part I

have kept them all contented, favored, and well paid, without consenting that, even for the service of your Majesty, they should suffer any oppression; and they prove this by the contentment in which they live and with which they aid [me] in every way, as is well known. There must be in that court [of España] enough persons, both religious and laymen, who have gone from here who can tell you this. But all this is not enough, nor even holding in check the alcaldes-mayor, encomenderos, and collectors, if the ministers in the missions will not treat them well. For it is not sufficient to protect them from the oppressions of the passing Spaniards, who will be forgotten, if on the other hand they are liable--on account of their service, or for some displeasure, or for gain, or because they do not know as much theology as the others--to be flogged or put in the stocks, and to suffer other hardships, which they feel, even though they are Indians. These fathers of St. Dominic are not their least oppressors, although I do not know whether they take from them anything which is of importance; and they favor them much and even at times in a manner not very honorable. The friars serve as protectors to them and inspire them to boldness; and now by this path of protection, and again by that of punishment, the Indians are all being brought to recognize them as powerful lords, in both spiritual and temporal matters. So far has this gone that, if the alcalde-mayor orders anything, even though it be just and necessary and for the service of your Majesty, if the friar orders something else, it must be as the latter desires, at least for the time being, until a more urgent order is issued. Your Majesty will be pleased to consider what is best to decree in regard to this for the future, as I am applying the most gentle and expedient means and correctives for the present.

According to the distribution of licenses to Sangleys, it appears that the care which I took to reduce the number of those here has had a good effect, and that they have gone back to their own country. For, as strict measures were taken to the effect that all those in this country should not remain here without securing licenses, a much smaller number of these have been issued this year than last. Likewise a large part of the Japanese have been expelled, so that for a long time there have not been so few of them here as now. I sent an order and what was necessary for the fortification at Oton, and had that port put in a state of defense. The same thing is being done with the fort at Cavite, as I wrote to your Majesty.

In the same way we are steadily engaged in repairing and equipping the ships, not only the capitana and the almiranta, but the ship which this year came from Nueva Spaña, and another small ship and three galleys. I do not know whether they can be manned, but everything is being prepared for any emergency that may arise. What we cannot make is money and Spaniards, the lack of the latter being the most serious; and I have many times represented to your Majesty that the aid from Nueva Spaña has come in scanty measure, as if from one who was not obliged to give an account of this matter. The infantry, of whom a very small number have come, are in such a state that I would be glad if most of them had remained there; and, in short, counting them all--aside from those who are crippled, and those housed in the forts here and at Cavite--they do not amount to seven hundred and fifty in all these companies, as appears from the certified official statements which I send with this. Deducting those who are usually left in the ports, and the number who are ordinarily sick in the hospital, there will be barely enough to defend the capitana and almiranta, two galleys, and a patache (or another galley in its place), if they are also accompanied by some respectable citizens and persons who are anxious to serve and merit reward. There are not yet here, however, the usual number of unpaid soldiers--who are here called "irregulars" [_extravagantes_] because nearly all of them are so, and serve in these companies; but now, when there are not many troops, they are thus far well provided and paid, and are content, thanks be to God. With their help, when occasion arises, I hope that the soldiers will do their duty very well; and for such time I shall collect all that I can of those whom I have mentioned who are off duty, and likewise those who are to return to carry on their work in the mines of the Indians who are called Igolotes, the neighbors of those in Pangasinan. With the help which has been offered me by Doctor Don Juan de Rrenteria, bishop of Nueva Segovia and of that region, who displays a zeal for the service of your Majesty conformable to his obligations, my hopes have increased for the good results which I desire in this. May God our Lord, for whom it is done, grant us this and all other things, and protect the Catholic person of your Majesty, according to the needs of Christendom. Manila, December 10, 1621.

With the arrival of a ship which has come from Xapon to the island of Mariveles, at the mouth of this bay (whence I do not know where it went), I received the letters which came for me. I learned by them that nine armed ships were ready to sail from that country to join on this coast two others which came out earlier to cruise along the coast of China. It appears, however, that they certainly have left Xapon, as this was made known and affirmed by a Dutch factor, who fled from them in Malayo. His declaration accompanies this letter, to the effect that this fleet is already equipped, and that it has been detached merely to come to these coasts to rob the ships from China, and to bring about an encounter with those from Nueva Spaña, keeping a place to retire to and fit up in some Japanese ports. I am not surprised if this also is true, as it has been learned from many besides this factor that the Flemish and English nations have a hundred vessels and more in these parts, besides those that are expected, and are said to be coming. But God is before and above all. Your Majesty will arrange and decree what is most suitable; meantime, while I live, and remain here, I shall do what I can, and, with the divine favor, I expect no evil result.

_Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenca_

[_Endorsed_: "See whether this letter is a duplicate, for it is old."]

DOCUMENTS OF 1622

Letter to the king. Alvaro Messa y Lugo; 1621 and July 30, 1622. Letters from the archbishop of Manila to the King. Miguel García Serrano, O.S.A.; 1621-22. Royal decrees regarding the religious. Felipe IV; December 31.

_Source_: These documents are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.

_Translations_: All these are made by James A. Robertson.

Letters from Auditor Messa y Lugo to the King

Sire:

Immediately upon my arrival in this country, I informed your Majesty, at the first opportunity, of everything possible, both of the condition in which I found affairs here, and of what I could conjecture in the beginning made by the new governor, Don Alonso Fajardo--of whom I immediately conceived suspicions and fears--and in the little that I saw of the beginnings of his government, by which he would not satisfy the need of the country for justice and [good] administration. Then in my next despatch, [26] [I informed you how this idea was confirmed] by the demonstrations which may be called want of prudence; then, at intervals, I continued to add to my letters whatever occurred that was more intimately connected with this particular. Thus have I been doing on all the other occasions when ships have sailed from this country, both for Mexico and via Yndia, in addition to what the Audiencia has written to your Majesty. Although it has been impossible to inform your Majesty so minutely of everything, because it must be done with all possible caution and secrecy, in order to escape the violence and force of the governor--who with extraordinary vigilance and solicitude examines the mails, in order to seize the letters--and this obstacle has been aided by the multitude of affairs, still less, Sire, can that be attempted now when they have an exact number. But the extravagance of the governor's actions seems to be in excess of human capacity, and of such sort that, although it be morally impossible to point them out, it is more impossible, even when inadequately described, to believe them; for in my opinion it is incredible when spoken or heard, and scarce will be believed when seen, at least to men who recognize the loyalty that they owe to their God and their king. Accordingly, and as it is so necessary, in order to fulfil the obligations of my conscience, to inform my king, continuing the account that I have given hitherto of the wretched condition to which the governor has reduced the country (and this cannot be specific and particular, because of the multitude of his reckless acts or excesses, as above stated), I shall relate, as succinctly as possible, some little that will serve as an indication of what I shall leave unsaid. Hence, Sire, I say that, from what we see here, what the governor is doing is to expend your Majesty's royal revenues on the one hand, uselessly, without the careful consideration of facts which is necessary to obtain results for the service of your Majesty, and with very indolent attention; and on the other hand, contriving to secure with them his own advantage, under color of service to your Majesty, by sending your Majesty's ships to Yndia, Macan, and other regions for his own negotiations, under pretext of sending them for military stores and other things for the royal service. In this way he defrauds your Majesty of a vast sum of ducados, a thing that could be given another name. In still another direction [he acts unjustly], by giving warrants to pay due-bills, and that not to the owners of those bills, but to persons who buy them at one-third and less [of their face value]. To such persons does he open the doors to pay them, while they are shut on the wretched owners without recourse. [That is done] perhaps, in order to make them sell their claims; for of the two-thirds or more remaining from the face value of the due-bill for their service of wealth, a great share of profit falls to the governor, as is openly muttered. This is affirmed by many conjectures, and especially by the fact that it all passes through the hands of his retainers and partisans, and those of his household. All this is done to the neglect of building ships and preparing the supplies necessary for the defense and conservation of the country.

The governor is also managing to make vast profits from consignments of goods; and--as is hinted, and even affirmed, however secretly he attempts to keep his affairs--a great part of the consignments are supplied by the royal treasury of your Majesty, and the royal income from the licenses given to the Chinese to remain in the country aids him not a little. That sum amounts nearly every year to one hundred and thirty thousand pesos, for many of the Chinese remain, thus incurring the risk of another insurrection, notwithstanding the so strict decrees in which your Majesty orders the very opposite, and prohibits their remaining. That money was formerly collected and placed in the treasury through the intervention of the royal officials. The governor has ordered it to be collected by one of his servants and paid whenever the latter chooses, so that vast sums are always due to the treasury. I have been assured that forty thousand pesos are still owing this year, which it is said that the governor is using for his trading, as well as even the salary which is generally given the collectors. For that reason, when the servant receives the money that the Chinese pay for their licenses, it is weighed, and if it is under weight, he demands two or three reals more; but when he delivers that part of it which he chooses to pay into the treasury, as I have said, he does not deliver it by weight, but by count, and thus keeps the profit of the two or three reals. That amounts to about four thousand pesos. It is sometimes even said that what he delivers into the treasury on the principal account he pays in warrants bought by the schemes and channels above mentioned. So many of these things are attributed to his master, the governor, that I am ashamed to relate them, for I do not believe them--or at least I suspect that they are exaggerated. For it is even said that that servant gives false licenses instead of the true ones, which he distributes to the Chinese at the same price as the good ones, and keeps the money for them. It is said that the governor has money taken from the royal treasury secretly at night. Thus do they say, and attribute things to the governor by so many and so diverse roads, that one is scandalized on hearing them--both about the royal revenues and about other particular things in the matter of profit. What I know for certain is that the governor does not have the accounts audited annually in January, as your Majesty orders, by the president and two auditors. On the contrary, the accounts for years before he assumed the government are so far behind that they have not yet come to those of his government, although he has been here three years. In those accounts preceding--although I am one of the two auditors whom your Majesty orders to audit the accounts together with the president; and although I say many things about his negligence--I have not been sufficient, for he is the one who has to take action therein. I believe that he has not attended to this matter, but rather has utterly neglected it; for I am persuaded that, in reaching the accounts of his own term, he has to keep things very private for the above-mentioned reasons. I do not know whether he fears to have the accounts made public; and besides that I should be the judge of them, for he knows that many worlds could not, through God's mercy, move me one jot from my strict observance of your Majesty's service.

Also the governor tries to violate justice, and to prohibit the punishment of evildoers, [at the same time] prosecuting and punishing the good and innocent; for he protects the former and abhors the latter, inasmuch as the one class do his will, while the others note and hate the evil things that he does. To them he offers insults, and to the others he gives offices and honors. In suits there must be nothing done but his pleasure, even though the suits be pending in the Audiencia, especially if they belong to persons devoted to him, or to those whom he hates; and he acts therein with so great violence that, when his desires are not carried out, he stops the course of the suits and takes them to his own house, so that the Audiencia may not pass any sentence contrary to his will. No one dares to demand justice from him, or any clerk to notify him of the vote of the Audiencia, while the parties to the suit call out to God in the streets. When it suits his pleasure, he takes charge of the criminal causes, and says that he does not wish a case to be prosecuted further, or that such a person be punished. Consequently, the number of the evildoers (and it is for them that he acts thus) increases so greatly that the scandal arising from it is pitiful. Malefactors also are more numerous because, when the whim takes him to forsake the other methods, the governor orders the warden of the prison to let the prisoners go, even when they are imprisoned for serious crimes; or he does this secretly, so that no one should know it, and under pretext that they are needed for war or your Majesty's service. But he does the very opposite if it is a matter not to his taste, even though the prisoners be guiltless. His actions are still more objectionable when he goes to inspect the general prison, where he prevents the auditors from having any vote, and they are allowed to do only what he wishes; while he threatens them that he will dash out their brains with a club, and other serious things.

The governor also makes a practice of neglecting and not observing the decrees and orders of your Majesty, interpreting them to his own satisfaction, or pretending that he has not got them, when he does not wish them to be known, even though he should be plainly told of them; and even if he knows it, he regards everything according to his own pleasure and preference. If any one murmurs or says a word, he is prosecuted, and his innocence is punished with violent imprisonment. The governor even takes away his natural defense so that he cannot appeal or demand justice; and the governor searches for contrivances to annoy those who do not approve his doings.

The governor also makes a practice of being so absolute in everything, that he does not only what is mentioned above so summarily and in general terms--for, as I have stated to your Majesty in the beginning, it appears difficult in each of these subjects to enumerate the things that he does (even, in my judgment, only the weighty and more serious ones)--but also in regard to various other matters does he act and proceed in the same manner. Consequently, I believe that there is no man who will not affirm that from the time that the governor entered this country, he has done no good thing, but all in disservice of your Majesty, at least in the regular procedure. For if he calls treasury meetings, if he sometimes attends the Audiencia and sessions, or does any other act by reason of his office, there is no one who does not understand that the ends and objects of his acts are his own conveniences, vengeance, and passions or the conduct of his own affairs and those of all his following--as has been apparent to me at many times, on occasions when I have been able to be present by virtue of my office. Yet he neither wishes the auditors to counsel or advise or influence him, nor that a word be said about his actions. On, the contrary he manages to get all his affairs approved especially by those persons holding office, such as regidors, royal officials, and others, and not only laymen but ecclesiastical persons. Consequently he seeks with most strenuous efforts the life of those laymen who do not approve his acts, both in public and in private. He threatens to proceed against them, either personally or through intermediaries, for the most remote and trifling irregularity that can be imagined; and he brings suits without hesitating, when he finds no witnesses, to secure others, even though they be false. To them he furnishes offices and other accommodations for that service, as many dare to say; and there is no longer any redress or protection, or at least that which is usually a safeguard destroys them. Consequently they endeavor to please him, without considering what he asks or what they do. Hence it results that neither the royal officials nor the regidors, nor any other persons whatever whom he may need--either that they may give him their approval, or that they may suit his pleasure--whether in violation of ordinance or decree of your Majesty or for whatever he might desire, exercise their offices with freedom. Thus outraged and tyrannized over is all this community--so much so, that I have been told secretly that the regidors have sent your Majesty a chart of a certain victory which they pretend that the governor has gained from the Dutch enemy who generally frequent these coasts, in which they pretend that the governor burned and put to flight their ships by his plans and arrangements. God knows the truth, and whether that is so; but I can never persuade myself of so great corruption; for such a thing never happened, and the governor has here a sufficiently wretched reputation. In this matter, and regarding a matter of such gravity, it was told me that when a regidor who privately told it was asked how they had done such a thing, he had answered by asking what they would have done if a traitor had come to govern them. Although that is not public, but was told in private, your Majesty will learn it there by its effects if that chart has reached you. But what is public is that the governor says that your Majesty should have patience; and since you sent him here he will conduct affairs according to his own pleasure. He either threatens ecclesiastical persons, even though they are friars, that if they do not act the same as the laymen, he will take from them the stipends given them by your Majesty, or he does not pay them; and he has oppressed them so that not even do the preachers dare to utter truths in the pulpit, both by his threats and because he dishonors them, and says that they are living in concubinage, and that he will have them stabbed. However, the chief reason why they have ceased to preach, as I have been told, is because all conclude that it is a matter that has no remedy, and that, since they attain no results, they do not care to ruin themselves; and so they abandon it as a matter already adjudged. By these acts of violence on the one hand, and with the flattery of some on the other, he obtained a guaranty to your Majesty in order, as is understood, to screen by it, or at least to moderate, the enormity of his acts. He also avails himself, for this purpose, of threats to the notaries, of nothing less than the galleys and their ruin; or they are given to understand that they must not give official statements of anything requested from them, especially to persons who he thinks will write to your Majesty. He has under his influence one Pedro Muñoz de Herrera, who is clerk of court for the Audiencia, with whom he negotiates those statements that he wishes; and there is even a very evil rumor that the latter will give them even though they are not true, and that he gives them from the official records as demanded, even when these are defective--not only by what is known of the person of each one, but because the governor has favored, protected, and placed him by force in the Audiencia. [This has been done] both in a murder that the governor committed on the person of his wife, and in many other matters. Finally in violation of your Majesty's decrees which order that the offices be sold, he has, after having granted some gratuitously for his own objects, without selling them, refused to adjudge the office of secretary held by Pedro Muñoz to one Diego de Rueda, who bid eight thousand pesos for it, in order that Pedro Muñoz might not be deprived of it; while he gave it to the latter for one thousand five hundred pesos, which the said Muñoz had bid for it, and that sum was paid in purchased pay-warrants, in order to give it to him gratis, as is well known. He manages the clergy in the same way; and, as he suspected that the cabildo of the church wrote a letter to your Majesty last year, they have, since he learned something of this matter, endured a little tempest until they have been able, by certain paths that they have learned, to watch him. This present year I fear that they will not write, in view of the extraordinary care with which they see that the governor seizes the letters that are sent to your Majesty. The whole country is so fearful of such interference that each one, I think, will seek an extraordinary way in order to save his letters. Some are thinking of putting them in boxes of merchandise, for which reason I fear that some will be left; and, as I have said, it might be that these will be the letters of the cabildo of the church--not only because of the aforesaid reason, but because, although I see that the archbishop is annoyed at the acts of the governor, and as I understand, those affairs cause him internal anxiety through his desire of remedying them, there is among outsiders considerable grumbling because he flatters the governor and humors him in many ways (which leads people to think that the cause for it is certain accommodations for his servants and relatives that the governor gives him); and because of certain injuries which they think could at least be abated with less compliance [on the archbishop's part]. But I do not agree with that, notwithstanding that I might commend [more] effort [by the archbishop]; for I know the governor's temper.

The governor also makes a practice of neglecting and sleeping over affairs of good government, a policy that is fitting [27] for the conservation of the country in peace and in the service of God; and he lives in a profound slumber, and neglects taking any precautions whatever--although the enemy so frequently invades these coasts, with new forces each day on the sea; while on the land are great numbers of Chinese Sangleys and Japanese. This has long caused many men of loyalty and high standing to be anxious with the memory of the past insurrection of the Sangleys; and not less is the anxiety caused by the Japanese, for they are numerous and are an extremely warlike race. [28] And although the governor has orders and decrees from your Majesty that only the number who would be necessary for the ordinary service of the trades of the country shall remain here; and although the facts are well known to him, besides that he has been often told of this, both in and out of official meetings: yet he does not discuss its remedy, but only talks of making outside demonstrations by which he will accomplish much. But one would believe that he means that he will do much evil. May God in His mercy keep that evil far away. The governor does the same in what concerns the enemy on the sea; for not only does he not discuss, nor has he discussed, the building of ships in order to be prepared, as did Don Juan de Silva, to go to meet the enemy, but on the contrary, when he reached this land, although the galleons built by Don Juan de Silva had been wrecked, and although the Audiencia which was then governing had ordered, notwithstanding that the treasury did not contain a single real, some ships to be built, so that they might be finished in place of those which had been wrecked, yet the governor, on finding them on the stocks at his arrival, ordered all work to cease, and only two ships were finished. He ordered even those vessels to be reduced in size, whereat there are not wanting those who grumbled that he did it in order to have trading-ships instead of warships. [29] He has not built any others during all these three years, although the employees in the accountancy of the royal treasury assure me, and it is without doubt so, that he has spent three millions [of pesos] of your Majesty's royal incomes from these regions, and of the funds brought from Nueva España, during three years. That is a very great pity here, for it is to be presumed that he has spent a great portion of that sum in paying due-bills bought at one-third and less [their face value], as I have said above. The employees of the accountancy have assured me that five hundred thousand pesos were paid in that way last year, and that fact is very well known. It is also known that the due-bills outstanding have been exhausted, so that now they are being sought very anxiously in the same districts, but cannot be found.

Although we generally have six or seven months' sure notice from Xapon before the coming of the enemy, that they are going to come, the governor makes no preparation, small or large, nor does he build any vessels, but allows the time to pass as if he had no such warning. When the enemy arrive at the coast, the governor, without any intention of going to meet them--as is known publicly and generally, and is known by the results, as he has already spent the money--lays hands on the inhabitants and mainly by force gets a loan of one hundred thousand pesos from them, or what he thinks best, and has the ships in the port repaired. Those vessels often do not exceed three, and he spends on them a vast sum of ducados, even loading them with food and war-supplies of all that is needed. He troubles the soldiers in making them go and come to and from Cavite, and even making them embark. He says with show of great courage that he is going out, although he is told that such a thing is impossible with the ships that he has, for the enemy have many. Having spent all the money and exhausted the miserable inhabitants whom he has thus burdened, he calls a council at this juncture, and asks whether it is advisable to go out. Since the enemy are so superior they cannot tell him to go out, and in addition they see little gain in it; accordingly it is resolved that it is not advisable to go out. Your Majesty's royal treasury thus remains depleted, and the enemy are left to pillage the vessels that they seize from those who come to this city, especially those from China. It is even asserted, although I do not know whether it is true, that he makes underhanded efforts in the midst of all these braveries, by the hands of certain persons who are masters of his secrets, so that the city may come out and disapprove of, and protest against, his going [against the enemy], and may inform many of the council of the danger if they should say that he should go out. And it is said that thus, in the matters above related and in many things left unsaid, the governor wastes his time--which he ought to spend in pleasing God our Lord, and in imploring His mercy, so that He might aid us in the conservation of the country, in succeeding in serving our king, and in preparing matters for his royal service--in many feasts and games, parties, weddings, christenings, and entertainments with women, even while the enemy are along the coasts, and often even anchored inside the bay; for I believe, and it is understood, that the Japanese inform the enemy of the slight preparations of the country. As a result, the governor has acquired a wretched reputation and character, even among the Chinese Sangleys and the Japanese of the country (who are infidels), not only for sensuality and lasciviousness, but for other and worse doings. We have the country in the most wretched condition that can be imagined. Never has it been so wretched, as is affirmed openly by the oldest residents here, as well as by me. They bewail Don Juan de Silva, for, although they say that he was covetous and revengeful, yet he was moderate in these faults; besides, he was prudent, and watchful of your Majesty's service, and of the preservation [of the country] and credit in war, and of the honor of your Spanish nation. Many of them fear, and I with them, some great chastisement from heaven, because of the publicity and multitude of the sins of us who live here.

In the particulars of the above matters [your Majesty's revenues] have been and are being wasted during the time of this government, and I fear greatly that it will continue in the same way until the end of it; and I do not know that it can become worse. For I assure your Majesty that I am talking with some caution, although I could enlarge on this subject--because when I talk with my king, I am talking with God, for the satisfaction and security of my conscience; and because from my entrance into this Audiencia, I thought that I would not be fulfilling my obligations unless I endeavored to do my duty in what concerns me, and in the rest what I could, so that the service of God our Lord and that of your Majesty might be furthered. I thought that if evil beginnings be looked on with fear they could not increase. I always endeavored to furnish a good example in the matter of any actions and life, and at the same time to persuade and advise the governor of what I deemed worthy of reform, so that reason and not inclination might rule. I avoided conforming to his will in all things that came to my hands by reason of my office which were not to the service of your Majesty. By deed, example, and advice, or at least by efficient warnings, I exerted myself, so that only your Majesty's service should be striven for, and I am persevering in this course. I desire and am endeavoring to be on my guard respecting matters which concern his inclination and not his reason. For in fact, although the governor has done what he wished in many things, because he does not know how to conduct negotiations otherwise, at least he did not so act with me; and because of me and the openness of my nature, he ceased to attempt and to do other things--I persevering in my purpose, and he in his; and, although disabusing his mind of the idea that I would surrender myself to an evil thing, humoring him and giving him pleasure in all that I could freely. Inasmuch as that was so little and the matter of justice so great, because your Majesty's royal treasury and other most important things enter into it, he readily abandoned the path of perverting me. He said, with promises, that he would esteem my compliance more highly than that of all others, or than a great sum of money, besides other exaggerations (from which I think that he did not ill judge me), and changed the course that he had pursued by means of insults and injuries. [As an instance of the latter], after talking to me with his usual harshness while in his house--that which your Majesty assigns and gives to the president [of the Audiencia] by an order that you have given to the effect that there be houses for the president and auditors--one of the houses of one of the auditors having become vacant because Licentiate Alcaraz left it, the governor (although it pertained to me by my seniority, because Licentiate Legaspi already had a house) took it from me, moved into it, and left his own under pretext that he wished to demolish it, because it was falling down. He has lived in both houses (for one is near the other) for two years, although there have been most furious winds and storms, which makes his object evident. Besides, since your Majesty assigns a house to the president and auditors, if mine should collapse, I would rent a house which he could not seize afterward; and since by the mercy of God, I trust in His Divine Majesty, that all the world could not divorce me from the service of my king, I endured and concealed the annoyance of his having deprived me of my house. I think that the scope of his pretensions must have increased, and that, when I censured him more, he tried to drive me from the Audiencia by different methods that he attempted. One was to send me to inspect the country (where one goes mostly by sea, because of the multitude of the islands, the great distance, and the fact that the roads pass through the territory of the insurgent Indians) while the enemy was along the coast; yet an order was given to all the Spaniards who were living on their encomiendas, and others who are the chiefs--against whom, and not the poor common Indians, the inspection is aimed--to come to reside in this city because of the presence of the enemy. Besides, that inspection did not pertain to me, since I was neither the oldest nor the most recent auditor. Notwithstanding that the Audiencia resisted, saying that it was not advisable to make that visit then, he tried to have it done by his appointment alone, and without the concurrence of the Audiencia, having attempted to do that last year as well as at the present time. In order to constrain and annoy me more, he ordered me to go out in Holy Week, notwithstanding that I replied to him that I would go (although it did not pertain to me) if the Audiencia concurred in it, but that without that concurrence I could not go. In consequence, it appears that the governor desisted for the time, but did not abandon his project; on the contrary, he was more set on it. When the Christmas season came, the time for the distribution of offices, in accordance with your Majesty's ordinances, that of probate judge fell to me in my turn. But this so annoyed him that he tried to avoid giving it, withholding the commission signed by the entire Audiencia, for more than two months, I believe, with a certain scandal to the city; for litigants did not know to what judge they could have recourse, as my predecessor's time had expired. After he had delivered me the commission, when I commenced to exercise the office--with no greater pleasure than that of serving your Majesty, although others solicit those offices--the death of Licentiate Andres de Alcaraz happened, without his leaving a will. As judge, I set about collecting his property with much diligence, involving considerable hardship. That caused me certain fevers, for as he died in the country outside this city in a garden his property was in great peril. Of this I gave your Majesty an account after the property was collected and placed in order, with the precautions that I had taken--by which, notwithstanding the suits that had succeeded, I would continue to retain and reserve the property in case that your Majesty were pleased to send [some one to take] the said auditor's inspection or residencia. In conformity with that I had sent documents both to the probate court of Mexico and to the House of Trade at Sevilla, so that the property that the said auditor possessed there might be collected, and that your Majesty might be advised. Finally, I continuing in my office and the governor in his purpose--which was stimulated by his inability to reduce me to what I can morally believe, besides the public rumor and report--and he being most desirous of taking from me my office of probate judge, especially after the property had been entered in the accounts of the probate court; and I had begun the administration of the property of Licentiate Andres de Alcaraz: for certain purposes, which I do not dare to state, although they are reported, for I do not dare believe them, still by this and by many other reasons, and more because he had seized certain of the letters that I have written to inform your Majesty (for which, as persons in his confidence assure me, with whom he has communicated the matter, he has felt, and still feels, special anger and fury against me), he resolved to remove me, even though it should be by arbitrary act, from the Audiencia. Of that I am morally persuaded, and it is well known. Seeking occasion for this, but not finding it, and wearied perhaps in waiting for it, it happened one session that, while Licentiate Legaspi and Don Juan de Valderrama, auditor and fiscal, were at the door of the hall of his house, a message came in which Don Antonio Rodriguez de Villegas excused himself on the grounds of ill health. As the governor never attends the sessions of the Audiencia except for his private ends, under pretext of your Majesty's service, he was very angry that Don Antonio should excuse himself that day; for he was trying to secure the passage of a resolution [by the Audiencia] that I should go out to make the inspection--always persisting, as I have said, in his purpose; and also because it was understood that he had on his part managed to get the consent of Licentiate Legaspi to it. On hearing the message, he said very angrily that Don Antonio Rodriguez and I were always excusing ourselves from your Majesty's service by feigning to be sick. [That he said] in the presence of many people who were there, besides other quite unreasonable language. For that reason I was forced to ask him why, if your Majesty gave credit to an auditor when he excused himself, did not he have to do the same, all this with the intention to calm and satisfy him. He abandoned himself to a flow of words, somewhat disconnected, to which I replied, saying that your Majesty did not order a president to treat the auditors so; and that I served your Majesty punctually, and did not excuse myself when I was well. If I remember correctly, I think that I made witnesses of all; for he also came to me after all that, and told me that I lied, and I think that he said "villain." However, I do not believe that any besides Licentiate Legaspi and the fiscal heard that, And inasmuch as he told me to keep still and not reply, threatening me with execrations and oaths, I said to him with the greatest calmness, as is my custom: "If your Lordship tells us what is not so, are we not to remonstrate and answer you?" Thereupon he went to the meeting, where he told me that I was the worst Christian in the world, and that I took communion like Judas, besides other insults of like import, before Licentiate Legaspi and the fiscal. I was silent under everything, for I only told him that in the matter of sins I could confess many omissions; but I warned him that witnesses heard that, just as they had also heard at his house the other things that he said. Although he went ahead he may perhaps have thought that I persisted in silence, and did not answer him, in order that he might be led on to commit some imprudent act; thereupon he must have thought that there was now much to fear, and that he was not to find a justifiable opportunity, [for] he caught at that word, and said that I had intended to give him the lie, as if transgressions in thought were to be fought over--the more so, Sire, as I did not speak another word to him; for if I had spoken another word, I am not the man who would deny that to your Majesty or any one else. On account of that, the governor determined to make me the object of a lawsuit, and received his witnesses. To them he did not fail to tell what had happened, but not the words that I had spoken. When some wished to tell more, it is said that he insulted and threatened them. However, he did not do that with Licentiate Legaspi and Don Juan de Valderrama, the auditor and fiscal, whom he also received as witnesses, and whom I warned beforehand to give witness of everything that had passed; still, they said no more than what the governor wished, by which I am insulted, ashamed, and surprised beyond manner. Notwithstanding their great friendship with him, and that they know how to gratify him and be gratified by him (of which would to God there were not so much to murmur at in the community, because of the great aid they render him in ruining it), still I am consoled, and I praise God for everything. With this and, as has been declared publicly, with the advice of an advocate, to whom he gave an appointment so that he might be made judge of vagabonds--and who was, as is said, urged and even persuaded for it, that such action was not to arrest me, but only to intimidate me--the governor issued a warrant for arrest, and seized me. This was done while all the Audiencia was in a body, near the chapel where mass was being said, and about to go on general prison inspection, on Palm Saturday--although he had no sufficient reasons, as I told him so that he should not do it, as well as to the rest of the Audiencia so that they might discuss it. He sent me to the cabildo quarters, which are in the public prison, where he set over me seven soldiers of the guard and a corporal, with orders not to let me talk with any layman, especially any scrivener, and not to let me have paper and ink to write. Besides that guard, he set other soldiers in the street, so that I might not escape through the windows, as I believe. I am also told that the corporal had orders to kill me if I tried to escape, although I do not know what truth there is in that statement. But none of the orders given were more than oral, for the governor did not want them set on the records. Imprisoned in the above manner--on Palm Saturday, when [even] highwaymen are set free--he kept me prisoner during all of Holy Week and Easter, and two whole months--with the greatest scandal that, as I have heard, this community has ever had--until many religious, servants of God, and the archbishop, went to him to persuade him, and to undeceive him as to the gravity of the act that he had committed. But they obtained no beneficial result from it; on the contrary, considering as well founded the fears that they inspired in him, and thinking to justify his crime, he began to take a residencia of all my life. That lasted almost two months, and he summoned witnesses, and many of them, who told all that they knew about me. In order to persuade them to go into details, perhaps, as to what he desired, he proclaimed that I was not to be set free or to be an auditor any longer in the country; but that, on the contrary, he was going to place me aboard ship. By those efforts, and others--not only by demands on the one hand, but by fears that he inculcated through third parties, as has been told me, on the other--he obtained a great number of witnesses. However, he discharged many of these, in anger at them because they told him, with forcible arguments, that they were Christians, and that he should not involve them in matters with which they were unacquainted. Others of them, who tried to say, as was thought, many things that appeared to be in my favor, were not allowed to say these. All that took place under the efficient management of Pedro Muñoz, court scrivener of the Audiencia, with whom the governor was hand in glove, as I have said. For, in order to do it, I am told that he suppressed the heading of the process which he had before made on account of only that word, and substituted another in its place which comprehended in it scope all the discourses in the life of a man--so that it might not be understood, as I believe, that he had made so great a mistake at the beginning, and for other objects that the governor will know. Notwithstanding that, and his cruelty, violence, and force, and the fears of the witnesses, I trust in our Lord that He will not have permitted them to give false testimonies against me, although the outrageous manner in which the governor proceeds, and the so mortal fear that all have of him, makes that much to be dreaded. Finally, at the end of the two months of so serious and scandalous an imprisonment, our Lord was pleased to perform a miracle for me, through the intercession of the Virgin, our Lady, to whom I attribute it (and that miracle is not the first that she has performed for men as unworthy as I). It occurred thus: One day I dressed myself in my usual manner for going to the Audiencia; and at ten I went out among all the soldiers who were posted there, and went down the steps at my usual gait. In the same way, while in the prison, many people were round about, and in the public place where one goes out of the prison were many more; but I passed through the midst of them all to the college of Sancto Thomas. Next day I went thence to [the convent of] St. Dominic, which is on the other side of the wall, where I remain a refugee. [30] The convent is quite far from the prison, and no man spoke to me at all; on the contrary, those in the square accompanied me. Afterward the soldiers and guard (whom God was pleased to stop, I know not how) must have returned to their senses; and they came after me, when I was already near the church. Ascertaining what had happened, some went to the church, and the governor arrested others. He, as I have been told, ordered all the camp of soldiers called to arms, as if it were for the Dutch, with the intention, it is said, of taking me out by force, even if he should destroy the college. However, he restrained himself to sending two companies. It is even said, further, that all that day and night they surrounded the college, under orders not to allow entrance or exit to friar or anyone else, or the entrance of food, until the archbishop, at the instance of the friars, persuaded the governor to withdraw the soldiers. I consider as a miracle also what happened with him. Since I have been in [the convent of] St. Dominic, I have heard from several persons that the governor was quietly trying to have me killed by a certain agreement, which would have been very easy for him had not God prevented it. However, although that is not very well known, nor do I believe it all, yet it could be feared from him, and from his great desire to be free from my witnessing his acts on occasions of defending the justice and service of my king, since he could not reduce me to take a path contrary thereto. For that reason, I have tried with peculiar care to have God's zealous servants commend him to God, and petition Him for the governor's reformation and prudent action, so that he may not fall into the deeper abyss of miseries. Then the governor ordered my property to be sequestered, and they went to my house and took an inventory of all my books and the other treasures that I possessed, even to the very clothes of my wife, and my salaries--just as if I were a private citizen and not next [in authority] to your Majesty and the royal council, as I am; as if I had committed some crime, and he had authority to proceed against and punish me, he saying that he is the aggrieved and proper party; and as if, besides, he could be judge with so great violence. He had me summoned by edicts and proclaimed through the public streets, an action that has scandalized this community. But, notwithstanding his hostile demonstrations, he cannot satisfy himself, for all of which I have tried to give many thanks to God, considering that I am suffering thus for [the sake of] justice, and for defending the service of God and of my king. In regard to that it must be considered that, although all those lawless acts, insults, and violences to the private person of Don Alvaro de Messa I consider as referred to God, nevertheless it is a serious and intolerable matter to persecute a minister for being loyal to his king. For the sake of the respect and royal authority of your Majesty which is so offended by those qualities in your minister, on account of the public scandal, and for the conservation of justice and the security of the country, and in order to avoid disservice to God and your Majesty--all which is attained by the punishment of the guilty, by which the good would be encouraged and those who are not good would fear--an exemplary punishment seems very necessary for the governor, and for me a reward and honor for the affronts and hardships that I have suffered, especially in this country, where, because of the absolute procedure of the governor, no attention is paid to your Majesty's royal orders, and one trembles to displease the governor, without more reason than that the latter desires such and such a thing. And because for many years this has continued to increase, very justly may one fear that, if it be not punished, it may reach such a point that the remedy will be difficult and ever miraculous. To moderate the enormity of the circumstances of my imprisonment and the grave scandal existing hitherto throughout the community (and I think that it will exist until satisfaction can be made for it), his guardian angels--one of whom is Don Juan de Alvarado, who has been fiscal and whom your Majesty ordered to be banished hence; and who was irritated because I had not cloaked his residencia, about which I am writing your Majesty in a separate letter--and others who are of the same sort, advised the governor to make use of an ordinance which is one of those of this Audiencia, never used and not even remembered for a long time, and which is as follows:

"_Item_: I order that my president of the said Audiencia try the criminal causes of its auditors, together with the alcaldes-in-ordinary, notwithstanding the ordinance that rules the contrary." [31] He availed himself of this to summon the alcaldes-in-ordinary and to cause them to sign all that he decreed, for they were present at nothing else than the signing of what he was violating--both with witnesses and without them, when they were not persons who were mere creatures of his; for, when persons are elected into the cabildo, nothing but what the governor wishes is voted. Further than this, if they were persons of greater obligations, and more exemplary in life and conscience, I think that they would do the same, although it might even be in a matter of greater weight; for, as I have told your Majesty, the more than violence and force that the governor holds over their minds and wills is incredible, although evident. Not all dare to resist at the peril of their security and life, and of being imprisoned, as I was, for the service of your Majesty. They, hastily judging, differentiate between the future hurt, which may not come to them, and the punishment which they regard as a present hurt, namely, to suffer for God and their king. Besides, as they also are in the deal, they have their advantages, by which they are all blinded. For to whoever can see, and to him who desires the light of heaven that he may succeed, not only is the ordinance not obscure, as they say, but quite clear, since it does not give authority or contain words for arrest or process; nor does it in any way alter the law. Therefore, those nearest [to your Majesty], as are the auditors, cannot be imprisoned or proceeded against except by your Majesty or the royal Council, or by your order. Nevertheless, the president, in virtue of his superintendency over the Audiencia, may ordain to the auditors what may be just and reasonable in matters that pertain to the government and its conservation; and even, in the heated arguments that are wont to arise between the auditors, has authority, in case the nature of the affair might require it, to retire each auditor to his own house, until they make up the quarrel; and, should he deem it advisable, he may inform your Majesty. For the ordinance does not say that the president and alcaldes shall proceed, arrest, sentence, and execute justice in criminal causes affecting the auditors. All that, in my opinion, was meant to amend the express privilege of law as contained substantially in the _corpus juris_ [_civilis_]; [32] and even then serious causes would have to be understood by criminal causes; _ultra multa cum tiberº farsnaci e regni col. 9, ttº 4, pº. 3._ [33] But it says only that the governor shall try criminal causes, which means that, in crimes that are not such by reason of the office, but personal and serious crimes of the auditors, he shall investigate, together with the alcaldes, and advise your Majesty; and the word "try," instead of meaning to arrest and execute justice and other equivalent things, only denotes simple jurisdiction which belongs to civil cases, and not authority, either pure or mixed. [34] Otherwise your Majesty could avoid the visits and residencia which you send to the Audiencia. Accordingly, to try criminal cases means that they be treated civilly without allowing them to be [cases for either] pure or mixed authority, by arresting or proceeding; but only to investigate and advise your Majesty, except in capital causes that have the capital penalty. In such cases it would be advisable for the Audiencia, and even for the president alone, to secure the criminals, if they should be auditors and nearest [to the king], but not by virtue of the ordinance, but by virtue of the ordinary authority of law, and the privileges of public protection--citing [the paragraph] _ne delicta_, etc., in case that it was unable, because of the crime and the person, to be secure in any other way than by imprisonment which befits the crime, and in accordance with the teaching of the law _divi fratres f fin ff de poen._ [35] Therefore the Audiencia ought to arrest the governor for four murders that he has lately committed (and which will be told later), solely to assure and advise your Majesty, with judicial consideration, so that you might decree your pleasure in respect to his person. But [they ought] to punish his accomplices, who were numerous, and who are not near [to the king], but most of them men who, without that crime, deserve to be severely punished for others; but they are all passed by, in virtue of peace and harmony, by Licentiate Hieronimo de Legaspi and Don Juan de Valderrama, the auditor and fiscal, who are on good terms with the governor. [Indeed, these men] now constitute the Audiencia, because Don Antonio Rodriguez has retired to his house, and is sick because of the insults cast upon him by the governor at a meeting (which I shall relate later); while I was arrested when it happened, and am now in refuge in the sanctuary. In order that all that may be done well, the governor arrests me and insults me--although, I am, by the mercy of God, guiltless of any crime, capital, moderate, or the least, and even without the slightest dispute in the Audiencia; but only because my character and the obligations of my conscience do not allow me to lack one jot in my service to my king--under pretext that by not consenting to the things that the governor imputed to me, I told him that what he was saying to me was not so. Had I shown any want of prudence in my defense--which I could have done, and which I think another would have done, who would not have endured it as did I--I would have been excused, and he would have been guilty in making himself the judge of his own cause--the more, as there was no fault or injury; or, even if there were any, it was not to the tribunal or to his dignity. I do not know, Sire, [of a case] even with full authority from your Majesty in regard to visit and residencia, when one has ever seen an auditor arrested and proclaimed, even though he had committed many serious crimes; and when, as has been told me, they shuddered with horror at the men who did it. However, I would better leave this matter now, and put a stop to this particular, rather reproaching myself at having digressed to discuss these private details (although with so great limitation), since I am talking with so exalted a tribunal, and to so many grandees and to so gifted men. For that reason, I do not dare allege rights or continue, but only to petition your Majesty to be pleased to have your royal provision issued with the gravest penalties (nevertheless, I fear that those penalties will not be sufficient, from what I know and what the community knows of the governor), so that the governor may release me; and ordering him not to molest me with any processes or causes whatsoever, so that I may attend to the affairs of my office as auditor, freely, as well as to those which your Majesty has assigned to me. [I also ask] that the royal officials pay me all my salaries, [36] for the time while the governor has prevented and kept me by force from exercising my office; that the governor restore to me my property that he has sequestered; that, if it be sold, I be paid for it; that the governor leave my house that he has occupied for two years, pay me the rent for it, and go to his own house, since your Majesty has assigned it to me and the other to him; and that, if the governor should have drawn up any acts, they be sent to the Council immediately. For I have not been able to get them from him, nor is there any one who can get any testimonial from him of anything. On the contrary the governor has, since I have been in [the convent of] St. Dominic, seized certain petitions presented in the Audiencia before Licentiate Legaspi, who is there alone, a thing which before could not have been possible; and has refused to return them under any circumstances, in accordance with his usual custom in such things. I trust, God helping, that if the governor sends the testimonies by themselves alone; without considering his own inability to do it, his violence, and the judicial substance, your Majesty, if so pleased, will find in them a disposition to punish him severely, and to condemn him and the alcaldes; and to order me to be paid many damages and costs which have been imposed on me, rewarding me and granting me great favors and honor. For without any other investigation or information from me, or from others, I think that you will see very clearly the reasons and objects that, as I have said, have moved the governor to commit so atrocious an act as he did in my imprisonment. However, it is also well known that the following reasons have influenced him.

First, the governor, as above stated, was angered because, when I was judge of the probate court, it should happen that I should collect that property of Licentiate Andres de Alcazar, because of the latter's death. Licentiate Legaspi was angered for the same reason. For both of them, as is very well known in this community, would have liked that to have happened when Licentiate Legaspi should be judge, and they know why. I dare only judge what is said, and what I see and hear outside, although there is so much grumbling at their objects, and at the wealth that they have retained for this, that it scandalizes me. However, I do not dare to believe it, in order to say whether it be true that the reputation and envy of each one of those two men that exists in this community, obliges everyone to form his own opinion of it. Desiring that the care of the fund and the office pass to better hands than mine, they thought that it would be done well if I were arrested. Accordingly, the governor took this as his guide for action, so that, while I was a prisoner, the care of the fund might be transferred to Licentiate Legaspi. The governor alone appointed the latter as probate judge, although I still had one year to serve, and at the fulfilment of that time it pertained in turn to Don Antonio Rodriguez; and then all the Audiencia exercises it and not he solely, by virtue of express orders and commands of your Majesty. Thereupon, the governor, in one way or another, together with Licentiate Legaspi, although no layman spoke to me in prison, permitted me to be notified to deliver the keys and the property. But I, fearing, as a man, what others feared, said that I had to give an account of that property, and that since I was a prisoner, I could not do so; and that he should free me, so that I could attend to my office and fulfil the commissions with which your Majesty had charged me--namely, the residencias of Don Juan de Silva and Don Juan de Alvarado--since I had committed no crime for which I should be arrested; and adduced other reasons why I could not deliver the key because of the risk that that property would be running should the key pass through other hands. As he thought that that was insufficient to obtain his will, they immediately added another reason according to which it was advisable to borrow from that fund thirty thousand pesos for your Majesty's service, under pretext that it was to be used for the despatch of the fleet then preparing to sail. [But this was done] in violation of a decree of your Majesty ordering that the president and governor shall take no money, in small or large quantity, from the fund of the probate court, for any cause whatever. By the report of that fund your Majesty has been informed that they are wont to draw that money for their trading and personal advantage, as is murmured openly. That occurred in this instance, for with the above-said and with other formalities, the governor [broke] the lock of the chest, ordering thirty thousand pesos to be extracted from it and the rest delivered to Licentiate Legaspi, probate judge, whom the governor had appointed. They went to my house to do it. They left a guard of six or seven soldiers under a corporal, day and night, to guard the rest of the property, namely, a great quantity of gold and jewels. Consequently, my wife was compelled to leave her house that night, and went to the house of the widow of Doctor Juan Manuel de la Bega, until she found a house and moved into it, leaving the house to the governor. I think that the latter's insults and discourtesy even produced considerable anger in the negroes. Even yet, a period of four months, the soldiers are guarding the chest, and will not allow me to do my duty, and do not deliver it to Licentiate Legaspi; for as is well known, they are keeping it for a better opportunity. This affair has much surprised this community, and the litigants in the court are calling out, although they are assured that it is not without foundation; for they cannot wish to have news taken in these ships that the chest was handed over, and that they did with it what is suspected, which will be seen later. The thirty thousand pesos were not intended for the fleet, for the fleet did not sail, nor is it expected that it will ever sail during the governor's life. Neither was it used as a means of help for the infantry, who go complaining through the streets. Indeed I cannot tell whether any one can say with certainty what has been done with that sum; although it is said that another very large sum, which the governor obtained from the citizens almost by a forced loan, was spent in the preparation of the ships in the port--but which did not sail, as has been said. However, some assert that the governor divided them, he himself taking thirteen or fourteen thousand pesos on the account of future salary; and that in like manner he shared it with Licentiate Legaspi and the fiscal. God showed me especially great favor in my being able to keep the account-book of the fund in my own hands through the efforts of a good Christian, the defender of probated property, for my security of what had been placed in and what had been disbursed from the fund. For nothing is placed in or spent from it, except by notary's authority, and the presence as witnesses of those who guard the fund. If they were to seize the book from me, I doubt not, Sire, that they would do me signal harm, and because, as I have said above to your Majesty, the governor can do whatever he wishes.

Another reason alleged for my arrest is because it is affirmed that, the governor planning as he did to kill his wife, my presence in the Audiencia would be a decidedly great inconvenience. For it is known, notwithstanding the few successes and works [that I have accomplished], through certain good desires that will have been recognized in me, that since I have been in the Audiencia, I endeavor as much as possible to see that affairs are managed with due regard for law; and that, had I been present in that so serious matter, I would have done my utmost; and what I ought to do, as would be fitting for the service of God and of your Majesty. That incident--which, I think, I cannot avoid relating, as one having accurate information--was as follows:

Having arrested me with the haste above mentioned, it happened that the governor--having planned, so says common rumor, the death of his wife--circulated the report one afternoon that he was going out of town to a place called Cavite. Departing that afternoon, he returned at night. Having notified the guards and soldiers to that effect, he climbed over the wall by means of a ladder, and went to the house of one of the companions who went with him (for many of his adherents went with him, and some who were hired). Going with them from this house, he stationed men at the place where he had planned that his wife would come with a young boy whom she sheltered at her house, and in whom she had confidence. This boy persuaded her to go out dressed as a gallant (a very wrong act, although she had been persuaded by the certainty that her husband had gone to Cavite), to the house of a man named Juan de Messa, who had been brought as chief clerk by the factor, Dionisio de Castro Licon, and whom the governor suspected of adultery with his wife. Arrived at the place above mentioned, the governor saw her coming with two men, one of whom is said to have been Juan de Messa, and the other his friend. Advised by the young lad that it was she, for he accompanied her in the street for some time, where he left her with her companion and went to give account of it to the governor, the latter went behind her with the retinue above mentioned. Arrived at Juan de Messa's door, which is quite distant from that of the governor, he let them enter, but went in behind them before they shut the door. Mounting the stairs with some of his men behind Juan de Messa and his wife, who had ascended, and leaving the others below with the other friend who had come as companion to Juan de Messa, the death of his wife followed, as did that of Juan de Messa and of the latter's escort, a pilot who had come from Castilla last year. They were killed up stairs and down, as I have said, and because the governor had taken possession of the streets, and stationed soldiers there with orders to allow no one to pass. The soldiers killed a young lad who tried to pass, or wounded him so severely that it is said that he died. Notwithstanding the unseemly hour, the people came running out at the outcry and clamor especially those from the nearest houses. They saw and noted everything with fairness, and consequently it has been published that the chief murderers were those whom the governor took with him, both those of his wife and of the others. That has seemed in this community to be a very lamentable occurrence. Then the governor went to his house after the event and the matter was immediately known throughout the city. Thereupon Licentiate Legaspi and Don Antonio Rodriguez proceeded to make investigations. What they began to do was, it is said, to furnish proofs of adultery. They have managed to do this by great efforts, and that with the criminals free, and with the power of the governor. And I am told that the governor ordained what had to be done, namely, to make no investigations against the dead woman. What is understood is, that many fine things have been done in the records, for they say that they have expunged, erased, and copied things according to their pleasure, the notary in the cause being the governor's most devoted follower, Pedro Muñoz, secretary of the Audiencia court, as above stated. In everything has always been done what the governor has ordered and commanded--especially by Licentiate Legaspi, for Don Antonio withdrew then and refused to do anything further, at seeing how the governor flinched from everything. All the criminals go about and take their pleasure, thus occasioning much reproach. Will your Majesty consider what you shall be pleased to order done in this matter; for there is much talk of the hatred and great and long-standing enmity of the governor to his wife, and of the evil life that he led her. It is said that he had already given her poison three or four times, from which she escaped by antidotes that she took; and that one of her women, to whom she gave the remainder of a little chocolate [37] in which the poisons were administered to her, died within two days or so, because she did not take the antidote, while his wife escaped because she had done so.

Another reason alleged for my arrest is, that there might be no occasion or opportunity of [my] giving information to your Majesty, and that that accounts for the hastiness of the imprisonment; and that they would not allow me to touch pen to paper, having been warned of the letters that I wrote to your Majesty--which, as above stated, were seized from me. These have incited him to cruelty, and increased in me the suspicion that was told me after my arrival at [the convent of] St. Dominic, namely, that he tried to plan my murder there. That is the fear with which I have written, and in which are all those who give information to your Majesty, because of the vigilant measures taken to seize the letters.

Another reason alleged is, that I might not push forward the residencia of the fiscal, and send it to your Majesty; for, as considered by them, it must have been expedient for them that I should not send it to your Majesty; and because I had not taken that of Don Juan de Silva to his taste, awaiting an occasion for it when he should not be present and when he should have left this city sometime, for if he were present it would be impossible to take it.

Another reason is because, as he has seen your Majesty has been pleased to show me the favor to commit that residencia to me, and his conscience accuses him, he fears (as is reported) that it or the visit is near; and fearing that your Majesty would show me the favor to commit it to me, and fearing justice, because I am not a person who could overlook matters against your Majesty's service, it has seemed to him, on the one hand, that if I were arrested and not in the Audiencia, it would be easy by active efforts to get hold of the letters and seize and conceal the decrees. On the other hand, he thought by means of the acts of violence and insult that he has used to disqualify me for such a responsibility with your Majesty, for which effect it is understood that he has also designedly made and procured my arrest. With what has been stated above (in which I could go into further details without charging my conscience), the case can be duly estimated by mentioning the particulars of one point, concerning which I have to say the following.

This country is at present in the most wretched condition imaginable. Moreover the governor has recently obtained his desires, namely, to be without an Audiencia, for Licentiate Legaspi is the only one in it. For, besides having driven me from it, it seems that he has also removed Don Antonio Rodriguez by treating him very ill and by grossly insulting him, because the latter petitioned that the acts by which the governor had arrested an auditor in the manner in which he had arrested me, be placed before the Audiencia. But the governor refused to give them; on the contrary, he has taken away every one of several petitions presented in the Audiencia, not wishing them to be seen publicly, for which arbitrary act redress was demanded. The governor recognizes neither justice nor king, but only his own absolute will and pleasure. For that reason, shortly after my imprisonment until now, Don Antonio has been and is quite unwell, and has less hope of going to the Audiencia for a long time. Don Antonio does not deserve that, for in many matters and on many occasions have I recognized in him very good desires and works for the service of your Majesty. Consequently, even if Licentiate Legaspi remains, that means to have no Audiencia, when one considers the close relations that exist between these two strong arguments, the disposition of the governor, and the way in which he treats the service of your Majesty. For the people generally say of him that it would be a miracle if another worse than he could be found. It is said of Licentiate Legaspi that he is the worst official that your Majesty has. The same has been said of Don Juan de Alvarado, ex-fiscal, and that is known throughout the country as a public matter. All three are so great friends that some call them "the union of the saints," so that, of a truth, as the people understand, not one tittle more than the governor wishes ever happens. Consequently, a number of litigants are holding back their suits until there shall be an Audiencia. There is much outcry at there being no one from whom to demand justice for the insults cast on them by the governor, for, finally, if there were men to defend the service of your Majesty, the governor would not do whatever he wished, although they would suffer and endure many insults for it. The fact is that if all men had a desire and resolution to suffer hardships and even to die for justice and the service of their king, the community would suffer less hurt today, for the governor would not be so daring. And he would not in that case have dared to arrest me, had not he had the consent of Licentiate Legaspi in his grasp; and whenever he needs it he is quite sure of it, in exchange for the advantages that, as everyone knows, the governor has given to him and his sons and retainers--from which I have tried many times to divert him, constraining him by the fidelity due to his king, so that he take strength and write your Majesty. Although I have brought him over on some occasions, my effect has lasted less time than it would last if I had the opportunity and occasion that such things have when one goes straight to God. On the contrary, I think he gets along better without me in the Audiencia, both he and Don Juan de Valderrama--to whom I said what I could say to a brother as soon as he arrived here, because I saw the state of affairs and thought to better them somewhat. But I have indeed done little.

My conscience has made me write at such length, and although there is much to make me continue, I think that I shall have performed my duty with the above, so that all may be considered, provided your Majesty be pleased to send us redress with the haste that so serious matters as these require, by sending us a leader who is a good Christian and one very zealous for God's service, and who will only strive to obtain that and to serve his king, and not the contrary. For with that the Audiencia will have its due place, and the auditors will attend strictly to their duties, and will conduct it for the peace and conservation of the country, and for your Majesty's service. It is also important that your Majesty send an inspector here, inasmuch as the country is so full of schemes, tricks, and contrivances to destroy it and finish its ruin; and since your Majesty, as so holy a king, cannot abandon it, after having planted therein the holy gospel, and consequently, having sent the so great fruit of so many souls to heaven. Besides this, if it has peace and is free from enemies, and religiously governed, it will give the greatest wealth and grandeur to your Majesty that can be imagined. It is advisable that such a one be a picked man, and that he be such a person as is necessary, as I have written your Majesty at other times: that he be entirely disinterested, and a good lawyer, with clean hands; that he have great authority in regard to war and peace, and over high officials in both, and power to suspend, in case he deem it advisable, the most serious penalties for your service for long periods, in order to investigate the truth, so that he may understand and learn the tricks, crimes, and criminals, and that he may know the persons in whom he can trust--not only as his agents, but also so that he can ascertain how your Majesty can best provide suitable measures [for reform]. For in no other way can the holy desires of your Majesty, which are those of God, who rewards the good and punishes the evil, be obtained. If he be not such, he will be confused during his inspection by schemes, impositions, and covetousness, but if he be such, he will be the consolation of this country, as I trust in God, and your Majesty will hold it securely in order and justice, in peace and true obedience, and with renown. Your Majesty will then know the evil and the good men, and the excesses of many, and mine. You will obtain great possessions for the royal exchequer and render great service for God our Lord. But otherwise, if he be not such a person, he will serve as a help to the ruin of the country, and as an encouragement to future officials, especially the governors, so that they may act worse. And since thin country has gone from bad to worse because of the officials that it has had, especially the governors, until its present condition has been reached, if your Majesty does not visit an exemplary punishment on those officials, in accordance with each one's guilt, it is quite clear that those who shall govern in the future will complete its ruin. For the security of that, I think it will aid much for your Majesty to send a stringent order to Mexico and to Sevilla, so that the property sent by the governor, and what he has sent by third persons under various heads, be investigated, which can be ascertained with reasonable efforts; and that it be secured by levying an attachment on it, or at least by placing it in a depositary; or as your Majesty may deem best to order it, for it is understood that such property is in very great quantity. Although I do not dare to affirm this, there are some who with the information and even more that they have of the coming and going of these things relating to the governor are persuaded that the sum [thus sent away] will amount to little less than one million [pesos], and at least to a great sum. I think that all that sum will be necessary, if his inspection or residencia be well made, and that much more will not suffice for the pecuniary part. To do it your Majesty will have sufficient grounds by reason of the advices, letters, and report that have already reached and will reach you concerning his affairs. Will your Majesty decree what is most to your royal service.

I began to take the residencia of Don Juan de Alvarado, as soon as I received your Majesty's decree, and I give account of it in a separate letter that I am sending to your Majesty with it.

Of that of Don Juan de Silva, which your Majesty also ordered me to take, I have informed your Majesty in other letters, that that order reached me jointly with that of the fiscal, and that for certain reasons of convenience I deemed it best to take that of the fiscal, and afterward to enter upon that of Don Juan de Silva. The country has been so scandalized by what occurred in that of the fiscal, Don Juan de Alvarado, because of the violent demonstrations made by the governor in favor of the fiscal, that many witnesses of those who swore, came to me to ask me not to take Don Juan de Silva's residencia, because there was not one man who would tell anything that he knew when summoned. Some of the witnesses they tried to kill at night, and others fled the city, having been threatened, it is said, by order of the governor, after the charges against the fiscal were published, until which time he and the governor thought that there could be no witness who would dare [say anything]. On that account the demonstrations that arose were greater, and I was requested, considering the condition of the affairs of the country and the many objects of the governor, to do the same in the residencia of Don Juan de Silva. [This was desired] on account not only of the many connections that it must necessarily have with many cases related to it, with which he has had connection during the time while he has been here; but of other private persons, his friends, who are involved in the residencia, especially one Josephe de Naveda Alvarado, a relative of the fiscal, who was secretary to Don Juan de Silva, and also served him in other offices of great danger. It is well known that this man, for Don Juan's sake, has committed the most dangerous and insolent acts that one can imagine, during that time and at present. He is also secretary to this governor, whose especial favor he enjoys. Whence I am persuaded beyond all doubt that nothing good will be done, for what the governor would not do through Josephe de Naveda and the others is much more than what he would do through the fiscal. It is not many months since, because of a royal decree that your Majesty sent to the Audiencia ordering the investigation of the property of Don Juan de Silva and its sequestration, I found, on attending to it, a process where it appeared that this Naveda owed Don Juan de Silva eight thousand pesos. On taking it to the Audiencia to have justice done there and to have it paid, notwithstanding your Majesty's decree, the governor seized the process and kept it, forbidding us, with frightful demonstrations [of anger], to discuss it longer. Consequently, I thought it best to postpone taking the residencia until I could see whether matters would mend, which God is wont to bring about by methods unthought of--notwithstanding that the governor, under pretext of service to your Majesty, told me often to take the residencia, for, in the presence of the greatest and most serious offenses, both he and his associates would come out as if they were angels. This was the motive of the pressure that he brought to bear; and, even though he should have more crimes than the sea has sands, yet because of him nothing would be said against the others. That would mean not to take the residencia, and for me not to obey your Majesty's will, with the loss of great sums, and much detriment, to the royal exchequer; for it is certain, Sire, that those who would come out as if angels--and some of them, especially Naveda, according to the report and outcry of the country--would not pay what they owe with many lives and with many hangings. For such are the devices that the governors have used here for the destruction both of the royal treasury of your Majesty and of this country. However, with the lapse of time and hoping for opportunity, I made investigations as secretly as possible with most of the notaries in this city, inasmuch as two or three others that remain are of the governor's household--to the end, as I have told your Majesty, that they may serve his purposes. They (and if there were others, it would all be miraculous) [38] and given with the greatest fear in the world; with which your Majesty will see that not even in secret and under oath do men dare to speak. Then continuing, the time came in which the governor arrested me, without considering what I had in charge at your Majesty's command. Consequently everything is at a standstill, until God shall remedy it. Hence, Sire, as I have said, the obligation of conscience makes me give account to your Majesty; and I think, for a conclusion of this matter, that I am not excused from some particulars.

The first is the news that has reached this city, by way of India, that the enemy is sending reenforcements of fifty-five warships. Because the governor's disposition during this time is so worthy of resentment, as above related, it is stated publicly that, on receiving this news, the archbishop told the governor to try to prepare some warships, to whom he responded that he would gladly sell the few that he had. Hence it is feared that the enemy will have been informed of that as soon as they reached this country; and that with this opportunity, they would write, and they thought it good to come if it is true.

Secondly, that the government of this country has more need of a man who is a servant of God, of mature age and prudence, rather than simply a soldier; if there should not be readily found, a man thoroughly qualified for the warfare of this country, the least influential citizens here understand it. There are some men of great courage, and thus when the Audiencia was governing, it has had excellent successes. Consequently, such a man would cost your Majesty two-thirds less than the governor costs you. It is certain, and I consider it assured, that all the mishaps that the affairs of this country have experienced--both in this land, and in the fleets and succors that your Majesty has tried to send to it from those regions--have happened because of the multitude of offenses to God that have been committed here in other times and are even now being committed; and that all are derived from the disorderly lives of the governors.

Thirdly, that great damages result because of the division of jurisdiction between the Audiencia and captain-general. For the Audiencia tries civil cases of the soldiers and the general the criminal; but with authority as captain-general, as he is governor and president, he extends that jurisdiction as far as he pleases. He interprets the decrees that your Majesty has issued for this purpose, [to apply] even to the citizens of Manila; and when the infantry leave this city and the citizens are stationed as guards, they are made to assume the condition of the other soldiers. The Audiencia is left without any jurisdiction, while the captain-general gets it all, notwithstanding the many offenses to God which are committed--for many wicked men are protected by the war at this time, and in a few days go out to commit greater crimes. Since the Audiencia tries civil causes of the soldiers with the plenary jurisdiction that it enjoys over the citizens (and the soldiers are citizens), on the other hand it appears most fitting that it try cases of the soldiers like those of the citizens; and that, as appeal is made from the ordinary judges, appeal be made to the Audiencia by the soldiers in cases civil and criminal--at least while the soldiers are not actually fighting, or in pursuit of the enemy. For, besides the service to God and to your Majesty that will result from such a course, the Audiencia, when there is one, will be respected; and the soldiers will not be so disregardful of what their captain-general says to them in times of peace, even though the latter be one who razes a convent to the ground.

Fourthly, that among the ordinances of this Audiencia is one (to which I referred above) ordering the president to try the criminal causes of the auditors With that the governor has endeavored to make a pretext for my imprisonment. As I do not see the original signed by your Majesty, I doubt the truth of that decree, as occasion for it was given by people who pay little heed to conscience. With that decree, if the governor wished to destroy [39] the country, and if the auditor did not agree with him, he could move a question in regard to its being cloudy and there being no sun. If an auditor should say that he thought the sun was shining, the governor would say that the auditor meant to call him a liar, as he said to me. By that means, and by similar methods used toward the others, he would, destroy them, and would keep them imprisoned three or four years, until relief came from your Majesty; and sometimes it would be impossible to send that relief for the damages that this country thus receives. Consequently, Sire, it is very necessary for your Majesty to revoke that decree, and to give the Audiencia the authority and the superiority that it has enjoyed in other times; for by doing otherwise the Audiencia can be very well dispensed with, as it amounts to no Audiencia. This is truer, since it is six thousand leguas' distance to your Majesty, and since it might happen that relief may not arrive in three years--especially since, in strictness of law, your Majesty does not give them the authority that they arrogate to themselves; and, to him who cherishes malice, a slight occasion is sufficient.

Fifthly, that although it is true that it was decided to be advisable for your Majesty to send aid to this country, as I understand that it has been petitioned in the manner and form of reenforcement, I greatly doubt whether it is more suitable for your Majesty to send ships by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza; for the artillery founded here is the best in the world, as are the ships built here, as I have been well informed. Besides, the artillery and ships of the quality and size necessary here cannot be sent from that country, for it has been found that war is made more securely here and the enemy frightened more by the very large galleons (much larger than those sent from there), which will withstand heavy artillery, such as those built by Don Juan de Silva. Further, the woods [used here] resist the balls better; and the ships are built with special strength and by the best master in the world, as I have been told. With money and care, the rapidity with which those ships can be built is remarkable. Consequently, I think that if what is spent on the fleet be sent in money, and soldiers, and sailors, by way of Nueva España in trading fleets, and by way of India in the ships that sail from Lisboa, it would be more expedient--notwithstanding that it is said that the infantry that come by way of Nueva España desert at their arrival there; for with good judgment and care that difficulty would be remedied. Will your Majesty decide what is most advisable.

Sixthly, that the fiscal of this Audiencia fills the office of protector of the Indian natives, and of the Chinese Sangleys who come from China to this country, for their advantage and trade, by virtue of a decree issued by your Majesty. Your Majesty assigns him no salary, for it seems to be your intention to have him attend to that duty with his salary as fiscal. The governors here, in order to control the fiscals, so that the latter may not oppose the things that the former wish when these are in violation of your Majesty's service, assign them an annual salary of eight hundred pesos at the cost of the Chinese Sangleys. For that purpose a communal fund has been established, and each Chinese is obliged to deposit, I believe, two reals apiece annually in that fund, and from that fund is assigned the salary of the fiscal as protector. As the Chinese are so numerous, the sum amounts to considerable, although it it not all paid to the fiscal. In the collection and method used, considerable annoyances are experienced. Besides, there is no authority to levy that money, for your Majesty has not assigned it, nor is the governor able to do it, although he give your Majesty a pretext for it. The worst thing is that that sum has never served, nor does it serve, other purpose than to flay the Sangleys, for besides that it seems incompatible for one to be a protector on the one hand, and one who seeks to act as prosecutor on the other, it seems that the true protector is the good judge, the Audiencia [or] the good governor. But as with the protector they never escape from spending their money, but rather, I think, spend more, and the most who have suits, waste their poor resources on the procurators and lawyers, it seems to be a matter worthy of reform, and that the Sangleys either should have no protector who is not a protection to them, but a trouble (or at least for most of them), or that your Majesty order that he perform the duties of the office with his salary as fiscal; for I certify that many offenses to God will cease. And since they claim that it is not an office of honor, there is a mystery therein, especially since I, having charged against Don Juan de Alvarado that he was taking that salary without orders from your Majesty, the succeeding fiscal knowing that, and Don Juan de Silva having revoked that communal tax, the preceding fiscal has agreed with the present governor that the communal tax on the Chinese be again established, and that the salary be assigned from it. That is a very flimsy pretext, so that the fiscals may not perform their duties faithfully against the governor. Will your Majesty order what shall be most suitable for this particular, and for whatever else is mentioned herein.

Lastly, I have made known by other letters to your Majesty that from my arrival in this country, although I keep about, I have ever been ill and a sufferer from sickness, besides which I have had several dangerous illnesses in bed, so that I cannot serve your Majesty here as I desire. I trust, God willing, that I shall have better and better occasions to serve your Majesty in another place, for which reason I petition your Majesty to be pleased not to consider my slight services, but only my good desires by promoting me to the occupation of greater favors and honors, and especially to satisfy me for the insults that the governor has cast on me in your Majesty's service, and for the many dangers through which I have passed in my endeavors to have your Majesty served and obeyed loyally and as is fitting.

As to what pertains to the seizure above mentioned of the great quantity of property that the governor is said to possess in Mexico, I must warn you that, in addition to what was said, the report originated publicly, in the beginning, in this city that the governor was to go in a ship that he was intending to despatch by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza, with a quantity of cloves which he was expecting from Terrenate. That was founded on what they say about his knowledge of how serious are the things that he has done, and that, fearful of punishment from your Majesty, he did not intend to await it; and also because this year he has sent whatever he could to Nueva España in the ships that sailed, lessening even his number of horses, as is said; and [it was rumored] that he was about to go by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza with the cloves that he was awaiting from Terrenate. But inasmuch as the cloves from Terrenate did not come, it is now said that he is not sending the ship, and that he must have taken new counsel. Consequently although the flagship of the two ships that were going to Nueva España was wrecked, still in the advice-ship that he despatched later the governor sent a huge quantity of goods. He sent in the almiranta which got away safely and took the lead, a person to look after and care for everything, namely, Don Fernando Falcon, whom he made captain of infantry, and to whom he gave great profits for that purpose. It is said that he had orders to look after everything, and to ship as much as possible to Castilla; as also, because he must fear that it will be possible, on account of his great offenses, for your Majesty to be informed of the great wealth that he has sent and his conscience will accuse him. Will your Majesty order those goods to be sequestered--as is said here, all that [he has], without taking account of the one hundred and thirty or so boxes, which, as is notorious in this city, he lost in the flagship. This is added new to the letter that I sent in the ships of Nueva España, of which this letter is a copy, and which I am sending by way of Yndia. Will your Majesty provide, etc.

_Licentiate Don Alvaro Messa y Lugo_

Sire:

The letters that will accompany this letter are duplicates of last year, both of what I wrote via Mexico and via Yndia; and although at that time I wrote as I did in them many more and better things can be said now. For besides the fact that lawless acts are so prevalent, they are increasing with the presence of their master, who, to be explicit, is the governor. It is advisable for the honor and respect of your Majesty, to put a stop to as much as possible. For that reason, I shall merely touch upon the following particulars of what is new, with all possible brevity; for in order to satisfy your Majesty some things are requisite. Hence, Sire:

1. First, after fifteen months of imprisonment and retreat, while I was very heedless, and distrustful that the governor would take such action (although very confident in the mercy of God), the governor sent an order to me at St. Dominic to come out and assume my duties. Although I hesitated considerably about going out on account of the great peril in which I was placing myself, the force of your Majesty's service drew me out, a fortnight or thereabout before the arrival of the ships from Acapulco. I was encouraged considerably by the religious who assured me that the whole town was clamoring for me to go out, except certain persons who hate justice. Consequently I persuaded myself that I would be doing your Majesty a service, and for that I did not think that I was doing much in endangering myself, since I shall do my duty in losing my life. It seems miraculous, and there are few who understand how the governor came to do this, for, although it is true that he fell out with Licentiate Legaspi, on finding that the latter while enjoying so great friendship with him, had written against him; and because of the great friendship between Licentiate Legaspi and Licentiate Juan de Baiderrama the governor's displeasure was also extended toward the said Licentiate Baiderrama: still they maintained friendly relations, although the governor ceased to extend to him the accommodations and profits of former times. Although it is reported that the governor made numerous investigations, I have not heard from one who knew the whole truth that he did it with violence, but with great mildness, giving the witness liberty to make his deposition. On the contrary I have always understood, Sire, that he made no further investigations, nor has he wished to do so; and I even believe that it was done for reasons of state, in order not to irritate Licentiate Legaspi too much, in case that the latter should take part in his residencia, for the governor must consider him as a revengeful and hot-headed person. But Licentiate Legaspi, fearing that the governor intended to arrest him, withdrew into the [convent of] the Society of Jesus. It is said that on that account he allowed me to come out. All persons of good judgment are not sorry for it, especially since they know the inclination of the governor, who, it is feared, would not lose much pleasure if all the world were destroyed--although in his falling out with Licentiate Legaspi, a matter that began some four or five months ago, it is understood that that has aided considerably in his having repented of my imprisonment and the affronts that he put upon me; for it is understood that his chief counselor and instigator was the said Licentiate Legaspi under pretext of desiring, and advising him of, his welfare, as to an associate in the matter of his duty. For that reason he did not wish me to be present, as I would be a considerable hindrance, as I write your Majesty in the duplicates. The same is said of Don Juan de Balderrama, although it is also understood that he did it with moderation; for all does not seem sufficient for the governor's relenting toward me. Consequently I consider it more correct to ascribe everything to the great goodness of the Lord, who well knows how to plan all things. What I can say, Sire, is that notwithstanding all the above, I do not believe the governor's intention a sincere one, because of what is known concerning him. I have never seen him do anything, although a good act, that did not have a private aim. Consequently I think that if he took me from prison it was for his own end. The same is true of the investigations concerning, and his falling out with, Licentiate Legaspi, notwithstanding that he says he is zealous for your Majesty's service in it, and although it is true that the deeds of Licentiate Legaspi are many and very serious.

2. Secondly, that although the governor, while I was in the Audiencia, tried to deprive the Audiencia of all authority, and the auditors gave him considerable opportunity for it (with the exception of me only, and as such he expelled me), however, during the time of my absence, he has gained such foothold and influence over everything, that scarcely has one liberty to live in the Audiencia. This is especially so in regard to myself; for although I desire and try to secure your Majesty's service, I cannot feign or dissimulate in the things in which I am unable to secure your service, although I try to flee any occasion of dispute with him, with extraordinary endeavor. Consequently, for my part, Sire, I declare that in many offenses that concern him, the punishment is deferred, with great regret, until your Majesty send a remedy; besides, there are many other criminals whom he has sent from here, so that they should not harm him.

3. The third, which is of the manner of the above, namely, that it is said that one Gregorio de Vidaña, whom the governor despatched to Yndia during that time on his private business at the expense of your Majesty's authority--for, in violation of your royal will and your royal decrees that prohibit the sale of offices, the governor gave Vidaña an appointment as regidor gratuitously, in order that the cabildo might appoint him as procurator (for which he schemed) and that they give him a considerable number of ducados--obtained or stole in Yndia certain letters written to your Majesty by the Audiencia and despatched via Yndia in the time of Don Antonio Rodriguez, which were the duplicates of others written via Nueva España. He directed them to this city, together with other letters written by the inhabitants and religious. The governor opened and read them, with so little fear and respect that one of his adherents went about the streets publicly reading to private persons the letters that the Audiencia wrote to your Majesty. Consequently he has taken occasion to write to your Majesty with tricks and cunning, as is said.

4. The fourth is that, in consequence of this and other things, occasion was given for it to be said very openly, this year, that he opened the packets from your Majesty, which were handed to him first, and extracted whatever he wanted, if they contained anything that answered his purpose; and then resealed them and ordered the person who bore them (and whom he sent for them) to return very secretly as he had entered, and to enter a second time publicly with the packets damp, so that it could not be seen that they had been opened. In this too was involved your Majesty's new seal which they said would be found in one of the packets, but it does not appear. Therefore they charge the governor with concealing it; and all that is without the aid of authority to make investigation.

5. The fifth is that your Majesty orders by a decree that came to the Audiencia this year that the vessels that sail hence to Acapulco be not despatched late. The fact of the matter in this is, Sire, that the Audiencia is powerless to remedy that, beyond the repeated telling of it to the governor. If they should do more, besides not being obeyed by a single man, at the least little thing, the governor would seize the auditor who said it and clap him into prison; and, as he is the sole and absolute ruler, he is, notwithstanding what has been said to him this year, despatching the vessels when he wishes, and answers that he is attending to it very well and is doing his duty. It is said that, this year as in others, he has made a great cargo by the schemes and methods mentioned in the duplicates. Others say that he has done it, because it is common talk that news came to him that in Acapulco a small casket of gold in bars, and jewels and pearls, had been confiscated from him as contraband goods, although the officials did not know the owner of it; and that one Don Fernando Falcon, who took under his charge a considerable amount of the governor's property last year, went to Piru from Acapulco with most of it, and the governor is obliged to claim compensation. Because of awaiting ships from Macan to make chests, the ships are not yet despatched, and it is the thirtieth of July; nor does anyone imagine that they will leave the islands even by the fifteenth of August. That, the governor says, is because of the enemy. Thus and with other schemes, although certain new pretenses are alleged, and with absolute power, does the governor act just as he pleases. It is impossible to remedy matters unless the governor be a man who fears God and your Majesty; for if he wishes to send depositions that the sun gives no light, as one might say, [he can do it]. What occurs to me, Sire, is that, since it is sufficient for the good sailing of the ships that they sail by the middle of July, if unable to sail before, your Majesty should set a time-limit by ordering that they sail between the middle of June and the middle of July, if they cannot sail before; and that they shall not sail after that. In that way, since it will be known that they have to sail, all those interested in the cargo, even though it be the most influential persons, the governors, will have their despatches ready. But they will not do it in any other way, for although your Majesty says that they shall not sail late, the governors do what they wish in this matter. Will your Majesty be pleased to order your pleasure.

6. The sixth is that your Majesty orders the Audiencia to send a relation of what occurred in certain crimes at Santa Potenciana. Since the Audiencia writes it through its president, namely, the governor, scarcely could he refrain from telling the truth in order not to lie. Consequently I think it advisable to answer that in this letter. What passes, Sire, and it is the truth, is that the seminary called Santa Potenciana is a house of retreat, not for religion but for single or married women, and almost without retirement, as it has relaxed considerably. For that reason it is a cause for wonder that there are men who some years are willing to leave their wives there during their absence. Consequently, the majority of women there are mestizas. It happened perchance that Lucas de Vergara Gaviria left his wife there when he went to Terrenate as governor, as did another who went later, namely, Sargento-mayor Antonio Carreño de Baldes. It was said (and not covertly, but quite openly) that the governor solicited the wife of Lucas de Bergara, but that he was angered at her purity and virtue. Also it was said that the same thing occurred with the wife of Carreño de Baldes, although she is not considered a person of so great virtue as the other woman. And this being so, they say that Licentiate Hieronimo de Legaspi, while I was on that occasion in bed indisposed, proceeded against one Juan de Mohedano, because it was said that he had entered Santa Potenciana to hold carnal communication with a married woman. Upon my recovery, and when I went to the Audiencia, I found that Juan de Mohedano was presenting a petition challenging their jurisdiction by saying that he was a soldier. When I learned the cause, I wondered, for the woman was married and one of the chief women here, namely, the wife of the said Antonio Carreño de Baldes, who was in Terrenate. I resolved to investigate the matter, as it was only verbal, so that it might not become public. The Audiencia had made a judicial writ and secret information and merits, by a secret and outside method, without arresting Mohedano in order to exile and punish him, so that it might not be known; for by any other way it would have been contrary to law, and would have meant the irreparable loss and deprivation of the honor of an influential woman and to the blamelessness of her husband if perchance she has secretly committed certain acts of imprudence, or written papers, or made pretensions, and I do not know whether such were more than indications. At that juncture the governor took up the matter, by whom it is said Mohedano was persuaded to challenge the jurisdiction [of the Audiencia], by promises to free him; he did it, as was seen, thus deceiving him in order to avenge himself, as it is said, as soon as he had the woman with him. Thus the governor came to the session, and, with his usual heat, caused the case to be remitted to him without greater justification, as he was the captain-general. Licentiate Legaspi and Licentiate Alcazar did it through compulsion, but I, Sire, for the reason above stated, did not agree to it, and so voted in the meeting. Being then, Sire, the leader in the cause against Mohedano and that wretched woman, he proceeded therein, as well as in another that he began against one Don Fernando Becerra for the same thing. This he did with an alcalde-in-ordinary, or with Don Hieronimo de Silva, or with both, going and coming to and from Santa Potenciana with soldiers and the torture-rack, besides indulging in other demonstrations, as they affirm, that scandalized the city--where, as this city is but small, everything was instantly divulged. And as evil men are not wanting, there was one who gave notice of a certain slander against General Don Juan de la Vega, son of Doctor Juan Manuel de la Vega, ex-auditor of this Audiencia. There was a certain report of meetings with the wife of Lucas de Vergara, auditor of Terrenate. Since the governor was also angered by her said purity and virtue, which truly are great, it is said that he considered it a good opportunity for vengeance. He himself, seeing the door opened by Licentiate Legaspi in the case of the other woman, conducted the cause. In the case of Mohedano and Don Fernando Bezerra, there was dispute; while that of Don Juan de la Vega came on appeal to the Audiencia. Since this is so small a place, and was so scandalized, and these households were ruined (for the matter was all immediately made known publicly), the Audiencia thought, since only the husband can take action in an adultery suit, and since all that had been done was illegal, because the women were immediately published, together with the investigations and intent [_yntencion_], that also in consequence of that, and the lack of proof, and because of other considerations, it would be advisable, besides doing justice in what came to their hand, to repair the honor of those influential men and women. Consequently the Audiencia acquitted Juan de la Vega, whereat the whole city rejoiced, for all were persuaded that such accusations were lies. However, as this matter is so serious, when the husbands learned of it upon their arrival, they refused to live with their wives or to enter an adultery suit, for the adultery could not be proved. Consequently, even with such an effort by the Audiencia, those families are ruined; although it is quite true that, if the governor had executed the sentence, it is regarded as certain that they would have killed their wives. This is the truth, Sire, and it could not be written in the Audiencia's letter. If other things have been written to your Majesty by the governor, they must be a part of his schemes to bleed himself safely, under pretext of your Majesty's service, as all see that he is doing.

The residencia of Licentiate Don Juan de Saavedra for the period of his fiscalship, which your Majesty orders me to take, has come to my hands. I am resolved to take it on the departure of the ships, for this residencia does not have the troubles of that of Don Juan de Silva and of Don Hieronimo de Silva, as these duplicates of the letters of the past year which I wrote your Majesty and which will be in these letters that I am writing [will relate]. In those residencias I shall make, as I say in the duplicates, efforts to take them, proceeding throughout as in duty bound, looking to the greater service of God and that of your Majesty. Thefts committed by the soldiers because they are not paid, and many other calamities of the country, I shall not relate because of what I have promised, and as that would be impossible. And also because that aids in putting an end to sorrow and just resentment, will your Majesty give what orders you please in everything.

I petition your Majesty for God's sake to please give me satisfaction for the insults and injuries that I have received from the governor for your Majesty's service, and also to withdraw me from this country, honoring me and showing me favor, for I have no strength to serve your Majesty here. May God preserve the Catholic person of your Majesty. Manila, July 30, 1622.

_Licentiate Don Alvaro Messa y Lugo_

Sire:

The archbishop of these islands presented a petition in this royal Audiencia, in which he requested that depositions be accepted for him, by order and officially, in which he claims that your Majesty conceded to him an increase of his salary of three thousand Castilian ducados per year, in order that he may be able to support himself for the reasons that he alleges. Having officially received the depositions, what seems to have resulted from it, in brief, is that if the archbishop would regulate himself in the ostentation and authority that he exercises in imitation of others, his predecessors, he could live on his salary of three thousand ducados. Nevertheless they [_i.e._, those making depositions] consider the said ostentation and authority as suitable to what is due the archiepiscopal dignity; and that, in order to sustain that dignity that he exercises and enjoys, an increase of his salary will be necessary, because the prices of articles for the sustenance of human life have increased, as appears by the said deposition, which, if your Majesty please, you will order to be examined.

On considering the above and other reasons of your Majesty's service, this Audiencia believes that, if your Majesty wish, you may avoid the increase of the said salary. May God preserve the Catholic person of your Majesty. August 14, 622.

_Licentiate Don Alvaro Messa y Lugo_ _Licentiate Don Juan de Saavedra Valderrama_

[_Endorsed_: "The Audiencia of Manila in regard to the pretensions of the archbishop of that island."]

For the same reasons that move the Audiencia to present information that it will be just to increase the salary of the prebendaries of this church, the governor thinks it proper to increase that of the archbishop to the sum that your Majesty may be pleased; and not in the last place, since his obligations are in the first place.

_Don Alonso Fajardo de Tença_

Letters from the Archbishop of Manila to the King

Sire:

In compliance with what your Majesty ordered in your royal decree of May eighteen, 619, countersigned by your secretary, Juan Ruiz de Contreras, I shall inform your Majesty in this letter [40] of the matters pertaining to the ecclesiastical government of this archbishopric, that are mentioned in the said royal decree, and I shall answer and satisfy each section in the same order as set forth therein.

_Possession of the archbishopric and residence therein_. [41] I took possession, Sire, of this archbishopric, July 23, 620, and I have always resided therein without having absented myself therefrom.

_Visitation of the ecclesiastical cabildo, clergy of Manila, and province of Pampanga_. From the said day on which I took possession of this archbishopric, I have busied myself in this city of Manila, its metropolis, visiting my cabildo, clergy, hospitals, and confraternities, and bestowing confirmation and attending to other duties in my charge, until April 20, 621, when I set out to visit the province of Pampanga. In that and in administering the sacrament of confirmation, I was busied somewhat more than one month. Then I returned to Manila, where I have resided until now, without having gone to visit the rest of my diocese, because of nine Dutch vessels that were in the mouth of the bay, and because of other events which have hindered me. I shall do so, God willing, as soon as the vessels about to go to Nueva España have set sail.

Thanks to God, the inspection of my cabildo resulted in not finding any offense for which charges ought to be brought against any prebend; nor against the other clergy of this city was anything proved that merited punishment, except that three or four had gambled with some publicity, for which they were punished. Some cases of open concubinage of lay persons have caused and are causing remark in this city; and as this city is so small, they cannot be very well hidden. In order that such might be avoided, I have made and am making all the efforts possible.

_Parochial church of Manila and number of souls under its direction_. Inside the walls of Manila there is only one Spanish parochial church, namely, the cathedral. Hitherto it has had but one curate; and inasmuch as I found the curacy vacant, and thought it advisable for the better administration of the parishioners, I discussed with the governor the matter of having two. He agreed to it, and consequently a proclamation was published and the appointments given by competition to two virtuous and learned clerics, who today serve in the said curacy. In that parochial church are directed in confession two thousand four hundred Spaniards, both men and women, among whom are to be counted a few mestizos. One thousand are male inhabitants and transients, eight hundred and sixteen regular soldiers, and five hundred and eighty-four women. In the above number neither the religious, priests, nor children, are included.

_Curacy of Indians and slaves inside Manila_. There is also one curate who has charge of the Indian natives of this city and the slaves and freedmen living within the city. He ministers to about one thousand six hundred and forty Indians who make confession; and one thousand nine hundred and seventy slaves, among whom are some few freedmen. Although that seems considerable for only one curate, he can comfortably take care of them, for the majority of them confess in the convents of St. Augustine, St. Francis, St. Dominic, the Augustinian Recollects, and the college of the Society of Jesus of this city. The said Indians are ministered to, although with much inconvenience, in a chapel of the royal Spanish hospital, and are buried in the church or cemetery of the cathedral. If your Majesty so wish, they can have a church of their own, and the expenses therefor can be secured from the royal treasury, as is done in the villages outside Manila, where tribute is collected, since they and the freedmen pay it to your Majesty.

_Parochial church of Santiago, a suburb of Manila, and the souls cared for therein_. In the village of Bagumbaya, which is a suburb of this city, is the parochial church of Santiago, in charge of a beneficed secular priest. There one hundred and fifty Spaniards (one hundred and twenty of whom are men), besides another hundred and fifty mestizos and freedmen, and four hundred Indians and slaves are ministered to.

_Parochial church of the port of Cavite and the souls directed therein_. In the port of Cavite, three leguas from Manila, there is a parochial church in charge of a beneficed secular priest. In it four hundred and thirty Spaniards are cared for; fifty of these are soldiers of the fort, fifty women, and all the others sailors, some of whom are mestizos. The said beneficed priest also ministers to two thousand four hundred Indians and some slaves and people of various nations, who number about four hundred. The religious of St. Francis, St. Dominic, the Society of Jesus, and the Augustinian Recollects, who own convents in the said port, assist him.

_Benefices, and mission villages of Indian natives in the diocese of the archbishopric of Manila both in charge of the secular priests and of religious; and the number of souls cared for in the archbishopric_.

The missions of the Indian natives of all this archbishopric are in charge of secular priests and of religious of St. Augustine, St. Francis, St. Dominic, the Society of Jesus, and Augustinian Recollects.

Those of the secular priests are divided into twelve benefices, among which are the three above-mentioned, namely, Manila, Bagumbaya, and Cavite. Altogether, twenty thousand souls of the said natives are ministered to.

_Order of St. Augustine_. The Order of St. Augustine has thirty-two convents, all of which contain together fifty-six priests, who minister to ninety thousand souls.

_Order of St. Francis_. The Order of St. Francis has thirty-eight convents of _guardianías_ [42] and presidencies, in which are forty-seven priests, who all together minister to forty-eight thousand four hundred souls.

[_Order of St. Dominic_.] The Order of St. Dominic has three convents. They minister to three thousand souls and have five religious. The rest of their religious are stationed in the bishopric of Nueva Segovia. In the province of Pangasinan, the Order of St. Dominic has ten convents, with sixteen priests, who minister to twenty-five thousand souls. [43]

_The Society of Jesus_. The Society of Jesus has three residences, with eight priests, who minister to ten thousand six hundred souls.

_Augustinian Recollects_. The religious of the Augustinian Recollects have three convents with six priests, who minister to eight thousand souls.

Consequently the number of souls of the natives alone, who are cared for in the territory of this archbishopric of Manila, amounts to two hundred and one thousand six hundred. [44]

_Method of administration and direction of the villages and missions_. The benefices of secular priests, and the convents and residences of religious, above mentioned, are directed and instructed as follows. Some have only one village; while for others--the most common--besides the capital or principal village, there are two, three, four, or five small villages, and in some even more, all of which attend the church of the capital, when they are near it and in a place suitable for that--which is generally the case, as the distance is short, and can be traversed by waterways of lakes and rivers. But when the distance is great, in the said villages (or in some of them) there are churches where the priests go to celebrate mass, on holy days and other days, from the capitals when there are two or more priests; and they teach and administer the sacraments. But when there is only one priest, as in the benefices of the seculars and some of the orders, he says one mass in his capital, and another in another village or visita of his district where all or almost all of the people of it are gathered. In some districts, inasmuch as the distance is considerable, the minister lives two or three months in one village of his district and two or three in another, and in this way goes the round of his benefice.

The orders have their distinct districts assigned in provinces, and thus by their contiguity those of each order are a mutual aid among themselves.

Although it is impossible to deny that the natives would be better instructed and would live in more orderly ways if the small villages were to be reduced to the capital, making one or two settlements of each benefice, they consider it such an affliction to leave their little houses where they were born and have been reared, their fields, and their other comforts of life, that it could only be attained with difficulty, and little fruit would result therefrom. Thus has the experience of assembling the people into communities in Nueva España proved, and so has what little of it has been attempted here. However, in the visit that I shall make in this archbishopric, I shall try to reduce them to as few settlements as possible.

Inasmuch as I deem it greater prolixity than is advisable for what your Majesty desires to know about the missions of the Indians, if I set down the name and number of their settlements, I have refrained from doing so.

_Sangley missions of the diocese of the archbishopric of Manila, and the number of souls directed in them_. Besides the said missions to the natives, the Order of St. Dominic has in the town of Binondo, which is near Manila on the other side of the river, Christian Sangleys, most of whom are married to Indian women of this island, while others are married with women of other nations. At present they number five hundred Sangley mestizo inhabitants, who are cared for in their own language in the convent of the above-mentioned order in the said town.

Besides the said Sangleys of Binondo--who cannot return to their own country, because they are married, and have no cues, and have become residents here--some have been baptized these last four years who have retained their long cues, without binding them not to return to their own country. Some of these are ministered to in a church in charge of the Order of St. Dominic, near the Parián; and others in two other churches almost in the suburbs of Manila, and in one other somewhat farther away--all three of which are in charge of the Order of St. Francis, and number about one thousand Sangleys, who are directed in their own language.

_Japanese missions, and the number of souls ministered to therein_. In the parochial church of Santiago, and in the villages of Dilao and San Miguel, which are suburbs of Manila, and in the part of Cavite, most of the Japanese in these islands are instructed. Some of them are married, and although, because they are a people who go to and fro to their own country, they have no fixed number, at present there are more than fifteen hundred Christians.

And now, Sire, I have given your Majesty a report of the souls ministered to in the territory of this archbishopric, as exactly, accurately, and clearly as I have been able. Inasmuch as your Majesty will be pleased to have me report likewise on the three bishoprics of these islands that are suffragan to this archbishopric of Manila, although that report be summary, a brief relation of it is here appended, which has been abstracted from the reports given to me by the provincials of the orders and other persons.

_Benefices and missions of the bishopric of Zibu, and the number of souls ministered to_.

In the bishopric of Santisimo Nombre de Jesus in the city of Zebu--the residence of the bishop--there is one Spanish parochial church, namely, the cathedral, whose benefice is served by one secular priest. He ministers to one hundred Spaniards (fifty of whom are soldiers, and twenty are women), and to two hundred and fifty Malucans, Ambuenos, and those of other nations.

In the same city of Zebu is one other benefice, also served by a secular priest, where one thousand six hundred souls, counting Indian inhabitants, wandering Indians, and Sangleys, are directed. They are attended to by the convent of St. Augustine, and the residence [_colegio_] of the Society of Jesus in that city.

In the city of Arebalo, which is situated in the province of Oton, and which belongs to the same bishopric, is a parochial church for Spaniards, who, counting the women, number about one hundred. In the island of Caraga are fifty Spanish soldiers, to whom, together with four hundred Indian natives, one secular priest ministers.

Besides the said benefices of Zebu, Villa de Arebalo, and the island of Caraga, that bishopric has twelve secular benefices which minister to fifteen thousand four hundred souls. The Order of St. Augustine minister to forty-eight thousand souls of the Indian natives in the fifteen convents with their visitas that they maintain in that bishopric. The Society of Jesus minister to fifty-four thousand souls in their residences. They give the name of residence to the college or chief place to which the fathers of that district, who have other houses and churches of their own where they live, are subject.

Thus the souls of the Indian natives ministered to in the bishopric of Zebu total one hundred and nineteen thousand six hundred and fifty, including the few Malucans, Ambuenos, and those of other nations, as above stated.

_Missions of the bishopric of Cagayan, and the number of souls cared for therein_.

The bishopric of Cagayan, whose capital is the city of Nueva Segovia, has twenty Spanish inhabitants and fifty soldiers in the said city.

There is not a single secular benefice in all that bishopric, and it is administered by the orders of St. Augustine and St. Dominic.

The Order of St. Augustine has fifteen convents, in which fifty-eight thousand souls of Indian natives are cared for.

The souls of the natives ministered to in the said bishopric of Cagayan amount to one hundred and twenty-eight thousand.

_Benefices and missions of the bishopric of Camarines, and the number of souls instructed therein_.

In the bishopric of Camarines, whose seat is in the city of Caceres, there are at present only twelve or fifteen Spanish inhabitants, the alcalde-mayor, some few soldiers whom he takes with him, and the collectors of tribute for that province, all of whom do not number fifty men. They are ministered to in the cathedral by one secular priest, who has in charge two small villages near by, where live two hundred souls of the natives.

That bishopric has five secular benefices, where eight thousand four hundred souls of natives are ministered to.

The Order of St. Francis owns twenty-four convents with guardianías and presidencies, and ministers to forty-five thousand souls.

The Society of Jesus has one residence, where they minister to three thousand two hundred souls. Hence the souls of the natives cared for in the said bishopric of Camarines amount to fifty-six thousand eight hundred.

_The number of souls of Indian natives ministered to in the Filipinas Islands_. According to the evidence of this relation, the souls of Indian natives ministered to in this archbishopric and in its suffragans, the three above-mentioned bishoprics, amount to five hundred and six thousand. [45]

_The need of ministers, which explains why many souls of Indian natives remain to be converted to our holy religion_. The number would be far greater, Sire, were there more ministers. Through lack of them a considerable number of those already pacified and who pay tribute remain to be converted. There are some of these even among the Indians who are Christians, especially in the bishoprics of Zibu and Cagayan; while even in the bishopric of Camarines there are some pagans, but not so many, and those of this archbishopric of Manila are still fewer. Consequently it will be very advisable that religious of the said orders come to these islands, so that they may attend to this instruction and conversion, for all the islands are in pressing need of them.

_The arduous work of the ministers in the conversion of the Indians_. One would not believe how arduously the ministers to the Indians in these islands work, and how they should be esteemed; for not only do they attend to their baptisms, confessions, communions, marriages, and burials, but also--and this is of far greater labor, work, and occupation--to the daily instruction of all in the church (even though they be the children and grandchildren of Christians) in the prayers and whatever is necessary so that they may know and understand our holy faith, in order that the holy sacraments may be administered to them.

_Hospitals_

_Royal hospital of Manila, where Spaniards are treated_. There is, Sire, within the city of Manila, the royal Spanish hospital, where all the ailments of only the Spanish men are treated. It is maintained from your Majesty's royal treasury, the medicines, delicacies, wine, and some other things being brought from Nueva España, while the rest are bought here. There are generally from seventy to one hundred sick men, most of them soldiers of this camp. As the needs of the royal treasury have been so great these years, the sick have so little comfort that for lack of it many of them die. The hospital is in charge of a steward appointed by the governor, and has its physician, surgeon, apothecary, barber, and other paid helpers. The Order of St. Francis administer the sacraments to the sick. One or two priests of that order live in the hospital, and two others, lay brethren, act as nurses. It would seem advisable that that hospital and the others be placed under the charge of the brothers of St. John of God (who have the care of hospitals as an object of their profession), if a sufficient number of them came from España.

_Hospital of La Misericordia, where slaves and Spanish women are treated_. In another hospital, called that of La Misericordia, [46] also inside the walls of Manila, sick slaves are treated for all ailments--both men and women, in separate quarters. There are generally from eighty to one hundred sick persons in it. It has one separate room where poor Spanish women are treated, which generally has from twelve to twenty women. That hospital is in charge of the Confraternity of La Misericordia ["mercy"], which bears all the expenses and keeps the hospital very well supplied with medicine and delicacies. It is administered by religious of St. Francis.

_Hospital of the natives_. Five hundred paces from the wall of Manila stands the hospital of the native Indians, where only Indian men and women are treated (in distinct rooms), for all ailments. It has generally from about one hundred to one hundred and fifty sick. Five hundred ducados are given to it annually from the royal treasury by the order of your Majesty, besides one thousand five hundred fanegas of uncleaned rice, one thousand five hundred fowls, and two hundred blankets [_mantas_] from Ylocos, while the medicines brought from Nueva España are shared with them. With the above and four toneladas of the cargo which are given in the ships that ply to and from Nueva España (which are sold), some income that it possesses from the rent of certain lands, and a farm for large stock, there is enough for the treatment and care of the sick. However, at present the hospital is short, because the toneladas of the cargo have been worthless during these last years; and because of the needs of the royal treasury the five hundred ducados have been owing for more than three consecutive years. The hospital is in charge of a steward appointed by the governor, and is administered by the Order of St. Francis.

_Hospital of the Sangleys_. In the town of Binondo, which lies near Manila on the other side of the river, is the hospital of San Gabriel, where the Sangleys, both Christian and pagan, are treated. Although the sick who go thither are very few when compared with the so great number of that nation in these islands, since the sick generally do not exceed thirty in number--and perhaps quite naturally, for since they have no hospitals in their country, they shun and despise them--yet very great results are obtained there; for very few or none at all die without the water of baptism, while of those cured the most become converts, thanks to the preparation of the usual and familiar conversation and intercourse that they hold with the religious of the Order of St. Dominic, who minister to the said hospital, and endeavor most earnestly to convert them. That hospital is sufficiently maintained by the money collected from the tolls of the Sangleys themselves, who pass from one district to the other opposite the Parián, [47] and with some income that it possesses. Although the said tolls are collected from the Indian natives of these islands, it would be just to allow the latter to pass freely, as do the Spanish, slaves, freedmen, and those of other nations; for the natives ought not to be, in this matter, placed on a worse footing [than the others], especially since the money so obtained from them is only converted to the benefit of the Sangleys who are treated in the said hospital.

_Hospital of Los Vaños_ [_i.e._, "the baths"]. On the shore of the Laguna de Bay, twelve miles up stream from Manila, stands a hospital called Los Vaños. It was established there a few years ago, as it was found by trial that the hot water that bubbles up from certain springs was good for those having humors, buboes, and colds. Hence many Spaniards, natives, and those of other nations, both men and women (who have separate quarters), are treated in that hospital, for the said ailments. Most of what is expended there is derived from the royal treasury and royal magazines, but because of the scarcity of funds in these times it is not as well looked after now as it was some years ago. Consequently, it is in debt and suffers great need. The steward who has charge of it is appointed by the governor, and religious of the Order of St. Francis conduct it.

_Confraternities of Manila_

The confraternities, Sire, in this city of Manila are as follows:

_Of the most Holy Sacrament_ [_Santisimo Sacramento_]. The Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, in the cathedral; with only thirty pesos income, which, with the alms procured by the brethren and others, is spent for wax.

_Of the Souls_ [_Las Animas_]. That of the Souls in Purgatory, in the same cathedral. It has an income of one hundred and ten pesos. With this and the alms that are collected, they furnish the solemn mass and its responses Monday of each week, and perform other suffrages and anniversary masses.

_Of the most Holy Name of Jesus_ [_Santisimo Nombre de Jesus_]; _the Nazarenes_ [_Los Nazarinos_]; _and the Solitude_ [_La Soledad_]. The confraternities of the most Holy Name of Jesus, of the Nazarenes, and of the Solitude of our Lady, are established in the convents of St. Augustine, the Recollects, and St. Dominic. They have no incomes, except alms that the brethren gather. That is spent in wax and ornaments by the said convents, each convent buying one day every week during Lent the wax for the sermons that are preached, and the floats of the passion that are carried in the processions of the discipline during Holy Week, in which the brethren and others take part.

_Of the Rosary_ [_El Rosario_]. The Confraternity of the Rosary of our Lady, which was founded in the convent of St. Dominic, has some income bequeathed it by pious persons, from which, together with the alms gathered by the brethren, four or six orphan girls are married yearly, to each of whom three hundred pesos are given as a dowry.

_Brotherhood of the Confraternity of La Misericordia_ ["mercy"]. In the year five hundred and ninety-three, the Confraternity of La Misericordia was started in this city. It has continued to increase daily to greater estate, until now it is of the utmost importance in the city, because of the many needs that it succors and relieves, and the charitable works that it undertakes. It was founded with the same rules and for the same end as that of the city of Lisboa, and others that were begun in imitation of the latter in Portuguese India--whence it must have been introduced here on account of its nearness to, and communication with, these islands. It has two hundred brethren, and every year twelve of these are chosen, who are called "brethren of the bureau of accounts." They, together with one brother, who is their chief, have charge of the government of the said confraternity. They beg alms two days of every week and collect whatever they get from this source and from the bequests left by most of the dying. They spend annually on the average more than twelve thousand pesos, which includes three thousand six hundred of income that they now possess, that was bequeathed them by certain persons. That sum they use for the general support and relief of self-respecting poor men and women who live uprightly; on the poor of the prison, whose suits they urge; on helping many of the girls sheltered in the seminary of Santa Potenciana; on the support of certain collegiates who study in the convent of Santo Thomas of the Order of St. Dominic, and in that of San Joseph of the Society of Jesus; in marrying girls and orphans; on the support of the hospital built by them where slaves are treated, and which I mentioned above; on the alms for masses, and for other similar purposes. Many of the dying appoint the brethren of the bureau of accounts as their executors, and they carry out the terms of the wills with great strictness. They attend to the burial of the poor, and of the bones of those who are hanged, which duty they see to once each year.

_Colleges of Students_

_College of the Society of Jesus, called San Joseph_. There are two colleges for students. One was founded by Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, and is named San Joseph. It is in charge of the Society of Jesus, and the collegiates go to attend lectures at the residence [_colegio_] of the same Society (which is close by) in grammar, philosophy, and ecclesiastical and moral theology. At present it has twenty collegiates who wear the _beca_. [48] Some of them pay their tuition, but others are aided by the Confraternity of La Misericordia; for the income of the founder falls somewhat short now of sustaining the college, because of expenses in erecting the buildings of the said college.

_College of Santo Thomas, which is in charge of the Order of St. Dominic._ The college is called Santo Thomas de Aquino. It is in charge of the Order of St. Dominic, and is very near their convent. For two years it has had collegiates. It was founded by the alms of deceased persons and by other contributions from the living, which the fathers have procured and collected. It has some income and is continuing to increase. At present it also has twenty collegiates who wear the beca, some of whom also pay their tuition, and others are supported by the Confraternity of La Misericordia and certain persons. They take lectures in grammar, philosophy, and theology in the same college, where they have a rector and masters belonging to the Order of St. Dominic.

These two colleges aggrandize the city greatly and the sons of the inhabitants of these islands are being reared in them in culture, virtue, and learning. It will be of the utmost importance to the city's progress for your Majesty to honor them by granting them authority to give degrees in the branches that they teach.

_Seminary of Santa Potenciana._ Many years ago the seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in this city at your Majesty's command, in order to maintain in it poor girls, both Spaniards and mestizas, who being reared there in a safe retreat and under good teaching might leave it virtuous, and as such be sought as wives. It has been supported hitherto by an income of one thousand pesos that it possesses, and with eight hundred pesos which is about the value of an encomienda granted it by your Majesty, besides three toneladas of the cargo given it annually by allotment in the ships despatched hence to Nueva España, and certain alms bequeathed to it by certain dying persons. For some few years past the seminary has been greatly in debt, both because of increasing the number of their girls, and because the toneladas of the cargo have had no value, and on account of the greatly increased cost of living; and it is suffering so great need that it has not enough for the ordinary maintenance of the fifty girls who are there at present, some of whom are aided by the Confraternity of La Misericordia. It will be advisable, since the work is so consecrated to the service of God and so suitable to that of your Majesty, whose royal person is patron of that seminary, for you to order the governor to aid it from the royal treasury, or--and this would be more secure--apportion to it more Indians, so that a work so holy and necessary in this community may continue to advance, since it is served by slave women and has never been served by Spanish women. It is certain that if this retreat, from which the girls go out married, were to fail, they would perish and be lost.

_How the Indians are treated by the curates and ministers._ The Indians, Sire, of this archbishopric are generally treated with mildness, love, and zeal for their salvation, by the priests and ministers who instruct them. Whenever the contrary is heard from anyone, he is corrected, admonished, and punished--by myself if he is a secular. If he is a religious, his superior does it, when he deems it best; for I (even though the case be one of the ministry and care of souls) alone have power to warn and ask his superior to remedy it. In regard to that, it would be greatly advisable that the bishops of the Philipinas have more power over the ministers of souls in their charge, and that the latter be obliged to give account. But, however this may be, it is not a matter from which results any considerable annoyance or harm to the Indians, except that of the bad example which they might derive from it, if they saw their priest and teacher do the contrary of what he teaches them and censures them for by word of mouth. The most powerful cause, then, that destroys and consumes the Indians of Philipinas is the same one that has destroyed and consumed the Spaniards. All have been ruined by the continual and large fleets with which the Dutch enemy persecute us, and because our forces are so few to oppose them, as I have represented in other letters that I am writing to your Majesty. It is impossible to prevent us all from suffering, and even perishing very speedily, if your Majesty's most powerful hand does not help and defend us. Consequently, Sire, I consider as inexcusable the vexations that have come and are coming upon the Indians in the building of ships and the making of other preparations to defend us; for these would be very much less if the Indians were paid for their work as your Majesty orders, if they were placed in charge of disinterested persons, and if compassion were shown them.

_Preachers for the Indian natives._ There are as many preachers for the Indians as there are priests who minister to them; for although the chief and most important instruction which can be preached to them is to make the Indians understand the ministers of our holy religion, and for the minister that he know the language thoroughly, there is no difficulty in preaching to them, if one does it (and thus it is advisable) simply and plainly.

_Preachers for Spaniards._ There is not any lack of preachers for the Spaniards either, for generally each of the convents of St Augustine, St. Francis, St. Dominic, the Society of Jesus, and the Augustinian Recollects of this city have two preachers, who are erudite fathers and of exemplary life. Besides, there are certain others, who by reason of living in the convents and surrounding missions attend to the preaching of several sermons during the year. These with holy zeal reprehend vices with thorough modesty and prudence, and tell us what is suitable for our salvation. But your Majesty is assured that the chief preacher and teaching for the inhabitants of Manila, and the best method of banishing public sins from it, is the good example and life of the governors. With that, and with the affability and love that they would exercise toward the virtuous, and with the displeasure and asperity with which they would treat the vicious, there would result, at least in the exterior court, the good or evil conduct of the inhabitants of this community. Inasmuch as the community is small, and all its inhabitants need the governor and are watching him, they will try to imitate him.

_In regard to sending a relation of the persons worthy and capable of being appointed prelates._ Your Majesty ordered me in the said royal decree to send a separate and very secret relation of those persons most worthy and capable in this archbishopric of being appointed to prelacies--recounting their virtue, morals, and example, character, prudence, age, and modesty; and of the intellect, learning, degrees, and governing ability of such persons, besides other circumstances. Obeying the commands of your Majesty, I report all that in a separate letter, and I shall continue to do so in the form and manner in which your Majesty may advise me.

_Whether there are vacant prebends or benefices._ At present, Sire, there is no vacant prebend in the cathedral of this city, although some are being filled by appointments by the governor until your Majesty shall confirm them or shall appoint to these posts persons who are pleasing to you. In regard to that, I refer to what I am writing to your Majesty in a separate letter. The benefices are appointed by competition as soon as they become vacant, in the manner prescribed by the holy council of Trent, in accordance with the royal patronage and last royal decree of your Majesty that treats of this matter. Consequently, throughout this diocese there is no vacant prebend or benefice. As soon as any become vacant, I shall take care to provide for them as speedily as possible, as your Majesty so piously orders me.

_Regarding the number of curacies and missions, and of the persons who administer them._ In regard to the relation and report that your Majesty orders me to make of the curacies and missions of this diocese (both of Spaniards and of Indians); of the persons who serve them, and the manner of their presentation, whether of seculars or of friars, and of what orders; the age of each, and his length of service in those curacies and missions; and whether he serves with the good-will, humility, unworldliness, and good example to which he is bound; as well as of other things contained in the section that treats of this. I refer to what I have said in my letter, without going into particulars regarding the names and ages of the ministers; for that appears to be less necessary, since the benefices at present held by seculars in these islands are so limited in stipends and obventions that nearly all of them are compelled to beg for these, in order not to desert their benefices. In the missions in charge of the religious, the same persons do not live continuously, for their provincials remove and change them from one to another, according as they deem most advisable.

_That this relation shall be continued on all occasions._ I shall have the care that your Majesty orders, in sending duplicates of this relation until I am advised that your Majesty has received it, and I shall add to it whatever occurs later. When I learn that your Majesty has received it, I shall observe the order given me, to refer to what I shall have written in what may not be new matter, increased and corrected by the past relations as far as may be advisable. I shall continue to do that without awaiting any new order for it from your Majesty, whose very Catholic person may our Lord preserve for the increase of new kingdoms and the prosperity of those which you possess, as is necessary to Christendom, and as we your Majesty's humble chaplains desire. Manila, August, 1621.

This, Sire, is the relation of that I wrote to your Majesty in the past year of 1621. I found nothing to correct except the section treating of the number of the convents in charge of the Order of St. Dominic, which is amended in its place in the margin. Manila, July last, 1622.

_Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano_, archbishop of Manila.

Royal Decrees Regarding the Religious

Ordering the Dominicans Not To Meddle in Government Affairs

The King. Venerable and devout father provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of the Philipinas Islands: I have been informed that the religious of your order are living with great lack of restraint, and are meddling in the government of those islands, from which have resulted and are resulting very great difficulties. Moreover, the honor and procedure of those who have been men of those islands have suffered; for, both in the pulpit and in other ways, the religious are trying to sully the reputation of those persons when they are not acceptable to them. Now inasmuch as that is unworthy of any person whatever, and more so of religious who have to furnish an example to all by their retirement from the world and their method of procedure; and inasmuch as it is very advisable to reform that efficaciously: therefore after examination of the matter by my Council of the Indias, it has been deemed best to charge and order you, as I do, to summon immediately all the religious of your order. By the best method that you shall deem advisable you shall censure them for their irregularities, and represent these to them; and warn them to engage only in their devotions and the conversion of souls according to their obligations--which is the main purpose for which they went there--and that they shall not meddle in government matters, or in any other matter that does not concern their order. You shall advise me of what you shall do in this matter. Given at Madrid, December thirty-one, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two. [49]

_I The King_

By order of the king, our sovereign: _Juan Ruiz de Contreras_ Signed by the Council.

[_Endorsed_: "To the provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of the Philipinias Islands, ordering him to summon the religious of his order, and censure them for their irregularities, warning them to engage only in their devotions and conversion of souls, without meddling in government matters or in any other matter that does not concern their order."]

Ordering the Archbishop of Manila To Examine Religious

The King. Very reverend father in Christ, the archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila of the Philipinas Islands, and member of my Council: The king, my sovereign and father--may he rest in peace--by his decree dated November fourteen of the past year, six hundred and three, charged the archbishop then governing that church [_i.e._, Benavides], that in accordance with the rules and ordinances he should not permit or allow any religious in the missions in charge of the orders to enter upon or exercise the duties of a priest [_cura_] unless he had first been examined and approved by the said archbishop or by the person appointed for that purpose, so that such religious should have the necessary competency, and know the language of the Indians whom he should have to instruct--as is contained more minutely in the said cedula, which is of the following tenor.

"The King. Very reverend in Christ, the father archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila of the Philippinas Islands and member of my Council: Although it has been stringently ordered that the ministers appointed to the missions of the Indians, both seculars and friars, must know the language of the Indians whom they are to instruct and teach; that they be possessed of the qualities required for the office of priest [_cura_] which they are to exercise; and that the teachers among the religious, in so far as they are priests [_curas_] be visited by the secular prelates: I have been informed that those orders have not been observed as is needful; that you prelates do not exercise the fitting care in examining the said religious teachers in order to be assured of their competency and thorough knowledge of the language of those whom they are going to instruct; and that in the visitations many of their omissions and irregular acts in the administration of the sacraments and in the exercise of their duties as priest are not remedied. That is a matter of considerable annoyance. And because the Indians suffer greatly, in the spiritual and temporal, from those appointed by their superiors, both in this and in the choice of persons less careful than they should be; and because it is advisable for the service of God our Lord, and for our service, and for the welfare of the Indians, that the ministers of instruction be such as are required for that ministry, and that they know the language of the Indians: therefore I charge you straitly, in accordance with the rules and ordinances, not to permit or allow any religious to enter upon or exercise the duties of the office of priest in the missions in charge of the religious in the district of that archbishopric, unless he first be examined and approved by you or the person whom you shall appoint therefor, in order to satisfy yourself that he has the necessary competency, and that he knows the language of the Indians whom he is to instruct. In the visitations that you shall make you shall remove those whom you shall find to be incompetent, or lacking in the ability and good morals that are requisite, and those who do not know sufficiently the language of the Indians whom they instruct; and you shall advise their superiors of it, so that they may appoint others who shall have the requisite qualifications, in which they are also to be examined. You shall advise me of whatever is done in the matter. Given in San Lorenzo, November fourteen, one thousand six hundred and three.

_I The King_

By order of the king, our sovereign: _Juan de Ybarra_."

And inasmuch as my intention and will is that the orders and commands on the said subject be obeyed and executed exactly, I request and charge you to examine the said decree, above inserted, and to observe and obey it _in toto_, exactly as is contained and declared therein. Such is my will, notwithstanding that, in the course of time and with the claims of the prelates, any other custom may have been tolerated or introduced. That shall not be allowed, under any consideration whatever. In order that the above order may have more complete effect, I am having the Audiencia there ordered, by another decree of the same date with this, to give you the necessary protection and aid for it. You shall advise me of all that is done in this matter. Given at Madrid, December thirty-one, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two.

_I The King_

By order of the king, our sovereign: _Juan Ruiz de Contreras_ Signed by the Council.

[_Endorsed_: "To the archbishop of Manila, that he observe the decree above inserted, so that the religious of the missions shall be examined in the language of the Indians."]

[_Endorsed_: "_Id._ To the bishop of Nueva Segovia in Philipinas." "_Id._ To the bishop of Nueva Cáceres." "_Id._ To the bishop of the city of Santisimo Nombre de Jesús."]

DOCUMENTS OF 1623-1624

Letter to Fajardo. Felipe IV; October 9, 1623. Royal permission for the Dominican college in Manila. Felipe IV; November 27, 1623. Expedition to the mines of the Igorrotes. Alonso Martin Quirante; June 5, 1624.

_Sources_: The first of these documents is obtained from the "Cedulario Indico" in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid; the second, from _Algunos documentos relat. Univ. de Manila_, p. 21, and Pastells's edition of Colin's _Labor evangélica_, iii, p. 565; the third, from a MS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.

_Translations_: All these are made by James A. Robertson.

Letter from Felipe IV to Fajardo

The King. Don Alonso de Tenza, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia thereof: The letter which you wrote me on August 20, 1622, containing information regarding the state of those islands, has been received; and in my royal Council of the Indias the points that belong to their province have been considered, and you will be furnished with the resolutions adopted thereon.

You mention the revolt and retreat to the hills of certain natives of the provinces of Pintados, Nueva Segovia, and Cambales, and the reason which you think they had for it. I appreciate the care which you have exercised in that matter, since on other occasions when you have been directed to see that the Indians be treated as well as possible, you have endeavored to have my orders carried out, for in this way they will be preserved as we desire. Again I charge you that you inform the superiors of the convents, and religious who are busied in the conversion and teaching of the Indians, how important it is to treat them well.

Since you were unable to attend to the mines of the province of Pangasinan, in the mountains and the lands of the Ygolotes, on account of the press of business which you have had, you will now carry on their exploration, since you see that it is desirable to accomplish this enterprise. [50] As for the efforts that you have made to discover certain fruits of the land, and your assertion that a considerable quantity of nutmeg [51] has been discovered similar to that from the Malucas Islands, you will make the necessary investigations to ascertain this accurately. I also charge you to continue what you have begun, and to send a quantity of the said nutmeg to the officers of my royal exchequer in the City of Mexico in Nueva España, so that they may send it to these kingdoms; and there also shall the investigation be made, according to the orders sent in my decree.

As regards your remarks concerning the Licentiate Geronimo de Legaspi, auditor of that Audiencia, you will execute your orders in the matter, and I shall await the result. What you write in response to my decree, which was sent you on June 8, 1621, that you should investigate the mode of life of the wives of the auditors and other officials therein mentioned, is noted; and all this is placed in your charge and on your conscience. You are to correct the abuses which you find existing, no matter whom they concern, and shall read this section in the Audiencia, so that they may know my will.

I am advised of what you say, and have often represented, as to the necessity that the persons who are appointed to that Audiencia shall be well-known and approved. I am also advised as to what you say of the person of Don Geronimo de Silva, and the assistance which you have had from him. The embassy for Japan--with a gift, which shall not seem an acknowledgment--you say, could not be sent off last year, which is well. In the future, you will execute your orders in this matter.

All the other sections which your letter contains have been considered, and now nothing remains but to make suitable provisions regarding them. [Madrid, October 9, 1623.]

_I The King_

By order of the king, our lord: _Juan Ruiz de Contreras_

Royal Permission for the Dominican College in Manila

By license of the ordinary and the governor of the Filipinas Islands, and the consent of our royal Audiencia therein, the religious of the Order of St. Dominic in the city of Manila founded a college, where grammar, the arts, and theology, are taught. In it they established two religious for each subject, and they have twenty secular collegiates. From this has resulted and now is resulting a great advantage to the youth, to the preaching of the holy gospel, and to the instruction of the sons of the inhabitants. We order that now, and until we order otherwise, the said religious make use of the said license given them by the governor to found the college, and to study the said branches. This is and shall be understood to be without derogation or prejudice to any decrees concerning like foundations, in order that they may not be established and begun without our express permission, which must be observed throughout our Indias, without any exception. [Given in Madrid, November 27, 1623, by Felipe IV.]

The King. Inasmuch as Fray Matheo de la Villa, procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic in the Philipinas Islands, has reported to me that a college was founded in certain houses that they held as theirs in that city, by the license of the ordinary and of Don Alonso Faxardo de Tenca, my governor and captain-general of those islands, where grammar, the arts, and theology are taught; and that there are two religious of each department in it for that purpose, and twenty secular collegiates; and that from it has resulted, and is resulting, great advantage to the youth, the preaching of the holy gospel, and the instruction of the sons of the citizens: and petitioning me, in consideration of the above, and of the fact that the license which was conceded to them was on condition that they obtain my confirmation of it, if I should be pleased to give it; and the matter having been considered in my royal Council of the Yndias, I have considered it advisable to give the present. By it I order that for the present, and until I order otherwise, the said religious of the Order of St. Dominic enjoy the license that the said my governor gave them to found the said college and to teach in it the said branches; and such is my will. Given in Madrid, November twenty-seven, one thousand six hundred and twenty-three.

_I The King_

Countersigned by Juan Ruiz de Contreras, and signed by the members of the Council.

Expedition to the Mines of the Igorrotes

_Relation of the discovery of the mines and of the pacification of the Ygolotes in the province of Pangasinan_

Relation of the voyage and entrance that I, Captain and Sargento-mayor Alonso Martin Quirante, made by order of the governor and captain-general, Don Alonso Faxardo de Tenca, during this present year, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, to the province and mines of the Ygolotes; and the tests or assays made of the metals there by various miners; the nature of the country, and what I was able to learn of its inhabitants.

First, I left the city of Manila by order of the said governor and captain-general, to attain the said entrance, on December twenty-two, one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and went overland to the province of Pangasinan. I reached that province on January first, six hundred and twenty-four, and took over the offices of justice and war from Captain and Sargento-mayor Antonio Carreño de Valdes. As he notified me of the royal decree ordering his residencia to be taken, in fulfilment thereof I took it, and sent him to the said city on the fifth of the following February.

On the eleventh of the said month of January, the champan which was despatched at my departure from the said city, laden with the infantry, ammunition, and other war-stores necessary for the said entrance, reached the port and storehouses of Arrimguey.

From the said day, January first, until the eleventh of the following February, when I reached the said town and storehouses of Arriguey [_sic_] I collected and gathered provisions and everything else important for the success of the said expedition. Likewise, together with the preparation that I made of food in the said time, in the said month of February, I caused to be collected, in addition to the seventy Spanish soldiers and officers of my company, fourteen adventurers [_extravagantes_] or substitutes [_sobresalientes_], besides two sailors (one of them a miner), two Japanese miners, and one armorer; a clerk [_tenedor_] and notary; eleven of his Majesty's negro slaves, and nine Indians imprisoned for crimes; forty-seven Sangley carpenters, smiths, and sawyers; and one thousand seven hundred and forty-eight other Indians--eight hundred and ninety-three from the province of Ylocos, formed into twelve companies; and eight hundred and fifty-five from the province of Pangasinan, formed into ten other companies--who in all totaled one thousand nine hundred and three rations. Father Fray Raymundo Beger [52] of the Order of Preachers, and Licentiate Augustin Tabuyo Baldecañas, who was supplied by the bishop of Nueva Segovia, also went with us as our curas and vicars for the success of the said expedition.

On the fourteenth of the said month, I made a muster and enrolment of the said men. The next day rations were given to all of them for a fortnight, and I began to despatch them by troops in the manner and order following. On the sixteenth of the said month of February, I despatched Adjutant Andres Tamayo with twenty soldiers and two hundred Pangasinan Indians, a chosen and light troop, in order that being unencumbered or discommoded by their rations, arms, and tools they might open and clear the road, arranging camping-places along it during the assigned marches. They were given orders to stop in those quarters only over night, so that afterward and without joining them the second troop who were to follow could occupy the same. On the next day, the seventeenth, after having formed three divisions from the other men, with eighteen soldiers in charge of my sargento and of a corporal, I despatched five hundred and sixteen of the Indians of each province--all except their officers with their packs--with orders to follow the first divisions. They were to make the same marches, but were not to unite with the first troop, nor with the following one. This was in order to avoid the confusion and obstacles that might arise from both troops, since they were men of so little reason, both in camp and in marching; since they had to go by only one path, where because of its narrowness and poor condition they had to go in single file.

I despatched the third troop consisting of a like number of natives with seventeen Spanish soldiers, on the eighteenth of February, in charge of another corporal, ordering them to follow the other two preceding divisions, in the same order and marches.

The next day, February nineteen, having assigned eight soldiers under a half-pay alférez, and twenty-five Pangasinan Indians under their captain, as a guard to the said storehouses--and having despatched the master-of-camp of the province of Ylocos for more men, in order to exchange them after a month with those who had gone out before, who, I feared, were already beginning to desert in part--I started with the rest of the men that were left. I went to pass the night at the place called San Juan, two leguas along the road, where, at the foot of a cross set up there, I found a letter from the troop ahead, announcing that they had found the quarters burned to the ground, and that they did not know who had set the fire, but suspected it was the Ygolotes.

I left the above place on the twentieth, and went to pass the night with the said last division at the site of Duplas, located about four leguas along the road. I also found the camp and the country round about burning, the said Ygolotes having set it afire only a short time before.

Next day, Wednesday, the twenty-first of the said month, after the conclusion of sprinkling ashes on all the soldiers, I left the said place and went to pass the night at another place called San Francisco. On that day not more than one and one-half leguas could be made, because of the many rivers.

On Thursday, the twenty-second, at noon, after another one and one-half leguas made as above, my said division and I reached Buena Vista, where I found all three divisions had halted because the Ygolote Indians had occupied the road; and they were building forts at a narrow passage on it, with a stockade, where, when the said adjutant tried to pass ahead, they wounded him and some of the other Spaniards, and some Indians who accompanied him.

Next day, the twenty-third, I went out with thirty soldiers and about one hundred and fifty Indians to the said pass that the Ygolotes were defending; and although they resisted for some time, and killed some soldiers and natives, I gained the pass and destroyed the fort, so that the enemy could not remain in it longer or make any other sortie, as it was all unsheltered.

Saturday, the twenty-fourth, I left the said place of Buena Vista, and went with all my troops united to pass the night at Los Pinos, a march of three leguas. That distance was made with some difficulty as the roads in some parts are very closely grown with reed-grass; and in the bad passes are fallen trees which form the best defense that the Ygolotes can have, so that if we were perceived they could attack us in safety or could shelter themselves.

Sunday, the twenty-fifth, I went to pass the night, on account of the convenient supply of water, at Rio Frio [_i.e._, "Cold River"] with my said men, marching through the extremely hot sun for one and one-half leguas. Next day, Monday, February twenty-six, about one o'clock, I reached the new mines called Galan by their natives, located about three leguas from Rio Frio. As the Ygolotes had learned of our approach, or had seen us about to set fire to some houses--about two hundred which they had located in various places about the said mines and hill--they sought shelter without leaving anything except some small heaps of metal which they were digging in order to work.

Next day, the twenty-seventh, having reconnoitered the said place, and having seen that it was suitable and secure, and that within a stone's throw on the same elevation were the mines and veins of most importance that are yet known to exist among the said Ygolotes, according to the information given by men who already had experience of them before, I determined to establish a camp and fortify myself in them. That I did, locating in a place where in no direction could we fail to succor and overlook all the paths and ravines where any danger could be feared, or any difficulty of getting food and water close at hand and in the quantity desired. In the course of the said march, I saw and noted that from the time of my departure from the said village of Arringuey, we were always going from one peak to another, until we reached that of Los Pinos, from which other higher ones were discovered; while some small streams were passed on the way, not of great volume, but to some extent shut in with mountains and lands full of reed-grass.

Up on the said peak the mountains were almost everywhere destitute of forests; for except in the very damp ravines, reed-grass does not grow, or any tree except pines. For that reason, wherever one looks from the height, very many mountains are to be seen, so jagged, steep, and near together that it seems impossible for men or any other living thing to exist on them.

The climate of those mountains is cold rather than temperate, and less healthful than sickly. The winds that usually prevail are north and south, and the south winds generally bring rain, accompanied by extremely violent thunder-storms. Dense fogs always prevail, and generally make the country very damp.

Certain streamlets of water issue from the springs of those mountains, from which people drink; and these waters are so cold and thin that, if one does not eat sufficient, they do him much harm. For that reason it must be that birds do not breed there; for, since the first is lacking to them, those that can escape do not await their destruction. Only certain little birds like linnets are seen, and at times some crows, which must be foreign to them.

None of the most common useful and fruit trees, which abound in all the neighboring provinces, are found there; and less any of new or old España; nor any other that yields either known or wild fruits: so that the mountains are covered only with a great quantity of pines, whose roots do not penetrate the ground more than half a vara. The ground to that depth is black, but below that red and so hard [53] that the roots, not being able to penetrate it, are very easily torn up at any violent wind. All the said peaks are so cleared and despoiled of trees that they do not hinder one from noticing and seeing, for a great distance below the pines, whatever preparations are being made.

The houses in which those Ygolotes protect themselves from the inclemencies of the weather--which is intolerable, both because of the sun when it shines, and from the rains and cold--are very small, built of straw and short wood. They have no walls, for the roofs serve as everything, extending from above even to the ground. They sleep high up, on some boards or planks roughly put together. The doors of their houses, which are very small, are so low that one must get down on hands and knees in order to enter them.

Their settlements are established on the peaks of the mountains, and on the roughest of them, whence afar off they can see all the paths, so that no one can approach them without being seen by their sentinels, who always guard their posts day and night. If there is any danger, they can easily retire without being seen, leaving behind nothing more than their miserable huts; and, not fearing whether any go to seek them, they defend themselves as they may by hurling down huge rocks which they have suitably placed, sharp-pointed reeds, [54] and stones; and especially do they seek the sure and convenient site. In the rainy season they fear firearms but little, for they know that they are of less effect than none at all.

The usual dress and clothing of that people is a loose shock of disheveled hair that reaches below the ears, and certain bands about one _jeme_ [55] wide made from the bark of trees. Having wound these about the waist, they twist them so that they cover the privy parts. They call these _bahaques_, and they are worn by all classes of people, men and women. Besides the said bahaque, the chiefs wear Ilocan blankets, which they have inherited from their ancestors; this garment is crossed from the shoulder to the waist, where they knot it. Thus do they go, without any other clothes or shoes. [56] The chiefs of those natives are not differentiated from the rest of the people in other things than in the possession of more bones of animals that they have killed in their feasts, more clothes, and greater age. There are more chiefs than in other nations, for there is one in every ten or twelve houses, who is head of his kinsfolk. They inherit from father to children, or by blood, and do not recognize one as greater than the other. Those chiefs generally insert gold in the teeth, which is so well fitted that it does not hinder their talking or eating at all.

The Ygolotes are in general a very active people, bold, well built, and feared by the other nations surrounding them. As they have discovered that, and that others, even when numerous, always run from them, the Ygolotes attack with but few men. Whenever they kill anyone, scarcely has he fallen before his head is cut off. On that account they make many feasts, and at night light many fires on many peaks. They make cups of the skulls, from which they drink in their feasts and revelries; and leave them as household effects to their heirs. If any of them are killed, and they can conceal it, they endeavor to do so; for they grieve greatly and consider it as a very great insult if the bodies of their dead are not carried away.

The arms used by them consist of a pointed lance one-third of a vara long, which they generally carry, well polished, and set in a handle of strong wood more than one braza long. They have others with which they usually fight, made from heavy green poles, larger than the above. At the head they insert a bamboo knot, with its point well sharpened into two edges. They cover themselves with their shields, which consist of certain short and very light boards, about four or five palmos long and two or more wide. They use many sharp-pointed stakes with which they sow the ground, particularly about their haunts, and wherever harm might come to them. [57]

The Ygolotes are an idolatrous race. They say that their god is the sky, whom they call Cabunian; and they offer and sacrifice to him, in their banquets and feasts, swine and carabaos, but under no consideration cows or bulls. The method of sacrifice practiced by them is [as follows]. Having tied all the animals not prohibited about the house of the sacrificer, after the ceremony an old man or old woman, having placed on the ground a painted cloth that resembles a surplice, and which they call _salili_, they continue to kill the animals, and make a great feast. They keep that up for two or three days until they have finished eating what they have, when their feast or _magunito_ also finishes. He who keeps up such entertainment longest and kills most of the said animals is most respected.

Their sages or philosophers are the oldest men and women, whom they respect and obey in an extraordinary manner, and most when they are occupied in the said feasts; for they say that then and even ordinarily those persons are wont to talk with the devil, who keeps them blinded.

That race lacks all good natural reasoning power. They cannot read, nor do they know what day, month, or year, or the increase and decline of the moon, signify. They govern themselves by one star that rises in the west, which they call _gaganayan_, while they call the natives of their neighborhood by the same name. On seeing that star they attend to the planting of their waste and wretched fields in order to sow them with yams and camotes, which form their usual and natural food. They do not have to plow or dig, or perform any other cultivation than that of clearing the land where they are to plant.

When any one of those barbarians dies, they do not bury him for many days, for, as they say, they pass one month, during which period they amass quantities of food about the deceased, to whom they give his share as well as the others. Then they continue to prick the body, and, as they say, they draw off or suck out the humors until the body is left dry. When that time comes they wrap it in their blankets, and fasten buyos and other things about the waist for the journey. Some are buried in a sitting posture and placed with their backs against their shields, in caves under the rocks, the mouths of which are stopped with stones. Others they set in the trees, and they carry food for so many days after having left them in either one of those places.

It is not very easy to ascertain the number of those people, who are scattered, for they are so intractable, and do not let themselves be seen, moving from one place to another on slight pretext, without any hindrance; for their houses, to provide which would be the chief cause of anxiety, they easily build anywhere, with a bundle of hay, while they move their fields of yams or camotes (on which they live well) from one place to another without much effort, pulling them up by the roots--for, because of the dampness of the country, these take root wherever they are placed. In the same manner, they carry their ornaments or bones; [58] and since their arms and clothes are but little or nothing, they are not embarrassed, because they always carry these with them. Yet it is known that, if those called Ygolotes reach one thousand men, that is a great number. They can scarcely gather in one body or live on friendly terms with one another. For those of Banaco and those of Atindao, villages of the same mountains, have little or no communication with them, as neither do those of Aytuy and Panaquy, villages on the other side of the said mountain-range--to whom it is said that they pay tribute or a sort of recognition; but both are hostile to those of Alrade, Vigan, and Oyrraya, so that, all those Ygolotes being so separated, cautious, malicious and treacherous, no message or despatch can at all be sent them. For if it be done with few Indians, they secure and kill them; and if there are many, they fight them, and will not listen to or believe them. If Spaniards go with an interpreter to talk to them, as I have sometimes attempted to do, they anticipate them on seeing them and no one remains in his house, but they flee from the Spaniards. Then, if perchance they hear some arguments that are shouted out to them, they laugh, and answer that we are deceiving them, and that they will not trust us; that they know us for people of bad faith; and that we must lay aside our firearms if we wish them to approach. And if we did that, they would employ their usual treachery and evil methods, as they generally do.

In the rainy season, that wretched race, most of whom are miners, unite with their wives and children to wash the sand of the streamlets that flow from the mountains, where with less work than in their mines, by avoiding the digging and crushing of the metal, they get some gold, although very little. [59] With what all of them get in one way or another, they go down peacefully to the villages nearest to them, to trade for certain animals or cattle. They do not trade the gold by weight, but by sight. Those cattle are the ones that they eat, with the solemnity above described, in a general assembly; for they do not breed any kind of cattle or any other living thing for their feast or sustenance, except certain small and very wretched dogs which we have often had a chance to see.

It is not easy for us or even for them to ascertain the strata, veins, or ores whence that product is yielded, since it is well known that it does not originate or form in the sand, which does not contain nurseries for it, since so many streamlets descend from so many ravines and slopes. For it is not yet known that, moving about ordinarily and having signs of that product, without ascertaining or knowing any other in all the country, the natives have discovered more than five elevations or hills within a distance of five or six leguas, which they have worked during the dry season, in order to support themselves so wretchedly as is known. Besides, those Ygolotes are indebted to the natives of the villages who are our friends, and are unable to pay those who give them credit; the wealth and wit of both peoples being so small and restricted that, although those people have no other kind of expenses, or other thing to attend to, than the product of their mines, they are very generally in debt--a sure proof of the mistake made in believing that the gain is much, or the said mines of much importance, as has been and is demonstrated by experience.

On one of the five elevations which I have said that the Ygolotes worked, namely, the said new one called Galan (it being the chief one, as I have said), I camped, and built the fort of Santiago, under whose advocacy [_i.e._, of Santiago or St. James] they say it was before. Retaining with myself about two hundred natives from both provinces [_i.e._, Pampanga and Ilocos], with the Sangleys and prisoners whom I took with me, I sent back all the others with thirty soldiers on the twenty-eighth of the month of February, to get more provisions, ammunition, and other necessary things, at the village and storehouses of Arrimguey, although afterward some Ylocos Indians deserted in the one month and six days while I occupied that place, the natives having returned by a third path. In all three months, their provisions amounted to two thousand and eighty-seven baskets of rice, each of fifteen gantas; and for the rations of all the men from January sixteen (when food began to be issued at my account) until March twenty-four following, were consumed two thousand and ninety-four baskets. These rations were given to all the said natives, and to seven hundred and sixty others besides, who were brought from Ylocos by the said master-of-camp in order to exchange with the first, as has been said. On the said day, March twenty-four, I mustered all the men, and paid and despatched them, except about one hundred and twenty from both provinces, thirty-one Sangleys, and about five adventurers [_estravagantes_] and substitutes who remained with me to aid and accompany us.

Having despatched the said men, I ordered the lieutenant of the province of Pagasinam not to advise me of anything unless it were a matter of great importance until the fifteenth of May, when he should send me four hundred other natives [from Pangasinan] and one hundred from the said province of Ylocos, all laden with beans and other things necessary for the sustenance of the men of the said presidio. That was done in order that I might more freely attend to the investigation of the mines of the said Ygolotes and what substance they contained. For that purpose I immediately ordered Martin de Vergara, my alférez, Rodrigo Lopez Orduña, Juan de Mugaburu, Graviel Molinero, and Diego de Tovar, soldiers of my company and all miners, and other persons who understood something [of mines] to investigate and reconnoiter the said new mines where the said Ygolotes were working. The mouths of those mines are in the northern part [of the ridge], about a stone's throw from the said fort, and the mine discovered extends from above downward in the manner of a horizontal vein or shell for the distance of a musket-shot from northwest to southeast, and then twists about for another equal distance to the direction that looks toward the northwest and west, until it disappears into the depths of a ravine or watercourse where there is but little sun. That is not the case with the one that extends northwest and southeast, for it is flooded with sunlight most of the day. When I reached that place the Ygolotes were working the said mines through many mouths or passages that they had opened, following the metal of one large vein, from which they were taking out the ore that was softest and easiest to dig, although it contained blue iron pyrites that contain antimony.

Having investigated and examined the above-mentioned, I judged it best to open a trial place or mouth high up, and in the middle of all the mine works that the said Ygolotes were carrying on, in order to get all the body of the metal from the top which is more than one braza wide, and from the crust of the earth. On the fifth of March following, we began to open it, and, following the opening for ten estados, we encountered the said mines that the Ygolotes were working, by which our field of work was enlarged much more on the level, at the sides, and vertically; and we continued to get metal for assaying.

The second hill or mine is that called Arisey and Bugayona, which is but little more than three leguas from the new one above. It issues from the same ridge or elevation, where the old fort Del Rosario [_i.e._, "of the rosary"] was established, which was destroyed by fire in November of the past year one thousand six hundred and twenty-three. It is on the slope facing west, and the sun floods it from nine until four. It has a descent of one-half legua that is very troublesome as it is very steep, with two divisions and ravines at the side, and precipices along both slopes and also in front; for it is very steep, with a hollow in the middle, in which a spring of water is enclosed, that rises near the place where the said fort stood. [There is] a slope which is at the foot of the work where the natives washed [gold], and gathered certain small stones known to them, which they crushed for their profit; for in no other way is there any known or constant source from which to obtain the metal--but only loose dirt with certain ores, and those of the said red metal, which traverse the soil--without digging down to the bottom. Nor can this dirt be worked without danger of caving in, as was the case in all the veins and works that were on that elevation. Nothing more of these remained than only the indications of having been opened and worked from the vertical within the elevation; for they do not follow the level and center as that has been found to be of no benefit. From that one is led to believe that the mines were abandoned long ago. Yet from the mouths of those sunken mines, inasmuch as no other place was found whence one might get ore, about fifteen small baskets of ore were obtained by the said miners, Alférez Martin de Bergara, Rodrigo Lopez Orduña, Juan de Mugaburu, and Diego de Tovar, from that which appeared best for assaying and examining its nature or the benefit that could be derived from it.

The third elevation and mine is that called Baranaban, which is about one legua from the said fort and mine of Arisey, on a barren hill that faces south, which is flooded by the sun all day long. Through it runs a vein about one vara wide, extending east and west for some distance. There are some works and openings there, narrow, and distinct one from the other. Thence were taken fifteen baskets of gravel and dirt, which has the color of coal, in order to assay it. One can get a quantity of it from the said vein, although with little security from the earth caving in unless the works be propped up; for all of them are of shifting dirt, which is easily undermined, for which reason the said works have caved in, and bear the aspect rather of neglect than of having been worked.

The fourth hill or mine is that of Antamog, which is perhaps more than two leguas from the said old fort and mine of Arisey, and five and one-half from our fort of Santiago, which faces south from a large hill whose peak extends east and west, the said elevation having been undermined by one of its springs, and traversed by very narrow small threads of white and yellow metal; while all the elevation is traversed by and filled with passages, which are found intermixed, opened sidewise from the vertical and inward, and dipping downward scarcely at all, as the threads of the metal are not deep. In order that these may not cave in, they are propped up with stakes and boards; for otherwise, inasmuch as the dirt is so loose, they would not remain at all secure, as has happened to those unpropped, since we saw some that were blocked up and caved in. The said works are very narrow, and all were examined without finding metal, because of the high level, or sides, or any kind of vein, except at the entrance of the openings whence they were drawn.

From the said threads they obtained a kind of brass-colored and less dirty earth, in order to wash it in another large placer, that they had at one side of the said elevation, with a small stream that rises on top of the elevation, where they had a small settlement. They could, to all appearances, obtain but little profit, and with great difficulty, even with the community so near by. According to the signs, it was a long time since those workings and mines had been worked, and they were more neglected than the others; yet they produced the best (or the best-appearing) ore that could be found. Twenty baskets of it were obtained by the said miners to assay and investigate its nature, and determine what it might be.

The fifth and last elevation, hill, or mine is that called Conog, which is about one-half legua from the preceding and located in the same chain. It is flooded by the sun all day long, as is the other. The said elevation, turning, extends toward the north. In it are to be seen five or six openings or passages, that differ but little from those of Antamog. No considerable or fundamental vein was found, but only brass-colored earth that contained some small bits of blue metal containing iron pyrites, all of them very soft. In one passage that was lower was found on the level a small stream of clear water which empties through another opening lower down than it, both of those openings having been made for one excavation. To all appearances those mines were abandoned long ago; and although they were not being worked, and were seen to be so neglected, they contained the best-appearing metal that was seen. The said miners got about ten small baskets of it to assay.

The tools with which those Ygolotes worked, or work, their mines are certain stakes of heavy wood fashioned like pickaxes, with the knot of the said stake larger at the end of it, where, having pierced it, they fit into it a small narrow bit of iron about one palmo long. Then seated in the passages or works, as the veins prove, they pick out and remove the ore, which having been crushed by a stout rock in certain large receptacles fixed firmly in the ground, and with other smaller stones by hand, and having reduced the ore to powder, they carry it to the washing-places. For that purpose they have some small streamlets near at hand, with two or three hollows in their beds. There passing the said ore from one to the other until they clean away the mud from it, by means of the sunlight, which floods everything, they discover and collect some dust or grains of gold. Then they again crush the large grains of ore, and wash and rewash it, until, having passed through the said basins, what remains at last is entirely useless. To judge by the tools that have been seen and which the said Ygolotes have, as above said, the most usual and only working that they give their ores is the above, and nothing further. With their little ability for discovering these, if nature and poverty--which reduces them to subjection without any expense--did not compel them, they would vainly spend their time, in one way or another, in searching for something to eat, which they do not possess or produce.

All the hills and elevations, mines, passages, veins, and works above mentioned have been examined and entered by the said miners. They have obtained and assayed metals with the greatest care possible. Each assay is set down separately so that it will stand as a testimony and token of service, with the day, month, and year, just as they have been made, in the following manner.

_Refinement_ [_of metals_]. 1. First, on Palm Saturday, on the night of the thirtieth of March, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, a refining fire was made by the said Alférez Martin de Vergara and the other miners. Upon it and seventeen libras of lead was fed the dust and sediment of one-half quintal of ore that was obtained from the hole which I have said was opened in the veins and new mines of Galan, at a depth of ten estados. A grain of the appearance of silver, and weighing as much as one real, was obtained.

_Quicksilver_. 2. On the said day, April six, of the said year, three quintals of ore from the same hole and veins were incorporated with three libras of quicksilver and compounded with salt. On the tenth of the said month it was washed, and a small grain of gold was obtained that weighed one-half real. In the said assay ten onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 3. On the said day, April six, three libras of quicksilver were incorporated with three quintals of ore from the said hole and vein, which was obtained at a depth of ten estados; and the mixture was compounded with salt. It was washed on the tenth of the said month, and a small grain of gold of the weight of one-half real was obtained. Eleven onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 4. On Sunday, April seven, two quintals of the same ore from the said hole and vein were incorporated with two libras of quicksilver, having roasted the ore while in the form of stone, before crushing it. On the eleventh it was washed, and a small grain of gold of the weight of one-half real was obtained. Six onzas of quicksilver were lost.

[5.] That day, the eleventh of the said month, in a second refinement, the dust and sediment that remained from a quintal of the same ore was put on the fire. On being fused with twenty-three libras of lead, nothing was obtained from the said assay.

_Quicksilver_. 6. Saturday, the thirteenth of the said month of April, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with two and one-half arrobas of ore obtained from certain excavations found below the earth inside a little hut, near our fort and the said mine, which was burned by the Igolotes. On the eighteenth of the month it was washed, and a grain of gold weighing one real was obtained; and three onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 7. Tuesday, the sixteenth, four libras of quicksilver were incorporated with four quintals of ore obtained at a depth of ten or eleven estados in the said mine and hole. Having made that assay in a stove, on the twenty-second of the said month of April they washed the said four quintals of ore, and obtained a grain of gold of the weight of one real. Two onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 8. Wednesday, the seventeenth, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of the said ore, obtained at a depth of eleven estados. Having been treated in a reverberating furnace, on the twenty-second of the said month it was washed and a small grain of gold of barely the weight of half a real was obtained. Three and one-half onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 9. Thursday, April eighteen, they recrushed and washed the sweepings and residue of the first three quintals of ore which had been compounded with quicksilver. With the one quintal that resulted therefrom, they incorporated on the said day one libra of quicksilver. On the twenty-second it was washed, and for the second time a small grain of gold was obtained of the weight of one-quarter real. Two and one-half onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 10. Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of the said month of April, four libras of quicksilver were incorporated with four quintals of ore, obtained from a passage or opening carefully concealed in the bed of the streamlet, almost at the end of the said vein, and at the end of the other openings in it on the northwest side, where it obtains but very little sun and considerable dampness. It is an ore that contains a quantity of antimony, and one can obtain much of it, to judge from the works that the Ygolotes had, and those that we were making, as it seemed an ore of fairly good appearance. Compounding the assay of the said four quintals with salt and magistral, [60] the compound was washed on the second of May following, and a grain of gold of one-half real weight obtained. Two onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 11. On the twenty-ninth of April, three libras of quicksilver were incorporated with three quintals of ore obtained from a washing-place made by the Ygolotes below the openings, and near the preceding place. The compound was washed on the fifth of May, and a grain of gold weighing one and one-half reals was obtained. Eight onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 12. On the third of the said month of May, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of ore obtained from the said hole and vein as the four preceding assays. Having been crushed and burned in the openings before being incorporated with the said quicksilver, it was washed on the sixth; a small grain of gold, weighing less than one-half real, was obtained from that assay, while three onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 13. April twenty-nine, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of ore obtained from the old mines, of which I have made mention, called Baranaban. On May sixteen it was washed, and a small grain of gold obtained of one-quarter real weight. Three onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Arisus. Quicksilver._ 14. Tuesday, April thirty, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with another quintal of ore obtained from the said old mines called Arisey and Bugayona. On May seven following it was washed, and a small grain of gold, weighing less than one-quarter real, obtained. Two and one-half onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 15. The first of the said month of May, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of ore obtained from the said old mines and from those called Antamo. On the eighth of the said month it was washed, and a small grain of gold about as large as the head of a pin, which could not be weighed, obtained. Six onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 16. The said day, May first, one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of ore obtained from the said old mines--from the one called Conog. On the eighth of the said month it was washed, and another small grain of gold obtained, of the same size as the preceding. Four onzas of quicksilver were lost in the said assay.

_Quicksilver_. 17. May two, one-half libra of quicksilver was incorporated with two arrobas of ore obtained from the vein and works of the streamlet at the new mine mentioned above as being near our fort of Santiago. Compounding that assay and calcination with magistral, nothing was obtained. Three onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 18. The said day, May two, another one-half libra of quicksilver was incorporated with another half libra, I mean one-half quintal, of ore obtained from the preceding opening and vein. It was washed on the sixth of the said month, as also was the preceding assay. Only a small grain of gold weighing one-fourth real was obtained from that [mass] which was only compounded with quicksilver. Two and one-half onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 19. On the fifth of the same month of May three libras of quicksilver were incorporated with three quintals of ore from the first hole and mouth opened near our fort, as above stated. On the twelfth of the said month it was washed, and a grain of gold weighing scarcely one real obtained. Two onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 20. Saturday, May eleven, one-half libra of quicksilver was incorporated with two arrobas of ore obtained from an enclosure found at one-half legua's distance from our fort and the new mine, on the edge of a river. It was washed on the sixteenth of the said month, but nothing was found in it. One and one-half onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Quicksilver_. 21. On the fourteenth of the said month one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of ore obtained from a passage which was discovered to have been worked by the Ygolotes in the same vein and new mine, in its western part of which mention has been made. The said vein extends to the southwest. The mixture was washed on the eighteenth of the said month, and a small grain of gold, weighing one-half real, was obtained. One-half onza of quicksilver was lost.

_Quicksilver_. 22. On Thursday, May nine, three libras of quicksilver were incorporated with three quintals of ore obtained from the first hole and vein of the new mine, of which mention has been made. May nineteen it was washed, and a small grain of gold, of one-third real weight, obtained. Twelve onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Smelting_. 23. Monday, the twentieth of the said month, another assay was made by fusing one quintal of litharge [61] and two of ore obtained from the said hole and vein preceding. From the said mixture, although they tried it several times, it was impossible to fuse or melt the said ore. On the contrary, there was a loss of the lead consumed with the said litharge, and the mixture continued to be consumed; so that having been exhausted and the oven having become clogged, it was necessary to stop without succeeding with the said assay. They attributed that to the said ore being unfit for smelting.

_Quicksilver_. 24. Thursday, May twenty, two libras of quicksilver were incorporated with one and one-half quintals of ore obtained from a depth of fourteen estados in the said vein and hole which was opened as above stated. On the twenty-fifth of the said month it was washed, and a small grain of gold, weighing one-half real, was obtained. Two onzas of quicksilver were lost.

_Smelting_. 25. Sunday, May twenty-six, a second assay by smelting was made with three quintals of litharge and one of _tesmiquitate_, [62] refined; both were fluxed with three quintals of ore obtained from the second hole or passage above mentioned as being near the level of the streamlet in the said vein and new mine. That was a second and different compound and was made by smelting and with the said flux; but they were unable to fuse the ore, although many efforts were exerted. It was useless because of the poor quality that the miners ascribed to the said ore. Finding that there was considerable loss and waste of the lead, they had to desist.

_Smelting_. 26. Monday, May twenty-six, a third assay was made by refining or smelting, by feeding the dust that was left from one quintal of ore, obtained at a depth of fourteen or more estados from the first vein and hole which, I have said, was opened in the said new mine. Having consumed twenty-five libras of lead, upon which the metal melted, a grain resulted that resembles silver, and weighs one and one-half reals. [63]

The said tests or assays having been made and finished, the lay of the land, and its natives and mines, having been examined, and having obtained a quantity of ore from all the mines, I left the said presidio and fort of Santiago well fortified with a garrison of fifty-six Spaniards and fifty Indians--twenty-five from the province of Pangasinan and twenty-five from that of Ylocos--eleven galley negroes, and one armorer, with food and all other things necessary for more than fifteen months. Then, with the said last division of the said five hundred Indians, who, as I have made mention, were to be sent me by a lieutenant by the twenty-fourth of May, I set about my descent, carrying with me, by the end of the said month, one hundred quintals of the said ore; this I am sending to the city of Manila in four hundred small rice-baskets, each numbered with the mine whence it was taken, so that proof may be made there of the efforts mentioned above; since it is the self-same ore, the governor and captain-general, the royal Audiencia, and the royal officials can confirm it anew and make the tests again, so that, understanding the said mines fully, they may report to his Majesty, and resolve upon the measures that they deem fitting in regard to the holding of the said presidio in a land of so little or no profit as is that land.

_Alonzo Martin Quirante_

_Act_. In the camp of new mines and the fort of Santiago of the Ygolotes, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of March, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, Captain and Sargento-mayor Alonso Martin Quirante, chief magistrate of the province of Pangasinan and military commandant of that province and of that of Ylocos, in whose charge is the conquest or pacification of the Ygolote Indians, and the discovery, working, and opening of their mines, declared that inasmuch as he was ordered by Governor and Captain-general Don Alonso Fajardo de Tença, he has come for the said purpose of the said conquest, pacification, and discovery of the said mines. And inasmuch as he had been informed by experienced men that the productive mines, to which the said natives are giving most attention at the present time, are the new ones among them called Galan, he has located and planted upon them the said camp and fort of Santiago, so that, having made a fort among them and placed in safety his men, food supply, and other military stores, he might make expeditions and explore the other mines of which he has or may have information that the said Ygolotes have profitably worked, or can work, throughout all this region. He declared that it should be ascertained what ore could be obtained from those mines, and the amount of metal that should result from them, and the loss of materials that should be allotted for their treatment. He ordered me, the present scribe, to make and prepare a blank book in which to set down as evidence, with the day, month, and year, the assays of the said ores obtained from such mines, and the materials used in their treatment; and that this act be placed at the head of such evidence, which should therefore be given, in the said manner, so that it might be seen for all time. Thus did he decree and order, and he affixed his signature. I, the said scribe of this said camp of mines and forces of Santiago, attest it.

_Alonso Martin Quirante_

Before me:

_Alonso Callexas_

_Attestation_. 1. I, Alonso Callexas, scribe of these new mines of Santiago of the Ygolotes, in fulfilment of the order given me by the said act above declared, having made this blank book, do hereby attest faithfully and truly, that today, Saturday, at ten o'clock at night, or thereabout, the thirtieth of this current month of March, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, the first assay was finished by Alférez Martin de Vergara, of the company of the said captain and sargento-mayor Alonso Martin Quirante, in the presence of Juan de Mugaburu, Rodrigo Lopez Orduña, Grabiel Molinero, and Diego de Tovar, all miners. The assay was for one-half quintal of ore which was obtained from a hole made in these new mines from the crust of the earth to the openings and veins whence the said Ygolote Indians evidently had been and were obtaining it, and when we had dug down about ten estados. The said assay was made by refining, by feeding [the dust of the ore] upon sixteen libras of lead. From it was obtained a grain that resembled silver, which, having been weighed by me, weighed a trifle more than one real. In order that that may be evident, I gave the present at the petition of the said captain and sargento-mayor, who, together with the said alférez, affixed his signature. Witnesses were Licentiate Augustin Tabuyo Baldicañas, cura and vicar in this said camp and fort, Adjutant Andres Tamayo, Alférez Don Joseph de Renteria, and many others who were present at this royal camp and fort of Santiago, where this is dated on the said Saturday, March thirty, one-thousand six hundred and twenty-four.

_Alonso Martin Quirante_

_Martin de Vergara_

Before me: _Alonso Callejas_, scribe.

[Twenty-five other attestations, one for every following assay after the first, all similar to the above, follow. The document continues:]

_Attestation_. 27. I, Alonso Callejas, scribe of these said new mines and fort of Santiago among the Ygolotes, attest and witness truly that the twenty-six assays contained in these six leaves and in this form, are of the mines and ores declared therein; and that from the said mines, in my presence, of which I give attestation, one hundred quintals of ore, besides that used in the said assays, were taken by order of Captain and Sargento-mayor Alonso Martin Quirante, in order to send them to the city of Manila, by Alférez Martin de Vergara, Juanes de Mugaburu, Graviel Molinero, Rodrigo Lopez Orduña, and Diego de Tovar, all miners. Accordingly that ore, having been weighed by me, is being carried in four hundred small rice-baskets of an arroba apiece--so that, since they are from the same ores as those from which the said assays have been made, the governor and captain-general, Don Alonso Faxardo de Tença, and the royal officials may have the assays made again in the said city; and so that, with verification of the efforts that have been made in these mines, they may understand and see the truth concerning and the possibilities of the mines of the Ygolotes of which we have as yet had notice, and that have been worked or may be worked all about this said camp and for some leguas about it. And so that it may be evident, I gave the present at the petition of Captain and Sargento-mayor Alonso Martin Quirante, who affixed his signature together with the above mentioned miners. Witnesses were Licentiate Agustin Tabuyo Baldecañas, Captain Joan de Salinas, and Adjutant Andres Tamayo, while in this camp of new mines and the fort of Santiago, where this is dated on the twenty-seventh day of the month of May, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four.

_Alonso Martin Quirante_ _Martin de Vergara_ _Juanes de Mugaburu_ _Rodrigo Lopez Orduña_ _Diego de Tovar_ _Graviel Molinero_

Before me:

_Alonso Callejas_, scribe.

By order of the captain and sargento-mayor, Alonso Martin Quirante, chief justice of this province of Pangasinan and military commandant of it and of the province of Ylocos, I, the present scribe, ordered to be drawn and drew this copy of the original attestations and investigations which were made for the said purpose. It is a true and faithful copy, and has been collated and revised with the said originals which were sent to the said governor and captain-general of these islands, Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenga. In the copy, for its greater validity, the said captain and sargento-mayor interposed his authority and judicial decree in due form, and so that it might be credited in and out of court. And he affixed his signature, witnesses being Alférez Alonso Tellez de Prado, Sargento Domingo Ruiz, and Captain Joan de Salinas, who were present in this village of Alingayen, where this is given on the fifth day of the month of June, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four.

_Alonso Martin Quirante_

I sealed it in testimony of truth:

_Gaspar de Los Reyes_, notary-public.

_Quicksilver that was lost_

No. 1. It is silver.

10. No. 2. It weighed scarce one maes, or nine diezmos, of the fineness of eighteen or nineteen carats, alloyed with silver. It is worth on this occasion four reals. [64]

11. No. 3. It weighs two and one-half diezmos. Ten diezmos make one maes of the same gold of the above standard. It is worth one and one-half reals.

6. No. 4. It weighs one and one-half diezmos of the same fineness as the first. It is worth twenty-four maravedis.

3. No. 6. It weighs one maes and one diezmo of gold of twenty carats fine. It is worth five and one-half reals.

12. No. 7. The gold weighs one maes two diezmos of eighteen or nineteen carats fine. It is worth five and one-half reals.

3. No. 8. The gold weighs five and one-half diezmos of eighteen carats fine. It is worth two reals and twenty-four maravedis.

2. No. 9.

32. No. 10. The gold weighs six and one-half diezmos of sixteen carats fine. It is worth three reals.

8. No. 11. The gold weighs two maes four diezmos of twenty-two carats fine. It is worth thirteen reals twenty-four maravedis.

3. No. 12. It weighs two diezmos of sixteen carats fine. It is worth one real.

3. No. 13. It weighs two large diezmos of eighteen carats fine. It is worth one real.

2 1/2. No. 14. It weighs one large diezmo of eighteen or nineteen carats fine. It is worth twenty-four maravedis.

6. No. 15. It weighs a scant one-half diezmo of eighteen carats fine. It is worth six maravedis.

4. No. 16. It weighs a scant one-half diezmo of eighteen carats fine. It is worth six maravedis.

3. No. 17.

2 1/2. No. 18. It weighs one diezmo of eighteen carats fine. It is worth one-half real.

2. No. 19. It weighs nine and one-half diezmos of sixteen carats fine. It is worth three reals twenty-four maravedis.

1. No. 21. It weighs four diezmos of eighteen or nineteen carats fine. It is worth two reals.

1/2. No. 22. It weighs three diezmos of fourteen carats fine. It is worth one real.

2. No. 24. It weighs six and one-half diezmos of metal [but of a] very base alloy; to judge by its points, there is no standard with which to compare it. All the rest is copper.

No. 26. It is silver. Pelayo Hernandez. All of it is worth 5 pesos 6 tomins.

In the city of Manila, on the thirteenth of July, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, while Doctor Don Alvaro de Mesa y Lugo of his Majesty's council and his auditor in the said royal Audiencia, who exercises the office of its president; and Don Geronimo de Silva, captain-general on sea and land and of the artillery of these islands; Licentiate Juan de Saavedra Balderramas, Licentiate Don Matthias Flores, and Licentiate Zapata de Galvez, auditors and fiscals of the said royal Audiencia; and the judicial officials of the royal revenues, Diego de Castro Lizon, factor and overseer, and Martin Ruiz de Salazar, accountant--were in the hall of the Audiencia; and while they were thus assembled: the said president declared that inasmuch as a quantity of ores had been brought from the mines of the Ygolotes, so that the tests might be made here, in order to ascertain whether they conformed to those made there, of which Sargento-mayor Alonso Martin Quirante, chief magistrate and commandant of the province of Pangasinan, sent a relation and attestation, it was advisable to discuss it and determine whether it would be advisable to send the ore brought thence to Nueva España in the ships which are next to be sent thither. Inasmuch as there are many persons skilled in mines and assay of ore in that kingdom, they might perhaps be able to furnish the accurate tests there that had not been arrived at here. If they did not succeed in ascertaining its quality there, that would be a greater proof of the disillusion that is talked of here. He trusted that what might be done in this matter be most expedient for the service of the king our sovereign. The assembly having discussed and conferred upon the question put by the said president, all were unanimously and harmoniously of one accord and opinion. They declared and voted that for the present the expenses and costs that are being incurred in the working of the mines of the Ygolotes be curtailed; that the officials and workmen there be withdrawn and disbanded; that the one hundred _chiculetes_ [_sc._ quintals] of ore and dirt which are in this city, together with the gold obtained, from the assays and tests which were made there, be sent in those vessels next to be despatched to Nueva España, to the royal officials of the City of Mexico; and that the matter be entrusted to the royal officials of this city--not only to attend to it, but to send a relation of all that has taken place and of the efforts expended in the working of those mines, and the results thereof. Thus they may there prove it, and attempt to make new efforts to know whether the greatest profit has been obtained from what was got here--for it is understood that there are persons there of greater experience in that art--so that advice of it may be given to the royal Council of the Indias, and may also be sent to the said royal officials of this city.

The president also declared that the infantry stationed in the city of Nueva Segovia are very needy and destitute, as it is many days since any aid has been sent to them from this city; and, as the greater part of that province has revolted, his Majesty does not possess in it any royal revenues with which to be able to sustain the soldiers. [Accordingly, it should be considered] whether it would be advisable that the infantry established in the presidio at the mines be assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia, so that, with greater forces, our purpose to subdue the natives who have revolted there might be attained, since the said mines are in the middle of the path. He also declared that, above all, the said men present at the meeting should give their opinion, so that whatever might be voted be carried out as might be most advisable for his Majesty's service. The said men in the assembly having discussed and conferred concerning the proposition of the said president, all were unanimously and uniformly of one mind and opinion. They declared that four installments of pay be sent to the infantry established in the presido at the city of Nueva Segovia; and that the royal judges and officials send directions for the order that must be observed in relieving them. In what pertains to the infantry established in the presidio of the mines being taken to the city of Nueva Segovia, they declared that that be referred to the captain-general, so that he may take what measures are most expedient for his Majesty's service. They gave their opinion in writing, and affixed their signatures.

_Doctor Don Alvaro de Mesa y Lugo_ _Don Geronimo de Silva_ _Licentiate Don Juan de Saavedra Balderrama_ _Licentiate Don Mathias Delgado Flores_ _Licentiate Marcos Zapota de Galvez_ _Diego de Castro Lizon_ _Martin Ruiz de Salazar_

Before me: _Pedro Alvarez_

Collated with the original minute: _Pedro Alvarez_

Between lines are: "me;" "in;" "they find;" "that was brought from the old mines called;" "corrected;" "me;" "who;" "should be worth;" "erased;" "Ygolotes;" "in-[_des_];" "ten;" "it is not worth."

Revised with a copy of the originals that is in this royal accountancy, to which we refer. Manila, August eleven, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four.

_Diego de Castro Lison_ _Joan Perez Descalona_ _Martin Ruiz de Salazar_

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

The following documents are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla, the pressmark of each being thus indicated:

1. _Letter by Fajardo_ (July 21).--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del gobernador de Filipinas vistos en el Consejo; años 1600 á 1628; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 7."

2. _Letter by Serrano_ (1621).--"Simancas--Eclesiastico; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del arzobispo de Manila vistos en el Consejo; años 1579 á 1679; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 32."

3. _Affairs in Franciscan province_.--"Simancas--Eclesiastico; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de religiosos misioneros de Filipinas vistos en el Consejo; años 1617 á 1642; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 38."

4. _Letter by Silva_.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del presidente y oydores de dicha Audiencia vistos en el Consejo; años 1607 á 1626; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 20."

5. _Letter by Fajardo_ (December 10).--The same as No. 1.

6. _Letters by Messa y Lugo_--The same as No. 4.

7. _Letters by Serrano_ (1622).--The same as No. 2.

8. _Decrees regarding religious_.--"Audiencia de Filipinas; registro de oficio; reales ordenes dirigidos á las autoridades del distrito de la Audiencia; años 1597 á 1634; est. 105, caj. 2, leg. 1."

9. _Expedition to Igorrotes mines_.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de los oficiales reales de Manila vistos en el Consejo; años 1623 á 1641; est. 67, caj. 16, leg. 30."

The following is from a MS. in the collection "Papeles de los Jesuitas," in the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid:

10. _News from province of Filipinas_.--"Tomo 87, n_o_ 48."

The following is taken from the "Cedulario Indico" of the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid:

11. _Letter by Felipe IV_.--"Tomo 40, fol. 7, verso, n_o_ 15."

The following is found in the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library):

12. _Death of Doña Catalina_.--In vol. i, pp. 509-514.

The following document includes two, as thus indicated:

13. _Royal permission for Dominican college_.--From _Algunos documentos relat. Univ. de Manila_ (Madrid, 1892), p. 21; and Pastells's edition of Colin's _Labor evangélica_, iii, p. 565.

NOTES

[1] According to the _Diary_ of Richard Cocks, this prince was the father-in-law of Calsa Sama, the youngest son of the shogun Hidétada.

[2] Pedro de Avila joined the Franciscan missions in the Philippines in 1616, and immediately requested from his superiors permission to go to Japan. This was finally granted; he went there in 1619, but was imprisoned for preaching the faith, in 1620, and, after nearly two years of most painful and wretched imprisonment, was burned at the stake at Nangasaqui, on September 10, 1622, at the age of thirty years.

[3] The original MS. of this document is badly worn, in places; and the words enclosed in brackets, in the two following paragraphs, indicate the conjectures of the transcriber.

[4] These priests were Pedro de Zuñiga, an Augustinian, and Luis Flores, a Dominican. In 1622, they, with the Japanese captain of the vessel, were burned to death by a slow fire, and the crew were beheaded. The Japanese shogun appropriated the cargo of the ship, leaving only the empty hull for the Dutch and English. (See Cocks's _Diary_, i, pp. xxxvi and xxxvii.)

[5] As a result of this alliance, the English and the Dutch East India Companies were united; "a combined fleet of English and Dutch ships, sailing under the modest name of the Fleet of Defence, was equipped for the purpose of endamaging the common enemy and diverting the trade of China from the Philippine Islands to the Dutch and English settlements; in other words, to blockade the Spanish and Portuguese ports and seize as many of the Chinese trading junks as possible. In the two expeditions to the Philippines undertaken by the fleet before the English and Dutch again separated, they captured many prizes." (See E.M. Thompson's preface to Cocks's _Diary_, i, pp. xxxi-xxxvi.)

[6] La Concepción (v, pp. 106, 107), in reporting this incident says that the amour of the governor's wife was with a "distinguished subject of this community," that is, Manila, and that the latter was not killed but escaped across seas. Montero y Vidal (_Historia_, i, pp. 177, 179), who had evidently not seen the documents of the text, and partially following La Conceptión's error and improving on it, lays the time of Fajardo's vengeance in 1624, and says that the paramour was unknown and escaped by jumping from a window, later probably finding means to get to America. Montero y Vidal is usually more careful of his dates.

[7] _i.e._, for prayers or works for the benefit of the souls in purgatory.

[8] Serrano apparently overlooks the diocesan council convened in 1600 by Bishop Agurto at Cibú (see _Vol_. XIII, pp. 133-135). Addis and Arnold's _Catholic Dictionary_ says (p. 46): "Provincial councils, owing to the difficulties of the times, have been less frequent in recent times than formerly; but, by the Council of Trent, metropolitans are bound to convene them, every three years."

[9] The ecclesiastical judge to whom the bishop delegates his authority and jurisdiction for the determination of the suits and causes pertaining to his jurisdiction; and hence a synonym for vicar-general.

Rev. T.C. Middleton, in a recent communication, says that the term "provisor" was apparently used only by the Spanish and Spanish colonies. It is not to be found in Ferrario, Moroni, or Soglia, and has no legal equivalent in English. It generally appears linked with another term as "provisor y vicario capitular" or "provisor y vicario general." An archbishop or bishop usually had his "provisor" whose powers were apparently the same as a vicar-general's or a vicar-capitular's. The nomination, or creation, of a vicar-general is in the hands of an archbishop or bishop; whereas a vicar-capitular is chosen only when a see becomes vacant, the cathedral chapter naming the person, who is to rule (during the said vacancy) with title of "vicar-capitular." In the United States, since there are no cathedral chapters, there are in consequence no vicars-capitular, their place, etc., being taken by an administrator, who is chosen by the metropolitan, unless already named by the former occupant of the vacant see.

[10] The discalced Franciscans were founded by St. Francis of Assisi, under the name Friars Minor, and the rule was very binding and strict. Under the immediate successor of St. Francis, Elias of Cortona, sprang up a branch of the order, made up of former members who wished a less strict rule, and those who wished to preserve the strict rule were persecuted. The members of the relaxed branch became known as "Conventuals" or "Minors Conventual" in contradistinction to the Friars Minor (or Minorites), who are known also as "Observants" or "Observantines." Three great branches sprang later from the Friars Minor: Reformed Minors, founded in 1419, by St. Bernardino of Siena; the Recollects, founded in 1500, by John of Guadalupe; and the Alcantarines, founded in 1555, by St. Peter of Alcantára--but all under one head or chief superior, termed minister-general. The Alcantarines wore a white habit, the others brown, except in England and Spanish countries, where they wear gray. In 1897, Pope Leo XIII, by his Bull _Felicitate quadam_ ordered the Observants, Reformed, Discalced, or Alcantarines, and the Recollects, to unite under the same general superior, to use the same constitutions, to wear the same habit, and to bear the same name, viz., "Friars Minor." The Conventuals and Capuchins were to remain distinct orders as heretofore. The term _paño_ in the text refers to the Conventuals, the less strict branch of the Franciscans, who were wont to dress in what one might call "fine raiment"--habits of cloth, as distinguished from the coarse serge-like stuff of the others. Cf. Addis and Arnold's _Catholic Dictionary_.--_Rev. T.C. Middleton_.

[11] Referring to the church and convent of Santi Quattro Incoronati (one of the titular churches of Rome), which was founded by Honorius I (A.D. 622), on the site of a temple of Diana, in honor of four painters and five sculptors who all were martyred for refusing to paint and carve idols for Diocletian. See historical and descriptive account of it in A.J.C. Hare's _Walks in Rome_, pp. 230-232.

[12] Argensola (_Conquista_), p. 317, mentions the Anhayes merchants, and speaks of them as coming from Chincheo. See _Vol_. XII of this series, pp. 155, 277; the word is there spelled _avay_ and auhay, because thus written in the Spanish transcription from the original.

[13] Pedro de San Pablo made his profession in the Franciscan province of San José, and in 1606 went to the Philippines, where he was appointed conventual preacher of Naga. In 1609 he went to Manila as preacher, and at the same time had charge of Santa Ana de Sepa. October 29, 1611, he was elected definitor, and in 1616 minister of Santa Ana de Sepa once more. He became provincial August 3, 1619, and held that office until March 15, 1622, when he embarked for Mexico, but died at sea. See Huerta's _Estado_.

[14] Spanish, _descalces_; literally, "barefootedness;" a term applied to monastic organizations whose members are not permitted to wear shoes.

[15] A reference to I Cor. i, 12, and possibly to iii, 22.

[16] Huerta says of Sotelo (p. 393): "As the preparations for his journey to Japan were not made so promptly as he desired, he retired to our convent of San Francisco del Monte, where he occupied himself in the practice of all kinds of virtues until the year 1622, when he succeeded in reaching Japan." Fuerza here apparently refers to ecclesiastical interference with Sotelo's plans, to which reference has been several times made in preceding volumes.

[17] Andres del Sacramento was a native of a small village in the valley of Sayago. He made profession in the province of San Pablo, and reached the Philippines in 1611. In October of that year he was assigned to the village of Ligmauan, whence he went to Tacboan. At the chapter held August 3, 1619, he was elected definitor. He afterward ministered at Manila, Minalabag, Polangui, and again at Minalabag. He became provincial November 18, 1628, and held that office until January 17, 1632. In that time he projected and partly executed the opening of a navigable canal from Nueva Cáceres to the port of Pasacao. After 1632 he ministered in several villages, and was elected provincial for the second time September 16, 1639, holding the office until January 17, 1643. He died in the convent at Manila in 1644. See Huerta's _Estado_.

[18] Agustin de Tordesillas was born in Tordesillas in 1528, and in his childhood served as acolyte in the parochial church, where he learned to play the organ. In 1558 he took the Franciscan habit as a lay brother, and made profession in the Observantine province of La Concepcion in 1559. He was finally ordained a priest, and became a confessor. He afterward joined the province of San José, and arrived with the first Franciscans at Manila in 1577, and was appointed first president of the convent there. On May 20, 1579, he went to China, returning thence at the beginning of 1580. That year he was appointed first master of novitiates, first chaplain of the royal hospital of Manila, and vicar-general of all the archipelago, which last office he held until the arrival of Bishop Salazar in 1581. In 1582 he went to China again, whence he went to Siam in 1583, via Macao. Returning to Macao he was appointed guardian of the convent there, but returned to Manila in 1586. There he labored in the hospital until he was elected definitor at the chapter of September 15, 1594, after that being guardian one or more times of the convents at Manila, San Francisco del Monte, and Cavite, besides having charge of Sampaloc. He lived to the age of one hundred and one years, dying in the Manila convent, having been the last one of the first mission to die. He wrote a relation of the expedition of the Franciscans to China. See _ut supra_, and _Vol_. VI, p. 131. note 31.

[19] In the MS. at this point the text apparently reads _pol_ desta pos; but it is uncertain what these words refer to, especially as Tordesillas was not at the time provincial of the Franciscan province, but was probably minister at Sampaloc, near Manila (Huerta, p. 504).

[20] Huerta's lists contain no one of this name; but he gives a sketch of Alonso de Santa Ana, missionary in the Philippines from 1594 until his death in 1630. This priest, however, was absent in Mexico and Europe from 1617 until 1621, when he returned to Manila.

[21] Diego Fernandez de Córdoba, marques de Guadalcázar, was viceroy from 1612 to 1620. The Audiencia of Mexico then assumed rule, which lasted until the arrival (August, 1621) of the new viceroy, Diego Carrillo de Mendoza y Pimentel, marques de Gelves. He was a just, stern, and efficient ruler, who reformed many abuses and protected the poor and the Indians; but he thus incurred the enmity of corrupt men in high position, and even that of the archbishop, Juan Perez de la Serna. In consequence, Gelves was excommunicated by Serna (January, 1624), and soon afterward deposed by popular clamor and riots; the Audiencia then governed until the following October, when a new viceroy came, the marques de Cerralvo. By his efforts, Gelves was vindicated in every respect, and honorably returned to Spain.

[22] Bancroft (_History of Mexico_, iii, pp. 28, 38) characterizes the viceroy Guadalcázar as a weak and somewhat indolent ruler, in whose term corruption flourished; but of Gelves he says: "He broke up effectually the trade in contraband goods between Acapulco and Peru.... He removed the royal officials having charge of the supplies for the Philippines, putting clean-handed men in their places; and in consequence the amount of supplies sent to that colony was greater than ever before.... [_Note_:] In 1622 the value of these supplies was nine hundred thousand dollars, and in the following year two-thirds of that amount."

[23] Alluding to the death, by Fajardo's own hand, of his unfaithful wife and her lover; see the first two documents of the present volume.

[24] Celebes was long almost unknown to Europeans, and its deep indentations by gulfs led to the notion, long entertained, that it was a group of islands, rather than one. It has an estimated area of some 57,000 square miles, but its soil is generally poor, and its population thin and scanty. The two leading and more civilized people of Celebes are the Macassars and Bugis, who inhabit its southwestern peninsula. The Macassar nation (in their own language, Mangkasara) conquered the Bugis in the sixteenth century, and became converts to Mahometanism early in the seventeenth. They were conquered by the Dutch in 1669, and the latter nation has since then been nominal ruler of Celebes Island. By the name Macassar is commonly meant the Dutch fortified town of Rotterdam, on the western shore of the peninsula above mentioned; the Dutch made it a free port in 1847. See the full descriptive and historical account of Celebes by Valentyn, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, part iii ,