loyed their rhetoric in
restraining the natives so that they would not take to the mountains.

Sec. III

Philipo Fourth is informed that Fray Pedro de San Joseph resisted the
demolition of the convent strongly, and that he was the cause of the
insurrection of the Indians in the village.

237. Nothing else was thought of in the Philipinas Islands than their
defense from the fear occasioned by the Dutch with their fleets. That
holy province was engaged in the reparation of the ruins of their
demolished church, and the zeal of those evangelical ministers was
working with the same ardor, for they were wont not to become lukewarm
[even] with the repeated strokes of the most heavy troubles. In May,
1651, it was learned at the court in Madrid, that the royal mind of
his Catholic Majesty had been informed of what will be explained
in more vivid colors in the following letter, which the venerable
father-provincial of Philipinas received in the year 53. "Venerable
and devout father-provincial of the Augustinian Recollects of the
Philipinas Islands: It has been learned in my royal Council of the
Indias from letters of the royal Audiencia resident in the city of
Manila that, in virtue of a resolution taken by the council of war
and treasury of those islands, certain strong churches in the islands
were ordered to be demolished, such as those of Abucay, Marinduque,
and Caragha, so that they might not be seized by the enemy, as those
edifices were a notorious menace and peril to the islands after the
Dutch attacked Cavite. It was learned that, although the church of
Caragha was demolished, it was done after the greatest opposition from
the religious of your order who are settled in those missions. He who
instructed the Indians there threatened that the Indians would revolt,
as happened later. For the village rose in revolt, and the Indians
took to the mountains--thereby occasioning the many and serious
troubles that demand consideration. The matter having been examined
in my royal Council of the Indias, it has been deemed best to warn
you how severely those proceedings by the religious of that order
have been censured--so that, being warned thereof, you may correct
them and try to improve them, in order that the religious may restrain
themselves in the future and not give occasion to the natives to become
restless. For they are under so great obligation to do the contrary,
and they ought to have taken active part in calming t