arvest their rice, their first care is
to carry an offering of the first-fruits to the church. As usual,
the Jesuits here do much to better the lives of their penitents,
both Indian and Spanish, reconciling those who were at enmity, and
breaking up licentious alliances. The pestilence extends to Antipolo
and other villages near Manila, and both the missionaries and their
converts aid the sick and the dying in every possible way.

The uprooting of idolatry in the Taytay mission has been effectual;
various instances of this are related by Chirino, as also the cure
of a lunatic by wearing an _Agnus Dei_. Garcia, the official visitor,
arrives at Cebu in 1600, and makes arrangements by which the Chinese
there are cared for by other priests, the Jesuits being thus free to
labor among the Indians. But the harvest of souls is far greater than
the few laborers there can reap and more are urgently needed. Chirino
relates some instances of conversion and pious deaths in that mission.

He then relates the progress of the mission in Bohol, citing for this
purpose the letters of the two missionaries there. The new converts
display much devotion, and even the pagans receive the fathers
kindly. Many are converted, and some of their children are trained
to instruct the people in the Christian faith. Sanchez procures the
destruction of many instruments of witchcraft in a certain village;
and relates some marvelous cures made by administering the sacraments,
and some instances of feminine virtue.

In Butuan (Mindanao) a rich harvest of souls is being gathered by
Ledesma and Martinez; and even the infidels are very friendly to the
new religion. The converts are very devout, and will not countenance
any pagan practices. Certain miraculous cures are recorded. The
practice of flagellation is maintained in the Jesuit church there,
as in other places.

The Filipinos had formerly lived in perpetual warfare between the
petty chiefs and their adherents; those who could remove migrated to
new homes inland, and thus the mountain regions became settled. In
order to reach the natives, the Jesuits at Alangalang bend all
their efforts, which are soon successful, to gathering these
scattered settlements into large villages--mission "reductions"
like those which they had already made so noted in Paraguay and
other lands. Their labors are thus more advantageously conducted,
and many conversions result. At Carigara their church services are
greatly aid