Chapter 9

Chapter XThe province of Philipinas again receives the ministries of Calamiànes, which it had previously abandoned. Abundance of fruit is gathered there. Some religious die in España.The year 1681§ IOur religious begin again to preach the faith in the islands of Calamiànes; and the great fruit which they gather in the conversion of many heathen.823. [The Recollect missionaries of Philipinas can rightly be called apostolic because of their zeal.]824. In the year 1661, the Chinese pirate Kuesingsent an embassy to the Philipinas Islands, demanding nothing less than the vassalage of them all, and threatening the Spaniards who did not comply with what he called their obligation that they would feel all the weight of war on themselves. We have already treated of this matter in another place.42So far as we have to do with the matter here, various measures were taken in the islands because of the fears caused by the threat, in order that they might be defended in case that Kuesing fulfilled it. One of those measures was the abandonment of the presidios of Terrenàte, Zamboàngan, Calamiànes, and others, in order that they might be able to employ their troops, artillery, and munitions of war in defending the most important places. That decree was opposed very strongly, but the objections although they were thoroughly based on reason could not prevent such action being taken. Consequently, at the end of 1662 or at the beginning of 63 the presidios were actually withdrawn, and the Christian villages were left more exposed than ever to the invasions of the Moros. That so fatal resolution was also necessarily accompanied by the withdrawal of the evangelical ministers, for the fathers of the Society abandoned Zamboàngan and other sites, and our Recollect family the Calamiànes. Although no special regret was shown for that action at that time by the superior government of Manìla, to whom belongs the duty of furnishing spiritual ministers to the subject villages, yet years afterward the wrong was recognized, and the remedy was procured in due manner.825. The most fruitful preaching of Ours in theislands of Calamiànes has been already related in volume II;43as has also the conversion of their inhabitants, until then heathens; the marvels which divine Omnipotence worked there; the convents which were established for the extension of the Catholic faith; and the hardships endured by the missionaries in spreading it. Now, then, it must be noted that eight religious were well employed in all the islands of that jurisdiction, who looked after the spiritual administration of the Christian Indians and the conversion of the idolaters who were not few. But when they withdrew, only two remained in charge of the islands of Cuyo and Agutàya while the six betook themselves to Manìla or wherever their obedience assigned them. The place occupied by the six (where they labored to excess, as there were many Indians and they were spread out into many islands and settlements) was given to one single secular priest. He having his residence in Taytày, did as much as he was able in the other villages. But it is more than certain that he could do very little, if he did perchance succeed in doing anything. In this regard one can visibly see the spiritual wrong which followed those vassals of the king. Even an undeniable loss resulted to the royal treasury, for in a few years the Indian tributes were lessened almost by half. But notwithstanding that, neither Governor Don Diego de Salcedo nor the bishop of Zebù, to whom it belonged in its various aspects to supply the remedy of one and the other wrong, would manifest that they understood it.826. Thus did things go on for seventeen yearsuntil the year 1680, when the Indian chiefs of Calamiànes having united among themselves, presented a memorial to Governor Don Juan de Bargas Hurtado. In it, after mentioning the wrongs above mentioned, and the love which they always professed to our religious, their first ministers, they urgently petitioned that the Augustinian Recollects be assigned them as parish priests. The fact that the cura, Don Antonio de Figueròa, the only missionary in Calamiànes, in addition to having been presented for the curacy of Tabùco in the archbishopric of Manìla, had now been sick for two months and unable to administer the sacraments, lent force to that representation. On that account he petitioned with double justice that a successor be sent to him, but no secular ecclesiastic could be found who knew the language of the country, nor would risk the mission which was now of but very small profit. For those reasons, the abovesaid governor despatched an order to our provincial on May 11 of the said year, asking and charging him, and even ordering him in the king’s name, to assign religious of his order, in order that they might go to reassume possession of the villages of Calamiànes, so that they might attend to its spiritual administration. He hoped that by means of their wonted zeal, that province would be restored to its former splendor through their direction and teaching, and that the number of the Christians would increase in the proportion desired.827. But notwithstanding that, the father provincial negotiated with his definitory in order to interpose a supplication in regard to the said act, and refused to send evangelical laborers, the total cause of such action being the lack of religious. Healleged, then, that since his province had assumed charge of the ministries of the Contracosta and of Mindòro, where many subjects were employed; and in consideration of the lack of men which the discalced order suffered there, which could not be helped: not only was it clearly impossible for him to assign missionaries to Calamiànes, but also that he saw that it was necessary for the reformed branch to reiterate his petition made previously to the royal Audiencia, in regard to withdrawing the two ministers who were occupied in the island of Cùyo, as there was a notable lack in other villages. That allegation was sent by decree of the superior government to Don Diego Antonio de Viga, of the Council of his Majesty and his fiscal in the Audiencia of Manìla. On the sixteenth of the same month and year, he maintained that notwithstanding the representation made by the father provincial (since no other order contained ministers who understood the language of the Calamiànes), the necessary provision must be despatched, in accordance with the second and last warning, ordering the Recollect province to establish missionaries in Calamiànes and not to withdraw those of Cùyo. He was confident in the apostolic zeal with which they have ever applied themselves to the ministry, that notwithstanding their small number they would accomplish the task which demanded many laborers.828. The governor conformed to the plea of the fiscal. Consequently, on the same day he despatched in due form a second decree in the king’s name, ordering the superior prelate of our province, in consideration of the extreme necessity of the islands of Calamiànes, to immediately establish the necessaryministers therein for the spiritual consolation of those Indians. He added that Don Fray Diego de Aguilar of the Order of Preachers, the bishop recently appointed for Zebù (to whose miter the said islands belonged) despatched ex-officio his decree also charging our province with the administration of all the Christian villages established in Calamiànes, or that were to be established in the future; and says that he does so in consideration of the apostolic zeal of our reformed order and the spirit that always assists them in trampling under foot the greatest fatigues, so that many souls might be gathered into the flock of the Catholic church. Thereupon the father provincial, Fray Thomàs de San Geronimo, could offer no more resistance and sent father Fray Nicolàs de Santa Ana as vicar-provincial of Calamiànes, with two associates. The alcalde-mayor of the said province, Don Diego Bibièn Henriquez, placed them in possession of the ministry of Taytày (which is the chief one of them all) on the first of November, 1680, to the universal joy of the Indians. The latter showed by extraordinary festivals their joy at seeing that the direction of their spirits was in charge of the same fathers who had engendered them through the gospel. The king, by his decree dated December 24, 1682, confirmed the said possession at the petition of the father commissary of Philipinas, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, with great signs of his royal pleasure.829. Of the three religious newly assigned, father Fray Nicolàs established his residence in Taytày; the second was located in the island of Dumaràn; and the third in the village of Tancòn. From those places they labored according to their strength, untilthe arrival at Philipinas of the band of missionaries which was conducted by the father commissary, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, which entered Manìla in October 1684, when a greater number of missionaries could be assigned, as was very necessary for the direction of so many Indians. For the extensive territory which was formerly administered by only one cura, has later given worthy employment to five, six, or seven of our religious, to say nothing of the two at the least, who have been stationed continually in the islands of Cùyo. Hence one may infer how much the Catholic faith has been extended there, now by reducing into the villages the many natives who had fled to the mountains, after abandoning almost entirely their Christian obligations; now by undeceiving others who lack but little of becoming Moros, because of their nearness and intercourse with those people; and now by penetrating into the roughest mountains of Paràgua in order to draw the souls from the darkness of paganism to the agreeable light of the Christian religion.830. In regard to these particulars, we consider it necessary to reproduce at this point a portion of a letter written May 28, 1683, to our father vicar-general, Fray Juan de la Presentacion, by the recently-elected father provincial of those islands, Fray Isidoro de Jesus Maria, a person well known in Europa for the literary productions which he has published. He speaks, then, as follows: “The urgings of the Indians of the province of Calamiànes to the ecclesiastical and secular government and to my predecessors, have availed so much, that this province has judged that the precept of Christian charity demands us to return to that administration, trustingin God our Lord for the relief of the very great disadvantages which had compelled our religious who had administered and reared that field of Christendom from its beginning, to withdraw from that province. At the present it has increased by more than two thousand souls who have been drawn from the mountains in less than three years, as can be seen from the relations sent to the chapter. Greater fruits are hoped for, because in the past year of 82, the ambassador of the king of Borney in the name of his prince, arranged with the governor of these islands for the cession of a not small amount of land and number of settlements, which are subject to the said Bornèy—one in the island of Paràgua, one of the islands of Calamiànes. The confirmation of the pact with his ambassador is awaited from Bornèy, so that that district may really be incorporated with the rest which is subject to the king our sovereign; and consequently, to introduce by means of our religious, the Catholic faith among those new vassals of his Majesty.”831. Then he goes on to treat of the unsupportable hardships suffered in Calamiànes by the evangelical ministers. I have thought it best not to omit his relation, in order that one may see how much merit is acquired in the promulgation of the faith amid such anxieties. “But the devil,” he continues, “who watches that he may not lose the souls of which he finds himself inquasipossession, has raised up at this time a cloud of dust, by which he has prevented and is preventing in many of these remote parts the obtaining of many souls and is occasioning the loss of others. For as I am advised by the letters of the religious of Calamiànes, under date of theeighteenth of the current month and of the twenty-second of the past month of April, that the alcaldes-mayor who have governed that jurisdiction (and even more he who is governing it at present, who is a lad of 21, a servant of the governor and of these islands) cause so great and continual troubles both to the father ministers and to the natives of the country, that the latter, although Christians, have retired from their villages of Taytày, Dumaràn, and Paràgua to the mountains in order to escape their intolerable oppression. They exclaim that they are not withdrawing from obedience to his Majesty and that they do not intend to abandon their profession as Christians, but that they do not dare to live in the more than enslaved condition in which the alcaldes-mayor, carried away by their insatiable greed, confine them. The father prior of Taytày writes me that he has entered the mountains with every danger from the enemy, in search of his terrified and scattered sheep; and notwithstanding all the efforts and warnings that he has made and given them he has not been able to succeed in getting them to return to their villages, unless another alcalde-mayor be assigned to them, and relief offered for the extreme oppression that is offered to them. They answer the arguments of the father by telling him not to tire himself, ‘for we can ill hope,’ they say, ‘that he who tramples on the sacred dignity of a priest, will have any moderation with regard to us.’ They assert this because they saw that the last alcalde-mayor lifted his cane against father Fray Domingo de San Agustin, and struck him while he was putting on his clerical robes to say mass; and that the present alcalde-mayor treated the religious with indignityeven to the point of taking from them the one who takes them their necessary support, so that they have had to find for themselves the water that they drink. He has taken from them the sacristans and other servants of the Church without leaving them even anyone to aid them in the mass. He has forbidden the Indians to enter the convent or to assist in any of the things to which they are obliged. He has forbidden them to go out as they ought to the visitas, and to confess, preach, and catechize. It is all directed to the end that the Indians might not be busied in anything else than in getting wax for the alcalde-mayor. Hence this is the source and beginning of the troubles suffered by the poor Indians. They are not only not permitted to make use of their natural right, but are prevented from giving the due execution to his Majesty’s orders, from entering and going out, from trading and trafficking one with another, and one village with another, for if they have anything to buy or to sell, it must be entirely for the alcalde-mayor. These notices are necessarily communicated in the lands of the infidels. Just consider, your Reverence, what will be the condition of their minds, when we try to reduce them to the knowledge of our good God, and to the obedience of the king our sovereign. I have informed the governor in regard to this, and since I do not expect any relief from his hand, I entreat your Reverence to procure it from the royal piety with the memorial and documents adjoined. If not we shall have to appeal to God, for such troubles are of very frequent occurrence in various parts of these islands. We never cease to wonder when we see some Spaniards here who are so destitute of Christianconsiderations, and so clothed in greed, God so permitting by His lofty judgments, in exchange for the martyrdoms that are lacking to us religious in Japòn.”832. We believe, although we are not altogether sure, that the suitable relief was given on one and the other side, for in the following years, we find that the Catholic faith made very extraordinary gains in Calamiànes. This is proved by the reëstablishment of the ancient convents and ministries. It appears that the chapter of 1686 erected a new mission in the village of Tancòn which was later moved to the village of Culiòn. The chapter of 1695 established another distinct mission in the island of Dumaràn, and that of 1698 a third one in the island of Lincapàn; and we see that that of 1746 has added two other ministries, the first in the island of Alutaya, and the second in the village of Calatàn. That is sure proof of the increase of the Christians, when the evangelical laborers are so increased. In regard to the above we must mention what appears from acts and judicial reports which the superior government of Manìla sent to the Council of the Indias, and which are conserved in its secretary’s office in the department of Nueva España; namely, that when our province of Calamiànes was again given to us, all the islands contained only 4,500 Christian souls, but that in the year 1715 they amounted to 18,600. And even after the continual and furious persecution, which is mentioned briefly in the third volume44had intervened, with which it is undeniable that the number of believers had decreased greatly, father Fray JuanFrancisco de San Antonio notes in the history of his province of San Gregorio de Philipinas45that there were 21,076 Christian souls in the islands of Calamiànes and Romblòn in the year 1735. Hence subtracting about five thousand from that number for those of the island of Romblòn, there is a remainder of about sixteen thousand for Calamiànes.46Let us give praises to God who thus maintains the zeal of those fervent laborers and crowns their fatigues with so abundant fruits.[Section ii of this chapter mentions the virtues and holiness of some of the Indians of the missions of Calamiànes. The first mentioned was one Joseph Bagumbàyan, a native of Taytày, who was reared in the convent of that village by the Recollects. The rearing of such children is described as follows: “The holy orders of Philipinas are wont to take account of the sons of the chief Indians of the villages under their charge, in order to teach themgood morals from childhood, and rear them with those qualities which are considered necessary to enable them to govern their respective villages afterward with success, since the administration of justice is always put in charge of such Indians. They live in the convents from childhood in charge of the gravest fathers. The latter are called masters, although in strictness they are tutors or teachers who would right gladly avoid such service. In this meaning, and in no other, must one understand whatever is said about our religious having servants in the Philipinas. I have heard scruples expressed here in España over this bare kind [of service], when it ought to be a matter for edification to see that in addition to the truly gigantic toils that our brothers there load upon their shoulders, they voluntarily take this very troublesome one of rearing a few children who serve only to exercise the patience.” Joseph strove to imitate the fathers as much as possible, in self sacrifice and austerity, and desired to become a donné, “which was the most to which he could aspire, since he was only an Indian.” That, however, being denied him, he was enrolled in the confraternity of the Correa or girdle, and admitted as a spiritual brother of the Recollect order. He acted as teacher of boys for over fifty years, teaching them reading, writing, arithmetic, and music. At his death he was buried in the Recollect church at Taytày. One of the boys taught by Joseph was Bartolomè Lingòn. At the age of fifteen he was appointed to assist Fray Alonso de San Agustin or Garcias, who arrived in Philipinas in 1684 and was sent immediately to Calamiànes. Although he desired to remain unmarried, he was married at the request of the missionaries to a devout woman named MagdalenaIlìng. He acted as the chief sacristan of the Recollect church in Taytày, ever taking great delight in the service of the church and his duties therein. He survived his wife three years, dying in January 1696. His wife had been born in Laguna de Paràgua but had lived in Taytày most of her life with a Christian aunt. Although she wished to devote her life exclusively to religion she was persuaded by the religious to marry Bartolomè. Her devotion led her to teach the girls of the village without pay. Of a gentle disposition she was yet unyielding on occasions of necessity and although tempted by an alcalde-mayor who was enamored of her beauty and made improper proposals to her, she ever maintained her virtue. At her death by cancer of the breast, she was buried in the Recollect church. The last two sections of this chapter have nothing on the Philippines.]

The province of Philipinas again receives the ministries of Calamiànes, which it had previously abandoned. Abundance of fruit is gathered there. Some religious die in España.

The year 1681

§ IOur religious begin again to preach the faith in the islands of Calamiànes; and the great fruit which they gather in the conversion of many heathen.823. [The Recollect missionaries of Philipinas can rightly be called apostolic because of their zeal.]824. In the year 1661, the Chinese pirate Kuesingsent an embassy to the Philipinas Islands, demanding nothing less than the vassalage of them all, and threatening the Spaniards who did not comply with what he called their obligation that they would feel all the weight of war on themselves. We have already treated of this matter in another place.42So far as we have to do with the matter here, various measures were taken in the islands because of the fears caused by the threat, in order that they might be defended in case that Kuesing fulfilled it. One of those measures was the abandonment of the presidios of Terrenàte, Zamboàngan, Calamiànes, and others, in order that they might be able to employ their troops, artillery, and munitions of war in defending the most important places. That decree was opposed very strongly, but the objections although they were thoroughly based on reason could not prevent such action being taken. Consequently, at the end of 1662 or at the beginning of 63 the presidios were actually withdrawn, and the Christian villages were left more exposed than ever to the invasions of the Moros. That so fatal resolution was also necessarily accompanied by the withdrawal of the evangelical ministers, for the fathers of the Society abandoned Zamboàngan and other sites, and our Recollect family the Calamiànes. Although no special regret was shown for that action at that time by the superior government of Manìla, to whom belongs the duty of furnishing spiritual ministers to the subject villages, yet years afterward the wrong was recognized, and the remedy was procured in due manner.825. The most fruitful preaching of Ours in theislands of Calamiànes has been already related in volume II;43as has also the conversion of their inhabitants, until then heathens; the marvels which divine Omnipotence worked there; the convents which were established for the extension of the Catholic faith; and the hardships endured by the missionaries in spreading it. Now, then, it must be noted that eight religious were well employed in all the islands of that jurisdiction, who looked after the spiritual administration of the Christian Indians and the conversion of the idolaters who were not few. But when they withdrew, only two remained in charge of the islands of Cuyo and Agutàya while the six betook themselves to Manìla or wherever their obedience assigned them. The place occupied by the six (where they labored to excess, as there were many Indians and they were spread out into many islands and settlements) was given to one single secular priest. He having his residence in Taytày, did as much as he was able in the other villages. But it is more than certain that he could do very little, if he did perchance succeed in doing anything. In this regard one can visibly see the spiritual wrong which followed those vassals of the king. Even an undeniable loss resulted to the royal treasury, for in a few years the Indian tributes were lessened almost by half. But notwithstanding that, neither Governor Don Diego de Salcedo nor the bishop of Zebù, to whom it belonged in its various aspects to supply the remedy of one and the other wrong, would manifest that they understood it.826. Thus did things go on for seventeen yearsuntil the year 1680, when the Indian chiefs of Calamiànes having united among themselves, presented a memorial to Governor Don Juan de Bargas Hurtado. In it, after mentioning the wrongs above mentioned, and the love which they always professed to our religious, their first ministers, they urgently petitioned that the Augustinian Recollects be assigned them as parish priests. The fact that the cura, Don Antonio de Figueròa, the only missionary in Calamiànes, in addition to having been presented for the curacy of Tabùco in the archbishopric of Manìla, had now been sick for two months and unable to administer the sacraments, lent force to that representation. On that account he petitioned with double justice that a successor be sent to him, but no secular ecclesiastic could be found who knew the language of the country, nor would risk the mission which was now of but very small profit. For those reasons, the abovesaid governor despatched an order to our provincial on May 11 of the said year, asking and charging him, and even ordering him in the king’s name, to assign religious of his order, in order that they might go to reassume possession of the villages of Calamiànes, so that they might attend to its spiritual administration. He hoped that by means of their wonted zeal, that province would be restored to its former splendor through their direction and teaching, and that the number of the Christians would increase in the proportion desired.827. But notwithstanding that, the father provincial negotiated with his definitory in order to interpose a supplication in regard to the said act, and refused to send evangelical laborers, the total cause of such action being the lack of religious. Healleged, then, that since his province had assumed charge of the ministries of the Contracosta and of Mindòro, where many subjects were employed; and in consideration of the lack of men which the discalced order suffered there, which could not be helped: not only was it clearly impossible for him to assign missionaries to Calamiànes, but also that he saw that it was necessary for the reformed branch to reiterate his petition made previously to the royal Audiencia, in regard to withdrawing the two ministers who were occupied in the island of Cùyo, as there was a notable lack in other villages. That allegation was sent by decree of the superior government to Don Diego Antonio de Viga, of the Council of his Majesty and his fiscal in the Audiencia of Manìla. On the sixteenth of the same month and year, he maintained that notwithstanding the representation made by the father provincial (since no other order contained ministers who understood the language of the Calamiànes), the necessary provision must be despatched, in accordance with the second and last warning, ordering the Recollect province to establish missionaries in Calamiànes and not to withdraw those of Cùyo. He was confident in the apostolic zeal with which they have ever applied themselves to the ministry, that notwithstanding their small number they would accomplish the task which demanded many laborers.828. The governor conformed to the plea of the fiscal. Consequently, on the same day he despatched in due form a second decree in the king’s name, ordering the superior prelate of our province, in consideration of the extreme necessity of the islands of Calamiànes, to immediately establish the necessaryministers therein for the spiritual consolation of those Indians. He added that Don Fray Diego de Aguilar of the Order of Preachers, the bishop recently appointed for Zebù (to whose miter the said islands belonged) despatched ex-officio his decree also charging our province with the administration of all the Christian villages established in Calamiànes, or that were to be established in the future; and says that he does so in consideration of the apostolic zeal of our reformed order and the spirit that always assists them in trampling under foot the greatest fatigues, so that many souls might be gathered into the flock of the Catholic church. Thereupon the father provincial, Fray Thomàs de San Geronimo, could offer no more resistance and sent father Fray Nicolàs de Santa Ana as vicar-provincial of Calamiànes, with two associates. The alcalde-mayor of the said province, Don Diego Bibièn Henriquez, placed them in possession of the ministry of Taytày (which is the chief one of them all) on the first of November, 1680, to the universal joy of the Indians. The latter showed by extraordinary festivals their joy at seeing that the direction of their spirits was in charge of the same fathers who had engendered them through the gospel. The king, by his decree dated December 24, 1682, confirmed the said possession at the petition of the father commissary of Philipinas, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, with great signs of his royal pleasure.829. Of the three religious newly assigned, father Fray Nicolàs established his residence in Taytày; the second was located in the island of Dumaràn; and the third in the village of Tancòn. From those places they labored according to their strength, untilthe arrival at Philipinas of the band of missionaries which was conducted by the father commissary, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, which entered Manìla in October 1684, when a greater number of missionaries could be assigned, as was very necessary for the direction of so many Indians. For the extensive territory which was formerly administered by only one cura, has later given worthy employment to five, six, or seven of our religious, to say nothing of the two at the least, who have been stationed continually in the islands of Cùyo. Hence one may infer how much the Catholic faith has been extended there, now by reducing into the villages the many natives who had fled to the mountains, after abandoning almost entirely their Christian obligations; now by undeceiving others who lack but little of becoming Moros, because of their nearness and intercourse with those people; and now by penetrating into the roughest mountains of Paràgua in order to draw the souls from the darkness of paganism to the agreeable light of the Christian religion.830. In regard to these particulars, we consider it necessary to reproduce at this point a portion of a letter written May 28, 1683, to our father vicar-general, Fray Juan de la Presentacion, by the recently-elected father provincial of those islands, Fray Isidoro de Jesus Maria, a person well known in Europa for the literary productions which he has published. He speaks, then, as follows: “The urgings of the Indians of the province of Calamiànes to the ecclesiastical and secular government and to my predecessors, have availed so much, that this province has judged that the precept of Christian charity demands us to return to that administration, trustingin God our Lord for the relief of the very great disadvantages which had compelled our religious who had administered and reared that field of Christendom from its beginning, to withdraw from that province. At the present it has increased by more than two thousand souls who have been drawn from the mountains in less than three years, as can be seen from the relations sent to the chapter. Greater fruits are hoped for, because in the past year of 82, the ambassador of the king of Borney in the name of his prince, arranged with the governor of these islands for the cession of a not small amount of land and number of settlements, which are subject to the said Bornèy—one in the island of Paràgua, one of the islands of Calamiànes. The confirmation of the pact with his ambassador is awaited from Bornèy, so that that district may really be incorporated with the rest which is subject to the king our sovereign; and consequently, to introduce by means of our religious, the Catholic faith among those new vassals of his Majesty.”831. Then he goes on to treat of the unsupportable hardships suffered in Calamiànes by the evangelical ministers. I have thought it best not to omit his relation, in order that one may see how much merit is acquired in the promulgation of the faith amid such anxieties. “But the devil,” he continues, “who watches that he may not lose the souls of which he finds himself inquasipossession, has raised up at this time a cloud of dust, by which he has prevented and is preventing in many of these remote parts the obtaining of many souls and is occasioning the loss of others. For as I am advised by the letters of the religious of Calamiànes, under date of theeighteenth of the current month and of the twenty-second of the past month of April, that the alcaldes-mayor who have governed that jurisdiction (and even more he who is governing it at present, who is a lad of 21, a servant of the governor and of these islands) cause so great and continual troubles both to the father ministers and to the natives of the country, that the latter, although Christians, have retired from their villages of Taytày, Dumaràn, and Paràgua to the mountains in order to escape their intolerable oppression. They exclaim that they are not withdrawing from obedience to his Majesty and that they do not intend to abandon their profession as Christians, but that they do not dare to live in the more than enslaved condition in which the alcaldes-mayor, carried away by their insatiable greed, confine them. The father prior of Taytày writes me that he has entered the mountains with every danger from the enemy, in search of his terrified and scattered sheep; and notwithstanding all the efforts and warnings that he has made and given them he has not been able to succeed in getting them to return to their villages, unless another alcalde-mayor be assigned to them, and relief offered for the extreme oppression that is offered to them. They answer the arguments of the father by telling him not to tire himself, ‘for we can ill hope,’ they say, ‘that he who tramples on the sacred dignity of a priest, will have any moderation with regard to us.’ They assert this because they saw that the last alcalde-mayor lifted his cane against father Fray Domingo de San Agustin, and struck him while he was putting on his clerical robes to say mass; and that the present alcalde-mayor treated the religious with indignityeven to the point of taking from them the one who takes them their necessary support, so that they have had to find for themselves the water that they drink. He has taken from them the sacristans and other servants of the Church without leaving them even anyone to aid them in the mass. He has forbidden the Indians to enter the convent or to assist in any of the things to which they are obliged. He has forbidden them to go out as they ought to the visitas, and to confess, preach, and catechize. It is all directed to the end that the Indians might not be busied in anything else than in getting wax for the alcalde-mayor. Hence this is the source and beginning of the troubles suffered by the poor Indians. They are not only not permitted to make use of their natural right, but are prevented from giving the due execution to his Majesty’s orders, from entering and going out, from trading and trafficking one with another, and one village with another, for if they have anything to buy or to sell, it must be entirely for the alcalde-mayor. These notices are necessarily communicated in the lands of the infidels. Just consider, your Reverence, what will be the condition of their minds, when we try to reduce them to the knowledge of our good God, and to the obedience of the king our sovereign. I have informed the governor in regard to this, and since I do not expect any relief from his hand, I entreat your Reverence to procure it from the royal piety with the memorial and documents adjoined. If not we shall have to appeal to God, for such troubles are of very frequent occurrence in various parts of these islands. We never cease to wonder when we see some Spaniards here who are so destitute of Christianconsiderations, and so clothed in greed, God so permitting by His lofty judgments, in exchange for the martyrdoms that are lacking to us religious in Japòn.”832. We believe, although we are not altogether sure, that the suitable relief was given on one and the other side, for in the following years, we find that the Catholic faith made very extraordinary gains in Calamiànes. This is proved by the reëstablishment of the ancient convents and ministries. It appears that the chapter of 1686 erected a new mission in the village of Tancòn which was later moved to the village of Culiòn. The chapter of 1695 established another distinct mission in the island of Dumaràn, and that of 1698 a third one in the island of Lincapàn; and we see that that of 1746 has added two other ministries, the first in the island of Alutaya, and the second in the village of Calatàn. That is sure proof of the increase of the Christians, when the evangelical laborers are so increased. In regard to the above we must mention what appears from acts and judicial reports which the superior government of Manìla sent to the Council of the Indias, and which are conserved in its secretary’s office in the department of Nueva España; namely, that when our province of Calamiànes was again given to us, all the islands contained only 4,500 Christian souls, but that in the year 1715 they amounted to 18,600. And even after the continual and furious persecution, which is mentioned briefly in the third volume44had intervened, with which it is undeniable that the number of believers had decreased greatly, father Fray JuanFrancisco de San Antonio notes in the history of his province of San Gregorio de Philipinas45that there were 21,076 Christian souls in the islands of Calamiànes and Romblòn in the year 1735. Hence subtracting about five thousand from that number for those of the island of Romblòn, there is a remainder of about sixteen thousand for Calamiànes.46Let us give praises to God who thus maintains the zeal of those fervent laborers and crowns their fatigues with so abundant fruits.[Section ii of this chapter mentions the virtues and holiness of some of the Indians of the missions of Calamiànes. The first mentioned was one Joseph Bagumbàyan, a native of Taytày, who was reared in the convent of that village by the Recollects. The rearing of such children is described as follows: “The holy orders of Philipinas are wont to take account of the sons of the chief Indians of the villages under their charge, in order to teach themgood morals from childhood, and rear them with those qualities which are considered necessary to enable them to govern their respective villages afterward with success, since the administration of justice is always put in charge of such Indians. They live in the convents from childhood in charge of the gravest fathers. The latter are called masters, although in strictness they are tutors or teachers who would right gladly avoid such service. In this meaning, and in no other, must one understand whatever is said about our religious having servants in the Philipinas. I have heard scruples expressed here in España over this bare kind [of service], when it ought to be a matter for edification to see that in addition to the truly gigantic toils that our brothers there load upon their shoulders, they voluntarily take this very troublesome one of rearing a few children who serve only to exercise the patience.” Joseph strove to imitate the fathers as much as possible, in self sacrifice and austerity, and desired to become a donné, “which was the most to which he could aspire, since he was only an Indian.” That, however, being denied him, he was enrolled in the confraternity of the Correa or girdle, and admitted as a spiritual brother of the Recollect order. He acted as teacher of boys for over fifty years, teaching them reading, writing, arithmetic, and music. At his death he was buried in the Recollect church at Taytày. One of the boys taught by Joseph was Bartolomè Lingòn. At the age of fifteen he was appointed to assist Fray Alonso de San Agustin or Garcias, who arrived in Philipinas in 1684 and was sent immediately to Calamiànes. Although he desired to remain unmarried, he was married at the request of the missionaries to a devout woman named MagdalenaIlìng. He acted as the chief sacristan of the Recollect church in Taytày, ever taking great delight in the service of the church and his duties therein. He survived his wife three years, dying in January 1696. His wife had been born in Laguna de Paràgua but had lived in Taytày most of her life with a Christian aunt. Although she wished to devote her life exclusively to religion she was persuaded by the religious to marry Bartolomè. Her devotion led her to teach the girls of the village without pay. Of a gentle disposition she was yet unyielding on occasions of necessity and although tempted by an alcalde-mayor who was enamored of her beauty and made improper proposals to her, she ever maintained her virtue. At her death by cancer of the breast, she was buried in the Recollect church. The last two sections of this chapter have nothing on the Philippines.]

Our religious begin again to preach the faith in the islands of Calamiànes; and the great fruit which they gather in the conversion of many heathen.

823. [The Recollect missionaries of Philipinas can rightly be called apostolic because of their zeal.]

824. In the year 1661, the Chinese pirate Kuesingsent an embassy to the Philipinas Islands, demanding nothing less than the vassalage of them all, and threatening the Spaniards who did not comply with what he called their obligation that they would feel all the weight of war on themselves. We have already treated of this matter in another place.42So far as we have to do with the matter here, various measures were taken in the islands because of the fears caused by the threat, in order that they might be defended in case that Kuesing fulfilled it. One of those measures was the abandonment of the presidios of Terrenàte, Zamboàngan, Calamiànes, and others, in order that they might be able to employ their troops, artillery, and munitions of war in defending the most important places. That decree was opposed very strongly, but the objections although they were thoroughly based on reason could not prevent such action being taken. Consequently, at the end of 1662 or at the beginning of 63 the presidios were actually withdrawn, and the Christian villages were left more exposed than ever to the invasions of the Moros. That so fatal resolution was also necessarily accompanied by the withdrawal of the evangelical ministers, for the fathers of the Society abandoned Zamboàngan and other sites, and our Recollect family the Calamiànes. Although no special regret was shown for that action at that time by the superior government of Manìla, to whom belongs the duty of furnishing spiritual ministers to the subject villages, yet years afterward the wrong was recognized, and the remedy was procured in due manner.

825. The most fruitful preaching of Ours in theislands of Calamiànes has been already related in volume II;43as has also the conversion of their inhabitants, until then heathens; the marvels which divine Omnipotence worked there; the convents which were established for the extension of the Catholic faith; and the hardships endured by the missionaries in spreading it. Now, then, it must be noted that eight religious were well employed in all the islands of that jurisdiction, who looked after the spiritual administration of the Christian Indians and the conversion of the idolaters who were not few. But when they withdrew, only two remained in charge of the islands of Cuyo and Agutàya while the six betook themselves to Manìla or wherever their obedience assigned them. The place occupied by the six (where they labored to excess, as there were many Indians and they were spread out into many islands and settlements) was given to one single secular priest. He having his residence in Taytày, did as much as he was able in the other villages. But it is more than certain that he could do very little, if he did perchance succeed in doing anything. In this regard one can visibly see the spiritual wrong which followed those vassals of the king. Even an undeniable loss resulted to the royal treasury, for in a few years the Indian tributes were lessened almost by half. But notwithstanding that, neither Governor Don Diego de Salcedo nor the bishop of Zebù, to whom it belonged in its various aspects to supply the remedy of one and the other wrong, would manifest that they understood it.

826. Thus did things go on for seventeen yearsuntil the year 1680, when the Indian chiefs of Calamiànes having united among themselves, presented a memorial to Governor Don Juan de Bargas Hurtado. In it, after mentioning the wrongs above mentioned, and the love which they always professed to our religious, their first ministers, they urgently petitioned that the Augustinian Recollects be assigned them as parish priests. The fact that the cura, Don Antonio de Figueròa, the only missionary in Calamiànes, in addition to having been presented for the curacy of Tabùco in the archbishopric of Manìla, had now been sick for two months and unable to administer the sacraments, lent force to that representation. On that account he petitioned with double justice that a successor be sent to him, but no secular ecclesiastic could be found who knew the language of the country, nor would risk the mission which was now of but very small profit. For those reasons, the abovesaid governor despatched an order to our provincial on May 11 of the said year, asking and charging him, and even ordering him in the king’s name, to assign religious of his order, in order that they might go to reassume possession of the villages of Calamiànes, so that they might attend to its spiritual administration. He hoped that by means of their wonted zeal, that province would be restored to its former splendor through their direction and teaching, and that the number of the Christians would increase in the proportion desired.

827. But notwithstanding that, the father provincial negotiated with his definitory in order to interpose a supplication in regard to the said act, and refused to send evangelical laborers, the total cause of such action being the lack of religious. Healleged, then, that since his province had assumed charge of the ministries of the Contracosta and of Mindòro, where many subjects were employed; and in consideration of the lack of men which the discalced order suffered there, which could not be helped: not only was it clearly impossible for him to assign missionaries to Calamiànes, but also that he saw that it was necessary for the reformed branch to reiterate his petition made previously to the royal Audiencia, in regard to withdrawing the two ministers who were occupied in the island of Cùyo, as there was a notable lack in other villages. That allegation was sent by decree of the superior government to Don Diego Antonio de Viga, of the Council of his Majesty and his fiscal in the Audiencia of Manìla. On the sixteenth of the same month and year, he maintained that notwithstanding the representation made by the father provincial (since no other order contained ministers who understood the language of the Calamiànes), the necessary provision must be despatched, in accordance with the second and last warning, ordering the Recollect province to establish missionaries in Calamiànes and not to withdraw those of Cùyo. He was confident in the apostolic zeal with which they have ever applied themselves to the ministry, that notwithstanding their small number they would accomplish the task which demanded many laborers.

828. The governor conformed to the plea of the fiscal. Consequently, on the same day he despatched in due form a second decree in the king’s name, ordering the superior prelate of our province, in consideration of the extreme necessity of the islands of Calamiànes, to immediately establish the necessaryministers therein for the spiritual consolation of those Indians. He added that Don Fray Diego de Aguilar of the Order of Preachers, the bishop recently appointed for Zebù (to whose miter the said islands belonged) despatched ex-officio his decree also charging our province with the administration of all the Christian villages established in Calamiànes, or that were to be established in the future; and says that he does so in consideration of the apostolic zeal of our reformed order and the spirit that always assists them in trampling under foot the greatest fatigues, so that many souls might be gathered into the flock of the Catholic church. Thereupon the father provincial, Fray Thomàs de San Geronimo, could offer no more resistance and sent father Fray Nicolàs de Santa Ana as vicar-provincial of Calamiànes, with two associates. The alcalde-mayor of the said province, Don Diego Bibièn Henriquez, placed them in possession of the ministry of Taytày (which is the chief one of them all) on the first of November, 1680, to the universal joy of the Indians. The latter showed by extraordinary festivals their joy at seeing that the direction of their spirits was in charge of the same fathers who had engendered them through the gospel. The king, by his decree dated December 24, 1682, confirmed the said possession at the petition of the father commissary of Philipinas, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, with great signs of his royal pleasure.

829. Of the three religious newly assigned, father Fray Nicolàs established his residence in Taytày; the second was located in the island of Dumaràn; and the third in the village of Tancòn. From those places they labored according to their strength, untilthe arrival at Philipinas of the band of missionaries which was conducted by the father commissary, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, which entered Manìla in October 1684, when a greater number of missionaries could be assigned, as was very necessary for the direction of so many Indians. For the extensive territory which was formerly administered by only one cura, has later given worthy employment to five, six, or seven of our religious, to say nothing of the two at the least, who have been stationed continually in the islands of Cùyo. Hence one may infer how much the Catholic faith has been extended there, now by reducing into the villages the many natives who had fled to the mountains, after abandoning almost entirely their Christian obligations; now by undeceiving others who lack but little of becoming Moros, because of their nearness and intercourse with those people; and now by penetrating into the roughest mountains of Paràgua in order to draw the souls from the darkness of paganism to the agreeable light of the Christian religion.

830. In regard to these particulars, we consider it necessary to reproduce at this point a portion of a letter written May 28, 1683, to our father vicar-general, Fray Juan de la Presentacion, by the recently-elected father provincial of those islands, Fray Isidoro de Jesus Maria, a person well known in Europa for the literary productions which he has published. He speaks, then, as follows: “The urgings of the Indians of the province of Calamiànes to the ecclesiastical and secular government and to my predecessors, have availed so much, that this province has judged that the precept of Christian charity demands us to return to that administration, trustingin God our Lord for the relief of the very great disadvantages which had compelled our religious who had administered and reared that field of Christendom from its beginning, to withdraw from that province. At the present it has increased by more than two thousand souls who have been drawn from the mountains in less than three years, as can be seen from the relations sent to the chapter. Greater fruits are hoped for, because in the past year of 82, the ambassador of the king of Borney in the name of his prince, arranged with the governor of these islands for the cession of a not small amount of land and number of settlements, which are subject to the said Bornèy—one in the island of Paràgua, one of the islands of Calamiànes. The confirmation of the pact with his ambassador is awaited from Bornèy, so that that district may really be incorporated with the rest which is subject to the king our sovereign; and consequently, to introduce by means of our religious, the Catholic faith among those new vassals of his Majesty.”

831. Then he goes on to treat of the unsupportable hardships suffered in Calamiànes by the evangelical ministers. I have thought it best not to omit his relation, in order that one may see how much merit is acquired in the promulgation of the faith amid such anxieties. “But the devil,” he continues, “who watches that he may not lose the souls of which he finds himself inquasipossession, has raised up at this time a cloud of dust, by which he has prevented and is preventing in many of these remote parts the obtaining of many souls and is occasioning the loss of others. For as I am advised by the letters of the religious of Calamiànes, under date of theeighteenth of the current month and of the twenty-second of the past month of April, that the alcaldes-mayor who have governed that jurisdiction (and even more he who is governing it at present, who is a lad of 21, a servant of the governor and of these islands) cause so great and continual troubles both to the father ministers and to the natives of the country, that the latter, although Christians, have retired from their villages of Taytày, Dumaràn, and Paràgua to the mountains in order to escape their intolerable oppression. They exclaim that they are not withdrawing from obedience to his Majesty and that they do not intend to abandon their profession as Christians, but that they do not dare to live in the more than enslaved condition in which the alcaldes-mayor, carried away by their insatiable greed, confine them. The father prior of Taytày writes me that he has entered the mountains with every danger from the enemy, in search of his terrified and scattered sheep; and notwithstanding all the efforts and warnings that he has made and given them he has not been able to succeed in getting them to return to their villages, unless another alcalde-mayor be assigned to them, and relief offered for the extreme oppression that is offered to them. They answer the arguments of the father by telling him not to tire himself, ‘for we can ill hope,’ they say, ‘that he who tramples on the sacred dignity of a priest, will have any moderation with regard to us.’ They assert this because they saw that the last alcalde-mayor lifted his cane against father Fray Domingo de San Agustin, and struck him while he was putting on his clerical robes to say mass; and that the present alcalde-mayor treated the religious with indignityeven to the point of taking from them the one who takes them their necessary support, so that they have had to find for themselves the water that they drink. He has taken from them the sacristans and other servants of the Church without leaving them even anyone to aid them in the mass. He has forbidden the Indians to enter the convent or to assist in any of the things to which they are obliged. He has forbidden them to go out as they ought to the visitas, and to confess, preach, and catechize. It is all directed to the end that the Indians might not be busied in anything else than in getting wax for the alcalde-mayor. Hence this is the source and beginning of the troubles suffered by the poor Indians. They are not only not permitted to make use of their natural right, but are prevented from giving the due execution to his Majesty’s orders, from entering and going out, from trading and trafficking one with another, and one village with another, for if they have anything to buy or to sell, it must be entirely for the alcalde-mayor. These notices are necessarily communicated in the lands of the infidels. Just consider, your Reverence, what will be the condition of their minds, when we try to reduce them to the knowledge of our good God, and to the obedience of the king our sovereign. I have informed the governor in regard to this, and since I do not expect any relief from his hand, I entreat your Reverence to procure it from the royal piety with the memorial and documents adjoined. If not we shall have to appeal to God, for such troubles are of very frequent occurrence in various parts of these islands. We never cease to wonder when we see some Spaniards here who are so destitute of Christianconsiderations, and so clothed in greed, God so permitting by His lofty judgments, in exchange for the martyrdoms that are lacking to us religious in Japòn.”

832. We believe, although we are not altogether sure, that the suitable relief was given on one and the other side, for in the following years, we find that the Catholic faith made very extraordinary gains in Calamiànes. This is proved by the reëstablishment of the ancient convents and ministries. It appears that the chapter of 1686 erected a new mission in the village of Tancòn which was later moved to the village of Culiòn. The chapter of 1695 established another distinct mission in the island of Dumaràn, and that of 1698 a third one in the island of Lincapàn; and we see that that of 1746 has added two other ministries, the first in the island of Alutaya, and the second in the village of Calatàn. That is sure proof of the increase of the Christians, when the evangelical laborers are so increased. In regard to the above we must mention what appears from acts and judicial reports which the superior government of Manìla sent to the Council of the Indias, and which are conserved in its secretary’s office in the department of Nueva España; namely, that when our province of Calamiànes was again given to us, all the islands contained only 4,500 Christian souls, but that in the year 1715 they amounted to 18,600. And even after the continual and furious persecution, which is mentioned briefly in the third volume44had intervened, with which it is undeniable that the number of believers had decreased greatly, father Fray JuanFrancisco de San Antonio notes in the history of his province of San Gregorio de Philipinas45that there were 21,076 Christian souls in the islands of Calamiànes and Romblòn in the year 1735. Hence subtracting about five thousand from that number for those of the island of Romblòn, there is a remainder of about sixteen thousand for Calamiànes.46Let us give praises to God who thus maintains the zeal of those fervent laborers and crowns their fatigues with so abundant fruits.

[Section ii of this chapter mentions the virtues and holiness of some of the Indians of the missions of Calamiànes. The first mentioned was one Joseph Bagumbàyan, a native of Taytày, who was reared in the convent of that village by the Recollects. The rearing of such children is described as follows: “The holy orders of Philipinas are wont to take account of the sons of the chief Indians of the villages under their charge, in order to teach themgood morals from childhood, and rear them with those qualities which are considered necessary to enable them to govern their respective villages afterward with success, since the administration of justice is always put in charge of such Indians. They live in the convents from childhood in charge of the gravest fathers. The latter are called masters, although in strictness they are tutors or teachers who would right gladly avoid such service. In this meaning, and in no other, must one understand whatever is said about our religious having servants in the Philipinas. I have heard scruples expressed here in España over this bare kind [of service], when it ought to be a matter for edification to see that in addition to the truly gigantic toils that our brothers there load upon their shoulders, they voluntarily take this very troublesome one of rearing a few children who serve only to exercise the patience.” Joseph strove to imitate the fathers as much as possible, in self sacrifice and austerity, and desired to become a donné, “which was the most to which he could aspire, since he was only an Indian.” That, however, being denied him, he was enrolled in the confraternity of the Correa or girdle, and admitted as a spiritual brother of the Recollect order. He acted as teacher of boys for over fifty years, teaching them reading, writing, arithmetic, and music. At his death he was buried in the Recollect church at Taytày. One of the boys taught by Joseph was Bartolomè Lingòn. At the age of fifteen he was appointed to assist Fray Alonso de San Agustin or Garcias, who arrived in Philipinas in 1684 and was sent immediately to Calamiànes. Although he desired to remain unmarried, he was married at the request of the missionaries to a devout woman named MagdalenaIlìng. He acted as the chief sacristan of the Recollect church in Taytày, ever taking great delight in the service of the church and his duties therein. He survived his wife three years, dying in January 1696. His wife had been born in Laguna de Paràgua but had lived in Taytày most of her life with a Christian aunt. Although she wished to devote her life exclusively to religion she was persuaded by the religious to marry Bartolomè. Her devotion led her to teach the girls of the village without pay. Of a gentle disposition she was yet unyielding on occasions of necessity and although tempted by an alcalde-mayor who was enamored of her beauty and made improper proposals to her, she ever maintained her virtue. At her death by cancer of the breast, she was buried in the Recollect church. The last two sections of this chapter have nothing on the Philippines.]

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