Remonstrance addressed to the governor and captain-general [33]
of the Filipinas Islands, on October 7, 1701, by the provincials
of the religious orders, in regard to the wrongs and abuses that
are committed in the said islands.
The Christian desire so proper to our obligation of attending to the
preservation of the holy faith, in all the places and persons in which
by the goodness of our Lord it is found already established, and to
its propagation and extension in the persons and places (which are
many) that have not been reached by the light of the holy gospel; and
the strict religious observance of our profession, which at least for
charity's sake constrains and obliges us to endeavor by all means that
injustice and oppression shall not be suffered by any of the Indian
natives of these islands--the spiritual administration and instruction
of whom has been placed in our guidance and care by both Majesties,
the divine and the human, entrusting, to the zeal that we are under
obligation to exercise, not only the steadfastness in the faith and
the good morals of all the natives who have been already conquered and
brought back to the bosom of the holy Church, but also the promotion
of new reductions and conversions: these are the motives, truly lofty
ones, which impel us to set forth plainly to your Lordship the causes
(of the utmost importance and gravity, and everywhere at work) which
are producing lamentable effects in impairing the Christian native
population, inflicting on them violence and injustice, and almost
closing the door on that most desirable expectation of new conversions,
and of the general relief for so many poor vassals [of the Spanish
crown] who, as if they were fugitives from these islands, are engaged
in foreign provinces with grief and almost ruin to their souls, among
the infidelity of the heretics and the barbarous nations--whither are
going, as from their own countries, their wives and their children,
leaving only the memory of and pity for them.
The objects of this memorial are two: first, the honor and glory
of our Lord, and the exaltation and increase of His holy faith;
and second, the hope that the Christian zeal of your Lordship will,
by all the proper means that will present themselves to your great
intellect, furnish effective control of evils so serious and so
general, and cause them to cease--so that the Christian faith and
justice may again flourish, the people who formerly possessed these
islands renew their abundance of population, and the increase of our
faith continue its progress, with the reduction of the infidels. With
especial reason [may we expect this], when the remedy for all the
evils which are stated in this memorial is [already] provided by the
Catholic and pious laws contained in the "Recopilacion de las Yndias;"
and if perchance they omit the medicine for some of the said evils,
that is likewise anticipated and provided by the decisions of the
Councils for Mexico and Lima, confirmed by the holy Apostolic See,
and inviolably observed in these islands.
It is taken for granted, Sir, as a maxim which experience has shown
to be infallible in all America, that the means for the preservation
and extension of the Catholic faith are the same as were employed
for its first introduction, which was most prosperous because the
ardent zeal of the gospel ministers was united with the power and
arms of his Majesty (whom may God preserve), by which the progress
of the faith was assured. [On this ground] it is very evident that in
these regions it is not possible to improve, or even to preserve, the
peoples who are already conquered and reduced, because no attention
has been paid to maintaining the military posts, or building any new
fortifications; on the other hand, in some places and provinces even
the little forts that they possessed have been entirely removed, and
in others the number of officers and soldiers designated for their
defense from any hostile invasion has been diminished. The effect of
this retrenchment, and of not reëstablishing the old military posts
with the number of soldiers that is judged necessary, and with the
military and food supplies which necessity and natural law prescribed
for a suitable defense, is the reason why great destruction and losses
from infidels and apostates are suffered and lamented. This has been
experienced in the provinces of Cagayan and Zambales, as it appears,
for the lack of the arms and defenses which in former times were
sufficient for the defense of the faithful converts, and for attacking
the hostile infidels--and even for chastising sometimes their wicked
acts, as the rigor of justice demands. Today the converted Indians and
other vassals of your Majesty are exposed to the dangers of fire and
death and captivity which have been experienced in these past years,
nor have our people had any other way [of escape] than to contract
for the payment of a certain amount of tribute every year to the
hostile Indians--an agreement in every way unbecoming and injurious
to the reputation and credit of his Majesty's arms, so entrusted
[to our Spaniards] by his royal self. There is this same lack of
arms and supplies in the provinces and military posts of Yloilo,
Cebu, Caraga, Calamianes, Yligan, and other forts; and from this the
only benefit that can result is the very small one that his Majesty
will save the expenses of reëstablishing posts and paying soldiers,
and put a stop to another evil (likewise a small one), which is
the losses occasioned to the poor by the idleness and license of
the soldiers--but if this had to be attended to, there would be an
end to all the military posts and garrisons which are maintained for
the general welfare, the protection of the vassals, and the warfare
(offensive and defensive) which natural law permits. Moreover, it is
an obligation [and] characteristic of princes that they do not seek
or desire the trifling evil mentioned, and as little the advantage
of avoiding some expense--which cannot be done without violating that
same royal obligation, especially when hitherto in all these islands
there have been military posts and the necessary forces, not only in
the interior of the country but also on its coasts.
From this grievous neglect it results that it is impossible for
us to carry out our desire for the new conversions and reductions
so earnestly charged by his Majesty; for if at present even our own
preservation is difficult, how can any new conquest be easy? or how can
it be right for our zeal to consider the acquisition of new Christian
communities while leaving those that are now in our charge exposed
to every invasion by the enemy and to total ruin? One thing that has
contributed greatly to this wretched state of affairs is, that the
expeditions for converting infidels and conquering apostates have
ceased which in other days were made by the orders of your Lordship's
predecessors, in accordance with the royal laws, after having consulted
the royal court of justice--in whose decisions the hopes that were
entertained of the great usefulness of those expeditions were not
mocked. It seems as if that experience would incline [the government]
to renew the said expeditions, which for some time have been neglected;
and in this very island there is so great a number of infidels, who
are confirmed in their very infidelity and iniquity because they know
that there is never any effort to subdue and conquer them, just as
if his Majesty (whom may God preserve) had not the right to do so.
From these deficiencies grievous results have followed, in depopulating
the islands, which at present lack their former abundance of the
peoples and sources of wealth that are native to them. Confirmation
and proof of the truth of this statement is especially furnished by the
five provinces near to this city. As for those which are more remote,
it is known and is evident that all the coast of Tayabas, which extends
from Sariaya to the headland of Bondoc, was formerly very populous
and rich, but now it has hardly a village that can be called such;
there are [only] some groups of huts jumbled together, inhabited by
some Indians who are kept there by their desire of obtaining some
petty commodities of the country, such as wax, skins, and pitch. All
are destitute of churches and ministers; for their churches have
been destroyed at various times by pirates and Mindanaos, and no
attention has ever been paid to reëstablishing those places anew as
military posts, and with the means of defense that were necessary in
order that the great number of people that were in that region might
be able to maintain themselves as Christians. It is also a fact that
there have been [other] very weighty causes for the depopulation of the
islands: the building [of ships] within these five provinces; and the
excessive and rigorous exactions in the collection of the tributes,
and the excessive polos [34] and personal services [required]. The
sad thing is, that all those who leave the islands are ordinarily
apostates from the faith, and live and die among heretics, Mahometans,
and other barbarous people; and no reparation has ever been made for
this great evil, nor has any obstacle been placed in the way of men
passing freely [from these islands] to foreign kingdoms, even those
who are well known to be married.
The [requisitions for] the cutting of timber for the construction of
the galleons constitute an evil that is necessary and unavoidable,
since on these depends the entire preservation of these islands;
but this necessity is equaled by the destruction and the injuries
which that work has caused in these provinces, in the diminution of
their population and products. For this so oppressive and heavy yoke
has almost always been imposed upon the said five provinces without
extending it to others--to which, without doubt, the silver that his
Majesty expends in the said woodcutting would be of public advantage;
and at the same time the said provinces that are now burdened would
take breath and become prosperous with such a rest, an end to which it
greatly contributes that the shipbuilding yards are not limited to the
village of Cavite alone. With this easy distribution [of labors] in the
shipbuilding, the damages arising from the said woodcutting would no
longer be repeated in the same provinces, which, having been thickly
populated and abounding in produce, are now ruined and barren--their
inhabitants forsaking them for remote provinces, and for lands of
infidels and heretics, and sometimes retiring to the districts within
the mountains. The reason for this is that, although the building
[of a galleon] costs his Majesty the amount of 40,000 pesos for the
wages of the Indians, besides the poor of these provinces, [they]
carry among themselves a burden of more than 100,000 pesos--or even
more, because those who are designated for the repartimiento of the
woodcutting search for others who can take the place of each one;
and the cost of these substitutes usually reaches five or six pesos,
and sometimes ten. For the payment of this, the former pledge, or
sell, or enslave themselves; and from this cause result very serious
evils--thefts, withdrawing to the mountains to roam as vagrants,
and other crimes. Other burdens which the natives miserably suffer,
and which ordinarily fall on the poorest and most wretched, arise from
the fact that the alcalde-mayor who makes the apportionment of men adds
to it a greater number than is necessary, and those who are thus added
redeem themselves from this oppression by money; and then the [list
of the] repartimiento goes to the gobernadorcillo, in order that the
heads [of barangay] may summon for the woodcutting six or eight men,
even though only four may be necessary. The gobernadorcillo collects
in money that amount in excess, as a redemption from an imaginary
woodcutting, a proceeding which does not impair the number of those
assigned. Still more, after all the men go to the woodcutting, if any
are lacking the [native] overseer pays the superintendent of the work
at the rate of two reals a day for the failure of each man. To this
is added that the superintendent himself is wont to grant exemptions
of his own accord, with unjust benefit to some, to the great injury
of the main work, [the burden of] which falls on those who remain;
moreover, he usually establishes shops, and thus the fund which his
Majesty provides to aid these poor people by the purchase of some of
their commodities remains therein. His Majesty orders that the men
be called out and paid for one month; but many poor creatures do not
get away from the woodcutting in a month and a half, during which time
they are so overtaxed and harassed that they hardly have time to eat,
and of sleep they will have some three hours, as a result of their
labors on the account of his Majesty and outside his account. Such
is the sorrowful course of the experiences and the unjust acts which
they encounter in the woodcutting, [a labor] so carefully guarded
from these by his Majesty--whose royal and innate piety adorns his
crown with his clemency toward the poor, and with the justice of
the many laws which he has promulgated in their favor. In presenting
thus in general these transgressions of the laws, these crimes, and
these oppressions of the poor to your Lordship, as to their judge and
father, it is not our intention to blame all the head overseers of
the woodcutting; for some have been known who with Christian zeal,
the utmost assiduity, and entire disinterestedness have begun and
ended their terms of woodcutting with treating those poor people with
compassion and justice.
In these provinces near Manila there are a great number of Indians
whose mode of life may appropriately be compared to that of the gypsies
in España; for they go from one village to another accompanied by
some women, and, without labor, they travel, eat, and are clothed;
while they prove to be the authors of many murders, robberies, rapes,
and other iniquitous deeds. Of the same sort are a great many of the
slaves from Manila, who have fled from their masters and go about in
bands through various districts; they ravage and destroy fields and
farms; they lord it in the houses of the poor Indians; and there is
hardly an evil deed that their rash boldness will not perform.
The tribute of the half-annats which his Majesty commands to be paid
by the public offices which enjoy honor and salaries is a burden
on many provinces (and especially on that of Leite, in which these
half-annats, recently raked up [suscitadas] are collected)--although
it is a fact that the [native] governors of those provinces do
not receive salaries or desire such honor; rather, they shun it on
account of their poverty. From [the attempt at] constraining them the
following results ensue: first, they flee to the mountains; second,
those who do not flee are compelled to remain slaves, or else bind
themselves for their whole lives, in order to find means for paying
this half-annat, so grievous a tax and so against their wills.
His Majesty has given orders to fortify and repair the village
of Cavite, because on it depends, in truth, the preservation and
guardianship of this city, the safety of the castle of San Felipe,
and that of many intrenchments and various houses, and of the
royal storehouses, which his Majesty possesses there. [Moreover,]
a large Christian community has gathered in that place; and there
are four churches, and three houses of religious orders, with a
considerable number of citizens. All these things strongly enforce
the necessity of executing the said royal decree of his Majesty, for
the preservation, promotion, and protection of all those religious
orders and vassals--although our opinion inclines to suppose that
there must have been reasons more important than these for suspending
the royal mandate of his Majesty; and if these do not exist it surely
seems that this state of affairs calls to your Lordship for amendment.
The most holy and awful sacrifice of the mass depends on the pious and
punctual provision which his Majesty has made in having wine brought
here for the celebration of mass; and this wine, as for the rest,
cannot be sure. It seems that in recent years it has been required
[from Mexico by the officials of Filipinas] in so small quantities
that often not even the amount ordered by his Majesty is delivered;
from this it results that, as this deficiency cannot be made good,
there is a failure in saying many masses. Even in the oil for the lamps
that burn before the blessed sacrament there is a great deficiency [in
the supply], for two reasons: either because it is not delivered, or
because it is delivered in places very far away. These two matters are,
without doubt, worthy of your Lordship's most careful attention--from
whose Christian veneration for the blessed sacrament and well-known
piety our solicitude desires and expects an entire and complete remedy.
It seems as if in most things the principal object of the
alcaldes-mayor in the provinces, and that in which they proceed with
most assiduity--excepting many who conduct themselves with entire
integrity--reduces itself to a rigorous and excessive collection
of the tributes; and their other aim is the utmost attention to
their own personal advantage. These two aims are most injurious and
prejudicial to the public welfare and to the poor people of the said
provinces--because, when there is no produce [with which to pay the
tributes] the alcaldes-mayor either compel the headmen to search
for it, and even to bind themselves to do this, or regularly make
the headmen responsible for amounts which they not only will not but
cannot collect. Another reason is, that the said headmen, with cruel
injustice, compel Indians to pay tribute before the age which his
Majesty commands and fixes, and this they do under the compulsion of
the alcaldes-mayor; likewise, the said headmen exact more than the
amount of their obligations for the conveyance of the tributes. In
the other aim of the said alcaldes-mayor (that is, their own private
advantage) is seen a monstrous hydra with many heads of injustice
and iniquity. One of these is their compelling the Indians to labor
in construction and other works which do not belong to his Majesty's
service, although even for those [for the crown] the royal law spares
and exempts them [from service] during the times when they sow and
harvest their crops. The alcaldes also appoint certain Indians who are
intimate with them, and who have influence among the other natives,
to whom the latter deliver the commodities which they carry to the
provinces; and these Indian agents, fixing the prices of goods at
their own pleasure, compel the said Indian chiefs to supply them,
either by sale or in exchange for other wares. From this results a
most flagrant inequality in the prices and the exchanges of goods;
and the loss in all these dealings always falls on the mass of the
poor people, because the alcalde-mayor and the said petty chiefs or
influential Indians always conclude their bargains with profit, and
never with loss. Some alcaldes-mayor have gone to such an extreme of
violence that, in case the said petty chiefs are unable to dispose
of the goods which are thus committed to them, the alcalde compels
them to assume the obligation, and to bind themselves to take the
goods. Thus some of the Indians are constantly bringing upon others
irreparable consequences and losses that are worthy of redress--all
springing from the first injustice of compelling those to buy who
neither possess nor can take charge of such commodities.
The assessment for each tribute is regulated at ten reals, and it
includes two tribute-payers, the husband and wife; nevertheless,
the Indians who have no fixed abode are burdened with the requirement
that each individual taxed shall pay an entire tribute of ten reals
each--although it is believed that this increase was imposed as a
penalty, and in order that certain people might be reduced to villages
and barangays; for it is evident, from the method of [planning] the
tribute, that the imposition or the increase of the tributes is one
of the peculiar and exclusive prerogatives of the supreme sovereignty
belonging to his Majesty. These injuries, Sir, and these oppressions
which extend through all the provinces, to the destruction of the
poor, are certainly worthy of action [on your part], and constitute
a legitimate obligation on your vigilance, and on the high office
which his Majesty entrusted to your Lordship.
Probably it has contributed much to these pernicious results and this
neglect of sacred things that in these recent years the principal
aim and object of the supreme government of these islands, as well
as of the alcaldes-mayor, has been only the increase of the royal
revenue--actually reversing the royal orders, which decree that the
first attention must be paid to religion, and to the ecclesiastics
and their affairs and maintenance; and after that to the civil
government and justice. But, contrary to these orders, it appears
that in everything the first place has been attained by the [affairs
of] the royal treasury, which ought to engage the later solicitudes
[of the royal ministers]--and then without that excessive severity
[of administration] which has been experienced in recent years,
[and which has aroused our] pity and compassion.
In most of the provinces of these islands the gobernadorcillos are
obliged, as are their [subordinate] officials, to accept, without
their own choice, appointments to office; and as the cause of their
shunning such appointments is the great expense of the year during
which they serve, they suffer on this account great injuries in the
provinces near Manila. It arouses pity in the hardest hearts to see
and know by experience that nearly all the headmen enter office under
compulsion from the alcalde-mayor, and, finding themselves perplexed
to the utmost by the difficulties in rendering their accounts
satisfactorily--either by the duplicate names on the registration
lists, or the absences (which usually are many), or by the deaths
[of those registered]--on account of the great poverty that is general
in the villages these deficiencies fall back on the headmen, who are
compelled to pay them or be imprisoned. This measure of imprisonment
is carried out with so great rigor that many headmen are in prison,
without any hope that they will be able to pay; and there are even
cases in which the headmen have been imprisoned for many years for
their indebtedness to the tributes in their charge, and, dying in
prison, their burial was delayed for several days in order that their
relatives might be able to find security for the dead man's tribute
and debt. From this your Lordship can infer the excessive severity with
which the officials proceed in the collections of the royal tributes;
but in this no kind of severity can be proper, nor can it be decreed
by the royal and liberal purpose of his Majesty.
The works and preparations for the equipment [of ships] which are made
on his Majesty's account often make necessary various repartimientos
and bandalas for the supplies of oil and rice, and other products,
which the provinces furnish; and it is the continual and well-founded
complaint from all of them that the amount paid for the said
products is not according to their just price and value, but much
less, from which follow the most serious wrongs to the poor. Of this
precedent many of the alcaldes-mayor avail themselves for [their own]
advancement, to judge by their unrighteous profits, with lamentable
injury to the poor, which is general and well known in the provinces.
The royal decree of his Majesty provides that, for just and
Christian reasons, Moors, Armenians, and other barbarous peoples
may not remain in these islands as inhabitants and citizens; but
for the last few years several ships from the Coast [i.e., India]
have spent the winter here, and in consequence many Moors, Armenians,
and other barbarians have settled without the walls of Manila, and
in various provinces. These people have enjoyed (as they still do)
free intercourse and trade with every class of people, and are causing
notable injury to the spiritual welfare of the Indians--lording it over
them, and setting a bad example in morals to all of them. Accordingly
our affection and obligation [to the service of God] desire the
exercise of your Lordship's justice and Christian procedure, that this
injury, so universal and so opposed to the Christian and praiseworthy
usages which they ought [to follow], and which our missionaries are
endeavoring to introduce among all the natives, may entirely cease.
On account of the great facility (not experienced before) which there
has been in cashiering soldiers, these evil consequences for the
villages have resulted, with various unjust acts--according to what
idleness, poverty, and many temptations have offered to many poor men
who came here only to serve his Majesty in the employment of soldiers.
From the introduction of the vice of gambling are following the
injurious results and the offenses against God which the holy
fathers [of the Church] decry, and which experience places before
our own eyes, in the shape of much cursing, poverty, abandonment
of the wives and children of the gamblers, and the sinful waste
of much time--in which occur quarrels, frauds, and other wicked
acts appropriate to gambling and connected with it. Besides this,
some of the alcaldes-mayor--who ought to be on the watch to prevent
these things, according to the orders which they have from the supreme
government of your Lordship--are the very ones who secretly give full
license and permission for gambling games, in consideration of the
money which they receive every month for the said license. As a result,
the villages and their grain-fields are inundated with gambling games
(of cards, dice, and cocks, and many other kinds), with the aforesaid
effects--all against the will of God our Lord and of his Majesty,
which is always impeded and seldom executed by the alcaldes-mayor.
The experience of many years with the Chinese nation has made it very
evident that it was necessary to prohibit to the Sangleys, especially
the infidels, trade and intercourse with the villages and provinces
of Indians, and keep them out of Indian houses and grain-fields, and
thus it is provided and ordained; but unfortunately this prohibition
is neither obeyed nor respected. It is, however, a fact that only when
they are married, and compelled to make their abode in the chief town
[of the province], where the alcalde-mayor resides, or when they are
settled in a certain Parián, does his Majesty permit them to reside
among the Indians--who from communication with the Sangleys obtain
only superstitions, frauds, and the loss of the habits of morality
in which we are trying to instruct them. The administration of the
Christian Sangleys is in charge of the two holy religious orders of
St. Dominic and the Society of Jesus; and as these people are for the
most part the poorest [of the Sangleys], we do not consider it foreign
to our obligation to attend to them, in such manner as is possible
and right. It is only just to direct your Lordship's attention to
a custom introduced within the last few years, which is that the
tribute that they pay for licenses [to remain in the country] has
been increased--although it appears that the laws favor the Christian
Sangleys, providing that their tribute shall be only ten reals; but at
present they are paying the same amounts of tribute as do the infidel
and heathen Sangleys. Your Lordship, with your clear judgment and ready
comprehension, will be pleased to consider whether it is in accordance
with the lofty purposes which his Majesty has for propagating the
faith, and for lightening the burdens of those who are converted to
it--in which his Catholic piety has so earnestly striven--that the said
tributes should be extended and increased among the Christians; and
whether they do not deserve to be relieved from so grievous a burden.
So great is the sorrow of our hearts at seeing and realizing how
easily and quickly the Indians who are apostates from our holy faith
retreat to the mountains, and the obstinacy which the infidels show
in not coming out of them, that we cannot neglect to remind your
Lordship a second time of the urgent necessity that expeditions into
the mountains [by our troops] be continued, like those that were
made in former times with success and useful results. We entreat
and charge your Lordship that to this remedy which has been already
tried on other occasions the piety of your Lordship will be pleased
to add [another,] that of prohibiting to the Indians who are already
Christians intercourse and trade with the infidels; for the regular
result of this is, that the said infidels withdraw more and more from
the mild authority of our holy religion. That religion is considered,
by the said Christians, as intolerable, although it is not such,
whether in itself, in its effects, or in the obligations which they
assume by becoming Christians--which, in the feeble light of their
understanding, is the same as being reduced only to subjection to
the ecclesiastical minister, the alcalde-mayor, and the burdens of
tributes and repartimientos.
Finally, Sir, our lofty desire for the general welfare of so
many provinces, and the pleasure which we shall all feel in the
prosperity and success of your Lordship--which, as [that of] the
first and principal head [of this colony], must overflow in all
its parts and subjects--impel us to point out to your Lordship how
worthy of all assistance and effort in your Christian government is
the pitiable condition to which the Christian villages are reduced,
now one of poverty and barrenness, even of the native products. And
those villages to which, it would seem, their age (which now is more
than a century) must furnish greater abundance of produce and wealth
rightfully their own, are in the same condition and the same poverty
as are the villages that are more recent and less encouraged by the
ecclesiastical ministers and the civil officials of these islands;
and they can never enjoy any improvement, spiritual or temporal. The
remedy for this--which ought to be effective, prompt, and steadily
continued--in our humble opinion, is made up of various measures:
some for the amelioration and redress of all the evils and difficulties
already related to your Lordship, whose peremptory and executive orders
must render them effectual; and others which, it seems to us, ought
to be charged upon the alcaldes-mayor, and upon the proper ministers
who are closest to the Indians themselves (who are the ecclesiastics),
in order that they may by every means arouse and animate the slothful
natures of the Indians, by instructing them in industries that will be
useful to themselves, and in application to an [object of] desire that
is honorable and advantageous to the public or to individuals of all
the villages. This depends on and consists in not allowing that very
abundance and fertility which our Lord has given to these islands to
be destroyed with waste and negligence; for it is evident that the
enormous sum of silver which necessity, against the royal orders,
transfers to foreign kingdoms ruled by infidels and heretics, could
remain in the islands themselves, and be converted into property,
profit, and the acquisition of wealth for many poor persons. For
there are found in these islands, as is well known, abundance of
gold, amber, tortoise-shell, various cotton fabrics, wax, and many
other native products, even omitting those that concern the sowing
of the fields. If these were multiplied in both amount and kinds,
it cannot be doubted that they would contribute to the villages,
with considerable abundance, wealth and products; and that all the
beneficial effects which can be desired would result, in favor of his
Majesty and of the public welfare. The chief of these are: first, that
all the painful burdens, unavoidable and necessary, which the natives
have to bear, and which they lament, would become more easy and light
for them, and that they would live a more social and civilized life;
second, that their affection, loyalty, and obedience to his Majesty
and to your Lordship in his name, as the authors of their prosperity,
repose, and advantage, would be enormously increased. Third, all the
Christian Indians would be more steadfast and rooted in the holy faith,
and would become effective and most suitable instruments for [gaining]
new conversions of infidels [and] apostates, the infidels themselves
beholding the abundant wealth and profit, and other benefits, of the
Christian Indians; for it is the temporal welfare evident to their
senses which, as experience teaches us, strongly influences both
classes of Indians, to be converted or to maintain themselves in the
Christian faith. This same object will be greatly aided by inducing the
Indians to settle and form villages; for, in the mode of life in which
they now are found, in most of the provinces and villages in which the
minister who instructs them is stationed and resides a certain number
are destitute of houses, and all the rest of the people live so far
away and so scattered that many are obliged to travel three or four
leguas in order to be present on a festival day at the church--from
which remoteness it also follows that, without any fault of the said
ministers, many persons die without receiving the holy sacraments.
Such, Sir, are the evils, and such are the remedies which our
consciences, our charity, and our zeal have dictated to us as being
most worthy of gaining the attention of your Lordship--at whose feet,
through the means of these lines, so many poor Indians approach to
prostrate themselves. Neophytes, and bereft of all human protection,
they have recourse to your Lordship, not only as to their governor and
judge, but also as to a kind father--in whose term of office they hope
that peace and justice will again flourish; and that the rights of the
poor, and redress for their oppressions, will often obtain a hearing
from your Lordship. This, it appears, has not been the case in other
times, certainly at the cost of many tears, which were little heeded
and never dried by the sovereignty and power that ought to do so. In
their name, and only for the objects pointed out at the beginning of
this memorial, and that by it we may unburden our own consciences,
we are under obligation, at least according to charity, to solicit
for them aid and justice.
We humbly entreat that your Lordship will be pleased, in regard to
these points, to carry out what his Majesty ordains, and to take such
measures as your Lordship may deem most suitable for prompt execution,
most easy to be obeyed, and most conformable to the royal will; and we
expect that what your Lordship shall judge to be most expedient will be
in every way the best, since his Majesty has entrusted to your care,
zeal, generous nature, and nobility the supreme government of these
islands. Manila, October 7, in the year 1701.
Fray Jose Vila, provincial of the province of Santissimo Rosario.
Fray Francisco de Santa Ynes, provincial of St. Francis.
Fray Jose Lopez, provincial of the Augustinians.
Luis de Morales, provincial of the Society of Jesus.
Fray Bartolome de la Santissima Trinidad, provincial of the discalced
Recollects of St. Augustine.