The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 30 of 55, 1640: 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 centuryAduarte, Diego
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 30 of 55, 1640: 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
Aduarte, Diego
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
the one who received the fathers, made a small cross and fastened
it to his bed, that it might protect him from this sickness, and in
this way he attained his desire. When the religious entered this and
the other villages of the Indians, they had absolutely no knowledge
of the language; and there was in all the villages not a single
person who desired to receive the faith, since it had never been
preached to them. They had never heard a thing of it in all their
lives; on the contrary, the devil had kept them prejudiced against
it--by the threats which he uttered, and by telling them that their
ancestors would return, and would be greatly grieved to find them
under a different law from that which they had followed. Moreover,
the works which they saw done by the Christian Spaniards whom they
knew there were not such as to cause them to be converted, or to
make them esteem the Christian way of living. At that time they knew
no religious, though they had heard of them, but very confusedly
and uncertainly, by reports brought from Pangasinan. Accordingly
they felt distrustful of religious, and believed that they followed
the customs of the soldiers, because they belonged to the nation of
the latter. At first, therefore, they put no confidence in them and
could not understand what their purposes were in coming to live in
the Indian villages. They feared that the religious would be like the
other Christians whom they had seen, who came to try to get away from
them their gold and everything that they prized. Being suspicious
of this, some of the villages refused to admit them, for instance,
that of Masi. But in the village of Pata they were kindly received,
and built their poor church and tiny dwelling-place, made of nothing
but cane and nipa or straw, and of very slender stakes. Even for
this they had to pay the Indians much more than the materials were
worth, as also for the labor of those who built it. However, the
fathers thought nothing of the expense, but it seemed to them very
good; and to this very day they praise that house, and regard it as
very well built. As the religious did not understand the language,
and did not even have any translators or interpreters [naguatatos]
by whom they might communicate with the Indians, and explain the law
of God which they came to preach to them, they labored much with very
small results. The Indians, who were greatly displeased to see them
in their villages, gave them nothing to eat; and the need and hunger
which they suffered were very great. Although they suffered joyfully
for love of God, still these things had their natural effect on their
bodies; and father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho was afflicted by a
severe pain in the stomach, and his companion by giddiness of the
head. Both of these maladies were due to their lack of food, for as
soon as they had anything to eat they recovered. But it was not often
that they had sufficient food, sustaining themselves generally with
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