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Chapter LXIV
Other events which happened at this time in Japon and the Philippinas

[The circumstances in Japon were such that many of the converts were obliged to spend six, or eight, or even fifteen years without confessing, while some of them had not seen a confessor within forty years. Hence the fathers Fray Thomas and Fray Alonso were anxious to go up into the country to continue the good work which they had begun. The vicar-provincial, Fray Francisco de Morales, sent father Fray Alonso de Mena to the kingdom of Fixen,⁴⁹ where there had been no church up to this year 1606. A certain captain, Francisco Moreno Donoso, had taken some Franciscan fathers with him on a journey, and on the voyage had been delivered from great danger by the intercession of our Lady of the Rosary. He was therefore devoted to this our Lady. Although the kingdom of Fixen is very near Nangasaqui, the king had always been unwilling to admit preachers of Christianity; but this king had a great regard for Captain Moreno Donoso, who went to visit the king with father Fray Alonso; and the captain made the king many gifts, refusing to accept anything in return except a chain. The king showed him such favor that the captain took advantage of the opportunity to ask permission that father Fray Alonso might establish convents and churches in the kingdom. The king was pleased to grant it, insisting only that the sanction of a great bonze, named Gaco, should first be secured; he was a native of Fixen, and was the most highly regarded man in Japan because of his learning. The king sent his own secretary to go before the bonze, to tell him of the poverty, the penitence, the contempt for the things of this world, the modesty, the humility, and the courteous behavior of the father. The bonze, seeing that it was the pleasure of the king, said that such a man might very well receive this permission. In conformity with it three poor churches and houses were built – one in Famamachi under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary; the second in the city of Caxima [i. e., Kashima]. named for St. Vincent; and, after some time, another one at the king’s court [i. e., Saga], for which at that time permission had been refused. Father Fray Alonso and his companion, when he had one, got the little they needed for their support from Portuguese and Castilians in Nangasaqui, that they might avoid asking for alms from the Japanese, and might thus give no opportunity for the bonzes to complain against them, and to find a pretext for sending them out of the country. Father Fray Alonso remained in this kingdom; and the order persevered until the persecution, when all the religious who had been hiding there were ordered to depart from Japon. Father Fray Alonso found in this kingdom some Japanese who had been baptized in other kingdoms, but had not been well taught in the faith, or who had forgotten the good teachings that they had received at their baptism. They were guilty of much irregularity in their marriages; and some of them had assumed to baptize others without knowing the essence of the baptismal form, so that it was difficult to determine which of them had received valid baptisms. These imperfectly prepared converts had also done harm by endeavoring to sustain arguments against the opponents of Christianity, and, being insufficiently grounded in the faith, they had spread false impressions of the Christian religion. Notable cases of conversion occurred, there being some instances well worthy of remark in the court; and finally the sanctity of the life of the missionaries caused them to be called xaxino padre, “fathers who despise the world.” The father Fray Juan de Los Angeles, or Rueda, came to live at Fixen in the following year, 1607.

In this year 1606 of which we have been speaking, there died at sea father Fray Domingo de Nieva, who was on his way to act as procurator of the province. He had labored much and well among the Indians of Bataan and among the Chinese. Father Fray Domingo was a native of Billoria in Campos, and a son of the convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. He was a man of ability and of good will. When nearly all the lecturers in theology from that convent, together with the lecturers in arts, and many of their most able and learned disciples, determined to go to the Philippinas, father Fray Domingo joined his masters. He suffered his life long from headache. Being sent to Bataan in company with three other fathers, he, as the youngest, had to carry a very heavy burden of duties. He was fortunate enough not to suffer from any further diseases, the Lord being pleased not to add any to his constant headache. His mortification, fasting, and discipline were very great. He wrote some devout tracts in the language of the Indians, and some others in that of the Chinese. He had printed for the Chinese in their language and characters an essay upon the Christian life, with other brief tracts of prayer and meditation, in preparation for the holy sacraments of confession and the sacred communion. He wrote a practically new grammar of the Chinese language, a vocabulary, a manual of confession, and many sermons, in order that those who had to learn this language might find it less difficult. He was prior of Manila; and in the third year of his priorate the news arrived of the death of father Fray Pedro de San Vicente, who was going to España as definitor in the chapter general and as procurator for this province. Since it was necessary to send another in his place, father Fray Domingo received the appointment to the duty. Like his predecessor, he died on the voyage from the islands to Mexico.]

Chapter LXV
The foundation of Manavag in Pangasinan and the deaths of some religious

In the year 1605 the missionaries to Pangasinan, not contented with the fruitful results of their labors in the level region of that province, took under their charge the village of Manavag, situated among the mountains at a considerable distance from the other villages. The first entry into this village was made by the religious of our father St. Augustine in the year 1600; they built there a church named after St. Monica, and baptized some children. The village was so small, however, that it was not possible for a religious to find enough to do there to justify his continued residence; and accordingly it was visited from Lingayen, the capital of that province, which was at that time in their hands. It caused them a great deal of labor, since they were obliged to travel three days if they went there by water, and two if they went by land; and therefore it was seldom visited, and little good resulted to the village. Inasmuch as the whole population were heathen, they required much persuasion to lead them to baptism, and a great deal of attention to their religious instruction. On this account, those fathers placed a juridical renunciation of the said village in the hands of the bishop, Don Fray Diego de Soria. The bishop, being a religious of our order, asked his brethren to take charge of this village, since there were in it many baptized children, and no other body of religious could care for and guide them. The bishop, in asking the religious to take this matter in charge, was laying upon them no small burden; yet the need was almost extreme, and the great labor brought with it great reward – for, as the apostle says, each man shall be rewarded at the last judgment in proportion to his labors. Hence they determined to assume the charge, and the superior sent there father Fray Juan de San Jacintho,⁵⁰ a devoted religious and an indefatigable laborer in the teaching of the Indians. He went to Manavag in the year mentioned, and the fact was spread abroad among the neighboring villages. On account of the great love which they had for the order, and especially for the religious who was there (for he was like an angel from heaven), some other hamlets were added to that one, and the village of Manavag was made of reasonable size. The Negrillos and Zambales who go about through those mountains were continually harassing this village, partly because of their evil desires to kill men, and partly for robbery. They often came down upon it with bows and arrows, and with fire to burn the houses and the church which was practically all of straw. They committed murders, and robbed women and children. Those in the village being thus terrorized, and the men being unable to prevent the evil, since their enemies came when they had gone out into the fields, it was determined to take as patroness the Virgin of the Rosary, that she might aid them in this need. They accordingly dedicated a new church to her, and solemnized the dedication with many baptisms of adult persons. Within a few months, there was not a heathen within the village – a clear proof that the presence of heathen in the country is due solely to a lack of missionaries. Wherever the missionaries are, all are immediately baptized; and not only those of that village which has the missionaries, but some of their neighbors also, participate in the teaching of the religious, and in the favors of our Lady of the Rosary. This is plain from a miracle which occurred a few years after, and was verified before the vicar-general of this country, who at that time was father Fray Pedro de Madalena. It happened thus. Four leguas from Manavag, in a village of Ygolote Indians who inhabit some high mountain ridges, there lived an Indian chief, a heathen, by the name of Dogarat, who used sometimes to go down to the village of Manavag, and to listen out of curiosity to the preaching of the religious. Since the matters of our faith are truly divine, the Indian began to incline toward them, and even toward becoming a Christian. He therefore learned the prayers, and knew them by heart; and the only thing which held him back was the necessity of leaving his vassals and his kinsmen if he was baptized, and going away from the washings in a river of his village, where they used to gather grains of gold, which come down with the water from those hills and ridges where they are formed. God our Lord, to draw him to the precious waters of baptism, brought upon him a severe illness. When he felt the misery of this disease, he sent to call the religious who was at that time in Manavag, father Fray Thomas Gutierrez, who came to his village, called Ambayaban, and visited the sick Indian, giving him thorough instruction in the matters of our holy faith. When he was thoroughly prepared he baptized him and named him Domingo. By the aid of the Lord he recovered, and used to attend church on feast days. He asked for a rosary, which the religious gave him with a direction to say the prayers of the rosary every day, that the Sovereign Lady might aid him. He went out hunting once; and in order that the rosary, which he always wore about his neck, might not interfere with him or be broken by catching in a branch, he took it off and hung it on a tree, and with it a little purse in which he was carrying a trifle of gold. It happened soon after that some Indians set fire to the mountain to frighten out the game. The fire kindled the tree where the rosary was hanging, and burnt it all to ashes. Some time afterward Don Domingo came back for his rosary, and discovered the destruction which the fire had wrought, and the tree in ashes. As he was looking among them he found his rosary entire and unhurt, while everything else was burnt up, and the purse and the gold were consumed, though they were close to the rosary, which did not show a sign of fire. The Indian, amazed, went and told his story to father Fray Thomas, who for a memorial of this marvel kept the miraculous rosary among the treasures of the church, giving the Indian another in its place. There it remained, in token of the esteem and respect which our Lady willed that the fire should pay to her holy rosary.

[In the month of June, 1607, father Fray Juan Baptista Gacet ended his labors happily in the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila. He was a son of the convent of Preachers at Valencia, and a beloved disciple of St. Luis Beltran, whom he succeeded in the office of master of novices at Valencia. When St. Luis returned from the Indias, the Lord moved father Fray Juan to go to them, as he desired to reap a harvest of souls, and feared that they might strive to make him superior in his own province. He received the approval of St. Luis, and went to the Indias at the time when master Fray Alonso Bayllo went out from his convent of Murcia, by command of our lord the king and of the general of the order, to divide the province of Vaxac from that of Sanctiago de Mexico. Being threatened with a superiorship in the province of Vaxac, father Fray Juan did what he could to avoid it. When a company of religious under the leadership of father Fray Pedro de Ledesma passed through Nueva España on their way to the Philippinas, father Fray Juan decided to accompany them, though he was already of venerable age; and he reached Manila in 1596. Here he was greatly honored, and, being too old to learn the Indian languages, was retained in the convent of Manila to act as confessor and spiritual guide to a number of devout persons in the city. He was made definitor in the first provincial chapter, and was later obliged to accept the office of prior – having no other country to flee to, as he had fled from España to the Indias, and thence to the Philippinas, to avoid this elevation. He was given to devout exercises and to prayer, reading often from some devout book, usually from St. John Climachus, and afterward discussing the passage, and making it the basis of devout meditation. After leaving the office of prior, he returned to his life of devotion and abstraction.

On the twentieth of July in the same year, father Fray Miguel de Oro ended his life in the province of Nueva Segovia. He was a native of Carrion de Los Condes; and he took the habit and professed in San Pablo at Valladolid. He afterward went to the religious province of Guatemala, where he remained for some years, but afterward returned to España. In 1599 the plague attacked all España and raged with especial violence in Valladolid. Father Fray Miguel, with four other religious of our order, devoted himself to the care of those who were plague-stricken. After the plague he retired to the convent of La Peña de Francia; but his memory was constantly stirred by the recollection of his service among the Indians, and in 1601 he went with some other religious to Manila. He was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia, where, although on account of his great age he was unable to learn the language, his holy example was of great value. He was of great help and comfort to the minister whom he accompanied, doing all that he could to make it possible for the minister (who knew the language) to work among the Indians, and to write in the Indian language compositions and spiritual exercises, which were of service to the ministers that came after them. He used to wear next his skin a thick chain, weighing ten libras; and, that the other brethren might not perceive the marks of it on his tunics, he used to take care to wash and dry them apart. He died as a result of a fever caused by the heat of the sun. Father Fray Miguel was of swarthy complexion, with black and very prominent eyes which inspired fear. After his death he remained handsome, fair, and rosy, which caused those present to wonder-all supposing that these were signs of the glory which his soul already enjoyed.]

Chapter LXVI
The establishment of two churches in Nueva Segovia

In the month of August, 1607, at the octave of the Assumption of our Lady, a church was erected in the village of Nalfotan, the chief village among those which are called the villages of Malagueg [i. e., Malaúeg] in Nueva Segovia. This church had the name and was under the patronage of St. Raymond. The Indians of these villages were and are courageous and warlike. Hence before the coming of the faith they were constantly at war among themselves and with their neighbors, being men of fierce mind and lofty courage, and highly prizing their valor, strength and spirit, an inheritance left to them by their ancestors. Thus they and their neighbors of Gatarang and Talapa, with whom they were very closely related, gave the Spaniards a great deal of trouble, and were feared and still are feared by the other Indians of that large province. In the village called Nalfotan the chief and lord at this time was a young man named Pagulayan, to whom our Lord, in addition to high rank, great wealth, and courage, had given a quiet and peaceful disposition. He was a friend of peace and of the public weal – [seeking not only] his own advantage, but that of his people, and striving to secure what he recognized as good; and in him ran side by side the love of peace, and military spirit and courage – in which he was distinguished and eminent, and for which he was therefore feared by his enemies. God our Lord, so far as we can judge, had predestinated him for Himself; and this he showed by the great affection with which he listened to matters dealing with the service of God, even when he was a heathen and was living among barbarians, idolaters and demons, such as were all his vassals. When he heard that the Ytabes Indians, his neighbors, had religious of St. Dominic who taught them a sure and certain road to salvation, and to the gaining of perpetual happiness for the soul in heaven by serving God in peace and quietude, he strove with all his heart to enjoy so great a good. He discussed the matter with his Indians, and with their approval went down many times to the city of the Spaniards to carry out his religious purpose, endeavoring to have the father provincial, Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, give him a religious for his village. The provincial would have rejoiced to give him one; but those whom he had were so busy, and he had already withdrawn so many in response to such requests, that he was unable to satisfy this good desire, except with the hope that a missionary would be provided there as soon as the religious had come whom he was expecting from España. The good Pagulayan, although he was somewhat consoled, did not cease to complain, with feeling, that he had been unable to bring to his village the good which he desired for it. As he was unable to obtain a religious, he took with him a Christian child from among those who were being taught the Christian doctrine in the church, that the boy might instruct him until a father should come who could complete and perfect his teaching. Nay, more: he and his people, having confidence in the promise which had been given them, erected a church in their village that they might influence the religious [to go there], and have that stronger reason for supplying a minister to them rather than to other villages which had no church. All this greatly affected the religious; and finally, in August of this year [1607], father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas⁵¹ went there and found the church already built, and the whole village – men, women, and children – gathered on purpose to receive him, as they did with great joy and the exhibition of much content. This caused like content in the soul of father Fray Pedro, who giving many thanks to the Lord, whose work this was, firmly resolved to labor with all his strength in this vineyard which seemed to bear fruit before it was cultivated. Father Fray Pedro was very well suited to begin a conversion like this; for he was so simple and affable that the most remote barbarians, if they talked with him, were compelled to love him. He was of a very gentle nature, and extremely open-hearted, being entirely free from any duplicity or deceit, and acting in all things with the bowels of charity. This is the greatest snare to catch love which may be set for men. Hence they received him as if he came from heaven, and at the beginning they listened to him and obeyed him with great zeal. The devil at these things suffered from rage and the worst pains of hell, as he saw himself losing, all at once, villages which had been his for so many ages. Hence by the means of a sorceress, a priestess of his, named Caquenga, he began to disturb the Indians, to whom this wicked woman said such things that many determined to follow the rites of their ancestors and not to receive the teaching of the divine law. So devilish was this cursed anitera that she kept stirring up some of them against the religious, while at the same time with those who wished to keep him she pretended to be on their side; thus she deceived them all, especially those who were influenced by their zeal for ancient superstitions. Hence they themselves killed their fowls and the swine which they had bred, tore down their houses, and cut down their palm-groves, in which their principal wealth consisted; and, crying out, “Liberty!” they fled to the mountains. Here they joined those who had hitherto been their enemies, that they might be more in number and might bring a greater multitude of weapons against a solitary friar who went unarmed, and whom they had invited to their village with such urgency, and received with such joy; and against whom they had no complaint except simply that he preached to them the law of God and the gospel of peace, at their own invitation, and that a most earnest invitation. Pagulayan, with some of his vassals, was constantly at the side of Fray Pedro – who, being secure in his own conscience, was not intimidated, but strove to bring back those who had revolted. Seeking for means of speaking to them, he determined to send an Indian who should arrange in his behalf for a conference; and who should promise the chief of the revolted ones, whose name was Furaganan, that the Spaniards who were ¡n the city of Nueva Segovia would not punish him for what he had done. That the Indian might feel safe and might believe him, he gave the man a relic of St. Thomas to carry; for among them there was no one who knew how to read or write, because they had no letters of their own, so that he was unable to give him a letter, or any other token better known as coming from the father. This, however, sufficed to cause Furaganan to listen to the messenger without ill-treating him; and he agreed to meet the religious at a certain place and on an appointed day. As a token of fidelity and peace, Furaganan sent his bararao – a dagger with which they stab close at hand, and can easily cut off a head – that it might be put in the hands of the religious. They met on the assigned day; and the Indian, annoyed with Caquenga, who had caused the disturbance among them, immediately joined the party of the religious against whom she had caused them to rebel. Furaganan asked them to give him this Indian anitera as a slave, alleging that she had been a slave of his mother, and that in this way and no other could quiet be restored, because he could not suffer that this intriguing slave-woman should, merely through her crafty acts, be more esteemed by the Spaniards than were the chiefs. She was, he said, full of duplicity, having remained with Pagulayan that she might be able to say afterward to the Spaniards that she was not at fault for the uprising – although, in point of fact, she had been the cause of it. Fray Pedro promised to look after this business with great diligence, and to do what should be best. The Indian departed, apparently in peace; but the others did not continue in that frame of mind. At midnight, while the religious was reciting the matins, on the first Sunday of Advent, and when he had come to the first response, the insurgents set fire to the church, thus alarming those who had remained in the village, and causing them to take flight. Pagulayan came to father Fray Pedro, and, acting as his guide, put him on a safe road, carrying him at times on his shoulders across creeks and rivers on the road which they followed. At dawn they halted in a thicket, whence the father went to a little village farther down, because the place where they were was not safe. Here Pagulayan carried the robes from the sacristy, and father Fray Pedro put them as well as he could into a chest, being obliged to leave out a canvas of our Lady, which on account of its size the chest would not hold. Leaving it there, he went on to the village of Pia, where there was a religious with many Christians, and where the people were peaceful. The insurgents went straight down to the village where the chest and the picture were; and, opening the chest, they took out the ornaments, the chalice, and all the rest, and profaned everything. They cut the ornaments of the mass into pieces, to make head-cloths and ribbons. They tore the leaves out of the missal, and drank out of the chalice, like a godless race governed by the devil. Taking the image painted on the canvas, they set it up as a target for their lances. One of them blasphemously said: “This, the fathers tell us, is the mother of God; if this were truth, our lances would draw blood, and since she sheds none, it is all trickery and deceit.” The savage said this when he was throwing his lance at the image, and his audacity did not remain without its punishment, for he was soon after condemned to the galleys; and here, in addition to the ordinary hardships suffered in them, he was maltreated by all the other galley slaves when they learned that his crime had been committed against our Lady. They struck him, buffeted him, kicked him, and abused him with words as an enemy of the Virgin; and in this state he died, passing from the wretched life of the galleys to eternal death in hell.

In this same year the Indians of Zimbuey, in the level part of La Yrraya in the same province, rose and murdered their encomendero Luis Henriquez, angered because he had treated them during the previous year with more rigor than was proper. There was no religious here. The Indians, in fear of like severity during the present year, had mutinied against the encomendero and thrust him through with a lance. Out of his shin-bones they made steps to go up to the house of their chief – a piece of savagery such as might be expected from enraged Indians. Information of these two risings was sent to the governor of Manila, who sent out the sargento-mayor Christobal de Azcueta with a sufficient number of soldiers. He ascertained the facts in both cases and brought out the truth clearly – namely, that the excesses of the dead encomendero had caused the Indians of his encomienda at Zimbuey to rise, and that the intrigues of Caquenga had roused the Indians of Malagueg. The latter, conscious of their fault, came to the city of Nueva Segovia to beg that the religious might return to them; and father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas returned with them. He had greater confidence in the many hopes which he had, for many of them, that they would be good and faithful Christians, than resentment for the wrongs which he had received from others. All this disturbance came to an end, and he built convents and churches and baptized many. In course of time all those people were baptized. Pagulayan was named Luis, and one of his sisters was named Luysa Balinan. They were always very brotherly and sisterly in all things, especially in following virtue. They remained very firm in the faith, and have aided much to bring their Indians to embrace it. They lived according to the teachings of the faith, giving a noble example in this respect, and obviously surpassing all those of their land in everything that has to do with virtue and the service of God. They were, during all their lives, the support of the mission, the comfort of the religious, and generous honorers of their church – upon the adornment of which they spent freely in proportion to their means, giving silver lamps and other very rich ornaments for the service and beautifying of the church. Nor did they forget the poor, not only of their own village, but of the others, who very often come to this one to find food, since this is generally the village where food is most abundant. Don Luis Pagulayan died while young, in the year 1620. His death was much regretted and deplored, as it still is both by the religious and by his Indians, and much more by his sister, Doña Luysa Balinan. She is yet living, and perseveres in holy customs and in laudable acts of all the virtues; for she wears hair shirts underneath her dress as a married chieftainess, is constantly in the church, and is very frequent in her confessions and communions. She is very careful that not only those of her household (who are many) but all of the village – which is one of the largest in the province of Nueva Segovia – should carefully observe the law of God and hear and learn the Catholic doctrine. This she herself ordinarily teaches, and teaches well, for she has had much practice in this office, so that she greatly aids the ministers. A few years ago, there was in this province a great famine; and Doña Luisa having very fertile land, from which she might have made a great profit, preferred to offer it to Christ through His poor. Hence she spent it all upon them, directing all the poor to come every day to her for their food, as was done. In any tumult or disturbance that may arise, she is one from whom the religious learn with perfect certainty the truth of what has happened; and by her assistance (for she is very prudent) the remedy is obtained. The Lord watches over her and prospers her in all things – not only spiritual, in which she surpasses, but also temporal, for she is one of the richest persons that there are in this province. When some superstitious performances were carried on here by some of the chiefs, she immediately informed the religious. When he asked her if she dared to declare the matter before the guilty persons, that in this way the evil might be demonstrated and cured, she replied that she would venture, even though they should give her poison; for they were unable to avenge themselves in any other way, and she had reason to expect them to do this. Such is the spirit and courage with which she serves the Lord and strives for the good of her fellow-men; and so little does she esteem life when there is an opportunity for her to venture it for such a noble end. In the year 1626, the names of those entered in the records of baptism in this church of Nalfotan were counted. The total was found to be four thousand six hundred and seventy, in addition to those baptized in sickness, who were many; and all this rich harvest was reaped in a village which eighteen years ago was composed wholly of heathen.