Dávao, July 26, 1886. Pax Christi. My dearly beloved Father Superior in Christ: [109] I have just received your favor of the fourteenth inst. I am very glad that you have returned from your long journey without having experienced any misfortune. Welcome to the Fathers and Brothers of the new mission! A fraternal embrace to them all! I desired to write your Reverence a long letter, but since the post has found me alone, in Dávao, for Fathers Perelló and Moré have not returned from their excursion to Libuac, I shall not be able to write at great length, as I must attend to the other duties necessary here during the days for the steamboat. May God repay your Reverence for the charity which you extend me in the good news that you give me. What shall I tell you on this occasion? The circumstances of this mission offer me some material, especially the consideration of the condition of the various races of heathens who inhabit it, and especially the race of the Bagobos. To what extremities do their ignorance and the malice of the common enemy reduce them! This latter, being the prince of darkness, rules them thoroughly, no longer by insinuating himself and presenting himself under the forms of apparent goodness, in order to take possession of their hearts and souls without intimidating them, acting as a seductive deceiver, but in the midst of the shadows of this heathenism, he does not fear to appear so frightfully horrible and cruel as he is in reality.