Chapter 6

_Foundation of the convent of Cigayan_

_The year 1612_

The missionary fathers of the Philippinas Islands were free from anxiety, and were far from suffering the strife and upheaval that the Reform was enduring in España. However, in their great anxiety to guide souls to heaven, they did not desist from their fruitful conversion along the coasts of Zambàles. They needed associates to help them carry so heavy a burden; but notwithstanding that, in their sorrow for the lamentable loss of those who did not yet know God because of the lack of missionaries, after they had converted many infidels in the village of Cigayàn they set about founding a monastery there. They carried it out that year, and lived therein with all security until an Indian, instigated by the devil, laid violent hands on father Fray Alonso de San Augustin, whom he wounded severely in the throat with a very broad though short dagger, called _igua_ in that country, which is made purposely for beheading a person at one blow--a vice common to the Zambàles, before they knew the sweet charity of the law which we profess. But as the stroke was first caught by the hood [of the father's habit], the barbarian did not succeed in his purpose, which had been to behead him in a moment. But the wound did not heal readily, and consequently he lived but a little while. It is said that there was no further cause for the atrocious and profane act of the wicked parricide than the desire to free himself from the censures that that same father had administered to him for his crimes and wickedness. Thereupon, the Indians of the village rose in revolt, and after burning the church and the convent, fled to the mountains. However, some remained, who defended the other religious, and carried the wounded man to Masinglo. Consequently, the village was almost deserted. Afterward they tried, and successfully, to subdue the insurgents again. They succeeded by their energy and toil, and restored the settlement and church again to their former state for the administration of seven hundred souls or so, who were the last ones to comprehend the cry of the gospel.

It happened in this place that one Sunday, while father Fray Francisco de Santa Monica was in the church teaching the rudiments of the Catholic faith to the least intelligent Indians, they came to tell him that there was a certain woman, at a long legua's distance from that place, dying of childbirth, who was entreating for baptism very earnestly. The said father left his exercise, and, seizing a staff, started to run so fast that, as he himself testified, it seemed as if he were flying through the air. He was not far wrong, for in less than one-half hour he reached the place or hut of the poor woman who was expiring, all swollen and black with the pain and anguish that she was suffering. He baptized her (and also instructed her as was necessary), and she immediately gave birth to an infant, which, although alive, was much deformed because of the danger of the mother. After it had been washed likewise from the original sin in which all we children of Adam are born, they both died, to the joy and wonder of that minister at seeing the depth of the divine decrees in regard to the predestination of those souls.

[Chapters iii, iv, and v treat of the European affairs of the order.]