servants, to attack a village of poor people suddenly,
when totally unprepared for such an assault, and, capturing them all,
to make them slaves, without other cause or right; these they would
keep as slaves for life, or sell them in other islands. And should
one loan one or two baskets of rice to another, of the value of
one real, stipulating that it should be returned within ten days,
should the debtor fail to pay it on the day set, on the next day he
had to pay double, and the debt continued to double from day to day,
until it grew so large that the debtor was forced to become a slave
in order to pay it. The Catholic Majesty, the king our sovereign,
has ordered all those enslaved by this and similar means to be freed;
but this just order has not been obeyed entirely, for those who should
execute it have some interest therein.

All these islands were pagan and idolatrous. They now contain many
thousands of baptized persons, upon whom our Lord has had great mercy,
sending them the remedy for their souls in so good season; for, had
the Spaniards delayed a few years more, all the natives would now
be Moors, for already some of that sect in the island of Burneo had
gone to these islands to preach their faith, and already many were not
far from the worship of the false prophet Mahoma. But his perfidious
memory was extirpated easily by the holy gospel of Christ. In all these
islands they worshiped the sun, moon, and other secondary causes,
certain images of men and women called in their tongue _Maganitos_,
feasts to whom--very sumptuous and abounding in great ceremonies and
superstitions--were called _Magaduras_. Among all of these idols they
held one, by name _Batala_, in most veneration. This reverence they
held as a tradition; but they knew not why he was greater than the
others, or why he merited more esteem. In certain adjacent islands,
called the Illocos, they worshiped the devil, offering him many
sacrifices in payment and gratitude for the quantities of gold that he
gave them. Now, by the goodness of God, and by the great industry of
the Augustinian fathers--the first to go to those districts, and who
have toiled and lived in a praiseworthy manner--and by the Franciscan
fathers, who went thither ten years after, all these islands, or the
majority of them, have received baptism, and are enrolled under the
banner of Jesus Christ. Those yet outside the faith are so rather for
lack of religious instruction and preacher