ly, after well considering the matter,
they determined to study Tagal, as it was the most general tongue,
and the one that was talked as native in Manila and its environs. All
immediately applied themselves to one language with no little desire
and diligence. He who learned it first was father Fray Miguel de
Santa Maria, who was called Bombau. Discussing with him in what part
it would be better to begin their missions, they thought that it was
not advisable to go far from Manila, since they were so few. At that
juncture a very good opportunity came to their hands in the shape of
a village quite near by, now called Marivelez. [34] Its inhabitants
had no ministers, no one of them wishing, although many were at its
very doors, to abide in it--both because of the insalubrious climate
of its location, and because of the bad disposition of the Indians,
who were like brutes in their intercourse and in their customs. The
vicar-provincial stumbled over none of these obstacles, because of his
firm zeal. Accordingly, he sent the said father, Fray Miguel de Santa
Maria, accompanied by father Fray Pedro de San Joseph--who, although
of the Observance, had discalced himself--together with a lay-brother,
named Fray Francisco de Santa Monica, who also went with both of the
former, all of them being skilled in the aforesaid language. They
invoked in common the grace of the Holy Spirit, and, after a fervent
prayer, they took their farewells--these anxious to accomplish their
desires, and the others sick at heart at seeing themselves left behind
them. They were not long in arriving at the lairs of the wild beasts,
who lived eight leguas from Manila, and were desirous to subdue and
soften them, together with the rest of the coast of Zambales and of
Tugui, which extends for a little more than thirty leguas to Bolinao.

The customs and ceremonies of those people must be touched upon
briefly, not so much for the diversion that they may afford as that
we may certify to the labor of Ours in changing them according to law
and reason, and putting them into a suitable condition. The worship
with which they then reverenced their false deities they were wont
to perform not in the villages, but outside them in the mountains,
or the part nearest to their fields. They had certain little houses
there like chapels, in which they all assembled. But that did not
prevent them from having gods--penates, or idols, which they called
_anitos_. The priesthood was