hop. And more when it was learned that, although the
number of the Christians was greatly diminished, the interiors of the
islands of Masbate and Burias were densely inhabited with innumerable
Indians, apostates from the faith and assembled there not only from
their villages, but also from other parts, in whose reduction a great
service would be done to God and the king, and with this fruit the
sweatings of the spiritual administration would be eased, which by
themselves alone gave much to grieve over.

1113. Finally matters having been arranged, fathers Fray Juan de San
Phelipe, the outgoing provincial, and Fray Juan de la Encarnacion, with
another associate, of whose name we are ignorant, left Manila in May
1678 [i.e., 1688] to take charge of the above-mentioned district. They
went to the village of Ticao, where they met the cura, then Bachelor
Don Christoval Carvallo, who had been notified by the suitable acts
in the month of August. The latter agreed without the least repugnance
to surrender the churches and his administration. He did it gracefully
on September 2 of the same year in the village of Mobo, a site in the
island of Masbate, which was, and is, the chief village of all the
others, and that mission remained from that time on subject to our
discalced order. The Indians received the religious with signs of the
greatest rejoicing. It is a fact that they knew our holy habit some
years before, because some of our gospel missionaries had stopped in
their port on account of storms, when they were passing by Masbate on
their way to their destinations, and had attended to instructing them
and even administering them the sacraments. From that came the almost
general joy with which the discalced Augustinians were received there;
and from that reception originated the great fruit which they obtained
with their preaching. The fathers endeavored to have the love shown
them by the Indians increase, not being unaware that the good-will of
the hearers is a very plausible disposition so that the work of the
preachers may be useful. Knowing also that the good opinion of the
evangelical minister gives great force to his words, in order that
theirs might be increased they aimed to confirm them with works. They
bore themselves as saints in private and public in order to give a
good example in all things. With that method, one can believe the
great number of Christians that were gathered to Catholicism in the
said islands, as we