Sire:
In a letter which your Majesty had written to me from Madrid, on the
eleventh of January of the year 87, I see the reprimand which your
Majesty gives me, on account of information that you had received that,
on certain occasions which had arisen, I had had controversies with the
royal Audiencia here; also that this has finally resulted in scandal
and comment in the town, and that there was fault on both sides. I
receive this reprimand as from my king and lord, but, although it
comes from him, it is very serious and is sufficient to cause much
pain; nevertheless, I have not allowed myself to feel hurt, since your
Majesty judges according to the information that you have received. He
who so informed your Majesty that I was made to appear guilty will
give account to God for his good or bad intention, since for my own
satisfaction the testimony of my conscience is all-sufficient. It is
well-known in the city, and outside of it, that if I had not entered
as mediator neither the president and auditors, nor the auditors
alone, would have had peace. It would not have been possible for me
to establish peace if there had not been friendly relations between
them and me. Since they were pacified through my intercession, peace
has lasted until now; and in order that this peace be lasting, and
that there be no occasion for violating it, I humbly beseech your
Majesty to be pleased to command the president and auditors not to
interfere with me in affairs which concern my privileges--since my
life is a very open one, a fact known to all. They have no cause for
complaint because I sat down in my own church on the gospel side;
for, besides my being the father and pastor of this state, and having
in charge the souls of the auditors, it is a very usual thing for
bishops and archbishops to seat themselves in that very place in the
presence of viceroys and presidents, without that act exciting any
surprise. For the sake of peace, I have overlooked the matter, and
have not again taken my seat in that place, hoping that your Majesty
would send commands concerning this and what ought to be done, since
it is not right that I should leave to my successors the disputes
and controversies with the Audiencia whereby results so much harm to
the commonwealth. It is of no less importance that the prelates be as
much respected by the people as are the audiencias. The latter make
themselves feared by the power which they hold; but if the prelates
are not favored by those who govern, they are speedily despised by
the people. Since your Majesty sees how important this matter is, may
it be your Majesty's pleasure not to leave us in controversies, but
to order that each shall do his duty without prejudice to the other.
The hardships and calamities sent by God to this land make me greatly
fear that we who live here have seriously offended Him. For I have
been here eight years, and not one year have I seen pass without the
happening of great calamities--loss of ships; death of the animals
which maintained us; hurricanes, called here _baguios_, which tear
up the trees by the roots and overthrow the houses completely, or
leave them so that they cannot be inhabited; and the general fire
of the year 83, of which your Majesty has been informed. Both before
and since that time, this city has been burned three or four times;
and now, as the last straw, the ship "Santa Ana," which left this
city last year, the richest ship to leave these islands, fell into
the hands of the Lutherans. With that loss, and also that of the ship
"Sant Juan" the year before, which likewise was laden with goods from
this country, some of the citizens of these islands are totally ruined,
and others have suffered so heavy losses that it will be long ere,
with much difficulty, they regain their former state.
It is very evident, and can be denied by no one, that the loss of
that particular ship was ordained by God; for, three days before
it reached the coast [of California], another ship--from Macao,
bound for Mexico--passed the same place and was not sighted by the
Lutherans. When news was received in Piru of the coming of this pirate,
the viceroy sent in pursuit of them a good fleet, with many soldiers
and ammunition sufficient to engage an equal or greater number. When
they came to the port of Acapulco, supplies were needed; and they
requested these from the purveyor who had them in your Majesty's
warehouses. He was unwilling to give them; and they even say that an
order was given to detain some pack-teams which brought biscuits, so
that the captain of the fleet from Peru could not take them. Thus they
say that, as it was not desired to supply them with provisions, and
because Doctor Palacios [11] became dictatorial in regard to several
points, they returned to Piru; while the Lutheran remained free to
attack and capture, as he did. So great was our misfortune that, at the
time when the two captains were debating as to who should take command,
the pirate was near Puerto de la Navidad, which is not very far from
Acapulco, repairing his ships. Had they attacked him, it would have
been impossible for him to escape; but God chose to blind our men,
so that we might be punished by this pirate. The punishment of God
did not stop here; for, having set fire to the ship "Santa Ana," they
left it half burnt, set sail, and came to these islands. With more than
human courage, they passed through the midst of them with a ship of one
hundred toneladas, where the natives venture with trembling in very
light boats; but this infidel dared not only to come into our midst,
but to collect tributes from your Majesty's vassals. A Spaniard was
captured, and after having told him what they wished him to say to us,
they put him ashore. What they said was in boast that they had left
the coasts of Peru and Nueva España utterly ruined; and that they had
robbed and burned the ship "Santa Ana," and hanged a canon who was
on his way from this city to Mexico. In testimony of his prowess and
our misfortune he displayed the silks, brocades, and cloths of gold
which he had seized as plunder. Not content with this, he went away
threatening us that he is to return soon to drive us all hence, and
to destroy the nest that we have made here--meaning thereby the stone
fortress built here. The grief that afflicts me is not because this
barbarian infidel has robbed us of the ship "Santa Ana," and destroyed
thereby the property of almost all the citizens; but because an English
youth of about twenty-two years, with a wretched little vessel of
a hundred toneladas and forty or fifty companions, should dare to
come to my own place of residence, defy us, and boast of the damage
that he had wrought. As your Majesty has here an army of captains,
who, as I understand, are certainly as many as the companions of the
Lutheran, he went from our midst laughing, without anyone molesting
or troubling him; neither has he felt that the Spaniards are in this
land to any purpose. In this matter, I do not care to blame anyone,
because I understand that the governor did his duty--although I was
always of the opinion that the pirate should be pursued and that the
result thereof would not be so bad as some say. The belief here,
however, is that God is chastising us for our sins, and is making
us the laughing-stock of other nations, who have all hitherto stood
in such fear of us. I must explain to your Majesty two other points
bearing on this subject, although it detains me somewhat, as I consider
that I do thereby a very great service. The first is the failure of
the expedition to Maluco. We all had been certain that with fewer men
and less equipment than there actually were, the king of Terrenate
could be subdued; but, quite to the contrary, our men came back as
if fleeing from an unknown foe. The Indians of this archipelago,
who feared us, now laugh; and, together with those of Terrenate,
threaten us. The second point is that in the island of Mindanao,
which is subject to your Majesty, and for many years has paid you
tribute, the law of Mahoma has been publicly proclaimed, for somewhat
more than three years, by preachers from Burney and Terrenate who
have come there--some of them even, it is believed, having come from
Meca. They have erected and are now building mosques, and the boys
are being circumcised, and there is a school where they are taught the
Alcoran. I was promptly informed of this, and urged the president to
supply a remedy therefor at once, in order that that pestilential fire
should not spread in these islands. I could not persuade them to go,
and thus the hatred of Christianity is there; and we are striving no
more to remedy this than if the matter did not concern us. Such are
the calamities and miseries to which we have come, and the punishments
which God inflicts upon us. The reason for it, He only knows; but,
as I infer and fear, it is because we have ill acquitted ourselves
in this land, where it is so needful that we be upright and furnish
good examples. I have written to your Majesty on this point at other
times; and I think that either my letters are not read, or what I
say is not credited. I assure your Majesty that I have never written
anything which is not true, and free from all outward influence,
or self-interest, or human considerations; but I have only done my
duty. The temporal affairs of this land are in the condition which I
have related to your Majesty; and I consider that there will never be
improvement, since cupidity is increasing so immeasurably that neither
the punishments of God nor the threats of men are effectual to produce
any moderation, nor do the manifold outrages cease to be felt.
The spiritual state, which is my concern, is in the sorriest condition,
because there is no more respect for the things of God than if we
were not Christians. I refer to the Indians and their instruction; and
because entering on this subject is like embarking on a bottomless sea,
I have determined to send to your Majesty a relation of the islands and
towns of this bishopric which are without instruction, in order that
your Majesty's conscience may be relieved by commanding that the remedy
be applied. Therefore I shall now proceed with the said relation.
The cause of ruin in these islands--which is very menacing, although
it is not declared in España--is that both the villages of your
Majesty and those of encomenderos are places where the curacy is so
ill-supplied with chalices and ornaments that it is a shame to see
them. Many of the churches are so indecent that when I visited them,
from pure shame I was obliged to command that they be torn down; they
were not fit to be entered by horses. There are two principal causes
for this: the first is that the encomenderos are penurious and allow
little for the proper ornamentation of the church; and the second,
that some or the majority of the encomiendas are so small that they do
not suffice to support their encomenderos, who thus cannot attend to
matters of divine worship. Consequently, the natives come to regard
the things of God as of little worth, and have little esteem for our
faith and the Christian religion, seeing that we who profess to be
Christians pay so little attention to them. Moreover, the natives of
these islands are so harassed and afflicted with public and private
undertakings, that they are not able to take breath; nor do they have
time to observe the instruction, and hold it of so little account that
when they lack for anything, it must be in the instruction and not in
temporal affairs. I cannot picture to your Majesty, nor declare what
I feel in my heart about this matter. Moreover, I am very sure that
all the chastisements given us by God, the hardships, misfortunes, and
calamities sent us, all are because of evil treatment of the Indians
and the little heed taken for the principal reason for our coming--that
is, their conversion and protection. The remedy therefor is not that
your Majesty send decrees and orders charging good treatment of the
Indians, as in the letters which have already been received here; but
that a number of the best religious be sent. They can deal with these
natives, and defend them from the labors imposed by the Spaniards,
and from the outrages that they inflict upon them. Again, it is of
even more importance that, if your Majesty, as is rumored here, is
to send hither a governor or president, he be a man free from all
human interests, whose head could not be turned by the great gains
in this country. He should not be married, nor should he bring with
him relatives or followers for whom to provide. For under any one of
the aforesaid conditions it is impossible to avoid the destruction of
this country, beyond the power of your Majesty to remedy it. I have
written this to your Majesty several times before, and now I repeat it,
since it is the most necessary thing for the betterment of this land,
which would be surely destroyed by its lack.
Of the viceroy of Nueva España, so many things are said in this
country, that if but one-tenth of them were true, it is impossible
for your Majesty to know them and fail to correct them. This is
another of the heavy afflictions that God has sent upon this land,
for even the severity which has been shown by him to those who
go from here is alone sufficient to make this land desolate. No
consideration is given to the fact that the citizens and soldiers
thereof serve your Majesty with the same hardships and loyalty with
which other men have served their king. Nevertheless, there is no
lack of persons to inform your Majesty thereof, since the loss of
temporal things is always felt more than the spiritual. I leave it
to be described by those who have felt the hurt, since it does not
concern me in any way, except the regret that I feel for the damage
done to my neighbors; for my enterprises and traffic are to remedy
the needs of the poor, and to defend and help the natives of these
islands, who have much need thereof. The complaint that I make of the
viceroy of Nueva España is that he has not allowed more than fifteen
Dominican friars to come here, although your Majesty sent to Mexico
forty of them. This is the greatest damage that the viceroy could do
to this country, as there is exceeding need of ministers of religion,
such as come now. If the fifteen were five hundred, the evils of the
country would be corrected, and the conscience of your Majesty quite
at ease. It is such men that your Majesty should order to come here,
and you should refuse to permit those to come who will do more harm
than good. Likewise your Majesty should order the generals of the
orders of St. Francis and St. Augustine to send hither visitors,
who are most necessary. Those of St. Augustine are to be preferred,
however, as the friars of St. Francis are more retired from the world.
I wrote to your Majesty, via Malaca, of what had happened with the
religious in regard to the observance of the royal decrees treating
of the instruction of the Indians by the religious. As the licentiate
Ayala, fiscal of the royal Audiencia here, sent the records concerning
the subject, I shall but mention and not refer to them at length.
At other times I have written to your Majesty explaining the
impossibility of a bishop being able to govern all the bishopric which
I have now. For this island of Luçon it is necessary to have two or
even three bishops--that is to say, I humbly beseech your Majesty to
be pleased to provide for the Pintados Islands a bishop with his seat
in the city of Çubu. By the relation which I am sending, your Majesty
will see that two bishops are not sufficient. I declare to your Majesty
that in that case the royal conscience would not be at ease nor would
mine; and I dare not leave it unsaid, for fear of my peace of mind.
As I have said before, I had determined to write nothing whatever in
detail concerning the damages that the viceroy of Nueva España had
done to these kingdoms. It seems to me that your Majesty will have had
advices thereof, and will have ordered a means of correction. Moreover,
as many are interested and have grievances, there will be no lack of
a person to advise your Majesty thereof. Nevertheless, I have since
thought that I neglect my duty in failing to send a testimonial to
your Majesty which was forwarded to this city from Lope de Palacios,
captain of the ship "Sant Martin," which went to China. He sent
to this city, asking that he be granted permission to leave Macao,
because he feared that they were about to kill him in order to gain
possession of his property. I am the only person who can send this
memorial to your Majesty, as Lope de Palacios sent it to this city
with much secrecy, and in the same manner was it given to me. I
discussed the matter with the president, saying that we should send
for the captain as if the idea were our own and he had not requested
it--employing so great secrecy, so that the Portuguese who were here
would not learn of it; for the same Lope de Palacios had declared that
he would be certainly put to death if they knew that he was trying
to come here. Nevertheless, the request to send for him was in vain,
and I was moved to forward this testimonial to your Majesty. It states
therein the great harm done by the viceroy in sending the ship "San
Martin" to Macao. As the same person who went to learn the damage gives
testimony thereof, no witness more worthy of credit can be entered in
the cause. I am also writing to the viceroy of Nueva España in regard
to the injuries which he wrought on these kingdoms by despatching
the ship "San Martin" to China--although God supplied the remedy,
by the loss of the same ship. I tell him that if that ship had been
sent to this city a more prosperous voyage would have been made than
the investors could have expected, for so many Chinese merchants came
this year to this city, that the merchandise was worth nothing; and
if the ship "San Martin" had come here a satisfactory and cheap cargo
could have been obtained, perhaps even in greater quantity than at
Macao. Instead of damaging this city, those persons would have been
enriched, who on account of greed were unable to see the damage done
to all of us. Thus God has punished them all, by depriving them of
that profit the desire for which had blinded them to their duty.
They also say that the ship "Sant Ana" was sold for thirty thousand
pesos and ordered to make a voyage to Macao. These proceedings also
were put to confusion by God, through means which have cost us dearly,
namely the loss, of that vessel. It can be said that if it had been
at Macao somewhat less damage would have been done to these islands
than in the burning of the ship by the Englishman. As I wrote to
your Majesty, via Malaca, for ships to go from Mexico to Macao is
to destroy both those kingdoms and these, since the Chinese raise
the prices of their merchandise to such an extent that Portuguese
and Castilians cannot live. May your Majesty be pleased to order
the viceroy to hold these lands in somewhat higher estimation,
since your Majesty considers them (and justly so) worthy of constant
attention. Ever since the viceroy came to Mexico, he has not sent to
this country any troops (except exiles or criminals), or ammunition,
or the customary supplies for this camp, as wine, flour, and other
articles; he has so reduced everything that there is great privation
here, and very little profit to your Majesty.
Your Majesty's governor and royal Audiencia in these islands look well
to the service of your Majesty and the good of this country. Will
your Majesty be pleased to order the viceroy of Nueva España,
present or future, not to disturb or change what may be decided by
them? not only in the customs duties, but in the price fixed for
each tonelada, and in the mode of registration. According to our
information, the viceroy has changed everything, greatly increasing
the taxes imposed here. The labors of the citizens in the service of
your Majesty in these islands should be sufficient without still more
severe requirements from Nueva España.
During the past year there was great confusion, which still continues,
about the goods which were brought to this city by your Majesty's
ships. The citizens claim that they ought to be preferred to the
merchants; and the merchants complain that, on account of the cargoes
of the citizens, their merchandise remained here. I understand that on
this point offenses' against God have been committed, and still more
serious damage may be done--some persons being ruined, as they have
no space in the cargoes for their property--unless it is checked by
your Majesty commanding what order must be followed in this affair. It
is of exceeding importance for the quiet and content of this city.
There are so many Chinese that come to this land that the islands
are full of them. Thereby follows much damage to the natives, as
the Chinese are a very vicious people, from intercourse with whom no
good but much harm can be gained. I have tried to have the governors
remedy the matter by commanding that all the Chinese be collected in
this city. I see no improvement, however; and it is of much importance
that this be corrected, for the temporal and spiritual good of these
lands. Will your Majesty be pleased to order that this be remedied
by severe measures. May our Lord guard your Majesty many years for
the good of us who can do but little. At Manila, June 27, 1588.
_The Bishop of the Filipinas_