Nine new members of the Society reach Manila, having been saved from a ship-wreck—­through the intercession, as is devoutly believed, of our Blessed Father Ignatius.  Chapter LXV.

In the month of May in the year one thousand six hundred and one, there arrived in the Filipinas Father Gregorio Lopez with a welcome reenforcement, of nine fathers of the Society. [14] Their arrival was most opportune for filling the places of the dead, and aiding the living who are ever clamoring for new companions to help them draw in the net of this spiritual fishery.  It was an extraordinary consolation to hear of the mercies vouchsafed to them by our Lord through the intercession of our propitious Father Ignatius—­especially when they reached the opposite coast of that island of Manila, near Catanduanes—­as I shall here briefly relate, referring to the judicial investigation of this disaster, which was made with many and competent witnesses, and was brought to Rome for the honor and glory of God our Lord, and of his saints.  In the latter part of April in that year, 1601, when the galleon from Nueva Espana [15] (in which came the ten fathers of our Society) reached the region of those islands, bad weather shut them in with heavy fogs and rains, so that, although in front and on both sides the land was not far away, it could hardly be descried or recognized as such.  As soon as the weather cleared somewhat, they found themselves in a bay hemmed in by shoals and rocks, with a rugged shore, upon which the wind was driving them.  In spite of their efforts they were unable to gain the open sea, for the force of the wind was driving them out of their course and upon the shoals.  They then resolved to cast anchor, hoping in this way to gain some safety for the vessel, and thus they remained during an entire night in twenty-six brazas of water, exposed to great danger, and in fear of being lost.  On the next morning, the auditor Don Antonio de Ribera (who went as commander and chief of the vessel), seeing the great danger to which they were exposed, and considering all human means weak and useless, hastened to entreat the Divine favor; and, recalling those which our Lord had recently bestowed upon certain persons through the mediation of our blessed Father Ignatius, resolved upon this occasion to implore his favor and assistance, and to beseech our Lord, through the merits of His servant, to give them at ten o’clock that day a propitious wind whereby the vessel might reach a place of safety.  He added that he did not set that time as a limitation to the divine Majesty, but because such answer to their prayer would show that the mercy bestowed upon them had come through the intercession of the blessed Father Ignatius, to whom they made an offering of the vessel and its deliverance.  This petition and its conditions he called those to witness who were then present in the stern-cabin.