hy animals. These people regarded certain old men,
as corrupt and as deceived as the divinities whom they were serving,
as the ministers of those deceitful gods. The customs of those people
were very analogous to the doctrines that directed them. Every kind of
superstition was practiced; homicide was a praiseworthy and meritorious
action; and their sacrifices on some occasions were human lives. In
that vineyard so filled with wickedness the above-mentioned fathers
announced the triune and one God, the mystery of the incarnation,
and the eternal duration of the future life. The missionaries suffered
more than one can tell from the inhabitants, who were opposed to and
stubborn toward their teaching. In their bodies did they submit to
hunger, and to the intemperance and inclemency of the elements; and
in their truly apostolic spirit they suffered mortal anguish because
of the blindness of their neighbors, which was in proportion to the
great love of God and the zeal for His glory which glowed brightly
in their hearts.

[The Recollects have charge of the villages of Mariveles, with 588
tributes, and 1,852 souls; Morong, with 870 tributes, and 3,154 souls;
and Bagac, with 496 1/2 tributes, and 1,743 souls.]

Province of Zambales

This province is located in the island of Luzon, north of Manila. It
is bounded on the north by the gulf of Lingayen and the province of
Pangasinan, on the east by the chain of mountains called Mariveles,
on the south by Bataan, and on the west by the Chinese Sea; and is more
than thirty leguas long in a north and south direction, and seven wide.

The preaching of the Recollects in this territory is mingled with the
beginnings of that religious family in the Filipino archipelago. One
may say that this was the region where the first discalced missionaries
and the parishes established by them tasted the first-fruits of their
evangelizing zeal, those first-fruits being offered to the Catholic
church as a testimony of the purity of their doctrine, and submitted
to the crown of Espana as its most faithful and disinterested vassals,
Although they arrived at these shores in the year one thousand six
hundred and six, in the following year they had already overrun
this province--to whose inhabitants they taught the mysteries of
our religion, and gave helpful instructions in the social life,
in contradistinction to their barbarous state.

The first who sowed the seed of the gospel in the province of