Note 72 — Chapter XVI

I am aware that I have expatiated on a matter which seems to be an affair of state, rather than of history, although history, as a teacher of truth and a witness of the times, should include all events. I much regret that I cannot enlarge my account by saying something of the much which I could tell about the great indifference with which the Sangleys who are baptized attend to their obligations as Christians; most of them do so for worldly objects, such as being married and living as lords of the country; but this subject is one for tears rather than for the pen. Many lamentations have been made by many Jeremiahs zealous for the honor of God; but no results have followed beyond the reward which will be given to them in glory for this so holy labor. A very learned apologue is kept in the ecclesiastical archives, written by the reverend father Fray Alberto Collares of the Order of Preachers, at the request of the archbishop of Manila, Doctor Don Miguel Millán de Poblete, which causes horror to those who read it; and the worst is, that it tells but little, according to the opinion of other religious of the said order, who, as ministers to the Parián mission, know the Chinese best. And still more is this occasion for censure to some of the religious of that order who have been in China, and know how much superior the Christians of that empire are to these; and therefore they take great care to prevent those who come from China (who are few) from holding intercourse with the Christians of the Parián, in order that these may not corrupt them. Thus do they look upon the matter; and when in our convent at Manila was lodged Don Fray Gregorio López, a Basilitan72 bishop of the Order of Preachers, a Chinese by nationality—who was a phœnix among that people, on account of his virtue and sanctity—he prevented from going to the Parián, whenever he could, two good Chinese Christians whom he brought hither in his company.