he Recollect fathers have charges in the
provinces of Manila, Cavite, Laguna, the district of Morong, Bataan,
Pampanga, Zambales, and Mindoro.

[In the province of Manila, they have (1878) charges in the following
villages: La Hermita, with 1,767 1/2 tributes, and 6,747 souls;
Las-Pinas, with 1,149 1/2 tributes, and 4,771 souls; and Caloocan,
with 2,166 tributes, and 7,511 souls.]

District of Morong

This district, which is governed by a political and military commander
(who is at the same time administrator of the public funds), takes
its name from its capital village, which is located on the shore of
the lake of Bay. This district was created in the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three. The villages of this district which
are located on the lake are under the care of Franciscan fathers;
Angono, Cainta, Jalajala, and Bosoboso of seculars; and we ourselves
possess the two following. [These are the villages of Antipolo, with
1,074 tributes, and 3,547 souls; and Taytay, with 2,479 tributes,
and 8,435 souls.]

Province of Bataan

This province is located in the island of Luzon, and is bounded on the
north by the provinces of Pampanga and Zambales, on the east by the
bay of Manila, and on the south and west by the sea of China. It is
governed by an alcalde, and is in charge of the Dominican fathers,
with the exception of Mariveles, Bagac, and Morong, which are in
charge of the Recollect fathers.

The missionaries of our corporation performed their first labors of
conquest in this territory. Here were founded the oldest villages
on our list; and here took place the first persecutions of our
long-suffering predecessors, who had the glory of watering with their
blood the country that they were evangelizing, the one that furnished
to the province of San Nicolas their protomartyr.

Fray Miguel de Santa Maria, accompanied by Father Pedro de San Jose
(who, although he had been a calced Augustinian, had become a Recollect
in Manila), and by brother Fray Francisco de Santa Monica, were the
first to leave the convent of San Juan de Bagumbayan; and prepared
by prayer and penance, and full of the spirit of God, set forth to
announce His mysteries to the idolaters and heathen, sent legitimately
to the mountains of Mariveles to illumine its inhabitants with the
light of the Catholic faith. They found those natives enveloped in
the most barbarous idolatry, adoring the sun, the moon, the cayman,
and other filt