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

feast-days the crowd was as great as in cities of
Europe; and with so thorough preparation, by fasting, discipline, prayer, fervor, and confession, that it
seemed to be a primitive church. Thus their esteem
for our holy faith is so increased that few are those
who do not ask for or desire baptism. Indeed, there
are so many who seek it that during the two weeks of
advent and Easter in I60I more than seven hundred
persons were baptized; and from the Easter of the
previous year, I600, there were counted in this mission-field more than two thousand and twenty persons baptized - and all this with great fervor, eagerness, and esteem for the new law which they profess
with holy baptism.
The residence of Dulac has in its care, among
many others, the two large villages called Dagami
and San Salvador (which is Paloc), both populous;
their people are well instructed and submissive, and
our fathers have labored among them with great success. Father Melchior Hurtado writes that in San
Salvador, during the celebration of the Christmas
feast, almost eight hundred infidels were baptized,
and that the confessions and communions were such
as might be expected in Espaina-so many, that the
fathers could not attend to them all. This is occasion
for much glory to our Lord, especially in a land so
new, which the Society had entered but six years before to instruct its people, and had found them so obdurate, as I have already stated. From the letters of
this father, and from others of Father Juan de Torres
and Father Francisco Vicente, some special incidents
have been drawn, which I shall here relate.
A father, passing through a little village belonging
to that residence and inquiring who were Christians,