The foundation of a church in the island of Hermosa and the holy
deaths of some religious
[The Order of St. Dominic has always had its eyes fixed upon Great
China; and father Fray Bartholome Martinez was especially anxious
for the conversion of that great realm. In this conversion he was
like Moses, who came in sight of the promised land; for he carried
religious and planted the faith in the island of Hermosa, from
which that most populous realm is almost in sight. This island had
been greatly coveted by Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Dutch. The
king of España was the first to undertake to conquer it; and by his
order there were prepared two ships of moderate size with a force of
two hundred soldiers and sailors. The leader was Don Juan Zamudio,
who came to the Philippinas in 1593. He chose the time of his voyage
unfortunately, and was driven back to the coast of Batan; but he was
rescued by the intervention of our Lady of the Rosary. The emperor of
Japon in 1615, after his victory over Fideyori, sent an expedition
against the island. It left Nangasaque in 1616 and wintered in the
Lequios Islands. Setting sail again in the following November [sic],
it was scattered by storms upon the coast of China. The Dutch,
desirous of weakening the power of España and of interfering with
the work of the preachers of the holy gospel, had taken possession
of an uninhabited island called Island de Pescadores, [36] which lay
off the coast of China. This was in 1624. By the Chinese the Dutch
were persuaded to go thence to another island (Formosa) running from
northeast to southwest, sixty-four leguas in length, and extending
from latitude twenty-one to latitude twenty-five, and being thus twenty
leguas in breadth. They established themselves at the southern point,
in latitude twenty-three, in a port called Taiban, opposite Hayteng
in Chincheo. From this post they could scour the seas and capture
the vessels sailing from China. Here they built a small fort from
which they could do much damage to the inhabitants of Manila and
might close very important gateways to the holy gospel. [37]
In the year 1625 Don Fernando de Silva was governor of the
Philippinas. He determined to send a fleet to take possession of a
port in the island of Hermosa, in the name of the king of España, that
the designs of the Dutch might be frustrated. He counseled with the
provincial of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Bartholome Martinez, who
promised to go to the island of Hermosa and to take religious there,
hoping in this way to gain an entry into China. In order to keep
the design secret it was said that the troops were going to pacify
the rebellious Indians of Yrraya, who had fled to the mountains. On
February 8, 1626, the fleet sailed from the port of Cavite; it was
composed of twelve champans and two galleys. There were three captains
of infantry and their companies, and the force was under the command
of the sargento-mayor, Antonio Carreño de Valdes. The ecclesiastical
authority was in the hands of the provincial, Fray Bartholome Martinez,
who took with him five religious, including those whom he later brought
from Nueva Segovia. They anchored in the port of Nueva Segovia on
the fifteenth of March, and remained there for some time. During the
interval troops were sent to the river of the Mandayas, the Indians of
which had rebelled in the previous June, as was said in the foregoing
chapter. In order to reduce them, a great number of palms were cut
down, that they might more easily be brought to subjection for lack
of food. Since the reduction of the Mandayas took more time than was
expected, and the voyage to the island of Hermosa was urgent, this
matter was left without being brought to a conclusion. To carry out
their principal purpose they sailed on the fourth of May, coming in
sight of the island on the seventh of the same month. They coasted
the island for three days, and on the tenth of May anchored on an
estuary which they named Sanctiago. The provincial and Pedro Martin
Garay, the chief pilot, went in two small vessels to the northern
headland, exploring the coast. Within five hours they discovered
a port which they called La Sanctissima Trinidad. They took back
the news to the fleet, which came on to the port and in the divine
name of the most Holy Trinity took the port under the protection
of España. They built a fort upon an islet [38] a little more than
a legua in circumference. This they called San Salvador. They also
constructed a rampart on the top of a hill three hundred feet or more
in height, which made the place impregnable. The Dominicans erected
a humble church, dedicating it to St. Catharine of Siena. Here they
heard the confessions of the Spaniards, preached, taught, and filled
the office of parish priests, up to the year 1635. The inhabitants of
this region had fled from fear of the arquebuses of the Spaniards,
and desired to avenge themselves for the wrong which they felt
that they had suffered because the soldiers made use of the rice
which the natives had left behind them. To quiet and satisfy them,
the religious set about learning their language; and, although they
knew very little of it, they began to communicate with the natives,
caressing them and giving them presents. The Lord prospered their work,
and the barbarians, who had lived the lives of savages, drinking the
blood of their neighbors, and eating the flesh of their enemies, were
tamed by the treatment of the religious. They brought their wives and
children to be baptized. The first fruits were delicate and tender
children, many of whom, after being laved in the baptismal font, went
to enjoy the possession to which they had acquired a right from the
waters of the holy Jordan. The convent of All Saints of the island of
Hermosa was accepted in the intermediate chapter of the year of our
Lord 1627, and was erected into a vicariate, father Fray Francisco Mola
[39] being appointed as its vicar and superior.
On the fourth of February of this year father Fray Alonso del Castillo,
a native of Andalucia and a son of Sancto Domingo de Sant Lucar,
set sail from his convent in the islands of the Babuyanes to go to
Nueva Segovia. The distance is a little more than six leguas, but
the crossing is dangerous at some times. His vessel was swamped,
and the father and those who were with him were all drowned. He
was an abstemious and devoted religious. Father Fray Alonso lived
in the islands of the Babuyanes. He was at one time tempted by a
thought which was unworthy of his state as a religious, and the
purity which he maintained--the devil urging him to it, and putting
before him the means of carrying out the design, and the method of
keeping it in secrecy during the absence of the superior. Father
Fray Alonso, recognizing from whose bow this arrow had been shot,
went to his superior and told him the temptation of the devil with
all the details. He and the superior laid the matter before God
with prayers and scourgings. The devil was unable to oppose such
humility, and in a few days father Fray Alonso was able to assure the
vicar that there was nothing to fear. In the following April died
father Fray Ambrosio de la Madre de Dios, a native of Guatimala,
a son of the convent of Sancto Domingo at Mexico. He came to the
Philippinas in the year 1595, and was assigned to the province of
Nueva Segovia. Without any controversy, it is he who up to the present
day has most accurately learned the language there, and who was the
teacher of those who understood it best. No one surpassed him in his
pronunciation and his choice of words. He wrote a methodical grammar,
arranged a vocabulary, translated the gospels, various examples of
holy life, an explanation of the articles, the passion of our Lord,
and other works highly esteemed for the elegance of the writing and the
propriety of the words. He was a religious of great virtue, and our
Lord wrought many miracles by his prayers. It was in response to his
prayers that when the lime-kiln in Abulug fell, those upon whom it fell
did not lose their lives. In Pata occurred two cases, as it seemed,
of resurrection; and in Tocolana he saved the church from burning.
At the last of May, father Fray Diego Carlos, a native of Guatimala
and a son of the convent at Puebla de Los Angeles, died in the
same province. He suffered much at the time of the insurrection of
the Mandayas Indians, whose minister he had been, and whom he had
brought down from their mountains. In the provincial chapter of 1621
he twice received half the votes in the election for provincial. In
the month of June, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho, a native of Los
Guertos in Segovia, and a son of San Estevan at Salamanca, fell ill
in the province of Ytuy. He lived a devout and a devoted life in the
province of Pangasinan. He was greatly beloved by all. Some Indians of
the province of Ytuy having asked for baptism, he went thither twice,
suffering greatly from the hardships of the journey. The second time,
he fell ill; and it was rumored that the Indians had given him poison,
as they often do. He died at Manila. In the year of our Lord 1627,
toward the end of March, died in the province of Nueva Segovia brother
Fray Juan Garcia, [40] a lay religious, a native of Yebenes in La
Mancha, and a son of the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila.]
To aid in supplying the want of these noble ministers, and to fill up
the gap caused by the death of many more, our Lord gave us in July,
1626, a reënforcement of religious, who had been assembled in España
by father Fray Jacintho Calvo, and whom he had entrusted in Mexico
to father Fray Alonso Sanchez de la Visitacion--a son of the convent
at Ocaña, who had come to the Philippinas in the year 1613. [41]
He was at the time vicar of San Jacintho, where he had been sent
by the chapter of the year 1623; and he now undertook the charge of
conducting the religious, returning to the ministry of Nueva Segovia,
where he had previously been. He had been appointed by the Inquisition
of Mexico as its commissary for the cases which might arise in the
said province pertaining to that holy tribunal.