The beginning of the conversion of the Mandayas, mountaineers of
Nueva Segovia
Although the conversions of the kingdoms of Japon and China turns
thither much [missionary] effort [61] in España, since these kingdoms
are so magnificent, and summons many noble spirits, that is not the
only conversion; nor ought the others to be despised where the Lord
more quietly (and perhaps in a humbler way) works marvelous effects
among the heathen who are converted--and also among the ministers,
who profit greatly by so noble a work. Many examples of this have
been written in this history, which are confirmed by the events of
this year among the Indians called Mandayas, who inhabit some remote
and craggy mountains in the province of Nueva Segovia. Though this
island of Luçon is the first which received the faith in these regions,
having done so at the time when the Spaniards invaded it, there are
still many regions in it where for lack of ministers the faith has not
been preached, and where the inhabitants have never heard more of the
gospel than if Christians had never come hither. This is true not only
of a village here and there, but of whole provinces, each inhabited
by its own race and each possessing its own language, though they
are all within this great island. Such were these Mandayas Indians,
the conversion of whom was begun in this year by father Fray Geronimo
de Zamora, a native of Zaragoça, a son of the most religious province
of Aragon--from whose report, and from that of two other fathers who
for some time accompanied him, the following facts are drawn. In the
provincial chapter of the year 1631 obedience sent this father as
superior to the villages of Fotol and Capinatan, which are in Nueva
Segovia near the aforesaid mountains. He had great joy in going there,
for he immediately entertained great hopes of the conversion of these
Mandaya tribes. They were as completely given over to their errors
as if there had never been a preacher of the faith in this country,
for they lived in mountains which were very rugged, although they
were near the villages above mentioned. When father Fray Geronimo
came thither and saw that these heathen sometimes came down for trade
with the villages, he began to show them kindness, and to give them
some trifles that they thought much of, until at last he secured
their good will. For the time he did not speak of anything else, for
they were not inclined to matters of the faith, much less to accept
ministers who would interfere with the vices in which they lived and
had been brought up. In this way a year passed, and at the beginning
of the next year, seeing that they were more kindly disposed to him,
it seemed to him that he could trust them; and he determined to go up
to their villages. He was confident that even though they would not
admit him as a teacher and preacher, they would receive him kindly as
their friend and benefactor, who was not coming to take or to ask for
what they possessed, but merely to provide them with a good which they
were without. That he might not make a mistake by following his own
opinion, he consulted first with the father vicar-provincial of that
region and some grave fathers of it; and after they had conferred,
and discussed the case, they resolved that father Fray Geronimo should
make the journey, while the others should pray to the Lord for a good
result. Hereupon he most courageously went up into the mountains,
about the end of January, taking with him some Indians whom he could
trust and who were of good intelligence--acquaintances and friends of
the Mandayas. It took him a day and a half of most laborious traveling
to reach their first village, for they had to row up stream against
the current, which is always strong and in some places terrible. The
river runs between high mountains on both sides and in the middle of
the stream there are great rocks, which make it very dangerous to go
up--and still more so to go down, because the rapid current carries
the boat against the rocks. They received him with great pleasure,
and lodged him in one of their best houses, though it was built of
thatch, after the custom of the country. Next to it the father had
a building erected where he could say mass; and he sent round to the
chiefs of the other villages to ask them to come to that one, and there
he waited for them. They did so readily, because of their good will
toward him; and, when they were all together, the father--standing in
the midst of them in an open place, like St. Paul in Athens--expounded
to them the mysteries of our faith, demolishing the delusions of their
errors and the teaching of the devil, the Father of Lies, and saying
much that was suitable for both purposes. To this they listened with
attention, although the doctrine was new to their ears. God enlightened
them within, and hence they did not answer as the Athenians did to
St. Paul--some making a jest of it, and others saying that they would
hear him another time as to this matter, while there were few that
believed; but here all said at once that they believed what they were
taught, and wished to receive this holy law, placing themselves in
his hands to be disposed of as he thought best. Great was the joy
which father Fray Geronimo felt at this answer, which was beyond
his hopes; and he gave many thanks to the Lord, seeing that it was
he who had accomplished the matter so well, so quickly, and with so
little effort, though it was a great matter. He also thanked them,
and confirmed them as much as he could in their good purpose; and
he asked them as a proof of the validity of the promise which they
had given him, to grant him, as sureties that they would not retract
it, their infant sons in baptism. Without hesitation ten of their
chiefs on the following day brought ten infants, their sons, whom
father Fray Geronimo immediately baptized, offering them to God as
the first-fruits of this new conversion. As a token that in the name
of Christ our Lord and of his most holy Mother he assumed possession
thereof, he said mass, and assigned to the village as their patron
the Virgin of the Pillar of Zaragoça. [62] It was surely a prudent
thought to fasten this tender church to this strong pillar, upon which
from of old that noble city has been supported, and has stood firm
without being overthrown by the storms that have assailed it since
its foundation, though it be as many years in age as the days of the
same Virgin in this mortal life; and it shall last to the end of the
world. Throughout that whole day the father spent his time in converse
with his new sons, encouraging them to go on with what they had so
happily begun; but he was obliged to leave them for the time, that
he might return to the villages under his care, for Lent was at hand
and it was necessary for him to listen to confessions. The ministers
are so few that their strength and power cannot reach as far as their
desire. The Indians were greatly grieved when they saw that they were
to be without a guide just as they were beginning a path which they
had never trod; but the father was more grieved at being obliged to
leave them. He promised to come back and live among them as soon as he
could; and they determined to go to his superior to beg for a minister
and a teacher to instruct them in the way of salvation. They carried
out their plan at such a fortunate time that they found the fathers
preparing to go to the provincial chapter, which was at hand. The
religious promised to help the Indians in their good purpose, and
did so, as will soon be seen. Father Fray Geronimo departed from
them with many tears on both sides--the Indians weeping from sorrow
at being left behind; the father partly from grief at leaving them,
and partly from joy at seeing his desires realized and his labors so
well begun, for this meant that the work was half done. The fathers
of the chapter complied with the promise that had been given, and
recounted to the definitors the good beginning of this conversion
which they had seen, and the great desire with which these heathen
Indians asked for ministers to teach and baptize them. The result was
that the definitors felt obliged to grant so just a petition, and to
give them as minister and preacher the same Fray Geronimo de Zamora,
who offered to dwell in those solitary mountains in order to carry
on what the Lord had begun through his ministry and diligence. That
he might be able to go, he was provided with two good companions--a
great number where the religious were so few, and where there was so
much calling upon them for their help. The convent and convents which
might be established there were accepted; and the patronage of the
Virgin of the Pillar was extended over all the Christian churches which
might be formed there. This last request was so just that it brought
its favorable answer with it; and, even if father Fray Geronimo had
not presented it, there was a definitor in that chapter who would have
made it, because he was likewise a native of the same city of Zaragoça,
and a son of the famous convent of preachers of that city. His name
was Fray Carlos Clemente Gant, [63] long an excellent minister of the
province of Nueva Segovia. It is well that the sons of that noble city
never cease, wherever they are, to see within their souls that great
sanctuary which the city enjoys and in the shade of which they were
bred. Though father Fray Geronimo was eager to carry out the orders of
the chapter, he was unable to do so until the beginning of September,
on account of the obstacles placed in his way by the devil, who saw
how much he was to lose by the expedition. He finally embarked to go
up the river with one of his companions, father Fray Luis de Oñate,
[64] who called himself here by the name of del Rosario; he was a
native of Sevilla, and a son of the convent of Portaceli in the same
city, a religious of much virtue though of few years, and therefore
very well suited to such enterprises. All of his qualifications were
necessary, because in the midst of that voyage, at one most dangerous
passage, full of great rocks, where the waves are high and the current
is stronger, they were unable for three days to make a yard of headway
by the greatest efforts that they could put forth, such was the force
of the current--or of the devil, who, being unable to do more, strove
in this way to interfere with the fathers on their journey. At last
by patience and perseverance, which conquer everything, they reached
the end of their difficulty. They arrived in the first village of
the Mandayas on September 7, the eve of the Nativity of our Lady--a
feast which, among the other feasts of the Virgin, is celebrated in
Zaragoça with the greatest solemnity by the chapter and the clergy of
the holy church of the Pillar. The Indians received them with great
demonstrations of joy, after their fashion; and with much greater joy,
though a spiritual one, the fathers celebrated on the following day
the birth of the Virgin--for it seemed to them wonderfully appropriate
to begin the foundation of this conversion on this day--the Virgin
herself adopting it, so that, as if it were her own, she might look
upon it with the eyes of a mother, and of one so tender. The material
(that is, the minds of the listeners) being so well disposed, it was an
easy thing for the word of God to kindle in it; for it is like fire,
as St. Jerome says in his comment upon the prophet Abdias [i.e.,
Obadiah], which consumes the straw and purifies the grain for the
Lord. Hence the first thing which father Fray Geronimo did, because
of his deep spiritual insight and his great experience as a minister,
was to get at them under the straw of their vices and superstitions,
and to place before them immediately the pure grain and clean seed of
the faith. He began, as St. Paul did, in the eleventh chapter of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, with the knowledge of and belief in one sole
God, the great reward which He has prepared for those who serve Him,
and the dreadful punishment with which He chastises the unbelief of
the heathen and the sins of those who offend Him. With such force did
he explain the greatness of the reward of glory, and the horrors of
eternal punishment decreed for the heathen, that all those who heard
desired to be baptized immediately. But as this was not possible
for the adults, who must first be instructed in the matters of our
holy faith, and relieved and unburdened from their previous sins
and superstitions, they immediately offered their infant children,
who might receive holy baptism without these preparations. Within
a few days were baptized some three hundred and more, who learned
the whole of the Christian doctrine with strange quickness, a clear
indication of the great willingness with which they were converted to
their Creator. On the first Sunday in October, which came very soon,
an Indian chief and his wife were baptized; and four days later his
brother, a youth. It was attributed to the particular favor of the
Virgin of the Rosary, whose festival is celebrated on that Sunday,
that so barbarous a race, without knowing how to read or write,
and bred in those mountains without commerce or communication even
with other Indians, should so quickly learn so many prayers. This
is still more wonderful because they were not taught them in their
own language, which is a savage one, but in that of more highly
civilized Indians, which is quite different from theirs. Although
they usually all understand this latter, they never speak it among
themselves, which increased the difficulty of this matter, and the
grace shown by enabling them to conquer it in so short a time. The
religious went on to two other villages higher up, and were received
by the Indians with the same welcome and signs of rejoicing as in
the first village. These Indians listened as readily to the teaching
of the faith as the others. Here was founded a tiny church under the
advocacy of St. Antoninus--for when lots were cast for this glorious
saint, St. Jerome, and St. Francis, that of our holy archbishop came
out; and, mass being said in his honor, the church was dedicated
to him. Then followed the baptism of many children, whose fathers
readily brought them for the purpose--and indeed desired to be the
companions of their children in baptism, but were obliged to wait
until they could be prepared. The religious could not remain here,
and wait until they had prepared them, because they were called back
by their obligations to minister to those who were already Christians
in the older villages of their district, to whom a single religious
could not attend sufficiently. As only one had been left behind, the
fathers were obliged to leave them after making so good a beginning,
promising to return afterward and to perfect them in Christianity,
after fulfilling these duties. It may perhaps seem to some a cause
for offense when they shall read that these fathers left this growing
grain in the blade, without protection or anyone to care for it, when
there was danger that the enemy might come and sow tares in the field;
but if the reader will consider how few ministers the province had,
and how much they had to attend to, he cannot fail to see that they
did not only what they could, but many times more--God giving them
courage for that to which their natural strength, as it seemed, could
not attain. Yet, even so, they were sometimes compelled guiltlessly
to fail in that to which charity would have obliged them if they had
been able to do it.
[When the fathers informed the Mandayas of their intention, the
Indians were so much grieved that the chiefs and the council resolved
to keep the fathers by force if they would not remain with them
willingly. Father Fray Geronimo called their attention to the fact
that, as a good father, he must attend to all his sons alike. They
replied that it would be enough for one to return, and the companion
of father Fray Geronimo was accordingly left behind. He was but new
in the ministry, and was now to be left alone in the midst of these
mountains to cope with the difficulties of a new conversion. Father
Fray Geronimo separated from him and the Indians with little less
grief and tears, on both sides, than when St. Paul departed from the
inhabitants of Ephesus. Father Fray Luis, the minister who remained
behind, determined to guide himself by the instructions and the
example of father Fray Geronimo. From father Fray Luis is obtained the
report which follows. As it deals with matters in which he was himself
concerned, it was very short, and he was greatly opposed to publishing
it; but the truth of history requires us not to pass over the glory of
his works. He was not to baptize any adults, however well instructed,
until father Fray Geronimo returned, for fear of meeting with the
impediments which are so frequent in such cases--irregularities in
marriage, or the guilt of unjust enslavements and of wrongs done by the
more powerful to the weaker, or any of a thousand other impediments
which only those who are skilful and experienced in the ministry of
new conversions can detect and settle. Father Fray Luis continued to
exercise his office, and found in the Indians a wonderful hunger and
thirst for the matters of the faith, and great readiness in learning
it. Some Christians who were older in the faith, who had accompanied
the fathers, were astonished. One of these was Don Francisco Tuliao, at
present master-of-camp for the Indians of the whole province of Nueva
Segovia; he had accompanied the religious, and his influence was of
great importance in achieving the conversion of these people. When he
saw the fervor of the Mandayas, and the ease with which they learned
Christianity, though they were regarded even by the other Indians as
rude and barbarous, he declared that the hand of God could be seen
in this work. The Lord took to himself the tithe of the first ten
baptized children; but the Indians who in their heathen days had been
accustomed to spend a week in weeping and mourning their dead children,
with a thousand superstitions and extravagances, before burying them,
now accepted readily from the hand of the Lord the death of baptized
children who departed in their innocence; and, without a sign of
grief, they themselves took the little bodies of their children to
be buried in the church. In the case of adults also, some of them
showed marvelous devotion and were baptized on their deathbeds. Even
those who were not baptized believed, and helped the baptized to die
blessedly. Many signs of true conversion were shown by these Indians;
the Virgin showed special grace to some of the converts, in particular
assisting one poor woman of small intelligence to learn the prayers,
with which she had great difficulty; and miracles were wrought in
order that those predestined by God might not die unbaptized. By the
twelfth of January of the following year more than five hundred of
this tribe had been baptized; and though it would seem that such a
number would have justified the permanent residence of a minister
among them, father Fray Luis was obliged to leave the Mandayas, to
go to aid in hearing the confessions of those in the lower villages,
where there were only six confessors for more than eight thousand
penitents. He departed from them with grief, and left behind for
their instruction some Indians qualified for the purpose, among them
the master-of-camp Don Francisco Tuliao (who was an Indian). He had
accompanied the religious in their good work, being also directed
by the civil authorities to lead in a war for the reduction of
some Indians near the Mandayas, in villages called Ysson.] They had
risen; and, being favored by their location in the midst of rugged
mountains, had refused the obedience and the tributes which they
had been accustomed to pay to their encomenderos. This difficulty
was happily settled by Don Francisco, as a result of his prudence and
authority. The truth is that the thing was already practically settled,
father Fray Geronimo de Zamora having arranged it when he came up for
the first time to the Mandayas. At this time he summoned the chiefs of
the villages of Ysson along with the rest; and the arguments of this
father had such an influence upon them that they immediately yielded
to them and put themselves in his hands. As a token of their fidelity
they cut off their hair, which is much cherished by these heathen;
and this was as much as to say that they renounced their ancient
customs and the laws of their ancestors, and that they desired to
embrace the law of God, whose servants did not wear their hair long,
as did all the heathen. Would that there had been ministers and
preachers to give them; for they would have been able to enter this
region immediately, and to go among the heathen villages, baptizing
the Indians as if they had never served the devil. It is a pity that
many of them should be still completely given up to their errors,
for lack of someone to declare the truth to them. As soon as father
Fray Geronimo and his companion were able to leave the confessions
and the communion of the elder Christians, they returned to the aid of
these new ones who so greatly required their presence. It did not seem
that their absence had caused any great evils, for they found them well
taught and prepared for baptism. Accordingly, a few days afterward,
on one of the feasts of the Virgin, namely, the Purification, they
were able to baptize eighty-three persons who had come to years
of discretion, belonging to the leading families in that country;
and in two days more, forty others, elderly men. They took as great
pains as they could to keep these solemn baptisms for festivals of
our Lady, in recognition of her patronage, and with the purpose that
after their spiritual birth these tribes might remain very devoted to
her and continue under her protection. Music to make these baptisms
joyful there was not in these villages, because they were so new;
but there was no lack of music in heaven, for if the conversion of
one sinner causes rejoicing there, the conversion of so many heathen
could not fail to cause great joy indeed.
In the following April, father Fray Geronimo de Zamora reported
that the conversion of the Mandayas was advancing; and that their
Christian character was, by the grace of our Lady of the Pillar,
becoming better and better established. These Mandayas Indians were
little esteemed in the province of Nueva Segovia, being regarded as
fickle and inconstant, and of small capacity--so that some venerable
and prudent ministers thought it was not wise to extend Christianity
so rapidly among them. But the proofs which they gave of being aided
by heaven relieved their ministers of these fears, and caused them to
baptize them without delay. They learn the faith rapidly, readily give
up their old superstitions, and are much devoted to prayer. Before
baptism they paid their debts, gave liberty to their slaves who were
unjustly held, and did many other things that are very hard. They
have given up killing and wronging their neighbors, and are now
so friendly and peaceful that they visit and entertain each other
without suspicion--even in the case of persons, who a short time ago,
were hunting each other with the purpose of committing murder. Under
all these circumstances, was there any reason for prohibiting their
baptism?