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]

PREFACE

The larger part of the present volume is occupied
with the Relacion of the Jesuit Chirino, begun in
VOL. XII, and here concluded. In this work is recorded the progress of the Jesuit missions up to the
year I602, by which time they have been established
not only in Luz6n and Cebu, but in Bohol, Leyte,
Negros, Samar, and northern Mindanao. The arrival of the visitor Garcia in 599 results in new vigor
and more thorough organization in the missions, and
the numbers of those baptized in each rapidly increase. The missionaries are able to uproot idolatry
in many places, and greatly check its practice in
others. Everywhere they introduce, with great acceptance and edification among the natives, the practice of flagellation - " the procession of blood." Religious confraternities are formed among the converts,
greatly aiding the labors of the fathers; and the latter
open schools for boys, among both the Spaniards and
the Indians. In time of pestilence they minister to
the sick and the dying; and they gain great influence
among all classes. They secure the good-will of
hostile natives, quell a threatened revolt among those
of Leyte, and reclaim certain outlaws and bandits.
The Spaniards also receive their ministrations, especially in Manila; the fathers adjust dissensions and