministry in the honor of this Lady. He received complete health, so that he was able to labor in it for that time and much longer, as one of the best of the ministers of religion, giving a great example of holiness and virtue wherever he was. When he was living in the district of Ytabes, in a village of that province named Tuao, he was once burying a dead man in the cemetery when a venomous snake came out from the grass and, amid the noise and alarm of the people, entered between his leg and his breeches--which was an easy thing for the snake to do, since these garments are worn loose in this province and resemble polainas. Although the Indians, who knew how poisonous the snake was, cried out and gave him over for dead, father Fray Juan continued with the act which he was performing, because of his duty as a religious, until he had finished burying the Indian; and then, putting his hand in his breeches, he caught the snake by the neck, and drew it out and threw it away, without receiving any harm from it.

The election as provincial of father Fray Miguel Ruiz, and events in the province at this time

On the first of May, 1621, father Fray Miguel Ruiz was elected as provincial, to the great satisfaction of the province. He was a son of the royal convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia; and at the time of his election was prior of the convent of Manila, which position he had held twice. He exhibited in it and in other important dignities the excellent qualities which are desired in a good superior--much virtue and learning, great prudence, and natural gravity and kindness, which, while rendering him much beloved, did not allow others to lose respect for him. In this chapter many ordinances were enacted which were helpful for the quiet and calm of the religious. During this year two religious went from Nueva Segovia to Japon, and, after having suffered much in that kingdom, they had the fortunate end of glorious martyrdom--being burnt alive by a slow fire, as will be seen later. A fortunate provincialate was promised because it had begun so joyfully; for at that time the verification of a most famous miracle wrought by our Lady of the Rosary was being concluded. She went, in her holy image which she had in the convent of Manila, to give aid. to a votary of hers by the name of Francisco Lopez, who called upon her in the extreme necessity of his soul. The narrative, with the most marvelous circumstances which accompanied her act, has already been given in the part of this history which treats of the foundation of this convent--where something has also been narrated with regard to the great deeds of this most holy image, and some account has been given of the innumerable miracles which it has wrought and still works. Among them this, which was the most famous, has been described. On account of it, this most holy image was brought out during the procession which was made to the cathedral on the first Sunday of the chapter-meeting, and with its beauty and the special joy of that day, the city was filled with delight and devotion. The miracle was made the subject of sermons, and was painted upon a canvas, and thus the devotion of all to this sovereign lady was greatly increased; and she, as if by grace omnipotent, from that day forward conferred more and greater favors on her votaries. She so greatly multiplied the working of manifest miracles that, although many of them have been recounted in the place referred to, there were incomparably more which were omitted on account of their number; and she has never ceased and will never cease to work the like marvels, until the devotion of this city for her shall cease. This provincialate was also very happy in the great number of holy martyrs which the province had during it. A detailed account of them will be given, so far as we have been able to learn the facts, though many great and edifying matters must remain in silence because the disturbances of the persecution gave no opportunity for verifying them. Yet that which is certain is so much that it alone would be sufficient to give glory to an entire religious order; and how much more to a small province--so small that there were many convents in Espa?a which alone contained more religious than this entire province. Under all these circumstances, for the Lord to give so many and so great saints to it is a special mercy; and however much we may strive to praise and give thanks for it, our praise and gratitude will never reach the obligation, which is far and beyond measure above our feeble strength.

All these new causes of joy were necessary to temper the sorrow caused among the religious of this province by the rising of a large number of Indians, which happened on the sixth of November in this year in the most distant parts of the province of Nueva Segovia, in the region known as Yrraya. On the Friday before, a very large and beautiful cross had been set up in the court or cemetery of the church in the largest village there, which was called Abuatan. At this time the Indians gave every evidence of joy and pleasure and even of devotion to the Lord who redeemed us on the cross; but on the following Sunday, instigated by the devil, they burnt their churches and villages, and avowed themselves enemies of the Spaniards, and even of God, whom they left that they might return to their ancient sites to serve the devil in exchange for the enjoyments of the liberties and vices of their heathen state. Practically all those in this village, and many of those in another near it called Pilitan, belonged to a tribe called Gadanes. This tribe was always regarded as one on a lower plane of civilization than the others, and more devoted to freedom, and enemies to subjection; for they were a race bred in the most distant mountains and the wildernesses of that province, and they had less communication and commerce than did the other tribes--not only with the Spaniards, but even with the rest of the Indians. It was these Gadanes, then, who became restless, and disquieted the other inhabitants of that region, though these others had always been very faithful to God and the Spaniards. They had even sustained many bloody wars with the neighbors by whom they were surrounded that they might not be lacking in the friendship which they had with the Spaniards, or in the subjection which they had promised them. But now these revolted and joined the insurgents, partly as the result of force applied by the Gadanes--for the latter greatly excelled them in numbers, and caught them unprepared for defense--and partly also carried away by their own natural desire for liberty, to which they were invited by the safety of the mountains to which they proposed to go. The mountains, being very rough, offered opportunities for easy defense; and, being very fertile, promised them an abundant living. The Gadanes had planned this revolt far ahead, and had appointed a day for it to occur some time later. Their purpose was to try to get back first certain chiefs who were held as hostages in the city of the Spaniards; and they had already sent there one of their chiefs, named Saquin, who had the influence of a father over the rest, that he might bring away these chiefs, with great dissimulation and pretended arguments of necessity. It happened that the father vicar of Abuatan had grown weary of his work, and wished to resign his office. He had gone down at that time to the city to ask the father provincial, who happened to be there then, to give this office to someone else and to permit him to take some rest by being under his directions. The Gadanes, accused by their own bad consciences, supposed that he had detected their purpose of rising, and had gone down to ask for soldiers to prevent it. In fear of interference, they hastened on their treacherous act; and, without waiting for the appointed period, or for the return of him who had gone down for the hostages , they decided to rise at once. Without further deliberation or delay, they began active operations. Father Fray Alonso Hernandez, who was at Abuatan, heard the tumult; and being above measure sad at what was happening, he tried his best to quiet them. He told them how foolish their proceedings were, and how they were deceived by the devil, not only as to the good of their souls, but also as to the many temporal advantages, which they possessed in their trade, with the Spaniards as well as with the rest of the Indians--in which they gained so much that they were the richest and most prosperous Indians in all that region. All this, he said, and their own quiet, peace, and comfort would be destroyed by their rising; while if they would keep quiet they would preserve it all, for he assured them that no harm would happen to them for what they intended to do. But the chiefs who led the insurgents said to him that he should not waste his time by talking about this; and that it was now too late, since they were determined to carry on what they had begun. "What is it that moves you," said the religious, "to so imprudent an act? If the religious have done you any wrong, you have me here in your power; revenge it upon me, take my life in pay for it, and do not cast away your souls." "It is not because of any wrong from the religious, or resentment toward them," said the Indians, "but because we are weary of the oppressive acts of the Spaniards. Depart hence in peace; for though it is true that our rising is not against the religious, we cannot promise that some drunken Indian may not try to take off your head." The religious perceived the obstinacy of the Gadanes, and the fact that arguments would be useless in this matter, and went away to watch over the village of Pilitan, which was under his care. He found it quiet, but that peace continued for a very short time; for presently--this was early Sunday morning--he heard a very great noise and a loud Indian war-cry. They came in a crowd, after their ancient custom, naked, and thickly anointed with oil, and with weapons in their hands. It was the insurgents from Abuatan, coming to force the Indians of Pilitan to join the uprising, in order that they might have more strength to resist the Spaniards when the latter should make war upon them to bring them to subjection. One of the chiefs who were leading the insurgents, named Don Phelippe Cutapay, a young man of about twenty-three, came forward. He had been brought up from infancy in the church with the religious, and when he was a mere child had aided in mass as sacristan, and afterward as cantor; and at this time he was governor of Abuatan. He went direct to the church to speak to the religious, intending to inform him as to what they were about to do, and to advise him to go down the river, for fear that someone might get beyond control and harm him. While he was talking with the religious in the cloister, his elder brother, named Don Gabriel Dayag, who was acting as guide to the others, came in. Being somewhat nervous and excited, he approached the religious with little courtesy; Cutapay rebuked him for the way in which he was acting, saying to him that he should remember that he was before the father, to whom he owed more respect. The elder brother answered: "Cutapay, if our minds are divided we shall do nothing;" however, he grew calm and behaved respectfully in the presence of the religious. The shouting increased, and there were now in the courtyard of the church about eight hundred Indians armed and prepared for battle. The religious roused his courage, and, laying aside all fear, went out to them; and standing in the midst of this multitude, as a sheep among wolves, he caused them to sit down, and addressed them for more than an hour. He urged upon them what would be for their good, and strove to persuade them to see the great error into which they were falling. Among other things in the utterances which the Lord is accustomed to impart under such circumstances, he said: "My sons, among whom I have so long been, and to whom I have so many years preached the true doctrine, which you ought to follow, and have taught you that which you ought to observe for the good of your souls, I am greatly grieved to see the mistaken path which you take, casting yourselves over precipices where destruction is certain, and from which your rescue is difficult. If your wish to run away is on account of the bad treatment which you have received from us religious--and from me in particular, as being less prudent than others--here you have me alone and defenseless. Slay me then, slay me, and do not cast away your souls. Let me pay with my life the evil which you are about to do; and do not lose your faith and your hope of salvation, nor pay in hell for the sin of this uprising, and for the many sins which you will add to it in your revolt." Some of them made the same answer as before; that they had not done this because of ill-will toward the religious; but on the contrary, they felt for them affection and love, and therefore did not intend to do them any harm. This they said was plain because, although they had him alone in the midst of them, no one was rude to him, but even in the midst of the tumult showed him respect. "The reason of our uprising," they said, "is that we are weary of the oppressions of the Spaniards; and if you or any other religious desire to come to our villages, any one of you may come whenever he pleases, providing he does not bring a Spaniard." The religious responded by offering that the Spaniards would do them no harm, especially for what they had already done, promising himself to remain among them as security, so that they might take away his life if the least harm should come to them from that cause. But they were very far indeed from accepting this good advice; and some of them went away and set fire to some houses, upon which a great outcry arose in the village. Cutapay stood up and greatly blamed what had been done, saying that it was very ill considered and a daring outrage to set fire. "I call your attention," he said, "to the fact that the father is in the village; and so long as he is here nothing should be done to grieve him;" and he commanded people to go and put out the fire and to calm the village. The religious began to preach to them again; but, though there were so many people before him, he was preaching in the desert, and hence could accomplish nothing with them. They asked the father to depart, and to take with him the silver and ornaments of the sacristy of this church and of that of Abuatan. This was no small generosity from an excited body of insurgents. They provided him with boats, and men to row them, and the friars went down the river to the friendly villages. The insurgents immediately began to commit a thousand extravagances. They set fire to the houses, they drank, and they annoyed the people in the village. If any were unwilling to join them, they threatened them with death by holding lances to their breasts. The result was that many joined them, being forced by the fear of instant death, and waiting for a better time when they could again have religious. A few of them succeeded in hiding, and going down the river after the fathers, some leaving their sons and others their fathers. There was one chief who, despising his wealth and his gold, left it all and came with the religious, taking with him only his wife. His name was Don Bernabe Lumaban. Do?a Agustina Pamma, who was a member of one of the most noble families of the region and the wife of one of the chiefs, hid herself in a marsh--standing in it up to her neck that she might be left behind, and might go to a Christian village. However, she was discovered, and was taken along by the insurgents. But the Lord did not fail to reward her pious desires, for within a few years she accomplished them, and lived for a long time, as she desired, in the church. The insurgents did not cease until they had roused all the villages in their vicinity. As men abandoned of God and directed by the devil, they were guilty of horrible sacrileges. In the village of Abuatan they sacked the church and the sacristy, and made a jest and derision of the things which they found there. They treated irreverently that which they had a little before reverenced: the women put on the frontals as petticoats , and of the corporals and the palls of the chalices they made head-kerchiefs. They dressed themselves in the habits of the religious, and even went so far as to lose their respect for the image of the Virgin. The feet and hands of this image were of ivory, and it was one of the most beautiful in all that province and in all the islands. There was one man who dared to give it a slash across the nose, saying, "Let us see if she will bleed." They also committed other sacrileges, and even greater ones, as a barbarous tribe of apostates. Afterward an Indian, finding an opportunity to flee from them to a Catholic region, did so; and he went not alone, for he carried with him the holy image of the Virgin of the Rosary which had been slashed across the face. Although it was received with great rejoicings by the Christians, they could but shed many tears to see it so outraged. All this grieved the hearts of the religious who had trained and taught them, and who now saw them lost irremediably and without reason; for although they said that they could not endure the oppressions of the Spaniards, these were not so great but that the profit which the Indians gained by their commerce with them was very much greater. The man who at that time used to collect the tributes was so kind a man and so good a Christian that, confident of his own innocence and of the fact that he had never wronged them, he went up when he heard this news, to try to bring them back by argument; but they no sooner saw him than they killed him.

One of those who were most grieved by this disastrous uprising was father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas, for he had dwelt for a long time among this tribe, and had been the vicar and superior of those churches, and loved each one of the insurgents as his spiritual son. Hence this misfortune hurt his soul, and he determined to strive to remedy this great evil as completely as he could, without shrinking from any danger or effort for the purpose. The places where the insurgents had betaken themselves had been selected as particularly strong and secure, and were in the midst of mountains so high and so craggy that they might be defended from the Spaniards, if the latter should try to bring them back or to punish them. Hence the journey to them was long and excessively difficult. Yet in spite of this, without hesitating at the hardships of the road, and at the great danger which he ran by passing through villages of other Indians--with whom he was not acquainted, and who were generally looking out for an opportunity to cut off some head without running any risk--he made his way through everything, went among them alone, and tried to arrange for bringing them back, and made agreements with them. No Spaniard dared appear among them, for they were certain to kill him, but father Fray Pedro was admitted and entertained; and in the following year, 1622, he brought back in peace with him some three hundred households of those who had rebelled. These had gone with the body of insurgents from the villages of Pilitan and Bolo. Most of them had been compelled to do so, as has been said, and they were accordingly brought back as a result of the earnest efforts and the courageous boldness of father Fray Pedro. Returning to a pacified region, they were settled at the mouth of the river of Maquila. After this was accomplished, he went further up the river of Balisi, where it was most difficult, with the alcade-mayor and the troops who were advancing against the rebels. He went before, trusting in God, to speak with the enemy; and he was so confident that he was able to say, like St. Martin among the highwaymen, that he had never had less fear in all his life, because fear had been taken from him by the Lord, for whose sake he had placed himself in this situation. The leader of the revolted enemy, Don Gabriel Dayag, came to him and kissed his scapular with great reverence, and embraced him. Repenting for what he had done, Don Gabriel planned to return; and although at that time he did not carry out this project, he finally came down in peace later, and revealed to the father some ambuscades on the road in some dangerous passes where the Indians intended to kill the Spanish soldiers, which danger was avoided by his information. At that time this father was vicar-provincial, and, that he might be able to have more time to attend to these necessary and arduous labors, the provincial relieved him from the office--to the great satisfaction of father Fray Pedro, who esteemed most highly that which was most laborious and least honorable. He paid little attention to his bodily health, all his solicitude being given to the spiritual health of himself and his fellow-men. He treated himself very ill, and would take no comfort even when he needed it. He never complained when he was suffering from illness, until the increase of the disease obliged him to keep his bed, in a condition of such infirmity that, even when in bed, he was unable to move. The hardships which he endured at this time by going over very difficult paths were most trying. The heat of the sun was terrible; he was obliged to be awake much; and he had but little food, and that bad--so that nothing could be looked for except a severe illness or death. He was reduced to skin and bones, and yet he strove to give himself spirit to return to that destroyed vineyard, that he might restore it to its ancient beauty and verdure; but his exhausted strength was insufficient to resist so severe a disease, and they accordingly had him carried down to be cared for in the city of Nueva Segovia. The medicines, however, came so late that he was no longer susceptible to them. Being nothing but skin and bone, he was like a living image of death. He was greatly grieved by his sickness, and his grief was greater since the disease immediately exhibited its deadly malice; yet it was not a rapid one, and hence he had time for preparation for the dreadful journey. He received the holy sacraments very calmly, and he made his confession quite at leisure. Since it was the last one, and there were now no stumbles to be feared, he declared that he went from this world in the virginal purity with which he had entered it. He died on the day of St. Peter the Apostle; on that day he assumed the religious habit; and finally, on that day he ended this miserable life, in the hope of going to eternal felicity by the aid of that same holy apostle, to whom he had always been devoted. This father was a son of the convent of Villaescusa, and, after a life in Espa?a in which he had a special reputation for virtue, he continued the same course in this province, with great spiritual progress, for more than twenty years. He was always beloved by all, and always distinguished in his labors for the spiritual good of his fellow-men--not only in Yrraya, but wherever he lived. This was especially true in the district of Malagueg, where another uprising occurred, and where, though he was in great danger of being slain by the insurgents, he showed great courage and readiness to die for the holy gospel. But here the Lord delivered him for more labors, greater merits, and higher glory. In the provincial chapter which followed, the following record was entered on the minutes: "In the convent of our father St. Dominic at Nueva Segovia, died the reverend father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas, an aged priest and father, vicar of Yrraya. He was beloved by God and man, and most observant of the rules of the order; and, although he suffered from disease, yet he underwent the greatest hardships for the conversion of the Indians and for sustaining them in the faith."

The voyage of the holy Fray Luis Flores to the kingdom of Japon

The many efforts made for the rescue of the prisoners without any good results, and rather to their cost; the martyrdom of the prisoners.

The captivity of other religious in Japon

The arrest of the holy Fray Jacintho Orfanel; the narrowness of his prison, and the great miseries of it; his martyrdom, and the marvelous fruits which followed from his captivity.

The giving of the habit to three Japanese by the holy captives; and the martyrdom of the fathers Fray Francisco de Morales, Fray Alonso de Mena, Fray Angel Ferrer , Fray Jacintho Orfanel, Fray Joseph de San Jacintho, and two of those who had professed in prison , besides many others.

The martyrdom of the holy Fray Thomas de Zumarraga, brother Fray Mancio de Sancto Thomas, and a Japanese; and those of other Japanese in Omura.

A mission sent by the province to Japon, and the result of it

The harvest reaped in Japon by the holy father Fray Pedro Vazquez; his life and virtues

A more detailed account of the imprisonment of the holy Fray Pedro Bazquez, the time while it lasted, and the sufferings which he endured in it; and finally his glorious martyrdom, in company with four other martyrs.

The election as provincial of father Fray Bartholome Martinez, and the deaths of some religious

On the nineteenth of April, 1625, the vigil of the glorious virgin St. Inez de Monte Policiano, the fathers having votes assembled for the election of a provincial, since father Fray Miguel Ruiz had finished his term. On the first ballot the votes were divided almost equally, since there were so many religious worthy of the post as to cause difficulty in the selection. But this did not last long, for on the second ballot those who had the largest number of ballots withdrew, and father Fray Bartholome Martinez was unanimously elected. He had been vicar of the Parian of the Chinese, and was their special minister. He was recognized by all, both religious and laymen, as worthy of this or of greater offices, because of his great virtue, learning, prudence, and devotion. At the same time no one had talked about or even thought of such a choice, because, in truth, there were many others who well deserved the post and who were much older than he. The Lord, who does not look at these exterior things alone, but at the heart and the soul, turned their eyes upon this father as upon another David, so that by being placed in a post of government he might do great things. It was the Lord who caused them all, as if moved by a spirit from above, to elect him with great good-will, and with general applause from within and without the order, all recognizing the hand of the Lord in a choice which was at once so wise and so far from the thoughts of all. In particular, the archbishop of this city was greatly pleased with it, for he knew well the great virtues of the person chosen, and sent to give his most special congratulations to the fathers. Father Fray Bartholome was a son of the famous convent of San Estevan at Salamanca. He was a great theologian, and a man of superior virtue, devotion to the rules of the order, and mortification. He underwent many extraordinary sufferings. Some were voluntarily assumed, and although these were many, they were easier to bear because voluntary. At the same time, it was necessary to train and try him for much which the Lord desired to work through his means; and hence the Lord gave permission to the devil to torment him--so severely that, when he was still very young, his hair grew white. In the first year of this assault he lost his strength, and was dying without suffering from any other disease. He was living in the convent of novices in Salamanca, and revealed his sufferings to his confessor and spiritual master alone. This was the holy Fray Diego de Alderete. He, being of much experience in such sufferings, consoled and encouraged him, but commanded him not to speak of the matter with any person. This direction he observed so carefully that it was never possible to learn any more than these general facts, although there must have been many very remarkable things which, if known, would have been highly edifying. But he, striving for more humility, and obeying the order to keep silence, never revealed them, and no one else ever knew them. He was seen to be growing weaker, being without strength and without health, and when he was taken to the infirmary the physicians corroborated what all knew with regard to the danger in which he was; but they were never able to find out the cause, since it was beyond the limits of their science. All this, and much more which was added to it, was necessary, and helped him much to bear the bitter hardships which in time he suffered, and which would have broken his heart. Our Lord conducted father Fray Bartholome through all his life by a way of suffering, and in suffering he ended it--as will be narrated in due time, when we reach the year of our Lord 1629, when his virtue and his abstinence will be specially treated. During his term as provincial, the province lost by death several religious of superior qualities, and suffered from several insurrections of villages. Both of these things were severely felt in a region where the religious are so few that the loss of a single one is a notable loss; and where all energy is turned toward converting souls, so that the perdition of a single one causes great sorrow. For these sufferings our Lord brought some comfort in the martyrdom of some sons of the province, and in the extension of the holy gospel to the island of Hermosa.

Father Fray Juan de Rueda and de los Angeles, who died a martyr

On the eighth of June, the first Sunday after the most Holy Trinity, a great misfortune occurred in the revolt of some Indians of the province of Nueva Segovia. Turning their backs on the faith, they gave it up and fled to the mountains--a thing which caused great grief to the ministers of the holy gospel. In that province, above a village named Abulug, near a river which comes down from the mountain, two villages had been formed by gathering the inhabitants together. They were called Nuestra Se?ora del Rossario de Fotol, as has been recounted in this history, and San Loren?o de Capinatan. In the latter there lived some Indians known as Mandayas, a wild and fierce tribe whose native abode was in mountainous places about the bay of Bigan in Ylocos. The religious ministered to them and assisted them in their necessities, taught them the law of God, and baptized many people, for these people generally asked holy baptism from them. Their evil nature, which was perverse and restless, and their affection for their ancient places of abode so attracted them that it seemed as if in that village they were caught fast by the hair. Three times they endeavored to escape to the mountains; and though they were prevented twice, and their efforts came to nothing, this last time they so planned their attempt, and kept it so secret, that they carried out their evil purpose. With this object, they stirred up the old inhabitants of Capinatan, and persuaded those of Fotol, bringing them to join them by means of threats and prayers. Some of the people of Fotol became so obstinate that they were worse than the Mandayas, the first movers of the insurrection. Afterward the Mandayas who were in Capinatan rose; and two of them, Don Miguel Lanab and another chief named Alababan, set the enterprise in motion by going to the church to speak to the religious who was there at the time. This was father Fray Alonso Garcia, a son of the convent of San Pablo at Valladolid, who had said a first mass in the village of Fotol, and a second in Capinatan, and was now at dinner with brother Fray Onofre Palao, a lay religious from the convent of Manila. They were seated at their meal in a little corridor of the house. Their assailants came up, and each one standing beside the religious whom he was to decapitate, they made a pretense of asking permission to go to some villages on their ancient lands. Father Fray Alonso, who had but recently come, referred the request to the regular minister of the village, and asked them to wait till he should come, because he was in another village. At this point Alababan raised his arm, and with his balanao or knife he struck such a blow on the neck of Fray Onofre that he cut off his head to the backbone, leaving it hanging by only a little bit of skin. Don Miguel Lanab, who had not acted so promptly, lifted his knife, and father Fray Alonso naturally raised his hand to protect his head. The knife cut through this and the blow went on and reached his head. Father Fray Alonso rose from the table and fell on his knees like a gentle lamb; and the Mandaya traitor repeated the blow, giving him another on the head. The Indian boys who served at the table began to scream; and the transgressors, that they might not be caught in so perfidious an act, made their escape. Some Indians who were ignorant of the conspiracy came, and took father Fray Alonso to the house of a chief, where some medicines were applied to the wound. As they were preparing a barge in which to take him down to the village of Abulug, the Mandayas came, and prevented them from doing so by threats. They took him back to the house of the chieftainess: and while father Fray Alonso was exhorting the people to come back to obedience, and expounding to them the evil of which they were guilty in apostatizing from the faith, three Mandayas came in, and with their keen balanaos or knives cut to pieces the confessor of Christ. They afterward threw out the pieces from the house, to be eaten by the swine who were there. As a result of this atrocious deed, the Mandayas rose in a body and roused the Capinatas; and, coming down to Fotol, they forced the people there by menaces to flee with them to the mountains. They set fire to the churches, and, as members of Satan, they defiled them by a thousand sacrileges. They struck off the head of a Christ, and cut the body down the middle, dividing it into two parts, which were afterward found by the religious who came to bring them back to obedience. The religious buried these, the uprising of the Mandayas allowing no opportunity for anything else. With regard to Fray Alonso Garcia, several matters worthy of remark were noted. The first was this. Some months before, while he was living in the convent in Capinatan, he one night had put himself into the posture of prayer in the dormitory, with his breviary in his hand. At this time the convent was disturbed by an imp who caused so much trouble that he would not give the religious any rest, and from whose visitations there was not in all the convent any place that was free. He disturbed them in the dormitory, he made a noise in the cells, he feigned the noise of a struggle in the church; and sometimes he let himself fall with a clatter that was heard in the village, and he would throw himself down from the choir. He used to walk up and down in the church, and he made his appearance in the larders, where he broke all the plates there were; he made a noise under the beds, and struck the heads of the bedsteads; and sounded the strings of a harp which they had for use at masses on some feasts. This disturbance lasted until the breaking-out of the uprising, and must have been a prognostication of it, and a sign of what the devil was devising to disquiet the Christians of this village. Now while father Fray Alonso was praying, the imp came to him, invisible to everyone in the dormitory, and struck the father a heavy blow, so that he felt pain in the same hand and wrist, in the place where the blow afterward fell which cut it off. This was the first of the things referred to. The second was that he thought so little of himself, and had so little confidence in his own works, that he was accustomed to say that if he did not die by some fortunate blow which should take away his life and despatch him to heaven, he did not know whether he should go there. This he said because of his humility, and the event was as he said.

Another matter was that, although father Fray Alonso was not a very skilful linguist, and not one of those who had made the greatest progress in speaking the language of that tribe, yet when he was wounded by the first blows and was urging the Indians not to flee, and telling them of the harm which would come to them if they did so, he spoke with such elegance and precision that the Indians were amazed to hear him; and they noted this as a striking fact at the time, and told of it afterward. He was very charitable, and was in the habit of praising all and of speaking of the defects of himself alone. He came to the Philippinas in the year 1622, and lived in the province of Nueva Segovia--where, in his third year, he met with the happy death which keen knives, directed by hands of apostates from the faith, bring to ministers of the holy gospel. The intermediate chapter of 1628 made mention of these two religious in the following words: "In the province of Nueva Segovia father Fray Alonso Garcia, a priest, and brother Fray Onofre Palao, a lay brother, died happily by the hands of impious apostates, an uprising of the Indians to whom they ministered having occurred." In the place where father Fray Alonso was cut to pieces, there was afterward raised in his honor a small shrine. The Indians were brought back in the following year, and this tribe used devoutly to frequent this shrine. The dwelling of the religious had stood where Fray Onofre had been killed, and here it was erected again. Since the first building was burned, it was supposed that the fire had consumed his body at the same time--although some Spaniards have some small bones which they value, believing that these are his, because they found them where he was decapitated.

The foundation of a church in the island of Hermosa and the holy deaths of some religious

In the year 1625 Don Fernando de Silva was governor of the Philippinas. He determined to send a fleet to take possession of a port in the island of Hermosa, in the name of the king of Espa?a, that the designs of the Dutch might be frustrated. He counseled with the provincial of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Bartholome Martinez, who promised to go to the island of Hermosa and to take religious there, hoping in this way to gain an entry into China. In order to keep the design secret it was said that the troops were going to pacify the rebellious Indians of Yrraya, who had fled to the mountains. On February 8, 1626, the fleet sailed from the port of Cavite; it was composed of twelve champans and two galleys. There were three captains of infantry and their companies, and the force was under the command of the sargento-mayor, Antonio Carre?o de Valdes. The ecclesiastical authority was in the hands of the provincial, Fray Bartholome Martinez, who took with him five religious, including those whom he later brought from Nueva Segovia. They anchored in the port of Nueva Segovia on the fifteenth of March, and remained there for some time. During the interval troops were sent to the river of the Mandayas, the Indians of which had rebelled in the previous June, as was said in the foregoing chapter. In order to reduce them, a great number of palms were cut down, that they might more easily be brought to subjection for lack of food. Since the reduction of the Mandayas took more time than was expected, and the voyage to the island of Hermosa was urgent, this matter was left without being brought to a conclusion. To carry out their principal purpose they sailed on the fourth of May, coming in sight of the island on the seventh of the same month. They coasted the island for three days, and on the tenth of May anchored on an estuary which they named Sanctiago. The provincial and Pedro Martin Garay, the chief pilot, went in two small vessels to the northern headland, exploring the coast. Within five hours they discovered a port which they called La Sanctissima Trinidad. They took back the news to the fleet, which came on to the port and in the divine name of the most Holy Trinity took the port under the protection of Espa?a. They built a fort upon an islet a little more than a legua in circumference. This they called San Salvador. They also constructed a rampart on the top of a hill three hundred feet or more in height, which made the place impregnable. The Dominicans erected a humble church, dedicating it to St. Catharine of Siena. Here they heard the confessions of the Spaniards, preached, taught, and filled the office of parish priests, up to the year 1635. The inhabitants of this region had fled from fear of the arquebuses of the Spaniards, and desired to avenge themselves for the wrong which they felt that they had suffered because the soldiers made use of the rice which the natives had left behind them. To quiet and satisfy them, the religious set about learning their language; and, although they knew very little of it, they began to communicate with the natives, caressing them and giving them presents. The Lord prospered their work, and the barbarians, who had lived the lives of savages, drinking the blood of their neighbors, and eating the flesh of their enemies, were tamed by the treatment of the religious. They brought their wives and children to be baptized. The first fruits were delicate and tender children, many of whom, after being laved in the baptismal font, went to enjoy the possession to which they had acquired a right from the waters of the holy Jordan. The convent of All Saints of the island of Hermosa was accepted in the intermediate chapter of the year of our Lord 1627, and was erected into a vicariate, father Fray Francisco Mola being appointed as its vicar and superior.

On the fourth of February of this year father Fray Alonso del Castillo, a native of Andalucia and a son of Sancto Domingo de Sant Lucar, set sail from his convent in the islands of the Babuyanes to go to Nueva Segovia. The distance is a little more than six leguas, but the crossing is dangerous at some times. His vessel was swamped, and the father and those who were with him were all drowned. He was an abstemious and devoted religious. Father Fray Alonso lived in the islands of the Babuyanes. He was at one time tempted by a thought which was unworthy of his state as a religious, and the purity which he maintained--the devil urging him to it, and putting before him the means of carrying out the design, and the method of keeping it in secrecy during the absence of the superior. Father Fray Alonso, recognizing from whose bow this arrow had been shot, went to his superior and told him the temptation of the devil with all the details. He and the superior laid the matter before God with prayers and scourgings. The devil was unable to oppose such humility, and in a few days father Fray Alonso was able to assure the vicar that there was nothing to fear. In the following April died father Fray Ambrosio de la Madre de Dios, a native of Guatimala, a son of the convent of Sancto Domingo at Mexico. He came to the Philippinas in the year 1595, and was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia. Without any controversy, it is he who up to the present day has most accurately learned the language there, and who was the teacher of those who understood it best. No one surpassed him in his pronunciation and his choice of words. He wrote a methodical grammar, arranged a vocabulary, translated the gospels, various examples of holy life, an explanation of the articles, the passion of our Lord, and other works highly esteemed for the elegance of the writing and the propriety of the words. He was a religious of great virtue, and our Lord wrought many miracles by his prayers. It was in response to his prayers that when the lime-kiln in Abulug fell, those upon whom it fell did not lose their lives. In Pata occurred two cases, as it seemed, of resurrection; and in Tocolana he saved the church from burning.

To aid in supplying the want of these noble ministers, and to fill up the gap caused by the death of many more, our Lord gave us in July, 1626, a re?nforcement of religious, who had been assembled in Espa?a by father Fray Jacintho Calvo, and whom he had entrusted in Mexico to father Fray Alonso Sanchez de la Visitacion--a son of the convent at Oca?a, who had come to the Philippinas in the year 1613. He was at the time vicar of San Jacintho, where he had been sent by the chapter of the year 1623; and he now undertook the charge of conducting the religious, returning to the ministry of Nueva Segovia, where he had previously been. He had been appointed by the Inquisition of Mexico as its commissary for the cases which might arise in the said province pertaining to that holy tribunal.

The state of the province, and the persecution in Japon

The state of affairs in Japon; and the martyrdom of father Fray Luis, Fray Mincio de la Cruz, Fray Pedro de Sancta Maria, and some other persons of the tertiary order of St. Dominic.

The great persecution in Japon, and the care of the province to send ministers there

The other was father Fray Juan de Vera, a native of the city of Sancta Fee in the kingdom of Granada. He studied in Espa?a at the convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. He came to this province, learned the Chinese language, and was occupied in the ministry to the Chinese when he was assigned to this duty. The Franciscan fathers, not dismayed by the failure of this enterprise, strove to make the journey to Japon by themselves. During two years, no news reached us from Japon, except that the persecution had attained such a point that not even a letter could get in or out.

The martyrdom of the servants of God, Fray Domingo Castellet, Fray Thomas de San Jacintho, Fray Antonio de Sancto Domingo, and some persons of the tertiary order of St. Dominic.

The voyage in this year of religious of the province to Camboja, in the effort to convert it; and the progress of the conversion of the island of Hermosa.

In this year, twenty-eight, I came for the third time from Espa?a to the Philippinas, not alone, but with a good company of excellent religious, who, desirous to advance themselves in virtue, left their land and their kin and their comforts, like Abraham, that they might assist in their spiritual necessity, these tribes which depended so much upon such ministers. There was no lack of hardships on the way, for the Lord knows of how much importance it is for us to find persons who will accept these as they ought; He does not lose the opportunity to apply them, and does not desire that His gift should be useless. When we reached Manila we were heartily received, for we had been desired because of the great lack which had resulted from the deaths that had taken away religious just when they were most needed by the Indians whom we had under our care. There were also many others under our eyes who still were heathen for lack of preachers, but who would have been Christians if they had anyone to teach them the truth and the Catholic religion. The vacancies were filled up with these re?nforcements. As might be expected of those who were heartily desirous of converting their fellow men, the more they labored the more labor they desired; and there were many who were very eager to go on new missions and to reap new harvests of heathen.

The foundation of the first church among the Indians of Tanchuy, a district of the island of Hermosa, and the events which happened among those Indians.

The three went with Captain Luis de Guzman and some soldiers, to set up in the village of Senar a beautiful image of the Virgin of the Rosary. They went on foot and with great difficulty, as it had rained the day before and was still raining, and part of the way they went mid-leg deep. Not a single soldier said the things which are usually heard on such occasions. On the contrary, loaded as they were with mud, they comforted themselves by saying: "At last we are going to establish the faith." The captain, Luis de Guzman, to whom this region owes much, because of his valor and Christian spirit, and his kind treatment of the natives in it, marched barefoot, encouraging them and saying: "Come on, my children; doubtless there is much good here, because the beginning is so hard." A messenger was sent ahead to notify the Indians, and by their help the streets were covered with branches; they fitted up a half-castle with powder, which they had prepared, and they arranged for a graceful sword dance. When the image, which they carried as ceremoniously as possible, reached the village, they placed it in the church. The sky cleared, and the sun came out as if to rejoice in the festival; and after a mass of the Virgin of the Rosary had been said, they bore her in procession--the soldiers firing off their arquebuses, and the castle discharging its salute, and the dance being performed in token of the possession taken of this country by the queen of heaven, and of the conclusion of the devil's ancient control over it.

The election as provincial of father Fray Francisco de Herrera, commissary of the holy Inquisition; and the beginning of an account of father Fray Bartholome Martinez.

In May, 1629, father Fray Francisco de Herrera was elected as provincial of this province, on the first ballot. He was a son of the convent of San Gines at Talabera, and afterward a student of San Gregorio at Valladolid. At the time of his election he was commissary of the holy Inquisition in all these islands, and prior of the convent in this city of Manila. Since he is still living, we must be silent about him, and not say the things in his praise which are so well known, and which are said by those who enjoyed his peaceful and religious government. In this chapter nothing of importance was done in laying down ordinances for the province; but there was much cause to give thanks to the Lord for the peace and quiet with which the religious strove to fulfil their obligations as members of the order and as ministers of the holy gospel. The Lord gave them special relief and comfort, that they might find light and pleasant the great sufferings which they endured in both capacities. Hence the electors returned to their posts very promptly, feeling that in them the hand of the Lord had delivered to them their own profit and that of their fellow-men.

The virtues which God granted him, and particularly some in which he excelled; his labors and death.

The death of father Fray Miguel Ruiz, and the state of affairs in Japon

The life and death of father Fray Matheo de Cobissa

The entrance made from the island of Hermosa to the great kingdom of China by two fathers of St. Dominic.

Father Fray Angel leaves the city of Ucheo for the town of Fuhan, trusting solely in God; the success of his journey.

The lives and deaths of fathers Fray Marcos de Saavedra and Fray Juan Rodriguez

A second expedition made by two fathers to the province of Sinay, otherwise known as Ytui, and the result of it.

Eighty years had passed since Christianity was first planted in this country in the island of Lu?on, the chief island of the Philippinas. From here it had spread to other islands; and in Lu?on it had spread from one province to the next, for in this one island there are many nations and languages. Yet the province of Ytui --as we shall call it in future, since it is better known by that name--had not had the good fortune to receive regular preaching before this late date, namely, the beginning of the year thirty-three. This delay was not due to the fault of the natives, for they have often manifested a desire to receive the gospel, and have asked several religious orders for ministers to teach them; but to the fact that all the orders were so poor in ministers, on account of the great number of people whom they must aid. That country also is so rough and so difficult of access for the visitations of the superiors, that all the orders have avoided assuming the charge of it. For some years the order of the glorious father St. Francis sent religious there to cultivate it, but without any good result. They made a beginning, but could not carry it on--some of the fathers being taken away by death, and others leaving the region because of sickness. The natives have constantly persisted in their request for ministers of the gospel to teach them, and have been particularly urgent with our sacred order--because they have some commerce with the province of Pangasinan, which is in our charge; and because they know how much that is advanced in all matters, both temporal and spiritual, as a result of the labors of the fathers who minister to it, though the population was previously the most barbarous known in these islands. Once, some years ago, some chiefs came here to Manila during a chapter when a provincial was elected, to place their request before it. The fiscal of the king , Don Juan de Bracamonte, offered a petition to the definitors, supporting this request for ministers for that province, since the Indians were vassals of the king and paid him their tribute, and his Majesty was bound to provide them with Christian instruction. The answer was a hopeful one, saying that if his Majesty would send ministers from Espa?a they would then very readily be assigned to this duty, as he desired; but in the meantime the order could scarcely fulfil the requirements of the regions which they had already in charge, for the Indians were many and the ministers few. On another occasion when the father provincial of the province, Fray Baltasar Fort, was making his visitation to this province of Pangasinan, the inhabitants of Ytui learned of the fact; and there came to meet him, in a village called Calasiao, some thirty of the chief Indians of that country--among them he who was, as it were, their king. He brought with him his wife and his sister; and they proffered their request with much feeling and many tears, complaining of their misfortune that when they were so near--the provinces were about four days' journey apart--they were not worthy to receive the fathers, though they had several times striven to obtain them with all possible urgency. The provincial could but feel pity when he saw these heathen Indians becoming preachers to us, in so urgently persuading the preachers to come and teach them the law of God; yet he was totally unable to give them what they asked, but gave them his promise that he would do so as soon as possible. They returned to their country with this answer, very disconsolate. Father Fray Thomas Gutierrez--a minister who was then in Pangasinan and of whom an account will be given later--learned of this, and volunteered to undertake an expedition thither. A second father, Fray Juan Luis de Guete, offered to go as his companion. The father provincial granted their request, in spite of the need of them that would be felt in the posts which they left; but he commanded them that they should go at this time simply to explore the country, and should return within a few days to report their opinions to him, according to the impression made upon them by the natives. They did this, and went about through the villages of the province, setting up in the public squares large crosses, to the great delight of the Indians; this act was a token that the fathers took possession of them for the Lord who was crucified on the cross. That the devil might begin to give up his ancient possession of the natives, the fathers taught them the worship which they should perform, and some prayers out of the "Christian Doctrine" translated into the language of Pangasinan. That language they half understood, though it was different from their own. They understood it all so well that they immediately began to say the prayers they knew, around the crosses, seated on cane benches which they made for the purpose--two of them intoning the prayer, and the rest repeating it. With these excellent beginnings, which gave proof of the fitness of the soil for receiving the seed of the faith, the two explorers returned to report to their superior as he had commanded them, and offered themselves anew to return to that region. The provincial, when he heard their report, was not unwilling to grant their pious desires, although it seemed that these were contrary to what the strength of the province could sustain. So trusting in the power of God, and with the permission and benediction of the father provincial, they prepared themselves for the return; but they were interfered with by someone who disturbed them by indiscreet zeal, for the devil sometimes appears clothed in the garments of an angel of light. The project was not carried out, but not from the fault of the order or of its sons, who are not accustomed to be slothful before such opportunities. Perhaps those peoples were not yet ready in the sight of God for that which they desired; for in such matters the what, the when, and the how are understood by God alone and are determined according to His divine foreknowledge. The natives of Ytuy were not weary of being persistent in presenting their requests, as in such matters it is well to be. It happened that in the month of December in the year 1632 the father provincial, Fray Francisco de Herrera , was traveling in that region on his visitation to the province of Pangasinan. The natives of Ytuy, who must have had scouts to inform them, learned of this; and there immediately came in search of him some twenty-four Indians, four or six of them being leading chiefs in the province. In the name of all the rest of the natives, they put forward their old request. He did not make them the answer which they had received before--"Wait, wait again;" but gave his instant approval, drawing strength from the weakness of the province--which, in the matter of laborers, is great for such a harvest as it has upon its hands, and as it sees every day increasing; and which, therefore, has to pass by much for lack of ability to achieve it all. The father who seemed most suited for this mission was father Fray Thomas Gutierrez, who some years before had filled the office of explorer in this country. His companion was father Fray Juan de Arjona, a son of the convent of San Pablo de Cordova--a man of middle age, but of more than middling spirit. They both took up the enterprise with great delight, without any objections or requests; and went back with the Indians who had come thence, taking no larger outfit than was absolutely necessary to equip them for the journey. This chapter will give a brief account of the events of the journey and their arrival at Ytuy, drawn from a letter written by both fathers and dated at Ytuy January 21, 1633. The letter was directed to the father provincial, and contains the following narrative:

They derived some relief from their sufferings from one happy circumstance provided them by God, who seemed to have designed all these wanderings. This was that in the midst of these wildernesses they found a tiny village of Christian Indians; for this jurisdiction was under the charge of other ministers, but was very little visited by them, since it was at so great a distance and over so rough a road. They baptized two children, and heard the confessions of some adults--among them that of a woman who had not confessed for some years, having no one to confess to. Though she seemed well and healthy, she died that same day. This was a marked token of her predestination. They finally reached the principal village of the province, which is called Ytui, and takes its name from the village. The Indians received them with great demonstrations of joy, after their manner; and they remained there for eight days resting, and receiving visits from all the villages in the province, who sent ambassadors to bid them welcome with some presents of the fruits of the country. They set out afterwards to visit all the villages in it. Great and small, they visited eleven, that they might become acquainted with the temper of the Indians. In all they were received with the same tokens of pleasure. From what they saw and learned from the Indians, they had much to say in their report of the excellence of the country. They said that it was cool, so that by day the sun's heat was pleasant at times, and a covering was agreeable at night. This is something new in these islands, which have the fault of being very hot. They reported that the country was so fertile that when Indians desired to plant their rice they only burn over a part of the mountain and, without any further plowing or digging, they make holes with a stick in the soil, and drop some grains of rice in them. This was their manner of sowing; and, after covering the rice with the same earth, they obtained very heavy crops. They said that some good fruits grew there, and that in their opinion that country would yield all the fruits of Spain, if the seeds of the latter were planted. There were, they affirmed, pleasant valleys with quiet rivers and streams in them from which the natives obtain some gold, and that the Indians are wont to wear golden earrings. They are not acquainted with silver, and do not care for it. They have no sort of money, so that all their sales and purchases are carried on by barter. They keep their villages very clean and in good condition--a new thing among the Indians. They also remarked that there was great fraternity between different villages. This is something even more unusual, for generally these nations live after the law of "Might makes right" , at the expense of their heads. Hence these Indians walk alone over their roads without fear of being injured or robbed, for they are very safe in this respect--so much so that they leave the rice which they gather, each one in his own field, heaped up in the spike and covered with straw. They go there and carry what they want to their houses, to grind and eat, without fearing that anyone will take what is not his. They readily offered all their infants to the fathers to be baptized, so that within about three months, during which the religious went about visiting the villages, they baptized some four hundred. It would have been the same with the adults, if it had not been necessary to prepare them with the catechism. The fathers have been slow in this, because they have been obliged to translate the prayers into the native language, of which they have not a good command. They are spending their time in learning it, and on this account and no other are delayed in beginning baptism. In order that so few ministers may be able to teach the Indians, it is necessary to bring them together into a smaller number of villages, conveniently arranged so that the people may be visited and helped in their necessities. Since the country is very mountainous, the fathers have determined to bring and gather them in large settlements, at sites convenient for their fields, near a river which rises in this country, and which, increased by others, grows to be a very large stream, crossing the whole of Nueva Segovia to the ocean. This river, on account of its fish , is also of great value to them. This is the only point as to which they are somewhat obstinate, because they are greatly grieved to leave their ancient abode. However, most of them have accepted it, and it is hoped that the rest will come, and in this way in a short time much will be gained by the aid of the Lord. Through the mountains next to this province, which are many and very rough, there wander a tribe of Indians known as Alegueses, a vagabond people having no settled places of abode. Father Fray Thomas sent word to them by an Indian chief of Ytuy that if they wished to come and settle one of the new sites which he indicated, he would receive them there as sons, and do them all the good he could. They answered in the affirmative, and he waited for them for some time; but before they came the holy man finished his days, full of years and of heroic works, as will soon be seen. This is the work which these apostolic men of God accomplished in only three months, as appears from the aforesaid report. They conclude their report with another case similar to that referred to above, of the woman who died so soon after she had confessed. In the goings-out and comings-in of the fathers among the Indians that they might become acquainted with them, they found in one village, called Palar, a very aged Indian woman who was dying. She had eaten nothing for five days. Father Fray Thomas went to see her, and began to talk with her of becoming a Christian for the salvation of her soul. He expounded to her briefly what she had to believe, and called upon her to repent of her sins. She answered as well as might be desired, and he accordingly baptized her on that day, which was the last day of her earthly life and the first day of her Christian one. It was a happy day, so far as can be judged; for, being newly baptized, she had merely to be recorded in purgatory. Not only in these new provinces where the dawn of the gospel's light now begins to shine do extraordinary cases happen like those which have been mentioned, to the great glory of God and the joy of his ministers; but they also occur in many others where the dawn has risen high but has not yet bathed all the horizon, though it is covering it, little by little. From the province of Nueva Segovia father Fray Geronimo de Zamora, a native of the city of Zarago?a, wrote me a letter dated February 25, 1633. In it are these words: "Before Lent I went up the river of Mandayas" , "to try to teach many Indians who were without Christian instruction in heathen darkness, but who paid tribute to the king our lord as his vassals, without even being sons of the Church. I asked them if I might visit them, and they received my request kindly and asked that I or some other father should remain among them. In token of the heartiness of their wish, they gave me, as a sort of hostages, ten sons of their chiefs to be baptized; and after having sufficiently instructed them, I baptized them, to the great joy and delight of my soul. I hope in God that in this way thousands of them may be redeemed from the power of the devil, for there is no one who will declare that they are not his." He afterward asked aid from his neighbors to draw the net which was laden with so many fish as are promised by the casts already made there. Many are needed, but we may say here, "Where are those good men?"

It is not to be understood that only these new events are the good ones, or that among Christians who have been so for some time there are but few occurrences to rouse joy. This is not the case, for there are so many which have occurred among these latter that a very large book might be made of the account of them, if it were necessary to report what has happened hitherto, and what happens every day anew, to the holy old ministers of the gospel who have been and are among them, whose beards have grown, and whose hair has become white among the Indians. They are good witnesses to this truth, and to the growth that the Spirit is wont to cause in these clods of earth. As for those who grow weary quickly and leave the ministry, there is no necessity to say anything. It is certain that among those who have been Christians steadily for years there are fewer dangers; yet the care of them is of no less merit, and consequently the reward will be no less, since, as King David has well said , Aequa pars erit descendentis ad praelium et remanentis ad sarcinas, et similiter divident.

Here in Manila the order has under its care a hospital for the Chinese, in which the sick of that nation are cared for. The province may place this at the head of its possessions, since there is scarcely a day in which some soul or souls of newly baptized do not pass to heaven. Very few are they who die without baptism, and very many are they who give their souls to God before the baptismal waters are dry on their heads. This is accomplished with so little effort on the part of the minister that it calls upon him only to make a little effort, and to go from his cell to the infirmary. I do not know whether there is any other hospital in Christendom of the character of this hospital, its principal end being the cure of souls, while for the cure of bodies it has its physician, its medicines, and everything needed within its gates, besides the food and the dainties called for by the palates of the sick. The effects of the divine predestination which are beheld in it are so many that they are almost ordinary, and are therefore not mentioned.

The life and death of father Fray Thomas Gutierrez, vicar provincial of the province of Ytuy

On one occasion he came to a village of these Indians called Managuag. While he was there, more than four hundred of these Zambales, as they are called, appeared in the village, with their bows, arrows, lances, and daggers such as they use--which are so keen that in a single instant they strike a head to the earth. They came into the unsuspecting village with such a noise and shout that the poor inhabitants, being unarmed, almost died of fear. Some fled to the mountains, and some sixty Christian Indians took refuge in the house of a chief. When they saw that they were lost, having no weapons nor any means to defend themselves, they put themselves in the hands of God, and decided to make use of prayers in place of weapons; so they fell on their knees, and began in a loud voice to pray in their language. The Zambales, hearing them, surrounded the house and undertook to go up to it. Without knowing what held them back, they were several times obliged to retreat when they were half-way there. They finally set fire to it, though against their will, for they thought much of being able to take with them the heads of its inmates. It was burned to the ground in a few moments, with those who were within. Although God did not deliver them from the fire, He showed by a miracle that He had delivered them from the fires of hell, and perhaps from the fires of purgatory, exchanging those for this fire; for they were all found dead in a circle, untouched by the fire, and on their knees, with their elbows on the ground and their heads on their hands. Most of them took refuge in the church under the protection of the father and of God. These availed them; and the father, without attempting to close doors or windows, took in his hands a Christ that was on the altar, from whom he and the people all begged for mercy, which the Father of Mercies granted them. It was a marvelous thing that though the cemetery in front of the church had a wall the height of which was only from a few palmos up to two varas, the enemy were unable to cross it; and one of them, who leaped over it, was struck dead by a stray arrow. The roof of the church and the convent was of nipa, which is like so much dry straw to the fire. Upon it fell many brands and more than fifty burning arrows, none of which kindled it, though it was so inflammable. God, choosing to show who it was that defended this place, by the prayers of His servant Fray Thomas, permitted an Indian who was with him in the church, and who thought he was not safe there, to go out, thinking that he might escape by running. The enemy caught him and cut off his head in an instant. Not an arrow touched even the clothes of one of those who remained with the father, though these fell as thick as grass, and though many arrows passed among them, for they came in at the doors and windows of the church like showers of rain. Finally the enemy, frightened--although, being barbarians, they could not understand--when they saw that the fire would not catch, though there was nothing to prevent it, and that their arms would not injure these people, though disarmed, retreated with some heads and with some captives. The father, when the disturbance was over, immediately set about burying the dead and putting the village in a situation to defend itself from any other similar attack.

On a mountain chain near two villages, one of which is one of the most important in the province of Pangasinan, which are called Binalatongan and Balanguey, there were some unpacified Indians so savage and barbarous that they knew no occupation but cutting off heads. They were even more cruel than the ones just referred to, and came down into the valleys, to the fields of the peaceful Indians and to the roads, to hunt the latter like so many deer. Father Fray Thomas was much grieved by this, and did not know what to do to prevent it. To keep them back by arms he had not the strength; and, as for arguments, these were not people who would accept them. He therefore made use of a means which the event showed to have been revealed to him from above, because according to carnal reason it seemed to be very contrary to the rules of prudence. He directed two Christian Indians to go up the mountains to the settlements of their enemies, totally unarmed, and to carry to them a certain message from him. They went, for the Indians did not know how to refuse to do what the father directed them; but they went as if they were going to the slaughter. When they came to the place, they made signs of peace; but the barbarians, who knew no more about peace than about theology, were on the point of killing them without listening to them. But one of the savages themselves diverted them from this purpose by saying that they would better listen to them first; that there would be time to kill them afterwards, because they could not escape. They called our Indians, and asked them what they wished; and they answered that they were bringing a message from father Fray Thomas their father; this was, that he begged them earnestly to do no more harm to these Indians their neighbors, who were to him as sons. He desired them to come down and settle in the plains wherever they pleased, promising that he would regard them likewise as his sons, and would show them great kindness. They were not acquainted with the father, and did not know his name; and some of them were of the opinion that they had better slay the simple ambassadors. Others, contrary to their usual practice, defended the latter, treated them well, and showed them hospitality. Among those who were thus kind to them were two chiefs, of whom one--who was, as it were, the leader of all--was named Duayen; the other was named Buaya. Their hearts, which were harder than the hearts of tigers, God softened without any other application than that which has been described. They sent back his ambassadors to the father with an escort to defend them in dangerous places, and to take them safe to his presence; and by them they sent the answer that they were very ready to do with a good will what he commanded them, and that they would come down to the plain and settle in three places, so situated that the father might visit and teach them. They did not delay in carrying out their promise. They built their villages, and in them churches and dwellings for the father. In one of the churches were baptized immediately a son and two daughters of Duayen, together with many other children, twenty of them boys. Thus was sown the seed of the gospel, which has grown luxuriantly, at no further cost than has been recounted. Father Fray Thomas was indefatigable in striving for the good of souls. For the benefit of souls he made journeys of twelve leguas on foot, over very bad roads and in the heat of the sun. He sometimes went among warlike Indians who cut off the heads of others, while he and those who went with him saved theirs. It seemed to his companion, when he took one, that even though the companion was weak, a contagion of strength went out from the father, so that his associate was able to follow him, and they both went on long journeys without being much exhausted. Father Fray Thomas was not grieved that the direction of his superior occupied him in different posts, and called him from one place which was already cultivated well to another which was not so, but very ill--an effect which might have resulted from various causes. In the province of Ylocos--which is next to that of Pangasinan, and between it and that of Nueva Segovia, all of them being in this island of Lu?on--there is a large village called Nalbacan, the instruction of which was entrusted to secular clergy. As they were quickly changed, one after the other, and as some of them did not know the language of the natives, the village was in great lack of religious instruction. The bishop of these provinces, Don Diego de Soria, determined to give this village to the order, that it might minister to it. The father provincial who held that office at the time, charged father Fray Thomas with this duty. He set out there immediately, and began on the way to learn something of the language of the country, of which he had already a vocabulary and a grammar. Though it is different from that of Pangasinan, he preached in it at the end of twenty days after he arrived there, and before the bishop and other priests who were there, and before the natives, to the wonder of all. He began to fill his office so acceptably to the Indians that some came from the most remote parts of the province to confess to him and to receive his counsels. He was given the name of "the holy father," and, whenever they spoke of him, they used this name. As this is the appellation of the supreme pontiff of the church, whom the Indians had never seen, and still less had any dealings with him, those who were not acquainted with the secret were surprised to hear them speak until they came to understand it. Father Fray Thomas remained here a year, and his teaching and example were easily perceived in the improvement of the Indians and of those who were under his direction. All this province of the Indians is under the care of Augustinian fathers, who have in it many places where they give Christian instruction. They accordingly claimed this of Nalbacan, which was the only place outside of their jurisdiction. The order was very willing to yield it, and in exchange for it the Augustinians gave to our order another, which they had among our ministries in Pangasinan; and thus each order remained with its province complete, with its own tribe and language. When the Augustinian fathers came to take possession of the house of father Fray Thomas, as they did somewhat in advance of the time, he departed with nothing but his cloak, his hat, his breviary, and his staff, setting out for the province of Nueva Segovia, which was very near, to wait for the order of his superior, and to be disposed of as he pleased. Desiring not to be idle in the interim, for he did not wish to be idle a single hour--and if he did not know the language he would have to be idle many hours--he learned the language of that country with the facility which God had given him. He was aided by the fact that the languages of these three provinces of Indians are somewhat alike, and resemble each other in their idioms and in their syntax--which does not seem to have been invented by a barbarous people, but by a race of intelligence and keenness of mind. He remained but a short time in this province, being sent by the order of his superior to his former province of Pangasinan, whose language he understood as if it were his mother-tongue. In this language he wrote many books of devotion, sermons, and treatises, which he distributed while he was alive among the fathers who were ministers to that people; and he left others behind him at his death, as his estate, for he had no other estate except instruments of penance. From these long journeys on foot, through these rough and hot regions, a sickness resulted in Pangasinan which threatened to be the last of his life, and obliged him to give up the ministry to the Indians, much against his will. He suffered from this very much more than from the pain of the illness; but what he could not gain in this life he laid up for the other by his admirable patience and fortitude. Finally God restored his health, without medicines or comforts, for which there is little provision here; and there was less then, because things were nearer the beginning, when everything was barrenness and extreme poverty. With all these merits, he still lacked one thing to fill up the measure of his deserts. The common enemy of souls guessed this, and once appeared to him, while he was reading a book of devotion, in a hideous and shocking form; and although the father made the sign of the cross, the enemy did not flee so quickly but that he had time to say that, if it were not for the stones on the father's neck, he would be revenged upon him. This was the rosary, which the father took off neither by night nor by day, that he might be at all hours armed against him who may attack at any hour, and will do so whenever he is permitted. His zeal for souls increased with age, contrary to what often happens; for with the old age of the body, the weakening of the strength, and the increase of infirmity, old age often attacks the spirit--as St. Paul says , Quod antiquatur et senescit prope interitum est --which is as true of the spirit as of the body. When the father had reached the age of seventy years, he implored father Fray Francisco de Herrera, who was provincial at the time, to send him to Japon on the occasion when the large mission thither was planned which, afterward, God did not see fit to permit to be carried out. I think that this was not the first time that he proffered this request to his superiors. In proportion to the dangers and hardships promised by this mission, of which father Fray Thomas was not ignorant, was his earnestness in the desire to be a member of it. This is a proof of his vigorous spirit in venerable old age. His urgent request was not admitted, on the ground of his age; but he did not lose the merit of it, since he made it without any hypocrisy. God preserved him for another mission , which he undertook in the province of Ytui. He had made a beginning there in former years, but had not carried it on because of the obstacle there mentioned. He had now come to three years beyond seventy, and undertook the difficult expedition already described with as much spirit and energy as if he had only half his years. Yet he was much bowed with infirmities, as well as with age; and between them he seemed, as he walked, to be dragging along his body and his bowels. The words which the church sings of the holy old Simeon are not inappropriate, Senex puerum portabat; puer autem senem regebat. This same God whose name he, as His vassal, desired to carry to all regions, directed him and strengthened him, so that he undertook enterprises so far beyond the strength of one bowed with years and infirmities. In this period of his life he began to learn the language of this province, accomplishing his purpose in three months, and beginning to preach to the natives in it. He went to attend them in their spiritual needs whenever they summoned him, however far away he was, without heeding rain, or sun, or difficult roads. Though very compassionate to all, he was rigorous to himself alone, and that throughout his life. Every night he took a rigorous discipline; and never after he entered the order did he eat meat, except in case of grave necessity. He did not complain of his food when it was scanty or ill prepared, in sickness or in health. To the fasts of the order he added others. After the festival of the Resurrection he added another Lent up to Whitsunday, and another afterwards to the day of our father St. Dominic, so that the whole year was to him fasting and Lent. On Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays throughout the year, and on the eves of the festivals of Christ our Lord, of the Virgin his most holy Mother, and of our father St. Dominic, and of the saints of the order, he fasted on bread and water. As a result he possessed that which follows such fasting--a heroic degree of chastity. Finally the last illness of his life came upon him, being occasioned by a fall from a precipice, while he was in the work of his ministry. During the whole time of his illness, his companion could not persuade him to accept a sheet of very coarse cotton, or to permit his bed to be changed. On the bed which he had in health, which was a frame of cane-work covered with a patched blanket, he desired to await the hour of his death. Before his death he made a general confession, covering his whole life from the time before he reached years of discretion. Though his confession covered so many years, it lasted about a quarter of an hour. After he had most devoutly received the other sacraments, he died in the Lord, March 30, 1633. The following provincial chapter, in giving notice to the province of his happy death, said: "In the province of Ytui father Fray Thomas Gutierrez ended his days, an aged priest and father, most observant of the rules of the order, severe to himself and most gentle to others. He labored in this province for the good of souls for the space of five and thirty years, with such devotion that the very Indians, by whom he was most beloved, held and regarded him as pious and a saint. This aroused the ill-will of the devil, who appeared to him while he was at prayer; and the wicked enemy was able to arouse in him great fear and terror, but not to harm him, because he found him protected with the impregnable rosary of the Virgin. Of him we have the pious faith that, full of years and of virtue, he has flown to heaven."

The election as provincial of father Fray Domingo Gon?alez, and the state of the province

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet