ace. Some of them are born in the
dense thickets and are reared in the most barbaric infidelity. Others
are called Zimarrones, and have apostatized from the Catholic faith,
after having fled from the nearby Christian villages. There is also an
incredible number of blacks who, without God, without king, without
law, without civilization, without settlement, live as though they
had no rational soul. All of those Indians, notwithstanding that they
wage most bloody wars among themselves, generally unite to oppose
the Spanish arms, when the Spaniards have attempted their conquest,
and stake their greatest reputation in shedding human blood.

398. The evangelical ministers have always fought with the sword of
the divine word against that wild forest of men almost unreasoning,
and with all the means dictated by charitable prudence, in order to
convert it into a pleasant garden by means of the Catholic faith. The
Dominican fathers stationed in the district of Pangasinan, and in
the villages called El Partido, which are located on the opposite
side of Manila Bay, have always cast their net, and obtained not
few hauls of good fish. The Observantine Augustinian fathers have
also done the same from their missions in Pampanga, which border
the above-mentioned mountains. The fathers of the Society have done
the same from the village of San Matheo, which is situated almost on
the brow of the said mountains on the Manila side. And our discalced
Recollects, equally with those who have done most, have labored in
this undertaking at all times, without despising occasions. They have
great opportunity for doing that, for, as a general thing, ten or
twelve laborers live in the fifteen reduced villages of the Zambals,
who occupy all the coast for a distance of forty leguas from Bolinao
to Marivelez, and surround all the above-mentioned mountains by the
sea side.

399. Thence, then, did the illustrious champions of our holy reformed
order generally issue in order to overrun the rough territory of
the mountains so that they might seize multiple spoils from the
enemy of souls, and direct them to eternal life. As those people
are very ferocious and difficult to convert, it was necessary to use
gentle methods there, making use of caresses rather than of noise and
din. Notwithstanding, on several occasions very many conversions of
Indians, Zimarrones and heathen, who were reduced to villages formed by
the indefatigable solicitation of our religio