hilippines of the father-visitor, Diego Garcia,
and how he began his visitation. Chapter LI.

When affairs were in the condition which we have described, the
father-visitor, Diego Garcia, very opportunely arrived in the islands,
with some companions, [3] on the seventeenth of June in the year one
thousand five hundred and ninety-nine. His arrival was a source of much
consolation and joy, on account of the reenforcement which he brought
us, and was of much importance and advantage to the internal government
of the Society in those parts, on account of the good order to which
he reduced all our affairs, particularly in our ministries and in the
methods of aiding those souls. Upon careful investigation he learned
that, during those four years while our fathers had given instruction
in the islands of Pintados, twelve thousand persons had been baptized,
and that there were about forty thousand catechumens--not to mention
many others who, although they were not on the list of catechumens,
had also an inclination (or at least no repugnance) to receive
the faith and the gospel. In accordance with this information, the
father-visitor set about organizing the affairs [of the missions],
and providing needed assistance, as we shall later see. Before entering
upon this, however, I will relate, in order to show the mercies of God
toward our fathers, a special instance of this which His Divine Majesty
displayed toward them and the vessel which brought them from the port
of Acapulco to the Filipinas. The pilots were confidently sailing over
their accustomed course, heedless that in it there were shoals. One
evening at the hour when the _Salve_ is wont to be repeated, and while
all were devoutly reciting it, a young man fortunately (or rather
through the singular providence and mercy of God) descried shoals
from the maintop and immediately began to shout a warning. With that
the crew--although everyone was agitated and fearful lest, with the
freshening of the wind, they would be driven upon the shoals--hastened,
some to the sails, ropes, and rigging, others to the helm, and the
pilot to direct the ship's course. Our fathers, meanwhile, repaired
to their quarters and berths to invoke the most blessed Virgin, to
call upon God, and to pray for the intercession of the saints--all
of them especially invoking that of blessed Father Ignacio, [4] a
relic of whom the father-visitor carried with him. Showing this to
his companions while the res