since Ours were so few and so pious, they could serve more usefully in more secure and healthful places.  The holy obstinacy of those who would not consent to abandon the post conquered.  Accordingly, the first lot fell to father Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel.  He disposed the minds of those heathen in such manner that, completing their reduction and leading them to the yoke of the Lord, and to a civilized and Christian life, he built a convent in a village called Bacag, adding to it that of Luzon, which gave name to the island of Manila—­through the error or misunderstanding of the first Spaniards, who discovered it, when examining and questioning the Indians whom they met in a boat.  They removed afterward to a better site, in the said Marivelez, and that place has seven other villages, in a distance of twelve leguas, which it administers as annexes.  The persons who were converted to the faith by the energy and labor of Ours reached one thousand five hundred.

That fort having been assured against the power and empire of the devil, the door was opened wider for passage inside, and the tyrannized souls of the Indians of Zambales were gained.  The latter, confident in their fierceness, were divided along the sea-coast, and exercised themselves in the chase, by which they sustained themselves—­together with some fish—­only zealous in killing men, which was the greatest glory among them.  Consequently, no boats dared to go to their lands, unless with great risk of the occupants losing their lives.  With such brutality, the mountains of difficulties which father Fray Rodrigo had to conquer in softening the harshness of those beasts; and the sweat and labor that it would cost him to make them comprehend the dictates of reason (from which they were very far), while he was suffering extreme penury in all things necessary to life, can be imagined.  His food was only wild herbs and some fruit, which was not on all occasions accompanied by a mouthful of biscuit, sent as a great treat, if possible, from Manila.  His rest, day and night, was so little, and was so liable to surprises that scarcely could he rest a moment without the expectation of death before him all the time, which the heathen, instigated by the devil, promised to give him.  He went through their thickets and along their shores, crying out and endeavoring to conquer the coldness of those men.  By virtue of the cross, he was finally able, little by little, to soften the insolence of their fierce breasts, and to render them more tractable, although they seemed like rocks in the hardness of their obstinate hearts.