of the first Recollects who entered Bohol. A
great prudence united with the greatest zeal, great valor with a
knowledge of all the difficulties, and a foresight of all the results,
were necessary to rise superior to that so difficult situation, and to
fulfil their social and religious trust in so delicate circumstances,
as was advisable to the service of religion and the greater dignity of
our country. When the father vicar-provincial of our new ministries,
who was then the cura of Baclayon--a religious of great energy,
of proved zeal, and of not common daring--found himself in peaceful
possession of the spiritual administration of all the reduced villages,
he thought seriously of probing to the bottom the beginning and
progress of the rebellion, its actual condition, and the disposition
of their minds. He established correspondence with the leaders, held
several conferences with them, acquired their utmost confidence,
and succeeded in obtaining the submission of Dagahoy; and the other
leader, Bernardo Sanote, also returned to the service of God and
of his Majesty. The Recollects proceeded with so fine tact to make
themselves masters of the wills of those untamable mountaineers, that,
in a short time after their arrival, they no longer needed an armed
force for the security of their persons--although until then pickets
of soldiers were maintained in nearly all the villages for the defense
of the ministers. Consequently, the soldiers were able to retire from
Loay, Maribohoc, and Loon, but always remained in Inabangan, Jagna,
and Tagbilaran--not for the purpose of protecting the ministering
fathers, but to prevent all devastation and disorder on the part
of those who were not subdued. A general amnesty was granted to all
the delinquents who had taken to the mountains. That produced many
submissions, although it did not wholly extinguish an evil whose roots
were so old, and which responded to so many causes as had contributed
to its growth. Its final consequences lasted until the beginning of
the present century; and when it was believed necessary to obtain
the complete tranquillity of the island and the entire extinction of
the rebels, an expedition was formed in the time of General Ricafort,
composed of one thousand one hundred men--who were enrolled in Cebu,
and were embarked to fulfil their destiny on May eight, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven. The governor of Cebu,
Don Jose Lazaro Cairo, comman