Part 19
34. _That a sworn statement is being sent of the execution and fulfilment of the decrees_.
I am sending your Majesty a sworn statement of the decrees which have been put into execution, besides those which are being carried out; and the same will be sent next year.
35. _That it is customary on feast-days that the city banner should be brought out, and that the royal Audiencia should be present, and the standard-bearer should walk at the left hand of the president; and that this custom was opposed by an auditor_.
One of the principal feast-days which is kept in this city is that of the apostle St. Andrew, in memory of the victory which was on that day won against the Chinese pirate Limahon, driving him from the land when he had already hemmed this city in. On that day the city brings out its banner, and goes to vespers and mass at Santa Potenciana. In the time of the former royal Audiencia, they used to go with the pennant to the royal houses with the city officers, and from there the president and auditors set out to the festival; and the president had the standard-bearer at his left hand, and the senior auditor at his right. I am informed that the same thing is done in the city of Lima and that of Mexico. I have had this custom observed here; but the licentiate Almazan, auditor of this royal Audiencia, has denied that the standard-bearer or any other person should be stationed with the royal Audiencia without special permission from your Majesty, whom I beg to be pleased to command in this what shall be done. In the meantime, it will be continued as hitherto.
36. _That public feast-days are celebrated with veneration and dignity_.
I assure your Majesty that the other public feast-days, such as Corpus Christi, that of the patrons of the city, and the like, are celebrated with the utmost veneration and dignity in this land, where we are in the sight of so many heathen.
37. _That it is expedient that the Indians be punished with some moderate fine of money, and not in rice._
Your Majesty has ordered that the Indians shall not be punished in money fines; but as they all, in their perverseness and evil disposition, are more afraid of the punishment of taking from them a real than of a hundred floggings, the desired results do not follow, and they do not plant, raise animals, and do other things tending to the production of supplies, and to the common good. It would be well for your Majesty to give permission for the imposition of moderate fines in money. It is particularly unfitting that the chiefs should be flogged, and in regard to this the royal Audiencia has commenced to take some action. May our Lord protect the Catholic person of your Majesty through many happy years. Manila, July 12, 1599.
_Francisco Tello_
_An account of the religious orders which are in these Philipinas Islands; the provinces, houses, and religious contained in them; and the ministers whom it is necessary that his Majesty should have sent, in order that there may be sufficient religious instruction in the islands_.
_St. Augustine--60 houses; they have 163 religious, and ask for 20 each year_. The Order of St. Augustine has occupied the provinces of Tagalos, Pampanga, Ylocos, and Pintados. Being the first established in these regions, they occupy the whole country. They have in the islands sixty houses, which contain from two to three religious each--one hundred and eight being priests, and fifty-three lay brethren. They will have to establish more houses--not only for the newly-entered countries, but that there may be sufficient religious instruction in these islands. For this it is necessary that your Majesty send each year twenty religious. These might be brought at a less cost to the royal estate from Nueva España, where there are many of them; and they would do very well, as they are used to instructing Indians, and have already come half the way.
_St. Francis--40 houses; they have 120 religious, and need 50_. The Order of St. Francis has occupied the province of Camarines, and has there forty houses, and one hundred and twenty religious--ninety-seven being preachers and priests, and twenty-three lay brethren. They need fifty religious.
_The Society of Jesus has 12 houses and 43 religious_. The Society has twelve houses, and occupies the province of Pintados, in Leite and Ibabao. In them are forty-three religious--twenty-three of these priests, and the rest lay brethren. They will occupy many houses. Religious of the Society have gone to the pacification of Mindanao, where they will administer instruction and establish more houses. They have need of fifty religious.
_St. Dominic--12 houses; they have 71 religious, and need 50_. The Order of St. Dominic has occupied the province of Cagayan, where there are twelve houses and seventy-one religious. They need fifty religious, in order that there may be sufficient instruction in the province of Cagayan, where they must occupy a number of houses. Those sent should be priests, because all the lay brethren that are necessary are being received in the islands.
In all these four orders there are persons of much learning and many accomplishments, and good linguists who instruct the natives, among whom they have achieved great results. In the houses of the Society of Jesus there are two colleges--one at Manila and the other in the city of Santisimo Nombre de Jhesus--in which religious of very exemplary life teach Latin to the Spaniards and give instruction to the natives.
_Copy of a letter written in the past year (1598) concerning the erection of prebends and half-prebends of the cathedral church at Manila. Cited in clause 7 of the governor's letter of July 12, 1599_.
Sire:
In accordance with what your Majesty orders me in his royal instruction, we, the archbishop and myself, made a visitation of the cathedral church, which is greatly lacking in all necessaries, and particularly in chaplains, which is noticeable on feast-days. Accordingly it seemed advisable to institute two prebendaries, each with a stipend of two hundred pesos per year; and two half-prebendaries, with a hundred and fifty pesos of stipend each per year--to be paid in the same manner as the other canons. I beg your Majesty to have this approved, since it has been done in conformity with your Majesty's order to provide whatever was necessary. We are considering from what source the other necessaries can be provided, as, outside of the royal exchequer of your Majesty, there is at present no other fund; and the royal treasury is in great need, between the mortality of the natives and the taxations of Don Luis Perez de las Marinas; the yearly income has diminished by more than fifteen thousand pesos. We shall try our best to order affairs in the best possible way. May our Lord protect the Catholic person of your Majesty, as we your servants and vassals have need. Manila, the twelfth of July, 1598.
[_Francisco Tello_]
_Statement of the accounts received from the director of the hospital for the natives. Cited in clause 8 of the letter of the governor of July 12, 1599._
The accounts which the lord president, governor, and captain-general of these islands, Don Francisco Tello, knight of the habit of Santiago, ordered me, the accountant Bartolome de Rrenteria, to audit from the seventeenth of September of the year ninety-eight, when the said lord president was at the royal hospital for natives of these islands. He inspected and took possession thereof in the name of your Majesty; and ordered me, the said accountant, to make in his presence an inventory of the income and property belonging to the said hospital, and I did so, as follows:
It was found that the said hospital has, through the bounty of your Majesty, five hundred ducats each year, paid from the fund set aside for such purposes by the royal exchequer; one thousand five hundred fanegas of rice in the hull, one thousand five hundred fowls, and two hundred pieces of cloth from Ylocos; and a further grant of four toneladas, to be sent each year in the ships of your Majesty or others, without duties or freight charges. Likewise there was found, as property of the said hospital, a farm for cattle, with a thousand head; ten mares, four colts, and one horse; six men slaves with five married slave women, and three other unmarried women and two unmarried men; and four hundred pesos, in coin. Besides this, Antonio Valerio, steward of the said hospital, has put in charge of me, the said accountant, a quantity of money received from various persons. The said Antonio Valerio has also rendered an itemized account of the whole thereof, from the first of September of the said year ninety-eight to the end of December of the same, and the expenses in that time amount to five hundred and thirty-seven pesos and one tomin; he likewise rendered another account in this year of ninety-nine, from the first of January to the end of April thereof, and the itemized expense account amounted to seven hundred and fifteen pesos and four tomins, as appears by the book which is in my possession. Besides, all necessary provision was made for divine worship in the said hospital. The said hospital has a house of stone, amply adequate, with three halls and apartments, and everything necessary and pertaining thereto. The said steward has no further account to give, because by command of his Lordship the accounts are audited every four months, and he will give what is lacking at the end of August of this year. That this matter may be understood, I have given this, at Manila, on the second of July in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine.
_Bartolome de Rrenteria_
_Copy of the instruction given to the alcaldes-mayor of the provinces and to the religious, for the Indians to render submission to the king our lord, and the measures taken in La Laguna. Cited in clause 10 of the governor's letter of July 12, 1599_.
The King: To Don Francisco Tello, knight of the habit of Santiago, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia, which I have ordered reëstablished in the city of Manila in the said islands; or to the person or persons in whose charge the government of them may be. Fray Miguel de Venavides of the Order of St. Dominic, bishop of Nueva Segovia in those said islands, has given me certain memorials and accounts of affairs, and of measures suitable for their improvement, and for the security of the consciences of the confessors, of the encomenderos and soldiers, and of other persons, particularly in regard to what affects the spiritual good of the Indians, and the obligation which rests upon me to further it. As these are matters important to conscience and reduced to two points, I directed that, for the consideration of them, certain theologians, grave and eminent persons, should meet with the president and members of my Council of the Yndias. What they agreed upon was reported to me, and I now give you its substance and the conclusion which has been reached. The first difficulty was whether the faith must be preached to the heathen by poor preachers, provided only with the support of God according to the gospel, and what has been provided by the ordinances concerning discoveries; or whether the said preachers must enter escorted by soldiers bearing arms. And the question on the second point was, whether tribute should be levied upon the infidels who are not opposed to the preaching of the gospel and are not enemies; nor is there any other just cause for waging war against them, except solely to maintain the Spaniards. "Supposing that these tributes are imposed and levied primarily with the obligation of giving instruction, and maintaining justice to those who are subjected, they should not be levied on those who are not subjects and have not received the faith." Having examined the said ordinances, it appears that what is provided in them is in conformity with the precepts of the gospel and with the justice necessary to the service of our Lord, and to the promulgation of His faith in newly-discovered countries. The bishop admits this, merely complaining of the lax execution of the decree, and the great liberty which the captains and soldiers take in interfering with the Indians and taking from them their liberty and property. Since my will has always been and is that the said ordinances should be observed, and whoever has violated or acted contrary to them in the past has displeased me, I order you that from now on you shall see to it that they be observed and carried out, inviolably. And to this end I have ordered to be sent to you--printed, and on separate sheets--the clauses which treat of the order to be observed in preaching in newly-entered countries, and how the tributes are to be levied; and the care with which, in both matters, you are to proceed--all being directed toward the good and contentment of the Indians, and their best condition, preservation, and civilization. And this you shall again cause to be published, adding penalty of death, perpetual banishment, or confiscation of property to any or all transgressors, according to the degree of their guilt. This you will execute inexorably, under penalty that, besides considering you lax in your duty, I shall have you punished with all rigor--and this infallibly, since you know my wish; and in these scrupulous matters the peace of my conscience rests upon your discharge of duty. In order that proper means may be taken in these matters you will meet with the archbishop and the newly-appointed bishops, and the superiors of the orders; and you will consider the measures to be taken to satisfy the injuries inflicted, and whether the tributes collected from the infidels contrary to the said ordinances can conveniently be restored. And if this cannot be done without great difficulty you will advise me thereof; and in the interval while advising me and while I am providing what appears to me to be best, everything shall remain in the same condition, with the peace and propriety with which I hope that you are governing both spiritually and temporally--as I charge you all to do, each in what concerns him. Likewise you will confer with the said superiors and religious, and bring it about that they shall undertake to remedy by love all which shall be found to have been done through force and fear; for, according to what the bishop tells me of these Indians, they are well disposed (not only in spiritual but in temporal matters), freely to render me submission. Done at Madrid, on the eighth day of the month of February in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven.
_I The King_
By order of the king our lord:
_Joan de Ybarra_
In the city of Manila, on the fifth day of the month of August in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, the above-contained decree was proclaimed by Francisco Rodriguez, public crier, in a loud and clear voice, many persons being present, at the regular session of the Audiencia. I certify this.
_Gaspar de Acebo_
In the city of Manila, on the fourth day of the month of August in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, the governor and captain-general of these islands, Don Francisco Tello, in accordance with the royal decree of his Majesty, dated at Madrid, the eighth of February of the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven--which treats of certain difficulties suggested by the bishop of Cagayan [34] in the Council of the Yndias and to the royal person--assembled at the royal buildings the bishops of these islands and the provincials and superiors of the orders thereof, in consultation upon the said decree. The said governor having read to them the said royal decree, and certain ordinances treating of discoveries and pacification, exactly as is contained in the said decree, and they having heard what his Majesty orders, and having consulted thereon, a decision was reached in the said meeting as to what the governor and captain-general should command in regard to the ordinances which his Majesty sent him, and which were publicly read, as hereinbefore stated, with the heavy penalties which the aforesaid decree provides against transgressors. For the future they understand that our Lord's service demands that, by peaceful means of love, all the Indians should render voluntary and free submission to his Majesty the king of Castilla, our lord; and they offered that by themselves and the religious, and the other ministers under their control, all efforts should be made that this might be accomplished in a short time. As regards restitution for the past, it seems best to them that what can be easily effected by pious works and other means should be done; and as for the rest this means would be taken, that the religious should gain over the Indians by love and gentleness, and that they should grant the natives freedom from tributes, which were levied in times past, while they were infidels. Therefore the following persons have affixed their signatures.
_Don Francisco Tello_ _Archbishop of Manila_ _Fray Miguel_, Bishop of Nueva Segovia. _Fray Pedro_, [35] Bishop of Santisimo Nombre de Jesus. _Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina_, provincial. _Raymundo de Prado_, vice-provincial. _Fray Joan de San Pedro Martir_ _Joan de Rivera_
Before me: _Gaspar de Acebo_
This agrees with the original, which remains in my office:
_Roque Loino de Caceres_
In the village of Lumban, province of La Laguna de Bay, on the thirteenth day of the month of June of the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, by command of the alferez Gregorio Ponce de Leon, deputy of the alcalde-mayor of the said provinces for the king our lord, and father Fray Antonio de Nombela, definitor of the Order of St. Francis in the said islands, and guardian of the said convent and village--before me, notary-public of the said provinces for his Majesty, were gathered all the governors, chiefs, headmen, and lords of barangay, and most of the timaguas and common people of all the villages of said provinces, whose names are as here follow.
Don Hernando Larogajon, governor; Don Francisco Volor, Don Phelipe Paguilagan, Don Mateo Umanguil, Miguel Manaycon, Simon Paniça, Phelipe Damian, Don Gaspar Culiao, Bartolome Maconan, Bartolome Parahan, chiefs and lords, heads of barangay of the village of Bay, and several of their timaguas. Governor Don Juan Halimao, Don Diego Caya, Domingo Sati, chiefs and lords of barangay of the village of Tableco, and several of their timaguas. Lieutenant-governor Domingo Labaulon, Don Francisco Meglilo, Don Antonio Tobantahel, Don Joan Lagban, Miguel Bati, headmen and lords of barangay of the village of Pila la Grande, and other chiefs, with common people, and several of their timaguas. The governor of the village of Nacarlandos, Marcos Brigilon; his lieutenant, Lorenço Manile; Domingo Pasdeyaen, Lucas Mandig, Don Pablo Caranblin, Joan Manglas, Domingo Malapas, Mateo Madhanay, Nicolas Magpisie, Antonio Magsibo, Fruian Lionan, chiefs, headmen, and lords of barangay of the said village, and many other chiefs and timaguas. The governor of the village of Mehay, Don Joan de Mendoça; Don Esteban Luvas, Don Pablo Magbres, Don Diego Magpalo, Damian Paoaviandes, Laramas, Don Antonio Dato, Diego Malapeg, Don Lucas Tunuguli, Jusepe Vale, chiefs, headmen and lords of barangay, and other chiefs and timaguas of the said village. The governor of the village of Saloanij Guilinguilin; Don Juan Puhaban; the lieutenant, Don Francisco Caraguen; Don Francisco Bala, Don Pedro Banguig, Don Diego Limetig, Don Alonso Goor, Don Joan Pile, Don Diego Bagnor, Don Bentura Ulay, Don Christoval Rarac, Don Christoval Banguis, Don Diego Daolor, Don Antonio Quilala, Don Joan Ligno, Don Pedro Alimango, Don Francisco Dales, Don Francisco Danga, Don Luis Guinton, Venito Laquer, Marcos Abal, chiefs, head men and lords of barangay, and other chiefs, and timaguas and common people of the said village. The lieutenant-governor of the village of Panguil, Don Miguel Boag; Don Andres Talamindor, Francisco Valor, Don Juan Mabaylo, Don Agustin Labrian, Don Francisco Laguin, Don Pedro Pazhan, Don Andres Guilla, Don Andres Ama, Don Luis Lanvan, Don Lorenço Apon, Don Phelipe Panindo, chiefs and lords, heads of barangay, and other chiefs and timaguas of the said village. The governor of the village of Paoil, Don Joan Lagary; his lieutenant, Don Miguel Manduga; Domingo Pansas, Sebastian Palangan, Don Joan Valoban, Don Alonso Bulanvel, chiefs, lords, and heads of the said barangay, and other chiefs, common people, and timaguas of the said village. The governor of the village of Sampablo, Don Lorenço Lansapao; Don Agustin Magapan, Joan Masquiles, Don Antonio Calapar, Luis Lapipir, Pablo Mandol, Ventura Pilapan, Pablo Casyl, Joan Moage, Francisco Mayas, Pablo Caylo, chiefs, lords, heads of barangay, and other chiefs, common people, and timaguas of the said village. The lieutenant-governor of the village of Santa Cruz, Joan Abalasaval; Gaspar Tosol, Joan Bago, chiefs and lords, heads of barangay, and other chiefs, common people, and timaguas of the said village. The governor of the village of Pililla, Don Joan Yavi, Don Luis Abalo, Don Phelipe Bognor, Don Agustin Magcanayon, Don Pedro Canayon, Miguel Togui, Antonio Mabanta, Lorenço Lagasia, Bernardo Sampaga, Diego Manira, Martin Cosso, Juan Tangui, Lucas Ayog, Don Luys Calyas, Clemente Lagnig, chiefs and lords, heads of barangay, and other chiefs, common people, and timaguas of the said village. The governor of the village of Moran, Don Francisco Laquiao; Don Luis Limetig, Don Pablo Sosil, Don Francisco Baro, chiefs and head men, lords of barangay, and other chiefs, common people, and timaguas of the said village. The governor of the village of Lunban, Don Juan Burlon; his lieutenant, Don Joan Alaman; Don Agustin Mamija, Don Marco Ral, Don Rodrigo Pananbo, Don Phelipe Tangui, Don Ventura Marlangaley, Don Alonso Bineg, Don Alonso Posolan, Don Agustin Asum, Don Alonso Tindig, Luis Aveij, Don Diego Laval, Don Diego Gaddola, Gonçalo Lima, Don Francisco Pirangaran, Don Pablo Caliox, Alonso Paraorao, Don Diego Lahacan, Don Gonçalo Magcoli, Antonio Puragti Habanpoli, Don Juan Bambin, chiefs and lords, heads of barangay, and other chiefs, common people, and all the timaguas of the said village and government. Don Agustin Baticio, Don Marcos Manalo, Don Agustin Sandi, Pedro Cabasao, Dionisio Magsubey, Don Tomas Bagsit, Alonso Sancabo, chiefs of barangay of the said province.
And all having assembled and come together thus, both the chiefs and the timaguas, with the said Franciscan father guardian, Fray Antonio de Nombela, as interpreter, they were given to understand why they had been called together and were assembled. They were told how God our Lord had granted them great kindness and grace in keeping them under the evangelical faith, which remains in His holy church, in the apostle St. Peter and his successors, who are the pontiffs, bishops, and confessors who in His name administer instruction and point out the way to heaven. Our Lord had liberated them from the blindness and tyranny in which they were as subjects of the devil--who not only caused the damnation of their immortal souls, which are to be cared for, but likewise harassed their bodies and consumed their lives.