The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 30 of 55, 1640 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

Title-page of Historia de la provincia del Sancto Rosario ... en Philippinas, by Diego Aduarte, O.P. (Manila, 1640); photographic facsimile from copy in library of Edward E. Aye...

reception by all, and their establishment there as a religious community. The new arrivals are initiated into missionary labor at Bataan, and soon afterward are placed in charge...

mission-field, that of Bataán, and their labors therein. This field had been transiently occupied by other missionaries, but was so hard and barren that none of them had perseve...

[Though the Dominican order did not accompany the discovery of these islands, it was not late in entering them; for it found many entire provinces still in the night of heatheni...

[At Roma Fray Juan Chrisostomo obtained a brief from Pope Gregory XIII, granting to the Dominican province of Philippinas and China powers of absolution from sins, excommunicati...

[Though father Fray Juan had supposed, because of the ease with which he carried out his business at Roma, that he was likely to obtain even greater favor in España, he found th...

[The fathers met with great difficulty in preparing for the embarcation. After making arrangements for their passage, they found the vessel so ill-suited for their purpose, that...

[On Friday, July 17, 1586, the day of St. Alexis, they began the voyage. Since the vessel already had its complement of passengers, and a full cargo, there was no place for the...

[The common enemy of souls strove with all his might to keep the religious in Mexico. He represented that Mexico was in need of religious, and that the voyage from Mexico to the...

[The vicar-general, with the advice of the eldest, most learned, and most devout of the religious, made ordinances for the foundation of the new province. He followed the custom...

[The three brethren destined for China set sail from the port of Acapulco for Macan, in a vessel called the "San Martin." The other fifteen religious began their voyage on the S...

[As it was the principal intention, in establishing this new province, to promulgate the holy gospel in the great kingdom of China, the fathers who were sent thither were distin...

The previous chapter has caused some digression; but it was necessary, in order to give an account of the voyage, and of the career of these important religious. We now return t...

[Though the first church and convent were but small and poor buildings, made of wood, they were very precious in the sight of the Lord, who manifested therein many miracles. The...

[This image was given to the convent by Don Luis Perez das Mariñas, formerly the governor of these islands. It was made by a Chinaman, under the direction of Captain Hernando de...

[The accounts of this extraordinary miracle moved the whole city and aroused its devotion. The sick crowded to the chapel for healing, and so many miracles were wrought that it...

[In 1617 some vessels made by the governor Don Juan de Silva, for service against the Dutch heretics, were being taken to a shipyard for overhauling. By a sudden storm they were...

Before the religious separated to go on the missions to the Indians to which they were severally appointed, there were given to them those general ordinances which had been so w...

[These holy ordinances have without doubt been inspired by God; and the religious followed them with such exactitude that it was impossible for them not to obtain marvelous resu...

[The greater the virtue, the more widely it spreads its fragrance; and so it was with the founders of this province. "Father Fray Thomas de Jesus speaks thus of them in his book...

Being now armed with the general ordinances and animated by the fervent address of the vicar-general, whom they regarded as inspired by the Lord, those who had received assignme...

[The mighty work described, being beyond human power, must have been of God; and, to make this clear, God showed His power in this region. At one time the father vicar was going...

When the order of our father St. Dominic reached these islands the Indians of Pangasinan were given over to idolatry, and so detested the gospel that, though the ministry of som...

The principal reason that these Indians had for persecuting these first fathers who came to their villages was that, as soon as they came thither, they built a convent in a few...

[Though the Lord did not work so many miracles in this province as in the primitive church, since that was the foundation of all the churches since, He still gave authority to t...

Though father Fray Juan Cobo and other fathers did not come on the first voyage, for the reasons given, they were always thinking of and longing for this province. So when fathe...

[Though the religious had come in the previous year, and though the second Sunday after Easter of the year 1588 had gone by (which is the usual day on which provincial chapters...

[After the chapter, father Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina and the new vicar of Gabon set out for Pangasinan, taking with them as their associates father Fray Luis Gandullo and...

Although the zeal for the good of souls with which the religious came to these regions was universal in its scope, and included all those races who were ignorant of their God an...

As has been seen, the conversions that had been begun proceeded with great prosperity, affording even at the very beginning marvelous fruits. The Lord at the very outset favored...

[The unexpected success of the mission to the province of Pangasinan encouraged the father provincial to undertake the mission to China which had been the principal object of th...

[Great was the loneliness felt by the province during the absence of the provincial, because of his holy life and the love they felt for him. Father Fray Juan Cobo, though not w...

In the month of June in this same year, 1590, there came to these islands as governor Gomez Perez das Mariñas, knight of the Habit of Sanctiago, an able governor, indefatigable...

On the ninth of April, 1592, the Sunday Deus qui errantibus--which is the third after Easter, and the customary day for holding provincial chapters--the electors assembled in th...

[Father Fray Juan Cobo was born in Consuegra, in the kingdom of Toledo, and took the habit of the order and made his profession in the convent of the town of Ocaña. After studyi...

[Father Fray Francisco de la Mina was a native of Andalucia, where he assumed the habit of the order. He afterward went to Mexico, preaching there both in Spanish and in the Ind...

[Father Fray Alonso Delgado had been sent to Roma by father Fray Antonio de Arcediano, but had failed in his endeavors there on account of the opposition made by a religious of...

This land was not only ruined by the continual wars which the villages all waged with one another, but still more by the settled peace which they all had made with the devil. Th...

These Indians were in this wretched state when the six new religious came to this province. They were received by father Fray Diego de Soria and his associate with great joy; an...