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. I3

so that in this mission of Bohol there are now more
than three thousand Christians. At the beginning,
we had eight hundred, and now, with the blessing of
God and the mercy that He has shown them, two
thousand three hundred have been baptized. Since
God decrees it, may St. Peter bless it. Amen."
In another letter he writes: " For days I have
been toiling alone; and when I depart from a village,
a considerable time passes before I return to it. But
it is evident that the spiritual benefit of those poor
people acquits me for this delay, in order that your
Reverence may take pity on them. For this reason,
my father, let fathers be brought from Espafia; and
will your Reverence send hither even twenty, for
there will be a harvest for all of them. In Loboc
and Dita in the last few days nearly four hundred
little ones have been baptized; this has given me
much consolation in the Lord, for I find great satisfaction in these little creatures. The adults are learning the doctrine with such fervor that even until
midnight the sound of their voices is incessant. We
have received information that enemies are coming
to attack this island, and the people are therefore
greatly disturbed. Would to God that we might be
made captives for His love, and might die for pure
love of Himl" All this is from Father Gabriel
Sanchez.
The enemies whom the father here mentions are
Indians from the island of Mindanao which lies
near the islands of Terrenate and Maluco, where the
doctrine of Mahoma is professed. In the year one
thousand six hundred that people collected an armed
fleet of sixty small vessels, which descended upon
these islands subject to the government of Manila,