Jesus take refuge in order to go out in the
island to war against the armies of Satan. It can be stated confidently
that the district of which we have been speaking, has been conquered
by our reformed order; for when we entered Mindoro, scarcely was the
name of Christ known there, while at present there are many souls
there who follow the banners of the cross, and all the power of hell,
incited by Mahometan infidelity, has not availed to destroy the deep
roots of its faith. On the contrary we have wondered greatly at the
power of the divine grace in those neophytes, for after their belief
has been proved many times, as gold in the crucible, in the fire of
the most raging persecution it has gone up [a number of] carats in
value and purity. [This district was also the scene of a miracle or
prodigy that showed the force of God and the faith.]

812. Besides the above-mentioned convents, a mission was begun some
years later in the mountains of Mindoro for the purpose of reducing
the Manguianes heathen. Although many of them had been converted,
allured by the zeal of various religious, still not a few remained
in the darkness of paganism for lack of ministers, who could busy
themselves without any other occupation in busying themselves in
illumining them with the evangelical light. That was so abundant a
field that it could keep many laborers busy. Thus the project was
formed by the province to keep at least three subjects busy in it,
so that each one, so far as he might be able, might put his hand
to the plough, and without turning back, cultivate so extensive a
land, which was capable of producing an infinite amount of fruit for
the table of glory. But since the missionaries maintain themselves
there at the cost of the royal treasury, which is almost always in
a state of too great exhaustion, so well conceived a desire had to
be satisfied with one single preacher, whom the superior government
assigned for that purpose, although the province assigns others at
its own expense, when its too great poverty does not prevent, or the
lack of men, so usual there. The residence of those missionaries in
the village of Ilog was determined upon and a suitable convent was
established there. From that place, entering the mountains frequently,
they began to fell their rational thickets, in order to fertilize
them with the waters of irrigation of the divine grace, so that
the seed of their apostolic preaching might be received. By means
of