Chapter XXXVII: The beginning of the conversion of these Indians of Nueva Segovia (2)

[14] Marginal note: "It stands thus in the original"--referring to a doublet of three and a half (printed) lines, which the Extracto has reproduced from the text which it followed, presumably a manuscript copy of the decree.

[15] A variation in Palafox's title, apparently due to some clerical oversight. It is not, however, incorrect, since Tlascala was the earlier seat of that bishopric, and gave name to it--the bishop's residence being afterward removed to the new city of Puebla, five leguas distant from Tlascala.

[16] Apparently referring to the paper recording the composition of 1635; and the wording of this sentence in the decree would imply that the 600,000 pesos of that composition were at first levied in three annual installments, but afterward collected in advance.

[17] Thus in the Extracto; but the statement appears to be a non sequitur, and suggests the probability of some words being omitted.

[18] The various approbations at the beginning of the book are not here translated, as not being sufficiently important to justify such use of our space. The first of these is furnished by Governor Hurtado de Corcuera, and is dated at Manila, March 21, 1639--in which he states that Fray Goncalez has added matter which brings down Aduarte's history to 1637, thus covering a period of fifty years from the foundation of that Dominican province. The request for permission to print the book is made by Fray Carlos Clemente Gant, prior-provincial of that order; and it is granted (for six years) by the governor, after favorable report on the book has been made by Fray Theofilo Mascaros, an Augustinian--this report, by the way, being dated at the Augustinian convent of Sancta Ana de Agonoy, August 29, 1638. Archbishop Guerrero also approves this publication (July 7, 1638); and, four days earlier, the Franciscan, Fray Juan Pina de San Antonio, at Sampaloc, does the same.

[19] See account (mainly derived from Aduarte) of the foundation of the Dominican province of Filipinas, in Resena biografica, i, pp. 1-29. Fray Juan Crisostomo was one of the Dominican friars in Mexico, and was sent to Spain and Rome in 1581 to make arrangements for the opening of the new Filipinas mission; no information is available regarding previous events in his life. Having assembled the members of his mission at Sevilla, he set out with them for Nueva Espana (July 17, 1586); but the hardships of the voyage made him so ill that he was obliged to remain a long time in Mexico, not being able to reach Manila until 1589. There he was so affected by age and broken health that he could do little; and finally disease carried him away, and he died probably late in 1590 or early in 1591.

[20] The mission of the Jesuit Sanchez to Spain, and its results, are described in VOLS. VI and VII of this series.

[21] Juan de Castro, a native of Burgos, entered the Dominican order at that place, and soon after his ordination went to Nueva Espana, where he spent most of his life in Guatemala. Being sent to Madrid on business of his order, he encountered there Fray Juan Crisostomo (1585-86), through whom he became so interested in the projected mission to Filipinas that for its sake he declined proffered honors and dignities. He conducted to Manila the mission of 1587, and was elected provincial at the first chapter-meeting (June 10, 1588). In May, 1590, Castro and Benavides went to China to preach the gospel, returning to Manila in March, 1591. The suffering and hardship which they endured in China broke down the health of Castro, who was already an old man; and he died in 1592.

[22] Juan Ormaza de Santo Tomas was born at Medina del Campo, in September, 1548. His studies were pursued at Salamanca; after graduation he spent several years in teaching and was engaged in this occupation at Valladolid when Crisostomo went thither to secure missionaries for Filipinas. Ormaza enlisted in this new field, and, after arriving at Manila, he was assigned to the district of Bataan. Here he "reduced to two villages, with some visitas annexed, the thirty-one hamlets among which the Indians were dispersed; made bridges over the rivers; hindered with palisades (which those people call tabones) the inroads of the sea, which had ruined their grain-fields; and adorned the churches with altars, sacred images, and paintings." During 1610-14 he was engaged in the missions of Japan; the rest of his life, except 1619-21 and 1623-25, when he ministered to the Chinese in the Parian and in Binondoc respectively, was spent at the Manila convent--where he died on September 7, 1638. (Resena biografica, i, pp. 86-91.)

Pedro de Soto was a native of Burgos, and pursued his priestly studies at Valladolid; soon after his graduation he joined the Filipinas mission. His first charge was in Pangasinan, where he labored zealously, amid great opposition and hostility from the natives. A serious illness at last compelled him to return (1599) to Manila, where he died.

[23] Juan Cobo, a native of Castilla, joined the Dominican order at Ocana, and was a student at Avila and Alcala de Henares. He came to Nueva Espana with the mission of 1587; during his stay there (prolonged another year, on account of certain business of the order) he rebuked the viceroy of Mexico so boldly that the latter ordered Cobo to be exiled to the Philippines. Arriving at the islands in May, 1588, he began his labors among the Chinese of the Manila Parian, and later went among those of Tondo. In 1592, Cobo was sent by Dasmarinas as ambassador to Japan; having fulfilled his commission he set out on the return to Manila, and is supposed to have perished by shipwreck, as nothing more was ever known of him or his ship.

[24] "Pena de Francia is a lofty mountain in the province and diocese of Salamanca, twelve leguas from this city and seven from Ciudad-Rodrigo. On its rugged summit is the celebrated convent-sanctuary of this name, where the community resided from Easter until November 2, at which time they went down to another house, on the slope of the same mountain, only two or three brethren remaining above for the care of the sanctuary." (Resena biografica, i, p. 95, note 1.)

[25] Pedro Bolanos was master of novices in the convent of Pena de Francia when he decided to enter the Filipinas mission, and was then sixty years of age. He labored among the natives of Bataan for a little while; but the responsibilities of this work, the hardships of missionary life, and his advanced years, were too much for him, and he died before he had spent a year in Filipinas. (Resena biografica, i, pp. 95-97.)

[26] Juan de la Cruz, labored first among the natives of Pangasinan, and was afterward sent among those of Bataan, where he became very proficient in the Tagal language. He was provisor of the archdiocese under Benavides, until the latter's death; then he returned to Bataan, where he died, probably near the end of 1605. (Resena biografica, i, pp. 100, 101.)

[27] Apparently meaning the Jesuit Alonso Sanchez, who was then in Nueva Espana, on his way to Spain.

[28] At that time, the marques de Villamanrique (VOL. VI, p. 282).

[29] The younger Juan de Castro was a priest in the Dominican convent at Barcelona when the Filipinas mission enterprise was begun. Arrived in the islands, he was sent to Pangasinan; and, at the end of 1593, accompanied Fray Luis Gandullo on an embassy to China. On their return, they were shipwrecked off the coast of Pangasinan; and the exposure and suffering incident to this misfortune brought on a serious illness, from which Castro died early in 1594.

Marcos Soria de San Antonio was also assigned to the Pangasinan field, where his life was at first in danger from the fierce heathen; but afterward he won their affection by his gentleness and kindness to them. The sufferings and hardships of missionary life broke down his health, and he was compelled to seek medical care in Manila; but it was too late, and he died there in 1591.

Gregorio Ochoa de San Vicente, then a Dominican friar in Valladolid, joined the Filipinas mission; and, like his associates in Pangasinan, was broken down by hardships--but even earlier than they, since his death occurred on November 25, 1588.

The lay brother Pedro Rodriguez spent twenty years in the hospital maintained by the Dominicans for the Chinese, which was later removed to Binondo. He died in that place, in 1609.

[30] Religious life (religion): Religion, as used by Aduarte, means solely the rule of life followed by a religious order, the order itself, or the ideal of the order; and derivative words have corresponding significations. For instance: "at the expense of the order (la religion)," book ii, p. 77; "to the no small credit of our religious community (nuestra religion), with the members of which (cuyos religiosos) they generally have most to do," book ii, p. 83; "the act which he was performing because of his duty as a religious (acto religioso)," book ii, p. 104; "sufficient to give glory to an entire religious order (una religion entera);" "all the religious orders (las religiones) in the Indias." As an adjective, a "very religious" friar (religiosissimo padre, book ii, p. 376) means one who remarkably approaches the ideal of the order. In this sense religioso has generally been rendered by "devoted" in this translation. The noun "religious," in the sense of "a member of an order," and the adjective in such phrases as "a religious house," "the religious life," are still not rare in English.--Henry B. Lathrop.

[31] The full text of these ordinances may be found in Resena biografica, i, pp. 18-30; it is in Latin, accompanied by a Spanish translation, which differs considerably from Aduarte's, following the Latin more closely than his. The devotion to the Virgin Mary which is here mentioned (also known as the coronilla, or "little crown") is given ut supra, p. 29. The initial letters of the first words in the psalms selected for this purpose form the name "Maria," as do those of the corresponding antiphons--thus producing a double acrostic on her name. Gregory XIII granted an indulgence of one hundred days for those reciting this devotion.

[32] The present province of Bataan is on the western shore of Manila Bay, being the peninsula formed between that bay and the sea. But the description in the text, together with other mention of Bataan (or Batan) in old documents, makes it evident that the name was applied in Aduarte's time to at least the western part of the delta at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Pampanga, in the southwest part of the present Pampanga province.

[33] Salaries were paid from the royal treasury in installments thrice a year, hence in thirds (tercios).

[34] So in the text, but evidently referring to the beginning only of constructing the new church.

[35] i.e., "Take heed to thyself and to doctrine;" and, "in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee"--both quoted from 1 Timothy, iv, v. 16.

[36] Dias que no son dobles: in church terminology, feast days whereof the canonical offices are observed according to double rite--or duplex feasts, as sometimes styled in English liturgical works. In church calendars, the rite to be followed every day of the year is determined (according to fixed rules) with a view to its greater or less solemnity. The various designations thus employed are: simple, or simplex; semi-double, or semi-duplex; double, or duplex, and these may be minor or major; major double of the second class; and major double of the first class. Of this last sort are the most solemn feasts, as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost; while a feast day of simple rite is of the lowest class.--Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

Cf. Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, art. "Feasts" and "Feria," where full details, and the origin and application of the terms, are given.

[37] Juan de Santo Domingo assumed the Dominican habit in the convent at Salamanca, and later came to the Philippines. He spent two years (1610-12) in the missions of Bataan and Pangasinan, and six years in Manila and Binondo; and in 1618 undertook, but unsuccessfully, to start a mission in Korea. He then remained a little while in Japan, where he was arrested (December 13, 1618) and imprisoned. Condemned to suffer death by torture, he was carried away by a sickness instead (March 19, 1619). He was beatified on July 7, 1867. (Resena biografica, i, pp. 207, 208.)

[38] Little is known of Alonso Montero, save that he belonged to the province of Mexico, where he spent several years, and afterward labored two years in the Pangasinan mission. His name does not appear in the records after 1592. (Resena biografica, p. 146.)

[39] Juan Garcia was for some time a minister to the Indians in Nueva Espana; he came to the islands in 1588, and labored in the missions of Bataan and Pangasinan. He died about 1603. (Resena biografica, i, p. 138.)

[40] Tomas Castellar, from the Dominican convent at Barcelona, went to Mexico, where he filled various high positions in his order. He came to Manila in 1589, where he remained three years; in 1592 he was sent to Pangasinan, and, two years later, aided in founding the Cagayan mission. Returning to his former field, he labored with those natives until his death (1607).

Pedro Martinez came to the islands in 1588, and was placed in various posts in the Manila convent, for which he proved to be unfit from his habit of being absorbed in contemplation. He was then sent to Pangasinan, where he died (1592) from the effects of the climate.

Juan Bautista Deza remained some time in Pangasinan; then, as he had some knowledge of surgery, accompanied an expedition to Camboja. Nothing is known of him after 1600.

(See Resena biografica, i, pp. 138, 145.)

[41] Spanish, apostola de los apostoles. One of the word-plays of which the old religious writers were so fond. No literal translation conveys the meaning here implied; but apostola is used (as also in English) with the primitive meaning of "apostle," as one who first introduces the gospel--in this particular instance, one who first announces the good tidings, i.e., of Christ's resurrection.

[42] Spanish, lector, literally, "reader;" applied to one who gave lectures in theology, especially moral theology.

[43] Amaranthus; see Delgado's Hist. Filipinas, pp. 724, 725; and Blanco's Flora, p. 491. Cf. VOL. XV, p. 111.

[44] Probably referring to the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, which fell on August 15.

[45] See portrait of Dasmarinas here presented; it is a photographic facsimile of an old painting (possibly a later copy of an authentic original) which was displayed in the Manila house in the Philippine exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis, 1904). The inscription on the scroll held by the page reads thus, in English: "Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas, knight of the Order of Alcantara, governor and captain-general of these Filipinas Islands for the king our lord, and founder and owner of this village of Binondo. He obtained this land by purchase, March 28, 1594, from Don Antonio Velada, husband of Dona Sebastiana del Valle, for the sum of $200. This sale was authorized by the certificate of Gabriel Quintanilla, a notary-public, one of the number allotted to this very illustrious and loyal city; and the grant of feudal rights over the Sangleys and mestizos of this said village, on May 29, 1594."

[46] See account of the first printing in the islands (1593), in vol. ix, p. 68; and that of printing in China, in vol. iii, p. 206.

[47] Tomas Mayor came to Manila with the Dominican mission of 1602, and spent several years in their residence of San Gabriel among the Chinese; he composed a useful catechism in that language. In 1612 he went to Macao, at the summons of the bishop there; but finding it impossible then to found a Dominican house at Macao, he departed thence for Europe--dying, however, in that same year, before reaching his destination.

[48] Francisco de la Mina, an Andalusian, was a missionary among the Mexican Indians during forty years. Coming to Manila in 1589, he labored in Bataan for a time; and was afterward made prior of the Dominican convent in Manila, where he died in 1592.

[49] A topic then of special interest to the Dominicans, since Bishop Salazar (who belonged to their order) had but recently been involved in a hot controversy with Dasmarinas over the collection of tributes from the Indians (see correspondence between them at end of VOL. VII and beginning of VOL. VIII). All the missionaries in the islands had opposed slavery, whether among the Indians or the Spaniards; and the latter had adopted this practice to such an extent that Gregory XIV commanded them in 1591 to cease it entirely (VOL. VIII, pp 70-72).

[50] A cape (now known as Piedra Point) at northwest extremity of Zambales peninsula, Luzon; name also applied to the narrow channel between that cape and Purra Island.

[51] Cf. with this the description in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur (book xxi, chap. iv) of the last and fatal combat between King Arthur and Sir Mordred: "And when Sir Mordred felt that he had his death-wound, he thrust himself unto the bur of King Arthur's spear," and with this final effort dealt a mortal blow on the king's head.

[52] Spanish, viva quien vence; equivalent to the English saying, "Might makes right."

[53] Spanish, pascuas. Certain great church festivals last three days or more in Spain.

[54] All these are towns on or near the northern coast of Cagayan.

[55] Miguel Martin de San Jacinto made his profession at Salamanca, in 1586. He seems to have spent his life after coming to the islands (1595) in the Cagayan missions, in which he was a prominent worker. He died there, at Abulug, April 26, 1625.

Gaspar Zarfate was a native of Mexico. He spent some time in Cagayan, and afterward in Manila, where he filled various important offices in his order. He died at Manila, March 9, 1621; and was the first who systematized the grammar of the Ibanag dialect.

Ambrosio Martinez de la Madre de Dios, a native of Guatemala, made his profession at Mexico in 1589. Reaching the Philippines in 1595, he spent the rest of his days in the Cagayan missions, where he died in April, 1626.

Domingo de San Blas came to the islands from the Dominican convent at Sevilla, and spent several years in the Cagayan missions; he died at Manila, in 1601.

Antonio de Soria came from the convent at Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico. He labored so earnestly in the Cagayan missions that he soon wore out his strength; and died at Lal-lo about the beginning of 1599.

See Resena biografica, i, pp. 181-184.

[56] The instructions given in this matter to the Spanish officials and missionaries, and the manner in which they carried out these, may be found in VOL. X, pp. 277-288.