Note 40 — Chapter IX

The third mission of the Visayas Islands is that of which the reverend father provincial Fray Vicente Ibarra gave a particular and exact account to the governor of the islands in the year 1738, when he had finished his visitation of the missions, having received an urgent request that he should make report of their condition and progress (for with all this strictness are affairs examined in Philipinas, since such is the command of his Majesty, whom may God preserve); and because the said father provincial, as being an eyewitness and well acquainted with the religious who began that mission, can speak with more accuracy, I will set down his very words, as follows: “The third mission which my province maintains is in the mountains of Bosoc in the province of Ogtong, on the further coast of the province of Panay. This mission was established in the year 1728, an entrance being made in the rugged region of those mountains by father Fray Felix de Zuñiga40—a religious of the most religious habits and the gentlest demeanor; and so zealous for souls that, without heeding the inclemencies of those wild mountains, he went about on foot, unshod, in sun and in rain, crossing almost by a miracle swollen and rapid rivers, and, despising danger, made his way into the most secluded places, in which there are many apostates and Carib41 blacks, of which sort are all those who are in the mountains of these islands. Such power had his zeal and constancy that he gained no small number of souls, since from those who were converted he was able to form three small villages; but, while he was praying one day in the little house which he had made for his dwelling, some apostates killed him with their lances. At present the said mission is cared for, on account of the great deficiency of men that we experience, by two religious who are in the village of Bugasson.”