Part 14

Two caracoas of Maluco Indians arrived at this port on the tenth of this month. They carried twelve Portuguese, whom one Gonçalo Pereyra, chief captain of a large fleet which the viceroy of India despatched to Maluco because he thought that we must have stopped there, and Alvaro de Mendoça, captain of the fort of the said Maluco, had sent. They wrote to the governor that they had sure evidence that we had settled in this port, and they thought that it must have been by accident, as all the district hereabout was (as was a fact [they said]) in their demarcation. Therefore if it were so, and we were here because of any need, we should endeavor to go to the fort of Maluco where we would be given the best of welcomes. The governor answered this putting them off as much as possible, as your Majesty will see by the letters and their reply to which we refer (as well as to Captain Juan de la Ysla, who has a good understanding of this in detail and of all other things that have happened in these districts, and from whom your Majesty will receive as we have said, a true and extensive relation).

There has been a singular carelessness in providing us from Nueva España with reënforcements; and if it should happen (which may God our Lord avert) that we should suffer some loss, it would be because of that. At present we have neither arms, ammunition, nor artillery with which to defend ourselves if the Portuguese should try to harm us. May His Divine Goodness remedy and direct everything as He deems best. Surely His divine hand has protected us, and so we are ready to die in His most holy service and that of your Majesty with great steadfastness if occasion offers. May our Lord preserve your sacred Catholic Majesty and give you greater kingdoms and increasing seigniories. This port [i.e., Cebú], July XXVI, 1567. Sacred Catholic Majesty, your sacred Catholic Majesty’s faithful servants, who most humbly kiss your Majesty’s royal feet.

Guido de Lavezaris Andres Calchela Andres de Myrandaola

LETTER FROM MARTIN DE RADA TO THE MARQUIS DE FALÇES

May the Holy Ghost dwell forever in your Excellency’s soul. I have given infinite thanks to God since I have learned that your Excellency [37] had come to act as viceroy of Nueva Spaña because of the report of your virtues, prudence, and zeal concerning the service of God our Lord and of his Majesty; and especially because, according to the report here, you have shown zeal and willingness to try to protect this expedition and to be the instrument by which the so great multitude of infidels here may come to the knowledge of the true faith. This has been the cause which has moved me to write your Excellency these lines. Since I am engaged upon it I am obliged to give you an account of the condition and character of the country. These islands, where we are established, are numerous, and some of them are large; for, so far as we are able to learn, the island of Luson must be about seven hundred leguas in circumference. [38] All that is land is the richest that has been discovered among these islands, for almost all its people are traders and the Chinese come to trade with them. The nearest land from the Chinese, namely, Ybalon and the Camarines, is fifty or sixty leguas from this port. The wealthy village of Manila may be seventy leguas from here. That island of Lusson contains quantities of provisions, consisting of rice, swine, goats, and buffaloes. There is much gold when compared with these other islands, and articles from China. The island of Burnei is about five hundred leguas in circumference. It yields pepper, sandal-wood, camphor, and other drugs. The island of Baguindanao and that of Panae are each about three hundred leguas in circumference. That of Panae is rich in food and that of Baguindanao in gold, cinnamon, and pepper. Each of them is located about forty leguas from this port. The island of Basbat [i.e., Masbat] has many gold mines. There are many other islands also, which I shall not mention in order to avoid prolixity. All of them in general yield gold, some more, others less, partly from the rivers and partly from mines. There is evident proof of this, for all the people, both great and small, wear it, and the natives recognize whence the gold comes as soon as they see it, and say that this gold comes from such an island, and this other gold from such another. It is evident also because many merchants of Lusson, Bornei, Xolo, and other parts travel continually throughout these islands, and the object of their search is either gold or slaves. However, no one of these Indians has more than a very little gold, for if they get a couple of pairs of earrings and a couple of pairs of bracelets, and a pair of anklets for the feet, they do not look for any more, for they do not strive to hoard it. This race is the most arrogant that was ever seen and the slaves are the freest that can be imagined, for they do only what they wish; [39] and besides this [it is seen] by the lack of loyalty which they preserve toward one another. For although they be relatives or brothers if they meet one another in the open, he who is strongest lays hands upon the other and sells him. Consequently, no one dares to go ever so little a distance from his village. If perchance any merchant junk comes [to trade] they buy all the goods on credit, after which, in order to pay, all the village assembles and goes armed to the placer or to the mines, in order that no one will dare to touch them, and accordingly get the gold that they have to give. If the place is settled by Spaniards, I am convinced that (God helping), there will be abundance of gold extracted by them, for there is little that can be seized from the natives. Pearls are also to be found in some places, and other things such as pepper, cinnamon, and drugs.

Soldiers are not needed to conquer this land, for they do not consider the welfare of the land, but only how to amass wealth quick in order to return home. When they are unable to attain their desire, they destroy and lay waste the country. But colonists who intend to remain in the country must be sent. The people of these islands have no king or sovereign and are without any law. Most of them are heathens although some are Moros. They can be converted and adopt our faith easily; and are rather like monkeys very desirous of imitating us in dress, speech, and all other particulars. The fear with which God has inspired them is great, for no matter how large may be the village, when a dozen Spaniards go to it, the natives come out immediately with their hands tied and beg for peace, promising to give what tribute may be asked from them. Consequently, when any village was carried by peace, we had a great abundance whence to draw the necessary supplies. For more than two years at this point a loose rein has been given in robbing friend and foe, and we are now suffering extreme need. We have no place where we can get anything, and no boats to get what we need, for most of the villages in the entire radius of more than forty leguas are deserted and depopulated. Wherever the Spaniards go, the natives do not dare await them but all flee to the mountains with their goods. Consequently, I am certain as to our fate, for if God does not miraculously aid us, we shall all soon be lost. Our lack has always been that we have had no [adequate] leader, not because any harm has occurred by his command, but because he has passed it by. Consequently, dissimulation is no longer sufficient to remedy the matter. The vilest soldier of all dares to disobey his orders and to do only what he desires. He knows that after all the matter will be ended by detaining him in his quarters for a fortnight. Besides this the soldier is good for nothing, and there is no man in the camp who considers the common welfare but each looks after his own interests. I am writing this to your Excellency so that you may institute a reform in it, for I avow seasonably that unless we have a different harmony and another one to direct the crowd, the country will be worthless, the king will draw no profit therefrom, and the men will derive no advantage, but all of them will perish by an evil death in a short time, and all the land will he destroyed. This entire land is fertile and abounds with food, but we are all dying of hunger. There is considerable timber and it is quite easy to get at, but we have no boat, for we have on the contrary lost those boats that we brought. The land is all very thickly settled, but we have already caused the abandonment of many villages. Since the soldiers indeed have much wealth, but when they die nothing more is found than some old clothes, which arc good for nothing but to be thrown into the sea, therefore, we shall not have more but much less next year.

If his Majesty wishes to get hold of China, which we know to be a land that is very large and rich and of high civilization, with cities, forts, and walls much greater than those of Europa, he must first have a settlement in these islands: first, because we cannot pass safely among the so many islands and shoals that lie along the coast of China with ships of high freeboard, but must use oared vessels; secondly, also, because in order to conquer a country so large and that has so vast a population, one must have aid and refuge near at hand, for any contingency that might arise. However, as I have been informed both by Portuguese and by Indians who trade with the Chinese, as well as by a Chinese who was captured a while ago in a junk, the people of China are not at all warlike. They rely entirely on numbers and on the fortification of their walls. It would decapitate them, if any of their forts were taken. Consequently, I believe (God helping), that they can be subdued easily and with few forces.

I have wished to write this, for I trust in our Lord that this land may, through the medium of your Excellency, receive the faith, and that we shall have an entrance into China; but, on account of our great uncertainty and because we do not know whether his Majesty will order us to abandon this land, we have not dared to baptize. I believe that if we had put our hands to baptism, we would already have more than twenty thousand Christians. As soon as we know the king’s will they will all accept our faith easily. May our Lord, etc. Cebu, July eight 1569.

LETTER FROM DIEGO DE HERRERA TO FELIPE II

Sacred Catholic Royal Majesty:

When I saw that the affairs of this land had no permanent settlement and no hopes of one, and that the natives were very much molested by the Spaniards, and that so far as I could see God was being served but little in this region because of the great license which men have here for evil and the lack of justice, and that very little service was being rendered your Majesty, since they are ruining excellent lands here for you: I determined last year, sixty-nine, to go to Nueva España in order to give advice of what was passing here in order that some reform might be instituted in this, and to discuss the matter with the viceroy in order that he might relieve the condition as much as he could and give notice of the other things to your Majesty. [40] [I determined] that if the viceroy thought that I ought to go to España to discuss the matter with your Majesty, I would also do so. When I reached Nueva España and discussed this matter with the viceroy, and its great necessity for reform, and the extremely ruinous condition of affairs, he thought that I ought to return and give notice of it to your Majesty. Accordingly he told me that I would be fulfilling the service of God and of your Majesty if I would immediately return to these districts on the first ships. He gave me to understand that until the remedy was specified he could reform some of the evils. Although that order was very grievous to me as I had reached Nueva España ill and worn out by the sea, since the service of two so great lords as God and your Majesty was placed before me, I considered it fitting, and accordingly reëmbarked for these islands on the ninth of March of this year one thousand five hundred and seventy. I reached this island of Panay where the governor is established, on the twenty-second of July. All the people were overjoyed at the reenforcements that your Majesty orders sent them, and with the concessions of the petition made from this land. I found the country in a most ruinous condition and such that more has been destroyed in this one year here than during the past five years. Your Majesty owns so many islands in this district that one is surprised at the number. [41] They are all very rich and fertile and contain many gold mines, pearls, and wax, while some of them have cinnamon. They are thickly inhabited and the people promise better than those of Nueva España. But since your Majesty does not provide anyone permanently and prescribe the manner of living, and protect and defend the natives, and keep justice for them, and power to punish whoever injures them, all will be lost in a very short time, for the policy employed with the natives could last but one year here if there is much greater violence. That consists in robbing them, burning their villages, and enslaving them. If this is not done it is affirmed that it is impossible to find support. This is false, for on the contrary, it is impossible to find support in this manner, for everything is being destroyed [by this manner of acting]; and the natives are becoming so exhausted because they are not left for an instant. However, they all desire peace in an extraordinary manner and to live under the protection of your Majesty and to pay the tribute. They would give the sum asked of them, if they thought that no evil was to be done them. But today they are made friends and on the morrow they are robbed. Many of them have been killed and many villages burned. I am writing this in general although not going into details in anything, in order, not to trouble your Majesty. I wrote more at length to the viceroy of Nueba España in order that he might inform your Majesty, for he can easily ascertain whether these things are so from those who come here. This fleet came here at the beginning greatly in need of people who knew how to govern, and the same is true of war, for besides the master-of-camp here, who has died, all the rest know but little as was evident in the war with the Portuguese in Çubu. At that time although the Portuguese were so few, they caused so great extremity that some captains advised the abandonment of the site and retirement to another part; and if the Portuguese did not cause the abandonment while they were there, they caused it when they left, and the strongest site and best port in all these islands, so far as has yet been seen, was abandoned, and we came here to establish ourselves in Panay along the swampy and very poor shore of a river. It will be very much less strongh than Çubu and has no port, while it is hot and unhealthful. If your Majesty do not appoint some one to govern, this colony will daily become less, and will fall entirely into destruction. If we are not more firmly established, we religious cannot treat of the conversion of these natives with zeal and care nor with so much fruit as if the land had peace and security.

They sent from here to petition your Majesty to concede them the favor to allow them to rob and enslave the Moros throughout these districts. The reason that they gave for it was to say that they were Moros and that they were preventing and opposing the preaching of the gospel. The statement that they were preventing the preaching of the gospel was false, for they have never prevented it nor do so at present. On the contrary, there is an increase to be observed in families where the husband is a Moro and the wife a pagan, who come in order to beg the religious to baptize their son and make him a Christian; for they do not at all object to each one living according to the belief that he likes best. For all the Moros who live in these islands have been Moros for but few years back. Many of them, such as those of Luçon, have nothing except the name, and the fact that they do not eat pork; for they have no mosque or cacique [sic] [42] (who are their priests). This worship is only a trifle more firmly established among those of the island of Burney than in the other, although they are also of recent date there. [43] Not all the island is Moro, but only certain villages along the coast, for the inhabitants of the interior are heathens. None of them possess the lands of Christians or wage war on them, or do them any injury; although we do to them, and much, for four or five ships of Burneo have been pillaged and many people killed, while many more from Luçon have been killed, although excellent friends to us. As to the chiefs, they made the land friendly to us, or at least exerted a great influence in that direction. They supplied us with food in abundance and stuffs very suitable for clothing, and gold for our silver, in order that we might barter for our necessities. Now, however, conditions are such that no one dares come [to trade]. I do not believe that any other reason can be given for authority to rob them, except that they are Moros; and that is no legitimate reason and cannot be done.

After we religious came to these districts with the fleet, at your Majesty’s command, nothing besides a little rice has been furnished us for our sustenance every week in the same way as to the soldiers. It is a ration, but even with bread a man cannot be supported by it. I have written to that effect to the viceroy of Nueba España so that we may be supplied from there with necessities until there shall be sufficient means of gain in this land from which to supply us; but he either has no authority from your Majesty to do that, or he does not dare unless it be remitted to us here. I entreat your Majesty to please order us to be supplied with an amount each week per religious as is done in Nueba España, in consideration of the fact that our expenses here are heavier than in Nueba España. For the Indians in Nueba España know only how to give, but these Indians here know only how to beg. The soldiers who are here now are so poor that it is necessary to try to give to them and not to beg from them. Consequently, it will be necessary for your Majesty to make us a more liberal concession than to the religious of Nueba España. I believe that one religious can be supported in these regions for two hundred pesos but not with less. I trust, God helping, that the fruit which will be obtained in the conversion in these districts, will be so great that your Majesty will make us other greater rewards. We have hitherto stayed here because we suspected here that your Majesty would order us to abandon this place, but since we now know that it is your Majesty’s will that we continue to advance the undertaking, we shall begin to baptize all the people; for although there are some Christians, there would be many more if we had known before what we now know. May our Lord preserve the sacred royal Catholic person of your Majesty for many years, as I your humble and least servant desire. This island of Panay, July 25, 1570. Your sacred royal Catholic Majesty’s most humble servant,

Fray Diego de Herrera

[Endorsed: “Examined. To be given to the reporter, so that he may file it with the others.”]

ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS TO AND CONCERNING LEGAZPI

REPLY TO MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI

The King. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, my governor and captain-general of the islands of the West: I have received your two letters dated June fifteen and twenty-three of the past year one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven, [44] and I have taken note of the detailed account which you gave of the events of your expedition, and of what you have done in it; and it is what has been expected from your loyalty and goodness. In regard to what you say of the islands that have been discovered, and which are being discovered daily, and your sensible policy in not waging war, you have done very well, and we charge and order you to continue the same, striving by all good means to attract the natives to the service of God our Lord and mine, and to the love and friendship which they ought to have with you and with the Spaniards who reside with you. You shall so carry yourself that you may not come to blows with them nor with any other persons unless you should be provoked, and in your own defense.

In regard to your statement that some galleys are needed for the trade and commerce of those islands, we have ordered the matter to be discussed, but as yet no resolution has been taken by which we can advise you concerning our will.

Your son, Melchor de Legazpi, and Juan de la Ysla have asked for certain things necessary for the solid colonization of that land and for your defense and safety. [45] You will see what we have supplied by the memorial taken by Juan de la Ysla, and by what our officials in Nueva España will send you. The balance of what is yet to be furnished will be sent in the first fleet that leaves for Nueva España. You will watch over everything in your charge as we expect from your person; and you shall have especial care in furthering the conversion of the Indian natives of that country to our holy Catholic faith, and their good treatment; for that is most important to the service of God our Lord and mine. Since it is so important you shall obtain it by all possible good means.