II

IIExtracts fromJuan de la Concepcion’s Historia[Itisthought advisable to append to the above extracts from theHistoriaof Pedro de San Francisco de Assis, the following extracts from Concepción’sHistoria. The first extract is from vol. viii, pp. 3–16, and includes a portion of the first chapter. It treats of the transfer of the province of Zambal to the Dominicans, and the occupation of the island of Mindoro by the Recollects.]2. Continuing with the events of this government, we must note that Don Diego de Villaroto represented in the supreme Council of the Indias that the island of Mindoro had a vast population who still retained the dense darkness of their heathen blindness; and that if the spiritual conquest of that island were given to some order, it would be easy to illumine its inhabitants with the true light. That representation was met by a royal decree, dated June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of these islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindoro to the order that should be most suitable and fitting for that ministry; and that the curas employed in that island should be appointed to chaplainciesor prebends. That royal decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manila by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villa-Real in October, 78. His Majesty’s fiscal offered no objection to its observance, and prompt obedience was rendered to it. It was directed to his Excellency the archbishop, then Don Fray Phelipe Pardo. That most illustrious gentleman, during the two times when he was provincial of his order or province, urged as a thing greatly to be desired and demanded by his brethren the Dominicans, that the Augustinian Recollects yield them the province of Zambales, as it was very fitting for communication with their province of Pangasinan, and of the latter with Manila, and of those religious among themselves, who could thus make their visits more comfortably, by always crossing through their own ministries, thus avoiding the voyage through the territory of others, which they regretted. Notwithstanding that those matters were discussed with great courtesy (as is the case at present) yet that was a demand that offended greatly the discalced Augustinians, who regarded the Zambals as the true sons of their spirit, and the land as watered with the blood and sweat of many of their members, and a land which, being their firstborn, was most tenderly loved. The Dominicans could never obtain their demand, although softened by exchanges, for ministries were offered in which there was even more than enough room for zeal.3. By reason of the said royal despatch, his Excellency formed the idea of completely removing the Recollects from Zambales and giving them in exchange the island of Mindoro. He set about thatwith great zest. The Recollect provincial resisted, alleging that it was contrary to their constitutions to abandon thus the province of Zambales. That would mean treating it as their own possession. It would be better to recognize it as a territory distributed by the universal patron; and, admitting that it was impossible to surrender it without his royal consent, individual laws communicate no right, especially when such mission fields aread interim. He also pleaded that the Indians of Mindoro, both infidels and Christians, had as soon as they heard that regular ministers were to be given them, urgently requested Jesuits. On the contrary, the Zambals, when they were notified that it was the intention to withdraw the Recollects from their midst in order to introduce Dominicans, almost declared their opinion in a terrible tumult. The Recollects preferred, therefore, that such a change should not take place. But the archbishop was firm in his resolution, and trampled all obstacles under foot. He united with the governor, and both of them together forced the Recollect provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, by threats, to agree to the change. The governor pacified the Indians of Mindoro by means of his corregidor, so that they should receive the Recollect fathers; and the Zambals by means of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan, so that they should allow the Dominicans to enter. Thereupon, the three seculars who had been in charge of Mindoro were accommodated by suitable chaplaincies, and an act was passed by the royal Audiencia, charging the Recollect fathers with the administration of that island, with absolute clauses based on the royal decree, without any provision or obligation to leavethe missions of Zambales for it. That decree was accepted when it was announced, and was extended to the judicial cession of those missions, when signed by the provincial of the Recollects, although protest was made against it in the name of their province, by two influential religious. On that account a second act was enacted in which those missions were adjudged to the fathers of St. Dominic, for the archbishop was very much in earnest in those arrangements.4. Those decrees having been announced and accepted, the Dominicans assumed possession of the cordillera of Zambales. That province had on its coast eleven villages with actual missions, which were increased in the neighboring mountains. The Recollects handed over that administration without making any public disturbance, although all the religious who had labored there protested vehemently, all of which appeared in the judicial reports. The Augustinian Recollects went to Mindoro with the fitting despatches for that corregidor ordering him to deliver the administration [of that island] to them. Father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, then definitor, was given charge of the district of Baco, after it had been resigned by Bachelor Don Joseph de Rojas, who held it; father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion of the curacy of Calavite, in place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedraza, its parish priest; while the curacy of Naohan was taken possession of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, who was exchanged for Bachelor Don Martin Diaz. The whole transfer was completed before the end of the year 79. Three other religious remained with the above three religious as associatesand coadjutors, and those six ministers began to scatter throughout the island. That island is in the center of this vast archipelago, and was formerly called Mainit; but the Spaniards gave it the name of Mindoro from a village called Minolo, located between Puerto de Galeras and the bay of Ylog. It is triangular in shape, its angles being three promontories: that of Calavite, facing west; that of Dumah or Pola, facing north; and that of Burruncan, facing south. In size it is the seventh of the more important islands, and is about one hundred leguas in circumference. Its temperature is naturally hot, but is tempered by the great dampness arising from frequent rains. The height of its mountains aids also in that. On account of such circumstances it is a very fertile land, and, although not very healthful for strangers, good and favorable to its inhabitants. The latter made themselves feared by their neighbors, especially on the sea, where they attacked the most powerful, carrying blood and fire everywhere. Notwithstanding, they were of great simplicity, for when they saw the Europeans wearing clothes and shoes—which they did not use—they imagined that that adornment was natural to them. They are but little given to the cultivation of the soil, and are content with wild fruits; sago, which they get from the palm and which is a good food for them; the flesh of wild animals; and fish, which the rivers and seacoast offer them in great plenty. They have little rice, on account of their sloth in sowing and tending it, for they make up that lack sufficiently in roots and fruits. If they are weak, although corpulent, it is because of their transcendent vice in being hostile to work.5. Captain Juan de Salcedo made a beginning in the conquest of the district of Mamburào, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy. That conquest was completed from the point of Burruncan to that of Calavite by the adelantado Miguel de Legaspi, in the beginning of the following year. Gradually the remainder was subdued by the missionaries, by whose treatment the rudeness of the manners of those people was softened. Consequently, the encomienda of that large island was very desirable. The Observant Augustinian fathers were employed in its spiritual cultivation and founded the village of Baco. The discalced fathers of St. Francis also labored there for some time, it being ceded to them by the Observant Augustinians. They worked along the Calavite side to Pola, which they abandoned either because those natives were not at all disposed [to accept the faith], or because those fathers had slight esteem for that island when compared with what was offered them in Ylocos and Camarines. The Jesuits also labored there, but always by the method of temporary missions, from time to time, and had no stability. It only appears that they were more continual in Naohan (which they founded), as long as it was preserved by Father San Victores. When the latter went to the Marianas, the Jesuits resigned that portion into the hands of the archbishop. It is probable that the latter was Señor Poblete.56He immediately formed two curacies for the secular clergy to look after those souls. Although there were but few souls, the extent of their territory was so vast that it was necessary to establish a thirdparish. Those seculars maintained what was conquered, but that district did not yield a sufficient recompense for the three ministers, and they were paid from the royal treasury and from other pious funds. It was also even difficult to find seculars who cared to take charge of such districts, which were truly little to be desired. But obedience caused that there never was a lack of seculars there, who maintained themselves until the year 76, when the Recollects went there to take their places. As the latter immediately placed six ministers there, they furthered the conquest and reduction greatly in all parts. Hence, while they only received about four thousand Christians, those were multiplied in a few years and the number rose to eight thousand, and in 1716 they reached the number of twelve thousand. There are still a great number of people in the mountains, which are inhabited by wild men. Some of those men are quite light-complexioned, and are believed to have originated from the Chinese and Japanese established there for the convenience afforded by the island, or who have put in there because of shipwreck, or been driven thither by the winds. Others are Cimarron Negritos, who are the first inhabitants, and, as it were, more native. Trustworthy persons say that those people have a hard little tail in the proper place for it, which prevents them from sitting down flat. If it is true (and I do not doubt it, notwithstanding that it is disputed), it is not so strange that I have no examples of it. Those prominences of the sacral bone are considered as rare; but a beginning having been made in one, it could have become natural in its propagation.6. Thus did those Recollect religious find thatisland, and, believing it to be important for the reductions, they continued to establish their regular administrations. The first was in Baco. There, inasmuch as it was the capital, lived the corregidor, but the capital was later moved to Calapan. In that district they formed the villages of Calapan, Baco, Suban, Ylog, Minolo, and Camoròn, with a number of annexed villages or visitas. The second was in Naohan, which was extended into six annexed villages, namely, Pola, Pinamalayan, Balete, Sumagui, Maliguo, and Bongabon. The third was in Calavite, which formed the visitas of Dongon, Santa Cruz, Manburaò, Tubili, and Santo Thomas. The fourth was in Mangarin, which was extended into its dependencies, Guasic, Manaol, Bulalacao, and Ililin. They also began an active mission in order to reduce the heathen Mangyans, which had no other work than to employ itself in those glorious reductions and conversions of grace. For one single man it was an immense work, but the superior government gave no more stipends. That mission was established on the bay of Ylog, and ministers and infidels were pledged not to allow [there] any of the former Christians, who might pervert the conversions. By that arrangement it grew to a very large village, and there were practiced some of the old customs that belonged to the primitive church. All that fine flower-garden has been trampled down and even ruined by the Moros, as will be related in due season.7. The Dominican fathers also applied themselves to the work in the province of Zambales. That province had already eleven villages formed, although they were small, because that province has but few people. It appeared to the new fathers thatthat number of villages made their administration difficult; consequently, they tried to reduce their number by uniting some of them. That incorporation was difficult; hence they increased the troops and arms of the presidio of Paynaven, the center of that province. Through the protection afforded by those troops, they broke up the whole province. The village of Bolinaò, which had a fair population, was located on an island, which is separated from the land by only a channel, which forms its famous and secure port.57It was fertile and pleasant. They moved it to the mainland, to a sandy shore, useless for anything, even for the ordinary fields. Its lack of water they supplied with wells which they opened. There they obtained some water, but it was thick, and in the time of the dry season it entirely disappeared. The Indians who were harmed by this measure were so angry at that moving, that many families retired to Ylocos. In truth, that site is despicable. An eminence which looks upon and almost dominates the port would have been much more suitable, and they would have obtained better air there; while their boats, which cannot navigate by the channel to the village during the blowing of the north wind, so that the cargo has to be carried for a long distance on the shoulders, would have obtained shelter. There are many other inconveniences but one cannot think of a single advantage. They moved the village of Agno58from the coast into the interior, toa site which is a swampy mudhole when there is the least rain. The village of Sigayan was moved to another site, where the only advantage was a near-by river of fresh water which was unnavigable. They left Masinloc59on its pleasant site, while the village of Paynaven was moved inland to a site called Iba,60from which the new village took its name, moving that village in order to get it away from the commandant of the fort, whose proximity was annoying to them. They did not regard it as a recompensable hardship for the minister of that village to go on feast-days in order to say mass in the presidio, and to repeat it afterwards in his own church. In order to increase that place and give it the name of capital, they brought families from Bolinaò, who formed a large barangay. It has already been seen that they made use of the fort in this, and that those who were moved were not very well pleased. The Dominicans also founded, or better, made from other villages, the village of Cabangaan61in an obscure site, which was rough and surrounded by dense mountains, and suitable only for a hermit and solitary life, but so far as others were concerned, a place of profound melancholy. They also formed the village of Subic62from other villages, which had only the advantages of its port to recommend it, while in otherrespects it was most unpleasant. They also filled the vacant places left by the many families who retired to the mountains as a result of the violence exercised, with others whom they brought from Pangasinan, a province abounding with people, who because they are so numerous, and there is no room for all, leave their homes more easily. In fact, they did that, too, in order to be surer of the Zambals, in whose severe and warlike minds they did not have the greatest confidence. Thus did they soften those people, or let us say frankly, checked their vehemence. The reduction of the people of the mountain, however much it is talked about, is not known, as neither is the place where they could form villages or a village from them. Let us leave then exaggerations, which, when they offend by comparison, cannot fail to be odious. We shall treat of the restoration [of that province] below, in its proper place.63[The following extract is from the same volume, and includes pp. 135–144.]Chapter VThe Augustinian Recollect fathers assume the spiritual government of the islands of Masbáte, Ticao, and Burias. A geographical description of those islands is presented.1. Under the metaphor of husbandmen, the prophet Amos describes those who are employed in the cultivation of souls. The chroniclers of the Augustinian Recollect fathers describe those fathers for us as zealous and laborious in their never-ceasing application in planting and cultivating the word ofGod in humble hearts. The Recollects assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which, when they tried later to work them, it was found did not produce expenses. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he had thought. The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference, nine long, and more than four wide. That of Burias extends its circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately, for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrantcamanguian;64another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before thistime, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now.2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and hepetitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories. Accordingly the Recollects only accepted the district of Masbate, and resigned the right that they could have had to the village on the continent of Luzon to the Franciscan fathers, who could administer them with greater ease. By that means all rivalry was checked.3. The parties [i.e., the Recollects and Franciscans] having come to an agreement, and between themselves the governor and bishop, the two latter despatched suitable measures so that the Recollects could take charge of those souls. In the distribution the Recollects had their proportionate advantages, for those islands are a way-station which is necessaryto pass in going to Caraga and Zebù, where this order had distant missions. The bishop obtained them [for that order] because, that district having been reduced to one single secular, the latter proved insufficient for its administration. Consequently, in the space of twelve years, only four persons had died with the sacraments, although one hundred and eighteen had passed from this life without that important benefit. The baptism of children was postponed for many months, as the cura went to the visitas in the distant villages but seldom. For it was not easy for one single individual to acquit himself of so laborious cares; consequently, this is not to admit that they were ill administered. The government was interested in them, as was also commerce, as Ticao was an anchorage for the Acapulco ships in its famous port of San Jazinto,65on both the outward and return trips, where fresh supplies were procured, wood and water provided, and winds awaited to take them out of the dangerous currents of the Embocadero of San Bernardino. The Recollect fathers accepted that charge, and were received affectionately by the Indians. They founded their headquarters in Mobo,66a famous village of Masbate. They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice, adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments, besides a capacious house with its suitable quarters and dormitories forthe resident and transient religious. Thence they made their apostolic excursions for the conversion of the heathens, who were still numerous, and the reduction of fugitive apostates. The settlements already established numbered six, and three new villages were established with the increase of those who settled down.4. This province of San Nicolas petitioned his Majesty in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four to confirm that possession which had been conferred on it in his royal name. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Caceres to make no innovation in the spiritual administration of that district until his royal Council should provide what was suitable. He also ordered them to report on the progress of the faith in that territory since it had been under their charge. Judicial investigations were made in Manila by the government, in order to inform the king with reports. From them it appeared that, although the entire district of Masbate had formerly had only one parish priest, since the Recollect fathers had taken charge of it, three religious at least had lived there. It was proved also by the books of the royal accountancy, that in the year preceding their possession, that is, in the year eighty-seven, the entire ministry contained only one hundred and eighty-seven families; while in the year seven hundred and twenty-two there were five hundred and eighty-five families. Consequently, the present governor, the Marquís de Torre Campo, reported that the district of Masbate had had an increase of three hundred and ninety-eight whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. The Recollects not only inthose districts, but also in the remainder of these islands, devote themselves to the spread of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.5. That progress was not made without great toil and hardship. They had to do with a great number of mountain Indians and Zimarrones, who became fearsome when abandoned to liberty. Apostates from the faith and from civilized life, they had taken to the deserts and to the roughest mountains, where they defended their barbarous mode of life at all hazards, by resisting with arms those who tried to reduce them. Various people had also gathered there from other islands, fleeing from the settled villages and from the punishment due their atrocities. Consequently, the latter were extraordinarily fierce. Many heathen were numbered among them, accustomed long since to that rudeness of life and savagery, and they were all the worst kind of people. They committed notable depredations on the civilized villages, robbed the boats that anchored in the ports and bays, and treacherously committed many murders. Their boldness rose to such a pitch that one could not cross through the interior of those islands, and to arrive at their shores was the same as to make port in a land of enemies. It was also a laborious and dangerous task to navigate along the coasts, trying to find those rancherías. Consequently, Father Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion was twice overturned in the sea, and another time had his boat dashed to pieces on some reefs. In that shipwreck he miraculously escaped with his life, although some of his companions perished in the water. Those dangers came to him in his visits to anew village established on the opposite coast. In order to avoid such dangers and visit that village more frequently, the father opened a road through the interior from Mobo over rough mountains, where many other risks were run because of the heathens. In that continual crossing the father fell grievously sick, his pains having originated from the hardships of such a road, with the showers and heat. He died at last, succumbing to such fatigues. But those sufferings were continued by others, who conquered that stubbornness by their constancy and fervent application, although with the well-known risk of losing their lives. Consequently, those ministers who were there in the beginning say that, although they have been many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate.[The third extract from Concepción’sHistoriais from vol. ix, pp. 123–150, and comprises all of the fourth chapter except the last paragraph.]Chapter IVBy sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.1. The Zambal Indians, of an intractable disposition, people of wild customs, and little or not at all content, were furious with the Dominican ministers in the reductions; they were groaning under the yoke of a life more regulated than their inclinations permitted. This made them think of insurrections and uprisings. The presidio of Painaven, well reënforced, restrained them; and the raids of the commandant,with detachments of men, into the mountains, intimidated them in their plans. They thought that the government of the Recollect fathers was milder, and hence they sighed for it. Those fathers tolerated their barbarous customs among a people so ferocious, and succeeded by their patience in softening and reducing them. Not so with the Dominican fathers, who learned the Zambals’ tenacity at their own cost. In the village of Balacbac was an Indian chief named Dalinen; although he lived in that village, he kept his valuables in the mountains under charge of a nephew. Another Indian, a Cimarron, named Calignao, killed the latter treacherously. In order to avenge that murder, Dalinen retired with many of his followers to the dense woods. Father Fray Domingo Perez,67who was the minister of that mission, tried to prevent that flight, but was quite unable to remedy it; for seventeen families fled with Dalinen. The commandant of the fort attackedthem with his men and burned the ranchería of Aglao, the next village to Balacbac, to which the murderer and the injured man belonged.2. Calignao had an extensive and strong kindred. Because they did not flee with him, father Fray Domingo endeavored to win them over. He asked for an adjutant’s staff from the commandant of the fort, and dignified Calignao with it. Then in order to restrain the other side, it was published that the murder of the nephew [of Dalinen] was by the command of the government, which had ordered that all who would not reduce themselves to village life should be killed. That method, however, was insufficient to quiet them, but, on the contrary, roused the factions to a higher pitch. To please the commandant and to give stronger force to his faction, Calignao promised to assault Dalinen. He went into the mountain to put that promise into execution, and after a short time, Dalinen was killed by a Negrito. His relatives were persuaded that the father had had a hand in that murder, and determined to pay him back. The same Calignao offered to do the deed, for this is what it means to benefit apostatized evil-doers. He sought an opportune occasion for the execution of his wicked intent, and found it in a journey which the father made to Baubuen to visit a communal house which he was building for strangers, and in order to confess father Fray Juan de Rois,68who was the minister there. During theabsence of the father, Calignao descended the mountain, visited his relatives, and was informed that the minister would return in three days. He left his relatives, and in company with a faithless Negrito went to await the father at the bank of a large river, by which it was necessary to pass. When Father Perez reached that place, Calignao discharged an arrow, which passed before the father’s breast without doing him any harm and lodged in a neighboring tree. When the father quite naturally turned his head to see who was firing at him, the Negrito Quibacat discharged his arrow, which, entering the father’s body three fingers below the left breast, came out more than four fingers at the right side of his back. It was a twisted arrow, and when father Fray Domingo pulled on it, the wound became worse. With the most intense pain that he suffered, he broke out into “Jesus, be with me! Let them commend me to God, for I am dying.”3. He spurred on his horse, which ran until the father perceived that sight was failing him. Then he alighted, stretched himself at the foot of an agoso tree,69and, amid the outpouring of his blood, begged pardon from God for his sins. An Indian who accompanied him came up to him, and found him unconscious from great loss of blood. The fatherrecovered consciousness, but for so brief a time that he could not tell the Indian what to do. He fainted once more, so completely that the Indian thought that he was yielding up his life. He again recovered consciousness, and sent the servant toBalacbacin order to get people to carry him thence. The Indian went to carry out that instruction. Meanwhile a man and three women arrived, and stayed with the father until the arrival of the men from the village who were very slow. For the Indian who had been sent could find no one who cared to take that charitable office upon himself, either the ministers of justice, the fiscals, or the sacristans. He was able to get three serving-lads in the convent, who made a hammock from a blanket, and carried the wounded religious in it. The latter, charging his messenger to go to Baubuen to advise Father Rois of his mishap, set out on his way to his village, where he arrived at nine o’clock at night. Father Rois, as soon as he received the news, got ready to go to the relief of his associate. After many frights, for everything was in an uproar, and his person ran no less risk [than that of Father Domingo], he reached the village at daybreak. He entered the cell of the wounded father, whom he found embracing a holy crucifix, and bathed in tears. Father Rois asked him “What is this, Father Vicar-prior?” “This means death,” answered the sufferer. “I shall die; there is no relief.” He was confessed, and received the sacred viaticum. He lived three days after that, without having his bed made, for his extreme pains would not permit it. Had they tended him well at the beginning, he would have recovered, for the wound was not mortal, and the Indians have medicineswhich cure other things more dangerous. But the greatest care was not exercised in this. The third day after nightfall, the pains attacked him much more fiercely, and convulsions and paroxysms followed. He received extreme unction, after which he lost his speech, and remained remarkably quiet; and in that calm he yielded his spirit to the Creator.4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.5. It is said that God honored the place of his death or where he was wounded, by marvelous occurrences. For instance the large river on whoseshore he was shot, dried up, and was swallowed up by the earth, and no trace of it was ever found later, neither did it take a course elsewhere; while the bed of the river became full of agoso trees. And although the above tree is large, and needs more than ten years to grow tall, those trees grew up in so short a time that that place appeared a dense forest, so that they choked and parched the reed-grass, which never sprang up again. It was said that the earth which was dyed with his blood has never allowed any grass to grow since, although the grass about the agoso at whose foot the father fainted is abundant and very green. That tree is always more flourishing and luxuriant, so that in comparison with it the other trees seem like withered things. Also another smaller river which ran past Aglao and Baubuen dried up, and the earth was left very sterile. It is true that these things were said, but without any foundation. The large river still remains and flows in the same course, and that of Aglao has the same course, and there is no notice or tradition that it had ever dried up; and it is not possible that so remarkable a thing could be forgotten. It was true that the agoso under which he rested was preserved and is still preserved; but in that story are not registered the exaggerated circumstances, such as that of the grass and of the reed-grass. I say this with assurance because I have seen it at various times, and I have passed the large river with some risk. On the bank of that river I was shown the spot where the father was wounded, and the agoso in question, in which I found nothing worthy of wonder. In regard to the other agosos and those newly produced, I proved that there are both old and newtrees, for they are produced without any cultivation, and are conserved from time immemorial, and their very great age is recognized by their failing condition.706. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishopand the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the newRecopilación,72and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that accounthe petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.7. He did so, and presented himself with the copy authorized in public form, of the proceedings of the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in the cause prosecuted by the father procurator-general, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, asking that his province should be restored to its former possession of the ministries of Mariveles, Masinloc, Bolinao, Puquil, and Playa-honda, and the rest of the province of Zambales. The decision thereon, as appeared from the said proceedings, was referred to the royal Audiencia of Manila. In regard to the contents of Father Peguero’s memorial, notwithstanding what he might petition, it should be refuted as outside the truth, as a calumny, and as grievously offensive to his province—which with excessive and continual work, and equal zeal in the service of both Majesties, had assisted in the administration of the Christians and the conversion of the infidels in theaforesaid districts, from the year one thousand six hundred and seven to the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, when it was despoiled actually and contrary to law, and the Dominican religious introduced into those missions. Notwithstanding the above, the said memorial, proceeding by malicious reports, and with a lack of accurate information, says that in the year seventy-six the said Father Peguero informed the government of these islands that the conversion and reduction of the Zambals—both the light-complexioned ones and those with the kinky hair, on both sides of the mountains that extend from Batan to Pangasinan, especially in the localities of Aglao, Buquil, Alupay, and Culianan, and many others—had not been thitherto in charge of any of the orders of these islands. In consideration of that, he petitioned that that care be assigned to his order. Despatches were given him in accordance with the terms of his petition, without summoning the party of the Recollect province, which was in possession [of that territory] from the time mentioned above. That order was then especially extending its labors, and working in the reduction of the infidels of those very same places, and in the administration of a great number of Christians in those districts, who paid tribute to their encomenderos. His order having offered opposition, and having made a petition before the royal Audiencia to be protected in its ancient possession, this was done, and the Order of St. Dominic was excluded from its demand, as appeared from royal provision and proceedings, which would be presented if it were necessary. After his order had been placed in charge ofthe administration of Mindoro, the Dominicans succeeded in getting the governor, then Don Juan de Vargas, to ask the father provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, to make a renunciation [of those districts]. The father provincial did it unwillingly, for it was a thing that he neither could or ought to do in regard to such districts, in order that other religious might be instituted—as were those of St. Dominic, in the year eighty. Two grave [Recollect] religious protested in the name of their province, against the renunciation made by their Recollect provincial; and all the ministers of Zambales protested against the violence with which they were despoiled of that administration, without their province having until then made any other judicial or extrajudicial effort than the conservation of their right, in order to demand it where and to what extent it may behoove them to do so. The provincial of his province had formally ordered his subjects not only not to solicit the natives of those districts to ask for, or allow them to ask for, these or other ministers; but they were to admonish them always to live consoled and contented, and to understand that the instruction which they received from the fathers of St. Dominic was the same, and [given with] the same zeal for the welfare of their souls. That order was obeyed, and there was no notice of its infraction. On the contrary, information was received that the present Dominican ministers told the natives that they were returning to carry forward what had been commenced by the Recollects. That proved that the Recollects did not keep their convents and churches, which they had abandoned to the Dominicans; asdoes the suggestion that father Fray Raymundo Verart74said that Captain Marcos de Rosales, encomendero of Marivelez, had made to him, for the latter earnestly entreated him to ask that the Recollects should be restored to the possession of those ministeries. He offered to make that request to him in writing.8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besidesbeing an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleadedthat the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; forthese wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order wasprevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously,and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.12. This decree was as follows: “Decision of the royal court this day, September eleven, one thousand seven hundred and five.75The measure passed by Señor Calderon is approved, and in accordance therewith, a decree to that effect shall be issued. Because of their great poverty, only the first petitions of the Indians shall be received without attorney.”13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76who together with theprocurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copyof the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united thosewhich were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.14. Thus this matter [expediente] rested until the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, when the alférez, Nicolas Guerrero, one of the ordinary attorneys of the royal Audiencia, presented a certificateempowering him as the chief authorized agent of the province of San Nicolas, to act as their attorney in the matter in hand. Thereupon, he declared that in maintenance of the claim of the said province, it was advisable to examine the minutes of the proceedings hitherto conducted in the royal courts, in regard to the restitution of their former missions of Zambales and everything pertaining to them. Accordingly, he prayed his Highness to deign to order the secretary to produce the said minutes, which on being given to the said attorney, he appeared before his Highness and stated that in accordance with the last royal order of six hundred and ninety, whereby the other party was required to answer fully, this had not been done, but that the party had merely referred to its former pleadings, and that any other answer had not been made during the space of twenty years, so that the suit had been unduly prolonged; and moreover, that the matter having been recently investigated, his side has a paper (which he now presents with all solemnity), namely, a private letter from the father provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Pedro Mejorada,77in reply to one from the provincialof the Recollects, Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, in which he declares, that he answered in the same manner as his province had done on former occasions; that he would not oppose the abandoning of the said missions as he was not a party thereto, for his province had taken these under their charge solely in compliance with the orders of Governor Don Juan de Vargas and Archbishop Don Phelipe Pardo; that, moreover, at the present time when his province was so straitened through the lack of religious, if they were not succored in that regard it would be necessary for them to take other steps. Wherefore (he added), so far as matters have now gone he might do what he pleased, for his province would offer no opposition, and was prepared to give up those missions if so requested and charged to do. In this letter, moreover, among other points, it was inferable that his province was ready to leave the said missions of Zambales. Therefore the attorney petitioned and prayed his Highness to deign to have the case brought up for final trial, declaring his client as entitled to the possession of such missions, to whom they should therefore be restored. Thereupon the judges decided that the measures so far taken together with that letter should be acted upon; that the trial should be proceeded with without prejudice to whatever had already been decided, and that all the papers in the case be handed over to the fiscal of this royal Audiencia, for his opinion (within three days) of what steps it was advisableto take. Thereupon, for reasons given, the latter replied that what had been advised by the fiscal of the royal and supreme Council ought to be carried out, and hence a similar order might issue from this royal Audiencia, with notice to the reverend fathers provincial, parties in interest, that so far as concerned their spiritual care the natives might be relieved promptly. In accordance with this, the judges ordered that all parties should proceed to the chamber for final sentence. Thereupon their decision was that the reverend fathers provincial should be apprised of the sentence as given in this cause for their judgment in the exercise of their rights; and that whether they assented or not, they should appear to hear the decision to be given.15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph deSan Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.Doctor TorralvaLicentiate VillaThe Fiscal”In the presence of Antonio de Yepes y Arce, notary-public. Their decision was heard and obeyed promptly by the party to the suit, and proper warrants having been received, the spiritual administration of the Zambals was peacefully restored to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects. Perhaps the very reverend father chronicler, Fray Domingo Collantes,78did not have at hand these original documents when he penned the fourth part of the chronicles of his province of Santissimo Rosario which has been recently published; and this must be the reason for the so great diversity in the [story of the] restoration of Zambales, and for the minuteness with which it is discussed here.

IIExtracts fromJuan de la Concepcion’s Historia[Itisthought advisable to append to the above extracts from theHistoriaof Pedro de San Francisco de Assis, the following extracts from Concepción’sHistoria. The first extract is from vol. viii, pp. 3–16, and includes a portion of the first chapter. It treats of the transfer of the province of Zambal to the Dominicans, and the occupation of the island of Mindoro by the Recollects.]2. Continuing with the events of this government, we must note that Don Diego de Villaroto represented in the supreme Council of the Indias that the island of Mindoro had a vast population who still retained the dense darkness of their heathen blindness; and that if the spiritual conquest of that island were given to some order, it would be easy to illumine its inhabitants with the true light. That representation was met by a royal decree, dated June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of these islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindoro to the order that should be most suitable and fitting for that ministry; and that the curas employed in that island should be appointed to chaplainciesor prebends. That royal decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manila by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villa-Real in October, 78. His Majesty’s fiscal offered no objection to its observance, and prompt obedience was rendered to it. It was directed to his Excellency the archbishop, then Don Fray Phelipe Pardo. That most illustrious gentleman, during the two times when he was provincial of his order or province, urged as a thing greatly to be desired and demanded by his brethren the Dominicans, that the Augustinian Recollects yield them the province of Zambales, as it was very fitting for communication with their province of Pangasinan, and of the latter with Manila, and of those religious among themselves, who could thus make their visits more comfortably, by always crossing through their own ministries, thus avoiding the voyage through the territory of others, which they regretted. Notwithstanding that those matters were discussed with great courtesy (as is the case at present) yet that was a demand that offended greatly the discalced Augustinians, who regarded the Zambals as the true sons of their spirit, and the land as watered with the blood and sweat of many of their members, and a land which, being their firstborn, was most tenderly loved. The Dominicans could never obtain their demand, although softened by exchanges, for ministries were offered in which there was even more than enough room for zeal.3. By reason of the said royal despatch, his Excellency formed the idea of completely removing the Recollects from Zambales and giving them in exchange the island of Mindoro. He set about thatwith great zest. The Recollect provincial resisted, alleging that it was contrary to their constitutions to abandon thus the province of Zambales. That would mean treating it as their own possession. It would be better to recognize it as a territory distributed by the universal patron; and, admitting that it was impossible to surrender it without his royal consent, individual laws communicate no right, especially when such mission fields aread interim. He also pleaded that the Indians of Mindoro, both infidels and Christians, had as soon as they heard that regular ministers were to be given them, urgently requested Jesuits. On the contrary, the Zambals, when they were notified that it was the intention to withdraw the Recollects from their midst in order to introduce Dominicans, almost declared their opinion in a terrible tumult. The Recollects preferred, therefore, that such a change should not take place. But the archbishop was firm in his resolution, and trampled all obstacles under foot. He united with the governor, and both of them together forced the Recollect provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, by threats, to agree to the change. The governor pacified the Indians of Mindoro by means of his corregidor, so that they should receive the Recollect fathers; and the Zambals by means of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan, so that they should allow the Dominicans to enter. Thereupon, the three seculars who had been in charge of Mindoro were accommodated by suitable chaplaincies, and an act was passed by the royal Audiencia, charging the Recollect fathers with the administration of that island, with absolute clauses based on the royal decree, without any provision or obligation to leavethe missions of Zambales for it. That decree was accepted when it was announced, and was extended to the judicial cession of those missions, when signed by the provincial of the Recollects, although protest was made against it in the name of their province, by two influential religious. On that account a second act was enacted in which those missions were adjudged to the fathers of St. Dominic, for the archbishop was very much in earnest in those arrangements.4. Those decrees having been announced and accepted, the Dominicans assumed possession of the cordillera of Zambales. That province had on its coast eleven villages with actual missions, which were increased in the neighboring mountains. The Recollects handed over that administration without making any public disturbance, although all the religious who had labored there protested vehemently, all of which appeared in the judicial reports. The Augustinian Recollects went to Mindoro with the fitting despatches for that corregidor ordering him to deliver the administration [of that island] to them. Father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, then definitor, was given charge of the district of Baco, after it had been resigned by Bachelor Don Joseph de Rojas, who held it; father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion of the curacy of Calavite, in place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedraza, its parish priest; while the curacy of Naohan was taken possession of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, who was exchanged for Bachelor Don Martin Diaz. The whole transfer was completed before the end of the year 79. Three other religious remained with the above three religious as associatesand coadjutors, and those six ministers began to scatter throughout the island. That island is in the center of this vast archipelago, and was formerly called Mainit; but the Spaniards gave it the name of Mindoro from a village called Minolo, located between Puerto de Galeras and the bay of Ylog. It is triangular in shape, its angles being three promontories: that of Calavite, facing west; that of Dumah or Pola, facing north; and that of Burruncan, facing south. In size it is the seventh of the more important islands, and is about one hundred leguas in circumference. Its temperature is naturally hot, but is tempered by the great dampness arising from frequent rains. The height of its mountains aids also in that. On account of such circumstances it is a very fertile land, and, although not very healthful for strangers, good and favorable to its inhabitants. The latter made themselves feared by their neighbors, especially on the sea, where they attacked the most powerful, carrying blood and fire everywhere. Notwithstanding, they were of great simplicity, for when they saw the Europeans wearing clothes and shoes—which they did not use—they imagined that that adornment was natural to them. They are but little given to the cultivation of the soil, and are content with wild fruits; sago, which they get from the palm and which is a good food for them; the flesh of wild animals; and fish, which the rivers and seacoast offer them in great plenty. They have little rice, on account of their sloth in sowing and tending it, for they make up that lack sufficiently in roots and fruits. If they are weak, although corpulent, it is because of their transcendent vice in being hostile to work.5. Captain Juan de Salcedo made a beginning in the conquest of the district of Mamburào, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy. That conquest was completed from the point of Burruncan to that of Calavite by the adelantado Miguel de Legaspi, in the beginning of the following year. Gradually the remainder was subdued by the missionaries, by whose treatment the rudeness of the manners of those people was softened. Consequently, the encomienda of that large island was very desirable. The Observant Augustinian fathers were employed in its spiritual cultivation and founded the village of Baco. The discalced fathers of St. Francis also labored there for some time, it being ceded to them by the Observant Augustinians. They worked along the Calavite side to Pola, which they abandoned either because those natives were not at all disposed [to accept the faith], or because those fathers had slight esteem for that island when compared with what was offered them in Ylocos and Camarines. The Jesuits also labored there, but always by the method of temporary missions, from time to time, and had no stability. It only appears that they were more continual in Naohan (which they founded), as long as it was preserved by Father San Victores. When the latter went to the Marianas, the Jesuits resigned that portion into the hands of the archbishop. It is probable that the latter was Señor Poblete.56He immediately formed two curacies for the secular clergy to look after those souls. Although there were but few souls, the extent of their territory was so vast that it was necessary to establish a thirdparish. Those seculars maintained what was conquered, but that district did not yield a sufficient recompense for the three ministers, and they were paid from the royal treasury and from other pious funds. It was also even difficult to find seculars who cared to take charge of such districts, which were truly little to be desired. But obedience caused that there never was a lack of seculars there, who maintained themselves until the year 76, when the Recollects went there to take their places. As the latter immediately placed six ministers there, they furthered the conquest and reduction greatly in all parts. Hence, while they only received about four thousand Christians, those were multiplied in a few years and the number rose to eight thousand, and in 1716 they reached the number of twelve thousand. There are still a great number of people in the mountains, which are inhabited by wild men. Some of those men are quite light-complexioned, and are believed to have originated from the Chinese and Japanese established there for the convenience afforded by the island, or who have put in there because of shipwreck, or been driven thither by the winds. Others are Cimarron Negritos, who are the first inhabitants, and, as it were, more native. Trustworthy persons say that those people have a hard little tail in the proper place for it, which prevents them from sitting down flat. If it is true (and I do not doubt it, notwithstanding that it is disputed), it is not so strange that I have no examples of it. Those prominences of the sacral bone are considered as rare; but a beginning having been made in one, it could have become natural in its propagation.6. Thus did those Recollect religious find thatisland, and, believing it to be important for the reductions, they continued to establish their regular administrations. The first was in Baco. There, inasmuch as it was the capital, lived the corregidor, but the capital was later moved to Calapan. In that district they formed the villages of Calapan, Baco, Suban, Ylog, Minolo, and Camoròn, with a number of annexed villages or visitas. The second was in Naohan, which was extended into six annexed villages, namely, Pola, Pinamalayan, Balete, Sumagui, Maliguo, and Bongabon. The third was in Calavite, which formed the visitas of Dongon, Santa Cruz, Manburaò, Tubili, and Santo Thomas. The fourth was in Mangarin, which was extended into its dependencies, Guasic, Manaol, Bulalacao, and Ililin. They also began an active mission in order to reduce the heathen Mangyans, which had no other work than to employ itself in those glorious reductions and conversions of grace. For one single man it was an immense work, but the superior government gave no more stipends. That mission was established on the bay of Ylog, and ministers and infidels were pledged not to allow [there] any of the former Christians, who might pervert the conversions. By that arrangement it grew to a very large village, and there were practiced some of the old customs that belonged to the primitive church. All that fine flower-garden has been trampled down and even ruined by the Moros, as will be related in due season.7. The Dominican fathers also applied themselves to the work in the province of Zambales. That province had already eleven villages formed, although they were small, because that province has but few people. It appeared to the new fathers thatthat number of villages made their administration difficult; consequently, they tried to reduce their number by uniting some of them. That incorporation was difficult; hence they increased the troops and arms of the presidio of Paynaven, the center of that province. Through the protection afforded by those troops, they broke up the whole province. The village of Bolinaò, which had a fair population, was located on an island, which is separated from the land by only a channel, which forms its famous and secure port.57It was fertile and pleasant. They moved it to the mainland, to a sandy shore, useless for anything, even for the ordinary fields. Its lack of water they supplied with wells which they opened. There they obtained some water, but it was thick, and in the time of the dry season it entirely disappeared. The Indians who were harmed by this measure were so angry at that moving, that many families retired to Ylocos. In truth, that site is despicable. An eminence which looks upon and almost dominates the port would have been much more suitable, and they would have obtained better air there; while their boats, which cannot navigate by the channel to the village during the blowing of the north wind, so that the cargo has to be carried for a long distance on the shoulders, would have obtained shelter. There are many other inconveniences but one cannot think of a single advantage. They moved the village of Agno58from the coast into the interior, toa site which is a swampy mudhole when there is the least rain. The village of Sigayan was moved to another site, where the only advantage was a near-by river of fresh water which was unnavigable. They left Masinloc59on its pleasant site, while the village of Paynaven was moved inland to a site called Iba,60from which the new village took its name, moving that village in order to get it away from the commandant of the fort, whose proximity was annoying to them. They did not regard it as a recompensable hardship for the minister of that village to go on feast-days in order to say mass in the presidio, and to repeat it afterwards in his own church. In order to increase that place and give it the name of capital, they brought families from Bolinaò, who formed a large barangay. It has already been seen that they made use of the fort in this, and that those who were moved were not very well pleased. The Dominicans also founded, or better, made from other villages, the village of Cabangaan61in an obscure site, which was rough and surrounded by dense mountains, and suitable only for a hermit and solitary life, but so far as others were concerned, a place of profound melancholy. They also formed the village of Subic62from other villages, which had only the advantages of its port to recommend it, while in otherrespects it was most unpleasant. They also filled the vacant places left by the many families who retired to the mountains as a result of the violence exercised, with others whom they brought from Pangasinan, a province abounding with people, who because they are so numerous, and there is no room for all, leave their homes more easily. In fact, they did that, too, in order to be surer of the Zambals, in whose severe and warlike minds they did not have the greatest confidence. Thus did they soften those people, or let us say frankly, checked their vehemence. The reduction of the people of the mountain, however much it is talked about, is not known, as neither is the place where they could form villages or a village from them. Let us leave then exaggerations, which, when they offend by comparison, cannot fail to be odious. We shall treat of the restoration [of that province] below, in its proper place.63[The following extract is from the same volume, and includes pp. 135–144.]Chapter VThe Augustinian Recollect fathers assume the spiritual government of the islands of Masbáte, Ticao, and Burias. A geographical description of those islands is presented.1. Under the metaphor of husbandmen, the prophet Amos describes those who are employed in the cultivation of souls. The chroniclers of the Augustinian Recollect fathers describe those fathers for us as zealous and laborious in their never-ceasing application in planting and cultivating the word ofGod in humble hearts. The Recollects assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which, when they tried later to work them, it was found did not produce expenses. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he had thought. The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference, nine long, and more than four wide. That of Burias extends its circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately, for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrantcamanguian;64another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before thistime, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now.2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and hepetitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories. Accordingly the Recollects only accepted the district of Masbate, and resigned the right that they could have had to the village on the continent of Luzon to the Franciscan fathers, who could administer them with greater ease. By that means all rivalry was checked.3. The parties [i.e., the Recollects and Franciscans] having come to an agreement, and between themselves the governor and bishop, the two latter despatched suitable measures so that the Recollects could take charge of those souls. In the distribution the Recollects had their proportionate advantages, for those islands are a way-station which is necessaryto pass in going to Caraga and Zebù, where this order had distant missions. The bishop obtained them [for that order] because, that district having been reduced to one single secular, the latter proved insufficient for its administration. Consequently, in the space of twelve years, only four persons had died with the sacraments, although one hundred and eighteen had passed from this life without that important benefit. The baptism of children was postponed for many months, as the cura went to the visitas in the distant villages but seldom. For it was not easy for one single individual to acquit himself of so laborious cares; consequently, this is not to admit that they were ill administered. The government was interested in them, as was also commerce, as Ticao was an anchorage for the Acapulco ships in its famous port of San Jazinto,65on both the outward and return trips, where fresh supplies were procured, wood and water provided, and winds awaited to take them out of the dangerous currents of the Embocadero of San Bernardino. The Recollect fathers accepted that charge, and were received affectionately by the Indians. They founded their headquarters in Mobo,66a famous village of Masbate. They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice, adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments, besides a capacious house with its suitable quarters and dormitories forthe resident and transient religious. Thence they made their apostolic excursions for the conversion of the heathens, who were still numerous, and the reduction of fugitive apostates. The settlements already established numbered six, and three new villages were established with the increase of those who settled down.4. This province of San Nicolas petitioned his Majesty in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four to confirm that possession which had been conferred on it in his royal name. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Caceres to make no innovation in the spiritual administration of that district until his royal Council should provide what was suitable. He also ordered them to report on the progress of the faith in that territory since it had been under their charge. Judicial investigations were made in Manila by the government, in order to inform the king with reports. From them it appeared that, although the entire district of Masbate had formerly had only one parish priest, since the Recollect fathers had taken charge of it, three religious at least had lived there. It was proved also by the books of the royal accountancy, that in the year preceding their possession, that is, in the year eighty-seven, the entire ministry contained only one hundred and eighty-seven families; while in the year seven hundred and twenty-two there were five hundred and eighty-five families. Consequently, the present governor, the Marquís de Torre Campo, reported that the district of Masbate had had an increase of three hundred and ninety-eight whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. The Recollects not only inthose districts, but also in the remainder of these islands, devote themselves to the spread of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.5. That progress was not made without great toil and hardship. They had to do with a great number of mountain Indians and Zimarrones, who became fearsome when abandoned to liberty. Apostates from the faith and from civilized life, they had taken to the deserts and to the roughest mountains, where they defended their barbarous mode of life at all hazards, by resisting with arms those who tried to reduce them. Various people had also gathered there from other islands, fleeing from the settled villages and from the punishment due their atrocities. Consequently, the latter were extraordinarily fierce. Many heathen were numbered among them, accustomed long since to that rudeness of life and savagery, and they were all the worst kind of people. They committed notable depredations on the civilized villages, robbed the boats that anchored in the ports and bays, and treacherously committed many murders. Their boldness rose to such a pitch that one could not cross through the interior of those islands, and to arrive at their shores was the same as to make port in a land of enemies. It was also a laborious and dangerous task to navigate along the coasts, trying to find those rancherías. Consequently, Father Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion was twice overturned in the sea, and another time had his boat dashed to pieces on some reefs. In that shipwreck he miraculously escaped with his life, although some of his companions perished in the water. Those dangers came to him in his visits to anew village established on the opposite coast. In order to avoid such dangers and visit that village more frequently, the father opened a road through the interior from Mobo over rough mountains, where many other risks were run because of the heathens. In that continual crossing the father fell grievously sick, his pains having originated from the hardships of such a road, with the showers and heat. He died at last, succumbing to such fatigues. But those sufferings were continued by others, who conquered that stubbornness by their constancy and fervent application, although with the well-known risk of losing their lives. Consequently, those ministers who were there in the beginning say that, although they have been many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate.[The third extract from Concepción’sHistoriais from vol. ix, pp. 123–150, and comprises all of the fourth chapter except the last paragraph.]Chapter IVBy sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.1. The Zambal Indians, of an intractable disposition, people of wild customs, and little or not at all content, were furious with the Dominican ministers in the reductions; they were groaning under the yoke of a life more regulated than their inclinations permitted. This made them think of insurrections and uprisings. The presidio of Painaven, well reënforced, restrained them; and the raids of the commandant,with detachments of men, into the mountains, intimidated them in their plans. They thought that the government of the Recollect fathers was milder, and hence they sighed for it. Those fathers tolerated their barbarous customs among a people so ferocious, and succeeded by their patience in softening and reducing them. Not so with the Dominican fathers, who learned the Zambals’ tenacity at their own cost. In the village of Balacbac was an Indian chief named Dalinen; although he lived in that village, he kept his valuables in the mountains under charge of a nephew. Another Indian, a Cimarron, named Calignao, killed the latter treacherously. In order to avenge that murder, Dalinen retired with many of his followers to the dense woods. Father Fray Domingo Perez,67who was the minister of that mission, tried to prevent that flight, but was quite unable to remedy it; for seventeen families fled with Dalinen. The commandant of the fort attackedthem with his men and burned the ranchería of Aglao, the next village to Balacbac, to which the murderer and the injured man belonged.2. Calignao had an extensive and strong kindred. Because they did not flee with him, father Fray Domingo endeavored to win them over. He asked for an adjutant’s staff from the commandant of the fort, and dignified Calignao with it. Then in order to restrain the other side, it was published that the murder of the nephew [of Dalinen] was by the command of the government, which had ordered that all who would not reduce themselves to village life should be killed. That method, however, was insufficient to quiet them, but, on the contrary, roused the factions to a higher pitch. To please the commandant and to give stronger force to his faction, Calignao promised to assault Dalinen. He went into the mountain to put that promise into execution, and after a short time, Dalinen was killed by a Negrito. His relatives were persuaded that the father had had a hand in that murder, and determined to pay him back. The same Calignao offered to do the deed, for this is what it means to benefit apostatized evil-doers. He sought an opportune occasion for the execution of his wicked intent, and found it in a journey which the father made to Baubuen to visit a communal house which he was building for strangers, and in order to confess father Fray Juan de Rois,68who was the minister there. During theabsence of the father, Calignao descended the mountain, visited his relatives, and was informed that the minister would return in three days. He left his relatives, and in company with a faithless Negrito went to await the father at the bank of a large river, by which it was necessary to pass. When Father Perez reached that place, Calignao discharged an arrow, which passed before the father’s breast without doing him any harm and lodged in a neighboring tree. When the father quite naturally turned his head to see who was firing at him, the Negrito Quibacat discharged his arrow, which, entering the father’s body three fingers below the left breast, came out more than four fingers at the right side of his back. It was a twisted arrow, and when father Fray Domingo pulled on it, the wound became worse. With the most intense pain that he suffered, he broke out into “Jesus, be with me! Let them commend me to God, for I am dying.”3. He spurred on his horse, which ran until the father perceived that sight was failing him. Then he alighted, stretched himself at the foot of an agoso tree,69and, amid the outpouring of his blood, begged pardon from God for his sins. An Indian who accompanied him came up to him, and found him unconscious from great loss of blood. The fatherrecovered consciousness, but for so brief a time that he could not tell the Indian what to do. He fainted once more, so completely that the Indian thought that he was yielding up his life. He again recovered consciousness, and sent the servant toBalacbacin order to get people to carry him thence. The Indian went to carry out that instruction. Meanwhile a man and three women arrived, and stayed with the father until the arrival of the men from the village who were very slow. For the Indian who had been sent could find no one who cared to take that charitable office upon himself, either the ministers of justice, the fiscals, or the sacristans. He was able to get three serving-lads in the convent, who made a hammock from a blanket, and carried the wounded religious in it. The latter, charging his messenger to go to Baubuen to advise Father Rois of his mishap, set out on his way to his village, where he arrived at nine o’clock at night. Father Rois, as soon as he received the news, got ready to go to the relief of his associate. After many frights, for everything was in an uproar, and his person ran no less risk [than that of Father Domingo], he reached the village at daybreak. He entered the cell of the wounded father, whom he found embracing a holy crucifix, and bathed in tears. Father Rois asked him “What is this, Father Vicar-prior?” “This means death,” answered the sufferer. “I shall die; there is no relief.” He was confessed, and received the sacred viaticum. He lived three days after that, without having his bed made, for his extreme pains would not permit it. Had they tended him well at the beginning, he would have recovered, for the wound was not mortal, and the Indians have medicineswhich cure other things more dangerous. But the greatest care was not exercised in this. The third day after nightfall, the pains attacked him much more fiercely, and convulsions and paroxysms followed. He received extreme unction, after which he lost his speech, and remained remarkably quiet; and in that calm he yielded his spirit to the Creator.4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.5. It is said that God honored the place of his death or where he was wounded, by marvelous occurrences. For instance the large river on whoseshore he was shot, dried up, and was swallowed up by the earth, and no trace of it was ever found later, neither did it take a course elsewhere; while the bed of the river became full of agoso trees. And although the above tree is large, and needs more than ten years to grow tall, those trees grew up in so short a time that that place appeared a dense forest, so that they choked and parched the reed-grass, which never sprang up again. It was said that the earth which was dyed with his blood has never allowed any grass to grow since, although the grass about the agoso at whose foot the father fainted is abundant and very green. That tree is always more flourishing and luxuriant, so that in comparison with it the other trees seem like withered things. Also another smaller river which ran past Aglao and Baubuen dried up, and the earth was left very sterile. It is true that these things were said, but without any foundation. The large river still remains and flows in the same course, and that of Aglao has the same course, and there is no notice or tradition that it had ever dried up; and it is not possible that so remarkable a thing could be forgotten. It was true that the agoso under which he rested was preserved and is still preserved; but in that story are not registered the exaggerated circumstances, such as that of the grass and of the reed-grass. I say this with assurance because I have seen it at various times, and I have passed the large river with some risk. On the bank of that river I was shown the spot where the father was wounded, and the agoso in question, in which I found nothing worthy of wonder. In regard to the other agosos and those newly produced, I proved that there are both old and newtrees, for they are produced without any cultivation, and are conserved from time immemorial, and their very great age is recognized by their failing condition.706. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishopand the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the newRecopilación,72and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that accounthe petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.7. He did so, and presented himself with the copy authorized in public form, of the proceedings of the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in the cause prosecuted by the father procurator-general, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, asking that his province should be restored to its former possession of the ministries of Mariveles, Masinloc, Bolinao, Puquil, and Playa-honda, and the rest of the province of Zambales. The decision thereon, as appeared from the said proceedings, was referred to the royal Audiencia of Manila. In regard to the contents of Father Peguero’s memorial, notwithstanding what he might petition, it should be refuted as outside the truth, as a calumny, and as grievously offensive to his province—which with excessive and continual work, and equal zeal in the service of both Majesties, had assisted in the administration of the Christians and the conversion of the infidels in theaforesaid districts, from the year one thousand six hundred and seven to the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, when it was despoiled actually and contrary to law, and the Dominican religious introduced into those missions. Notwithstanding the above, the said memorial, proceeding by malicious reports, and with a lack of accurate information, says that in the year seventy-six the said Father Peguero informed the government of these islands that the conversion and reduction of the Zambals—both the light-complexioned ones and those with the kinky hair, on both sides of the mountains that extend from Batan to Pangasinan, especially in the localities of Aglao, Buquil, Alupay, and Culianan, and many others—had not been thitherto in charge of any of the orders of these islands. In consideration of that, he petitioned that that care be assigned to his order. Despatches were given him in accordance with the terms of his petition, without summoning the party of the Recollect province, which was in possession [of that territory] from the time mentioned above. That order was then especially extending its labors, and working in the reduction of the infidels of those very same places, and in the administration of a great number of Christians in those districts, who paid tribute to their encomenderos. His order having offered opposition, and having made a petition before the royal Audiencia to be protected in its ancient possession, this was done, and the Order of St. Dominic was excluded from its demand, as appeared from royal provision and proceedings, which would be presented if it were necessary. After his order had been placed in charge ofthe administration of Mindoro, the Dominicans succeeded in getting the governor, then Don Juan de Vargas, to ask the father provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, to make a renunciation [of those districts]. The father provincial did it unwillingly, for it was a thing that he neither could or ought to do in regard to such districts, in order that other religious might be instituted—as were those of St. Dominic, in the year eighty. Two grave [Recollect] religious protested in the name of their province, against the renunciation made by their Recollect provincial; and all the ministers of Zambales protested against the violence with which they were despoiled of that administration, without their province having until then made any other judicial or extrajudicial effort than the conservation of their right, in order to demand it where and to what extent it may behoove them to do so. The provincial of his province had formally ordered his subjects not only not to solicit the natives of those districts to ask for, or allow them to ask for, these or other ministers; but they were to admonish them always to live consoled and contented, and to understand that the instruction which they received from the fathers of St. Dominic was the same, and [given with] the same zeal for the welfare of their souls. That order was obeyed, and there was no notice of its infraction. On the contrary, information was received that the present Dominican ministers told the natives that they were returning to carry forward what had been commenced by the Recollects. That proved that the Recollects did not keep their convents and churches, which they had abandoned to the Dominicans; asdoes the suggestion that father Fray Raymundo Verart74said that Captain Marcos de Rosales, encomendero of Marivelez, had made to him, for the latter earnestly entreated him to ask that the Recollects should be restored to the possession of those ministeries. He offered to make that request to him in writing.8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besidesbeing an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleadedthat the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; forthese wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order wasprevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously,and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.12. This decree was as follows: “Decision of the royal court this day, September eleven, one thousand seven hundred and five.75The measure passed by Señor Calderon is approved, and in accordance therewith, a decree to that effect shall be issued. Because of their great poverty, only the first petitions of the Indians shall be received without attorney.”13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76who together with theprocurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copyof the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united thosewhich were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.14. Thus this matter [expediente] rested until the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, when the alférez, Nicolas Guerrero, one of the ordinary attorneys of the royal Audiencia, presented a certificateempowering him as the chief authorized agent of the province of San Nicolas, to act as their attorney in the matter in hand. Thereupon, he declared that in maintenance of the claim of the said province, it was advisable to examine the minutes of the proceedings hitherto conducted in the royal courts, in regard to the restitution of their former missions of Zambales and everything pertaining to them. Accordingly, he prayed his Highness to deign to order the secretary to produce the said minutes, which on being given to the said attorney, he appeared before his Highness and stated that in accordance with the last royal order of six hundred and ninety, whereby the other party was required to answer fully, this had not been done, but that the party had merely referred to its former pleadings, and that any other answer had not been made during the space of twenty years, so that the suit had been unduly prolonged; and moreover, that the matter having been recently investigated, his side has a paper (which he now presents with all solemnity), namely, a private letter from the father provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Pedro Mejorada,77in reply to one from the provincialof the Recollects, Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, in which he declares, that he answered in the same manner as his province had done on former occasions; that he would not oppose the abandoning of the said missions as he was not a party thereto, for his province had taken these under their charge solely in compliance with the orders of Governor Don Juan de Vargas and Archbishop Don Phelipe Pardo; that, moreover, at the present time when his province was so straitened through the lack of religious, if they were not succored in that regard it would be necessary for them to take other steps. Wherefore (he added), so far as matters have now gone he might do what he pleased, for his province would offer no opposition, and was prepared to give up those missions if so requested and charged to do. In this letter, moreover, among other points, it was inferable that his province was ready to leave the said missions of Zambales. Therefore the attorney petitioned and prayed his Highness to deign to have the case brought up for final trial, declaring his client as entitled to the possession of such missions, to whom they should therefore be restored. Thereupon the judges decided that the measures so far taken together with that letter should be acted upon; that the trial should be proceeded with without prejudice to whatever had already been decided, and that all the papers in the case be handed over to the fiscal of this royal Audiencia, for his opinion (within three days) of what steps it was advisableto take. Thereupon, for reasons given, the latter replied that what had been advised by the fiscal of the royal and supreme Council ought to be carried out, and hence a similar order might issue from this royal Audiencia, with notice to the reverend fathers provincial, parties in interest, that so far as concerned their spiritual care the natives might be relieved promptly. In accordance with this, the judges ordered that all parties should proceed to the chamber for final sentence. Thereupon their decision was that the reverend fathers provincial should be apprised of the sentence as given in this cause for their judgment in the exercise of their rights; and that whether they assented or not, they should appear to hear the decision to be given.15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph deSan Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.Doctor TorralvaLicentiate VillaThe Fiscal”In the presence of Antonio de Yepes y Arce, notary-public. Their decision was heard and obeyed promptly by the party to the suit, and proper warrants having been received, the spiritual administration of the Zambals was peacefully restored to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects. Perhaps the very reverend father chronicler, Fray Domingo Collantes,78did not have at hand these original documents when he penned the fourth part of the chronicles of his province of Santissimo Rosario which has been recently published; and this must be the reason for the so great diversity in the [story of the] restoration of Zambales, and for the minuteness with which it is discussed here.

IIExtracts fromJuan de la Concepcion’s Historia[Itisthought advisable to append to the above extracts from theHistoriaof Pedro de San Francisco de Assis, the following extracts from Concepción’sHistoria. The first extract is from vol. viii, pp. 3–16, and includes a portion of the first chapter. It treats of the transfer of the province of Zambal to the Dominicans, and the occupation of the island of Mindoro by the Recollects.]2. Continuing with the events of this government, we must note that Don Diego de Villaroto represented in the supreme Council of the Indias that the island of Mindoro had a vast population who still retained the dense darkness of their heathen blindness; and that if the spiritual conquest of that island were given to some order, it would be easy to illumine its inhabitants with the true light. That representation was met by a royal decree, dated June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of these islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindoro to the order that should be most suitable and fitting for that ministry; and that the curas employed in that island should be appointed to chaplainciesor prebends. That royal decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manila by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villa-Real in October, 78. His Majesty’s fiscal offered no objection to its observance, and prompt obedience was rendered to it. It was directed to his Excellency the archbishop, then Don Fray Phelipe Pardo. That most illustrious gentleman, during the two times when he was provincial of his order or province, urged as a thing greatly to be desired and demanded by his brethren the Dominicans, that the Augustinian Recollects yield them the province of Zambales, as it was very fitting for communication with their province of Pangasinan, and of the latter with Manila, and of those religious among themselves, who could thus make their visits more comfortably, by always crossing through their own ministries, thus avoiding the voyage through the territory of others, which they regretted. Notwithstanding that those matters were discussed with great courtesy (as is the case at present) yet that was a demand that offended greatly the discalced Augustinians, who regarded the Zambals as the true sons of their spirit, and the land as watered with the blood and sweat of many of their members, and a land which, being their firstborn, was most tenderly loved. The Dominicans could never obtain their demand, although softened by exchanges, for ministries were offered in which there was even more than enough room for zeal.3. By reason of the said royal despatch, his Excellency formed the idea of completely removing the Recollects from Zambales and giving them in exchange the island of Mindoro. He set about thatwith great zest. The Recollect provincial resisted, alleging that it was contrary to their constitutions to abandon thus the province of Zambales. That would mean treating it as their own possession. It would be better to recognize it as a territory distributed by the universal patron; and, admitting that it was impossible to surrender it without his royal consent, individual laws communicate no right, especially when such mission fields aread interim. He also pleaded that the Indians of Mindoro, both infidels and Christians, had as soon as they heard that regular ministers were to be given them, urgently requested Jesuits. On the contrary, the Zambals, when they were notified that it was the intention to withdraw the Recollects from their midst in order to introduce Dominicans, almost declared their opinion in a terrible tumult. The Recollects preferred, therefore, that such a change should not take place. But the archbishop was firm in his resolution, and trampled all obstacles under foot. He united with the governor, and both of them together forced the Recollect provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, by threats, to agree to the change. The governor pacified the Indians of Mindoro by means of his corregidor, so that they should receive the Recollect fathers; and the Zambals by means of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan, so that they should allow the Dominicans to enter. Thereupon, the three seculars who had been in charge of Mindoro were accommodated by suitable chaplaincies, and an act was passed by the royal Audiencia, charging the Recollect fathers with the administration of that island, with absolute clauses based on the royal decree, without any provision or obligation to leavethe missions of Zambales for it. That decree was accepted when it was announced, and was extended to the judicial cession of those missions, when signed by the provincial of the Recollects, although protest was made against it in the name of their province, by two influential religious. On that account a second act was enacted in which those missions were adjudged to the fathers of St. Dominic, for the archbishop was very much in earnest in those arrangements.4. Those decrees having been announced and accepted, the Dominicans assumed possession of the cordillera of Zambales. That province had on its coast eleven villages with actual missions, which were increased in the neighboring mountains. The Recollects handed over that administration without making any public disturbance, although all the religious who had labored there protested vehemently, all of which appeared in the judicial reports. The Augustinian Recollects went to Mindoro with the fitting despatches for that corregidor ordering him to deliver the administration [of that island] to them. Father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, then definitor, was given charge of the district of Baco, after it had been resigned by Bachelor Don Joseph de Rojas, who held it; father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion of the curacy of Calavite, in place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedraza, its parish priest; while the curacy of Naohan was taken possession of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, who was exchanged for Bachelor Don Martin Diaz. The whole transfer was completed before the end of the year 79. Three other religious remained with the above three religious as associatesand coadjutors, and those six ministers began to scatter throughout the island. That island is in the center of this vast archipelago, and was formerly called Mainit; but the Spaniards gave it the name of Mindoro from a village called Minolo, located between Puerto de Galeras and the bay of Ylog. It is triangular in shape, its angles being three promontories: that of Calavite, facing west; that of Dumah or Pola, facing north; and that of Burruncan, facing south. In size it is the seventh of the more important islands, and is about one hundred leguas in circumference. Its temperature is naturally hot, but is tempered by the great dampness arising from frequent rains. The height of its mountains aids also in that. On account of such circumstances it is a very fertile land, and, although not very healthful for strangers, good and favorable to its inhabitants. The latter made themselves feared by their neighbors, especially on the sea, where they attacked the most powerful, carrying blood and fire everywhere. Notwithstanding, they were of great simplicity, for when they saw the Europeans wearing clothes and shoes—which they did not use—they imagined that that adornment was natural to them. They are but little given to the cultivation of the soil, and are content with wild fruits; sago, which they get from the palm and which is a good food for them; the flesh of wild animals; and fish, which the rivers and seacoast offer them in great plenty. They have little rice, on account of their sloth in sowing and tending it, for they make up that lack sufficiently in roots and fruits. If they are weak, although corpulent, it is because of their transcendent vice in being hostile to work.5. Captain Juan de Salcedo made a beginning in the conquest of the district of Mamburào, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy. That conquest was completed from the point of Burruncan to that of Calavite by the adelantado Miguel de Legaspi, in the beginning of the following year. Gradually the remainder was subdued by the missionaries, by whose treatment the rudeness of the manners of those people was softened. Consequently, the encomienda of that large island was very desirable. The Observant Augustinian fathers were employed in its spiritual cultivation and founded the village of Baco. The discalced fathers of St. Francis also labored there for some time, it being ceded to them by the Observant Augustinians. They worked along the Calavite side to Pola, which they abandoned either because those natives were not at all disposed [to accept the faith], or because those fathers had slight esteem for that island when compared with what was offered them in Ylocos and Camarines. The Jesuits also labored there, but always by the method of temporary missions, from time to time, and had no stability. It only appears that they were more continual in Naohan (which they founded), as long as it was preserved by Father San Victores. When the latter went to the Marianas, the Jesuits resigned that portion into the hands of the archbishop. It is probable that the latter was Señor Poblete.56He immediately formed two curacies for the secular clergy to look after those souls. Although there were but few souls, the extent of their territory was so vast that it was necessary to establish a thirdparish. Those seculars maintained what was conquered, but that district did not yield a sufficient recompense for the three ministers, and they were paid from the royal treasury and from other pious funds. It was also even difficult to find seculars who cared to take charge of such districts, which were truly little to be desired. But obedience caused that there never was a lack of seculars there, who maintained themselves until the year 76, when the Recollects went there to take their places. As the latter immediately placed six ministers there, they furthered the conquest and reduction greatly in all parts. Hence, while they only received about four thousand Christians, those were multiplied in a few years and the number rose to eight thousand, and in 1716 they reached the number of twelve thousand. There are still a great number of people in the mountains, which are inhabited by wild men. Some of those men are quite light-complexioned, and are believed to have originated from the Chinese and Japanese established there for the convenience afforded by the island, or who have put in there because of shipwreck, or been driven thither by the winds. Others are Cimarron Negritos, who are the first inhabitants, and, as it were, more native. Trustworthy persons say that those people have a hard little tail in the proper place for it, which prevents them from sitting down flat. If it is true (and I do not doubt it, notwithstanding that it is disputed), it is not so strange that I have no examples of it. Those prominences of the sacral bone are considered as rare; but a beginning having been made in one, it could have become natural in its propagation.6. Thus did those Recollect religious find thatisland, and, believing it to be important for the reductions, they continued to establish their regular administrations. The first was in Baco. There, inasmuch as it was the capital, lived the corregidor, but the capital was later moved to Calapan. In that district they formed the villages of Calapan, Baco, Suban, Ylog, Minolo, and Camoròn, with a number of annexed villages or visitas. The second was in Naohan, which was extended into six annexed villages, namely, Pola, Pinamalayan, Balete, Sumagui, Maliguo, and Bongabon. The third was in Calavite, which formed the visitas of Dongon, Santa Cruz, Manburaò, Tubili, and Santo Thomas. The fourth was in Mangarin, which was extended into its dependencies, Guasic, Manaol, Bulalacao, and Ililin. They also began an active mission in order to reduce the heathen Mangyans, which had no other work than to employ itself in those glorious reductions and conversions of grace. For one single man it was an immense work, but the superior government gave no more stipends. That mission was established on the bay of Ylog, and ministers and infidels were pledged not to allow [there] any of the former Christians, who might pervert the conversions. By that arrangement it grew to a very large village, and there were practiced some of the old customs that belonged to the primitive church. All that fine flower-garden has been trampled down and even ruined by the Moros, as will be related in due season.7. The Dominican fathers also applied themselves to the work in the province of Zambales. That province had already eleven villages formed, although they were small, because that province has but few people. It appeared to the new fathers thatthat number of villages made their administration difficult; consequently, they tried to reduce their number by uniting some of them. That incorporation was difficult; hence they increased the troops and arms of the presidio of Paynaven, the center of that province. Through the protection afforded by those troops, they broke up the whole province. The village of Bolinaò, which had a fair population, was located on an island, which is separated from the land by only a channel, which forms its famous and secure port.57It was fertile and pleasant. They moved it to the mainland, to a sandy shore, useless for anything, even for the ordinary fields. Its lack of water they supplied with wells which they opened. There they obtained some water, but it was thick, and in the time of the dry season it entirely disappeared. The Indians who were harmed by this measure were so angry at that moving, that many families retired to Ylocos. In truth, that site is despicable. An eminence which looks upon and almost dominates the port would have been much more suitable, and they would have obtained better air there; while their boats, which cannot navigate by the channel to the village during the blowing of the north wind, so that the cargo has to be carried for a long distance on the shoulders, would have obtained shelter. There are many other inconveniences but one cannot think of a single advantage. They moved the village of Agno58from the coast into the interior, toa site which is a swampy mudhole when there is the least rain. The village of Sigayan was moved to another site, where the only advantage was a near-by river of fresh water which was unnavigable. They left Masinloc59on its pleasant site, while the village of Paynaven was moved inland to a site called Iba,60from which the new village took its name, moving that village in order to get it away from the commandant of the fort, whose proximity was annoying to them. They did not regard it as a recompensable hardship for the minister of that village to go on feast-days in order to say mass in the presidio, and to repeat it afterwards in his own church. In order to increase that place and give it the name of capital, they brought families from Bolinaò, who formed a large barangay. It has already been seen that they made use of the fort in this, and that those who were moved were not very well pleased. The Dominicans also founded, or better, made from other villages, the village of Cabangaan61in an obscure site, which was rough and surrounded by dense mountains, and suitable only for a hermit and solitary life, but so far as others were concerned, a place of profound melancholy. They also formed the village of Subic62from other villages, which had only the advantages of its port to recommend it, while in otherrespects it was most unpleasant. They also filled the vacant places left by the many families who retired to the mountains as a result of the violence exercised, with others whom they brought from Pangasinan, a province abounding with people, who because they are so numerous, and there is no room for all, leave their homes more easily. In fact, they did that, too, in order to be surer of the Zambals, in whose severe and warlike minds they did not have the greatest confidence. Thus did they soften those people, or let us say frankly, checked their vehemence. The reduction of the people of the mountain, however much it is talked about, is not known, as neither is the place where they could form villages or a village from them. Let us leave then exaggerations, which, when they offend by comparison, cannot fail to be odious. We shall treat of the restoration [of that province] below, in its proper place.63[The following extract is from the same volume, and includes pp. 135–144.]Chapter VThe Augustinian Recollect fathers assume the spiritual government of the islands of Masbáte, Ticao, and Burias. A geographical description of those islands is presented.1. Under the metaphor of husbandmen, the prophet Amos describes those who are employed in the cultivation of souls. The chroniclers of the Augustinian Recollect fathers describe those fathers for us as zealous and laborious in their never-ceasing application in planting and cultivating the word ofGod in humble hearts. The Recollects assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which, when they tried later to work them, it was found did not produce expenses. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he had thought. The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference, nine long, and more than four wide. That of Burias extends its circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately, for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrantcamanguian;64another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before thistime, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now.2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and hepetitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories. Accordingly the Recollects only accepted the district of Masbate, and resigned the right that they could have had to the village on the continent of Luzon to the Franciscan fathers, who could administer them with greater ease. By that means all rivalry was checked.3. The parties [i.e., the Recollects and Franciscans] having come to an agreement, and between themselves the governor and bishop, the two latter despatched suitable measures so that the Recollects could take charge of those souls. In the distribution the Recollects had their proportionate advantages, for those islands are a way-station which is necessaryto pass in going to Caraga and Zebù, where this order had distant missions. The bishop obtained them [for that order] because, that district having been reduced to one single secular, the latter proved insufficient for its administration. Consequently, in the space of twelve years, only four persons had died with the sacraments, although one hundred and eighteen had passed from this life without that important benefit. The baptism of children was postponed for many months, as the cura went to the visitas in the distant villages but seldom. For it was not easy for one single individual to acquit himself of so laborious cares; consequently, this is not to admit that they were ill administered. The government was interested in them, as was also commerce, as Ticao was an anchorage for the Acapulco ships in its famous port of San Jazinto,65on both the outward and return trips, where fresh supplies were procured, wood and water provided, and winds awaited to take them out of the dangerous currents of the Embocadero of San Bernardino. The Recollect fathers accepted that charge, and were received affectionately by the Indians. They founded their headquarters in Mobo,66a famous village of Masbate. They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice, adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments, besides a capacious house with its suitable quarters and dormitories forthe resident and transient religious. Thence they made their apostolic excursions for the conversion of the heathens, who were still numerous, and the reduction of fugitive apostates. The settlements already established numbered six, and three new villages were established with the increase of those who settled down.4. This province of San Nicolas petitioned his Majesty in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four to confirm that possession which had been conferred on it in his royal name. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Caceres to make no innovation in the spiritual administration of that district until his royal Council should provide what was suitable. He also ordered them to report on the progress of the faith in that territory since it had been under their charge. Judicial investigations were made in Manila by the government, in order to inform the king with reports. From them it appeared that, although the entire district of Masbate had formerly had only one parish priest, since the Recollect fathers had taken charge of it, three religious at least had lived there. It was proved also by the books of the royal accountancy, that in the year preceding their possession, that is, in the year eighty-seven, the entire ministry contained only one hundred and eighty-seven families; while in the year seven hundred and twenty-two there were five hundred and eighty-five families. Consequently, the present governor, the Marquís de Torre Campo, reported that the district of Masbate had had an increase of three hundred and ninety-eight whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. The Recollects not only inthose districts, but also in the remainder of these islands, devote themselves to the spread of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.5. That progress was not made without great toil and hardship. They had to do with a great number of mountain Indians and Zimarrones, who became fearsome when abandoned to liberty. Apostates from the faith and from civilized life, they had taken to the deserts and to the roughest mountains, where they defended their barbarous mode of life at all hazards, by resisting with arms those who tried to reduce them. Various people had also gathered there from other islands, fleeing from the settled villages and from the punishment due their atrocities. Consequently, the latter were extraordinarily fierce. Many heathen were numbered among them, accustomed long since to that rudeness of life and savagery, and they were all the worst kind of people. They committed notable depredations on the civilized villages, robbed the boats that anchored in the ports and bays, and treacherously committed many murders. Their boldness rose to such a pitch that one could not cross through the interior of those islands, and to arrive at their shores was the same as to make port in a land of enemies. It was also a laborious and dangerous task to navigate along the coasts, trying to find those rancherías. Consequently, Father Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion was twice overturned in the sea, and another time had his boat dashed to pieces on some reefs. In that shipwreck he miraculously escaped with his life, although some of his companions perished in the water. Those dangers came to him in his visits to anew village established on the opposite coast. In order to avoid such dangers and visit that village more frequently, the father opened a road through the interior from Mobo over rough mountains, where many other risks were run because of the heathens. In that continual crossing the father fell grievously sick, his pains having originated from the hardships of such a road, with the showers and heat. He died at last, succumbing to such fatigues. But those sufferings were continued by others, who conquered that stubbornness by their constancy and fervent application, although with the well-known risk of losing their lives. Consequently, those ministers who were there in the beginning say that, although they have been many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate.[The third extract from Concepción’sHistoriais from vol. ix, pp. 123–150, and comprises all of the fourth chapter except the last paragraph.]Chapter IVBy sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.1. The Zambal Indians, of an intractable disposition, people of wild customs, and little or not at all content, were furious with the Dominican ministers in the reductions; they were groaning under the yoke of a life more regulated than their inclinations permitted. This made them think of insurrections and uprisings. The presidio of Painaven, well reënforced, restrained them; and the raids of the commandant,with detachments of men, into the mountains, intimidated them in their plans. They thought that the government of the Recollect fathers was milder, and hence they sighed for it. Those fathers tolerated their barbarous customs among a people so ferocious, and succeeded by their patience in softening and reducing them. Not so with the Dominican fathers, who learned the Zambals’ tenacity at their own cost. In the village of Balacbac was an Indian chief named Dalinen; although he lived in that village, he kept his valuables in the mountains under charge of a nephew. Another Indian, a Cimarron, named Calignao, killed the latter treacherously. In order to avenge that murder, Dalinen retired with many of his followers to the dense woods. Father Fray Domingo Perez,67who was the minister of that mission, tried to prevent that flight, but was quite unable to remedy it; for seventeen families fled with Dalinen. The commandant of the fort attackedthem with his men and burned the ranchería of Aglao, the next village to Balacbac, to which the murderer and the injured man belonged.2. Calignao had an extensive and strong kindred. Because they did not flee with him, father Fray Domingo endeavored to win them over. He asked for an adjutant’s staff from the commandant of the fort, and dignified Calignao with it. Then in order to restrain the other side, it was published that the murder of the nephew [of Dalinen] was by the command of the government, which had ordered that all who would not reduce themselves to village life should be killed. That method, however, was insufficient to quiet them, but, on the contrary, roused the factions to a higher pitch. To please the commandant and to give stronger force to his faction, Calignao promised to assault Dalinen. He went into the mountain to put that promise into execution, and after a short time, Dalinen was killed by a Negrito. His relatives were persuaded that the father had had a hand in that murder, and determined to pay him back. The same Calignao offered to do the deed, for this is what it means to benefit apostatized evil-doers. He sought an opportune occasion for the execution of his wicked intent, and found it in a journey which the father made to Baubuen to visit a communal house which he was building for strangers, and in order to confess father Fray Juan de Rois,68who was the minister there. During theabsence of the father, Calignao descended the mountain, visited his relatives, and was informed that the minister would return in three days. He left his relatives, and in company with a faithless Negrito went to await the father at the bank of a large river, by which it was necessary to pass. When Father Perez reached that place, Calignao discharged an arrow, which passed before the father’s breast without doing him any harm and lodged in a neighboring tree. When the father quite naturally turned his head to see who was firing at him, the Negrito Quibacat discharged his arrow, which, entering the father’s body three fingers below the left breast, came out more than four fingers at the right side of his back. It was a twisted arrow, and when father Fray Domingo pulled on it, the wound became worse. With the most intense pain that he suffered, he broke out into “Jesus, be with me! Let them commend me to God, for I am dying.”3. He spurred on his horse, which ran until the father perceived that sight was failing him. Then he alighted, stretched himself at the foot of an agoso tree,69and, amid the outpouring of his blood, begged pardon from God for his sins. An Indian who accompanied him came up to him, and found him unconscious from great loss of blood. The fatherrecovered consciousness, but for so brief a time that he could not tell the Indian what to do. He fainted once more, so completely that the Indian thought that he was yielding up his life. He again recovered consciousness, and sent the servant toBalacbacin order to get people to carry him thence. The Indian went to carry out that instruction. Meanwhile a man and three women arrived, and stayed with the father until the arrival of the men from the village who were very slow. For the Indian who had been sent could find no one who cared to take that charitable office upon himself, either the ministers of justice, the fiscals, or the sacristans. He was able to get three serving-lads in the convent, who made a hammock from a blanket, and carried the wounded religious in it. The latter, charging his messenger to go to Baubuen to advise Father Rois of his mishap, set out on his way to his village, where he arrived at nine o’clock at night. Father Rois, as soon as he received the news, got ready to go to the relief of his associate. After many frights, for everything was in an uproar, and his person ran no less risk [than that of Father Domingo], he reached the village at daybreak. He entered the cell of the wounded father, whom he found embracing a holy crucifix, and bathed in tears. Father Rois asked him “What is this, Father Vicar-prior?” “This means death,” answered the sufferer. “I shall die; there is no relief.” He was confessed, and received the sacred viaticum. He lived three days after that, without having his bed made, for his extreme pains would not permit it. Had they tended him well at the beginning, he would have recovered, for the wound was not mortal, and the Indians have medicineswhich cure other things more dangerous. But the greatest care was not exercised in this. The third day after nightfall, the pains attacked him much more fiercely, and convulsions and paroxysms followed. He received extreme unction, after which he lost his speech, and remained remarkably quiet; and in that calm he yielded his spirit to the Creator.4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.5. It is said that God honored the place of his death or where he was wounded, by marvelous occurrences. For instance the large river on whoseshore he was shot, dried up, and was swallowed up by the earth, and no trace of it was ever found later, neither did it take a course elsewhere; while the bed of the river became full of agoso trees. And although the above tree is large, and needs more than ten years to grow tall, those trees grew up in so short a time that that place appeared a dense forest, so that they choked and parched the reed-grass, which never sprang up again. It was said that the earth which was dyed with his blood has never allowed any grass to grow since, although the grass about the agoso at whose foot the father fainted is abundant and very green. That tree is always more flourishing and luxuriant, so that in comparison with it the other trees seem like withered things. Also another smaller river which ran past Aglao and Baubuen dried up, and the earth was left very sterile. It is true that these things were said, but without any foundation. The large river still remains and flows in the same course, and that of Aglao has the same course, and there is no notice or tradition that it had ever dried up; and it is not possible that so remarkable a thing could be forgotten. It was true that the agoso under which he rested was preserved and is still preserved; but in that story are not registered the exaggerated circumstances, such as that of the grass and of the reed-grass. I say this with assurance because I have seen it at various times, and I have passed the large river with some risk. On the bank of that river I was shown the spot where the father was wounded, and the agoso in question, in which I found nothing worthy of wonder. In regard to the other agosos and those newly produced, I proved that there are both old and newtrees, for they are produced without any cultivation, and are conserved from time immemorial, and their very great age is recognized by their failing condition.706. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishopand the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the newRecopilación,72and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that accounthe petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.7. He did so, and presented himself with the copy authorized in public form, of the proceedings of the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in the cause prosecuted by the father procurator-general, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, asking that his province should be restored to its former possession of the ministries of Mariveles, Masinloc, Bolinao, Puquil, and Playa-honda, and the rest of the province of Zambales. The decision thereon, as appeared from the said proceedings, was referred to the royal Audiencia of Manila. In regard to the contents of Father Peguero’s memorial, notwithstanding what he might petition, it should be refuted as outside the truth, as a calumny, and as grievously offensive to his province—which with excessive and continual work, and equal zeal in the service of both Majesties, had assisted in the administration of the Christians and the conversion of the infidels in theaforesaid districts, from the year one thousand six hundred and seven to the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, when it was despoiled actually and contrary to law, and the Dominican religious introduced into those missions. Notwithstanding the above, the said memorial, proceeding by malicious reports, and with a lack of accurate information, says that in the year seventy-six the said Father Peguero informed the government of these islands that the conversion and reduction of the Zambals—both the light-complexioned ones and those with the kinky hair, on both sides of the mountains that extend from Batan to Pangasinan, especially in the localities of Aglao, Buquil, Alupay, and Culianan, and many others—had not been thitherto in charge of any of the orders of these islands. In consideration of that, he petitioned that that care be assigned to his order. Despatches were given him in accordance with the terms of his petition, without summoning the party of the Recollect province, which was in possession [of that territory] from the time mentioned above. That order was then especially extending its labors, and working in the reduction of the infidels of those very same places, and in the administration of a great number of Christians in those districts, who paid tribute to their encomenderos. His order having offered opposition, and having made a petition before the royal Audiencia to be protected in its ancient possession, this was done, and the Order of St. Dominic was excluded from its demand, as appeared from royal provision and proceedings, which would be presented if it were necessary. After his order had been placed in charge ofthe administration of Mindoro, the Dominicans succeeded in getting the governor, then Don Juan de Vargas, to ask the father provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, to make a renunciation [of those districts]. The father provincial did it unwillingly, for it was a thing that he neither could or ought to do in regard to such districts, in order that other religious might be instituted—as were those of St. Dominic, in the year eighty. Two grave [Recollect] religious protested in the name of their province, against the renunciation made by their Recollect provincial; and all the ministers of Zambales protested against the violence with which they were despoiled of that administration, without their province having until then made any other judicial or extrajudicial effort than the conservation of their right, in order to demand it where and to what extent it may behoove them to do so. The provincial of his province had formally ordered his subjects not only not to solicit the natives of those districts to ask for, or allow them to ask for, these or other ministers; but they were to admonish them always to live consoled and contented, and to understand that the instruction which they received from the fathers of St. Dominic was the same, and [given with] the same zeal for the welfare of their souls. That order was obeyed, and there was no notice of its infraction. On the contrary, information was received that the present Dominican ministers told the natives that they were returning to carry forward what had been commenced by the Recollects. That proved that the Recollects did not keep their convents and churches, which they had abandoned to the Dominicans; asdoes the suggestion that father Fray Raymundo Verart74said that Captain Marcos de Rosales, encomendero of Marivelez, had made to him, for the latter earnestly entreated him to ask that the Recollects should be restored to the possession of those ministeries. He offered to make that request to him in writing.8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besidesbeing an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleadedthat the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; forthese wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order wasprevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously,and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.12. This decree was as follows: “Decision of the royal court this day, September eleven, one thousand seven hundred and five.75The measure passed by Señor Calderon is approved, and in accordance therewith, a decree to that effect shall be issued. Because of their great poverty, only the first petitions of the Indians shall be received without attorney.”13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76who together with theprocurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copyof the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united thosewhich were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.14. Thus this matter [expediente] rested until the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, when the alférez, Nicolas Guerrero, one of the ordinary attorneys of the royal Audiencia, presented a certificateempowering him as the chief authorized agent of the province of San Nicolas, to act as their attorney in the matter in hand. Thereupon, he declared that in maintenance of the claim of the said province, it was advisable to examine the minutes of the proceedings hitherto conducted in the royal courts, in regard to the restitution of their former missions of Zambales and everything pertaining to them. Accordingly, he prayed his Highness to deign to order the secretary to produce the said minutes, which on being given to the said attorney, he appeared before his Highness and stated that in accordance with the last royal order of six hundred and ninety, whereby the other party was required to answer fully, this had not been done, but that the party had merely referred to its former pleadings, and that any other answer had not been made during the space of twenty years, so that the suit had been unduly prolonged; and moreover, that the matter having been recently investigated, his side has a paper (which he now presents with all solemnity), namely, a private letter from the father provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Pedro Mejorada,77in reply to one from the provincialof the Recollects, Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, in which he declares, that he answered in the same manner as his province had done on former occasions; that he would not oppose the abandoning of the said missions as he was not a party thereto, for his province had taken these under their charge solely in compliance with the orders of Governor Don Juan de Vargas and Archbishop Don Phelipe Pardo; that, moreover, at the present time when his province was so straitened through the lack of religious, if they were not succored in that regard it would be necessary for them to take other steps. Wherefore (he added), so far as matters have now gone he might do what he pleased, for his province would offer no opposition, and was prepared to give up those missions if so requested and charged to do. In this letter, moreover, among other points, it was inferable that his province was ready to leave the said missions of Zambales. Therefore the attorney petitioned and prayed his Highness to deign to have the case brought up for final trial, declaring his client as entitled to the possession of such missions, to whom they should therefore be restored. Thereupon the judges decided that the measures so far taken together with that letter should be acted upon; that the trial should be proceeded with without prejudice to whatever had already been decided, and that all the papers in the case be handed over to the fiscal of this royal Audiencia, for his opinion (within three days) of what steps it was advisableto take. Thereupon, for reasons given, the latter replied that what had been advised by the fiscal of the royal and supreme Council ought to be carried out, and hence a similar order might issue from this royal Audiencia, with notice to the reverend fathers provincial, parties in interest, that so far as concerned their spiritual care the natives might be relieved promptly. In accordance with this, the judges ordered that all parties should proceed to the chamber for final sentence. Thereupon their decision was that the reverend fathers provincial should be apprised of the sentence as given in this cause for their judgment in the exercise of their rights; and that whether they assented or not, they should appear to hear the decision to be given.15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph deSan Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.Doctor TorralvaLicentiate VillaThe Fiscal”In the presence of Antonio de Yepes y Arce, notary-public. Their decision was heard and obeyed promptly by the party to the suit, and proper warrants having been received, the spiritual administration of the Zambals was peacefully restored to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects. Perhaps the very reverend father chronicler, Fray Domingo Collantes,78did not have at hand these original documents when he penned the fourth part of the chronicles of his province of Santissimo Rosario which has been recently published; and this must be the reason for the so great diversity in the [story of the] restoration of Zambales, and for the minuteness with which it is discussed here.

IIExtracts fromJuan de la Concepcion’s Historia[Itisthought advisable to append to the above extracts from theHistoriaof Pedro de San Francisco de Assis, the following extracts from Concepción’sHistoria. The first extract is from vol. viii, pp. 3–16, and includes a portion of the first chapter. It treats of the transfer of the province of Zambal to the Dominicans, and the occupation of the island of Mindoro by the Recollects.]2. Continuing with the events of this government, we must note that Don Diego de Villaroto represented in the supreme Council of the Indias that the island of Mindoro had a vast population who still retained the dense darkness of their heathen blindness; and that if the spiritual conquest of that island were given to some order, it would be easy to illumine its inhabitants with the true light. That representation was met by a royal decree, dated June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of these islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindoro to the order that should be most suitable and fitting for that ministry; and that the curas employed in that island should be appointed to chaplainciesor prebends. That royal decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manila by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villa-Real in October, 78. His Majesty’s fiscal offered no objection to its observance, and prompt obedience was rendered to it. It was directed to his Excellency the archbishop, then Don Fray Phelipe Pardo. That most illustrious gentleman, during the two times when he was provincial of his order or province, urged as a thing greatly to be desired and demanded by his brethren the Dominicans, that the Augustinian Recollects yield them the province of Zambales, as it was very fitting for communication with their province of Pangasinan, and of the latter with Manila, and of those religious among themselves, who could thus make their visits more comfortably, by always crossing through their own ministries, thus avoiding the voyage through the territory of others, which they regretted. Notwithstanding that those matters were discussed with great courtesy (as is the case at present) yet that was a demand that offended greatly the discalced Augustinians, who regarded the Zambals as the true sons of their spirit, and the land as watered with the blood and sweat of many of their members, and a land which, being their firstborn, was most tenderly loved. The Dominicans could never obtain their demand, although softened by exchanges, for ministries were offered in which there was even more than enough room for zeal.3. By reason of the said royal despatch, his Excellency formed the idea of completely removing the Recollects from Zambales and giving them in exchange the island of Mindoro. He set about thatwith great zest. The Recollect provincial resisted, alleging that it was contrary to their constitutions to abandon thus the province of Zambales. That would mean treating it as their own possession. It would be better to recognize it as a territory distributed by the universal patron; and, admitting that it was impossible to surrender it without his royal consent, individual laws communicate no right, especially when such mission fields aread interim. He also pleaded that the Indians of Mindoro, both infidels and Christians, had as soon as they heard that regular ministers were to be given them, urgently requested Jesuits. On the contrary, the Zambals, when they were notified that it was the intention to withdraw the Recollects from their midst in order to introduce Dominicans, almost declared their opinion in a terrible tumult. The Recollects preferred, therefore, that such a change should not take place. But the archbishop was firm in his resolution, and trampled all obstacles under foot. He united with the governor, and both of them together forced the Recollect provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, by threats, to agree to the change. The governor pacified the Indians of Mindoro by means of his corregidor, so that they should receive the Recollect fathers; and the Zambals by means of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan, so that they should allow the Dominicans to enter. Thereupon, the three seculars who had been in charge of Mindoro were accommodated by suitable chaplaincies, and an act was passed by the royal Audiencia, charging the Recollect fathers with the administration of that island, with absolute clauses based on the royal decree, without any provision or obligation to leavethe missions of Zambales for it. That decree was accepted when it was announced, and was extended to the judicial cession of those missions, when signed by the provincial of the Recollects, although protest was made against it in the name of their province, by two influential religious. On that account a second act was enacted in which those missions were adjudged to the fathers of St. Dominic, for the archbishop was very much in earnest in those arrangements.4. Those decrees having been announced and accepted, the Dominicans assumed possession of the cordillera of Zambales. That province had on its coast eleven villages with actual missions, which were increased in the neighboring mountains. The Recollects handed over that administration without making any public disturbance, although all the religious who had labored there protested vehemently, all of which appeared in the judicial reports. The Augustinian Recollects went to Mindoro with the fitting despatches for that corregidor ordering him to deliver the administration [of that island] to them. Father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, then definitor, was given charge of the district of Baco, after it had been resigned by Bachelor Don Joseph de Rojas, who held it; father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion of the curacy of Calavite, in place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedraza, its parish priest; while the curacy of Naohan was taken possession of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, who was exchanged for Bachelor Don Martin Diaz. The whole transfer was completed before the end of the year 79. Three other religious remained with the above three religious as associatesand coadjutors, and those six ministers began to scatter throughout the island. That island is in the center of this vast archipelago, and was formerly called Mainit; but the Spaniards gave it the name of Mindoro from a village called Minolo, located between Puerto de Galeras and the bay of Ylog. It is triangular in shape, its angles being three promontories: that of Calavite, facing west; that of Dumah or Pola, facing north; and that of Burruncan, facing south. In size it is the seventh of the more important islands, and is about one hundred leguas in circumference. Its temperature is naturally hot, but is tempered by the great dampness arising from frequent rains. The height of its mountains aids also in that. On account of such circumstances it is a very fertile land, and, although not very healthful for strangers, good and favorable to its inhabitants. The latter made themselves feared by their neighbors, especially on the sea, where they attacked the most powerful, carrying blood and fire everywhere. Notwithstanding, they were of great simplicity, for when they saw the Europeans wearing clothes and shoes—which they did not use—they imagined that that adornment was natural to them. They are but little given to the cultivation of the soil, and are content with wild fruits; sago, which they get from the palm and which is a good food for them; the flesh of wild animals; and fish, which the rivers and seacoast offer them in great plenty. They have little rice, on account of their sloth in sowing and tending it, for they make up that lack sufficiently in roots and fruits. If they are weak, although corpulent, it is because of their transcendent vice in being hostile to work.5. Captain Juan de Salcedo made a beginning in the conquest of the district of Mamburào, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy. That conquest was completed from the point of Burruncan to that of Calavite by the adelantado Miguel de Legaspi, in the beginning of the following year. Gradually the remainder was subdued by the missionaries, by whose treatment the rudeness of the manners of those people was softened. Consequently, the encomienda of that large island was very desirable. The Observant Augustinian fathers were employed in its spiritual cultivation and founded the village of Baco. The discalced fathers of St. Francis also labored there for some time, it being ceded to them by the Observant Augustinians. They worked along the Calavite side to Pola, which they abandoned either because those natives were not at all disposed [to accept the faith], or because those fathers had slight esteem for that island when compared with what was offered them in Ylocos and Camarines. The Jesuits also labored there, but always by the method of temporary missions, from time to time, and had no stability. It only appears that they were more continual in Naohan (which they founded), as long as it was preserved by Father San Victores. When the latter went to the Marianas, the Jesuits resigned that portion into the hands of the archbishop. It is probable that the latter was Señor Poblete.56He immediately formed two curacies for the secular clergy to look after those souls. Although there were but few souls, the extent of their territory was so vast that it was necessary to establish a thirdparish. Those seculars maintained what was conquered, but that district did not yield a sufficient recompense for the three ministers, and they were paid from the royal treasury and from other pious funds. It was also even difficult to find seculars who cared to take charge of such districts, which were truly little to be desired. But obedience caused that there never was a lack of seculars there, who maintained themselves until the year 76, when the Recollects went there to take their places. As the latter immediately placed six ministers there, they furthered the conquest and reduction greatly in all parts. Hence, while they only received about four thousand Christians, those were multiplied in a few years and the number rose to eight thousand, and in 1716 they reached the number of twelve thousand. There are still a great number of people in the mountains, which are inhabited by wild men. Some of those men are quite light-complexioned, and are believed to have originated from the Chinese and Japanese established there for the convenience afforded by the island, or who have put in there because of shipwreck, or been driven thither by the winds. Others are Cimarron Negritos, who are the first inhabitants, and, as it were, more native. Trustworthy persons say that those people have a hard little tail in the proper place for it, which prevents them from sitting down flat. If it is true (and I do not doubt it, notwithstanding that it is disputed), it is not so strange that I have no examples of it. Those prominences of the sacral bone are considered as rare; but a beginning having been made in one, it could have become natural in its propagation.6. Thus did those Recollect religious find thatisland, and, believing it to be important for the reductions, they continued to establish their regular administrations. The first was in Baco. There, inasmuch as it was the capital, lived the corregidor, but the capital was later moved to Calapan. In that district they formed the villages of Calapan, Baco, Suban, Ylog, Minolo, and Camoròn, with a number of annexed villages or visitas. The second was in Naohan, which was extended into six annexed villages, namely, Pola, Pinamalayan, Balete, Sumagui, Maliguo, and Bongabon. The third was in Calavite, which formed the visitas of Dongon, Santa Cruz, Manburaò, Tubili, and Santo Thomas. The fourth was in Mangarin, which was extended into its dependencies, Guasic, Manaol, Bulalacao, and Ililin. They also began an active mission in order to reduce the heathen Mangyans, which had no other work than to employ itself in those glorious reductions and conversions of grace. For one single man it was an immense work, but the superior government gave no more stipends. That mission was established on the bay of Ylog, and ministers and infidels were pledged not to allow [there] any of the former Christians, who might pervert the conversions. By that arrangement it grew to a very large village, and there were practiced some of the old customs that belonged to the primitive church. All that fine flower-garden has been trampled down and even ruined by the Moros, as will be related in due season.7. The Dominican fathers also applied themselves to the work in the province of Zambales. That province had already eleven villages formed, although they were small, because that province has but few people. It appeared to the new fathers thatthat number of villages made their administration difficult; consequently, they tried to reduce their number by uniting some of them. That incorporation was difficult; hence they increased the troops and arms of the presidio of Paynaven, the center of that province. Through the protection afforded by those troops, they broke up the whole province. The village of Bolinaò, which had a fair population, was located on an island, which is separated from the land by only a channel, which forms its famous and secure port.57It was fertile and pleasant. They moved it to the mainland, to a sandy shore, useless for anything, even for the ordinary fields. Its lack of water they supplied with wells which they opened. There they obtained some water, but it was thick, and in the time of the dry season it entirely disappeared. The Indians who were harmed by this measure were so angry at that moving, that many families retired to Ylocos. In truth, that site is despicable. An eminence which looks upon and almost dominates the port would have been much more suitable, and they would have obtained better air there; while their boats, which cannot navigate by the channel to the village during the blowing of the north wind, so that the cargo has to be carried for a long distance on the shoulders, would have obtained shelter. There are many other inconveniences but one cannot think of a single advantage. They moved the village of Agno58from the coast into the interior, toa site which is a swampy mudhole when there is the least rain. The village of Sigayan was moved to another site, where the only advantage was a near-by river of fresh water which was unnavigable. They left Masinloc59on its pleasant site, while the village of Paynaven was moved inland to a site called Iba,60from which the new village took its name, moving that village in order to get it away from the commandant of the fort, whose proximity was annoying to them. They did not regard it as a recompensable hardship for the minister of that village to go on feast-days in order to say mass in the presidio, and to repeat it afterwards in his own church. In order to increase that place and give it the name of capital, they brought families from Bolinaò, who formed a large barangay. It has already been seen that they made use of the fort in this, and that those who were moved were not very well pleased. The Dominicans also founded, or better, made from other villages, the village of Cabangaan61in an obscure site, which was rough and surrounded by dense mountains, and suitable only for a hermit and solitary life, but so far as others were concerned, a place of profound melancholy. They also formed the village of Subic62from other villages, which had only the advantages of its port to recommend it, while in otherrespects it was most unpleasant. They also filled the vacant places left by the many families who retired to the mountains as a result of the violence exercised, with others whom they brought from Pangasinan, a province abounding with people, who because they are so numerous, and there is no room for all, leave their homes more easily. In fact, they did that, too, in order to be surer of the Zambals, in whose severe and warlike minds they did not have the greatest confidence. Thus did they soften those people, or let us say frankly, checked their vehemence. The reduction of the people of the mountain, however much it is talked about, is not known, as neither is the place where they could form villages or a village from them. Let us leave then exaggerations, which, when they offend by comparison, cannot fail to be odious. We shall treat of the restoration [of that province] below, in its proper place.63[The following extract is from the same volume, and includes pp. 135–144.]Chapter VThe Augustinian Recollect fathers assume the spiritual government of the islands of Masbáte, Ticao, and Burias. A geographical description of those islands is presented.1. Under the metaphor of husbandmen, the prophet Amos describes those who are employed in the cultivation of souls. The chroniclers of the Augustinian Recollect fathers describe those fathers for us as zealous and laborious in their never-ceasing application in planting and cultivating the word ofGod in humble hearts. The Recollects assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which, when they tried later to work them, it was found did not produce expenses. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he had thought. The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference, nine long, and more than four wide. That of Burias extends its circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately, for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrantcamanguian;64another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before thistime, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now.2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and hepetitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories. Accordingly the Recollects only accepted the district of Masbate, and resigned the right that they could have had to the village on the continent of Luzon to the Franciscan fathers, who could administer them with greater ease. By that means all rivalry was checked.3. The parties [i.e., the Recollects and Franciscans] having come to an agreement, and between themselves the governor and bishop, the two latter despatched suitable measures so that the Recollects could take charge of those souls. In the distribution the Recollects had their proportionate advantages, for those islands are a way-station which is necessaryto pass in going to Caraga and Zebù, where this order had distant missions. The bishop obtained them [for that order] because, that district having been reduced to one single secular, the latter proved insufficient for its administration. Consequently, in the space of twelve years, only four persons had died with the sacraments, although one hundred and eighteen had passed from this life without that important benefit. The baptism of children was postponed for many months, as the cura went to the visitas in the distant villages but seldom. For it was not easy for one single individual to acquit himself of so laborious cares; consequently, this is not to admit that they were ill administered. The government was interested in them, as was also commerce, as Ticao was an anchorage for the Acapulco ships in its famous port of San Jazinto,65on both the outward and return trips, where fresh supplies were procured, wood and water provided, and winds awaited to take them out of the dangerous currents of the Embocadero of San Bernardino. The Recollect fathers accepted that charge, and were received affectionately by the Indians. They founded their headquarters in Mobo,66a famous village of Masbate. They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice, adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments, besides a capacious house with its suitable quarters and dormitories forthe resident and transient religious. Thence they made their apostolic excursions for the conversion of the heathens, who were still numerous, and the reduction of fugitive apostates. The settlements already established numbered six, and three new villages were established with the increase of those who settled down.4. This province of San Nicolas petitioned his Majesty in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four to confirm that possession which had been conferred on it in his royal name. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Caceres to make no innovation in the spiritual administration of that district until his royal Council should provide what was suitable. He also ordered them to report on the progress of the faith in that territory since it had been under their charge. Judicial investigations were made in Manila by the government, in order to inform the king with reports. From them it appeared that, although the entire district of Masbate had formerly had only one parish priest, since the Recollect fathers had taken charge of it, three religious at least had lived there. It was proved also by the books of the royal accountancy, that in the year preceding their possession, that is, in the year eighty-seven, the entire ministry contained only one hundred and eighty-seven families; while in the year seven hundred and twenty-two there were five hundred and eighty-five families. Consequently, the present governor, the Marquís de Torre Campo, reported that the district of Masbate had had an increase of three hundred and ninety-eight whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. The Recollects not only inthose districts, but also in the remainder of these islands, devote themselves to the spread of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.5. That progress was not made without great toil and hardship. They had to do with a great number of mountain Indians and Zimarrones, who became fearsome when abandoned to liberty. Apostates from the faith and from civilized life, they had taken to the deserts and to the roughest mountains, where they defended their barbarous mode of life at all hazards, by resisting with arms those who tried to reduce them. Various people had also gathered there from other islands, fleeing from the settled villages and from the punishment due their atrocities. Consequently, the latter were extraordinarily fierce. Many heathen were numbered among them, accustomed long since to that rudeness of life and savagery, and they were all the worst kind of people. They committed notable depredations on the civilized villages, robbed the boats that anchored in the ports and bays, and treacherously committed many murders. Their boldness rose to such a pitch that one could not cross through the interior of those islands, and to arrive at their shores was the same as to make port in a land of enemies. It was also a laborious and dangerous task to navigate along the coasts, trying to find those rancherías. Consequently, Father Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion was twice overturned in the sea, and another time had his boat dashed to pieces on some reefs. In that shipwreck he miraculously escaped with his life, although some of his companions perished in the water. Those dangers came to him in his visits to anew village established on the opposite coast. In order to avoid such dangers and visit that village more frequently, the father opened a road through the interior from Mobo over rough mountains, where many other risks were run because of the heathens. In that continual crossing the father fell grievously sick, his pains having originated from the hardships of such a road, with the showers and heat. He died at last, succumbing to such fatigues. But those sufferings were continued by others, who conquered that stubbornness by their constancy and fervent application, although with the well-known risk of losing their lives. Consequently, those ministers who were there in the beginning say that, although they have been many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate.[The third extract from Concepción’sHistoriais from vol. ix, pp. 123–150, and comprises all of the fourth chapter except the last paragraph.]Chapter IVBy sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.1. The Zambal Indians, of an intractable disposition, people of wild customs, and little or not at all content, were furious with the Dominican ministers in the reductions; they were groaning under the yoke of a life more regulated than their inclinations permitted. This made them think of insurrections and uprisings. The presidio of Painaven, well reënforced, restrained them; and the raids of the commandant,with detachments of men, into the mountains, intimidated them in their plans. They thought that the government of the Recollect fathers was milder, and hence they sighed for it. Those fathers tolerated their barbarous customs among a people so ferocious, and succeeded by their patience in softening and reducing them. Not so with the Dominican fathers, who learned the Zambals’ tenacity at their own cost. In the village of Balacbac was an Indian chief named Dalinen; although he lived in that village, he kept his valuables in the mountains under charge of a nephew. Another Indian, a Cimarron, named Calignao, killed the latter treacherously. In order to avenge that murder, Dalinen retired with many of his followers to the dense woods. Father Fray Domingo Perez,67who was the minister of that mission, tried to prevent that flight, but was quite unable to remedy it; for seventeen families fled with Dalinen. The commandant of the fort attackedthem with his men and burned the ranchería of Aglao, the next village to Balacbac, to which the murderer and the injured man belonged.2. Calignao had an extensive and strong kindred. Because they did not flee with him, father Fray Domingo endeavored to win them over. He asked for an adjutant’s staff from the commandant of the fort, and dignified Calignao with it. Then in order to restrain the other side, it was published that the murder of the nephew [of Dalinen] was by the command of the government, which had ordered that all who would not reduce themselves to village life should be killed. That method, however, was insufficient to quiet them, but, on the contrary, roused the factions to a higher pitch. To please the commandant and to give stronger force to his faction, Calignao promised to assault Dalinen. He went into the mountain to put that promise into execution, and after a short time, Dalinen was killed by a Negrito. His relatives were persuaded that the father had had a hand in that murder, and determined to pay him back. The same Calignao offered to do the deed, for this is what it means to benefit apostatized evil-doers. He sought an opportune occasion for the execution of his wicked intent, and found it in a journey which the father made to Baubuen to visit a communal house which he was building for strangers, and in order to confess father Fray Juan de Rois,68who was the minister there. During theabsence of the father, Calignao descended the mountain, visited his relatives, and was informed that the minister would return in three days. He left his relatives, and in company with a faithless Negrito went to await the father at the bank of a large river, by which it was necessary to pass. When Father Perez reached that place, Calignao discharged an arrow, which passed before the father’s breast without doing him any harm and lodged in a neighboring tree. When the father quite naturally turned his head to see who was firing at him, the Negrito Quibacat discharged his arrow, which, entering the father’s body three fingers below the left breast, came out more than four fingers at the right side of his back. It was a twisted arrow, and when father Fray Domingo pulled on it, the wound became worse. With the most intense pain that he suffered, he broke out into “Jesus, be with me! Let them commend me to God, for I am dying.”3. He spurred on his horse, which ran until the father perceived that sight was failing him. Then he alighted, stretched himself at the foot of an agoso tree,69and, amid the outpouring of his blood, begged pardon from God for his sins. An Indian who accompanied him came up to him, and found him unconscious from great loss of blood. The fatherrecovered consciousness, but for so brief a time that he could not tell the Indian what to do. He fainted once more, so completely that the Indian thought that he was yielding up his life. He again recovered consciousness, and sent the servant toBalacbacin order to get people to carry him thence. The Indian went to carry out that instruction. Meanwhile a man and three women arrived, and stayed with the father until the arrival of the men from the village who were very slow. For the Indian who had been sent could find no one who cared to take that charitable office upon himself, either the ministers of justice, the fiscals, or the sacristans. He was able to get three serving-lads in the convent, who made a hammock from a blanket, and carried the wounded religious in it. The latter, charging his messenger to go to Baubuen to advise Father Rois of his mishap, set out on his way to his village, where he arrived at nine o’clock at night. Father Rois, as soon as he received the news, got ready to go to the relief of his associate. After many frights, for everything was in an uproar, and his person ran no less risk [than that of Father Domingo], he reached the village at daybreak. He entered the cell of the wounded father, whom he found embracing a holy crucifix, and bathed in tears. Father Rois asked him “What is this, Father Vicar-prior?” “This means death,” answered the sufferer. “I shall die; there is no relief.” He was confessed, and received the sacred viaticum. He lived three days after that, without having his bed made, for his extreme pains would not permit it. Had they tended him well at the beginning, he would have recovered, for the wound was not mortal, and the Indians have medicineswhich cure other things more dangerous. But the greatest care was not exercised in this. The third day after nightfall, the pains attacked him much more fiercely, and convulsions and paroxysms followed. He received extreme unction, after which he lost his speech, and remained remarkably quiet; and in that calm he yielded his spirit to the Creator.4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.5. It is said that God honored the place of his death or where he was wounded, by marvelous occurrences. For instance the large river on whoseshore he was shot, dried up, and was swallowed up by the earth, and no trace of it was ever found later, neither did it take a course elsewhere; while the bed of the river became full of agoso trees. And although the above tree is large, and needs more than ten years to grow tall, those trees grew up in so short a time that that place appeared a dense forest, so that they choked and parched the reed-grass, which never sprang up again. It was said that the earth which was dyed with his blood has never allowed any grass to grow since, although the grass about the agoso at whose foot the father fainted is abundant and very green. That tree is always more flourishing and luxuriant, so that in comparison with it the other trees seem like withered things. Also another smaller river which ran past Aglao and Baubuen dried up, and the earth was left very sterile. It is true that these things were said, but without any foundation. The large river still remains and flows in the same course, and that of Aglao has the same course, and there is no notice or tradition that it had ever dried up; and it is not possible that so remarkable a thing could be forgotten. It was true that the agoso under which he rested was preserved and is still preserved; but in that story are not registered the exaggerated circumstances, such as that of the grass and of the reed-grass. I say this with assurance because I have seen it at various times, and I have passed the large river with some risk. On the bank of that river I was shown the spot where the father was wounded, and the agoso in question, in which I found nothing worthy of wonder. In regard to the other agosos and those newly produced, I proved that there are both old and newtrees, for they are produced without any cultivation, and are conserved from time immemorial, and their very great age is recognized by their failing condition.706. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishopand the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the newRecopilación,72and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that accounthe petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.7. He did so, and presented himself with the copy authorized in public form, of the proceedings of the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in the cause prosecuted by the father procurator-general, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, asking that his province should be restored to its former possession of the ministries of Mariveles, Masinloc, Bolinao, Puquil, and Playa-honda, and the rest of the province of Zambales. The decision thereon, as appeared from the said proceedings, was referred to the royal Audiencia of Manila. In regard to the contents of Father Peguero’s memorial, notwithstanding what he might petition, it should be refuted as outside the truth, as a calumny, and as grievously offensive to his province—which with excessive and continual work, and equal zeal in the service of both Majesties, had assisted in the administration of the Christians and the conversion of the infidels in theaforesaid districts, from the year one thousand six hundred and seven to the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, when it was despoiled actually and contrary to law, and the Dominican religious introduced into those missions. Notwithstanding the above, the said memorial, proceeding by malicious reports, and with a lack of accurate information, says that in the year seventy-six the said Father Peguero informed the government of these islands that the conversion and reduction of the Zambals—both the light-complexioned ones and those with the kinky hair, on both sides of the mountains that extend from Batan to Pangasinan, especially in the localities of Aglao, Buquil, Alupay, and Culianan, and many others—had not been thitherto in charge of any of the orders of these islands. In consideration of that, he petitioned that that care be assigned to his order. Despatches were given him in accordance with the terms of his petition, without summoning the party of the Recollect province, which was in possession [of that territory] from the time mentioned above. That order was then especially extending its labors, and working in the reduction of the infidels of those very same places, and in the administration of a great number of Christians in those districts, who paid tribute to their encomenderos. His order having offered opposition, and having made a petition before the royal Audiencia to be protected in its ancient possession, this was done, and the Order of St. Dominic was excluded from its demand, as appeared from royal provision and proceedings, which would be presented if it were necessary. After his order had been placed in charge ofthe administration of Mindoro, the Dominicans succeeded in getting the governor, then Don Juan de Vargas, to ask the father provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, to make a renunciation [of those districts]. The father provincial did it unwillingly, for it was a thing that he neither could or ought to do in regard to such districts, in order that other religious might be instituted—as were those of St. Dominic, in the year eighty. Two grave [Recollect] religious protested in the name of their province, against the renunciation made by their Recollect provincial; and all the ministers of Zambales protested against the violence with which they were despoiled of that administration, without their province having until then made any other judicial or extrajudicial effort than the conservation of their right, in order to demand it where and to what extent it may behoove them to do so. The provincial of his province had formally ordered his subjects not only not to solicit the natives of those districts to ask for, or allow them to ask for, these or other ministers; but they were to admonish them always to live consoled and contented, and to understand that the instruction which they received from the fathers of St. Dominic was the same, and [given with] the same zeal for the welfare of their souls. That order was obeyed, and there was no notice of its infraction. On the contrary, information was received that the present Dominican ministers told the natives that they were returning to carry forward what had been commenced by the Recollects. That proved that the Recollects did not keep their convents and churches, which they had abandoned to the Dominicans; asdoes the suggestion that father Fray Raymundo Verart74said that Captain Marcos de Rosales, encomendero of Marivelez, had made to him, for the latter earnestly entreated him to ask that the Recollects should be restored to the possession of those ministeries. He offered to make that request to him in writing.8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besidesbeing an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleadedthat the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; forthese wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order wasprevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously,and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.12. This decree was as follows: “Decision of the royal court this day, September eleven, one thousand seven hundred and five.75The measure passed by Señor Calderon is approved, and in accordance therewith, a decree to that effect shall be issued. Because of their great poverty, only the first petitions of the Indians shall be received without attorney.”13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76who together with theprocurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copyof the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united thosewhich were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.14. Thus this matter [expediente] rested until the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, when the alférez, Nicolas Guerrero, one of the ordinary attorneys of the royal Audiencia, presented a certificateempowering him as the chief authorized agent of the province of San Nicolas, to act as their attorney in the matter in hand. Thereupon, he declared that in maintenance of the claim of the said province, it was advisable to examine the minutes of the proceedings hitherto conducted in the royal courts, in regard to the restitution of their former missions of Zambales and everything pertaining to them. Accordingly, he prayed his Highness to deign to order the secretary to produce the said minutes, which on being given to the said attorney, he appeared before his Highness and stated that in accordance with the last royal order of six hundred and ninety, whereby the other party was required to answer fully, this had not been done, but that the party had merely referred to its former pleadings, and that any other answer had not been made during the space of twenty years, so that the suit had been unduly prolonged; and moreover, that the matter having been recently investigated, his side has a paper (which he now presents with all solemnity), namely, a private letter from the father provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Pedro Mejorada,77in reply to one from the provincialof the Recollects, Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, in which he declares, that he answered in the same manner as his province had done on former occasions; that he would not oppose the abandoning of the said missions as he was not a party thereto, for his province had taken these under their charge solely in compliance with the orders of Governor Don Juan de Vargas and Archbishop Don Phelipe Pardo; that, moreover, at the present time when his province was so straitened through the lack of religious, if they were not succored in that regard it would be necessary for them to take other steps. Wherefore (he added), so far as matters have now gone he might do what he pleased, for his province would offer no opposition, and was prepared to give up those missions if so requested and charged to do. In this letter, moreover, among other points, it was inferable that his province was ready to leave the said missions of Zambales. Therefore the attorney petitioned and prayed his Highness to deign to have the case brought up for final trial, declaring his client as entitled to the possession of such missions, to whom they should therefore be restored. Thereupon the judges decided that the measures so far taken together with that letter should be acted upon; that the trial should be proceeded with without prejudice to whatever had already been decided, and that all the papers in the case be handed over to the fiscal of this royal Audiencia, for his opinion (within three days) of what steps it was advisableto take. Thereupon, for reasons given, the latter replied that what had been advised by the fiscal of the royal and supreme Council ought to be carried out, and hence a similar order might issue from this royal Audiencia, with notice to the reverend fathers provincial, parties in interest, that so far as concerned their spiritual care the natives might be relieved promptly. In accordance with this, the judges ordered that all parties should proceed to the chamber for final sentence. Thereupon their decision was that the reverend fathers provincial should be apprised of the sentence as given in this cause for their judgment in the exercise of their rights; and that whether they assented or not, they should appear to hear the decision to be given.15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph deSan Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.Doctor TorralvaLicentiate VillaThe Fiscal”In the presence of Antonio de Yepes y Arce, notary-public. Their decision was heard and obeyed promptly by the party to the suit, and proper warrants having been received, the spiritual administration of the Zambals was peacefully restored to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects. Perhaps the very reverend father chronicler, Fray Domingo Collantes,78did not have at hand these original documents when he penned the fourth part of the chronicles of his province of Santissimo Rosario which has been recently published; and this must be the reason for the so great diversity in the [story of the] restoration of Zambales, and for the minuteness with which it is discussed here.

[Itisthought advisable to append to the above extracts from theHistoriaof Pedro de San Francisco de Assis, the following extracts from Concepción’sHistoria. The first extract is from vol. viii, pp. 3–16, and includes a portion of the first chapter. It treats of the transfer of the province of Zambal to the Dominicans, and the occupation of the island of Mindoro by the Recollects.]

2. Continuing with the events of this government, we must note that Don Diego de Villaroto represented in the supreme Council of the Indias that the island of Mindoro had a vast population who still retained the dense darkness of their heathen blindness; and that if the spiritual conquest of that island were given to some order, it would be easy to illumine its inhabitants with the true light. That representation was met by a royal decree, dated June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of these islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindoro to the order that should be most suitable and fitting for that ministry; and that the curas employed in that island should be appointed to chaplainciesor prebends. That royal decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manila by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villa-Real in October, 78. His Majesty’s fiscal offered no objection to its observance, and prompt obedience was rendered to it. It was directed to his Excellency the archbishop, then Don Fray Phelipe Pardo. That most illustrious gentleman, during the two times when he was provincial of his order or province, urged as a thing greatly to be desired and demanded by his brethren the Dominicans, that the Augustinian Recollects yield them the province of Zambales, as it was very fitting for communication with their province of Pangasinan, and of the latter with Manila, and of those religious among themselves, who could thus make their visits more comfortably, by always crossing through their own ministries, thus avoiding the voyage through the territory of others, which they regretted. Notwithstanding that those matters were discussed with great courtesy (as is the case at present) yet that was a demand that offended greatly the discalced Augustinians, who regarded the Zambals as the true sons of their spirit, and the land as watered with the blood and sweat of many of their members, and a land which, being their firstborn, was most tenderly loved. The Dominicans could never obtain their demand, although softened by exchanges, for ministries were offered in which there was even more than enough room for zeal.

3. By reason of the said royal despatch, his Excellency formed the idea of completely removing the Recollects from Zambales and giving them in exchange the island of Mindoro. He set about thatwith great zest. The Recollect provincial resisted, alleging that it was contrary to their constitutions to abandon thus the province of Zambales. That would mean treating it as their own possession. It would be better to recognize it as a territory distributed by the universal patron; and, admitting that it was impossible to surrender it without his royal consent, individual laws communicate no right, especially when such mission fields aread interim. He also pleaded that the Indians of Mindoro, both infidels and Christians, had as soon as they heard that regular ministers were to be given them, urgently requested Jesuits. On the contrary, the Zambals, when they were notified that it was the intention to withdraw the Recollects from their midst in order to introduce Dominicans, almost declared their opinion in a terrible tumult. The Recollects preferred, therefore, that such a change should not take place. But the archbishop was firm in his resolution, and trampled all obstacles under foot. He united with the governor, and both of them together forced the Recollect provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, by threats, to agree to the change. The governor pacified the Indians of Mindoro by means of his corregidor, so that they should receive the Recollect fathers; and the Zambals by means of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinan, so that they should allow the Dominicans to enter. Thereupon, the three seculars who had been in charge of Mindoro were accommodated by suitable chaplaincies, and an act was passed by the royal Audiencia, charging the Recollect fathers with the administration of that island, with absolute clauses based on the royal decree, without any provision or obligation to leavethe missions of Zambales for it. That decree was accepted when it was announced, and was extended to the judicial cession of those missions, when signed by the provincial of the Recollects, although protest was made against it in the name of their province, by two influential religious. On that account a second act was enacted in which those missions were adjudged to the fathers of St. Dominic, for the archbishop was very much in earnest in those arrangements.

4. Those decrees having been announced and accepted, the Dominicans assumed possession of the cordillera of Zambales. That province had on its coast eleven villages with actual missions, which were increased in the neighboring mountains. The Recollects handed over that administration without making any public disturbance, although all the religious who had labored there protested vehemently, all of which appeared in the judicial reports. The Augustinian Recollects went to Mindoro with the fitting despatches for that corregidor ordering him to deliver the administration [of that island] to them. Father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, then definitor, was given charge of the district of Baco, after it had been resigned by Bachelor Don Joseph de Rojas, who held it; father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion of the curacy of Calavite, in place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedraza, its parish priest; while the curacy of Naohan was taken possession of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, who was exchanged for Bachelor Don Martin Diaz. The whole transfer was completed before the end of the year 79. Three other religious remained with the above three religious as associatesand coadjutors, and those six ministers began to scatter throughout the island. That island is in the center of this vast archipelago, and was formerly called Mainit; but the Spaniards gave it the name of Mindoro from a village called Minolo, located between Puerto de Galeras and the bay of Ylog. It is triangular in shape, its angles being three promontories: that of Calavite, facing west; that of Dumah or Pola, facing north; and that of Burruncan, facing south. In size it is the seventh of the more important islands, and is about one hundred leguas in circumference. Its temperature is naturally hot, but is tempered by the great dampness arising from frequent rains. The height of its mountains aids also in that. On account of such circumstances it is a very fertile land, and, although not very healthful for strangers, good and favorable to its inhabitants. The latter made themselves feared by their neighbors, especially on the sea, where they attacked the most powerful, carrying blood and fire everywhere. Notwithstanding, they were of great simplicity, for when they saw the Europeans wearing clothes and shoes—which they did not use—they imagined that that adornment was natural to them. They are but little given to the cultivation of the soil, and are content with wild fruits; sago, which they get from the palm and which is a good food for them; the flesh of wild animals; and fish, which the rivers and seacoast offer them in great plenty. They have little rice, on account of their sloth in sowing and tending it, for they make up that lack sufficiently in roots and fruits. If they are weak, although corpulent, it is because of their transcendent vice in being hostile to work.

5. Captain Juan de Salcedo made a beginning in the conquest of the district of Mamburào, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy. That conquest was completed from the point of Burruncan to that of Calavite by the adelantado Miguel de Legaspi, in the beginning of the following year. Gradually the remainder was subdued by the missionaries, by whose treatment the rudeness of the manners of those people was softened. Consequently, the encomienda of that large island was very desirable. The Observant Augustinian fathers were employed in its spiritual cultivation and founded the village of Baco. The discalced fathers of St. Francis also labored there for some time, it being ceded to them by the Observant Augustinians. They worked along the Calavite side to Pola, which they abandoned either because those natives were not at all disposed [to accept the faith], or because those fathers had slight esteem for that island when compared with what was offered them in Ylocos and Camarines. The Jesuits also labored there, but always by the method of temporary missions, from time to time, and had no stability. It only appears that they were more continual in Naohan (which they founded), as long as it was preserved by Father San Victores. When the latter went to the Marianas, the Jesuits resigned that portion into the hands of the archbishop. It is probable that the latter was Señor Poblete.56He immediately formed two curacies for the secular clergy to look after those souls. Although there were but few souls, the extent of their territory was so vast that it was necessary to establish a thirdparish. Those seculars maintained what was conquered, but that district did not yield a sufficient recompense for the three ministers, and they were paid from the royal treasury and from other pious funds. It was also even difficult to find seculars who cared to take charge of such districts, which were truly little to be desired. But obedience caused that there never was a lack of seculars there, who maintained themselves until the year 76, when the Recollects went there to take their places. As the latter immediately placed six ministers there, they furthered the conquest and reduction greatly in all parts. Hence, while they only received about four thousand Christians, those were multiplied in a few years and the number rose to eight thousand, and in 1716 they reached the number of twelve thousand. There are still a great number of people in the mountains, which are inhabited by wild men. Some of those men are quite light-complexioned, and are believed to have originated from the Chinese and Japanese established there for the convenience afforded by the island, or who have put in there because of shipwreck, or been driven thither by the winds. Others are Cimarron Negritos, who are the first inhabitants, and, as it were, more native. Trustworthy persons say that those people have a hard little tail in the proper place for it, which prevents them from sitting down flat. If it is true (and I do not doubt it, notwithstanding that it is disputed), it is not so strange that I have no examples of it. Those prominences of the sacral bone are considered as rare; but a beginning having been made in one, it could have become natural in its propagation.

6. Thus did those Recollect religious find thatisland, and, believing it to be important for the reductions, they continued to establish their regular administrations. The first was in Baco. There, inasmuch as it was the capital, lived the corregidor, but the capital was later moved to Calapan. In that district they formed the villages of Calapan, Baco, Suban, Ylog, Minolo, and Camoròn, with a number of annexed villages or visitas. The second was in Naohan, which was extended into six annexed villages, namely, Pola, Pinamalayan, Balete, Sumagui, Maliguo, and Bongabon. The third was in Calavite, which formed the visitas of Dongon, Santa Cruz, Manburaò, Tubili, and Santo Thomas. The fourth was in Mangarin, which was extended into its dependencies, Guasic, Manaol, Bulalacao, and Ililin. They also began an active mission in order to reduce the heathen Mangyans, which had no other work than to employ itself in those glorious reductions and conversions of grace. For one single man it was an immense work, but the superior government gave no more stipends. That mission was established on the bay of Ylog, and ministers and infidels were pledged not to allow [there] any of the former Christians, who might pervert the conversions. By that arrangement it grew to a very large village, and there were practiced some of the old customs that belonged to the primitive church. All that fine flower-garden has been trampled down and even ruined by the Moros, as will be related in due season.

7. The Dominican fathers also applied themselves to the work in the province of Zambales. That province had already eleven villages formed, although they were small, because that province has but few people. It appeared to the new fathers thatthat number of villages made their administration difficult; consequently, they tried to reduce their number by uniting some of them. That incorporation was difficult; hence they increased the troops and arms of the presidio of Paynaven, the center of that province. Through the protection afforded by those troops, they broke up the whole province. The village of Bolinaò, which had a fair population, was located on an island, which is separated from the land by only a channel, which forms its famous and secure port.57It was fertile and pleasant. They moved it to the mainland, to a sandy shore, useless for anything, even for the ordinary fields. Its lack of water they supplied with wells which they opened. There they obtained some water, but it was thick, and in the time of the dry season it entirely disappeared. The Indians who were harmed by this measure were so angry at that moving, that many families retired to Ylocos. In truth, that site is despicable. An eminence which looks upon and almost dominates the port would have been much more suitable, and they would have obtained better air there; while their boats, which cannot navigate by the channel to the village during the blowing of the north wind, so that the cargo has to be carried for a long distance on the shoulders, would have obtained shelter. There are many other inconveniences but one cannot think of a single advantage. They moved the village of Agno58from the coast into the interior, toa site which is a swampy mudhole when there is the least rain. The village of Sigayan was moved to another site, where the only advantage was a near-by river of fresh water which was unnavigable. They left Masinloc59on its pleasant site, while the village of Paynaven was moved inland to a site called Iba,60from which the new village took its name, moving that village in order to get it away from the commandant of the fort, whose proximity was annoying to them. They did not regard it as a recompensable hardship for the minister of that village to go on feast-days in order to say mass in the presidio, and to repeat it afterwards in his own church. In order to increase that place and give it the name of capital, they brought families from Bolinaò, who formed a large barangay. It has already been seen that they made use of the fort in this, and that those who were moved were not very well pleased. The Dominicans also founded, or better, made from other villages, the village of Cabangaan61in an obscure site, which was rough and surrounded by dense mountains, and suitable only for a hermit and solitary life, but so far as others were concerned, a place of profound melancholy. They also formed the village of Subic62from other villages, which had only the advantages of its port to recommend it, while in otherrespects it was most unpleasant. They also filled the vacant places left by the many families who retired to the mountains as a result of the violence exercised, with others whom they brought from Pangasinan, a province abounding with people, who because they are so numerous, and there is no room for all, leave their homes more easily. In fact, they did that, too, in order to be surer of the Zambals, in whose severe and warlike minds they did not have the greatest confidence. Thus did they soften those people, or let us say frankly, checked their vehemence. The reduction of the people of the mountain, however much it is talked about, is not known, as neither is the place where they could form villages or a village from them. Let us leave then exaggerations, which, when they offend by comparison, cannot fail to be odious. We shall treat of the restoration [of that province] below, in its proper place.63

[The following extract is from the same volume, and includes pp. 135–144.]

Chapter VThe Augustinian Recollect fathers assume the spiritual government of the islands of Masbáte, Ticao, and Burias. A geographical description of those islands is presented.1. Under the metaphor of husbandmen, the prophet Amos describes those who are employed in the cultivation of souls. The chroniclers of the Augustinian Recollect fathers describe those fathers for us as zealous and laborious in their never-ceasing application in planting and cultivating the word ofGod in humble hearts. The Recollects assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which, when they tried later to work them, it was found did not produce expenses. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he had thought. The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference, nine long, and more than four wide. That of Burias extends its circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately, for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrantcamanguian;64another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before thistime, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now.2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and hepetitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories. Accordingly the Recollects only accepted the district of Masbate, and resigned the right that they could have had to the village on the continent of Luzon to the Franciscan fathers, who could administer them with greater ease. By that means all rivalry was checked.3. The parties [i.e., the Recollects and Franciscans] having come to an agreement, and between themselves the governor and bishop, the two latter despatched suitable measures so that the Recollects could take charge of those souls. In the distribution the Recollects had their proportionate advantages, for those islands are a way-station which is necessaryto pass in going to Caraga and Zebù, where this order had distant missions. The bishop obtained them [for that order] because, that district having been reduced to one single secular, the latter proved insufficient for its administration. Consequently, in the space of twelve years, only four persons had died with the sacraments, although one hundred and eighteen had passed from this life without that important benefit. The baptism of children was postponed for many months, as the cura went to the visitas in the distant villages but seldom. For it was not easy for one single individual to acquit himself of so laborious cares; consequently, this is not to admit that they were ill administered. The government was interested in them, as was also commerce, as Ticao was an anchorage for the Acapulco ships in its famous port of San Jazinto,65on both the outward and return trips, where fresh supplies were procured, wood and water provided, and winds awaited to take them out of the dangerous currents of the Embocadero of San Bernardino. The Recollect fathers accepted that charge, and were received affectionately by the Indians. They founded their headquarters in Mobo,66a famous village of Masbate. They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice, adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments, besides a capacious house with its suitable quarters and dormitories forthe resident and transient religious. Thence they made their apostolic excursions for the conversion of the heathens, who were still numerous, and the reduction of fugitive apostates. The settlements already established numbered six, and three new villages were established with the increase of those who settled down.4. This province of San Nicolas petitioned his Majesty in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four to confirm that possession which had been conferred on it in his royal name. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Caceres to make no innovation in the spiritual administration of that district until his royal Council should provide what was suitable. He also ordered them to report on the progress of the faith in that territory since it had been under their charge. Judicial investigations were made in Manila by the government, in order to inform the king with reports. From them it appeared that, although the entire district of Masbate had formerly had only one parish priest, since the Recollect fathers had taken charge of it, three religious at least had lived there. It was proved also by the books of the royal accountancy, that in the year preceding their possession, that is, in the year eighty-seven, the entire ministry contained only one hundred and eighty-seven families; while in the year seven hundred and twenty-two there were five hundred and eighty-five families. Consequently, the present governor, the Marquís de Torre Campo, reported that the district of Masbate had had an increase of three hundred and ninety-eight whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. The Recollects not only inthose districts, but also in the remainder of these islands, devote themselves to the spread of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.5. That progress was not made without great toil and hardship. They had to do with a great number of mountain Indians and Zimarrones, who became fearsome when abandoned to liberty. Apostates from the faith and from civilized life, they had taken to the deserts and to the roughest mountains, where they defended their barbarous mode of life at all hazards, by resisting with arms those who tried to reduce them. Various people had also gathered there from other islands, fleeing from the settled villages and from the punishment due their atrocities. Consequently, the latter were extraordinarily fierce. Many heathen were numbered among them, accustomed long since to that rudeness of life and savagery, and they were all the worst kind of people. They committed notable depredations on the civilized villages, robbed the boats that anchored in the ports and bays, and treacherously committed many murders. Their boldness rose to such a pitch that one could not cross through the interior of those islands, and to arrive at their shores was the same as to make port in a land of enemies. It was also a laborious and dangerous task to navigate along the coasts, trying to find those rancherías. Consequently, Father Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion was twice overturned in the sea, and another time had his boat dashed to pieces on some reefs. In that shipwreck he miraculously escaped with his life, although some of his companions perished in the water. Those dangers came to him in his visits to anew village established on the opposite coast. In order to avoid such dangers and visit that village more frequently, the father opened a road through the interior from Mobo over rough mountains, where many other risks were run because of the heathens. In that continual crossing the father fell grievously sick, his pains having originated from the hardships of such a road, with the showers and heat. He died at last, succumbing to such fatigues. But those sufferings were continued by others, who conquered that stubbornness by their constancy and fervent application, although with the well-known risk of losing their lives. Consequently, those ministers who were there in the beginning say that, although they have been many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate.[The third extract from Concepción’sHistoriais from vol. ix, pp. 123–150, and comprises all of the fourth chapter except the last paragraph.]

The Augustinian Recollect fathers assume the spiritual government of the islands of Masbáte, Ticao, and Burias. A geographical description of those islands is presented.

1. Under the metaphor of husbandmen, the prophet Amos describes those who are employed in the cultivation of souls. The chroniclers of the Augustinian Recollect fathers describe those fathers for us as zealous and laborious in their never-ceasing application in planting and cultivating the word ofGod in humble hearts. The Recollects assumed charge, in addition to the fields already mentioned of the island of Masbate with the neighboring islands of Ticao and Burias. Those islands belong to the bishopric of Nueva Caceres in ecclesiastical matters, and to the alcaldeship of Albay in political affairs. Masbate is sixty leguas from Manila, in a latitude lying between twelve and thirteen degrees. It is about fifty leguas in circumference, nineteen leguas long and five or six broad. It was formerly famous for its rich gold mines, which, when they tried later to work them, it was found did not produce expenses. The island also has fine copper mines, samples from which in very recent times were excellent. Information was given of them by Don Francisco Salgado; and when everything necessary and expert Chinese for working them had been prepared, he abandoned them, for he saw that they had much less metal than he had thought. The island of Ticao is about twenty-three leguas in circumference, nine long, and more than four wide. That of Burias extends its circumference to twenty-six leguas, twelve in length, and four in width. These calculations must be understood only approximately, for they had not been exactly determined. All three possess excellent timber, from which pitch is distilled in plenty, and makes excellent pitch for vessels. One of those trees produces the fragrantcamanguian;64another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before thistime, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now.

2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and hepetitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories. Accordingly the Recollects only accepted the district of Masbate, and resigned the right that they could have had to the village on the continent of Luzon to the Franciscan fathers, who could administer them with greater ease. By that means all rivalry was checked.

3. The parties [i.e., the Recollects and Franciscans] having come to an agreement, and between themselves the governor and bishop, the two latter despatched suitable measures so that the Recollects could take charge of those souls. In the distribution the Recollects had their proportionate advantages, for those islands are a way-station which is necessaryto pass in going to Caraga and Zebù, where this order had distant missions. The bishop obtained them [for that order] because, that district having been reduced to one single secular, the latter proved insufficient for its administration. Consequently, in the space of twelve years, only four persons had died with the sacraments, although one hundred and eighteen had passed from this life without that important benefit. The baptism of children was postponed for many months, as the cura went to the visitas in the distant villages but seldom. For it was not easy for one single individual to acquit himself of so laborious cares; consequently, this is not to admit that they were ill administered. The government was interested in them, as was also commerce, as Ticao was an anchorage for the Acapulco ships in its famous port of San Jazinto,65on both the outward and return trips, where fresh supplies were procured, wood and water provided, and winds awaited to take them out of the dangerous currents of the Embocadero of San Bernardino. The Recollect fathers accepted that charge, and were received affectionately by the Indians. They founded their headquarters in Mobo,66a famous village of Masbate. They built a church there, under the advocacy of Our Lady of Remedies. It was a costly edifice, adorned with good reredoses, and had a sacristy well supplied with vestments, besides a capacious house with its suitable quarters and dormitories forthe resident and transient religious. Thence they made their apostolic excursions for the conversion of the heathens, who were still numerous, and the reduction of fugitive apostates. The settlements already established numbered six, and three new villages were established with the increase of those who settled down.

4. This province of San Nicolas petitioned his Majesty in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four to confirm that possession which had been conferred on it in his royal name. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Caceres to make no innovation in the spiritual administration of that district until his royal Council should provide what was suitable. He also ordered them to report on the progress of the faith in that territory since it had been under their charge. Judicial investigations were made in Manila by the government, in order to inform the king with reports. From them it appeared that, although the entire district of Masbate had formerly had only one parish priest, since the Recollect fathers had taken charge of it, three religious at least had lived there. It was proved also by the books of the royal accountancy, that in the year preceding their possession, that is, in the year eighty-seven, the entire ministry contained only one hundred and eighty-seven families; while in the year seven hundred and twenty-two there were five hundred and eighty-five families. Consequently, the present governor, the Marquís de Torre Campo, reported that the district of Masbate had had an increase of three hundred and ninety-eight whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. The Recollects not only inthose districts, but also in the remainder of these islands, devote themselves to the spread of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit.

5. That progress was not made without great toil and hardship. They had to do with a great number of mountain Indians and Zimarrones, who became fearsome when abandoned to liberty. Apostates from the faith and from civilized life, they had taken to the deserts and to the roughest mountains, where they defended their barbarous mode of life at all hazards, by resisting with arms those who tried to reduce them. Various people had also gathered there from other islands, fleeing from the settled villages and from the punishment due their atrocities. Consequently, the latter were extraordinarily fierce. Many heathen were numbered among them, accustomed long since to that rudeness of life and savagery, and they were all the worst kind of people. They committed notable depredations on the civilized villages, robbed the boats that anchored in the ports and bays, and treacherously committed many murders. Their boldness rose to such a pitch that one could not cross through the interior of those islands, and to arrive at their shores was the same as to make port in a land of enemies. It was also a laborious and dangerous task to navigate along the coasts, trying to find those rancherías. Consequently, Father Fray Ildefonso de la Concepcion was twice overturned in the sea, and another time had his boat dashed to pieces on some reefs. In that shipwreck he miraculously escaped with his life, although some of his companions perished in the water. Those dangers came to him in his visits to anew village established on the opposite coast. In order to avoid such dangers and visit that village more frequently, the father opened a road through the interior from Mobo over rough mountains, where many other risks were run because of the heathens. In that continual crossing the father fell grievously sick, his pains having originated from the hardships of such a road, with the showers and heat. He died at last, succumbing to such fatigues. But those sufferings were continued by others, who conquered that stubbornness by their constancy and fervent application, although with the well-known risk of losing their lives. Consequently, those ministers who were there in the beginning say that, although they have been many years in other doctrinas and missions, they had not so much to suffer and endure in any of them as in that of Masbate.

[The third extract from Concepción’sHistoriais from vol. ix, pp. 123–150, and comprises all of the fourth chapter except the last paragraph.]

Chapter IVBy sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.1. The Zambal Indians, of an intractable disposition, people of wild customs, and little or not at all content, were furious with the Dominican ministers in the reductions; they were groaning under the yoke of a life more regulated than their inclinations permitted. This made them think of insurrections and uprisings. The presidio of Painaven, well reënforced, restrained them; and the raids of the commandant,with detachments of men, into the mountains, intimidated them in their plans. They thought that the government of the Recollect fathers was milder, and hence they sighed for it. Those fathers tolerated their barbarous customs among a people so ferocious, and succeeded by their patience in softening and reducing them. Not so with the Dominican fathers, who learned the Zambals’ tenacity at their own cost. In the village of Balacbac was an Indian chief named Dalinen; although he lived in that village, he kept his valuables in the mountains under charge of a nephew. Another Indian, a Cimarron, named Calignao, killed the latter treacherously. In order to avenge that murder, Dalinen retired with many of his followers to the dense woods. Father Fray Domingo Perez,67who was the minister of that mission, tried to prevent that flight, but was quite unable to remedy it; for seventeen families fled with Dalinen. The commandant of the fort attackedthem with his men and burned the ranchería of Aglao, the next village to Balacbac, to which the murderer and the injured man belonged.2. Calignao had an extensive and strong kindred. Because they did not flee with him, father Fray Domingo endeavored to win them over. He asked for an adjutant’s staff from the commandant of the fort, and dignified Calignao with it. Then in order to restrain the other side, it was published that the murder of the nephew [of Dalinen] was by the command of the government, which had ordered that all who would not reduce themselves to village life should be killed. That method, however, was insufficient to quiet them, but, on the contrary, roused the factions to a higher pitch. To please the commandant and to give stronger force to his faction, Calignao promised to assault Dalinen. He went into the mountain to put that promise into execution, and after a short time, Dalinen was killed by a Negrito. His relatives were persuaded that the father had had a hand in that murder, and determined to pay him back. The same Calignao offered to do the deed, for this is what it means to benefit apostatized evil-doers. He sought an opportune occasion for the execution of his wicked intent, and found it in a journey which the father made to Baubuen to visit a communal house which he was building for strangers, and in order to confess father Fray Juan de Rois,68who was the minister there. During theabsence of the father, Calignao descended the mountain, visited his relatives, and was informed that the minister would return in three days. He left his relatives, and in company with a faithless Negrito went to await the father at the bank of a large river, by which it was necessary to pass. When Father Perez reached that place, Calignao discharged an arrow, which passed before the father’s breast without doing him any harm and lodged in a neighboring tree. When the father quite naturally turned his head to see who was firing at him, the Negrito Quibacat discharged his arrow, which, entering the father’s body three fingers below the left breast, came out more than four fingers at the right side of his back. It was a twisted arrow, and when father Fray Domingo pulled on it, the wound became worse. With the most intense pain that he suffered, he broke out into “Jesus, be with me! Let them commend me to God, for I am dying.”3. He spurred on his horse, which ran until the father perceived that sight was failing him. Then he alighted, stretched himself at the foot of an agoso tree,69and, amid the outpouring of his blood, begged pardon from God for his sins. An Indian who accompanied him came up to him, and found him unconscious from great loss of blood. The fatherrecovered consciousness, but for so brief a time that he could not tell the Indian what to do. He fainted once more, so completely that the Indian thought that he was yielding up his life. He again recovered consciousness, and sent the servant toBalacbacin order to get people to carry him thence. The Indian went to carry out that instruction. Meanwhile a man and three women arrived, and stayed with the father until the arrival of the men from the village who were very slow. For the Indian who had been sent could find no one who cared to take that charitable office upon himself, either the ministers of justice, the fiscals, or the sacristans. He was able to get three serving-lads in the convent, who made a hammock from a blanket, and carried the wounded religious in it. The latter, charging his messenger to go to Baubuen to advise Father Rois of his mishap, set out on his way to his village, where he arrived at nine o’clock at night. Father Rois, as soon as he received the news, got ready to go to the relief of his associate. After many frights, for everything was in an uproar, and his person ran no less risk [than that of Father Domingo], he reached the village at daybreak. He entered the cell of the wounded father, whom he found embracing a holy crucifix, and bathed in tears. Father Rois asked him “What is this, Father Vicar-prior?” “This means death,” answered the sufferer. “I shall die; there is no relief.” He was confessed, and received the sacred viaticum. He lived three days after that, without having his bed made, for his extreme pains would not permit it. Had they tended him well at the beginning, he would have recovered, for the wound was not mortal, and the Indians have medicineswhich cure other things more dangerous. But the greatest care was not exercised in this. The third day after nightfall, the pains attacked him much more fiercely, and convulsions and paroxysms followed. He received extreme unction, after which he lost his speech, and remained remarkably quiet; and in that calm he yielded his spirit to the Creator.4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.5. It is said that God honored the place of his death or where he was wounded, by marvelous occurrences. For instance the large river on whoseshore he was shot, dried up, and was swallowed up by the earth, and no trace of it was ever found later, neither did it take a course elsewhere; while the bed of the river became full of agoso trees. And although the above tree is large, and needs more than ten years to grow tall, those trees grew up in so short a time that that place appeared a dense forest, so that they choked and parched the reed-grass, which never sprang up again. It was said that the earth which was dyed with his blood has never allowed any grass to grow since, although the grass about the agoso at whose foot the father fainted is abundant and very green. That tree is always more flourishing and luxuriant, so that in comparison with it the other trees seem like withered things. Also another smaller river which ran past Aglao and Baubuen dried up, and the earth was left very sterile. It is true that these things were said, but without any foundation. The large river still remains and flows in the same course, and that of Aglao has the same course, and there is no notice or tradition that it had ever dried up; and it is not possible that so remarkable a thing could be forgotten. It was true that the agoso under which he rested was preserved and is still preserved; but in that story are not registered the exaggerated circumstances, such as that of the grass and of the reed-grass. I say this with assurance because I have seen it at various times, and I have passed the large river with some risk. On the bank of that river I was shown the spot where the father was wounded, and the agoso in question, in which I found nothing worthy of wonder. In regard to the other agosos and those newly produced, I proved that there are both old and newtrees, for they are produced without any cultivation, and are conserved from time immemorial, and their very great age is recognized by their failing condition.706. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishopand the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the newRecopilación,72and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that accounthe petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.7. He did so, and presented himself with the copy authorized in public form, of the proceedings of the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in the cause prosecuted by the father procurator-general, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, asking that his province should be restored to its former possession of the ministries of Mariveles, Masinloc, Bolinao, Puquil, and Playa-honda, and the rest of the province of Zambales. The decision thereon, as appeared from the said proceedings, was referred to the royal Audiencia of Manila. In regard to the contents of Father Peguero’s memorial, notwithstanding what he might petition, it should be refuted as outside the truth, as a calumny, and as grievously offensive to his province—which with excessive and continual work, and equal zeal in the service of both Majesties, had assisted in the administration of the Christians and the conversion of the infidels in theaforesaid districts, from the year one thousand six hundred and seven to the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, when it was despoiled actually and contrary to law, and the Dominican religious introduced into those missions. Notwithstanding the above, the said memorial, proceeding by malicious reports, and with a lack of accurate information, says that in the year seventy-six the said Father Peguero informed the government of these islands that the conversion and reduction of the Zambals—both the light-complexioned ones and those with the kinky hair, on both sides of the mountains that extend from Batan to Pangasinan, especially in the localities of Aglao, Buquil, Alupay, and Culianan, and many others—had not been thitherto in charge of any of the orders of these islands. In consideration of that, he petitioned that that care be assigned to his order. Despatches were given him in accordance with the terms of his petition, without summoning the party of the Recollect province, which was in possession [of that territory] from the time mentioned above. That order was then especially extending its labors, and working in the reduction of the infidels of those very same places, and in the administration of a great number of Christians in those districts, who paid tribute to their encomenderos. His order having offered opposition, and having made a petition before the royal Audiencia to be protected in its ancient possession, this was done, and the Order of St. Dominic was excluded from its demand, as appeared from royal provision and proceedings, which would be presented if it were necessary. After his order had been placed in charge ofthe administration of Mindoro, the Dominicans succeeded in getting the governor, then Don Juan de Vargas, to ask the father provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, to make a renunciation [of those districts]. The father provincial did it unwillingly, for it was a thing that he neither could or ought to do in regard to such districts, in order that other religious might be instituted—as were those of St. Dominic, in the year eighty. Two grave [Recollect] religious protested in the name of their province, against the renunciation made by their Recollect provincial; and all the ministers of Zambales protested against the violence with which they were despoiled of that administration, without their province having until then made any other judicial or extrajudicial effort than the conservation of their right, in order to demand it where and to what extent it may behoove them to do so. The provincial of his province had formally ordered his subjects not only not to solicit the natives of those districts to ask for, or allow them to ask for, these or other ministers; but they were to admonish them always to live consoled and contented, and to understand that the instruction which they received from the fathers of St. Dominic was the same, and [given with] the same zeal for the welfare of their souls. That order was obeyed, and there was no notice of its infraction. On the contrary, information was received that the present Dominican ministers told the natives that they were returning to carry forward what had been commenced by the Recollects. That proved that the Recollects did not keep their convents and churches, which they had abandoned to the Dominicans; asdoes the suggestion that father Fray Raymundo Verart74said that Captain Marcos de Rosales, encomendero of Marivelez, had made to him, for the latter earnestly entreated him to ask that the Recollects should be restored to the possession of those ministeries. He offered to make that request to him in writing.8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besidesbeing an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleadedthat the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; forthese wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order wasprevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously,and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.12. This decree was as follows: “Decision of the royal court this day, September eleven, one thousand seven hundred and five.75The measure passed by Señor Calderon is approved, and in accordance therewith, a decree to that effect shall be issued. Because of their great poverty, only the first petitions of the Indians shall be received without attorney.”13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76who together with theprocurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copyof the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united thosewhich were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.14. Thus this matter [expediente] rested until the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, when the alférez, Nicolas Guerrero, one of the ordinary attorneys of the royal Audiencia, presented a certificateempowering him as the chief authorized agent of the province of San Nicolas, to act as their attorney in the matter in hand. Thereupon, he declared that in maintenance of the claim of the said province, it was advisable to examine the minutes of the proceedings hitherto conducted in the royal courts, in regard to the restitution of their former missions of Zambales and everything pertaining to them. Accordingly, he prayed his Highness to deign to order the secretary to produce the said minutes, which on being given to the said attorney, he appeared before his Highness and stated that in accordance with the last royal order of six hundred and ninety, whereby the other party was required to answer fully, this had not been done, but that the party had merely referred to its former pleadings, and that any other answer had not been made during the space of twenty years, so that the suit had been unduly prolonged; and moreover, that the matter having been recently investigated, his side has a paper (which he now presents with all solemnity), namely, a private letter from the father provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Pedro Mejorada,77in reply to one from the provincialof the Recollects, Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, in which he declares, that he answered in the same manner as his province had done on former occasions; that he would not oppose the abandoning of the said missions as he was not a party thereto, for his province had taken these under their charge solely in compliance with the orders of Governor Don Juan de Vargas and Archbishop Don Phelipe Pardo; that, moreover, at the present time when his province was so straitened through the lack of religious, if they were not succored in that regard it would be necessary for them to take other steps. Wherefore (he added), so far as matters have now gone he might do what he pleased, for his province would offer no opposition, and was prepared to give up those missions if so requested and charged to do. In this letter, moreover, among other points, it was inferable that his province was ready to leave the said missions of Zambales. Therefore the attorney petitioned and prayed his Highness to deign to have the case brought up for final trial, declaring his client as entitled to the possession of such missions, to whom they should therefore be restored. Thereupon the judges decided that the measures so far taken together with that letter should be acted upon; that the trial should be proceeded with without prejudice to whatever had already been decided, and that all the papers in the case be handed over to the fiscal of this royal Audiencia, for his opinion (within three days) of what steps it was advisableto take. Thereupon, for reasons given, the latter replied that what had been advised by the fiscal of the royal and supreme Council ought to be carried out, and hence a similar order might issue from this royal Audiencia, with notice to the reverend fathers provincial, parties in interest, that so far as concerned their spiritual care the natives might be relieved promptly. In accordance with this, the judges ordered that all parties should proceed to the chamber for final sentence. Thereupon their decision was that the reverend fathers provincial should be apprised of the sentence as given in this cause for their judgment in the exercise of their rights; and that whether they assented or not, they should appear to hear the decision to be given.15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph deSan Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.Doctor TorralvaLicentiate VillaThe Fiscal”In the presence of Antonio de Yepes y Arce, notary-public. Their decision was heard and obeyed promptly by the party to the suit, and proper warrants having been received, the spiritual administration of the Zambals was peacefully restored to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects. Perhaps the very reverend father chronicler, Fray Domingo Collantes,78did not have at hand these original documents when he penned the fourth part of the chronicles of his province of Santissimo Rosario which has been recently published; and this must be the reason for the so great diversity in the [story of the] restoration of Zambales, and for the minuteness with which it is discussed here.

By sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.

1. The Zambal Indians, of an intractable disposition, people of wild customs, and little or not at all content, were furious with the Dominican ministers in the reductions; they were groaning under the yoke of a life more regulated than their inclinations permitted. This made them think of insurrections and uprisings. The presidio of Painaven, well reënforced, restrained them; and the raids of the commandant,with detachments of men, into the mountains, intimidated them in their plans. They thought that the government of the Recollect fathers was milder, and hence they sighed for it. Those fathers tolerated their barbarous customs among a people so ferocious, and succeeded by their patience in softening and reducing them. Not so with the Dominican fathers, who learned the Zambals’ tenacity at their own cost. In the village of Balacbac was an Indian chief named Dalinen; although he lived in that village, he kept his valuables in the mountains under charge of a nephew. Another Indian, a Cimarron, named Calignao, killed the latter treacherously. In order to avenge that murder, Dalinen retired with many of his followers to the dense woods. Father Fray Domingo Perez,67who was the minister of that mission, tried to prevent that flight, but was quite unable to remedy it; for seventeen families fled with Dalinen. The commandant of the fort attackedthem with his men and burned the ranchería of Aglao, the next village to Balacbac, to which the murderer and the injured man belonged.

2. Calignao had an extensive and strong kindred. Because they did not flee with him, father Fray Domingo endeavored to win them over. He asked for an adjutant’s staff from the commandant of the fort, and dignified Calignao with it. Then in order to restrain the other side, it was published that the murder of the nephew [of Dalinen] was by the command of the government, which had ordered that all who would not reduce themselves to village life should be killed. That method, however, was insufficient to quiet them, but, on the contrary, roused the factions to a higher pitch. To please the commandant and to give stronger force to his faction, Calignao promised to assault Dalinen. He went into the mountain to put that promise into execution, and after a short time, Dalinen was killed by a Negrito. His relatives were persuaded that the father had had a hand in that murder, and determined to pay him back. The same Calignao offered to do the deed, for this is what it means to benefit apostatized evil-doers. He sought an opportune occasion for the execution of his wicked intent, and found it in a journey which the father made to Baubuen to visit a communal house which he was building for strangers, and in order to confess father Fray Juan de Rois,68who was the minister there. During theabsence of the father, Calignao descended the mountain, visited his relatives, and was informed that the minister would return in three days. He left his relatives, and in company with a faithless Negrito went to await the father at the bank of a large river, by which it was necessary to pass. When Father Perez reached that place, Calignao discharged an arrow, which passed before the father’s breast without doing him any harm and lodged in a neighboring tree. When the father quite naturally turned his head to see who was firing at him, the Negrito Quibacat discharged his arrow, which, entering the father’s body three fingers below the left breast, came out more than four fingers at the right side of his back. It was a twisted arrow, and when father Fray Domingo pulled on it, the wound became worse. With the most intense pain that he suffered, he broke out into “Jesus, be with me! Let them commend me to God, for I am dying.”

3. He spurred on his horse, which ran until the father perceived that sight was failing him. Then he alighted, stretched himself at the foot of an agoso tree,69and, amid the outpouring of his blood, begged pardon from God for his sins. An Indian who accompanied him came up to him, and found him unconscious from great loss of blood. The fatherrecovered consciousness, but for so brief a time that he could not tell the Indian what to do. He fainted once more, so completely that the Indian thought that he was yielding up his life. He again recovered consciousness, and sent the servant toBalacbacin order to get people to carry him thence. The Indian went to carry out that instruction. Meanwhile a man and three women arrived, and stayed with the father until the arrival of the men from the village who were very slow. For the Indian who had been sent could find no one who cared to take that charitable office upon himself, either the ministers of justice, the fiscals, or the sacristans. He was able to get three serving-lads in the convent, who made a hammock from a blanket, and carried the wounded religious in it. The latter, charging his messenger to go to Baubuen to advise Father Rois of his mishap, set out on his way to his village, where he arrived at nine o’clock at night. Father Rois, as soon as he received the news, got ready to go to the relief of his associate. After many frights, for everything was in an uproar, and his person ran no less risk [than that of Father Domingo], he reached the village at daybreak. He entered the cell of the wounded father, whom he found embracing a holy crucifix, and bathed in tears. Father Rois asked him “What is this, Father Vicar-prior?” “This means death,” answered the sufferer. “I shall die; there is no relief.” He was confessed, and received the sacred viaticum. He lived three days after that, without having his bed made, for his extreme pains would not permit it. Had they tended him well at the beginning, he would have recovered, for the wound was not mortal, and the Indians have medicineswhich cure other things more dangerous. But the greatest care was not exercised in this. The third day after nightfall, the pains attacked him much more fiercely, and convulsions and paroxysms followed. He received extreme unction, after which he lost his speech, and remained remarkably quiet; and in that calm he yielded his spirit to the Creator.

4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.

5. It is said that God honored the place of his death or where he was wounded, by marvelous occurrences. For instance the large river on whoseshore he was shot, dried up, and was swallowed up by the earth, and no trace of it was ever found later, neither did it take a course elsewhere; while the bed of the river became full of agoso trees. And although the above tree is large, and needs more than ten years to grow tall, those trees grew up in so short a time that that place appeared a dense forest, so that they choked and parched the reed-grass, which never sprang up again. It was said that the earth which was dyed with his blood has never allowed any grass to grow since, although the grass about the agoso at whose foot the father fainted is abundant and very green. That tree is always more flourishing and luxuriant, so that in comparison with it the other trees seem like withered things. Also another smaller river which ran past Aglao and Baubuen dried up, and the earth was left very sterile. It is true that these things were said, but without any foundation. The large river still remains and flows in the same course, and that of Aglao has the same course, and there is no notice or tradition that it had ever dried up; and it is not possible that so remarkable a thing could be forgotten. It was true that the agoso under which he rested was preserved and is still preserved; but in that story are not registered the exaggerated circumstances, such as that of the grass and of the reed-grass. I say this with assurance because I have seen it at various times, and I have passed the large river with some risk. On the bank of that river I was shown the spot where the father was wounded, and the agoso in question, in which I found nothing worthy of wonder. In regard to the other agosos and those newly produced, I proved that there are both old and newtrees, for they are produced without any cultivation, and are conserved from time immemorial, and their very great age is recognized by their failing condition.70

6. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishopand the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the newRecopilación,72and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that accounthe petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.

7. He did so, and presented himself with the copy authorized in public form, of the proceedings of the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in the cause prosecuted by the father procurator-general, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, asking that his province should be restored to its former possession of the ministries of Mariveles, Masinloc, Bolinao, Puquil, and Playa-honda, and the rest of the province of Zambales. The decision thereon, as appeared from the said proceedings, was referred to the royal Audiencia of Manila. In regard to the contents of Father Peguero’s memorial, notwithstanding what he might petition, it should be refuted as outside the truth, as a calumny, and as grievously offensive to his province—which with excessive and continual work, and equal zeal in the service of both Majesties, had assisted in the administration of the Christians and the conversion of the infidels in theaforesaid districts, from the year one thousand six hundred and seven to the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, when it was despoiled actually and contrary to law, and the Dominican religious introduced into those missions. Notwithstanding the above, the said memorial, proceeding by malicious reports, and with a lack of accurate information, says that in the year seventy-six the said Father Peguero informed the government of these islands that the conversion and reduction of the Zambals—both the light-complexioned ones and those with the kinky hair, on both sides of the mountains that extend from Batan to Pangasinan, especially in the localities of Aglao, Buquil, Alupay, and Culianan, and many others—had not been thitherto in charge of any of the orders of these islands. In consideration of that, he petitioned that that care be assigned to his order. Despatches were given him in accordance with the terms of his petition, without summoning the party of the Recollect province, which was in possession [of that territory] from the time mentioned above. That order was then especially extending its labors, and working in the reduction of the infidels of those very same places, and in the administration of a great number of Christians in those districts, who paid tribute to their encomenderos. His order having offered opposition, and having made a petition before the royal Audiencia to be protected in its ancient possession, this was done, and the Order of St. Dominic was excluded from its demand, as appeared from royal provision and proceedings, which would be presented if it were necessary. After his order had been placed in charge ofthe administration of Mindoro, the Dominicans succeeded in getting the governor, then Don Juan de Vargas, to ask the father provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas, to make a renunciation [of those districts]. The father provincial did it unwillingly, for it was a thing that he neither could or ought to do in regard to such districts, in order that other religious might be instituted—as were those of St. Dominic, in the year eighty. Two grave [Recollect] religious protested in the name of their province, against the renunciation made by their Recollect provincial; and all the ministers of Zambales protested against the violence with which they were despoiled of that administration, without their province having until then made any other judicial or extrajudicial effort than the conservation of their right, in order to demand it where and to what extent it may behoove them to do so. The provincial of his province had formally ordered his subjects not only not to solicit the natives of those districts to ask for, or allow them to ask for, these or other ministers; but they were to admonish them always to live consoled and contented, and to understand that the instruction which they received from the fathers of St. Dominic was the same, and [given with] the same zeal for the welfare of their souls. That order was obeyed, and there was no notice of its infraction. On the contrary, information was received that the present Dominican ministers told the natives that they were returning to carry forward what had been commenced by the Recollects. That proved that the Recollects did not keep their convents and churches, which they had abandoned to the Dominicans; asdoes the suggestion that father Fray Raymundo Verart74said that Captain Marcos de Rosales, encomendero of Marivelez, had made to him, for the latter earnestly entreated him to ask that the Recollects should be restored to the possession of those ministeries. He offered to make that request to him in writing.

8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besidesbeing an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleadedthat the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.

9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; forthese wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].

10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order wasprevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.

11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously,and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.

12. This decree was as follows: “Decision of the royal court this day, September eleven, one thousand seven hundred and five.75The measure passed by Señor Calderon is approved, and in accordance therewith, a decree to that effect shall be issued. Because of their great poverty, only the first petitions of the Indians shall be received without attorney.”

13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76who together with theprocurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copyof the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united thosewhich were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.

14. Thus this matter [expediente] rested until the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, when the alférez, Nicolas Guerrero, one of the ordinary attorneys of the royal Audiencia, presented a certificateempowering him as the chief authorized agent of the province of San Nicolas, to act as their attorney in the matter in hand. Thereupon, he declared that in maintenance of the claim of the said province, it was advisable to examine the minutes of the proceedings hitherto conducted in the royal courts, in regard to the restitution of their former missions of Zambales and everything pertaining to them. Accordingly, he prayed his Highness to deign to order the secretary to produce the said minutes, which on being given to the said attorney, he appeared before his Highness and stated that in accordance with the last royal order of six hundred and ninety, whereby the other party was required to answer fully, this had not been done, but that the party had merely referred to its former pleadings, and that any other answer had not been made during the space of twenty years, so that the suit had been unduly prolonged; and moreover, that the matter having been recently investigated, his side has a paper (which he now presents with all solemnity), namely, a private letter from the father provincial of the Dominicans, Fray Pedro Mejorada,77in reply to one from the provincialof the Recollects, Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, in which he declares, that he answered in the same manner as his province had done on former occasions; that he would not oppose the abandoning of the said missions as he was not a party thereto, for his province had taken these under their charge solely in compliance with the orders of Governor Don Juan de Vargas and Archbishop Don Phelipe Pardo; that, moreover, at the present time when his province was so straitened through the lack of religious, if they were not succored in that regard it would be necessary for them to take other steps. Wherefore (he added), so far as matters have now gone he might do what he pleased, for his province would offer no opposition, and was prepared to give up those missions if so requested and charged to do. In this letter, moreover, among other points, it was inferable that his province was ready to leave the said missions of Zambales. Therefore the attorney petitioned and prayed his Highness to deign to have the case brought up for final trial, declaring his client as entitled to the possession of such missions, to whom they should therefore be restored. Thereupon the judges decided that the measures so far taken together with that letter should be acted upon; that the trial should be proceeded with without prejudice to whatever had already been decided, and that all the papers in the case be handed over to the fiscal of this royal Audiencia, for his opinion (within three days) of what steps it was advisableto take. Thereupon, for reasons given, the latter replied that what had been advised by the fiscal of the royal and supreme Council ought to be carried out, and hence a similar order might issue from this royal Audiencia, with notice to the reverend fathers provincial, parties in interest, that so far as concerned their spiritual care the natives might be relieved promptly. In accordance with this, the judges ordered that all parties should proceed to the chamber for final sentence. Thereupon their decision was that the reverend fathers provincial should be apprised of the sentence as given in this cause for their judgment in the exercise of their rights; and that whether they assented or not, they should appear to hear the decision to be given.

15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph deSan Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.

Doctor TorralvaLicentiate VillaThe Fiscal”

In the presence of Antonio de Yepes y Arce, notary-public. Their decision was heard and obeyed promptly by the party to the suit, and proper warrants having been received, the spiritual administration of the Zambals was peacefully restored to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects. Perhaps the very reverend father chronicler, Fray Domingo Collantes,78did not have at hand these original documents when he penned the fourth part of the chronicles of his province of Santissimo Rosario which has been recently published; and this must be the reason for the so great diversity in the [story of the] restoration of Zambales, and for the minuteness with which it is discussed here.

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