other Augustinian religious, who were going to our
missions in that empire. Thence they went to Moscow, where Father
Melo comforted the persecuted Catholics (to whom he administered
the holy sacraments), and tried to convert the Calvinist heretics,
for which reason they were imprisoned and suffered penalties without
number. When they reached Nisna, near the Caspian Sea, brother Fray
Nicolas de San Agustin was beheaded on the thirtieth of November,
1611, for refusing to apostatize from the holy Catholic faith. Father
Nicolas Melo was burned alive in Astrakan, together with Princess
Barbara Noski, a tertiary of our order, on the first of November,
1616.--_Coco_.

Father Melo was born of a noble family in Corinchan, Portugal. Going
to Mexico at an early age, he took the Augustinian habit in the
convent of Puebla de los Angeles, June 28, 1578. After becoming a
priest he went to the Philippines, where he learned the Tagal and
Bisayan tongues, and ministered at Aclan, Cagayancilo, Batangas,
and Tanauan. See Perez's _Catalogo,_ p. 27.

The lay-brother, Fray Nicolas de San Agustin, a Japanese, converted
by the above, professed in the Manila convent in 1594. Ibid., p. 69.

[114] In 1893 Malolos had 14,635 inhabitants, without reckoning
the villages of Barasoain and Santa Isabel, with 9,442 and 7,174
inhabitants respectively. The three villages, especially Malolos,
had at the above date beautiful churches and convents of solid
masonry.--_Coco_.

The present civilized population of Malolos (see Bulletin No. 1, _ut
supra_) is 12,575; Barasoain, 8,047; and of Santa Isabel, 6,403. The
first named is the capital of Bulacan province.

[115] Now (1893) the parish of Hagonoy has in charge 19,755 people,
and has a very large stone church and convent.--_Coco_.

Its present civilized population (see Bulletin No. 1, _ut supra_)
is 21,304.

[116] This town had 16,867 inhabitants in 1893.--_Coco_. It now has
13,469 civilized inhabitants according to the latest census. See
Bulletin No. 1, _ut supra._

[117] _Pedaneo_ or _gobernadorcilio_, as he is called in the
country.--_Coco_.

[118] Matthew x, 22.--_Coco_.

[119] "The iniquity of thy sister was pride, abundance, and sloth."

[120] In regard to what is mentioned of the character and nature of
the Indian, all the authors, native and foreign, whom I have read are
unanimous in this, with the exception of Father Delgado, S.J., who for
reasons unknown to me, although not difficult