The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; 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, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 13]

i604-I605]

CHIRINO'S RELATION

II3

our efforts, for she either hid herself or was concealed by her parents. This time I made more diligent endeavors; she came to the church and, having
heard a few sermons, earnestly asked for baptism.
I gave her a teacher for the doctrine, promising that
I would baptize her when I returned to that place -
although so great was her desire for the sacrament
that the least delay seemed to her very long; accordingly, she applied herself so closely to study that
within the space of two days she knew the
prayers and the catechism. On examining her, great
was my surprise that she should have learned so much
in so short a time; accordingly, with great satisfaction on my part, I baptized her and two other
adults.
In the village of Cauayan there lives an Indian
woman of rank, already advanced in years, whom our
Lord has inspired with zeal for winning souls and
for the conversion of her people. She devotes herself to persuading, preparing, and catechizing the
Indians for holy baptism; and whenever we visit that
doctrina, she has a troop collected, and well instructed, for us to baptize. In this place I baptized
twelve adults, and four or five younger persons. In
all the other villages the people are very well disposed, and a great harvest will be continually gathered, with the help of our Lord."
In the measure of this fervor does our Lord correspondingly bestow upon them visits and spiritual consolations, most liberally accorded by His Divine Majesty to these His new faithful. Of these we have
already given some general account, and now I will
relate in detail one case, only, in the words of Father
Francisco de Otaoo, who wrote from Tinagon, before