792. In the year 1606, that grain of mustard arrived in Manìla, and although it was small, it produced the tree of most surpassing magnitude. I speak of our first mission which was composed at its arrival of a small number of religious. By preaching the glory of God and announcing the works of His power, so few men founded the greatness of that holy province among the illuminations of blind heathenism. It cannot be denied that by that time the sound of the word of God had reached all the Philipinas Islands, which had been announced by the illustrious champions who had preceded us in that vast archipelago, to wit, the calced Augustinians, the discalced Franciscans, the Jesuits and the Dominicans. But there cannot be any doubt either that, notwithstanding that all the above orders had worked in the conversion of souls, with the most heroic fervor, some new locations in which they could enter to work were not lacking to Ours. The harvest was great and the laborers few; and since, however much those destined for that cultivation sweated in continual tenacity, they could not go beyond the limited sphere of man, hence it is that the Recollects on reaching that great vineyard at the hour of nine, equaled in merit those who gained their day's wages from the first hour. And in truth this will appear evident if one considers that even now, after so many years in which the sacerdotal tuba of the apostolic ministry has been incessantly exercised, not a few places are found in the said islands where the individuals of all orders are employed in living missions, and struggle with the most obstinate paganism.