Part 2
The letter of Francisco de Ortega, O.S.A. (June 6, 1573), discusses general conditions in the islands. Ortega narrates the death of Legazpi on August 21, 1572, which is greatly deplored by all for his good qualities and government. Juan de Salcedo has returned from explorations in Luzon, during which he has circumnavigated the island—the first to accomplish that feat. An expedition sent out by Lavezaris fails to discover anything new, the soldiers only overrunning the district formerly explored, where they commit many depredations on the natives, many of whom are killed, while others flee before the Spaniard. The present of gold sent to the king is wrung from the poor natives and is only a trifle when compared to the vast expenses already incurred in Legazpi’s expedition. The only just sources of profit will be the cinnamon and the exploiting of the gold mines, and even this will mean the destruction of the natives. The viceroy should not trust only to what relation Juan Pacheco, who is going to Nueva España, may give, for he is biassed in favor of the governor for favors received. Authentic news and information may be had from Diego de Herrera, who is going to Nueva España and Spain to report concerning secular and ecclesiastical affairs. Ortega complains bitterly of Lavezaris who is a man of bias and passion, and unfair to the religious and the Indians and poor Spaniards. He should be retired as he is over seventy years of age. He has done wrong in regranting vacant encomiendas that had reverted to the crown, which is contrasted strongly with Legazpi’s steadfast refusal to do so. The population of the island has been greatly overestimated. If a new governor is not appointed, an efficient visitor should at least be sent. Ortega lauds Juan de Salcedo and Juan de Moron (the latter of whom has been sent under unjust arrest to Nueva España) and asks rewards for them. He bewails the fact that the Chinese exploration planned by Legazpi and so desired by the religious has not been carried out mainly because of the opposition of Lavezaris and his friend. He offers himself anew to accompany the expedition if it is reorganized, and suggests the exploration of the island of Cauchill, which belongs to China, and has a rich export trade in pepper and Moluccan cloves.
At about the same time as the above letter, must have been written the undated memoranda for Diego de Herrera who sails for Nueva España in 1573 to inform the king of various abuses, and to report on the islands, and make various requests. The memoranda paint the condition of the conquest in the darkest colors, dilating on the cruelty of the Spaniards, which has caused the name of Spaniard to be hated by the Filipino. Justice is almost an unknown quality, and sentences are adjudged in favor of him who pays most. Retaliation for injuries inflicted by the Filipinos is the order of the day, without any heed as to whether the guilty person is punished or not. Many raids are made; and the land is divided into encomiendas, although not yet pacified. The encomenderos only bleed, but do not protect their natives. Slavery is common among the natives and for various reasons, and the Spaniards are quick to make use of the institution unjustly. Various requests, some for reform, are to be made. Above all the wrong to the natives should be corrected, and an investigation made regarding the slaves held unjustly. Honest men should be sent to inspect conditions. Two hospitals are needed, and religious are extremely necessary. Two secular priests are requested to look after the Spaniards. If the Chinese expedition is despatched, the Augustinians wish to be preferred. Aid is needed for the support of the religious. If slavery is allowed various measures are needed regulating it, and the final word regarding slaves should be said by the religious. Natives should not be taken on raids against their will. The chief products of the islands are gold, pearls, spices, and drugs, and the nearby mainlands are rich.
Under date of June 30, 1574, Martin de Rada, O.S.A., writes the viceroy of Nueva España, discussing events and conditions among the Spaniards and Filipinos. He also draws a dark picture of the rapacity of the Spaniards, who molest the Filipinos by unjust raids and excessive demands for tribute. An expedition made to the Bicol River and Camarines by Salcedo and Chaves has met success only after considerable opposition from the natives who are the bravest of Luzón, and who meet heavy losses in consequence. Chaves is left in Ilocos with a small band to effect a colony. Rada encloses a copy of his “Opinion” regarding tributes. Notwithstanding contrary reports, the islands are but slightly pacified; the natives are restless and piracy is frequent. Unjust wars are waged upon the natives, notwithstanding that the Spaniards attempt to shield themselves behind Urdaneta and Rada. The entrance into Manila was a travesty on justice. The governor takes and solicits bribes, and pays but little attention to the natives. Rada retains those religious who wish to return to Nueva España because of the general conditions. An epidemic of smallpox has spared “neither childhood, youth, nor old age,” and many have died. The document closes with a recital of the classes and causes of slavery among the natives in which many characteristics of the Filipinos are mentioned.
In a letter to Felipe II from the royal officials (July 17, 1574), the king is congratulated on the birth of a son, to whom a present is sent, and also on the great battle of Lepanto won over the Turks by Don Juan of Austria. Ilocos has been divided into encomiendas, while Camarines has been explored and pacified and the land is to be assigned. An attack from Borneo was expected in 1573, but late reports are to the effect that that king desires friendship with the Spaniards. A chief of Mindanao has also signified his desire for peace. There is a steady trade with China, but the Chinese cargoes do not prove very valuable. The king is asked to reorganize commercial communication with Spain and allow private vessels. Cinnamon is abundant, although but little can be shipped for lack of space. Dire need prevails throughout the islands, which is not relieved by the royal officials of Mexico, as they claim to be without royal commission for it. Legazpi had failed to show certain royal decrees, and the king is asked to order the governor not to meddle with the affairs of the royal officials. The trouble with the Augustinians over the tribute is related from the standpoint of the royal officials, the Augustinians going so far as to assert that the king has no legal title in the islands. However, the tribute is being collected on the lines laid out by Legazpi. The officials (Cauchela and Aldave, for Mirandaola has been sent under arrest to Nueva España) petition an increase of salary; and Aldave the confirmation of his appointment as treasurer, given him because of Lavezaris’s appointment to the governorship.
Hernando Riquel, governmental notary, gives (June 2, 1576) a list of encomiendas assigned by Legazpi. These include the islands of Cebú, Panay, Mindanao, Leyte, Luzón, Mindoro, Lubán, Elin, Imarás, Masbat, Capul, Mazagua, Maripipi, Camiguinin, Tablas, Cubuyan, Bohol, Bantayán, Marenduque, Donblón (Romblón), Bantón, and Negros. Many of the names of the early conquistadors are given, and the document possesses value as it denotes early attempts at estimation of population, although those estimates are only vague and very inadequate.
Loarca’s letter of June 15, 1580, complaining of the enmity of Governor Sande, who hates him because he went on the Chinese expedition by order of Lavezaris, while he (Sande) was inside the islands, complains that false reports are sent regarding the conquests, and hence there is a waste of money. He fears to be too specific in his letter lest his letters go astray. He asks for aid, for he has received no salary for some years, and has even spent his own money for public purposes, and has become poor.
In the name of all his brethren, Pablo de Jesus, soon to be elected custodian of the Franciscans in Manila, writes (June 18, 1580) to Pope Gregory XIII a letter (partly doctrinal), giving account of the voyage of the first Franciscan missionaries to the Philippines. On the journey thither a short halt is made at one of the Ladrones, of whose inhabitants the father gives a brief description. At Manila the Augustinians, hitherto the sole religious order in the islands, give them a hearty welcome, but report discouraging progress among the aborigines. Undaunted however, the new missionaries set to work with a will and soon obtain marked results. The evil influence of Mahometanism, which has entered by way of Borneo has made itself felt among some of the natives, but yet with a sufficient supply of missionaries, the Filipinos, whose customs (social and religious) are briefly described, would soon be converted to the faith. The first Franciscan expedition to China, under the guidance of Pedro de Alfaro, which left Manila, May 20, 1579, is also described, and the Chinese characterized. Pablo de Jesus begs the pope to order the authorities in Manila to cease offering obstructions to those religious who desire to go to China to evangelize that great empire.
On October 17, 1581, a council of various religious assembled by Bishop Salazar to discuss the question of the liberation of native slaves held by Spaniards, which has been ordered by a royal decree decide: 1. That an old decree of 1530 prohibits the Spaniards to enslave the natives of the Indies; and that that decree was sufficient by itself to cause all slaves to be freed. Consequently, the new decree must be obeyed. 2. There is not any just reason for awaiting a new order because of petition, for such petition is only a subterfuge to gain time and postpone the liberation of the slaves. 3. The slaves must be freed immediately, although they may be ordered to remain with their masters for twenty or thirty days, in order to give the latter time to adapt themselves to the sudden change.
Of distinct ecclesiastical as well as historical interest is Bishop Salazar’s document of December 21, 1581, creating and establishing the cathedral church of Manila. He provides for the appointment of the various ecclesiastical offices, such as dean, archdeacon, chanter, schoolmaster, treasurer, canons, prebendaries, racioneros, half-racioneros, acolytes, chaplains, sacristan, organist, beadle, econome, notary of the chapter, and the peculiar office of dog-catcher, and outlines the duties of all and names the salary each is to receive. Much of interest is said on the subject of tithes and revenues, benefices, the various parish churches that exist or may be established, and their priests, the failure of duty of any official, chapter meetings (which must occur twice each week), church services, etc. A question to assume vast proportions later, namely, the royal patronage, presentation for benefices, and the episcopal jurisdiction also receives mention. This document presents in germ the ecclesiastical government of Manila.
Antonio Sedeño, S. J., one of the first of his order to come to the Philippines (he having accompanied Bishop Salazar, in company with one other priest—Alonso Sanchez—and two lay-brothers), writes to Felipe II, June 17, 1583, requesting that the governor be appointed from a resident of the islands, instead of sending a new man from Spain to fill that post. Thereby will great occasion for graft be avoided, and the royal expenses be greatly reduced, while the whole land will benefit. He suggests the appointment of Juan Baptista Roman, the factor, a prudent man, who has always opposed wrong. He also requests permission to found a seminary in order that the Jesuits may remain in the country and fulfil their obligations; and royal aid for such foundation.
One day after the date of the above letter (June 18), the bishop Domingo de Salazar writes to Felipe II, urging the establishment of a Jesuit college by royal aid, because of the great advantage that will ensue therefrom. He mentions in general the same reasons for such establishment as are urged by Sedeño; and dwells upon the saving to the royal treasury and the advantage to the land at large. He asks that districts be divided justly among the religious and seculars, and that the members of no order preempt a larger territory than they can attend to. This has caused friction between himself and the religious, which will be eliminated by a royal order to the above effect.
An anonymous relation translated from a printed pamphlet, which bears neither place nor date, follows. Internal evidence shows it to have been written by a religious—Augustinian, Franciscan, or Jesuit, preferably the second—and before 1587 (the year of the arrival of the Dominicans), notwithstanding that the British Museum copy (whence our transcript was procured) queries the date 1595. This relation contains many valuable observations on the islands, and their people, products, and history. The greater part of it consists of a description of the four provinces of Luzón, viz., that of the Tagalogs and Pampangos, Ilocos, Cagayan, and Camarines. The author mentions the important fact that the Tagálogs are mistakenly called Moros, but they are not and have never been Moros. Continuing his relation, the religious describes Borneo briefly and gives the salient points of Sande’s campaign there. The Visayans and their islands are touched upon, some little space being devoted to the first Spanish settlement at Cebú, whence the Spaniards move to Panay after the negotiations with and assault by the Portuguese under Pereira. More men and religious are needed to develop the Philippines and to christianize them thoroughly.
The factor, Juan Baptista Roman, writes to Felipe II (July 2, 1588), relating the chief events of Thomas Candish’s memorable expedition through a portion of the Philippine archipelago. He complains bitterly of the apathy of the governor in not pursuing the English pirate, who is only 22 or 23 years old, and says that good time is wasted by attempting to strengthen the city of Manila to the abandonment of all idea of pursuit. He suggests means by which such expeditions may be rendered impossible in the future. The usual cry of inefficient administration and useless expense is made, as an offset to which Roman proposes the encouragement of private shipping instead of the use of the royal vessels therefor, by means of which the governor, who engages in trade on his own account, becomes rich at the expense and loss of the royal treasury. Finally, the stone fort being built at Manila is useless as it is old style and incapable of defending the city.
Gomez Perez Dasmariñas in a letter to either the viceroy of Nueva España or some high official in Spain (June 21, 1591) devotes himself almost entirely to military affairs. He has introduced system and discipline where it was lacking before, and has built a barracks for the soldiers. He complains greatly of the insubordination of the soldiers there before his arrival and the bad example that they furnish to the new soldiers. He has also constructed a stone wall about the city, which gives an appearance of stability and renders the city secure. He asks that he be allowed to reward the services of gentlemen and soldiers who have accompanied him. The provinces of Zambales and Cagayan, which were in revolt have been pacified, and Dasmariñas suggests the advisability of a Spanish colony in the latter, on account of its proximity to China, and its good harbor. He is having considerable trouble with the bishop and friars who oppose him in everything, and act as though they were the rulers of the country.
In 1599, a series of three documents concerning the procuratorship of Tomás Marquez, of the Philippines, and the methods of the Spanish provincials of the Augustinian Order, and addressed to the pope (then Clement VIII), shows well the political means employed by the Augustinians in Spain in their efforts to retain in their own hands the balance of power as over against that of the Augustinians of the Spanish provinces. The first is a short petition from the above father praying that he be restored to his position as procurator-general of the Philippines, of which he has been deprived by the Spanish provincial, and that he be allowed to take to the islands those of his order who desire to accompany him. The second paper has also the same end as the first, but is more specific, as it gives more at length the various methods employed by the Spanish provincials. Marquez prays that the order in the Philippines be subject only to the general of the whole order and not to the Spanish provincials, who claim jurisdiction as vicars-general. The Spanish provincials endeavor to govern the order in the Philippines and other provinces of the Indies, not for the good of the whole order, but for their own interests, using therein methods that are contrary to the constitution and laws of the order, and, in addition, wrong morally. The offscourings of the Spanish convents are sent to the islands instead of men fitted for the task, and those of the latter class who desire are not permitted to go. The third document is evidently the report of the nuncio, and gives the reasons why the Augustinian provinces of the Indies are not subject to the provincials of Spain, but only to the general of the whole order. The pretext upon which the Spanish province urges leadership is the fact that the first Augustinian establishment in the New World was under its auspices. Since ordered to resign all rights to the office of vicar-general by the general chapter of Rome 1592, the provincial has done so.
The king, by a royal decree of January 17, 1593, addressed to Bishop Salazar, notifies him that the governor has been ordered to take possession of the hospitals for the natives in Manila in accordance with the king’s right as patron of the hospitals.
Ecclesiastical matters are discussed in a letter from the Manila ecclesiastical cabildo to Felipe III (July 3, 1602). The royal Audiencia is trying to force the ecclesiastical judge to make arrests by its aid; but such a course would involve much time and expense to the wretched Indian, whose case as now conducted by the ecclesiastical judge is summarily completed, while recourse to the Audiencia would bring into play all the slow legal machinery. Such ecclesiastical arrests are only made in order to correct sin. Some of the religious orders in Manila claim royal concession for universities and appointments therein. Such a course would be unfair to the seculars, for even now the religious have all the best things, and if they found universities, the seculars will have nothing to which to aspire, while the lure of an appointment to a professorship would cause them to take heart and study hard, so that the cathedral would always have men of learning. The Jesuits desire to use the money restored from the tributes collected by the encomenderos, as a result of Salazar’s contentions, for the founding of a hospital. Such use would divert it from its true employment—the ransoming of Filipino captives and the aiding of their hospitals, and therefore the cabildo petitions that the request be not acceded to. The Jesuits are trying to obtain the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of a town opposite Manila (which is now administered by a secular cura) where they have some years before bought an estate, and have been gradually acquiring all the land which they have rented to the Chinese. In addition the Jesuits are also attempting to obtain the spiritual administration of San Miguel, a small village outside Manila, now administered by seculars. The cabildo petitions that the curas now in charge of these two places be allowed to retain them. The Augustinians have also been guilty of depriving the seculars of their jurisdiction in Cavite and in the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Guia. And so unbridled are they that they resist the visitor sent out by their own order. The Franciscans, in spite of their humility, have built a church at Dilao on their own authority. Thus the royal patronage is transcended, and the governor has been cognizant thereto, through his partiality to the orders. The cabildo asks that the alms generally given to the religious be also granted to the cathedral, for it is very poor. In the cathedral is a bench for the wives of the auditors and another for the officials of the Holy Office—both unusual in other cathedrals. The bench belonging to the Holy Office has led to the excommunication of one of the canons of the cathedral who moved it one day, through the passion engendered in the commissary, a Dominican religious. The cabildo asks that both benches be removed, and that justice be shown them, as they are unable to send anyone to Spain to plead their case, as do the religious.
The condition of the redoubt or fort of Manila is discussed in a letter to Felipe III by its castellan Bernardino Maldonado (June 21, 1605). Many interesting deductions as to the social and economic conditions of Manila can be made from this document. Like so many other documents, this is one of complaint and shows the inefficiency of the government. The fort is poorly garrisoned and almost neglected in spite of its importance (as it is used as the arsenal) and the efforts of its castellan. The garrison is only of fifty men (although Tello had promised to increase it at the earnest solicitation of Maldonado) and those are the offscourings of the camp. A lieutenant appointed has to enter suit in order to receive his pay. The artillerymen should live in the fort and should not be taken elsewhere, and should be experienced men, and not those who receive appointments through favor. Tello has used part of the artillery against Oliver van Noordt, and it was in consequence lost, and now Acuña proposes to take a portion of the few pieces left on his Maluco expedition. Maldonado’s efforts to prepare for the feared Chinese insurrection of 1603 were not encouraging, and he was quite unable to obtain food, and was even compelled to aid the other soldiers with what little he did have. Since that insurrection, the Chinese merchants have come to the city each year, and have been housed partly in the city among the inhabitants, as their alcaicería was burned, although the Parián is now rebuilt. Maldonado complains of the companies formed from Filipinos in whom he sees grave danger. The soldiers of the fort are ill paid, and inasmuch as they are permanently in the fort and make no raids, as do the other soldiers, they suffer considerably. Consequently, Maldonado asks that they be paid first, and that their pay of six reals be raised. Arms are needed, especially arquebuses and muskets. Finally Maldonado mentions his own services and asks for various rewards for his faithfulness.
The Editors
January, 1906.
PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO
(concluded)
By Antonio Pigafetta. MS. composed ca. 1525, of events of 1519–1522
Source: Our transcript is made from the original document which exists in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy.
Translation: This is made by James Alexander Robertson.
[PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO]
(Continued from Vol. XXXIII, page 266.)