In which are shown in separate items the supplements of reals which
the house of Santa Misericordia has given to the royal treasury of
this city, during the periods of its greatest poverty and necessity,
occasioned both by the raids which have been made in these islands
by the Dutch enemy and for reënforcements and fortifications of this
royal camp and of other presidios of the royal crown from the year
619 until that of 726 for the service of his Majesty (whom may God
preserve for many years).
[The royal treasury reaches a state of exhaustion in 1619 because
of the inroads of the Dutch, who harry the Spanish presidios and
forts. In this year Governor Alonso Faxardo is compelled to ask a
loan of the brotherhood, for which he offers good security. That loan
is unanimously voted by the purveyor and deputies, on April 4, 1619,
and amounts to 39,599 pesos, 5 tomins.]
October 6, 638, it also appears from a certification of the royal
officials that they gave to the royal treasury by way of loan 104,609
pesos, 2 tomins, 1 grano, while Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera was
governor and captain-general of these islands, as a relief for the
necessity therein, and the prosecution of the conquest of Jolo and
the supplies of war which would be required for its total conclusion.
It also appears by another certificate that on July 3, 643, the
purveyor and deputies of the Misericordia paid 57,468 pesos, 2 tomins
by way of a loan, by virtue of an order of the said governor, to attend
to the necessities of the treasury. And inasmuch as in the said year,
because of his Lordship having before received a royal decree under
date of June 28 of the year 635, he wrote to this board a letter
[January 28, 1643] [2] which is conserved in the original with many
others of all appreciation, we believe it advisable to give it here,
its tenor being as follows:
[In this letter Corcuera cites the royal decree above mentioned which
orders general prayers said in all the churches of the islands for the
success of Spanish arms. The governor has written to all the bishops
and to the provincials of the religious orders asking the command to
be observed in their churches. He asks the Misericordia to have a mass
said in its church every Friday for the perpetual memory of the passion
of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the Spanish pretensions may prevail.]
It also appears that in the year 643, forty-five thousand pesos
which came as part of the register from Nueva España, belonging to
the property of the said Don Bartholome Thenorio, were embargoed
in the royal treasury at the petition of Doña Ana de Zarate, his
sister-in-law, and although the members of the royal Audiencia declared
the said sum as free and its delivery due to the board of the Santa
Misericordia, as it was his executor, yet by certain results which
the fiscal of his Majesty made, it remained in the said royal treasury
until its liquidation, and lastly, by way of loan until the year 705,
in which the final balance of the said sum was paid from the royal
treasury, in order to fulfil the will of the said deceased.
It likewise appears by the reports and certifications of the royal
officials, that from the year 643 and upward, there were paid into
the royal treasury by order of Governors Don Sebastian Hurtado
de Corcuera and Don Diego Faxardo, 76,231 pesos 4 tomins, from
the board of Santa Misericordia by way of loan. And although his
Majesty (whom may God preserve) was pleased to order (by virtue of
the representations given by the board) through his royal decree of
March 8, 660, his Excellency, the viceroy of Nueva España, to pay the
said sum given to the royal treasury in six payments of 12,305 pesos,
2 tomins, it was impossible to collect the said sum in these islands;
for although the remissions of the said payments were made by his said
Excellency as an item in the register for the satisfaction which was
to be given to the board of Santa Misericordia, they were retained in
the royal treasury of this city from the year 663 until that of 666
in order to succor the necessity of the city, during a period of so
many disasters. Consequently, this new loan amounted to 61,526 pesos,
2 tomins, and both together amounted to 137,757 pesos, 6 tomins,
which were employed in matters of the royal service and the benefit
of these islands.
It also appears by another certification, that in the year 650, 13,740
pesos were embargoed in the royal treasury which had come consigned as
a part of the register to the board of Santa Misericordia, belonging
to the property of the alguacil-mayor, Don Bartholome Thenorio, by
virtue of an order from Don Diego Faxardo, on an occasion when the
royal treasury was suffering so great necessity.
It also appears from another certification, and royal provision
despatched by the said governor, which was announced for this board
March 1, 653, in which his Lordship represents the great need of the
treasury of his Majesty with the lack of reënforcements from Nueva
España; that although exact efforts had been made, on account of the
general poverty which all the citizens of this city, as was well known,
were suffering, it had been impossible to remedy, not even to the
extent that was necessary, so that it might endure so serious a lack;
and that because it was very fitting for the service of his Majesty
to seek all the possible means which might exist, so that the said
royal treasury should have money with which to succor the infantry
of this royal army, until our sovereign should deign to bring the
royal situado of these islands; for the present he ordained etc.: in
consequence of which the board of the Misericordia paid 70,601 pesos,
4 tomins to the said royal treasury, with which sum it remedied for
the time being its present necessity.
Lastly, it is well known that in the year 726, his Excellency,
Don Thoribio Joseph Miguel de Cosio y Campa, knight of the Order
of Calatrava, and governor and captain-general of these islands,
and president of the royal Chancilleria of them, finding himself in
great necessity of means to succor the need of the royal treasury on
the occasion of the loss of the galleon "Santo Christo de Burgos,"
with the profits of this trade, on the coast of the island of
Ticao, on account of a storm which forced it to beach on the night
of July 23 of the said year; and upon his Lordship, the Marquis,
seeing himself forced to take most prompt measures for the cutting
of timber for the new ship which was built in the royal shipyard of
the port of Cavite, for the supplies of the royal army of this camp,
and for many other inexcusable expenses, notwithstanding that the
commerce of these islands was weak and its citizens in a time of the
greatest necessity,--because of various supplies and gifts made to
his Majesty in order to succor the need of the said royal treasury:
nevertheless, the said marquis was obliged to solicit by other means
the things necessary for the fulfilment of the royal service, and
universal welfare of these islands, by having recourse to the house
of Santa Misericordia in order to obtain forty thousand pesos, which
were supplied without prejudice to the regular works of the house,
and were made from some deposits which could be detained in their
treasury until the arrival of the royal situado which was expected
from Nueva España. He offered to pay them promptly under the royal
word; by virtue of which, and the Christian efforts which preceded
from one and the other parties, the said board supplied 33,641 pesos,
7 tomins, to the royal treasury, so that it might in part be freed from
its greatest necessity. As soon as the royal situado of his Majesty
had safely arrived at these islands his Lordship, the marquis, kept
the word which he had promised by giving entire satisfaction to the
board of the Santa Misericordia, in the full delivery of the said sum.
As a conclusion of all the loans made to his Majesty by the house
of Santa Misericordia will serve that which it made in the year
646 to the royal treasury of these islands, when its governor and
captain-general was Don Diego Faxardo, on the occasion when they were
rumored to be surrounded by necessities and when the Dutch enemy was
at the entrances of Marivelez, as he showed in a letter which he wrote
the said board on September 12, 646, which is of the following tenor.
[In this letter Diego Faxardo thanks the brotherhood for the loan of
ten thousand odd pesos which it made to the royal treasury on this
occasion. All the loans between the years 1619-1726 have amounted to
2,449,418 pesos, 2 tomins, 1 grano. In addition, the Santa Misericordia
has paid into the royal treasury between 1629-1695, as executor for
deceased persons, 14,777 pesos, 2 tomins, 3 granos.]