The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 Part 5

CHAPTER x.x.xVI

Election of the father commissary, Fray Juan de Santo Domingo [21] as provincial. Mention of the deceased of the records of that time. The new mission of religious which arrived at the province that year.

[The above-named father is elected provincial in 1694. At that chapter meeting mention is made of two members of the order who have pa.s.sed away--Fray Manuel Trigueros, who dies in China in 1693; and Sister Mariana Salzedo; of the tertiary branch of the order, a Spanish woman. In 1694 a band of thirty-eight religious arrives at the islands, [22] which has been collected in Spain by Fray Francisco Villalba, who has been exiled from the islands by order of the Audiencia in consequence of the Pardo troubles. Of the original number of forty religious in this band two remain in Mexico. The names of the thirty-eight men are as follows:]

The father lector, Fray Pedro Muoz, son of the convent of Nuestra Seora, of Atocha.

The father lector, Fray Francisco Cantero, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Ezija.

Father Fray Vicente de el Riesgo, son of the convent of Leon.

The father lector, Fray Jayme Mimbela, son of the convent of Preachers of Zaragoa, and collegiate of the college of San Vicente, of the same city, who afterward became bishop of Santa Cruz, of the port of Per, and later of Truxillo.

Father Fray Pedro de Santa Theresa, son of the very religious convent of Nuestra Seora, of Las Caldas.

Father Fray Fernando Diaz, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Palencia.

Father Fray Francisco Gonalez de San Pedro, son of San Estevan, of Salamanca.

Father Fray Juan Cavallero, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Valladolid.

Father Fray Joseph Martin, of the convent of San Gins, of Talavera.

Father Fray Alonso Robles, of the convent of Salamanca.

Father Fray Alonso Texedor, of the convent of Valladolid.

Father Fray Francisco Marzan, of the convent of Santo Thomas, of Avila.

Father Fray Marcos de Arroyuelo, of the convent of San Pablo, of Burgos.

Father Fray Juan Ruiz de Tovar, of the convent of Santo Domingo, of Oviedo.

Father Fray Francisco Gonalez, of the convent of Salamanca.

Father Fray Juan Gonalez, of the same convent.

Father Fray Fernando de la Motta, of the convent of Valladolid.

Father Fray Francisco de Escalante, of the convent of San Pedro Martir, of Toledo.

Father Fray Andres Lozano, of the convent of San Pablo, of Sevilla.

Father Fray Diego Ballesteros, son of the convent of Toledo.

Father Fray Manuel de Santa Cruz, of the convent of Avila.

Father Fray Geronimo Martin, of the convent of Valladolid.

Father Fray Lorenzo Fernandez, of the convent of San Pablo, of Sevilla.

Father Fray Joseph de el Rosario, of the convent of San Ildephonso of Zaragoa.

Father Fray Manuel Ruiz, of the convent of Salamanca.

Father Fray Pedro Vegas, of the convent of Santo Domingo, of Ocaa.

Father Fray Francisco Lopez, of the convent of Salamanca.

Father Fray Antonio Ruidiaz, of the convent of Valladolid.

All the above were already priests. Those who came as choristers are the following:

Fray Manuel de Escobedo, deacon, of the convent of Nuestra Seora, of Atocha.

Fray Juan de Astudillo, deacon, of the convent of Santo Thomas, of Madrid.

Fray Pedro Humanes, deacon, of the convent of San Pablo, of Sevilla.

Fray Diego Constantino, of the convent of Atocha.

Fray Martin de Oa y Ocadiz, of the convent of Burgos.

Fray Diego Liao, of the same convent.

And Fray Francisco Novarin, an Asturian, son of Santo Domingo, of Mexico.

And two religious lay-brothers: the first, Fray Francisco de Toledo, son of the convent of Guadalaxara; and the second, Fray Vicente de el Castillo, son of the convent of Burgos. In addition there were two others, who as above said remained in Mexico with the father vicar, Fray Francisco Villalba, who could not return to the province because of his sentence of exile.

[With that band also comes one Fray Domingo Mezquita, who had first gone to the Philippines in 1671, but after some years residence there had returned secretly to Spain. Moved again by the will of G.o.d, he returns to the islands where he dies after some years. Those missionaries are detained in Mexico for two years waiting for a ship. Finally a ship is bought at Acapulco in which is sent the royal situado, the Dominican religious, a mission band of sixty Recollects, and a few soldiers. After a voyage fraught with danger, for the ship is old and rotten, the harbor of Cavite is finally reached June 28, and as soon as all the cargo and pa.s.sengers are safely off, it founders. The much-needed missionaries are distributed among the Philippine and Chinese missions.]

[Chapters x.x.xvii and x.x.xviii treat of the Chinese missions and the lives and work of certain fathers. Chapter x.x.xix notes the celebration of the intermediary chapter of 1696, and treats of members of the Dominican order who die during this period: namely, father Fray Diego Vilches, a Montaes native, who takes the habit at the Sevilla convent; and Doa Antonio de Jesus y Esguerra, a Spanish woman, and a member of the tertiary branch of the order. Chapters xl-xliii relate the foundation and progress of the beaterio of Santa Catharina, of Manila. The disputes between Archbishop Camacho and the orders (see VOL. XLII, pp. 25-116) and the questions of the friars'

estates, are taken up in chapters xliv-xlvi. The following chapter records the results of the provincial chapter of April 10, 1698, and states the condition of both Philippine and Chinese missions. That chapter accepted the mission of San Luis Beltran (of which mention is made in an earlier chapter) in Pangasinan. The mission work of that district results in the intermarriage of Pangasinans and Alaguetes, and the idiom of Pangasinan becomes the common language. Chapter xlviii reviews the lives of prominent members of the order who die in this period: Fray Francisco Sanchez, Fray Francisco de Escalante, and Sister Jacinta de la Encarnacion, of the beaterio.]

CHAPTER XLIX

New renforcement of religious, which arrived at this province, and the voyage of two of them to Kun-King.

[In 1699 a band of thirty-seven missionaries reaches the province. They have been collected by Fray Francisco Villalba (his third mission) who escorts them to Acapulco. [23] Those missionaries are as follows:]

The father lector, Fray Thomas Tocho, son of the royal convent of Santo Domingo, of Mallorca.

The father lector, Fray Francisco de Barrera, son of the convent of Santa Maria, of Nieva.