Arrival of a new mission of religious at the province; the province
assumes the administration of the Zambals.
[In 1679 a band of Dominicans arrive at the islands in charge of Fray
Francisco Villalba. [3] Those religious are as follows:]
The father vicar, Fray Francisco Villalba, son of the convent of San
Pablo, of Burgos.
The father presentee, Fray Manuel Trigueros, son of the convent of
the Preachers, of Zaragoca.
The father presentee, Fray Francisco Matoces, son of the convent of
Santa Catharina Virgen y Martir, of Barzelona.
Father Fray Magino Ventallol, doctor in the holy canons, son of the
same convent.
Father Fray Raymundo Berart, doctor in both laws, and professor of
the university of Lerida, son of the said convent of Barzelona.
Father Fray Raphael Morert, graduate from the same branches, and son
of the said convent.
Father Fray Joseph Vila, son of the said convent.
The father lector, Fray Miguel Ossorio, of the convent of San Pablo,
of Sevilla.
The father lector, Fray Francisco Ruiz, son of the convent of San
Pablo, of Valladolid.
The father lector, Fray Francisco Vargas, son of the convent of San
Estevan, of Salamanca.
The father lector, Fray Francisco Ximenez, son of the convent of Xerez.
Father Fray Juan Yniguez, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Sevilla.
Father Fray Miguel de Castro, son of the same convent.
Father Fray Diego Burguillos, son of the same convent.
Father Fray Juan de Santo Thomas, son of the same convent, collegiate
and now lector in the college of Santo Thomas, of the said city.
Father Fray Juan Rois, son of the convent of Lugo.
Father Fray Juan Fernandez, son of the convent of Valladolid.
Father Fray Juan de Todos Santos, son of the said convent.
Father Fray Juan Goncalez, son of the royal convent of Nuestra Senora,
of Atocha.
Father Fray Gregorio Xiraldez, son of the convent of Pontevedra.
Father Fray Francisco Nunez Bravo, son of the convent of Santa Cruz,
of Segovia.
Father Fray Fernando Ortubia, son of the convent of Santiago de
Galicia.
Father Fray Domingo Muta, a Sicilian, son of the convent of Turin.
Father Fray Bernardo Lopez, son of the convent of San Pedro Martir,
of Toledo.
Father Fray Antonio de Santa Maria, son of the convent of Valladolid.
Father Fray Alonso de Herrera, son of the convent of San Estevan,
of Salamanca.
Father Fray Alonso Cobelo, son of the convent of Lugo.
Fray Francisco de Frias, deacon, son of the convent of Burgos.
Fray Inigo de San Joseph, son of the convent of San Pablo of Palencia.
Fray Thomas de el Rosario, of the convent of La Puebla de los Angeles.
And three lay-brethren, as follows:
Brother Fray Juan Calvo, of the convent of Santa Cruz, of Segovia.
Brother Fray Juan Martinez, of the convent of Nuestra Senora of Nieva.
Brother Fray Francisco de la Cruz, of the convent of San Estevan,
of Salamanca.
That same year, on the first of February, a student, a native of
Galicia, and a relative of the archbishop of Mexico, one Antonio de
Eguiar y Seijas, took the habit for this province in the hospice of
San Jacinto in Mexico; and at the proper time in the following year
he professed and immediately came to this his province.
That new reenforcement was very necessary because of the great amount
of work to be done in this province. For, besides the Christian
districts in its charge, and the Chinese missions, and those of
Tunking, on the eleventh of May of the said year, the governor of these
islands as vice-patron of these churches, in the name of the king
our lord, had entrusted us with the administration of the province
of Zambales, which had thitherto been in charge of the Augustinian
Recollect fathers. [4] Its administration was now entrusted to our
province for the following cause and reason. Those Indians were and
are the rudest that are known in these environs of Manila. They are
very cruel and bloodthirsty, and fond of murdering people without
more cause than their liking for cutting off heads. They were always
the bugaboo of the Spaniards, and the terror of the Indians of the
other provinces. They could never be wholly conquered, especially
those living in Buquil; for they were a people who lived in the
mountains where the Spanish arms could not reach them. And less
was it possible to conquer them by means of mildness, gentleness,
kindness, and caresses, although the preachers of the holy gospel of
the Recollects of our father St. Augustine tried to invite and lure
them to the knowledge of the true God and to consider the welfare
of their souls. Consequently, although those missionaries were among
them for more than seventy years, they were unable to reduce them to
the mild yoke of the law of Christ. And although they worked with
zeal in that attempt, with great merit and profit to themselves,
yet they always lived in great disconsolation, at beholding the
hardness of those hearts. Not less affliction and trouble was caused
to the Indians when they saw fathers and Spaniards in their lands,
for since they were so stiff-necked, and accustomed to liberty, they
did not look with favor on the payment of tribute or submission and
obedience to the fathers. Consequently, they were dissatisfied with
the fathers, and discussed various plans to oust them. They did not
dare to murder them for fear of the Spaniards, who had a presidio or
fort in Paynaven (the center of that province), and because since they
were near Manila, any action that they attempted would be avenged
by the Spaniards who would send troops of soldiers there by both
land and sea. Hence the final plan discussed by the inhabitants of
Buquil was to have recourse to the governor, asking him to remove
those fathers, and in their place give them Dominican fathers. This
was not because of any greater affection that they had for us than
for them, but because they imagined that by successive changes, they
could better conserve their liberty. This seems clearly to be their
end, for before the end of seven years after our entrance into that
province, they were dissatisfied with us, and begged fathers of the
Society. They are a fickle people and fond of change. Their idea was
that one sort of ministers succeeding thus to others, neither the
one nor the other sort could get a foothold, or be able to put the
preaching or the evangelical instruction on a sound basis among them.
It happened, then, in the year 1676, that the alcalde-mayor
of Pampanga, then Sargento-mayor Don Francisco de Texada, and
Sargento-mayor Alonso Fernandez Pacheco, former chief commandant
of the fort of Balas, began communication with the Zambal Indians
of Buquil and having gained their good will with their zeal for
the welfare of their souls, persuaded them to become baptized,
for as abovesaid, most of the people of Buquil were heathens. They
answered that they would become baptized if they were given Dominican
ministers; for they wished to be administered by them alone. Having
received that petition and proposal of the Indians, the said alcalde
and commandant informed the governor of these islands, then the
master-of-camp, Don Manuel de Leon. He desirous of the reduction of
those infidels, petitioned the father provincial of this province,
then father Fray Phelipe Pardo, to send some religious to Zambales as
missionaries for those mountains, in order to ascertain whether the
effect of reducing those barbarians to the faith of Christ could be
obtained in that way--a matter that all desired greatly. By virtue
of that, the father provincial sent father Fray Pedro de Alarcon [5]
and father Fray Domingo de Escalera to the place called Buquil. To
another place called Balacbac, which is located behind the mountains
of Abucay, he sent the father vicar of the said village, namely,
Father Domingo Perez. The latter immediately departed for Balacbac and
having assembled some Indians there, baptized nine, and returned to
Abucay, bringing five Zambals with him whom he afterward catechised
and baptized. One of them was the nephew of the priest of the idols,
and the father taught him to read and write, for he was more clever
than the others. That Indian was very useful, and afterward was of
much help to the said father in the reduction of the Zimarrones of
the mountains, and in telling their customs and idolatries. The two
fathers who were at Buquil, assembled some Indians into a place which
they called Nuestra Senora de Atocha, where they baptized some and
catechised others. But the governor having died at the beginning
of the following year, the former ministers of that province began
to complain to the father provincial that we were entering their
administration. Notwithstanding that he had a sound reply that the
vice-patron of those fields of Christendom had entrusted the matter
to us, the father provincial in order to avoid anger between both
orders, enjoined the fathers to return. That was the end of that first
entrance which our religious made in Zambales. The provincial chapter
was held after that, and in it the said father Fray Domingo Perez was
elected vicar of Samal. The latter, by virtue of the order which was
enacted in the said provincial chapter for all the father vicars of the
houses near the mountains where there were any heathens to reduce, to
endeavor to make entrances among them in order to allure them to the
faith of Christ, did in that part what was ordered, by making some
entrances among those mountains in order to reduce some Negritos,
who are called Zambals. [6] Although the father worked with energy
in that attempt, and went to great expense in kindnesses to them,
he could obtain nothing from them because of their great barbarity
and other reasons which it is not the present purpose to mention.
In the year 1678, Master-of-camp Don Juan de Vargas y Hurtado,
knight of the Order of Santiago, came to govern these islands. With
the coming of the new governor, the Zambals of Buquil renewed their
former petition that Dominican fathers be given them. In order to make
surer of their demands, they presented themselves to the archbishop,
saying that they would quickly be reduced and would embrace the
faith of Jesus Christ, if ministers of our order were given them. The
archbishop, having seen that proposal, informed the governor of it,
to whom as vice-patron belonged the right of assigning one or another
sort of ministers to those Indians. The governor brought with him
a royal decree from his Majesty ordering him to entrust to one of
the orders the administration of the island of Mindoro, which was
in charge of secular priests. Upon seeing the representation of the
Zambals, he offered the administration of the said island of Mindoro
to the Augustinian Recollect fathers, on condition that they leave
the province of Zambales, in order that our religious might assume
its administration in accordance with the petition of the Indians
of that province. The father provincial of the Recollects accepted
the exchange, although they assert that the cession was not legal,
as it was not made by the provincial chapter of their province. That
annulling clause was not put forward then, and the cession made by the
father provincial of the administration of Zambales before the said
governor having been seen, the Recollects were given that of the island
of Mindoro. By virtue of that, the said governor in his Majesty's name,
conceded to the Order of St. Dominic the administration of the province
of Zambales from the village of Marivelez to that of Bolinao. The
father provincial of this province, namely, the father commissary Fray
Balthasar de Santa Cruz, immediately sent some religious to administer
the said Indians. In the intermediate congregation of the following
year, the houses of the said province were accepted in due form, and
ten religious were established in them for the cultivation of those
fields of Christendom, and for the new reductions of the heathens....
[Chapter xxix deals with the customs of the Zambals, and is omitted
here, as we shall give in a future volume the original MS., on which
it is based.]