aloud the Christian doctrine; and, upon reaching the church, they conclude it upon their knees.  They celebrate the feasts with much solemn pomp and music (for the seminary can furnish good music); and they practice there reading and writing, and other honorable and virtuous exercises.  The hospital is making excellent progress, and the Confraternities assign each week those of their members who are to care for the service of the sick, doing this, as I have said, with great alacrity and devotion.

The new residence of Silan and its Christians.  Chapter LXXIX.

This new field of Silan was assigned to the Society of Jesus from the year 1599, as the people of those villages, among whom were some Christians, were without a priest to minister to them, although they were but a day’s journey from Manila. [24] There are five villages, which contain about one thousand five hundred inhabitants, besides the many other people who, as is their custom, are separated and dispersed through the country districts, in their cultivated lands.  These villages are in the tingues, as they call them, of Cavite, among some mountains; the climate there is very moderate, and in no season of the year is there excessive heat—­rather, the mountains render it cooler.  The people are simple, tractable, and well inclined toward all good things.  The first members of the Society who went expressly to instruct them and to settle there were Father Gregorio Lopez and Father Pedro de Segura, who went in the year 1601.  In previous months and years some of us had gone there for a short time, as we had visited other places, on a mission or by way of recreation; and by the friendly reception that they gave us and the results which, by Divine grace, were accomplished among them, we were encouraged to establish among them in that year a regular mission, stationing there the two fathers whom I have mentioned.  Through the teaching and good example of those fathers they abandoned some of their evil practices, and applied themselves to the Christian customs with good will and pleasure; and many (for there were no Christians among them) received holy baptism.

Not only do they attend their own mass and sermon on Sundays (never missing one of these services), but on Saturdays they go to hear that in honor of our Lady, which is said for them with as much solemnity as that on Sundays.  They were greatly encouraged in the observance of these masses and feasts by the following incident which occurred at that time:  A woman, who was very eager to finish the weaving of a piece of cloth, sat down at her loom one Sunday to work thereon; afterward, upon returning to her task, she found the cloth all eaten away by moths.  She herself made this known, with the full knowledge that it had been a chastisement and penalty for that offense of hers.  To assist us in instructing the large number of catechumens in those villages, and in teaching the doctrine to the innumerable children