The second testimony is that of the royal Chancillería of Manila, in a letter to the Catholic king of the Españas, and affirms the following:
“The discalced religious of the Order of St. Augustine, who are employed in these islands in preaching the holy gospel, are held in great esteem in this city of Manila because of their virtue and good example. They have three or four provinces of Indians in their charge, and, moved by holy and pious zeal for the welfare of souls, they continue daily to establish new convents among the most unconquerable people of the islands. Thus have they been seen to gather most considerable fruit for the service of God and of your Majesty.”
In another letter are also noted these words, which affirm the above:
“The discalced religious of St. Augustine are very observant in their ministries, and attend to the service of your Majesty, on occasions of enemies by sea and land, where some have been killed and captured.”
Before proceeding further, it will not be an impertinent digression to mention and explain briefly the services above mentioned, stating first that our religious serve as chaplains in the forts of Tandag, Calamiànes, Bagangàn, and Linào, with notable sacrifice both of their liberty (for they are often captured and illtreated) and of their lives, because of the bad voyages on, and hardships of, the seas. When Don Fernando de Silva was governing the islands, a fleet was sent against the Bornean and Camucònes enemy, who were devastating the coasts, seizing numbers of captives, and committing other depredations. As chaplains went fathers Fray Diego de San Joan Evangelista, native of Zaragoça, and Fray Joan de la Cruz. They bore themselves so devotedly amid the military excitements, and gave so good examples, that the chief commander, one Captain Bartolome Diaz, finding it necessary to absent himself, in order to leave his men with security and in quiet appointed, with well recognized prudence, the first above named. For that religious, not as a substitute for the commander, but as a father, cared for all, and they were satisfied. And they were surprised, because it happened that, the supply of water falling short, they sought it, but were unable to find any in various parts of the islands, and were suffering the anguish and affliction that can be imagined in such an extremity, when one day the said father said mass, begging our Lord for help in such need. It happened, then, that after performing his ministry he returned to the men and told them to be very joyful, and to look in the direction that he pointed out to them for a spring that was there. They found it immediately, not very far away, and praised God for so great a mercy. In the insurrection of Caràgha a numerous fleet was also prepared; Captain Joan Mendez Porras was accompanied, for the common consolation of the soldiers, by fathers Fray Lorenço de San Facundo and Fray Diego de Santa Ana. By their efforts the villages of Bislìn, Careèl, and Bagangan were conquered and that land again reduced. In another fleet that set out from the same province of Caràgha, Captain Joan Nicolas chose father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio, whereupon many villages surrendered to the service of the king; and the Indians of the island of Dinagàt, Baybayòn, and Sandegan requested ministers, and five hundred were baptized. Besides such occasions, which are generally quite common, Ours have served in divers fleets that have been prepared to oppose the Dutch who were infesting the shores. Lastly, in two expeditions made by Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuèra—one to the kingdom of Jolo, and the other to that of Mindanao—he took, in the first, fathers Fray Joan de San Nicolàs, and Fray Miguel de la Concepcion; and in the second, father Fray Lorenço de San Facundo and father Fray Joan de San Joseph. The last-named religious was very useful, for he served as ambassador to the Moro king, to whom he was a friend, as he had been his captive in former times.
Returning to our narration, and the relation of the security of Ours, now comes Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, archbishop of Manila, in a letter to the Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith,[17] and he confirms the work of the same, while he says:
“The discalced Augustinian religious who live in these Philippinas Islands are gathering a very large harvest here in the conversion of souls. Not less known are the advances that Christianity is making in the kingdoms of Japan by their preaching and teaching, where in the years one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine and thirty, six religious of the same institute suffered martyrdom, together with many others, members of the third order,[18] or Mantellatos, and confriars of the girdle [correa] of our father St. Augustine, all converted to the faith and instructed by the same discalced religious who are in those regions. Now, to relate the news that we have just received, two of the same religious are suffering the most exquisite torments that can be imagined, after two years of the hardest kind of imprisonment. They are suffering also, in the ministries and convents which they maintain in these islands, great discomfort and hardship; for the Indians in their charge are the most unbridled and fierce of all those known in this archipelago, as experience of last year proved, when the Indians killed four religious. Their death and the evident danger of their lives did not frighten the others, and therefore other missionaries did not hesitate to go.”
While that prelate was bishop of Nueva Segovia, he also wrote two letters, one to the Catholic king of España, and the other to the above congregation, of the following tenor:
“The Order of the discalced religious of the Order of our father St. Augustine are of considerable importance in these islands, and they are gathering much fruit with their teaching and their good example. They have many missions in districts remote from this city, as they were the last who came to the islands, etc.”
“The discalced Augustinian religious,” he says in the other, “who reside in these Philippinas Islands are gathering large harvests in all parts in the conversion of the souls of these pagans, as they have done in the kingdom of Iapon. Two years ago six professed religious of the same order were slain there, by fire and sword, for the preaching of the gospel, and the conversion of souls, in addition to seventy other persons who suffered the same death, in the same kingdom, for the preservation of the faith, which they had received then through the ministry of two Spanish religious of the same institute, who were preaching it there. The two latter are also now in prison for the same reason, and it is thought will already have perished by fire or in some other way.”