chapter vi

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[117] Gaspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva y Mendoza, Conde de Galve, assumed the office of viceroy of Nueva España on November 20, 1688. The coasts were infested with corsairs up to 1692, but Galve's preparations to exterminate them seem to have frightened them away. In 1690 and 1695 he sent expeditions against the French in Santo Domingo; in 1689, one to search for La Salle's Texas colony; and in 1693-94, to establish the town of Pensacola, Florida. At his own request, he was relieved from the office of viceroy, which he left February 27, 1696. He then returned to Spain, where he died soon afterward.

[118] Perhaps referring to the fact that Pardo was but fifteen years old when he entered the Dominican order, and to his high rank as a theologian and a prelate.

[119] The first of these citations reads in English: "The privilege that you enjoy through my favor you may not employ to my distress." The second is a school axiom, derived from Aristotle, to be encountered in higher philosophy and metaphysics; it may be found in glossaries or expositions of terms used by schoolmen, but its explanation therein is usually somewhat prolix and even obscure. It may be translated thus: "Whenever any thing (or cause) is of such or such a character (or kind), it possesses that characteristic in higher degree than that which derives therefrom (i.e., than its effect or result)."--Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[120] This doctrine of the Manila cabildo and of the author might at that time be quite current; but since then, by the Concordat of 1851, and especially by the bull of his Holiness Pius IX, the Roman pontiff, issued on August 28, 1873, the church has sanctioned the opposite opinion.--Fray Tirso López.

[121] It should be remembered that this part of the Conquistas was written in 1718.--Fray Tirso López.

[122] This recapitulation or resumé of the labors of our missionaries in China was either not written by Father Diaz, or he wrote it in a separate book which we do not possess.--Fray Tirso López.

[123] One of the most important acts of this governor was the publication (October 1, 1696) of a revision of the "Ordinances of good government" which Corcuera had enacted in 1642; some account of these will be given in a later volume.

[124] "He devoted himself to the recovery of the immense sums which were due to the king from the citizens of Manila; and with these he rebuilt the governor's palace, added to it the halls for the royal Audiencia, and in the lower story offices for the bureau of accounts, established the jail for the court, and began the royal storehouses. By various expedients he contrived the saving of thousands of pesos to the royal treasury, sums which now are deducted from the situado--although this was partly done by greatly curtailing the pay of both officers and soldiers, for which he deserves little praise. To the royal treasury of Mexico he saved more than five hundred thousand pesos which it was owing to that of Philipinas in situados." (Zúñiga's Historia, p. 394.)

[125] The sentence pronounced in the residencia of Governor Cruzat y Gongora (published June 6, 1602) is given in full in the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), iv, pp. 209-234. Some forty charges were made against him; some were sustained, making him liable to judgments of about 31,000 pesos; others were referred to the home government; but on the majority he was acquitted.

[126] In the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), iv, pp. 235-244, is a summary of a long document, a "Vindication of the official acts performed in the visitation of Camarines by Licentiate Don Francisco Gueruela, member of his Majesty's Council and alcalde of court in the royal Audiencia of these islands, and visitor for the Audiencia in that province in the past year, 1702." The summary reads as follows:

It is divided into three parts: the first contains, besides the preface, a brief summary of all the edicts which were published in those villages, and which are being brought out by his order. The second comprises a more than succinct relation of the false charges which the said visitation had encountered, and edicts about which with Christian impiety they had dissembled to him. The third is reduced to a brief legal demonstration of the authority which the visitor possesses to institute summary legal proceedings against the religious who are in charge of doctrinas, without danger from the bull In cæna or any other censure whatever.

In the preface--which is crammed with citations from the holy fathers, the Scriptures, and [various other] writers--the zealous [flamante] auditor Gueruela says that he spent a month in obtaining information about the condition of the villages in the province of Camarines, before he began the visitation; and in that time, through the investigations which he made, he learned that the evils which the religious teachers cause to the Indians were deeply rooted, and required an effective remedy. He says that as he was uncertain by what means to carry out his purposes, he undertook first, to induce the religious, through persuasion and careful consideration, to agree to a reform of the abuses with which they were oppressing the Indians; but that, as they paid no attention to this, he had no other recourse than to carry out the visitation, in spite of his fear that the religious in the doctrinas would oppose him, and that they might as a last resort renounce their charges and entirely abandon the villages, which was or would be a misfortune demanding very careful consideration. But [he felt] that justice and right had greater power [than these considerations], in order to liberate from slavery the 30,000 souls of that province, whose ruin was being brought about by the sixteen religious who were administering those villages, who were receiving more than 19,000 pesos.

Part first

(In which is contained the summary of all the edicts published in the visitation, and the attestation of them separately.)

1. That the natives shall not contribute to the curas of the doctrinas any food supplies without pay for the value of these.

2. That they shall not perform any labor or personal services for the said religious without pay.

3. That the same be understood for the plain sewing, the spinning, and the embroidery for the churches and the sacristies, for the inside garments of the religious and their servants.

4. That the young girls [dalagas] shall not sweep the churches and their courts; and that, in their place, twenty young men [baguntaos] and the boys in the schools shall assist.

5. The said girls shall not pound rice as a repartimiento for the religious, or for their treasurers or agents [sindicos o fiscales]; nor shall they go to the convent for the unthreshed rice [palay], nor deliver that which has been cleaned. All this shall be in the charge of the gobernadorcillos, their constables, and other officials, who shall transport the said produce, see that the rice is pounded, and deliver it, to the satisfaction of the religious.

6. Food, wax, candles, etc., shall not be collected from the natives under any pretext of usage, custom, or devotion; nor shall they be obliged to [render] personal services without pay.

7. They shall not be domestics, cooks, mananguetes, fishermen, gardeners, or [act in] other personal employ for the religious, without pay.

8. Each entire tribute shall pay three reals a year as a contribution to the festivities of the Monument [on Holy Thursday], the Sanctorum [i.e., a tax paid by the natives above sixteen years, to the church], and the Pintacasi; and four gantas of palay rice besides, for the Defunctorum [i.e., masses for the dead?].

9. At the feast of St. Francis the natives shall not work without pay, or at their own cost, in the palas-palas [i.e., cutting of?] bamboo frames and bejucos, except when they fail to pay the real for the Pintacasi. [This word is defined in Noceda and Sanlucar's Tagal Vocabulario, "to aid another in seedtime, gratuitously."]

10. The support or pacaen of the religious shall not be contributed gratis in the large villages; and in the small ones the obligations which the Indians may have formed shall be fulfilled; but if they have not done so, as they have no obligations they shall not contribute without pay.

11. There shall be no fiscals appointed in the villages by the religious, but only guardians, without rods; nor shall there be constables; and they shall not be authorized to arrest, flog, or punish the natives.

12. The father ministers have no temporal jurisdiction over their parishioners; and as little have they ecclesiastical jurisdiction, except in the tribunal of conscience, and for admonishing and instructing the people, administering the sacraments, saying mass, and teaching the [Christian] doctrine, etc.

13. For the same reason the civil government of the villages is not in their keeping; nor shall the [local] authorities ask permission from the religious to execute the orders of their alcaldes-mayor, or to entertain travelers and furnish them what they need for its just value.

14. The wills, contracts, and obligations of the Indians which shall hereafter be made, must be sent to the record-office of the alcalde-mayor, without registering them in the convents.

15. The religious in charge of doctrinas have no authority to arrest, flog, or punish the natives, either in person or through intervening agencies; and the Indians, both men and women, must not allow themselves to be arrested or flogged by the religious. If this is done by order of the syndics and fiscals, let them defend themselves against the judges in what way they can.

16. Nothing shall be collected from the natives for burials, baptisms, and marriages.

Then follow comments on these regulations, and in vindication of them--exceedingly prolix on account of being full of citations, some timely and others the opposite. He states therein that for the service of the parish churches he ordered that the following should render assistance: Four servants for the parochial house; one doorkeeper for each convent; and people enough to carry the hammocks and litters [talabones] when the minister shall go forth to administer the sacraments. Two sacristans; and the acolytes and the singers for the services in the churches. Twenty young men [baguntaos], to sweep the churches and their courts every week or every day. Two laundresses, for keeping clean the cloths and vestments in the sacristies. All the young girls [dalagas], but outside of the convents, to embroider and sew all the articles of cloth that are necessary for divine worship. A guardian who shall notify the religious of matters pertaining to their obligations. A syndic, who shall attend to collecting what belongs to them.

[He says] that the oppressions which are caused by the service which was compulsory in furnishing the dalagas consisted in the following: Under the pretext of needlework and embroidery, the religious compelled the dalagas to be in continual attendance in the houses of the syndics and mistresses, where they not only sewed and embroidered the articles for the sacristy, but also the inner garments of the religious and the outer garments of their servants. Besides, they must do whatever was commanded them by the mistresses themselves, and their fiscals and syndics, and the fields of all these were sown with grain, without pay, by the wretched dalagas. At the same time, assessments were levied annually in each village for [church] ornaments; and this sum, in the village of Caramuan alone, amounted to 800 pesos the year before. It must be considered that, besides these things, the villages were burdened by the maintenance (at their own cost) of two or three pavilions [camarines; for temporary churches], for extra supplies of timber of all sizes, and also limestone, for the repairs and adornment of the churches.

After presenting various considerations, he proceeds to refute the false charges which the Franciscan religious published against him, who said that he had treated them as if they were criminals; that he had falsified the edicts, varying them from the original process; and that all the declarations of the witnesses were false, as also the remonstrances of the villages.

[127] In the text, misprinted 1684. Occasional typographical errors are found in the printed edition of Diaz, which we correct in our text.

[128] Spanish, pájaros bobos; evidently referring to the bird commonly known as "booby" (VOL. XVII, p. 130).

[129] Governor Cruzat y Gongora died at sea, on the voyage from Manila to Acapulco, on November 5, 1702; and his youngest daughter on December 12 of the same year. (Ventura del Arco MSS., iv, p. 245.)