Note 38 — Chapter XXXVII

When the first church in this village had been finished, the religious, seeing the manifest favor of the Lord in everything that had happened, undertook to build another in Camalaniugan, a village about a legua from the city. The Indians there are among the most intelligent in those provinces. They were very friendly with the Spaniards, and gave them great help in pacifying the whole country, by their great fidelity and continued assistance in the wars which took place. No falsehood or double-dealing was ever discovered in them; and they have always preserved this affection for the Spaniards, serving them much—as they were able to do, because of their proximity to the city. The chief and lord of this village was so rich that, if we are to believe his vassals, or even some of the old soldiers who were there at that time, he weighed the gold that he had with a steelyard, as iron is commonly weighed. Afterward, however, he suffered from the vicissitudes of fortune, and lost the greater part of his property. To this village father Fray Antonio de Soria went, with a brother of the order, to establish and erect a church. Though they were received without opposition, the Indians showed so little pleasure at having them in their village that no one visited them or spoke to them, except to ask when they were going to depart. Their answer was, that they would go as soon as the river ran dry. Now this river is so large that, because of its resemblance, the Spaniards called it Tajo [i.e., “Tagus”]. At this answer the Indians gave up putting that question, but they did not give up their wonder at seeing the religious among them, making a thousand guesses about the plans and purposes that the religious might have in maintaining a house and dwelling in their village. The women, though out of curiosity they tried to look at the religious, did so by stealth, glancing over their shoulders. If a religious happened to turn his head, they ran away like so many fallow-deer. If one suddenly came upon them when they were carrying water (which they drew from the river), they put it on the ground in order that they might better run away from him and from being seen by him. This was the way in which the religious were generally received in that and the other villages. However, as the story of the way in which they lived at Pata and Abulug had reached there, the Indians did not find the missionaries quite so strange, or treat them quite so badly, as they did at those places. What they wondered at most was their habits, which for such a hot country were very heavy, and which were very different from anything that they had seen on Spaniards, or on religious who had up to that time been in the city. A church was afterward built there—like the rest, poor and small, and with a roof of thatch. But it was built with great devotion on the part of the religious, and with great acceptance to our Lord, for whose glory it was built. Immediately afterward, they likewise built a church in Buguey, which was near that village and was closely allied to it. The church of Camalaniugan had the name of St. Hyacinth, and was dedicated to him. That of Buguei was dedicated to St. Vincent Ferrer; but afterward the name was changed, and it is now named for St. Anne. These churches were for the time annexed to the convent in the city, as its benefices, and as dependent upon it. The religious found much to occupy them while they were dwelling in those villages, as they were the first who preached there the law of the gospel; and as they had deeply at heart the purpose of overthrowing and casting to the ground the deceits which the Father of Lies had inculcated upon these tribes, and the diabolical customs in which they had been brought up. These evil ways of living had been sucked in by them with their mothers’ milk, and, having been continued by them all their lives, they had become second nature. As the Indians had inherited them from their ancestors, they observed them with the greatest accuracy, and took the greater pleasure in them because they were so closely conformed to their wicked inclinations and their evil training. Therefore to draw them forth from this condition, which was so contrary even to the law of nature, was a most difficult matter, and one in which success was not to be expected from natural forces. Hence the religious strove with all their hearts to obtain divine strength by means of prayer, fasting, and tears. By the aid of the Lord, which is never denied to those who thus seek for it, they went on and conquered all these difficulties; and in a short time they saw and tasted, to the great comfort of their souls, wonderful fruits from their labors. These had been accomplished by the help of God, to whose omnipotence there is nothing difficult. The Indians—who, because they did not know the religious, received them at first with so much disgust—soon came to see in what an error they had been, and how unfounded their fears were; for with the religious God sent to them light, teaching, true belief, healing for their souls, comfort in their sorrow, a wise rule of conduct, order and system in their manner of living, protection against those who wronged them, and, in a word, true fathers, not only in spiritual, but also in temporal matters. Hence within a few years, when the voluntary offer of their allegiance was asked for from them on the part of his Majesty King Felipe II,38 to satisfy a scruple which he had felt with regard to the conquest of that province, one of the leading chiefs of the province, Don Diego Siriban, responded for himself and for his subjects that he gave his allegiance to the king our lord with a very good will, because of the great blessing which he had given them by sending religious to them. He went on to say “If we had known earlier the good that was coming to us with them, we would have gone to their countries to seek for it, even if we had been sure that half of us were certain to perish in the quest.” The same thing was said by the whole village. Another village declared that they very readily offered their allegiance to his Majesty for having sent them Spaniards to deliver them from the tyranny of their chiefs, and religious to deliver them from the tyranny of some Spaniards. In general, the love that they feel for the religious is very great. Those who can have them in their villages are greatly pleased; while those who cannot be supplied, on account of the insufficient number, long for them. An evidence of this may be seen in the case of a great Indian chief named Bacani. Some years ago this man, who had no religious in his district, went to see the father provincial, and, falling on his knees, begged him with tears that he might receive some fathers. He offered in his own name, and in that of the other chiefs of his tribe, to gather in one village more than a thousand inhabitants, and for this purpose to leave his own villages and estates. The reason for this was that the villages were so small and scattered that it was difficult to give instruction among them; and hence the offer was made that many of them would assemble together in a new village, in some cases one or two days’ travel distant from where they had been living. The inhabitants of another region, called Malagueg, who had no ministers, and to whom none could be given, built a house for them and bought a boat in which they might travel—for people generally travel by the rivers—planning thus to make it easier for religious to be given them, as soon as there should be any. In the interim they did not cease to ask for them very humbly, and left no stone unturned to bring it about that the religious might be sent. They did all sorts of things to get ministers to live among them, offering to abandon their vices, and manifesting the greatest desire to become Christians (as at this time, by the grace of God, they are). The same desire was displayed by the Indians of the estuary of Yogan; but the father provincial did not dare to give them religious. A marvel followed, for while they were very urgently pleading for missionaries, two of the religious fell sick, and were so near to death that they were already despaired of. At that time a religious came in, who was much moved to pity when he saw the heathen asking for preachers with so much urgency. He told the father provincial, Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, that he ought to make a vow to send missionaries to the people of Yogan if the Lord healed the sick men; for, if the Lord did heal them, it was the same as to give him anew two missionaries, the number necessary for these Indians, for they were already mourning the religious as dead. The provincial made no vow, but promised to do so; and the Lord straightway fulfilled that condition by healing those whose life was despaired of, and the provincial sent religious to Yogan. Many other Indians of that same country have felt this same desire, wishing to enjoy the presence of the religious, because of the high regard that they feel for them and the great advantage which they receive from their presence. And the hearts of the religious have been not a little grieved at seeing the heathen coming to ask for preachers (which is the same as for them to come to preach to us), and themselves unable to help them. Since there are not religious enough for so many villages and districts, the religious have done all they could, and at times have done more than they could; so that, as a result of their excessive labor, they have lost their lives. Even so, there are many to whose succor it has not been possible to go; and they have failed to become Christians for lack of missionaries to teach them, baptize them, and keep them in the divine law.