The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 38, 1674-1683: 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
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 38, 1674-1683: 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
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
1. I entered the college of Santo Thomàs for the third time, and that
time it was to teach the morning classes in theology. The last of
April of the following year, the archbishop assigned Don Christoval
Sarmiento, cura of Nuestra Señora de Guia, as visitor of Mindoro. He
asked me to go in his company, and he did not have to beg me urgently,
for the air at the college was very bad for me. The father provincial
gave his consent, and, having taken one of my pupils as associate,
we all went up-stream together, and then crossed over to the sea;
and, on the day of the Cross in May, I preached in Bacò. The devotion
of the Indians to the cross is very remarkable; they venerate and
celebrate it to the greatest degree imaginable. There is no Indian
village which is not full of crosses, and the Indians set up and
fix them with great neatness. As we entered the first visita on our
way up-stream, we were overtaken by a furious storm, and passed a
miserable night indeed in the boat, which was very small. For the
second time we crossed over the mountain of the leeches, with great
suffering. I had left the second visita until my return. A chief asked
me to confess him, but I told him to wait a few days until my return,
when I would have plenty of time. He insisted and begged me to hear
him confess. I did so, and when I returned he was already dead. I
considered that it was the result of his predestination. I remember
that he confessed very well and with great tenderness of heart.
2. I reached the village with the beautiful location of which I have
already written. But since the Camucones had in the preceding year
captured the chief of it on his leaving Nanhoan, I found it changed
now and all the people sad and disconsolate. I talked with his wife,
who was in mourning, and confessed her. Before I had confessed her,
it is true that she had never uncovered her face. Such sedateness and
modesty as this is observed by many Indian women, even by villagers. I
consoled her as well as I could. In another village before we reached
that of Santiago, many Indians were assembled; we remained there for
a considerable time. I noted there that the dogs barked excessively
during the night, and, as it was a dangerous place on account of
the Camucones, that caused some anxiety. I asked the Indians the
reason for so much barking. They answered: "Father, there are many
crocodiles in this river. When the dogs wish to cross over to the
other side they gather in one spot and bark for a long time until
they believe that the crocodiles have collected there (for it is a
fact that is well known that crocodiles look for dogs as cats do for
rats); and then, some of the dogs running above and some below, they
cross over safe and secure from the crocodiles. That happens nightly,
and consequently, there is no [cause for] anxiety when they are heard
to bark." I wondered, and I remembered that I had read that the dogs
of the Nile region do the same thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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