The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 37, 1669-1676 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

CHAPTER XVI

A shipload of religious reaches the province; and notices of events in China are given

After the fearful round of so many calamities, our Lord hastened to open the treasury of His mercies by bringing to this province a band of chosen religious in the year 43. Although they were not many, yet they were all of estimable qualities; and they have greatly honored this province as well as all the order. The circumstance of the time of their arrival made that mission all the more precious; for it was not thought that the province of the king our sovereign, Felipe Fourth the Great, would fathom our necessity at a time when the wars with Portugal and Cataluña kept him much embarrassed, and his royal treasury empty. But God, who moves the hearts of princes, places in their hearts those works of charity, in order to render eternal the grandeur of their monarchies. David’s zeal and reverence to God conquered more for him than did the sword; while the sword served Roboan [i.e., Rehoboam], who had neither zeal nor reverence for God, rather for embarrassment, and ten kingdoms in ten provinces fell away from his crown at the first movement.

[Certain pious reflections follow. Continuing, Santa Cruz says:]

That mission was arranged in España by father Fray Francisco Carrero, procurator for this province. He conducted it to Mexico, where, reënforced by valiant and suitable men who arrived there, he committed it to father Fray Joseph de la Madre de Dios; for the said father procurator could not come here, and hence left them where they embarked at Acapulco. The mail-packet and letters of the ship arrived on the ninth of July; and on the twenty-first, eve of the glorious Magdalena, our patroness, the said mission entered Manila. The religious included in it were as follows: the father vicar, Fray Joseph de la Madre de Dios (alias de la Vega), a native of Rioseco, and son of [the convent of] San Pablo at Burgos; father Fray Pedro de la Fuente, lecturer on the arts in the province of España, son of the same convent, fellow of San Gregorio, and native of the bishopric of Logroño; father Fray Francisco de Molina, son of [the convent of] Santo Tomas at Madrid, and native of the same city; father Fray Juan Pabon, son of our convent at Truxillo, and native of Montanches; father Fray Bernardo Lopez, son of [the convent of] San Pedro Martir el Real at Toledo, and native of a town near the said city; father Fray Juan Lopez, native of the town of Martin Muñoz de las Possadas, son of [the convent of] San Estevan at Salamanca, who afterward became the most illustrious bishop of Nombre de Jesus [i.e., Cebú] whence he ascended to the archbishopric of Manila, and of whom we shall treat in due time; father Fray Domingo del Castillo, son of [the convent of] San Pablo at Valladolid, and native of the mountain region of Burgos; father Fray Geronimo de Sotomayor, son of [the convent at] Mexico, lecturer in morning classes in the college of Porta-Celi, and native of the said city; father Fray Juan Cuenca, son of [the convent of] La Puebla de los Angeles (where he lectured on theology), and native of the same city; father Fray Antonio de Velasco, son of the convent of Mexico, and native of the same city; father Fray Juan Marquez, of the same convent and city; father Fray Diego de Figueroa, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo at Mexico, and native of the same city; father Fray Felipe Muñoz, native of Mexico, and son of our convent of Santo Domingo in the same city; brother Fray Antonio Sanchez, an acolyte, son of the convent of Santo Domingo of La Puebla, and native of the same city; brother Fray Jacinto Altamirano, a lay-brother, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo at La Puebla, and native of that town. From the province of Andalucia came only father Fray Raymundo del Valle, son of Ronda, from our convent of San Pedro Martir. It is not known here where he was born, for he was soon sent to the province of China, where he is at present. We shall discuss him later. In that mission came also a boy named Sebastian Galvan, a brother of Archbishop Don Fray Juan Lopez, who took the habit on arriving at a proper age.

An intermediary chapter had been held on April 25 of that year 43. Our Lord, beholding this his province so sad, was pleased in His charity to visit it by sending the said mission as well as the other small mission that came by way of Macasar. Allowing for their misfortune, it proved a great consolation to see our so beloved brothers come safely through the storm, although they came swimming and naked; for immediately they honored us greatly in the employment in which obedience placed them.

[The remainder of the chapter concerns Chinese affairs.]