I reached Manila in May of the year fifteen hundred and ninety-five, leaving in Tigbauan and its vicinity, and in the town of Arevalo, not a few persons sorrowing at my departure. The general, Doctor Antonio de Morga, arrived in the following June, having come to serve as lieutenant of the governor and captain-general of the islands. He brought with him two fine vessels, and eight priests [63] of our Society. The joy of the communities of Manila and Sebu, and of Ours, was beyond belief upon learning that these fathers had arrived. From both places, requests came in to us for priests: from Manila, for instruction and schools, of which its sons were in great want; from Sebu, for a college which they desired in their city. On the other hand, the lieutenant governor of his Catholic Majesty urged that the Society should take charge of a province of Indians as did the other religious orders; and the Indians themselves, with several encomenderos, supported this request. Finally an effort was made to satisfy everyone, in the way which I shall relate. Four of us priests went to the island of Leite which we reached on the day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, the sixteenth of July of the same year. Two of us remained at Carigara in the house of Christoval de Trujillo, the owner of that encomienda, a man of eminent piety, and our benefactor. He straightway built for us there the first house that we possessed in that island. The other two of us went along the coast of that island and those of Ibabao and Samar, observing what peoples and posts were best adapted at that time for our settlement. We returned to Carigara at the end of July, where, thanks to the incredible haste and large number of the Indians, we found our house finished and the two fathers established in it. Early in August, I had information from the father vice-provincial, Antonio Sedeno, that he had arrived at Sebu with two other priests, and summoned me thither. Father Juan del Campo and Father Cosme de Flores remained in Carigara, and undertook the study of the Bissaya language with great fervor. Father Antonio Pereira and I, with another brother, went on to Sebu in conformity with the order of the father vice-provincial. Father Antonio Pereira had remained with Ours in these islands from the time of his arrival, as I said, with the king of Siao, waiting for the conclusion of business which the king and. Father Antonio Marta could not wait for--the latter, because he could not longer absent himself from his province and subordinates: the former, because he could not remain longer away from his kingdom and his vassals. This good father was so eager and zealous for the welfare of souls that, although a guest, he did not permit himself one moment of idleness, but always busied himself in the pulpit and confessional and in other ministries for the welfare of souls. We reached Sebu in the middle of August, where we found our good father