Events in the province during the absence of the provincial in China
[Great was the loneliness felt by the province during the absence of
the provincial, because of his holy life and the love they felt for
him. Father Fray Juan Cobo, though not wholly equal to the provincial,
was a man of great ability and great devotion. His first act was to
strengthen the ministry to the Chinese, by appointing to it father
Fray Domingo de Nieva, an able and virtuous religious, and a perfect
master of both the Chinese and the Indian languages. He labored and
wrote much in both of them, to the great advantage of the ministers who
succeeded him and of his own disciples. He suffered all his life long
with a severe headache, which began to afflict him in youth and never
left him till his death. Father Fray Juan Cobo also appointed to the
hospital of the Chinese brother Fray Pedro Rodriguez, a lay religious
of much charity, who found his delight and his spiritual profit in
serving the sick. Though he was not the founder of the hospital, he
was the cause of its great increase. He restored and rebuilt it two
or three times, as was necessary, because it had been built at first
very poorly, and hence was very frail and not durable. At this time
a fire broke out in the village of Baybay. A wooden cross fastened
in the gable of a house was miraculously preserved from burning. The
power of God was exhibited in marvelous incidents connected with the
baptism of several children.]
Father Fray Juan Cobo went on a visitation of the province, and
found the religious in the district of Bataan suffering no little
discomfort, because they could not visit the Indians who were in it
without great hardship and risk to their health. The reason was that
the Indians lived in hamlets so distant one from another that it was
often necessary to travel six leguas when they were called to confess
a sick person. As the number of Christians kept increasing, they were
called more and more often. The roads were very bad and marshy, which
increased the difficulty and made it more certain that the ministers
would suffer from disease. He planned to arrange them in such a manner
that the ministers could visit them better and with less hardship;
and gathered several little villages into others somewhat larger,
placing in the midst of all the two chief villages, Aboucay and
Samal, which were the places where the ministers resided, and from
which they went out to serve the neighboring places. There was some
difficulty in carrying out the plan, but God our Lord showed that He
was pleased with it, not only by making easy for them that which they
asked from Him so much to their own good, but by giving them several
very fertile years, those that had preceded having been so barren
that they scarcely yielded enough for the tribute. The crops were
now very abundant, giving the Indians enough to eat and something to
sell; and they began to lift up their heads, having hitherto lived in
great poverty. The health of the district was also greatly improved,
and many more of their sick were cured than before the religious
came. Both of these results came from the better years which the
Lord had given them, because as a result of these they had better
sustenance and fewer sicknesses. To this happy result the hospitals
also contributed, which had been established by the religious, as
did also the care which the religious took that the sick should not
lack anything needed for their care and sustenance--of which there had
previously been a very great want, so that fewer had recovered. As they
experienced these benefits which had come to them with the religious,
they came to love the latter very much; and with their love for them
they came afterwards easily to a change of heart, which at first
they had greatly opposed. The religious were a great help to them,
not only in spiritual matters (which was the principal thing), but
also in everything else, providing seed every year for those who
had none, and greatly increasing the arable land above what they had
had previously. The result was, that not only did those Indians who
were there live better, but many came to them from other districts,
drawn by the report of their prosperity. Accordingly, though in the
country at large the Indian districts exhibited a decreased population,
the population here has constantly increased, and so steadily that
there are today twice as many Indians there as there were when the
religious came to it. When these villages in Bataan were provided for,
the father vicar of the province went to Pangasinan, where he found
those Indians somewhat more nearly tamed than they had been, though
there were still many of them in their ancient hardness of heart. He
was greatly delighted at seeing how much the religious had achieved,
and at perceiving their great labors. He was still more delighted at
seeing the many miracles wrought by our Lord by the means of father
Fray Luis Gandullo and by other religious, in order to give credit
to His gospel. Thus the Indians had formed a high idea of the law of
God, the heathen were being converted, and the Christians were being
perfected in the faith which they had received a short time before. Of
all this matter a fuller account will be given in the lives of these
religious. They were certainly very holy men, as was demanded by the
hardness of heart of this tribe, whose hearts had to be softened and
who had to be brought into the bosom of the church much more by the
example of a good life than by sermons and words.
[At this time died at Manila father Fray Juan Chrisostomo, the founder
of the province, who had sacrificed his health to the establishment of
it. He had twice labored in this foundation, twice at Roma obtained
for it the sanction of the sovereign pontiffs and generals of the
order, and in Spain had twice obtained the royal approval. For a third
time he saw his work practically brought to an end in Mexico, to his
great sorrow. He had then been obliged to suffer the unhappiness of
remaining in Mexico without being able to visit the province which
he had established, until at the end of two years the Lord rewarded
him by permitting him to spend his last days in the province which he
had done so much to establish, and which he so much loved. He was a
remarkable preacher, having a fine voice, a good command of language,
and natural energy; and there was much substance in what he said. He
made such an impression in Spain that the king appointed him to be
one of four bishops who were to be consecrated if China should open
its doors to the preaching of the gospel. He lived a life of great
asceticism, in spite of his bodily infirmities. He took upon himself
the painful and laborious work of the office of vicar, giving the
honorable duty to father Fray Juan de Castro. In order to keep up
his health for his work, he continued to apply remedies against his
old sickness, until part of one side became as black as a coal. His
death was holy and devout.]