ous what can be called
play for gaining and losing money, and, in the convents of Manila,
cards are not even played for amusement. I know this positively.

As for some of them leading licentious lives with women, I will
not say that it is false, although I could not say that I know of
such. I believe, indeed, that there is much exaggeration in this as
in other things, and that not one quarter of it is to be believed. An
official, not at all partial to the friars, and who lived several
years in Pangasinan, told me that he never could discover that any
of the Dominicans who minister there had a sweetheart; and that, if
perchance any of them had one, he concealed it very carefully, since
he himself had never known any trace of it. Concerning that point,
I will say, although it appears evil to many, that that offense is
the most excusable, especially in young and healthy men, placed in the
torrid zone. Nature must struggle continually with duty. The garb of
the Filipina women is very seductive; and it is known that the girls,
far from being untractable to the cura, consider themselves lucky to
attract his attention, and their mother, father, and relatives share
that sentiment with them. What virtue and stoicism does not the friar
need to possess! Let those who criticise them on this point imagine
themselves to be living in a village without relatives or friends,
or any other fellow-countrymen, at least with whom they can converse;
and then let them be candid. Don Inigo Azaola told me that, meditating
on the reason why so many Spanish religious went mad, he thought
that it had its origin in the continual struggle between nature and
devotion. [102]

In regard to usurers, there may be some among them who are addicted
to trade, since the business carried on in the provinces consists
chiefly in advancing money at seed-time, in order to receive the
fruits at harvest time at a much lower price than is current in the
market. Surely the cura who embarks in these speculations not only
fails in his most sacred duty, [103] but even gnaws at and gives
a deathblow to the principal base upon which rests the prestige and
veneration enjoyed by the religious of Filipinas. Nothing infuses these
weak and greedy islanders with so much love, surprise, and respect as
does contempt for gold and for earthly goods. The generous minister,
he who gives, will be considered as good, most good, and will obtain
whatever he wants from his parishioners. T