| Villages. | Souls. | |
| Augustinians, | 115 | 252,963 |
| Franciscans, | 63 | 141,193 |
| Jesuits, | 93 | 209,527 |
| Dominicans, | 51 | 99,780 |
| Recollects, | 105 | 53,384 |
making a total of 569 parishes and 904,116 souls.[1]
These proportions, however, fail to give a correct idea of the enormous preponderance of the religious orders; for the secular priests were mostly Indians and could exercise nothing like the influence of the Friars upon their cures.[2]
In these hundreds of villages the friars bore sway with the mild despotism of the shepherd of the flock. Spanish officials entered these precincts only on occasion. Soldiers were not to be seen save to suppress disorders. Spaniards were not allowed to live in these communities, and visitors were carefully watched.[3] As Spanish was little known in the provinces, the curate was the natural intermediary in all communications between the natives and the officials or outsiders. In some provinces there were no white persons besides the alcalde mayor and the
- ↑ Historia de Filipinos, Biblioteca Historica Filipina, Manila, 1892, pp. 155–156. Delgado wrote in 1750–51. Somewhat different figures are given by Le Gentil on the basis of the official records in 1735, ii, p. 182. His total is 705,903 persons.
- ↑ Le Gentil, i, p. 186.
- ↑ Recopilacion, lib. vi, tit. iii, ley xxi. Morga, p. 330.
"Avec toutes les recommandations possible, il arrive encore que le moine chargé de la peuplade par où vous voyagez, vous laisse rarement parler seul aux Indiens. Lorsque vous parlez en sa présence à quelque Indien qui entend un peu le Castillan, si ce Religieux trouve mauvais que vous conversiez trop long-temps avec ce Naturel, il lui fait entendre dans la langue du pays, de ne vous point répondre en Castillan, mais dans sa langue: l'Indien obéit." Le Gentil, ii, p. 185.
