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. 36]

I649-1666] RECOLLECT MISSIONS, I646-60

I7I

lar government, dependent on those two wills, to
which they would make no vow of obedience. It is
a fact that it would be a real change which those
religious would have to endure, from free and
unhindered evangelical ministers to seculars bound
in justice to the care of souls. Can it be considered
ill that they resist so great a transformation, and
leave the missions if they find no other way?
736. Sixth, and last, because in America the
practice of presenting three religious for each mission in the form ordered by the king can be easily
observed, as there are many religious. But that
presentation is mortally impossible in Philipinas
because of the great scarcity of religious. For although the orders make the most painstaking efforts
to get them from Esparia, they succeed in this with
difficulty. For lack of workers, they are often
obliged to entrust the administration of many villages
to one person, and sometimes to abandon districts in
toto. Then how can three be presented for each
ministry when there is scarcely one for each mission?
Besides, since there are so many languages, there is
no order which does not minister in four or five
languages; and although all of them apply themselves to the study of the languages, few attain them
so perfectly that they can explain entirely the height
of the mysteries of our holy faith; and since there
are so many missions, what order can present three
times the number of ministers who will worthily
serve the missions? Let us suppose a case also where
there would be a sufficient number of capable religious. On that account there would be no assurance
of better results; for of the three who would be presented, it is possible that the least capable would be