difficulties was easily found by the wise God of mercy, for by His guidance there came into the village, while they were still doubting what to do, a priest of our Order, quite unaware of what had happened. As soon as the matter was reported to him, he went to the dying woman, consoled her in her affliction, and sent her to Heaven, confessing and sorrowing for her sins. The other case differs little from that which we recorded earlier as occurring at the Carigara establishment. A fellow whom no fear or warning could improve, and who would not control his wicked habit of swearing and blaspheming, was one day testifying in a legal case. He devoted his head to the crocodile, if the matter were other than as he testified, adding that he could confirm his testimony by calling in others as witnesses. As he was crossing a stream to summon them in behalf of his case, he was carried off by a crocodile; and—a certain proof of the damnation of the man—it was later discovered by the testimony of others that he had borne false witness.
XII. At the settlement at Palapag there has been a conflict with hunger and disease; yet the Indians have so conducted themselves that the sick have not lacked the necessary services. Likewise Ours have made such provision that the poor were cared for from the harvest; for at their gate they daily served food to more than seventy persons. Their newly-built church and their sodality make them hopeful of great good, for their beginnings are such that six hundred of full age have presented themselves at the sacred font for purification; while I should reckon the number of children at eight hundred, the greater part of whom have gone the straight way to heaven. One of Ours was called to a little infant which was said to be sick, to baptize it; and he refused, partly because he thought the matter was not so pressing, partly because he wished to teach the Indians the custom of bringing their little ones to the churches. At last, overcome by the importunities of those who asked him, he went thither; but when he could perceive in the child not the least sign of illness, he was about to return without baptizing it. But when he looked at the boy again he seemed to be silently warned by it not to deny it that benefit. At last, when he had complied, and when everything had been performed duly and in order, the child expired in the very arms of its sponsor. By this event the father was rendered joyful, but still more cautious not to think that time should be allowed any advantage in matters of this kind; for, as he said, he would rather suffer all the ills of sea and land if he might open heaven to this single little boy. There have been seen other signs (not a few) of the singular care extended by divine providence to this tribe and Ours. Such a one was this. An Indian was wrapped in the folds of a serpent eight feet long, but, groaning forth the saving name of Jesus, he was released. Again: when there was a deficiency of that kind of food which it is lawful to eat in the days of Lent, a boat on the beach, brought by I know not whom, freely supplied fishes of a kind not usual there. Again, when a church was on the point of falling, the Indians were frightened out from it by a tremendous roar; and, because the mass had not been finished, it did not fall before the father had taken refuge in the sacristy, the chalice being safe, with the sacred images on the abandoned altar. These things we mention, passing over those persons to whom God has been pleased to grant good of soul or body through Ours. To this establishment there was sent ten years ago Francisco Simon, a lay brother; he died on the day on which twenty years before he had entered the Society. And although through all this interval of time he had neglected none of the things for which a good religious may be praised, yet the nearer he approached to death, the more content he seemed in doing them. The garden, the kitchen, the dining-room, the sacristy, the workshops, the other places in which he labored, he regarded somehow as sanctuaries—sometimes saying his beads, sometimes holding colloquies with the Holy Trinity, Christ, and our Lady the Virgin. A naturally irritable temper he had so completely overcome by virtue and diligence that the fathers whom he accompanied on their missions wished for no one more kindly; they could hardly have had anyone more diligent and more ready to do anything. But as witnesses of his virtue Francisco had not only the priests of his home but also those of other places; for when he died he was away among them, attending to the preparation of rice—offering to all a good example, as he first sent to his superiors a report of his business by letter; and, as he was to return no more, he sent his last farewell to his companions. A place of burial was given to him by the priest who has in charge the village of Abla in Luzon, by whom the funeral rites also were performed most honorably, a great multitude of Indians attending them.
The Missions at Octon and to the Malucas
XIII. In addition to our accustomed labors with the Spaniards and Indians of Arevalo, there has been another of no small importance with a large force of troops, who undertook an expedition to the Malucas. No trifling benefit was carried to the foreigners by Father Francisco Gonzalez, who had been called back thence to the town of Zebu to take the four vows. On his journey he brought back into the way the Indians everywhere, who were turning aside to their madness and their idols. He reestablished Christian customs, baptized children and adults, made stable their fickle and inconstant marriages, and did many more things of the same kind—which, though unwritten, are understood. The following event should not lack a pen. A man entangled by lewd delights, but moved by the fact that he had no example among the repentant people, or by the influence of a festival just then announced, had settled himself to a proper life; but rising in the middle of the night he went out from his house, and was longing for his accustomed delights. While he was doing so, behold two specters, very large and horribly black, wrapped in hanging cloaks, appeared to him. The unhappy man dared to annoy them by approaching and speaking to them. Without answering, they snatched him up and carried him high in air, filling everything with his screams and cries, and struggling in vain. His neighbors, awakened and following the sound of the voice, went round the whole village without finding anything. At last at dawn they found the man among the thick bramble-bushes on the mountains, his body all bruised, and himself half-dead and speechless. When they found him, they took him to our church, and the prayers of many were offered for him, and remedies were applied. At last he recovered his senses and his speech, and cried aloud that he had been punished by the just judgment of God, since he had for a long time neglected the precepts that he had received at confession, and had not done the things becoming a Christian. He then went on to say that when the demons carried him off, they took him to a deep black cave; and just as they were about to hurl him down into it, he was delivered by the intervention of God, to whom he had commended himself. Thus, having confessed his sins, he put on a better way of living.
XIV. The member of the Society who accompanied the general of the Philippines on the expedition to the Malucas, Father Angelo Armano,16 did his duty during the whole time of the voyage and the war, not without peril on land and sea. He did with energy what could be done in the midst of arms, the noise of artillery, the ambushes of the enemy, and the slaughter. And surely there was great hope of extending religion by this expedition, for the native king himself, when detained at Manila with his son and other chiefs for five years often used to promise the governor that if he would send a fleet to the Malucas again, he himself would give into subjection and obedience to his Catholic Majesty all his vassals, who are estimated at about two hundred thousand souls. This has seemed the quickest way to liberate the Malucan Christians from the new yoke of the Dutch heretics, by which they are oppressed. The multitude of those who have thus far professed the Christian faith there can be estimated only from the Amboynans, of whom the number reaches above twenty thousand. Therefore, although the general came back, home in glory from this expedition, after winning a victory, yet he has expressed his grief more than once that the welfare and salvation of all this great number of islands and tribes should be insufficiently provided for on account of the lack of priests; and he has affirmed that he wishes more earnestly for nothing than that he might have the opportunity of sending forth many of the Society of Jesus on this divine work.
Decree Regulating Services of Filipinos
We order that, in the Filipinas Islands, no Indians be distributed in repartimiento, in any number, for private or public means of gain; since for the cutting of wood, navigation of caracoas, and other works of this sort, in which our royal treasury is interested, and for the public convenience, the Chinese and Japanese found on any desired occasion in the city of Manila must be (as they are) hired; and, as is understood, there will be a sufficient number of workmen among them, who will engage in these services for the just price of their toil. From
In the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library) i, pp. 341–381, is a copy of a letter (dated June 11, 1611) from Father Armano to his provincial, Gregorio Lopez, detailing the achievements of Silva’s expedition to the Moluccas in 1611—on which occasion Silva restored to his throne Zayri, king of Ternate, who had been kept as a prisoner at Manila for five years. Rizal says in his edition of Morga, p. 247, note 1, that this king did not return to his island. He was probably taken back to Manila shortly after this restoration.
