e father provincial (since no other order
contained ministers who understood the language of the Calamianes),
the necessary provision must be despatched, in accordance with the
second and last warning, ordering the Recollect province to establish
missionaries in Calamianes and not to withdraw those of Cuyo. He was
confident in the apostolic zeal with which they have ever applied
themselves to the ministry, that notwithstanding their small number
they would accomplish the task which demanded many laborers.

828. The governor conformed to the plea of the fiscal. Consequently,
on the same day he despatched in due form a second decree in the
king's name, ordering the superior prelate of our province, in
consideration of the extreme necessity of the islands of Calamianes, to
immediately establish the necessary ministers therein for the spiritual
consolation of those Indians. He added that Don Fray Diego de Aguilar
of the Order of Preachers, the bishop recently appointed for Zebu
(to whose miter the said islands belonged) despatched ex-officio
his decree also charging our province with the administration of all
the Christian villages established in Calamianes, or that were to be
established in the future; and says that he does so in consideration
of the apostolic zeal of our reformed order and the spirit that
always assists them in trampling under foot the greatest fatigues,
so that many souls might be gathered into the flock of the Catholic
church. Thereupon the father provincial, Fray Thomas de San Geronimo,
could offer no more resistance and sent father Fray Nicolas de
Santa Ana as vicar-provincial of Calamianes, with two associates. The
alcalde-mayor of the said province, Don Diego Bibien Henriquez, placed
them in possession of the ministry of Taytay (which is the chief one
of them all) on the first of November, 1680, to the universal joy of
the Indians. The latter showed by extraordinary festivals their joy
at seeing that the direction of their spirits was in charge of the
same fathers who had engendered them through the gospel. The king,
by his decree dated December 24, 1682, confirmed the said possession
at the petition of the father commissary of Philipinas, Fray Juan de
la Madre de Dios, with great signs of his royal pleasure.

829. Of the three religious newly assigned, father Fray Nicolas
established his residence in Taytay; the second was located in the
island of Dumaran; and the third in the village of Tancon. F