having in this respect the aid which the apostles had; because the minister must rather care for his own house and for that of others, a charge which charity lays upon us. Charitas omnia sustinet [i.e., "Charity endures all things"]. Each missionary in Bisayas (or Pintados) has the care of two to five thousand souls, and even more. These commonly are divided among two or three villages, quite far apart; and throughout the year the minister is sailing from one to another, to preach to them and aid them. Among the Subanos there are not so many people [in each mission], but their little villages are more numerous. Formerly each minister had ten or twelve villages of Subanos, [each] divided on as many rivers, in the form of hamlets. There were houses round about the church or pavilion [camarin], and the rest [of the people] lived scattered in the hills, forests, and thickets. I have seen some native huts [buhios] on the peaks of the mountains, [so far away] that they could hardly be reached in half an hour from the river. Others I saw placed among the branches of the trees, in the same manner as nests. Their houses regularly are very high, with a bamboo for a ladder, which they remove at night. All this they do in order to hide themselves and be free from the frequent invasions of the Moros; and from the stratagems and treacheries of their own countrymen, who are inclined to vengeance and perfidy. Among these people we live. The rivers are full of ferocious and blood-thirsty crocodiles, which kill many persons. When I was in Dapitan there was one of these beasts in the river of Iraya, so sanguinary and fierce that no one dared to pass that river by night, on account of the ravages that it committed--leaping into the boats, and taking people out of them. In the books of those villages, I read with horror and pity: "On such a day was buried the head of N., which was all that was found, because the crocodile had torn him to pieces." The bars of the rivers are dangerous, and with the freshets and the waves some channels are easily closed and others opened, to the great risk of those who are sailing. The seas are rough, and so restless that the continual lashing of the waves on the shores, rocks, and reefs makes a sound which causes fear even in those who live inland. On that coast are headlands so difficult to double that sometimes the caracoas spend twenty or thirty days in voyages which in favorable weather require half an hour. As a result, the ministers live in great loneliness, without being able to communicate with one another--save that, when the monsoons blow, in order to make one's confession a voyage is necessary; and therefore this consolation is attained by some but few times in the year. If a fatal accident occurs to one, it is not possible to assist him with the holy sacraments--which is the greatest affliction that can be endured in the hour of death; and their only recourse is to place themselves in the hands of that