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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 — John Shaqi

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

Name: 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
Author: Aduarte, Diego

Aduarte, Diego

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

written from Nueva Segovia to a brother at Manila: "Though I have been
told that I would be very unhappy and discouraged by the difficulty of
learning the language, and though I find that it is very difficult to
me because of my age and lack of memory, I am not disconsolate; because
merely to be in company with a father who is a master of the language,
and to act as his confessor, will greatly serve our Lord. This region
is a pleasant one, and my health is good in it during the winter, which
lasts from the beginning of October to March. It resembles the climate
of Valencia during the same period, having cool and fresh nights. A
great part of the country is very open, and the mountains are not high
or rugged. Some of the convents are on the shore of the sea; others,
on the bank of a copious river, which is navigated by canoes for a
distance of sixty leguas up the river. No one has reached the head of
it, or knows where the spring is." The happiness of the missionaries
in their work will be plain from what has been said. As a result of
having lived devoted lives they died happy deaths, rejoicing in their
firm hope that they were going to enjoy the Lord whom they had served,
and for whom they had abandoned their parents, kinsmen, native lands,
and the ease which they might have enjoyed in España.]





CHAPTER XLI

The servant of God, Don Fray Domingo de Salaçar, first bishop of
the Philippinas


By the ships which came to these islands from Nueva España in 1596,
arrived the sad news of the death of their father and first bishop,
Don Fray Domingo de Salaçar. This was one of the greatest losses
which they could have met with at that time, for they lost in him a
most loving father and a most faithful defender. In their defense
he had not hesitated to set out on a long and perilous journey to
España, and that in his very last years, when his great age would
have excused him from such excessive labors. But the fervent love
which he had for his sheep would not permit him to offer any excuses,
when he saw them in so great need as they were in at that time. There
was in these regions no place from which he could obtain relief for
them, nor could he have obtained relief from España if he had not
gone there in person to get it, for he had tried all other means. He
had sent a procurator; and he had written most urgent letters, and
had learned by experience that they did not bring about the results
desired. In fine, these islands lost a shepherd and a holy bishop;
and when this has been said, everything has been said. The Order of
St. Dominic, which had been so recently established in these islands,
suffered the greatest loss in this general affliction, for it had
in him a father and a brother who loved it most affectionately;
and a continual benefactor, who, though he was poor in the extreme,
seemed rich and generous in the benefits which he conferred upon the
order. Without them it would have suffered much, because the religious

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