leguas. Going thence following the coast to the north, one meets
the river and village of Valer. Another convent was founded there,
titular and patron of which was St. Nicholas of Tolentino. It belongs
to the same language, province, and bishopric, as the other. Only
one religious was stationed there, although afterward, according to
the times, two lived there. They tended to the mission which was very
laborious because of its size, and labored in the conversion of the
Aetas, heathen of the neighboring mountains, which allow passage from
Valer to the province of Pampanga through the territory of Patabangan
and Santor, by a not long, but very rough road.

70. Sailing along the same coast toward Cape Engano one comes to the
bay of Casiguran, which has a circumference of twelve leguas. On its
shore is located the village of the same name. The third convent was
erected there and was given the title of our father St. Augustine. It
belongs also to the Tagalog language, the province of Tayabas, and
the bishopric of Camarines. Two religious resided there generally,
and sometimes three, for they extended their administration to many
leguas of coast, and their zeal for the spread of the faith to the
extensive mountains near by, which being filled with Aetas, blacks,
and Calingas heathen gave worthy although most toilsome occupation
to the messengers of the law of grace. From one extremity of the bay
of Casiguran, the point called San Ildephonso protrudes three leguas
seaward. At its head end the province of Tayabas and the bishopric
of Camarines. Having doubled that point, and after one has navigated
ten or twelve leguas northward one comes to the village and district
of Palanan, which belongs to the bishopric and province of Cagayan
or Nueva Segovia. The fourth convent is founded there, and bears
the title of Santa Maria Magdalena. And although all the religious
who could be assigned to that mission illumined it, considering
the lack of them from which this holy province usually suffers,
yet notwithstanding this, it could always be said that the harvest
was great and the laborers few. For besides the Christians already
reduced, the fathers had to contend with an innumerable number of
heathen who overran the neighboring mountains for a distance of more
than thirty leguas from the point of San Ildephonso to Cape Engano.

71. I assert that I have several times heard from fathers Fray Valero
de San Salvador and Fray Silvestre de l