by the physician, because of his very speedy death. If this were true, it was a happy death which he suffered in such a holy cause. He died on the day of the eleven thousand virgins, to whom he showed a particular devotion; and it might have been a reward to him to die on such a day, since the church knows by experience the great protection which these saints offer at that time to those who are devoted to them. [In the district of Bataan died Father Juan de la Cruz, a son of the convent of San Pablo at Sevilla. He was one of the first founders of this province, in which he lived for eighteen years. He was small of body, and weak and delicate in constitution; but his zeal gave him strength for the great labors which accompanied the beginning of this conversion. He was one of the first workers in the field of Pangasinan, where he suffered all the evils and miseries which have been described in the account of that conversion. He very rapidly learned the language of these Indians, which they call Tagala; and succeeded so perfectly with it that father Fray Francisco San Joseph, who was afterwards the best linguist there was, profited by the papers and labors of father Fray Juan de la Cruz. Father Fray Juan even learned afterward two other Indian languages, those of the Zambales and the Pampangos. Father Fray Juan, being the only linguist among the fathers, was called upon constantly to hear confessions; and therefore suffered even more than the rest from the exposures of traveling from place to place in this district. These hardships broke down the health even of strong men like father Fray Christobal de Salvatierra, who suffered from a terrible asthma. Father Fray Juan was afflicted by an asthma so terrible that it seemed as if every night must be his last; and he felt the dreadful anxiety which accompanies this disease. He also suffered from two other diseases even more severe, colic and urinary ailments, which afflicted him even more than the asthma. He was so patient and so angelic in nature that all these diseases and afflictions could not disturb him or make him irritable. His body he treated like a wild beast that had to be tamed, weakening it with fasts, binding it with chains, mortifying it with hair-shirts, and chastising it with scourgings. He was chosen as confessor by the archbishop of Manila, Don Fray Miguel de Venavides. Immediately after the death of the archbishop he returned to his labors among the Indians, but did not survive long. When a religious of the Order of St. Dominic is about to breathe his last, the rest of the convent gather about him to aid him to die well; and to call them together some boards are struck or a rattle is sounded, he who strikes them repeating, "Credo, credo." Father Fray Juan de la Cruz, desiring to follow the usual custom of the order, taught an Indian to strike together these boards, although the father was alone in the village; and this was the last farewell of this noble religious.