Note 18 — Chapter XVIII

During all the time while Archbishop Don Fray Hernando Guerrero governed the church of Manila, he was exercising echoes of the etymology of his name in the contentions that he had with Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera;18 and had there not been a prelate in the church of Manila so zealous and vigilant in matters of ecclesiastical immunity, it would have been involved in other and greater difficulties. The archbishop commenced the visitation of his diocese as soon as he became free from the late storms; and he continued it through all the benefices of his clergy, until he reached the island of Mindoro. There he found himself in another danger, no less than those which he had experienced on land; for he was attacked by six hostile galliots of the Mindanao enemy, which bore down upon the boat in which he was, near Naohan. Had not that boat been staunch and swift, the enemy would have captured and killed him—as is the usual custom of those Mahometan pirates, the enemy of our holy faith. It defended itself with the men aboard it, until it arrived at the land of Bacoo, where they had scarcely time to land and get into a place of safety; when, as the boat had remained in the sand, the pirates seized it, and captured many of the followers of the archbishop. They pillaged all the cargo aboard the boat, even the ornaments and the pontifical robe, all which was of much value. That blow caused great sorrow to that good prelate, for the Mindanaos killed most of the men whom they captured, and it was only after many difficulties that a few could be ransomed. The bishop became very ill with a serious sickness, from sorrow and his past troubles.19