Of the persecution of the religious by the Indians, at the beginning;
and of their later heartfelt conversion.
The principal reason that these Indians had for persecuting these
first fathers who came to their villages was that, as soon as they
came thither, they built a convent in a few days, and a very tiny
church, in front of which they set up a large wooden cross; and that
thereupon their greatest idol, who was called Ana Gaoley, ceased to
give the responses and oracles which it had been wont to give them,
in the shrines or temples which they had made, which were called
anitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles,
for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These
women, called managanito, were dressed in certain vestments dedicated
to this sole use, and employed certain vessels esteemed among them,
containing oils, unguents, odors, and perfumes. With all this they
placed themselves in a retreat where they used to conjure the devil;
and there the devil spoke to them, giving them answers with regard
to their wars, their sicknesses, and their undertakings. Whatever
thing the devil asked by the mouths of these women, however costly
it might be, the Indians brought immediately; and if through them he
commanded the Indians to kill any one, they instantly put the command
into execution without a word. But from the moment of the building
of the church the oracle was silent. The Indians felt this very much,
and made many sacrifices to placate him, supposing he had grown silent
from anger; but they could not succeed in drawing a single word from
him. He revealed himself on a mountain at some distance from the
village, where there were some Indians cutting wood for their houses,
and said to them that they should not wear themselves out by asking
anything more from him, because two things had banished him from his
village. One of them was that straight stick set up in the village,
with another across it, like a body with two arms. The other was those
men with hair on their heads who were among them in his village;
for so long as they were there he could not go back to it. [This
ought to have been enough to convert them, like the priest of the
idol whom St. Gregory Thaumaturgus put to silence by his presence;
but these people had not intelligence enough for that, and grew very
indignant against the religious, especially after the father of lies
told them that the friars meant to kill their children. Their wrath
against the innocent religious grew so great that, if they had not
feared the Spaniards, they would have killed them. The enemy of God
found means still more to inflame the wrath of the Indians against
the friars.] One of the Indian women of the highest rank being found
pregnant when she was about to be married, her parents intended to
execute upon her their ancient law, which was to bury her alive,
together with the malefactor. They seized her, and tortured her to
make her reveal who he was. She, at the instigation of the devil,
declared that it was father Fray Bernardo de Sancta Catalina,
the superior of all those religious, and the one against whom the
devil and the Indians felt most bitter, because he was the principal
minister of the gospel. Thereupon, without further investigation, she
was immediately believed: and they came upon him like bloodthirsty
wolves, with the purpose of carrying out that penalty. He was not
disturbed or alarmed, but made them go with him to the Indian woman,
and asked her some questions; and when the time was ascertained at
which she had conceived, it was plain that the father had not been at
that time, or for many days before or after, in that village. Thus
they believed him firmly, while they and he who had stirred them up
were ashamed and confused. Still the woman's artifice was of use to
her; for the father repaid her for the false witness she had given,
by delivering her from the death which they were going to inflict
upon her--searching for devices to bring this about, just as the devil
had searched for them to do evil; for kindness is no less subtle than
malice. Later will be seen what was the life and death of this holy
religious, whom the devil strove to discredit by other means, but
without success. [The devil was finally banished from these villages,
in which he had kept all the Indians in wretched slavery; for if he
gave them some liberty to vice he demanded from them a much greater
return.] In addition to the sacrifices that he required of them--which
as has been said were costly, and which sometimes extended even to the
death of men, he required them to do most painful things in their times
of bereavement. For the first three days they did not have a mouthful
to eat; for three more days they had only a little fruit; after this,
for a long time, they had only boiled herbs or roots, without wine to
drink, and with nothing savory to eat. During all this time they wore
around the neck a little gold chain, which was a mark of mourning;
and this they were not allowed to put off during all this period,
unless they killed some one. As soon as they committed a homicide,
there was an end of the mourning and the fast; and they made up by
eating and drinking without limit or measure. Every little thing
that happened to them caused them a thousand superstitions, painful,
and sometimes expensive.
The worst of all was the wars that they were constantly waging among
themselves, and the great oppressions inflicted upon the people of
the lower class by those who are above them in rank. These took away
their possessions from them and made them slaves at their mere whims,
under the law that "might makes right." One of these bravo chiefs
(a very tyrannical one, and therefore the more esteemed, feared,
and respected by the rest), by name Cabanday, would never hear of
being converted to Christianity--the more so because he would have
been required to restore everything which he had taken by injustice,
usury, extortion, and wrong; for thus he had gained all he had, and he
was very rich. [God one day heard the prayers of the friars for him;
and at night he told the Indian who was his closest friend that he felt
so strong an impulse to turn to God that he could not resist it. He
ordered his slaves to take the chest in which he kept all his gold and
riches, to carry it to the church, and to open it immediately. They
broke it open. The fathers went down from the choir where they were,
being mistrustful of some ill. They found him with his chest; he
opened it; placed at the feet of father Fray Bernardo all that was
in it, and afterwards threw himself at these too--praying, with much
feeling and with many tears, to be baptized, and telling them that
there was the whole of his fortune and the fortune of his children;
let them do with it what they would, though they should send him away
poorer than the lowest of his vassals, if only they would do what he
asked. The religious gave a thousand thanks to God, comforted him,
promised him baptism, and began to prepare him for it. Being very old,
he could not learn the prayers by heart; but he was very intelligent,
and very well understood the mysteries of the faith they taught
him. They accordingly baptized him, to his own great joy and to the
comfort of the fathers. They called him in baptism Don Pablo. Though
he could not learn the prayers by memory, he was not deprived of them;
for when he recited the rosary, in place of the pater-noster he said
in his own language: "Oh, Lord my God, have pity upon me, a sinner,"
and in place of the Ave Maria he said the same to our Lady. And,
when he came to confess, in place of the general confession he
said: "Father, I come to your feet to reveal my sins, and to obtain
pardon therefor from God our Lord." He made his confession with much
clearness and contriteness, educated his children in the fear of God,
strove to have all the people of his country baptized, and lived an
exemplary life. He lived eighteen years a Christian. His death took
place under the following circumstances. While father Fray Bernardo
was confessing the Indians, one Lent, in the church of Binalatongan,
Don Pablo came on foot and said: "Father, confess me, for I am going
to die today." He asked the father to come and say mass, and to give
him the viaticum. On the same day he died.
No less remarkable was the conversion of another great chief of the
village of Magaldan, called Casipit, who had been on the point of
killing a Franciscan, so opposed was he to the faith. This Indian
had already thrown him on the ground to kill him with a cruel dagger
which they use, when the others hindered him. When now our order
came to his country, he took it so ill that he went to Manila to
arrange to have the friars withdrawn from his village; and to carry
out the negotiation he offered his encomendero half his property,
which was considerable. His wife, named Lalo, was first converted
by the preaching of father Fray Pedro de Soto. She was baptized Dona
Gracia. By her efforts the husband was converted and baptized, with
the whole of his family and his large retinue. He used to gather the
people of his village near the church, and to address them, urging them
to works of mercy with plain and sensible words; but with such fervor
and devotion that he made them all weep, even the religious who had
concealed himself to overhear. He led a very religious life, directing
his household in habits of devotion. So also did his wife; and the
good people directed their slaves to pay as much attention to their
religious duties as to the work they did for them. On one occasion,
when one of his slaves died, and it was impossible to bury him in the
churchyard, because of the floods, the old man determined to carry
the slave to another village, which on account of its higher situation
had not been flooded, and to bury him in the church there. The river
was full of trees and logs which might overturn his boat, the current
was very strong, and there were many whirlpools in it. There was also
danger from the caymans, which at that period of the year are most
dangerous, and most frequently attack small boats. Don Pedro was not
ignorant of the risks for an old man like him, for he was more than a
hundred years old, though he had lost none of his strength. In spite
of the petitions of all of his family he made the effort, carrying the
slave to the village of San Jacintho. The old man, when he got there,
was all wet, and was chilled with the cold of the rain that had fallen
and of the winds that had blown on him. He buried the slave and went
home, happy in having fulfilled his duty so nobly. When one of his
slaves died by accident, without having been able to confess, the
good Don Pedro took it to heart as if it had been his own sin. From
this instance may be seen how devoted Christians those Indians became
whose conversion had been so difficult.]