porter's lodge, before the altar of St. Nicolás de Tolentino. [43]

In the interval from the death of our father provincial, Fray Jerónimo
de Salas, which occurred on May 17, until our father rector-provincial
Sepúlveda was killed, a singular case happened in our convent, which
was apparently a presage of the said fatality. It happened that in
the fine infirmary of the said convent, which looks toward the sea,
a white cat was found which was rearing three rats at its breasts,
feeding them as if they were its own kind of offspring, and giving a
complete truce to the natural antipathy of such animals. But after
it had reared and fattened them well, it ate them, ceasing the
unwonted truces in its natural opposition. Almost all the people of
the community of Manila and its environs came to see such a thing,
for scarcely would they credit the truth of it, and all affirmed that
it must be the presage of some great fatality.

By the death of the said our father Sepúlveda (which was very keenly
felt by our province, and which grieved the hearts of all the members
individually), although the father definitors ought to have taken
up the government, yet they made a renunciation of the right which
pertained to every one of them. Accordingly, announcements were sent
through the provinces to the effect that the provincial chapter should
be held on the last day of October, the thirty-first, of the year 17.

About this time the very illustrious Don Diego Vázquez de Marcado,
archbishop of Manila, a most worthy prelate, died. He was the
embodiment of learning, virtue, and prudence, and all grieved sorely
at his death. Our bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Pedro de Arce, entered upon
the government of the archbishopric, by a special bull of Paul V,
and he was assigned one _talega_ [44] more salary than he received