In Bohol, within only eight months, they gained the village of Baclayun with its hamlets (which was the first station that our Society maintained in that island), besides the villages of Lobo (which is a river of much volume), where more than three thousand souls were instructed and catechized, as well as many in the villages of two other islands adjacent to Bohol.  In all those places were baptized a large number of those best prepared and able to receive the sacrament, among them the good old Catunao (whom we mentioned above) with his wife.  Between the two, they surely had lived two hundred and thirty years, and the woman was younger than he, Our Lord did not see fit to take him away until He had repaid him for his good services in having been the guide who introduced Christian people into the Filipinas.  He was always seated, for he could no longer walk.  So satisfied was he at being baptized that during the remainder of his life (which was little more than a year) he was continually repeating, with much delight, “Jesus, Mary.”

Of the Island of Mindanao.  Chapter XXXVI.

Mindanao is closer to the equinoctial line than the islands of Ibabao, Leite, Sebu, and Bohol, and is larger than almost all those four together.  I shall say no more of its richness and fertility than that it is not inferior to the most fertile of all of them.  Besides that, it is this island only that abounds in civet and cinnamon.  The cinnamon grows among the mountains, and the civet is obtained in large quantities from the many civet-cats which only this island breeds.  The natives in nearly all of the island are friendly; but in the southern part along the river of Mindanao (which they call, and is, another Nile in its grandeur and breadth), the people, with those of some adjoining districts, are rebellious and turbulent, and are enticed by the Ternatans, who have introduced there the doctrine of Mahoma.  As a result, both of those peoples are enemies, not only to us, but to our friends in the same island.  An incident occurred there which I shall not fail to relate, to show the valor of those islanders.  While the Spaniards had their camps and garrisons stationed on this river, together with some vessels anchored in the water, there was celebrated the marriage of a friendly chief with the daughter, or the sister, of another chief who dwelt farther up the river; and the commander of that camp, as a token of friendship, undertook to honor this event by despatching two galliots up the stream to convey the bride.  The Mahometan enemy, Silongan, who dwelt in the district through which they must pass, upon learning that our people had gone by, and when they were to return, made no attempt to hinder their passage with the bride, although they were actually at open war with us; but he went unprotected to the bank of the river with dignified pace and sober garb, carrying a fan, and gazing with much interest on the galliots and their passengers.  Recognizing him, our soldiers in