he had so great courage that he did splendid things in the convent of Manila, both for the church and for the house. The monument placed in our house is the best of all those belonging to the orders; it and many others are his work. Notwithstanding this, the religious did not consider him favorably. Consequently, our father provincial, seeing the difficulty, did not wish, as a prudent man, to venture upon a thing which would make face against him. For the religious alone are of this condition, that they play openly; as they look rather at the common good than that of their own particular interest. Consequently, he cast his eyes on father Fray Jerónimo de Salas, a man so well received that the other fathers agreed on him immediately, and he was elected without much difficulty on the twenty-ninth of April, 1617. That election was very pleasing to the province, for all were very sure that they would receive very great consolations at his hands. They were quite right too, for I could treat of that point, as a very large share of it fell to me, when I was in Bisayas acting as prior of Dumangas; for he sent me leave to come to Manila, as he wished me to become subprior.
Father Fray Jerónimo de Cabero presided at that chapter, as we had no letters-patent from our father general. As definitors, father Fray Juan Enríquez, father Fray Pedro de Lesarte,39 father Fray Alonso de Baraona, and father Fray Felipe de Tallada were elected. The visitors were father Fray Estacio Ortíz and father Fray Agustín de Mejía. All together assembled, they annulled preceding orders and enacted others for the good management of the province.
But little life was left for our father provincial, for a very slight accident occasioned his death, so that, without any medicine sufficing, he went away and left us on the seventeenth of May, leaving us disconsolate and very desirous of him.
Our rules, in such an event, summon the preceding provincial, who immediately took the seal. Persons were not lacking to advise him to leave the government of the province, saying that the province was not well affected toward him. And even persons outside of the order who were viewing things with some interest, said the same to him. But we are not to understand that any ambition guided him, but that since he had had experience in the government, which is not the least thing, he thought that he could govern better than another. He commenced to burden the province with mandates, for in his term there was too much of that. Thereupon, the fathers began to regard him less favorably than before, and to represent to themselves the evil of his having the command. There were meetings and discussions in which the coming evil was clearly presaged and announced. One old religious, who was such in all things, in order to avoid cavilings and inquisitions went to confess to him; and told him that he knew most positively that they wished to kill him, and that he should relinquish his office. He assented to nothing, carried away, doubtless, by his good zeal. A brother served him in his cell, a creole whom he wished well and whom he treated with affection. The latter, in return for the benefits which he received, gave him pounded glass in his chocolate, for he had been told that that was the most virulent poison which could be administered. But the provincial’s natural force resisted everything, for he was robust, though small of body.
During this time, which was June of the same year, 1617, as the ships which had been despatched the year before had put back in distress, the viceroy of Nueva España, in order not to leave the islands without succor, bought a small Peruvian ship called “San Jerónimo,” little but very staunch. Although they had but little comfort, the bishop, Don Fray Miguel García, embarked with his fine company of religious; and he brought them in safety to the port of Cavite, although they were almost wrecked among the islands, because the vendavals had set in early and with violent force. At last freed from this and other dangers by the mercy of God, and as they were laborers chosen by God for this His vineyard, He did not wish them to lack work in it; and so He placed them at the doors of the convent of Manila, poor from the lack of comfort in the voyage, but rich with their hopes and virtues. Their names were:
Father Fray Hernando Guerrero, who came as prior of them all.
Father Fray Antonio de Ocampo, a very eloquent preacher, and a Castilian.
Father Fray Juan de Trejo, a very eloquent preacher, and from Estremadura.
Father Fray Pedro Ramírez, a preacher, from Burgos.
Father Fray Diego de Robles, a Castilian.
Father Fray Diego de Avalos, from Toledo.
Father Fray Agustín Carreño, from Asturia, a Tagál.
Father Fray Francisco de Madrid, a preacher, and a Castilian.
Father Fray Lúcas de Aguilar, a Castilian.
Father Fray Juan de las Cuevas, from Madrid.
Father Fray Andrés de Prada, from Burgos.
Father Fray Antonio de Ulloa, a preacher, and a Castilian.
Father Fray Alonso Delgado, from Estremadura.
Father Fray Alonso Rodríguez, a fine organist, and a Castilian.
Father Fray Juan de Orasco, a Castilian.
Father Fray Martín de Arastí, a Biscayan.
Father Fray Félix de Villafuerte.
Father Fray Antonio Quintano, a preacher, from Burgos.
Father Fray Juan Gallegos, a preacher, from Mancha.
Father Fray Jacinto de Herrera; this was the second time that he has sailed for this land. He is a preacher and a Castilian.
Father Fray Pedro Mejía, a preacher, from Mancha.
Father Fray Jerónimo de Paredes, a preacher, and a Castilian.
Father Fray Martín Vázquez, a Castilian.
Father Fray Tomás de Villanueva, from Mancha.
Father Fray Alonso de Carabasal, reader, and who came the following year. He remained behind because of his poor health.
Father Fray Antonio de Mójica, a Castilian.
Father Fray Cristóbal Enríquez, a preacher, from Estremadura.
Father Fray Juan de Espinosa, a Castilian.
Father Fray Gaspar de Lorenzana, a Castilian.40
All those fathers who came here were from the province of Castilla. Their arrival was of great consequence, and with them the death of the father provincial, Fray Jerónimo de Salas, was, in some measure, corrected; for, in return for a person whom the Lord took from the province by that action, He gave it many workers in whom there were very great hopes.
Our father rector-provincial, as the matter devolved on him, divided the fathers among the four provinces of Tagalos, Pampanga, Ilocos, and Bisayas. He had ordered that father Fray Alonso Baraona, at that time definitor of the province, should take the religious who fell to its share to the Pintados; and that he should come to the province to govern it, since he was his vicar-provincial and visitor. The religious embarked, therefore, and with them, the father prior of Sugbú, Fray Luis de Brito,41 and the prior of Panay, Fray Miguel de Suaren.42 As the winds were adverse, because the vendavals were raging obstinately, they were unable to get away from the island of Manila for a long time.
Two ships were sent to Nueva España. One put back and the other, which was a Portuguese caravel, went to India and was wrecked. The ships for Castilla
Fray Pedro Lasarte (
For sketches of these Augustinians, see Pérez’s
Pérez mentions no missionary by this name.
Evidently an error for Fray Miguel de Suárez. He was from the branch of the order in India. In the Philippines, he served as a Tagál and Visayan missionary, laboring in Batan in 1605, in Masbate in 1607, in Ibahay in 1611, in Aclán in 1614, in Panay in 1617, in Batangas in 1621 and 1633, in Tanauan in 1623, in Tambobong in 1626, in Taal in 1629, in Bugason in Bisayas in 1630, in Guiguinto in 1632 and 1639, in San Pablo de los Montes in 1636, and in Caruyan in 1641. He was also procurator-general in 1620, and prior of the convent of Cebú in 1638, dying in 1642. See Pérez’s
