Almerique was obliged to leave Manila—­where his duties were by no means light among the Indians of that city and district, who all sought his aid.  As he had abandoned these heavy labors only to undertake others as great, he soon fell ill.  To lighten his burden, the two who had remained in Manila took up the double task; these two were the father rector, Antonio Sedeno, and Father Raymundo de Prado.  They took turns in doing this work, one remaining a week in Manila while the other went to Taitai.  This sort of life could not last long; and so our Lord, who aids the greatest necessities, inspired the good father to inform me of the difficulties in which they were, and order me to return to Manila.  There we could plan our course of life in accordance with the advices which might come to us in the ships, which were expected soon—­either uniting the four of us who remained, to do what we could in the city; or, if a reenforcement should come to us, extending our labors in securing conversions, according to the number of our men.

I reached Manila in May of the year fifteen hundred and ninety-five, leaving in Tigbauan and its vicinity, and in the town of Arevalo, not a few persons sorrowing at my departure.  The general, Doctor Antonio de Morga, arrived in the following June, having come to serve as lieutenant of the governor and captain-general of the islands.  He brought with him two fine vessels, and eight priests [63] of our Society.  The joy of the communities of Manila and Sebu, and of Ours, was beyond belief upon learning that these fathers had arrived.  From both places, requests came in to us for priests:  from Manila, for instruction and schools, of which its sons were in great want; from Sebu, for a college which they desired in their city.  On the other hand, the lieutenant governor of his Catholic Majesty urged that the Society should take charge of a province of Indians as did the other religious orders; and the Indians themselves, with several encomenderos, supported this request.  Finally an effort was made to satisfy everyone, in the way which I shall relate.  Four of us priests went to the island of Leite which we reached on the day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, the sixteenth of July of the same year.  Two of us remained at Carigara in the house of Christoval de Trujillo, the owner of that encomienda, a man of eminent piety, and our benefactor.  He straightway built for us there the first house that we possessed in that island.  The other two of us went along the coast of that island and those of Ibabao and Samar, observing what peoples and posts were best adapted at that time for our settlement.  We returned to Carigara at the end of July, where, thanks to the incredible haste and large number of the Indians, we found our house finished and the two fathers established in it.  Early in August, I had information from the father vice-provincial, Antonio Sedeno, that he had arrived at Sebu with two other priests, and summoned me thither.