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
to those who continued to sacrifice to the devil. Keeping secret the
source of his information, he immediately went] in haste to the place,
sometimes alone, and caught the sacrificers in the very act. Without
waiting an instant, he upset everything, and broke the dishes and
bowls and other vessels which they used in their rites; poured out
their wine; burned the robes in which the aniteras or priestesses
dress themselves on such occasions, and the curtains with which
they covered up everything else; threw down the hut, and completely
destroyed it. In this way he made them understand how little all those
things availed, and how vain were the threats which the devil uttered
against those who would not venerate him; and, in brief, that this
was all falsehood and deceit. Many were thus aroused and undeceived;
while others, and not a few, were angry, so that it was a wonder
that he was not slain. [The rest of the fathers followed his plan;
but father Fray Pedro led them all, following the track of this chase,
in which his scent was so keen that nothing could escape him. At his
death, father Fray Pedro was able to say that he was sure of the two
aureoles of virgin and of doctor, and that he had almost succeeded
in gaining that of martyr. The village of Magaldan was the most
obstinate of all these villages in their errors. They had striven to
kill a father of the Order of St. Francis, insomuch that the dagger
was already lifted above him for that purpose, and he had fled. They
had refused to admit the fathers of the Order of St. Augustine, and
they would not listen to a secular priest who was assigned to them,
although the alcalde-mayor fined and punished them. It was these
Indians whom father Fray Pedro de Soto came to conquer with patience
and Christian charity. The Indians said that he never employed a
word of their language wrong. He was engaged for a whole year in
translating the gospel into this language, and translated some lives
of saints and instances of virtue--which though they were composed in
the very beginning, are still esteemed and are greatly prized, because
of the propriety of the words and the elevated style with which he
treated these matters. He was devoted to the study of theology and
sacred letters, and was continual in both mental and vocal prayer,
to which he added fasting. Being taken to Manila to be treated for
the fever from which he suffered, he died there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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