ections is to apostatize
from the Catholic faith, and to return to their former paganism; but
for that same reason, I must oppose myself to that with the greatest
strength. Go ahead, send news of my constancy to the partisans of the
rebel Malong, if perchance there are any in the village, so that they
may not tire themselves with threatening me with death. Assure them
that I shall consider myself very fortunate, if I transform myself
into a good martyr from so poor a priest. But meanwhile, I warn you,
that I shall know by each one's actions who are the rebels and who
are faithful; and that accordingly the proper reward or punishment
will follow each one, when the Manila fleet, which will not delay,
subdues affairs properly." By that effort some who were wavering in
their loyalty were confirmed in it, while those who were on the side
of the seditious ones did not dare to put their treacherous thoughts
into execution.

8. Very soon did experience show the great importance of the firmness
of so valiant a religious. For on the night of that same day, after
the convent was locked, some of the loyal Indians, who were guarding
the outside of it, captured a strange Indian, who declared that he was
bringing a message to the father prior, which was to be given into his
own hand. He was taken into the father's presence after observing the
necessary precautions, where he delivered the message. It was from
the father vicar of Lingayen and contained extensive notices of the
insurrection of Pangasinan which had broken out, the murder of the
alcalde-mayor, and the devastation of that part of so flourishing
a province. He sent letters for his provincial and for the governor
of the islands, in which a speedy relief was asked in order that the
sedition might be stifled at its beginning. He besought the father
prior to send them quickly to Manila, as it was impossible to send
them from Pangasinan overland. And now it is seen that if the father
prior, Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, had retired from Bolinao as
fear persuaded him, that despatch would have been fruitless, and
perhaps had those advices been unknown in Manila, Pangasinan would
have been endangered; but since he remained inflexible against the
incentives of fear, he was able to take the fitting means, in order
that the promptest and most efficacious aid might be obtained.

9. It was not considered advisable to entrust the conveyance of such
letters to the Indians of Bolinao, an