The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 48, 1751-1765: 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 48, 1751-1765: 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
The third mission of the Visayas Islands is that of which the reverend
father provincial Fray Vicente Ibarra gave a particular and exact
account to the governor of the islands in the year 1738, when he had
finished his visitation of the missions, having received an urgent
request that he should make report of their condition and progress
(for with all this strictness are affairs examined in Philipinas,
since such is the command of his Majesty, whom may God preserve);
and because the said father provincial, as being an eyewitness
and well acquainted with the religious who began that mission, can
speak with more accuracy, I will set down his very words, as follows:
"The third mission which my province maintains is in the mountains of
Bosoc in the province of Ogtong, on the further coast of the province
of Panay. This mission was established in the year 1728, an entrance
being made in the rugged region of those mountains by father Fray
Felix de Zuñiga [53]--a religious of the most religious habits and the
gentlest demeanor; and so zealous for souls that, without heeding the
inclemencies of those wild mountains, he went about on foot, unshod, in
sun and in rain, crossing almost by a miracle swollen and rapid rivers,
and, despising danger, made his way into the most secluded places, in
which there are many apostates and Carib [54] blacks, of which sort
are all those who are in the mountains of these islands. Such power
had his zeal and constancy that he gained no small number of souls,
since from those who were converted he was able to form three small
villages; but, while he was praying one day in the little house which
he had made for his dwelling, some apostates killed him with their
lances. At present the said mission is cared for, on account of the
great deficiency of men that we experience, by two religious who are
in the village of Bugasson."
[All these missions were still conducted, when Mozo wrote, and were
saving many souls; but their work was greatly limited and hindered by
the scarcity of workers. These missionaries displayed the same spirit
of devotion, zeal for souls, and self-sacrifice as did the earlier
ones, but "with this difference [in results], that our predecessors
dealt with peoples who were gentler and more civilized, while those of
the present time are handling people who are more fierce and barbarous;
and for this reason their triumphs must be the more glorious, and their
virtue and constancy most firmly grounded. Many other souls are caught
for Heaven in these islands by those religious who serve in villages
near the districts where there are infidels, of which there are many
in the said islands. They penetrate further into the country when
they are permitted to do so, and they lose no opportunity when those
[infidels] go down to their villages to procure articles that they
need, which occurs often; those [thus converted] amount to several
hundred persons annually."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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