234. There was at that time an alcalde-mayor in the fortress of Tándag whose name is omitted for a special reason. The venerable father Fray Pedro de San Joseph Roxas, a religious of eminent qualities and excellent virtues, was prior of that convent. He, having concluded that the minister ought, as a teacher, to attend to the Indians in regard to instruction, and as a father, to watch over their protection, on seeing his parishioners persecuted with unjust vexations thought himself obliged to oppose the illegal acts of the alcalde. Father Fray Pedro saw the people of Tándag and its visitas oppressed with insupportable burdens. He saw them suffering so great sadness that their weeping did not dare to mount from the heart to the eyes, nor could the bosom trust its respiration to the lips. The father noted that, in proportion as they were sacrificed to the greed of another, just so much did they grow lukewarm in living according to the Catholic maxims. Since there was no one to speak for the Indians if that zealous minister became dumb, he resolved to defeat them efficaciously in order to make so great wrong cease, even if it were at his own risk. He asked humbly, exhorted fervently, and insisted in and out of season in proportion to the cause; but seeing his petitions unheeded in Tándag, he placed them in a Tribunal where they would receive attention. 235. The alcalde-mayor, resenting the father's demands, took occasion to send his reports to Don Diego Faxardo; accordingly he said that that fortress of Carágha was in a state of vigorous defense, although it had a dangerous neighbor in the convent, for that was a very strong work and dominated the fortress. Consequently, he thought that it was a necessary precaution to destroy it. Thereupon the governor called a meeting of auditors, judges, and officials of the royal treasury; and on the nineteenth of December, 1647, they despatched a general order to all the alcaldes-mayor commanding that the stone churches and convents built along the sea shore be demolished. The reason given was that if the Dutch succeeded in capturing them in their invasions, they would find in them forts enabling them to continue their raids with greater persistency. Already the said captain had been withdrawn from Tándag and Don Juan Garcia appointed in his place when that order from the royal Audiencia was received. He called a meeting of Captains Juan de Sabáta and Don Marcos de Resines, also summoning Sargento-mayor Don Andrés Curto and the same alcalde-mayor who had been at Tándag--of whom he did not yet even know that he had given the said report. They recognized that the church could be burned and pulled down in less than six hours, in case the Dutch came; for its walls were built of the weakest kind of stone and the roof of nipa, which is as combustible as straw. On the other hand, they saw the Indian natives somewhat sad and feared that they would take to the mountains in flight