the year 1635, Father Diego de Bobadilla was chosen procurator to
Roma and Madrid. He embarked in the year 1637, and while he was in
España the disturbances in Portugal and Cataluña occurred. The news
of these events was very afflicting to this province, considering the
difficulty in its securing aid. Besides the usual fields of Tagalos and
Bisayas, the province occupied the new missions of Buhayen, Iligan,
Basilan, and Jolo; and there were several years when it found itself
with only forty priests, who with the utmost difficulty provided as
best they could for needs so great. Phelipe IV--whom we may call "the
Great," on account of his unconquerable, signal, and unusual patience,
which God chose to prove by great and repeated misfortunes--was so
zealous for the Catholic religion, its maintenance, and its progress
that even in times so hard he did not grudge the grant of forty-seven
missionaries for this province. He also gave orders that they should be
supplied at Sevilla with a thousand and forty ducados, and at Mexico
with thirteen thousand pesos--a contribution of the greatest value in
those circumstances, and which could only be dictated by a heart so
Catholic as that of this prince, who every day renewed the vow that
he had taken that he would not make friends with the infidels, to the
detriment of religion, even though it should cost him his crown and his
life. On Holy Tuesday, March 31, in 1643, forty-seven Jesuits embarked
at Acapulco; and on the second of April mass was sung, and communion
was celebrated--not only by the missionaries, but by almost all the
laymen who came in the almiranta, where was established a distribution
[of their labors] as well planned as in an Observant college. For
at daybreak [17] a bell was rung tor rising; there was a season of
prayer; mass was said, once on working-days and twice on feast-days;
the priests who did not say mass received communion every day, and
the lay-brothers, students, and coadjutors two or three times a week;
there was reading at meal-times; and at the approach of night the
litanies were recited and the Salve sung. Every night a father went
to the forecastle to explain the Christian doctrine, and ended with
some brief address. When night began, the father procurator rang a
little bell, in order that they might pray to God for the souls in
purgatory and for those who are in mortal sin, imitating the example
of St. Francis Xavier. Before the hour for retiring, the bell was
rung for the examination of conscience. Every Sunday, feast-day,
and Saturday, addresses were made to all the [people of the] ship.
Soon after they had embarked, a sort of wind blew which made nearly all
those who were coming in the ship fall ill; and from this sickness
died five Jesuits, and thirty-three laymen; and in the flagship
six religious of St. Dominic and seventy [other] persons. These
sick persons gave sufficient occasion for the charity of Ours,
who assisted them by administering the sacraments and caring for
their souls; and they even busied themselves in relieving the sick,
so far as was possible, with delicacies and personal attentions. This
occupation was an excellent preparation in order that the sermons and
exhortations that the ministers uttered might produce the desired
result--that a great reform in morals and much attendance on the
sacraments might be secured. [After perils and hardships by sea,
and in the overland passage from Lampon to Manila, they reach that
city. "It was a very numerous mission band, who accomplished much work;
and there were some of them who spent fifty and even more than sixty
years in Philipinas, which is a very extraordinary thing." Five of
them had died on the voyage: fathers Francisco Casela, a native of
Naples, aged thirty years; Francois Boursin, a native of Arras, aged
thirty-four; Georg Kocart, from Neuburg, aged twenty-eight; Gonzalo
Cisneros, an Aragonese (?), aged twenty-eight; and Dominic Vaybel
(probably for Waibl), a native of Constance, of the same age.] In
the college of Zebu the Society labored with apostolic zeal; for,
although regularly there was no one in it besides the father rector
and another priest, they maintained preaching and confession, and
attended to the spiritual welfare of the Spaniards, Indians, mestizos,
and other people who gathered there; and God gave His blessing to our
pious desires and labors. Many Indians attended the sermons that were
preached in that church, even when the sermons were in Spanish.
[Fol. 152 b:] Our military forces, being set free from the nearer
enemies, were employed against those more distant. Accordingly,
the commander of our armada, Pedro Duran de Monforte, directed his
course to the great island of Borney, where he burned many villages
on that coast, and carried away forty captives; and he succeeded in
making this voyage known [to navigators], and in observing the shoals,
monsoons, and other difficulties. With this experience he again set
out, on January 11, 1649, with fourteen vessels, his people being
partly Indian adventurers from Pintados, partly Lutaos; and Father
Francisco Lado accompanied him. He touched at Lacaylacay; went on to
Onsan, the limit of the former expedition; and went to the island of
Bangui. Everywhere he found abundance of rice, swine, and goats. He
plundered and destroyed several villages; burned more than three
hundred vessels, among them the armed fleet which they held ready
that year to infest these islands--which on account of this exploit
remained for the time free from their fury and barbarity. He brought
back more than two hundred captives, and ransomed some Christians. All
this was done in a short time and with ease, because these affairs
were undertaken with proper seriousness. As a result of this, when the
governor of Samboangan, Rafael Omen, died, Pedro Duran de Monforte was
appointed in his place; and the latter imitated his predecessor in his
zeal for religion, in his Christian mode of life, in disinterestedness,
and in an affable and mild bearing, for which he was beloved by all,
while his government was peaceful and prosperous. With the opportunity
afforded by these armadas, the Jesuits (who went as chaplains) began
to announce the gospel in the great island of Borney, than which there
is no larger island in the world. So prosperous were those beginnings
that they succeeded in having seven hundred islanders baptized. Two
chiefs of the neighboring islands offered vassalage to the king of
Spain, and asked for gospel ministers, as Father Colin testifies;
and this mission finally gave hopes that a numerous and extensive
Christian church would be founded which would compensate for the
losses in Japon and the Orient; but, lacking the protection of the
Spanish military forces, this so beautiful hope faded away almost
at its flowering. Deplorable and repeated experiences persuade us
that in these latter times the Christian missions are maintained and
increased only when in the shelter of Catholic arms; sad witnesses to
this are Japon, India, and now China. If in these islands and America
our kings did not protect religion, I believe that those regions would
now be as heathen as in their former times. Experience teaches this,
and the rest I regard as speculation--although the powerful arm of
the Highest easily overcomes the greatest impossibilities.
[Fol. 155 b:] The testimony of the venerable Father Mastrili,
and the voluntary choice of so many distinguished Jesuits and
martyrs who embraced these missions with the greatest eagerness,
are sufficient recommendation for them. With just reason they can be
esteemed, as being among the most laborious and difficult which the
Society maintains anywhere in the world. This title is deserved by
the missions of Philipinas, and among them those to Mindanao and
the Subanos are some of the most difficult. No one accuses this
statement of being exaggerated, and still less of being arrogant,
before he has examined it minutely; and then he cannot find more
moderate terms [than the above] in order not to fall short of the
truth. Whatever dangers, inconveniences, and privations are experienced
on land are also experienced on the sea, with an [additional] sort
of circumstances which renders them more grievous, and besides this
there are the hardships natural and peculiar to that element; and
even that which on land is chosen for convenience and relief costs
on the sea inconvenience and trouble--as, for instance, sleeping,
eating, and taking exercise. Every boat is a prison without chains,
but more closely shut than the narrowest jail; it is a broad coffin,
in which the living suffer the discomforts of death. Whoever sets
foot in a boat resolutely confronts all the elements, which conspire
in arms to terrify and destroy him. The water upon which he journeys,
the air by which he sails, the fire by which he lives, the land which
he so anxiously seeks--all are declared enemies of the traveler. The
sea is, by antonomasia, the theater for [all] perils; and no one who
has not been tossed upon its foaming waves can speak with justice
of its dangers, just as the blind man cannot dispute about colors. A
heart of steel or of diamond, say the ancients, he must have had who
first boldly launched himself upon the [waters of the] gulfs, so many
perils did they conceive of an element which has as many treacheries
as waves. Therefore, as nearly all the missions of this province
are established along the seas, on which our missionaries go about,
continually on the move, these are the (or among the) most difficult,
arduous and perilous that exist on the whole round globe. To this
sacrifice charity gladly constrained us. Let to all this be added
the nature of the country, in which earthquakes, baguios, hurricanes,
storms of thunder and lightning, and tempests often occur. The winds
are violent and hurtful, the season hot; the rainy season gloomy,
dark and persistent; the wet soil producing many disgusting insects
that are troublesome and vexatious. The care for the temporal welfare
of the people--seeing that they pay their tributes to the king,
and that they plant their fields in time--is an employment that is
troublesome, tedious, and necessary. Nor is it a less task to take
care for the provisioning of the [missionary's] own house, without
having in this respect the aid which the apostles had; because the
minister must rather care for his own house and for that of others,
a charge which charity lays upon us. Charitas omnia sustinet [i.e.,
"Charity endures all things"].
Each missionary in Bisayas (or Pintados) has the care of two to
five thousand souls, and even more. These commonly are divided among
two or three villages, quite far apart; and throughout the year the
minister is sailing from one to another, to preach to them and aid
them. Among the Subanos there are not so many people [in each mission],
but their little villages are more numerous. Formerly each minister had
ten or twelve villages of Subanos, [each] divided on as many rivers,
in the form of hamlets. There were houses round about the church or
pavilion [camarin], and the rest [of the people] lived scattered in the
hills, forests, and thickets. I have seen some native huts [buhios]
on the peaks of the mountains, [so far away] that they could hardly
be reached in half an hour from the river. Others I saw placed among
the branches of the trees, in the same manner as nests. Their houses
regularly are very high, with a bamboo for a ladder, which they remove
at night. All this they do in order to hide themselves and be free
from the frequent invasions of the Moros; and from the stratagems and
treacheries of their own countrymen, who are inclined to vengeance and
perfidy. Among these people we live. The rivers are full of ferocious
and blood-thirsty crocodiles, which kill many persons. When I was
in Dapitan there was one of these beasts in the river of Iraya, so
sanguinary and fierce that no one dared to pass that river by night, on
account of the ravages that it committed--leaping into the boats, and
taking people out of them. In the books of those villages, I read with
horror and pity: "On such a day was buried the head of N., which was
all that was found, because the crocodile had torn him to pieces." The
bars of the rivers are dangerous, and with the freshets and the waves
some channels are easily closed and others opened, to the great risk
of those who are sailing. The seas are rough, and so restless that
the continual lashing of the waves on the shores, rocks, and reefs
makes a sound which causes fear even in those who live inland. On
that coast are headlands so difficult to double that sometimes the
caracoas spend twenty or thirty days in voyages which in favorable
weather require half an hour. As a result, the ministers live in great
loneliness, without being able to communicate with one another--save
that, when the monsoons blow, in order to make one's confession a
voyage is necessary; and therefore this consolation is attained by
some but few times in the year. If a fatal accident occurs to one,
it is not possible to assist him with the holy sacraments--which is
the greatest affliction that can be endured in the hour of death;
and their only recourse is to place themselves in the hands of that
Lord for whom they expose themselves to these sufferings. Even greater
are the fatigues endured by the soul in the frequent occasions which
disturb its patience. The feeling of indifference which is native
to the country tends to undermine gradually the wall of poverty,
weaken the spirit of obedience, and cool the most fervent spiritual
ardor and strictness of observance. Even the blood which animates
us and gives us life is mutinous, and stirs up the passions against
their own master; and, aided by the noxious air of the country, the
extreme solitude, and the common enemy, wages a war that is cruel,
obstinate, bloody, and so pertinacious that it does not yield until
the last breath of life....
The soil is very poor, and the greater part of the provisions and
clothing must be carried from Manila; and consequently a thousand
miseries are suffered during the year without recourse. The feeling
of loneliness is very great; we are in this world, which, besides
being a vale of tears, for us is as it were, a limbo, [18] separated
by thousands of leguas from the rest of the world; it is exceedingly
seldom that the missionary meets any person through whom he can obtain
any alleviation of his troubles, or any assistance or consolation. Few
Spaniards traverse those regions, and those who do pass through are
usually of such character that merely the knowledge that they are
going about through the country causes grief, anxiety, and vigilance
to the minister. During the entire week the Indians are on the sea,
in the mountains, or in their grain-fields, and on Sundays they come
together in the village--but usually little to the comfort of the
missionary. Rather, they increase his annoyances, in [having to] settle
their lawsuits, quarrels, misunderstandings, and accounts; in defending
them from the alcaldes and petty officials, and from one another;
and in the minister's defending himself from all--for there are a
thousand entanglements, snares, and deceits. Hardly do they set foot
in the missionary's house, except when they go to ask for something;
they are like the cat, and only look the father in the face when they
are expecting some scrap of meat; and when this is seized, friendship,
homage, and gratitude are at an end. Would to God that these qualities
were left in the Indians! But it cannot be said that all are of this
sort, but that there are enough of them for exercising the patience of
the minister, although others serve for his comfort and consolation. If
the minister is sick, he has no physician or apothecary to resort to;
and his only resource is an Indian medicaster who applies some herbs,
and whose prescriptions are quickly exhausted. If the sickness be a
distressing one, it is necessary to go to Zebu, to which place [Ours]
make a voyage of thirty or forty leguas, with the risk of not finding
[there] a blood-letter. If radical treatment is needed, there is no
other remedy than to sail a hundred or two hundred leguas to Manila,
where there is not an over-supply of Galens. Fortunate is he who,
without failing in his obligations, can preserve his health unimpaired;
for in this land certain diseases quickly take root [in one's system]
which are a slow and most grievous martyrdom through life. And there
is, almost peculiar to these countries, a sort of profound melancholy,
which, like a corrupt root, renders all that he can do either insipid
or repulsive. Sometimes it disorders the mind, [19] and even life
itself becomes abhorrent. It persistently oppresses the mind, which
needs great courage, and aid from above, in order that one may not
faint in the ministry. All this is the effect of solitude, and of one's
nature becoming suffocated under the continual annoyances and troubles
which administration [of these missions] involves. Nor is it easy to
explain, without actual eyewitness, the various modes of suffering
which here present themselves, so unusual, extraordinary, and acute. In
these workshops patience is wrought, purified, and assayed until it
becomes heroic, with the heavy hammer of mortifications, troubles,
and petty details, which chance each day arranges and disarranges.
To this must be added the continual dread of invasions by the Moros,
of whose barbarous and inhuman cruelty alone the missionaries are
assured, fleeing to the mountains amid thorns, woods, miry places,
and precipices. On the coast from Yligan to Samboangan, I saw with
great sorrow various churches and villages that had been burned. The
ministers saw themselves in the greatest danger of being captured or
slain, and in their flight they suffered unspeakable hardships. Nor
are dangers wanting among even the Indians themselves; they were very
near putting to death by treachery Father Joseph Lamberti at Hagna,
and Father Gaspar de Morales at Ynabangan, in the year 1746. For others
they have laid ambushes, others have been wounded, and even some have
been injured by witchcraft--so that in all directions there is danger.
Finally, let him who wishes to survey the missions which the Society
has in these islands, open the map of Asia; and in the western part,
in the Ægean archipelago, he will see the Apostle of the Gentiles
journeying from Jerusalem to Tarsus, to Ephesus, to Jerusalem,
to Seleucia, to Cyprus, to Pergamos in Pamphylia, to Antioch in
Pisidia, to Iconium, to Macedonia, and to other cities, islands,
and provinces, in continual movement from one place to another. Let
him now look at the Eastern part of the same Asia, and he will see in
the Philippine archipelago the Jesuits, journeying [in like manner]
in Tagalos, in Bisayas, in Mindanao, in Jolo, in Marianas, in Palaos,
in Borney, in Ternate, in Siao, in Macazar, in Japon, in China, and in
other islands, kingdoms, and provinces of the Orient, preaching the
gospel to these nations. To these laborers it is a fitting command:
Euntes in mundum universum, prædicate Evangelium omni creaturæ. [20]
I do not know whether in any other region there is a concourse of
so many peoples as in Philipinas, or where this mandate of Christ
to His apostles is so literally carried out. There is not in the
entire universe a journey more extensive or dangerous, by land or
by sea. There is preaching and ministration in the Spanish tongue
and in the Tagal; and in those of Samar and Bohol, and of Marianas;
of the Lutaos, of Mindanao, and of the Subanos; and in that of the
Sangleys or Chinese. The study of the language is difficult, dry,
and insipid, but it is necessary; it is a thorn causing many scruples,
a bitterness for many years, and a labor for one's whole life.
In Tagalos there are not so many navigations or journeys, although
these are not wanting; but this advantage is strictly compensated by
other difficulties, for on the ministers falls the entire burden of
sermons, missions, Lenten services, novenaries, and other functions,
and usually the professorships [in the college] of Manila. In the
villages, the solitude and the lack of various conveniences are almost
the same [as in Bisayas]; and although the Indians are as simple as
the rest they are not so artless, but are cunning and deceitful. They
do not use lances or daggers against the ministers, but they employ
gossip, misrepresentations, and calumnies. In almost all the villages
there are some Indians who have been clerks to the Spaniards in Manila,
and accustomed to petitions and lawsuits, they influence the Indians
to innumerable quarrels; for through frequent communication with
the Spaniards stamped paper has become a favorite with them. And if
the father calls them to account [les va á los alcanzes], a crowd
of them get together, and draw up a writing against the minister,
which is quickly filled with signatures and crosses. Often that
happens which is told by the lord bishop of Montenegro: how a
visitor, considering as impossible a complaint that was presented
to him by some Indians against their cura, began to examine one of
those who had signed it; and, seeing that the Indian said "Amen" to
everything, without stopping for reflection, the visitor suspected
that the complaint was a calumny. He then said, very sagaciously:
"Man, in this petition it is stated that one Sunday, after prayers,
your cura killed King David." "Yes, sir," said the Indian, "I saw
that done;" and thus the prudent judge recognized the falsity of the
charges. When the Indians wish to accuse the minister, they resort
to the clerk, who has certain bundles and old papers, carefully
kept, of accusations and complaints; and according to the amount
they pay him the accusation amplifies--as when one prepares a good
purgative medicine, and augments the dose in order to secure its
operation. A number of the Indians affix their signatures, without
knowing what they are signing; for the heat of wine takes the place
of all these formalities of law. They carry this document, full of
sprawling signatures and cross-marks [letrones y cruzes], to those
who, as they know, have least good-will to the minister--and in this
[sort of knowledge] the Indians are eminent, nor is there a pilot who
follows more closely the winds by which he must navigate; and just
so these Indians know where their complaint will be received with
approval. If he to whom the accusation is presented be credulous,
innocence suffers much until the truth is made clear. Great strength
of mind is required to endure these calumnies, and it is one of the
kinds of martyrdom (and not the least cruel) in Indias. In the other
matters of administration there are hardships, on account of the great
number of people [for whom the father must care], and their scattered
mode of life, since they are distant from the church sometimes three
or four leguas. The roads are wretched, the heat of the sun burning,
and the rainstorms very heavy, with innumerable other inclemencies
and annoyances, which have disabled many, and killed others. The
variety of duties which the minister has to exercise is very great,
for he has to be preacher, teacher of the doctrine, and confessor;
adjuster and umpire of their petty quarrels; physician and apothecary,
to treat them in their sicknesses; schoolmaster, and teacher of
music; architect and builder, and competent for everything [un todo
para todo]; for if the minister does not take care of everything,
all will soon be lost. Enough of [this] parenthetical explanation;
[21] although it is long, a knowledge of it is very necessary for
the completeness of history, in order that it may be known what the
gospel ministers are doing and suffering, which is more than what
superficial persons suppose.
[Fol. 183 b:] In the conversion of Basilan, fervent were the labors
of Father Francisco Angel and Father Nicolas Deñe; and both suffered
great dangers to their lives and liberty. They were succeeded by
Father Francisco Lado, who by his persistence in enduring innumerable
fatigues subdued the entire island; went through all of it, on foot,
alone, and without escort; made his way through its thickets, forests,
mountains, and hamlets; and did this in such peace that he could build
a very neat church and substantial house--for he was much loved by
the Lutaos; and he had, with the aid of the governors of Samboangan,
cleared the island from all the panditas, and from mischievous and
suspicious persons, who might disturb the people with evil doctrines
or with immoral practices. Only one remained there, who by his
malice was disturbing even the peaceful natives; this was Tabaco,
who had incited to rebellion the Sameacas, who are the natives of the
island. [This man is finally slain by a daring young Spanish officer,
Alonso Tenorio; see our Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 134-136.]
With similar success the religion of Jesus Christ was published
along the coast which extends toward the kingdom of Mindanao. Father
Pedro Tellez zealously traveled through those shores, where he formed
several villages, erected more than sixteen churches, and established
Christian living; and he made his abode in Tungavan. Notable aid
was given to this enterprise by Don Antonio Ampi, the lord of the
river, who always promoted the Christian religion with extraordinary
constancy--although he had in Jolo a brother named Libot, a renegade
and a cruel pirate--and he gave to the college at Samboangan some
fertile and productive lands. At the cost of toils and privations,
Father Tellez reduced the barbarous Subanos to rational and Christian
customs, drawing them out of their caves and huts, and from under
the cruel tyrannical yoke of the demon--who made apparent the great
resentment that was roused in him by the loss of those his long-time
slaves; for at various times the horrible howls that he uttered were
heard at Curuan. For ministration on the coast of La Caldera and
Siocon, which was left deserted by the death of Father Juan del Campo,
the father provincial Francisco de Roa assigned Father Francisco
Combés, who gladly went to instruct the Subanos. Most earnestly
he applied himself to bringing those wild and timid creatures into
closer social relations, and in doing this he was able to forward
their instruction in the mysteries of the faith; and gradually they
became accustomed to a more rational and Christian mode of life. On
the river of Sibuco there was an Indian named Ondol; this man and
his brother, worse than Moors, were married to several wives; and
Ondol was so cruel that he slew whomsoever he chose, without further
cause than his own whim. He tried to kill Father Adolfo de Pedrosa,
greatly applauded the killing of Father Juan del Campo, and threatened
that he would kill Father Combés; but the latter pretended to take
no notice of it, and was cautious, and concealed his intentions;
and Ondol went on confidently, so that, when he least thought of
such a thing, he found himself a prisoner, and was sent to Samboangan
where he was received by the Spaniards and by the fathers with great
pleasure at seeing removed from the midst [of the mission] so great
an obstacle to the Christian faith. His brothel continued to stir up
the people, and an armed fleet was sent against him, but without any
result; for the noise [of their coming] warned him so that he could
avoid the blow, among woods, hills, miry places, and thickets. The
escort of the father [i.e., Combés] continued to make arrests, with
cunning devices, until they seized fifteen of this man's relatives;
and the father sent them to Samboangan. Love for his kindred brought
that wild man to the church, to ask mercy from the father. He was
admitted to favor, and all the past forgotten, with one condition:
that he and all his people, since they were Lutaos, must live under
the artillery of the fort, and serve in the [Spanish] armada. With
this arrangement that coast remained peaceable, for the insurgents of
Siocon had also been seized by craft. Father Combés went to that place,
and encountered very heavy seas, not only at entering but on leaving
that village; and arguing [from this] that God was not allowing them
to go until they interred the bones of the companions of Father Campo,
they all lauded on the shore, and searched for the bodies among the
thorny thickets. Having interred all of them together, and said a
mass for them, the Spaniards placed a cross over the sepulcher; and
immediately the weather became calm, so that the caracoas were able
to set out. At that time Father Combés carried away a hermit, who,
clothed as a woman, strictly observed the law of nature, and professed
celibacy. He was called "the Labia of Malandi;" and he was converted
to the religion of Christ, in which he lived as a faithful servant.
In La Caldera was introduced the devotion to the blessed souls in
purgatory, and suffrages for the deceased, which never had been
publicly performed among any Subanos. To render this service more
solemn, the musicians were carried thither from Samboangan; and
this, joined with the father's exhortations, introduced in their
hearts pious solicitude for their dead--so well begun that, in the
midst of their native poverty and the dulness of their minds, they
carried with them many candles, with rice and other offerings. From
that place this holy devotion was gradually communicated through all
those villages, following the example of La Caldera--which then was
the principal village, in which the minister resided; and to it were
annexed Bocot, Malandi, and Baldasan. Besides the above-mentioned
cases, others occurred with which the Lord consoled the ministers,
in recompense for the misery, hardships, and forlorn condition of
those arduous and remote missions.
[Fol. 229 b:] About this time dissoluteness was reigning in these
islands, with as unrestrained and despotic dominion as if there
were no law superior to it, which could repress it. Fraud in trade
and commerce, hatred, falsehood, and malice prevailed everywhere,
and without restraint. Above all, sensuality was, so to speak, the
prince and master vice; and so general that, unrestricted in time,
sex, rank, or age, it kept these regions aflame with an infernal and
inextinguishable fire. These crimes were aggravated by the scandalous
publicity with which they were committed, almost without punishment;
and they had so filled the country with iniquity and abomination
that they had to a certain extent corrupted the land itself, filling
it with malediction, as Scripture tells us of the time of Noe:
Corrupta est autem terra coram Deo, & repleta est iniquitate. [22]
This provoked the wrath of God so much that in those times were
experienced such calamities, wars, misfortunes, earthquakes, deaths,
factions, shipwrecks, imprisonments, and so great disturbances,
that the citizens themselves, obliged to begin to reflect on these
things, believed that the sword of divine indignation was unsheathed
among them; and those who with prosperity seemed to be losing their
senses came to themselves, as did the prodigal son with his coming
to want. They had recourse to the holy Pope, the vicar of Christ on
earth; and at his feet, submitting themselves with humble repentances,
they explained to him the cause of their affliction. He who then
presided over the Church of God was his Holiness Innocent X, who as
a benign father despatched an apostolic brief to the archbishop of
Manila directing him to absolve all the inhabitants and citizens of
these islands from whatever crime or transgression they might have
committed, or excommunication that they might have incurred. He sent
them his apostolic benediction, and granted a plenary indulgence to
those who should worthily prepare to receive it.
On the first day of March, 1654, the archbishop made publication of
these favors conferred by the pontiff; and all the people prepared with
great fervor to obtain them--so universally that the many confessors
of the clergy and the religious orders were hardly sufficient for
the numbers who resorted to them; and it was estimated that within
the city more than forty thousand persons made their confessions. The
result was very excellent, for many confessions were made anew that
had been for many years faultily made--either to conceal sins, or
for lack of sorrow for them--and of their own accord. Many general
confessions were made, and the grace of God was made apparent in
the excellent results which were experienced. Restitution was made
of honors and property, inveterate hatreds were uprooted, immoral
associations of many years' standing were broken up, and occasions for
continual stumbling were removed. On the twenty-second day a solemn
mass was sung in the cathedral, the blessed sacrament was exposed,
and the archbishop preached with the fervor that the case demanded. At
twelve o'clock the bells began to ring for prayers in all the churches,
the sound of the bells being a fresh awakener of consciences. In the
afternoon the archbishop went to the main plaza, where a stage had
been erected, of sufficient size, almost, for a court from above;
on it was an altar, with a crucifix for devotion, under a canopy. On
this stage sat the archbishop, with the ecclesiastical cabildo; and
the royal Audiencia were there with their president, the governor
and captain-general, also the regidors and the holy religious orders;
while there was an innumerable assembly from every sort of nation and
people, for whom there was not room in the plaza or in the streets,
or on the roofs. The archbishop put on his pontifical robes, and,
when the psalms were sung and the usual prayers offered, he publicly
uttered the blessing on the land and all its inhabitants in the name
of the supreme pontiff; and afterward the Te Deum was intoned, and
the chimes were rung by all the bells.
[Our author here relates the beginning of the rebuilding of the
cathedral (which had been destroyed in the earthquakes of 1645),
and the solemn religious functions which accompany the laying of its
cornerstone in 1654; and the formal adoption of St. Francis Xavier
as the patron saint of the islands (1653), by action of the secular
cabildo of Manila, who bind themselves "to attend the vespers and the
feasts of that saint's day in a body, as the municipal council, and to
furnish the wax necessary for the feast." He is also chosen as patron
saint of all the voyages made to, from, or among the islands. This
action is followed by that of the ecclesiastical cabildo (1654)
and the archbishop. That saint is chosen because he had preached
in Ternate and Mindanao, which belonged to the jurisdiction of the
Philippines; in imitation of India, where also he was the patron
saint, and where his favor had been experienced by navigators; and
"because the glorious saint had shown himself, especially in recent
years in this region, very propitious to the voyages of our ships,"
of which various examples are cited.]
[Fol. 231 b:] The archbishop had seen in the publication of the jubilee
the persistence with which the Jesuits labored in the confessional;
and desiring to finish gathering in the harvest which the broad
field of these environs promised him, if the proper cultivation
were applied, in the year 1655 he asked Father Miguel Solana, the
provincial of this province, that the "jubilee of the missions"
might be published. This was done in the following Lenten season,
with so felicitous results that more than twenty thousand certificates
of confession were counted which had been issued in our college at
Manila. The zeal of the archbishop aided greatly [in this result], for
he took part in the procession in which the mission was published, and
preached one day in our church.... Extraordinary was the fruit which he
gathered that Lent; and confessions were made [for a period] of sixty
or eighty years. [Here are related various cases of conversion and
edification, in some of which demons appear to the faithful. Governor
Diego Faxardo sends workmen to Camboja to build a galleon there, and
asks for Jesuits to go with them as chaplains, and to labor for the
introduction of the Christian faith into that kingdom; two are sent,
one of whom is Father Francisco Mesina, who was then ministering
to the Chinese at Santa Cruz. These men build a fine galleon, but
it is lost in a storm on the way to Manila; moreover, the galleon
"Nuestra Señora del Rosario," in which they had sailed to Camboja,
"one of the strongest which had been built in these islands," was
wrecked on the shoals of the Me-Khong (or Cambodia) River, before the
Spaniards could establish themselves on its shores. These accidents
cause the idea of building ships in Camboja to be abandoned.] Although
the temporal government of Ternate belonged to the crown of Castilla,
and to this government of Philipinas, its spiritual affairs were cared
for by the bishop of Malaca; and when that city was conquered by the
Dutch, Ternate remained in the care of only one Jesuit and one secular
priest for many years. Don Sabiniano Manrique brought to Manila the
father and the Portuguese priest, and in their place two fathers from
this province were sent, whom the archbishop of Manila constituted
his provisors and vicars-general. These fathers preached with great
fervor and corresponding results; for many Christians improved their
mode of life, and some Moors and heretics of that country, giving up
their errors, embraced the true religion. Among all these the ones
who excelled in fervor were two young girls, about fourteen years old,
who, abandoning their parents (who professed the Moorish faith), came
to Ours to be made Christians--with so dauntless resolution that,
although their parents followed them in order to take them back to
their own village, they could not persuade them to return; and God
bestowed such efficacy upon the utterances of these girls that even
their parents, illumined by the light of the Highest, determined to
follow the same religious faith. Various results of the mercy of God
were seen in some persons who, a short time after receiving grace in
baptism, ascended to enjoy their reward in glory.
In Siao the king was Don Bentura Pinto de Morales, who, grieving
that his island should lack gospel ministers, despatched an embassy
to Don Sabiniano Manrique, laying before him the extreme necessity
of that island and kingdom, and entreating that he would send thither
religious to preach the holy gospel; the zealous governor [accordingly]
asked the father provincial, Miguel de Solana, to send two fathers to
relieve that need. They were immediately sent, and began their work
on so good a footing that in a short time they commenced to gather
the fruit that they desired; and, not content to labor with the old
Christians, they added to the flock of Christ a great multitude of
souls, so that in a few months nearly all the islanders were asking
for baptism. The city of Macan had sent to Manila a nobleman named
Don Diego Furtado de Mendoza, to regulate the commerce [between
the two cities]; and Don Diego Faxardo, perhaps for [well-grounded]
suspicions, ordered that he be arrested. But afterward Don Sabiniano
sent this envoy back to Macan; and in November of the year 1653 he sent
a vessel, and in it Father Magino Sola with the title of ambassador,
to establish friendly relations between this and that city, and with
other commissions; and they arrived at Macan about March, 1654.
In these times [of which we are writing] many Subanos had come down
to Dapitan from some neighboring mountains, and were brought into
the fold of Christ. Afterward a chief from Dicayo came down with his
people, and was followed by others, from other hamlets; the ministers
were greatly consoled at seeing the fruit that was gathered in that
district of heathens. At the same time some Moros from the lake of
Malanao settled at Yligan, in order to be instructed and to live as
Christians in that village; and God deigned to work some marvels,
so that they might properly appreciate the Catholic religion. [Some
of these are related; then follows a long account of the schemes and
perfidious acts of Corralat, and of the murder (December 13, 1655)
by his nephew Balatamay of the Jesuits Alexandro Lopez and Juan de
Montiel, and the Spanish officer Claudio de Ribera, who were going
to Corralat as envoys from Governor Manrique de Lara. All these
occurrences have received due attention in previous volumes.]
[Fol. 277:] The archbishop of Manila, Don Miguel Poblete, a pastor
zealous for the good of souls, asked the father provincial of the
Society to employ some of his men, now that this succor had arrived,
[23] in a ministry so proper for our Institute as is that of the
missions; and some of them accordingly went out to look after
the ranches [estancias], where usually live many vagabonds, who,
as a result of their idleness and lack of any restraint, commit
innumerable sinful and evil acts, and are a people greatly in need
of religious instruction. In those places are found some Spaniards,
various [sorts of] mestizos, negroes, Cafres, and Indians from all the
islands. At the cost of many inconveniences, the ministers gathered
a large harvest in the numerous confessions that were made to them,
and in many licentious unions which were broken up; and, above all,
light was given to those people on what they ought to believe and
do in order to secure the eternal salvation of their souls. An old
man eighty years of age, whose confessions were almost sacrilegious,
was reached by the mission, and, wounded by his conscience, said:
"Oh, if Father San Vitores" (whom perhaps he knew by reputation)
"were one of the missionaries, how I could get out of this wretched
condition in which I am!" And afterward, learning that Father San
Vitores was going to that place, this old man cast himself at his
feet, and with more tears than words made a general confession,
and [thus] was set free from that abominable condition in which he
found himself. Afterward the archbishop entreated that the mission
should go to the mountain of Maralaya, near the lake of Bay, where
a colony of highwaymen and vagrants had been gathered by the desire
for freedom and the fear of punishment, secure in their lawless mode
of life in the ruggedness of the mountain. The missionaries reached
that place, and on the slope of the mountain established their camp,
where they remained in the inclemencies of weather until a pavilion
was built in which they could say mass, and a wretched hut for their
shelter. There, with affection, prayer, and exercises of penance,
they were able to persuade those people to come down to hear the word
of God; and so efficacious was this that many were induced to return
to their own villages, in order to live as Christians. Several women
whom those men kept there, who had been separated from their husbands,
were restored [to their families]; and among the rest the missionaries
employed instruction and teaching. One man had lived in that barbarous
community worse than if he were a heathen; and the only indication of
his Christian faith that remained to him in so demoralized a condition
was his constant devotion to the blessed Virgin--to whom he fasted
every Saturday, and whom he urgently entreated that he might not
die without the sacraments. That most merciful Lady heard him, for,
although he had been ten times in danger of death, she had always set
him free with special favor. Now he made his confession with many
tears, with the firm resolve to do whatever might be necessary for
his eternal salvation.
A mission was conducted in the mountains of Santa Inez of Lanating, a
visita of Antipolo. One of the missionaries was the same Father Diego
Luis de San Vitores, and in seven days he gathered a very abundant
harvest; for in that short time twenty-four thousand heathens, Aetas
or Cimarrons, were baptized, and many others were prepared for the
rite, who received baptism afterward. [The author describes several
of these conversions; he also cites various entries of especial
interest from "the books of the old mission of Santa Ines, which I
have before me;" many of these are of baptisms made by Father San
Vitores. "This mission was cared for by a devout Indian named Don
Juan Estevan, who afterward was a donado, and in the absence of the
minister instructed and baptized them--as did the Canacopoles, whom
St. Xavier chose in India."]
In the year 1669 there was a church and visita in Bosoboso; in
1672 there was a church in Paynaan; and in 1678 was established
the church of San Isidro. These two [latter] villages lasted until
recent years, when they were included in Bosoboso. Excursions were
made into the mountains, and many Aetas, Christian and heathen, were
brought out from their hamlets; and with charity and kindness efforts
were made to settle them in the said visitas, wherein, in due time,
a permanent minister was stationed. It appears from the books of the
said visitas and villages that many adults were baptized--of twenty,
thirty, forty, and fifty years, and even more; this was a task of
the utmost difficulty for the ministers, in drawing those people
out of their lairs, and even more in maintaining them in a social
and Christian mode of life, on account of their natural inclination
to go wandering through the woods and mountains. In the year 1699
the zealous archbishop Don Diego Camacho came to this mission,
and baptized several of them--among others, four heathen adults--as
appears from the books of Paynaan.
In the year 1665, on the nineteenth of July, there was a violent
earthquake in Manila, in which nine persons died; and it inflicted
considerable damage in the wing of our college. At this the zealous
archbishop arranged that a mission should be held in Manila and Cavite;
and through the preaching and example of those engaged therein great
results were obtained. In October of the same year, Father Diego Luis
de San Vitores and some companions went to the island of Mindoro,
then in charge of secular priests. On sea and on land they suffered
great fatigues and hunger, heat and storms, toils and dangers;
but all this they regarded as [time and strength] well spent,
when they saw how the liberal hand of God was rewarding them with
the consolation of beholding with their own eyes the fruit of their
labors--not only in the old Christians, who had reformed their morals;
but in the infidel Manguianes, many of whom were converted to [our]
religion. They experienced a thousand tokens of the providence and
kindness of God. Although there were several languages in the island,
they easily gained a knowledge of what was necessary for instructing
the natives, preaching to them, hearing their confessions, and settling
their affairs. Sometimes a contrary wind obliged them to put back,
directed by the hand of God, in order to relieve the necessity which
demanded their coöperation in those hamlets. Sometimes the rivers
overflowed their banks, and they found it necessary to travel to
places in which they found sufficient occasion for the exercise of
their charity. Many conversions of special interest were obtained,
of both Christians and heathens; and remarkable among all of them was
that of a Manguian woman, a heathen, married to a Christian man. She
was baptized, and named Maria; and afterward they called her "the
Samaritan," on account of the many persons whom she brought to the
knowledge of Christ, the ministers availing themselves of her aid for
the conversion of many persons, not only heathens but Christians,
with most happy results. Her husband was a Christian by baptism,
but worse than a heathen in his life; he would not even accept the
rosary of the blessed Virgin, and it was necessary for his wife to
put it about his neck by force; and it had so much efficacy that from
that time he undertook to be a Christian in his acts, as he was one by
name. The fathers erected three churches for the converted Manguianes:
the church of our Lady, near Bongabon; that of San Ignacio, near Pola;
and that of San Xavier, on the coast of Naojan. Another was built,
named for the holy Christ of Burgos, for the old Christians who were
roaming about through the mountains.
[The rest of Murillo Velarde's Historia is mainly occupied with the
history of the Spanish conquest of the Marianas Islands, and the
missions of the Jesuit order therein; also with the Pardo controversy
and various other matters which have been already treated in this
series, besides the lives of Jesuits in the Philippines--which here,
as throughout our series, we have presented only in very brief and
condensed form; but which in these religious histories are often
exceedingly detailed and prolix. We present a few more extracts
from our writer, showing the distinctive occupations, methods, and
achievements of the Jesuit missionaries there, and events affecting
those missions.]
[Fol. 346 b:] These and other acts of violence [i.e., connected
with the Pardo controversy] which in that time were suffered by this
province of Philipinas are evident from the printed memorial which
was presented to the king by Father Antonio Xaramillo, procurator of
this province in Madrid, and a witness of most of the things which are
contained in the said memorial. He concludes this document by offering,
at the order of our general, the reverend Father Tyrso Gonzalez,
our resignation of all the ministries which the Society possesses
in these islands, in order thus to remove the cause of disturbances,
jealousies, and controversies. But so far was the king from accepting
this resignation that instead he issued his royal decrees that the
doctrinas of Cainta and Jesus de la Peña (or Mariquina), of which the
Society had been despoiled, should be restored to it. In the year
1696, not only did the very reverend Augustinian fathers surrender
these posts, with politeness and courtesy, but in token of mutual
affection and friendly relations an exchange was made of the ministry
of San Matheo (which is near Mariquina), the fathers of St. Augustine
ceding it to us for that of Binangonan (which is called "de los
Perros" [i.e., "of the dogs"]), on the lake of Bay, which belonged
to the Society; [this was done] by another exchange, made with the
religious of St. Francis, to whom we gave the ministry of Baras on
the same lake. The sentences of examination and review given by the
royal and supreme Council of the Indias; the royal executory decree,
which in consequence of these was issued in regard to Jesus de la
Peña, on March 31, 1694; and the decrees which on the same day were
despatched, as regards Cainta, to the governor and the archbishop
of these islands: all these are in the archives of our college at
Manila.... I have seen the original of a report made to the king about
that time, by a person of great ability, in which he endeavored,
with acrimonious expressions, to influence the royal mind against
the Society; but the exaggerative and fierce asperity of the report
was itself the most efficacious argument in favor of this province,
and was entirely rejected by the king and his Council, as prejudiced
(a just and deserved punishment). The king not only insisted that this
province should continue in its ministries without any change, but
restored to it the two of which it had been despoiled by animosity
allied with violence. Thus this apostolic province went its way,
following the apostle among thorns and roses, among persecutions and
favors, per infamiam, & bonam famam. [24]
In order to justify the manner in which the Society administers
its functions in these islands, I will give a brief account of
the allotment [distribuçión; i.e., of the minister's duties] which
is followed in the villages, in order that the impartial reader,
reflecting thereon prudently and carefully, may recognize the incessant
and laborious toil with which this field, entrusted to the Society by
the confidence of that prince, is cultivated. Every day the boys and
girls (with little difference [in number]) up to the age of fourteen
years hear mass; these call themselves "schools" and "companies of
the rosary." Then they sing all the prayers that belong to the mass,
and go to their school. At ten o'clock the signal is given by the
bell, and they go to the church to pray before the blessed sacrament,
and to the Virgin they recite the Salve and the Alabado hymn; and
they go out in procession, singing the prayers, as far as some cross
in the village. At two o'clock in the afternoon they return to the
school; and at four or five o'clock they go again to the church,
where they recite the rosary, and go out in procession singing the
prayers. On Saturdays, not only the children recite the prayers, but
the baguntaos and dalagas [25]--who are the older youths and girls,
who do not yet pay tribute--and also the acolytes, the treble singers,
and the barbatecas. In the afternoon the people recite the rosary,
and the singers and musicians sing the mysteries and the litany. On
Sundays, the boys go out with a banner around the village, singing the
prayers, to call together the people. The minister says mass, which the
musicians accompany with voices and instruments; and afterward all the
people together recite the prayers, and [answer] a brief questioning
on the principal mysteries of the Christian doctrine, and [listen to]
an instruction on the mode of baptism, which is called tocsohan. With
this there are many of them who are well instructed, so that they
can aid one to die well, and in case of necessity confer baptism,
like the Canacapoles of St. Xavier. The minister preaches a moral
sermon, and usually calls the roll [suele leer el padron], in order
to see whether the Indians fail to attend mass. In the afternoon all
come together--schools, companies of the rosary, acolytes, singing
children, barbatecas, and dalagas and baguntaos--and they offer
prayers. Afterward the father goes down to the church, and catechises,
explains the Christian doctrine, and confers baptism. On Thursdays
there is no school, that being a vacation day. Every Saturday there is
a mass sung in honor of the Virgin; and in the afternoon the minister
chants the Salve for the occasion, with the image uncovered, which
is then locked up. During the nine days preceding Christmas, mass is
sung very early in the morning, with great solemnity, before a large
assembly of people, and accompanied by an indulgence [granted] for
the preservation of the Christian religion in these islands; and these
are called "masses for Christmas" [misas de Aguinaldo]. [26] Always,
when the host is elevated at mass the signal is given with a bell,
so that all the people may adore it; and the Indiana, even the little
children who cannot speak, clasp their hands and raise them toward
heaven as a token of adoration, while in the church a motet is sung
for the same purpose, after the custom of the primitive Church--which
this body of Christians resembles in many ways; and St. John in his
Apocalypse even represents it to us in those mysterious creatures who
day and night were praising God, dicentia: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Dominus Deus Omnipotens, qui erat, qui est, & qui venturus est. [27]
The Indians in general have the highest respect and esteem for the
priests. As soon as they see the fathers, they rise to their feet,
take off their hats, [28] kiss the father's hand, and often fall
on their knees to speak to him, especially if they are going to ask
forgiveness for some offense that they have committed; they patiently
endure the penances that the ministers appoint for them, and promptly
obey whatever the fathers command them. Even the little children
who cannot speak run when they see the father in the street, fall on
their knees, and kiss his hand; and then go back greatly pleased at
this. At every function which pertains to the church, all the people,
from the greatest to the least, work with gladness in building altars
and adorning the temples. The house-servants offer their prayers in the
morning; and they write, read, and perform their duties after they have
heard mass. At night they read a spiritual lesson, recite the rosary,
and before retiring pray before the blessed sacrament and sing the
Salve to the Virgin; and during the year they frequent the sacraments.
In each of our villages there is a "Congregation of the Blessed
Virgin," which enjoys many indulgences and favors; its members display
great fervor, attend regularly, and perform many exercises of devotion
and charity, especially on Saturdays. The women of the congregation
sweep the church very early, adorn the images, place roses and other
flowers on the altars, and carry about pans of coals with perfumes. The
minister recites the litany before the image, and the members of the
congregation say the responses; and afterwards he makes an address
to them; or a book of devotion, or the rules, or the indulgences,
are read aloud; or the list of saints for the month is announced,
according to their proper place on the calendar. There are some
persons who frequent the sacraments during the year, confessing and
receiving communion on the most solemn days of the year, especially
on the feast-days of the Virgin, and before a marriage is solemnized;
and it is a custom often practiced among the Indians to confess and
receive communion on one's saint's day. In the afternoon those who have
received communion go to the church for a short season of prayer. When
the women approach the time of childbirth, they confess and receive
communion, and remain in the village. Thus an Indian hardly ever
dies without the sacraments, except by some sudden fatal accident;
for at the instance of the ministers the people are instructed to
summon the father as soon as any one becomes dangerously ill. Many
Indians hear mass every day; recite the rosary in concert in their
houses, on the streets, and while they are sailing; say the litanies,
and sing with most delightful harmony the Salve, the praises of God
and of His mother resounding in every direction. They offer to the
Church the first-fruits of their products; and carry the images,
the shrouds, and other things to bless the seed-sowing. After
childbirth, they offer the infants to the Virgin on Saturday, and
receive the benediction. They order masses to be said for the souls
in purgatory, and present candles and other offerings to the Virgin
and the saints. They furnish light at mass with lighted tapers,
give food to the poor on Holy Thursday, and make other contributions
according to their means. They make pilgrimages to the most notable
sanctuaries, and offer their vows there; they read spiritual books,
and practice other devotions. When they bring the little angels [i.e.,
their infants] for burial, they dress and adorn the bodies neatly
with birds' wings, palm-leaves, wreaths, flowers, and lights, even
when the parents are very poor; for the rest of the people aid them,
so that they may bring the dead with the decency and solemnity which
the ritual requires. The burials of adults are attended by all the
people, all clothed in mourning from the headman to the constable;
and even though the dead person be from some other village, or some
wretched unknown creature who died there, the body is escorted by
the people of the village and the singers, in very charitable and
edifying fashion. Those who are most eminent in all this are the
members of the congregation, by whose zeal and pious customs the
Christian religion is preserved and promoted in these islands. They
are the select of the select, like the soldiers of Gideon; and may be
called the religious among the Indians. The functions of Holy Week,
the principal feast-days, and the processions are carried out with
great solemnity and pomp. In their houses the people erect little
altars, which they adorn with various prints and images; on their arms
they depict crosses, and almost all wear rosaries about their necks;
when the blessed sacrament is exposed, they escort it, and take their
turn in assisting in the church with many lights. In the processions of
Holy Week there are many bloody flagellations [disciplinas de sangre],
and other most severe penances. In Lent there are, on three days,
the Miserere and scourging; but this has fallen into disuse, and
in various places is little more than a ceremony. In every village
there is a musical choir, of both instruments and voices, by means
of which the festival and solemn days, and divine worship, are at
least decently celebrated; and in some places there are excellent
instruments and voices. Moreover, all these singers understand harmony
[solfa], a thing which has not its like in all Christendom. Every
Saturday and Sunday, prime is sung in the choir. The Lenten stations
and services, those for the dead, and others during the year, cause
devotion and tender feelings through the skill and good order with
which they are conducted. The Indians use holy water in their houses,
and show great devotion to the holy cross, which they set up in their
houses, on the roads, and in their grain-fields. The adornment of the
churches--reredos, images, furnishings of silver, lamps, ornaments--the
multitude of lights, and the magnificence of the edifices, are so
extraordinary that no one would believe that in this remote corner of
the world religion could exist with such splendor, or Christianity
be so well established, [29] or divine worship conducted with such
magnificence. The zeal of the ministers has secured these results,
by their activity, piety, and kind treatment of the natives; but no
little is accomplished by the sharp spur, [30] managed with discretion,
qui parcit virgæ, odit filium. The harvest in this field is like that
which the parable represents; there is the greatest and the least,
just as it is throughout the universe. There is fertile ground and
sterile; there are untilled and stony tracts; some land is productive,
and some is full of bramble-patches. But what soil is free from darnel
and tares? [31] Where are lilies found without having nettles near
them? In what garden do the roses, magnificent and fragrant, surpass
[the other flowers], without the thorns that surround them? He who is
always declaiming, in either a gloomy or a careless spirit, against the
faith and Christian spirit of the Indians, shows great ignorance of
the world, if not levity or malice. If he would but reflect that not
many years ago this was a land overgrown with the thorns and brambles
of ignorance, unbelief, and barbarism, he would give a thousand thanks
to the Lord at the sight of so much fruit obtained for heaven; and
still more [thankful would he be] if he cast his glance on Japon,
India, and Africa, and on Grecia, Inglaterra, Dinamarca, and other
kingdoms where the Christian religion was [once] so flourishing, but
which today are an abyss of follies and errors--the cause, alas! being
their ignorance or their perverseness.... Whoever will read the
Instructions of St. Francis Xavier for the missionaries of India
and also this account of their allotted tasks [esta distribución],
will plainly see that their labors are the punctual execution of
those instructions. What greater praise [than this] can be given
them? To this should be added the standing of the ministers. Those
who are ministering in the native villages are the men who have been
masters of theology, and famous preachers, and officials of the order,
and even provincials; and other members who, on account of their
abilities, have merited repeated applause. The same is true in the
other religious orders; as a result, there is not in all the Indias
a field of Christian labor that is better cultivated; and I may add
that there is no Christian church in the world that has ministers with
higher qualifications, or more who have received academic degrees. And
some of them there are who, rejecting the comforts of Europe, remain
contented in the poverty here.
[Fol. 350 b:] In the year 1696 the very religious province of
St. Augustine surrendered the village of San Matheo to the Society,
in virtue of a certain exchange; we gladly accepted it, in order to
bring in the Aetas who are in the mountains of that region, to live
as a Christian community in the village; for, Christians and heathens
being mingled in those woods and little hamlets, there was little
difference between them in their customs. Here I will bring together
the facts pertaining to this ministry, since it is matter belonging
to this history for the connection of events. In the year 1699,
the convent of San Agustin in Manila made claim to a ranch in this
district, on the ground that Governor Santiago de Vera had granted to
the said convent two limekilns for the erection of its building. The
Indians, on account of the crude notions which they form of things,
began to call the limekilns "the ranch;" and this blunder was so
prevalent that in some grants which the governors made afterward in
that territory they say that the lands "border upon the ranch of San
Agustin." In the said year an investigation was made, and all that
could be drawn from the declarations of the Indians was this confused
notion of a "ranch," which they had heard from their elders, without
being able to specify boundaries, or locations, or landmarks. And as
there was no other title or grant than this very uncertain information,
the judge of land [claims], Don Juan de Ozaeta, auditor of the royal
Audiencia, rejecting their claim for lack of authentic documents,
was unable to grant to that convent the ranch which it demanded.
In the year 1713 the minister of that village was Father Juan
Echazabal, whose scrupulous conscience, added to his natural
disposition, made him so inexorable a guardian of the injunction to
hear mass that in this point he very seldom excused [an offender]
from penance. So active was his zeal that he spared neither labor nor
diligence to secure the attendance of the Indians at the holy sacrifice
of the mass, at the sermons, and at the other church functions; and
he cheerfully endured the inconvenience of waiting for them a long
time, in order that their natural slothfulness might not have this
excuse. His persistence secured considerable results, notwithstanding
that wild grapevines were not lacking even in the midst of so much
cultivation. But what assiduity does not the obstinate perversity of
men frustrate? An insolent Indian, Captain Pambila, at various times
provoked the forbearance of the minister by his shameless conduct; for,
purposely staying away from mass, and glorying in this wrong-doing,
he boasted among his friends that the father would not dare to rebuke
him. The minister endeavored by various means to bring him to reason,
but all his efforts proved unsuccessful; and the audacity of this
Indian kept continually increasing, continually launching him into
new transgressions on top of the old ones--and scandal arising,
because some persons were following in his footsteps and others
were inclined to do so. In order to check the evil consequences
of this, Father Echazabal gave information of the whole matter
to the governor, Conde de Lizarraga, who sent thither Captain Don
Lorenzo de Yturriaga with twelve soldiers. But Pambila was by this
time so bold that when they went to arrest him he went out to meet
them with his cutlass, and dealt a blow at the captain; the latter
parried the blow, and firing a pistol, killed the bold man. At this
occurrence the malcontents were greatly disquieted, and had recourse
to the vice-patron, asking that he remove Father Echazabal from that
ministry; and they even made the further demand that it be restored
to the Augustinian fathers. In order to push their claim, they revived
the old [one of the] "ranch"--this time in clearer language, for they
indicated locations and boundaries. But, as all these were arbitrary,
the measures [of distance] did not correspond [to the facts]; for
while it was one site for a ranch that they claimed, there were
three or four such sites that were included in the places that they
had arbitrarily marked out. Nevertheless, this claim was promoted, so
that the convent of San Agustin obtained a favorable decision from the
royal Audiencia. But Father Echazabal opposed this, together with the
greater part of the people of the village, as did also Father Agustin
Soler, procurator of the college of San Ignacio at Manila, on account
of the damage that would ensue to them respectively. The Audiencia,
having examined their arguments, reversed its decision--although,
through shame at so speedy a reversal, the auditors set down in the
decree that possession should be given to the convent of San Pablo
[of that] in which there was no dispute. This sentence on review ended
the controversy, and matters remained as they were before. To pacify
the Indians, the superiors removed Father Echazabal from that place,
and everything was quiet for the time--although after many years
the old [question of the] "ranch" was revived, with greater energy,
as we shall see in due time. Let us proceed to more pleasing matters.
In the year 1705, Father Juan Echazabal began to promote, in
the village of San Matheo, the devotion to our Lady of Aranzazu;
and the devotion to and adoration of that Lady steadily increased,
with the encouragement of the Vizcayans, and especially of Don Juan
Antonio Cortes. This incited the minister to undertake the building
of a stone church, in order to provide a more suitable abode for
the blessed sacrament and for the sovereign Queen. Through the
persistence and energy of the father and the contributions of
the faithful, a beautiful, substantial, and spacious church was
completed, with its transept and handsome gilded reredos. The new
church was dedicated in the year 1716, the minister being Father
Juan Pedro Confalonier. There was a very large concourse of people,
and the devotees of the blessed Virgin of Aranzazu made extraordinary
demonstrations of joy and devotion in celebrating her feast; and great
was the satisfaction of those who with their contributions had aided
[to provide] the costly building and adorn it with ornaments and rich
furnishings of silver--especially the illustrious benefactor of that
church and village, General Don Juan Antonio Cortes. And the Society,
with the pleasure of dedicating to God and to His blessed mother this
new temple, forgot the great sorrows that they suffered at that time
from various defamatory libels, in which malignity repeated what had so
many times been condemned, and was anew condemned, as calumny--their
author being, most deservedly but impiously, his own executioner,
at seeing that the arrows discharged by audacity against the Society
were changed into crowns of triumph.
[Fol. 358 b:] [Our author relates the history of the beaterio connected
with the Jesuit college at Manila. It began in 1684, with the decision
of a mestiza woman of Binondoc to live the religious life; her name
was Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, and she began under the direction
of Father Paul Clain. Her fame for piety and devout penances grew
apace, and attracted to her many Indian girls and mestiza women,
until they numbered thirty-three. For some time they lived in the
utmost poverty, which, with their severe penances and lack of sleep,
"made almost all of the beatas fall ill." Soon, however, charitable
offerings were made to them, enough to support them when added to
what they earned with their needles. Their spiritual directors are
Jesuits, whose church they attend, and who form them into a religious
community ("commonly known as 'the beatas of the Society'"), with
rules and employment prescribed for their living. At the time of
Murillo Velarde's writing (1749), "there are, besides the beatas,
some Spanish girls who are being trained there as their wards, and
are learning sewing and other accomplishments, besides a Christian
manner of life and the habit of attending the sacraments. There are now
fifty regular beatas, thirteen novices, thirty women (who are Indians)
who are kept under restraint, twenty Spanish girls under training,
and four negro women. Every year some Spanish women, and many Indian
and mestiza women, go into retreat there, in order to perform the
'spiritual exercises' of St. Ignatius, from which result much profit
to themselves and much benefit to their respective villages. What
has always aroused my admiration is, that although these women are so
many in number, and all Indians or mestizas, and ruled by themselves,
yet in more than sixty years they have not given any occasion for
gossip in the city; rather, they have given it the utmost edification
by their devotion, humility, application to labor, and assiduity
in the spiritual exercises." Mother Ignacia dies on September 10,
1748; our author pays an admiring tribute to her ability, virtues,
and piety--among other things, praising her because "she conquered,
with most unusual perseverance, three kinds of sloth which are very
arduous and difficult [to overcome]: that natural to the country,
that inborn in her sex, and that which is congenital to this nation
in its inmost being."] [32]