Note 9 — JESUIT MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

[Fol. 38 b:] In this year [1628] Manila and the adjoining villages were grievously afflicted with a sort of epidemic pest, from which many people died—some suddenly, but even he who lingered longest died within twelve hours. Some attributed this pest to the many blacks who had been brought here from India to be sold, and who, sick from ill-usage, communicated their disease to others; and some thought that it arose from an infection in the fish, which is the usual food of the poor. Various corpses were anatomized [se hizo anatomia], and the origin of the disease could not be discovered, although it was considered certain that it arose from a poisonous condition, since the only remedy that was found was theriac.9 In a city where there are so few Spaniards, it is easy to understand the affliction which was felt at seeing the suddenness with which they were dying, since the colony was placed in so great danger of extinction, and the islands of being ruined at one stroke—besides the grief of individual persons at seeing themselves bereft, the wife without a husband, the husband without a wife, the father without children, the children deprived of their parents. All search was made for remedies. Our priests did not cease, day or night, to hear confessions, and to aid the sick and dying; and at the request of the cura they carried with them the consecrated oils, to administer these in case of need. They also carried theriac, after this was discovered to be a remedy, for the relief of the sick; so they exercised their charity at the same time on the souls and on the bodies of men, to the great edification of all.