CHAPTER X

Our religious propagate the Catholic faith in Zambàles, a province of Philipinas. Two religious die in España, with great marks of holiness.

The year 1670

§ I

Information is given of the preaching of Ours in Zambàles; and that many Indians came newly to the Church.

396. ...Some people here in España imagine that the first illustrious champions of our reformed order who went to those countries [i.e., the Philippines], reared and finished the sightly structure of that Church, and that the missionaries, their successors, have been and are quite comfortable, and have no other occupation than to maintain what the first ones built. It is a fact that, according to the philosophic axiom that the conservation is equivalent to a second production, that would not be doing little even did they do no more. But as a matter of truth it must be said that if so holy a province rests in the conservation of the conquests acquired, it also labors without end in the building and planting of other new conquests. To this point the history has shown many of them, [26] and I shall narrate others below. But this year we have the profitable and difficult expedition which our ever tireless and laborious province made into the Zambàles Mountains, for the sake of obtaining not little growth for the Christian faith.

397. The mountains called Zambàles extend a distance of fifty leguas from Mount Batàn to the plains of Pangasinàn in the island of Luzòn. They are peopled by an innumerable race, who defend themselves from the Spanish arms almost within sight of Manila, because of the roughness of the ground, and maintain along with their heathenism, their barbarous customs. Who these people are can be seen in volume i, to which we refer the reader, [27] We only warn him that the Indians of whom that volume talks, inasmuch as they live in the beaches and plains extending from Marivèlez to Bolinào, and being, consequently, needed in the trade with Spaniards and civilized Indians, are not so ferocious as those who without these mitigating circumstances, inhabit the rough mountains of which we speak. Not a few natives of several nations are found in that place. Some of them are born in the dense thickets and are reared in the most barbaric infidelity. Others are called Zimarrònes, and have apostatized from the Catholic faith, after having fled from the nearby Christian villages. There is also an incredible number of blacks who, without God, without king, without law, without civilization, without settlement, live as though they had no rational soul. All of those Indians, notwithstanding that they wage most bloody wars among themselves, generally unite to oppose the Spanish arms, when the Spaniards have attempted their conquest, and stake their greatest reputation in shedding human blood.

398. The evangelical ministers have always fought with the sword of the divine word against that wild forest of men almost unreasoning, and with all the means dictated by charitable prudence, in order to convert it into a pleasant garden by means of the Catholic faith. The Dominican fathers stationed in the district of Pangasinàn, and in the villages called El Partido, which are located on the opposite side of Manila Bay, have always cast their net, and obtained not few hauls of good fish. The Observantine Augustinian fathers have also done the same from their missions in Pampanga, which border the above-mentioned mountains. The fathers of the Society have done the same from the village of San Mathèo, which is situated almost on the brow of the said mountains on the Manila side. And our discalced Recollects, equally with those who have done most, have labored in this undertaking at all times, without despising occasions. They have great opportunity for doing that, for, as a general thing, ten or twelve laborers live in the fifteen reduced villages of the Zambals, who occupy all the coast for a distance of forty leguas from Bolinào to Marivèlez, and surround all the above-mentioned mountains by the sea side.

399. Thence, then, did the illustrious champions of our holy reformed order generally issue in order to overrun the rough territory of the mountains so that they might seize multiple spoils from the enemy of souls, and direct them to eternal life. As those people are very ferocious and difficult to convert, it was necessary to use gentle methods there, making use of caresses rather than of noise and din. Notwithstanding, on several occasions very many conversions of Indians, Zimarrònes and heathen, who were reduced to villages formed by the indefatigable solicitation of our religious, were obtained. Then, as appears from four letters of the definitory of that holy province, which were written to our respective fathers vicars-general--the first, June 20, 1646; the second, July 2, 1655; the third, June 14, 1658; and the fourth, July 4, 1668--more than one thousand five hundred souls (at the date of the last letter) had been drawn from the mountains, freed from the darkness of the heathen, and illumined with the splendors of the Catholic faith. And it has been impossible to discover who were the illustrious laborers who obtained so wonderful trophies, in order to enrich history with their names.

400. But the most abundant season of those fruits was seen to be during the triennium of April 21, 1668, to 1671. Our father, Fray Christoval de Santa Monica, governed the province during those three years. He having heightened and ennobled the missions of Zambàles, when other superior employments gave him the opportunity, had placed there the whole of his affections. On that account, in addition to the great zeal that he had for the salvation of souls, from the very chapter, he made up his mind that during the term of his government, the utmost effort should be made to unfurl the standard of the faith in the Zambàles Mountains, and to have salvation carried to its inhabitants on the wings of charity. For that purpose he managed to have father Fray Joseph de la Trinidad, a native of Zaragoza, a religious born, one would say, for the missions, elected prior of Bolinào. Later he appointed him vicar-provincial of the jurisdiction of Zambàles. That man, then, together with fathers Fray Martin de San Pablo, prior of Masinloc, Fray Agustin de San Nicolàs, prior of Marivèlez, and six other religious, who were appointed as helpers, fought against idolatry so tenaciously, that our holy faith was incredibly advanced.

401. He arranged the attack upon that proud Jericho (more impregnable because of the obstinacy of its inhabitants, than by the wall of its inaccessible mountains) by ordering that it be assaulted at the same time by several parts by different soldiers of so holy a militia with the bugles of the divine word. One began the conquest by the side of Bolinào, another at Masinloc, two by Playahonda, and two others by Sùbig and Bagàc. The father vicar-provincial went to all parts in order to direct actions, and to fight in person with his accustomed success. The father provincial also, with his secretary, then father Fray Diego de la Madre de Dios, made it a point of honor to take part in so dangerous a field, whenever the tasks of his office permitted, and they both fought as valiant soldiers. For the expenses which were heavy for the maintenance of many missions and for the other things which accompany like expeditions, the province acted as proxy, for they did not wish to have recourse to the royal treasury which generally supports such undertakings. And to the labors which are indispensable in wars of that quality, and which were excessive there, those illustrious warriors set their shoulders, well armed with endurance, for they had already been exercised in other conquests and had always been victorious.

402. Thus did they work constantly until the end of the year 1670, and with so good result, that they converted that bitter sea of idolatries and superstitions in great part into a leafy land of virtues. On account of the insurrections which so great acts of wickedness caused in Pangasinàn, Zambàles, and Pampànga, as I have already written in