ain until God shall send them a reenforcement of fathers--of
whom they themselves are so desirous that they have already built
us houses and churches, before a priest has been brought to them,
or even mentioned, to my knowledge. May God, whose plantation this
is, send workmen hither, since there is harvest enough in all this
island; and when they shall undertake to extend their labors further,
there are, near by, some little islands in extreme spiritual want, and
entirely deprived of any human succor for their conversion. Therein
might be held some missions most acceptable to God, all the more so
because those people are so forsaken; for, as those are insignificant
little islands, no one cares for them. Those people are on the road
to hell, if we do not succor them; and we do not aid them for lack of
ministers. One of these islands is called Isla de Fuegos ["Island of
Fires"], and is a half day's sail distant from here. Several times
its chiefs have come to ask that we would go thither. The people
already know how to recite the Christian doctrine, and yet not one has
been baptized there (although they are calling for that sacrament),
for there is no one who may distribute the bread, and thus they are
perishing of spiritual hunger.

"But, to return to our island, there is great cause to glorify our
Lord in seeing the esteem with which its people regard the Christian
religion, and the fervor with which they one and all fulfil their
obligations as Christians, in confession and communion, and in their
pious and general affection toward the things of God. A week ago,
there was in our house a young man, an infidel, who had come from
another village to see us. He was laughing and enjoying himself with
the others, although quite modestly; yet another lad who was there, a
Christian, said to him: 'How is it that thou, who art not a Christian,
dost laugh and sport?'" Thus writes the father; he adds that the new
baptisms during this past year amounted to four hundred. The number
was no larger, because they did not dare to baptize converts in other
villages until those people could have fathers to maintain them in
the faith and in Christian customs.

The growth of Christianity in Catubig. Chapter LXXXII.

The same want of gospel ministers is felt by other residences (as
is plainly evident from what I have thus far said), but especially
in the island of Samar, where for that very reason the exercises of
Holy Week and Easter