§ VII
Governor Don Juan de Silva declares war against those Indians, and our religious enter to preach the gospel faith.
We have extended the relation of the barbarous customs of those Indians, in order that the reader might know the great difficulty in subjecting them to the law of reason, and (what is more) to the mild law of the holy gospel. Some Spaniards, accompanied by evangelical ministers, had penetrated those provinces at times from the year 1597, with great zeal; but they could not remain there because of the ferocity of the natives, and for other casualties, which make those provinces less habitable, notwithstanding that they abound in many things that are necessary to life and advantageous to commerce.
For these and other reasons, Don Juan de Silva, governor and president of Manila, called various meetings of commanders, and experienced captains, in which it was determined to make energetic war on those barbarians. Charge of the war was given to General Don Juan de Vega, son of Doctor Don Juan de Vega, auditor of Manila. He with a fine fleet of four hundred Spaniards and other Indians sailed to humble the pride of those barbarians. The latter were not unprepared for resistance; for, joining their forces, they entrenched themselves so that there was considerable doubt as to the undertaking. Both sides fought with great valor, and there were many killed and wounded. But at last our troops were victorious, as their zeal was to the service of God and the increase of His worship. More than one thousand five hundred Christian captives were liberated, and a presidio and fort[7] was erected as a warning for the future. That effort was not sufficient to quiet those Caraghas islanders; for within four years three thousand of them assembled and, surrounding the redoubt, placed it in great straits. They were repulsed by our men with so great valor that, having retired to the sea, they vented their fury by inflicting severe injuries on some villages friendly to us. And, our men also getting a good reenforcement that was sent us from Manila, those men returned to their homes—where, treating afterward for articles of peace, they were pardoned for their past boldness, and their subjection was arranged with the mildness of the gospel yoke.
Affairs were in that condition, when the most illustrious Don Fray Pedro de Arce, bishop of Zibù, most worthy son of our Augustinian order, with his great zeal of gaining souls for God conceded to our Reform the office of catching them with the net of the gospel preaching. When the reënforcement of missionaries had arrived from España that year [i.e., 1622], as is said in volume i, last chapter, eight of our religious were appointed for that purpose. Stimulated by the pity that they had at learning that so many souls were being lost in the blindness of their idolatry, these missionaries set out in great fervor from Manila, after having received the blessing of their superior, and not without the holy envy of the other religious, who would have liked to spend their lives in that holy employment. These apostolic men landed at Zibù, where they received the blessings of the most zealous bishop and many kindnesses with which he wished to load them. He despatched them with promptness, and in a short time they reached the redoubt of Tanda, which was the name of the fort that had been erected there by our Spaniards.
Then commenced the greatest felicity of that land; for our religious, having as their object the welfare of those barbarians, tried to gain their good-will by gentle measures. For that purpose, father Fray Miguel de Santa Maria, the superior of that spiritual squadron, refused to settle in the said fortress of Tanda; for, since those heathen had a horror of it, they would not go to it. Consequently, despising his life, and exposing it to manifest danger, he determined to enter the country one legua further, and to build a dwelling-place on the shores of a river. His design did not succeed badly, for, attended by good fortune, he continued to attract and gain the affections of those fierce Indians by making them understand their illusions and errors. His other associates were not idle amid so much, for, having separated among the environs (after having left a priest in the redoubt as chaplain, who was not slothful in his gaining of souls), they worked fervently in scattering the light of the faith, in the midst of the darkness of that blind people, without excusing themselves from great perils and hardships. They chose their residence in the village of Yguaquet,[8] on the bank of another river where the country people generally met. Those gospel workers were divided and separated from one another, in order that they might attend with greater convenience to the different districts.
One cannot imagine the toil of our religious in cultivating that wild forest of barbaric people. They catechised, instructed, and baptized many, so that what was before a brutish wickedness, where the devil reigned, began to be a beautiful fragment of the Church. They endured great suffering, because of the intractability and fierceness of the islanders, who were hostile to peace and to human intercourse; for they had so little affection for even their brothers and sons that they killed them or abandoned them to die, on but slight pretext. But everything surrenders to the grace of God, and to the earnest zeal of His ministers, who consider only the honor of His Divine Majesty—from whom those pious workers received so great strength, that great wonder is caused by the consideration that people so given to witchcraft, cruelty, and injustice should have received the worship of the true God with so great affection and devotion. To see them so surrendered to the obedience of the Catholic Church, and so fond of the churches that were soon built by the care and solicitude of Ours, edifies and consoles one. There are celebrated the feasts of Christ and His most holy mother, and those of the other saints, in which they show a very steadfast faith. Finally those people learned some arts and trades, by which they live in great comfort.
We cannot avoid mentioning a very notable conversion in that province of Caraghas. There was a chief, named Inuc, so celebrated and feared that through his power and cunning he was absolute master of a considerable territory, and the shores of a river that afterward took his name. That barbarian was not satisfied with tyrannizing within his own boundaries, but entering those of others, sailed through the gulfs and along the coasts, in search of whom he might rob, capture, and kill. It is said of that man that he had made more than two thousand persons slaves, and killed innumerable men with his own hand. Consequently, he was feared in the neighboring islands; while no vessel dared to go to his lands—especially one of Spaniards, whom he hated beyond measure, so that he would never agree to make treaties of peace or of profit with them.
The perdition of that man and the injuries and offenses that he committed against God and his neighbors, caused great anguish to father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios,[9] a native of Villa-Bañez in old Castilla, and one of the eight who went to Caragha. He took it upon himself to subdue this man without other aid than confidence of that of God. In order to achieve it, he prepared himself by special fasting and prayers. He went alone to look for him; having found him—to the great surprise of Inuc himself, who thought that the religious had great boldness in coming into his presence—the latter talked to him so fittingly and fervently, that the tyrant, having first pardoned the father’s coming without his leave, thanked him for the holy admonitions that he gave to him. Showing him great affection, Inuc admitted trade between his countrymen and the Spaniards; then he consented that the holy gospel might be preached in his territories. He gave his vassals an example by being baptized; by sending away his numerous wives and marrying the first according to the rites of the Church; by freeing his captives; and by issuing an edict allowing those aggrieved to come to him to receive reparation for the injuries which he had inflicted on them. He fulfilled that exactly, binding himself by two judges, namely, our religious and the captain of the fort of Tanda. They settling and sentencing with all equity, restored to those interested whatever appeared to be theirs. Thus did he who was before a haughty tyrant become a humble sheep of the flock of the Church, and a faithful vassal of the kings of Castilla. News of that conversion spread throughout those districts, and following his example, many heathen submitted to the yoke of our holy law.
Our missionaries were greatly encouraged by that fortunate success, so that they were not dismayed at the work that they had undertaken, although its difficulties were many. They were confirmed in their intent by another case that happened in a village called Ambagan on that coast of Caragha. A religious was resting one night when an Indian, instigated by the devil, called together two other companions, who formed a rearguard for him; while he, entering the house, tried to kill the innocent man who was asleep. It was at midnight, the time that he thought most opportune. He left those who accompanied him at the foot of the house, while he mounted the ladder. At the entrance of the room of the gospel minister, a venerable old man accosted him and asked him in his own tongue: “Where art thou going? Seest thou not that I am watching this man who is asleep, and who is my son?” Notwithstanding that, the Indian persisted in his evil intent of entering. But at that juncture the old man raised a staff of gold which he held in his hand, and threatening the aggressor, scared him so that, turning his back to descend the ladder, he could not find it in order to escape, notwithstanding his eager search for it. Thus did he spend the remainder of the night in great anxiety, and in the morning he was discovered by the people who lived there. The Indian, conscience-stricken, demanded that they inform the father, to whom with great sorrow he related all that had happened, giving him leave to publish it. He declared also who were his associates—who, growing tired of waiting, and seeing that day was dawning, had returned in order not to be discovered. The bystanders were astonished at hearing the circumstances; and it was believed that that venerable old man was our father St. Augustine, who defended his religious son with the pastoral staff.