[Fol. 50:] In this time [about 1630] the Christian faith made great advances in Maragondong, Silang, and Antipolo, bringing many Cimarrons (or wild Indians) from their lurking-places. A very fruitful mission was carried on in Mindoro, and on the northern coast of Mindanao; and Father Pedro Gutierrez went along those rivers, converting the Subanos. In Ilog, in the island of Negros, the fathers labored much in removing an inhuman practice of those barbarians, which was, to abandon entirely the old people, as being useless and only a burden on them; and these poor wretches were going about through the mountains, without knowing where to go, since even their own children drove them away. The fathers gave them shelter, fed them, and instructed them in order to baptize them; and there they converted many heathens.
[Fol. 52:] In the year 1631 the cura of Mindoro, who was a secular priest, gave up that ministry to the Society, and Ours began to minister in that island, making one resilience of this and one of the island of Marinduque, and the superior lived at Nauhan in Mindoro; and they began to preach, and to convert the Manguianes, the heathen Indians of that island.
In the year 1631 was begun the residence of Dapitan, in the great island of Mindanao. The first Jesuit who preached in that island was the apostle of the Indias, St. Francis Xavier, as appears from the bull for his canonization. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos came to these islands with his ships, sent by the viceroy of Nueva España, and gave them the name of Philipinas in honor of Phelipe II; and, driven by storms, he went to Amboyno, where the saint then was, in whose care Villalobos died. At the news of these islands thus obtained by the holy apostle, he came to them. The circumstance that this island was consecrated by the labors of that great apostle has always and very rightly commended it to the Society; and Ours have always and persistently endeavored to occupy themselves in converting the Mindanaos; and Father Valerio de Ledesma and others had begun to form missions on the river of Butuan. In the year 1596 the cabildo of Manila, in sede vacante—in whose charge was then the spiritual government of all the islands, as there was no division into bishoprics—gave possession of Mindanao to the Society in due form; and in 1597 this was confirmed by the vice-patron, Don Francisco Tello, the governor of these islands. Possession of it was taken by Father Juan del Campo, who, going as chaplain of the army, accompanied the adelantado, Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, when he set out for the conquest of that kingdom.
The first who began to minister to the Subanos in the coasts of Dapitan was Father Juan Lopez; afterward Father Fabricio Sarsali, and then Father Francisco de Otazo, and various other fathers followed, who made their incursions sometimes from Zebu, sometimes from Bohol. In the year 1629 this ministry was entrusted to the Society by the bishop of Zebu, Don Fray Pedro de Arze. The venerable Father Pedro Gutierrez went through those coasts, carrying the gospel of Christ to the rivers of Quipit, Mucas, Telinga, and others; and in the year 1631 a permanent residence was formed, its rector being Father Pedro Gutierrez. The village of Dapitan is at the foot of a beautiful bay with a good harbor (in which the first conquistadors anchored), on the northern coast of Mindanao; it is south from the island of Zebu, and to the northeast of Samboangan, which is on the opposite coast [of Mindanao]. It lies at the foot of a hill, at the top of which there is a sort of fortress, so inaccessible that it does not need artillery for its defense. Above it has a parapet, and near the hill is an underground reservoir for collecting water, besides a spring of flowing water. Maize and vegetables can be planted there, in time of siege; and the minister and all the people retire to this place in time of invasions. I was there in the year 1737 [misprinted 1637], and it seemed to me that it might be called the Aorno[10] of Philipinas.
[Fol. 60:] In the year 1631 and in part of 1632 this province experienced so great a scarcity of laborers that the father provincial wrote to our father general that he would have been obliged to abandon some of the ministries if the fervor of the few ministers had not supplied the lack of the many, their charity making great exertions. Our affliction was increased by the news that the Dutch had seized Father Francisco Encinas, the procurator of this province, who was going to Europa to bring a mission band here—for which purpose they had sent Father Juan Lopez, who was appointed in the second place[11] in the congregation of 1626. But soon God consoled this province, the mission arriving at Cavite on May 26, 1632. On June 18, 1631, they sailed from Cadiz, and on the last day of August arrived at Vera Cruz; they left Acapulco on February 23, 1632, and on May 15 sighted the first land of these islands. Every mission that goes to Indias begins to gather abundant fruit as soon as it sails from España; I will set down the allotment of work in which this band of missionaries was engaged, since from this may be gathered what the others do, since there is very little difference among them all. In the ship a mission was proclaimed which lasted eleven days, closing with general communion on the day of our father St. Ignatius; in this mission, through the sermons, instructions given in addresses, and individual exhortations, the fathers succeeded in obtaining many general confessions, besides the special ones which the men on the ship made, in order to secure the jubilee. Ours assisted the dying, consoled the sick and the afflicted, and established peace between those who were enemies. In Nueva España the priests were distributed in various colleges, in which they continued the exercises of preaching and hearing confessions. They went to Acapulco a month before embarking, by the special providence of God; for there were many diseases at that port, so that they were able to assist the dying. Thirty religious of St. Dominic were there, waiting to come over to these islands; all of them were sick, and five died; and, in order to prevent more deaths, they decided to remove from their house in which they were, on account of its bad condition. It was necessary, on account of their sick condition, to carry them in sedan-chairs; and although many laymen charitably offered their services for this act of piety, Ours did not permit them to do it, but took upon themselves the care of conveying the sick, their charity making this burden very light. In the ship “San Luys” they continued their ministries, preaching, and hearing the confessions of most of the people on the ship—in which the functions of Holy Week were performed, as well as was possible there. Twenty-one Jesuits left Cadiz, and all arrived at Manila except Father Matheo de Aguilar, who died near these islands on May 12, 1632; he was thirty-three years old, and had been in the Society sixteen years—most of which time he spent in Carmona, in the province of Andalusia, where he was an instructor in grammar, minister, and procurator in that college.... The rest who are known to have come in that year with Father Francisco de Encinas, procurator, and Brother Pedro Martinez are: The fathers Hernando Perez (the superior), Rafael de Bonafe, Luys de Aguayo, Magino Sola, and Francisco Perez; and the brothers Ignacio Alcina, Joseph Pimentél, Miguel Ponze, Andres de Ledesma, Antonio de Abarca, Onofre Esbri, Christoval de Lara, Amador Navarro, Bartholome Sanchez; also Brother Juan Gazera, a coadjutor, and Diego Blanco and Pedro Garzia, candidates [for the priesthood].
[Fol. 63 b:] In the islands of Pintados those first laborers made such haste that by this time [1633] there remained no heathens to convert, and they labored perseveringly in ministering to the Christians, with abundant results and consolation.... In the island of Negros and that of Mindanao, which but a short time before had been given up to the Society, the fathers were occupied in catechising and baptizing the heathens and especially in the island of Mindoro, where besides the Christian convents, were the heathen Manguianes, who lived in the mountains, and, according to estimate, numbered more than six thousand souls. These people wandered through the mountains and woods there like wild deer, and went about entirely naked, wearing only a breech-clout [bahaque] for the sake of decency; they had no house, hearth, or fixed habitation; and they slept where night overtook them, in a cave or in the trunk of some tree. They gathered their food on the trees or in the fields, since it was reduced to wild fruits and roots; and as their greatest treat they ate rice boiled in water. Their furnishings were some bows and arrows, or javelins for hunting, and a jar for cooking rice; and he who secured a knife, or any iron instrument, thought that he had a Potosi. They acknowledged no deity, and when they had any good fortune the entire barangay (or family connection) killed and ate a carabao, or buffalo; and what was left they sacrificed to the souls of their ancestors. In order to convert these heathens, a beginning was made by the reformation and instruction of the Christians; and by frequent preaching they gradually established the usage of confession with some frequency, and many received the Eucharist—a matter in which there was more difficulty then than now. Many came down from the mountains, and brought their children to be instructed; various persons were baptized, and even some, who, although they had the name of Christians, had never received the rite of baptism. After the fathers preached to the Christians regarding honesty in their confessions, the result was quickly seen in many general confessions, which were made with such eagerness that the crowds resorting to the church lasted more than two months.
[Fol. 69:] In Maragondong various trips were made into the mountains [by Ours], and although many were reclaimed to a Christian mode of living, yet, as the mountains are so difficult of access and so close by, those people returned to their lurking-places very easily, and it was with difficulty that they were again brought into a village—so that the number of Indians was greatly diminished, not only in Maragondong, but in Looc, which was a visita of the former place, and contained very rugged mountains. In order to encourage the Indians thus settled to make raids on the Cimarrons and wild Indians and punish them, Don Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, the governor ad interim, granted that those wild Indians should for a certain time remain the slaves of him who should bring them out of the hills; and by this means they succeeded in bringing out many from their caverns and hiding-places. Some of these were seventy or eighty years old, of whom many died as soon as they were instructed and baptized. Once the raiders came across an old woman about a hundred years old, near the cave in which those people performed their abominable sacrifices; she was alone, flung down on the ground, naked, and of so horrible aspect that she made it evident, even in external appearance, that she was a slave of the devil. Moved by Christian pity, those who were making the raid carried her to the village, where it was with difficulty that the father could catechise her, on account of her age and her stupidity. He finally catechised and baptized her, and she soon died; so that it seems as if it were a mercy of God that she thus waited for baptism, in order that her soul might not be lost—and the same with the other souls, their lives apparently being preserved in order that they might be saved through the agency of baptism. Blessed be His mercy forever! In Ilog, in the island of Negros, several heathens of those mountains were converted to the faith. An Indian woman was there, so obstinate in her blindness and so open in her hatred to holy baptism that, in order to free herself from the importunities of the minister, she feigned to be deaf and mute. Some of her relatives notified the father to come to baptize her. The father went to her, and began to catechise her, but she, keeping up the deceit, pretended that she did not hear him, and he could not draw a word from her. The father cried out to God for the conversion of that soul, and, at the same time, he continued his efforts to catechise her, suspecting that perhaps she was counterfeiting deafness. God heard his prayers, and, after several days, the first word which that woman uttered was a request for baptism—to the surprise of all who knew what horror of it she had felt. The father catechised and baptized her, and this change was recognized as caused by the right hand of the Highest; for she who formerly was like a wild deer, living alone in the thickets, after this could not go away from the church, and continued to exercise many pious acts until she rested in the Lord.
[Fol. 74 b:] In the year 1596 Father Juan del Campo and Brother Gaspar Gomez went with the adelantado Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, who set out for the conquest of this island [Mindanao]. After the death of Father Juan del Campo, Father Juan de San Lucar went to assist that army, performing the functions of its chaplain, and also of vicar for the ecclesiastical judge. Fathers Valerio de Ledesma and Manuel Martinez preached to the Butuans, and afterward they were followed, although with some interruptions, by others, who announced the gospel to the Hadgaguanes—a people untamed and ferocious—to the Manobos, and to other neighboring peoples. Afterward this ministry was abandoned, on account of the lack of laborers for so great a harvest as God was sending us. Secular priests held it for some time, and finally it was given to the discalced Augustinian [i.e., Recollect] religious, who are ministering in that coast, and in Caraga as far as Linao—an inland region, where there is a small fort and a garrison. When Father Francisco Vicente was ministering in Butuan the cazique [meaning the headman] of Linao went to invite him to go to his village; and even the blacks visited him, and gave him hopes for their submission. Thus all those peoples desired the Society, as set aside for the preaching in that island—which work was assigned to the Society by the ecclesiastical judge in the year 1596, and confirmed to them in 1597 by the governor Don Francisco Tello, as vice-patron. And when some controversy afterward occurred over [the region of] Lake Malanao, sentence was given in favor of the Society by Governors Don Juan Niño de Tabora and Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, as Father Combés states in book iii of his History of Mindanao. These decisions were finally confirmed by Don Fernando Valdès Tamon, in the year 1737.
In the year 1607 Father Pasqual de Acuña, going thither with an armada of the Spaniards, began to preach with great results to the heathens of the hill of Dapitan, where he baptized more than two hundred. He also administered the sacraments to some Christians who were there, who with Pagbuaya, a chief of Bohol, had taken refuge in that place. Afterward, Father Juan Lopez went to supply the Subanos of Dapitan with more regular ministrations. He was succeeded by Father Fabricio Sarsali, and he by Father Francisco Otazo and others, as a dependency of Zebu or of Bohol—until, in the year 1629, his illustrious Lordship the bishop of Zebu, Don Fray Pedro de Arze, governor of the archbishopric of Manila, again assigned this mission to the Society; and in 1631 the residence of Dapitan was founded, its first rector being the venerable Father Pedro Gutierrez; and in those times the Christian faith was already far advanced, and was extending through the region adjoining that place, and making great progress.
[Fol. 92:] The island of Basilan, or Taguima, is three or four leguas south of Samboangan, east from Borney, and almost northeast from Joló. It is a fertile and abounding land, and on this account they call it the storehouse or garden of Samboangan. Its people are Moros and heathens, and almost always they follow the commands received from Joló. The Basilans, who inhabit the principal villages, are of the Lutaya people; those who dwell in the mountains are called Sameacas. Three chiefs had made themselves lords of the island, Ondol, Boto, and Quindinga; and they formed the greatest hindrance to the reduction of that people, who, as barbarians, have for an inviolable law the will of their headmen, [which they follow] heedlessly—that being most just, therefore, which has most following. Nevertheless, the brave constancy of Father Francisco Angel was not dismayed at such difficulties, or at the many perils of death which continually threatened him; and his zeal enabled him to secure the baptism of several persons, and to rescue from the captivity of Mahoma more than three hundred Christians, whom he quickly sent to Samboangan. Moreover, the fervor of the father being aided by the blessing of God, he saw, with unspeakable consolation to his soul, the three chiefs who were lords of the island baptized, with almost all the inhabitants of the villages in it; and in the course of time the Sameacas, or mountain-dwellers, were reduced—in this way mocking the strong opposition which was made by the panditas, who are their priests and doctors. [Here follows an account of the conquest of Joló in 1638, and of affairs there and in Mindanao, in which the Jesuits (especially Alexandro Lopez) took a prominent part; these matters have already been sufficiently recounted in VOLS. XXVIII and XXIX].