Note 9 — Character and Influence of the Friars

The famous bridge which joins the capital with the barrio of Binondo was directed by the Recollect, Fray Lucas de Jesus Maria. Another religious has lately constructed another bridge in Iloilo, which is said to be very fine. The government sent him a cross on that account. His name was Fray Simon de San Agustin. Almost all the advances in agriculture and the arts which have made in the islands since the arrival of the Spaniards are due to the religious, as was also the abolition of slavery.—Mas.