The virtues which God granted him, and particularly some in which he
excelled; his labors and death.
[Father Fray Bartholome was notable for humility, patience, penances,
and zeal. When he was elected provincial in 1625, he prostrated
himself on the ground, and begged them to put him in jail rather
than make him provincial. His habit was poor and mean, his tunics
full of sweat and blood and all tattered. He would never permit the
Indians to carry him across streams or to wash his feet. He subjected
his body to the severest mortifications, beating himself cruelly and
wearing chains of various kinds, some with sharpened links. He went
always on foot, even crossing swollen streams in this way. He had so
accustomed himself to abstinence that when he felt obliged to set the
other religious the example of eating a little more than was habitual
to him, that they might not injure their health, he suffered greatly
as a result. He slept as little as he ate. He suffered greatly from
asthma, but was most patient. Although he was often insulted on the
expedition to Hermosa for interfering with the soldiers, he overcame
all this by his great patience. The Chinese or Sangleys were devoted
to the father, because of his affection for them. He gave them alms
of his poverty, and was once almost drowned in the effort to rescue
some heathen Chinese. In spite of the failure of his two efforts to
enter China, he was not discouraged, but hoped that the way might be
opened through Hermosa. In the effort to carry out the plan of sending
an expedition to Hermosa, he exposed himself to dangerous storms,
but was rescued by the Lord. To bring the expedition to success,
he labored with his own hands like a slave. On the way he brought
from Bigan, on the coast of Ylocos, to Nueva Segovia the remains of
Bishop Don Fray Diego de Soria. The efforts of this father on this
journey seemed superhuman. The soldiers when told of the real object
of the expedition believed that they were deceived, and were on the
point of mutiny. When a storm broke out soon after they had landed
on the island of Hermosa, and the soldiers were exposed to hardship,
and when the Indians made some resistance, the soldiers cursed and
swore at the father again; but afterward they came to love him. It
was with the idea of getting nearer to the coast of China that the
father suggested that possession be taken of the port in Tanchuy. It
was fortunate that this suggestion was made and carried out by the
commander, Don Juan de Alcarazo; for if they had waited a week they
would have found the port in possession of the Dutch, who came there
with three vessels of war, but were forced to retire. Happy in the
good results of the expedition, the father set sail to cross an arm
of the sea, in a small boat in which there were eight persons, the
father and the commander among them. The boat was caught by a wave
and capsized; five, including the general, were saved, and three,
among them father Fray Bartholome, were drowned. The death of the
father caused great grief among the soldiers, the Chinese--both
Christian and heathen--the religious, and all who knew him.]