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.
Aduarte, Diego
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
[Father Fray Thomas Gutierrez was a native of the city of Origuela
in the kingdom of Valencia; and he assumed the habit in the convent
and college of the order there. When the opportunity offered he went
to the province of Sant Hipolito de Oaxaca in Nueva España. Here he
learned the language of the Mistecs, whose minister he was for some
years. Coming to the Philippinas, he was assigned to the province of
Pangasinan, where in a few months he learned the language so well that
he surpassed many of the very natives. He rebuked the vices of the
Indians with such efficacy that they called him "Thunder," because
he frightened them like the thunder, which they greatly fear. He
was a rigid observer of the rules of the province and was notable
for his modesty. He went courageously among the savage Indians, who
often attack those who are traveling along the paths--not for their
purses, but for their heads, he who cuts off the greatest number
being the most highly esteemed among them.] On one occasion he came
to a village of these Indians called Managuag. While he was there,
more than four hundred of these Zambales, as they are called, appeared
in the village, with their bows, arrows, lances, and daggers such as
they use--which are so keen that in a single instant they strike a
head to the earth. They came into the unsuspecting village with such
a noise and shout that the poor inhabitants, being unarmed, almost
died of fear. Some fled to the mountains, and some sixty Christian
Indians took refuge in the house of a chief. When they saw that they
were lost, having no weapons nor any means to defend themselves,
they put themselves in the hands of God, and decided to make use of
prayers in place of weapons; so they fell on their knees, and began in
a loud voice to pray in their language. The Zambales, hearing them,
surrounded the house and undertook to go up to it. Without knowing
what held them back, they were several times obliged to retreat when
they were half-way there. They finally set fire to it, though against
their will, for they thought much of being able to take with them the
heads of its inmates. It was burned to the ground in a few moments,
with those who were within. Although God did not deliver them from the
fire, He showed by a miracle that He had delivered them from the fires
of hell, and perhaps from the fires of purgatory, exchanging those
for this fire; for they were all found dead in a circle, untouched
by the fire, and on their knees, with their elbows on the ground and
their heads on their hands. Most of them took refuge in the church
under the protection of the father and of God. These availed them;
and the father, without attempting to close doors or windows, took
in his hands a Christ that was on the altar, from whom he and the
people (who were about him) all begged for mercy, which the Father
of Mercies granted them. It was a marvelous thing that though the
cemetery in front of the church had a wall the height of which was
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