lage. Consequently, when a new village is formed its
inhabitants do not care to be annexed or dependent on another village
in regard to spiritual things; but desire and petition for a parish
priest of their own, in order that they might have in him a powerful
defender in their differences and suits with other settlements, or
with the alcalde of the province. Lastly, the ascendency that the
minister is seen to enjoy is perhaps as much civil as religious,
if it is not more so. And in fact ... although they have often
succeeded in pacifying seditions by their mere presence alone,
and the insurgents, for instance, in Ilocos in the year 1807,
surrendered to the friar the cannon that they had captured from a
band of 36 soldiers and two patrols of the guard, who were routed,
yet at other times not only have individuals but whole masses refused
to listen to the admonitions of the religious, have completely lost
respect for them, have insulted them, threatened them, wounded them,
and even assassinated them, and have not lacked the complement of all
this, profaning the churches. I shall not mention the thefts in the
churches, such as one which happened in the capital of Pangasinan when
I was there in that province; for these might be considered as single
individual deeds, isolated and insignificant. I deduce then, as the
resultant conclusion of all these observations, that there are many
Filipinos, especially among the feminine sex, who have the true fear
of God, but many others who feel a great natural indifference in this
matter. They exhibit scarce a disposition toward religion, a fact that
I believe must proceed from their little consideration of the wonders
of religion ... which is a mark of their small amount of intelligence,
for they show great indifference for the punishments of the other
world, and even the ecclesiastical punishments of this. Nothing
shows this so clearly as the insincere confessions which they make
in order to finish with it. It is to be noted that almost the same
thing happens at the hour of death, and that this is seen in the small
and remote villages where Spaniards have never been. Neither can it
be the result of errors of faith or philosophic reading, since the
people know no other books than those of the doctrine or the passion.

"Combining the above data and observations with what I have heard
recounted, and what we see in manuscripts and printed books about
the method by which the old-time relig