I write you all this, my reverend Father, persuaded that you will be glad to learn news so advantageous to those of your children who have the good fortune to carry the faith into this new country. We have need of workers, for there is much work to do. We hope that you will have the kindness to send some workers to us, and will not forget us in your holy devotions. I am with profound respect, my very reverend Father, your Paternity’s very humble and obedient servant and son,
Paul Clain, missionary of the Society of Jesus. At Manila, June 10, 1697.
[1] Paul Clain (originally Klein) was born at Agra, Bohemia, and entered the Jesuit order September 14, 1669. In 1678 he went to Mexico, and four years later to the Philippines; he there was rector in several colleges, provincial, professor, and missionary. He died on August 30, 1717. (Sommervogel, ii, col. 1197.)
[2] Antonio Tuccio (misprinted Fuccio in our text) was born at Messina, April 16, 1641, and became a Jesuit novice at the age of seventeen. After completing his studies, he was a teacher during five years; in 1672 went to the Philippines, where he was rector at Cavite and Manila, and twice provincial. He died at Manila, February 4, 1716. (Sommervogel, viii, col. 265.)
[3] Guiuan is the name of a village and port on the extreme south coast of Samar; it has a good anchorage for vessels, even in typhoons.
[4] Taclobo: the Tagálog name for the enormous shells of the giant clam (Tridacna); they sometimes attain a length of five or six feet, and weigh hundreds of pounds. The valves are frequently used for baptismal fonts, and are sometimes burned to make lime. (Official Handbook of the Philippines, part i, p. 153.)
[5] Full accounts of the earlier knowledge of these islands, unsuccessful efforts to locate and discover them, and the organization of a mission to go there for the conversion of the natives, are given in Murillo Velarde’s Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 375 b., 379; and Concepción’s Hist. de Philipinas, ix, pp. 151–171. Both these writers use Clain’s letter, more or less closely following his account. Gregorio Miguel, in his Estudio sobre las Islas Carolinas (Madrid, 1887), p. 32, cites a MS. at Sevilla, dated 1567, written by Juan Martinez (see our Vol. II, pp. 149–150), to show that the Palaos Islands were first seen in 1566, by the captain of the Spanish ship “San Jerónimo,” Pero Sanchez Pericón. It was not until 1710, however, that they were actually discovered. The name Palaos (corrupted to Pelew) was given them on account of the vessels, called paraos (cf. Javanese prau), used by the natives. For description of the islands, their people, and the customs and mode of life of these natives, with a vocabulary of their language, see Miguel, ut supra, pp. 32–60.