Note 2 — Chapter I

After we had been able to reduce to our holy faith two tribes who dwelt at the summits of the most rugged mountains in the province of Pampanga, the Caraclans and Buquids, and from them had been formed three villages—Santor and Bongabon, quite populous; and Pantabangan, of smaller numbers, and lying more within the mountains2—this gate being now opened so that we could proceed further, it only needed that we should have the courage to do so. For at the first step were encountered two contiguous tribes: the Italons, a people fierce, brave, and bold; and the Abacas, who are somewhat less so. The religious therefore feared that those people, to judge from their ferocious natures, would without doubt tear them to pieces at the very outset, without even listening to them; and for this very reason they greatly dreaded to set foot within the territory of those tribes. While we were in these straits, our provincial then being our father reader Fray Francisco Zamora, about the year 1702 he selected for this purpose father Fray Antolin de Arzaga,3 whose virtue and ardor he knew well from experience, and entrusted to him this enterprise, as dangerous as difficult. [This gospel pioneer went out, equipped with what was necessary for administering the sacraments and with some trinkets to give the natives, “and with no other arms than his confidence in God.”]