[A section devoted to the founding of the convent of Calatayud in Aragon follows, and the narration of the work in the Philippines is taken up again in the succeeding section, entitled:]

Foundation of the convent of Bolinao

The missionary religious in the Philippinas Islands had complete and quiet peace, although those who were living in Espana, opposed by miseries and misfortunes, were trying with all earnestness to recover their lost quiet.  A great field was offered to them, in which to give vent to the ardor of their desires; but being few in number, they could not accept as much as was given them.  They determined finally to take the island of Bolinao, near the province of Zambales and of Tugui, whose warlike and fierce inhabitants, although less so than the others, gave father Fray Geronimo de Christo, vicar-provincial at that time, and his associate, father Fray Andres del Santo Espiritu, sufficient occasion to exercise their patience; for, not wishing to hear them, they tried daily to kill them.  The two fathers persisted in softening those diamond hearts with their perseverance, after having lived for some months on only herbs of the field, when the natives deprived them of food so that, thus needy, the fathers should be compelled to leave them and go away, or so that they might die of hunger.  That might have happened if God our Lord had not aided them with His grace, as is His wont in times of greatest stress.  The patient endurance of Ours conquered the barbarians; and, recognizing that those who were so long-suffering and so kind could not fail to be right in what they said, they submitted to the yoke of the gospel, very gladly and joyfully receiving the Christian instruction and baptism.  For that reason it became necessary to found a convent there, and that was accomplished through the conversion of one thousand six hundred souls, who are directed, together with those of other villages near by.  In that place occurred a circumstance resembling that of father Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel, which we have recounted above; for while all the Indians of the village were not yet converted, our religious learned that those of the village had gone to a bamboo plantation not very distant, in order to worship it and to venerate their bamboos, as if they were gods.  They followed the Indians, and found them occupied with their blind observances.  The more the religious persuaded them, they could not induce them to cut a single bamboo, because of the error which they had accepted from the mouth of the devil, namely, that they would surely die if they touched the canes.  Thereupon the fathers, although at the evident risk of their lives, amid the great shouting and lamentations of the Indians, ordered a good Christian servant, who acted as their guide, to begin to fell the thicket.  Proceeding at first with the fear of those foolish people, the servant felled the entire thicket to the earth, and then the barbarians were assured of their error, and without delay they more joyfully accepted Christianity.