Of the intermediary meeting of the year 1639, and events of that time
In the year 1639 was held the intermediary meeting in the convent
of St. Dominic in Manila, where besides the ordinary arrangements
some rules were enacted, although only a few. One of those rules was
much to the credit of holy Poverty: namely that no one could ask
permission to spend any money, even to the extent of a small sum,
unless he first declare the purpose of it to the superior. It was a
very happily conceived rule; for supposing that to each religious
is given whatever is religiously necessary for him in health and
in sickness, it is right and proper, if the alms of any mass come
into his hands--even though it be to give alms, or to aid religious
friends who are in other villages with some trifles, which they do
not possess--to tell it to the superior, and not to give any occasion
for Poverty to complain, even in slight matters.
In March of that year a very disastrous insurrection occurred in the
province of Cagayan, in some villages retired among some mountains,
called Mandayas (whose discovery and reduction to our holy faith is
treated in the first part, book 2, chapter 48; and which was due to our
Order, at the hands of father Fray Lorenço de Zamora, who accomplished
it all). The affair was so disastrous that it cost considerable blood
and not a few scandals (which are yet bewailed). The alcalde-mayor
of that province was Sargento-mayor Don Marcos Zapata, the son of an
auditor of this royal Audiencia. The alcalde, not paying much attention
to so noble a trust, or deceived by his own shadow--and, what is more,
by the example of the governor (who was, as we have said, very decided
in his opinions)--conducted his official duties by the method which
he calls "the short cut" (which only shows little cleverness) namely,
that of severity. (But this is an expedient which carries with it
innumerable inconveniences. We know that the heathen, who drew gods
out of the center of the earth, made Love a god, but it is not stated
that they made Cruelty a god. The reason is, that, although it seems
to one that he can do much by cruelty, he cannot do everything, as
can love. Consequently, cruelty lacks qualifications for being called
a god.) Following this his line of reasoning, the rigor of the said
alcalde was great. Although by order of the central government he had
made a fort with a new sentry-post, in the said Mandaya villages, and
had a suitable garrison of soldiers, yet so many were the burdens that
they put upon the shoulders of the wearied Indians for their support
that the latter considered themselves as conquered, especially because
of the ill-treatment that they experienced from the commandant of the
said fort. The mine of anger exploded, because the said commandant
punished one of the principal women, because she had displeased him,
by forcing her to pound rice for a whole day; she and her husband
were so angry thereat that they became the chief promoters of the
insurrection. The nearby villages, which were tormented by the burden
of the fort and the oppressions practiced by the soldiers, were invited
[to aid in the conspiracy]. They entered the sentry-post at ten on the
morning of March 6 with their arms, and killed the sentinel and others
who offered them some resistance. They went thence to the fort, and
breaking down the doors, or having them opened by the spies inside,
they killed about twenty unarmed and naked soldiers, who formed
the garrison; only five soldiers escaped, by hiding; but later, the
fire increasing, these perished. The Indians entered the convent,
and killed a Sangley, at the door of the cell of the father-vicar,
who had just been baptized that day (whose death, we must believe,
would be most fortunate for his soul). They showed respect to the
father-vicar and, all of them weeping with him on account of the bold
undertaking in which they found themselves involved, they embarked
him together with his clothes, the ornaments from the sacristy,
images, crosses, and books, and carried them down to a secure place,
from whence he went to the first convent. It was learned afterward
that they proceeded with their frenzied sacrilege, and burned the
church and the convent. Although the attempt has been made more than
once to obtain satisfaction, yet those people are so favored by their
inaccessible mountains that this effort has been abandoned, as it is
impossible to subdue them.
[A short description of the revolt of the Chinese follows (see
VOL. XXIX, pp. 208-258).]