discalced religious of the Order of our father
St. Augustine are of considerable importance in these islands, and
they are gathering much fruit with their teaching and their good
example. They have many missions in districts remote from this city,
as they were the last who came to the islands, etc."

"The discalced Augustinian religious," he says in the other, "who
reside in these Philippinas Islands are gathering large harvests in
all parts in the conversion of the souls of these pagans, as they have
done in the kingdom of Iapon. Two years ago six professed religious of
the same order were slain there, by fire and sword, for the preaching
of the gospel, and the conversion of souls, in addition to seventy
other persons who suffered the same death, in the same kingdom,
for the preservation of the faith, which they had received then
through the ministry of two Spanish religious of the same institute,
who were preaching it there. The two latter are also now in prison
for the same reason, and it is thought will already have perished by
fire or in some other way."

Don Fray Pedro de Arze, bishop of Zugbu, was more minute in describing
the labors and efforts of our religious, in a letter informing the
sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith, in which he says
the following:

"For some years past the discalced Augustinian fathers of the
congregation of Espana have been, and are, gathering very large
harvests in the conversion of the infidels of these islands; for,
besides the many others that they have in other bishoprics, they
have more than ten convents in my diocese alone. They are laboring
therein in the cultivation of the vineyard of the Lord, with the best
of example, strict observance, and care. This is in the newest and
most dangerous posts of these islands, where their lives are exposed
to great risk, as the islands are hostile. But notwithstanding all
these dangers and hardships, they have converted a very great number
of infidels, both adults and children, to our holy Catholic faith. I
trust, God helping, that the conversion of the infidels--and especially
those of one island where those holy religious have their missions,
as it is one of the largest islands of these regions--will, in the
future, by means of their care and industry, advance and increase to
much greater, etc."

Besides the above, there are three other letters to the same
congregation, of the following tenor:

"The discalced religious