of the priest,
yet it would be better for the buildings themselves if they were
executed by professionals; for the bridges collapse readily, the
churches often resemble sheep-folds, the more pretentious have at
times most extravagant facades, and the roads quickly deteriorate
again. However, each one does as well as he can. Almost all of them
have the good of their village at heart, although their zeal, and the
course followed by those who pursue this aim, differ widely according
to their personality. In Camarines and Albay, I have had considerable
intercourse with the curas, and they have, without exception, won my
esteem. As a rule, they have no self-conceit; and in the remote places
they are so happy whenever they receive a visit, that they exert all
their efforts to make their guest's stay as pleasant as possible. Life
in a large convent very much resembles that of the lord of the manor
in eastern Europe. Nothing can be more unconstrained. One lives as
independently as in an inn, and many guests act just as if they were
in one. I have seen a subaltern arrive, who, without waiting until
the steward assigned him a room of his own accord, took one himself,
ordered his dinner, and only casually asked whether the priest,
with whom he was only very slightly acquainted, was at home.

Frequently the priests in the Philippines are upbraided about their
gross licentiousness. [It is said that] the convent is full of
beautiful girls, with whom the cura lives like a sultan. This might
often be so of the native priests; but at the houses of numerous
Spanish priests whose guest I have been, I have never once happened
to see anything objectionable in this regard. Their servants were
only men, and perhaps an old woman or two. Ribabeneyra asserts: [131]
"The Indians, who observe how the discalced friars maintain their
chastity, have come in their thoughts to the conclusion that they are
not men ... and although the devil has endeavored to corrupt many
chaste priests now deceased, and also those who still live, making
use of the shamelessness of some Indian women for that purpose, yet
the friars remained victorious, to the great shame of the Indian women
and of Satan." However, this author is very unreliable. He says further
(chapter iii, page 13), that the island of Cebu is known under another
name as Luzon! At any rate, his description does not fit the present
conditions. The young priest lives in his parish as did the lord of the