“ Much more must we do so, since they advanced with so few workers to do all that their forces were able, both in the preaching of the gospel, and in the spread of their houses, in order that they might serve with energy in the no small toil that was theirs. That convent of Cabite seemed to be necessary; and they did not deceive themselves, for, although only two leguas distant from Manila, it is of considerable consequence for the conversion of many souls, as Cabite is a port where men of not a few Asiatic nations assemble for the sake of its commerce, which is remarkable. ”

“ Father Fray Pedro Solier—a chosen shoot of the convent of Salamanca, and afterward provincial of those islands, bishop of Puerto Rico, and lastly archbishop of Santo Domingo and primate of the Indias—preached in glowing terms in praise of the Reform, in the presence of the royal Audiencia, the ecclesiastical and secular cabildos, the orders, the nobility, and all the people of Manila—who from that time made greater progress in the veneration and worship of that saint. The good-will that the city began to have for the new evangelical ministers was vast. ”

“ There with their own hands they raised an oratory and an altar, where they celebrated mass with great labor, because they had to carry on their shoulders all the things necessary for the work, without any one aiding them. Then they went up, and locked themselves in their little lodging, which served them as cell and choir, going out only to discuss with the leading Indians the knowledge of the true God. By that good example, they steadily gained great love, and the people presented to them some food. Ours repaid them by fervently preaching our holy faith to them. ”

“ In order that we may not be deceived by those who come or send to petition us to present them to some dignidad, benefice, or ecclesiastical office, we desire, and it is our will, that he who shall thus come or send appear before our viceroy, or before the president and Audiencia, or before the one who shall have charge of the supreme government of the province; and, declaring his petition, the viceroy, Audiencia, or governor shall make the relation officially, with information concerning his standing, learning, morals, competency, and other details. ”

“ Charge of the war was given to General Don Juan de Vega, son of Doctor Don Juan de Vega, auditor of Manila. He with a fine fleet of four hundred Spaniards and other Indians sailed to humble the pride of those barbarians. The latter were not unprepared for resistance; for, joining their forces, they entrenched themselves so that there was considerable doubt as to the undertaking. Both sides fought with great valor, and there were many killed and wounded. But at last our troops were victorious, as their zeal was to the service of God and the increase of His worship. ”

“ He who shall do the contrary, if he be a secular person, shall incur the loss of the concessions that shall have been made to him by us in all the realm of the Indias, shall be unable to hold and obtain others, and shall be exiled perpetually from all our kingdoms and seigniories; and if he shall be an ecclesiastical person, he shall be considered as a foreigner, and exiled from all our kingdoms, and shall not be able to hold or obtain any benefice or ecclesiastical office, and shall incur the other penalties established against such by laws of these my kingdoms. ”

“ This is in the newest and most dangerous posts of these islands, where their lives are exposed to great risk, as the islands are hostile. But notwithstanding all these dangers and hardships, they have converted a very great number of infidels, both adults and children, to our holy Catholic faith. I trust, God helping, that the conversion of the infidels—and especially those of one island where those holy religious have their missions, as it is one of the largest islands of these regions—will, in the future, by means of their care and industry, advance and increase to much greater, etc. ”

“ The Christian doctrine was to be preached and explained to the young people every morning in the churches, but to everyone on feast days, with especial care and personal attendance. In order to conduct the divine worship, they were to endeavor to have music in all the convents, by teaching the youth not only to sing but also to play the sweetest and best instruments that we use in Europa, so that the new Christians might become very fond of frequenting the sacred offices. ”

“ I also order that the archbishop of those provinces may visit the said religious in what refers to the ministry of curas and to nothing else—inspecting the churches, the sacraments, the chrism, the confraternities, their alms, and everything pertaining to the mere administration of the holy sacraments and the said ministry of curas. He shall go to make the visit in his own person, or shall assign or send for this duty such persons as he shall choose and find satisfactory, to those districts where he cannot go in person, or where there is no occasion for his aid. ”

“ In the present conversion, maxims so prudent were very suitable—in which, prepared by the spiritual food of faith, hope, and charity, they made manifest the mystery of the ineffable Trinity, and subdued the infidels to the sacrament of holy baptism. It was a difficult thing, and one that exceeds human strength; but obeying God, attacks become spirited. By His help one can soothe difficulties, explain intricate mysteries, and resolve everything easily. ”

“ And if one would consider that others, who must be considered of equal or greater spirit, had abandoned them as unconquerable, he would understand their human prudence, or temerity, or their great conceit. But the robust vicar-provincial stumbled in nothing, his wonderful zeal facilitating everything. For that administration and conquest, he appointed Fray Miguel de Santa Maria the adelantado, giving him as associates father Fray Pedro de San Josef, and the lay brother Fray Francisco de Santa Monica, all of them now well acquainted with that language. ”

“ Augustine in these Philippinas Islands are faithfully cultivating, in most exemplary manner, the vineyard of the Lord, and are preaching His holy gospel with great hardship and danger to their lives; for those people whom they have in charge are so harsh and fierce that they killed four religious the past year. But the others did not fear on that account to send new ministers to preserve the fruit that they were gathering among those souls, through their hope that, by their teaching, they will convert all of those people to the true knowledge. ”

“ Having disembarked first, according to the order that they bore, on the island of Zibù, the discalced were lodged in the convent of our calced fathers, the venerable bishop, and that example of prelates, Don Fray Pedro de Agurto, as we saw in his life, having gone out to receive them in procession. That most illustrious man desired that the new missionaries should not go further, and offered them a foundation and whatever they wished, in order to exercise themselves in the conversion and salvation of the infidels. ”

“ The order of the discalced Augustinians, which has extended into these islands, has been and is of great fruit in the spiritual by their general virtue, their exemplary lives, and their excellent teaching—both in the settlements of the Spaniards, where they have convents, and in those of the natives where the ministration and preaching of the holy gospel results in a very great harvest of souls. ”

“ Inasmuch as the said bishop lives with steadfast hopes of greater progress and advancement if he were again aided and reënforced with other laborers of their order, such as they, and resembling them, the sacred Congregation, attentive to this, petitions your Paternity, with the affection and earnestness that the salvation of so many souls merits, to effect and strive anew, with all the earnestness and care possible, to provide new religious and workers for those so remote and needy regions. We assure your Paternity that it will be a great service to God and to the holy apostolic see. ”

“ The mountains are full of fragrant flowers, and shelter a great number of wild boars. There are many species of birds, and fowls are reared in considerable abundance.
Although those islands were densely populated, the people were so barbarous that they seemed not to possess reason. For that cause our religious wished to cultivate that forest in order to sow the seed of the gospel. Notwithstanding [their savagery] , father Fray Francisco de San Nicolás, accompanied by another priest, named Fray Diego de Santa Ana, and a lay brother, went to the chief island of the Calamianes. ”

“ The discalced religious of the Order of St. Augustine, who are employed in these islands in preaching the holy gospel, are held in great esteem in this city of Manila because of their virtue and good example. They have three or four provinces of Indians in their charge, and, moved by holy and pious zeal for the welfare of souls, they continue daily to establish new convents among the most unconquerable people of the islands. ”

“ The ecclesiastical cabildo of Manila, occupying the vacant see, testified to the same king of España in another letter:
“The discalced Augustinian religious are very austere in their institute, and in their ministrations to the natives in the missions under their charge—who, as they are among the most untamable and fierce people in these regions, have killed and captured several of the religious. Consequently, they are very short of men, but have not failed in the service of your Majesty on the occasions that have offered by land and sea.” ”

“ They numbered some Spaniards and many negroes, both free and slave, and more Indians of different nations, who came to seek in that refuge relief from their sins and failings. They found that convent always open day and night and the religious ever ready to give them the health and life of their souls. After several years the province determined that that house should be made a college, and accordingly that was carried out. The arts and theology were studied there, for, although instruction and piety join hands, it was not advisable that the college and the house be in one place. ”

“ He went alone to look for him; having found him—to the great surprise of Inuc himself, who thought that the religious had great boldness in coming into his presence—the latter talked to him so fittingly and fervently, that the tyrant, having first pardoned the father’s coming without his leave, thanked him for the holy admonitions that he gave to him. Showing him great affection, Inuc admitted trade between his countrymen and the Spaniards; then he consented that the holy gospel might be preached in his territories. He gave his vassals an example by being baptized ”

“ Having received that reply, the archbishop “declared the said father, Fray Alonso de Valdemoro, to have incurred the penalty of greater excommunication and of suspension from his office as minister, which is imposed on him; and that, as such excommunicate, he was deprived of what excommunication deprives one; and in order that he might not allege or pretend ignorance, this declaration, stating that he has incurred the censures imposed, is to be read and communicated to him....” ”

“ But everything surrenders to the grace of God, and to the earnest zeal of His ministers, who consider only the honor of His Divine Majesty—from whom those pious workers received so great strength, that great wonder is caused by the consideration that people so given to witchcraft, cruelty, and injustice should have received the worship of the true God with so great affection and devotion. ”

“ It fell to the lot of father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio, also one of the eight above mentioned—who regarded but lightly the hardships that were represented to him, with unfortunate examples, as having encountered other ministers of the gospel—to journey more than fifty leguas, preaching the faith of Jesus Christ to the villages. He had serious and frequent difficulties in making himself heard; for the devil appeared in a visible form to the Indians, persuading them not to admit those fathers into their country, because of whom, so they said, dire calamities and troubles must happen to them. ”

“ On the other hand, the Indians consider the treatment received from the religious as severe, for they do not allow even the women to wear shoes, while they force the men of the province of Nueva Segovia to guard the church in rotation and turn. For whatever annoyance the Indians cause them, they question them with regard to the Christian doctrine, and their questions exceed those that persons with more reason and education can answer. ”

“ The natives were on the whole very savage, and had even more barbarous customs and greater stupidity than the inhabitants of the other islands. They have a knowledge of herbs. In Paragua especially, there are some very poisonous ones. They use them to bewitch their fellows and deprive them of life. There is one of so uncommon deadliness, that if it be chewed in the mouth, and if the exhalations from it be directed in a gentle current toward any person whom it is wished to destroy, his life is quickly taken away. ”

“ We cannot excuse ourselves, for the glory and honor of God, from referring to the souls whom Ours drew from the darkness of heathenism into the light of the Christian religion, in the provinces of Caragha, Butuan, Calamianes, and Cagaiang—for whose conservation it was thought necessary to found convents, whence the religious set out to overrun the country, administering sacraments, consoling some, subduing others, and always gaining souls for the Lord. ”

“ I charge the reverend father in Christ, the bishop of those islands, the venerable dean and cabildo of the cathedral church of the islands, all the curas, beneficiaries, sacristans, and other ecclesiastical persons, and the venerable and devout fathers provincial, guardians, priors, and other religious of the orders of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis, and all the other orders, that in what pertains to, and is incumbent on them, they observe and obey it, acting in harmony with you in every way that may be advisable and necessary. ”

“ And speaking with all truth, it seems to them a case of less value than that any Indian or Spaniard should imagine that there is any power in these kingdoms greater than their own. May God preserve the very Catholic person of your Majesty, with the increase of new kingdoms and the happiness of those that you possess, as Christendom has need, and as we your Majesty’s humble vassals and chaplains desire. ”