Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/199

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1599–1602]
ANNUAL LETTERS BY VAEZ
195

rest. The father was in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and had lived fifteen years in the Society. The brother, his companion, was of the same age, and had lived in the Society seven years; he had entered it in these regions. He was a man endowed with every virtue, being especially noteworthy for his obedience, to which he was always greatly inclined.

Of the brethren there has also died Martin Sanchez, a native of these islands, who was for a decade a member of the Society, and who left a glorious example in life and death. There remain in this vice-province thirty priests and twenty-nine brethren (of whom two are scholastics and four novices)—those nine being included whom your Paternity has sent hither with Father Gregorio Lopez, in whom this vice-province assuredly receives a great assistance. As it is of later birth, more scantily supplied with workers, and further from Rome, it is likewise poorer; and, as the younger daughter, ought to be the dearer and more precious to your Paternity.


COLLEGE OF MANILA

There live in this college (the leading one[1] in this vice-province) seventeen of Ours—seven priests and ten brethren. All of them, by the favor of divine Providence, have by their example and labor

  1. The word collegium, as used here, means rather "residence" than "college;" but we retain the latter rendering because the Jesuits were then actually conducting an educational institution at Manila, in which they gave instruction to the Spaniards and to some natives. This was the college of San José, for which provision had been made as early as 1585; but for various reasons it was not opened until 1600. Its first rector was Pedro Chirino; among its first students (thirteen in all) were Pedro Tello, a nephew of the governor, and Antonio de Morga, a son of the auditor. See La Concepción's detailed account, in Hist. de Philipinas, iii, pp. 403-409.