The exploration and evangelization of Mindanao required courage, perseverance, and ingenuity on the part of missionaries and explorers. While some of the essays in this book afford a glimpse of the endeavor, they deal with only a small part of the great enterprise. Products of reflection and historical research, they deal in turn with the controversy about the site of the first Mass; beginnings of evangelization; construction of the first church; the exploration of the largest river system of the island; the early attempts to climb the highest mountain; and Rizal's four-year stay in Dapitan.