devotion that holy sacrament,
died in peace. He did not become rigid or discolored in death, but
preserved his bright color, and his limbs remained soft and flexible,
until he was buried. All the ecclesiastics and religious of the city
of Santissimo Nombre de Jesus, all the regidors, and the honorable and
prominent people, attended his funeral rites, which were celebrated
with great solemnity, devotion and tenderness. [66] In Manila also, on
account of the devotion of all classes for him, solemn funeral honors
were held, and were attended not only with the tears and sorrow of all
classes, but by the authority and concourse of all ranks and religious
orders. This holy man was lost to us at a time when we were in great
straits over the founding of that vice-province of the Society, which
we had hoped would be successfully established through his energy and
prudence. But there remained with us a great confidence that he would
aid us no less in death than in life; and thus his influence was seen
in the prosperous increase after his holy death of our ministries and
other affairs, especially in the college of Sebu, which is indebted
to his holy body as the foundation-stone of all its growth.

Of other and new members of the Society who went to the islands in
the year fifteen hundred and ninety-six. Chapter XIV.

In the fleet of this year fifteen hundred and ninety-five, our very
reverend father-general, Claudio Aquaviva, sent to the Filipinas
Father Francisco de Vera, with twenty-four of the Society, at the
request and expense of his Majesty the Catholic king, Don Felipe
Second. With all these, he reached Nueva Espana in the same year;
and, in the following, he embarked at the port of Acapulco for the
Filipinas with fourteen members of the Society, with the governor,
Don Francisco Tello. [67] In order that this voyage from Nueva Espana
to the Filipinas may be successfully made, it should be undertaken
by the middle of March, at the latest, so as to reach the Filipinas
before the vendavals or southwest winds of June set in, which are
very tempestuous--like the north winds in Nueva Espana which begin
in September. As these vessels left the port of Acapulco so late,
upon reaching the Filipinas they encountered vendavals which exposed
them to great peril and hardship. It has happened that vessels, leaving
late as did these, upon striking these vendavals in the Filipinas, have
been obliged to turn back with these winds to the