The government of Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado proceeded with prosperous
results, on account of the favorable seasons and the great abundance
of the crops which were experienced in the years 1679 and 1680; and
through the success and extent of the commerce which was maintained
with China and the Coromandel coast, Surrate, and other ports of
Oriental India and the kingdoms of the Great Mogor--which formerly
were more than fifteen in number, and furnished much income to the
royal treasury with the customs duties [derecho de a nojarifazgo]. Not
only from the Coromandel coast--on which the Manila trade had founded
populous settlements, as Portonovo and Cololu--but from the city of
Goa came ships almost every year, commerce little known [to Manila]
before, and very remote. The governor devoted much attention to the
sessions of the Audiencia and the obligations of his office, and
thus the legal business which devolved upon that court was expedited,
through the uprightness and integrity of the auditors, Don Francisco
Mansilla, Don Diego Calderón, and Don Diego de Viga; the last named
filled the office of fiscal acceptably to all.
About this time there came to the general a solemn embassy from the
principal ruler of Borney, whom those people revere as an emperor. This
is the largest island of all Asia, and, according to the best
cosmographers, has as great an area as all España and the kingdom of
Portugal. It is thinly populated, as its surface is very mountainous;
and therefore it is only on the shores of the sea and a few leguas
inland that there are settlements of civilized people, if that name
can be given to those barbarous nations. Borney has much wax, and in
its seas are pearl-fisheries; it abounds in amber, camphor, and gold;
and in its mountains are found large elephants, although smaller than
those of Siám. Its inhabitants are partly Mahometans, partly heathens;
but in color and disposition they resemble the natives of Filipinas,
who say that they had their origin in these islands of Borney [and]
the coast of Malayo. The ambassador was received with more ostentation
than his person seemed to merit. Although he was corpulent and robust,
he and all his retinue (which was not a small one) came barefooted
and half-naked; he wore a broad bahaque, which tired him more than it
covered him, and some wore a loose jacket, short and without a shirt
(which is not known among these peoples); but all were well armed with
lances and crises--which are swords as short as daggers, with which
they are well able to defend themselves or attack, for usually they
have these weapons dipped in poison. He made his entry [into the city]
with great pomp, in the coach and with the halberdiers of the governor,
and accompanied by the sargento-mayor of the garrison, Don José de
Robles; and the governor received him under a canopy, as being he who
represented the royal person. The ambassador's credentials came in the
Malayan language, written in Arabic characters; these were interpreted
by the Borneans themselves, and by a Ternatan named Pedro Machado. The
object of the embassy, they said, was to establish trade and commerce
on both sides, and to adjust some disputes over the limits of the
island of Paragua and in regard to some hostile acts which had been
committed in the lands of Borney by Alcalde-mayor Don José de Somonte,
in vengeance for the injuries which the Camucones had inflicted in our
islands. Everything was settled to the satisfaction of both parties,
and the ambassador returned well content and handsomely entertained,
with a valuable present for his king in return for another (and very
ordinary) one which he had brought. In the following year, the governor
sent in turn an ambassador, General Don Juan de Morales Valenzuela,
a man of gallant nature and tall stature, with a very goodly escort of
Spaniards. He was very hospitably received by the king of Borney, in
a large pavilion of bamboo and nipa, which was erected for this solemn
function; and the king allowed himself to be seen by all his vassals,
a favor which, they say, is very rare in that royalty. Don Juan de
Morales returned very successful, the king ceding to the Spaniards
dominion over all the island of Paragua, and making satisfaction for
the ravages by the Camucones; and since then we have remained very
good friends [with the Borneans].
All the three years' term of our father provincial Fray Juan de
Jeréz was very peaceable, our order and the observance of our rules
nourishing in this province, which continually increased in prosperity
through the opportune measures which this judicious and devout prelate
employed; for certainly he was one of the most observant superiors
it had had, and it made great advancement in every way during the
time of his government.
At last the time for the chapter-session arrived, and when the voting
fathers from the four provinces were assembling, with great peace
and harmony, suddenly a storm arose, which they feared would occasion
the destruction of peace within the order, and produce divisions and
contentions very difficult to adjust; and from which might originate
great losses to the religious and their ministries. The trouble was
this: some of the religious who were born in Nueva España, and others
born in these islands, where they had assumed the habit of our order,
attempted to renew the old controversy over the alternate elections
[76]--which arose in the year 1637, as we have related in book ii,
chapter 26--incited to this by having found a copy of the first
bull of Gregory XV, and the royal decree for its passage by the
supreme Council of the Indias, attested by Don Diego Núñez Crespo,
at that time court secretary of the royal Audiencia. With this slight
foundation, without heeding that the matter had already been decided
by apostolic authority--by the legate of his Holiness, that is, the
archbishop of Manila who was then in office--according to the bull
of his Holiness Urban VIII, issued "at Castel Gandolfo, diocese of
Albano, May 18, 1634" (of which they probably were not aware), [they
made this claim]. They had on their side many citizens of Manila,
and employed as their leader Doctor Don José Cervantes Altamirano,
a cleric in minor orders--who afterward was married, and at his death
was alcalde-mayor of the Parián of the Sangleys, and chief clerk of
the cabildo and municipality of Manila; he had a very keen mind, and
with that he would, if he had been master and disciple of himself,
have made a great jurisconsult.
They appointed as judge-executor Master Jerónimo Fernández Caravallo,
cura of the village of Quiapo, a priest of little ability and easily
influenced. This man accepted the commission with much pleasure,
believing that it would bring him honor and profit; and he therefore
set up his tribunal, and appointed as his secretary Bachelor Martín
Díaz, cura of the natives and Morenos in Manila. At once he sent this
man to notify the provincial, Fray Juan de Jeréz, of the said bull of
Gregory XV; but the provincial would not accept the notification, not
recognizing Master Caravallo as a judge until he should establish his
right as such before a competent tribunal, and because this proceeding
found him unprepared, and with little knowledge of this controversy,
because neither official documents nor information about it were
found in the archives of the province. Investigations were made, and
the original documents were found in the archiepiscopal tribunal;
and an authentic transcript of these was found in a writing-desk
which stood in the cell of the provincials, of which the key could
not be found, and it served only as an ornament. In the said desk
was also found the above-mentioned bull of Urban VIII, with which and
the acts issued in the year 1657 the procurator-general (who was the
writer of this history) presented himself before his Lordship Don
Fray Felipe Pardo of the Order of Preachers, the archbishop-elect
and ruler of this archbishopric, as being the legate appointed by
his Holiness Urban VIII to render decision and sentence in this
question. He looked at the bull and declared himself judge, and as
such examined the documents, with the assistance of his counselor
the father presentado Fray Raimundo Verart of the same order, a
doctor in both branches of law from the university of Lérida. They
found that this controversy was already authoritatively decided,
[77] and with the lapse of forty-three years had become established
as a matter of law; that there was not the least room for the claim
made by the fathers of the Indias; and that the province possessed
the same right as before of making its choice [of officers] freely,
without respect of persons. Upon the litigant religious--who had taken
refuge in, and by order of the royal Audiencia were committed to, the
college of the Society of Jesus and the convent of San Francisco--was
imposed perpetual silence; and with censures they were commanded to
return to their convents, and to follow what obedience should direct to
them. They did so, and there was no farther discussion of this matter;
for in the following chapter-meeting attention was given to consoling
them. Those who made amends for all were the judge-executor, Master
Jerónimo Caravallo, and Bachelor Martín Díaz, whom the archbishop
punished with pecuniary fines for not having first appeared before
him with their commission, and for having erected a tribunal without
his permission. But intercession was made for them on the part of
our province, and their fines were diminished. Information of the
affair was given to our very reverend father general, Fray Domingo
Valvasorio, of Milan, who commanded that the religious who had been
the movers of this innovation (which might so greatly have disturbed
the peace of this province) be punished; and again imposed silence
regarding the claim to alternation; but the whole matter was adjusted,
for at the end the order, like a mother, must regard them as her sons.
The time for the chapter-session arrived, which was May 11, 1680, at
the convent in Manila; its president, by commission from our father
general already named, was our father Fray José Duque; and father Fray
Diego de Jesús, prior of the convent of Pasig, was elected provincial,
to the satisfaction of all, by the unanimous vote of all the fathers in
the chapter. He was a zealous religious, very observant, and enamored
of poverty; and had great learning, prudence, and discretion. He was
fifty-eight years of age, a native of Pejar in Extremadura, and a
son of the convent at Salamanca--where, and in that of San Felipe at
Madrid, he had been for many years master of the novices. He came to
this province in the year 1669, as has already been said, influenced
[to come] at so great an age by scruples at having excused himself in
the year 1660 from coming as commissary for the mission which reached
this province in the year of 1663, by the appointment given to him by
our very reverend father general Master Fray Pablo Luquino, who was
then visiting the provinces of España. The definitors appointed were
fathers Fray Juan Ponce, Fray Carlos Bautista, Fray Pedro Martínez,
and Fray Álvaro de Benavente. Father Fray José Camello and the father
reader Fray Juan Martínez were present as visitors from the previous
triennium; and for the present one were appointed father Fray Juan
Guedeja and the father reader Fray Miguel Rubio. As procurator for
going to España was appointed father Fray Manuel de la Cruz, a native
of Toledo, and a son of the convent of Badaya; and they elected him
definitor of this province for the next general chapter to be held,
and agreed upon [78] the choice of a discreet for the said general
chapter. [79] This choice was so judicious that to it is due the
conservation and advancement of this province, for he fulfilled
so carefully the obligation of his commission that he conducted to
Nueva España three mission bands--the largest and most distinguished
that this province has gained, for in all they contained over fifty
religious--the first in the year 1684, the second in 1699 and 1700,
and the third in 1712. [80] He himself remained in Mexico, where he
died with the reputation of great virtue, at the age of seventy-four
years, in 1712.
It was decided in this chapter to ask our very reverend father
general to extinguish the votes of the discreet of the convent at
Manila, and those of the priors of the convents of Hagonoy and San
Pablo de los Montes in the provinces of Tagalos, Mexico in Pampanga,
Narvacán in Ilocos, and Dumarao in the province of Panay--on account
of the usual scarcity of religious, and the deficiency which might be
caused, by their absence while at the chapter, in Ilocos and Bisayas,
provinces which are so remote. The other arrangements and ordinances
which were made in this chapter publish its great zeal for promoting
the regular observance, and the nourishing condition of that observance
in this province.
Governor Don Juan de Vargas despatched for Nueva España the galleon
"San Antonio," under command of General Don Francisco Enríquez de
Losada, then accountant of the royal exchequer; and in this galleon
went the father procurator Fray Manuel Losada, and in his company
father Fray Miguel de Negrea--a son of the convent of San Felipe,
and native of that city [i.e., Madrid]; he was going back to his own
province, and died on the voyage, in the high northern latitude. The
voyage was a very distressing one, on account of the severe tempests
which suddenly came upon them; and many of those on board died, not
only seamen but passengers. A better voyage was that of the galleon
"Santa Rosa," which had sailed the preceding year by the same route
from Nueva España, in charge of General Antonio Nieto; for on the
morning of the day of St. John the Baptist it entered the bay of
Manila, to the great joy of those who were watching it, and anchored
at the port of Cavite--a good fortune which seldom has been enjoyed
in these islands since the banishment of Don Fray Hernando Guerrero,
in the year 1635, as we have with sadness related. In this galleon
came Don Fray Diego de Aguilar, of the Order of Preachers, a native
of Rioseco, as consecrated bishop of Zebú; for several years he had
been detained in Nueva España. He brought in his company father Fray
Manuel de Olivares, of the same order, who afterward was provincial
of the province of Méjico; his nephew, Captain Don Juan de Urías;
and other Spaniards. His arrival occasioned great rejoicing, on
account of these islands having remained so many years destitute of
a consecrated bishop, and many clerics and regulars were waiting to
receive holy orders.
In this galleon arrived three religious belonging to the mission of
father Fray Juan García; they were choristers, and had been left
in Nueva España, to be ordained as priests, and their names are
as follows: father Fray Francisco Castrillón, a native of Madrid,
and son of the convent of San Felipe; he was twenty-four years
old, and had spent nine in the order. He was a minister in Tagalos
until the year 1690, when he returned to Méjico, where he died soon
afterward. Father Fray Dionisio Navarro, a native of Leganés, and a
son of the same convent of San Felipe; he was twenty-four years old,
and had spent seven in the order. He was a good preacher, and well
versed in the dialects of the province of Tagalos. He went to España
and returned hither, and died in the convent of Manila from a long and
painful infirmity, on November 2, 1714. Father Fray Antonio Gutiérrez,
a native of Medina Sidonia, and a son of the province of Andalucía. For
only a short time he was a minister in Tagalos, because he soon fell
ill with a contraction of the tendons [tullimiento], which lasted
until his death; this occurred at Manila, in the year 1693.
The arrival of this bishop of Zebú served as a great spiritual
consolation for these islands; for he repeatedly performed pontifical
functions, conferring holy orders on a great number of religious and
clerics. He interceded with the governor, in order to reconcile with
him those who had taken refuge in the churches through fear of some
oppression from the absolute power of the governor--which can not
be compared with any other power in the universe; and the worst is,
that no means can be thought of for moderating and tempering it within
the bounds of reason, because the distance of five thousand leguas
which lies between the royal court of Madrid and Filipinas cannot
be diminished. The swiftest post, therefore, requires three years,
and most of them four; and if it happens that the galleon is obliged
to put back to port, the mail is delayed to five or six years. At
the end of so protracted a term as this, the most peremptory royal
rescript is exposed to the danger of being withheld by the governor,
according to his pleasure. The lord bishop with his intercession
withdrew from asylum in the house of the Society of Jesus the secretary
of Don Juan de Vargas, Captain Miguel Sánchez de Villanueva y Tejada,
and restored him to favor with his master--although soon afterward
the governor removed him from his service, making him alcalde-mayor
of Laguna de Bay.
About this time the convent of Angat in the mountains of the province
of Bulacán was received, with the title of our mother St. Monica, and
father Fray Juan de Morelos was appointed its prior. It was composed
of the visitas of the convent of Quingua--Tabuquillo, Abarungco,
Catalonan, Guinapusan, and Santa Lucía--which, on account of being
very distant from Quingua, were administered with much difficulty;
and therefore the ministry of Angat was founded, more than three
leguas distant from [the convent of] Sandago at Quingua. It has
ordinarily two hundred and fifty tributes, with a church and convent
of wood. The district is very healthful and pleasant, because the
land is fertilized by a river of the best water that is known in
these islands; it is the river celebrated by the name of Quingua, the
waters of which, compared with many others, have been found to weigh
less. This mission is bounded on every side by very fertile meadows,
on which abundant harvests of excellent tobacco are gathered; for this
reason it is thickly settled with people who cultivate this plant,
which is so esteemed throughout the world, and which now has made
its way to the chief personages therein. This district has forests,
although they are scattered, of heavy and valuable timber; for they
are very dense, and so extensive that they join those of Balete and
San Mateo, at a distance of more than eight leguas. In the district of
this ministry the religious of St. John of God possess a fine ranch
stocked with cattle and horses, which is the most that they have for
the support of their convent and hospital at Manila, where they aid
the sick poor with their usual charity. The convent of Angat has no
vote in the chapter-meetings, and therefore is counted in the number
of the vicariates of this province.
Although the citizens of Manila are not easy to please, no matter
how good their governors are, it appears that in the time of which
we write they had much reason to be discontented with the government
of Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado; for not only did he devote himself
excessively to his own personal interests, to the detriment of the
commonwealth, but he was of a harsh and unpleasant nature, and gave
sharp answers. Besides this he spoke in a treble voice, and people
heard him with difficulty. He kept every one angered at his harsh
behavior, and disgusted by his being engrossed with, the pursuit of
gain. This was recognized in the lading of the galleons, which is the
net of the merchants; and in this year [of 1680] the galleon "San
Antonio" was in danger of not making the voyage, on account of its
being so overloaded by his henchman Don Juan Gallardo, the castellan
of Cavite--not only with his own goods, but with those of his master
the governor--that its commander, Don Tomás de Endaya, was compelled
to unload the vessel and return to lade it anew, accommodating the
entire cargo to the vessel's capacity. On account of these and other
well-known animosities against the governor and his retainers, the
citizens this year determined to inform his Majesty against him; and
they did so, the auditors and the city uniting for this purpose and
making charges against him. They sent letters, with great caution,
in this galleon; and these papers caused his removal in the year 1684.
About October of this year the governor sent to Macán General
Antonio Nieto, in order to settle some disputes relative to commerce;
he accomplished this with much discretion, his excellent procedure
reflecting credit on the Castilian nation. He also, with great charity,
relieved many cases of necessity, which in the said city are very
numerous; but this was done without injuring one iota of the Portuguese
tenacity and pride, in which that people exceed all others in Europa.