[_Endorsed_: "Manila; to his Majesty, 1603. The fiscal Hieronimo de
Salazar; July 5. Examined on the second of July, 1604. No response
to be given."]
_Copy of a letter which Chanchian, the chief mandarin of the three
who came to this city of Manila from the kingdom of China in the
month of June of the year one thousand six hundred and three, wrote
in the Chinese characters and tongue to Don Pedro de Acuña, governor
and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands for the king our lord,
and his president in the royal Chancillería thereof, four days before
the said mandarins arrived in the said city; translated from the
original of the said letter by a Dominican religious._
Chanchian, of the lineage of Au, who governs the warriors of the
province of Hoquien, the envoy of the king of the realm of China,
and servant of the eunuch of the lineage of Cou. Because Tio Heng,
who is considered a reputable man, has gone to the king of China [16]
and told him that from this kingdom there could each year be taken for
the king of China a hundred thousand taes of gold and three hundred
thousand taes of silver at his expense, so that his vassals should
not pay tribute or be molested, the king has sent a eunuch who is
called Cochay to take charge of those who have said that there was
gold. This Tio Heng with five companions say that outside of the
boundaries of Hayten in a place called Lician there is a mountain
which is called Heyt Coavite, one lonely mountain in the midst of the
wide-spread sea; and that there is no realm to which it belongs or to
which the inhabitants pay tribute. In that place is collected much
gold and silver. The vassals of that mountain spend gold as freely
as if it were _garbanzos_ [17] and lentils. He has seen that the
vassals of that mountain of Cavite dig and gather it from the earth,
and in every house of Cavite he saw, if it were a poor one, a _medida_
(which is three gantas), and in those of the rich a hundred gantas of
this gold; and they store it up in order to trade with the Sangleys who
come there to trade, so that they may buy their property. And he said:
"At present you have no gold within your house to spend, and you have
no place whence to get it, and it would be much easier to go and get
it from that said place than to ask it from your vassals. It is true
that I have seen it; and now I have come to tell you this; and I do
not ask that you shall give me anything for going for it, but that
you should give me permission to go for it. I alone will find the
people, and spend what may be necessary to go and dig it. And this
year, when they have brought this gold, you can go to see the gold
which the captains and merchants have brought who come each year from
Luzon. In two years from now I will give you twice the gold and silver
that I have promised you, and with this you may be satisfied; and the
kingdom and the vassals will rejoice. This affair is serious and of
great importance." The king gave permission that this should be done,
and the eunuch named Cochay, with these mandarins, is accompanying
Tio Heng to Luzon to reach the mine of gold and see whether there is
or is not such a mine, when they will go back to the king and inform
him. From all provinces there came people to the king to tell him that
this kingdom of Luzon was as small as a cross-bow pellet; and that
they have never heard that there was gold there, as Tio Heng says,
but that he is lying. On this account the merchants of Hayten did
not go to seek permission, nor did they dare to go to Luzon; but the
judge of Chiochio ordered that they should fulfil their contracts with
the said Tio Heng, and see whether there was gold or not. This is all
their business, and therefore the governor of Luzon may rest secure,
and without apprehension or suspicion of evil. I am quite certain
that Tio Heng is lying, and command that they shall go immediately
to learn whether there is gold or not, and order that an interpreter
[_naguatato_] should go with them to see whether or not there is
gold. They say that they wish to hasten their departure, and that they
do not wish to stay in this land, giving occasion for complaints,
and, believe me, you cannot detain us. Dated the thirty-first year
of the reign of Landec, on the tenth of the fourth moon, which is
the present month of May according to their reckoning.
[At the beginning of the Spanish translation are the following
sentences, apparently memoranda by some clerk or interpreter:]
Copy of the letter which the chief Chinese mandarin of the three
who came to Manila wrote at sea to the president, governor and
captain-general of the Filipinas.
Mandarin is the same word as governor in Castilla.
The viceroys of the kingdom of China are for the most part eunuchs,
and to that end the king bring up a number of them in his house;
it is said that there are fourteen thousand from whom he may choose.
Cavite is the principal port of the Filipinas, and lies three leagues
from Manila. Luzon is the name of the island on which Manila is
situated.
_Copy of the petition and information given by the fiscal of the
royal Audiencia of the Filipinas concerning the three mandarins who
came to the city of Manila_.
Most potent lord: The licentiate Geronimo de Salazar y Salcedo,
your fiscal in the royal Chancillería of the Philipinas Islands,
will relate this as best he can. On Friday, which I reckon to be
the twenty-third of this present month of May, there entered into
this city three infidel Sangleys, who came in the last-arrived ships
from the kingdom of China; and they wear the garments and caps which
are usually worn in that kingdom by the great mandarins--for it is
thus they call those who serve their king in some high office of
justice. They say that they came by his order to see if there is a
hill of gold in the port of Cavite; for he has been informed that his
Chinese vassals who trade and traffic in these said islands bring a
quantity of gold on which they do not pay him duty; and, that they
may pay it, he wishes to know the truth. The said three Sangleys,
who claim to be mandarins, go out from their houses on their way
to this city, seated in chairs upon the shoulders of four Sangleys;
and, attached to their persons, on each side go six of their guards
armed as archers. Before them walk two Sangleys who bear suspended
from their shoulders a porcelain case in which it is said they carry
their chapas which indicate that they are mandarins, which is the same
that we here call "decrees" and "royal commissions." Behind them goes
another Sangley on a horse, who is said to be the secretary of the
three mandarins. Before them go in file six Sangleys with staves upon
their shoulders, on the ends of which are white tablets with characters
of gold, which is said to be the insignia of alguacils. Six other
Sangleys carry little banners of different colors, with characters
written upon them in the Chinese tongue, which are said to indicate
the great authority and wide jurisdiction of the said mandarins. One
Sangley, who they say is a minister of justice, bears a piece of cane
as thick as one's arm, lacquered in black. Among these goes a Sangley
with two small kettle-drums and four others with canfonias and other
musical instruments which they use, all of them playing. Before all
these people go six Sangleys, two of whom carry two iron chains, which
are said to be to put on those whom they are ordered to arrest; two
others carry two cords tied to sticks upon their shoulders, which are
said to be to tie those whom they are ordered to flog; the other two,
who are called _upos_, which is the same as executioners in España,
bear two half-canes four dedos wide and a braza long, with which
they flog the delinquents, whom if they wished they could kill with
a few strokes. Between these go two Sangleys each one of whom cries
out in his own language from time to time, with loud shouts; and it
is said that they are calling out, "Make way, for the mandarins are
coming," and as soon as they come out of their houses, and until they
enter them again, these cries are kept up. When the Sangleys meet the
mandarins, they flee from them and hide themselves; and if they cannot
do this they bend their backs very low with their arms extended upon
the ground, and remain in this position while the mandarins pass,
which is quite in the form and manner which is customary in the said
kingdom of China. Sunday afternoon in front of the house of one of the
said mandarins they [_MS. torn_--whipped?] an Indian or mulatto in the
street before the house of the said mandarin (the latter being at the
window), in judicial form according to the Chinese usage. Yesterday,
Monday, they flogged a Sangley in his own house; and another one they
put to the hand-torture, quite according to their usage. Two of those
who are said to correspond to alguazils, bearing the said banners as a
sign thereof (just as the long staves of justice are borne in España),
seized a Christian Sangley in the [_MS. illegible_] of the licentiate
Christoval Tellez de Almaçan, your auditor of the said royal Audiencia,
saying that they were going to take him before a mandarin, who had
ordered them to seize him; but when they were outside of the house of
Doctor Antonio de Morga, an auditor of the said royal Chancillería,
he came to a window at hearing the noise, and stopped them. He did
so because this is administering justice, and all these things are
insignia thereof--whence no little scandal has arisen in this city of
Manila, on account of the grave offenses which have been committed
here by the said persons who call themselves mandarins, and by the
others whom they have with them. I give information of this so that
suitable action in this matter may be decided upon and decreed, and
which, if necessary, I offer my services to investigate. I beg and
beseech your Highness to command and decree whatever may be fitting
in such a case, and that information may be given concerning this
my petition, and concerning what may be decreed in regard to it, in
order to inform thereby the royal person of your Highness for which,
etc., I demand justice.