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

with a knife in his hand. Then, diving beneath the
crocodile, like another valiant Eleazar,2 he gave it
several knife-thrusts in the belly and killed the beast.
And, as a greater trophy, he was not, as was Eleazar,
buried in his triumph,28 but remained alive and
sound-without a wound, or any lesion beyond two
insignificant scratches, one on his forehead, and one
on his leg. At this instant his followers hastened toward him, and dragging the beast to the shore, were
hardly able, with the strength of all, to land it, although it was floating on the water. They saw (and
told me of it) a monster of incredible size, the largest
that I have ever seen there, or heard of. The animal
measured, from its shoulders to the tip of its tail, five
brazas,29 and from the shoulders to the mouth one
braza - making its total length six brazas; and across
the breast alone measured a full braza.
There was another crocodile, smaller than this
one, which inflicted loss on the household of a
reputable Spaniard of Manila; and this man came
therefore to our house to entreat that Ours would
provide him with a father who would make his Indians Christians. The affair occurred thus: This
Spaniard was in his encomienda, where his house
stood on the shore of a river much infested by these
beasts. While he was dining one day, a youth, one
of those who waited on the table, went to the river
to wash some plates; but he did not finish his task,
for a crocodile suddenly sprang upon him and swallowed him. The people [in the house] saw this
27 Marginal reference: "I Maccabees, 6."
28 Marginal reference: "St. Ambrose, De officiis clericorum,
i, chap. 40."
29 Equivalent to about twenty-eight feet, U. S. measure.