Ocio y Ocampo, was wont to say, as I have heard from his own mouth, and not only once, that if he had authority for it he would not hesitate to canonize any Recollect, who happens to lose his life among the fatigues of his calling, while completely fulfilling his obligation in the missions of those islands, as is the case with many. 323. And if this is endured in only the hardships annexed to the spiritual administration, what must it not be when the destructive tempests of the persecutions of the Moros, the greatest part of which assail our laborers, happen to come? Then there is no other relief than to flee to the mountains in order to live in passes and caves, seeking their preservation, not so much for their self-love, but because of that for others. There, through lack of food, too much heat, continual rains, and many other discomforts, they are generally so disfigured and so weak that rivaling Job, they only live because of a skin loosely stretched over their bones. How many contract incurable diseases there, who dragging along all their life with them prove themselves to be stages of the greatest pity! How many by trampling under foot evident dangers, in hastening to the consolation of their sheep, to confess the sick, to aid the dying, either gave themselves into the hands of the enemy to be the victims of their cruelty, or offered themselves a willing sacrifice to the precipices of the mountains and to the shipwrecks of the seas! How many, since the world is unworthy of their noble and Christian intercourse, and, it seems, tried to cast from itself, wander for months at a time, naked, an hungered, persecuted, followed on all sides by the shadow of death, without other consolation than that of God, in whose hands they desire to finish their lives, delivering to Him their wearied souls! And how many, finally, obtained the precious crown of martyrdom, after having coursed the sands of so many hardships, which were ended either by the edge of the sword, or by a spear-thrust, or at the spindle of hardships, or at grief at seeing holy things so outraged, or by the inundations of penalties in atrocious captivities! Mention has been made of many in the preceding volumes, but some who will serve to ornament this volume were omitted.