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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CHIRINO'S RELATION

67

Occurrences in Manila at this time. Chapter LII.
In the latter part of June in the year one thousand
five hundred and ninety-nine, the father-visitor and
his companions were resting from the hardships of
their voyage, and preparing to begin anew their
labors - the father on his tour of inspection, and the
others in the fishery for souls - for which purpose
they had gone into retreat to perform the exercises,5
and to allow themselves more leisure for solitary
prayer. At this time there occurred in Manila, as a
result of the unusually dry season, a very violent
earthquake, which injured many buildings. Among
these, it rent and laid open the vault of our church;
and in the church of Santo Domingo it loosened and
tore apart the woodwork (which was very beautiful,
and handsomely wrought), and crushed in all the
walls in such a manner that it was necessary to tear
down the building. We also were obliged to demolish the vault of our church; for whereas that of
Santo Domingo could be left standing for a few days,
we were compelled to begin at once to tear down the
vault of our church, which was the part most injured.
The Spaniards came to our aid, with contributions
amounting to more than a thousand pesos, to pay the
workmen who were tearing down the church, and to
aid in the expense of repairing it. The Indians assisted us with their labor, helping us to remove the
obstructions, and to clear the building from the ruins
and from the earth and stones which remained from
them. More than a thousand Indians, without ex5 The religious exercises recommended by Loyola, and composed
by him while in retirement near Manresa, Spain, in 1522; they
from a book entitled Exercitia spiritualia (" Spiritual exercises ")
which has ever since been a text-book of the Jesuit order.