The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 21 of 55: 1624; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 21 of 55: 1624; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
With such auspicious beginnings, Ours continued to penetrate the
province, and, going up and down that river, sowed the divine word. It
fell to the lot of father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio, also one of
the eight above mentioned--who regarded but lightly the hardships
that were represented to him, with unfortunate examples, as having
encountered other ministers of the gospel--to journey more than fifty
leguas, preaching the faith of Jesus Christ to the villages. He had
serious and frequent difficulties in making himself heard; for the
devil appeared in a visible form to the Indians, persuading them not
to admit those fathers into their country, because of whom, so they
said, dire calamities and troubles must happen to them. But, as it
was the cause of God, all the deceits and cunning of that common
enemy remained only threats.
It was no little work to make the Indians leave so many wives as each
one had, obliging them to marry the first, and to free their slaves
whom they miserably oppressed. But he attained it with his mildness,
the inoffensive method by which our religious succored the weakness
of those Indians. Thus did they obtain permission to travel through
the shores of that river, gaining souls for heaven, and building a
dwelling in the village of Linao. [52]
In that did the superb zeal of father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio
excel wonderfully. For having resolved to go up the river together with
some Butuan Indians, already Christians, and arriving at the said place
of Linao, and seeing that its inhabitants were gentler and more docile,
he erected an altar in a chosen house, where he placed the images--from
which the heathen received great joy, praising their beauty. Then he
assembled the chief men of the district, and preached them a sermon,
in which he informed them who the true God is, and bade them abandon
the customs and rites of the devil. They jested at such a proposition,
but were soon subdued--especially one, who declared the location of
their god or _divata_. Father Fray Jacinto was overjoyed at that, and
schemed how he might see such place of worship, which was located on
the other side of the river. Commending himself, then, to Jesus Christ,
whose cause he was advancing, he ordered a boat to be launched and went
to look for the idol. Some Indians went out to meet him, brandishing
their lances in order to prevent his entrance. Others more humane,
persuaded him that he should abandon that undertaking, saying that,
if he wished to build a church there, they would give him a better
location. The father answered mildly that that house was very much
to his purpose because it was large, and all could gather in it in
order to be instructed in the mysteries of the faith. The Indians who
accompanied the pious father feared that a quarrel was about to ensue,
and that fear went with them even to the door [of the house]. The
father entered the place of worship boldly, to the wonder of all. He
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