The same continued, and some miracles that
afterwards followed
[The mighty work described, being beyond human power, must have been of
God; and, to make this clear, God showed His power in this region. At
one time the father vicar was going to hear confessions in one of
those villages, and was met by a leading Indian already converted,
by name Don Pablo Taclanmanoc, who asked where he was going. When
he said: "To hear the confessions of the people in this village,"
the Indian replied, "Well then, Father, you have inquired about their
debts, so that they may be able to confess?" "I cannot know them,"
answered the father, "if they do not tell me them; and for that reason
I have taken care to instruct them in my sermons that those who owe
debts must pay them." "More than that is necessary," said Don Pablo;
"give me the charge of investigating the debts in this village,
so that they may make a good confession." The religious thanked him
and put off the confessions that he might see what would come of this
undertaking. Don Pablo made his investigation with much care. He made
inquiry throughout the village, and he ascertained that there were
much usury and many other unjust and wrongful acts which had been
committed in it. He took this all, written down in a memorandum-book,
to the minister, who governed himself by it and made his inquiries in
the confessions as it suggested. The confessions were very accurate,
and in this way many wrongs were undone without any further pressure or
force than this. When he saw how useful and necessary this undertaking
had been, he had it done in all the villages, making use of the idea of
the Indian Don Pablo--whom the Lord had given to these missionaries in
this region as a teacher; and by whose instruction they might dig out
many evil roots, which had grown strong with age, and were certain to
be a great hindrance to the growth of the good seed of the gospel. This
result these ministers at that time could not attain, because they
were then new; nor would they have been able to attain them later,
if the Indians had been silent with regard to them, and had followed
the bad habit of confessing the rest while being silent on this point,
which to them is the hardest thing in our law. But as they were at that
time at the very beginning, and as this course was followed with all,
and as it agreed with the truth and with all the evidence obtained
by Don Pablo, they all accepted it very well. The results were most
beneficial to this district. The Indians of it came to have such a
reputation for devotion, for frequenting the holy sacraments, for
obedience to their ministers, and for peace and brotherly love among
themselves--being free from the vanities and excesses to which these
Indians are naturally inclined--that when the ecclesiastical judges
desired to bring to order any persons in other regions, they used to
send them to Bataan, because of the good example set there. The Lord
cared for these Indians with a very loving providence, as He showed by
the special works that He wrought to rescue them from their course of
perdition. Though we must be silent in regard to the greater number,
we cannot pass over some. An old Indian woman who was preparing
for baptism was one day absent from the class, and the father under
whose care she was, sent a boy to call her. He came back saying she
was dying; and the father, running with all his might to her side,
found her still breathing. He was just in time to baptize her. The
preservation of her life just up to that moment astonished all, and
especially the bishop Don Fray Domingo de Salacar. Several instances
are recorded, in which persons were barely kept alive up to the time
of their baptism. Several cases are also preserved in which insane
persons were allowed a lucid interval in which to receive the holy
sacrament of baptism. On the other hand, the devil played some tricks
upon the fathers. One of the most important was to deceive them as to
the character of some Indian women accused of witchcraft. They were so
ingenious in concealing their wickedness that the fathers refused to
listen to charges against them. Their daring reached so high a point
that, at the command of one of them, the devil appeared before one
of the chiefs of the village, by voice but not by sight, bidding him
go thence. This was told the father. The devil answered, and said to
the father: "Thou shalt believe only what thou seest." At last the
Lord was pleased to reveal the deceit, by the means of a sick woman
in a hospital, who declares that one of these witches had punished
her with this illness because of her refusing to give the witch the
small fruit that she had asked for. An investigation followed, and
it was discovered that they were most subtle witches; that they had
wrought great evils, and had two accomplices in their work. They were
punished with banishment, and therewith this country was freed of this
evil remnant of its heathen condition; and, though there have been
more of this sort since then, their punishment has required some less
severe penalty. There have been a number of notable miracles by which
the Lord gave authority to His gospel and His ministers among these
Indians--though, on account of the care which the former have taken to
conceal them, the particulars are not known. Still there is one miracle
that is almost universal in all these regions; this is, that when the
devil torments some Indian, under the influence of witches with whom
he has made an agreement to torment those whom they desire to harm,
he loses his power before the command of the religious. The Indians
fear the witchcraft so that they do not dare deny the witches anything
they ask; and thus they become masters of the property, the food,
and the persons of all the Indians. The devil is driven out by the
very presence of the religious, while in their absence he is kept away
by merely having the sick hold a scapular. All this is accomplished
without exorcisms, except the command in the name of the Lord that
they shall cease their tormenting. In many cases miracles of healing
have been wrought by baptism, or by confession.]