414. Granting, then, as true the experiences that he writes, and
reducing them to a brief summary I assert that _the character of
these Indians is a maze of contradictions and oppositions_; and I
believe that this is not the worst of the descriptions. For they
are at once proud and humble; bold in wickedness, and pusillanimous
cowards; compassionate and cruel; negligent and lazy; but for their own
affairs, whether evil or good, careful and watchful; easily credulous,
but incapable of understanding, and fickle, after so oft repeated
sacred teachings. They are very much inclined to attend the church,
and its feasts and solemn rites, but it is necessary to oblige them
by the rigor of the lash to attend mass on the prescribed days,
and confession and communion when holy Church orders; and are very
reverent toward the ministering fathers because of the superiority
that they recognize in them, while at the same time they mock them,
murmur against them, and even deceive them. Consequently, a religious
called them jokingly 'the schoolchildren of St. Casiano;' [97] for it
is a fact that they go astray in all their resolutions without the
government of the fathers, and it is necessary to treat them like
schoolchildren in their instruction."

[Here we resume the narrative of Le Gentil, who italicises the words,
"It is necessary to employ the lash in order to get them to attend
mass on the prescribed days when holy Church orders it, and to treat
them as schoolchildren," and continues:]

This is an abuse which reigns in the provinces. The religious give
the lash to women and girls with a cat-o'-nine-tails, even in the
presence of their husbands, and no one dares say a word. That is not
practiced at Manila, and the religious are not so absolute there as
they are in the provinces; and, besides, one is able at times not
to attend mass on Sunday without that act of irreligion reaching the
ears of the religious or the cures.

I was intimately acquainted at Manila with some army officers, with
whom I had gone from the Ile de France to that city on board the
"Bon-conseil." Although Spaniards, they dared to revolt publicly
against that ridiculous custom; others approved it. Sometimes the
religious or fathers have their own executioners, and the church is
the place of the action. In this regard a singular chance procured
me a knowledge of the following.

A short league [_lieue_] from Manila is a parish called Las Penas (_les
Roches_) [_