[Fol. 22:] The island of Malindig--named thus on account of a high mountain that is in it, and which the Spaniards call Marinduque--is more than forty leguas from Manila, extends north and south, and is in the course which is taken by the galleons on the Nueva España trade-route. [8] There Ours carried on a mission with much gain, at the instance of its zealous pastor, who was a cleric; and in the year 1622 this island was transferred to the Society by his illustrious Lordship Don Fray Miguel Garzia Serrano, the archbishop of Manila, who was satisfied by the care with which the Society administers its charges, and desirous that his sheep should have the spiritual nourishment that is necessary for their souls--for it was exceedingly difficult for him always to find a secular priest to station there, on account of the distance from Manila, the difficulty of administering that charge, and the loneliness which one suffers there. The Society gladly overcame these difficulties for the sake of the spiritual fruit which could be gathered among those Indians; and our ministers, applying themselves to the cultivation [of that field], went about among those rugged mountains--from which they brought out some heathens, and others who were Christians, but who were living like heathen, without any spiritual direction. They baptized the heathens and instructed the Christians; and, in order that the results might be permanent, Ours gradually settled them in villages which they formed; there are three of these, Bovac, Santa Cruz, and Gasan, and formerly there was a visita in Mahanguin. The language spoken there is generally the Tagálog, although in various places there is a mixture of Visayan, and of some words peculiar to the island. God chose to prove those people by a sort of epidemic, of which many died; and the fathers not only gave them spiritual assistance, but provided the poor with food, and treated the sick. This trouble obliged them to resort for aid to the Empress of Heaven, to whom they offered a fiesta under the title of the Immaculate Conception, during the week before Christmas, with great devotion; and the Virgin responded to them by aiding them in their troubles and necessities. [Fol. 27:] In Marinduque Ours labored very fervently to reduce the Christians to a Christian and civilized mode of life; and among them was abolished an abuse which was deeply rooted in that island--which was, that creditors employed their debtors almost as if they were slaves, without the debtor's service ever diminishing his debt. The wild Indians were reduced to settlement; among them were some persons who for thirty years had not received the sacraments of penance and communion. In the Pintados Islands there was now much longing for and attendance upon these holy sacraments, when their necessity and advantage had been explained to the natives.