Of the missions of our religious who reached Philipinas during the years of these three decades, and in especial of the mission which made its voyage this year 1683 to the not small luster of the Catholic religion.
... 908. The third volume has already related that a mission left España in the year 1660 in charge of father Fray Eugenio de los Santos.[47] He brought in that mission, however, only eighteen choir religious and two lay brothers whose names I have been unable to ascertain, as the instruments with which I would have to do so have not come to me from España. They all reached Mexico in the above-mentioned year and since because of various accidents that happened during the voyage, in the islands and in the port of Cavite no ships came from Philipinas to Nueva España, either that year or the two following, the mission had to stay in the said city all that time incurring the expenses and fatal consequences that one can understand. In the year 1662 the viceroy of Mexico despatched a boat to the islands to get a report of their condition, for there was fear that they had been invaded by enemies. One of those missionaries ventured in that boat, and arriving at Manila it caused not a little rejoicing to the inhabitants there. The next year ships from Philipinas were seen in the port of Acapulco, and as a consequence fourteen religious took passage in them and arrived at Manila in August 1663, and not in 1684 as was wrongly reported in volume three. The five others remained in Nueva España, but they afterwards reached their destination and all served in those fields of Christendom where they were of great use.
909. Father Fray Christoval de Santa Monica, after having been provincial of Philipinas, to which dignity he was elected in the year 1656, was appointed in 63, to come to España in order to collect and lead a mission. He came then, having received on the way not a few favors from St. Nicholas of Tolentino—favors which he received under the appreciable quality of miracles, but which we cannot specify for lack of documents. He negotiated in Madrid as successfully as could be desired, and collected a mission of twenty-four religious, all generally of good qualities and with the characteristics that are desired in that province. He set sail with that valiant squadron June 16, 1666. [After various miraculous happenings on the way, the vessel reached Vera Cruz in safety, whence the passengers went across the peninsula to Acapulco. August of 1667 the Recollects all reached Manila save two who remained in Mexico for another year because of sickness.]
910. In the year 1668, the venerable father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, of Blancas, was elected president of Mexico in the provincial chapter of Mexico, and father Fray Agustin de Santa Monica, commissary for España. The latter died aboard ship, and on that account, when the former arrived at Mexico, he found an order within two years to go to the court of Madrid in order to discuss some matters of not small magnitude, and to give his vote for the province in the general chapter. The authority and money for the conduction of a mission were long delayed, but at last he received them both at the end of 1674, whereupon he displayed so good zeal that he took passage with twenty-six religious in June 1675. He reached Mexico with his gospel militia, where he was ordered by the province to return to España to conduct certain matters that could only be entrusted to his person. Thereupon, sending his accounts to Philipinas, the mission went to the islands in the year 1676 in charge of another prelate, and father Fray Juan bent his steps toward his new destiny.
911. Another father, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, a native of Cuenca, had gone to Philipinas in the mission of father Fray Christoval de Santa Monica; in the year 1680, that definitory appointed him commissioner to España. He sailed the same year from the port of Cavite in the galleon named “San Telmo.” [After a voyage tempered with the mercy obtained by St. Nicholas of Tolentino, in several dangerous situations, the father arrived at Acapulco, January 22, 1681, and was detained some time in Nueva España by the fever. Reaching Spain in November of the same year, he hastened to lay his supplications at the royal feet, and was given a decree calling for a mission of forty religious fathers and five lay brothers. “He also obtained a royal decree dated April 16 of the abovesaid year [1682] in which his Majesty continued the annual alms of one hundred and fifty pesos for the medicines which are used in our infirmary of Manìla; and another of the thirtieth of the same month, in which he also continued the alms of two hundred and fifty pesos and a like number of fanegas of rice per year for the maintenance of the four religious of Ours who were in charge of the Indians in Manìla.”]
914. In view of this, the edict for the mission was published by our father vicar-general. An excellent mission was collected at Sevilla for the purpose of taking passage in the fleet which was about to sail to Nueva España in charge of General Don Diego de Saldìvar. Thereupon the mission sailed from Cadiz on the fourth of March, 1683, and consisted of the following religious.
1. The father commissary, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, native of Cuenca.
2. The father vice-commissary, Fray Fernando Antonio de la Concepcion, native of Aldea del Cardo, of the bishopric of Calahorra.
3. The pensioned father reader, Fray Juan de la Concepcion, known as Moriàna, an Andalusian.
4. Father Fray Agustin de San Juan Bautista, a native of Leganès near Madrid.