Note 55 — Chapter XXXVIII

The rest recovered and reached the said port on June 25, of the year 1622. There are many convents belonging to our father St. Francis in that district, and they assisted generously the needs of all, and especially of the religious, who were in need of everything. But for Ours, while going to Manila, the route which they took overland was so dangerous and so full of difficulties that daily they braved death a thousand times at the passage of the rivers. For the rainy season was at its height, and consequently the rivers were swollen outside their beds, and had very swift currents. They came afoot and shoeless, for the mud unshod them in two steps. Their food was morisqueta.55 They suffered so great need of all things, although not through the fault of the father commissary, who ever treated them with great liberality and no less charity; but on the roads they met no people, but only buffaloes, and in the rainy season they experienced all these inconveniences. Finally they came to the confines of Pampanga, where, forgetful of their hardships, they began to receive innumerable welcomes from those most devout fathers, who know how to show kindness to strangers, and all the more to their own who came to aid them, when they had suffered so much and were in need of all things. Thence they went to Manila, where they were received heartily by our father Fray Juan Enríquez—who had them rest, so that they should begin their labor in the Lord’s vineyard, for which they had been chosen, with greater courage. Those who entered Manila in the company of father Fray Alonso Rincón, their commissary, were the following: