to do in this matter, I announced to them my decision that, unless their hair was cut, I would not baptize them.  With this they submitted and obeyed, and in token of greater submission to my intentions, Tuigam came to me on the morning of the baptism, accompanied by others of his nation, and placing in my hands some scissors, asked me to cut the first handful of his hair.  This I did, and another finished the task.  From that time on none of them made any objection to the rule; in fact, without our speaking of it, they came to baptism with their hair cut like ours.

Father Diego de Aragon, of the holy Order of Preachers, had also come to embark in the vessel.  This truly spiritual, virtuous, and exemplary man had been waiting during an entire year for the departure of the vessel; and, on account of its inability to leave at that time, was glad to live and remain with me in our house, for his own order has none in that city.  I received him very gladly, and with gratitude to God our Lord, for the opportunity thus afforded me of serving a person and order whom I so highly esteemed, and to which our own Society is so much indebted, and which it recognizes here, there, and in every region.  He was a source of great edification to me—­and to many others of our Society who had come to me from Manila and who were afterward my guests—­by his great piety, austerity, eloquence, penitence, and blameless and exemplary life.  In this way time passed until September of the year fifteen hundred and ninety-six, when, the division and allotment of the fourteen fathers who had arrived in the previous August having been made, I began to have guests and companions—­with whom I could not only maintain our ministries in better condition, but also go to ascertain the condition of our affairs in Mindanao, which upon the death of Father Juan del Campo, were left, as we shall see, without a master.  This college was finally occupied by six of the Society, who were soon busied in ministering to the Spaniards, Portuguese, Chinese, Bissayans, Tagalos, and many other nations who resort to that city for trading and other affairs.  Two of us exercised the Chinese language, besides the Bissayan and Tagalo tongues, which are usually employed for preaching, confessions, and the other Sacraments.  One of the brethren, who was a skilful scribe, continued the children’s school gathered by Father Antonio Pereira, where reading, writing, and numbers were taught, together with Christian doctrine and customs.

Of the island of Leite, and those who were baptized there.  Chapter XXIV.

The circuit of the island of Leite is about a hundred leguas—­its length stretching from east to west for forty leguas, and its extent from north to south being narrow.  It is divided almost in the middle by a large mountain ridge called Carigara, which occasions a remarkable inequality and variety in its temperature and seasons.  For example, when in its northern part there is winter (which is