Note 21 — Chapter IX

At this time, the commander began to be established in the island, and accordingly desired to discuss the founding of a city there, to be called Santísimo Nombre de Jesús. He marked out the lines, assigned homesteads, and began to apportion them to those who were to remain there. It was all done according to the plan of Father Urdaneta, who was the chief mover in everything. He marked out a triangular fort, which was constructed rapidly; for the commander took charge of one side, the master-of-camp of another, and the other captains of the third. A site was assigned for the cathedral. Also a site was given to our order, so large that, of a surety—and I agree thereto—the liberality of the Christian commander can only be praised, as well as the zeal of our religious, whereby it appeared that that must amount to something important some day. They did not found their house, as one author says, in the house where the most holy Child was found, for that house was next to the cathedral. There is a very poor hermitage there today. It must be venerated more greatly, for as the devotion went on diminishing, so likewise did the worship. Its roof is of nipa, or palm leaves, which are used as roofing for houses. The sides are boards, and no care, so far as I know; is taken to sweep it. Our convent is situated very far from it, on the shore, which is swept by the vendaval. Between its rock wall and the shore, which is but a short distance, is to be seen the first cross erected there [170] by our men.21 Now it has a stone base, and it is enough that it has not been destroyed, inasmuch as we take but little care of antiquities. Although the convent should be the best and most esteemed in the province, as it is, in short, the ancestral house that declares very well our antiquity in the islands, it is, I know not why, the poorest and neediest. It may have been that, as all the wealth passed to Manila, and the capital of the province was established there, this other city was neglected; or because, as the city was declining, so likewise the convent declined. After the above-mentioned acts, those first conquistadors were ordered to make a solemn procession. The whole fleet took part in it, and carried the best ornaments that they could. The most holy Child was carried in this procession to our house, and placed on an altar as decently adorned as was possible in that early period. The first mass of those islands was celebrated there, with more spirit and devotion, than music and splendor. At its conclusion, all took a vow to celebrate annually the feast of the finding of that relic—the twenty-eighth of April, when, as above stated, the feast of St. Vidal is observed. A fraternity of the Most Sacred Name of Jesus was then established, with the same rules as that of St. Augustine in the City of Méjico. This was the beginning of that religious province, this its first stone, and this the first [171] foundation—which, beyond all doubt, began from that very moment to promise very great increase. Because of this rock being hewn out of the mountain of its eternity, it fell to the earth with so small an appearance to the eyes, that it seemed a mere pebble. But so great was it in its efficacy, that it has increased so much, that it became a mountain, which occupied no less a space than the whole earth. Hence did those holy religious trust that the foundations of that small stone would increase so much that, within a short time, they would be extended throughout the islands, and that the islands would become subject to the worship of the true God; while everything pertaining to the demon, who held those islanders deceived with innumerable impurities and indecencies, would be wholly cast out from them. These deceits were of such a nature, that had it not been for the feeble intellect of the natives, they would have themselves withdrawn the latter from their blindness.