The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 1640

Chapter XXIX
The foundation of a church in the island of Hermosa and the holy deaths of some religious

[The Order of St. Dominic has always had its eyes fixed upon Great China; and father Fray Bartholome Martinez was especially anxious for the conversion of that great realm. In this conversion he was like Moses, who came in sight of the promised land; for he carried religious and planted the faith in the island of Hermosa, from which that most populous realm is almost in sight. This island had been greatly coveted by Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Dutch. The king of España was the first to undertake to conquer it; and by his order there were prepared two ships of moderate size with a force of two hundred soldiers and sailors. The leader was Don Juan Zamudio, who came to the Philippinas in 1593. He chose the time of his voyage unfortunately, and was driven back to the coast of Batan; but he was rescued by the intervention of our Lady of the Rosary. The emperor of Japon in 1615, after his victory over Fideyori, sent an expedition against the island. It left Nangasaque in 1616 and wintered in the Lequios Islands. Setting sail again in the following November [sic], it was scattered by storms upon the coast of China. The Dutch, desirous of weakening the power of España and of interfering with the work of the preachers of the holy gospel, had taken possession of an uninhabited island called Island de Pescadores,³⁶ which lay off the coast of China. This was in 1624. By the Chinese the Dutch were persuaded to go thence to another island (Formosa) running from northeast to southwest, sixty-four leguas in length, and extending from latitude twenty-one to latitude twenty-five, and being thus twenty leguas in breadth. They established themselves at the southern point, in latitude twenty-three, in a port called Taiban, opposite Hayteng in Chincheo. From this post they could scour the seas and capture the vessels sailing from China. Here they built a small fort from which they could do much damage to the inhabitants of Manila and might close very important gateways to the holy gospel.³⁷

In the year 1625 Don Fernando de Silva was governor of the Philippinas. He determined to send a fleet to take possession of a port in the island of Hermosa, in the name of the king of España, that the designs of the Dutch might be frustrated. He counseled with the provincial of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Bartholome Martinez, who promised to go to the island of Hermosa and to take religious there, hoping in this way to gain an entry into China. In order to keep the design secret it was said that the troops were going to pacify the rebellious Indians of Yrraya, who had fled to the mountains. On February 8, 1626, the fleet sailed from the port of Cavite; it was composed of twelve champans and two galleys. There were three captains of infantry and their companies, and the force was under the command of the sargento-mayor, Antonio Carreño de Valdes. The ecclesiastical authority was in the hands of the provincial, Fray Bartholome Martinez, who took with him five religious, including those whom he later brought from Nueva Segovia. They anchored in the port of Nueva Segovia on the fifteenth of March, and remained there for some time. During the interval troops were sent to the river of the Mandayas, the Indians of which had rebelled in the previous June, as was said in the foregoing chapter. In order to reduce them, a great number of palms were cut down, that they might more easily be brought to subjection for lack of food. Since the reduction of the Mandayas took more time than was expected, and the voyage to the island of Hermosa was urgent, this matter was left without being brought to a conclusion. To carry out their principal purpose they sailed on the fourth of May, coming in sight of the island on the seventh of the same month. They coasted the island for three days, and on the tenth of May anchored on an estuary which they named Sanctiago. The provincial and Pedro Martin Garay, the chief pilot, went in two small vessels to the northern headland, exploring the coast. Within five hours they discovered a port which they called La Sanctissima Trinidad. They took back the news to the fleet, which came on to the port and in the divine name of the most Holy Trinity took the port under the protection of España. They built a fort upon an islet³⁸ a little more than a legua in circumference. This they called San Salvador. They also constructed a rampart on the top of a hill three hundred feet or more in height, which made the place impregnable. The Dominicans erected a humble church, dedicating it to St. Catharine of Siena. Here they heard the confessions of the Spaniards, preached, taught, and filled the office of parish priests, up to the year 1635. The inhabitants of this region had fled from fear of the arquebuses of the Spaniards, and desired to avenge themselves for the wrong which they felt that they had suffered because the soldiers made use of the rice which the natives had left behind them. To quiet and satisfy them, the religious set about learning their language; and, although they knew very little of it, they began to communicate with the natives, caressing them and giving them presents. The Lord prospered their work, and the barbarians, who had lived the lives of savages, drinking the blood of their neighbors, and eating the flesh of their enemies, were tamed by the treatment of the religious. They brought their wives and children to be baptized. The first fruits were delicate and tender children, many of whom, after being laved in the baptismal font, went to enjoy the possession to which they had acquired a right from the waters of the holy Jordan. The convent of All Saints of the island of Hermosa was accepted in the intermediate chapter of the year of our Lord 1627, and was erected into a vicariate, father Fray Francisco Mola³⁹ being appointed as its vicar and superior.

On the fourth of February of this year father Fray Alonso del Castillo, a native of Andalucia and a son of Sancto Domingo de Sant Lucar, set sail from his convent in the islands of the Babuyanes to go to Nueva Segovia. The distance is a little more than six leguas, but the crossing is dangerous at some times. His vessel was swamped, and the father and those who were with him were all drowned. He was an abstemious and devoted religious. Father Fray Alonso lived in the islands of the Babuyanes. He was at one time tempted by a thought which was unworthy of his state as a religious, and the purity which he maintained – the devil urging him to it, and putting before him the means of carrying out the design, and the method of keeping it in secrecy during the absence of the superior. Father Fray Alonso, recognizing from whose bow this arrow had been shot, went to his superior and told him the temptation of the devil with all the details. He and the superior laid the matter before God with prayers and scourgings. The devil was unable to oppose such humility, and in a few days father Fray Alonso was able to assure the vicar that there was nothing to fear. In the following April died father Fray Ambrosio de la Madre de Dios, a native of Guatimala, a son of the convent of Sancto Domingo at Mexico. He came to the Philippinas in the year 1595, and was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia. Without any controversy, it is he who up to the present day has most accurately learned the language there, and who was the teacher of those who understood it best. No one surpassed him in his pronunciation and his choice of words. He wrote a methodical grammar, arranged a vocabulary, translated the gospels, various examples of holy life, an explanation of the articles, the passion of our Lord, and other works highly esteemed for the elegance of the writing and the propriety of the words. He was a religious of great virtue, and our Lord wrought many miracles by his prayers. It was in response to his prayers that when the lime-kiln in Abulug fell, those upon whom it fell did not lose their lives. In Pata occurred two cases, as it seemed, of resurrection; and in Tocolana he saved the church from burning.

At the last of May, father Fray Diego Carlos, a native of Guatimala and a son of the convent at Puebla de Los Angeles, died in the same province. He suffered much at the time of the insurrection of the Mandayas Indians, whose minister he had been, and whom he had brought down from their mountains. In the provincial chapter of 1621 he twice received half the votes in the election for provincial. In the month of June, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho, a native of Los Guertos in Segovia, and a son of San Estevan at Salamanca, fell ill in the province of Ytuy. He lived a devout and a devoted life in the province of Pangasinan. He was greatly beloved by all. Some Indians of the province of Ytuy having asked for baptism, he went thither twice, suffering greatly from the hardships of the journey. The second time, he fell ill; and it was rumored that the Indians had given him poison, as they often do. He died at Manila. In the year of our Lord 1627, toward the end of March, died in the province of Nueva Segovia brother Fray Juan Garcia,⁴⁰ a lay religious, a native of Yebenes in La Mancha, and a son of the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila.]

To aid in supplying the want of these noble ministers, and to fill up the gap caused by the death of many more, our Lord gave us in July, 1626, a reënforcement of religious, who had been assembled in España by father Fray Jacintho Calvo, and whom he had entrusted in Mexico to father Fray Alonso Sanchez de la Visitacion – a son of the convent at Ocaña, who had come to the Philippinas in the year 1613.⁴¹ He was at the time vicar of San Jacintho, where he had been sent by the chapter of the year 1623; and he now undertook the charge of conducting the religious, returning to the ministry of Nueva Segovia, where he had previously been. He had been appointed by the Inquisition of Mexico as its commissary for the cases which might arise in the said province pertaining to that holy tribunal.

Chapter XXX
The state of the province, and the persecution in Japon

For the holding of the intermediate chapter [in 1627], an ancient custom in the Order of St. Dominic, devout fathers had assembled. Although the day was at hand, the provincial was absent, being occupied in the new conversion in the island of Hermosa. He had not returned from there since the previous year, when he had made the journey. As the accidents of the sea are so various, the religious were anxious; but the Lord relieved them from their anxiety on the day before the holding of the chapter, the morning of Thursday. The coming of father Fray Bartolome caused joy in all the community; and in recognition of the good news which he brought and of the labors which he had undergone, the governor Don Juan Niño de Tavora, invited him and the fathers who constituted the chapter to dine with him on the following day, which was Friday. That evening they discussed that which they were to do on Saturday the twenty-fourth of April; and on that day they elected as definitors fathers Fray Balthasar Fort and Fray Miguel Ruiz, who had been provincials; Fray Antonio Cañiçares, vicar of Babuyanes, and Fray Marcos Saavedra, a son of Villaescusa, vicar of San Raymundo de Malagueg. By this time the Indians who not long before had revolted and apostatized from the faith in Mandayas (and especially those of Fotol and Capinatan) had been reduced to subjection, and, as a result of the efforts of the religious, had gone down to their old villages. Recognizing the error which they had committed, and desirous of atoning for it by amending their lives, they built churches, reëstablished the villages, and returned to the quiet which they had enjoyed in their earlier age of gold, giving up their age of hard iron⁴² which they had been deluded into entering.

[The religious in Japon were at this time greatly afflicted. One of the persecutors, Feyzo, strove to force his own mother by hunger to give up the faith from which he was himself a renegade. This man captured Father Baltazar de Torres, a religious of the Society of Jesus, who had been his own father in the faith, and imprisoned him. On the twentieth of July four religious of the Society of Jesus, with five of their servants, were burned at the stake. The persecution was most bitter at Omura, where the holy father Fray Luis Beltran (of Exarch) then was. He was a native of Barcelona, and received the habit in the convent of Sancta Catarina Martir in that city. He was sent to the college of Origuela, where even during the time of his studies he devoted himself to prayer and spiritual exercises. He volunteered for the Philippinas, reaching Manila in 1618. After learning the language of the Indians of that region, who are called Tagalos, he also learned that of the Chinese, ministering in both languages up to the year 1622, when he was sent to Japon to assist in consoling the afflicted Japanese. He came in disguise, and very soon learned the language of that country; and he labored for three years with great effect in the kingdom of Omura. He foresaw that he was to suffer death by martyrdom. He was serving in a hut of lepers when he was betrayed to the judge. While in prison his very jailers showed him respect.]

Chapter XXXI
The state of affairs in Japon; and the martyrdom of father Fray Luis, Fray Mincio de la Cruz, Fray Pedro de Sancta Maria, and some other persons of the tertiary order of St. Dominic

[Besides father Fray Luis, father Fray Francisco de Sancta Maria, and brother Fray Bartholome Laurel,⁴³ his companion in the Order of St. Francis, were captured, together with their landlords and others in their house. The bitterness of the persecution increased, and the ministers of the gospels went out into the fields, ascended the mountains, and hid themselves in the caves of the earth. Father Fray Lucas del Espiritu Sancto had no food for forty days except some boiled roots. The Christians were forbidden to assemble, and were brought in scores before the ministers of Satan, to recant or suffer martyrdom. The number of the holy martyrs cannot be counted. The poor were driven out from their houses, and were compelled to suffer the rigors of winter, from which many of them died. The persecution came to be so severe that this year of 1627 was adorned with martyrs. On the sixteenth or seventeenth of August, eighteen Christians of all ages and conditions received the palm of martyrdom, among them father Fray Francisco de Sancta Maria. Among those executed were some children of three and five years of age. Details are given of the martyrdoms of a number of Japanese, with the horrible tortures which were inflicted upon them. Father Fray Luis gave the habit to some of the Japanese who were confined with him; and on July 29, 1627, the father and the nine professed, and three poor women who rejoiced that the time had come when they were to be freed from their leprosy, were executed by burning at the stake.]

Chapter XXXII
The great persecution in Japon, and the care of the province to send ministers there

[There were three of our religious in Japon at this time, who comforted the Christians and kept in hiding from the ministers of the law. It was with great difficulty that they could be assisted. In the year 1628 the four religious orders in these islands, the Franciscans, the calced Augustinians, the Recollect Augustinians, and our order, put forth all their energies to send religious to Japon as secretly as possible. The expense was enormous, amounting to more than ten thousand pesos from the common purse of these four orders. They embarked twenty-four religious; among these were six of our holy order, one of whom died after two days of sailing – father Fray Antonio Corbera, a native of La Mancha, who had come within a short time to the Philippinas from the college of San Gregorio at Valladolid. The ship was wrecked by the carelessness of the pilot. Though the fathers escaped from drowning, two of ours died from injuries received in the wreck, and from sunstroke after reaching land. One was father Fray Antonio Cañizares, a native of Almagro and a son of the convent of our order there, who had labored nobly among the Indians of these regions for some years.⁴⁴ The other was father Fray Juan de Vera, a native of the city of Sancta Fee in the kingdom of Granada. He studied in España at the convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. He came to this province, learned the Chinese language, and was occupied in the ministry to the Chinese when he was assigned to this duty. The Franciscan fathers, not dismayed by the failure of this enterprise, strove to make the journey to Japon by themselves. During two years, no news reached us from Japon, except that the persecution had attained such a point that not even a letter could get in or out.

Finally father Fray Domingo Castellet was captured by the diligence of the persecutors. He was born in a village named Esparraguera, in the principality of Cataluña, October 7, 1592. He assumed the habit of our order October 23, 1608, in the convent of Sancta Cathalina Martir at Barcelona. He pursued his studies in the very religious convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia, where he showed great ability. In the year of our Lord 1613, when I was about to make a voyage to the Philippinas Islands as procurator-general for the province of the Holy Rosary of the Order of St. Dominic, and when I came to Sancta Cruz at Segovia searching for religious to accompany me, one of the first who enlisted was father Fray Domingo Castellet. He was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia, where he taught for six years in the new villages called Los Mandayas. In 1621 he was directed to go to Japon, where he showed the greatest intrepidity in danger, and wrought a marvelous work. He was taken by surprise, and was followed to prison by several confessors.]

Chapter XXXIII
The martyrdom of the servants of God, Fray Domingo Castellet, Fray Thomas de San Jacintho, Fray Antonio de Sancto Domingo, and some persons of the tertiary order of St. Dominic

[The blessed Fray Domingo spent all his time in preparing himself for his last journey, the journey from this world to heaven, and in doing his duty by the holy company who were in prison with him. There were many Christians in the prison of Nangasaqui, among them two Japanese lay novices, who afterward made their profession before the holy religious who was vicar-provincial of Japon. He prayed many hours in the day, and took a daily discipline in company with the brethren, in addition to special exercises of devotion and penance. On the day of the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin, he was taken out to the place of execution and born into heaven. Many Japanese Christians were burned alive or decapitated, the church in Japan being illustrious in noble martyrdoms, and no less triumphant than the primitive church, and the Order of St. Dominic having a great share in this glory.]

Chapter XXXIV
The voyage in this year of religious of the province to Camboja, in the effort to convert it; and the progress of the conversion of the island of Hermosa

In this year, twenty-eight, I came for the third time from España to the Philippinas, not alone, but with a good company of excellent religious,⁴⁵ who, desirous to advance themselves in virtue, left their land and their kin and their comforts, like Abraham, that they might assist in their spiritual necessity, these tribes which depended so much upon such ministers. There was no lack of hardships on the way, for the Lord knows of how much importance it is for us to find persons who will accept these as they ought; He does not lose the opportunity to apply them, and does not desire that His gift should be useless. When we reached Manila we were heartily received, for we had been desired because of the great lack which had resulted from the deaths that had taken away religious just when they were most needed by the Indians whom we had under our care. There were also many others under our eyes who still were heathen for lack of preachers, but who would have been Christians if they had anyone to teach them the truth and the Catholic religion. The vacancies were filled up with these reënforcements. As might be expected of those who were heartily desirous of converting their fellow men, the more they labored the more labor they desired; and there were many who were very eager to go on new missions and to reap new harvests of heathen.

[The opportunity was offered for making another attempt to convert Camboja. A Chinaman who had lived in the kingdom of Camboxa brought word that the good reputation which the fathers of St. Dominic had left in that country would cause them to be kindly received there if they went again. The kingdom of Camboxa is the one which has given religious rites, though false ones, to China, Japon, and the most civilized of the surrounding nations; and the people of that kingdom are naturally much inclined to religious devotion. Hence it was hoped that they would be the better Christians because they were so devout heathen. A letter was written to the king of Camboxa, asking permission to preach the gospel in that country. The reply which was received was courteous, but did not grant the desired permission. At this time the governor of Manila was thinking of sending Spaniards to Camboja to build a ship there, because of the excellence of the wood of that region for such a purpose, and the abundance of workmen there. That the Spaniards who went might not be deprived of sacred ordinances, he asked the superior of our order for religious to accompany the expedition. There were strong arguments against sending the religious to that kingdom. The Cambodians had twice exhibited their fickleness, having striven to kill the Spaniards and the religious who had been invited to enter the kingdom. The same fickleness would make it unlikely that converts would hold to the faith in times of persecution. The people were unintelligent, and most vicious; and the country was very hot and unhealthful. On the other hand, it did not seem consistent with Christian charity not to take advantage of every opportunity to attempt to save these people, in spite of their natural fickleness, their low intelligence, and their inveterate vices. Three religious were accordingly assigned to this expedition, the superior of whom was father Fray Juan Baptista de Morales, a son of the convent of San Pablo at Ecija. He was a master of the Chinese language, which is of great importance in that kingdom. Two other religious volunteered to go on this service. They set sail December 21. The voyage, though a dangerous one, was fortunate; and they sailed four hundred leguas up the famous river of that kingdom (the Me-Kong River), the source of which is unknown. The religious were courteously received by the king. Factious quarrels broke out among the Spaniards, which threatened so grave results that father Fray Juan Baptista de Morales felt obliged to return with them when they came back to the islands, for fear of an outbreak on the way. The king refused to give permission for the baptism of his subjects, allowing only the Chinese and Japanese to be converted; and the ministers, feeling that they could be of greater use in these islands, returned to take up their ministries here, where they have been of the greatest use. This was the third time that this province actually placed religious in the kingdom of Camboxa, in addition to the expeditions which set out for that kingdom but failed.

At this time our religious in Hermosa were engaged in the most laborious work of all these ministries, the learning of a new and extraordinary language without grammar or vocabulary, or any other aid even in the country itself; for at the beginning they were not able by payment to keep an Indian who would merely permit them to listen to him as he spoke and to catch up a word here and there. Although at the beginning these people were like wild beasts, without the least trace of human civilization, the religious have now domesticated them to such an extent that they can go among them – although a few years before no stranger could enter their country without their drinking his blood like fierce wolves. Some infants have been baptized, and the children of some villages, though not baptized, know the creed and pray every night at the foot of the cross. The children learned to laugh at the old superstitions, which have a strong hold on their elders. The hardest thing of all has been to bring them back to their old villages, from which they fled in fear of the arms of the Spaniards; but as they learned the gain to be acquired from trading with the Spaniards – which is a lodestone that attracts hearts of iron – they are returning to their old abodes. The religious have erected two little convents and churches, about like shepherds’ huts in appearance. One is near the presidio of San Salvador, in a native village called Camaurri, and is dedicated to St. Joseph. The other is half a legua from the village of Tanchuy (i. e., Tamsui), and is dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary.]