In the second place, as concerns the religious, there was from the very beginning the very tractable disposition displayed by so many natives of the islands in embracing the faith.  But as the many and excellent ministers whom the holy Order of St. Augustin promptly sent thither were not sufficient for the task of converting the natives, nor were those who were sent by the Order of the seraphic father St. Francis, [48] which in the year 1580 already had in the islands some establishments, and had made many conversions—­the fathers of the Society of Jesus were also needed.  They were introduced, in that year, by the first bishop of these islands, Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, [49] a priest of the Order of St. Dominic—­who afterward died in the city of Toledo, as archbishop of Manila.  This great prelate had left his province of Mexico to consult with the Catholic king, Don Felipe Second, concerning matters of grave importance; and, being by his Majesty appointed bishop of the Filipinas, he soon sought from the king permission to take with him to the islands members of the Society—­as appears from the same royal provision made for them in Nueva Espana.  Accordingly he took with him from that country the first members of the Society to enter those islands—­namely, Father Antonio Sedeno and Father Alonso Sanchez.  These, our fathers, entered the city of Manila without cloaks, as I have heard Father Antonio Sedeno himself relate, in commending their poverty; for those which they brought with them from Mexico had worn out and rotted in the voyage.  They went to rest at [the convent of] San Francisco, where those blessed fathers received them with much charity until they found an abode—­which they chose in a suburb of Manila, called Laguio, very wretched and closely packed, and so poorly furnished that the very chest in which they kept their books was the table upon which they ate.  Their only food for many days was rice boiled in water without salt, oil, meat, fish, or even an egg, or any other thing; sometimes as a dainty, they secured some salted sardines.

But the good bishop who had brought them did not leave them long in such straits; for not only did he offer us his library, and show us other acts of kindness and charity as a true father, but he tried to improve the site of our habitation, as soon as he saw that those first fathers had no wish to change it for another.  Thus, with two ground-plots given them by Andres Cauchela, accountant for the Catholic king in those regions (who owned some lands in Laguio); with property of the Catholic king, obtained at the instance of the aforesaid bishop and at the order of the governor, Don Gonzalo Ronquillo [50]; and with the addition of private offerings of charity—­a fine wooden house was constructed (which I myself saw), wherein was fitted up their church, in which our fathers exercised their ministry, with a large attendance, and to the great advantage of the Spaniards.