A second expedition made by two fathers to the province of Sinay,
otherwise known as Ytui, and the result of it.
Eighty years had passed since Christianity was first planted
in this country in the island of Luçon, the chief island of the
Philippinas. From here it had spread to other islands; and in Luçon it
had spread from one province to the next, for in this one island there
are many nations and languages. Yet the province of Ytui [49]--as we
shall call it in future, since it is better known by that name--had
not had the good fortune to receive regular preaching before this late
date, namely, the beginning of the year thirty-three. This delay was
not due to the fault of the natives, for they have often manifested a
desire to receive the gospel, and have asked several religious orders
for ministers to teach them; but to the fact that all the orders
were so poor in ministers, on account of the great number of people
whom they must aid. That country also is so rough and so difficult
of access for the visitations of the superiors, that all the orders
have avoided assuming the charge of it. For some years the order of
the glorious father St. Francis sent religious there to cultivate it,
but without any good result. They made a beginning, but could not
carry it on--some of the fathers being taken away by death, and others
leaving the region because of sickness. The natives have constantly
persisted in their request for ministers of the gospel to teach them,
and have been particularly urgent with our sacred order--because they
have some commerce with the province of Pangasinan, which is in our
charge; and because they know how much that is advanced in all matters,
both temporal and spiritual, as a result of the labors of the fathers
who minister to it, though the population was previously the most
barbarous known in these islands. Once, some years ago, some chiefs
came here to Manila during a chapter when a provincial was elected,
to place their request before it. The fiscal of the king (who was
also that of the royal Chancillería), Don Juan de Bracamonte, offered
a petition to the definitors, supporting this request for ministers
for that province, since the Indians were vassals of the king and
paid him their tribute, and his Majesty was bound to provide them
with Christian instruction. The answer was a hopeful one, saying that
if his Majesty would send ministers from España they would then very
readily be assigned to this duty, as he desired; but in the meantime
the order could scarcely fulfil the requirements of the regions which
they had already in charge, for the Indians were many and the ministers
few. On another occasion when the father provincial of the province,
Fray Baltasar Fort, was making his visitation to this province of
Pangasinan, the inhabitants of Ytui learned of the fact; and there
came to meet him, in a village called Calasiao, some thirty of the
chief Indians of that country--among them he who was, as it were,
their king. He brought with him his wife and his sister; and they
proffered their request with much feeling and many tears, complaining
of their misfortune that when they were so near--the provinces were
about four days' journey apart--they were not worthy to receive the
fathers, though they had several times striven to obtain them with
all possible urgency. The provincial could but feel pity when he
saw these heathen Indians becoming preachers to us, in so urgently
persuading the preachers to come and teach them the law of God; yet
he was totally unable to give them what they asked, but gave them
his promise that he would do so as soon as possible. They returned
to their country with this answer, very disconsolate. Father Fray
Thomas Gutierrez--a minister who was then in Pangasinan and of whom
an account will be given later--learned of this, and volunteered to
undertake an expedition thither. A second father, Fray Juan Luis de
Guete, offered to go as his companion. The father provincial granted
their request, in spite of the need of them that would be felt in the
posts which they left; but he commanded them that they should go at
this time simply to explore the country, and should return within a
few days to report their opinions to him, according to the impression
made upon them by the natives. They did this, and went about through
the villages of the province, setting up in the public squares large
crosses, to the great delight of the Indians; this act was a token that
the fathers took possession of them for the Lord who was crucified on
the cross. That the devil might begin to give up his ancient possession
of the natives, the fathers taught them the worship which they should
perform, and some prayers out of the "Christian Doctrine" translated
into the language of Pangasinan. That language they half understood,
though it was different from their own. They understood it all so well
that they immediately began to say the prayers they knew, around the
crosses, seated on cane benches which they made for the purpose--two
of them intoning the prayer, and the rest repeating it. With these
excellent beginnings, which gave proof of the fitness of the soil for
receiving the seed of the faith, the two explorers returned to report
to their superior as he had commanded them, and offered themselves anew
to return to that region. The provincial, when he heard their report,
was not unwilling to grant their pious desires, although it seemed
that these were contrary to what the strength of the province could
sustain. So trusting in the power of God, and with the permission and
benediction of the father provincial, they prepared themselves for
the return; but they were interfered with by someone who disturbed
them by indiscreet zeal, for the devil sometimes appears clothed in
the garments of an angel of light. The project was not carried out,
but not from the fault of the order or of its sons, who are not
accustomed to be slothful before such opportunities. Perhaps those
peoples were not yet ready in the sight of God for that which they
desired; for in such matters the what, the when, and the how are
understood by God alone and are determined according to His divine
foreknowledge. The natives of Ytuy were not weary of being persistent
in presenting their requests, as in such matters it is well to be. It
happened that in the month of December in the year 1632 the father
provincial, Fray Francisco de Herrera (now commissary general of the
Holy Office for all these Philipinas Islands), was traveling in that
region on his visitation to the province of Pangasinan. The natives
of Ytuy, who must have had scouts to inform them, learned of this;
and there immediately came in search of him some twenty-four Indians,
four or six of them being leading chiefs in the province. In the name
of all the rest of the natives, they put forward their old request. He
did not make them the answer which they had received before--"Wait,
wait again;" but gave his instant approval, drawing strength from the
weakness of the province--which, in the matter of laborers, is great
for such a harvest as it has upon its hands, and as it sees every
day increasing; and which, therefore, has to pass by much for lack
of ability to achieve it all. The father who seemed most suited for
this mission was father Fray Thomas Gutierrez, who some years before
had filled the office of explorer in this country. His companion was
father Fray Juan de Arjona, [50] a son of the convent of San Pablo de
Cordova--a man of middle age, but of more than middling spirit. They
both took up the enterprise with great delight, without any objections
or requests; and went back with the Indians who had come thence, taking
no larger outfit than was absolutely necessary to equip them for the
journey. This chapter will give a brief account of the events of the
journey and their arrival at Ytuy, drawn from a letter written by both
fathers and dated at Ytuy January 21, 1633. The letter was directed
to the father provincial, and contains the following narrative:
They left Pangasinan for Ytuy December 6, 1632, the day of St. Nicholas
the bishop; and since there is but little communication between the
two countries--none at all, in fact, except that occasionally some
natives on each side visit the other--there is no open road from one
to the other, since the Indians have no need of one, making their way
like deer through the thickets of the mountains. By their account, the
journey takes four days; but this is estimated by their mode of travel,
which is twice as rapid as ours. Father Fray Thomas was so eager to
reach that region that he even wished to make the journey shorter,
and he asked the Indians if they did not know some short cut. One
of them responded that he did; the father asked him to guide them,
and they all followed him. This was in an evil hour, for the short
cut did nothing but to increase their labor, as it took them out of
their way. The journey occupied nine days, over mountains and across
valleys, and through rivers, streams, and marshes, which they came
upon at every step--for the guide did not know where he was going, and
yet they were obliged to follow him. The provision which they carried
was but for a few days, since they did not expect so long a journey,
and they carried it all on their own shoulders that they might not
burden the Indians. Since the journey took twice as long as they had
expected, they became very hungry, and thus suffered much, hunger being
added to exhaustion. The sky was not kind to them on their journey,
for it rained constantly on all these days and they had no protection;
and the ground was as cruel, for the thickets abounded with leeches
who attached themselves to the faces, the hands, and the feet of
the travelers, and drew blood like a physician's blood-letting. The
Indians were not distressed by any of these things, or by the necessity
of carrying the fathers on their shoulders across rivers or very bad
places in the road, which shows the pleasure and affection with which
they were taking the religious to their country. The fathers endured
this no less well, being certain that they were not putting into a
torn sack what they suffered for God.
They derived some relief from their sufferings from one happy
circumstance provided them by God, who seemed to have designed all
these wanderings. This was that in the midst of these wildernesses they
found a tiny village of Christian Indians; for this jurisdiction was
under the charge of other ministers, but was very little visited
by them, since it was at so great a distance and over so rough
a road. They baptized two children, and heard the confessions of
some adults--among them that of a woman who had not confessed for
some years, having no one to confess to. Though she seemed well
and healthy, she died that same day. This was a marked token of
her predestination. They finally reached the principal village of
the province, which is called Ytui, and takes its name from the
village. The Indians received them with great demonstrations of joy,
after their manner; and they remained there for eight days resting,
and receiving visits from all the villages in the province, who sent
ambassadors to bid them welcome with some presents of the fruits
of the country. They set out afterwards to visit all the villages
in it. Great and small, they visited eleven, that they might become
acquainted with the temper of the Indians. In all they were received
with the same tokens of pleasure. From what they saw and learned from
the Indians, they had much to say in their report of the excellence of
the country. They said that it was cool, so that by day the sun's heat
was pleasant at times, and a covering was agreeable at night. This
is something new in these islands, which have the fault of being
very hot. They reported that the country was so fertile that when
Indians desired to plant their rice they only burn over a part of
the mountain [51] and, without any further plowing or digging, they
make holes with a stick in the soil, and drop some grains of rice in
them. This was their manner of sowing; and, after covering the rice
with the same earth, they obtained very heavy crops. They said that
some good fruits grew there, and that in their opinion that country
would yield all the fruits of Spain, if the seeds of the latter were
planted. There were, they affirmed, pleasant valleys with quiet rivers
and streams in them from which the natives obtain some gold, and that
the Indians are wont to wear golden earrings. They are not acquainted
with silver, and do not care for it. They have no sort of money, so
that all their sales and purchases are carried on by barter. They
keep their villages very clean and in good condition--a new thing
among the Indians. They also remarked that there was great fraternity
between different villages. This is something even more unusual,
for generally these nations live after the law of "Might makes right"
[viva quien vence], at the expense of their heads. Hence these Indians
walk alone over their roads without fear of being injured or robbed,
for they are very safe in this respect--so much so that they leave
the rice which they gather, each one in his own field, heaped up in
the spike and covered with straw. They go there and carry what they
want to their houses, to grind and eat, without fearing that anyone
will take what is not his. They readily offered all their infants to
the fathers to be baptized, so that within about three months, during
which the religious went about visiting the villages, they baptized
some four hundred. It would have been the same with the adults, if
it had not been necessary to prepare them with the catechism. The
fathers have been slow in this, because they have been obliged to
translate the prayers into the native language, of which they have
not a good command. They are spending their time in learning it,
and on this account and no other are delayed in beginning baptism. In
order that so few ministers may be able to teach the Indians, it is
necessary to bring them together into a smaller number of villages,
conveniently arranged so that the people may be visited and helped in
their necessities. Since the country is very mountainous, the fathers
have determined to bring and gather them in large settlements, at
sites convenient for their fields, near a river which rises in this
country, and which, increased by others, grows to be a very large
stream, crossing the whole of Nueva Segovia to the ocean. [52] This
river, on account of its fish (upon which most of the Indians live),
is also of great value to them. This is the only point as to which
they are somewhat obstinate, because they are greatly grieved to
leave their ancient abode. However, most of them have accepted it,
and it is hoped that the rest will come, and in this way in a short
time much will be gained by the aid of the Lord. Through the mountains
next to this province, which are many and very rough, there wander
a tribe of Indians known as Alegueses, a vagabond people having no
settled places of abode. Father Fray Thomas sent word to them by an
Indian chief of Ytuy that if they wished to come and settle one of
the new sites which he indicated, he would receive them there as sons,
and do them all the good he could. They answered in the affirmative,
and he waited for them for some time; but before they came the holy man
finished his days, full of years and of heroic works, as will soon be
seen. This is the work which these apostolic men of God accomplished
in only three months, as appears from the aforesaid report. They
conclude their report with another case similar to that referred to
above, of the woman who died so soon after she had confessed. In the
goings-out and comings-in of the fathers among the Indians that they
might become acquainted with them, they found in one village, called
Palar, a very aged Indian woman who was dying. She had eaten nothing
for five days. Father Fray Thomas went to see her, and began to talk
with her of becoming a Christian for the salvation of her soul. He
expounded to her briefly what she had to believe, and called upon
her to repent of her sins. She answered as well as might be desired,
and he accordingly baptized her on that day, which was the last day
of her earthly life and the first day of her Christian one. It was
a happy day, so far as can be judged; for, being newly baptized,
she had merely to be recorded in purgatory. Not only in these new
provinces where the dawn of the gospel's light now begins to shine do
extraordinary cases happen like those which have been mentioned, to the
great glory of God and the joy of his ministers; but they also occur
in many others where the dawn has risen high but has not yet bathed
all the horizon, though it is covering it, little by little. From the
province of Nueva Segovia father Fray Geronimo de Zamora, [53] a native
of the city of Zaragoça, wrote me a letter dated February 25, 1633. In
it are these words: "Before Lent I went up the river of Mandayas"
(this is the name of a part of that province), "to try to teach many
Indians who were without Christian instruction in heathen darkness,
but who paid tribute to the king our lord as his vassals, without even
being sons of the Church. I asked them if I might visit them, and they
received my request kindly and asked that I or some other father should
remain among them. In token of the heartiness of their wish, they gave
me, as a sort of hostages, ten sons of their chiefs to be baptized;
and after having sufficiently instructed them, I baptized them, to
the great joy and delight of my soul. I hope in God that in this way
thousands of them may be redeemed from the power of the devil, for
there is no one who will declare that they are not his." He afterward
asked aid from his neighbors to draw the net which was laden with so
many fish as are promised by the casts already made there. Many are
needed, but we may say here, "Where are those good men?"
It is not to be understood that only these new events are the good
ones, or that among Christians who have been so for some time there
are but few occurrences to rouse joy. This is not the case, for there
are so many which have occurred among these latter that a very large
book might be made of the account of them, if it were necessary to
report what has happened hitherto, and what happens every day anew,
to the holy old ministers of the gospel who have been and are among
them, whose beards have grown, and whose hair has become white among
the Indians. They are good witnesses to this truth, and to the growth
that the Spirit is wont to cause in these clods of earth. As for those
who grow weary quickly and leave the ministry, there is no necessity to
say anything. It is certain that among those who have been Christians
steadily for years there are fewer dangers; yet the care of them is of
no less merit, and consequently the reward will be no less, since, as
King David has well said (I Kings, xxx), Aequa pars erit descendentis
ad praelium et remanentis ad sarcinas, et similiter divident. [54]
Here in Manila the order has under its care a hospital for the Chinese,
in which the sick of that nation are cared for. The province may
place this at the head of its possessions, since there is scarcely
a day in which some soul or souls of newly baptized do not pass to
heaven. Very few are they who die without baptism, and very many are
they who give their souls to God before the baptismal waters are dry on
their heads. This is accomplished with so little effort on the part of
the minister that it calls upon him only to make a little effort, and
to go from his cell to the infirmary. I do not know whether there is
any other hospital in Christendom of the character of this hospital,
its principal end being the cure of souls, while for the cure of
bodies it has its physician, its medicines, and everything needed
within its gates, besides the food and the dainties called for by
the palates of the sick. The effects of the divine predestination
which are beheld in it are so many that they are almost ordinary,
and are therefore not mentioned.
[In Japon the persecution was increasing in fierceness, and very
few letters were received. One of these, from father Fray Domingo
de Erquicia, gives an account of the death of the emperor and the
succession of his son, who was even more cruel than the father. [55]
He tells of the deaths over a slow fire of a father of the order
of the calced Augustinians, and of two discalced; of a Japanese
Franciscan priest of the tertiary order, and of a Franciscan brother;
and of a Japanese father of the Society of Jesus--the remains of all
being burned, and the ashes cast into the sea. On another occasion
two Augustinian Recollects were burned. Two Franciscan fathers were
captured, while two Dominicans were hidden in caves or cisterns,
and did not see the sun or the moon for many days. From a Dominican
at Macao, Fray Antonio del Rosario, testimony was received as to the
great achievements of father Fray Domingo Erquicia.]