Note 15 — Chapter XIII

During this year a beginning was also made in an undertaking which had been much desired by good and spiritual religious, as being worthy of and proper to that charity with which the religious of this province usually took up enterprises involving great labor, that they might in return offer souls to the Lord and bring heathen into the church. There are near the province of Nueva Segovia certain islands, called Babuianes, following each other in a line toward the northeast until they approach near those which are called Lequios, which are near Japon.15 These latter are innumerable, and some of them are very large and very fertile. Their inhabitants are of excellent natural dispositions, so that, being heathen, they cause wonder in all of those who go there. They are extremely kind, loving, docile, and free from self-interest—excellent foundations for their becoming noble Christians if the happy day of the faith shall dawn upon them. The islands near Nueva Segovia are not fertile, being plagued with fierce winds, which, sweeping over them without any defense, do them great damage. The inhabitants, however, are very ingenuous and simple. When they sometimes came to Nueva Segovia to do their poor little trading, the hearts of the religious were grieved when they saw those people of a natural disposition so excellent, so humble and peaceable; while their souls were left totally without assistance because they were poor and few, and widely scattered over many islands in the midst of the sea, without hope that any other preachers would undertake their conversion if our religious neglected them. They had a Spanish encomendero, who went duly every year to demand his tribute from them; but he paid no attention to providing them with Christian teaching, civilization, or justice. He saw them only when he collected his tribute, without caring about them all the rest of the year, and without trying to do them any good, as he was bound to do. The religious had many times conferred about the conversion of these poor people, but their purposes had never taken effect until this year, when the religious came from España; and then preachers were sent to them. That it might be possible to reach them, the inhabitants of many islands were gathered on one, where they could more conveniently be taught; they were baptized, and became very good Christians. In this way the great labor was somewhat diminished, and the religious were enabled to bear the almost total absence of comfort among them; for they were imprisoned on a small island from which during many months of the year it was impossible to have any communication with other people. The land was so scanty and in every way so poor that it did not produce even enough rice for the food of the inhabitants; but yielded only borona and other grains of less excellence than rice, or even something inferior to this. The people generally sustained themselves on roots, potatoes, and such things. If this fails, as often happens, it is necessary for the religious to support them by giving them the little they themselves have, and asking alms from the other convents of Nueva Segovia. All this was evident before the religious went to convert them, as was also the inconvenience which results if the religious are ill—as they must inevitably be much of the time—for there is no physician there, nor are there any medicines; and for nearly half the year it is not possible for a religious to go thence to be cared for where he can have them, or even to send a letter. During this period this sea is not navigable, for it is very stormy; and the boats which they have there, being the boats of poor persons, are small. Yet all this, and the fact that those natives have a different language from all the rest, and many other inconveniences which they suffered there, the religious bore with pleasure, being good and devout Christians. They are in two little villages, with a church and a convent in each, sufficient for its needs. Though the Indians provided the labor, all the rest was a gift which the religious had made and are making to them. Since they had religious, there have been several attacks of smallpox in various years, which is almost like a plague among the Indians—attacking practically all of them, and being very fatal. On these occasions great numbers of baptized children have gone to heaven; and there have been many cases of the special providence with which the Lord takes hence those who are predestinated. The love and devotion with which the ministers strive for their salvation is so great that he only who has seen it can believe it. On the one hand the people were good Christians, humble and devout, and on the other hand so poor and needy that it seemed as if the people and their country had been rejected by all lands and men. Hence the religious, taking them in charge, pitied their miseries and strove to provide relief for them in both their temporal and their more important spiritual necessities. Thus, in times of need, the religious have come to Nueva Segovia to ask alms from house to house, sometimes undergoing manifest danger of drowning to help these Indians. As for their souls, the care which they take of them may be inferred from the following case. The principal minister, father Fray Jacintho de San Geronimo, learned that a poor woman was in the fields about to give birth to a child. She had not come to the village, as they commonly do, perhaps because she could not. The religious pitied her, and went to find her and bring her to the town, so that in her need she might find someone to help her when she should be delivered. With all this solicitude it took him some days to find her, so far away from all companionship did she live. When she had been brought to the village she was provided for by the religious, and brought forth two children. They were baptized by the religious, and both died within a short time, going to enjoy God forever because of the devoted care given to them by their spiritual father while their natural parents left them on the road to perdition; for without doubt they would have been lost, if the religious had not had the mother brought to the village for her delivery.