til that time. As
soon as they entered, a relation of sympathy was established between
them and their proteges, as hidden as it was intimate, by virtue of
which they were enabled to direct all their individual forces to the
attempt at perfection and the improvements that they had planned. As
they always directed these successfully, and were always obeyed with
promptness, they were enabled to realize the material and intellectual
transformation of that district newly entrusted to their care. There
are at present thirty-three parishes in this province, according to
the preceding relation. In each one of them has been erected a Catholic
temple, sufficient in itself alone to give glory to the hand that has
directed it. In all of those parishes there is a parish house--more
or less elegant, but always sufficiently solid and suitable--which
is teaching to the present generation (and the future one also)
the fatigues that the Recollect must have endured who placed the
first stone and finished the work, in each of those parishes (which
are a like number of villages), public halls have been constructed
under the direction of the parish priests. In all of them schools for
both sexes have been erected, where religious instruction is given
to them. Since this exercises its proper influence on the minds of
the youth, it has succeeded in forming the present generation--who
are established in all the beliefs of our true religion, exactly
observant of the practices which it imposes upon them, thankful and
respectful to the ministers of Jesus Christ, and very diligent in
the fulfilment of their social duties, all those who pay tribute to
his Majesty being comprehended in this obligation.

The number of those who paid tribute in this island could not have been
very large in the eight missions that existed when the island came
into our possession, when one considers the state of insubordination
in which that multitude were living, most of whom were separated from
organized society and in revolt in the interior of the territory. In
proportion as it continued to assume its normal state, and commenced
to enjoy the peace that it has at the present time, its population
continued to increase, and in the year one thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight was more than one hundred thousand souls; in one
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, the total of its population was
increased to one hundred and fifty thousand; at present the island
of Bohol,