Chapter XXIIOf 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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]
Chapter XXIIOf 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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]
Chapter XXIIOf 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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]
Chapter XXIIOf 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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]
Chapter XXIIOf 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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]
Chapter XXIIOf 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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]
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 calledanitoan. The priestesses had been accustomed to invoke these oracles, for the ministry of idols among them was given over to women. These women, calledmanaganito, 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 devilasked 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, whichwas 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 hisgold 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 thepater-nosterhe 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 tookplace 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 Doña 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 thechurchyard, 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.]