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
One of those who were most grieved by this disastrous uprising was
father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas, for he had dwelt for a long
time among this tribe, and had been the vicar and superior of those
churches, and loved each one of the insurgents as his spiritual
son. Hence this misfortune hurt his soul, and he determined to
strive to remedy this great evil as completely as he could, without
shrinking from any danger or effort for the purpose. The places
where the insurgents had betaken themselves had been selected as
particularly strong and secure, and were in the midst of mountains
so high and so craggy that they might be defended from the Spaniards,
if the latter should try to bring them back or to punish them. Hence
the journey to them was long and excessively difficult. Yet in spite
of this, without hesitating at the hardships of the road, and at
the great danger which he ran by passing through villages of other
Indians--with whom he was not acquainted, and who were generally
looking out for an opportunity to cut off some head without running
any risk--he made his way through everything, went among them alone,
and tried to arrange for bringing them back, and made agreements with
them. No Spaniard dared appear among them, for they were certain
to kill him, but father Fray Pedro was admitted and entertained;
and in the following year, 1622, he brought back in peace with him
some three hundred households of those who had rebelled. These had
gone with the body of insurgents from the villages of Pilitan and
Bolo. Most of them had been compelled to do so, as has been said,
and they were accordingly brought back as a result of the earnest
efforts and the courageous boldness of father Fray Pedro. Returning
to a pacified region, they were settled at the mouth of the river of
Maquila. After this was accomplished, he went further up the river
of Balisi, where it was most difficult, with the alcade-mayor and
the troops who were advancing against the rebels. He went before,
trusting in God, to speak with the enemy; and he was so confident
that he was able to say, like St. Martin among the highwaymen, that
he had never had less fear in all his life, because fear had been
taken from him by the Lord, for whose sake he had placed himself in
this situation. The leader of the revolted enemy, Don Gabriel Dayag,
came to him and kissed his scapular with great reverence, and embraced
him. Repenting for what he had done, Don Gabriel planned to return;
and although at that time he did not carry out this project, he
finally came down in peace later, and revealed to the father some
ambuscades on the road in some dangerous passes where the Indians
intended to kill the Spanish soldiers, which danger was avoided by
his information. At that time this father was vicar-provincial, and,
that he might be able to have more time to attend to these necessary
and arduous labors, the provincial relieved him from the office--to the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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