The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 27 of 55: 1636-37; 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 27 of 55: 1636-37; 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
Here his Lordship commanded that neither the [cannon of the] fort
nor the musketry should be discharged at his approach, in order not
to make a noise and thus make his presence known; and for the same
reason he ordered that no vessels should go out of the river. In
spite of all this Corralat soon knew of his coming, through the son
of a chief of Basilan, who at that time was imprisoned in the fort
of Samboanga, with orders that he was not to be released except upon
urgent request by the [Jesuit] fathers, so that in this way they might
secure the goodwill of the Moros. The next day general communion
was proclaimed, together with an indulgence and full jubilee for
the whole camp, for the first Sunday in Lent--his Lordship obliging
all the soldiers to give certificates of confession and communion to
their officers; and he had his own servants do the same thing, for I
found him one day collecting the certificates with his own hands. All
this was done with great fervor, and with many general confessions,
in which the continual discourses and sermons of those days aided
greatly. All received communion on Sunday with his Lordship, the
blessed sacrament being exposed, and all were present later at Father
Berlin's [_sic_] sermon. In the evening, at the time of replacing the
Host, his Lordship was again present with all the soldiery, because
he had appointed me in the morning to preach the evening sermon on
the reverence and devotion necessary to be observed in church, in the
presence of so great a Majesty. This I did to the best of my ability,
at the end inspiring the soldiers for the campaign, and inciting them
to battle by showing them, painted on canvas, [82] a figure of Christ,
whose feet and right arm the Moros had cut off; in the middle of it
they had made a large hole, using the cloth as a _chinina_, or small
mantle. This a Moro actually wore, and they killed him while he had
it on, the day when Nicolas Gonçalez captured the caracoas. Father
Berlin brought it with the sacred ornaments to his Lordship; and he,
knowing that I had been on the lookout for some such thing in Manila,
as soon as he saw it at Point Nasso, gave it to me. When I showed
this image to the soldiers, and exhorted them to avenge with arms the
injuries of the holy Christ, such were the tears, and so great the
tender devotion and holy desire for vengeance with which they were
fired, that (as they afterward told me) they would, on leaving the
church, have been willing to offer battle with all the world [against
them]. The effects were very marked, and much tenderness [of feeling
was displayed], so that at last it was openly said that the mother
who had no sons in this glorious enterprise was very unfortunate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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