Of the disasters which assaulted Manila during the five years from
599 to 604; and how the charity of the brothers of Santa Misericordia
shone forth to the good of their neighbor.
[The years 1599 and the first four of the seventeenth century
prove very disastrous for the Philippines, for they are visited by
many earthquakes, and suffer many other losses and misfortunes. The
first earthquake of June 21, 1599, does much damage to buildings,
and it is followed by other disastrous earthquakes in 1600. This year
also are lost the two ships "Santa Margarita," in the Ladrones, and
"San Geronimo," in Catanduanes; and the raid of Oliver van Noordt
occurs. In 1601, two galleons are lost in a hurricane--"Santo Thomas"
in Camarines on its way from Nueva España, and the second in the
shipyard of Pañamao near Leyte. Two ships from Acapulco land at the
islands in 1602 with goods wasted and rotten. In 1603, a fire causes
the loss of more than one million pesos in goods; and the disastrous
rising of the Chinese also occurs.]
This is a brief sketch of what happened during the five years in
this city of Manila--events which truly cannot be read without
great horror. During that time the extreme necessity of many poor
people was crying out for relief, especially that of many women,
who were coming from Nueva España, and wretched slaves who because
of the rigor of unsatisfied hunger were yielding up their lives. A
good proof of this truth is a letter (the original of which this
brotherhood preserves) from his Excellency, Don Diego Bazquez de
Mercado, most worthy archbishop of the holy cathedral church of
this city, who was promoted from bishop of Campeche to this church,
where he had before been its dean, and had been at the foundation
of this venerable brotherhood as the ecclesiastical governor of the
vacant see of Don Fray Domingo de Salazar. Its date is August 15, 613,
and it was written in duplicate to our most holy father, Paul Fifth,
and is of the following tenor.
[In this letter Vazquez de Mercado informs the pope of the growth
of Christianity in the Philippines, much of which he attributes,
in addition to the work of the religious orders, to the work of the
Santa Misericordia. He asks the pope to confirm the enclosed rules and
regulations of the brotherhood. He also asks for certain indulgences
in order that the rules may be followed properly.]
During this time of the most cruel miseries and disasters this
venerable brotherhood made a rare show of the greatest strength of
its burning charity, for it appears that, through this house of the
Misericordia, God erected a new storehouse, well provided with every
remedy for the consolation of invalids, the relief of prisoners, and
the remedy of the sick. Thus the Misericordia attended promptly to what
it considered most fitting, striving as much as possible to soften
the lamentations and tears of so many poor people who begged relief
in troops for their extreme need, by distributing among them daily,
and when the cords of hunger pressed them more tightly, in the public
places of this city vast alms, which exceeded three hundred pesos
weekly. At the same time it took the most vigorous measures for the
construction of new infirmaries or rooms, which were erected after
the hospital of the Misericordia, in order to attend nearer at hand,
and with greater and prompter assistance, the pains, treatment, and
relief of so many poor women who refused to receive them anywhere
else, as well as to the wretched slaves who were dying of hunger
or sickness in the out-of-the-way places of this city. If this so
Christian provision had been lacking those people could not have
obtained spiritual or temporal consolation.
With so powerful and Christian an example, this holy brotherhood
moved and attracted all the city, not only to the imitation of so
devout exercises but also succeeded in getting the free coöperation
of many alms which were distributed for so pious purposes. All of
the city was divided into three equal parts or wards, so that the
deputies of the board, who were successively occupied in this, might
distribute said alms, and many others which were given into their
own hands in proportion to the necessity and rank of each one of the
families. In this it was quite evident that the liberal hand of God
was working in order to succor with so great piety so innumerable
miseries. It appears that during the hard times of those five years,
this brotherhood distributed more than 80,000 pesos to the benefit
of all this community and its poor.
This brotherhood seeing that for the fulfilment of its principal
rule of relieving the necessities of its neighbor spiritually and
physically, the brothers who composed the board [mesa] were not
sufficient, thought it advisable to provide that, up to the number
of forty, they should busy themselves in attending promptly to the
greatest necessity that called to them, in order to furnish the most
efficacious relief; that it would be well to take charge of the poor
sick men and women, and bring them to the hospitals; that it would be
well to gather the dead bodies and bury them; that it would be well
for the assistance in hospitals and treatment of the sick, to watch
and find in all the suburbs and wards of this city, the persons who
needed physician, surgeon, and medicines. And upon the instant they
gave advice to the treasurer and almsgivers appointed by the board,
so that they might attend to the most important remedy.
One cannot imagine the work of this venerable brotherhood during the
time of those disasters in attending to and providing for all the
necessities in the two hospitals of the Spaniards and of the native
soldiers of the country; to the two infirmaries of poor women, and
of wretched slaves; and to the two prisons of the court and the city,
which were also dependent upon the assistance and relief which their
charity negotiated for them: since it is certain that besides the
personal work of the brothers, in those first years, for the above
purposes alone, and for other pious ends, there was spent from the
year 599 to that of 650 a sum of more than 540,446 pesos, 7 tomins,
which it has been possible to verify in the short time that I have had
for it, and other liquidations that will be set forth hereafter. But
this was done with such accounts and checks on the parts of treasurer
and almsgivers of this house that a strict monthly or annual residencia
was taken from them by the purveyor and other deputies, the balances
resulting either against or in favor punctually. Their revision was
entrusted to the purveyor and secretary of the board and immediately
they proceeded to the satisfaction of the said balances of all parties.