Chapter XXII
Election as provincial of the father commissary, Fray Christoval Pedroche, and founding of the mission of Tuga.
[The above father is elected provincial in 1690, after his return from exile to Nueva España, on account of the Pardo troubles. During his term there is considerable activity among the Chinese missions, those of Batanes, and that of Tuga. This last mission is the outcome of the work of father Fray Juan Yñiguez,[13] who is entrusted in 1688 “with the conversion of the Indians of Mananig and the other neighboring nations who inhabited the rough mountains near the village of Tuao in the province of Cagayan, on the western side of the said village; and extend north and south for many leguas. At the same time the said father was charged to learn the language peculiar to that country of Ytabes,[14] and compile a grammar and lexicon in it.... In the short space of six months, he learned the language of the Ytabes, and reduced it to a very detailed grammar.... In the same time he founded a new village in the mission in the very lands of the heathens about six leguas south of the village of Tuao, on a plateau below the creek of Tuga, whence that mission took its name, which it keeps even in our times.” The church built there is dedicated to St. Joseph, and mass said on the second of February, 1689. Notwithstanding the many oppositions offered to the new mission, it grows and prospers. At the end of eight years, the mission is moved to a more pleasant site two leagues nearer Tuao, and although it receives the name of Tuga there, it is sometimes called San Joseph de Bambang, from a mountain called Bambang. In 1710, lack of friars causes the abandonment of Tuga as an active mission, and it becomes a visita of Tuao. That epoch marks its decline, and in 1715, after many have fled to the mountains where they have resumed their pagan life, the remaining Christians are transferred to Tuao. “After the year 1718 the whole province of Cagayan rose in revolt[15], and that disturbance began especially in that district of Ytabes where the said village of Tuao is located. Thereupon the new Christians of the mission who had assembled in that village, returned to their former sites and mountains, and apostatized from the faith which they had received.” At the close of that insurrection, the Dominicans attempt to regain the ground that they had lost. In 1722 a friar is assigned to that mission to regain the apostates and work for new conversions among the heathens. Both objects are largely fulfilled. In 1731, the missionary established there, Fernando de Lara, moves the site of the mission still nearer to Tuao because of the greater conveniences. The new site which is maintained is called Orac, although it is still called by the former name of Tuga.]
Chapter XXIII
Foundation of the mission of Batanes; death of Fray Matheo Gonçalez, and Fray Juan Rois in those islands.
[At the chapter meeting of 1680, Father Matheo Gonçalez[16] is chosen vicar of the Babuyanes Islands which lie north of the province of Cagayan. His work there is successful and he reduces many to the faith, those who are baptized moving to the chief village where the church and convent are located. Extending his labors to the farthest of the Babuyanes Islands, the father arrives there at the time when a volcano is filling its natives with terror. Taking advantage of the situation, he so adds to their terror by his preaching that both apostates (of whom many have gone to that island) and heathen resolve to leave the island and go to Cagayan with the father. Leaving en masse they are taken to Cagayan and form a new village on the seacoast between the two villages of Yguig and Nassiping. That village is however suppressed later by order of the government, and its inhabitants return to the Babuyanes. Another village called Amulung is stationed there in 1733 which is formed of Indians from other villages, and a church and convent established there. Casting their eyes to the three Batanes Islands north of the Babuyanes,[17] and thirty leagues from Cagayan, the Dominicans plan for their spiritual conquest; but not until the year 1686 can anything be done. In that year Fray Matheo Gonçalez is again appointed vicar of the Babuyanes, and given Fray Diego Piñero[18] as associate. They visit the Batanes with the object of exploring them and learning the language. The islands appear ripe for the harvest but more laborers are needed. Consequently, as it is the time for the intermediary chapter the vicar returns to Cagayan for help, leaving Fray Diego Piñero alone. One other worker, Fray Juan de Rois is assigned to the field. But scarcely have the three fathers begun their labors when sickness causes the death of the father vicar and his latest associate, whereupon Fray Diego Piñero, notwithstanding the murmurs of the natives, returns to Cagayan to seek more aid. But no more religious can be spared just then for there is a great lack of them for even the settled missions. Not for thirty years later (1718) is another attempt made in the Batanes, when Fray Juan Bel being appointed vicar of the Babuyanes, visits them. In 1720, as a consequence to his report, five religious are assigned for the mission. As the Batanes are not healthful for Europeans, the island of Calayan[19] midway between the Batanes and the Babuyanes is chosen as the place of residence for the new mission. In that island as many as possible of the new converts are removed, and the church and convent are established there. The king being petitioned bears part of the expenses of the transferring of the converts to Calayan. The venture is successful, and at the time of Salazar’s writing (1742), the mission still exists.]
[Chapters xxiv–xxxiii discuss the lives and work of various missionaries, and Chinese affairs.]
[Chapter xxxiv treats of the life of Mother Sebastiana de Santa Maria, a native woman, who became a member of the tertiary branch of the Dominican order.]