zed while sick. At his
death he is interred with Christian rites. Father Alvarado, filled
with zeal, fearlessly ascends the Pasig River and preaches in Laguna
de Taguig and Taytay, where he is peaceably received. The Tagals are
soon convinced of the good intentions and mildness of the Spaniards,
and begin readily to receive the faith. Medina continues:]

Two buildings were being erected in Manila, for the temporal and the
spiritual. The temporal was in the shape of a fort, which was being
built. With such a possession friends feel secure, enemies fear,
and one's strength is increased. How much the spiritual edifice was
growing is seen, since the number of workers was increasing, the
people were becoming more and more capable of understanding what we
were teaching them, and were estimating the inequality between the two
beliefs. Hence it was needful that they should embrace what was good,
and throw away the other as wicked and evil. The fathers kept school
in the convent. They taught the boys to read and reckon. They were
training some of them in the sacristy, teaching them to aid in the
mass; so that, by having nearer at hand what we were teaching them,
they should learn it more easily. All this was necessary in order to
conquer natives, who were so hardened and so much accustomed to evil,
that they regarded everything evil as good. For to such a pass can evil
come, as says the prophet Isaiah: _Vae qui dicitis bonum malum_. [52]
And as the lads returned home every day with something new, which they
told to their fathers and mothers, the result was that they gave the
latter food for reflection, which caused the spark to course through
their hearts; and as the spark was fire, and still more from God, it
must strike deep and work its effect. Thus the number of Christians
continued to increase. And, not less, certain hopes arose that they
would be multiplied daily, and extended through all those nations who
were viewing events in Luzon, as being the greatest island of all,
and with the most warlike inhabitants.

A site had been chosen for the convent, which is today the best in the
city, and the largest and finest; for it comprises an entire square,
equal on each side. It has a vaulted church with its transept. The
body of the church is adorned on each side with chapels. Truly, if
the chapels had been built higher, according to the plan, so that
there might have been a series of windows above, where the light
would enter,