Election of our father provincial Fray Dionisio Suárez; of
the mission that arrived that year; and the imprisonment of
the governor.
(1668-69)
The time assigned by our sacred rules for the election of a new
provincial came. The fathers who had votes, having assembled in
the Manila convent, held their chapter on April 21, 1668, under the
presidency of father Fray Tomás de Villanueva, as he was the senior
definitor of the preceding chapter. He was assisted by the rector
provincial, our father Fray Alonso Coronel. Our father Fray Dionisio
Suárez a celebrated minister of the provinces of Tagalos, son of the
convent of Salamanca, who came to these islands in 1627, was elected
provincial, to the general satisfaction of all. As definitors were
elected fathers Fray Juan de Vergara, Fray Francisco de Medina Basco,
Fray Andrés de Salazar, [142] and Fray Pedro de Mesa. [143] The
visitors, Fray José de Mendoza, and Fray José Duque, were present--in
whose place were elected fathers Fray Cristóbal Marroquí and Fray
Carlos Bautista.
They enacted ordinances and statutes of great utility for the better
administration of the missions in our charge, and for the better
government of the province, which, as they were so good and proved so
useful, have been reënacted in many subsequent chapters. At that time
this province was in great need of religious to serve in the ministry
of the missions. Consequently, it was necessary to pile work upon them
till they were overburdened (that addition being the most grievous
part of the load); and therefore many fathers were entrusted with two
districts, and only one was placed in other large districts that needed
two or three. The other orders were suffering from the same diminution,
and the secular clergy was almost a cipher. Consequently, there was no
recourse but to abandon some missions, so that those which remained in
our charge might be better administered. But divine Providence hastened
to our relief in that great affliction with an abundant reënforcement,
the greatest that this province had obtained since its origin.
In the middle of July 1668, the galleon "Nuestra Señora del Buen
Socorro," in charge of the commander Don Diego de Arévalo, sighted
the first land of Filipinas, namely, the cape of Espiritu-Santo. That
vessel carried seventeen religious who were sent from España by
the father procurator of this province, Fray Isidro Rodríguez as
part of [a band of] fifty priests and choristers, and in addition
three lay-brothers of the mission, whom he had obtained from the
queen-mother, who was acting as ruler. They were not all able to
embark, partly because the fleet which was to sail to Nueva España
had been broken up, and partly because the religious could not be
accommodated in two ships of the windward fleet--which was in charge
of Don Agustín de Yustigue, knight of the Habit of Santiago, its
commander--which were to carry back quicksilver for the mines. For
Don Diego Espejo with his family was crossing [the ocean], with the
appointment of corregidor from Méjico; and he presented a royal decree
ordering that one-half of the poop, in which some of the religious
had to come, be given to him. For that reason only twenty-two could
embark in the flagship, where they suffered great discomfort. Two
of them died in Nueva España and some remained there sick, so that
only seventeen sailed in that ship "Buen Socorro." In the following
year of 1669, father Fray Isidro sailed with the rest. The patache
"San Diego" took Father Diego Luís de San Vitores and his associates
to the islands of Marianas to begin that spiritual conquest. He was
an apostolic man, and even to look at and talk to him infused an
inner joy and consolation--as I confess happened to me in Acapulco,
where I had the good fortune to know and talk to him. Two Dominican
religious [also came], namely, father Fray Antonio Calderón, who came
as chaplain, and father Fray Arcadio del Rosario; besides father
Fray Antonio Godinez of St. Francis, who came as his associate and
secretary, [144] to visit this province of San Gregorio.
I cannot refrain from mentioning what happened to that galleon when it
was at Capul, an island of the Embocadero of San Bernardino; namely,
that when the nineteenth of July dawned the galleon was joined by a
craft of peculiar shape--somewhat like those used by the Indians of
the Marianas Islands, painted with the same color of vermilion earth,
but larger than four of their boats. It held six persons, whose entire
bodies were painted [145] black. But they were so weak that they
seemed to be living skeletons, except one of middle age who was fat
and robust, tattooed, and with a long beard. They ascended into the
galleon without showing fear or distrust; but no one understood their
language, although we had a sailor who knew the language of Marianas
well, as he had been shipwrecked in the galleon "Concepción" in the
year 1636, and had lived for some time in those islands. It could only
be conjectured from the signs that they made that they had come from
the south. They remained in the galleon, where they were relieved in
their necessity, which was lack of nourishment. They ate nothing that
had touched the fire; but rice and fish, all raw. All of them died
except the boys, of whom the commander and pilot took charge. After
some years, when they knew our language, they said that they came from
an island near Nueva Guinea--without doubt the Garbanzos, Columnas,
Jardines, or others which the maps show; or the islands of the Palaos,
in the discovery of which Father Andrés Serrano of the Society of
Jesus toiled so much, until he lost his life by drowning, with other
religious and many Spaniards, in the year 1711, after having gone to
Roma, Madrid, and Paris, to negotiate the affairs of that discovery
and the conversion of those souls. But he will have already received
the reward for his holy zeal and great labors.
The religious of the mission disembarked at Capul July 20, and
the flagship "Buen Socorro," after weathering many storms, made
the harbor of Lampón. The religious reached Manila in groups all
through the month of August, after making their voyage by land, and
receiving the greatest attentions from the religious of the Order of
St. Francis--in whose vigilant care are the provinces of Camarines,
Tayabas, and Laguna de Bay; and they showed the fervent charity which
was left them as an inheritance by their seraphic patriarch.
That mission was a great relief, although it was small; for most
of the choristers were very soon ordained, dispensation for their
age being granted through the omnimodo authority conceded by his
Holiness Adrian VI to the prelates of the mendicant orders of Indias
in his famous bull given at Zaragoza in 1522, the first year of his
pontificate. That privilege has been very useful for the conversion and
instruction of the natives of the Indias; and it is still in force,
as it was conceded to the emperor Carlos V, although foreign authors
have tried to destroy it by saying that it was revoked--authors such
as Angelo María Berrecili, Fagnano, [146] and others.
The death of our father Fray Alonso Coronel was regretted deeply in
this province (he died in Manila, August 9 of that year 1668), for he
was one of the prudent superiors that this province has had, and a very
learned and able religious. He was an efficient minister in Tagalos
for the period of thirty-three years that he spent in these islands.
Father Fray Manuel Quintero, [147] accompanied by the father visitor
Fray Antonio Godínez, his two associates, and father Fray Arcadio,
embarked in a caracoa to cross the Embocadero of San Bernardino,
to land in Bulusan. In crossing there one must leave affairs to the
disposition of the Indians of the country, pilots who know the time
when one must cross--namely, when the tide ceases to rise, and has
stopped--for then one can pass without the slightest difficulty. But if
one chooses another time, no ship of high freeboard, [even] with all
its sails and with a favorable wind, can resist the current, which is
so strong that it will cause the ship to spin round and round. Those
fathers being newly come, were unwilling to leave themselves to the
management of Indians, or to await the point of the tide, but obliged
the Indians to cross. In the midst of the passage the boat overturned;
and a Spaniard, the nephew of father Fray Manuel, named Don Gregorio
Quintero, and two other Spaniards were drowned. Father Fray Manuel
and the secretary of the father visitor, a Vizcayan, who were fine
swimmers, reached land with great difficulty. The father visitor,
his associate, and father Fray Arcadio did not abandon the craft,
and accordingly were saved by the Indian rowers; but they reached
land after being sadly buffeted about. The father visitor lost his
letters-patent and papers, and consequently did not make his visit. He
returned to Nueva España after having passed many seas and suffered
many troubles, and after having been obliged to put back to port in the
year 1669. He was later provincial of the province of San Diego. The
currents of that Embocadero are so terrible that the roar of the tide
when it is low can be heard for many leguas. [148] The reckoning of its
flow and ebb is so variable that great mathematicians who have given
themselves to that speculation have not been able to understand it....
Shortly after their arrival at the Manila convent, in the month
of October, the Lord was pleased to take to himself His devoted
servant father Fray Jerónimo de Ramos, 84 years of age, a native of
Castilla la Vieja, and son of the convent of Burgos, who came to this
province in the year 1627. [149] He was a Tagálog minister, and was
indefatigable in instructing his parishioners. He was much given to
mortification and prayer, so that most of his time was passed in that
holy exercise in the choir. For many years he had lived retired in
the Manila convent, without leaving the house; and he was the example
and wonder of that community. He suffered very patiently from a very
troublesome illness for the space of twenty years. No word was heard
from him except those of great edification and full of love of God,
and hence his death was like his holy life.
During all of Don Diego Salcedo's term of office, which lasted
for five years, there was little satisfaction for the community
of Manila, for the commerce of China which is the most necessary
thing was very slight, because of the wars which Sipuán, the son of
Kuesing, waged with the Tartars; and consequently the champan that
came from China was very rare indeed. The inhabitants of Manila were
very greatly dissatisfied with his government, for they thought that
he was hindering their interests by preferring his own--the ordinary
complaint against the governors. Since the merchandise was but little
in that time, all could not be satisfied--a matter almost impossible
for those who govern, and especially in these islands, where he who has
the supreme command is regarded as guilty of all the disasters. Added
to this, he had had disputes with the municipal corporation of the
city; for he tried to give his captain of the guard, Don Juan de
Ezquerra, a public seat with the cabildo, and he had arrested the
alcalde-in-ordinary, General Don Sebastián Rayo Doria, over that
matter. But what the citizens regretted most keenly was the loss
of their wealth--for the governor bought at wholesale most of the
merchandise, by the hand of his factor Gaspar Ruiz de Aguayo--and
the repeated voyages which Juan de Ezquerra made to Batavia at his
account, in which they had no part or profit. It is certain that a
fine intelligence was wasted in that gentleman; but his mind swelling
with pride on account of his great authority made the citizens despise
him, and from that he finally became hated. [150] Consequently he had a
fatal end, namely, arrest by the Holy Office of the Inquisition through
the father commissary, Fray José de Paternina. [151] And inasmuch as
I am in duty bound to mention that imprisonment, I shall only relate
what belongs to the matter, as my obligation includes nothing else.
At eleven o'clock at night on October nine, the father commissary of
the Holy Office of the Inquisition went to the governor's palace,
accompanied by brother Fray Juan de Panos. [152] In their company
they took Captain Francisco de Vizcarra, alguacil-mayor of the Holy
Office; the commander Sebastián Rayo Doria and Captain Don Nicolás
Muñoz de Pamplona, alcaldes-in-ordinary of the city of Manila;
Sargento-mayor Don Juan de Morales, and Captain Juan Tirado; Captain
Don Luís de Morales Camacho, Captain Don Tomás de Castro y Andrade,
and Captain Don Gonzalo Samaniego. Besides these, entered Captain
Miguel de Cárdenas, and Captain Diego de Palencia; Alférez Antonio
de Monroy, familiar of the Holy Office; the reverend father Fray
Francisco Solier, provincial of the Order of St. Francis; and fathers
Fray Mateo Bayón [153] and Fray Francisco de Pamplona of the same
order, of the Friars Minor. The master-of-camp, Don Agustín de Cepeda
Carnacedo, who had purposely placed on guard in the palace his nephew,
Don Miguel de Alegría, with his company, was there beforehand waiting
for them. They all went up to the sleeping-apartment of the governor,
while the master-of-camp remained in the guardroom and gave orders
to the soldiers not to stir even if they heard some noise above.
The father commissary, the alcaldes, the religious, and some of
the company went upstairs, while the others remained below with the
master-of-camp; and the former reached the sleeping-apartments of
Don Diego de Salcedo. They summoned a servant maid to open the door,
telling her that the factor Juan de Verastein, who was bringing the
silver from the ship "Buen Socorro" which was at Lampón, had arrived;
and the maid opened the door without mistrusting danger. [154] All of
them entered the apartment and, reaching the governor's bed, awakened
him. At the same time they cut the fastenings of the bed-canopy,
which, falling down upon the governor in his half-awake condition,
left him enveloped in it, and unable to make the slightest movement
of defense. They had planned to do this, in order that the governor
might not be able to make use of a rack well supplied with firearms,
which he kept loaded and ready at his bedside. At that juncture the
commissary arrived, and told the governor that he must surrender
to the Holy Office of the Inquisition, to which the governor in his
confusion had no other answer to make than "Yes," and saying that he
yielded himself a prisoner. A pair of manacles that they had prepared
were placed on him. As they were riveted home Don Diego de Salcedo
said "Do not hurt me;" to which one of the bystanders answered "Your
Lordship has hurt us more." That appeared very wrong to the others,
and they checked the lack of respect which that person showed. That
man, it is said, was the commander and alcalde-in-ordinary Sebastián
Rayo Doria. [155]
A hammock was brought, and, half dressed as he was, the governor was
placed inside it. Descending by a private stairway, and taking him
through a rear door quite remote from the guardroom, they took him
to the convent of St. Francis, [156] where he stayed one day. Next
day he was taken to the house of Captain Diego de Palencia, where
he was kept for some days until he was removed to the convent of our
father St. Augustine. There he was imprisoned in a high, large, and
comfortable room, which was used by the religious for the view and for
recreation. He remained there until he was embarked on the patache
"San Diego;" and while there his custodian, steward, and servant
was Captain Miguel de Cárdenas, who looked after his comfort with
great care. That captain embarked with him and tended him until his
death, which occurred in the year 1670, in the second voyage that he
made; for the patache "San Diego" had put back to this port, under
charge of Admiral Don Francisco de Vizcarra, alguacil-mayor of the
Holy Office. After the eve of the Nativity, the father commissary,
who was appointed prior of the convent--as the father-definitor,
Fray Pedro de Mesa, who had been prior, had resigned--ordered that
Don Diego be fastened to a chain. The reason for chaining him was,
that many signs showed that his servants and adherents were trying
to rescue him on the night of the Nativity. It was even reported,
but not believed, that poison was first to be given to the prior and
the commissary and to the religious of the convent, by means of a
splendid collation which was to be sent them.
Don Diego de Salcedo sustained that so grievous blow with so great
steadfastness that he caused admiration in all people; for he was
never heard to assign another reason for his imprisonment than that it
was a present which God was sending him for his many sins. For it is
considered certain that if he had cried out, when he was arrested,
to the halberdiers of his guard, and if they had called upon the
soldiers of the guardroom, a great disturbance would have happened,
however much the master-of-camp tried to restrain them. I am witness of
that, for I went often by order of the father commissary and prior to
amuse him when he was sick. I admired his great courage and prudence,
as well as his strong mind; and it seemed as if he had no resentment
that could give him anxiety. One may believe that so great conformity
to His most holy will was gained by the aid of God. That which I always
heard to be a fact must have been true, namely, that that gentleman
had great love and special veneration for the most venerable father
Diego de San Víctores, [157] of the holy Society of Jesus, whom the
governor aided considerably by coöperation [with him] in his entrance
into the Marianas Islands. It is said that he requested the said
venerable father to ask God to give him in this world his purgatory
for his sins. The venerable father replied that he should think well
what he was asking, for the Lord's aid is necessary when He bears down
His hand, in order that one may not refuse to endure His paternal
correction. The father told him that time after time, but Don Diego
de Salcedo always persevered in asking the same thing. The venerable
father must have obtained that heroic petition from God; for when he
bade farewell to him on going to the mission of the Marianas Islands,
it appears that he gave Don Diego de Salcedo to understand that the
Lord had granted his petition. Therefore, that very submissive spirit
and the prayers of the venerable father Diego Luís de San Vítores,one
can believe, were the cause of his great patience and resignation.
Such was the imprisonment of Governor Don Diego de Salcedo, and the
evil lot of that gentleman who possessed so great endowments of valor,
discretion, and urbanity, besides his personal qualities; for he was
tall and well-proportioned in all parts of his body, and his face
was handsome, serious, and modest. His flowing hair was very long
and white; and his mustache, a distinction in the men of that time,
was very black. His complexion was very light, and his eyes blue,
and all gave him a grave and noble appearance. Nothing could be seen
in him that was not very chaste, and only in his covetousness was any
transgression recognized in him. As covetousness is the root of all
evils, his lukewarmness in attending to many obligations belonging
to a Christian governor proceeded from that. The consequences of
his imprisonment lasted for twenty years, counting imprisonments,
embargoes, exiles, and refuge sought in the sanctuary by those who
took part in that imprisonment. The father commissary, Fray José
de Paternina, was summoned to Méjico by the Inquisitors; and the
reverend father master Fray Felipe Pardo, of the Order of Preachers,
afterward archbishop of Manila, was appointed in his place. Father
Fray José de Paternina died on the voyage to Acapulco, and we only
know that the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition of Méjico celebrated
public and honorary funeral services for him. The rest of the matter
does not concern me; it was my part only to refer to the fact of this
imprisonment, in order to follow the thread of my history.
The alcaldes-in-ordinary and the municipal corporation of the
cabildo informed the gentlemen of the royal Audiencia [of the arrest]
that same night, in order that they might fulfil their obligation,
which was to appoint the senior auditor to the government. The
auditors--Licentiates Don Francisco de Coloma y Maceda, Don Francisco
de Monsilla y Montemayor, and Don Juan Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz--and
Doctor Don Diego de Corbera, the fiscal, met in the assembly hall. They
discussed the question of who was the senior auditor; for Don Francisco
de Coloma had held that office longer, but had assumed the office
later, because Don Francisco Mansilla (as we have mentioned before)
had gone on ahead from Cagayán. The controversy waxed very bitter,
for neither would yield; and the third auditor, Don Juan Manuel, and
the fiscal sided with neither of the contestants. Finally Don Juan
Manuel treated the matter so ably and wisely that he made them agree
to give him charge of the government until the controversy should be
decided. The two other auditors and the fiscal assenting thereto,
the charge of military affairs was given to Don Juan Manuel de la
Peña Bonifaz; and the master-of-camp took possession of the army,
and the city received his oath.
On the same day, Don Juan Manuel arranged the camp to suit his own
pleasure. He appointed Don Juan de Morales Valenzuela sargento-mayor,
after removing Don Nicolás Sarmiento; he made his own son, Don
Juan Manuel, captain of his guard, and changed many of the infantry
captains. It seems that the two auditors Coloma and Mansilla feared
some violence; and for greater harmony retired, together with
the fiscal Don Diego de Corbera and the secretary of the chamber,
Tomás de Palenzuela Zurbarán to the college of the Society of Jesus,
and convened the Audiencia in the library of the said college. They
despatched a number of royal decrees ordering Don Juan Manuel to
govern and rule as they two determined, since it was they who owned
that right, which was still in litigation. But it appears that Don
Juan Manuel had no such intention, and so much was he able to do
by his sagacity and the interposition of grave persons (in which
intervened Fathers Javier Riquelme, [158] the rector, Miguel Solana,
and Pedro de Espinar [159] of the Society of Jesus)--and of lawyers,
such as Manuel Suárez de Olivera, Don Eugenio Gutiérrez de Mendoza,
and Don Juan de Rosales, that after many controversies, which have
no place here, the two auditors and the fiscal were confined to
their homes. When one would have thought them safest, Don Juan Manuel
arrested them all in their own houses. He sent Don Francisco de Coloma
to the village of Bay with an order to the alcalde-mayor Don Antonio
Quijano to watch over his person; and Doctor Don Diego de Corbera,
the fiscal, and his wife Doña María Jiménez to the island of Luban,
fourteen leguas from Manila--where he died in a few months, I know not
whether of sorrow or illness. He ordered Don Francisco Mansilla [160]
to embark in a champan for Octong, delivering the care of his person to
a brave mulatto--a native of Sevilla, and a soldier of Ternate--named
Simón de Torres, whom he made captain of the fleet of Iloilo, sending
a very stringent order to the sargento-mayor Francisco Prado de Quirós
not to allow Don Francisco to leave that presidio. He did so, and the
auditor remained there until the new governor, Don Manuel de León,
ordered that he be recalled thence. Don Francisco de Coloma remained
but a short time in Bay, for, like the good Christian that he was,
he submitted himself, yielding to the condition of the times, in
order to avoid scandal. Thus Don Juan Manuel withdrew him, and the
two ruled over political matters, Don Francisco Coloma signing first,
and Don Juan Manuel de la Peña governed in military affairs.
All that government of the usurper Don Juan Manuel was very peaceable;
for he was a wise and prudent man, and of very excellent intentions. If
the desire to command misled him into pushing himself into the
government, which did not belong to him, the fault ought not to be
attributed to him, but to those who allowed themselves to be deceived
because of their passions.... The first thing that he did was to bring
from Cebú that great soldier, so often appointed in past years, the
commander Don Francisco de Atienza y Báñez--who had retired, and was
passing his honorable old age in quiet; and Don Juan availed himself
of his counsels for military arrangements. He treated the soldiers very
well, and increased their pay, and paid them a sum of money on account
of what was due them for their services. In that way he exhausted the
royal treasury; and it was this which created most hostility against
him in the royal Council. He must have thought that his government
would last a longer time, for Don Diego de Salcedo had served five
years in his government, and, according to the length of time that his
three predecessors had governed, a long time was still left for Don
Juan. But this reckoning ended ill; for Governor Don Manuel de León was
in Méjico, because authentic information had reached the royal Council
of the Indias of the irregularities committed by Don Diego de Salcedo.
At that time the bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Juan López, arrived at
Manila on matters pertaining to his church concerning the result
of the visitation which he had made in the province of Ogtong. But
as he found the governor very busy in strengthening his intrusion,
while the royal Audiencia was much in need of ministers, he could
get nothing done except the issue of some pontifical acts regarding
orders and confirmations, and to return to his church.
However much Don Juan Manuel de la Peña tried by diligence to please
all, he was not without danger of his life through the malice of
assassins or the neglect of undisciplined soldiers. For while he was
one afternoon watching the marching of the companies which are changed
daily as guards at the gates of the city, it happened that when an
obsequious military officer was ordering that a general salute to him
be fired, a musket ball passed over Don Juan Manuel's right shoulder,
and was embedded in a brick wall of the window from which he was
leaning. Investigations were instituted in order to get at the cause;
but they were all in vain, as those who fired were so many, and it
could not be learned who had loaded with ball. The governors have
many such dangers because of the carelessness of the undisciplined
soldiers. Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara was in danger of being killed
in another salute like that; and the ball passed clear through the
hand of Licentiate Manuel de Olivera, who was at the governor's side.
The pens of jurisconsults were not lacking to defend the government
of Don Juan Manuel de la Peña as legitimate. Among others, Licentiate
Don Juan de Rosales, a lawyer of the royal Audiencia and alcalde-mayor
of Tondo for the new governor, published a printed manifesto of which
many copies may be found in possession of persons who are curious. But
afterward, at a safe time, he published another manuscript against
his antagonist Licentiate Manuel Suárez de Olivera, in which he not
only accuses Don Juan Manuel of being a usurper, but also as guilty
of lese-majesty. Tot capita, tot sententiae. [161]