The triennial of our father Fray Jerónimo de León passed with some
disturbances, which did not fail to cause considerable disquiet in
the minds of the religious, and disturb the peace of the order. The
reason was, that after the first year of his term, he began to doubt
whether he was lawfully elected, as it seemed to him that the real
provincial was father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco; and indeed
this was the case, as affirmed by our very reverend father general,
Fray Nicolas de Oliva, of Sienna. Father Fray Francisco de Medina
Basco had met a holy death in Zebú; and therefore our father Fray
Dionisio Suárez, as provincial of the preceding chapter, began to
govern [the province] as rector-provincial. Then Fray Jerónimo de
León had recourse to the royal Audiencia [56] on a plea of fuerza,
alleging this spoliation. And inasmuch as such proceeding acts as
a stay, since it is a principle in law that Spoliatus debet ante
omnia restitui, omni alio casu postposito, [57] they ordered that
the government be restored to Fray Jerónimo, and that the question
of title should be acted on later. But as judicial procedure is so
slow, and of such bounds that they usually make a lawsuit eternal,
our father Fray Dionisio Suárez was not inclined to secure his right
at the cost of so much vexation; and therefore the triennial was
completed in great peace; for father Fray Jerónimo de León was a
religious very affable and worthy of being loved, and he deserved
that his election should not be hampered by so notable a defect.
The time arrived for holding the session of the provincial chapter--the
time in which the troubles which so many difficulties had caused to
this province were to cease, and when not only the former peace and
concord were to return, but great gains were to be secured in religious
observance; for from the time of this chapter-meeting this province
began to grow more strict, and to grow in all that conduces to its
greater splendor, every chapter-session increasing in strictness of
observance, to the greater glory of our regular institute. Such are
usually the benefits that arise from the judicious choice of a good
superior, who undertakes to fulfil the obligations of his office. The
chapter was convened in the convent of Manila on April 14, 1674; its
president was the father definitor Fray Luis de Montuyar, on account
of the deaths of the two senior definitors, Master Fray José de
Mendoza and Fray Isidro Rodríguez. By general agreement the election
for provincial fell on our father Fray José Duque, commissary of the
Holy Office. He was a native of Oropesa, and was fifty-six years old;
a son of the convent of San Felipe at Madrid, and a very near relative
of the glorious saint Teresa de Jesús; and an able minister in the
province of Pampanga, besides having much to do with its pacification
in the disturbances in that province which we have already related. He
came over to this province of Filipinas in the year 1645, and always
had the reputation of being a religious of very strict observance,
with great ability as a ruler; and this province found him to be
such during an experience of many years in his four terms of office
therein--three as provincial, and one as rector-provincial--being
always reverenced as the father of it. As definitors were elected
fathers Fray Enrique de Castro, Fray José Gutiérrez, Fray Bernardino
Márquez, and Fray Bartolomé de la Torre; and as visitors fathers Fray
Antonio de Villela and the reader Fray José Rubio. Ordinances and
regulations very suitable for the good government of the province
were enacted, not many in number but useful and judicious.
At that period, this province was found very deficient in religious,
on account of the many vacancies caused by death; on this account the
ministries lacked the service which their extent and the arduous nature
of some rendered necessary. Accordingly, as soon as the chapter-session
adjourned the first care to which the new provincial devoted himself
was to choose a well-qualified religious who might go as procurator
to the two courts of Roma and Madrid, where the discords of the
troubled chapter of the year 1671 had made a strong impression. For
this purpose a private chapter-session was assembled, and therein
a very judicious choice was made for this position, that of father
Fray Juan García--a native of Las Encartaciones, and a minister in
the province of Ilocos. The necessary despatches were given to him,
and he embarked in the same year for Nueva España, in the galleon "San
Telmo;" it was commanded by General Tomás de Endaya, a most successful
man in these islands, where he died as his Majesty's master-of-camp
for them, in the year 1745. This religious had a prosperous voyage,
and arrived at Nueva España and Roma; he successfully fulfilled his
commission in all respects, and afterward returned to this province
with a mission of religious, in the year 1679, so long was he detained
in the negotiations at Roma and Madrid.
Through the peaceful rule of Don Manuel de León, in which term all
was prosperous and fortunate, the Filipinas Islands began to take
breath after the troubles of so many preceding years; and in a short
time they were gathering new strength and vigor. Don Manuel de León
was a man of very good intentions, and had the excellent virtue of
being very disinterested--which is very important in these regions,
where the vice opposite to that has temptations so ready to make one
fall headlong into the abyss of greed, which causes so many wrecks,
as the root of all evils. Trading vessels came frequently from
China, of which country the Tartars had gained entire possession;
the Chinese, therefore, having laid aside their defensive arms,
strove to accommodate themselves to the times, being anxious to
repair the losses caused by war with the gains from trading--which
is more adapted to their disposition than is war, Mars giving place
to Mercury. The Chinese trade is the mainstay of the maintenance
of Filipinas, by means of the silver which comes from Nueva España,
which is the blood that gives life to this land; for from China come
the stuffs necessary for clothing, from the shirt in their delicate
fabrics to the needle and thread. Thence comes the fine earthenware
which is, with reason, so celebrated throughout the world as choice
and inimitable, because the material and clay of which it is made are
found in no other place. Thence come drugs, and very rich coloring
stuffs--especially vermilion, which is the best in the world. Finally,
one cannot imagine any exquisite article for the equipment of a house
which does not come from China, both cheap and excellent--especially
the wares that come from Japón, with which country the Chinese have
free commerce, just as it is totally prohibited to us. In some of the
years of that fortunate governor thirty champans would land at Manila,
and many from the province of Cantón, where is the city of Macán,
a Portuguese colony--which is so rich in silks that it has enough
of that noble commodity to supply nearly all of the whole world;
it is conveyed in ships belonging to the Dutch, English, French,
and Portuguese, and that which is carried to Manila and thence to
Nueva España is the smallest part of it. The great city of Cantón (or
Kuang-tung, as they call it) is far greater than the great Cairo or
Babilonia of Egypt, for those who are most moderate in estimating its
population allow it four millions of inhabitants; but although it is
so great it is not the largest city in the extensive empire of China,
for that of Nanking has eight millions, according to Father Martino
Martínez in his Chinese atlas. [58] It is very commonly said in Manila
that the city of Cantón has sixty thousand silk-looms, on which are
made various fabrics of cloth and damask; and thus in one month enough
is woven to lade many ships. By this some idea can be formed of the
other industries of that city--or rather, that little world.
Commerce was also opened with the Portuguese of Macán, a trade which
had been quite forgotten with the disturbances in China; and from
that time it has continued, in varying degree, until this day. This
trade, moreover, had been prohibited since the year 1640, on account
of the wars with Portugal; but through the negotiations carried on
at the court of Madrid by Don Fray Álvaro de Benavente, when he was
procurator of this province--asserting that this was the best and
safest means for the entrance into China for the missionaries who were
going to Filipinas--the trade with Macán was opened and authorized,
as was accordingly published in Manila by a royal decree; and it was
made known to the Portuguese at Macán by another from their king,
Don Pedro II. The pretext which was given for opening this commerce
was the entrance of the missionaries into China, and its results have
been various, according to what the Portuguese have found expedient
for their own interests, on account of the pretensions which they
make to the [ecclesiastical] patronage of China--in accordance with
the line of demarcation [between the dominions] of the two crowns,
by the celebrated bull of Alexander VI, a question which is not yet
decided by a competent judge; and therefore our missionaries enter
China when the Portuguese choose to let them do so. But the latter
come every year to Manila with one or two shiploads of goods, which is
the most profitable trade that they have, on account of its nearness
and of their securing in barter the silver that is so esteemed by the
Chinese. But as the Portuguese are so courtly and liberal a people,
and inclined to boast of the obligations of nobility, some Portuguese
gentlemen usually return quite destitute of funds--as occurred this
year to Juan Tabora, a cavalier of the Order of Christ. He spent the
wealth which he brought here, which was much, in elegant gallantries
and in bull-fights; for he arrived here at a time when these and
other sports were very frequent in Manila--not only on account of the
prosperity and peace which were experienced during the entire term of
office of Don Manuel de León, but through the jovial disposition of
his favorite and secretary, Don José Castellar, who was a very witty
and courtly man, and very fond of such pastimes. In these he spent
whatever he was able to acquire, and when he came to die he was so
poor that he was buried, through charity, in a chapel of St. Roque
in the village of Mambong, belonging to the doctrina of Malolos in
the province of Bulacán, which is in our charge.
Not only was the commerce with China, Cantón, and Macán set free in
the time of the fortunate governor Don Manuel de León, but another was
begun--indeed, almost discovered--which was very large and profitable,
which has greatly increased the wealth of the citizens of Manila. This
is the trade and traffic of the coast of Coromandel or Malabar [59]
in Eastern India. This is the coast which extends from the mouths of
the river Ganges, at the beginning of the large kingdom of Bengal,
as far as the cape of Comorin; it is inhabited by Malabars, a people
very shrewd and intelligent, and fond of work, and so crafty that
when it is worth their while they deceive [even] the Chinese, who
excel in the ability to cheat. The Malabar and Bengal people are
unsurpassed in the art of spinning and weaving cotton cloth; for they
weave pieces more delicate than the finest cambrics and Dutch linens,
and gauzes so fine that when they are spread upon a table, the thread
can hardly be discerned, it is so thin and delicate. But that in which
they most excel, and have been alone and inimitable, is in their very
fine cotton cloth dyed exquisitely with the finest colors; and this
has another quality most excellent and admirable, which is that the
more it is washed, the finer and more lustrous the colors appear,
and they never are washed out or become dull. Without doubt these so
rare colors are those which Job mentions in the twenty-eighth chapter,
when making comparisons with Wisdom, he says: Non conferetur tinctis
Indiæ coloribus. [60] On this coast of Coromandel the English, Dutch,
French, and Danes maintain their factories, and possess an extensive
commerce in cotton cloth, which is consumed throughout Europa--and
much more in the regions of the north, because cotton is so good
for protecting them [from the cold]. But the largest settlement,
and the one most frequented for commerce, is that which the English
have, named Madrastapán, or Fort St. George; [61] it is peopled
with innumerable dwellers of all nationalities, not only those of
India but Europeans. This is greatly favored by the policy that is
in use in this great town, very different from that which obtains in
Inglaterra, which is to permit the exercise not only of the apostolic
Roman Catholic faith, but of all the heathen doctrines and ceremonies;
and thus the Catholics have their churches, and so do the schismatic
Armenians, with schismatic Basilian monks. [62] The heretics have
their meeting-houses, [63] according to their sects; the Moors [i.e.,
Mahometans] their mosques, and the heathen their pagodas; nor even is
their synagogue denied to the Jews; and all live peaceably, exercising
the occupations of trade, as harmoniously as if they all had but one
faith and religion. About two leguas distant is the city of Santo
Tomé, a noted colony of the Portuguese, which in former times enjoyed
[the distinction of] being the emporium of all Eastern India; and
the cause of its destruction was its enormous wealth and the lack of
harmony among the Portuguese, a people who are naturally inclined to
disagree. On a lofty height near the city there is an ancient church,
in which is venerated an image of Our Lady, which is said to have been
painted by St. Luke and deposited in that place (called Meliapor) by
the apostle St. Thomas, who preached to the Malabars our holy faith
and suffered martyrdom in this place--where is guarded a stone cross
near which he was put to death; and the lance with which they pierced
him, stained with his holy blood, is displayed, with other memorials
of this glorious apostle. [Diaz here mentions the great probability,
fortified by citations from Juan de Barros, that the remains of the
apostle repose there.] [64]
This commerce with the coast of Coromandel had remained quite neglected
by the Spaniards of Filipinas--who never had maintained any other trade
and commerce than that with China, Japón, and Macán--until this year of
1674. Then a citizen of Manila, a Catalan, named Juan Ventura Sarra,
a courageous man, having first made with a fragata which he owned
a voyage to the kingdom of Siam, from which he gained some wealth,
extended his navigation to this coast of Malabar, where he left trade
established; and in the following year Don Luis de Matienzo went
thither, with much silver, and gained enough profit to persuade the
citizens of Manila to engage in this traffic. The principal commodity
which is brought from the Coromandel coast is certain webs of cotton,
many of them forty varas long, which they call "elephants," which are
highly valued in Nueva España; accordingly, it is this merchandise
which is chiefly shipped to those regions.
The governor placed on the stocks the frame of the galleon "Santa
Rosa," the work of that accredited master of this important and
useful art, Juan Bautista Nicolá; and it came from them one of
the finest and largest galleons that had been built in the port of
Cavite and made very successful voyages, sometimes being driven back
to port. The governor commanded Juan Canosa Raguses, a very able
builder of vessels with lateen sails, to build two galleys; these
proved to be very suitable and swift, and rendered much service in
driving away the Camucones, very crafty and troublesome pirates,
who almost every year infest the Pintados Islands, plundering and
taking captive. This is a barbarous people, cruel, and cowardly;
indeed, they could not be the one without being also the other. They
inhabit a chain of small islands, which extends from Paragua to
Borney; some of them are Mahometans, and others heathen. But they
[all] cause much damage to the Bisayan Islands, which they ravage
without opposition--going so far as to carry away, in the year 1672,
the alcalde-mayor Don José de San Miguel, as we have related in another
place. They have a great advantage in the exceeding swiftness of their
vessels, which enables them to find their defense in flight. Their
confidence and boldness reached such a height that they even dared to
infest the coasts of the island of Manila. The provincial of that time
(of whom this chapter treats), Fray José Duque, while on his way to
visit the islands of Pintados, came very near being made a captive,
with his companion Fray Alvaro de Benavente; for they were attacked
by a squadron of these pirates near the island of Marinduque, where
they would have been a prey to their cruelty if they had not been
protected by divine kindness, through the valor of Captain Francisco
Ponce--a veteran soldier, who killed the captain and another of the
pirates--and also the coming of a high wind, which gave wings to the
champan to place itself in safety.
At this time, in the year 1675, Governor Don Manuel de León was in
great danger of dying, on account of having placed himself under
medical treatment, without being actually sick, solely for the sake
of improving his health--a proof that it might have cost him his
life. Don Manuel was a corpulent man, and had grown so fleshy that he
was almost unable to move about without aid, at which he grieved much
because he could not attend to many functions which belonged to the
obligations of his office. In view of this hindrance and his desires,
Juan Ventura Sarra (whom I have already mentioned in the voyages to
Siam and the coast of Coromandel) bound himself to cure Don Manuel and
remove from him that great encumbrance [of flesh]--confident because he
was a very expert surgeon, and the governor a man of great courage and
reared in and accustomed to the perils of war. The governor accordingly
accepted this treatment; and the skilful surgeon opened his abdomen
in many places and removed from him many lumps of fat, and then sewed
up and treated the wounds. In a few weeks the governor became well,
and his flesh was much reduced, to the wonder of those who saw how the
surgeon cut the flesh from his body, and the courage which the governor
displayed--and what caused most dread [of the result] was his being an
aged man, but little less than seventy years old. The king of León,
Don Sancho I, was cured about the year 920 of a similar infirmity of
excessive obesity, by the physicians of the Moorish king of Córdoba,
Abderramen; but their treatment was not so harsh and sanguinary. It
is certain that Juan Ventura Sarra was a great surgeon, and showed
that he was such not only with this governor, but also in the year
1682 with his successor, Master-of-camp Don Juan Vargas Hurtado. There
was no hope for Don Juan's life, on account of a large abscess in the
hip, which was not understood to be such by the physicians; but Juan
Ventura knew what it was, and opened the abscess with a large lancet
which he made from a dagger, more than a tercia [65] long, since the
cavity was very deep. In this operation he showed his skill as much
as Don Juan de Vargas displayed his great bravery and endurance,
which aroused admiration.
Although the cure of Don Manuel de León was so marvelous, he did not,
since that inordinate obesity was now a disease and a corruption of
nature, long enjoy the agility and lightness of body that the medical
treatment had obtained for him; and so he gradually fell back into that
unusual infirmity, and again found himself, as before, without the use
of his limbs. He had many wounds in his body, which he had received
in more than fifty years of military life in Flandes, Alemania, and
Galicia, where he had taken part in battles more celebrated than were
known in those times [i.e., of which Diaz was writing]. He had been so
courageous in not fearing dangers that they called Don Manuel de León
"Ironhead." Among these he had one deep wound, which must have been
imperfectly or only apparently healed; and this in course of time,
and with the pressure on it that would be caused by the increase of
flesh, opened, a great flow of blood issuing from it. This occurred
so inopportunely that he was present in the church of Santo Domingo,
clothed in mourning garb, assisting in the funeral rites for Doña María
Cuéllar, wife of Auditor Don Francisco de Coloma. [66] His blood flowed
very copiously, but those near him could not see it on account of the
mourning garments, and because the chair and cushion were of black,
until he began to swoon, and sank into the chair. They carried him in
their arms to his coach, and thence he was conveyed to his palace,
where all the care due to the cure of such a personage as he was
furnished. The above-mentioned Juan Ventura Sarra treated him, applying
all means which the art of surgery imparts to those who are so
skilful as was Juan Ventura, who within four months brought him to
what seemed a state of convalescence. But as his age was so great, and
could not give much aid to the medicine (which only assists nature),
Don Manuel could never regain sound health. The physicians ordered him
to go to one of the houses that stand by the river opposite Manila,
where he spent a long time--until, on the night of April 8, 1676,
they found him dead in his bed, although he had retired without any
indications of such danger. They found a power of attorney authorizing
the father provincial of St. Dominic, Master Fray Diego de San Román,
to make a will in his name, and directions that he be interred in the
royal chapel of the Incarnation belonging to the soldiers of Manila,
where he lies in a little chapel which stands on the gospel side. He
was one of the best governors who has ruled these Filipinas Islands,
very disinterested, pious, affable, and clement; and his death was
therefore regretted by all classes. The estate that he left was
the only property belonging to a governor that was put to good use,
[67] the religious who acted as administrator applying it to pious
works which the governor had named to him--such as the holy Bureau
of La Misericordia, so that for years many orphan girls were given
in marriage by means of that part [of the governor's donation] which
belonged to their dowries, until, with the successive wrecks of the
two galleons "Santo Cristo de Burgos" and "San José," in the years
1693 and 1695, the principal of that great endowment was entirely
consumed. He also left directions to found a well-endowed chaplaincy
in his native place--Paredes de Nava, in the district of Campos--and
many other good works, worthy of his piety.
On account of his death the senior auditor, Don Francisco de Coloma,
took charge of the government, in company with auditors Don Francisco
de Mansilla and Don Diego Calderón y Serrano for civil affairs--for
already had come the decision, in the controversy between the two
auditors, by the royal and supreme Council of the Indias in favor of
Don Francisco de Coloma, although his government lasted but a short
time, on account of his death. During the time while they governed,
however, they were very well agreed. The new governor despatched the
ship "Santa Rosa" (which had just been completed) for Nueva España,
in charge of General Don Francisco de Teja, a Navarrese gentleman;
and it had a very prosperous voyage, as we shall see in due time.