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]

I94

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 13

seemed the living and fearful images of death, men,
women, and tender little children, of all ages, have in
this way become acquainted with gospel truth; and
as they see that we act disinterestedly in all things,
even aiding them in our poverty, they are attracted
to us, and soon are ranked in the number of the
faithful.
The fathers have succored them in their sickness;
and during a pestilence which was prevalent in one
of the places visited from this mission, they went
there twice to confess the people, although the distance was great, and the roads so difficult that in the
going to that one place one must go through nine or
ten precipitous ravines, to pass which, as it was then
the rainy season, they must walk barefoot, the mud in
many places being knee-deep. The fathers heard the
confessions of all the sick, some of whom our Lord
soon took to Himself. While returning from this
village the father passed through a little hamlet of
Christians not dependent on this mission, which lay
within some very rugged ravines; and among all its
people there was not one who had in all his life made
confession. They welcomed the father with great
joy, going more 'than a quarter of a legua out of the
village to meet him; and when he 'departed from
the village they accompanied him to a like distance.
He heard the confessions of some, and all were desirous of removing to our mission-village; they put
this desire into execution, at the end of four months,
by breaking up the entire village, and proceeding
with their families to Silan. This and other beneficial results from that residence of Silan are well
described by Father Gregorio Lopez in a letter written by him for the father-visitor, thus: