Chapter XVIII: Book 7: , folio 87. On those three sections the visitor based his charge (2)

The troops were drawn up, and at six in the morning we commenced our march very gayly. After going a legua and a half, we came upon a large town at the foot of the hill, very beautiful and quiet, full of fruit groves, bananas, and sugar-cane--but deserted by the Moros on the previous night, as far as we could infer from the houses, and from the fire which was still consuming the king's fortified house; they had fired it, doubtless, for fear that his Lordship would entrench himself in it, it being very well fitted for that. However, he ordered the adjutant, Don Martin, to fortify another house on the bank of the river with a good barrier, [89] a cannon, and a garrison of Pampangos, to guard the packs and cover the retreat of the soldiers. Then the rest of us crossed the river to reconnoiter the enemy's position; the water was breast-high. A little later, we crossed another creek, and commenced to climb a ravine full of coarse grass. Here his Lordship halted, and, seeing another road farther down, asked the guide whether that road also led to the hill. He said "yes;" but, upon being asked which was better, replied that both were very bad. Then his Lordship (a special light from heaven illuminating him) said: "If, in the opinion of this Moro who is guiding us, both roads are bad, I prefer going by the other rather than by this one by which he is taking us." So he commanded the advance-guard to turn back and go by the other road. Your Reverence will soon see the special providence of God, and the protection of my glorious saint. At the other road (by which the Moro was leading us) there were aimed three pieces of artillery, which could not be seen; and one of them might at least have destroyed the whole vanguard. When our chief gunner discharged the bronze cannon, which stood between two large iron ones, he found that it contained two great cannon balls, two crowbars, and three hundred musket-balls, with a double charge [of powder]. Having escaped this danger we proceeded by the other road, by which, having crossed the river and the creek for the second time, we arrived at the foot of a hill. Here we halted, and his Lordship sent some of the advance-guard ahead to inspect the road, since from what could be seen at the beginning of the ascent it seemed very bad. They went to examine it, and soon word came back that after the first turn the road was better, so we all went up. The truth is that the overflowing courage, spirit, and desire for fighting which possessed the soldiers, those of the vanguard especially, made the road seem good to them; as a matter of fact, it was narrow, rough, and very dangerous on account of terrible precipices on each side. We had made two or three turns, up the hill, thinking to find some place where we could halt, when from two stockades on the right side of the mountain the Moros commenced to fire upon us. A cannon ball came toward me, grazing me; but it was prevented by divine Providence from inflicting any further injury than leaving its mark in the shape of a hole in my cassock. May God grant that by this wonderful escape I am reserved for some other and more glorious death!

We all felt sure that there was no other stockade besides these two which we saw, when, at the third turn of the hill, the advance-guard came upon another, which we had not been able to see. They commenced to fight bravely from below it, but because the position of the stockade was very strong, and that of our men very cramped--hemmed in by formidable precipices, and exposed to all the guns and other weapons of the enemy (especially sompites, bacacayes, and stones)--no sooner would some of our men gain the little open place before the stockade than they would fall dead or wounded. For this reason, after having fought a good two hours, the fort could not be taken.

During this time the four priests who went up the hill--Father Juan de Barrios, the Augustinian friar, the chaplain of the fleet, and I--remained at this place, confessing the wounded and encouraging the others. On the whole march, so far, I had not chosen to unfurl the standard of the holy Christ and St. Francis Xavier; but at the time of the battle, my fervor and zeal being aroused, I did what the Holy Ghost bade me, and was thus constrained to give the banner to a soldier--who at my order went on ahead, further up the hill, to guard the person of his Lordship, who had left me in order to reconnoiter the stockade from a nearer point. A ball came, which pierced the canvas of both the sacred pictures, but without touching the figures; at that time the saint was facing the stockade, and it has been positively learned (how, I know not) that that ball was intended by the evil one to kill a great personage, and the saint who stood before him saved him from it.

I, seeing that our affairs were in such straits, offered on my part an earnest prayer to the saint; and afterward I said aloud to his Lordship that he ought to make a vow to the saint that he would build him a chapel at San Miguel. To this he replied with much spirit and generosity, "Yes, Father, and it shall be made very rich and very beautiful." I thought it best to designate that church, because it was that of the saint to whom St. Francis Xavier, when he was living, felt most devotion and love. I cannot deny that my heart was much troubled at this time, although not for fear of the bullets, which flew about us like mosquitoes, and made a terrifying noise in the trees; for I can truthfully assert to your Reverence that I felt no trace of fear during this whole campaign, thanks to God, although I found myself in the greatest straits and perils of my whole life; and His grace comforted and aided me greatly in this emergency. Forever blessed and hallowed be His holy name, _que attingit a fine, usque ad finem fortiter, et disponit omnia suaviter_, [90] who hath brought me by so many circuitous ways to a position so in accord with my life-long desires. Thus, what distressed me on that day was not fear, but the sight of the bravest and most gallant soldiers either dead or wounded; nevertheless, it consoled me much to see them enter the battle with the names of Christ and St. Francis Xavier on their lips, and die uttering the same words. Over many was laid the standard containing these two images, which even bore some spots of blood. Some were praying with their reliquaries and kissing them, others beseeching me for general absolution to prepare them for so glorious a death--obtained in avenging the injuries done to the holy Christ (this was the common formula, as it were, of all)--and others at last, whom I could not reach, declared their sins publicly giving tokens of the great grief and contrition which they felt. There was one of these, in particular, who said three times: "Sirs, tell such-a-one to pardon me; for money was given me in Manila to induce me to murder him in time of battle, and I should have murdered him had not God brought me to this condition." Truly, the depth of his contrition touched me greatly--only this one thing he had not confessed the night before; then I confessed nearly all the rest, and they received the sacrament with the utmost devotion.

Among the first wounded was Captain Ugalde, who had two bullet-wounds in his arms, and Sargento-mayor Don Pedro Hurtado de Corcuera, with a musket ball which went through his right leg; so that this valiant cavalier, being no longer able to be upon his feet, remained for a long time upon his knees, encouraging the soldiers, although he was in great danger of being killed. He was in the very spot where they had wounded Don Rodrigo de Guillestigui, who was a most distinguished soldier; for he fought continually, and remained all the time in the ditch of the stockade without coming out, even when he had a considerable wound. Alférez Amesquita succeeded in hoisting our flag over the fort, but with the utmost danger; for they nearly hurled him down, with a spear-wound in his head and several sompites in his throat. Our men were fasting, and, besides that, laden with provisions and arms, and wearied by the march (which had been more difficult than long); but, like lions, they caused the Moros much more fear in their death than if the port had been taken without bloodshed. The Moros were terrified, too, by seeing our soldiers thus obstinately keep up the battle in a slaughter-house--for this place deserves no other name. And your Reverence may be well assured that a million of Spaniards could never have gained the height; for I believe that no one can possibly picture or imagine the strength of that place unless he were present at the attack. The truth is, that they passed from courage to rashness; for, by not ceasing to fight, they changed his Lordship's orders (or else they heard them backwards) [as if he were] commanding the leaders to rally instead of ordering a retreat. Then they counted on gaining the victory through the soldiers who were coming up behind (though most of them paid for this over-confidence with their lives), and were for a long time deceived with this hope. However, the real reason why the governor did not sooner order the retreat was that he was waiting for the instant when Nicolas Gonçalez should attack from above on the other side, for the latter had no more than three leguas to go; but, having found the road very bad, and being himself far from well, he could not get there till night. With these hopes, and with very many false tidings of victory, which were very often given, his Lordship waited, and urged on the soldiers for full two hours in a very dangerous place, exposed to all the weapons of the enemy; but, seeing many dead and wounded, he pushed his way forward, and, with great danger to himself (and to all of us, if any mishap had befallen him), reached the little open space in full sight of the stockade. There he stood, in a furious storm of bullets, stones, bacacayes, and sompites, which killed and wounded many at his side--especially his armor-bearer, through whose helmet and skull they sent a bullet. Now, having reconnoitered the place for more than half an hour, and seeing that it could not be taken by storm from this road (as a half-pay officer had told him a little while before), he expressed his annoyance at those who sought with lies to detain him and involve him more deeply, and ordered the retreat to be sounded.

The enemy might, indeed, have done us much injury when we commenced the retreat; for the dead numbered eighteen, the wounded more than eighty, and the few who remained were very weary, and hampered by the aforesaid wounded men. Besides this, the road was precipitous, and more difficult to descend than to climb. But God our Lord, by the intercession of my glorious saint, blinded the enemy wholly; and the courage and prudent management of his Lordship gave them no time to attack us. With the utmost courage, he went along as if nothing had happened, brandishing his naked sword--encouraging all; holding back the soldiers, so that they should retreat gradually; with his face always to the enemy, sending the men down; and having our drums and trumpets sounded, until we reached the house which Adjutant Don Martin had fortified. When all were there, we saw on one side a great number of Moros coming down a defile to prevent our retreat to the camp. A few cannon-shots were fired at them, and they quickly hurried back to the hill. His Lordship wished to halt here and await the attack by Nicolas Gonçalez, but the smallness of his forces compelled him to retire, which he did, the drums beating, as before, until we reached the camp. The wounded were placed, for that night, in a cabin in front of the mosque; and in the morning we transferred them to the champans, burying three who had died. Many were of the opinion that his Lordship ought to retire that evening to the fort--a safer place, in case of attack--but he was not willing to display any weakness before the enemy, and so that night passed in great anxiety; for, if the Moros were to come down, it would at least endanger the wounded. We learned from some of the captives that they really intended to attack us; but that, thinking the governor (for whom they mistook Captain Martin Monte, [91] on account of his distinguished presence) had fallen on that day, they felt it necessary to give thanks first to Mahoma for so great a victory, with many ceremonies and revels which they held that night, with the heads of our dead--as we ourselves guessed from the great number of lights which we saw at the same time on the hill. After this assault, when we retired at nightfall to the camp, the governor wrote to Nicolas Gonçalez, telling him of what had happened; and ordering him that if, by his position and the state of his troops, he thought he could take the hill, he should attack vigorously alone; but, if he thought that he could not succeed, he should contrive an honorable retreat to the camp, where they would arrange everything. He gave the letter to Sosocan to send, but no one dared to take it, so it came back to the secretary.

Very early the next morning, I was saying mass, when cannon-shots and volleys of musketry commenced to be heard from the hill--a sign that our men were fighting. The whole camp was in a tumult, and his Lordship ordered Don Pedro to march with all the able-bodied men by the same road that they had followed the previous day, in order to divide the enemy's forces, assuming that Nicolas Gonçalez was already engaged. I kept on with the mass, although with much difficulty, because of the many tears which the noise of the cannon called forth; and since the mass that I was saying was for our dead soldiers, I implored their blessed souls to obtain from God for us the victory for which they had spent their blood the day before. After mass, we said the full litany, and all engaged in prayer; it was an impressive thing to see the governor on his knees with tears in his eyes, his hands raised to heaven like Moses of old, praying for aid, and that the victory might come to his troops. Less than an hour had passed when two soldiers came with the news of the victory, and soon Father Melchor arrived with the enemy's flags. I will not write of the embraces, the merrymaking, and the joy in our camp, for your Reverence can imagine it better than I can describe it. His Lordship at once gave a banner to the soldiers who had brought the news, and by him he sent [the promise of] an encomienda to Nicolas Gonçalez.

Father Vera related to us the story of the taking of the hill, as follows: They marched all day Tuesday the seventeenth, the day of our attack, not because the way was so long, but so bad, as I have already said, and because Nicolas Gonçalez had to travel in a hammock. He was actually so weak and ill that, as he afterward admitted to me, his sword served him for a cane the day of the fight; and a boy had to support his arm, which he could not lift for the weight of his shield. They had various encounters with Moros, but, in order to avoid noise, the order was given not to fight; and so on the way they killed only the cachice [_i.e._, kasis] of Corralat, whom they found hidden in a thicket. They halted that night and fortified themselves in a height which overlooked the hill; and early on the morning of Wednesday (the day of St Joseph's vigil and of the glorious angel Gabriel) Nicolas Gonçalez had urged on the soldiers, and told them that since there was no avenue of retreat open to them, there was nothing for it but to gain either the hill or heaven. They made a valiant attack upon the enemy, who were awaiting them behind a huge tree lying across the middle of the road--having no other stockades or ditches on this part of the hill, for they could not imagine that we would attack them there. They held their ground, fighting, for a time; but Captain Castelo, who was leading the vanguard, having crossed with some soldiers to the other side of the log, forced them to abandon their position. Then he followed them with his troops, without difficulty or danger, on the rear as far as the stockades and forts, till he remained master of two of these with four pieces of artillery and the king's strong-house where he kept his treasure. Many Moros were killed, not only by our shots, but by rushing down in a furious and headlong flight through a very narrow ravine which was at the entrance of this very stockade where they expected us--falling, by a just judgment of God, into the very snares which they had laid for us. At the same time Captain Castelo met some Moros who were coming to join the others--the garrison of the third stockade, which we had attacked the day before with our vanguard; and, with the same ease, he compelled them to flee and fling themselves down, he remaining master of the fort and its arms, which were muskets with rests, arquebuses, campilans, etc. The relatives and the men and maid-servants of Corralat, with many of his people, who were taken prisoners on that day, said that the night before he had put under his feet a monstrance containing the blessed sacrament, which he had stolen, saying to all that there was nothing to fear, for he had the God of the Christians already under his feet; and that, considering the great strength of his fortified hills and stockades, and the large quantity of provisions that they had, they would be quite safe, unless it rained men from heaven. But when, the next morning, they brought him word that our men were attacking from the rear, he said to his wife: "The Spaniards have chosen a bad place for me" (reflecting that, as I have said, he had no defense for guarding the rear of the hill); "however, be of good courage, and wait here for me, for I am going to do to these what I did yesterday to the others." He went, and his wife, seeing that we were coming in, urged her women to fling themselves down with her, so as not to be captured. They, being more sensible, refused to do this, [92] and so they became our slaves; while the poor queen, with a child which she was holding in her arms, flung herself down and remained hanging from a tree. This was a cause of regret to us all, on account of the kind disposition which she possessed, according to the report given us by the father rector of Dapitan, who knew her to be very friendly to our Christian captives--sending them food secretly (especially to the religious), and reproaching her husband when he maltreated and abused them. After the queen had flung herself down, Corralat, with a bullet-wound in one arm, came in search of her; and, seeing her already dead, he fled by one of those declivities, without being recognized, to some hamlets four leguas from the hill, where they say he is now recovering.

None of our men died, thanks be to God; only seven or eight were wounded, and they are now well. Don Rodrigo--who had set out that morning, as I have said, with the other troops--learning en route of the victory, sent the soldiers to Nicolas Gonçalez as reënforcements, and himself returned to the camp.

Now your Reverence will see whether we could ever have taken the camp by starvation, as they said we could; it contained grain-fields, banana patches, a brook of very pure water, and six or seven thousand baskets of rice--which for them was very extensive provision. Nicolas Gonçalez fortified himself with his troops in two places: Captain Bezerra, with fifty soldiers, occupied the king's house which had been set aside for his Majesty [the king of Spain], and Nicolas Gonçalez remained with the rest of the forces in the principal stockade where the artillery was; while they burned all the other stockades, and the houses, rice, and grain-fields, and brought down the four pieces of artillery. This they did in two days, to the admiration of all--even of the gunners, who held it to be impossible. Those men would have abandoned them, if his Lordship had not remained firm in his intention of not going until the cannon came down--not wishing Corralat to say that the Spaniards could not bring down what he had taken up, although he did it with two thousand Indians, in six months, and our men did it in two days with four rowers [_barrigas_].

I cannot deny that the joy of that day was very great, but the death of the two Recollect fathers distressed us greatly--his Lordship having tried to the utmost of his power to deliver them from the Moros. Although they had captured three at Pintados, one of them was killed by our own men [93] under Nicolas Gonçalez, on the day when he surprised the enemy's fleet at Punta de San Sebastian, formerly Punta de Flechas. One the Moros killed on the day when we gained the lower port, because, when they were fleeing with their wives and captives to the upper fort, this good servant of God being unable to travel very fast on account of having been ill, they killed him with a shower of blows; and then hanged him, dead, from a tree so that we should see him from the camp. But, because we were at a distance, we could not, although we saw him, get possession of his body--especially as they took it away early the next day; and we were unable to find out what they did with it. The other father they killed on the hill, through rage, on the day that Nicolas Gonçalez won the hill--although he did not die until the following day, in the mosque below the hill, before the altar. It comforted him greatly to see already blessed, with the title of Nuestra Señora de la Buen Succeso ["Our Lady of Success"], the building which a little while before had stood there dedicated to Mahoma. Five fathers whom we found at the camp were present at his death; and the next morning we buried him in the sea, not being willing to leave his sacred body to the hands of the barbarians. When I was washing him to prepare him for burial, I was astounded at the great number of wounds and cruel campilan blows with which they had mutilated his whole body; and then I wondered at his patience and endurance. The soldiers too admired the great zeal of this holy man, because, when they found him thus wounded in a corner of the fort, he did not complain, but immediately asked if there were any wounded soldier for him to confess. When he was told that he must not fatigue himself, and that we had brought a Jesuit father for that very purpose, he was greatly rejoiced, and asked to have him brought so that he might confess to him; Father Melchor de Vera came up at once.

When, they brought him down to the camp, I was with the sick on the fleet; they told me (but not till evening, when I returned) that his Lordship had performed acts of kindness for the father, in keeping with his devotion--helping to bring him in and place him in the bed, giving him food with his own hands, washing the blood from his wounds, and comforting him with tender and loving words, especially when the surgeon commenced to treat him. Inasmuch as his clothing adhered to his wounds by reason of his having passed a day and a half without attention, the pain of pulling the garments away was very great; and, when he winced a little, his Lordship was at once at hand with the story of the passion of our Lord, and found it so efficacious that, as he afterward declared to me, the father did not utter another word, nor offer any other resistance, but exhibited the patience of a glorious martyr. I confess that I washed his wounds after his death more with tears from my eyes than with water from the river, in holy envy of the glorious way in which he had ended his pilgrimage. Before he died, I begged him to beseech God for a like death for me, or even a more painful one, in defense of His holy law. The holy man promised it, and I hope by his intercession to obtain it--although not because I deserve it, unless in return for the relief I gave his glorious wounds in the last four absolutions which I gave him with my special consolation. Surely those are fortunate fathers who have been able to show to the world, by their blood, the zeal and divine love which they bear in their bosoms.

After burying the father the next morning, Friday, March twentieth, two days after the victory, we went up the hill with his Lordship; but so great was the stench from the dead Moros in the ravines (although many still lived, judging by the cries and groans of many persons which were heard) that, almost as soon as we had reached the top and had looked at the king's house, we returned to the camp. His Lordship then commanded that with the exception of the church ornaments, and the arms kept for his Majesty, everything should be divided among the soldiers. His Lordship did not reserve for himself or his friends even one blanca's worth--surely an action very justly applauded, certainly, and admired because it is not now practiced among the captains-general, and because it was, I believe, the first [of its kind] in these Filipinas Islands; and it confirmed the opinion that all held of the governor, as a wholly disinterested gentleman. An enormous amount was found and divided; they say that there were many cabinets full, and very heavy; what is certain is, that the whole of Corralat's treasure was here, and whatever he had plundered during so many years. Your Reverence does not need to be told that the soldiers came back well satisfied, and many very rich. The campaign brought them great profit; and truly they deserved it all, for they all fought most valiantly. A great chest was filled with the ornaments of the churches--sacred vessels, such as chalices, patens, monstrances, censers, chrismatories, etc.--which we have now most carefully returned to their owners; so that your Reverence was enabled to fill four floats with these ornaments, in the solemn procession which his Lordship held in Manila on Trinity Sunday, in thanksgiving to God for the victory. It troubled me, however, on the day when we climbed the hill, that I had not time to search for my beads, which I had lost on the day of the assault--when, to placate the wrath of God, I tore my cassock hastily down the middle. But the next day God chose to console me; for, on my return from visiting the sick at the camp, his Lordship gave me my beads. He had recognized them in the hand of a soldier who had found them on his way down the hill, and had given the man I know not how many pesos for them. They certainly were worth it, because they were made from the stake at which the martyrs in Japan were burned; and because they had touched the whole body of my most glorious patron saint Francis Xavier, at Goa; these are the reasons why I prize them so highly.

Six whole days were spent in distributing, or burning and destroying, everything in Mindanao; and thus on the twenty-fifth of March, the day of the blessed Annunciation, we started on the return trip to Samboanga. But the governor would not set sail before returning thanks at that very place to His Divine Majesty for so great a victory. He therefore arranged a solemn procession with the blessed sacrament, from the mosque to the fort--himself at the head, carrying the image of the holy Christ and of St. Francis Xavier, patron of the expedition, and wearing the white robe of his order, in which he had received communion. The soldiers with their muskets, and the artillery at the fort, gave eight royal salutes with ball--which aside from doing honor to the procession, served to clear the two little hills of the ambuscade, which, without our knowledge, the Moros had laid to prevent our embarkation. We found this out by means of the large number of dead bodies which Captain Juan Nicolas discovered a little while after, when, returning from the Bugayen River, he wished to see the place where we had attacked Corralat. When the procession was over, we set fire to the mosque and the fort; and the troops commenced to embark in good order, in the small champans of the fleet. Then Sargento-mayor Palomino was sent with five caracoas and a hundred Spaniards, with Father Melchor de Vera, who knew the language very well, to search for Moncay, king of Bagaien [_i.e._, Buhayen] [94] and the real lord of the island of Mindanao; this Corralat, though his relative, was but the tyrant. Bagaien is twelve leguas from the fort of Mindanao. [Palomino went] to make a treaty of peace with him whereby he should become a tributary and vassal to his Majesty. While we were setting sail, one of our Indian captives appeared on the shore. The falua brought him off to our champan, and he told us how he had fled from the enemy's grain-fields where they had kept him during those days; and that, passing through one of the ravines of the hill, he had found a vast number of dead Moros. [95]

Two or three hours after leaving Mindanao, we met Captain Juan Nicolas and Father Gutierrez, [96] father rector of Dapitan, who with forty ships and order for Sargento-mayor Palomino, in which he commanded that officer that, notwithstanding his previous instructions, he should make use of all the troops sent him to capture Moncay, or at least disarm him. After this we continued our course, and on Passion Sunday we reached Samboanga. The fleet and the army received their captain-general, returning victorious, with a royal salute; and Father Gregorio Belin, in his cope, with the _Te Deum laudamus_. I, after accompanying them as far as the official buildings, went to arrange the hospital for the sick; for although I had attended them at Mindanao and on the journey, and assisted them with all that his Lordship provided, yet, on account of the discomforts of the ships in which they had had to be shut up, and because of the lack of fowls, they arrived in a very weak condition. I set out at once in search of beds--even taking those in the [Jesuit] house. I collected in one room as many dainties as I could find, for the refreshment of the sick; and I shut up in our corral all the fowls which had come to Samboanga from Othon, which private persons had given his Lordship, and he had turned over to me for the use of the wounded. With these provisions I remained in the hospital, to minister by night and by day to the bodies and souls of the sick, encouraged by his Lordship's visits. By means of all this care, and by the confession and general communion in which all took part on Palm Sunday, the majority of the men, thanks to God, were quite well by Saturday in Holy Week, at which time we left Samboanga.

Truly anyone who saw the number and grievous nature of the wounds could not deny that it was a miraculous thing that out of eighty wounded only two died, aside from the three who succumbed on the night of the attack; for all the wounds contained poison, and many of them, moreover, were very deep and serious. Thus we saw the effects upon our sick of the sompites, bacacayes, and bullets--which, although they were all deadly weapons, we found on the hill [that we attacked], placed in a jar filled with poison. It is true that I availed myself of some very effective antidotes which they gave me at Manila; but the true remedy was to mix with them a little of a relic of St. Francis Xavier--which, in conjunction with the faith of those who were ill, worked wonders. Captain Maroto tested their virtues well, for he was already black in the face, and in his death-agony, when he called me to confess him and to administer the sacraments. Better still was Alférez Amesquita, who ejected through his mouth three sompites which had pierced his throat three days before, during the attack. But best of all was the case of a sargento in the same company, to whom I gave extreme unction in great haste, because he had a bullet-wound in his stomach and most of his food passed out through the wound. There are many others too, who, grievously injured at Mindanao, are now going about Manila. Only Alférez Romero and Menchaca died at Samboanga, and that was because they would not let themselves be cured.

During this time, the governor was awaiting the return of Sargento-mayor Palomino and of Captain Juan Nicolas from Bugayen. In place of resting on those days, he went in person among the soldiers, working in a ditch which he had ordered to be dug to bring to the fort a stream of fresh water, which it lacked; and now they send word from Samboanga that, by the grace of God, the water has reached them. Before putting his hand to any other work he desired, like the devout gentleman that he is, to thank God a second time for the victory, with a fiesta in honor of the blessed sacrament. And because he lacked neither the valor nor the piety of that great captain, Judas Macabeus, he ordered that the next day the funeral honors should be solemnized for his dead soldiers--although, unfortunately for these festivals, it devolved upon me to preach at both. He also published a long bulletin of gifts, offices, and rewards for those who were wounded in the campaign; and in this way so attached all the soldiery to himself that now they talk of and concern themselves with nothing else but their captain-general--even the very seamen declaring that they do not wish to avail themselves of the privilege of crossing to Nueva España, because they would miss next year's campaign.

In this way several days were spent, until our fleet from Bugayen arrived--on Wednesday in Holy Week; and the next day, with three caracoas came the brother of the king as ambassador, to treat with his Lordship and confirm the peace negotiated by Sargento-mayor Palomino. The latter had done so because he was not able to execute the second order, which Juan Nicolas carried, who had come too late, bringing it when Moncay had agreed to as many conditions as we could desire--even to stating publicly to his followers that he wished to be the friend and vassal of the king of España, and that whoever did not desire the same must quit his villages. In accordance with this, the ambassadors offered five things to the governor in the name of the king his brother: to surrender all Christian captives; to pay tribute to his Majesty; to receive the Jesuit fathers, so that they might publicly teach his subjects the law of Jesus Christ; that if the governor wished to maintain a fort with a garrison of Spaniards in Moncay's country, he would treat them as brothers; and that he would be the friend of their friends, the enemy of their enemies. Consequently, he would do all in his power to put a stop to Corralat's doings, dead or alive, and to deliver him into the governor's hands. His Lordship received the envoy in great state, seated in a chair, surrounded by the most brilliant of the army, in elegant and splendid array. The ambassador sat on one end of the same carpet, astonished at the magnificence of our captain-general and his soldiers. The captain-general commanded the governor of the fort to entertain the envoy at his own house, and sent later, for his delectation, some cocoanuts and chickens. He gave him some very beautiful pieces of silk; but for a captured sargento whom the ambassador gave back in the name of the king his brother, he said that he would give nothing, because that soldier was a vassal of the king of España. The ambassador was importunate that he should send Moncay something, at least some of his own weapons. His Lordship replied that up to this time Moncay had been an enemy, and that, as such, nothing was due him; but that he must begin to give proofs of his friendship, by immediately sending us his captives, etc.; and then he would very soon experience the governor's liberality. He offered him two thousand pesos if he delivered up Corralat dead, and four thousand if alive. This news was received by the Moro with great pleasure, on account of the greed for money which possesses those people; so that I am sure, considering this, that Corralat's days are few. On Saturday in Holy Week, his Lordship being ready to embark, he came to dismiss the ambassador, and to receive the documents and articles of peace, signing them in the envoy's presence. At the end, while his Lordship, to do honor to him at the final farewell, was embracing him, the Moro told him most gratefully that at the end of four moons (they designate months thus) he would come to see him at Manila--news which consoled me greatly, because of the facility that it will afford your Reverence to send workers to so abundant a harvest.

Then all the artillery was discharged, the fleet responding; and, when his Excellency the governor had embarked, we set sail for Manila, and the ambassador for Bugayen. At the same time Captain Juan Nicolas and Captain Juan de León departed with a company of a hundred Spaniards and a thousand Indians, with the command that, after having accompanied the ambassador of Bugaien to his own land, they should go on and make the circuit of the island of Mindanao, as far as Dapitan, destroying and burning all the villages that would not submit to our arms. The father rector of Dapitan, and the Augustinian friar who had come as confessor for the Pampangos, were chaplains for this fleet.

On the same day Father Gregory Belin with Captain Sisneros departed from Samboanga for the island of Basilan, for a reason which I will explain to your Reverence. This island--lying in front of our fort, and two leguas away from it--has three or four thousand tributarios who pay to the king of Jolo, although they have always desired to be tributary to his Majesty. The chiefs of the islands came lately to render their obedience to the governor; he thereupon commanded that the governor of the fort should protect the aforesaid tributarios, and defend them from Jolo, until the next year, when he would subject Jolo also by force of arms to the same tribute. When this was proclaimed, two hundred Joloan chiefs, with all their households, came to a near-by island, intending to cross over and live in Samboanga and be our vassals. But they wished to know his Lordship's pleasure; so the aforesaid captain with Father Belin went to assure them of their safety and take them to the fort, where, he trusted in God, they would now be well instructed and become favorably inclined to holy baptism. Because his Lordship had no fathers to send to Basilan, he wrote to Father Francisco Angel that, by virtue of the very far-reaching grant which he has from your Reverence, he should at once cross from the island of Negros to Samboanga. Here the governor of the fort would give him soldiers for his body-guard, and all else necessary for the promulgation of the holy gospel in the aforesaid island--where, as I have said, he had already gone most joyfully, as the father rector of Othon informed me; for the principal motive of his coming from España to these Filipinas Islands was the mission to Mindanao. But that father could not minister alone to the whole island; besides, at Samboanga there are but two fathers--Father Melchor de Vera, who on account of his frequent attacks of illness can scarcely take care of everything at the fort which his Lordship entrusted to him, as a person well skilled in such matters; and Father Gregory Belin, [who is busy] in caring for the whole garrison, of which he is chaplain. So the many villages of Moros that are in the vicinity of the fort, such as La Caldera, etc., have no one to instruct them. The king also of Sibuguey (a river [whose valley is] much more fertile and abundant than La Panpanga) himself came, while we were in Mindanao, to the governor to ask for terms of peace and for priests. His son has come now, with the [Spanish] galleons from Terrenate, to be educated in Manila; and in like manner the other chiefs are coming every day, since the miserable downfall of the principal king of these islands, Corralat, who held almost all in tyrannical subjection, and as tributarios. Even the king of Jolo sent Dato Achen (his especial favorite, and the most gallant and valorous captain that we have seen among the Moros) with letters to his Lordship, to confirm the terms of peace which his wife herself had come with our captain, to negotiate the year before--excusing himself for not having come in person by saying that he was expecting a fleet with which the king of Burney was coming to make war on him, being an ally of his enemies the Camucones.

May your Reverence's charity recognize what an abundant harvest offers in Mindanao, and how destitute that field is in laborers; for where, in my opinion, forty would be few, there are only two of them. Certainly this is to be regretted, for it is one of the most glorious missions that could be desired, lacking neither the evidence of great fruitfulness nor promise of most noble martyrdom. And finally, it is enough that St. Francis Xavier is its apostle, since it was he who first preached in it the holy gospel, [97] as is stated in the bull for his canonization. I trust that, through the divine compassion, the news of this glorious and longed-for victory and conquest of the great island of Mindanao will move the hearts of those in his Majesty's court and his royal Council of the Indias, to send many workers this year to this glorious harvest field.

This is all that concerns our expedition to Mindanao, except the return journey to Manila--which, being long and dangerous, caused us much suffering. For if we came across any island, we had perforce to sail all the way around it; and if we wished to go in any given direction the wind instantly put itself dead ahead, with three or four _baguios_ [_i.e._, hurricanes]--which are violent tempests. At the islands of Negros, Mindoro, and Marinduque it was a divine miracle, through the special protection of St. Francis Xavier, that we escaped all the dangers, especially the one that we encountered at Mindoro. Our mast broke, and a huge wave rushed over our stern so suddenly, so unexpectedly to the pilots and sailors that they, seeing it coming over the sea from a distance, hastily summoned me to exorcise it, which I did. It can assuredly have been of no other than diabolic origin, to declare as the author of so many attacks, hindrances, and contrary circumstances the great devil of Mindanao, whom his Lordship had just so valiantly wrested from his seat.

But if the work of the enemy was evident in our dangers, much more manifest and clear was the divine protection and that of our saint in these same perils--as when it saved us from some rocky shoals just off Manila, where we would inevitably have run aground; and from a champan which sprang a leak, from which, without knowing about the leak, we shifted our quarters a day before. There are many other instances which I will not mention, that your Reverence may not be wearied. Twice we stopped on the way for provisions to refresh the sick--once at Iloilo, where our fathers entertained us; the other time at Panay, at the invitation of Captain and Alcalde-mayor Don Francisco de Frias. At last, since the winds were wholly contrary and his Lordship had suffered so much on the way, he resolved to disembark in Tayabas, with Sargento-mayor Don Pedro, his nephew, and Captain Lorenço Ugalde, both being ill and in need of a surgeon's services. From this place we traveled by land for two days, as far as the lake [_i.e._, Laguna de Bay]; going from there by the [Pásig] River, we reached Manila on May nineteenth. I halted at San Miguel, and the sick remained at Manila, while his Lordship went on the same night to Cavite, where the armada had orders to await him. The whole fleet, by God's protection, arrived safely within four days; and so on Sunday the governor made his entry with the pomp and magnificence which your Reverence saw. I know not whether many remarked on the events of that day, but this is the fact, that of all the champans but one was lacking--that of Captain Gabriel Niño de Tabora, which was carrying some large cannon of the enemy's; and when his Lordship reached Manila by one route, from Cavite, to make his entry, Don Gabriel Niño arrived, by another, from Mariveles. In this it seems that God chose to show His special providence by bringing all the fleet in without the loss of anything, small or great, from the spoils. Blessed and praised forever be His holy name, who through the valor, zeal, and Christian devotion of this gallant knight, has glorified Himself by granting at the same time relief to the islands, and punishment to the arrogance of these Moros. Events showed plainly the truth of the revelation which that holy servant of God received with regard to the coming of this governor, for the complete deliverance and salvation of this conquered land. May our Lord give him life and health, that he may finish what he had undertaken with so much spirit and courage for the glory of His Divine Majesty.

This is all that has suggested itself to me to write to your Reverence of this campaign of ours in Mindanao, as glorious as it was wonderful--except to urge that your Reverence at once send many laborers [98] to sow the seed of the holy gospel and even to gather the harvest in many parts of the island, judging by the great readiness [to receive the faith] that I observed when I came away. Only the great lack of workers which I perceived in this province of Filipinas troubles me, for they are very few in proportion to the many missions and Christian settlements which are in their charge--and much more now than ever, since so wide a door is opening. Certainly, if God had not called me to another empire, [99] I should consider myself most fortunate if I might be employed, in accordance with my obedience, in the spiritual conquest of the kingdoms of Mindanao. In spite of this, I trust in the intercession of my glorious saint, Francis Xavier, that since he was the first to labor in this island, and, although wounded, was the protector and patron of this expedition, he will not cease to prosecute the work in which he has so earnestly engaged, as we know; and that he will dispose matters in such a manner that many will come from Europe in these years to employ their labors in so glorious a mission. Therefore, since, as I have already said, I do not deserve to be chosen, I beseech your Reverence to obtain from that saint, with your holy sacrifices and prayers, this boon for me--that for the part which I have taken in the conquest of this island, he will admit me into the number of the workers in some other island, and into its spiritual conquest; so that, all of us thus working in missions near to that of this great apostle to the East, we may together enjoy his special protection and support in this life, and be admitted among his devoted and beloved ones in the life to come, which may God through His infinite mercy grant us! Taytay, June 2, 1637.

The humble servant and obedient son of your Reverence:

[Marcelo Francisco Mastrilli] [100]

EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1636-37

_Pax Christi, etc._

Father Diego de Bobadilla:

I shall give your Reverence an account in this letter, although very briefly, of what happened in these islands after your Reverence left them; for many are writing long relations of special matters.

The father rector of the college of Manila, Francisco Colin, [101] arrived at Manila at the end of July, and was received with great rejoicing by all in general, both by the inmates of the house and by outsiders and by the orders; and throughout the year he has had the same acceptance. He has aided the governor by his counsel; but he who has shown the greatest joy and happiness is the archbishop, who is receiving much help from him. His Excellency has been notably won over, and has shown us extraordinary favors. He gave us the mission of Quiapo, which we had so much desired because of its nearness to Santa Cruz. He continued the Tuesday sermons during Lent in our house, and honored our church on the day when the indulgence of the seven altars was published. On that day he dined in our refectory, and on all occasions has shown himself truly a father to us. On account of the said indulgence, the number of people who come to our church has greatly increased.