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]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 13

cup. In short, we became so good friends that they
promised me that whenever I might summon them to
Loboc, they would come, provided that they would
bring but few people. They gave me a little fruit
and some eggs, and I gave them a basket of rice.
After expressions of friendship had been exchanged,
I asked them to make peace also with my friends of
Tobigon; this they did, and departed abashed without having done any harm. May God bring them
to a place where they can receive instruction; for
some of them, when questioned, replied that I was the
first Spaniard whom they had ever seen in their lives.
This took place near Sebu; what must be the condition of affairs elsewhere?"
Another letter from Father Valerio to the fathervisitor, dated October 4, gives the following account:
" Father Gabriel writes me that he has baptized in
Loboc and Dita more than four hundred souls, most
of them children under the age of reason. In these
three months I find, upon examination, that more
than a thousand souls have been baptized, and that
the ardor of numberless others is aroused. The
fathers write me that the hour has come in which God
is present in this island. May your Reverence send
us laborers, or at least one father, until those from
Espafia arrive. Fortunate is he who may come
hither, for he will delight in the fervor of this primitive church."
Father Gabriel Sanchez writes thus, in a letter of
October 5: " Our Lord has favored the plans and
labors of the father rector and other fathers; for in
uniting the villages, their people have been so
thoroughly converted to the Lord that I know not
what to say, except that the Lord, who created and