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]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 36

had formerly, in order that they might attend to the
so numerous duties that they exercise-the school
for children; chairs of grammar, arts, and theology;
and as preachers and confessors, because of the great
frequency with which people of all nations go to
their college for the administration of the holy
sacraments of confession and communion throughout
the year, and especially during Lent. This is something which does not receive due consideration; and
with the few religious that they have, they are
necessarily very hard-worked, for they have to go out
day and night to confess the sick; to minister in the
hospitals, prisons, and girls' schools; and to the ordinary preaching in the guardhouses-from which
abundant fruit has been seen.
The colleges of the city of Santisimo Nombre de
Jesus and of the port of Yloylo, which formerly had
five or six priests, do not now have two apiece, so that
it is impossible to attend to the many duties that
there present themselves.
Many of their Indian missions which formerly
rendered two religious indispensable, have now but
one. In the great island of Mindanao, nearly onehalf of the civilized villages are without a minister,
and consequently many people die without the sacraments. It is necessary for one minister to attend to
one, two, three, or four villages which are very
distant from one another, when each village needs
its own priests. They do not hesitate, for all that,
to go in the fleets when opportunity offers, in the capacity of chaplains, and in the shipyards where
galleons are built. In those duties they have performed well-known and special services to our Lord
and to your Majesty.