ere some
Christians, were without a priest to minister to them, although they
were but a day's journey from Manila. [24] There are five villages,
which contain about one thousand five hundred inhabitants, besides the
many other people who, as is their custom, are separated and dispersed
through the country districts, in their cultivated lands. These
villages are in the tingues, as they call them, of Cavite, among some
mountains; the climate there is very moderate, and in no season of
the year is there excessive heat--rather, the mountains render it
cooler. The people are simple, tractable, and well inclined toward
all good things. The first members of the Society who went expressly
to instruct them and to settle there were Father Gregorio Lopez
and Father Pedro de Segura, who went in the year 1601. In previous
months and years some of us had gone there for a short time, as we
had visited other places, on a mission or by way of recreation; and
by the friendly reception that they gave us and the results which,
by Divine grace, were accomplished among them, we were encouraged
to establish among them in that year a regular mission, stationing
there the two fathers whom I have mentioned. Through the teaching
and good example of those fathers they abandoned some of their evil
practices, and applied themselves to the Christian customs with good
will and pleasure; and many (for there were no Christians among them)
received holy baptism.

Not only do they attend their own mass and sermon on Sundays
(never missing one of these services), but on Saturdays they go
to hear that in honor of our Lady, which is said for them with as
much solemnity as that on Sundays. They were greatly encouraged in
the observance of these masses and feasts by the following incident
which occurred at that time: A woman, who was very eager to finish
the weaving of a piece of cloth, sat down at her loom one Sunday to
work thereon; afterward, upon returning to her task, she found the
cloth all eaten away by moths. She herself made this known, with
the full knowledge that it had been a chastisement and penalty for
that offense of hers. To assist us in instructing the large number
of catechumens in those villages, and in teaching the doctrine to
the innumerable children who assemble at the mission from all the
settlements, our Lord provided for that work an Indian blind in body
but truly enlightened of soul, who, with great faith, charity, and
love for the