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

family quarrels, and reform several dissolute persons.
The college at Manila prospers, and enlarges its curriculum. The labors of the Jesuits effect certain important changes in social conditions among the natives. Usury, unjust enslavement, and polygamy are
greatly lessened, and sometimes entirely abolished,
among the Indians in the mission districts; and most
notable of these results, the fathers have much success
in gathering not only their own converts, but even
many of the wild and savage mountaineers, into villages under their personal care and supervision.
A new monastic order, the Augustinian Recollects,
is permitted to send missionaries to the islands. Little of importance occurs there in 1604; but among
the Spaniards there is much fear of an invasion by the
Chinese, in revenge for the late slaughter of their
countrymen in Luz6n. Yet the cupidity or laxity of
the officials has permitted the number of Chinese resident in the islands to increase beyond proper limits;
and the archbishop of Manila endeavors to secure
strict enforcement of the laws against this dangerous
immigration. The leading officials of the Augustinian order complain (I605) of their provincial as unscrupulous and overbearing, and ask for relief and
the suitable adjustment of the affairs of their province.
Chirino's narrative of the Jesuit missions (here
concluded) narrates events from I598 onward. In
June of that year Father Vera goes to obtain more
missionaries from Europe. In Mexico he meets orders from the general of the Jesuit order that Diego
Garcia shall go with a reenforcement of laborers to
the Philippines. In Manila, during that year, the
Jesuits meet much success in their ministries - espe