Note 106 — The Dominicans

“When I arrived in this land, I found that in a village called Tondo—which is not far from this city, there being a river between—lived many Sangleys, of whom some were Christians, but the larger part infidels. In this city were also some shops kept by Sangleys, who lived here in order to sell the goods which they kept here year by year. These Sangleys were scattered among the Spaniards, with no specific place assigned to them, until Don Gonzalo Ronquillo allotted them a place to live in, and to be used as a silk-market (which is here called Parián), of four large buildings. Here, many shops were opened, commerce increased, and more Sangleys came to this city.... When I came, all the Sangleys were almost forgotten, and relegated to a corner. No thought was taken for their conversion, because no one knew their language or undertook to learn it on account of its great difficulty; and because the religious who lived here were too busy with the natives of these islands. Although the Augustinian religious had charge of the Sangleys of Tondo, they did not minister to or instruct them in their own language, but in that of the natives or this land; thus the Sangley Christians living here, were Christians only in name, knowing no more of Christianity than if they had never accepted it.... Then I appealed to all religious orders to appoint some one of their religious to learn the language and take charge of the Sangleys. Although all of them showed a desire to do so, and some even began to learn it, yet no one succeeded; and the Sangleys found themselves with no one to instruct them and take up their conversion with the necessary earnestness, until, in the year eighty-seven, God brought to these islands the religious of St. Dominic.”106