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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

scarcely enough for their missions, they fall sick and die, as many of
the sites and posts to which they go are not very healthful; for which
reason, the lack of ministers in their order is greater each day. This
is felt so much the more keenly as the importance of it is known."

_Second letter_

"This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on other occasions
of the great results produced in these islands by the discalced
Recollect religious of the Order of St. Augustine. Their exemplary
devotion is daily increasing this Christianity, as they strive for it
with so great energy. In regions so remote, and so full of enemies
and of heathen people, they, losing the fear of the violent deaths
that they suffer daily, with the holy zeal which accompanies them,
have founded many convents. From that has resulted a very great
conversion of those rude people, they being the most turbulent that
are known in these regions. May our Lord, for whom is this work,
decree that they continue to increase, since so many blessings result
from it for the glory of our Lord and the service of your Majesty. To
you we represent the aforesaid, and their great need of religious so
that they may continue. For two alone who went to Japon have been the
cause of sending seventy Japanese to heaven--some already religious,
and others brothers of the girdle--while the said two fathers were
arrested and destined for martyrdom, and it is expected will by today
have achieved the happy end of it."

_Third letter_

"This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on various occasions of
the great importance to these islands of the order of the discalced
Recollects of the Order of St. Augustine; of the apostolic men in
it; of the great harvest that they are gathering by the preaching
of the holy gospel; of the excellent example which they have always
given, and are giving, with their strict and religious life, and
their so close observance of their rules; and of the so considerable
results that have been achieved by them in the service of our Lord
and in that of your Majesty, with the aid of your royal arms, in
the great number of infidels who have been converted to our holy
Catholic faith, and have been subdued so that they render your
Majesty due homage and tribute. Those people have generally paid
that tribute and pay it every year. [We have written you] that
those religious have exercised and exercise with especial care in
all things the spiritual earnestness that concerns their profession,
both in the maintenance or their work and in their continual desire,
notwithstanding the innumerable annoyances which they endure, to carry
this work onward. They are ever converting new souls to the service
of our Lord and the obedience of your Majesty, while they preserve
great harmony and concord among themselves. Consequently, that order
has always been and is one of the most acceptable orders and one
of the most welcome in these islands. They are the poorest of all,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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

scarcely enough for their missions, they fall sick and die, as many of
the sites and posts to which they go are not very healthful; for which
reason, the lack of ministers in their order is greater each day. This
is felt so much the more keenly as the importance of it is known."

_Second letter_

"This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on other occasions
of the great results produced in these islands by the discalced
Recollect religious of the Order of St. Augustine. Their exemplary
devotion is daily increasing this Christianity, as they strive for it
with so great energy. In regions so remote, and so full of enemies
and of heathen people, they, losing the fear of the violent deaths
that they suffer daily, with the holy zeal which accompanies them,
have founded many convents. From that has resulted a very great
conversion of those rude people, they being the most turbulent that
are known in these regions. May our Lord, for whom is this work,
decree that they continue to increase, since so many blessings result
from it for the glory of our Lord and the service of your Majesty. To
you we represent the aforesaid, and their great need of religious so
that they may continue. For two alone who went to Japon have been the
cause of sending seventy Japanese to heaven--some already religious,
and others brothers of the girdle--while the said two fathers were
arrested and destined for martyrdom, and it is expected will by today
have achieved the happy end of it."

_Third letter_

"This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on various occasions of
the great importance to these islands of the order of the discalced
Recollects of the Order of St. Augustine; of the apostolic men in
it; of the great harvest that they are gathering by the preaching
of the holy gospel; of the excellent example which they have always
given, and are giving, with their strict and religious life, and
their so close observance of their rules; and of the so considerable
results that have been achieved by them in the service of our Lord
and in that of your Majesty, with the aid of your royal arms, in
the great number of infidels who have been converted to our holy
Catholic faith, and have been subdued so that they render your
Majesty due homage and tribute. Those people have generally paid
that tribute and pay it every year. [We have written you] that
those religious have exercised and exercise with especial care in
all things the spiritual earnestness that concerns their profession,
both in the maintenance or their work and in their continual desire,
notwithstanding the innumerable annoyances which they endure, to carry
this work onward. They are ever converting new souls to the service
of our Lord and the obedience of your Majesty, while they preserve
great harmony and concord among themselves. Consequently, that order
has always been and is one of the most acceptable orders and one
of the most welcome in these islands. They are the poorest of all,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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