Part 11

[In 1719 the royal Audiencia is broken up by the lack of auditors: Torralba being imprisoned in Fort Santiago, two others--Julian de Velasco and Francisco Fernandez Toribio--being held in confinement, and Pabon being not yet reinstated in office. "Only Don Gregorio Manuel de Villa was in possession [of the auditor's functions], through the death of the fiscal, Don Antonio de Casas y Albarado; but as Señor Villa did not agree with the harsh and violent opinions of the governor, he retired to the convent of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, distant two leguas from the city." At this time Bustamante is told that a general conspiracy is being formed against him, "of all the citizens, and all the religious orders, and the clergy, influential persons being pointed out who were allying themselves with the Sangleys, who were to commit the parricide." Thereupon, Torralba begins to hope for release, and Bustamante talks over the situation with him, asking his advice. The result is, that the governor transfers Torralba to the government buildings, nominally as a prisoner, but rehabilitates him as auditor; with Doctor José Correa as associate judge, and Agustin Guerrero as fiscal; and they contrive various measures against their enemies. Many persons are arrested by this quasi government, and many others through fear take refuge in the churches. Among the latter is a notary-public, Don Antonio de Osejo y Vazquez, who carries his official records to the cathedral, and refuses to surrender them. A decree is therefore issued by the temporary Audiencia requiring the archbishop to see that the records are given up and returned to the proper place; he promises to obey, but delays doing so; upon being ordered a second time to attend to the matter, he answers by presenting the opinions of the two universities, which the prelate has consulted in this emergency, and which support him in declining to allow the right of sanctuary to be infringed, and in regarding the so-called Audiencia as illegally constituted. The governor issues a proclamation ordering all able-bodied male citizens to present themselves, armed, in the palace when a certain signal shall be given. The archbishop excommunicates Torralba for his proceedings against the ecclesiastical immunity; he sends notification of this punishment by Canon Don Manuel de Ossio and Doctor Fuentes, who force their way into Torralba's apartment, late in the evening of October 10, and force him to listen to the reading of the censure; but he contrives to get hold of a sword, and drives them out of the room. The next morning the governor calls the citizens to arms, and causes the arrest (in virtue of decrees made by his Audiencia in the night) of the archbishop, his messengers to Torralba, the superiors of the religious orders, and many other ecclesiastics. At this, a tumult arises among the people; an interdict is laid on the city; and a conspiracy is formed against the governor. "The religious of St. Francis, St. Dominic, and St. Augustine (both calced and discalced) came out from their convents, each as a body, carrying in their hands crucifixes and shouting, 'Long live [Viva] the Faith! long live the Church! long live our king Don Phelipe V!' Perhaps also resounded such utterances as in these cases are peculiar to the common people and to a tumultuous populace. These religious were joined by those who had taken refuge in the churches, and by a great number of people of all classes, and they went in this array to [the church of] San Agustin. Those who had taken refuge there, who were among the most distinguished citizens, filled with fear lest they should be taken from their asylum and put to death, joined the crowd, and promoted the sedition, all providing themselves with arms. A page of the governor, hearing the confusion and yells, entered his master's apartment, and in alarm gave him the news that various religious were coming toward the palace, conducting a mission. The governor, greatly disturbed, sprang up, and ordered the guards to keep back the crowd; he went to a window, and heard that from the corner of the cathedral tower thirty men were asked for to check the people, who were marching through that street. He despatched an order to the fort to discharge the artillery at the crowd; but he was so little obeyed that, although they applied the match to two cannons, these were aimed so low that the balls were buried in the middle of the esplanade of the fort. Without opposition this multitude arrived at the doors of the palace, the Jesuits following at a short distance, with many of the common people and many boys, the entire crowd, with deafening yells, repeating the vivas of the religious. As for the soldiers of the guard, some retreated in fear, and others in terror laid down their arms. The mob climbed up by ladders, and entered the first hall, the halberdiers not firing the swivel-guns that had been provided, although the governor commanded them to do so; he now went forward to meet them, with a gun, its bayonet fixed, and gave confused orders to his retainers to seize the weapons which by his order had been taken from them. One of the religious presented himself to the governor, and tried to set forth to him the misfortunes into which he was rushing headlong; but at the first words that he uttered, the governor, already furious, said to him, 'Go away, Father!' He attempted to discharge his gun at a citizen standing near, and it missed fire; then the governor drew his sabre and wounded the citizen; the latter, and with him all the rest at once, attacked the governor. They broke his right arm, and a blow on his head from a sabre caused him to fall like one dead. His son the sargento-mayor, who was in command at the fort, seeing the great throng of people who were entering the palace, mounted his horse to go to his father's aid. Entering the guard-room, sabre in hand, he wounded several persons; but as he was not sufficient for so many, he was attacked by them and fell from his horse in a dying condition, and they left him there. Some life still remained in the governor, but he gave no sign of it; and, supposing that he was dead, the people occupied themselves with imprisoning some and releasing others." Concepción mentions the ministrations of the Jesuit Otazo (whose account of the affair follows this), to Bustamante, and states that the dying man suffered many indignities at the hands of the mob; they even dragged him along, in a hammock, to thrust him into a dungeon, and while doing so a slave stabbed Bustamante twice near the heart. Finally they leave him stretched on a couch in the chapel of the royal prison, and without any medical care; the dean of the cathedral (who has just been freed from Bustamante's prison) summons a surgeon to attend the dying governor and his son, but he is destitute of bandages and other appliances, and when he returns with these the governor is dead. [42] Concepción describes this episode indignantly, as "an abominable crime," which was discredited by the upright and honorable citizens, and relates the excesses committed by the mob, who broke open the prisons, and set free the worst criminals. At the beginning, they had liberated the imprisoned ecclesiastics; and now they insist that the archbishop, Fray Francisco de la Cuesta, shall act as governor ad interim. With great reluctance, and yielding only to the clamors of the people, the need that some one who can quiet them shall assume authority in this disturbed condition of affairs, and the advice of the leading ecclesiastics in all the orders, Cuesta accepts this charge, and takes the usual oath of office as governor until the king shall make another appointment. He forms an audiencia with the legal auditors still remaining--Velasco, Toribio, and Villa; and they together organize the temporary government, Pabon also being reinstated, later. A public funeral is given to the two Bustamantes, for which a thousand pesos are taken from the goods of the deceased, the other four thousand being allowed by the royal officials for the maintenance and the passage to Mexico of the governor's six remaining children (their mother having died soon after reaching the islands--according to Torralba, through Bustamante's neglect of her in a serious illness); the funeral is so ostentatious that in it are consumed seven and a half quintals (or hundredweights) of wax.]

[The archbishop [43] sets on foot an investigation into the riot and the murder of the governor and his son; the substance of many of the depositions made in this matter is related by our author, but little information of value is obtained from them; no one will admit that he knows who dealt the fatal blows. Torralba [44] testifies against the governor, condemning his fierce disposition, tyrannical acts, and "diabolical craftiness." According to this witness, Bustamante was carried away by greed, and appropriated to himself the goods of many persons whom he imprisoned; resentment at this was general throughout the islands, [45] and caused a revolt in Cagayán, from which resulted another in Pangasinán, in which the alcalde-mayor, Antonio de el Valle, and other persons were killed. The auditors propose to investigate also the persons who had taken refuge in the convent of San Agustin, and afterward joined the mob; but they are advised by Doctor Ossio that this proceeding will too greatly disturb the community; that to proceed against these persons will be to cast odium on and grieve nearly all the citizens, since the commotion was so general; that all those who went out on that occasion did so "in defense of the ecclesiastical immunity, the preservation of this city, the self-defense of its inhabitants, and the reputation of the [Spanish] nation;" and that to carry out this plan would be likely to cause some disturbance of the public peace. The officials accordingly suspend the execution of the decrees that they had issued, and send to the Madrid government a report of all their proceedings in the matter, with copies of all the documents. In Mexico, however, the affair is viewed differently. The guardian of Bustamante's children, Balthasar de Castañeda Vizente de Alhambra, brings criminal suit before the viceroy, Marqués de Valero, against four of the citizens of Manila for the murder of the Bustamantes. Two of these men--Juan Fausto Gaicoechea y Gainza, and Diego de Salazar--are consequently arrested at Acapulco (March, 1721) and imprisoned, their goods being seized. The inquiry at Acapulco is equally fruitless, but Castañeda presses it before the viceroy, making definite accusations regarding the murder, and claiming that the authorities at Manila have slurred over the investigation of the murders, through undue influence of interested parties, and have made only enough effort to find the culprits to preserve their own reputation at Madrid; and he brings forward various evidence in support of his claims. The viceroy finally refers the case to the new governor of Filipinas, Marqués de Torre Campo, sending to him the accused persons, and Gregorio de Bustamante, nephew of the late governor. In January, 1720, the fort at Labo in the island of Paragua is abandoned, notwithstanding the entreaties of the Recollect missionaries there that it be maintained and reënforced--a measure for which Concepción accounts by the hatred felt toward Bustamante, who had established that post; and by the readiness of the Manila government to keep up the fort of Zamboanga, under the pressure exercised by the Jesuits, whose "astute policy" secured votes for that action, desired by them for the protection of their missions in Mindanao--an influence which the Recollects lacked. As soon as Labo is abandoned, the Moro pirates begin their raids on the northern islands, even going to the vicinity of Manila; and they undertake to form a general conspiracy against the Spanish power in the archipelago. The kings of Joló and Mindanao, however, profess to decline to enter this, finding their interest in an alliance with the Spaniards. On December 8, 1720, an attack is made by Moros against the fort at Zamboanga, but it is repulsed; those from Joló and Mindanao then come, professing friendship, but treacherously turn against the Spaniards and attack the fort; after a two months' siege, they are finally driven away, with considerable loss. [46] The Moros afterward ravage the Calamianes and other islands, carrying away many captives, and killing a Recollect missionary, Fray Manuel de Jesús María.]

Letter from Diego de Otazo, S.J.

I will not omit sending a relation to Madrid, on this occasion when letters are sent from Manila to that court, of the tumultuous changes [here], of which your Reverence probably knows--if perchance (even though my influence be little and my authority less) my letter, when communicated to the father confessors of his Majesty and Highness, may contribute to the greater glory of God, and the welfare of these islands and of the souls who are converted in them, and those who may yet be converted when this community is established in tranquillity and order; it is this alone which I regard as the only object for which I can and ought to strive, since this alone has brought me to these islands.

Father Procurator: Don Fernando Bustillos y Bustamante (whom may God have forgiven) began his government of these islands with so much violence that, as he carried it to the extreme, this very thing deprived him of life. Blinded by the two mighty passions, greed and pride, and exercising the absolute power that the government of these islands confers on him, and taking advantage of the great distance from his sovereign master, [the result was that] all the citizens had to follow him and comply with his purposes, which were directed to his own interests, and measured only by his own desires. The dungeons of the jails and castles came to be filled with those persons who opposed or might oppose him; and the churches and convents were full of those who had sought refuge there, dreading lest they too might be imprisoned. The few Spaniards (and they were very few) who were outside went about--let us say, by way of explanation--with one foot on the street and the other in the church; and with the fear that if they lay down at night in their homes they would awake in a dungeon.

The archbishop, impelled by his conscience, undertook to employ some means--advising the governor like a father, and with the utmost possible circumspection, and after having consulted others--to see if he could check what was already dreaded; but, when he gave the governor his first paternal warning, the latter had become entirely blind, and determined to expel from Manila his illustrious Lordship, the superiors and professors in the religious orders, and the secular priests in the cathedral who had high positions and learning.

This fatal controversy began to find expression on the ninth or tenth of October, his illustrious Lordship desiring the governor to cease his intimacy with [quitarle de su lado] the auditor whom he held a prisoner [i.e., Torralba]--with whom, while thus a prisoner, he was drawing up, at his own pleasure, and without any possibility of objection, the royal decrees which he judged necessary to his purpose. The archbishop sent the doctoral canon of the church and another prebend in order that, after the canonical warnings, they might notify [the auditor] of the excommunication which he had incurred by complying with so exceedingly illegal a proceeding. What occurred there when the doctoral canon carried this message I am unable to say; but the result was that they treated the canon and the other prebend badly, confining them as prisoners, and this was the answer that the archbishop received; the fact itself is known, but nothing else.

At daybreak on the eleventh his illustrious Lordship, in much anxiety, sent out to summon to his palace the superiors of the religious orders and other learned ecclesiastical persons, in order to hold counsel with them; but hardly had they assembled with him when they found that the archiepiscopal palace was besieged by armed soldiers, who had orders not to allow any one to depart, or any others to enter. One of the officers, entering the apartments of his illustrious Lordship, informed him that he must immediately go with him, by order of the king, the royal assembly, etc.; and thus, surrounded by soldiers, they carried the prelate to the fort on the plaza. In the same way they proceeded with the rest, his lambs, and, separating them from their shepherd and from one another, led them away and confined them in different divisions of the prison and the house of the Audiencia.

The interdict was published, and the bells began to toll, which disquieted all the people--religious, ecclesiastics, and laymen. Those who had taken refuge in the sacred buildings thought that they were ruined, and those outside felt deprived of the asylum of the church. This disturbance lasted from eight to twelve o'clock; at the latter hour the turbulent crowd proceeded, without order or concert, to the palace of the governor, and entered it without opposition from either the outposts or the soldiers of the guard. Shouting, "Long live the Faith and the Church!" they rushed upstairs, and at that same hour fell upon the governor with weapons, until he fell on the floor with wounds, and demanding confession, and they left him for dead. Then his eldest son arriving--who had been going about the city arresting the priests, and busy with other orders of that sort--the mob killed him also, which occasioned the death of a poor Indian. All these events occurred in about a quarter of an hour, so that by a quarter past twelve even the boys were in the plaza, celebrating the event [cantando la victoria]; the misfortunes [of the people] were at an end.

At the news of the tumult the father minister [of the Jesuit residence] sent several fathers from the house, that they might help to pacify the minds of the people and be ready to hear confessions, according to what necessity demanded; among those assigned to this duty I was one. On the way I met several persons, who told me that the governor was already lying dead; and as one who had gone out only to assist those on whom misfortune might have fallen--which, it was thought, would include many, as is usually the case in such tumults--I hastened my steps to the palace. Finally I found him whom they had considered as dead; he was lying in an apartment, the blood dripping from his wounds, and surrounded with people; and at his side was a religious who had attended him in order to give him absolution. I asked the latter what [had occurred], and whether in his opinion that poor man was in full possession of his senses; he answered that he did not know, but that he had absolved him sub conditione [i.e., conditionally]. When the religious asked me to try to find out in what state he was, I began to say to the dying man what the Lord inspired in me, in order to prepare him for being again absolved--which was done several times by the religious, with full absolution, and without any condition; for such were the tokens [of penitence] afforded by the expression of his face, and his sobs and sighs, and even tears, and his pressing to his lips the crucifix which I placed at his mouth, and so tightly did he press my hand when I asked him to, that he spoke to me more clearly thus than if he had answered with cries.

It was my opinion that he could speak; and, availing myself of an opportunity when I saw the people about him somewhat removed [from his side], I made no little exertion to secure an utterance from him. I spoke close to his ear, in a low voice; and he, recognizing my intention, answered me, saying: "Alas! my father, all this is little compared with what I deserve for my sins, which I confess are infinite; and this which is happening to me is the kindness of God. I do not complain of any one, and I will kiss the feet of every one. I only ask your Grace that you will not leave me until I die, and that you will be my companion until death; and that, if it be possible--so that I may die far away from this noise, and be able to pass in quiet the little time that may remain for me to live--they will carry me to the hospital; that of St. John of God would be the best. But in any case, do not leave me, your Grace, for the Virgin's sake; and care for my soul, that it be not lost." This was what he said to me, in substance, and even literally, the first time when he was able to speak.

Hardly had he said this to me when the people again came around us, in a clamorous crowd, and I turned to contend with them. I made every possible effort to provide for him what comfort I could, but I could only secure this, that they carried him, with me, to a room farther within the house; and there, now trying to restrain the tumult, and now assisting him, I found him always in the same excellent frame of mind. Sometimes I began to hear his confession, in coherent and detailed form; sometimes the confession would be interrupted because the doors at times were opened--until I could, by the aid of some persons whom I knew to be influenced by the fear of God, keep the doors closed for a time. I spent the time thus until about six o'clock, when he died. In that time extreme unction was given to him; and Doctor Rayo, who held delegate authority from the archbishop, absolved him etiam in foro externo [i.e., "also in the outer court"] from the excommunication. I omitted no effort in order that he might use well the time for the benefit of his salvation, regarding which I can state two things. [Here follow long pious reflections, which may be left to the reader's imagination.] Finally, God punished him there for the violence which he had employed with others--not allowing them even the comfort and consolation of communication with their confessors, as some desired; and it was not permitted to them except only to make them comply with the [requirements of the] Church; for when he desired to prepare himself at leisure, and to pass quietly the time which remained to him, with the confessor who was aiding him there, there was no way of securing this. On this account it is my opinion that God chose to punish him in this life in order to pardon him in the other one. This is my opinion; oh, that it might agree with that which God has! for then the salvation of this poor man would be certain.