Sire:
It pleased our Lord that three years after the time when I left Madrid
I should arrive at these islands, where I came at the command of your
Majesty, with many hardships and so broken in health and strength that
I hardly had the vigor to undertake such arduous duties as confront me,
which are worthy of much remedy. I shall try to gather up my strength
until such time as your Majesty can appoint such a person as is fitted
for this place.
I remember, Sire, that at my departure your Majesty said you were
confident that I would take a load off your royal conscience. Surely,
Sire, if, as I wish, I should find affairs in favorable condition,
I would, sparing no labor to myself, strive to serve your Majesty so
heartily that none of your Majesty's servants would have the better
of me. But everything here is so run down that many years of life and
very strong arms are necessary to put affairs into even a reasonable
condition. It is only a month since I came to this city of Manila,
and so I cannot give your Majesty an account in detail of the many
things which must be remedied. But there are going to your court
father Fray Diego de Soria, a Dominican, and a man of much holiness,
learning, and very exemplary life, who has had much experience for
many years in the affairs of this country, and to whom your Majesty
should listen; and likewise father Fray Marcello [11] of the Order of
our Father St. Francis, who will give a full account of everything;
for it is zeal for the honor of God and the service of your Majesty,
and the desire for the remedy of these islands, which alone bring them
through so many dangers by land and by sea. But all I have been able
to learn in this little time is that everything is like a clock out
of order, and even in such condition that nothing will go into its
right place unless the powerful hand of your Majesty be placed upon it.
In the first place your Majesty has here a cathedral and metropolitan
church, and there is not a village church in Castilla so ill served,
so lacking in ornament as this--to such an extent that although the
quality of the ornaments is inferior, there are so few that they have
not even the necessary colors for the feast-days, although they are
in a place where silks are so cheap, as they are here. [12] Thus it
is with all the rest, and it seems as if ecclesiastics had never
lived in this country. It is served by four secular clergy alone,
to whom your Majesty orders a salary paid. The rest, although they
have the title of canons and canonates, do not serve at all, except
in their allotments and curacies. Accordingly, even on an apostle's
day there is no one in vestments at the altar for the epistle and the
gospel, which is highly discreditable. I have asked the governor,
conformably with what your Majesty charges him in the third clause
of his original instructions, to provide for this matter. But either
he is unwilling to listen to me, or, if he listens to me, he does not
wish to do so. Your Majesty will know what is fitting, but it would be
expedient to add four other salaries to the four which your Majesty
pays--namely two canonries and two half canonries, the incumbents of
which could be vested before the altar for ministration. I must inform
your Majesty that no one will be found to take them if your Majesty
does not increase the stipend; for this country is not now, as it used
to be, a cheap place to live, but the most expensive in all the Indias,
on account of the irregularity in its government. Everything has been
left in the hands of infidel Sangleys, who rob the country and sell
us things at their own price, without there being any one to check
them or keep them in bounds; in return for this, they are able to
gratify and keep content those who ought to provide for it. I do not
wish to complain of my grievances to your Majesty, but to leave them
in your royal hands. But, although our house is so small that we have
only fourteen persons, it is impossible to live for half a year and
provide for the rest, with the salary which your Majesty orders to be
given to me. Your Majesty will be informed of this by those who are
going there. If your Majesty desires that I should go about seeking
money as alms, I shall do so, so far as that would not be derogatory
to the pontifical dignity among these heathen. Again I say then,
Sire, that your Majesty's church is so ill provided, that, in place
of edifying the infidels and heathen who are here, it is a cause of
scoffing among them. They say that, as they see the monasteries so
richly adorned with ornaments that they have chalices of fine gold,
their God must be greater than that of the secular clergy and of the
friars; and they say other ridiculous things. And nevertheless there
is no one to look after it, nor any one who is grieved over it except
myself, who cannot remedy it. When I succeeded in discussing it with
the governor and the officials of your Majesty's royal treasury, they
shrugged their shoulders and said that, although your Majesty says
in the instructions in general terms that this should be remedied,
your Majesty does not point out how, or with what funds.
Besides this there is the little interest in spiritual things
and Christianity among the laity. Sire, I wish, that I were in the
presence of your Majesty to tell you by word of mouth of this matter,
which is the most pitiable thing which has ever occurred or ever will
occur to so Catholic and Christian a prince, and one on whom our Lord
has showered such singular favors as to allow in his day the opening
of the gate through these islands, for the bringing of the gospel to
realms so great, and so far removed from all that is good. This I say,
then, Sire, that it is a most pitiable thing that there is not a man in
all these Philipinas Islands--Spaniard, or of any other nation--saving
some religious, who make their principal aim and intent the conversion
of these heathen, or the increase of the Christian faith; but they
are only moved by their own interests and seek to enrich themselves,
and if it happened that the welfare of the natives was an obstacle
to this they would not hesitate, if they could, to kill them all in
exchange for their own temporal profit. And since this is so, what can
your Majesty expect will happen if this continues? From this inordinate
greed arises the violation of your Majesty's decrees and mandates, as
everyone is a merchant and trader--and none more so than the governor,
who has this year brought ruin upon the country. There comes each year
from Nueba España a million in money, contrary to the mandate of your
Majesty, all of which passes on to the heathen of China. From here,
in violation of your Majesty's decrees, cargoes are loaded for the
Peruvians and the merchants of Mexico, without leaving room for those
of this country--especially the poor, who are unable to secure any
interest therein except for a wretched bundle which is allowed them as
cargo. If I were to go into the multitude of evils which are connected
with this, I should have to proceed _ad infinitum_. There are going
to your court those who have themselves experienced them; and one of
them even, for having preached with Christian zeal, was persecuted by
the governor, who was the cause of this and of other great evils. His
vices are so many and so low and obscene that if one were to seek
faithfully over all España for a man of most debauched conscience,
even the vilest and most vicious, to come to this country and corrupt
it with his example, there could not be found one more so than he. A
priest told me yesterday--Sunday, the twenty-first of June--that it
was public talk that no woman had escaped from him with her honor, when
he could accomplish her ruin; and that further, through his great and
scandalous incontinence, he twice ordered the priest to marry him to
his own niece, and used every means with the priest and Father Soria
to secure a dispensation, although the latter showed him how little
that measure profited. He has so tyrannized over this colony by his
actions that, in order that nothing should be lacking, he has taken
away the offices of regidor from honorable men who held them; and put
his kinsmen, whom he brougnt with him from España, into the regimiento,
so that information of his evil ways cannot be given to your Majesty
in the name of the city; nor can they write to ask your Majesty that
you should send a successor to him. Likewise he asked his regimiento,
and also me (but may God deliver me from such treason!), to write
to your Majesty that it was expedient that he should remain in this
country, on account of the experience which he has here. Nevertheless,
if such a letter should go, your Majesty would consider it suspicious;
because it would be signed by some who would wish to see him undone,
only because they do not dare to do otherwise; for he treats them
like negro slaves when they swerve a point from his desires. About
eight days ago he had called to his house all the honorable people,
even to the master-of-camp and all the captains; and when they were
before him, standing bareheaded, he treated them worse than he would
his cobbler, speaking in these terms: "You don't realize that I can
have all your heads cut off, and you think that I don't know that you
have written to the king against me." And this language, with the
"vosotros," [13] he used for half an hour to the most respectable
people in this country. In short, all his conversation and words are
those of a vicious and tyrannical Heliogabalus. What I say now is
nothing to what remains to be said, and which your Majesty can learn
from those who are going there--who, as good Christians, will relate
the truth. It would appear best that your Majesty should write to
Nueba España, so that all the goods may be put on board there which
are to be carried this year. Your Majesty would then see the shameful
results which he has caused in this country. He sends therewith one
of his servants even, who is called Juan de la Guardia, and also Diego
de Montoro, a native of this country. And if by chance your Majesty's
letter should arrive after the property had already been despatched,
the said persons should be seized, and obliged to confess the truth. It
is possible that in this way, and with the cargo for next year (when
he says that he must enrich himself), a large quantity may be taken,
to supply the various matters for which your Majesty must provide. Your
Majesty may rest assured that during all the time that the governor
may be in this post your Majesty's conscience cannot be at ease,
but that it must be heavily loaded to bear with him. It would be very
advisable to appoint a governor, not like the poor men who have been
here thus far and who come to enrich themselves, but a man who will
enrich the land with holiness and virtue. It should be a man whom
your Majesty would choose among thousands--one of those who is not
attempting to make your Majesty appoint him; but, on the contrary,
one of those whom, so to speak, your Majesty asks. Your Majesty
should not consider whether or not he is a knight or a captain,
as there are plenty of experienced captains in the country, who,
in case of war, would be better in leading an army than a number
who could come from there. If it is possible, he should be a man of
education and conscience. I should desire one of these men who would
serve your Majesty without private interests, for whom, when the man
had served your Majesty in this charge, you could appoint a church,
one of the largest of España; as this post is most honorable and of
greater importance for the spread of the gospel than is the Turkish
frontier for its defense. On this account a person should be chosen who
has no claim to private interests, for the gain which he would secure
from the growth of the teaching of the gospel here is large enough. It
is not fitting that your Majesty should entrust the residencia of
the governor here to the Audiencia, or to any member thereof; but
it should be made by the person who is to succeed him, if he be a
person such as I have described. For there are many serious matters
for which a Christian and impartial judge is necessary, to clear the
conscience of your Majesty.
It would be very important for your Majesty to renew the mandate
forbidding the governors and auditors to trade, with heavier penalties;
for it is not observed, and from its violation there result great
inconveniences. But, as it appears that the salaries appointed by your
Majesty are not sufficient recompense for coming to such distant lands,
your Majesty might decree that when the governors were such as they
should be, and have abstained during their whole term from trade,
at the time of their departure your Majesty would permit to be given
them as large a cargo as they wish, and even an entire ship, so that
they might be made prosperous. The auditors might be given, every
six years, to each one the liberty of a cargo, so that in this way
they would have what is needed to marry their children and maintain
their households. For otherwise they are the causes of great losses;
and, as they are involved in the same misdeed, they are not urgent
in having the mandates and decrees of your Majesty complied with.
It is a great hindrance to the growth of the faith and morals
of the natives that there is a continual communication with the
infidel Chinese. Since they are coming to trade, it would be well
that when they finish selling their wares they should leave the
country; for from their remaining in these islands result many
great inconveniences. In the first place, on account of their greed,
they have taken to the cultivation of gardens and other real estate;
whence it follows that all the native Indians live idle and vicious
lives, without anyone urging them to labor. The Chinese have risen,
by buying and selling and bringing provisions to the community, to
be the retailers of supplies. From this it results that this country
is so expensive to live in that where a fowl used to be worth half
a real, or at the most one real, it is now worth four. Formerly a
ganta of rice could be obtained for a quartillo or less. Now it is
worth two reals, or at least one, and the same with other things;
and, beside being retailers and hucksters, one Chinaman uses more
food and wine than do four natives. What is worse than this is, that
the crime against nature is as prevalent among them as in Sodoma; and
they practice it with the natives, both men and women. As the latter
are poor wretches and lovers of gain, and the Chinese are generous in
paying for their pleasures, this calamity is spreading wide without
any public manifestation. They tell me that during the last few years
the Chinese have spread over all the islands. I saw them when I came
into the channel. Formerly they were only in Manilla. If your Majesty
does not command that this people must absolutely leave the country
I fear that God must visit some great punishment upon it. Those who
govern here deceive in regard to their status. Some of them are kept
because the fathers of the Society say thai they need five hundred to
cultivate the gardens which they have here, close by the city. They
give each Sangley, for the portion of garden which he works, one peso
and one fowl each month. Others are kept for other reasons; but all
the work could be done by the natives if the Chinese were driven out,
and the idle and vagabond were compelled to work.
In another letter I wrote to your Majesty of the necessity which
obtained in this country of establishing the Inquisition, and today
the reasons for this are stronger than then, as shown by experience
and our inconveniences. Thus we have seen, within a few years,
that two prisoners who were going to Mexico escaped from the ship
"Sanct Philipe." In the ships of last year, of three persons who went
thither, two died. A negro who was being taken along as a witness for
an accused man of this city died at sea. If it is thought best not to
have salaries, the matter can be remedied by appointing two religious
or ecclesiastic persons, and one of the auditors of the Audiencia--who,
as they are advisers, can likewise carry on the suits. These, as they
conduct the office of commissary (which is here the same thing as
an inquisitor), would be able to hear the cases and would do so as a
work of charity, and with zeal for the honor of God, until they could
obtain, from the confiscated property, salaries for the inquisitors
whom your Majesty may appoint. For it is easy to see that there is
a great inconvenience in denouncing a person in Manilla and being
obliged to send his case to Mexico, or to come from there with a
decision as to whether to arrest him or not; and to confiscate here
the property of heirs and send it to the Inquisition of Nueba España,
with so great a risk of loss.
This is all at present that occurs to me to send to your Majesty. I
fear I have tired your Majesty with so prolix and unpleasant a
narration. I beg of your Majesty to pardon me and accept my wish,
which is to succeed in the service of your Majesty. If there is a man
in the world who has this desire, unmixed with interest, it is myself,
who am desirous to be of some use so that your Majesty may learn by
experience that I am more anxious to be the most insignificant servant
of your Majesty, merely because your Majesty is who you are, than to
possess all the treasures of the world. May your Majesty enjoy those
of heaven after the many years of life which are necessary for his
realms. Manilla, June 24, 1598. Sire, I kiss the feet of your Majesty,
your humble chaplain,
_Fray Ygnacio_, Archbishop of Manilla.
Sire:
Although I wrote another letter to your Majesty in which I give an
account of the affairs in this country, I am obliged to write this
one to give your Majesty an account of my own affairs, which cannot
be successful unless regulated by your royal hand, from which I
would receive death, if I deserved it, more willingly than life from
another. It has come to my knowledge that the governor of these islands
is writing to your Majesty and complaining of me. As everything which
I shall say now is true, I beseech your Majesty to give it credit. If
your Majesty should find that I do not tell the truth to the last word,
I charge your Majesty to visit upon me a heavy punishment.
I brought with me from España a son of one of my nephews. He is
a youth of great virtue and worth, with no manner of vice; and,
desiring that he should choose for a wife someone who was his equal
in worthiness, while coming on the ship my eyes fell upon a daughter
of the licentiate Tellez de Almansa, an auditor who was coming out
to this royal Audiencia of your Majesty. She is a very honorable and
good woman, and as it appeared to me that that was what was fitting
for the young man, rather than greater beauty or property, I made
known my desire to a doctor of theology, who was traveling in the
ship, in company with the said auditor, so that I might know whether
her parents were favorable to my intentions. As he told me that they
were pleased with it, but that the father reflected that he had no
permission from your Majesty to marry his children, it appeared to
me that, if she were to marry without the knowledge of her father,
he would be free from the penalty of the law. I wrote to the said
maiden a note, in which I desired to learn her wishes, without there
being anything else in it which could offend anyone.
I gave her an account of the many good qualities and characteristics
of the young man, and addressed her in these words: "And neither
do I wish that you should attempt this without the permission and
knowledge of your father, because I am not setting about to steal
away or ruin the respect which I have for him, and have had all my
life." She answered me by writing that she was pleased at the choice
that was made of her person, and that it should be considered with
her father. I responded with a second note in which I thanked her
for her good wishes and said that I would speak with her father. At
the same time I summoned the auditor Almazan and told him how much
I desired that that marriage should be consummated. He told me that
he would accept it at once, if he dared dispense with the permission
of your Majesty. The truth is, that I did not tell him that I had
written to his daughter, and accordingly when someone told him, it
appears that he resented it somewhat; but when the letters came to his
hand, and he saw their terms, which were so unworthy of suspicion,
he was appeased. All this came to the knowledge of the governor,
after we landed; and, as he does nothing good, he made poison of
the whole matter. Without seeing a letter or complaint against me,
it appeared to him expedient to have a meeting of religious prelates
for my case, and he did so accordingly. He called them together in
one of our convents, named [San] Francisco del Monte, [14] where
he placed before them the letters without having examined them, and
without displaying them; and, with the utmost ill-feeling and evil
intention he asked their opinion as to whether it was expedient to
write a letter against me to your Majesty. The religious took it ill,
as they should so bad a speech, and did not answer his proposition,
considering that he was so causelessly throwing suspicion upon the
purity and integrity of their prelate, who had not even been twenty
days in the country. All this came to my knowledge within two hours,
and, as the matter was so serious, and so great an injustice had been
done, I confess that I was much more exasperated than was fitting;
and I uttered against him various harsh remarks--although all were
true, and about things which were publicly told. I learned that he is
writing to your Majesty against me, and I desire that your Majesty
should not lack a true knowledge of the affair, which is, as I have
said; and everything made less or more, your Majesty may believe,
is not truth. Nor could any one, from any word or sign of mine,
have understood an offense to God in that, or even a venial sin;
and, if anything could be added without the suspicions conceived by
his malice, or rather by his evil life and habits, the fault which
I was guilty of was becoming too angry. But I assure your Majesty
that I had more than reason enough--in the first place because he
had stained that which is so important for prelates of the church,
namely, purity; and, in the second place, because he did this at the
time when I had just arrived at my archbishopric, and when I should
have entered with great honor and reputation for virtue, especially
among infidels. In the third place, he went before all the leaders of
the religious orders, when everyone of them was free to conceive what
opinion he would of me--and especially certain persons who, as they do
not themselves live with becoming regularity, might conceive boldness,
and not fear for their own faults because they saw the superior prelate
brought before the public as guilty of similar ones. In the fifth
[_i.e.,_ fourth] place, because he called together this conventicle
while he was pretending to be my friend; for the day before he had
been in my house, and talked with me about very serious matters, and
at his departure, invited me to his house--for no one who would see
what he did, or his dealings with me, would fail to have confidence
in him, since he is a knight, and wears the habit of Santiago, and
is governor for your Majesty of so great a realm; and I say that,
as I am a frank and truthful man, I would have confidence in him,
if he were a man worthy of trust. Since he first made advances, by
asking me to do for him things which were good, what a wonder it is
that so unreasonably he should molest a man. I confess that I acted
in a manner unbecoming my position; but let him say what he will,
I have said nothing which is not true.
Many men of sound judgment have wondered what object he could have
in this assembly; and they can think of no other unless it was
to intimidate me and close my mouth, so that I should not write
against him to your Majesty any of the infinite amount which might
be written. Likewise he had the same object in calling together the
captains and leading men of this colony, to address them with such
insolence as that which I have told your Majesty in another letter;
for the expression which he used was: "You people [_vosotros_] do
not know that I know what you have written to his Majesty against
me; and that his Majesty sent me a command to have your heads cut
off." From this your Majesty will gather how the government must be
conducted here, since the governor is going about seeking, by cunning
and deceit, to frighten people that they may not write about his
mode of life. I told enough of this in the other letter, and others
are writing the same thing; but at present I shall only mention a
few things. In the first place your Majesty should not inquire into
the particular vices of Don Francisco Tello, but should picture to
yourself a universal idea of all vices, brought to the utmost degree
and placed in a lawyer; this would be Tello, who is your Majesty's
governor in the Philippinas. He is not one of those men who accompany
a vice by a virtue, and among many vices follow one virtue; but he
has not even an indication of a virtue. And that he should not lack
the sin of putting his hand upon the altars, he has now begun to
commit simonies, and to live excommunicated, selling for money the
presentations which he makes to the benefices conformably to your
Majesty's right of patronage. This is so true that I have this week
corrected one which he committed in the convent of San Francisco del
Monte itself. Abandoned by the power of God, he paid for the evil which
he had done against me with so great a vice. He received four hundred
pesos, for the presentation to a prebend, which he presented to me
that very day. He has become accustomed to do this, and says that he
is going to write to España that he is going to this said convent,
which is a heavenly garden, belonging to descalced fathers of much
holiness. Although he has a house near there he is not content with
it, but comes in and meddles with the convent, and with those who go
to see it, for there is nothing which his hand does not profane. On
Monday afternoon before St. Francis' day, this year, he left Manilla,
saying that he was going to Cabite to despatch the ships. At night
he left the road with a servant, having placed the horses within
some chapels which are being built at the convent of Santo Domingo;
and entered to sleep that night in the house of a married woman, the
wife of an honorable man of this city, leaving guards at the door, for
thus imprudent is he, although God permits that he is such a coward
as not to enter into such evil acts without taking guards, and even
sometimes arquebuses, to serve as witnesses of his sins--which are
made public, to the scandal of all the people. Sire, I do not believe
that I can live with this man; if your Majesty thinks that it is best
for your royal service to keep him in this government, your Majesty
must take me from this church. I wish nothing else, and even this
place I do not merit; nor did I seek it, nor did it ever pass through
my head that it was possible that at any time I should have to hold
it. But I wish your Majesty to command me to return, to die in my
cell in peace; for if I remain here I cannot conceal so many and so
public offenses against God and against the service of your Majesty,
without reprehending them with the same publicity as that with which
they are committed. I trust through the mercy of God that your Majesty
will see all this with Christian and Catholic eyes, and will provide
a remedy fitting for the service of God and of your Majesty, whom may
our Lord protect, for the long years which we need. Manilla, June 26,
98. Sire, I kiss the feet of your Majesty, your servant and chaplain,
_Fray Ignacio_, Archbishop of Manilla.