Treating of the hardships endured by our religious in Philipinas,
because of various persecutions that occurred in our fields of
Christendom.
The year 1668
§ 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
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 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
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. [17]
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 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. [18] The year, then, of 1646, they were seen
with fifteen warships. With five of them they 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, [19] 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. [20]
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 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, [21]
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 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, [22] 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
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 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 against it were so inhuman, (as may be seen in
the places of this history cited in the margin) [23] 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.
§ 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, [24] 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 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 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 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.
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 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, 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. [25] 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 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 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 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 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 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.]