[250] is for some other person, to whom divine Providence chooses
to communicate this difficult matter. [251] Very praiseworthy is
Barclayo, for in his Eupormion and his Argenis, [252] he succeeded
in discerning the natures of nations; as did Juan Rodemborgio, [253]
and our Gracian in his Criticon. [254] But had they treated of the
Filipinos, they would not have been so successful.

77. The bishop of La Puebla, Don Juan Palafox, [255] wrote a keen
treatise on the virtues of the Indians of Nueva Espana, in which
his uncommon intellect and his holy and good intention are displayed
more clearly than is the truth of his argument on the subject; for
in a curious way he endeavors to make virtues of all their vices and
evil inclinations. For in what they merit before God through their
wills, they do not merit if it be the impelling force of their
natural inclination and manner of living, because absuetiis non
fit passio. [256] One cannot, indeed, compare the voluntary poverty
of St. Francis with that of the Indians, which is born of laziness
and full of greed; for theirs is the infamous poverty which Virgil
places in hell: et turpis egestas. [257] And just as the economy of
a poor wretch is not reckoned as fasting, so it will not be proper
to say that if St. Antony [258] went barefoot, the Indians do the
same; and that they live on certain roots, as did the fathers of the
Thebaid. [259] For the fasting and the austerities of St. Arsenius
[260] had a different impelling motive--since he left the pleasures
and esteem of the court of the emperor Theodosius [261]--than that
which they can have, being so born and reared, and never having
seen anything else. Hence, Ovid says of the Getas that they left the
delights and comforts of Roma, and returned to seek the poverty and
misery to which they were accustomed in Pontus:

Roma quid meltus scyt[h]ico [262] quid frigore peius?
Huc tamen ex illa Barbarus urbe fugit. [263]

78. It is not my intention to include the Sangley mestizos here,
as they are a different race. For although they were the children of
Indians at the beginning, they have been approaching more and more
to the Chinese nation with the lapse of successive generations. Et
compositum ex multis atrahit ad se nuturam simplicis dignioris. [264]
Consequently, I leave their description for whomever wishes to
undertake that task; for I fear that I shall succeed but very ill
with the task which I have here undertak