ng to the uttermost penury, and the lack
of necessities, in order to teach and instruct certain poor peoples
whom they are alluring from the most wild barbarism in order to get
them to live like men in a civilized Christian society.

321. Let one add to all the above bodily hardships the lack of one
to employ himself in so great charity, to whatever serves in this
life as a consolation to the spirit. For there our religious is
properly a hermit, although he may live among many people. Now, it
is because he is deprived of the company of his brothers, for he is
almost always alone in villages that are too large, and the nearest
minister is fifteen or twenty leguas away and separated by rough
seas, or inaccessible mountains, which render it impossible most of
the year for them to have the comfort of seeing one another, or even
to have communication with one another by means of letters, in order
that they might console one another in their mutual troubles. Now,
it is because the Indians make them no company for the blessings that
human association brings with it, but serve only for an insupportable
martyrdom; for, in addition to the fatigues incumbent on them
as missionaries, they must attend to all their quarrels, grudges,
necessities, and troubles. For these reasons and others that cannot be
expressed at present, the governor of Philipinas, Don Fausto Cruzat
y Gongora, when addressing the king in a report, did not hesitate
to affirm that the discalced Augustinians, even in times of peace,
and after the subjection of the villages of their administration,
suffer the same hardships as do missionaries in the lands of the
infidels. His Excellency, the bishop of Zebu, Don Manuel Antonio de
Ocio y Ocampo, was wont to say, as I have heard from his own mouth,
and not only once, that if he had authority for it he would not
hesitate to canonize any Recollect, who happens to lose his life
among the fatigues of his calling, while completely fulfilling his
obligation in the missions of those islands, as is the case with many.

323. And if this is endured in only the hardships annexed to the
spiritual administration, what must it not be when the destructive
tempests of the persecutions of the Moros, the greatest part of
which assail our laborers, happen to come? Then there is no other
relief than to flee to the mountains in order to live in passes and
caves, seeking their preservation, not so much for their self-love,
but because of t