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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 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

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 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 32, 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

They left Pangasinan for Ytuy December 6, 1632, the day of St. Nicholas
the bishop; and since there is but little communication between the
two countries--none at all, in fact, except that occasionally some
natives on each side visit the other--there is no open road from one
to the other, since the Indians have no need of one, making their way
like deer through the thickets of the mountains. By their account, the
journey takes four days; but this is estimated by their mode of travel,
which is twice as rapid as ours. Father Fray Thomas was so eager to
reach that region that he even wished to make the journey shorter,
and he asked the Indians if they did not know some short cut. One
of them responded that he did; the father asked him to guide them,
and they all followed him. This was in an evil hour, for the short
cut did nothing but to increase their labor, as it took them out of
their way. The journey occupied nine days, over mountains and across
valleys, and through rivers, streams, and marshes, which they came
upon at every step--for the guide did not know where he was going, and
yet they were obliged to follow him. The provision which they carried
was but for a few days, since they did not expect so long a journey,
and they carried it all on their own shoulders that they might not
burden the Indians. Since the journey took twice as long as they had
expected, they became very hungry, and thus suffered much, hunger being
added to exhaustion. The sky was not kind to them on their journey,
for it rained constantly on all these days and they had no protection;
and the ground was as cruel, for the thickets abounded with leeches
who attached themselves to the faces, the hands, and the feet of
the travelers, and drew blood like a physician's blood-letting. The
Indians were not distressed by any of these things, or by the necessity
of carrying the fathers on their shoulders across rivers or very bad
places in the road, which shows the pleasure and affection with which
they were taking the religious to their country. The fathers endured
this no less well, being certain that they were not putting into a
torn sack what they suffered for God.

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