IIII
Preaching of our religious in Bayug and Malanao
It had been decided by an intermediary chapter of that province of Filipinas that our laborers should go to the district of Bayug and the vicinity of Lake Malanao [i.e., Lanao], as there were many people there, and hopes were entertained of gathering abundant fruit for the Church. Since the minister of Cagaiang, to whom the visitas of Bayug and the other villages belonged, could not go there, father Fray Juan de San Nicolas was appointed, a man well known for his invincible spirit, and his excellent procedure (howbeit at the cost of many hardships) in reducing obstinate ones, as was proved in the conquest of Cagaiang. Armed, then, with spiritual weapons, he went to the village of Bayug, where he was known and where there were a few Christians. He began to make much of the chief people, for if they are once subdued, the conversion of the common people is not so difficult.
Dolomayor,[1] a man well affected toward the religious, was as it were, the ruler of those people. He immediately surrendered his children to baptism, although he remained in his blindness. For all that, however, he did not fail to help Ours greatly. With this good beginning, father Fray Juan endured his hardships with equanimity; and he had much to endure, for the Indians do not give alms. Consequently, it was necessary for the ministers to seek their food in the mountains, with the trouble that can be imagined. They continued to gain souls for God; but the heart of the zealous father was pierced because the inhabitants of the other river near by, called Lavayan, clung obstinately to their heathen rites, and refused to receive the evangelical law. On that account the father resolved to make a settlement in that district, in order that they might be subdued by perseverance. He did so, and left his associate in Bayug.
We have already mentioned, [when speaking] of the foundation in Cagaiang,[2] the great hostility that those of that village had incurred, and the Mindanao Moros. The latter could not endure to have our religious remain there, as they thought that it was the gateway by which an entrance would be made into their lands. Because of them the people of Cagaiang were so harassed continually that they could not go out to cultivate their fields. Father Fray Augustin de San Pedro[3] was prior of Cagaiang in the year 1626. He was so valiant a man that, although he had been reared in the austerity and shelter of religion from childhood, he knew how to make himself so feared by those Mahometans that they called him “the Father Captain.”
He surrounded the village with a high stockade, with its sentry-boxes and towers for the sentinels who stood watch at night, by means of which they were safe from the continual ambushes of the enemy. He taught the Indians how to make sallies, to shoot, and to spy out those who were in ambush, and in fine carried himself as the most skilful captain. The tyrant Cachil Corralat was very angry that a small village like Cagaiang should resist his power, and desired to finish it once for all. He launched his fleet of more than thirty caracoas manned by the best of his men and equipped with military supplies. The preparation of the enemy was learned, and the father prior sent to Caragha for some soldiers. Six soldiers and one hundred Indians came. A sudden alarm was sounded, to call in those who were distant in their fields. The enemy disembarked more than two thousand Moros in order to attack the village; but they found so stout resistance that they returned, fleeing in disgrace. All that gave great annoyance to Corralat, and he was grieved to his very soul that the [Father] Captain should be the one to check his boldness. Therefore, desirous of seizing him, Corralat ordered ambushes to be set, and took other means to secure his end.
That action was not kept hidden from the prudent father, who, caring for the guard of the village, also forbade the people at times to make sallies, that they might not fall into any of the many stratagems arranged by the enemy, notwithstanding that he had frightened them from the vicinity. Sometimes he sallied out on horseback, with unsheathed sword, trampling many under foot, and causing the rest to flee in terror. That military valor of father Fray Augustin is not to be wondered at; for there are many examples of priests in Holy Writ who fought like captains; and, in our España, many archbishops and bishops have performed great exploits, opposing themselves, clad in steel armor, in the field of battle to the barbarity of the enemies of the faith; and our religious opposed the Mahometans, because he was defending those whom he had converted to the law of God.
The misfortune was, that the said father having gone out to visit his parishioners, the enemy—who were keeping close watch, and seeking the manner in which they might enter the village—obtained their opportunity in a certain part where the sentinels were careless; and, attacking the convent, they pillaged it of what they found. Father Fray Jacinto de Jesus Maria escaped, as by a miracle, through the midst of the swords which the barbarians raised against him, even he being quite careless inside his cell. The father prior grieved greatly over that blow; but, like the courageous man he was, he supplied the convent with furnishings and with what was most necessary for the fortification of the place.
At that time the father prior of Bayug, Fray Juan de San Nicolàs, was in Lavayan, whose inhabitants he was subduing with incredible labors; for they refused to build him a church or a house, or to supply him with food. He was supported by the fish caught by two Tagálog Indians, servants of his, while he himself was obliged to pound his rice and carry his wood. It was God’s pleasure to soften the hardness of those people, in a manner that appears ridiculous. I shall not hesitate to refer to it, so that the divine Providence may be seen even in what appears accidental.