Fathers Fray Pedro de Soto, Fray Juan de San Pedro Martyr, and Fray
Pedro de la Bastida who died at this time.
[Father Fray Pedro de Soto was a native of Burgos, and assumed the
habit in the convent of San Andres at Medina del Campo, where he
professed, and whence he went to study in the distinguished convent of
San Pablo at Valladolid. Here he showed signs of his great ability and
the subtlety of his mind, soaring above his fellow-students as does a
royal eagle above all other birds of less flight. In him the fathers
hoped that they were to have a third Soto, in addition to the other two
famous ones whom that province has had. He exhibited as much virtue as
learning. When the religious for this province began to be gathered,
his superiors were planning that he should become a professor. The
devotion and the severity of the discipline, and the opportunity to
save souls, attracted father Fray Pedro; he was also influenced by
the example of his two masters, Fray Miguel de Venavides and Fray
Antonio Arcediano, who had left their chairs of theology to enter
the new province, as had also two other fathers, lecturers in arts
at the same convent. The father master Fray Hernando del Castillo,
who was then prior, strove by all means to prevent him from going;
but the calling and inspiration of God prevailed in the heart of father
Fray Pedro. He arrived at Manila July 23, and on the day of our father
St. Dominic, less than a fortnight later, they asked him to hold some
public discussions of theology in the main church. Father Fray Pedro
avoided display of his knowledge and ability; but, on occasions when
necessity required him to speak, he made evident the great superiority
of his mind and his great learning. In the first distribution of the
religious, he was assigned to Pangasinan. The people of this region
still lived in their ancient villages and rancherias in the hills and
mountains, without civilization, order, or system, any more than if
they had never known Spaniards. Father Fray Pedro lived among these
tribes for three years, suffering the hardships and perils which
have been already described. He was constantly in danger of death,
being particularly hateful to the hostile natives because he was
the first one who learned the language of the Indians. When some of
them began to accept the faith, he offered money for information as
to those who continued to sacrifice to the devil. Keeping secret the
source of his information, he immediately went] in haste to the place,
sometimes alone, and caught the sacrificers in the very act. Without
waiting an instant, he upset everything, and broke the dishes and
bowls and other vessels which they used in their rites; poured out
their wine; burned the robes in which the aniteras or priestesses
dress themselves on such occasions, and the curtains with which
they covered up everything else; threw down the hut, and completely
destroyed it. In this way he made them understand how little all those
things availed, and how vain were the threats which the devil uttered
against those who would not venerate him; and, in brief, that this
was all falsehood and deceit. Many were thus aroused and undeceived;
while others, and not a few, were angry, so that it was a wonder
that he was not slain. [The rest of the fathers followed his plan;
but father Fray Pedro led them all, following the track of this chase,
in which his scent was so keen that nothing could escape him. At his
death, father Fray Pedro was able to say that he was sure of the two
aureoles of virgin and of doctor, and that he had almost succeeded
in gaining that of martyr. The village of Magaldan was the most
obstinate of all these villages in their errors. They had striven to
kill a father of the Order of St. Francis, insomuch that the dagger
was already lifted above him for that purpose, and he had fled. They
had refused to admit the fathers of the Order of St. Augustine, and
they would not listen to a secular priest who was assigned to them,
although the alcalde-mayor fined and punished them. It was these
Indians whom father Fray Pedro de Soto came to conquer with patience
and Christian charity. The Indians said that he never employed a
word of their language wrong. He was engaged for a whole year in
translating the gospel into this language, and translated some lives
of saints and instances of virtue--which though they were composed in
the very beginning, are still esteemed and are greatly prized, because
of the propriety of the words and the elevated style with which he
treated these matters. He was devoted to the study of theology and
sacred letters, and was continual in both mental and vocal prayer,
to which he added fasting. Being taken to Manila to be treated for
the fever from which he suffered, he died there.
In spite of the failure of the two previous expeditions to Camboja,
the governor, Don Francisco Tello, judged it desirable to send another
ship with troops, and asked the order to send some of their friars with
it. The father provincial directed that father Fray Juan de S. Pedro
Martyr (or Maldonado) and father Fray Pedro Jesus (or de la Bastida)
should go. Father Fray Juan was then commissary of the Holy Office. He
was a native of Alcala de Guadiana, [25] and belonged to a rich and
honorable family. He studied canon law at Salamanca, and assumed
the habit in the illustrious convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. The
influence of Father Juan Chrisostomo attracted him to the new province
to be established in the Philippinas Islands. When he was about to set
forth, a certain Doctor Bobadilla, a canon in the church in Valladolid,
took him to one side and assured him that he was to die a martyr;
and this prophecy was corroborated by another devoted monk. It was
on this account that he changed his name of Maldonado to that of
S. Pedro Martyr. He spent his first year in the Philipinas in Manila;
and in his second year was sent as vicar to a village in Pangasinan,
which was at that time the most difficult in the province. From that
place he was transferred to the vicariate of Bataan, the language of
which he learned very well. When Father Juan Cobo went as ambassador
to Japon, father Fray Juan was assigned to the mission to the Chinese,
being thus required to learn a third language in addition to the two
which he already knew. He learned more words of the Chinese language
than any other member of the order, though he was not successful
with the pronunciation. He assisted the Chinese so much that they
named him as their protector; and he was, as it were, the advocate
of their causes, so that they became very much attached to him, and
listened with good-will to his preaching and his corrections. During
the absence of the father provincial in Camboja, the province could
find no one more suitable to govern it in his place, and accordingly
father Fray Juan was nominated as vicar-general. In the following
provincial chapter he was appointed lecturer in theology, for there
was nothing which the province did not find him competent to do. He
made no objection to carrying out any orders that were given him,
although they dragged him about hither and thither, causing him to
learn so many languages and immediately to drop them again. This is a
great evidence of his obedience and subjection to his superior. His
reputation outside of the order was very great.] The tribunal of
the Holy Office of Mexico appointed him commissary-general of the
Philippinas, which office he filled with the prudence and strength
of mind which the Lord has given in these regions to the sons of the
first inquisitor-general, our father St. Dominic. Don Luis Perez das
Mariñas, a wise and holy knight, refused to accept the governorship of
these islands until Fray Juan persuaded him to do so, stood security
for him, and undertook the duty of confessing him and of aiding him
with his good advice, that he might the better fulfil the office. This
he did in spite of the fact that this was certain to be, as it was,
to his own damage; for suitors who did not receive what they desired
immediately threw the blame on Father Juan, whom they well knew that
the governor consulted as to the appointments which he made. Father
Fray Juan knew all this well, but accepted it very readily, in order
that he might undertake the direction of so upright a man as Don
Luis. In spite of the fact that the esteem which was felt for Father
Juan within and without the order was very great, the counterweight
of humility and the consciousness of his own inferiority which he had
was much greater. He regarded himself as the most useless in all the
province, and treated himself as such. Hence, when he was named for
vicar-general of the province, he managed that this title and office
should be given to father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas. [In the same way,
when he was nominated prior of the convent of Manila at the time when
father Fray Diego de Soria went as procurator to España, he succeeded
in bringing about the election of another religious. He likewise strove
to resign the office of commissary in favor of father Fray Bernardo de
Sancta Cathalina, or Navarro. Such was the character of father Fray
Juan de San Pedro Martyr, whom the province was willing to spare for
the mission to Camboja. They would have spared an even more perfect
religious if they could, well knowing that he who had to preach the
gospel in a heathen kingdom like this should be such as father Fray
Juan was, or even greater in all things. The companion of father
Fray Juan, father Fray Pedro de Jesus or de la Bastida, a religious
of great virtue, had come to the islands in the previous year, 1591,
with the rest who were brought from España by father Fray Francisco de
Morales. He had displayed high qualities in the mission to Bataan, to
which he had been assigned. He had come from the very devout province
of Aragon, of which he was a son. When they reached the great river
of Camboja, father Fray Juan endeavored to carry out his mission,
both for the conversion of those tribes and as an ambassador of
the king our lord. He was contemptuously treated by the king, [26]
the son of that king who had sent to ask for religious. The present
king was wholly in the hands of Mahometan Malays, who persuaded him
that the embassy involved some evil to him. When father Fray Juan
asked his permission to return to the ship which they had left in
the port, the king refused to grant it, and thus showed that he
was plotting treachery. Father Fray Juan saw no opportunity for
preaching the gospel, as the country was disturbed and in arms; and
as the two captains, Diego Velloso and Blas Ruiz de Fernan Goncalez,
were in a difficult situation because their comrades were so few,
and the Malays, their enemies, were in such favor. The captain of
the ship [i.e., Mendoza] attempted to secure peace between these
factions, but did not disembark from his vessel. The same thing was
done by the captain of a fragata that had come from Sian. The Malays,
seeing that they had the advantage because their vessel was larger and
stronger than ours, made an attack and shot contrivances of fire and
powder to burn the Spaniards and the Japanese. The ship caught fire,
and those on board had to leap into the water to escape. Father Fray
Pedro de Jesus was unable to swim, and took refuge from the fire on
the poop. Here the Moros came out in small boats and thrust lances
at him. He fell into the water and died of his wounds, or was drowned
by the hands of the Moros. This vessel had done no harm to the Moros,
and had not even tried to aid the Spanish captains in the kingdom. The
only reason for attacking it was the desire of the Moros to prevent the
preaching of the gospel; and hence father Fray Pedro died a glorious
martyr. Father Fray Juan succeeded in reaching the fragata commanded
by Juan de Mendoça. In it father Fray Juan made his escape to Sian,
being wounded in the throat by a shot which had passed obliquely
through it; and thus half of the prophecy had been fulfilled that he
and his comrade were to die the death of martyrs. Father Fray Juan
went to Sian that he might be near to the kingdom of Camboja. The king
of that country was a cruel and barbarous tyrant; he took delight in
causing men to be thrown to wild elephants, who tore them to pieces
with their trunks. He caused others to be fried with a very small
quantity of oil, and their flesh to be torn off from them with pincers
while they were thus tortured, and to be thrust into their mouths,
that by force of the pain which they suffered they might bite and eat
their own flesh. When there were no criminals, he used to perpetrate
these cruelties solely for his own recreation; and that not to one,
or a few, but to a thousand at a time. Only a few days before, he had
had four or five Portuguese fried alive for some trifling offense,
for which they had already paid a fine to him. There were here at this
time a Portuguese religious, Fray Jorje de la Mota, [27] and several
other Portuguese who were now trying to escape from the country. The
force of the tides is so great that, when the tide is coming in, it
is impossible to make head against it; and as they were fifty leguas
from the sea, it was easy to follow and catch them. Overjoyed with
the possibility of escape offered by the coming of Father Juan, they
prayed him for the love of God to rescue them in his boat without the
knowledge of the king. The Spaniards planned to do so; but, because
of the too great haste and anxiety of the Portuguese, the vessel was
followed and found before it had made its escape into the sea. The
king was mad with rage, and sent three separate expeditions after
it. They surrounded the boat and fired at it with small cannon,
arquebuses, arrows, and lances. There were about twenty persons,
Castilians and Portuguese, on the ship, and they had about a dozen
muskets and a few arquebuses to protect themselves with. So long as
the tide was going out, they managed to defend themselves fairly well,
because they could manage to engage a part of the enemy only at one
time. When the tide came in they were obliged to anchor, and they
were like a target for the Sianese. After three days of this torture,
they managed to get to sea. The pilot had been slain by a shot; and
the captain, Juan de Mendoca, and father Fray Jorje de la Mota were so
badly wounded that they afterward died. The arm of father Fray Juan
de San Pedro Martir was broken by a shot from a small culverin. As
they had lost all their drinking-water in the combat, the sufferings
of father Fray Juan were very great. He saw that his hour was come,
and confessed to father Fray Jorje. He wrote to the fathers in this
province an account of the fortunes of this voyage; and expressed
his joy in dying on an expedition carried out by the command of his
superior for the purpose of preaching the gospel, in which he had saved
those poor Portuguese from dreadful danger to both their lives and
their souls.] Almost at the end of the letter which he sent he wrote:
"What we have in this province is good, and God is greatly served in
the province. Let us strive to keep what we have, by observing those
things which we have established; for I am sure that God will show us a
thousand favors. The arms of Saul do not fit all men; nor is preaching
in these regions suitable to any but a very holy man." [They buried him
on land near the port of Cochinchina, on an island called Pulocatovan,
at the root of a tree--not daring to set up a cross, for fear of the
derision of those heathen. He had set out upon this voyage certain
to meet his death in it; and at the beginning of the expedition he
had shown the perfection of his obedience in several ways.]