The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 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 31, 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 religious who were coming to the province, although they had
been diminished in number by the savages of Guadalupe, were of great
use. They were fourteen in number, and, that they might immediately
begin that which they had sought over so many seas and through so
many hardships, they were assigned to their duties. The newly-elected
provincial took with him four for the province of Nueva Segovia,
where at that time the conversions were going on rapidly, because the
country was large and nearly all the inhabitants were heathen. When
they reached the cape known as Cabo del Bojeador, a place which is
ordinarily a difficult one, the provincial saw that a small cloud which
covered the peaks of some mountains near there was moving toward the
sea, which began to be unquiet and rough. The pilot thought it best
that the sails should be lowered somewhat, in order better to resist
the attack of the wind and the waves which threatened them. While he
was striving to do this, the tempest anticipated him; and the wind came
with such force that wind and wave turned the vessel on its side, and
the water entered over the sides of the ship. It was necessary for the
religious to put their hands to the oars, while the rest went to work,
with great difficulty, to get in the sails--nothing being left but the
courses, in order to make it possible to steer. Although the amount of
sail was so small, the wind was so powerful that, lifting the vessel on
one side, it forced the other under the water. The religious repeated
the exorcisms against the tempest, upon which it subsided a little;
but when the exorcism was completed it came back with as much force as
at first, almost capsizing the vessel, and making it ship water. When
the exorcism was renewed, the tempest moderated itself anew; but when
the exorcism was completed, its fury returned as before. Thus they
perceived that this tempest was not merely a tempest of wind and of
waves, but was aided by the devil--who at the words of the exorcism
lost his strength, and as soon as that ceased received it again,
to hinder the ministers of the gospel. Four times they repeated the
exorcism, and four times the same thing happened, upon which the
father provincial, recognizing the author of this evil, said: "Since
I see that ministers are to be given to the villages of the heathen,
and that the devil, who unjustly keeps them under his tyranny, is
about to be banished from them, I promise to build a church under
the patronage of the guardian angels, that they may aid us against
this cursed enemy who is so clearly making war against us." As soon
as he had made this promise, it seemed that the guardian angels took
upon themselves the protection of the fragata; for the tornado began
to disappear, and they continued their voyage. On the following day
they rounded the cape, by rowing against a slight contrary wind which
had arisen; and when this wind had quieted down, the fragata came to
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