The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 42, 1670-1700: 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 42, 1670-1700: 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
[44] Diaz does not give the Christian name of this missionary,
but Murillo Velarde says (ut supra, fol. 300 b), that it was Juan
de Esquivel; this name, however, is not again mentioned by that
author. On fol. 284 he gives the following account of Diego de
Esquivel (of whom Juan may have been a brother): "On the sixth of
June, 1665, died at Manila Father Diego de Esquivel, at the age of
forty-two years, after seventeen years as a member of the Society;
he was a native of the said city, and it was there that he entered
the Society, in the year 1648. He finished his studies there, and,
having been ordained as a priest, was sent to Ternate--where he
learned perfectly the language of the natives, of which he wrote a
grammar and a vocabulary. Thence he went to Tydore, and afterward
to Siao, where the natives were living more as barbarians than as
Christians; and he suffered greatly in that island, on account of
the poverty of the country. He had his heart set on planting the
faith and good morals among that people, by means of preaching, the
good example of his life as a religious, and the charity with which
he ministered to all; and he gained thereby the great affection of
the people of Siao. This was known by Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara,
and therefore after the death of Don Bentura, the king of that island
(who left a young son), the governor commissioned Father Esquivel with
the government of that kingdom, as it was under the royal protection,
to the great satisfaction of the chiefs of its villages; and the
superiors [of the order] gave him permission, in so far as it was in
accordance with the sacred canons, to act as counselor of the said
kingdom. This caused the preservation in our holy faith of the many
and glorious missions which this province has in the Orient--which
are the island and kingdom of Siao, and the provinces of Manados
or Cauripa (which are in the great island of Celebes, or Macazar),
with other islands and missions, which he frequently visited, by
which he gained many souls to God. He was sent to Ternate as rector,
but, moved by affectionate desire for the salvation of his Siaos,
he left a father as vice-rector of the college [at Ternate], and
returned to Siao. At this time, orders were given to withdraw the
garrison from Ternate, and Father Esquivel returned to Manila, and
many of those natives accompanied him--in order not to lose the faith,
nobly abandoning their native land. They settled in Maragondong, La
Estacada, and other places, with the name of Mardicas, and I knew
in Maragondong some of them who had been born in Ternate. Through
the hardships of this voyage Father Esquivel contracted an illness,
which lasted during the remainder of his life. He spent some time as
minister at Barás, where his sickness became worse; they carried him
to Manila, where he died with great peace and resignation."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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