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
as the others did. They did not know to what they might attribute
this, when they saw that for all the others that were making the same
voyage the wind was fair, while for them it was contrary. At last,
forced by necessity, they were obliged to return to Bigan, where
the chiefs of the town again tried to persuade them to receive the
religious. To influence them the more, they said: "Look, and see that
the religious whom you have are not going to do you any harm. On the
contrary, they will do you much good by helping to protect you from
the Spaniards. The people of Pangasinan, our neighbors, are very well
pleased with them; for they eat no chickens, but only a little fish,
and if that is not given to them they get along with herbs. They
do not travel on the backs of men, or of Indians, but on their own
feet. If there is no one to carry their bed for them, they carry it
on their own shoulders. They do not seek for gold, they do not ask for
silver; on the contrary, they give of what they have to their Indians,
they maintain the poor, and they cure the sick." Influenced by these
words, and disgusted and wearied by the unfavorable weather which
they experienced, they determined to return to their village, after
having spent four months on a journey which was usually performed in
a week, and after having been many times in danger of being wrecked
and drowned. By this may be seen the rebelliousness of their hearts,
and the mercy of the Lord, who carried them from one place to the
other, and, placing before their eyes the death that they deserved,
hindered the evil purpose upon which they had entered, and drew them
to His holy law. They did not understand it then, but came to see
it afterward; and to this day they tell the story with great wonder,
as of a manifestly miraculous and marvelous event. When they reached
their own village, they had become changed and gentle, beyond all the
hope that the fathers had of them. They began with all their hearts to
learn how to pray, to hear the catechism, and to frequent the church;
and, urging the others to do the same, they accepted baptism. They
and the rest in that house became very good Christians, and were the
support of Christianity in that region. They gave alms freely, and
were devoted to the divine worship. God has given them His blessing;
and that household is the best ordered and most highly esteemed
among all the Indians in that province. In the meantime, the chiefs
of this village and their neighbors were waiting for news from Manila
that the negotiations of those who had sailed there had succeeded in
causing the dismissal of the religious. While waiting, they tricked and
deceived them by sending half a dozen boys to listen to the prayers,
having agreed among themselves that none of the grown people should
enter the church or the fathers' dwelling-place, or should have any
dealings with them, or go to see them. This plan displeased the boys,
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