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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oIU4-1005J CHIRINU'S KIELA'ION 191
no one to say it, to commend themselves to our
Lord in the church. They regularly go from theirhouses reciting aloud the Christian doctrine; and,
upon reaching the church, they conclude it upon
their knees. They celebrate the feasts with much
solemn pomp and music (for the seminary can furnish good music); and they practice there reading
and writing, and other honorable and virtuous exercises. The hospital is making excellent progress, and
the Confraternities assign each week those of their
members who are to care for the service of the sick,
doing this, as I have said, with great alacrity and devotion.
The new residence of Silan and its Christians.
Chapter LXXIX.
This new field of Silan was assigned to the Society
of Jesus from the year I599, as the people of those
villages, among whom were some Christians, were
without a priest to minister to them, although they
were but a day's journey from Manila.24 There are
five villages, which contain about one thousand five
hundred inhabitants, besides the many other people
who, as is their custom, are separated and dispersed
through the country districts, in their cultivated
lands. These villages are in the tingues, as they call
them, of Cavite, among some mountains; the climate
there is very moderate, and in no season of the year
is there excessive heat - rather, the mountains render
it cooler. The people are simple, tractable, and well
inclined toward all good things. The first members
of the Society who went expressly to instruct them
and to settle there were Father Gregorio Lopez and
24 The present Silang is nineteen miles south of Cavite.