In this residence four priests and three brethren give their energy to
cultivating the vineyard of the Lord. They go afoot through the rivers,
the pools, and the marshes, the water often reaching to their navels,
and the sun burning above them. But since their labor is wrought
through the love of God, He, in His unmeasured kindness, never
deprives them of His solace in the utmost perils. They write that,
from the end of last year up to the present time, more than fourteen
hundred have received the sacred washing of regeneration. They give
diligent attention to the divine offices, which are celebrated in
this residence with greater magnificence than elsewhere, on account
of the convenience of three Indian chapels, which far surpass the
Spanish. They follow the practice of singing _Salve Regina_, in honor
of our Lady the Virgin; and, throughout Lent, of singing the psalm
_Miserere_ to accompany the discipline.
Several missions have been established in various places, with
manifold increase of baptisms and other spiritual fruits. I will give
an account of some. While a father was living in one little district,
an Indian, crippled in both hands and feet, made his way straight to
the father by boat, and that alone, to the astonishment of all--God
and his guardian angel doubtless impelling the boat. He begged the
father for baptism, and declared that the author of his request had
been a certain Spaniard who had told him that all those who did not
accept the Christian law would be carried off to hell.
The greatest results have been obtained from the schools, for the
pupils have each of them become teachers in the paternal homes of
all the domestics; and by the good example of their lives they incite
others to accept the true doctrine. A boy, a cantor in church, being
solicited by a Spaniard to perpetrate a foul deed, answered: "Sir,
I know well by what remedy you should drive away that temptation
of yours. Let us recite together a rosary in honor of the blessed
Virgin Mary, and instantly all these wicked thoughts will vanish in
smoke." Thus by the newly converted Christian he was instructed who
ought rightly to have been the teacher and master of others.
In the island Leita there were counted last year above five hundred
and twenty-nine thousand souls; and they have the instruction of our
priests only, who are six in number. By their hands the most holy
waters of baptism have, in the course of a year, in this and other
islands, been sprinkled upon at least ten thousand nine hundred
heads. And this, in brief, is the harvest of this vice-province.
* * * * *
It only remains that your Paternity should cast your eyes upon this
new and tiny plant, separated from Rome by so great an interval of
distance and situated in the most remote parts of the world, as it
has also obtained the last place in the government of the Society;
and that you should show to it all kindness and favor by sending to it
some laborers with these words from the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah:
_Ite, angeli veloces, ad gentem conuulsam et dilaceratam, ad populum
terribilem, post quem non est alius._ [44] Thus they may bring unto
these places of darkness some light by their preaching of the gospel,
and all may bend the knee before the true God, the maker of the world,
and adore and revere Him.
These treasures the India of the Philippines offers to your Paternity,
and it is confident that by the divine grace and your blessing it
will offer greater ones. Finally, may our Lord protect and preserve
the health of your Paternity for many years, to the advantage of the
whole church and the increase of the Society. Your Paternity's son
and servant in Christ,
_Francisco Vaez_