The Spanish missionaries arrived, then, and began the work of evangelization at the same time as the humanitarian undertaking to reduce them to a civilized life; for most of the Indians and Moros were living in scattered groups along the coasts, and in the fields and thickets in small settlements.
What was the result of their apostolic labors? Let us see. Father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio,[1] chronicler of the Franciscan missionaries, gives us the following data: General summary of souls, reckoning only the natives that were reduced to Christianity throughout the archipelago of Filipinas in 1735
| In 142 villages in charge of the seculars throughout this archipelago | 131,279 |
| Calced Augustinians (in more than 150 villages) | 241,806 |
| Order of St. Dominic (in 51 villages) | 89,752 |
| The Society of Jesus (in 80 villages) | 170,000 |
| Augustinian Recollects (in 105 villages) | 63,149 |
| Discalced Franciscans (in 63 villages) | 141,196 |
| Total | 837,182 |
Father Delgado, who wrote in the year 1750, gives almost the same statistics, but adds the following:
“I do not doubt that the souls that are ministered to, throughout the islands of this archipelago, by secular and regular priests, exceed one million and many thousands in addition; for, in the lists made by the ministers, the children still below the age of seven years are neither entered nor enumerated. Accordingly, I shall base my count on the enumeration made a few years ago.”
In the work entitled Estado de las Islas Filipinas, written by Don Tomás de Comyn in 1820, and translated into English by William Walton in 1821, the following is contained as an appendix:
Recapitulation of population in Filipinas
| Total number of Indians of both sexes (Catholics) | 2,395,687 |
| Total number of Sangley mestizos (Catholics) | 119,719 |
| Total number of Sangleys or Chinese | 7,000 |
| Total number of whites | 4,000 |
| Total population | 2,526,406 |
Comparison of the population in 1791 and 1810, exclusive
| 1791 | 1810 | Difference | |
| Number of Indians | 1,582,761 | 2,395,687 | 812,926 |
| Number of mestizos | 66,917 | 119,719 | 52,802 |
| Total | 1,649,678 | 2,515,406 | 865,728 |