397. The mountains called Zambàles extend a distance of fifty leguas from Mount Batàn to the plains of Pangasinàn in the island of Luzòn. They are peopled by an innumerable race, who defend themselves from the Spanish arms almost within sight of Manila, because of the roughness of the ground, and maintain along with their heathenism, their barbarous customs. Who these people are can be seen in volume i, to which we refer the reader, [27] We only warn him that the Indians of whom that volume talks, inasmuch as they live in the beaches and plains extending from Marivèlez to Bolinào, and being, consequently, needed in the trade with Spaniards and civilized Indians, are not so ferocious as those who without these mitigating circumstances, inhabit the rough mountains of which we speak. Not a few natives of several nations are found in that place. Some of them are born in the dense thickets and are reared in the most barbaric infidelity. Others are called Zimarrònes, and have apostatized from the Catholic faith, after having fled from the nearby Christian villages. There is also an incredible number of blacks who, without God, without king, without law, without civilization, without settlement, live as though they had no rational soul. All of those Indians, notwithstanding that they wage most bloody wars among themselves, generally unite to oppose the Spanish arms, when the Spaniards have attempted their conquest, and stake their greatest reputation in shedding human blood. 398. The evangelical ministers have always fought with the sword of the divine word against that wild forest of men almost unreasoning, and with all the means dictated by charitable prudence, in order to convert it into a pleasant garden by means of the Catholic faith. The Dominican fathers stationed in the district of Pangasinàn, and in the villages called El Partido, which are located on the opposite side of Manila Bay, have always cast their net, and obtained not few hauls of good fish. The Observantine Augustinian fathers have also done the same from their missions in Pampanga, which border the above-mentioned mountains. The fathers of the Society have done the same from the village of San Mathèo, which is situated almost on the brow of the said mountains on the Manila side. And our discalced Recollects, equally with those who have done most, have labored in this undertaking at all times, without despising occasions. They have great opportunity for doing that, for, as a general thing, ten or twelve laborers live in the fifteen reduced villages of the Zambals, who occupy all the coast for a distance of forty leguas from Bolinào to Marivèlez, and surround all the above-mentioned mountains by the sea side.