, may be properly housed. In
reply to a petition of the Recollects in 1724 asking royal confirmation
of the Masbate missions, a report on their work there is ordered. It
is found that the number of families has increased from 187 in 1687 to
585 in 1722, an increase of 398 families or 1,592 persons. In 1738,
there are 5,000 persons in the islands, and three new villages, one
in Ticao, and two in Masbate. This means that the order has formed
six villages and brought 3,252 persons to the bosom of the Church in
the time that they have had control of this district. The number has
been lessened by the invasions of the Moros. The conversions have been
made among heathens, apostates, refugees from other islands--all of
whom represent the worst elements. The Recollects have had to fight
against the forces of nature, the Moros, and sorcery. They have
persevered in the face of all manner of hardships--hardships that
cause some of the missionaries who have been there to say that the
Masbate territory offers more suffering than any other mission field.

The extracts from Concepcion cover in part the same field as the
history by San Francisco de Assis; except the third, which tells
of the restoration of the missions of Zambales to the Recollects,
and gives a brief account of the judicial proceedings between that
order and the Dominicans.

The first extract concerns the enforced transfer of the Zambal missions
to the Dominicans. This comes about directly from the representation
made in the Council of the Indias by Diego de Villaroto, to the
effect that the conversion of the island of Mindoro would progress
much more rapidly if given to the religious order best suited
therefor, and if the seculars in charge of the curacies there be
appointed to chaplaincies. Royal attention is given this petition
and in 1677 a royal decree orders the governor and archbishop to
make the transfer. In consequence, Felipe Pardo, the archbishop,
quick to seize the opportunity, aided by the governor, compels the
unwilling Recollects to give up their missions among the Zambals and
take the island of Mindoro, in order that the Dominicans might take
the former. Such an arrangement is very convenient for the Dominicans,
as it enables them to better concentrate their missions in Pangasinan,
and affords them easier communication among their various missions. The
protests of the Recollects that the Zambals prefer their order and
that the people of Mindoro will pr