ANNO DOM. 1653.
The Administration of Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara.
The ship San Francisco Xavier arrived in Cavite in July, 1653, bringing
the new Governor, Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara; the Archbishop
of Manila, Don Miguel Poblete; the Bishop of Ylocos, Don Rodrigo de
Cordinas, a Dominican; and the Oidor, Don Juan Bolivar. The Governor
immediately, as was usual, sat in judgment on his predecessor, who,
apprehensive that he might be deprived of his liberty, retired into
the college of Jesuits, securing his personal safety in this sacred
asylum. The Archbishop fixed the month of March for a jubilee, on
which occasion an immense concourse of people assembled, and he, with
great solemnity, invoked the blessing of the Almighty on these islands.
Many calamities occurred during this administration, such as the
small-pox, famine, and a dreadful earthquake, which ruined many
edifices, and did much injury; but what affected the Governor much
more than all these, was the revolt of the Indians and Chinese, and the
ravages committed by the Moors of Mindanao. The Spaniards were at peace
with Corrolat, King of Mindanao, and he appeared perfectly satisfied;
but the chief men, turbulent and warlike, urged him to break it.
The Governor sent two Jesuits and some Spaniards, in the nature of an
embassy, to strengthen our existing amity with the King: when, without
any respect for their characters as ambassadors, and, listening to
the representations of his nephew Balatamay, he murdered them all,
and excused his atrocity to the Governor of Zamboanga, throwing the
blame on his nephew, whom, he alleged, he could not punish, on account
of his great power in the state.
In the letter which he wrote to the Governor of Manila, he laid
the blame on the Jesuit, who was at the head of the embassy; thus
indicating his intention, by these contradictory falsehoods, of
gaining time to draw to his party the King of Jolo, and other chiefs
of the Moluccas.
Don Francisco Esteyvar, who was Governor of Zamboanga, despatched
against him an armament of ten carracoas, whose rowers were Indians
of Lutao, and who, though they had been converted to Christianity,
felt for Corrolat as a countryman. Nothing could persuade them to row
against the Moors, excusing themselves under various pretexts; and,
although they could have been compelled, yet Don Fernando Bobadilla,
who commanded the expedition, fearing that they would desert him in
the time he most wanted them, and not desirous of exposing himself
to such a risk, returned to Zamboanga.
As the Spaniards had delayed the chastisement of the Moors for the
murder of their ambassadors, they were induced, as might be expected,
to commit still greater ravages than those they had yet been guilty of,
and Don Sabiniano de Lara sent against them a considerable squadron,
under the command of a man, valiant in the cabinet, but who proved the
reverse in the field. He repeatedly showed a disposition to attack the
Moors; but, on various pretexts, avoided coming to an engagement, and
at last retired to Zebu, abandoning the cause, and leaving the Moors
to return quietly to their own country. The Governor of Zamboanga,
however, acting a different part, and determined to chastise the Moors,
collected some vessels, and retaliated on their country, the ravages
they had committed on ours.
A slight disturbance, about this time, took place in the province of
Pampanga, the cause of which was as follows: the late Governor having
ordered a ship to be built in Camboxa, sent all the necessary workmen
in a vessel, which he patched up, and launched for the purpose. After
having completed their work, and when they were on their return from
Camboxa to Manila, they encountered a storm, so violent, that the
vessel was wrecked, and almost all the people perished. The galleon,
San Francisco Xavier, was lost in the same storm on the coast of Samar,
and two other ships which were going to Acapulco were forced back. The
galleon, La Concepcion, too, was so unfortunate as to be driven back
twice, having suffered severely in her rigging. To repair these losses,
it was necessary that a greater quantity of wood should be cut than
was customary, and that with unusual expedition. The Indians suffered
always severely in these undertakings, as they were obliged to leave
their towns for the mountains, where, their wages being very small,
and their treatment very bad, they too often fell a sacrifice to
sickness. The overseer of the present wood cutting was a man of
great severity, and, as the wood was to be cut with all despatch,
he had recourse, with the poor Indians, to measures which humanity
could not justify, in order to expedite the work. Resisting this
oppressive conduct, they mutinied, and the mutiny extended through
all the towns, although they did not behave with disrespect to the
church or friars. To quell this sedition before it took a wider
range, the Governor took up his residence in Macabebe, which is the
first town in the province, from Manila, taking with him some troops,
and ordering into his presence some of the ringleaders. The Indians,
naturally timid, had already repented of this disturbance, when the
friars interfering, it was completely quelled, and the principal
ringleader, an Indian named Maniago, was conveyed to Manila, being
considered as too dangerous an inhabitant of the province.
The bad example of those in Pampanga, induced the Indians of Pangasinan
to rebel, electing as their King an Indian, called Marlong. They
murdered the Alcalde Mayor of the province, with all his family, and,
upon this being known in Manila, the Governor sent troops by sea
and land to quell the sedition; but the Dominican friars possessed
such power over the Indians, that they were restored to their duty
without firing one gun; and their King, Marlong, was delivered up
and hanged immediately.
When the Indians of Pangasinan began their rebellion, they had sent
emissaries to the provinces of Cagayan, Ylocos, and Zambales. In
this last they made little progress, but in Ylocos, an Indian called
Manzano, headed the rebellion, and, having collected a number of
malcontents, he attacked the Spaniards, murdered the Friar Bacarra, and
ill treated the Bishop Cardinas, on which the Alcalde Mayor and some
friars fled to Manila; but the province of Pangasinan being by this
time reduced to subjection, the troops were sent against Manzano, and
soon reduced him likewise; and the ringleaders of both were executed.
The civil wars of China were the cause of the conquest of that country
by the Tartars. A Chinese named Ly, having urged the provinces
remote from the court to revolt, and meeting with no opposition,
arrived at the capital (Pekin), on which occasion, either from
treason or cowardice, all abandoned the Emperor, who, seeing himself
thus forsaken, cut off, according to their usual custom, the head of
his daughter, that she might not fall into the hands of the rebels,
and afterwards hanged himself on a tree, to avoid a similar disgrace.
All acknowledged the authority of Ly, except the army, which had
been opposed to the Tartars, and which, fearing the result of this
rebellion, made peace with them, and they united against the common
enemy, Ly, whom they soon drove from Pekin. Nothing more was ever
heard of this rebellion; but, the Tartars having by this means got
into the interior of China, though they met with some opposition,
yet, finally, they reduced the whole of the empire, and it continues
still under the Tartar dynasty.
A poor Chinese, who had fled from Macao to Manila, where he was
baptized by the name of Nicolas, and where he became a shop-keeper,
afterwards went to Japan, where he married; but finding that he did
not acquire riches quick enough, he entered the Chinese army, where he
rose very high, being appointed General against the rebels. Zunchin,
who was the last Emperor of the Chinese race, having hanged himself,
as already noticed, Nicolas sided with the Tartars, by whom he was
apparently well received. The Tartar Emperor heaped favours upon him,
and named him as one of his tributary monarchs, under the title of
Pignan, which signifies, conqueror of the south. By these means he
lulled him into security; and having at last imprisoned him and all
his family, completed his treachery by blowing him, and the greater
part of them, up with gunpowder.
His son, Cogseng, after this disgraceful transaction, turned pirate,
and sufficiently revenged the death of his father by ravaging the
Chinese coasts and islands. He was the conqueror of the island of
Formosa, and the first who triumphed over the arms of Europeans. The
Dutch, at this time, were complete masters of the island, they
possessed two thousand Europeans, with sufficient artillery and ships;
when hearing that the Chinese intended to attack them, they united
all their forces in Tayguan; but the pirate, who came with about one
hundred thousand men, landed on the opposite coast of the island,
and immediately entered on the cultivation of the soil. A short time
after, he invested the fort of Tayguan, and the Dutch capitulated,
after a seven months siege, by which they were allowed to leave the
island, with the ships they had in the port.
Cogseng, elated with this success, determined to become master
of the Philippines, for which purpose he sent the Friar Victorio
Riccio, a Dominican, with the title of his Ambassador, to Manila,
with a letter to the Governor, in which he required him to recognize
him as Sovereign, and pay him tribute, threatening, if he refused,
to ravage his coasts with his fleet. On the 18th of May, 1662, the
friar arrived on this embassy at Manila, and delivered his letter
with great secrecy, which, however, was not long withheld from the
public. The Governor without delay began to levy troops, repair the
fortifications, and recall all the forces to the capital; and in order
to be as secure as possible, he sent away all the Chinese merchants,
and others that were established in the islands. Upon this being
known, it was whispered that the Governor intended to decapitate
all the Chinese, who, being naturally cowards, believed the knife
already at their throats, and retired to the mountains, from whence
some passed, with great risk, in small boats to Formosa. The day on
which the Governor called the Chinese chiefs before him, in order
to intimate to them that they must retire, the remaining Chinese
believing that they were all to be murdered, took up arms; but the
Dominicans had sufficient influence to prevail on them to remain
quiet. The Governor now sent back Friar Riccio to Cogseng with an
answer to his letter, but, on Riccio's arrival, he found the pirate
dead of a fever, Manila being by this means released from the danger
with which she was threatened. The Chinese who had fled to Formosa,
circulated a thousand calumnies, which would have cost Friar Riccio
his life, if he had not been saved by the son of Cogseng, who had
succeeded his father in power; but not possessing the warlike spirit
of his father, he sent an Ambassador to Manila, to make a treaty
of amity and commerce with the Spaniards. Although the expedition
of Cogseng had not reached Manila, the place of its destination,
the effects of it had fallen very heavy on the islands, as all the
churches and convents near Manila were destroyed, to prevent the
enemy from converting them into military stations.
The Governor of Ternate had abandoned that station, by no means
easy to be recovered, as the garrison was, in its retreat to Manila,
accompanied by the Indians, called Mahhicas, who were the best friends
to the Spanish cause, and who were then settled at the mouth of the
river Marigondon, where their descendants remain to this hour. The
garrisons too of Calamianes and Zamboanga evacuated these stations;
and as they had always been a check on the Moors of Jolo and Mindanao,
opportunities were by this means offered of committing with impunity
such ravages in the Bisayas, that the friars were compelled to abandon
the province of Calamianes.
Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara had governed these islands with great
prudence, but notwithstanding this, several articles of impeachment
were preferred against him, and he was fined seventy thousand
dollars. On appealing, however, to the council of the Indies, the
sentence was reversed, and the fine remitted; but disgusted with
the world, he retired to Malaga, his native country, and took the
monastic habit.