Chapter LXVIIIThe religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms.[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
Chapter LXVIIIThe religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms.[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
Chapter LXVIIIThe religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms.[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
Chapter LXVIIIThe religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms.[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
Chapter LXVIIIThe religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms.[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
Chapter LXVIIIThe religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms.
[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma,after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all thereligious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments,the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]
One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom—only once a year—was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them.Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.58The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time—to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and followingthe same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.
In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, andbrought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.
[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of whichhad just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. Inthe province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]
In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling ifany of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.
“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,Fray Agustin Galaminio,master of the Order of Preachers.”
“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverendFather, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,
Fray Agustin Galaminio,
master of the Order of Preachers.”