been given them—as they feared the punishment that would be inflicted upon them, according to the law of the kingdom. For security that no ill-treatment would be showed to these men, he offered to leave pledges to their satisfaction. The governor was very glad at this offer, for this was what he and all the inhabitants of the islands had been eagerly desiring for a long time. Therefore he accepted it immediately, telling Omoncon that he absolved him from his promise and pledges, for he was quite well satisfied as to his worthiness, and that he would commit no act unbecoming his person or office. The governor, very joyful over this news, at once summoned the Augustinian provincial. Fray Alonso de Alvarado,[1] who had been elected to this office but a few days previously. The latter was a man of very holy life, and one of those despatched by the emperor, our master, in search of Nueva Guinea. The governor informed him of the offer of the captain Omõcon, whereat he greatly rejoiced, exclaiming that, notwithstanding his age, he himself would go. To this the governor would not consent, because of his age, and for other personal reasons. They consulted together as to who should go and who was most suitable for the matter in hand—namely, as we have said, to effect the entrance of our holy Catholic faith into that kingdom. They resolved to send only two
- ↑ Alonso de Alvarado was one of the Augustinian friars who accompanied (1542) the expedition of Villalobos; in 1549 he returned to Spain. Again coming to the Philippines in 1571, he labored as a missionary among the natives of Luzón. Appointed provincial of his order there in 1575, he died at Manila in May, 1576. See Retana's Zúñiga, ii, p. 563*, and Pérez's Catálogo, p. 11; the latter states that Alvarado was the first Spaniard in the Philippines to learn the mandarin dialect of the Chinese language, and that he ministered to the Chinese converts there.
