Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 06).djvu/150

 who should execute it have some interest therein.

All these islands were pagan and idolatrous. They now contain many thousands of baptized persons, upon whom our Lord has had great mercy, sending them the remedy for their souls in so good season; for, had the Spaniards delayed a few years more, all the natives would now be Moors, for already some of that sect in the island of Burneo had gone to these islands to preach their faith, and already many were not far from the worship of the false prophet Mahoma. But his perfidious memory was extirpated easily by the holy gospel of Christ. In all these islands they worshiped the sun, moon, and other secondary causes, certain images of men and women called in their tongue Maganitos, feasts to whom—very sumptuous and abounding in great ceremonies and superstitions—were called Magaduras. Among all of these idols they held one, by name Batala, in most veneration. This reverence they held as a tradition; but they knew not why he was greater than the others, or why he merited more esteem. In certain adjacent islands, called the Illocos, they worshiped the devil, offering him many sacrifices in payment and gratitude for the quantities of gold that he gave them. Now, by the goodness of God, and by the great industry of the Augustinian fathers—the first to go to those districts, and who have toiled and lived in a praiseworthy manner—and by the Franciscan fathers, who went thither ten years after, all these islands, or the majority of them, have received baptism, and are enrolled under the banner of Jesus Christ. Those yet outside the faith are so rather for lack of religious instruction and preachers, than by any repugnance of their own. Last year