y
leguas, in the manner that we have seen. Thence he went to Madrid,
and was given favorable audience; and everything that he petitioned
was conceded to him. But when twenty religious had been assembled,
although they were even about ready to sail in the fleet that was
being sent with reenforcements to the Malucas, the father's luck
turned against him with the order that was received, for the boats
that were ready not to sail. Consequently, he was accommodated on
the fleet of Nueva Espana, but with very few religious. However they
proved to be many, because of the lack of religious in the ministries
and convents of the Indias....

General History of the Discalced Religious of St. Augustine By Fray
Luis de Jesus [42]

Decade Fourth

Chapter First

_The Augustinian Reform is erected, by pontifical favor, into a
congregation, divided into provinces, and governed by a vicar-general._

[The first eleven sections of this chapter relate to affairs in
Spain, and contain matters touching the order at large, as well as
the affairs of various districts, and others pertaining to the lives
of various religious of the order. The balance of the chapter deals
with Philippine matters, as follows.]

_Year 1621_

Sec. XII

_Foundation of the convent of Zibu in Filipinas_

During this year of twenty-one, when our discalced order was erected
into a congregation in Espana, the number of our houses in the
Filipinas Islands was increased by the efforts of the zeal of the
religious who were attending therein to the service of God and the
welfare of so many souls, who were in need of ministers to lighten
them with the divine word upon the pathway of the Lord. Sovereign
Providence, then, arranged that our discalced should have a convent
in that island of Zibu. It has been a station for the entrance of the
publication of the faith of Christ our Lord to many distant provinces
of barbarous and blinded people.

The famous Magallanes discovered it in the year 1521. It has a
circumference of less than one hundred leguas. Its inhabitants are
called Pintados, because they have various designs on their bodies,
which they make with iron and fire. They were formerly regarded as
lords and chiefs of the other neighboring provinces, for they made
themselves feared by their great valor. Adelantado Miguel Lopez de
Legaspi gained it by force of arms from its king Tupas in the year
1575 [_sic_], and founded there the city of Nombre d