The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and
their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions,
as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the
political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those
islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the
close of the nineteenth century,
Volume XXXVII, 1669-1676
Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson
with historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord
Bourne.
The Arthur H. Clark Company
Cleveland, Ohio
MCMVI
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXVII
Preface 9
Miscellaneous Documents, 1669-1676
Events in Filipinas, 1668. [Unsigned; Francisco
de Figueroa?]; Manila, January 15, 1669 23
The Dominicans in the Philippines, 1641-69. Baltasar
de Santa Cruz, O.P.; 1676. [From his Historia.] 64
The Augustinians in the Philippines, 1641-70. Casimiro
Diaz, O.S.A.; Manila, 1718. [From his Conquistas.] 149
Manila and the Philippines about 1650 (to be concluded).
Domingo Fernandez Navarrete, O.P.; Madrid, 1676. [From
his Tratados historicos.] 285
Bibliographical Data 307
ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of the Philippine Islands, showing province of the
Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine; photographic
facsimile of engraving in Lubin's Orbis Augustinianus
... ordinis eremitarum Sancti Augustini (Paris, 1639),
map 37; from copy in Library of Congress. 147
Plan of Manila Cathedral prior to 1750; photographic
facsimile from original manuscript in Archivo general
de Indias, Sevilla. 201
Plan of Manila Cathedral, showing the new structure
building in 1754; photographic facsimile from original
manuscript in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla. 205
PREFACE
Most of this volume is occupied with accounts of the Dominican and
Augustinian missions in the islands during the period 1641-70; they
are enabled to maintain fairly flourishing activities by the aid of
new reënforcements. These chronicles also contain, as usual, much
interesting secular information; the most important occurrences in
the secular affairs of the islands are the rise and fall of Governor
Fajardo's favorite Venegas, and the arrest of Governor Diego Salcedo
by the Inquisition (at the instance of Auditor Bonifaz, who then
usurps the government). The latter incident is related in detail by
a Spanish officer imprisoned by the usurper.
A document of especial human interest is a letter (January 15,
1669) written from the dungeons of Fort Santiago in Manila, by an
unnamed officer imprisoned therein by the usurping auditor Bonifaz. He
relates in full the arrest (1668) of Governor Diego de Salcedo by the
commissary of the Inquisition, the usurpation of the government of
the islands by Bonifaz, and the imprisonment of himself and other
loyalists on suspicion of attempting to rescue the governor from
durance. The attitude of the writer is unusual, for at the outset
he announces his gratitude and loyalty to his patron, Salcedo's
predecessor, Manrique de Lara, then under charges--from which he was
later acquitted--in his residencia; and he speaks of Salcedo without
any blame or resentment, although the governor had deprived him of
his military command. This document is freely annotated from another
contemporary account, long and diffuse; the two cast much light on
political and religious affairs in Manila at the time, especially on
the possibilities for evil embodied in the Inquisition.
Extracts from Santa Cruz's Historia (Zaragoça, 1693) cover the history
of the Dominican order in the Philippines for 1641-69. Fray Francisco
de Paula is elected provincial in 1641, at which time the order has
barely enough religious to fill its actual ministries--a lack which is
afterward supplied as an answer to prayer. The location of the Parián
is changed, in 1640; and the entire quarter is destroyed by fire,
two years later. In 1644 Diego de Fajardo comes to the islands as
governor--under whom they "tasted all sorts of government." The chief
events of his term of office are recounted, and the more important
transactions of the Dominican chapter-sessions of 1647 and 1650. In
the former year dies the aged provincial, Fray Domingo Gonçalez;
he is succeeded by Fray Carlos Gant. In 1648 a patache reaches the
islands in safety, although it has to be burned, immediately after
unlading, to save it from the Dutch; but those enemies thereupon
leave the islands, which they have not since infested. This vessel
also brings a reënforcement of thirty Dominican religious, which
greatly encourages the missionaries; and various ecclesiastical favors
and concessions. Santa Cruz recounts the more important acts of the
provincial chapter-session of 1650, and furnishes biographical sketches
of many Dominican missionaries in the islands. He then proceeds to
relate the arrest and death of Fajardo's quondam favorite Venegas.
In 1652 Fray Pedro de Ledo becomes provincial; at this same
chapter-session is formally announced the erection of Santo
Tomás college into a university; and the mission of Ituy is more
fully organized. The savage mountaineers of that region are well
described by our author; their conversion is a difficult matter. In
1653 distinguished personages arrive at Manila, including Governor
Manrique de Lara and Archbishop Poblete. The Dominican chapter enact
that every lecturer in their university must know at least one of the
native languages. In 1654 attempt is made, but fruitlessly, to send a
mission to Japan; finally, five missionaries succeed in reaching China,
where they labor zealously to convert the heathen. The provincial
chosen in 1656 is Fray Jacinto Gali, but he dies soon afterward,
while visiting Cagayán; his place is taken by Fray Lucas Montanero. On
August 20, 1658, occurs an earthquake, itself more severe than that of
1645, but its succeeding shocks being lighter. The Dominican convent
is badly injured, and the friars with difficulty find lodgings. A
large reënforcement of missionaries arrives in this same year. At
the chapter-session of 1659, the Dominicans refuse to permit their
missionaries in China to accept offering of lands, fearing that
the Chinese may regard them as actuated by selfish motives. At that
of 1661, Fray Felipe Pardo (afterward famous as commissary of the
Inquisition and as archbishop of Manila) is elected provincial. Two
years later, arrangements are made for printing a ritual for use by
the missionaries of the order. In the same year (1663) Salcedo arrives
at Manila as governor; his career is briefly reviewed. The provincial
elected in 1665 is Fray Juan de los Angeles; and in the following year
thirty-nine more Dominicans join their brethren in Filipinas. The ship
which brings them is detained by bad weather on the coast of Sámar,
where a Jesuit missionary shows them all most generous hospitality,
refusing any compensation. A letter from the head of the Dominican
order to Morales is reproduced. In 1667 Archbishop Poblete dies at
Manila, after fourteen years' service. In that year the intermediary
chapter-session is held, at which measures are taken to restrain the
members of the order from unauthorized interference with, or censure
of, the civil government. Two more Dominicans arrive from Mexico in
1668, and the remarkable escape of one of them, with several other
Spaniards, from death by shipwreck is related. Several friars proceed,
amid great difficulties, to the Chinese missions. The Dominicans
are laboring among the Zambales, many of whom become Christians and
settle in mission villages; and they hope that they may soon do the
same for the heathen Irrayas.
An account of the Augustinian friars in the Philippines for 1641-70 is
furnished by Casimiro Diaz in his Conquistas. At the chapter-session of
1641, Fray Gerónimo de Medrano is elected provincial. Soon afterward,
Archbishop Guerrero dies; a sketch of his life and character is
presented by Diaz. Three years later, Medrano is succeeded by
Fray Alonso Carvajal; and Diego Fajardo comes as governor of the
islands, his personal and official character being outlined by our
writer. The threats of the Dutch, and their conquest of Hermosa, fill
the Spaniards with great anxiety. Unfortunately, Fajardo is dominated
by the influence of a favorite, Venegas, to which very ill results
are attributed. The peace made with the Moros is only temporary; for
when they see the Spaniards so harried by the Dutch they again infest
the Visayas. The Acapulco galleons arrive safely, although the Dutch
ships lie in wait for them. One of them carries the new archbishop
of Manila, who dies just before reaching the islands. In 1647 the
Augustinians choose Fray Diego de Ordás as their provincial. Soon
afterward, they decide to establish in Mexico a hospice for their
religious who must halt there on their journey from Spain to the
Philippines. In this same year the Dutch finally cease to molest
those islands; and in Jolo they are, although favored by the natives,
unable to dislodge the Spaniards. They are also foiled in an attack
on Zamboanga. An Augustinian friar is killed by the Negritos, of which
people Diaz gives an interesting description; this murder is afterward
avenged by Heaven, all concerned in it becoming lepers. Diaz mentions
in forcible terms the unhappiness, suffering, and terror caused in
Manila by the harsh measures of Fajardo's favorite. Another great
misfortune is the loss of the galleon "Encarnación," which brings
ruin to many citizens of Manila.
In 1650, Medrano is elected provincial of his order for the third
time. With much difficulty, the Augustinians finally succeed in
despatching a procurator to Spain to obtain a reënforcement of
missionaries. Diaz relates the events of 1651-52, mainly including
the harsh and illegal acts of Fajardo's favorite, Venegas, and the
latter's downfall--this being brought about by the courage of the
Augustinian provincial Medrano, who makes complaint of Venegas to the
governor. In 1653, Fray Andrés de Verdugo is elected provincial; and
the new governor, Manrique de Lara, arrives, with Archbishop Poblete,
and bishops for all the three suffragan sees. Fajardo is sent to
Spain, but dies on the voyage; his favorite Venegas dies in prison,
and all his property is confiscated. The new governor and archbishop
do all in their power to remedy the sad condition in which they
find Manila. The latter, however, attempts to enforce the right of
episcopal visitation of the friars in charge of parishes, whereupon
those posts are abandoned by the religious orders. The matter is
referred to the Audiencia, who enjoin the archbishop to suspend the
visitation in such cases until the Council of the Indias can take
action on the question; that Council did not support his claims. Diaz
discusses quite fully the subject of such visitation, largely from
the practical standpoint; he argues that the system in vogue in Nueva
España cannot be properly applied in Filipinas, where conditions are so
different. Poblete devotes his energies to rebuilding the cathedral,
which had been ruined in the earthquake of 1645; but many obstacles
hinder its completion, and it is not dedicated until 1671. In 1654
a reënforcement of Augustinian missionaries arrives, who are greatly
needed in the province. Brief notices of these are presented; all of
them are natives of Nueva España. Diaz relates the oppression of the
natives in the building of ships for Manila, which has been the cause
of several past insurrections; the loss of some galleons by shipwreck
is considered by many a judgment from Heaven on the cruelties practiced
on the natives in building those vessels. In 1656, Alonso Quijano is
elected provincial; during his term, many members of his province die,
and its burdens are very heavy. Ordás is again elected provincial in
1659. Diaz relates the great losses of the Philippine people during
Manrique de Lara's term, mainly by shipwrecks, which bury men, money,
and ships. Insurrections of the natives occur, which are quieted,
but at much loss and cost. In 1662 Fray Alonso Coronel is elected
provincial; especial attention is given by the Augustinians to their
missions in northern Luzón. The galleon sent out that year reaches
Acapulco in safety; this gives opportunity for the new governor
Salcedo and an Augustinian mission, who have been waiting long in
Mexico for a ship, to pass over to Filipinas. A Recollect mission
also arrives in the same expedition. Compelled by storms to land on
the coast of Cagayán, they all make their way overland to Manila,
experiencing great hardships. Diaz presents brief notices of all
the new missionaries of his order, and relates the more important
events in the early years of Salcedo's term of office. Dissensions
arise between the two new auditors, which later result in disaster
to the whole community. Manrique de Lara is sent back to Spain,
and exonerated from the charges made in his residencia. Salcedo
accomplishes much in shipbuilding and the extension of commerce. Fray
Alonso Quijano is reëlected provincial of the Augustinians in
1665; that chapter again refuses the governor's demand for lists
of its priests who act as curas, the Dominicans also declining to
furnish such information. In that same year the Augustinians begin
a mission to the Apayaos, in charge of the fervent Fray Benito de
Mena; he succeeds after many labors and hardships, in establishing
three villages of these converts. Salcedo determines "to undertake
some conquest that would result to the honor of God and extend the
Spanish government;" the council that he summons for advice on this
point agree (both military officers and superiors of religious orders)
that the most promising enterprise of this sort is the conquest of the
Igorot tribes in northern Luzón. Diaz gives a brief sketch of these
peoples, and relates their conquest by a Spanish expedition (1668),
and the subsequent conversion of many heathen there by Augustinian
missionaries.
Salcedo causes a galleon to be built at Albay, the largest and best
yet made in these islands. Diaz complains of the practice of sending
criminals from Mexico to Filipinas. In 1667, the first mission to
the Marianas Islands sets out; it is composed of Jesuits, under the
leadership of Sanvitores, later famous for his martyrdom in those
islands. The provincial elected by the Augustinians in 1668 is Fray
Dionisio Suárez, characterized later by our writer as being "more
angel than man." The number of missionaries in the order is far
too small for its needs (a lack shared also by the other orders),
and they are rejoiced when a reënforcement of seventeen religious
arrive in that same year at Manila. Certain shipwrecked people from
some remote and unknown island are driven at that time on the shores
of Capul Island; and some Spaniards are drowned while trying to cross
the Embocadero. Salcedo governs five years, incurring great enmities
among prominent persons in the community, which end in his arrest by
the Inquisition, and a harsh imprisonment until his death. Diaz, who
often visited Salcedo while in durance, gives an interesting sketch
of him, and praises his pious resignation and patience in affliction;
but he carefully refrains from further comment on the events connected
with Salcedo's arrest, or the persons engaged in it. Diaz mentions
very briefly the assumption of gubernatorial authority by the
auditor Bonifaz (whom he commends as discreet and disinterested),
and some of his notable acts during his brief rule. At one time, he
nearly loses his life by a musket-ball, whether fired intentionally
or not is uncertain. Salcedo is twice embarked for Nueva España, but
is driven back by storms on the first voyage, and dies while on the
second. In 1669 arrives the new governor, Don Manuel de León. His
government is praised, as establishing in the islands peace and
plenty; commerce flourishes, and there are no wars or revolts. With
León also arrive thirty-two new laborers for the Augustinian missions,
a welcome addition to their forces. The usurper Bonifaz takes refuge
in the Franciscan convent, where he remains until his death. The
Council of the Indias pronounces sentence against him, and renders
decision in favor of the auditor Coloma. In the spring of 1670 occurs
a religious function which had been long in disuse, the publication
in the cathedral of Manila of the edicts of the Inquisition; this is
accompanied by processions and various ceremonies. The Augustinian
province is enabled to conduct its labors much more satisfactorily,
and with greater results, by the aid of its new missionaries.
A rambling, gossipy account of Manila and the Philippines in the
middle of the seventeenth century, with much entertaining information
regarding persons and events therein, is furnished by the Dominican
friar Domingo F. Navarrete, in his Tratados historicos (Madrid,
1676); it is from relations of this sort, and on account of these
characteristics, that the student gains additional and valuable
side-lights on the history of any time or country. The Tratados
is mainly devoted to the empire of China, where its author was a
missionary during 1658-69; we present here (in both translation
and synopsis) such part as relates to his stay in the Philippines
(1648-53). Navarrete describes the journey thither, in picturesque and
lively fashion. Acapulco has "an infernal climate." The missionaries
are obliged to make the journey from Lampon to Manila by land, a trip
full of hardship and danger; but they are delighted with the beauty
of Pasig River, adorned with palaces, gardens, and villages. At the
time, the islands are governed by Diego Fajardo, who "had great gifts
for government, for he had a horror of money and of women." Navarrete
censures Corcuera for many things, among them the impositions levied
on the natives, which he describes in full; these occasion so much
oppression and extortion that the Indians flee from the islands,
or refuse to sow their fields. He mentions various instances of this
oppression. In rambling and discursive fashion he relates the leading
characteristics of the natives, the occupations of the missionaries,
the changes in official circles, etc. This document will be concluded
in VOL. XXXVIII.
The Editors
March, 1906.
MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS, 1669-1676
Events in Filipinas. [Unsigned; Francisco de Figueroa?]; January
15, 1669.
The Dominicans in the Philippines, 1641-69. Baltasar de Santa Cruz,
O.P.; 1676. [From his Historia.]
The Augustinians in the Philippines, 1641-70. Casimiro Diaz,
O.S.A.; 1718. [From his Conquistas.]
Manila and the Philippines about 1650 (to be concluded). Domingo
Fernandez Navarrete, O.P.; 1676. [From his Tratados historicos.]
Sources: The first of these documents is obtained from the Ventura
del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), ii, pp. 643-692. The second, from Santa
Cruz's Historia del Sant. Rosario (Zaragoça, 1693), pp. 44 et seq.;
from a copy in the possession of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago. The third,
from Diaz's Conquistas (Manila, 1890), pp. 444 et seq.; from a copy
in the possession of James A. Robertson. The fourth, from Navarrete's
Tratados historicos (Madrid, 1676), pp. 299-332; from a copy in the
Library of Congress; this document will be concluded in VOL. XXXVIII.
Translations: The first document is translated by Emma Helen Blair;
the remainder, by James A. Robertson.
EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1668
Copy of a letter written by a citizen of Manila to another at the
court in Madrid
It is notorious among all the people of these islands that Don Diego
Salcedo, [1] as soon as he took possession of their government,
deprived me of the command that I held as captain-general of the
artillery therein--without any further reason than that I was a
follower of Don Sabiniano Manrrique de Lara, his predecessor. The
latter governed these islands with ability as his works show--bestowing
honors with liberal hand on all the citizens of this state; and
rewarding all whose standing and services deserved it, and even
many more. How little gratitude he received for these favors may
be learned from his own confession and statement. He suffered much
in the residencia which he furnished of his government; although
he deserved to leave it with laurels, he experienced intolerable
severities inflicted by those whom he had most benefited. Don Diego was
not content with depriving me of my command, but desired to inflict
further injury upon me, and one which would result in more annoyance
to Don Sabiniano Manrrique de Lara--to whom I owe what I am; and I
have striven to repay, to some extent, by personal service the much
that I owed him by attending to the business matters that came up in
his residencia, and providing an outfit of stores for his voyage. In
order, therefore, to remove me from Don Sabiniano's side, Don Diego
commanded me to go with some infantry to protect the coast of the
province of Tayabas; he said that he had news that the armed fleets
of Borney and Mindanao were roaming about infesting the villages
of the island of Mindoro, and that they comprised 170 vessels. His
object, as above stated, was evident in the scanty equipment of
men and supplies that was furnished to me. I remained there until
Don Sabiniano entreated that I might be withdrawn [from that post],
since the time of his embarkation for Nueva España was very near,
and he desired to settle with me some matters relating to his outfit,
as his Lordship could not do this with any one else. But my permission
[to retire] came so late that when I arrived in this city Don Sabiniano
was already at the port of Cavite to go on shipboard; and I had only
five days in which to aid his Lordship, when the ship set sail. I bring
forward all this in order to show that I am not governed by prejudice.
Now, stating the case, I declare that on October 9 of this present
year at one o'clock at night the palace was entered by the father
commissary of the Holy Office, Fray Jose Paternina, with the two
alcaldes-in-ordinary, General Sebastian Rayo and Don Nicolas de
Pamplona, Sargento-mayor Diego de Morales, and Captains Don Gonzalo
Samaniego (a nephew of the commissary) and Don Juan de Vargas--both
citizens who hold that office in this royal camp, each commanding a
company; also Don Juan de Robles, and three or four others. Twenty
other men remained in various offices of the palace, and eighteen
or twenty friars of St. Francis all armed. These visitors seized
Don Diego immediately placing on him a pair of fetters; he was in
his shirt just as he was sleeping, and without giving him time to
put on his white drawers they thrust his Lordship into a hammock,
and carried him a prisoner to the convent of San Francisco. There
they shut him within a cell with soldiers as guards to secure his
person. The company who were on guard in the palace, on hearing the
noise, were ready to spring to their arms; but the master-of-camp--who
was Don Agustin de Zepeda, whom I have already mentioned, went to
make the guard-room safe, and gave orders that no one should stir,
because the Inquisition had been performing its duty.
By morning the news of this unheard-of occurrence had spread around;
and by the time the city gates were opened the people were in
amazement, which could only be understood by one who should know by
experience the greatness and power of a governor of these islands. I
was alcalde-mayor of the province of Tondo, and it gave me no little
anxiety to notice the mutterings of the Indians who seemed to be
rising out of a deep lethargy.
[As for the question] whether the Holy Office could act without the
coöperation of the supreme authority here, since [the governor is]
a personage who represents in these islands the royal person, there
is not a learned person in the two religious orders of St. Dominic
and the Society who will not answer it in the negative. And as the
loyal vassal has no greater obligation than to obey the commands of
his king and natural lord, and in regard to the faith, that which is
taught by our mother the Roman Catholic Church, without [giving it]
any other interpretation than that given by the holy doctors of the
Church, I know not what to say, since I will not withdraw from this
or retract one jot. The disputes which Don Diego, when he came from
Nueva España to govern these islands, had with the father commissary
Fray Jose Paternina over some differences and grievances were public
and notorious; and those whom the father commissary carried with him
[for this arrest] were nearly all enemies of Don Diego. It is not a
rash assumption by those who are more inclined to reflect that this
affair was thus hurried through more through passion than through
virtuous zeal. I base my opinion on the following reasons, not to
mention many others which I reserve for their proper time, as I have
not leisure at present for writing more at length--submitting myself
to the correction of the Holy Office; for I am, and am proud of being,
a Christian Catholic and a descendant of the Catholic knights.
The first, as I said, was that the father commissary was at outs
with his Lordship on account of disputes between them during the
voyage. Moreover, the father commissary was poor and his provincial,
father Fray Alonso Quijano, had not provided him with any post
as prior in his order, and had not treated the commissary as
the latter wished. Then too, the governor had given no office to
Captain Don Gonzalo Samaniego, the commissary's nephew--whom his
uncle the commissary so valued, and so endeavored to provide for;
and, although the nephew was appointed a captain in this royal camp,
he was not captain of any company on account of the scarcity of men,
since the reënforcements sent by the viceroy of Nueva España to his
Lordship were very limited.
The master-of-camp was a declared enemy, because a few months before
Don Diego had arrested him and placed him in the castle of Santiago
at the port of Cavite, and brought suit against him--from which he
afterward came out free.
[The same is true of] General Sebastian Rayo for the following reason:
that during the five years while Don Diego was governor Don Sebastian
was twice arrested--once by order of Don Francisco Coloma, former judge
of the residencia of Don Sabiniano, on account of matters pertaining
to the said residencia; and because on Corpus Christi day, when it
was celebrated this year, he refused to allow the captain of the
guard, Don Juan de Ezquerra, to walk in the place belonging to the
alcaldes. [General Sebastian Rayo], not wishing the captain of the
guard to retire from his place accompanying the procession, turned
toward his Lordship, and in a loud voice said to the [officials of]
the city of Manila, "Only his Majesty and those who represent his
royal person can settle this matter, and no one else can do so with
proper zeal." His Lordship was displeased at the manner in which
he spoke to him in so public a place, while walking in the group of
the Audiencia with the honorable auditors, and regarded his speech as
disrespectful. When the procession was ended, the governor ordered the
general to be arrested and placed in the castle at the port of Cavite,
bringing suit against him. During this interval, the said General Rayo
was at the point of death; for he was in distress from the dampness of
that locality and the disease of beri-beri from which he suffered. At
his petition the governor removed the general to the city, so that
he might stay in his house as a prisoner, until the conclusion of his
suit; but the imprisonment of his Lordship occurred before that time.
Captain Don Nicolas de Pamplona, the second alcalde, also bore a grudge
against his Lordship--partly on account of the said imprisonment of
the master-of-camp, Don Agustin de Cepeda, his brother-in-law; and
partly because his Lordship had imprisoned him also, because complaint
had been made to his Lordship by father Fray Pedro Bautista, former
provincial of the Order of St. Francis, that the said captain while
alcalde-mayor of the province of Bulacan had levied a repartimiento
of Indians to cut timber for building his house in the city.
Sargento-mayor Diego de Morales was also resentful because his
Lordship sent him to the province of Cagayan for military service,
and it is not long since he was recalled thence.
The provincial of St. Francis, Fray Francisco Solier, was a man of very
little discretion although virtuous; and the [Franciscan] guardian,
Fray Mateo de la Asuncion (who was quite uneducated) came two years ago
with a shipment of forty religious of his order. The other fathers,
his subordinates, did not conceal their anger against his Lordship
for having commanded them to take out of the ship that sailed this
year for Nueva España the custodio [2] whom they were sending thither;
they did not consider the grants that his Lordship had made to their
order--at one time giving them 5,000 pesos by means of which they
were able to complete their church, which had a representation of
Paradise. They talked so indiscreetly about the governor that many
persons were afraid to hear them. Similar things could be said of
the rest who were present at the seizure of his Lordship.
Having arrested the governor, that very night the father commissary
wrote a letter to the auditors, who had met in a session of Audiencia,
informing them of the imprisonment of the governor and demanding
that they open his Majesty's decrees, in order to carry out the royal
will--since his Majesty commands that in an emergency when there is
lack of a governor, either through death or for other reasonable
cause, the royal Audiencia shall govern in civil affairs, and the
senior auditor in military matters. Don Francisco Coloma undertook to
assume the military government as the senior auditor in the court;
but this was opposed by Don Francisco Mansilla, who claimed that he
was the senior because he took the oath one week before Señor Coloma
did so. He said that although afterward he allowed Señor Coloma to
take precedence, it was through his fear of the governor, Don Diego
de Salcedo--because the latter came from España on very intimate
terms with Señor Coloma, and his Lordship desired Señor Coloma to
take precedence and never surrender his rank as senior.
Señor Coloma alleged the fact that he was in possession, and other
arguments, and nothing was settled; and as the desire and the ambition
to command were shared alike by all, the cunning of Don Juan Manuel de
la Peña Bonifaz [3] was employed for his appointment as judge of the
controversy. This he soon obtained, [the others] thinking that he would
quickly settle the difficulty. He said that he had no notes of the acts
which had been issued regarding this case, and, that he might come
to a clearer understanding, these should be handed over to him; and
stated that in a few days he would announce his decision regarding the
difference in priority. All agreed to this; but immediately another and
more important question arose--who was to hold the [disputed] authority
in the interval while Don Juan Manuel was deciding the question of
seniority? The latter, as one who was sagacious, finding himself now
the umpire of the dispute, told Señor Coloma that his position would
be aided by depositing the authority in his hands [i.e., Don Juan's];
and he said the same to Señor Mansilla. As each one of the claimants
desired to propitiate Don Juan in behalf of his respective claims,
both agreed that the authority should be deposited in his hands--not
heeding the numberless difficulties that might result from this, as
was actually the case. For, finding that he possessed the military
command, he began his schemes that very morning--paying compliments to
the officers and displaying great kindness to the soldiers, pitying
them for their many privations. Then, taking the money of Governor
Don Diego de Salcedo which had been seized, [4] on that very day,
the night after Don Diego's arrest, Don Juan ordered the signal to be
given for calling the soldiers together, and paid the infantry their
arrears of wages. All, delighted with the money then received and the
greater amounts that they expected afterward, rendered thanks to the
possessor, or rather usurper of the new post of command; for it has
ever been that novelty is applauded by the common crowd.
The two claimants continued their efforts to assert their rights; but,
without hearing them or waiting for anything more, the new commander
issued an act after consulting two advocates, the licentiates Don
Eugenio Gutierrez de Mendoza and Don Juan de Rosales, [5] without
consulting or even noticing the fiscal of his Majesty, whom by right
this matter concerned--for as the parties had a year or two before
referred the decision regarding this seniority to the royal Council,
his Majesty [alone] could not settle this point; and accordingly
until the royal and supreme Council should render their decision,
the [disputed] authority must remain ad interim in his gift. Don
Juan ordered Tomas de Palenzuela y Zurbaran, a notary-public and his
confidant, to proceed to notify the parties and the fiscal. Señor
Coloma, for reasons and motives of his own, consented to the act;
Señor Mansilla replied that he had arguments to bring forward, and
the same reply was given on the part of the treasury.
During this interval the self-appointed governor made every effort
to transfer his sway to the palace; and by the advice and opinion on
this damnable intention given by his two confidants--Don Francisco de
Figueroa, a crafty man of a perverse disposition; in conjunction with
the turbulent nature of his second confidant, the notary Zurbaran--he,
chosen by himself, commanded the companies of the soldiery to march,
and with a squadron of horse took possession [of the palace]. The
people were amazed, not knowing what to do at sight of so monstrous
an act; and he who was most ambitious was most silent at seeing the
new and hasty introduction of the auditor Don Juan Manuel [into the
government]--astonished that this man (although he was the most
recent of the auditors, and his Majesty commands that in case of
the governor's death or other emergency, the senior auditor should
direct military affairs), although excluded by the said decree,
could usurp the government by the power which he had in a few hours
obtained. From that time the minds of some persons were continually
inflamed with anger, although it was dissimulated on account of the
distrust which very properly prevailed toward him; but I will leave
this for a later account.
Don Juan Manuel continued his rule apparently in peace, although many
persons were greatly irritated at his conduct; but, as conscience
pricked him, he lived in fear and with more anxiety than was necessary,
for the companies of soldiers were all stationed near the palace
where he now lived as the superior who had gained entrance therein. [6]
A very few days later, the gentlemen of the royal Audiencia with the
fiscal of his Majesty went at day-break to take refuge in the house
of the Society of Jesus in this city--availing themselves of the
sacred house for the greater peace and quiet of the community. There,
seating themselves in a suitable apartment, they held a session
[of the Audiencia]; and for this purpose had made arrangements to
carry with them the small seal which the chancellor, Don Tomas
de Castro, had procured. From that place the Audiencia summoned
the city [council], who immediately went thither in obedience
to this call--the two alcaldes and the regidors--as also did the
sargento-mayor and master-of-camp of the garrison. This being learned
by the usurper--because not all went, as would doubtless happen--he
immediately commanded that the soldiers be assembled; and he issued
a proclamation that all under penalty of death and being considered
traitors to his Majesty, should resort to the palace where he was, and
not to the house of the Society of Jesus where the auditors were. This
was promptly obeyed, because Don Juan was found to be the commander of
the troops. Herein the people did not sin through evil intentions, for
they are very loyal to his Majesty, but through ignorance, not knowing
whom they ought to obey, or what was most to his Majesty's service;
and as they heard proclamations summoning them all to the palace,
under penalty of incurring treason to the king, they quickly obeyed.
The usurper being hindered by warlike preparations, the gentlemen
[of the Audiencia] occupied themselves in issuing orders addressed to
all persons of high standing and to the military officers, [7] that
they should immediately, under penalty of being considered traitors
to his Majesty, proceed to the house of the Society of Jesus. When
the usurper learned this, he forestalled their intentions by sending
a large body of infantry, who completely surrounded the college on
the outside--with the strictest orders that they should not allow any
person to enter it of any class whatever, nor would he even allow their
ordinary provisions to be carried in--using sophistical arguments to
assure the common people that no one was required by obedience to go
there, for the meeting of the auditors was of no account since they
did not hold it in the accustomed place and hall.
In order to prevent disturbances, the auditors desiring peace and
general tranquillity issued a royal decree in order that the usurper
might become obedient [to their authority]. Therein they stated that
as Don Francisco de Montemayor y Mansilla had surrendered the right
of seniority that he claimed, the authority of captain-general had in
the name of his Majesty been handed over, and its possession given
to Don Francisco Coloma for the government of military affairs, in
fulfilment of the royal will. [8] The delivery of this royal decree
into the hands of the usurper was entrusted to the zeal of the Society
of Jesus, which always has been steadfast in the royal service; for no
layman dared do this, seeing him so carried away by the desire to rule
and in possession of the military force. Some of those fathers went to
the palace (Father Geronimo de Ortega, lecturer in theology, bearing
the decree) and gave themselves into the power of the usurper--who,
ignorant of their mission, at once received them; he answered the
fathers with insolence, using offensive language toward them.
The speaker [i.e., father Ortega] explained to him that the colleges
of the Society always stood and would stand with open doors to receive
the king our sovereign, for its members are his loyal vassals; for
that reason the religious while awaiting the decision of the usurper,
patiently endured not only the epithets cast at them by the ignorant
rabble, calling them "traitors" and "rebels," but also the language
of even Fray Francisco Solier who spoke to them very rudely. There
were also other annoyances which I must omit, and which should be
imputed to Fray Francisco and his guardian and to the commissary of
the Holy Office; for although each one of these ought to have been
attending to his duty, ambition kept them all three at the palace,
which they did not leave for a moment.
The usurper, carefully seeking arguments for a reply to the auditors
in order to justify his purpose--and on one side being stimulated
by conscience to the blind obedience which he ought, as a vassal of
his Majesty, to give to the royal decree; and on the other, being
dominated by self-love and the ambition to gain power and riches,
which distracted his mind--tried to obtain from some of his mercenary
confidants those arguments which were best suited to his desires, as
among those who surrounded him there were not lacking some in whom
depraved purposes had the ascendant. Don Juan preferred the advice
of his special confidant, Don Francisco de Figueroa, who counseled
the usurper to notify the people that the royal Audiencia which was
at the house of the Society because the auditors had gone there to
organize it, had sent to the palace to summon him under penalty of
treason to his Majesty if he did not at once render obedience; that
accordingly all should consider whether or not it was expedient for
him to go. [He advised him], as is proper in a community, to go about
but a little while waiting for those persons of highest station who
form its head. Figueroa showed his cunning by notifying some of his
intimates to reply (as they actually did) that it was not expedient
for the usurper to go to the Society's house; but that the auditors
should come to hold their sessions in their customary and proper place,
the hall [of the Audiencia], and that then he was under obligations to
obey [the summons]. Thereupon the rest agreed with this opinion of the
first speaker; and, in order to justify his evil conduct and impute
it to the people, he caused them all to assemble together--although
some recognizing the mistake avoided this by going out without being
noticed, being overlooked among those who were discussing the affair;
and with the above decision they sent away the religious.
The usurper tried in various ways to break up the assembly of the
auditors and the city officials, who were at the Society's house. The
first was a plan to beguile with promises Captain Don Nicolas de
Pamplona, one of the two alcaldes-in-ordinary, to induce him to leave
the house; and this succeeded, on account of his lack of sense. For,
carried away by those promises, he asked the auditors' permission to
go to his house and visit his wife--who, as they informed him, was
in the pains of childbirth--protesting that he would return; but as
soon as he went out, he went to see the usurper, who ordered him not
to go back under penalty of being a traitor to his Majesty--without
heeding that Don Nicolas was an alcalde-in-ordinary and could not
be subordinated to him, even if he were legitimately the military
governor, but only to the auditors, who directed the civil government.
It was not so easy to persuade his companion, General Sebastian Rayo,
who, as a man of ability in these matters, knew that the royal
person resided in his court and not in the usurper. The latter,
in order to trample on any opposition to his plans, committed the
greatest iniquity than man's imagination can conceive; this was
to avail himself of his intimate friend the commissary of the Holy
Office, to take General Rayo under pretext of [a requisition from] the
Inquisition from the Society's house. The commissary, carried away by
his own personal aims and his ignorance and taking advantage of the
peace and quiet prevailing among the people (which, he hinted, was
[the result of] his own religious zeal), gave orders, as commissary
of the holy tribunal, to Don Geronimo de Leiva, commissary in the
province of Ylocos, and to Captain Don Luis de Monrroy, notary of
the Holy Office, to go with their badges displayed and in behalf of
the Inquisition. They summoned the said alcalde, Sebastian Rayo,
who as a Catholic Christian immediately obeyed--much to his cost;
for the usurper, annoyed that he had to employ the holy tribunal in
order to secure the general, availed himself of the suit that Don
Diego de Salcedo had brought against him, and kept him a long time
prisoner in his house under the guard of soldiers.
The city council being thus broken up, the royal court still remained
entire, which gave the usurper no little anxiety in plotting the
means most suitable for securing the object of his longing. For this
purpose he sent a message to the auditors that they must within a
very limited time hold their sessions at the palace, under penalty
of death if they did not obey, since they were causing disturbances
and were violating the peace; and he declared that he would aim the
artillery at the college of the fathers.
In these and other unheard-of evil acts the usurper and his counselors
continued; and the auditors went on issuing writs to the more prominent
citizens commanding that they should, under penalties of death and
being considered traitors to his Majesty, render obedience to the
auditors, since the royal person resided only in his court. These
efforts were useless, for the guards posted by the usurper permitted
no person to leave or enter the house; but the auditors spent two
days and a night in these occupations without descending from their
tribunal for a moment--with courage enough to render up their souls
in the service of his Catholic Majesty.
The usurper was surprised to see his designs frustrated, and, knowing
the great love that Don Francisco de Coloma had for his wife, made
arrangements, availing himself of the cunning and subtlety of his
counselor General Don Francisco de Figueroa, that the latter should
go in company with General Francisco Garcia del Fresno in his name
to talk with the wife of Señor Coloma, giving her to understand that
if the auditors did not depart [from the Society's house] within the
limit of three hours, he had already resolved to end the affair in
blood. The unhappy lady, as soon as she heard this decision from the
envoys, entered her sedan-chair and went to the Society's church;
she sent some one to call her husband, and they remained alone in
conversation. The result of this meeting was, that Don Francisco
without being seen by any one entered his wife's chair, leaving her in
the church, and went to his own house. Thus the wickedness of General
Figueroa, the usurper's counselor, succeeded in breaking up the royal
court, since the only persons remaining were Señor Mansilla and his
Majesty's fiscal.
That the usurper might better take vengeance on Don Francisco de
Mansilla y Montemayor, he assured him through the agency of the father
vicar-provincial Fray Diego de San Roman, and the schoolmaster Fray
Juan de Paz (who were shining lights in the Dominican order), that
Señor de Mansilla and the fiscal could go with all safety to their own
houses, and that he would do them no injury; consequently they began
to feel relief from the extreme hardship that they had suffered. On
the next day the auditors were unable on account of their fatigue
to repair to the Audiencia; and immediately, on that same night,
[the usurper] ordered the arrest of Don Francisco de Mansilla by
the soldiers, placing him in the castle at the port of Cavite. He
ordered the guards under severe penalties not to allow Señor Mansilla
to speak to any person, and this lasted many days. At the entreaties
of the superiors of the religious orders he was allowed to receive
communion, but not to leave the castle--where I will leave him,
in order to continue with other things that were happening.
The tyrant had obtained his greatest desire, and terrified [any who
might oppose him] with the example of Señor Coloma. The usurper
proceeded with his rule, rewarding most those who most deserved
punishment for their enormous crimes. He appointed persons to offices
giving the chief and best one, which was that of Calamianes, with
the title of sargento-mayor of the fleet of Yloilo to Captain Don
Gonzalo Samaniego, the only nephew of his best friend, the commissary
of the Holy Office--who also recommended those who showed themselves
most prominent in the arrest of Don Diego de Salcedo. This the tyrant
readily and gladly followed, giving the charge of the Sangleys' Parian
to Captain Diego de Palencia, and honoring with new appointments as
admirals Captain Don Juan Robles y Cortes and Captain Don Juan de
Vargas Machuca; and he rewarded not only the others who assisted in
the said imprisonment, but those who most aided the usurper for their
own private advantage.
As the usurper was supplied with a large quantity of money--that which
he had seized from Don Diego, and the situado [9] which had just
arrived from Nueva España--he undertook to be generous at the cost
of his Majesty in order to conciliate others, issuing money-orders
and making payments at his pleasure. Accordingly, the first business
which he despatched was to issue a warrant to himself, not only for
what the king owed him, but, as that was not sufficient for him,
[he added] several thousands more on account of what would yet be due
for his official services; [10] and for his son, a boy of eight or
nine years, who held a military office--which, as it was needless, Don
Diego would have abolished--he ordered the certification and payment of
the entire amount. To satisfy those whose support was important to him
and to justify himself to the people, he ordered that all the arrears
[of pay] which the royal treasury was owing to the auditors be paid in
full; and afterward [only] what he allowed was paid to them. Nor was
anything paid to such persons as were not concerned with the arrest
of Don Diego, or at least [approved] his detention in prison.
As so much property had been seized from Don Diego, [11] especially
in jewels and gold, there was occasion for temptation to the most
upright man when the inventories were made; and, after it was placed
in the royal treasury, for cunning schemes to acquire many ducados
with this wealth. [12] The first scheme, which was adroitly planned by
the usurper's confidant General Figueroa, was that all the gold which
had been seized should be sold--alleging the pretext that if it were
kept for a later time it would depreciate in value, and his Majesty
would incur great loss; for at this time, as the foreign ships were
here which came to procure gold, it had [a greater] value. Without
any one's understanding the matter, all the gold whether wrought or
not was sold at auction to the said General Figueroa at the rate
of fourteen pesos a tael (which is a weight of ten silver reals)
for the wrought gold, and thirteen pesos a tael for the unwrought;
but he had previously bargained with the foreigners to take all the
gold, at seventeen pesos a tael for the wrought and fifteen for the
unwrought. [This was done] so that the usurper might divide up the
surplus with a profit of more than 14,000 pesos, the proceeds on the
quantity of six thousand taels (counting wrought and unwrought) which
was placed in the royal treasury. As I remonstrated that this baseness
had been committed against God and the king, they were fearful and
reopened the auction on the following day, saying that the usurper
was unwilling that all the gold should be sold to one man only--as if
it would be difficult for craft to arrange that the gold should be
divided up among ten or twenty persons, all tending toward the same
end, that of their selfishness and greed. Recognizing their object,
I alleged that--granted that their intention is that all the gold
should not be sold to one citizen only, for which reason the sale of
the preceding day was annulled--after I asked the price of the gold,
I desired to obtain 1,000 taels of the unwrought gold, offering on
the spot fourteen pesos a tael for the said gold, and saying that,
if I were allowed to carry away all the unwrought gold at that price,
I would take it. They showed surprise and were annoyed at me, but
finally concluded the sale at the said price of fourteen pesos. Only
some 1,400 [taels] were sold, leaving the rest for other auctions;
and it was not certain, [to judge] by those that afterward were held,
whether all the remainder of the gold was sold at the same price of
fourteen pesos; for some lots were knocked down at thirteen pesos.
For these and other evil acts Fortune supplied the usurper, for a
notary with the man who has the worst reputation and most malicious
designs of any in these islands, named Tomas de Palenzuela y Zurbaran,
who is well known to everyone. The usurper prepares his documents and
despatches with this man only, in whom he has great confidence and
by whom due form is given to his unjust and illegal acts. Further,
the fiscal of his Majesty has demanded by repeated letters, that [the
gold] be not sold; but he has never answered these or numberless other
letters which the said fiscal has written regarding the imprisonment
of Don Francisco de Mansilla, and on various other matters which he
has demanded (as he is continually doing). And as the fiscal was ill,
the usurper appointed Licentiate Antonio Quijano, an advocate in this
royal Audiencia, that he might be present, as he has been on behalf
of the fiscal, at the auction sales which have been made of the goods
of Don Diego.
The religious orders persisted in asking for the release of the
auditor Don Francisco de Mansilla, as also did many influential
persons; but they did not succeed. They caused the usurper, however,
much sorrow at seeing that the auditor had so much popularity, while
his own tyrannical disposition desired that all the citizens should
countenance his iniquitous conduct in the unjust imprisonment of the
auditor--which his own fears had accomplished, since the session
of the royal Audiencia could not be held without Señor Mansilla;
for no one was left except Señor Coloma, and he could not constitute
the Audiencia alone and without another auditor. It is clear that
his ambition craved adulation of his evil act, for tyranny always
experiences profound fears and suspicions, which conscience stimulates.
To palliate his wicked conduct toward the innocence of Señor
Mansilla, he schemed to bring suit against him for trafficking in
barter and merchandise--although the poor gentleman never intended or
even imagined engaging in that pursuit--bringing forward witnesses
according to his own liking. Among those who were sworn was one who
was the most malicious intimate of General Don Francisco de Figueroa;
and he testified before the above-mentioned notary, Tomas de Palenzuela
y Zurbaran, the declared enemy of the imprisoned auditor. It was a
divine Providence that Señor Mansilla was not accused of an infamous
crime, for that would have gone through very easily.
The usurper became tired of the said letters from the fiscal
of his Majesty, who, sick as he was and is, in order not to fail
in the obligations of his office, was continually at work at the
evident risk of his health in requiring the information that was
due him--although without any result; for, as I said, they now did
not answer his letters, and their only care was to find some way of
exiling him, declaring that he was a disturber of the peace. Indeed,
I think that no long time will elapse without his being suspended from
the exercise of the office that was conferred upon him by his Majesty;
and the cause of that will be [the usurper's] wicked intentions.
The tyrant knew well that among so many there could not fail to be
some loyal hearts who, as they could not for lack of power check his
insolent acts, did not openly express their desire to avail themselves
of whatever opportunity time might present to distinguish themselves
in the service of both Majesties; and even if they could not do so
with deeds, at least they would write to his Majesty giving him an
account of all that had happened, so that the prompt remedy that so
difficult affairs as these require might be applied, and the islands
not be exposed to destruction. Although these islands are in the
view of so many nations, nothing of what I have related leaked out,
so deep was his mistrust; for he took precautions by detaining here
the ships from all the neighboring kingdoms without permitting one
of them to depart until the middle of January--at which time no
one could reach the English and Dutch ships, which sail every year
from Batavia and Ba[n]tan for Europa in the middle of December--in
order to hold this government for a longer time (of which we who are
loyal desire [to give] information) instructed by his confidant, the
traitor General Figueroa. The losses and expenses which he caused
to the ambassadors of kings, the owners of private ships, by this
detention cannot be estimated; nor can I relate the complaints which
all uttered regarding this unexpected action.
For the greater suffering and punishment of the community, the demon
kept the usurper so blind that he concluded that he could with money
perpetuate himself in the government. Accordingly he opened the door
for greed by means of his chaplain, who is an outcast Carmelite from
Mexico. This man, on account of serious disturbances which he caused
in his province and the murder of their provincial by some of his
associates, with another man of his faction was, with them, banished
to these regions, their sacred habits being taken from them. As soon
as this man arrived at these islands, the tyrant, who was then an
auditor, sheltered him in his house; his name is Don Gabriel Coronel;
and the agreements in lawsuits and the gifts of all the traders are
settled with him.
[Complaint was made by] the ambassador of the king of Siam and
his factor--who came to take care of the goods which he carried
on account of his king, in order to dispose of them profitably in
this city--and another Moro, a citizen of the said kingdom, named
Juan Guaroni, who came with the ambassador as administrator of the
property which the ruler of the said kingdom had surrendered to
Don Diego de Salcedo. It was demanded from him for purchase, [and
comprised] thirty-two cates and nine onzas of musk; thirty-two onzas
of ambergris; ten bezoar stones, and one of porcupine; six pieces
of sarasas; [13] six [word omitted?] of cocoanuts; and eight pieces
of chintz--altogether worth 3,500 pesos, for which they had not been
paid. For, a few days before the imprisonment of Don Diego, these goods
had been handed over, and the contract had not even been solemnized;
and then, as the said arrest occurred, they proceeded to the presence
of the commissary of the Holy Office asking that the said goods be
returned to them or else that they receive satisfaction for their just
value. He commanded that a copy [of this demand] be given to the party
[concerned], who immediately acknowledged the entire amount; besides,
they proved by a great number of sworn witnesses that the said goods
had been handed over to Don Diego, and no payment had been made for
them. The affair being so thoroughly verified--as will appear by
the said acts, to which I refer--the said commissary refused to give
any orders until the ambassador and the others understood the road
[to be taken] and availed themselves of the expelled Carmelite, the
usurper's chaplain; and an agreement was reached with him, and they
purchased justice for seven hundred pesos--five hundred pesos for
the usurper, and the remaining two hundred for his intimate friend,
the commissary of the Holy Office. They handed over the silver by
the hands of the said Don Juan Guaroni, the said ambassador and all
being scandalized at seeing persons of so high position committing so
shameless acts--especially the commissary. As a proof of his lack of
sense, he went out one day through the public streets with his badge
exposed, hanging from a bunch of little gold chains; and during a
period of more than two months continuously all the officials of
the holy tribunal went about wearing their badges displayed, to the
offense and general dread of all the people. As for the condition in
which these islands are, I leave it to the most moderate person to
consider [what it must be] when they are governed by an usurper--[and
that] through his chaplain, a man expelled from a religious order
so austere as is that of the Carmelites of the City of Mexico; he
is also a friend of Father Paternina, a revengeful man, who for his
own private purposes accused, by writing, before his provincial a
religious of his own province named Fray Cristobal de Leon, a native
of Monforte de Lemos. [This Fray Cristobal] had attained in his order
all the most honorable positions save that of provincial; [but Father
Paternina accused him] of practicing usury and being a Jew, [pursuing
him] with such persistency and hatred that he did not halt until he
had caused Fray Cristobal's death by a rigorous imprisonment. For this
religious, in view of the unjust treatment inflicted on him, taxed the
said commissary with being disqualified for being his own relator,
[14] since he had been a galley-slave sentenced by the general of
his order at the convent of Burgos. Witnesses were brought forward,
men who had served on that very galley--in particular, a religious
named Fray Diego Gutierrez, a son of the convent of San Felipe el Real
at Madrid, who related the affair with abundant proofs and affirmed
that it was true; indeed, I had several times before heard it from
witnesses worthy of confidence.
The tyrant remained in constant mistrust at seeing that although he
held the auditor Don Francisco de Montemayor a prisoner in the castle
at the port of Cavite, he was distant not more than three leguas from
this city, and that he might make his escape some night and cross the
bay in some little vessel and come to join Señor Coloma; then they
could form a quorum of the Audiencia and punish the lawless acts that
he had committed. In order to prevent such a suspected emergency,
he determined to exile the auditor [15] to the province of Oton, or
to some other at a distance of more than 200 leguas from this city;
and this was done, the blow being inflicted on December 30 of the past
year 1668 (the tyrant adopting the nefarious scheme of his notary,
Tomas de Palenzuela y Zurbaran) with a party of paid soldiers without
the poor devil knowing where his voyage ended. For this purpose,
the notary carried to the castellan of the said port of Cavite [16]
(a confidant of the usurper) an order that he should, as soon as he
had received it, command his sargento-mayor, Captain Juan Gomez de
Paiba, to go with a sufficient number of soldiers and the notary to
take away from the fort the auditor Don Francisco de Mansilla and
place him aboard the champan which was already prepared for this
voyage. When they undertook to execute the said order against the
person of the said auditor, the latter notified the sargento-mayor
not only once but several times to be careful what he did, since
a mere sargento-mayor was not the person to arrest a councilor of
his Majesty; that this matter belonged to no inferior official,
and that he would not go without an order from the royal court. He
declared that if his person were treated with disrespect, he would
regard the officer as a traitor to the king; and as the civil governor
(which he is) he ordered him to summon the castellan, for he already
imagined evil to himself. The sargento-mayor went out, and came
back with the same order--adding that if the auditor refused to go
on board willingly they would place him in the ship by force. They
had stubborn controversies; then the father vicar of St. Dominic at
the said port came up and advised the auditor what was best for him
at the present time, regarding which they did not agree. Finally the
sargento-mayor ordered, since his castellan had thus commanded, that
four soldiers, the strongest in his detachment, should attack the
auditor. The latter defended himself for a long time with a small
staff that he had in his hand, declaring and protesting that any
man who should dare to injure his person was a traitor to the king;
but finally he gave up exhausted, and they carried him aboard the
champan--which immediately set sail without giving him opportunity to
take with him anything, whether clothing or comforts, for his personal
use. All this occurred at nine o'clock at night on the said day,
December 30--the poor gentleman leaving his house and his family of
marriageable daughters unprotected, in unending affliction and tears,
without knowing to what place their father had been banished. [17]
The usurper made strenuous efforts to learn who had consented to
his having, by securing the command and authority, trampled on the
obedience that was due and which he ought to give to the commands of
the royal court; and, as he succeeded in learning that I was one of
those who most keenly resented his acts--with some other gentlemen,
although not many--and that I had rendered obedience to the royal
decree which the auditors had sent me and had very carefully observed
it while they were in power, he conceived a special hatred against
those who were of my opinion. This was particularly directed
against me on account of my not having displayed and showed to
him the royal decree, which, as I say, I hold; another reason was,
because I had said as I now say, that the commissary of the Holy
Office could not carry out the arrest of Don Diego without consulting
the supreme authority--except in a case where he feared the flight
[of the accused]. And even if any governor intended to act thus, the
[interference of the] Holy Office was not necessary, since the royal
Audiencia was more than sufficient to secure his person. But I do
not say that the father commissary may not have sufficient authority
to make, as he did, the said arrest. For this reason, and because I
am a loyal vassal of his Majesty, with a few other gentlemen toward
whom the usurper felt no good-will, he [treated us as he did] without
further cause than the deposition of a captain named Don Juan Manuel
de Corcuera. This man declared that his comrade, Captain Don Luis
de Matienzo, had told him that Don Diego had sent to a lady a list
containing the names of those who were loyal, in order that they might
release him from the rigorous imprisonment in which he was and is,
[18] and replace him in his command and government. He said that the
said Captain Luis disclosed it to him, and showed the said list to
General Don Fernando de Bobadilla, charging him to make me acquainted
with it, in order to make arrangements for setting his Lordship
at liberty. The usurper found [in this a] means for his vengeance,
and accordingly gave immediate information to the father commissary,
his intimate friend--who on December 13 of the past year 68, about
eight o'clock at night, ordered that all of us concerned therein or
on the [above] list should be arrested. [19] This order was executed
during the day-break watch, and we were placed in this fortress of
Santiago--General Fernando de Bobadilla, a well-known gentleman of
Sevilla; Sargento-mayor Don Nicolas Sarmiento y Paredes; and myself. In
other dungeons, in the guard-house, they confined Admiral Juan de
Ytamarrin; the captain of cuirassiers, Don Antonio Lopez de Quirós
(who was in Flandes); and Captain Don Luis de Matienzo, a dependant
of his Lordship. The strictest orders were given [to our guards]
on penalty of death, that no one could see us or speak to us, and
besides, to keep us all in strongly-riveted fetters, and in dark and
close dungeons.
As all men went about in fear and amazement at what they had seen,
the infliction of harsh treatment and imprisonment on the said Don
Francisco de Montemayor without his prerogatives as councilor of
his Majesty and one of the civil governors availing him, it was not
necessary to know more than that the usurper sent to summon any man
at an unseasonable hour of night in order to have him promptly taken
within the church [i.e., for sanctuary]. Accordingly as soldiers went
on the night I have mentioned asking for General Don Diego Cortes and
his Majesty's factor, Sargento-mayor Juan de Verastian, those persons
knew that they were under suspicion, and were smuggled into the convent
of San Nicolas in this city belonging to the discalced Augustinians;
the convent was immediately searched. He secured that the church was
of no avail to them, since those persons were also proscribed [i.e.,
by the Inquisition]; however, the soldiers did not come across them.
The prisoners spent one week thus confined and harshly treated,
and at the end of that time they conveyed us all closely guarded and
[exposed] to public shame to the tyrant's palace--which was full of
people, who came to see what had never before been seen--men of rank
and station conveyed in such guise and with so great clamor. The
guards proceeded through the halls passing us from one to another
until we reached the next to the last--where sat the usurper with
Licentiate Manuel Suarez de Olivera, whom he appointed as associate
judge, and who was receiving the confessions of all. Without any
blame resulting [to us from these] and without giving us a copy of
the charges, they notified us of our banishment and stated that this
was done at the request of the father commissary of the Holy Office,
for the greater security of the custody and person of Señor Diego de
Salcedo. Immediately they sent on shipboard General Don Fernando de
Bobadilla and Sargento-mayor Don Antonio Lopez de Quirós; and as I
replied that they must give me time in which to settle the accounts
of his Majesty's royal income, since I had just been exercising the
office of alcalde-mayor of Tondo, they granted me only ten days.
As for the cause of our imprisonment, he said that it was because
we had intended to rescue Don Diego and kill the usurper and the
master-of-camp. I was not ignorant that the usurper had no authority
to try my cause--even though he were the legitimate military governor,
and I had committed a crime--since I did not hold a military post. It
was the civil governor who should try this cause, all the more if
the crime is that of taking human life; moreover, [the usurper]
introduces himself as judge of his own cause. Much less [should he
try the cause] if the crime [alleged] belongs to the Holy Office,
since it has exclusive jurisdiction--not to mention other arguments,
which I here omit. The other [prisoners] fearful of irritating further
a man who is riding so with loose reins--so violating the laws,
both human and divine, following only that of Sic volo, sic jubeo,
[20] etc.--but protesting that they would oppose him when a suitable
opportunity arose--. [21] I would write numberless other things here,
if my condition would permit me the opportunity; but this I have not,
since even to write these lines it was necessary--since I remain
in this rigorous imprisonment, surrounded by guards who watch the
steps that I take and the words that I speak--to write by snatches
with the utmost caution and care that the guards should not notice
what I was doing on account of the evident danger to which I shall
expose myself if the usurper knows it; and when I finished a sheet I
sent it immediately to the college of the Society of Jesus. I ought
to be pardoned, therefore, for the blots on my manuscript, and other
defects, since I had to keep my attention on the door, lest the guard
should enter and catch me at this.
It is no wonder that hostile tongues condemn the father commissary,
Fray Jose Paternina, as having acted with passion in the imprisonment
of his Lordship, for various reasons. First: his Lordship, before
coming to these islands, while he was in the City of Mexico had carnal
intercourse with a woman who was a relative of the said commissary. The
latter came to know this, and declared himself the mortal enemy of his
Lordship; and thus arose and began, while they were on the voyage to
these islands, a strong aversion, which was kept up during the voyage,
and was public and notorious. After arriving at this city they were
on very bad terms; and besides, the commissary is ambitious, greedy,
and not of exemplary life. Moreover, he is very revengeful, keeping the
city stirred up with the word "Inquisition," and summoning [before it]
men for matters of little importance--to the scandal of the community
and the discredit of those thus summoned, for no one knows for what
purpose they are arrested; this is keenly felt among our countrymen,
since we boast of being [good] Catholics, as we are.
Another reason: He was greatly displeased at seeing that the profitable
position of alcalde was not given to his nephew Don Gonzalo Samaniego
(whom he loved and valued highly) nor even to his own Paternity a
priorate to his liking; indeed, his provincial, Fray Alonso Guijano
kept him in the convent on account of recognizing his evil disposition,
and as Fray Jose did not know the language; besides, the provincial
had other religious of long standing and ability with whom to fill
the priorates. The commissary attributed this to the dissensions
which he had had with his Lordship in Nueva España and on the voyage;
and fancied that it was Don Diego who had arranged the matter with
his provincial, as those two were friends. There is proof of this
[my] statement; for as soon as he secured the imprisonment of Don
Diego, the first and most important office that was filled was given
to his nephew, conferring on him first the rank of sargento-mayor
of the armada of Oton. For himself, he made arrangements with the
usurper to receive his strong recommendation to the priorate of
the convent in this city, which was immediately given to him by the
provincial. Finally, it is he who rules the usurper; for there is a
mutual understanding between them on account of what they could make
known regarding the great amount that is lacking and does not appear
in the wealth which was seized from his Lordship--coin, ingots, and
[wrought] articles of gold, and diamonds. And he [i.e., the commissary]
is at present rich and honored, respected and feared, succeeding with
whatever he wishes, pleases, and purposes.
As I have not time for more, I will set down the names of those who
had most to do with the imprisonment of the governor, Don Diego de
Salcedo; they are the following:
First, the master-of-camp of this royal regiment, Don Agustin de
Zepeda, who as master-of-camp maintained the guard with a company
of Spanish infantry, who was and is on duty, as is customary, in
the palace.
The two alcaldes-in-ordinary, General Sebastian Rayo Doria and Captain
Don Nicolas de Pamplona. The latter seized his Lordship by the arm
while he was sleeping, which caused him to awake and sit up in his
bed; and Don Nicolas held him so tightly that his Lordship feeling the
pain told him that he must not hurt him like that. The other replied
arrogantly that Don Diego had oppressed all the people, and that they
had had enough of him; and his brother, a religious of St. Francis,
Fray Geronimo de Pamplona, allowed himself to say to his Lordship,
"Let us have no arguments." His Lordship replied to this that he
must be more civil; and that even if the holy tribunal arrested him
he would not allow any one to treat him with insolence, because he
represented the royal person. [22]
The sargento-mayor Juan Jirado, or Tirado; they say that he held a
dagger at the breast [of Don Diego], and as a reward they elected
him this year alcalde-in-ordinary.
The unemployed captains Don Gonzalo Samaniego (nephew of the
commissary) and Don Juan de Vargas, whom they made admiral and gave
him the office of Tayabas; he is my brother-in-law.
Captain Don Juan de Robles Cortes; he only remained with the
commissary, who asked that Don Juan should not leave his side; they
afterward made him admiral of the caracoas, and he was chosen this
year alcalde-in-ordinary.
Captain Diego de Palencia, my brother-in-law, as alguazil-mayor of
the Holy Office, placed the fetters on Don Diego.
Captains Don Luis de Morales and Grabiel de la Jara; they went with
six other men and seized the halberds; and when the halberdiers tried
to get their weapons, these men had already gained possession of them
all. Others remained at various stations in the palace.
The provincial of St. Francis, Fray Francisco Solier, with the
guardian of that order, Fray Mateo de la Anunciacion, who went with
a naked sword; and sixteen other religious of St. Francis. All of
them carrying arms entered the apartment; and the two first named
were the ones who made the most noise.
Those who countenanced the usurper Don Juan Manuel when he failed in
the obedience which he ought to render to the royal Audiencia when
that court summoned him are the following:
In the first place, the commissary, Fray Jose de Paternina. [23]
The provincial of St. Francis, [Francisco] Solier, and the guardian,
the aforesaid Fray Mateo; they never left his side or the palace,
for which reason the government was taken by force.
General Don Francisco de Figueroa who, as his confidant, and being so
subtle, has counseled whatever the usurper has done. He went to the
house of the Society and treacherously professed obedience to the royal
Audiencia; then by craft, under the pretext of subduing the usurper,
he gained permission to leave the house and returned to the palace,
where he gave information of what he had seen, in every way acting [as
one] without God and without king. Then followed in his very steps the
notary Tomas de Palenzuela y Zurbaran--a man who is liable to commit
any wickedness whatever on account of his evil nature and ambition.
The alcalde Don Nicolas de Pamplona, who, being in the house of the
Society and having with the city [officials] in a body rendered
obedience to the king our sovereign, as represented in his royal
Audiencia, carried away with his own shallow mind and great ambition,
left the house with the false assertion that he would return, and
presented himself before the usurper, rendering obedience to him;
this man they made commander of the armada.
The commander of the artillery, Francisco Garcia del Fresno, for
with him and the following that he had, he authorized and encouraged
and was joined with the crafty Don Francisco de Figueroa. These two
terrorized the wife of the auditor Don Francisco de Coloma, so that
she should draw away her husband within three hours, fearing lest he
should risk his life with the other auditors--who were maintaining
the organization and existence of the Audiencia in the library of the
Society of Jesus--because they were going to demolish that house with
cannon-shots. The good lady went out in much fear and proceeded to
the house of the Society; and from her visit followed the departure
of her husband [from the house], and the organization of the Audiencia
was broken up.
All the military officials, except the master-of-camp, whom the
auditors already held, and the sargento-mayor of this royal regiment,
Don Nicolas Sarmiento y Paredes, who obeyed the mandate of the
auditors. The usurper, angry at this, conferred that command on
Sargento-mayor Diego de Morales, who is still serving therein.
The licentiates Juan de Rosales and Don Eugenio Gutierrez de Mendoza;
they were the two judges appointed by the usurper to decide the
question of the seniority claimed by each of the two auditors, Don
Francisco de Coloma and Don Francisco de Montemayor y Mansilla; and,
having obtained the opinions of these judges, the usurper adjudged
the authority to himself.
All these were the men who were most active on account of their being
the most influential persons--not to mention many others of less
rank; or the people who sinned through ignorance and not through
evil intention, for they knew not whom they ought to obey. As they
heard repeated proclamations of treason to the king, who was at
the Society's house, [with command that] they should not go to the
palace, they all took the path of obedience, as loyal vassals of his
Majesty--as they would have done without any doubt if the usurper
had given opportunity to the royal Audiencia so that the auditors
could command that a proclamation be published. But as for those in
authority, on account of their rank and station, who received the
royal decree and failed to obey it, and others who carried it to show
to the usurper, I do not say of such that they are free from blame.
I set down the names of all those who were present in both encounters
with full particulars, and without being moved by prejudice; and
I name my two brothers-in-law, so that no inquisitive person may
accuse me of being prejudiced. Many other names I do not place here,
since the rest are persons of less importance.
[Note, apparently by Ventura del Arco: "The letter concludes with
an account of his services--as sargento-mayor of the royal camp,
purveyor-general of Pintados, deputy of the captain-general in the said
provinces, and captain-general of the artillery. He was an encomendero;
and he must have written this in the fortress of Santiago, on January
15, 1669 (which is its date)."]
THE DOMINICANS IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1641-69
[Translations and synopses have been made from Santa Cruz's Historia,
in VOL. XXXV. Such translations and synopses are here continued,
the design being principally to show the religious history of the
Dominicans so far as it touches the Philippines. Chapter x contains an
account of the establishment of the college of San Juan de Letran,
a subject which will receive adequate notice in due time, and
hence omitted here. Chapter xi treats of Chinese affairs. Chapters
xii and xiii relate to the life of father Fray Baltasar Fort, the
sixth provincial of the Dominicans in Manila (see VOL. XVII, p. 93,
note 18).]
CHAPTER XIV
Of the election of provincial in the person of the father
commissary Fray Francisco de Paula; and of religious worthy of
note who died during that time.
Father Fray Carlos Clemente Gant having completed his term of
office with great glory, a chapter was held in the convent of our
father Santo Domingo in Manila, On the twentieth of April, 1641, the
reverend father Fray Francisco de Paula, commissary of the Holy Office,
preacher-general, then lecturer in morning classes in our college of
Santo Tomas, vicar-provincial of this district of Manila--a son of
the noted convent of San Estevan of Salamanca, and native of Segovia,
of noble parentage--whose superior talents will be told in due time,
was elected provincial with much satisfaction. There was a great lack
of religious in the province, for no mission had come for six years,
except that brought by father Fray Diego Collado. Although some of
those religious were incorporated with the order, still many of them
were dissatisfied. In short, so long as the province does not have
a number of religious in excess of the actual number of ministries,
it is a great anxiety and a cause of sorrow for our souls that there
is no supply in cases of sickness and government, and the burdens of
many are laid upon few. Further, all this gives the devil a gleam
of hope that is important to him, and most harmful to the common
welfare; and occasion is given for the ministers to be sold very dear,
and a very high value is placed on their abilities and knowledge of
languages. Therefore, a regiment of religious, which would be too
much, is never more than enough; for in this beautiful Judith, the
garments that apparently drag one down are the most necessary. The
most efficacious means, and in fact the only one that ought to be
used in such straits, was the one which the father provincial-elect
immediately put into effect; namely, to have recourse to our Lord
and the intercession of the saints, laying most stress on his efforts
with our father St. Dominic, who is the keystone of all this edifice,
in whose name are held firm these religious stones. A novena of solemn
masses was immediately begun to the saint at his altar of Soriano. The
first one was chanted by the father provincial, and he also despatched
patents throughout the province ordering the same supplications to
be made in the convents for the said reason, and for the field of
Christendom in Japon--which was then in its death throes, our religious
having been killed and exiled, and only a scattering of priests of
other orders being left there. The miraculous result of those prayers
in regard to the coming of our religious will be told later.
[That chapter framed a memorial on the death of father Fray Diego
Quero, who died in the Dominican convent at Manila. He took the
habit at the island Española [i.e., San Domingo] and lived a life
of great austerity and poverty. Being of an advanced age when he
went to the Philippines, he was employed as master of novices, and
afterward as a minister. Other religious who have yielded up their
lives in the mission work are the following: Lorenço Alduayen of the
province of Aragon, son of the convent of San Pedro Martir at Calatayud
(Spain), who labored in the province of Cagayan, where he was greatly
beloved. Juan del Moral, son of the convent of San Pablo in Cordova,
native of La Rambla, who died at the Manila convent in 1642, where he
had been master of novitiates. Geronimo de Belem, who died March 31,
1642, was a native of Beya, Portugal, and had fled to the Indias on
account of a murder which he committed in his youth, taking the habit
in the Mexican convent of the Augustinians because the Dominicans
refused him. However, he was soon dismissed or left that order,
and shortly after was given the Dominican habit in La Puebla de los
Angeles; and on reaching the Philippines became a laborer in Bataan. He
held several important positions in the order, being vicar-provincial,
twice definitor, and minister in the province of Tagalos for many
years. He was sent on an evangelical mission to Camboja, and after
various other employments met his death by accident in an Augustinian
convent in Pampanga, to which province he had been sent to adjust some
repartimientos that had been imposed on the natives. Manuel de Berrio
was a native of the town of Santa Maria el Real of Nieva, and son of
the convent of Santa Cruz el Real at Segovia. He accompanied Diego
Collado in his mission when still a young man, but deserted that body
immediately upon his arrival. He was sent to Nueva Segovia in Cagayan,
where he was well known for his virtue. He was vicar of Fotol at
the time of his death. Chapter xv treats of certain troubles in 1642
growing out of the late Chinese insurrection. The governor had ordered
the new Parián to be built on the other side of the river northeast of
Manila in a barrio of the village of Binondo, between the sea and an
estuary called La Estacada by the Spaniards, and Bayuay (or Baybay)
by the natives. [24] Although it occasioned grave disadvantages to
the city, as the people would be inconvenienced in going thither to
supply their needs, and the natives would be in danger with so many
infidels near by, the change was ordered; but in 1642 the Parián was
accidentally destroyed by fire, with great wealth belonging to the
Spaniards, and a large part of Binondo. This chapter recounts also the
loss of the island Hermosa, which has been fully treated elsewhere.]
CHAPTER XVI
A shipload of religious reaches the province; and notices of
events in China are given
After the fearful round of so many calamities, our Lord hastened to
open the treasury of His mercies by bringing to this province a band
of chosen religious in the year 43. Although they were not many,
yet they were all of estimable qualities; and they have greatly
honored this province as well as all the order. The circumstance of
the time of their arrival made that mission all the more precious;
for it was not thought that the province of the king our sovereign,
Felipe Fourth the Great, would fathom our necessity at a time when
the wars with Portugal and Cataluña kept him much embarrassed, and
his royal treasury empty. But God, who moves the hearts of princes,
places in their hearts those works of charity, in order to render
eternal the grandeur of their monarchies. David's zeal and reverence to
God conquered more for him than did the sword; while the sword served
Roboan [i.e., Rehoboam], who had neither zeal nor reverence for God,
rather for embarrassment, and ten kingdoms in ten provinces fell away
from his crown at the first movement.
[Certain pious reflections follow. Continuing, Santa Cruz says:]
That mission was arranged in España by father Fray Francisco
Carrero, procurator for this province. He conducted it to Mexico,
where, reënforced by valiant and suitable men who arrived there,
he committed it to father Fray Joseph de la Madre de Dios; for the
said father procurator could not come here, and hence left them
where they embarked at Acapulco. The mail-packet and letters of
the ship arrived on the ninth of July; and on the twenty-first,
eve of the glorious Magdalena, our patroness, the said mission
entered Manila. The religious included in it were as follows: the
father vicar, Fray Joseph de la Madre de Dios (alias de la Vega),
a native of Rioseco, and son of [the convent of] San Pablo at Burgos;
father Fray Pedro de la Fuente, lecturer on the arts in the province
of España, son of the same convent, fellow of San Gregorio, and native
of the bishopric of Logroño; father Fray Francisco de Molina, son of
[the convent of] Santo Tomas at Madrid, and native of the same city;
father Fray Juan Pabon, son of our convent at Truxillo, and native
of Montanches; father Fray Bernardo Lopez, son of [the convent of]
San Pedro Martir el Real at Toledo, and native of a town near the
said city; father Fray Juan Lopez, native of the town of Martin Muñoz
de las Possadas, son of [the convent of] San Estevan at Salamanca,
who afterward became the most illustrious bishop of Nombre de Jesus
[i.e., Cebú] whence he ascended to the archbishopric of Manila, and
of whom we shall treat in due time; father Fray Domingo del Castillo,
son of [the convent of] San Pablo at Valladolid, and native of the
mountain region of Burgos; father Fray Geronimo de Sotomayor, son of
[the convent at] Mexico, lecturer in morning classes in the college
of Porta-Celi, and native of the said city; father Fray Juan Cuenca,
son of [the convent of] La Puebla de los Angeles (where he lectured
on theology), and native of the same city; father Fray Antonio de
Velasco, son of the convent of Mexico, and native of the same city;
father Fray Juan Marquez, of the same convent and city; father Fray
Diego de Figueroa, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo at Mexico, and
native of the same city; father Fray Felipe Muñoz, native of Mexico,
and son of our convent of Santo Domingo in the same city; brother Fray
Antonio Sanchez, an acolyte, son of the convent of Santo Domingo of La
Puebla, and native of the same city; brother Fray Jacinto Altamirano,
a lay-brother, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo at La Puebla, and
native of that town. From the province of Andalucia came only father
Fray Raymundo del Valle, son of Ronda, from our convent of San Pedro
Martir. It is not known here where he was born, for he was soon sent
to the province of China, where he is at present. We shall discuss
him later. In that mission came also a boy named Sebastian Galvan,
a brother of Archbishop Don Fray Juan Lopez, who took the habit on
arriving at a proper age.
An intermediary chapter had been held on April 25 of that year 43. Our
Lord, beholding this his province so sad, was pleased in His charity
to visit it by sending the said mission as well as the other small
mission that came by way of Macasar. Allowing for their misfortune,
it proved a great consolation to see our so beloved brothers come
safely through the storm, although they came swimming and naked;
for immediately they honored us greatly in the employment in which
obedience placed them.
[The remainder of the chapter concerns Chinese affairs.]
CHAPTER XVII
A new governor comes to these islands. Events in the province; and
life and death of the father commissary, Fray Francisco de Herrera.
In the year 1644 Don Diego Faxardo, a valiant and noble knight of the
Habit of Santiago, ex-master-of-camp in Europa, and governor of the
Terceras, came with appointment as governor and captain-general of
these islands. He made his solemn entrance into Manila and assumed his
government on the day of St. Lawrence in that said year. He was more
than sixty years old, so that with his grave aspect and disposition,
and what is greater, his reputation, this city promised itself a very
favorable government. But in the course of nine years it tasted all
sorts of government. In regard to his character, Don Diego furnished
a good example; he was very disinterested, and died poor. In regard
to other things, the troubles of the times made him unfortunate. At
first he began to rule vigorously, but afterward developed an unusual
fondness for retirement, and was always very inflexible--which truly
causes extreme hatred in these regions; for in a presidio like this,
where most of the people live, although in their own land, yet under
a foreign sky, and bearing the grievous weight of an exile so remote
[from their native country], the pleasure of superiors comes to
be considered much less, and it is resented more than is possible
in other regions. Everything should be ruled with moderation. That
gentleman was an upright man and one of great impartiality, but he
began to rule with the reputation of a peevish and reserved man; and,
even though he performed miracles afterward, he could not cleanse
himself from that reputation. Or perhaps it was because he went to
extremes in the residencia of his predecessor, which he performed so
rigorously that he kept him in the fort in prison for five years,
until he received an order from the Council to send him a prisoner
to Madrid. [25] In regard to the ecclesiastical estate he carried
himself to the acceptation of all, and with a Christian heart;
we in our province found him very pious, and he was very urgent in
sending religious to China and other kingdoms, and aided greatly in
the consolation of our ministries. We presented to him a royal decree
which we had obtained from his Majesty, ordering the demolition of
a college founded by his predecessor and styled "royal." [26] Having
been very clearly informed of the great disadvantage [of that college],
he duly observed the terms of the said royal decree and abolished the
said college then and thenceforth. It had been erected without any
necessity, and even not without casting dishonor on the two ancient
seminaries of this city--one in charge of the Society of Jesus,
the college of San Joseph; and the other in charge of our order, the
college of Santo Tomas. Those two colleges are quite sufficient for
the small Spanish population here, and for those who apply themselves
to the Church. To erect a similar college amounted, in good Romance,
to shining without any expense, and to try to cause himself to be
remembered as a founder, although it was all paid for out of the royal
treasury. It was maintained by the aid that he wrung out of the poor
soldiers, and we complained at that. But now that obstacle was removed
by the said decree; and eleven thousand pesos were restored to the
royal treasury, and both patron and patronage were effaced at once. The
great earthquakes of Manila happened during the term of that gentleman,
and the wars with the Dutch (all of which will be related). In all
of them he showed sufficient proofs of his magnanimity, prudence,
and zeal, and that he was a good commander; and although, as a man,
he must have had his imperfections, and a favorite who destroyed much
of the governor's credit with the too freehand given him--however,
the governor in time learned to know the favorite, and threw him into
prison--he always showed that he was good by his example and deeds,
and, without presumption, his desire was to do right. God aided his
good intention and brought him safely through it all.
On the ninth of August of that year died the father commissary Fray
Francisco de Herrera, whose exemplary life could fill many chapters and
even books; but we are in haste, and the substance will suffice. [He
was born of honest parentage in a village of little report near La
Peña de Francia, in the bishopric of Salamanca; and professed in the
convent of La Talabera in the ecclesiastical province of Spain. Later,
he studied in the Valladolid convent of his order. He arrived at
the Philippines in 1600, and immediately began to learn the Chinese
language, and later learned also the Tagálog, becoming fluent in
both languages. He served many times as prior of various convents;
vicar of Batan, of Binondoc, and of the Parián; prior of Santo
Domingo; vicar-provincial, and vicar-general, during the absence
of the provincial; and commissary of the Holy Office. In 1629 he
succeeded to the office of provincial. "In the office of provincial he
exercised great zeal, and not less prudence; and as he was so capable
and had been in the province so long, he knew all the religious of
the province very well, and gave each one the employment that fitted
his nature, which is truly the gift of governing." He was austere in
his observance, and charitable to all, and visited the sick. He sent
missionaries to China during his term. At the completion of his office
he was elected rector of Santo Tomas college, which he held for two
terms, being then elected prior of Manila. Lastly, he ministered in
the hospital, where he died, being buried in the Manila convent.]
[Chapters xviii-xxi treat of China, and the wars with the Tartars.]
CHAPTER XXII
Events of those times; the election of provincial in this province,
and the earthquakes at Manila.
[In 1644 Urban VIII died. He had been especially solicitous for the
Chinese and Japanese missions. Santa Cruz continues:]
The following year, namely that of 645, the provincial chapter was held
in the convent of Santo Domingo at Manila, in this province. In it
was elected for the second time the reverend father commissary, Fray
Domingo Gonzalez, a septuagenarian, whose resistance and the argument
of his advanced age did not avail to let him escape the charge. Had
he been content with acting moderately the first time, he would have
avoided the agonies of the second term. But although he was a man so
fearful of God and so prudent that he even fled from extremes and
always aimed at the mean of virtue, yet in the part which subjects
the government to the beginnings of charity, he was not contented,
but must go to extremes and become too charitable. Consequently, since
he was so charitable, that did not avail him to become exempt from the
office of superior. He filled the office for nearly three years, until
death had pity on him, since he did not resist it in the fulfilment of
his obligations, nor could his brethren excuse him from the weight of
it. In due time we shall relate the characteristics of that glorious
column of this holy province, for there is much to tell. In that
chapter were received the ordinances of our most reverend Rodulfo of
happy memory, given in Roma in the former year of 640, in which the
houses which were to have a vote in the intermediary congregation
(whose first deputation was made in the provincial chapter of the
year six hundred and thirty-three) were changed. [We also received]
other ordinances. But another form was finally given to this in the
conference of the year 650, where opposition arose [27] to the acts
abrogating the said ordinances, made by the most reverend fathers Turco
and Marinis [28] in regard to the vicariates lasting for four years,
providing at the request of this province that their term be no more
than two years. The authority of the acts of the general chapter
of Roma was given afterward to that decision, in that same year of
650. That chapter also confirmed it in the title of the ordinances
of this province. Doubtless that is a very important and useful
arrangement, not so greatly for the spiritual case of the Indians,
who rejoice to see themselves cared for by many different fathers,
as for our own use; for the good pilot must not keep to one ship,
but serves God better when free and less when bound down.
[This chapter gives also a relation of the disastrous earthquake
of 1645, which has been described in full elsewhere. Santa Cruz
takes occasion to give a short summary of the early history of the
Philippines and Manila. Chapters xxiii-xxv deal with the troubles with
the Dutch during these years, and recount various miracles wrought by
our Lady of the Rosary. Chapters xxvi-xxx treat of Chinese affairs and
the missions of the Dominicans in China. Chapter xxxi is an account of
the life of father Fray Francisco Diaz, who died in the year 1646. He
had arrived at the Philippine province in 1632, and went to China in
1635, where he passed the remainder of his life.]
CHAPTER XXXII
Of the intermediary junta; and of the life of the father
commissary, Fray Domingo Gonçalez.
The intermediary junta was held May 25, 1647, in the convent of Santo
Domingo in Manila. In that junta were passed some special declarations,
although only three, and the rules were only repetitions of the past
ones. As ever, this holy province has proceeded with great caution
in imposing laws, for it is careful lest many new laws confuse the
memory of the old ones; and lest one embarrass the other, if there are
a multitude of laws. Laws are the walls of the order; but there may
be so many of them that they bind the order too much, and smother it,
or make a labyrinth--especially since the religious are few in number
and ready to obey to the letter, without its being necessary to talk
with the community, so that one single individual considers himself
as comprehended by it, even though the law appears unjust to him. But
if there are many laws, the order becomes afflicted. In that junta it
was declared that the obeisance need not be given to vicars-general
as a right but that it can be given as a sign of reverence if the
provincial is absent. That has always been the custom and appears to
be an excellent one. It was also declared that the rules which are
not general, only bind rigorously in the chapter in which they are
instituted, and not in the following ones in which they are confirmed;
for the declaration that they are confirmed is only that they may be
observed, and that they may not be regarded as obsolete so soon. The
venerable and ancient provincial, Fray Domingo Gonçalez, commissary
of the Holy Office, was present at the junta, and he left that second
station, which is one of great anxiety, with soul greatly refreshed
for the prosecution of his duty. But although he did not leave his
office imperfect he did not finish it; for the Lord, having been
satisfied with his pious desire, took the burden from his shoulders
in the month of November following the said junta, in order to let him
pass to the better life, regarding as good his seventy and more years
(of labors from his youth up). He died on the fifth of the said month,
leaving great sorrow, not only to the religious, who lost an excellent
father--one of the most loving that this province has had, and one
who has most illumined it--but also to outsiders, both religious and
laymen, by whom the father was greatly revered.
[He was born in Madrid, and took the habit in the convent at
Guadalajara, being afterward sent to study in the convents at Salamanca
and Valladolid. After serving in various posts in Spain he went to the
Philippines in 1602, where he almost immediately attained renown. Being
sent to Nueva Segovia to learn the native language, he applied himself
so well that he became most fluent in it, and used it with the natives
for five years. Finally returning to Manila, he became an active and
efficient worker there. He was the first regent of the College of Santo
Tomas, and lecturer therein, also acting as rector various times. He
became provincial for the first time in 1633, and during his term
was most careful in the visitation, going even to the island Hermosa.]
[The following chapter continues the same matter. The great fervor
and devotion of the father gave him the commissaryship of the Holy
Office. During his second provincialate he was also assiduous in the
visitation, and died shortly after the intermediary junta of 1647
at the age of seventy-three. He left many writings in scholastic and
moral theology, which were widely used after his death.]
CHAPTER XXXIV
Of the election of provincial; the mission that arrived from
España; and the despatches that it brought.
After the death of the father commissary, Fray Domingo Gonçalez,
the province was left in tears and orphaned, because of the lack of
columns of that kind in the spiritual edifice; although it is true
that such loss will not be the cause of its ruin, for God is the only
foundation. But necessarily such losses leave the province sorrowful
and wounded; and one who can fully supply the vacancy left by a father
who looked after his causes with so great love, and whom all obeyed
with so great satisfaction, is not found so easily. Notwithstanding,
the foresight of our Elias was able to provide a successor already
experienced, a disciple of his own spirit, who succeeded him the first
time; [29] and he now charged the fathers before his death to make that
man provincial, although he was very aged, being sixty-six years old,
albeit a person of good health. Accordingly, he was elected provincial
on the second of May, 648, in the convent of Santo Domingo without
any opposition. The choice was loudly applauded, both by the province
and by the city, for the new prelate was well liked by all, because of
his great authority, his impartiality with affability, his zeal with
discretion, and his prudence attested by proofs. Although it is true
that years usually imprint their changes on men, yet ability makes
them superior to the laws of time; and since they are, in addition, on
a road that they have traversed, they enter it immediately with many
advantages, and act definitely from the beginning--thus avoiding the
suspension of government with which necessarily those who do not know
the path must begin. In order to govern the definitors, and to dispose
of the offices, it is very important to have an acquaintance with the
persons and to have visited the provinces and villages, in order to
be free from arbitrary notions, and to enter upon the functions of
his office from the first with a master's experience. The prior of
Santo Domingo was vicar-general, and presided at the election. When
he finished his term of office, that same year, the fathers of the
convent chose as their prelate the father commissary, Fray Juan de
los Angeles. He, by great importunity and the influence which God
gave him in the minds of devout persons, freed the convent, which
was then deeply in debt; and rebuilt the church which had been in
ruins since the earthquake. He left that church very strongly built
of stone, and greatly beautified by its corridors and galleries,
and its many windows--which make it very sightly, and give it much
light, extent, and beauty in the choir. It still remains today one of
the best churches in the city. As the said father is still living,
it will suffice to tell in due time all that he has done in this
province, which has been much. It is certain that the province owes
him a great debt for the honor he has conferred on it, and his works,
although his love for it does not permit him to be idle.
In July of that same year a patache came to these islands, quite beyond
the scanty hope that we had. But the providence of God--which, as we
have said so many times, measures the stability and preservation of
this field of Christendom with a distinct rule, and not with ordinary
ones--placed in the heart of the viceroy of Nueva España (since it
had been two years since any ship had gone hence) to make the said
patache go down to Acapulco from Realejo. [30] There he put aboard of
it the situado and necessary supplies, and entrusted the vessel to
General Christoval Romero, a perfectly satisfactory person, who had
had experience in these lands, who was then detained at Mexico. It was
our Lord's pleasure to grant him good winds, so that he reached these
islands, although with the anxiety that one can understand; for he
feared that already the Spanish name had been blotted out of them. The
reason why no ship had sailed was that which we have said regarding
the Dutch enemy; and for two years we had done no little in defending
ourselves from their stubborn hostility. The said commander made port
at the harbor of Lampon, either because it was suitable, as he feared
the enemy, or because he could do no more. He learned there that the
Dutch were still committing piracies along those coasts and endeavoring
to recoup themselves for some of their past losses. Everything was
a miracle, and no less than had happened many days in those ports;
and the day when the said patache entered, God covered it with the
shade of a cloud so dense that it was sufficient to hide it from
the enemy. As soon as they anchored, they put ashore the money and
supplies, and sent it all as quickly as possible to Manila. They had
need of all their diligence, for, the cloud having been taken away,
the Dutch hastened to search the anchoring-places. Finding that the
said patache had escaped them, and that it had already cast anchor
in a safe port, they launched their small boats well manned with
crews and arms and some versos. Our commander having seen that as
he had no men to receive them, and his ship was of poor sailing
qualities--as it was the only means left to him in his necessity,
after seeing by the mercy of God his men and the money safe, set the
patache afire at its very moorings, and then with the few sailors who
had remained with him retired to the mountains whence he made his way
to Manila. The enemy, who saw the ship converted into ashes, seized,
as a small revenge, only some small pieces [of ordnance] that the
fire left, for nothing else remained. It was the last admonition that
God's powerful hand was immediately defending these islands. With
that the Dutch left the islands, and have not had the slightest
inclination to return to them. The reception given in Manila to the
said commander (and truly, on account of the circumstances of that
time, this had been the most welcome succor which these islands had
received since their discovery) was to incarcerate him in the fort of
Santiago. Keeping him in very close imprisonment, a suit was commenced
against him for lack of courage, because he had burned the patache
before it was necessary. The trial proceeded in such fashion that the
judge-commissary, who was a lawyer of the royal Audiencia, sentenced
him to decapitation (although in the universal belief he deserved
a monument), without his allegations that he had burned the patache
because he had no men with whom at least to show front, and that those
whom he had were worn-out and undisciplined, not being of any avail;
nor did they heed his statement that the king lost but little in an
old boat without arms or equipment, and that he considered that it
would be rash to have shown any opposition to the enemy. The sentence
appeared too severe to the royal Audiencia, but not ill-founded, as
reputation had been lost, and that is the most delicate gift and the
most priceless. Thus can one see in these matters the fear in which
we live here. The matter was taken by the advocate to the Audiencia in
degree of appeal. The common opinion was that the people were grieved
that so great a service should be paid with such harshness, and that,
to attend to reasons of state, one should break with the holy laws of
gratitude. The whole matter was examined in that most just assembly,
and it was decided to moderate the above sentence and measures so
that justice might not complain. In that way did God favor the said
commander, and he obtained his liberty, and has since held honorable
charges in the service of his Majesty. Today when this is written
(the year 676), he is castellan of the presidio and forts of Cavente
[sc., Cavite], which is one of the best ports in these islands. We
all had part in the consolations and advantages of that fortunate
patache; but this holy province had more than all, for a large mission
came for it. That vessel brought thirty religious, [31] who were in
charge of father Fray Juan Bautista de Morales, who, as we have said,
and as we shall tell more at length when we write his life, went to
Europa by way of East India in 1640. Now he returned with this fine
company of soldiers, selected by the hand of God for these missions
of His. He came also with many benedictions and favorable despatches
from Roma and España. He brought to the convent of Manila the jubilee
[32] of the forty hours for fifteen years; it was assigned from
the fifteenth of September, and care is taken to ask in time for its
continuation by the apostolic see. He brought one also for San Juan de
Letran and another for San Juan del Monte. He also brought an apostolic
bull, from his Holiness Innocent Tenth of blessed memory, for the
erection of a university in the college of Santo Tomas of Manila, and
letters from the king our sovereign (of which we shall treat later);
and the resolutions which were taken in the holy city of Roma in regard
to the administration of the fields of Christendom in China (which
we shall also tell). He also brought many other despatches and rules
which concern the order, which will be mentioned when this history
demands them. The religious who came in that mission are as follows:
[33] The vicar-general, Fray Bautista de Morales; father Fray Felipe
Pardo, son of [the convent of] San Pablo in Valladolid, and master of
the students in the same house; father Fray Pedro Benitez, son of the
[convent of] Santo Domingo in Xerez, fellow of Santo Thomas in Sevilla,
and teacher of writing there; father Fray Salvador Mexia, son of [the
convent of] San Pablo in Sevilla, and fellow of Santo Thomas in the
same city; father Fray Benito Perez, son of [the convent of] San Pablo
in Sevilla,and formerly lecturer in the humanities at Santo Thomas;
father Fray Juan Camacho, son of the convent and college of Nuestra
Señora del Rosario in Almagro; father Fray Juan de Paz, son of [the
convent of] San Pablo in Cordova, deacon, fellow of Santo Thomas in
Sevilla, and teacher of arts in the same college; father Fray Domingo
de Navarrete, son of the convent in Peñafiel, fellow of San Gregorio in
Valladolid, where he lectured on arts; father Fray Pedro Camacho, son
of [the convent of] San Pablo in Sevilla; father Fray Victorio Riccio,
son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo in Fiesculi [sc., Fiesole] and
lecturer; father Fray Timotheo de San Antonio, son of [the convent
of] San Marcos in Florencia; father Fray Justiniano de San Jacinto,
a Pole, who went from the province of España; father Fray Bernardo
Cejudo, assistant lecturer, son of the convent and college of Nuestra
Señora del Rosario in Almagro; father Fray Domingo Coronado, son of
[the convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca; father Fray Luis Gutierrez,
son of [the convent in] Almagro; father Fray Manuel Rodriguez, son
of [the convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca; father Fray Thomas de
Santa Ana, of Andalucia; father Fray Thomas de Castroverde, son of
[the convent in] Almagro; father Fray Christoval Poblete, son of
[the convent in] Almagro; father Fray Diego de Quintana, son of [the
convent of] Portaceli in Sevilla; father Fray Francisco Varo, son of
[the convent of] San Pablo in Sevilla; father Fray Juan Zambrano,
son of [the convent of] San Pablo in Sevilla; father Fray Francisco
Castellanos, son of [the convent in] Almagro; father Fray Christoval
Tamayo, son of [the convent in] Ossuna; father Fray Diego de Ordaz, son
of the convent in Oaxaca; father Fray Juan de Fontidueña, son of the
convent of San Jacinto in Mexico, a house belonging to this province;
father Fray Diego Sanchez, son of the same house as the last; Fray
Antonio de la Cruz, of Andalucia, a lay-brother; Fray Alonso Benitez,
a lay-brother, son of [the convent of] San Jacinto in Mexico; Fray
Luis de Estrada, a lay-brother, son of the same convent.
That fine mission was received with the charity and pleasure that can
be understood, especially as there was a great need of religious--who,
when there are but few of them, experience great hardship and sorrow;
and, after having suffered these when their number was few, they now
attached no importance to them. But God helped them in their greatest
need, and the father provincial who began to rule fortunately had
a very encouraging beginning in his office, and promised himself
that he would accomplish not only the half of his work, but all
with the aid of God, and with that of sons and associates who were
so courageous. He went about distributing them among the various
languages and places of labor, and immediately commenced his visits,
which is (and rightly) the matter of greatest care. It will not be
well to pass by in silence both the excellent reputation enjoyed by
our sacred order of this holy province, and the aid that it receives
by the help of the divine grace in preserving itself in humility,
and free from worldly considerations and dignities, which do not fail
to make some stir in the silence of the cloister. It is a fact that in
the most general chapter held in Roma in the year 1644, in the warrant
that concerns this province (number 12) favor was granted to it by
which those who should have lectured in arts and theology for twelve
years in the college of Santo Thomas of Manila should have a vote and
place after the fathers who should have been provincials, inferior to
them and among themselves respectively. Also (in the same chapter),
preachers-general are instituted with a vote and concessions, if they
have been ministers to the Chinese for twelve years in the hospital of
San Gabriel. The province received those favors and indults with all
the due expressions of humility and thankfulness. But it petitioned
from them in consideration of the fact that it had been founded
without those special rules; and in that manner it was going joyfully
on its way to its object--namely, the employment of all its cares in
the welfare of souls, in the learning of which (for the will has its
schools also) all the other faculties live here subordinated. On that
account, in each chapter or junta all the ministries are changed,
and with the same facility the other offices, without consideration
or pretext of reward, or any dispute arising. And although those
appointed to the said occupations serve God and the order well, yet
since the province thought that that might possibly distract them,
or make them consider with less resignation, the changes which are
continually made, therefore the province petitioned our reverend
father-general and the ensuing general chapter to be pleased to
revoke the said concession. The arguments having been examined, this
petition was allowed in the general chapter at Roma in the year fifty;
and the said concession was revoked with great praise and edification,
which is made evident therein; for the chapter praised the zeal of this
province, which thus cares for conserving itself in a holy simplicity
and readiness, so that the care of its authorized employments may not
confuse its principal end--namely, that all of them engage equally
in the work until death, so that when death comes they may await all
the reward together, when they will not be defrauded of a high place
and will be paid in better money.
[One of the despatches received by the province was of deep
import. This consisted of the decisions rendered by the Congregation
de Propaganda Fide in Rome, on certain questions asked by Juan
Bautista de Morales in regard to Chinese missions and mission work,
the method of administering the sacraments there, and the preaching of
the faith. These questions and answers (translated into Spanish) follow
in chapter xxxv, and are followed by a decree of approbation passed by
the Propaganda on September 12, 1645. The "resolutions," as they are
termed, are for the sake of securing uniformity in the administration
of the sacraments and the preaching of the faith in China, "among
all and any missionaries of whatever order, religious body, or rule
of life, and also among those of the Society of Jesus." These were
aimed especially at the Jesuits. Chapter xxxvi gives an account of the
apostolic and royal erection of the college of Santo Tomás of Manila
into a university. This event will be noted fully hereafter. Chapters
xxxvii-xlii relate the life of father Fray Francisco de Capillas, who
suffered martyrdom in China in 1648. Continuing, chapters xliii-xlix
treat also of Chinese affairs.]
CHAPTER L
Of the events of this time within and without the province,
and the deaths of some religious of renown.
[The chapter opens with a notice of the so-called "holy year"
or jubilee of 1650, proclaimed at Rome. That same year the general
chapter of the Dominican order was held at Rome, and resulted in the
election of Fray Juan Bautista de Marinis as general of the order.]
That same year this province celebrated a junta and intermediary
chapter of the second provincialate of the father commissary Fray
Carlos Clemente Gant, in the convent of Santo Domingo at Lalo, in Nueva
Segovia or Cagayan, as was ordered by number one in the general chapter
of 1647, at Valencia, for this province. This was to the effect that
the chapter-sessions should be held alternately between the convent
of Santo Domingo of Manila and the aforesaid convent of Lalo, for
reasons alleged by the ministers of that bishopric. They had to sail,
every two years, one hundred and more leguas exposed to very great
dangers and violent seas [in order to attend the chapter], and thus
left their missions discommoded; and they needed a great sum of money
to procure large boats, to pay the rowers and sailors, and for the
other things that they considered. Notwithstanding that, experience,
the mistress of prudence, afterward disclosed great inconveniences,
and that those were only the opinions of a few religious and that they
themselves experienced the greatest dangers that follow. For although
it is a fact that the voyage is dangerous, yet if it be made at the
proper season and the return be made by the first of May, without
making any way-stations, the sea is quiet. By God's mercy, prosperous
voyages have always been made; and the fathers provincial make them
two or three times during their four years. It is also advantageous
for the religious themselves [to make that voyage to Manila], for
then they can get what their houses and churches and the Indians need;
and they can arrange it personally, and satisfactorily to themselves,
and they act as agents for those who remain there. The chief advantage
is that the chapter-sessions have the authority that they require in
the capital of Manila, where all the orders and their congregations
hold them with more definiteness and less trouble in general. Although
some individuals do suffer somewhat, yet with that they acquire merit;
and absences are easily filled in their ministries, for vicars-general
remain who attend to that. For the above and other reasons, a petition
was made in that general chapter of Roma in that year 1650, where
the reasons were stated, and the said order was revoked (titulo
pro provincia Filippina, number 4); and it was confirmed in the
general chapter held in the said holy city (number 1). Consequently,
from that time thenceforth that difficulty has been removed, and
all the fathers come [to Manila] very willingly. Some letters were
received in that junta from the most illustrious Fray Domingo [sic]
de Marinis, then vicar-general of all the order; and others from our
most reverend father, Fray Tomàs Turco: they annul a decree of the
most reverend Fray Nicolàs Rodulfo given in the year of 40, ordering
that the vicariates last four years. Being informed of the reasons
which were alleged, it was recognized that such measure was not
advisable (we have already touched upon this matter above, and there
will always be something to say about it). This is a holy government
for all, which, well considered, redounds to the greater utility of
the houses and villages, where he who is a perfect religious is not
troubled at changes--for he is quite unconcerned whether he serves
God in this or in that ministry; and wherever he is there is work to
do, and a place where he may well employ his courage. As for him who
regrets to leave a house it is better for him to leave it after he has
served his two years. He should endeavor to fulfil his obligation and
to gain a reputation as one who does not mind such things, without
embarrassing himself with thoughts of changing from one vineyard to
another, which generally obscures talent. Our profession holds us
captive to obedience, but leaves us free in regard to all temporal
considerations. The minister has great self-love, more than the
Indians, and thinks that he will not be disturbed after two years,
however much the wretched beings say to him and flatter him.... The
said revocation was confirmed by the said chapter in that holy year
[of 1650] (number 2 of the ordinances concerning this province). Item:
Vote was given to the rector of Santo Tomàs in provincial chapters and
juntas; and likewise other letters-patent so that any vicariate that
should be vacant should give a vote in the junta. Between the chapter
and the said junta, the provincial shall appoint another vicar after
consulting some of the fathers. But if it shall become vacant between
the intermediary chapter and the election, a consulting junta shall
be held, in the province of Manila, of the fathers-counselors and the
rector, in order to institute the said vicariate, which can have vote
in the ensuing election; but if the vicariate be instituted in any
other way, it shall not have a vote. Thus they were presented in the
said junta and were received. The ordinances of the above-mentioned
chapter of Valencia of 1647 were also accepted. In regard to the orders
contained in them touching the provinces of Indias in general--in
ordinance 6, that neither the provincials nor the chapters can give
permission to the religious to return to their provinces of España,
petition was made to our most reverend general, in behalf of this
province, to exempt it from that observance for reasons that were
advanced. In consideration of those reasons, his Reverence and the
general chapter of Roma conceded us that favor in the said year of
the jubilee, in the section treating of this province (number 3),
granting permission to the father provincial who should be in office
at that time that, the reasons of the religious who wished to return
having been examined, he might assemble the council of Manila and
represent the matter to it; and, in accordance with their vote,
the religious shall be or shall not be sent, without its being
necessary to have recourse to the reverend generals. Of a truth,
it was a most just arrangement, not only because we are twice as far
[from Roma] as are the other provinces of Indias, but in accordance
with the special rule and ordinance of this province. Although there
is always a great need of religious in it, yet he who is rendered
disconsolate is superfluous, and willingly becomes a violent soldier
who gives and receives signal injury--although God does not wish that
they complain of what is given to them. The illness of the man is
learned in this consultation, and the remedy is immediately applied
without exigency or delay, which is not slavery. Those who return
to España and do not keep this holy province much in mind are very
few, when they are undeceived, and find that that bad humor was in
themselves, was not the fault of the land, and that they must live
with unrest in this world; for the center of our desire is heaven,
for which we are born. In no place can we live with greater freedom
and, consequently, with less fear and more quiet unless we go hunting
for encumbrances to put in it. Unusquisque in suo sensu abundet. [34]
[The deceased religious mentioned in that junta are as follows:
The lay-brother Fray Juan de San Jacinto, who died in 1648, was a
son of the convent of Valencia, and on account of his good work was
sent to Japan. After his return to Manila he was sent to Spain (1630)
by way of East India, and returned by way of Nueva España. Christoval
de Leon, of the royal convent of Granada, died at the age of seventy
in the province of Pangasinán, that same year. He had filled some
important offices in the order, among them being definitor (1633),
and prior of the Manila convent, returning thence to his labors in
Pangasinán. Geronimo de Sotomayor Orato, a native of Mexico and son
of that convent, and Tomàs Ramos, son of the convent of San Vicente
in Plasencia, who had been captured by the Dutch, died at sea while
being sent back to Manila. Pedro Benitez died in 1650; he had been
assigned to the Nueva Segovia missions, where he was studying the
language at the time of his death.]
[Chapter li continues the mention of certain deceased
religious. Francisco de la Trinidad died as bishop of Santa Marta,
in the Indias, in 1663. In 1651 he had been sent as procurator from
the Philippines to Spain and Rome, being at that time prior of the
Manila convent; and he served as definitor for his province at Rome
in 1656. He was a native of Vizcaya, and had taken the habit in the
Philippines. Martin Real de la Cruz died in the bishopric of Cagayan
in 1651. He was a son of the convent of Carboneras in the province
of España, and became a fellow in the college at Valladolid. After
arriving at the Philippines he was sent to the bishopric of Nueva
Segovia, where he learned the language perfectly; and he wrote many
sermons and discourses, which were preserved in manuscript and copied
for the use of the order. He became rector of the college of Santo
Tomás at Manila, and at the same time first rector and chancellor of
the university erected in that college in 1648. On the completion of
that office he returned to his missions in Cagayan, and died in the
remote missions of the Babuyanes Islands. In the same bishopric died
also during that period Lucas Garcia, at the age of seventy-six. He had
a perfect command of the language, and was a sympathetic and arduous
missionary worker. He acted more than once as a vicar-provincial,
and went to the island of Hermosa, where he labored among the natives
and Spanish soldiers. After serving as rector of the college of
Santo Tomás he returned to his missions in Cagayan, where death met
him. The lay-brother Francisco de San Agustin died in the village
of Lalo, in the same province, a helpful and humble worker. In the
convent of San Jacinto, outside the walls of the City of Mexico,
died in the year 1651 Sebastian de Oquendo, a native of Oviedo in
Castilla. He had been minister to the Chinese of the Parián, and had
lectured in the arts and theology in the college of Santo Tomás. The
Manila convent of the order was served by him in the office of prior;
and he also preached in that city with great success, leaving many
writings in manuscript on scholastic theology, which were used long
afterward. At death he was buried in the convent of San Jacinto, where
he was serving as prior. His body was found uncorrupted, in 1658,
by some Dominican missionaries en route to the Philippines.]
The most novel event in the year 1651 in the city of Manila was the
imprisonment, by order of Governor Don Diego Faxardo, of the person
of the master-of-camp, Manuel Estacio Benegas, who then filled that
office at Manila. That happened on September 16 of that year, and his
property was confiscated at the same time. He was a native of Granada,
and came to these islands as captain of infantry in the service
of the king. Because of his blood, which was said to be noble, and
his excellent conduct, he was well married here, and had many sons
and daughters who have always managed to preserve themselves with
splendor and to keep up their reputation with [official] employments
and equal marriages. His arrest was a very great innovation, for from
the time when the said governor assumed his office he had honored
the master-of-camp, arriving [at the islands] thus, with notable
standing, the governor, seeing him capable and experienced in all
matters, almost made him his Hercules, and placed in his hands the
keys to everything. He made the master-of-camp the only and necessary
go-between in all his arrangements and secrets. That was followed, as
its inseparable corollary, by what is called a change of fortune; for
he thought that he had mounted so high while the impetus of his wheel
remained very low. Although the master-of-camp made many friends, he
raised up against himself a greater number of enemies--either querulous
or discontented at seeing that a superior whom God made a sun because
of his office, so that he might be a universal and [un]mistakable
cause, had been appropriated and set apart for himself. That alone
was enough to affront and offend the most retired inferior. And
although Hercules cannot prevail over two, much less over so many,
his enemies made such attempts to secure his downfall and studied
over the matter so much that they laid a scheme to embroil him with
the governor, who had purposely shut himself up and extinguished all
the lights--one of warning, while behind it entered the rest of the
troop. He was immediately thrust into a very close and dark prison,
and all his property was sequestered; and gratitude and confidence,
taking the part of the many who were aggrieved, became the plaintiffs
who made the most criminal charge. Therefore, since the said governor
was a just man, and without any doubt upright and even inflexible,
he was not satisfied with aggravating the imprisonment, but had
torture applied to the prisoner--which was very severe, and more so
in a man as corpulent and as delicate as he was. The cause, charges,
and acquittals proceeded, but before the sentence was reached
the master-of-camp died in prison, giving tokens of being a true
Christian, and with a great submission to the will of God, who had
without doubt disposed him for that road for salvation; for he was a
very intelligent man, and his capacity availed him there greatly. And
what do we know might have happened to him had he died in a condition
of prosperity? Incomprehensible are the ways of divine Mercy.
[Chapter lii, the last chapter of the first book, treats of Chinese
affairs.]
Book second of the second part of the first century and history
of the province of Santo Rosario of the Order of Preachers,
in Filipinas, Japon, and China.
CHAPTER FIRST
Chapter, and election of provincial; and events in those times
On April 20 of the year 1652, the members of the chapter were
assembled in the convent of Santo Domingo in Manila, and elected
as provincial the reverend father Fray Pedro de Ledo, then
prior of that said convent and vicar-provincial of Tagalos. He
was a person of all good qualities, a native of Mexico, and of
noble parentage in that city. He took the habit and professed
in this convent of Santo Domingo in Manila. In his studies he
gave so good an account of himself that he lectured in arts and
theology, and became regent in our college of Santo Tomas. He
always had the name of an excellent student and learned man. On
that account, and because of his great prudence, known to us by
experience, the religious elected him to the post of provincial,
which he filled very successfully and with great credit. Among
the special events of that chapter was the announcement of the
new university of Santo Tomas and its apostolic erection by a
bull which his Holiness Innocent Tenth, of blessed memory, was
pleased to promulgate at the instance of the king our sovereign,
Felipe Fourth the Great. His Majesty, as sole patron, was pleased
to put his hand to that--an honor very worthy of publication by
the chapter; and, although it was current in all the province,
that solemnity was still to be performed. The house of San Miguel
of Ituy, in the province of Nueva Segovia, was also accepted. That
is a great stretch consisting of heathen settlements for the
greater part, although there are some Christians among them,
some of whom are those who flee from other villages. It lies on
the eastern border of the province of Cagayan, and extends from
some high mountain chains to the coast; and, as it is so rough
a land, it has not yet been possible to conquer it, although
many attempts have been made, the religious going sometimes
with and sometimes without soldiers. Missionaries have also been
appointed on various occasions; but although they have baptized
many persons, they have not been able to convert them all. As
vicar of the said house, the chapter then appointed father
Fray Teodoro de la Madre de Dios, and gave him some priests as
companions. They went thither with a presidio of Spanish soldiers
at the command of the governor, who so ordained it. Many of the
soldiers and two of the religious--father Fray Bernardo Cejudo
and father Fray Manuel Rincon--died because of the poor climate
or poor food. They all remained there, that time, for two years,
and baptized many people there; and those natives long continued
to embrace the law of God. But either because of the sickness,
which had developed into a plague; or because those Indians
were at war continually with other people of the interior, more
powerful, who greatly persecuted them, and the faith of Christ:
for all those causes, and because they could not cope with so many
dangers and troubles so long as the natives were not quiet, the
presidio that was still left retired to Cagayan, and the fathers
returned, as they had lost hope of obtaining more fruit. However,
our religious are accustomed to return there every little while,
where some are baptized, and those who have made their decision
do not fail to come; and the province does not lose sight of those
posts, for the time when the Lord shall be pleased to summon them,
and when they shall respond with resolution. They are numerous;
and, since they live so far inland in this same island, it is well
seen that it is very pitiable to behold them so buried in their
darkness--or not to see them, for they flee from the light. It is
not easy to form a judgment on what passes in this very island;
for, since it extends for almost two hundred leguas, and all of
the seacoast in all parts is subdued, all the fastnesses of the
mountains are inhabited by numerous peoples of various nations
and languages, morally impossible to subdue, although great
efforts are being and have been made. The reason therefor is,
that since it rains so much in these lands, in addition to the
so powerful heat of the sun, and there is so little stone, such
thickets and undergrowth spring up that one can penetrate them
with difficulty, and [it is even difficult] for the very animals
of the forest. Consequently, nature has defended those people
with a thousand walls. Then too they are children of idleness,
and live on roots, the fruits of trees, and the flesh of game. They
have no other granaries than those of their own bellies, nor more
clothing than that which they get from their mothers. At the most,
they wear a bajaque or breechcloth made from the bark of a tree,
and which conceals but ill the token of their sex. They have no
villages, but live in rude collections of huts or in camps, and
in certain shacks which rise a vara above the earth, where they
take refuge when it rains. When they feel the cold too keenly,
they light fires and sleep in the ashes. Their life is as follows:
When they rise in the morning, the robust ones go hunting the deer
with arrows or dogs. If they kill one, they take it to their camp;
and there they all eat it, half raw, half roasted, without salt or
bread. If they do not have meat, they find roots and fruit, and so
do they satisfy their hunger without further exercise of reason. And,
since they are totally without reason, they have no form of religion
or worship, except certain superstitions concerning the flight and
songs of birds. Such is their wretched existence; and therefore
do they grow up with the understanding of brutes, without care or
foresight. Some descend the mountain to trade with our Christian
Indians. The latter approach them, and carry iron for their arrows,
and rice and other things which they know well--especially tobacco,
but which they are not accustomed to sow. Neither do they accustom
themselves to any other kind of work. This island so abounds with
these people that they are encountered at six leguas from Manila. By
means of such communication they hear our Christians, who talk to
them of our holy faith, and they approve it. But when they hear that
the Christians pay tribute and bandalas, and that here are personal
services (which it is necessary to have, for a civilized and domestic
life) they return to their liberty. Some are reduced, but it is
generally a fact that this becomes continually more difficult so
long as the Lord who died for them does not drive from their side
that enemy who makes them daily more obstinate and hard.
Late in July of the year 1653, the ship from Nueva España anchored
in the port of Cavite, more fortunate than most of the vessels that
have been seen since the discovery of these islands. It brought four
personages--no less than the archbishop, the governor, the bishop
of Cagayan, and an auditor. It had been some years since a ship had
entered Cavite, for they all had to put back to other ports because
of the bad weather. And although, wherever they finally enter,
they discharge their cargo and assure the safety of the money, yet
doubtless it is always a considerable loss that the ship does not
come direct to Cavite, and, being laden with expenses and averías,
at least one-third of its good fortune is dissipated. It had been
twelve and more years since these islands had had an archbishop;
for one who came to them consecrated during that time, namely, his
Excellency Don Fernando Montero de Espinosa, was obliged to come
overland, as the ship anchored in the port of Lampon; and, when he
arrived at the lake of Bay six leguas from this city--whither some
persons from the cabildo had gone beforehand to receive him--he was
suddenly overtaken by a severe illness, from which he soon died without
the Church, his spouse, having enjoyed anything except letters and
good news. And, lastly, came the evil of its widowhood before he had
taken possession of it or seen it. For that reason all through that
period there was considerable trouble, wherever trouble exists. But
there is more here, where before a successor is obtained another six
or eight years elapse. Now indeed did the lack become doubly felt,
for not even one of the three suffragan bishops of this metropolitan
was left; for if there are any bishops it is a great consolation. For
then, although it is after the trouble of making voyages, students,
religious, and secular priests are ordained, and there is recourse for
all that episcopal dignity demands, and it is the shadow of a great
relief for all Christians, although the bishops are distant. It was
God's will to allow his Excellency Doctor Don Miguel de Poblete--a
native of Mexico, in whose cathedral and in that of La Puebla de los
Angeles he had held the greatest dignities--to arrive at that time. He
was received here with great demonstrations of joy. The governor was
Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, knight of the Order of Calatrava, a
native of Malaga. He filled his post excellently, and was generally
well liked by all; for he was very affable, pious, and not at all
harsh like the former governor. He had his troubles, of which we shall
speak; and having governed for more than ten years his residencia was
satisfactorily finished, and he had the good fortune to return to his
country. The bishop of Cagayan was his Excellency, Master Don Fray
Rodrigo de Cardenas, of our holy order and from the province of Perù,
of whom we shall speak in the proper place. The auditor who came in
that ship was Don Salvador de Espinosa, a learned and zealous man;
and so much so that he began to work at matters of government before
the proper time. For he immediately, seeing that there were but few
Spaniards in the country, thought that he had learned all about it in
a short time; and went about passing sentences and issuing manifestos,
more a result of his erudition than from any necessity for it. His
last offspring bore the character of admonition and was printed. All
estates were grievously wounded by it--a serious matter when there
is no one to take up the defense. His zeal might have been useful,
but assuredly no service to God or the king followed; for his Majesty
does not desire his vassals to be maltreated, but will consider it
a great service if his ministers employ their great erudition in
maintaining justice, observing it in all the villages, and honoring
all, especially the ecclesiastical religious, and not in saying pretty
things (with which they load one down when they consider that it will
make their own dignity more estimable)--especially with these printed
papers, which, since they are printed, give us more permission to
make public complaint. Like that of another paper which was printed
in the year 1671--which finally brought its author to the earth,
even before knowing the names, it left persons both ecclesiastical
and religious badly besmirched. In order to vaunt his erudition, he
despoiled the living altars of their best ornament, namely, honor;
and he did not hesitate to dedicate and send it to the feet of the
greatest Majesty. But he will have had his answer already. The other
admonitory pamphlet, when it was issued, seemed so foul to its very
author that he himself went about collecting and burning it. Supposing
the first an arbitrary statement, the second was Catholic and made
by a person erudite and desirous of salvation. He lived for a while,
for a mortal accident happened, and he paid his debt and had himself
buried in the convent of Santo Domingo. To the great luck of so
fortunate a ship, which brought so grave persons and those of the
greatest distinction for these lands, was added the relief of money,
which was larger than usual, as well as that of individual persons....
[This chapter records the death (in 1653) in the Manila convent
of father Fray Juan del Villar, a native of Luzena, and son of the
convent of San Pablo el Real in Cordova. He went to the Philippines
in 1635, and applied himself to the study of Chinese and taught in
the college of Santo Tomás.]
Among other ordinances passed by that chapter, as they were necessary,
was one that declared that no one could be employed in the office
of lecturer in our college of Santo Thomas unless he first learned
some one language native to that country--not because there is any
logic in it, which must precede the sciences, but, since the first
foundation of this province is that of the preaching and missions,
all must know a language. He who does not know one, even if he be
a very learned theologian, does not render all the service that
he can; and he does not have the good fortune to be sent by his
prelates or to have a change of climate, which is perhaps important
to his health. On arriving from España it is the custom for all to
be divided, according to the arrangements made by the prelate, in
the study of the various languages. With their pious desire and the
master that is given them, he who can not learn enough in one year
in order to make himself understood as a preacher and confessor in a
language must be very dull. With such sound beginnings they are not
embarrassed afterward in other occupations, since, when a place in the
ministry becomes suitable, the greatest difficulty is found to have
been conquered. Of greatest use on the sea is he who knows the duties
of sailor and artilleryman; and as time goes on it becomes a matter
of disconsolation for a religious to find himself without a language,
and at an age when it is impossible to learn it, while it is a matter
that might have been overcome in a brief time at the beginning.
[Chapters ii-iv treat of Chinese affairs and missions.]
CHAPTER V
Of the intermediary junta, and of a new mission sent to the
kingdom of China
In the junta held in the convent of Santo Domingo in Manila in the
year fifty-four, there was no new ordinance to pass; for all matters
were well ordered, and this holy province always refrains from making
new laws, which (like the impositions of new tributes) the obedience
of the subjects always considers with more annoyance than respect. For
since they are the life of the monarchy, when there is any need, and
its health, so also are they generally feared when they can be avoided;
and when new ones are imposed, the old ones become distasteful. The
provincial (who was then father Fray Pedro de Ledo, a man of great
devotion and zeal), seeing that no ministers had left these islands
for Japon since the year thirty-seven, as the gates had been shut to
them and even walled up for our sins and those of that wretched land,
tried to get together a mission for it; and, in order that he might
not have cause to envy the explorers, he determined to go himself
as prelate. But he always urged secrecy in the plan as the essential
part, and only revealed it to those interested--namely, father Fray
Raymundo del Valle, father Fray Pedro de Ansa (an oldtime minister
of Cagayan), and father Fray Antonio de Barrios. He also shared the
secret with the person who was to remain as vicar-general during his
absence. With that intention, which was facilitated by his courage
and pious desire, he bought a champan under pretext that it was to
be used for the service of the province of Cagayan, and that he was
lading it with supplies and ship's-stores for the said province (as
was a fact). He spent a large sum in that, and even despoiled some
churches of their money. That was without any doubt a harsh measure;
for although the property of the convents is common here, and the
provincial can take from one to aid another, in accordance with the
ordinances of this province, yet that kind of goods and property
are generally bought with the alms of the natives of the villages,
given by them especially for their churches. Consequently an injury
was done, even though it be as was alleged on that occasion, namely,
that he thought that there was a superabundance of alms. Since all
the adornment of the tabernacle and of Solomon's temple falls short
for divine worship, and these natives do not remember or take much
note of leaving or not leaving their property in immemorial writings,
their memories are indelibly impressed by seeing that they have given
it by their sweat to the church, and they leave an honorable luster
on a lamp and some candlesticks which they gave, and which remain,
making a barangay honorable. The father-provincial, who was a prudent
and erudite man, must have considered it all; yet notwithstanding,
as he thought that the common right of a mission so important as Japon
was greater than are the alms and the said gifts, the matter could not
be regulated, and he used it all. The end was most lofty, the means
which he chose very fitting--as were the three religious, who were the
most suitable in the province; and the champan was staunch. All being
concluded, the essential wheel of those plans was lacking, namely,
the will of God without which one can never succeed. [The efforts
to attain the Japanese mission proved fruitless, but the provincial
succeeded in sending five missionaries to China. The remainder of
the chapter treats of Chinese affairs.]
[Chapter vi relates in part the work of the mission to China. Chapter
vii mentions certain missionaries who have died. The lay-brother
Raymundo de la Cruz died gloriously after earnest labor. Geronimo
de Zamora died in Cagayan province after a ministry among the
natives of thirty-eight years, besides serving as commissary of the
Holy Office. His native city was Zaragoza, and he professed in the
convent of that city. He was rector of the college of Santo Tomás,
definitor in the year 1652, vicar-provincial four times in Cagayan,
and ordinary in nearly all the houses of that province. Juan de las
Casas also died in the same part of the province. Bernardo Cejudo
died while engaged in the conversion of Ituy. He had reached the
Philippines in 1648, and his life was one of austerity and earnest
endeavor. Matias de Armas also died in 1655 in the province of
Cagayan. He was born in the island of Tenerife in the city of Laguna,
where he took the habit. In the Philippines he became a master of the
Cagayan and Tagálog tongues, acting as vicar in Cagayan, and as vicar
of Abucay in 1645. In the years 1638-39 he was in the island Hermosa,
where he studied that language while awaiting an opportunity to go
to China (which was unsuccessful). At his death in 1655 he was vicar
of Afulug. Alonso Navarro, president of the Chinese hospital of San
Gabriel, died that same year in the Manila convent. During his thirty
years in the Dominican province he ministered to the Filipinos (being
very fluent in the Tagálog language); served as definitor, vicar
of many houses, and vicar-provincial; and built the church in the
village of Binondoc. In Cagayan also died that year Pedro de Aniza,
an earnest missionary who had acted as vicar-provincial and ordinary
of many houses. He solemnized many baptisms among the hostile people
of Irraya and those in the mountains.]
In 1656 father Fray Jacinto Gali of the province of Aragon, son of the
convent at Girona in Cataluña, was elected provincial. By his excellent
qualities, and the proofs that he had shown of his great prudence and
devotion in the course of the twenty-four years that he had spent
in this holy province, he was worthy of the supreme dignity of its
government. He learned very perfectly the difficult language of the
Chinese, to whom he ministered often in the Parián and in Binondoc. He
also knew the Tagálog language thoroughly; and thus accomplished much
in both languages. The province, desirous of elevating to the highest
pinnacle the one who would advance their order with the activity and
integrity that such an office demands, elected him their head. His
election was well received both within and without the house, for all
were acquainted with him and knew that his merits had called for so
honorable an occupation many years before. He began to exercise it,
but God, satisfied with his holy desire, blocked his steps in a short
time; for at his first departure, when he went to visit Cagayan,
having arrived there a mortal illness attacked him in Lalo. There,
after he had received the sacraments, and had taken farewell of his
province with most tender and paternal speeches--not unaccompanied
by the sobs of all the religious, who had hastened at the report of
his illness--he gave his soul to the Lord in the eighth month of
his provincialate, on New Year's day of the year 1657. That [such
was his death] is understood by the tokens that his great virtue and
devotion left to us. That was a perfect New Year's day for his soul,
which will never grow old in his time. Before he went upon the said
visit, Governor Sabiniano Manrique de Lara and the royal Audiencia,
urged by their narrow-minded zeal as ministers of his Majesty, put a
new pressure upon us. Through the fiscal of the king it was intimated
to us and to all the orders that we were to make a presentation of the
lists of the chapters, as is done in the other provinces of the rest
of the Indias. This is a very delicate thing to treat in a history,
and it has cost many entreaties before God and His most holy mother
our patroness--not because of the inconveniences that are feared
from the royal piety of his Majesty, the king our sovereign, nor of
the impartiality and justice of his ministers, who will know how to
govern this matter with that fear of God and with prudence, as they
do other matters; but because we ourselves fear in these conversions
which are so tender, where perhaps the tying of the hands of the
mother will mean the loosening of those of the children, which will
render them restless, with greater difficulty in subduing them than
in other provinces less remote from relief and remedy. What happened
in that case was that we petitioned with due submission, and stated
our reasons (although all our reasons cannot be taken to so lofty and
grave courts); and as a consequence the royal Audiencia allowed us to
continue our present custom, which we maintain not only from our rules,
but from the foundation of this province, and sent the records to the
royal Council of the Indias, where the matter was examined. In that
year the province sent as definitor to the general chapter father Fray
Juan Lopez, son of [the convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca, lecturer
in theology, and regent of the college of Santo Thomàs of Manila. He
later became the most illustrious bishop of Zibu and ascended to the
archbishopric of the said city of Manila. We shall discuss him more
in detail in the year of his death, which occurred lately, to the
universal sorrow of these islands. Authority as procurator-general was
given to father Fray Francisco de la Trinidad in order that he might
accompany the former. He was already in Madrid, and afterward became
the most meritorious bishop of Santa Marta. The provincial having
died, the prior of the convent of Santo Domingo of Manila, where the
chapter of the coming election was to be held, namely, father Fray
Lucas Montanero, became vicar-general according to our rules. Having
called the conference or junta of the province, he set the time and
day for the following chapter, namely, April 21, 1657, and it was
held by arrangement of the said conference and its vicar-general.
[Chapter viii deals with the life and death (July, 1656), of Diego
Rodriguez in China, and Chinese affairs. Chinese matters are discussed
also in the three following chapters.]
CHAPTER XII
Great earthquake of San Bernardo's day; and the mission which
arrived at the province
In the year 1658, when the father commissary Fray Juan de los Angeles
was prior of the convent of Santo Domingo of Manila, another great
and formidable earthquake occurred on the twentieth of August. In
the opinion of all it was worse than that of the day of St. Andrew
which we have related, which occurred in the year 1645; except that
this one came alone in the quality of its greatness (for the shocks
that accompanied it were much less severe than in the former; it is a
natural thing to have these earthquakes come with a retinue, and they
are among the evils that can never come singly). The second reason
why this one was less was based on the fact that the city of Manila
was in a sad condition, and those lofty edifices of stone were on the
ground, which then robbed the city of much of its pride. Therefore,
although some people were killed and many met with accidents and
bodily injury, it was not so bloody. However it did not fail to
exercise its commission, and many edifices were violently overthrown
and great disorder was occasioned not only in Manila but in all these
islands.... Our convent of Santo Domingo was hardly used; and as the
religious had no cells, as those which were left were full of water,
they went along that street seeking corners where they could stay,
even at great inconvenience. When the mission (of which we shall speak
immediately) arrived, lodgings had to be arranged in the galleries
of the new church, where beds and curtains were distributed among
the various collateral naves. A better manner of lodging could not
be found for many days, because the rainy season (which was a great
drawback) had set in. The convent was very fortunate in having there
its superior, who repaired so great a disaster with all courage and
fortitude, and encouraged his subordinates by repairing their house
with great skill and energy, notwithstanding that it was under heavy
expenses. God performed miracles by his hand, and has continued
the same in the other posts which he has held. Truly he is one of
the most careful and indefatigable workers of this holy province,
and as he is yet living, this remark must suffice.
That year arrived an excellent mission which had been collected in
España by father Fray Francisco de la Trinidad, who had remained
there as bishop-elect of Santa Marta, and Father Matheo Bermudez, who
conducted it to Mexico, where he remained as vicar of San Jacinto. The
latter entrusted his office to father Fray Juan de Polanco, who
brought that mission safely to Filipinas to the great joy of all the
religious. The mission consisted of thirty-eight, [35] and their names,
occupations, and native places are as follows in order of age: father
Fray Joseph Duriach, son of the royal convent of Santa Catalina Martir
in Barcelona, former lecturer in the arts in Girona; father Fray Luis
Alvarez, son of [the convent of] San Pablo in Valladolid, former fellow
of San Gregorio, and lecturer in the arts in the said his convent of
San Pablo; father Fray Juan Polanco, son of [the convent of] San Pablo
in Valladolid, former fellow of San Gregorio, and former master of
students in Santa Maria la Real at Trianos, who came as vicar of that
mission from Mexico; father Fray Alonso de Leon, son of [the convent
of] San Pablo in Palencia; father Fray Domingo de San Pedro, son of
[the convent of] Santa Zita in Palermo, lecturer in arts in the said
his house; father Fray Pedro de Santo Domingo, son of [the convent of]
San Pedro Martir in Mantua, and lecturer in arts in the said his house;
father Fray Diego de San Roman, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo
in Victoria, and lecturer in logic in Santa Maria la Real in Trianos;
father Fray Antonio Calderon, son of [the convent of] San Estevan in
Salamanca, and fellow of Santo Tomàs in Alcalà de Henares; father Fray
Francisco Sanchez, son of [the convent of] San Pedro Martir in Toledo,
and fellow of San Gregorio in Valladolid; father Fray Felipe Leonardo,
son of the Preachers in Valencia; father Fray Tomàs Butiel, son of
[the convent of] San Pablo in Hipra [i.e., Ypres] in lower Germania;
father Fray Salvador de Santo Tomàs, son of [the convent of] Santo
Domingo in Guzman de San Lucar; father Fray Domingo de Villamide, son
of [the convent of] Santo Domingo at Santiago in Galicia; father Fray
Martin de Trigueros, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo in Ocaña;
father Fray Pedro del Barco, son of [the convent of] La Madre de Dios
in Alcalà de Henares; father Fray Jayme Berge, son of [the convent
of] Corpus Christi at Luchente in the kingdom of Valencia; father
Fray Juan Teodoro, son of [the convent of] San Vicente at Calcha,
in the province of Flandes; father Fray Agustin Garcia, son of [the
convent of] Santo Tomàs in Madrid; father Fray Diego Serrano, son of
[the convent of] San Pedro Martir in Toledo; father Fray Joseph de
Noriega, son of [the convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca; father Fray
Leonardo Marquez, son of [the convent of] San Agustin in Padua; father
Fray Nicolas Merlo, son of [the convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca;
father Fray Antonio Martinez, son of the convent of Santo Domingo at
Santiago in Galicia; father Fray Tomàs de Leon, son of [the convent of]
Santo Tomàs in Madrid, and brother of father Fray Alonso de Leon above
mentioned; father Fray Fernando de Melgar, son of [the convent of]
San Pedro Martir in Toledo; father Fray Lorenzo del Rosario, son of
[the convent of] Santo Domingo in Guzman de San Lucar; father Fray
Bartolome de Quiroga, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo in Lugo;
father Fray Victorio de Almoynia, son of [the convent of] Santo
Domingo at Santiago in Galicia; Fray Bernardo Alvarez, dean, son of
[the convent of] San Pablo in Valladolid; Fray Estevan de Rivera,
son of [the convent of] Santa Maria la Real in Trianos; Fray Melchor
Vigil, dean, son of the said convent in Trianos; Fray Lucas de San
Vicente, lay-brother, native of Salamanca, son of the convent of
Santo Domingo in Manila. Those who remained sick in Mexico came the
following year. They were as follows: father Fray Manuel de Guzman,
son of the convent of San Pablo in Sevilla; father Fray Gregorio Ortiz,
son of the Preachers in Zaragoza; Fray Domingo de Flores, dean, son
of the convent of Santo Domingo in Zamora; Fray Andres de los Angeles,
lay-brother, son of [the convent of] Santo Domingo in Oajaca. That fine
mission arrived very opportunely, composed of religious who possessed
so excellent abilities; they were young, and well fitted to advance
the credit of this holy province. After the joyful congratulations
which welcomed them, they were assigned by the arrangements of the
prelate, then the father commissary, Fray Francisco de Paula, to the
study of a language. They have gone forth as excellent ministers and
missionaries, both those who are living and some who have already died.
[Chinese affairs again engross our author for the remainder of this
chapter, as well as for the thirteenth.]
CHAPTER XIV
Junta of the year 1659; father Fray Juan Bautista de Morales goes
to take part in it; and prior events in Zubinkeu.
The intermediary junta was held in 1659 in our convent of Santo
Domingo in Manila. Among other matters that were decided there, we
must not pass in silence the response made to the fathers of China to
a question or memorial presented by them. [This memorial, in view of
the disturbed state of China and the slender support that was received
by the missionaries in China from the province in the Philippines,
asks that whenever cultivated lands are given them as an alms they
may accept them. The memorial or petition was not allowed, for the bad
effects that might ensue from it; as the Chinese might misconstrue it
and imagine that the missionaries go to their country for the sake of
the lands alone, and not for the welfare of souls--the decision giving
great satisfaction to Juan Bautista de Morales, vicar-provincial of
China. The remainder of the chapter relates wholly to Chinese matters.]
[The insurrections in the provinces of Pangasinán, Ilocos, and Cagayan
of the year 1660 are discussed in chapters xv and xvi (the latter
treating also of the Chinese pirate Kuesing). They will be sufficiently
related elsewhere in this work. Chapter xvii is a summary of the life
of father Fray Joseph de Madrid, who was born in Cebú. After studying
at Santo Tomás in Manila, he entered the order in that city. He was
soon sent to the Chinese missions, but was unable to remain there on
account of the climate and hence returned to Manila, where he died
a violent death at the hands of the Chinese of the Parián--who had
revolted on account of the threatening messages of Kuesing in the year
1662. He was a natural linguist, speaking fluently Cebúan, Visayan,
Tagálog, and the language of Ituy, beside the most difficult dialect
of the Chinese, namely, that spoken about Canton. Chapters xviii and
xix treat of the Chinese pirate Kuesing and Chinese affairs. Chapter
xx contains accounts of the lives of various religious who died in
the Dominican province during this time. Carlos Clemente Gant died in
the province of Nueva Segovia at the age of more than seventy, having
arrived in the Philippines in 1611. He was a native of Zaragoza, and
professed in the same city. His mission field was in the province of
Cagayan, whither he returned both times after his terms as provincial
(1637, and 1648). He also became commissary of the Holy Office
after the death of the commissary Fray Domingo Gonzalez. Joseph de
Santa Maria (or Navarro), a son of the convent of San Pedro Martir
at Marchena in Andalucía, went to the Philippines in 1648. He was
vicar of the islands of Babuyanes, where he fell ill and had to go
Lalo-c for treatment; on returning to his convent he was killed
by the insurgents. Pedro de la Fuente, son of the convent of San
Pablo of Burgos, served as lecturer in theology in the college of
Santo Tomás in Manila, and regent and prior of the Manila convent,
and was minister in various places in Cagayan. At his death he was
vicar of the village of Pata. The father commissary, Fray Salvador
Mexia, son of the Sevilla convent, went to the islands in 1648. He
acted as vicar-provincial of Pangasinán, and was remembered for his
zeal. Francisco Martir Ballesteros, of the convent of Santo Domingo
in Murcia, died in the province of Pangasinán at the age of more
than seventy, being vicar-provincial of Pangasinán. He was a zealous
minister, and left a number of sermons and other pious writings which
circulated among the friars in manuscript. Rafael de la Carcel of the
province of Aragon, a native of Mallorca, who went to the Philippines
in 1632, also died in Pangasinán. Among other posts that he held he
was prior of the Manila convent, for a while prior vicar-general,
and vicar of Calasiao. His death occurred soon after the disaffection
of that village, and was probably hastened by that loss. Rodrigo de
Cardenas, bishop of Nueva Segovia, died in May, 1661. He had arrived
at the Philippines in 1653, and held the office of bishop for eight
years. He died greatly regretted by all.]
CHAPTER XXI
The holding of the provincial chapter for the election; death of
Kuesing; father Fray Victorio [Riccio] returns to China with the
reply to his embassy.
The father commissary, Fray Francisco de Paula, ended his term as
provincial, and on April 7, 1661, the father commissary, Fray Felipe
Pardo, then prior of the convent of Santo Domingo of Manila, was
elected in that convent. That was the first time when he rose to the
government of this province as provincial. He filled that office so
well that after twelve years (in 1673) he was elected for the second
time, and is at present in that office. He came to this province in
the mission of 1648, for which he left his convent of San Pablo at
Valladolid, where he exercised the office of master of students. The
province always kept him employed here in the offices of lecturer of
morning classes, regent, and rector of the college of Santo Tomas;
president of the hospital, and prior of Manila. Although he has filled
all of them with great credit to his person, and has been useful
and creditable to the order, yet the honor of commissary of the Holy
Inquisition has given him greater prestige--both because any service
for that holy tribunal (and especially that of commissary), means so
much, and because of the circumstances of the time. For he was the
first commissary elected after the disturbance, as famous as harmful,
which was occasioned in these islands by the preceding commissary,
who arrested the governor at that time without those orders that he
ought to have awaited after having consulted--or, more correctly,
having informed--the holy tribunal of Mexico. The father provincial
commenced his first government with so much spirit and energy that
much and even most of it was left for his second government. For
the already-mentioned insurrection of the Parián happened in his
term, as did the incident of our ambassador, [36] together with the
measures taken in the offended provinces of the insurgent Indians,
although those provinces are now quiet. In that and in the sending
out of missions, in which he has always manifested his great love and
inclination, and in maintaining them with aid, he could well boast of
his great zeal and capacity--besides [carrying] the usual weight [of
the province] which is always heavy. He sent father Fray Jayme Berge
(who came in the mission of the year 1658) to become an associate to
father Fray Victorio Riccio, and ordered father Fray Pedro de Santo
Domingo, who desired it, to come to Manila. At the same time he gave
orders and letters commanding father Fray Juan Polanco, whom the
chapter had appointed definitor for Europa, and procurator-general,
to come [to Manila]. He also conveyed a generous aid to our religious,
as well as what the order of our father St. Francis gave him for their
religious. That did not have the success that was desired, for the
greater part was lost in the conveying of it through that so disturbed
country. [The remainder of the chapter treats of Chinese affairs.]
[The four following chapters also treat of Chinese matters, including
political and missionary affairs.]
CHAPTER XXVI
Of the intermediary junta; the arrival of a new governor in
Filipinas; affairs of China; and of Mother Maria de Jesus.
The intermediary junta was held in our convent of Santo Domingo,
on April fourteen, one thousand six hundred and sixty-three. Besides
the usual arrangements, no especial thing was ordained in it except to
entrust to the father provincial the printing of the ritual, and, when
that was done, to see that the religious used it and no other. That is
a very important provision, and one in which the zeal of our superiors
is very well occupied, so that our procedure may be uniform, as we are
charged in the beginning of our holy constitutions. It is not advisable
that this matter of ceremonies be free, since they are so necessary;
and piety and opinion have no vote in this matter, in which the decree
of the superiors has explained their decision. The worst results will
follow if neglect occasions it, since the administration of the holy
sacraments is the most essential point of the ministries; and they
need rules and regulations, care in their study, and punctuality. In
the year 1669, a very suitable ritual was published, which was quite
uniform with the Roman ritual of Paul V....
That year of 1663 our governor, the master-of-camp Don Diego de
Salcedo, came to these islands. He was a worthy soldier of Flandes,
where he had attained honorable posts; and since he had filled
them so well his Majesty entrusted to him the influential post of
captain-general and governor of these islands. If these islands were
three thousand leguas nearer, that office would doubtless not be second
in importance to those of America. The ship put in at Nueva Segovia,
and consequently the said governor came overland--being received
very hospitably by our ministering religious and those of our father
St. Augustine, who are established along the way. On that journey also
they were received by the natives with feasts, dancing, and music, in
which they are very entertaining. His Lordship gained a good name in
[receiving] those tokens of welcome, inadequate as they were, by the
great affability and generosity that he displayed to the natives. He
reached Manila and assumed his office amid great acclamation and pomp
on the festal day of September eight, the day consecrated to the
birth of the most holy Virgin. That was a great consolation to all
people, and good auguries were indicated although not all of them
were fulfilled to the letter. He was beyond doubt a capable man,
and one of great intellect. In but few days he understood whatever
concerned his obligation, and never departed from it so long as it
concerned the king's service. He made the despatches of the ships to
España very punctually, and with foresight; for he recognized that the
ship that left here annually to get the situado is the one that ought
to have the greatest care, and demands activity [in preparation] so
that it may not be pushed for time, but that one or two months shall
be gained. Consequently, there always was a ship [on that line];
and God took charge of them and brought them in, seeing that people
here were doing their utmost. [37] In respect to the good fortune
with which he began [his term], he became faint-hearted, and cared
little for being liked, for that post cannot be free from cause for
harshness. The devil entered, upon seeing the necessary wall of love
somewhat fallen; and he put complaints into the minds of the traders,
which soon spread to the other estates. That enemy sowed dissension,
which is his own seed; and the number of those disaffected increasing,
much opposition to the governor arose. At the end of the year 1668
(October tenth) the governor was arrested by the commissary of the
Inquisition, Fray Joseph de Paternina, an Augustinian....
[Further references to the Chinese missions and politics are made,
and the chapter ends with notices regarding a Spanish beata or devout
woman, Maria de Jesus, who died in Manila in 1662. Her parents,
Albaro de Angulo Tobar and Isabel de Morales, were old settlers in the
islands, who had lived first in Cebú; and their daughter was born in
Arevalo, in the island of Panay. The latter took the habit of beata
in the tertiary order of the Dominicans, somewhat against the will
of her parents. She gave many alms, spent the greater portion of her
wealth in the building of the church of Santo Domingo, and reared
orphan girls in her house.]
[The life and labors of the famous missionary to China, Juan Bautista
de Morales, who died in 1664, fill chapters xxvii-xxxii. The following
chapter is devoted to Fray Francisco de Paula, commissary of the
Inquisition and twice provincial, and other fathers. The former
was born in Segovia and took the habit at Salamanca. Enlisting in
the Philippine mission in 1618, on arriving there he began to study
Chinese in the Parián; but was soon transferred to the college of
Santo Tomás, where he taught for eighteen years. He was a successful
and eloquent preacher to the Spaniards, and in consequence was elected
preacher-general of the Manila convent. The office of vicar-provincial,
as far as Manila is concerned, was conferred on him; and in the year
1641 he was elected provincial. In 1647, while exercising his duties in
the Manila college of Santo Tomás, whither he had returned after his
office had expired, he was elected commissary of the Inquisition. In
1657 he was again elected provincial. Pedro de Santo Domingo, who
took the habit in Milan, Italy, went to the Philippines in 1658,
at the age of forty, and was sent to the Chinese missions; but,
being unable on account of his age to learn the language, he was
sent back to Manila and became vicar of the convent of Santelmo in
Cavite. Illness, however, pressing on him, he was assigned as vicar
to the Philippine hospice of San Jacinto in Mexico, but died ere
reaching his destination.]
CHAPTER XXXIV
The election of a new provincial in the person of the father
commissary, Fray Juan de los Angeles; and the great troubles
in China.
The capitular members assembled in the year 1665 to elect a provincial,
as the father commissary, Fray Felipe Pardo, had completed his
office. On the twenty-fifth of April they elected the father
commissary, Fray Juan de los Angeles, of the province of Andalucia,
and a son of the convent of Santo Domingo del Campo in the village
of Zafra in Estremadura. He had come to this province in the year
1635, and had been minister of Tagalos in the district of Bataan,
and afterward in the island Hermosa, where he remained six years (the
time when the Dutch captured that fort and drove us from the land). He
returned to Manila by way of Jacatra and Macasar, and to his former
ministry of Tagalos. He was rector of the college of Santo Tomas,
twice prior in our convent of Santo Domingo of Manila, at various
times vicar-general, and definitor in 1661 and 1673. In the year
that we mentioned, the province elected him as its prelate, to the
general satisfaction of all. This is as much as we can say at present,
for he is still living. We can also say that since being provincial,
he has undertaken the charge of the college for boys of San Juan de
Letran. He has provided for them a very suitable and spacious house
within the walls of Manila, that has gained repute and esteem for the
pious education in virtue and the studies of those children, which
is the object [of that college]. This holy province was struggling
manfully at the time of that election, but both hands were busy in
wiping off the tears that were shed before God for two reasons. [The
first reason was the effort of the governor to make the orders publish
the lists of ministries, [38] as was the custom in the other parts of
the Indias. In 1665 the vessel which arrived brought his Excellency,
Don Fray Juan Lopez, consecrated bishop-elect of Cebú. He brought
with him the acts of the general chapter held in Rome in 1656; the
execution of the measures for the government of the Indias in general
were suspended, as the Philippines were not included in them unless
mentioned specially. The second great trouble of the province was the
cruelty practiced on the missionaries in China. The chapter ends with
accounts of China and the work there.]
[Chinese affairs are continued in chapters xxxv-xl.]
CHAPTER XLI
A new mission arrives in the province; and events of these times
in Filipinas and China.
The bishop Don Fray Juan de Polanco (who was not yet bishop-elect)
went to España with the usual powers conferred by the province,
following Don Fray Juan Lopez, bishop of Zibu and afterward
archbishop of Manila, who had gone the preceding year with the
same powers. But because of accidents, and since the province was
so lacking in religious, a second procurator was despatched. That
was an excellent measure, as the result showed; for the bishop of
Zibu was embarrassed by his new promotion and by his despatches,
so that he could not get the mission ready, although he had made a
good start at it upon the arrival of Don Fray Juan de Polanco. The
latter was very well received in the provinces of España, and all
of them showed him great love and reverence because of the good
impression that he gave by his virtues, which have without doubt
the greatest attracting power for those spiritual soldiers. The
commission is one of danger which only the loftiest object
and obedience can make peaceful; for besides being the sample,
as they say, of the cloth, such a person is not only looked at
but spied upon by all; and it is necessary above all to bear God
in mind and keep oneself acceptable to Him for so long and even
almost desperate voyages, so that He may give health in so many
hardships, climates, and paths of the earth, and [enable him to
furnish] a good example for so many different kinds of persons with
whom one must confer and voyage, in the midst of so many cares
as he always has in his charge. The task of making religious is
that of the greatest difficulty; for so long as the men [sought]
have the greatest abilities, their convents, who have reared them,
feel it more, and say farewell to them to see them no more, where
natural love does its duty and the devil is not careless--although,
in fine, our holy provinces have always nourished this daughter of
theirs in the belief that to give her a religious is to make God
careful to send her many, and to preserve them with the wealth of
their virtues. They send their sons to this honorable warfare,
and the latter gain new blasons for them and get their first
share of the spoils in the service of God and the welfare of
souls. Therefore, the procurator who is securing men needs many
lights of virtue, prudence, and affability, and great patience,
for accidents that happen, and for the suitable choice of routes,
and for guidance when they go astray; then the essential part of
presenting the things in his care to the princes, and the latter's
councils and counselors to whose questions he must make answer
with truth and candor. The fear of God is master in all; for,
if he swerve from that line, he cannot make a good voyage. For
the other despatches by tribunals and accountancies, he needs to
attend upon them without being troublesome, and enduring delays,
civilities, and courtesies; for they are ministers of the king and
worthy of all esteem, and he must await his time amid the so many
cares entrusted to them. Just at present we all enjoy the ministry
of a perfect procurator of Filipinas in our venerable bishop Don
Fray Juan de Polanco, who must have been a model of procurators;
for by his example and virtue alone, he found himself freed from
all the difficulties that accompany that honorable office. In their
very beginnings he found them solved and conquered; and he made
the very judges of his causes, and even those who were opposed to
him, his attorneys. This is not imagination but the pure truth;
and there are many witnesses still living now in the holy city
of Roma (where he went as definitor in 1668), and in the royal
court of Madrid--where he was favored by princes, and esteemed
and respected as an apostolic and holy man in their councils and
tribunals; where he was listened to as a learned orator of this
province; and where his causes were heard with the notable grace
that God gave him wherever he went, and with the highest honor
in both the said courts. The time will come for recounting his
life and death, and then a longer account will be given of his
virtues. Suffice it to say for the present that he collected two
famous missions for this holy province, which he accompanied to
Mexico (which is the rough place in the ascent of the hill), and
returned for the third time [to España] for more soldiers--[whom
he would have brought] had not the giant footsteps of envious
death intercepted him in Sevilla. He entrusted the first mission
to one of its religious, namely, father Fray Baltasar de Santa
Cruz. They reached Manila safely in August, 1666, and their names
in order of age are as follows: father Fray Juan de Velasco, son of
[the convent of] San Pedro Martir el Real in Toledo; father Fray
Baltasar de Santa Cruz, son of [the convent of] Santa Cruz el Real
in Granada, and master of students, who was then in the convent
of San Lucar; father Fray Joseph de Isussi, son of the convent of
San Pablo in Burgos and fellow of [the convent of] San Gregorio
in Valladolid; father Fray Diego Nuñez, son of [the convent of]
San Estevan in Salamanca; father Fray Christoval de Montenegro, son
of the convent and college of Nuestro Señora del Rosario in Almagro,
fellow of Santo Thomas in Sevilla, and teacher of logic there; father
Fray Arcadio del Rosario, son of [the convent of] San Pablo in Sevilla,
and lecturer in logic there, former fellow of Santo Thomas of Alcalà
de Henares (this father remained in Mexico because of illness, and
came the following year); father Fray Christoval Pedroche, son of the
convent of San Pedro Martir el Real in Toledo; father Fray Juan Romero,
son of the convent of San Pablo in Sevilla and fellow of San Gregorio
in Valladolid; father Fray Juan de la Cueva, son of [the convent of]
Santa Cruz in Granada; father Fray Pedro de Alcalà, son of the same
convent in Granada; father Fray Manuel de Mercadillo, son of [the
convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca; father Fray Alonso Blasco, son
of the convent of Santo Domingo del Campo in Estremadura; father Fray
Domingo Perez, son of the convent of Santa Maria de Trianos, fellow of
Alcalà [de Henares]; father Fray Juan Peguero, son of the convent of
Porta Coeli in Sevilla; father Fray Pedro Ximenez, son of the convent
of La Peña de Francia; father Fray Joseph de Solis, son of [the
convent of] San Pablo in Palencia; father Fray Francisco de Olmedo,
son of the same convent in Palencia; father Fray Pedro Sanchez, son
of the convent of La Peña de Francia; father Fray Antonio de San Juan,
son of the convent of Santa Cruz in Segovia; father Fray Agustin Garcia
de Ortega, son of [the convent of] San Estevan in Salamanca; father
Fray Pablo Marchan, son of the same convent of San Estevan; father
Fray Andres Gonzalez, son of the convent of San Pablo in Valladolid;
father Fray Bernabe Rodriguez, son of the same convent in Valladolid;
father Fray Francisco de Villalva, son of the convent of San Pablo of
Burgos; father Fray Pedro de Alarcon, son of the convent of Nuestra
Señora de Atocha; father Fray Antonio Rego, son of the convent of San
Estevan in Salamanca; father Fray Andres Lopez, son of the convent of
San Pedro Martir in Toledo; father Fray Diego de Castro, son of the
convent at Santiago in Galicia; father Fray Joseph de San Jacinto,
son of the convent of Santa Cruz in Segovia; father Fray Joseph de
la Torre, son of the convent of San Pedro Martir in Rio Seco; father
Fray Juan de Santo Domingo, son of the convent in Ocaña; father Fray
Juan de Santa Maria, son of the convent of San Pedro in Sevilla;
father Fray Pedro Gonzalez, son of the convent of Aranda in Duero;
father Fray Juan de Castellanos, son of the convent of Santo Domingo
in Logroño; father Fray Bernardo de Noriega, son of the convent of
San Pablo in Palencia; Fray Antonio de la Purificacion, lay-brother,
of the convent of Santa Cruz in Granada; Fray Joseph de la Villalva,
lay-brother, son of the convent of San Pablo in Valladolid; Fray Juan
Fernando, lay-brother, son of the convent of San Pablo in Burgos,
who remained in our hospice of San Jacinto [in Mexico]; and Fray
Sebastian del Rosario, lay-brother, son of the said convent of San
Jacinto in Mexico. In all they number thirty-nine. [39]
This fine mission came in the ship "La Concepcion," that year of
1666. The same ship also brought two other missions, one of our father,
St. Francis, and the other of the Society of Jesus; two religious
of St. John of God, and secular priests; also captains, and very
honorable persons--in charge of the commander Joseph de Zamora. The
ship was unable to make the Embocadero because the vendavals which
had set in prevented it. Therefore it was very fortunate in making
the port of Palapa, which is located on the southern side. [40] They
anchored there on the day of St. Lawrence, and it was considered
a very special providence of God that they disembarked there on
that land, for all arriving in great need and worn out after four
months and more of continual navigation, they found, especially
the religious, that they had arrived at the land so oft desired
and the land of promise. They found in that village, which is in
charge of the fathers of the Society, a father rector whose charity
challenged the needs of all of them and was victorious. This was the
ever venerable father Melchor de los Reyes, a native of Puerto Rico,
who, although very poor in that ministry of his, yet settled the
difficulty as a very rich man. He lodged eighty religious without
even remotely expecting one. He received them all with the ringing
of bells, with playing on wind instruments, and music. He supported
them abundantly and daintily until boats were found to take them to
Manila (which could not be done in a few days). He also succored the
ship with rice and other supplies, and with dainties, according to
their persons. Ours were the best served, for boats were not found;
and although it was thought that the ship could soon proceed upon
its voyage, the bad weather was so obstinate that it was unable to
sail until March of the following year. Therefore they remained in
that holy house with the same satisfaction that they could have had
in the most wealthy convent of our order. Sufficiently accommodated
in those lodgings, they all said mass; and then those who wished
had their breakfast. All the food was supplied abundantly, with the
utmost cleanliness and punctuality. They were sheltered in the choir
and galleries with great quiet. A pleasant and crystal river flowed
near the college, for recreation and bathing. There were books in
great abundance, according to the taste of each one. Above all was
the affability of the holy religious, and of the others who attended
to those residences belonging to their ministry. Truly there are no
words to imagine the consolation that the Lord gave there to our tired
religious, or the obligation under which all this province remained
at so generous charity. The religious who served as superior of Ours,
seeing the length of time that they were staying there, and the so
excessive expense that was being incurred, although fearful of a bad
outcome, finally, to satisfy his ill-founded fear, took one hundred
pesos from the scanty hoard of the mission, and resolved to give
them to the father rector. They were not sufficient even to cover
the cost of the rice, but in the end would be some aid in meeting
the expenses. He followed the rector alone into his apartment, and,
changing color, after some arguments which he endeavored to offer he
concluded by asking pardon, and asked him to please take that trifle
to pay at least the porters and cooks, since our mission was detained
so long there. The father rector assumed a serious countenance then,
and in brief, sorrowfully proceeded to give the father a severe
reproof, by telling him that nothing worthy of payment had been done
there; that the father vice-provincial had ordered him to attend to
that obligation; that the fathers of his residences had brought the
supplies, each in accordance with his several ability; that, thanks
to God, nothing was owed to the Indians; that God was giving for
everything; and that he rather was the gainer, for, without knowing
how, he found his pantries full; that during those days two dugongs
had been caught (a thing which had not been seen before since he had
been there, for never had those fish been seen there, for it was by
a great miracle). Thus did he minimize all that he had done; but our
religious, still insisting and placing the hundred pesos on the table,
witnessed that the venerable father fell on his knees, and clasping
his hands, with tears in his eyes, said to him: "No, no, father,
you must not leave that money here for me. I beg that of you in the
name of the most holy Virgin. She will not permit your Reverence to
give me such affront, at least for the good-will with which I have
served you." Thereupon, the religious begged pardon, and kept his money
without knowing how to pay that debt, unless it be paid in the divine
treasuries of God, for whom it was all done. Our religious went out
in seven bands, and for each band the rector solicited a boat, a good
pilot, and a store of supplies for some days. All came [to Manila]
singing the praises of so religious an Alexander, who was finally
reared in so holy a school as that of the Society of Jesus--where,
although one is taught all kinds of knowledge so completely, we can say
that charity is that which is not taught, because it is inspired. God
will now have paid that pious father, for already has He taken him
to himself. The religious consumed two more months in going from
Palapa to Manila because of the bad weather. However, they passed
almost always through ministries belonging to our father St. Francis,
where they found themselves detained and hindered more by the great
love with which they were welcomed, and the regret with which they
were allowed to depart, than by the roads and the difficulties of
travel. They arrived at the desired place at last and were received
by the father provincial, then the father commissary, Fray Juan de
los Angeles, with that paternal love which his natural affability and
his obligation dictated to him. When he saw that they were rested,
he began to assign them occupations.
On September 27 of the former year 1665, our most reverend
father-general, Fray Juan Bautista de Marinis, wrote a loving
and thoughtful letter from Roma to the venerable father Fray Juan
Bautista de Morales. That letter reached the province in 1667, and,
although the father was dead, it will be proper that so precious
a thing--to the credit of the paternal providence of its author,
and of the reputation that this noble although so retired a member
had gained with the supreme head of the order--shall not perish or be
lost; and it is also to the credit of this holy province, for they so
hold his name in memory as to honor it through its sons, our supreme
heads. The letter reads as follows: "Reverend father in Christ: Health,
and grace from the Holy Ghost. The news that I have received from the
father provincial of that our province of the Filipinas is a great
consolation to me. He gives me news of your Reverence's health, and of
the perseverance with which you are aiding in those conversions without
any relaxation to your labors in your so advanced age. I thank the Lord
therefor, from whom comes all good; and applying to your Reverence the
sufferings of all the order, and giving you the benediction of our
glorious St. Dominic, I thank you again and again for having served
in our ministry for the conversion of souls, which is the object of
our institute, and which your Reverence and your companions are,
with the divine grace, accomplishing. Forty-two religious sailed
in the mission which left Cadiz on July 5 of this year, for which
the father lecturer, Fray Juan Polanco, procurator of the province,
worked zealously and diligently. The consolation that I have had in
the selection of those missionaries will increase if your Reverence
will take them under your teaching, and encourage and exhort them so
that, as sons of so good a father, they may give bread to those who,
desirous of spiritual sustenance, beg it. May God please that it be
so, for such is my desire. In regard to the labors of government, it
will relieve us to receive letters from your Reverence, and to have
news of the progress of so loving sons as it has been God's pleasure
to give me. I have sent breviaries and a formulary of devotion to the
twelve associates of your Reverence, which is as a token of my love,
so that you may be mindful of me in your prayers, and ask God to give
me the success that I desire in the fulfilment of my obligation. I
am sending to your Reverence documents containing the many thanks
that the holy apostolic see has given us; and I inform you that his
Holiness in our Lord, Alexander VII, who is auspiciously governing
this Church, is granting us very loving favors; and I hope to receive
even greater ones from his munificence. I shall give him an account of
the extensive labors of your Reverence, and of the happiness that we
may expect because an entrance has been made into the island Hermosa,
whence the passage to China and to Japon will be facilitated. May
God continually preserve and accompany your Reverence and all those
my sons--to whom I say that the cause of the holy martyrs of Japon
is proceeding felicitously; [41] and that I hope that the laurel of
their martyrdom will be a motive to the others, so that, if it should
prove necessary for the maintenance of our holy faith to suffer as
martyrs they may do so with gladness. Roma, September 27, 1665.
"Fray Juan Bautista de Marinis, master of the order."
This is the letter written ex-officio by the general of the order
to a poor missionary under him, giving place to this care before so
many and imperative cares as claim his attention--so that one may see
even in this life the honors that God has prepared for those who are
employed in so apostolic an occupation.
In the year 1667, on the day of the immaculate conception of our
Lady, December 8, the most illustrious doctor Don Miguel de Poblete,
archbishop of Manila, died in that city, to the universal sorrow of
all these islands; for during the time of fourteen years while he
had occupied the see, he acted as the loving father and pastor of
his church. He was a very amiable man, pious, and possessed of great
charity; for notwithstanding the poverty of this archbishopric,
and its dependence upon the condition of a royal treasury that
is so poor and has so many creditors, he gave liberal alms, which
he took from the sustenance of his own person, his household, and
his family. He was very anxious for the building of his cathedral,
which he found completely ruined since the earthquakes. With grave
importunity and the amount that his Majesty ordered to be paid to him,
he left a church that was very sumptuous (as much so as these islands
permit), almost finished. It has three naves, all of free stone and
rubble-work masonry. It was finished a short time after his death;
and its venerable dean and cabildo occupied it to the great consolation
and credit of the city. On the day of his death occurred the ceremony
of taking the oath of allegiance to the king our sovereign, Carlos
Second; [42] and God made that occasion propitious for us, for with
that his venerable body, embalmed, was exposed for three days, and the
faithful had time to go with tearful piety to say farewell to their
most loving shepherd, whose hands and feet they kissed until he was
buried with due pomp. It was the common report, and an established
fact, that he died a virgin, and beloved to the utmost degree [43] for
his so beautiful virtue. This and his piety, not at all embarrassed
by personal considerations, were sufficient to compose a palm [44]
for him; and after it was placed it appeared very fitting. God will
give his fame a special history, as ours cannot go into greater detail.
In those two years God took from us valuable associates of long
experience, who served this holy province much by their example and
work for the welfare of the Indians. Father Fray Juan de Arjona,
son of the convent of San Pablo el Real in Cordova, [was one]. He had
been occupied with great earnestness in the ministries of Pangasinan
and Ytui, and there he performed great deeds for the service of
God, as those ministries were new. He died at an advanced age in
the convent of Santo Domingo in Manila. Father Fray Juan Pabon,
native of Montaruches in Estremadura, son of the convent at Truxillo
in the province of España, was most accomplished in the language of
Nueva Segovia, and suffered great hardships in the conversion of the
Indians of Irraya and in the administration of other villages. The
love and respect of all who came in contact with him was very great;
and the province entrusted to him many posts of honor, and grieved
not a little at his death, for he was a model for ministers, and in
every respect a pattern of his obligation.
CHAPTER XLII
Of the intermediary junta of the year sixty-seven; and of other
news of this period of our history.
On April thirty of the year 1667 was held and celebrated the
intermediary junta [in the term] of the father commissary Fray Juan
de los Angeles, in our convent of Santo Domingo in Manila--and
with new vigor because of the fervor imparted to the province by
the fresh nourishment received from its late reënforcement. They
proceeded to arrange the ministries, and one more which it seemed
advisable to separate, namely, San Miguel at Orion, in the district
of Bataan. After knowing the new soldiers for a year, the old and
new stones were assigned to their places in order to render this
spiritual edifice firm and beautiful. The new rules made were but
few, but they were very carefully thought out. The first was that
no inferior or subordinate official of the order should visit or
write to the alcaldes and superiors of the provinces, and least
of all to the governor, without first making known his intention
and explaining it to the father provincial--or, in his absence,
to the vicars-provincial--respectively. That was and ought to be a
necessary measure; and the attempt to carry out the decisions that
each minister reaches in his seclusion may be the cause of greater
troubles. We must not make a passion of our zeal for defending the
Indians, for that is a virtue that essentially demands to be moderated
by prudence. An angry letter, or (what is worse) a visit, founded
perhaps on a misrepresentation, generally disquiets a superior. He,
in his own opinion offended, is vexed; and the Indians themselves,
and the rest of the religious, are wont to pay doubly [for the
intrusion]. Consequently, it is proper that such matters be managed
with much caution and in accordance with obedience, and in the council
[of the order], keeping in view the object, which must be the first
aim of every good intention. Everyone does what he is able in his
ministry and profession, and the apostle says that we should give
offense to no one. The heads of the province, being in an exalted
position, discover many things and efficient remedies for all troubles;
and hence it is necessary to place such affairs in their hands. For
the same reason and one greater, that junta repeats the order that no
one should preach against the government and the persons busied in it
without consulting with the same superiors. For that means consultation
with God, because words are very important in that most lofty and
consecrated place--where by favor of the sovereign principles of a
wisdom whose master is the fear of God, and general doctrines, one
may say whatever there is to say. Our father San Vicente Ferrer did
not preach more than the judgment, but he reformed the world, kings,
and chiefs. And only a St. John the Baptist, who by credit of his
virtue pointed out with his finger a divine Person, could point out
from the pulpit a person so wicked and scandalous as a Herod; for the
latter was, in fine, king, and his dignity protected him. God placed
our superiors in their positions (and kings rule through God) and
gave that honor to their councils and magistracies; and consequently
it is proper for ministers to honor them without flattery (which is
another and worse extreme) without curing them with salt, and with
respect where the community does not feel it--so that by preaching
to the people at large, they will know where their pain is. We
have already touched on this point in another place; but, since our
province repeats it so often in its ordinances, the historian is also
permitted to repeat it, since it is advice so important. A petition
was addressed to our most reverend father not to allow dispensations
to be introduced into our provinces, nor anything that savored of
[differences between] individuals or degrees. For since it had seemed
to his paternal piety that the procurators-general who went from this
province to those of Europa had immense work therein, he planned to
grant to them officially some sort of reward, by conferring on them
the rank of the more recent fathers of the province. Receiving this
favor with submission and gratitude, they nevertheless protested in
this junta against it. At the same time Don Fray Juan de Polanco made a
humble resistance in Roma, as he knew that the order had already been
sent. But he obtained that new favor from our most reverend father;
and, before our petition arrived, the said grace was revoked.
In the following year of 1668 two relief ships reached these islands,
which came from Nueva España. In one of them came father Fray
Antonio Calderon, who had obtained permission to return to España
the preceding year, because of illness. But later, as he regained
strength in Nueva España, and as he knew the lack that one religious
makes here, and the need of the province, he was filled with no small
doubt, seeing that this was coming to be a second vocation. Therefore,
he determined to return, and did so; and entered the province for
the second time with great courage and went to his ministries in
Nueva Segovia, where he is and was an excellent linguist. The devil
is very subtile, and, because he sees the evil that is caused him
by this province, he causes sickness, and makes sufferings greater
than what they are in themselves. Since also the magnanimous nature
of man falls short, and he takes it ill to see himself set in a land
like this--as shut out from intercourse and repose as contrary to
the liberty of our España--with the little attention given to him, he
imagines insuperable hardships in the rules, aggravates his sickness
in so great retirement; and by a door that is lawful, he disturbs
the common cause and even endangers that of the individual. The said
father now found himself strong, and consequently chose to return,
to exercise his strength in this his province. In the other ship came
father Fray Arcadio del Rosario, who had, as we have remarked above,
remained in Mexico sick, and was now coming very strong and well--to
a place where the only consolations and pleasures that went out to
meet him were a peril and sudden catastrophe, which would have been
the last had not God aided him almost miraculously. Because of the
difficulty that the ship had in entering the strait or Embocadero
of San Bernardino--and those difficulties are very great and usual
in those seas in that season--the father took a small boat called
a caracoa; and, embarking in it with a father visitor-commissary of
our father St. Francis, who was coming as visitor, and another, his
associate, with rowers and other Spanish passengers, they tried to
cross the strait, in order to continue their course to Manila more
quickly than they could by the ship, if they waited for it. Those
boats are not only swift but weak, and, in order to give them greater
safety, some long timbers are crossed at intervals over the sides; at
the ends of these they suitably place some bamboo sails called cates,
so that, by thus making the vessel wider, they may better resist
the waves and sustain them. They were beginning their crossing,
which is a distance of about six leguas, and in the very middle
of it so strong a gust of wind struck them, as well as so opposing
currents--which, in those regions, are such that they will turn a
ship of high free-board clear around, with or without favorable winds,
moving it from side to side and disarranging the [trim of the] sails,
with the accompanying horror that only sailors can imagine--that that
boat (for it was not even a patache, but a very weak vessel) capsized,
because of the currents and the violent wind that they encountered in
the midst of the open expanse, after a few contrary blasts, and filled
with water. It was the Lord's will that the buffeting of the sea should
soon strip it of weight, carrying away whatever it contained. Thereupon
the men in it remained astride of the said timbers and cates, and
many of them were up to their breasts in water, rigging it. In such
wise they allowed themselves to drift along with the said current,
wherever it chose to take them, sustained only on those timbers poorly
fastened together with rattan. Night came; day followed; and in all
that time they were unable to make the land--on the contrary, the
currents carried them away from it. When they got out of one current
they were seized by one opposed to it, so that they were continually
going, round and round in those waters. Father Fray Arcadio, who was
still convalescent, suffered the most; and doubtless would soon have
given up, had it not been for the said father commissary. A bamboo
enclosure was made as well as possible on those timbers and there the
father found some retreat from the water, mainly in the arms of the
said father commissary. The latter's name was Fray Antonio Godinez,
son of the religious province of San Diego in Mexico. With the same
suffering did they pass the following night--without water to drink in
the midst of so much water, nor more food than a few grains of rice,
which the wrath of so rigorous a fortune that assailed those miserable
beings had forgotten. At last, on the third day, the Lord, as a Father
of mercy, listened to them and they reached the land; where, more
beaten by the waves of the sea than assisted by what the rowers could
do, they reached the sacred sand in a stripped condition. Three men
were drowned, who tried to quit the boat too soon, and the sea made
them pay for their ingratitude with their lives; for their weakness
had already forbidden them [from reaching land]. It is always a rule
of sailors that only wood can swim on such occasions. All is as God
ordains; but already deposit was made of life, and a good account, by
means of his Majesty, must be given. Our religious landed, or rather
those who shared his fortunes drew him ashore half dead. But the
land performed its miracles, and they hastened to the first village,
where they all recovered and were despatched to Manila. The pious
commissary lost there all the papers of his commission, so that,
when he reached the province, great difficulties were raised, and he
returned without making his visit. Father Fray Arcadio reached this
our province, where he was gladly received, and the prelate assigned
him to the study of the Chinese language, in which he took the courses
that will be related at the end of this chapter.
[The provincial receives a letter dated Roma, February 19, 1668,
from the father-general of the order, Juan Bautista de Marinis, in
which concessions to the order by Pope Clement IX are related. The
beatified Luis Beltran and Mother Rosa de Santa Maria have been
canonized; universal prayer ad libitum to San Vicente Ferrer has
been conceded; and other concessions of general importance to the
order are granted. August 1, 1673, four religious embark for the
Chinese missions--namely, Arcadio del Rosario, Pedro de Alcala, Pedro
de Alarcon, and Alonso de Cordova. The rough weather experienced
causes the superstitious Chinese crew to imagine that it is caused
by the fathers; but after many hardships China is finally reached in
twenty-four days. After various adventures they return to Manila,
May 4, 1674. Two Dominican religious, namely, Arcadio del Rosario
and Francisco Lujan, and two Franciscans, namely, Miguel Flores and
Pedro de Piñuelo, sail for China on Corpus Christi day, 1676.]
At the same time, religious are being occupied in two glorious missions
in this same island of Manila. One near the city, to the north, is
to the Zambals, whom we have not yet been able to subdue. Now two of
our religious are there, and are bringing in those of the mountains
to form villages. They possess churches and many of the people are
converted. The religious write that they have been received very
well, and it is hoped that this will be a grand work for the service
of God and for these islands, for those people are very courageous
and bloodthirsty, and have always done great harm to those who go to
other provinces and to the villages near them; and, if the faith of
Christ once subjects them, great advantages present themselves for
all. The other mission is located in the same region, in the province
of Nueva Segovia, in the district of the mountains called Irraya, of
which this history has already given repeated notices. Most of those
people are heathen, although there are many Christians among them
who have fled from our villages. They have been subdued at times,
but their misfortune has immediately roused them to rebellion. Now
we are considering how to attract them by love, and with security;
and our religious are moving alone in this matter, with none of the
horrors that soldiers bring. Consequently, we trust that they too
will be subdued. Such is our special vocation in this holy province,
where we profess especially to fight the wars of God. And thus as the
good soldier loses spirit when peace is declared, and is inspirited
at the rumor of a battle, It is an evident fact that these spiritual
soldiers are aroused to unusual ardor when the arms of the missions
are in use, just as the silence of these voices depresses them. And,
if their sufferings and efforts reached at least half as far as do
their desires, there would be no province in Asia now which had not
yielded to God and to His holy faith in accordance with the honorable
designs with which the beautiful sky of these islands inspires them.
This news has been anticipated, because it is so recent; but the
history only relates matters to 1669, so that the third part [45]
will begin with the provincial chapter celebrated on May 11 of the
said year, when the reverend father Fray Juan Camacho was elected
provincial.
[The chapter ends with the recital of certain benefits that have been
received by the order at large, in canonizations, beatifications, etc.]
THE AUGUSTINIANS IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1641-70
Book second of the second part of "Conquests of the Filipinas
Islands and chronicle of the religious of our father
St. Augustine."
CHAPTER XXXV
Of the second election to the provincialate of father Fray Gerónimo
Medrano,and the life and death of Archbishop Don Hernando Guerrero.
As there are no events worth mentioning in the year 1640, outside of
what we have noticed in the prosecution of the war with the Sangleys,
let us pass to the year 1641. On the nineteenth of April of that
year was celebrated the provincial chapter, which was presided
over by father Fray Juan de Trejo, [46] the senior definitor of the
former chapter. Father Fray Gerónimo de Medrano was elected for the
second time as provincial. The definitors elected were father Fray
Juan Gallegos, Fray Pedro Mexia, [47] Fray Diego de Ordás, and Fray
Diego Tamayo. [48] The visitors were fathers Fray Felipe Tallada and
Fray Cristóbal Enríquez. [49] Very suitable ministers were stationed
in all the villages of this province, as it had then a great plenty
of religious.
[Here follow accounts of the wars in Mindanao and Joló, and the
founding of the royal College of San Felipe by Sebastian Hurtado de
Corcuera, both of which are treated elsewhere.]
After the archbishop, Don Fray Hernando, had governed his church of
Manila during his time with the troubles and anxiety that have been
mentioned in their proper place, and many others which afterward
continued to exercise his patience and tolerance (which, to one of
his many years, were a great weight to place on him at the end of his
life), he fell sick from various accidents, which prostrated him in a
short time and reduced him to his last illness. This occurred during
his visitation of the village of Balayán, where he had remained a
long time busied in the confirmations of that entire province. The
vigilant prelate was unwilling to lay aside his bodily labors, as he
was by nature very active. He celebrated mass every day, until his
attendant, recognizing that his illness was becoming aggravated,
induced him to retire to Manila in order to take better care of
his health. He reached the city in the middle of May, where he was
shortly prostrated by his illness which made the physicians think that
he was going to end his days very soon. All the remaining days left
to him, he busied himself fervently in preparing for his last hour,
abstracting himself in religious thought during all the time that
either the care of his medicine or the compliance of his attendants
permitted. But, coming to the last pass, he ordered that all the holy
sacraments be given to him. He received them in public with great
fervor, and to the edification of all the people. The people were
very sorry to lose a shepherd so zealous for the welfare of souls,
who had suffered so much to defend the immunity of the Church. Day and
night was his archiepiscopal palace never free from the religious,
who loved him dearly as the defender and protector of them all. Not
less was the sorrow of the cabildo, who loved him as a true father;
for although he had had various conflicts with them, he was their
consolation and defense as well as that of the clergy, among whom
he performed all the offices of love and piety possible. He succored
the poor and sheltered the needy clerics, for he was very zealous for
the honor of the ecclesiastics. Finally, laden with merits and years,
he rendered up his soul to his Creator, July 1, 1641, at one o'clock
at night, at the age of more than seventy. His death caused general
sorrow to all, especially to those who had borne most part in the
sorrow that that great prelate had experienced.
Don Fray Hernando Guerrero was a native of the town of Alcaraz,
although Doctor Juan Pérez de Montalbán represents him as born in
Madrid. He was the legitimate son of Don Fernando Guerrero and of
Doña Isabel de la Barreta, both of noble blood. He received the
habit of our holy religion in the convent of San Felipe in Madrid,
where he professed July 26, 1588, during the priorship of father Fray
Antonio de Velasco. Later he came to these islands in the year 1595
with the mission that was sent from España by father Fray Francisco de
Ortega--who died afterward in Mexico, when returning as the ambassador
of King Don Felipe II to the emperor of China. He was minister of the
provinces of Tagalos, where he built the convent of Tagui; it was a
magnificent work before it suffered ruin in the earthquakes of 1645,
which overthrew the most sumptuous edifices. He obtained the most
honorable posts in the order next to the provincialate, as a reward
for his great merits; and, had he not been presented by his Majesty
as bishop of Nueva Segovia, he would also have filled the post of
provincial. That was due to his many services to this province; for
he went to España twice and brought over two excellent missions of
religious. Special mention is made of this archbishop by the father
master Fray Tomás de Herrera, on folio 243 of the first part of his
Alfabeta Agustiniano [i.e., "Augustinian Alphabet"]; and on folio
297 of chapter 43 of the first part of the history of our convent of
Salamanca. He is said to have received despatches to act as governor
of these islands, although that is not clear to me. It may be true
that he had a decree to act as governor ad interim; but as there was
no vacancy in the government of these islands, he never had occasion to
use that favor. In a rare book preserved in manuscript in the treasury
of the holy cathedral church of Manila, on the lives and deeds of
the archbishops of the city, there is a very long relation of the
government of Don Fray Hernando Guerrero and of his great sufferings
in defense of the ecclesiastical immunity. Speaking of his death,
the following is added:
"His death was greatly regretted, for the poor loved him dearly
for the many great alms that he gave them both publicly and in
secret. The rich esteemed him, for, besides his being very courteous
and kind, they never gave him anything, however little, that was not
recompensed with something greater. The orders venerated him, because
the delicacy with which he gained the good-will of all was extreme;
and he obtained that by his paternal affection and affability. Although
his cabildo showed him little kindness, he did not for that reason
cease to esteem them. He succored the poor presbyters and the clergy
by giving them alms sufficient to clothe themselves; for he sorrowed
excessively at seeing that they did not have the proper vestments. He
bought them bits of silk and chanlés for cassocks and cloaks, so that
they might appear properly. He bought some houses, very elegant in
their time, on the square of this city, and fitted them up for the
archiepiscopal palace; but, as his debts were so heavy that he could
not pay for them, they were bought after his death by Manuel Estacio
Venegas, [50] who made them into a palace, in which the governors and
captains-general now live. [51] That prelate was an excellent man in
all ways; and his disgrace resulted from the adverse fortune that he
experienced--although he well merited the crown with which God must
have rewarded him, because of the great prudence and patience with
which he bore himself, while he was never heard to utter a harsh or
hasty word. The cause of that was, that it fell to his lot to rule
[the church] during the government of Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado
de Corcuera, a gentleman well known to be capricious and hard to deal
with--who by his natural severity and harshness greatly harassed
that prelate. But his greatest glory (worthy of all applause) was
the fact that he suffered in defense of the immunity of his church;
so that we may properly and with acclamation give him the aureole of
martyrdom, and chant a song of victory for that holy warrior, [52]
the defense of the Manila church. His funeral was celebrated with
due ceremony and he was buried amid tears and grief in the convent
of his great father St. Augustine in this city of Manila; and his
body was placed in the presbytery of the high altar at the gospel
side. He ruled that archbishopric for five years, eleven months,
and nine days. He was grave of aspect and spare in figure, of good
proportion and stature, somewhat bald and hair somewhat curly. He was
temperate in his eating, indeed eating very little. He spent much time
in vigils. In his conversation he was very affable. He slept on the
ground, the bed that he had--well furnished with handsome coverlets,
on account of his dignity--remaining untouched. In short, he was in
all things a perfect prelate."...
Third book of the second part of the "Conquests of the
Filipinas Islands and chronicle of the religious of our father
St. Augustine."
CHAPTER FIRST
Provincial chapter; the arrival of Governor Don Diego Fajardo;
and death of Don Fray Pedro de Arce.
Father Fray Gerónimo de Medrano had governed this province with
great success during his second triennium, and all were sorry when
his term ended, and were desirous to have his life last so that he
might be elected for the third time, as happened after in the year
1650; for that religious, who was so worthy of that office, left a
great memory to posterity of his exalted virtue and prudence. Thus,
the time prescribed by our holy rules having arrived, the provincial
chapter of this province was celebrated April 16, 1644, in the convent
of San Pablo at Manila. Father Master Fray Teófilo Mascarós presided at
that chapter by the letters-patent of our very reverend father master,
Fray Hipólito de Monte-final, general of all our holy order. Master
Fray Alonso Carvajal, the oracle of these islands at that time, was
elected provincial. The definitors were fathers Fray Alonso de Lara,
[53] Fray Antonio Gimenez, Fray Cristóbal de León, [54] and Fray
Alonso Quijano. [55] The visitors were fathers Fray Juan Gallegos,
and the lecturer was Fray Diego de Ochoa. [56]
In the ship that came from Nueva España that year, came as
governor Don Diego Fajardo Chacón, knight of the Order of Santiago,
an illustrious scion of the house of the Marqués de los Velez, and
nephew of Governor Don Alonso Fajardo y Tenza. That gentleman had been
reared in the family of the most serene prince, Manuel Filiberto,
the duke of Saboya, whose captain of the guard he had been. [57]
Later by various promotions acquired by his valor in war, he came to
be governor of Perpiñán and afterward of the Terceras Islands. He was
a gentleman of great abilities, which, had they not been accompanied
by an excessive severity, uncommunicativeness, and too great rigor
in his punishments, would have rendered him equal to the greatest
governors, not only of these islands but of the whole world. For he
was very intelligent in military affairs, but chaste, truthful, and
modest, and so free from anything that can touch covetousness that
in that respect he rather resembled a most observant religious than
a military gentleman; for he was never known and he never presumed to
receive anything--not only no jewel of value, but not even a present
of any food. He began to govern August 16 and remained nine years in
the government, during which the citizens suffered many misfortunes
and many annoyances; for that so upright and honorable gentleman,
having surrendered to the dictum of one single private individual,
an oldtime citizen of Manila, disappointed the many pledges that
the post of governor has a right to claim. As soon as he assumed
the government, he moved the Parián of the Sangleys to its present
site. It had no greater accommodations than before, but he was ordered
to do so by a royal decree. He ordered that a considerable sum which
the governors received from the gains of the Sangleys in gambling be
placed in the treasury. Those are the most sinful receipts that are
deposited in the royal treasury in these islands, and the cause, to
the sorrow of many, of the little benefit arising from the many sums
that enter by other channels this public treasury of Filipinas. That
sinful practice thus introduced, lasted a considerable time, the
selfish interest of the very persons who should have checked this
evil causing them to ignore the many difficulties [resulting from
it], until his Majesty Don Felipe V ordered those [gambling] games
to be suppressed, because of the report of the archbishop, Don Diego
Camacho y Avila. In the residencia of his predecessor, Don Sebastián
Hurtado de Corcuera, Don Diego Fajardo conducted himself so uprightly
that because of the charges that resulted from it, he imprisoned the
former in the redoubt of Santiago for five years, until order was sent
by his Majesty to send Don Sebastián to España, which was done. [58]
The ship that sailed for Nueva España that year put back, after having
suffered great storms, thus commencing the disasters and hardships
that have followed during these latter years. The ship "San Diego"
also put back to Cavite, because the Dutch enemy had entered the
Embocadero of San Bernardino--returning to Cavite, where it served
as a great defense against the Dutch in the year 1647, as will be
seen. The threats of the coming of the Dutch were heard continually;
and we in the islands were very anxious because of their new proximity
in the island of Hermosa, a suitable way-station for any purpose. As
was learned later by advices from Jacatra in the former year 1643,
they had been waiting the ships from Acapulco in the Embocadero of
San Bernardino, until they could not withstand the violent storms
of that year. All their plans were to descend upon Manila and drive
the Spaniards from this archipelago. A double reënforcement of men
had been sent from Holanda for that purpose, and a greater number of
small vessels, besides the two hundred ships with high freeboard that
they had in these seas, scattered from the cape of Buena Esperanza to
the island Hermosa. Although forewarned for any of these things that
might happen, Don Diego Fajardo began to do less than he ought; for
he kept himself in seclusion the greater part of the time, and would
not give that personal attention to the management of affairs which
a government so extensive demanded. That was given to the charge of a
private individual, to whom he had given the management of everything
to suit himself; and that was the cause of great misfortunes. For the
first undertaking was to place the necessary boats in the shipyard;
and thus, when the occasion arrived, there was so scanty forces
collected that the happy success of our arms gainst the Dutch was
clearly a miracle.
One of the first precautions was to send Don Francisco de Atienza
y Báñez, a native of Toledo and a soldier of excellent judgment,
as governor to Zamboanga, so that he might by his prudence procure
a settled peace with the Mindanaos--who, being domestic enemies,
had greatly diverted the Spanish arms in curtailing their pride. A
peace was easily obtained with the Moro king, Corralat, for he had
been greatly frightened by the past successes of the Spaniards. The
forts of Joló were in great part occupied by soldiers, but the
batteries were not in condition to be deserted, for it was presumed
that the Dutch were about to assault them--as happened afterward in
June of the year 1648, although with less benefit than they believed
they would have in the beginning. Consequently, it was necessary to
preserve them on that occasion, although peace had been obtained in
the year 1646 with their natives by means of the same Captain Don
Francisco de Atienza. Thus the Spanish arms were somewhat more free
for anything that might happen. However, when the Moros afterward
beheld us involved in greater anxiety with our defense against the
Dutch (who were so hostile to us during the years of 1646 and 47),
they began again to invade the islands with their piratical raids, and
infested the province of Pintados, where they pillaged and captured.
[In 1645 occurred the death of the prominent Augustinian, Pedro de
Arce, who had arrived in the Philippines shortly after 1580 in a
mission brought by Andrés de Aguirre. The remainder of the chapter
is taken up with his life.]
CHAPTER II
Events of the year 1645, and of the band of religious who came
to this province, and of the earthquakes which occurred that year.
The year 1645 was disastrous for these islands--so much so, that to
this day the misfortunes with which that year ended are bewailed;
and together with that the beauty of the edifices that made Manila
celebrated among the most sightly cities, as its ruins, the shapeless
skeleton of its beauty, proclaim it at present. The origin of those
misfortunes is reserved alone for the divine judgment, but much
could be conjectured if one saw the hold that vices had taken on
this community. However, let us venerate the divine decrees, and not
examine the secrets of His divine justice.
The two ships "Encarnación" and "Rosario," which were expected from
Nueva España that year with the reënforcements, arrived as by a
miracle in July. The flagship anchored at the port of Lampón after
having escaped three Dutch warships which had sailed from the Hermosa
Island to take that prize. In order to assure their enterprise, they
were strung out from the cape of Espiritu Santo to the Embocadero
of San Bernardino. But the divine Mercy willed that they were not to
obtain their evil purpose, for our ships did not sight the cape. By
means of some advices which the alcalde-mayor of Leite sent in light
vessels, the flagship received notice and deflected its voyage to
Lampón. Some say that it discovered one of the hostile ships near
Palapag, and believing that some Spanish ships had come from Cavite
to escort them, the ship held on its course to the Embocadero. The
Dutch ship pursued it, by which Cristóbal Márquez de Valenzuela, who
was commander of the vessel, recognized them as enemies and prepared
to fight. The Dutch ship overtook them and fired a piece to make them
lower sail and surrender. Cristóbal Márquez having seen that, and
that there was no other recourse, waited until the enemy was nearer,
when he fired some pieces at it--with so great accuracy that the Dutch
vessel considered itself too weak to prosecute that undertaking alone,
and retired. Our flagship continued its fortunate voyage to Lampon.
The Dutch left that position with the purpose of assembling all
three ships together. During that time and ten days later, came the
almiranta, ignorant of what had happened. Having met an advice-boat
of the alcalde of Leite, which communicated the fact that the Dutch
enemy was in the Embocadero of San Bernardino waiting to catch them,
the almiranta put in at Palapag, and both galleons were saved as by a
miracle. Doctor Don Fernando Montero came to these islands in the said
flagship. He was a native of Burgos and the consecrated archbishop
of Manila; he was a man of great learning, and one celebrated as an
eminent preacher. He had been a preacher to his Majesty, and, while
he was exercising the honored post of chief chaplain of the royal
discalced nuns of Madrid, he was given appointment as bishop of Nueva
Segovia; but while in Nueva España, already consecrated and about to
embark, his promotion to the archbishopric of Manila arrived. But God
did not permit Manila to gain so great a prelate, for he died suddenly
in the village of Pila, located on the lake of Bay, when they were
awaiting in Manila to receive him with triumphal procession. His
dead body arrived, and was brought in by the same gate whence his
predecessor, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, had gone in exile; and this
occurred on the same day of Thursday, and in the same month and at the
same hour, exactly nine years after that tragedy, which is still so
greatly bewailed. Thus the chimes, which were expected to be joyful,
were changed into sadness twice over, and all the preparation became
gloom. The church of Manila was widowed for eight years more, until the
year 1653, when Archbishop Don Miguel de Poblete entered. They buried
Archbishop Don Fernando Montero in the cathedral, above the steps of
the high altar, at the side of Archbishop Don Fray Miguel de Benavides.
A band of fourteen religious arrived at this province that year. They
had been conducted by the father lecturer, Fray Pedro de Quesada,
who died in Méjico. They entered Manila, and were received as sons
of this province on August 7, 1645.
Father Fray Luis de Amezquita, [59] a native of Alba de Tormes--a son
of the convent of San Felipe in Madrid, where he received the habit
of our holy order in the year 1641--came also on that occasion. He
was a religious of great virtue, and a man of the first magnitude;
and one could write many chapters of his marvelous life, his austere
penitence, his continual prayer, and his extraordinary death. I feel
great sorrow that the sequence of time cannot be anticipated so that
somewhat of the great favors that God gave to that grand servant of
His during this life can be published. During his life he was the
wonder of all who had known him in the years of his youth, when he
was more given to the pastimes of the world and the vigor of youth,
before God called him to the austerity and extraordinary mode of life
which he observed for ten years constantly until his death. That
event was hastened by the austere penance which he continued until
it came. God took him to himself in the forty-sixth year of his age,
June 26, 1667, he himself having pointed out beforehand the day and
hour of his happy transition.
[The balance of this chapter and the following one deal with the
disastrous earthquake of 1645, and earthquakes in general. Chapters
iv, v, and vi treat of the troubles with the Dutch. These matters
are sufficiently covered in VOL. XXXI (q.v.).]