With the arrival of the galleon from Filipinas in this Nueva Espana
has been unladen a raft [flota] of news, which other pens, less
awkward than mine, will relate; I can only tell what I have known. In
the year 1687 the examiner [pesquisidor]--as the Chinese say, the
fisherman [pescador]--Don Francisco Campos y Valdivia arrived at
Manila; according to the reports, it would seem that he went there
to encourage anew and continue the malignant acts of the archbishop
and the Dominicans, and to pillage the wealth of that community and
finally squeeze out of it the little blood that it has. He immediately
joined hands with Governor Curuzealegui, the archbishop, and the
Dominicans; he selected as his adviser, director, and counselor the
Dominican Fray Raimundo Verart, the source of so many disturbances;
and--without heeding that his Majesty, on account of the latter's
turbulent disposition, had commanded that the said religious should
proceed to the court [at Madrid]--he immediately took possession of
the said religious, who was with him at all hours of day and night, in
his house. [He did so] in order that the religious should prepare for
him the documents, acts, and inquiries for which he was commissioned,
on account of the illiterate manner in which the fisherman usually
drew them up. From this may be interred what documents he will carry
to the court, with a hand so malicious and bold--but with the safety
of the father confessor's broad shoulders, and the cunning tendencies
of the chief, of vast piety.
There are more than three hundred thousand pesos, in jewels and
commodities, that he has carried away, well guarded; and he is full of
confidence of new rewards. I do not doubt that the chief distributor
will enjoy a very pleasant time, knowing that the Jesuits remain
humbled, trampled down, and without recourse--they, to whom on so
many grounds he ought to show himself at least indifferent.
He discharged his fury against the governor, Don Juan de Vargas,
and, without allowing him to defend himself--since hardly had Don
Juan chosen a lawyer or notary when he awoke in exile--he banished
him to a distant place, and among Dominicans. And, to soften this
humiliation, the archbishop denied him the absolution that he sought
(going up to the prelate's house on his knees), without paying any
attention to the strict injunction of his Majesty, or urging the
visitor to secure its fulfilment; and demanding an order to carry Don
Juan to Mexico, notwithstanding the securities [that he had given]
for his residencia. He was left in the hands of the Dominicans and
the archbishop, in order that the latter might satiate himself more
at leisure with Don Juan's sorrows.
The visitor turned his attention to the auditors, whom he found
already exiled by the governor; and, two of them having died a little
while before, he sent for the auditor Bolivar. It is reported that
the governor, fearing this man, gave orders that they should put him
to death on the route. [168] What is certain is, that as he finished
drinking a cup of chocolate, he fell dead, and his finger-nails and
lips made known the poison; and it is noted that in the following
year, about the same time, the said governor died very suddenly, and
in melancholy circumstances--according to rumor and letters, like
a beast. The last of the officials, the fiscal Alanis, the visitor
brought with him to Nueva Espana, after having confiscated all his
goods and inflicted on him a thousand annoyances--as also the dean,
Don Miguel Ortiz. With him came the Dominican Verart, in order that
with his assistance the visitor might continue the management of
his documents.
About this time began the fury of the archbishop and the Dominicans
against the Society. [The remains of] Auditor Grimaldos having reposed
five years in the sepulcher of the college at Manila, the archbishop
was pricked by scruples on the day of St. Ignatius; and, when the
church was full, and the governor and the Audiencia were expected
for the fiesta, a notary came in, publishing the declaration that the
church was polluted--that the auditor Grimaldos had died impenitent,
and that everyone should go out of the church, under penalty of
excommunication. The church remained closed until the second day of
October. On that day the provisor went and opened the sepulcher, and,
seeing therein three corpses, among which he could not distinguish
the one that he sought, he proceeded to bless what he called the
"contaminated" church. The examiner [i.e., Campos y Valdivia], playing
the role of a reconciler, obliged the fathers of the Society to go to
attend a feast-day of the Dominicans, and the latter to be present at
another in the Society's house. Afterward the archbishop arranged the
cabildo to suit himself, without accepting or noticing the prebends
who came appointed by his Majesty, and replaced all of them from his
own college of Santo Tomas; and among these were men most unworthy
[of such posts], mestizos who were half negro. His principal object
is, that if he should die the cabildo may appoint the bishop of
Troya as ruler [of the diocese], in order that the disturbances may
not cease; and very strung recommendations are going for the court,
to appoint in that church the said bishop of Troya, in order that he
may more vigorously continue the disputes and lawsuits, which do not
cease. Meanwhile, at court let not efforts cease to persuade that
this religious order is not suited for sees [mitras] so remote--as
the father confessor sets forth, and that boldly. In every Dominican
there is a bishop, a governor, and an absolute monarch; nor will he
acknowledge himself to be a vassal--as is shown by a fiscal reply
that comes from Filipinas and will go to the court, in the terms of
which is recognized the intention of that prelate [i.e., Barrientos].
In the course of the investigation the visitor did not spare the
[belongings required by] decency for the governor's wife, Dona Isabel
de Ardila, taking away from her at public auction even the bed and
the jewels that she used, and from her husband even the sword that he
carried at his belt. The annoyances inflicted upon the citizens are
innumerable; and in order that the jewels and other valuables which
he obtained from the seizures of goods should not be sold at a low
price, at auctions, he caused them to be knocked down to himself,
but in the names of other persons, and he is becoming, therefore,
enormously wealthy.
Nor was the archbishop idle at this time. He proceeded to give
rules to the new Audiencia as to the manner in which it was to
conduct itself, declaring that recourse to it in cases of fuerza
and banishment was faulty; and a little later, when urged to absolve
Governor Vargas, he replied that he challenged the new auditors for
cause, since he considered them all to be in love with the governor's
wife. Consequently, it would be necessary that another Audiencia
should come, or that, to check lawsuits, they delegate the authority
to him--which they refused, since the ecclesiastics are vassals.
In this so tangled web of mischiefs occasioned by his cause, died
very suddenly Governor Don Gabriel de Curuzaelegui; so many pecuniary
obligations of his were made public that they seem incredible, even to
those who do not know the opportunities for profit of that governmental
post. He left the administration of his estate to the man who had
been the mainstay of his government, Don Tomas de Andaya--a native of
Andaya in France, [169] however much he has tried to persuade people
that he was born in Viscaya.
On December 19, 1689, the ship "Santo Nino" cast anchor in
Acapulco, and in it came the dean of Manila, Don Miguel Ortiz
de Cobarrubias; the fiscal, Don Lorenzo de Alanis; the Dominican
father Fray Raimundo Verart; and the examiner, Don Francisco Campos y
Valdivia. The last-named was detained in the said port, continuing some
investigations with which he was charged--especially that concerning
the registration [of the galleon's cargo] for the year 1684; and in
regard to the seizure in the same year of the property of Governor
Don Juan de Vargas, in which he supposed there had been some formal
act of the royal officials, with information from the viceroy,
Marques de la Laguna--investigations all upon uncertain matters,
little praised by his subordinates, or acceptable to them. On occasion
of receiving a declaration, the examiner compelled General Antonio
de Aztina to surrender his authority, at the same time appointing,
de plenitudine potestatis [i.e., "in the fulness of his power"], as
commander Captain Oriosola--who enjoyed this new favor no long time;
for the viceroy, Conde de Galvez, being informed of this, immediately
gave the appointment of commander to Don Juan de Garaicochea.
On the fourteenth of January, 1690, his investigations being concluded,
the examiner left Acapulco, and sent ahead by the fast carriers as
many as twenty loads of his own equipage, with a servant, and verbal
orders that the guards should give them free passage. Information of
this exemption reached the custom-house of this city, and its special
judge, Don Juan Jose de Ciga y Linage, stationed officers on the
route for safety. The examiner set out, by easy stages, because he
was conveying a woman who had lately become a mother--one of his two
maidservants, with whom he traveled, whom he had secretly married while
in the bay, a little before landing at Vera Cruz; and the said lady
died, a few days after leaving Acapulco, and was buried in the town
of Cuernavaca. The said freight and equipage arrived at Mexico, and,
notwithstanding the orders of the examiner, the following articles
were unloaded in the custom-house: twenty-one chests, four boxes,
two escritoires, three boxes, one screen, four china jars [tibores],
[170] one trunk of clothes, and four civet-cats. Permission was given
that the animals be sent to the house of Don Geronimo de Chacon, to
whom the above goods came directed; but the rest was kept [at the
custom-house], the packages being opened, and a list of the goods
being made. The said examiner being asked for a load that had gone
astray on the journey, he replied, desiring to shield himself and
another person, that it did not belong to him, and he knew nothing
about it. The cause of this search was, it seems, that secret warning
had been given [to the customs officers] of perfumes, fine stuffs,
and other goods improper for [the possession of] an examiner.
On the fifteenth of February, 1690, after various protests and
threatening statements that the said boxes contained only his
clothing, and especially that three contained only the private
papers and documents of his visitation and commission, as he resisted
surrendering the keys the locks were broken of the said three boxes;
and in them was found not one paper. The contents of these, as in the
boxes above mentioned, were as follows: three ornamental boxes and two
writing-desks of lacquered wood, perfume-caskets, trays, combs, fans,
porcelain cups, and curious articles of japanned ware. Besides these,
there were forty cases of fans; item, eighty-six bundles of untwisted
silk, and several libras more of spun silk; item, two hundred and
seventy-five pieces of stuffs--satin, lampotes, ribbed silk, Chinese
silk, velvets, and other wares from Canton; item, one hundred and
fifty-eight onzas of musk; item, three hundred and forty-four pairs
of silk hose.
They are sure that he is bringing many more packets in the names of
Commander Aztina and Captain Oriosola, the source of these being the
fines--which, they say, he regulated more by the wealth than by the
faults of the citizens of Manila, levying the fines in merchandise
at low prices, by a third hand, that of the said commander. It is
currently reported that the bales which he is bringing on his own
account, under the names of other persons, exceed one hundred and fifty
in number. It is certain that in the custom-house were opened two lots
of goods [shipped] in the name of the said commander--one of forty
bales of various commodities, and another of thirty bales of Canton
silk stuffs, both without invoices; also packets, which show little
care and arrangement. This almost entirely confirms the suspicions
entertained, all the more as it is well known that the said commander
has no wealth, and even hardly enough to eat. But as the merchants of
China are here--who have come, like many of the citizens of Mejico,
frightened by the extortions imposed in Manila--it is difficult to
declare the [contents of the] said packets while the examiner remains
in these kingdoms.