Among those who suffered this fortune or fate was a father
of our Society named Juan Bautista Tavora, a native of the island of
Tercera. He died in company with a father of San Francisco. Afterward
they martyred two others, one of Santo Domingo, and the other of San
Agustin, and in order that respect might not be paid by the Christians
to their bodies, the heathen threw them into the sea. The bodies of
the father of our Society and the father of Santo Domingo were placed
together in one box; those of the two fathers of San Francisco and San
Agustin in another. These last were afterward found, but the first
were not. The account of all that happened concerning this matter I
will place in the relation of that province [Japon] where these most
happy deaths will be related at length.
I will conclude this account with one of the most singular events
that have ever happened in the world. Although it is discreditable to
the Order of St. Augustine, it should be related here with all truth,
because it is so public and will be so noised about through all the
world. When Fray Vicente de Sepulveda, [16] first cousin of Father
Juan Laurencio, rector of the College of Mexico, finished his term of
three years as provincial, the fathers of St. Augustine met in chapter
in a convent near the city of Manila, to elect a new provincial. They
chose Fray Geronimo de Salas, [17] not without dissensions and discords
between the two parties into which they are divided.
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