The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

A translated Dominican chronicle recounts the order’s missionary activity in northern Luzón around the turn of the seventeenth century, detailing efforts to eradicate local idolatry and to replace it with Christian observance. It describes clerical austerity, church-building, baptismal and catechetical work, and the social effects of conversion, including reduced violence, communal prayer practices, and greater friendliness toward Spaniards. The narrative treats the life and death of a charitable bishop, offers eyewitness reports of mission villages and converts, and records appeals for additional missionaries alongside accounts of exorcisms and other events interpreted as divine favor supporting the evangelizing effort.