The captivities and oppressions suffered by Ours would take long to recount, and so I shall give only one. Jolo is an island that lies between those of Burnei and Mindanao. It is very famous in that archipelago, not for its size, but for the warlike daring of its caciques or petty kings, who have made themselves feared by their robberies and cruel deeds throughout those seas. While their fleet, then, was at Calamianes, father Fray Juan de San Joseph, a native of Granada, was captured. He was then prior of the convent of Cuyo, and was visiting those villages which had been converted to the faith, administering the sacraments and the word of God to them--the employment of those gospel ministers. They took him to their island, being greedy for the ransom. The amount of it was discussed, but as the sum demanded by those barbarians was large, and the poor religious could not collect it in a short time, it was necessarily delayed for some time. During that time the Mahometan islanders began to persuade the father to abandon the faith and adopt their vile worship, promising him great riches and comfort, and marriage with a sister of the lord or petty king of the island. That would have been a powerful temptation to one who was not so firm in the law of Jesus Christ, and assisted by His divine favor. Our religious resisted that strong and troublesome battery mightily; but those barbarians, seeing themselves despised, turned the leaf, converting those flatteries into threats of death, and placed before him many cruel methods of depriving him of life. That was not what the good father feared most, since he desired to lose his life for the faith which he professed. The petty king had conceived an affection for the father, and left untried no means in his power in order to break down the strength of the religious. To such an extent did he carry his madness that one of the wives of the barbarian, a beautiful and unbridled woman, visited our prisoner often, accompanied by beautiful women of high rank, in order that they might achieve success in winning him to their disgraceful love; for, had he been taken in that net, the chaste man would have remained ensnared. That trick, it is well known, is one of the most persuasive that the devil furnishes. For he makes war by the affection for the object, and with the vehement incentives of the appetite. But divine grace was very well fortified in the soul of the gospel minister. Consequently, the shots of the devil, the world, and the flesh were weakened and destroyed. The women returned in confusion, after hearing him preach of the mysteries of our sacred law. He understood the Bisayan language very well, and consequently learned the one peculiar to that island in a short time. Although the instruction did not take root in their minds, at least they recognized a certain element of grandeur that aroused their veneration. Father Fray Juan passed considerable time