The bishop of these provinces, Don Diego de Soria, determined to give this village to the order, that it might minister to it. The father provincial who held that office at the time, charged father Fray Thomas with this duty. He set out there immediately, and began on the way to learn something of the language of the country, of which he had already a vocabulary and a grammar. Though it is different from that of Pangasinan, he preached in it at the end of twenty days after he arrived there, and before the bishop and other priests who were there, and before the natives, to the wonder of all. He began to fill his office so acceptably to the Indians that some came from the most remote parts of the province to confess to him and to receive his counsels. He was given the name of "the holy father," and, whenever they spoke of him, they used this name. As this is the appellation of the supreme pontiff of the church, whom the Indians had never seen, and still less had any dealings with him, those who were not acquainted with the secret were surprised to hear them speak until they came to understand it. Father Fray Thomas remained here a year, and his teaching and example were easily perceived in the improvement of the Indians and of those who were under his direction. All this province of the Indians is under the care of Augustinian fathers, who have in it many places where they give Christian instruction. They accordingly claimed this of Nalbacan, which was the only place outside of their jurisdiction. The order was very willing to yield it, and in exchange for it the Augustinians gave to our order another, which they had among our ministries in Pangasinan; and thus each order remained with its province complete, with its own tribe and language. When the Augustinian fathers came to take possession of the house of father Fray Thomas, as they did somewhat in advance of the time, he departed with nothing but his cloak, his hat, his breviary, and his staff, setting out for the province of Nueva Segovia, which was very near, to wait for the order of his superior, and to be disposed of as he pleased. Desiring not to be idle in the interim, for he did not wish to be idle a single hour--and if he did not know the language he would have to be idle many hours--he learned the language of that country with the facility which God had given him. He was aided by the fact that the languages of these three provinces of Indians are somewhat alike, and resemble each other in their idioms and in their syntax--which does not seem to have been invented by a barbarous people, but by a race of intelligence and keenness of mind. He remained but a short time in this province, being sent by the order of his superior to his former province of Pangasinan, whose language he understood as if it were his mother-tongue. In this language he wrote many books of devotion, sermons, and treatises, which he distributed while he was alive among the fathers who were ministers to that people;