Note 82 — Chapter XXIII

The fathers held a chapter meeting in 1578, and peaceably and quietly cast their votes for father Fray Agustín de Alburquerque, a man of whom we have already said sufficient of his occupations, virtue, zeal, and prudence. As soon as he beheld himself invested with the ermine, he gave his attention to everything possible, looking after both the spiritual good of the province—the principal thing—and the temporal, extending and spreading the province. He established religious in Bulacán, and that place is now one of the principal and more desirable convents. It has an [243] excellent stone house and church, and about six hundred tributes.82 It is about six leguas north of Manila. It has usually two religious. The Tagál language is spoken there. The alcalde-mayor of that jurisdiction, which has about four thousand Indians, lives in Bulacán. All the Manila religious extol the Indians of this town as the most tractable and most attached to the church.