"The devil, envious of such success, sought to disturb our new Christian community with rumors of war, which compelled us to return to the village of Tobigo. There, while the people were wrought up to the most ardent fervor of prayers and conversions, forty-eight armed men descended upon the village, to plunder it and to burn the church. That night our people posted a sentinel, and kindled large fires, and so the enemy did not dare to enter openly; but they remained in the neighborhood to rob anyone who might enter or leave the village. On the morning of the next day, armed with better weapons than theirs—namely, with confidence in the Lord, whose work we are doing—I set out to go where they were, taking with me Brother Dionisio (who has been, in all these experiences, my very faithful companion); and there I said to them: 'Fear not, my children, for I am your father, not the alcalde-mayor; I come to do you good, not harm. What do you fear from a man unarmed and alone, who puts himself in your power? You behold me here. If you desire me for a slave, I will live with you in your village of Tibor, and will serve you as a slave if you will in turn let me teach you how you may obtain salvation. I have compassion on you when I see you acting thus, for if the Spaniards seize you they will do you much harm. Let us be friends, and in token of our friendship, take this garment:' and I handed to the chiefs an elegant striped mantilla, asking them to give me also some pledge. They presented to me a necklace, and then we embraced each other and drank from the same cup. In short, we became so good friends that they promised me that whenever I might summon them to Loboc, they would come, provided that they would bring but few people. They gave me a little fruit and some eggs, and I gave them a basket of rice. After expressions of friendship had been exchanged, I asked them to make peace also with my friends of Tobigon; this they did, and departed abashed without having done any harm. May God bring them to a place where they can receive instruction; for some of them, when questioned, replied that I was the first Spaniard whom they had ever seen in their lives. This took place near Sebu; what must be the condition of affairs elsewhere?"
Another letter from Father Valerio to the father-visitor, dated October 4, gives the following account: "Father Gabriel writes me that he has baptized in Loboc and Dita more than four hundred souls, most of them children under the age of reason. In these three months I find, upon examination, that more than a thousand souls have been baptized, and that the ardor of numberless others is aroused. The fathers write me that the hour has come in which God is present in this island. May your Reverence send us laborers, or at least one father, until those from España arrive. Fortunate is he who may come hither, for he will delight in the fervor of this primitive church."
Father Gabriel Sanchez writes thus, in a letter of October 5: "Our Lord has favored the plans and labors of the father rector and other fathers; for in uniting the villages, their people have been so thoroughly converted to the Lord that I know not what to say, except that the Lord, who created and redeemed them, has been pleased to call them with so special a vocation. Of the people in those reductions there have been newly baptized in the last four months more than two thousand souls, and it seems to me that, if we had fathers, the whole island would be converted in one month. I am filled with devotion when I see people who are practically savages come from the mountains, and on their knees ask for baptism, and children as well, like angels, who have already learned the prayers, although I know not who are their teachers. Today, for instance, one of them came down, a child about ten years old, whom I had never before seen; and yet he knew the catechism and the questions, and was most eager to be baptized. Catolonas, or priestesses, also come to us, and have given so many proofs of their holy desire that we have not been able to deny them baptism. Truly, my father, I am living in great consolation and joy; for here in these regions there is nothing more to be desired than that we may faithfully serve our Lord, and that all the people may be brought into the presence of His Divine Majesty. On Sunday we had in the church of Loboc six or seven hundred souls, which is the usual attendance. If your Reverence could see in the early mornings nearly a hundred children from the mountains, boys and girls but recently baptized, march with praises to God in a procession along the bank of this river, singing the doctrine with angelic voices that seem to come from heaven, I verily believe that your Reverence would be moved to devout tears, at seeing how God has brought them down from these mountains and dragons' caves that they may praise and glorify Him. During the last few days there were baptized in Dita five hundred more souls, so that in this mission of Bohol there are now more than three thousand Christians. At the beginning, we had eight hundred, and now, with the blessing of God and the mercy that He has shown them, two thousand three hundred have been baptised. Since God decrees it, may St Peter bless it. Amen."
In another letter he writes: "For days I have been toiling alone; and when I depart from a village, a considerable time passes before I return to it. But it is evident that the spiritual benefit of those poor people acquits me for this delay, in order that your Reverence may take pity on them. For this reason, my father, let fathers be brought from España; and will your Reverence send hither even twenty, for there will be a harvest for all of them. In Loboc and Dita in the last few days nearly four hundred little ones have been baptized; this has given me much consolation in the Lord, for I find great satisfaction in these little creatures. The adults are learning the doctrine with such fervor that even until midnight the sound of their voices is incessant. We have received information that enemies are coming to attack this island, and the people are therefore greatly disturbed. Would to God that we might be made captives for His love, and might die for pure love of Him!" All this is from Father Gabriel Sanchez.
The enemies whom the father here mentions are Indians from the island of Mindanao which lies near the islands of Terrenate and Maluco, where the doctrine of Mahoma is professed. In the year one thousand six hundred that people collected an armed fleet of sixty small vessels, which descended upon these islands subject to the government of Manila, and wrought much damage. They laid waste the island of Bantayan and the river of Panai, and burned the churches. Then they coasted along other islands, robbing and murdering, and finally carried away as captives one thousand two hundred souls. But it pleased our Lord that when they came to this island of Bohol, where our fathers reside, they should inflict no considerable losses, nor did they burn our church and house—which they could have done with impunity, for all the people fled to the mountains. Yet they passed on without stopping, as Father Gabriel relates in part of his letter of November 16, which runs as follows:
"In order that your Reverence may aid us in rendering thanks to our Lord for a great act of mercy which He has shown us, your Reverence, as father-visitor, should know that on the twenty-sixth of October in this year, 1600, the enemy attacked Baclayun just after our fathers had gone thence to Sebu, summoned thither by holy obedience; for the father rector had sent in haste for the three of us who were in the island, and lo! the enemy were there. As evidence of the value of holy obedience, and to show how it exempts from dangers, as well as another token of mercy—the enemy committed scarcely any ravages in Bohol, considering what was in their power to do. Their approach was made known three or four hours in advance, and all, as I have been informed, fled to the mountains—except three old women and an old man, whom they killed; and three women and a man, whom they carried away captive. One of the old women whom they killed had been a notorious witch; but God our Lord, who loved her soul, inspired her with so fervent a desire to become a Christian and receive baptism that for three months she did not cease asking me for it. Finally, on account of her importunity, I baptized her, after she had several times given evidence of her sincerity by expressing in public her abhorrence of her idolatrous belief. But she was fortunate indeed, for soon after she had been baptized they killed her, which is certainly a singular blessing from our Lord. The other old woman who was about seventy years of age had also been baptized a little while before. They did no damage in our church, although I am told that they disinterred some bodies—why, I know not. Here is another instance of God's mercy: although they passed very near the river of Lobo, Dita, and other little villages belonging to our newly converted Christians, they neither visited nor attacked them; this seems miraculous, considering that they had, as your Reverence well knows, committed so deplorable ravages in other places."
Another of our fathers held a mission in that island, during the vacation in the Latin studies in the College of Sebu; and, among other things, he writes thus about his short stay there: "So great is the heavenly influence which God sends upon this village of Tobigon, and the abundance of gifts which He bestows upon it, that I have not dared to go hence, and cut the thread of a progress so auspicious, thinking it best to remain and behold the marvels of God. The church is full night and day, and there is no leisure to leave the building, and hardly to eat when I must; and it is necessary to have my food brought to me from a distance. All are eager to become Christians and be baptized. During the two weeks that I have spent here, among those to whom we have been able to give instruction, one hundred and fifty adults have been baptized, and today we are to baptize about forty catechumens; the rest will be left until our return. Their affection for us is great; they bring their children and sick that we may bless them, and in the street they fall upon their knees to receive the benediction. They make frequent use of holy water for their houses, at their meals, in their grain-fields, and for their sick; indeed, to drink a swallow of it they consider an efficacious remedy. In short, all that I see in them is piety and devotion—which is all the more precious since they are Christians so recently converted. An old man asked on his knees for baptism, and, as it was necessary to defer the sacrament, he said with his hands crossed upon his breast: 'Father, teach me how to invoke God, since I do not know how to pray and thou wilt not baptize me; for I truly reverence Him in my soul, and desire to serve Him:' Another old man—a chief, whom all respect—who hitherto had been obdurate, has just asked me for baptism; he is very hoary, and so old that it seems as if he could not, from very age, utter a word. I go to his house to instruct him, for he is too feeble to come to the church. I shall soon baptize him, and another old man of his age; and it seems to me a certain proof of their predestination that God should have kept them so long, and now have inspired in them so ardent a desire to be saved. The Lord be blessed, amen! for His marvels, who from the stones can raise sons of God and heirs of heaven, at the time and hour that pleases Him, and by instruments most inadequate, so that all may know that it is the work of His power. Up to this time we have in this island three thousand three hundred Christians, and I am confident in the Divine goodness that by next year there will not be one man who is not baptized."
The mission held in Tanai. Chapter LXXI.
Tanai is a beautiful and thickly-settled river in the great island called Negros, on the side which forms a strait with the island of Sebu. This part of the island is under the parochial care of Don Diego Ferreira, the bishop's vicar there, and first archdeacon of the cathedral of Sebu. This priest, in his great affection for our humble Society, and influenced by seeing the results of our fathers' labors in those islands—aided by the demand of the natives of Tanai themselves, who had at various times asked for us—so urgently requested our presence there that at last the authorities were obliged to consent. Overjoyed that they had assigned this field to Father Gabriel Sanchez, whom he held in great esteem, the said Don Diego went in person to Bohol with a ship, expressly to convey Father Sanchez, and carried him to their Tanai. What this faithful minister of Jesus Christ accomplished there the Indians themselves made known, and the archdeacon lauded it in various letters, being most grateful to God and to the Society for this service that we had rendered him. We gave him therein no little aid in carrying his burden of the many souls which are under his care, alone as he is, without any other assistance or instruction than ours. But Father Gabriel Sanchez, with his accustomed plainness, has written a more detailed account of some particular cases, while making a report of his labors to the superiors, as is the custom among us. In a letter to the father-visitor, dated in November of the year one thousand six hundred, he writes thus:
"The archdeacon of Sebu, who holds the benefice of Tanai—a venerable and meritorious man, as your Reverence well knows—went in person to the island of Bohol, twelve leguas away, to beseech Father Alonso de Umanes, our superior, to send, for God's love, a father to teach his people the law of God, since he himself did not know their language. I was chosen, and it pleased our Lord to give us a good foothold in the island; on the very first day we found all the people gathered on the beach, awaiting us with music and other tokens of joy. We went to the church, and there I began to address them and discuss our holy faith. At the first or second sermon, your Reverence might have seen almost all the people suddenly changed. Indeed, as they had not before had any minister who could address them in their own language, they had not, as I learned, been able to form any conception of the things of God. When the light penetrated their souls, they were astonished; and, full of joy, they began to ask one another, 'What is this?' They gazed on me (poor wretch that I am), as on one descended from heaven. As the greater number of those who assembled there were Christians, but had not made their confession nor did they even know si Spiritus Sanctus est, I discussed with them the remedy of confession, explaining its purpose, and arousing their affection for it. Within one month about four hundred persons made their confessions, with the utmost sorrow for their sins; and many received communion, with such devotion that to behold them inspired a like emotion. I baptized about eighty, most of them infants, although there were a few adults. We instituted the procession of children which, in our doctrinas, is wont to march through the streets. We began, too, in the church to give instruction and ask questions, which so pleased them that the chiefs answered them, and were offended if we did not question them.