The right reverend bishop of Sebu, in the course of his visits among his flocks, determined to go for this purpose to the island of Bohol—which, as we have said, is about eight leguas to the south of the island of Sebu—taking as his companion Father Francisco Gonzalez of our Society. We learned of the outcome of this visit through that father's account of it in one of his letters, as follows: "I think that your Reverence knows of the visit which his Lordship made to the island of Bohol; but, as it was my lot to accompany him, I shall relate to your Reverence, if only in outline, something of what befell us there. He visited in the island of Bohol eight villages which are instructed by the fathers of the Society, and confirmed therein three thousand Christians, spending about twenty days in the visit. Most remarkable was the fervor which resulted from it, for the Christians made excellent preparation for receiving the sacrament, many of them, in all the villages, making their confessions. Besides this, he had previously trained and examined them, all being assembled in the church, in the catechism, causing them to repeat aloud the principal mysteries of our faith. A sermon was preached them wherein they were exhorted to feel much grief at having offended our Lord. At the conclusion of the sermon, they all fell upon their knees, and offered audible acts of contrition and of love to God. They were next asked if they desired to receive the sacrament of confirmation; and they answered aloud that they desired it, in order that our Lord might pardon their sins and strengthen them in the faith. Then, his Lordship confirmed them, with a short exhortation at the end of the ceremony, by which they were all greatly consoled and fortified in the truth of our holy faith. This result was greatly aided by the love and so paternal affection which the lord bishop manifested to them not only in the church but in their houses—going to visit the sick, and confirming them in their very cabins; giving alms, ransoming slaves, and clothing the poor; and performing many other deeds of mercy. His Lordship was especially delighted at beholding those new flocks of his so well instructed, when they were answering the questions on catechism, which was done in the presence of his Lordship." Such is the brief account given by the father.
All these are but flames of that celestial fire which we said had taken hold of this island, and with which even the little children are ablaze. Thus in each of those villages nearly two hundred children assemble every day, uttering praises to the Divine Majesty, acknowledging His greatness, learning the Christian doctrine, and imparting it to their parents and elders. The confessions cannot be enumerated, for they are as many as there are Christians. No one fails to make his confession during Lent, even though he may have confessed many times during the year; and with like ardor the other exercises of piety and devotion are performed. This was especially evident on Holy Friday of that year, one thousand six hundred and two, during the adoration of the cross, in which they displayed deep emotion; they even removed the rings from their fingers and the jewels from their ears, to make offerings of these. As Father Gabriel Sanchez has been the usual laborer in that island, I shall here set down a part of one of his letters in which, with his usual simplicity, he gives some account of the island and of Christianity therein: "Our Lord has been well served this year in the island of Bohol, with the fruits gathered from the conversion of those pagans, for in this barren waste we have set out a beautiful garden of new plants which our Lord has planted. Many people have been brought together and induced to settle in villages, wherein they are instructed. At the time when I am writing this, we are in a village on the coast, whither there came down to us yesterday two other villages of the Tinguianes, or mountaineers, asking us, of their own accord, to allow them to live here. As an earnest of their desire, they brought as many as forty children that we might baptize them, which we have done. We value this all the more because these two villages have up to this time been the most obstinate and stubborn in all the island: but God has now been pleased to soften their hearts. May He be blessed and praised that, if there had been fathers for all of them, the whole island would now be converted; for, although there are actually in this mission no more than four thousand Christians, its people are so well disposed that on the day when they shall have someone to teach and baptize them they will all be converted. The very villages that we are unable to teach come frequently to ask that we will go to instruct them and unite them into one, and give them baptism. But, as so few fathers have been in this island, we have not been able to succor them; and so they remain until God shall send them a reënforcement of fathers—of whom they themselves are so desirous that they have already built us houses and churches, before a priest has been brought to them, or even mentioned, to my knowledge. May God, whose plantation this is, send workmen hither, since there is harvest enough in all this island; and when they shall undertake to extend their labors further, there are, near by, some little islands in extreme spiritual want, and entirely deprived of any human succor for their conversion. Therein might be held some missions most acceptable to God, all the more so because those people are so forsaken; for, as those are insignificant little islands, no one cares for them. Those people are on the road to hell, if we do not succor them; and we do not aid them for lack of ministers. One of these islands is called Isla de Fuegos ["Island of Fires">[, and is a half day's sail distant from here. Several times its chiefs have come to ask that we would go thither. The people already know how to recite the Christian doctrine, and yet not one has been baptized there (although they are calling for that sacrament), for there is no one who may distribute the bread, and thus they are perishing of spiritual hunger.
"But, to return to our island, there is great cause to glorify our Lord in seeing the esteem with which its people regard the Christian religion, and the fervor with which they one and all fulfil their obligations as Christians, in confession and communion, and in their pious and general affection toward the things of God. A week ago, there was in our house a young man, an infidel, who had come from another village to see us. He was laughing and enjoying himself with the others, although quite modestly; yet another lad who was there, a Christian, said to him: 'How is it that thou, who art not a Christian, dost laugh and sport?'" Thus writes the father; he adds that the new baptisms during this past year amounted to four hundred. The number was no larger, because they did not dare to baptize converts in other villages until those people could have fathers to maintain them in the faith and in Christian customs.
The growth of Christianity in Catubig. Chapter LXXXII.
The same want of gospel ministers is felt by other residences (as is plainly evident from what I have thus far said), but especially in the island of Samar, where for that very reason the exercises of Holy Week and Easter were celebrated this year in one village; and there were many confessions and communions together with the feast and procession of the institution of the most blessed sacrament—both of which were conducted with devotion and grandeur, although with some inconvenience, as they were not celebrated at their proper time.
Nevertheless, on account of the extraordinary and crying needs of Catubig—which, as we have said, is in the eastern part of the island of Ibabao, bathed by the South Sea—Father Juan de Torres, accompanied by a brother, was constrained to go thither from Tinagon at the end of the year one thousand six hundred and one. For a year and a half no one had visited Catubig, because there was no one who could go there; and now, although this caused a lack of service at other stations, the greater needs of Catubig compelled us to leave them [for the present]. Well did our Lord exercise them in their journey, so that upon arriving they might enjoy the pleasant fruit which they afterward gathered; for besides the rivers and swamps—through which they journeyed with the water, in some places, and the mud in others, to their knees—the slopes and mountains were so rugged that it was impossible to advance except by using their hands as feet. But consolation was not long delayed; even before they reached Catubig, on their very way, our Lord aided them, as the father himself describes in the following words: "One night three villages met together, rejoicing at our arrival, and, thinking that it would be appropriate, I told them about the things of the other life, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of God; and of the reward for Christians, and the torment for those who are not. I am sure, my father, that among the many people who were there you would not think that there was one who had not faith, to judge by what they said and the questions they asked, and the way in which they encouraged one another to receive baptism. They soon made arrangements to build a large church, and gave me a list of all the inhabitants, including the children, of whom there are an infinite number. God knows what my grief was at seeing them in the arms of their mothers; for they appeared to me like unto the ripe fruit hanging from the bough, which, if the gardener neglects it, is either stolen or decays, and thus is lost."
Refreshed by such consolation, the father continued on his way, crossing the entire island of Ibabao, as far as the river of Catubig, where he found the whole people busied in their grain-fields. Accordingly, he went farther to some small islands lying adjacent in the broad sea, where the people had already gathered in their rice crops. In one of them, called Batac, he made a short stay, and the people from all the neighboring islands assembled there to celebrate the Christmas festivals, and attend to the things pertaining to their salvation. When they were about to return home, advice was given to the women in other matters relating to civilized ways and to modesty—especially in regard to their mode of dress, which, on account of their being a rough and barbarous people, was not quite decent; but after they were taught, they adorned and covered themselves more modestly. They had built, in anticipation of the father's coming, a church and house and even a confessional for the women. After a goodly number had been made Christians, the father returned to the principal station, which is Catubig; and at his departure these poor creatures besought him earnestly not to leave them so forsaken, now that he was going away, but to teach some Christian the form and ceremony, so that he could baptize them in cases of necessity. The father did so, and left them with much grief in his heart. But these pains, which in truth are more intense than those of childbirth, we often suffer there, since the harvest is so great and the laborers are so few. So many were the baptisms in Catubig that the father, fearing lest the blessed oil and chrism would give out, carried the water of baptism from place to place, in order not to prepare it so often. [26]
Among the notable conversions in this mission, which amounted to seven hundred, the most distinguished and remarkable of all was that of a chief some sixty years of age, and highly esteemed in that region. In this case much time was needful to extricate his conscience from the former robberies and tyrannies which we have already described. He gave their freedom to many slaves, and, in order to settle other obligations which were not defined by the church, presented to us a handsome house, so large that, together with the church (a building about fifteen brazas long), it serves us a commodious habitation for our fathers who are there; and finally, after a thorough preparation, baptism was conferred upon him. He was governor of the village, and yet as a catechumen he attended each morning the sermons for the children. There he encouraged all, both children and adults, exhorted them to adopt Christian customs, and rebuked in them anything that seemed to be opposed to these. When the father reminded him that all his household should be baptized, he attended to that matter with surprising energy. He himself conducted them to the church, and with efficacious arguments persuaded them to be baptized. In this way the greater number of his household were baptized, the rest being deferred.
Another conversion no less notable also occurred, which I shall relate. An Indian chief from another island happened to pass through a village where the father was sojourning. He went with the press of people to hear the father speak, and our holy faith so convinced him that he did not for a moment leave our fathers, asking them questions about his salvation. So pleased was he with the instruction that they gave him, that without saying a word, keeping to himself this new secret of his vocation, he went back to his island, where he became a new preacher. He persuaded his wife, children, and relatives, actually carrying away all his kindred; and went to the place where the father was, in order to enjoy the light of the gospel, which had not shone on that country of his. He went in quest of the father, and carried him as a gift a turtle, the shell of which required two men to lift it—so monstrous in size are the turtles in those seas; some of them I have seen and eaten. This chief often made known to the father the state of his soul, and sought spiritual aid in very exact and clear terms; and if he forgot anything therein, he told of it in the same maner on the next day. His preparation continued thus until, having given full evidences of his faith, he entered with all his household—wife, children, sons-in-law, and servants, in all, twelve persons—through the gate of holy baptism, into the flock of the great shepherd of souls, Jesus Christ our Lord. He was a man of great valor, as will be seen from an incident which we learned concerning him. A large crocodile often came to the neighborhood of his house; and the Indian, angered thereat, determined to punish the hardihood of the beast. For this purpose, abandoning the usual means of catching those animals (that is, with a large hook), blinded by rage and trusting to his own valor, he assembled as many as twenty persons; and while they stood watching him, he leaped alone into the water, and swam toward the beast with a knife in his hand. Then, diving beneath the crocodile, like another valiant Eleazar, [27] he gave it several knife-thrusts in the belly and killed the beast. And, as a greater trophy, he was not, as was Eleazar, buried in his triumph, [28] but remained alive and sound—without a wound, or any lesion beyond two insignificant scratches, one on his forehead, and one on his leg. At this instant his followers hastened toward him, and dragging the beast to the shore, were hardly able, with the strength of all, to land it, although it was floating on the water. They saw (and told me of it) a monster of incredible size, the largest that I have ever seen there, or heard of. The animal measured, from its shoulders to the tip of its tail, five brazas, [29] and from the shoulders to the mouth one braza—making its total length six brazas; and across the breast alone measured a full braza.
There was another crocodile, smaller than this one, which inflicted loss on the household of a reputable Spaniard of Manila; and this man came therefore to our house to entreat that Ours would provide him with a father who would make his Indians Christians. The affair occurred thus: This Spaniard was in his encomienda, where his house stood on the shore of a river much infested by these beasts. While he was dining one day, a youth, one of those who waited on the table, went to the river to wash some plates; but he did not finish his task, for a crocodile suddenly sprang upon him and swallowed him. The people [in the house] saw this tragic event, and the good man left the table, grieved that the youth should perish without baptism, and desirous to see if there might be some means of giving him the sacrament before he should die in the belly of the crocodile. He soon decoyed the animal by means of a little dog, a food of which these beasts are very fond; and, having captured the crocodile and landed it on the shore, he cut it open and found the boy within, whole but dead. This man, who measured the beast (which was not a large one) told us that it was fifteen [Spanish] feet in length, but that the capacity of its stomach was extraordinary: for within it were found, besides the corpse of the boy, a great number of eggs of various animals, and fifteen human heads. Grieved by this sad event, he had come to entreat that instruction might be supplied in his villages; but this could not be done, as there was no one to give it.