Note 55 — Chapter XLVIII

Although the conversions of the kingdoms of Japon and China turns thither much [missionary] effort55 in España, since these kingdoms are so magnificent, and summons many noble spirits, that is not the only conversion; nor ought the others to be despised where the Lord more quietly (and perhaps in a humbler way) works marvelous effects among the heathen who are converted—and also among the ministers, who profit greatly by so noble a work. Many examples of this have been written in this history, which are confirmed by the events of this year among the Indians called Mandayas, who inhabit some remote and craggy mountains in the province of Nueva Segovia. Though this island of Luçon is the first which received the faith in these regions, having done so at the time when the Spaniards invaded it, there are still many regions in it where for lack of ministers the faith has not been preached, and where the inhabitants have never heard more of the gospel than if Christians had never come hither. This is true not only of a village here and there, but of whole provinces, each inhabited by its own race and each possessing its own language, though they are all within this great island. Such were these Mandayas Indians, the conversion of whom was begun in this year by father Fray Geronimo de Zamora, a native of Zaragoça, a son of the most religious province of Aragon—from whose report, and from that of two other fathers who for some time accompanied him, the following facts are drawn. In the provincial chapter of the year 1631 obedience sent this father as superior to the villages of Fotol and Capinatan, which are in Nueva Segovia near the aforesaid mountains. He had great joy in going there, for he immediately entertained great hopes of the conversion of these Mandaya tribes. They were as completely given over to their errors as if there had never been a preacher of the faith in this country, for they lived in mountains which were very rugged, although they were near the villages above mentioned. When father Fray Geronimo came thither and saw that these heathen sometimes came down for trade with the villages, he began to show them kindness, and to give them some trifles that they thought much of, until at last he secured their good will. For the time he did not speak of anything else, for they were not inclined to matters of the faith, much less to accept ministers who would interfere with the vices in which they lived and had been brought up. In this way a year passed, and at the beginning of the next year, seeing that they were more kindly disposed to him, it seemed to him that he could trust them; and he determined to go up to their villages. He was confident that even though they would not admit him as a teacher and preacher, they would receive him kindly as their friend and benefactor, who was not coming to take or to ask for what they possessed, but merely to provide them with a good which they were without. That he might not make a mistake by following his own opinion, he consulted first with the father vicar-provincial of that region and some grave fathers of it; and after they had conferred, and discussed the case, they resolved that father Fray Geronimo should make the journey, while the others should pray to the Lord for a good result. Hereupon he most courageously went up into the mountains, about the end of January, taking with him some Indians whom he could trust and who were of good intelligence—acquaintances and friends of the Mandayas. It took him a day and a half of most laborious traveling to reach their first village, for they had to row up stream against the current, which is always strong and in some places terrible. The river runs between high mountains on both sides and in the middle of the stream there are great rocks, which make it very dangerous to go up—and still more so to go down, because the rapid current carries the boat against the rocks. They received him with great pleasure, and lodged him in one of their best houses, though it was built of thatch, after the custom of the country. Next to it the father had a building erected where he could say mass; and he sent round to the chiefs of the other villages to ask them to come to that one, and there he waited for them. They did so readily, because of their good will toward him; and, when they were all together, the father—standing in the midst of them in an open place, like St. Paul in Athens—expounded to them the mysteries of our faith, demolishing the delusions of their errors and the teaching of the devil, the Father of Lies, and saying much that was suitable for both purposes. To this they listened with attention, although the doctrine was new to their ears. God enlightened them within, and hence they did not answer as the Athenians did to St. Paul—some making a jest of it, and others saying that they would hear him another time as to this matter, while there were few that believed; but here all said at once that they believed what they were taught, and wished to receive this holy law, placing themselves in his hands to be disposed of as he thought best. Great was the joy which father Fray Geronimo felt at this answer, which was beyond his hopes; and he gave many thanks to the Lord, seeing that it was he who had accomplished the matter so well, so quickly, and with so little effort, though it was a great matter. He also thanked them, and confirmed them as much as he could in their good purpose; and he asked them as a proof of the validity of the promise which they had given him, to grant him, as sureties that they would not retract it, their infant sons in baptism. Without hesitation ten of their chiefs on the following day brought ten infants, their sons, whom father Fray Geronimo immediately baptized, offering them to God as the first-fruits of this new conversion. As a token that in the name of Christ our Lord and of his most holy Mother he assumed possession thereof, he said mass, and assigned to the village as their patron the Virgin of the Pillar of Zaragoça.56 It was surely a prudent thought to fasten this tender church to this strong pillar, upon which from of old that noble city has been supported, and has stood firm without being overthrown by the storms that have assailed it since its foundation, though it be as many years in age as the days of the same Virgin in this mortal life; and it shall last to the end of the world. Throughout that whole day the father spent his time in converse with his new sons, encouraging them to go on with what they had so happily begun; but he was obliged to leave them for the time, that he might return to the villages under his care, for Lent was at hand and it was necessary for him to listen to confessions. The ministers are so few that their strength and power cannot reach as far as their desire. The Indians were greatly grieved when they saw that they were to be without a guide just as they were beginning a path which they had never trod; but the father was more grieved at being obliged to leave them. He promised to come back and live among them as soon as he could; and they determined to go to his superior to beg for a minister and a teacher to instruct them in the way of salvation. They carried out their plan at such a fortunate time that they found the fathers preparing to go to the provincial chapter, which was at hand. The religious promised to help the Indians in their good purpose, and did so, as will soon be seen. Father Fray Geronimo departed from them with many tears on both sides—the Indians weeping from sorrow at being left behind; the father partly from grief at leaving them, and partly from joy at seeing his desires realized and his labors so well begun, for this meant that the work was half done. The fathers of the chapter complied with the promise that had been given, and recounted to the definitors the good beginning of this conversion which they had seen, and the great desire with which these heathen Indians asked for ministers to teach and baptize them. The result was that the definitors felt obliged to grant so just a petition, and to give them as minister and preacher the same Fray Geronimo de Zamora, who offered to dwell in those solitary mountains in order to carry on what the Lord had begun through his ministry and diligence. That he might be able to go, he was provided with two good companions—a great number where the religious were so few, and where there was so much calling upon them for their help. The convent and convents which might be established there were accepted; and the patronage of the Virgin of the Pillar was extended over all the Christian churches which might be formed there. This last request was so just that it brought its favorable answer with it; and, even if father Fray Geronimo had not presented it, there was a definitor in that chapter who would have made it, because he was likewise a native of the same city of Zaragoça, and a son of the famous convent of preachers of that city. His name was Fray Carlos Clemente Gant,57 long an excellent minister of the province of Nueva Segovia. It is well that the sons of that noble city never cease, wherever they are, to see within their souls that great sanctuary which the city enjoys and in the shade of which they were bred. Though father Fray Geronimo was eager to carry out the orders of the chapter, he was unable to do so until the beginning of September, on account of the obstacles placed in his way by the devil, who saw how much he was to lose by the expedition. He finally embarked to go up the river with one of his companions, father Fray Luis de Oñate,58 who called himself here by the name of del Rosario; he was a native of Sevilla, and a son of the convent of Portaceli in the same city, a religious of much virtue though of few years, and therefore very well suited to such enterprises. All of his qualifications were necessary, because in the midst of that voyage, at one most dangerous passage, full of great rocks, where the waves are high and the current is stronger, they were unable for three days to make a yard of headway by the greatest efforts that they could put forth, such was the force of the current—or of the devil, who, being unable to do more, strove in this way to interfere with the fathers on their journey. At last by patience and perseverance, which conquer everything, they reached the end of their difficulty. They arrived in the first village of the Mandayas on September 7, the eve of the Nativity of our Lady—a feast which, among the other feasts of the Virgin, is celebrated in Zaragoça with the greatest solemnity by the chapter and the clergy of the holy church of the Pillar. The Indians received them with great demonstrations of joy, after their fashion; and with much greater joy, though a spiritual one, the fathers celebrated on the following day the birth of the Virgin—for it seemed to them wonderfully appropriate to begin the foundation of this conversion on this day—the Virgin herself adopting it, so that, as if it were her own, she might look upon it with the eyes of a mother, and of one so tender. The material (that is, the minds of the listeners) being so well disposed, it was an easy thing for the word of God to kindle in it; for it is like fire, as St. Jerome says in his comment upon the prophet Abdias [i.e., Obadiah], which consumes the straw and purifies the grain for the Lord. Hence the first thing which father Fray Geronimo did, because of his deep spiritual insight and his great experience as a minister, was to get at them under the straw of their vices and superstitions, and to place before them immediately the pure grain and clean seed of the faith. He began, as St. Paul did, in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, with the knowledge of and belief in one sole God, the great reward which He has prepared for those who serve Him, and the dreadful punishment with which He chastises the unbelief of the heathen and the sins of those who offend Him. With such force did he explain the greatness of the reward of glory, and the horrors of eternal punishment decreed for the heathen, that all those who heard desired to be baptized immediately. But as this was not possible for the adults, who must first be instructed in the matters of our holy faith, and relieved and unburdened from their previous sins and superstitions, they immediately offered their infant children, who might receive holy baptism without these preparations. Within a few days were baptized some three hundred and more, who learned the whole of the Christian doctrine with strange quickness, a clear indication of the great willingness with which they were converted to their Creator. On the first Sunday in October, which came very soon, an Indian chief and his wife were baptized; and four days later his brother, a youth. It was attributed to the particular favor of the Virgin of the Rosary, whose festival is celebrated on that Sunday, that so barbarous a race, without knowing how to read or write, and bred in those mountains without commerce or communication even with other Indians, should so quickly learn so many prayers. This is still more wonderful because they were not taught them in their own language, which is a savage one, but in that of more highly civilized Indians, which is quite different from theirs. Although they usually all understand this latter, they never speak it among themselves, which increased the difficulty of this matter, and the grace shown by enabling them to conquer it in so short a time. The religious went on to two other villages higher up, and were received by the Indians with the same welcome and signs of rejoicing as in the first village. These Indians listened as readily to the teaching of the faith as the others. Here was founded a tiny church under the advocacy of St. Antoninus—for when lots were cast for this glorious saint, St. Jerome, and St. Francis, that of our holy archbishop came out; and, mass being said in his honor, the church was dedicated to him. Then followed the baptism of many children, whose fathers readily brought them for the purpose—and indeed desired to be the companions of their children in baptism, but were obliged to wait until they could be prepared. The religious could not remain here, and wait until they had prepared them, because they were called back by their obligations to minister to those who were already Christians in the older villages of their district, to whom a single religious could not attend sufficiently. As only one had been left behind, the fathers were obliged to leave them after making so good a beginning, promising to return afterward and to perfect them in Christianity, after fulfilling these duties. It may perhaps seem to some a cause for offense when they shall read that these fathers left this growing grain in the blade, without protection or anyone to care for it, when there was danger that the enemy might come and sow tares in the field; but if the reader will consider how few ministers the province had, and how much they had to attend to, he cannot fail to see that they did not only what they could, but many times more—God giving them courage for that to which their natural strength, as it seemed, could not attain. Yet, even so, they were sometimes compelled guiltlessly to fail in that to which charity would have obliged them if they had been able to do it.