793. The district where Ours first spread the gospel net was in the mountain range called Zambàles, in the middle part of which extending from Marivèles to Bolinào they obtained fish in great numbers, as has been told already in the preceding volumes. Those villages of Zambàles are located between ministries of the reverend Dominican fathers. For, since the latter held along the great bay of Manìla on the side called El Partido almost at the foot of Mount Batàn, several missions contiguous to Marivèles and on the other side of Bolinào, the best portion of the alcaldeship of Pangasinàn, they also included in their midst the settlements of the Zambals now reduced to a Christian and civilized life by the missionaries of the Augustinian reformed order. For that reason the Dominicans had desired and even claimed without going beyond the boundaries dictated by courtesy and good relationship that our prelates yield that territory to them, as it was suitable for the communication of the Dominicans among themselves between Pangasinàn and Manìla and would make their visits less arduous. But since that was a very painful proposition to those who governed our discalced order, namely, the abandonment of certain Indians who were the firstborn of their spirit, and a land watered by the blood of so many martyrs, the claim could never be made effectual, however much it was smoothed over by the name of exchange, our province being offered other ministries, in which was shown clearly the zeal of its individual members.
794. The one who made the greatest efforts in this direction was father Fray Phelipe Pardo, both times that he held the Dominican provincialate in the years 1662 and 1673. Although all of his efforts were then frustrated, he obtained great headway by them to obtain his purposes later. For May 30, 1676, his Majesty presented him for the office of archbishop of Manìla. Thereupon he formed the notion that the new marks of the ecclesiastical dignity would be sufficient to add authority to argument. For, because of the respect to his person, surely worthy of the greatest promotion, we did not dare to condemn his attempt as unjust; and more even, when he obtained it, making amends to our reformed order for the wrong we received by a recompense which was fully justifiable in his eyes. A chance offered him a suitable occasion for his project in the following manner. Don Diego de Villatoro represented to the Council of the Indias that the island of Mindòro was filled with innumerable heathens all sunk in the darkness of their paganism; and that if its conquest were entrusted to any order, it would be very easy to illumine its inhabitants with the light of the faith. Therefore a royal decree was despatched, under date of Madrid, June 18, 1677, ordering the governor of the islands, together with the archbishop, to entrust the reduction of Mindòro to the order which appeared best fitted for it, before all things settling the curas who resided there in prebends or chaplaincies. That decree was presented to the royal Audiencia of Manìla by Sargento-mayor Don Sebastian de Villarreal, October 31, 78, and since his Majesty’s fiscal had nothing to oppose, it was obeyed without delay, and it was sent for fulfilment to the said archbishop, December 14 of the same year. On that account, his Excellency formed the idea of taking Zambàles from us in order to augment his order and give the island of Mindòro to our discalced order.
795. He began, then, to discuss the matter without the loss of any time, and he did not stop until his designs were obtained, notwithstanding that he had to conquer innumerable difficulties. For, in the first place, our provincial, then father Fray Joseph de San Nicolàs, opposed it very strongly. The latter alleged that it would be a violation of the municipal constitutions of the Recollects to abandon the ministries of Zambàles, for the constitutions expressly stated that none of the convents once possessed should be abandoned except under certain conditions, which were not present in the case under consideration. Besides that the Indian natives of Mindòro, both Christians and infidels, scarcely knew that there was a question of giving them minister religious and begged Jesuit fathers with great instance, for they preserved yet the affection that they had conceived for them, since the time that the latter had procured for them with their preaching at the cost of many dangers their greatest welfare, omitting no means that could conduce to their withdrawal from the darkness of their paganism. And when the Zambals heard that the Recollect fathers were to be taken from their villages, in order to surrender them to the Dominicans, they declared almost in violent uproar that they would not allow such a change under any consideration, for they were unable to tolerate, because of the love which they professed for their spiritual ministers, to be forever deprived of their company, by which they had obtained so great progress in the Catholic faith.
796. But the archbishop found means in the hidden recesses of his prudence by which to conquer such obstacles. For in unison with Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, governor and captain-general of the islands, he softened the provincial, Fray Joseph de San Nicolàs, and obliged him to agree to the exchange. He quieted the natives of Mindòro by means of their corregidor, so that they might receive the ministers of our discalced order, and availing himself of the services of the alcalde-mayor of Pangasinàn, he silenced the Zambal Indians so that they should take the privation of their Recollects gracefully, and lower the head to the admission of the Dominican fathers. Thereupon, the sea of opposition having been calmed, and after the three seculars who were administering to Mindòro had been assigned fitting competencies, which were provided for them in Manìla, an act of the royal Audiencia provided that our reformed order should be entrusted with the administration of the said island, with absolute clauses which established it in the said royal decree, and without the least respect the abandonment of the Zambal missions. Then immediately preceding the juridical surrender of them, which was signed by the above-mentioned father provincial, although it was protested by only the father lector, Fray Joseph de la Assumpcion, and father Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, a second act was passed by which the missions were assigned to the fathers of St. Dominic. Thus did the archbishop have a complete victory.
797. By virtue of those decrees, which were announced to our provincial, April 17, 1679, that holy province was dispossessed of all the Zambal mountain range, which then contained eleven villages. They were also dispossessed of the missions which father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad was then fomenting in the nearby mountains by the far-reaching fruits of his apostolic preaching, as we have mentioned worthily in another place.[35] The individual members of the province of Santo Rosario hastened to take charge of the ministries and missions of the Zambals which had been surrendered to them by Ours without the least disturbance being observed publicly, although almost all of those governed by the said Father Trinidad threatened violence. Those juridical measures, with what was done in Manìla, served much later for the recovery of Zambàles without the loss of the new possessions of Mindòro. The necessary papers were also despatched directed to the corregidor of Mindòro, ordering him to deliver the ministries of that island to the discalced Augustinians. Without loss of time, the father definitor, Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, assumed charge of the district of Bàco, while the bachelor Don Joseph de Roxas who possessed it left it. The curacy of Calavìte was taken possession of by father Fray Diego de la Resurreccion, who took the place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedrosa. The parish of Naoyàn was taken charge of by the father definitor, Fray Eugenio de los Santos, the bachelor, Don Martin Diaz, being removed. All that was concluded before the end of the year 1679 without disturbance, lawsuits, or dissensions.
798. The above-mentioned religious were accompanied by three others of whose names we are ignorant. Immediately did that holy squadron commence to announce the testimony of Christ, with sermons founded on the manifestation of virtue, spirit, and example, and not on illusory persuasion which is built on naught but words, which are confirmatory of human wisdom. They considered especially that they had to give strict account of those souls whose direction had just been given them. Consequently, they watched over their flock, hastening to their sheep with the right food, without avoiding the greatest fatigue. Hence could one recognize the great good fortune of the island of Mindòro, for in the territory where three seculars at most, and generally only two, lived formerly, six evangelical laborers had enough to do. They were later increased to eight, and that number was never or but rarely decreased. Each of them on his part produced most abundant fruits at that time, and under all circumstances the same has been obtained. For although the common enemy diffused much discord during the first tasks of their apostolic labor in order thereby to choke the pure grain of the divine word by making use therefor of a man, namely, Admiral Don Joseph de Chaves, encomendero of almost the entire island, at last by Ours exercising their innate prudence and their unalterable patience, the grace of God was triumphant, while the attempts of Satan were a mockery.
799. Father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio remarked very forcibly of our discalced religious that, “although they were the last gospel laborers in Philipinas, they have competed in their apostolic zeal with the first laborers in the fruits that they gathered from their labors in the reduction of the most barbarous islanders.”[36] And the father master, Fray Joseph Sicardo, adds very fittingly, that “our discalced religious having received the great island of Mindòro, increased the Christianity of its natives by means of so zealous ministers.”[37] Then, as appears from juridical instruments before me, although the Christians throughout the island when our reformed order assumed charge of it did not exceed four thousand, in the year 1692 they already exceeded the number of eight thousand, and in the year 1716 arrived to the number of twelve thousand. It is a fact that the persecution by the Moros happening afterward (of which something was said incidentally in volume three,[38] and which will in due time add much to this history) the number of believers was greatly lessened; for some retired to other islands, where the war was not so cruel, others were taken to Jolò in dire captivity, and others surrendered their lives to so great a weight of misfortune. Notwithstanding that, in the year 1738, when father Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio printed his first volume, it appeared by trustworthy documents that Ours administered seven thousand five hundred and fifty-two souls in the various villages, visitas, missions, and rancherías in that island.[39] Hence, one may infer that our zealous brothers have labored there especially in destroying paganism and reducing the many Zimarrònes or apostates who, having thrown off all obedience, had built themselves forts in those mountains. And if not few of both classes remain obstinate, it does not proceed certainly from any omission that has been found in our zealous workers, but from other causes which are already suggested in other parts of this present volume.
800. Neither can one make from this progress of the Catholic faith which was attained by the preaching of our religious, any inferences against the other laborers who began to subdue the island, or against the secular clergy, who administered it afterward. The Observant fathers, as a rule, employed there no more than one missionary or at the most two. The number of the fathers of St. Francis was no larger, and they had charge at times of the district of Balayàn as well as of Mindòro. Since the fathers of the Society had so much to attend to in so many parts, two or three of them took care of Mindòro and Marinduque. Consequently, one ought not to be surprised that so small a number of laborers did not do more, but, that they had done so much must surely astonish him who considers it thoroughly. In the same way the parish priests, who succeeded them, were very few, and since the reduced Indians occupied so extensive a coast, they had scarce enough time to administer the bread of the doctrine to the Christians, so that they had none left to penetrate into the mountains in search of the Zimarrones or of the heathen Manguiànes.[40] But, on the contrary, from the time that that island was delivered to our teaching, the number of missionaries has been doubled or tripled. It is evident that victories must generally increase in proportion to the increase of the soldiers in the campaign, even in what concerns spiritual wars.
801. This argument has more force, if it be considered that the evangelical laborers having increased afterward with so great profit, they asserted that at times the greatest strength accompanied by gigantic zeal was given up as conquered, by the continual toil indispensable in the administration of the faithful, for to that task was added the care of the conversion of the heathen. That toil was so excessive that the night generally came without the fathers having obtained a moment of rest in order to pay the debt of the divine office. At times they had to neglect the care of their own bodies in order to attend to the souls of their neighbors. They were always busied in teaching the instruction to children and adults; in administering the holy sacraments, although they had to go three or four leguas to the places where the dying persons were; and in penetrating the rough mountains in the center of the island, in order to allure the heathens and apostates to the healthful bosom of the Church. To all the above (which even now is, as it were, a common characteristic of all our missionaries in Philipinas) is added the extreme poverty there, and the lack of necessities that they endured. For, the reduced product from those villages, in regard to the ecclesiastical stipend, which was formerly insufficient to support two or three curas with great misery, was now sufficient to support six or more religious. Consequently, they endured it with the greatest hardship.