by virtue of certain acts that were drawn up in
the superior government without summoning the father provincial,
because of the reports of certain persons and the instance of other
private individuals. By those acts the conde de Lizarraga, governor
of Filipinas, charged the father provincial, Fray Jose de San Nicolas,
to assign missionaries to the localities of Bamban and Mabalacat. The
said father, because of his great experience of these islands and
their inhabitants, explained to the vice-patron the impossibility of
those missions living, and the little result that could be expected
from them on account of the fierce and untamable nature of the
mountaineers. His petition had no effect, and three missionaries
of great merit and learning were sent. By dint of great hardships,
and, by living in the same manner as the Indians, they succeeded in
baptizing many; but when they learned the fickleness of the Indian
nature, and that it was as easy for them to become baptized as it
was to take to the mountains to continue their former mode of life,
the missionaries proceeded more cautiously in giving them the benefit
of the regeneration.

[In this province the Recollects minister to the following villages:
Mabalacat, with 2,627 tributes, and 11,163 souls; Capas, with 564
tributes, and 1,923 souls; O'Donnel, with 308 1/2 tributes, and 1,159
souls; and Bolso, with 144 tributes, and 749 souls.]

Province of Mindoro

This province, directed by an alcalde-mayor, includes the island of
the same name, that of Marinduque, that of Luban, and others less
densely populated. Its boundaries are: on the north, the strait of
Mindoro; on the east and south, the sea of Visayas; and on the west,
the Chinese Sea.

In its extent, it is one of the foremost islands of the
archipelago. Its land is mountainous, its climate hot; and during
the rainy season it also exceeds other provinces in humidity, whence
results the richness of the soil. There are found all the products
of the country in grains and foodstuffs. However, that most fertile
country fails of cultivation in its vast areas because of the scarcity
of laborers, and has not been touched by the hand of man. Its conquest
was begun in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy, in the
district of Mamburao, by Juan de Salcedo; and it was completed the
following year, along the coasts from the cape of Burruncan to that of
Calavite, by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. The rest, with the excep