e Jesus, because
an image of the most holy child Jesus, one-half vara tall, was found
there in the house of an Indian. The Observantine fathers possess
that image in a convent that was built in the same house and on the
same site; it had before been owned and venerated by the heathen,
and is today frequented by the Catholics, who find there relief for
their needs. The city lies in the eastern part, and has a good port,
while there are other ports found in the island. There, then, did the
most pious bishop, Don Fray Pedro de Arce (of the order of our father
St. Augustine, and a son of the most observant province of Castilla,
and of the convent of Salamanca--where he professed in the year one
thousand five hundred and seventy-nine, while father Fray Antonio Munoz
was prior), solicit our discalced to found a convent; for, although
they had been the last in arriving at Filipinas, he hoped that they
were not to be the last in the work of the vineyard of the Lord.

The bishop assigned the site in a chapel dedicated to the conception
of our Lady, somewhat apart from the traffic of the city, so that,
accordingly, the religious could give themselves more quietly to
prayer. He adjudged them also the spiritual administration of an islet
and small village called Maripipi, not very far from Zibu. About
six hundred souls were instructed there by Ours with great care
and vigilance. The erection of that convent was accomplished by
father Fray Chrisostomo de la Ascension, who was its first prior. He
erected a small building, that afterward was rebuilt because of an
accidental fire, and extended so that now it is a very comfortable
dwelling, well suited to purposes of devotion. That convent has a
devout confraternity of Our Lady of Solitude [_Nuestra Senora de la
Soledad_.] On Holy Thursday, a solemn procession is made after the
ceremony of the descent of Christ from the tree of the cross. That
procession, passing through the streets of the city, is a great
edification and consolation to the faithful.

Sec. XIII

_Foundation of the convent of San Sebastian outside of the walls of
Manila in Filipinas_

The very devout and pious gentleman Don Bernardino del Castillo
Ribera y Maldonado was so good a benefactor to our discalced that
his generosity, which could not be satisfied within the circuit of
the walls of Manila, desired that we should make an experiment about
one-half legua from them. There as he had an estate which occupied
a