took charge
of the newer villages, in order to build there churches and establish
stations convenient for the affairs of those Christian churches--as
he did in the village of Lingayon, and in others. On the way, he
baptized in Barugo twenty-five adults, and in Carigara sixty-three.
At the residence of Ogmuc we had completed a church, one of the
finest in that island, through the diligence and labors of Father
Alonso Rodriguez, who spent a long time there. Father Francisco de
Enzinas went to that residence, and baptized one hundred and two
persons; of these eighty-one were adults, and among them some old
men. These last asked for baptism, as it seemed, with reason, saying
that they were already at the gates of death, and they ought to be
most favored since they were most needy. They asked questions about
the life eternal; and while the father was explaining to them the
resurrection of the body he was aided, by a man recently baptized,
with the simile of the serpent, which sheds and then renews its skin,
and with other comparisons of that sort. On his road the same father
visited a little village, called Baibai, and baptized there ninety
persons, of whom eighty-seven were adults.
Father Alonso Rodriguez held another mission in a little village called
Ugyao, where he baptized twenty-eight persons, among whom was the wife
of the chief of the village; she was afterward an instrument for the
conversion of many. He also sojourned in a village called Leite, whence
he writes a letter to the father-visitor, which runs as follows: "The
lord bishop was greatly consoled at the aspect of this village. The
Indians seemed to him very tractable, and submissive to the things
of our holy faith. They are continually in the church, morning and
evening, frequenting the services to such an extent that the time I
spent there seemed like a jubilee. I noticed among the chiefs much zeal
in bringing me pagans that I might baptize them. During this visit and
the next that I made there, I baptized one hundred and thirty-seven
persons, who were children and old people. I was in Alangalang and was
much pleased with the people there; indeed, everything in that island
seemed to me to be from heaven. I cannot sufficiently thank our Lord
for the signal favor that He has granted me in bringing me to this
land, and employing me in this Catholic ministry--of which I feel
myself most unworthy, often acknowledging this before our Lord, with
tears and humi
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