Among all the above and many other follies, they believed that the world had a beginning, and they had some notion of the flood; but it was confused with the greatest nonsense and lies. They did not doubt the fact of there having been in its time a creation of man, but they believed that the first one had emerged from a bamboo joint and his wife out of another, under very ridiculous and stupid circumstances. They did not consider homicide as wrong, and the taking of as many lives as possible was a great honor. Consequently, the valiant and those who were feared set the heads of those who perished at their hands on the doors of their houses, as a proof of their deeds; for he who hung up the greatest number, in the sight of his other countrymen was most esteemed and applauded. It was an abuse of obligation that, a father or mother having died, the son who inherited should retire from the village into the mountains and forests until he had despoiled at least two persons of the common light—even though it should be, as one can well judge, at the risk of losing the light that he himself was enjoying. When they had more children than they desired, or than they could support as they wished, they generally buried them alive. In what pertains to political government, they had no greater superiority than that which the most powerful usurped in the matter of life and death over those who were not powerful, disposing of them as they wished. Accordingly they made them slaves for very slight reasons and occasions. When any suits and quarrels arose in regard to criminal or civil matters, their old men assembled, and composed these difficulties or passed sentence in them, and no one could appeal or petition from their decisions. They proved causes orally, examining witnesses and investigating doubts verbally. Their laws were only traditions and very old customs, but they observed these carefully—not so much for fear of punishment, as because they believed that he who violated them would be instantly killed, or at least become afflicted with the disease of leprosy, and that another part also of his body would become corrupt.
Our three religious opposed themselves to so profound darkness as this, with the light of the gospel, and without taking other arms than the cross and the scourge of penance, by which all the wretchedness and misfortunes there were changed into delights and comforts. The suffering of great hardships was inevitable; for since those brutes were intractable and ferocious, they did not show the fathers any hospitality, that had any mark of reason and sense. The fathers sought them through the thickets and fields where they were living, and, alluring them with loving words, gave them to understand their error and the blindness of their souls. They preached to them with the ardor that came from their hearts of the Triune and One Lord, who governs the universe, and told them their obligation to love Him and to bow to the mild yoke of His law; but those people preferred to condemn themselves forever to the pains of hell. The fathers retired at night to some very small huts that they had made, in order to take the necessary refreshment, which consisted only of beans [frijoles], and at most a little rice, which they obtained but seldom. Then they gave some rest and repose to their weakened and fatigued bodies. That rest was, however, broken by three cruel disciplines, which all took every two hours, in order to soften and mollify the diamond hearts of those barbarians with their blood. With that efficacious medicine and their tireless care, they continued gradually to soften those rocks—although from the wretched life that they were living, and their immense toil in going by day through those rough mountains, seeking the sheep whom they desired to corral with the flock, within the sheepfold of the Church, and from the worse sufferings in their nights, they sickened and died.
[Accounts of the pious deaths of Fathers Miguel de Santa Maria, and Pedro de San Joseph, and Brother Francisco de Santa Monica, the three laborers in this first mission, follow in this same section. The first named had long been renowned for his asceticism, both in Spain and in the islands, having been one of the first to join the new order. The second had been a calced Augustinian, but had transferred his allegiance to the Recollects after their arrival in the islands, and was very useful on this mission because of his thorough knowledge of Tagal. The narrative continues:]
By the death of those three religious, the others might well fear to go to complete the reduction of Marivelez, and to prosecute what was already begun with the perfidious Zambales. But being full of the love of God, and of zeal for souls, each of them offered himself, just as if it were to obtain the greatest comfort and abundance that men generally seek; and all demanded it anxiously, each as best he could, as their most ambitious desire to go up there and be honored. The city opposed it, for they thought that it meant to send those fathers to their death—and all the more as they saw that, since Ours were so few and so pious, they could serve more usefully in more secure and healthful places. The holy obstinacy of those who would not consent to abandon the post conquered. Accordingly, the first lot fell to father Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel. He disposed the minds of those heathen in such manner that, completing their reduction and leading them to the yoke of the Lord, and to a civilized and Christian life, he built a convent in a village called Bacag, adding to it that of Luzòn, which gave name to the island of Manila—through the error or misunderstanding of the first Spaniards, who discovered it, when examining and questioning the Indians whom they met in a boat. They removed afterward to a better site, in the said Marivelez, and that place has seven other villages, in a distance of twelve leguas, which it administers as annexes. The persons who were converted to the faith by the energy and labor of Ours reached one thousand five hundred.
That fort having been assured against the power and empire of the devil, the door was opened wider for passage inside, and the tyrannized souls of the Indians of Zambàles were gained. The latter, confident in their fierceness, were divided along the sea-coast, and exercised themselves in the chase, by which they sustained themselves—together with some fish—only zealous in killing men, which was the greatest glory among them. Consequently, no boats dared to go to their lands, unless with great risk of the occupants losing their lives. With such brutality, the mountains of difficulties which father Fray Rodrigo had to conquer in softening the harshness of those beasts; and the sweat and labor that it would cost him to make them comprehend the dictates of reason (from which they were very far), while he was suffering extreme penury in all things necessary to life, can be imagined. His food was only wild herbs and some fruit, which was not on all occasions accompanied by a mouthful of biscuit, sent as a great treat, if possible, from Manila. His rest, day and night, was so little, and was so liable to surprises that scarcely could he rest a moment without the expectation of death before him all the time, which the heathen, instigated by the devil, promised to give him. He went through their thickets and along their shores, crying out and endeavoring to conquer the coldness of those men. By virtue of the cross, he was finally able, little by little, to soften the insolence of their fierce breasts, and to render them more tractable, although they seemed like rocks in the hardness of their obstinate hearts.
God our Lord decreed that, in order to conquer their obstinate resistance, it should happen one day that this same father, Fray Rodrigo, on passing through a thicket consecrated to their devils (where, as their rites said, it was sacrilege to cut or touch any branch—besides the great fear that they had conceived that if anyone should have the audacity to do so, or to take the least thing, he would surely die immediately), saw a tree covered with a certain fruit which they call pahos,[13] that resemble the excellent plums that we know in Europa. As it was so ripe and mellow, he ordered them to climb the tree and get some of the fruit. Those accompanying him refused roundly, but he insisted on his desire. They finally explained, and said that they would do it under no consideration; for, beyond all doubt, those who dared to offend the respect for that place would die very suddenly. Upon hearing that, the father was inflamed with zeal for the honor and worship of the true God whom he was preaching. Asking them whether all trees around about had that quality of inflicting death on him who touched them, accidentally or designedly, they answered “Yes.” Then elevating his voice, he gave them a fervent discourse against the delusion under which they were laboring; and concluded by intimating to them that he himself would get and eat the fruit, as well as cut down the trees, so that they might see that one would not die, and so that they might thereby be freed from the error and blindness of their ancestors. The Indians were very sorrowful because father Fray Rodrigo had decided to eat of the fruit, and they accordingly begged him earnestly and humbly not to do it. But the good religious, arming himself with prayer and with the sign of the cross, and repeating that antiphony, Ecce crucem Domini: fugite partes adversæ. Vicit leo de tribu Juda,[14] began to break the branches and to climb the tree, where he gathered a great quantity of the fruit. He ate not a little of it before them all, in detestation of their wicked superstitions and ill-founded fears. The Indians looked at his face, expecting every moment to see him a dead man. But they immediately recognized the truth of what he told them. He charged them not to tell anyone what they had seen him do there. On arriving at the village, he divided the rest of the fruit that he brought, and kept for that purpose, among the other chiefs and influential persons, who ate it with gusto, esteeming it as a present from that father. The next day, after assembling them (much to their pleasure), he execrated their ignorance in a long sermon, and told them the secret of the fruit. Thereupon, all of them, convinced and surprised, not one of them being wanting, followed him axes in hand, and felled that thicket, casting contempt on the devil; and many infidels ended by submitting to the knowledge of the truth.
Encouraged by so good an outcome, Ours proceeded with the conversion of those peoples. They were not stopped by the manifest danger to their lives, nor by the famines or other bodily privations that it was necessary for them to suffer, in lands new, rough, and productive of no relief for their so many hardships and miseries. However, the divine providence made all these, and as many more as might be very mild, by giving the fathers inward consolation, as well as outward aid on not a few occasions. One of those occasions, experienced by the same father, Fray Rodrigo, during a trip on the sea, was notable. At that time, a sudden squall overtaking him, his boat was driven on certain rocks and knocked to pieces, so that those aboard it were drowned, although they knew how to swim well. Only the said father, by the will of God and the beneficent miracle of a wave, which bore him safe and sound to a rocky islet or reef, escaped. He remained there until next day, in the fright that one can imagine, but hoping in God our Lord that He would continue his rescue by conveying him to a place of safety. That happened after twenty-four hours, for an Indian who had seen him from a distance swam out to him and took him upon his shoulders; and he gave thanks to heaven for so great mercy.
More marvelous was the case of father Fray Joan de la Ascension, who, while sailing along the coast of Zambàles, was struck by a very violent storm, and the boat in which he was embarked, and all the Chinese who were accompanying him, were lost, without one of them being saved. The boat keeled over—as they say—and was turned completely bottom up. The father remained in the hull of the boat, but so that he could hold only his arms and head clear of the water, while the rest of his body was under water. He supported himself in that darkness with his hands tightly clasping a beam. For the space of three days did he remain thus, while the hull tossed hither and thither. At the end of that time, as some Indians were passing through that region and saw the wreck, they drew nigh to see whether they could find anything. They thought that they would surely find some pillage, and therefore began to break open the boat in the part open to view. Consequently, when they had made a small hole, the pitiful voice of the religious who was crying for aid was heard. The greedy Indians were frightened, and were about to flee from the terror caused them by so unexpected a petition. But proceeding, after the encouragement given them by one of their number who was bolder, they discovered the said father, who was already half dead. Getting him out as quickly as possible, they took care of him and gave him some food, whereupon he recovered, and told them of his accident. It was told and wondered at, with reason, in Manila and in other places; and all who heard of it attributed it to nothing less than a prodigy never seen.
[Lives of Fathers Alonso de la Anunciacion and Francisco de los Santos, and Brother Bernardo de San Augustin, follow in the succeeding three sections of this chapter, which concludes with a section on the]
Foundation of the convent of Masinglo