While all these islands were in the disconsolate and afflicted
condition of which an account was given last year, at the beginning
of July arrived the patache that was despatched from Nueva Espana to
bring the usual aid. It had a quick voyage, and in this vessel came
an entire Audiencia, and a visitor. [164] The latter, disembarking at
Bagatao, set out for this city with the utmost speed, in a fragata
belonging to the alcalde-mayor of Leyte; and left orders in the
patache that no one should go ashore or write letters. He arrived at
Manila very quickly, and, landing at Cavite--where he was received
with a salvo of artillery--he went to the fort only. Having spent
three-quarters of an hour with Don Fernando, without going anywhere
else, he continued his journey to this city, where he arrived at two
o'clock, and was received with a salvo. He entered the coach of the
governor, and going from the fort of Santiago (by the postern gate of
which he made his entry), he reached the palace. On the plaza a body
of troops had been formed in order, who received him with a general
salute of arquebus-shots. He spent about an hour with the governor,
at the time making known to him only the commissions which he bore;
meanwhile, the faces of various persons expressed their wonder,
for it began to be rumored that whatever the archbishop and governor
had done received the visitor's entire approval. This statement was
very soon confirmed; for the said visitor, leaving the palace, asked
for some soldiers, and, riding in the coach, went first to the house
of the former governor, Don Juan de Vargas, but did not find him at
home because he was outside the city, in his country house, by order
of the governor. Leaving some guards there, and sending orders to
Don Juan to come within the city, the visitor went to the house of
Don Pedro de Bolivar; and when he asked for him and for his goods,
he was told that Don Pedro was banished, and confined in the fort at
Cagayan, and his goods had been confiscated and sold at public auction,
by order of the governor. The visitor proceeded thence to the house
of Don Diego de Calderon, and asking for him and for his goods, he
was answered that Don Diego was dead, and they did not know of any
goods. He left that place and went to the house of Don Diego de Viga,
where he made the same inquiry and answer was made that he had died
in exile and prison in Cagayan, and his goods also had been sold
and confiscated by the governor. He finally proceeded to the house
of the king's fiscal, Don Esteban de la Fuente Alanis, whom he found
at home in great fear and perturbation. Immediately the visitor told
him that he might regard the house as his prison, and withdrawing
him to an apartment, he seized all Don Esteban's goods; by this time
the afternoon was ended. On the following day, Don Juan de Vargas,
having returned to the city, was promptly visited; and after a polite
visit, he was told that he must remain a prisoner in his own house,
without leaving it, under a penalty of one thousand ducados. On this
day, it was published that all acts by the royal Council in favor
of the archbishop, the governor, and the Dominicans were approved;
that the auditors were suspended; that the ex-governor was fined two
thousand pesos; that all were summoned to Nueva Espana--where they
must await their sentence, in the place that had been selected,
twenty leguas distant from Mejico; and, until a ship was ready,
they were all banished from Manila to the same places where the
archbishop and the other Dominican religious had been confined. They
all were stupefied with fear, at hearing a decision so unexpected;
and those of the [archbishop's] following and partners were full of
satisfaction and triumph. Fear increased, and no one felt any security
in so fierce a storm, thinking that the said visitor was in the place
of the governor and the Dominicans. With this it was expected that
affairs would be in worse confusion than before, and that the truth
of events would be disguised and covered as those personages might
choose, with the fraudulent statements made in the earlier accounts.
The said visitor began his investigation, and for it demanded
that the court notaries should immediately surrender to him the
original documents of all the past disputes between the Audiencia and
archbishop, appeals [on the ground] of fuerza, and other causes; of
these he furnished a list. Then, in a few days, taking the declaration
of the said fiscal of the king, the visitor brought charges against
him, and commanded that he should go into banishment on the island
of Mariveles, and from that place should answer the charges. In the
intervening time while his cause was being prepared, a chaplain said
mass in his house; and the archbishop despatched a letter threatening
to place him on the public list of the excommunicated, unless he
first drew up and signed the same expressions of detestation that
Don Pedro de Bolivar had made, commanding that no priest should be
allowed to say mass for him; and thus was repaid his good services to
his illustrious Lordship during the entire term of the governor Don
Gabriel. At the beginning, Don Esteban resisted; but seeing that he
had no human recourse, and that, when he demanded counsel from the
visitor, that person gave him to understand that he must do it, he
had to yield under compulsion, and do what was commanded him. Another
strong reason why he consented to do it was, that he might not go
to his destination as an excommunicate; he went thither absolved,
leaving the said act of detestation dated and signed, to the pleasure
and satisfaction of the archbishop.
So frequent were now the visits of the reverend Verart, and so close
was his intimacy with the visitor, that he did not leave the latter's
house by day or even by night--so that it was soon rumored that the
said Father Verart was the one who acted and took the management in the
inquiries, investigations, and charges which were made in regard to
those who were included therein by the worthy visitor. This has been
made more certain by time, not only by information and occurrences
which have come to our knowledge, but by seeing how ignorant and
unlearned the said visitor was; and if Verart did not draw up the
allegations and other documents, many will doubt that the visitor
could succeed in doing anything to advantage. We shall see how the
whole affair will turn out, and how thoroughly investigated the truth
as to affairs in these islands will go to the Council. The governor,
the archbishop, the visitor, and the Dominicans [will figure] tied
together by pairs, and Fray Raimundo Verart as the leader [corifeo]
of the dance.
When the patache reached the port, and the auditors this city,
various mails from his Majesty were opened, and it was found that the
remedy was worse than the disease itself; since the Dominicans and the
archbishop, like headlong furies, began a fierce tempest of vengeance
against all those who were not of their faction and at their disposal,
without heeding or fearing any one who might restrain them in whatever
they might attempt. Accordingly, they made the first attack, or rather
continued the old persecution, against the fathers of the Society
(using a pretext, in order to close our church for a long time),
the archbishop declaring that it had been profaned, meaning that in
it was interred [the body of] Don Cristobal Grimaldos--who, he said,
had died an excommunicate by having incurred that penalty in the
archbishop's banishment--although it was five years since he had died,
and only now for the first time did his illustrious Lordship begin
to have scruples, which he could not lay aside. In order to conceal
better his revengeful spirit against the Society, he waited until the
day of most publicity and greatest attendance [at our church], which
was the day of our great patriarch St. Ignatius; choosing this day,
he waited until the hour of nine, when the church was full of people,
including all the religious communities of this city, and only the
arrival of the royal Audiencia was awaited to begin high mass for
the saint. For that time and hour, then, his illustrious Lordship
reserved his scruples; and, sending two notaries, they published and
posted on the church door his edict, declaring the church of the
Society of Jesus to be polluted--declaring under penalty of major
excommunication, latae sententiae, that no faithful Christian should
attend divine worship in the said church. All the people, therefore,
were obliged to go out, and the doors were locked for two months
and two days, from July 31 to October 2; and, although Dona Manuela
Barrientos, formerly the wife of the said Senor Grimaldos, came out
in our defense--proving not only by the confessors who assisted him,
but by the testimony of other witnesses, that he had died with all the
sacraments and with great contrition--nothing of this was sufficient
to prevent the archbishop from pronouncing notices that he had died
impenitent and excommunicate. He therefore commanded that the bones
should be exhumed, for which purpose the provisor, Juan Gonzalez,
went one afternoon, October 2, with other officials and some negroes
with spades, and opened the tomb; but, finding many bones, and among
them three skulls, they had to leave these in their place, as they
could not distinguish which were those of the auditor Grimaldos. On the
following day the said provisor came to bless our church, and the gates
were again opened, to the great joy and consolation of the people.
At this time, when the archbishop was engaged in disinterring the
bones of the said auditor Grimaldos, the visitor--who had been
declared investigating judge for special suits and commissions
only--was going about in another direction, making his secret
inquiries about past affairs. In everything he proceeded greatly in
favor of the archbishop, governor, and Dominicans, but with general
complaints from all the witnesses, who said that the examiner had
come not to ascertain the truth, but to confirm the fraudulent and
malicious reports of the archbishop and the friars--for, as soon as
they said anything against the latter, they were immediately checked,
and what was set down in the document was moderated; but if it was
anything in favor of them, the examiner heard it at much length,
and employed his rhetoric to dilate upon it very extensively. He very
soon gave orders that Captain Lerma (who took the place of Armenta,
the secretary of the Audiencia, who was banished to Pangasinan) and
Sargento-mayor Juan Sanchez (who was secretary of that court in the
time of the controversies between the Audiencia and the archbishop)
should enter the fort as prisoners. Every day his friendship and
intercourse with the governor grew more and more intimate, so much
so that not a night passed when he did not inform the governor of all
that he had accomplished that day, praising himself for having gained
control of everything [de hechar todo a su barda]. This was seen by
what occurred in the country; and he took away life from whomever he
chose, as easily as if he had been a governor. It being necessary for
his investigation that Auditor Bolivar should come to this city, the
examiner demanded that he be brought from Cagayan, where he was at the
time; and the latter while coming, in good health, upon entering the
province of Pangasinan from that of Ylocos fell dead, from [drinking]
one cup of chocolate, without obtaining the sacraments. This rumor of
poisoning was so widely spread in all this region that the governor,
notwithstanding all his efforts, could not stop the mouths of all;
accordingly the worthy examiner was full of fear and dread lest
they should do as much more to him, and did all that the governor,
archbishop, and Dominicans desired--if before with some concealment,
from that day with entire publicity--calling the archbishop a saintly
old man.
The residencia of the ex-governor was published, and in the course
of it and of other investigations (all which were proceeding at the
same time) the goods of most of the prominent citizens of Manila were
seized and detained--some having incurred blame in certain charges
of the residencia, and others because they had been commanded by the
[former] royal Audiencia and its governor and captain-general, under
grave penalties in the decrees, to find and seize the Dominican
religious. Consequently the people were in great perplexity, not
knowing what was to be done; for it went ill with them if they obeyed
the king, and still worse if they did not obey. They showed the
[former] orders and decrees, but nothing availed them; consequently
all went out after several days of imprisonment (in which time died
Sargento-mayor Don Juan Gallardo), mulcted in amounts of three hundred,
four hundred, and even five hundred pesos [each].
At the beginning of the month of October, the examiner took greatly
to heart the establishment of peace between the Dominican fathers
and those of the Society, in which negotiation the governor and the
archbishop were active, since now the latter found no longer the means
for annoying us. The affair was very diligently conducted, but always
with the claim of advantages for the other side. The worthy man was
quite deceived, having been told that the Dominican fathers had only
broken off their former intercourse with our church inasmuch as it
had been polluted from the time when Auditor Grimaldos was interred
in it; but this was a great lie, and quite notorious, since, a year
before the said auditor died, since the controversy over the arms,
[165] they had ceased intercourse [with us]. Notwithstanding all this,
they always directed their efforts to the end that the Society should
yield; and, the octave of the naval feast falling on the very day of
St. Francis de Borgia, we had to delay until the octave the feast
and sermon for the saint, and went in a body to the church. Great
rejoicing was displayed in the city; much artillery was fired; the
[Dominican] provincial Marron preached; the archbishop, governor,
and Audiencia were present. All this was repeated on the day of the
octave of St. Francis Borgia, when Father Cani preached; and from
that day the Dominican fathers and their archbishop have displayed,
at least externally, their former friendliness.
A little while afterward, on the day of St. Peter [of] Alcantara,
[166] occurred the most fearful earthquake that ever, according to
report, was known in these islands, the shocks being repeated at
various times. The father rector went to the archbishop to ask his
permission to offer the act of contrition, but he refused to allow
it--saying that he had thought of something else that was better,
which was, to carry the Virgin of the Rosary through the streets,
all reciting the rosary aloud. Moreover, in order to make peace with
God and placate His just anger, he commanded one day that a general
interdict be rung, publishing as excommunicated all those who had in
any manner been concerned in the banishment of his illustrious Lordship
and the other Dominican religious, and all the officers who had taken
part in the blockade of the convent of Santo Domingo. Afterward,
having erected a scaffold or stage in the courtyard of his convent,
he published the absolution--for which they went past him one by one
to be absolved, without sword or hat. In this were ranked all the
military and officials of Manila--all solemnly swearing never again to
take action or render obedience for such occasions, even though the
king should command them to. All those who were absent were likewise
absolved, Don Juan de Vargas being excepted, nominatim. This function
was ended by the promise that with this God would be placated, and the
earth rendered quiet--although His Divine Majesty, for [the ends of]
His lofty judgments, continued the incessant tremblings of the earth.
It seems that with this the tragedies were ended, all [the culprits]
absolved, and the earth blessed; but his illustrious Lordship and
the friars, recalling to mind the former preposterous attempt to
change all the [members of the] cabildo and arrange it according to
their own humor and taste, and seeing themselves masters of the field,
without any one remaining who could resist them, undertook to put that
scheme into execution, bringing against all the prebends such suits
as they pleased. Commencing with the dean, after a long imprisonment
they passed sentence on him that he should be deprived of his dignity
and should go to Espana; and, being meanwhile suspended from office,
he should remain in Manila. Then they put in his place, and made dean,
the provisor Juan Gonzalez--a person of the qualifications that we all
know. Soon they attacked in the rear the good old archdeacon, Doctor
Francisco Deza, and brought against him a very infamous complaint,
entirely unworthy of his exemplary life and gray hairs, in order
to deprive him of his prebend. God chose, rather, to take him to
himself; but on the day when he died they seized all his goods,
and placed in the prebend the cura of Quiapo, Caraballo--a Visayan
by birth, and a notorious [167] mestizo. By way of courtesy, they
passed then to the schoolmaster, Don Francisco Gutierrez; and, not
finding any worse fault than the report that he had spoken ill of his
prelate, it was enough for their purpose. After a long imprisonment,
his sentence was pronounced--the loss of his prebend, and perpetual
seclusion in a religious order, which he might choose; accordingly,
he entered the convent of San Agustin. Thus they had a position into
which to thrust a student from Santo Tomas, named Altamirano--of whom,
when I say that he is a nephew of Cervantes, there is nothing more
to be added. Another prebend, a racionero, named Don Jose de Nava,
they got into their clutches a little while ago--because it is known
that he wrote to his Majesty the excellent qualifications of those
whom his illustrious Lordship was placing in the cabildo, which are
admirable and undoubted--and seized all his goods. They are keeping
him in fetters, in a place where he does not even know whether it is
day or night, without [allowing him to] communicate with a soul. That
they might more effectually form the entire cabildo from their own
faction, and to suit themselves, his illustrious Lordship posted
edicts regarding the two canonries, the doctoral and the magistral,
saying that his Majesty commands that these prebends shall be given by
competition in this cathedral, as in the others. Those who competed
for them were the Japanese Naito, the little Visayan Caraballo,
the mulatto Rocha, and Altamirano; and although Doctor Don Jose de
Atienza entered the competition, and gave his competitive discourse
in public, and preached on short notice to the admiration of his
hearers, no one in the city doubts that he will not succeed in
obtaining anything, as he is not of their faction and was graduated
by the Society. He felt so certain of this that he said so in his
sermon. For they will strive to form the entire cabildo of their own
men and from their following, so that, even if the archbishop dies,
the Dominican fathers will not cease to rule, which is the object
at which they aim. Thus far the canonries have not been conferred;
it seems that they are waiting until the ship shall sail, so that
they may send word [to Espana that the matter remains] in doubt; but
no one has any doubt that two will surely enter upon these prebends,
and that Atienza has no chance at all. That clique are proceeding,
in regard to everything, in a reckless and very insolent manner,
and without any caution, for there is no one who can resist them; and
therefore they have rendered themselves formidable in this country,
and the arbitrators of all matters. It is hoped that the storm will
not be so severe now, with the entrance of the royal Audiencia upon
the government--on account of the very unexpected and sudden death of
the governor, Don Gabriel de Curuzelaegui, the abettor of all these
doings. This occurred in the month of April last, and was caused by
a retention of urine, which ended his life in three days. At that
time, governor, archbishop, investigating judge, and Dominicans were
preparing a farrago of documents to mislead the Council and to further
their own reckless proceedings; they even notified the ex-governor,
Don Juan de Vargas, that he must go into exile to Pangasinan, to
which place he had banished the archbishop. He made an urgent plea
for his absolution, in view of his Majesty's decree which ordered the
archbishop to absolve him, but the latter would not listen to it. On
the day when they carried him into exile, he entered the house of the
archbishop, and, ascending the stairs on his knees until he reached
the prelate's feet, Don Juan begged him, with tears in his eyes, to
absolve him; but the archbishop, with a heart like a tiger's, refused
to hear him, and answered him only with harsh words. He told Don Juan
that he must submit to the penance imposed, which required him to wear
the sackcloth robe, the halter round his neck, the yellow breeches,
etc., going through the churches, as he had been commanded to do;
and that, if he did not consent to this, he must go to Lingayen
without absolution. Thence he repaired to the royal Audiencia, who
issued a royal decree to the archbishop that he must absolve Don
Juan; but immediately the governor and archbishop joined hands to
avert this pressure, and drew up an iniquitous accusation against the
auditors, containing many falsehoods and charges. Among other things,
they brought forward evidence that the auditors had illicit relations
with Dona Isabel, the wife of Don Juan de Vargas, and this by several
witnesses. It may be imagined what sort of a country this is, and how
much credit is due to the accusations that are made here--and to the
witnesses in Manila, who swear to anything that suits a governor. This
done, the archbishop replied to the royal decree by challenging the
auditors, for the causes which he proved against them. This answer
was made a very short time before the governor's death; it was sent to
him sealed, and afterward was found with the above accusation--which
as some declared, was for the purpose of ruining this Audiencia as
he had destroyed the other.
In this condition are affairs at present. Father Fray Raimundo Verart,
the instigator of so many disturbances, is going there [i.e., to
Espana], summoned by his Majesty. May it please God that now the
misfortunes of this unhappy land may cease.