The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 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.

Indiæ orientalis nec non insularum adiacentum nova descriptio (map of Indian archipelago), photographic facsimile of part of map by Nicolaus Visscher [1660?], from copy in libra...

with Japan, where a new and more cruel persecution of the Christians begins with that year; and orders are given by the shogun that all priests and religious must be banished fr...

[Father Fray Luis was assigned to the province of Pangasinan and went there in the company of the two other fathers who were sent to the same place. Suffering from disease as a...

[However glorious the success of father Fray Luis in this country, he was desirous of going to Great China, the conversion of which the religious of this region had most at hear...

[Although grace perfects nature, it may work so vehemently that it weakens it and takes from it health and even life. This happened in the case of father Fray Luis, who, althoug...

[Father Fray Luis had the three virtues which St. Ambrose, the doctor of the Church, affirms to be fundamental ones: the power to keep silence, the power to speak in due time, a...

On the thirteenth of May, 1612, father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho was a second time elected as provincial, not because there was any lack of religious of much virtue, knowledge...

[Among the most highly honored religious in this province a very important place is taken by Don Fray Diego de Soria, second bishop of Nueva Segovia. It was he who began the con...

[After reaching his bishopric, Don Fray Diego made a visitation of it. Striving so far as possible to relieve the Indians of burdens and of other labor, he made these visitation...

[At this time the death of father Fray Francisco Minaio was much regretted in the province. He was a native of Arevalo in Castilla la Vieja. He assumed the habit and professed i...

[The church in Japon was like the primitive church as it was founded by our Lord, which from the beginning suffered persecutions. The first persecutions of the church were not s...

[Though father Fray Francisco de San Joseph was not one of the first founders of this province, he came in the second shipload from España. Because of his great virtue he is wor...

In the year 1615 this province, which from the beginning had sailed with a fair wind, and had proceeded with the conversions which it had undertaken in these Philippinas Islands...

[The new provincial had but a short time in which he could exercise his office, as he died in November of the same year, on the octave of All Saints. Father Fray Bernardo was a...

When the sad news of the death of the provincial was learned, the electors assembled at Binalatongan, a village of Pangasinan, on the fifteenth of April, 1617, and elected as he...

[In the beginning of the year 1616, the confraternity of our Lady of the Rosary, which had been established in 1602, when the order of our father St. Dominic entered Japon, was...

The expedition of father Fray Alonso Navarrete, vicar-provincial of our order in Japon, and father Fray Hernando de San Joseph, or Ayala, vicar-provincial of the order of our fa...

[The two fathers set out, traveling slowly, encouraging the Christians and recovering some of those who had recanted. The number of those who came to be confessed was very great...

[From this island the three fathers were removed to another named Coguchi. They received with great joy the news that they were to die, and were carried to another island still...

[The holy Fray Hernando was especially devoted to the souls in purgatory, and gave a notable example of poverty and obedience to the rules of his order. Father Fray Alonso was v...

[After the martyrdom of these holy religious the Christians of Omura, ashamed of their weakness, desired to follow their example. Father Fray Thomas del Espiritu Sancto and fath...

As soon as the order entered these islands, it took upon itself the charge of evangelizing and teaching the Chinese who came to these islands, every year, in pursuit of their bu...

[Since the establishment of this province was intended not only for the Philippinas, but also for the neighboring heathen kingdoms, advantage was taken of every opportunity to s...

[After the death of Safioye, other enemies of Christianity held the government of Nagasaki. With great acuteness the persecutors set about capturing the religious who were conce...

In the year of our Lord 1619 the intermediate chapter in the term of father Fray Melchior de Mançano was held, on the twentieth of April, in the convent of our father St. Domini...

[In the hospice belonging to the province in the City of Mexico, there died at this time father Fray Athanasio de Moya, a near relative of the holy archbishop of Valencia, Don F...

On the first of May, 1621, father Fray Miguel Ruiz was elected as provincial, to the great satisfaction of the province. He was a son of the royal convent of Sancta Cruz at Sego...

[Father Fray Luis Flores was for many years engaged in the ministry to the Indians of Nueva Segovia. Though his work was rewarded with much fruit, he felt that it was not such a...

[Several of the fathers who were in Japon made efforts to rescue the prisoners. At one time father Fray Pedro de Zuñiga and the two Spaniards were slipped past the guard, but we...

[The first of the religious to join father Fray Thomas del Espiritu Sancto in prison was father Fray Angel Orsuchi, who called himself in España and here Ferrer, from devotion t...

The arrest of the holy Fray Jacintho Orfanel; the narrowness of his prison, and the great miseries of it; his martyrdom, and the marvelous fruits which followed from his captivity.

The giving of the habit to three Japanese by the holy captives; and the martyrdom of the fathers Fray Francisco de Morales, Fray Alonso de Mena, Fray Angel Ferrer (or Orsuchi),...

[Father Fray Thomas de Zumarraga and brother Fray Mancio de Sancto Thomas were greatly grieved that they should have been left behind when the other fathers and brethren went to...

[Though the province rejoiced in having so many glorious martyrs, it was grieved to see the preachers of the holy gospel in Japon come to an end, for without them it was impossi...

[The holy Fray Pedro Vazquez was born in Berin in the kingdom of Galicia, in the county of Monterrey. He assumed the habit in the famous convent of Nuestra Señora de Atocha at M...

A more detailed account of the imprisonment of the holy Fray Pedro Bazquez, the time while it lasted, and the sufferings which he endured in it; and finally his glorious martyrd...

On the nineteenth of April, 1625, the vigil of the glorious virgin St. Inez de Monte Policiano, the fathers having votes assembled for the election of a provincial, since father...

[Father Fray Juan de Rueda was a native of the mountains of Burgos, and had assumed the habit in San Pablo at Valladolid, whence he came to the Philippinas in the year 1603, bei...

[The Order of St. Dominic has always had its eyes fixed upon Great China; and father Fray Bartholome Martinez was especially anxious for the conversion of that great realm. In t...

For the holding of the intermediate chapter [in 1627], an ancient custom in the Order of St. Dominic, devout fathers had assembled. Although the day was at hand, the provincial...

The state of affairs in Japon; and the martyrdom of father Fray Luis, Fray Mincio de la Cruz, Fray Pedro de Sancta Maria, and some other persons of the tertiary order of St. Dom...

[There were three of our religious in Japon at this time, who comforted the Christians and kept in hiding from the ministers of the law. It was with great difficulty that they c...

The martyrdom of the servants of God, Fray Domingo Castellet, Fray Thomas de San Jacintho, Fray Antonio de Sancto Domingo, and some persons of the tertiary order of St. Dominic.

In this year, twenty-eight, I came for the third time from España to the Philippinas, not alone, but with a good company of excellent religious, [45] who, desirous to advance th...

[The father provincial, father Fray Bartholome Martynez, after building a church in the new city of San Salvador, went on to Tanchuy, a province of the same island and a port kn...

In May, 1629, father Fray Francisco de Herrera was elected as provincial of this province, on the first ballot. He was a son of the convent of San Gines at Talabera, and afterwa...

[Father Fray Bartholome was notable for humility, patience, penances, and zeal. When he was elected provincial in 1625, he prostrated himself on the ground, and begged them to p...

[On Friday, June 7, 1630, died father Fray Miguel Ruiz, a son of the royal convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia, who had come to the province of the Philippinas toward the end of A...

[Though sufferings and persecution refine the gold of the church, yet there are many rich and pure spirits who appear in time of peace. Of these latter we are now to give an exa...

[If this island were of no value, its spiritual promise would make it important; and if it were poor in material things--and it is not, because it has many mines of gold and sil...

[Father Fray Angel, knowing that there were some Christians in the village of Fuhan and the province of Funinchiu, decided to set out thither on foot. He met with no interferenc...

[January 6, 1631, died in the convent of Sancto Domingo father Fray Marcos de Saavedra, a native of Villamayor in the district of Veles, a son of Sancta Cruz at Villa Escusa in...

Eighty years had passed since Christianity was first planted in this country in the island of Luçon, the chief island of the Philippinas. From here it had spread to other island...

[Father Fray Thomas Gutierrez was a native of the city of Origuela in the kingdom of Valencia; and he assumed the habit in the convent and college of the order there. When the o...

On the sixteenth of April in this year 1633, the fathers of the province assembled in Manila to elect a superior. Their minds were in such agreement that without difficulty they...

[To the six or seven holy martyrs of our sacred order--Fray Domingo de Erquicia, [60] Fray Lucas del Espiritu Sancto, Fray Jacobo de Santa Maria, and three or four lay brothers,...

The martyrdom of the holy friar Fray Francisco de Sancto Domingo in the island of Hermosa, and the death of the venerable father Fray Angel de San Antonino in Great China.

Although the conversions of the kingdoms of Japon and China turns thither much [missionary] effort [61] in España, since these kingdoms are so magnificent, and summons many nobl...

The beginning of the account of the glorious martyrdom of four illustrious martyrs--fathers Fray Jordan de Sant Estevan, Fray Thomas de San Jacintho, and two religious of our te...

[Father Fray Jordan de San Estevan was a Sicilian, who had assumed the habit of our order in his native country. Hearing of the crowns of martyrdom which had been attained in Ja...

[The persecutors at this time were seeking with extraordinary diligence for an Augustinian father named Miguel, a Japanese by nation. The inquisition brought the officers of the...

[The Christian Japanese who had been well prepared in the faith yielded many confessors; and the religious decided to admit into religious orders some of these of the most advan...

[Though the religious of our order who had recently entered Great China had not enjoyed entire freedom from disturbance, they had met with no such opposition as they had expecte...

[The greatest of the griefs of the Christian ministers in China was the discovery of a number of superstitions concealed by their converts. Many of these had to do with matters...

[To the judgment of flesh and blood it would not seem that the success of our order in the island of Hermosa was worthy of our efforts. We have sent there some of our best relig...

In the ships which reached these islands in this year 1635 there came twenty religious, sent by his Majesty at the request of the procurator then at the court, father Fray Mathe...

For those who knew the great virtues of the most religious father and most perfect bishop Don Fray Diego Aduarte, this history must certainly fall under the condemnation of bein...

[This chapter contains an account of the unsuccessful expedition to Camboxa undertaken by Don Luis Perez Das Mariñas, as narrated in book i, chapters xlix and l, of this history...

After all these hardships and perils, which were suffered with such great patience, father Fray Diego went to the court of España--not to gain honor or wealth, or rent, or any o...

May 2, 1637, there was elected as provincial father Fray Carlos Clemente Gant, a native of the famous city of Zaragoça, and a son of the illustrious convent of Preachers in that...

[The Lord in general requires a holy life to precede a martyr's death. Father Fray Antonio Gonçalez was a native of Leon, bred up for the Lord like another Samuel. He showed gre...