nt of Baong, one day's journey inland from the town,
although we spent more than two in reaching it. I, although sick,
was first to arrive. The prior of that convent was Father Diego
Oseguera. [35] Although the convent was poor, yet they acted as if
they were wealthy. They shared all the rice and beef of the convent
with all [the fugitives] who kept coming every moment, without taking
account of anything. The convent of Otong, besides its building,
lost a ranch of cattle which it owned then of more than five hundred
head and others of mares of more than one hundred head. For as the
cattle were tame and came to their usual resorts, the enemy caught
some and shot others. The fathers of the Society lost much also. The
rector of their college there was, at that time, Father Encinas, [36]
a man of uncommon holiness. He also came to Baong, by short relays,
and lived in our convents until his order summoned him.
The commandant and lieutenant-governor of the Pintados, Don Juan
de la Vega, was in Sugbu with two companies of infantry. The news
of the enemy's coming was told to him; accordingly he embarked his
men and brought them thither, but, when he had arrived, the enemy
had burned everything, and were away up the point. Thus the troops,
went to the convent of Passi--one-half day's journey by land--by the
river of Alacaygan. That same day I arrived at Passi, for I went from
Baong to Laglag, and from Laglag to Passi. The Indians were already
vaunting themselves very insolently, and refused to render any aid;
but it appears that with the arrival of those two companies, whom
they had in the heart of the country, they began to become calm. Who
can tell what these convents did, and what they gave and supplied? It
is incredible, for almost from their shoulders hung all those troops,
yet without curtailing anything [of the convent's usual bounty]. The
convents were hostelries for those soldiers and captains, until their
substance was gone. But when that commandant could have collected more
than three hundred Indians (or rather, soldiers), and gone to meet
the enemy and could have inflicted great damage upon him, he spent the
time in scandalous feasting. Afterward he went to Dumangas where all
the people of the town of Otong and the other soldiers were gathered;
and there, by surfeiting themselves with cocoa-nuts and sugar-cane,
and committing other acts of hoggish greed, more of them died than
if they had fought with the enemy. That
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