, in
their own language, was delivered to them every afternoon, preceding
the _Salve_ sung by the choir, and accompanied by the music of the
wind-instruments. The second thing they did in the service of the holy
relics was to institute a confraternity or congregation dedicated
to those relics with the title and vocation of "all saints." Their
object was, each beginning with himself and his own spiritual profit,
to strive with all their might for the welfare of their neighbors,
by performing works of mercy, in both temporal and spiritual affairs,
as their opportunities permit--in which effort they exert themselves,
by the grace of our Lord, with the advantages which we shall see later.

One of the best results is the modesty and virtue of the women,
which we esteem in those regions, because it is but little practiced
or valued among their heathen peoples. In many--I even believe, in
all--of those islands there existed a doctrine, sowed by the devil,
that a woman, whether married or single, could not be saved, who did
not have some lover. They said that this man, in the other world,
hastened to offer the woman his hand at the passage of a very perilous
stream which had no other bridge than a very narrow beam, which must
be traversed to reach the repose that they call _Calualhatian._ [73]

Consequently virginity was not recognized or esteemed among them;
rather they considered it as a misfortune and humiliation. Married
women, moreover, were not constrained by honor to remain faithful
to their husbands, although the latter would resent the adultery,
and hold it as a just cause for repudiating the wife. To illustrate
this: Upon my arrival in the Filipinas, in the latter part of May in
the year fifteen hundred and ninety, I had landed at the island of
Marinduque (which is about twenty-eight or thirty leguas from Manila),
at the time when an ensign with a squad of soldiers was going, through
curiosity, to visit the interior of the island. Night overtaking
him in this place, he was obliged to seek hospitality among the
natives; there, one of the hospitalities which they bestowed on him
and his companions was to offer him two women. These the good ensign
ordered to be sent back, and he pointed out the offense that they
were committing against God, the almighty Creator of heaven and earth,
whom all men should know and serve. He told them that for this purpose
alone the Spaniards had come from so great a distance; and that they