So great is the ease and tenacity with which they believe the greatest nonsense, if this is to the discredit of the Spaniards or against them, that it would be a long undertaking to recount some of it. I have deemed it advisable to mention only two [instances] of it of which I heard [161] and of which I was a witness, so that the rest can be inferred from them. 37. While I was in Bisayas in the year 1672, those islands began to be depopulated and the Indians began to take to the mountains from the visitas of Xaro, because a rogue told them a bit of nonsense like the following. He told them that the king of España had gone out fishing, and the Turks had come upon him and made him captive; and that the king had given for his ransom all the Indians of the province of Oton. They believed this so thoroughly that it was with great difficulty that the alcalde Don Sebastian de Villarreal and the father ministers could quiet them, and considerable time passed before they were sure of the whole matter. [162] The second: While I was in the village of Lipa, a mine was discovered in that of Tanavan which was said to be of silver. Governor Don Fausto Cruzat y Gongorà sent ministers and officials in order to find out about it and to assay it. These men made their efforts, but the mine only said, Argentum et aurum non est mihi. [163] But the devil willed to have some rogue at this time to sow this deceit, namely, that the ministers [164] said that the mine would yield no silver until all the old women of Cometan had been caught, and their eyes plucked out and mixed with other ingredients, in order to anoint the vein of the mine with that mixture. This was believed, so that all was confusion and lamentation, and the old women hid in the fields; and it took a long time to quiet them, and cost the ministers great difficulty, as the Indians would not believe them because they were Castilians, until time itself undeceived them. [165] 38. May God deliver us from any one of those Indians whom they consider as sages, who says any bit of nonsense, even though it be against the faith, [166] and they only respond, Vica nong maronong, "Thus say the sages," and it is labor lost to persuade them to the contrary; for the authority that these scholars have over them is incredible. 39. They are extremely arrogant, and hence the son will not obey his father, or the headman, or captain of the village. [167] They are only bound in this by fear, and when they have no fear they will not obey. They only recognize the Spaniard to be more than they; [168] and this they say only because of an interior impulse, which forces them against their will and without their knowing why. This is the providence of God, so that they can be governed.