The holy Fray Jacintho de Esquivel or De el Rosario, martyred on the
way to Japon; and his holy life.
[To the six or seven holy martyrs of our sacred order--Fray Domingo
de Erquicia, [60] Fray Lucas del Espiritu Sancto, Fray Jacobo
de Santa Maria, and three or four lay brothers, should be added
another who, though he did not die in Japon, died on the journey
thither, at the hands of traitorous heathen. This was father Fray
Jacintho de Esquivel. He was a Basque by nation, noble in lineage
and nobler in virtue. He assumed the habit in the convent of San
Domingo of the city of Victoria. While he was a novice I happened,
in returning from the chapter-general in Paris in 1611, where I was
definitor for this province, to rest in his convent for a week; and
at that time he conceived the desire to come to this province. He
was sent to the famous college of San Gregorio at Valladolid, and
distinguished himself in his studies, becoming a teacher of arts when
still very young. In Manila he was appointed as lecturer in theology
in the college of Sancto Thomas; and in this position he did not
take advantage of the dispensations allowed, but rigorously observed
the severe rules of the province. While he was teaching theology he
studied the Japanese language, under the teaching of father Fray
Jacobo de Sancta Maria. With his aid he printed, at the expense
of the college, a Japanese-Spanish vocabulary--a large book, which
required very great resolution and labor. As a result of abstinence,
he had lost the sense of taste. He dressed poorly and roughly, and
his modesty and chastity were such that he once said that he had
never looked a woman in the face. In order to make his way to Japon
he went to the island of Hermosa. On the very night of the arrival of
father Fray Jacintho occurred a heavy storm, which overthrew a small
convent of ours with its church, which had been erected in the Parian
of the Chinese. The other fathers attributed this to the wrath of
the devil because of the coming of the father; but he rejoiced that
materials were provided for building a church in Taparri, for which
the ruins of these buildings might be used. This village of Taparri
was populated by the worst tribe in the whole island; for they were
all pirates, who committed as much robbery and murder on the sea as
they could. It was less than a legua from the presidio of San Salvador,
and strict orders had been issued that no one should go there without
permission, and that those who went should always go in company and
armed. The father asked permission to go and build a church in that
village, where he soon learned a few of the words. When the Indians
asked him where his wife and sons and land were, he answered that
the religious had none, to which they replied that he was a great
liar. At another time, when he told them of the resurrection of the
dead, they called him mad. Afterward, when they came to have a great
deal of affection for him and offered him several marriages, and saw
that he would not accept them, or even admit a woman into his house,
they began to believe in him. He afterward set about building a church
in another village on the same coast, nearer the presidio, and named
Camaurri. He established peace between the two villages though they
had always been enemies before. He was afterward sent to Tanchuy. He
lived a life of great mortification, and labored strenuously to learn
the language of this country. In a few months he succeeded, and made
a grammar and a very copious vocabulary. Being sent back from Tangchuy
to Sant Salvador, he obeyed most readily, and his labors were attended
with great results. He exposed himself to dangers by sea and by land,
and preached to Spaniards as well as to Indians. He established in the
island of Hermosa the holy Confraternity of La Misericordia. The good
cavalier Don Juan de Alcaraso gave four thousand pesos for the purpose;
and father Fray Jacintho gave two thousand, which he had received in
alms. He also established a school for the bright Chinese and Japanese
children, and those of other nations in that country, where they might
be taught the matters of our faith, and where those who are capable of
them might learn Latin, the liberal arts, and theology. He hoped thus
to train up children who might carry the faith into China and Japon. He
finally embarked for Japon in a Chinese vessel, with a Franciscan;
and after they had been at sea for a few days the Chinese, unwilling
to wait and put them ashore in Japon, killed them and took their
noses and ears to the judges in Nangasaqui, who paid them liberally.]