EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1739 - 1762 |
  [A brief summary of events during the above period is here presented; it is taken, like similar abstracts in previous volumes, mainly from the histories of ZÚÑiga, ConcepciÓn, and Montero y Vidal.] [The government of the islands by ValdÉs y TamÓn ended in the summer of 1739, when he was succeeded by Gaspar de la Torre. Just before this time, the former ordered the royal fiscal, Christoval Perez de Arroyo,1 to be sent to prison for refusing to give up certain documents in his possession; the fiscal then took refuge in the Recollect convent, and his property was seized. After Torre’s coming, the archbishop (Fray Juan Angel Rodriguez), at the instance of the Recollects, made arrangements with him for Arroyo’s restitution to office; but the governor, instead, imprisoned the fiscal. The suit against him could not be decided at Manila, and was therefore referred to the court at Madrid, Arroyo meanwhile remaining a prisoner, and harshly treated. The archbishop was so grieved at this, and at his having been the cause (although innocent) of Arroyo’s imprisonment, by inducing him to leave his asylum in the convent, that he became seriously ill; and the heroic remedies prescribed by the physicians so reduced his strength that he soon died. Among the accusations made against Arroyo was that he had married (in 1738) DoÑa Maria Luisa Josepha de Morales y Santistevan without the knowledge and consent of her guardian; but this was apparently settled by the proof afterward adduced that the marriage took place on August 12, 1742, and was performed by the guardian himself, Juan de la Fuente y Yepes, dean of the cathedral. In the following December Arroyo died; his widow was summoned to take his place in the legal proceedings then pending against him, but asked the authorities to release her from this requirement; nevertheless, her property was seized, and the case was referred to Madrid for settlement. The court censured both ValdÉs y TamÓn and Torre for their proceedings in the matter, and ordered that Arroyo be restored to his office, with pay for the time which he had spent in prison; but this decision reached Manila (April, 1743) only after his death. (ConcepciÓn, Hist. de Philipinas, xi, pp. 89–121.)] [In January of 1743 the bishop-elect of Nueva Caceres, the master Don Isidoro de Arevalo, asked from the Manila government permission to go to Macao to receive his consecration, there being no bishop in the islands to confer it. But the governor had received letters from China which told of the expedition of the English commander Anson (see VOL. XLVII, p. 231, note 48), his depredations on the South American coast, and his presence in the harbor of Canton for the purpose of repairing his vessel; and he therefore asked the bishop to defer his voyage for a time, in order to avert the danger of his capture by the English “pirate.” In the following May, news came to Manila that Anson had sailed from Canton, and gone toward the Embocadero to lie in wait for the Acapulco galleon “Cobadonga;” the ship “Pilar,” which Anson had been previously foiled in capturing, was despatched (June 3) to aid the galleon, but its commander seems to have been timorous, and took refuge in the port of Ticao at the news of a strange warship being seen (June 22) in those waters. Finally, his ship began to leak, and he returned to Manila without accomplishing anything. On June 30 the “Cobadonga” was captured by Anson, after a brave resistance by the Spaniards. The residencia of the officers of the “Pilar” was delayed for two years, and, although the charges of delay and negligence brought against them were serious, they were finally exonerated from blame; those of the expedition which endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to find and punish Anson after his capture of the “Cobadonga” were also justified. As for the commander (Don Geronimo Montero) and officers of the latter vessel, severe charges were brought against them by the royal fiscal for surrendering the ship; they were arrested, and a special investigation of the matter was made by the royal Audiencia. The fiscal demanded that they be punished; but after examination of the testimony, the governor decided that they were not to blame for the surrender; but they were condemned to pay the costs of their trial. In this voyage the “Cobadonga” had not brought from Mexico the returns on the investments made for that year by the Misericordia2 and other administrators of obras pÍas; these returns, amounting to 1,200,000 pesos, were left behind at Acapulco, either through fear of the English cruisers or for more profitable investment in Mexico. Hence arose a controversy as to the restitution of these funds, and the Misericordia brought suit for their recovery from the agents who had withheld them; but it was decided by the Council of Indias that the latter were not bound and could not be compelled to repay the money. “In the outer court of justice this went very well, but in the inner court it was quite otherwise; for we have knowledge of actual restitutions of the property thus withheld being made to the obras pÍas, by those persons who had more healthy consciences.” (ConcepciÓn, Hist. de Philipinas, xi, pp. 121–237.)]
[The remainder of this summary is taken from ZÚÑiga’s Historia de Philipinas, pp. 546–601.] SeÑor Don Gaspar de la Torre made a bad beginning of his government; the violent proceedings which he instituted against the fiscal Arroyo began to make him odious to the community, the misfortunes which occurred during his term of office exasperated the minds of the citizens, and all his conduct was directed more toward pacifying this hatred than to gaining the esteem of the subjects whom he ruled. Seeing that he was disliked in the city, he began to be affected with melancholy, from which resulted a dysentery, a disease from which one seldom recovers in Philipinas. His illness was aggravated by the news which reached him that the village of Balayan in the province of Batangas had revolted;3 and finally a supposed revolt of the Sangleys ended his life. There was a rumor that the Chinese were going to come into the city, and, notwithstanding his illness, he tried to go out against them; his friends would not permit this, and soon ascertained that it was all a fabrication;4 but he became so feverish from the shock that he died a few days afterward, September 21, 1745 …. In his place began to rule, conformably to the directions given by his Majesty, SeÑor Arrechedera of the Order of St. Dominic, the bishop-elect of Ylocos. He made investigations in regard to the uprising of the Chinese, and found that they had no such intention, nor had they given any cause for suspecting them of rebellion; it was therefore believed that this report had been circulated in order to vex the governor. No long time was spent in quelling the uprising in Balayan; for the sargento-mayor went out with a hundred men of the regular troops and many Indians, encountered the insurgents, and, although he could not conquer them, because the Indians who accompanied him all fled immediately, checked the onset of the enemy, without his having suffered any mishap, save that he received a musket-shot from one of his own men, a raw recruit. He asked for aid from Manila, and they sent him two hundred men, with whom he conquered the enemies and punished them as they deserved—shooting some, and banishing others, according to the influence that they had exercised in the sedition, which vanished like smoke. He left behind a small detachment in that province, in order to inspire some respect [for the Spanish power] in the seditious who might remain in hiding; and the rest of the troops were sent to Cavite, because, besides the information which he received that the English were at Batavia with a squadron, the alcalde of Ilocos gave warning that two ships had been seen from that coast, with two smaller vessels, which were believed to be enemies. The most illustrious governor put the town in a condition for defense, erected various works, purchased arms through the agency of foreigners, and cast some cannons. All these preparations were not necessary, for the English did not come, although they resented our having taken from them a brigantine and a balandra …. In Philipinas, Manila found some consolation in the arrival of two ships,5 which had returned from Acapulco and brought some funds to relieve the necessities of the commonwealth. In one of them came Don Fray Pedro de la Santisima Trinidad,6 who, while a member of the Council of Indias, had taken the Franciscan habit in the Recollect convent of Pomasque; and his Majesty presented him for the archbishopric of Manila, asking the pope to compel him to accept that dignity. Fray Pedro, not being able to oppose the mandate of his Holiness, was consecrated in EspaÑa; he came to Philipinas, and took possession of his office [mitra] on August 27, 1747. It appeared that he ought to have begun at the same time to rule as governor [of the islands]; for the king’s decree appointed for the vacancies [in that office] the archbishop of Manila, and in default of him the nearest bishop—through which arrangement the office had been assumed by SeÑor Arrechedera, who ought to have surrendered the authority to the archbishop as soon as the latter took possession of his see. His most illustrious Lordship did not choose to stir up this question, and contented himself with reporting the matter to the court; answer was made to him that orders had already been previously despatched that he should take charge of the government ad interim, but this royal order did not arrive [at Manila] until after the arrival of the proprietary governor. [His most illustrious Lordship] also brought a decree in which his Majesty committed to him the expulsion of the Chinese—which had not yet been effected, on account of the personal interests of the governors, although it had been repeatedly commanded; but he thought it well not to make the decree known until a better opportunity, because he found SeÑor Arrechedera greatly devoted to the Chinese.”7 This was the only defect that was observed in this most illustrious prelate and governor; in other matters his most illustrious Lordship carried himself with much honor in his government. He quelled the revolt in the island of Bohol, sending Commander Lechuga with a suitable force; this officer punished some of the rebels, and reduced all the fishermen’s villages of that island to obedience to the king of EspaÑa; but in the hill-country the insurgents remain until this day.8 The Jesuits had been urging our Catholic monarch Phelipe V, and constrained him to the inglorious act of writing to the kings of JolÓ and Mindanao; the governor sent ambassadors to deliver his letters and make an alliance with the Moros.9 Those petty kings were greatly delighted at the honor thus done them by a king so great as that of EspaÑa, and, in order to gratify him by complying with his requests to them, consented to receive missionaries into their countries. A Jesuit father went to Mindanao, but, seeing that the chiefs were restless and the king had little power to restrain them, he feared that they would take his life, and abandoned his mission; and he fled for refuge to the fort of Zamboanga. In JolÓ two Jesuits began to sow the seed of the gospel,10 but gathered little fruit because the panditas of the Moro religion raised a fierce opposition to them, and the leading men of the kingdom were not willing that the missionaries should preach a different faith from that which they had inherited from their ancestors. In these circumstances the king of JolÓ, Mahomad Alimudin, desired to go to visit the governor of Manila; but the Jesuit fathers were displeased at this resolution, because they feared that the king’s brother Bantilan, an enemy to the Christians, would be left in command. From this resulted jealousies and disturbances in the court, and the minds of men became so inflamed that some one gave the sultan, or king, a lance-thrust.11 Affairs were thrown into so bad condition that the fathers of the Society, not considering themselves safe in JolÓ, precipitately retreated to Zamboanga. The sultan Alimudin likewise fled from his kingdom in order to go to Manila, to seek aid from the governor in order to punish the rebels who had given him the lance-thrust and conspired against his person.12 He reached Zamboanga,13 and there the Spaniards furnished him with means to proceed to Manila; he entered that city with a retinue of seventy persons, with whom he was lodged in a house in the suburb of Binondo, which was kept at his disposal at the cost of the royal treasury. Afterward he made his public entry [into Manila], and was received with great ostentation; the leading persons in Manila visited him, and presented to him gold chains, robes, diamond rings, sashes, and gold-headed canes—so that he was astonished at so much magnificence, and at the generosity of the Spaniards, for whatever he needed for the support of his household was supplied to him from the royal treasury.14 The governor desired that the sultan should become a Christian, and spoke to him about it; and the latter did not delay to pretend to embrace our religion. He was entrusted to two Jesuit fathers for instruction in the faith, and very soon he was instructed in the Christian doctrine, and gave signs of being truly converted, by the urgent requests which he made to the archbishop to baptize him. Nevertheless, his conversion was somewhat uncertain. Some said that he became a Christian only that the Spaniards might place him on the throne from which he saw himself ousted, and that we ought not to trust in his conversion; others were of opinion that in his conforming to the usage of the church we ought to believe that his intention was sincere, and that he should be baptized, so long as he did not in his outward actions give cause for thinking otherwise. In view of this diversity of opinions, his illustrious Lordship thought it expedient to delay the baptism, and to wait until the sultan should give stronger proofs of his resolution. This delay vexed the bishop-governor, who desired to see him a Christian as soon as possible; and, as he could not change the archbishop’s mind, he sent Alimudin to the village of Panique,15 which is the nearest one [to Manila] in his bishopric of Ylocos, in order that he might be baptized there; and he sent a Spaniard to appear in his name as sponsor. Besides the guard of his own people, the sultan was accompanied by another guard of Spaniards; and in all places through which he passed a ceremonious reception was given to him. In Panique he was baptized by a Dominican religious, on April 29, 1750, with great solemnity and the assistance of other religious of the same order. On his return to Manila, the governor received him with a general salvo from the plaza, and ordered that festivities should be celebrated with comedies, dances, fireworks, and bull-fights, in sign of rejoicing. In JolÓ the brother of the sultan, named Bantilan, had continued in the government of the kingdom; it was he who had ordered that his brother be assaulted, and had stirred up the rebellion among the chiefs which compelled his brother to take refuge among the Spaniards. Bantilan was the greatest enemy that the Spaniards and Christians had, and gave orders that many boats should go out to infest our seas. The Joloans—who were rebels against their own king, and pirates by office—equipped many pancos, joined with them other Moros, whom they call Tirones, and began plundering raids through all the islands. The most illustrious governor gave his commands against them, and commanded some small fleets to set sail; this did not fail to cause in the Moros some respect [for our power], and to restrain them; but no injury was inflicted on them, nor were their insolent acts punished, because there were in Manila few troops. For this reason it was impossible to restore the throne to the king of JolÓ, who was now, since becoming a Christian, named Don Fernando de Alimudin; the proprietary governor, who arrived in the same year when he was baptized, met him in Manila with the greatest ostentation. CHAPTER XXXI Don Francisco Joseph de Obando, a native of Caceres in Extramadura, went with a squadron to the Southern Sea, and was in Lima at the time when that great earthquake occurred in which Callao was submerged.16 There the favor of the king was extended to him, in appointing him governor of Manila; he went to Mexico, and in that kingdom married DoÑa Barbara Ribadeneyra; and, accompanied by his wife, he embarked for Philipinas to render service in the government, of which he took possession in July, 1750. As soon as he arrived, the archbishop presented to him the royal decree in which his Majesty charged him with the expulsion of the Sangleys. The governor held a council for the discussion of this subject, and in it was stirred up a controversy over a seat, which frustrated the excellent intention of his Majesty to expel the Chinese, who are so injurious to these his dominions. The archbishop attempted to seat himself on a chair at the left of the governor, at the head of the table [en la testera]; the latter would not allow this, nor that the guards should form in ranks when the archbishop entered the palace or passed through the gates of the city; and these points of etiquette were sufficient to prevent the execution of the order to expel the Sangleys from Philipinas. Information of this controversy was sent to the court, and on both points came decisions in favor of the archbishop. The royal Audiencia had a dispute with the governor on another point, because he had by his own authority appointed Don Domingo Nebra temporary warden of Cavite, when he should have conferred this post after consulting the royal Audiencia, as his Majesty had commanded. The governor did not gainsay this royal order, but he said that there was no person competent for the building of the vessels which it was necessary to construct for the commerce of Acapulco and the defense of the islands against the Moros, except Nebra; that the latter was seventy years old, and could not be compelled to take charge of the construction of boats unless he wished; and that in no case would he accept the post under consultation of the royal Audiencia, because in that case he would be subject to residencia. The governor concluded that, in an extraordinary case like this, he ought not to adhere to the usual rules, but decide what was most expedient for the royal service.17 The royal Audiencia made their remonstrances and protests, but, seeing that the governor was the stronger, they yielded, and appealed to his Majesty. In spite of the knowledge which the governor so highly extolled in Nebra, the fragata “Pilar,” which he careened and which was despatched to Acapulco, perished at sea, without any news about her having come here. Another and very noisy controversy occurred in Manila about this time. A lady who had made profession in the beaterio of Santa Cathalina, where she was called Mother Cecilia, became enamored of Don Francisco Figueroa;18 and presented herself before [the ordinary, during] the vacant see (SeÑor Arrechedera being then the governor), alleging that her profession was null. The provisor, who did not desire controversies with the Dominican fathers (to which order the governor belonged), pacified her, [arguing] that she should be silent for the time, and wait for a better opportunity to press her claim. As soon as SeÑor Obando arrived, seeing that the difficulties had ceased which until then had made her keep silent, she presented herself before the archbishop, asking, as she had done before with the provisor, that he would annul her profession. His illustrious Lordship commanded that the beata should be placed [for the time] in Santa Potenciana, but this was vigorously opposed by the Dominican fathers. They had recourse to the superior government, but, not finding support in that tribunal, they gave way and surrendered the lady to the provisor, to whom was entrusted this sequestration. The lawsuit followed, and the archbishop decided that, in view of the fact that his Majesty had forbidden that the beaterio of Santa Cathalina should be erected into a convent, Mother Cecilia, who had made profession in it, could not be truly a religious, and therefore her profession was null.19 The Dominican fathers lodged an appeal before the [papal] delegate, who was the bishop of ZebÚ;20 and the appeal was admitted to allow another trial in the former court, but not to suspend its decrees [en lo devolutivo, y no en lo suspensivo]. In order to follow up their appeal with vigor they sent a religious who might carry on active judicial proceedings against the beata, because they thought that to do otherwise was a disgrace to the beaterio; but that bishop declined to hear so vexatious a lawsuit, under pretext of his poor health. There was no other bishop in Philipinas to whom they could have recourse, for which reason they carried the suit to the archbishop of Mexico; and he summoned Mother Cecilia before his tribunal, demanding that she be sent to Mexico in order that he might hear and decide the case there. As the appeal had not been admitted for the suspension [of the first sentence], the beata contracted matrimony, and with her husband embarked for Mexico, where the marriage was considered valid and her profession as null.21 The documents in the case [el espediente] having been carried to the Council of Indias, orders were given that the beaterio of Santa Cathalina should be extinguished with the death of the beatas who [then] were its inmates—which has not been done, because the Dominican fathers have obtained the revocation of this order.22 The governor, being informed of the ravages which the Moros were committing in the provinces of Bisayas, determined to attack them with a powerful squadron, which could at the same time reËstablish Don Fernando Alimudin (whom, now become a Christian, SeÑor Obando had found in Manila) on the throne of JolÓ, of which he had unjustly been despoiled. There was a diversity of opinions on this latter point, because many persons believed that no confidence could be placed in his fidelity, and suspected that on the first occasion that might arise he would practice some treachery, as his fathers had done. But the decision was made in favor of the exiled king, and he was carried to JolÓ in the almiranta of the armada, which sailed from Cavite under command of the master-of-camp of the royal regiment, who bore commissions for both these offices. The armada reached Zamboanga, but the almiranta did not make its appearance; and, in order not to lose the monsoon, and not to give the Moros time to fortify themselves, the fleet, without waiting for the almiranta, sailed from that port on June 13, 1751, and on the twenty-sixth anchored in the cove of JolÓ, at a mile distant from the forts of the enemy. They began to fire the cannons at these, and those who were in command were so intimidated that they began negotiations for peace; and they signed a letter in which they bound themselves to obey their king and receive him as faithful vassals, and to surrender to the Spaniards all the captive Christians who might be in the island. With this compact the master-of-camp returned, much elated, to Zamboanga in nine days; and carried with him two champans of Chinese23 whom he found trading there, seizing them under the pretext that they had sold a cannon to our enemies the Joloans, with whom treaties of peace had just been made. The almiranta had been delayed because it had met some damage, and had remained at Calapan repairing its rudder, for which reason it did not arrive at Zamboanga until July 25; but the king of JolÓ, impatient at waiting so long, had embarked with two caracoas and arrived there twelve days before. In spite of his activity, the governor of Zamboanga was very doubtful of his fidelity; and, having found two letters which Alimudin wrote to the king of Mindanao—one in the vulgar tongue, [written] by order of the governor of Manila, and the other in the Arabic language, which he had learned in Batavia, where he had spent some time—the commandant became curious to know what he was saying in this language, [now] obsolete in our islands. He sought for someone to translate the letter, and found that Alimudin said that what he wrote in the other was in obedience to the governor of Manila and to his commands; and he could not avoid obeying him, or excuse himself, because he was in a foreign dominion. To this suspicion was added the fact that a brother of his named Asin, and the chiefs of JolÓ who had made the compact with the master-of-camp to receive their king and surrender the captive Christians, came to Zamboanga to visit him; and they not only brought no captive, but it was said that, under pretext of this visit, they were bringing in arms, in order to gain possession of the fort. The governor, influenced by these reports, arrested the sultan with all his following,24 and searched the house in which they lived, but he found only a few arms, which gave no indication of an uprising; but other faults were discovered, which gave plausible ground for their arrest. Various despatches and presents which he had sent to the Moros were considered as suspicious; and the commander and two passengers of the almiranta declared that he was on very bad terms with the people in Manila, from whom he had received many kindnesses, to whom on all occasions he showed himself ungrateful; that he said the new governor had kept him like a prisoner; that he gave no sign of being a Christian, since he went every night to sleep with his concubines, did not hear mass, and had taken away the crosses from the rosaries belonging to the people of his household; and, finally, that he had apostatized from the faith by offering a Mahometan sacrifice at Calapan, where he killed a goat, divided it into twelve parts, with many superstitious ceremonies, and gave them to his followers to eat, in order to celebrate Easter. The governor of Zamboanga made report to Manila regarding these charges and his arrest of the sultan and his household; and answer was made to him that he should send Alimudin and all his people to Manila as prisoners, and that war should be declared on the Joloans25—giving authority to every one who wished to equip his vessel as a privateer, and allowing him to keep for himself whatever he should seize as plunder; and any persons who should thus be seized should remain captives,26 since the Moros of JolÓ had been declared not only enemies to the Spaniards, but pirates, who ought to suffer captivity, just as they imposed this lot on the Christians whom they seized. The extermination of the Moros was undertaken with so much ardor that pardon [indulto] for their crimes was granted to those who should present themselves to serve against the enemy. The armada which the master-of-camp had at Zamboanga was reËnforced,27 and a second expedition was made to JolÓ, more unfortunate than the first—for the Spaniards attempted to land in that island, and the Moros received them with such valor that they compelled our people to retreat, with heavy loss and great disgrace to the Spanish arms, to the fort of Zamboanga. The haughty Bantilan, who ruled the kingdom of JolÓ in the absence of his brother, undertook to induce, by the victory which he had gained over the Spaniards, the men of Mindanao to break the peace which they were observing with us, and to harry us as much as they could; and he urged all the pirates who were in those islands to take up arms against the Spaniards, whom he represented as conquered, and in fear of their arms. Then the seas of Bisayas were seen covered with little fleets of Moros, who carried desolation everywhere. Nothing was heard of save plundering, the burning of villages, the seizing of vessels, captivities, and [other] acts of violence, which the Moros committed in our territories28—so that SeÑor Obando wished to go forth in person to restrain them, and to repair the many injuries which they were inflicting on us. His Majesty had commanded that a fortified post should be established in the island of Paragua, in order to shut off the pirates from entrance [into Bisayan waters] on that side, just as it was closed on the other side by the post of Zamboanga. In order to proceed in all respects with moderation, the governor sent an ambassador to the king of Borney, in order that the latter should cede to us the territory that he possessed in that island; and when it was ceded he made ready a squadron to build the fortified post, and from that place to follow up the Moros who were plundering our islands. He intended to go out in person at the head of this armada, and consulted the royal Audiencia on this point; but the auditors were of opinion that it was not expedient to hazard his person, and that he could entrust this expedition to another person, who by carrying an engineer to draw plans for the fort which it was necessary to build on the island of Paragua could accomplish all that was expected from the expedition. In accordance with this advice, the governor appointed, as its commander, Don Antonio Fabea, [sc. Faveau] who sailed from Cavite with eleven vessels; he took with him Don Manuel Aguirre, who went with an appointment as commandant of the military post which was to be established, and bore orders to go to Igolote, in the same island [of Paragua], to dislodge the Moros, who usually took refuge in that place. Here his men fell sick, to such an extent that, without doing more than to take possession of that district, they went back to Manila, leaving behind two hundred and seventy dead, and carrying home many sick men in the squadron.29 The king of JolÓ had already reached Manila, and was imprisoned in the fort of Santiago,30 to the great satisfaction of those who had been opposed to his baptism and had always doubted his fidelity; but he obtained from the governor permission that his daughter the princess Faatima, who was imprisoned with him, might go to JolÓ with letters from him for his brother and other chiefs, in order [to urge them] to make a stable peace with the Spaniards; and for this permission he bound himself to surrender fifty Christian captives.31 The princess accomplished the return of the captives, and obtained from her uncle Bantilan the despatch of an ambassador to Manila, to attend to her father’s affairs. The envoy carried authority to conduct, jointly with Bantilan’s brother the king, negotiations for peace with the governor, and to solemnize the treaties which they should regard as expedient, [the chiefs] binding themselves to obey whatever the two should sign. It was stipulated with the king and the ambassador that the Moros of JolÓ should surrender all the Christian captives who were in their island, and send back all the arms which they had taken from the Spaniards, and the ornaments which they had plundered from the churches; and, in order to make these treaties effective, permission was granted to one of the chiefs who were prisoners with the king to go to JolÓ in company with the ambassador whom Bantilan had sent. The governor had very little confidence in the promises of the Moros or in their treaties, because they had always broken them with the same facility with which they had made them; and he prepared a strong squadron [to go] against them, in order to compel them by force to observe the treaties which he did not expect they would keep of their own accord. Nor did his suspicions prove to be groundless, for in that year (which was 1754) occurred the worst inroad which those islanders had made into Philipinas. In all districts they made raids with blood and fire, killing religious, Indians, and Spaniards, burning and plundering villages; and taking captive thousands of Christians, not only in the islands near JolÓ, but throughout our territories, even in the provinces nearest to the capital Manila.32 The fleet which the governor had made ready went out against them, but, before they could do anything, his successor came, at the end of his four years’ term of office; for this reason, he left the islands in the most deplorable condition that had ever been known, the cause of these evils being either his own misconduct or the unfitness of those to whom he gave appointments, or perhaps his misfortune. What is certain is, that he experienced a very grievous residencia, and many charges against him resulted; and in the following year he embarked in the galleon “Santisima Trinidad” for Acapulco, and died on the way, without reaching EspaÑa. CHAPTER XXXII Don Pedro Manuel de Arandia,33 a native of Ceuta and of Vizcayan ancestry, took possession of his government in July, 1754. As soon as he arrived in Manila, he undertook to organize the troops, and to place the military force on a regular footing and in conformity with the ordinances which are observed in EspaÑa. From the royal troops that were in the islands he formed the “king’s regiment” of two battalions; he reorganized the body of artillerists, placing it in the condition in which we now see it; and he assigned to both the soldiers and the officers pay with which they could decently support themselves and meet their obligations, without being harassed to seek in some other way what was necessary for life. He was very diligent to put in order the arsenal at Cavite, and whatever depended upon the royal officials—in which he did not fail to suffer annoyances, and to incur the dislike of many persons who did not enjoy so much reform and so great zeal.34 At the beginning of his government, in the month of December, occurred the terrible eruption of the volcano of Taal, which lies in the middle of Lake Bombon, in the province of Batangas. So heavy was the shower of ashes that it destroyed four villages which were on the shore of the lake, and it was necessary to remove them a legua inland. There were many and severe earthquake shocks, and a noise as of squadrons engaged in battle; and the atmosphere was darkened with the quantities of sand and ashes which issued from the volcano—so that in Manila, which is distant twenty leguas, but little could be seen at noonday; and in Cavite, which is somewhat nearer, that time of day seemed like a dark night.35 I have ascended with SeÑor Alava36 to the summit of this volcano, and only a lake was seen, about half a legua in diameter; it was very deep, and its waters were dark green. The armada which SeÑor Obando had sent against the Moros met so poor success that the governor was obliged to take away its command from Don Miguel ValdÉs, who had been sent as its chief officer; and it was conferred on Father Ducos, a Jesuit, from whom he expected better results. In fact, that father was fitted for the post, and acted with such valor and discretion that he took from the enemies more than a hundred and fifty vessels, destroyed three of their villages, killed their inhabitants, and made captive innumerable people; and he checked the onset of those barbarians, who were devastating everything.37 These happy tidings arrived at Manila in January, 1755; SeÑor Arandia gave orders that the Te Deum should be sung by way of thanksgiving, and confirmed Father Ducos in his command of the naval squadron; he had great esteem for the father because the latter was the son of a colonel who was the governor’s intimate friend, and because he seemed to have inherited his father’s valor. SeÑor Arandia treated the king of JolÓ with much kindness, and allowed him his liberty, although the king voluntarily continued to live in the fort of Santiago; the governor gave him a monthly allowance of fifty pesos and six cavans of rice for his support, and prevailed upon the archbishop to grant him permission to hear mass and receive the sacraments, of which he had been deprived. The king desired to marry as his second wife a woman who had been his concubine but was now a Christian;38 the archbishop would not permit this, and SeÑor Arandia not only smoothed away all the difficulties, but gave the king the use of his palace in order that in it he might celebrate the marriage with more pomp and solemnity. He did not gain these dispensations without some dispute with his most illustrious Lordship, to which was added another, which, although of less importance, was sufficient to alienate feeling and cause resentment in Philipinas. The governor complained of the archbishop because the bells were not rung for the former when he entered or left any church, as ought to be done on account of his being vice-patron, especially when he went [thither] as president of the [ecclesiastical] tribunals. His most illustrious Lordship declared that he had no order from the king for doing so; but these formalities, together with the attacks of illness which the most illustrious SeÑor Trinidad suffered, caused his death; this occurred on May 29, 1755. SeÑor Arandia continued to favor the king of JolÓ, for he thought that by this means he could end the war with the Moros. He sent to JolÓ all the princes and princesses, the datos, and all the women, who were detained in Manila, leaving the king alone—who acknowledged his vassalage [hizo pleito homenaje] and took the oath of fidelity, until a decision [of his case] should arrive from the court of EspaÑa, which had been informed of his detention. The princes and princesses arrived at JolÓ on October 5 of this year; they were graciously received by Bantilan, who, grateful for the generosity of the governor, promised to observe faithfully the treaty of peace which his ambassador and his brother had signed at Manila. It was necessary, in order to extricate ourselves entirely from the war, to make an agreement with the men of Mindanao; the governor undertook this, and sent ambassadors to them; but the petty rulers who are in that island are so numerous and so treacherous that it is impossible to establish a permanent peace with them. Even assuming that all the petty kings of the Moros may desire to observe the peace with the Spaniards, they will never succeed in it, because they possess so little authority over their vassals that they have never been able to restrain them,39 and they never will prevent them from going out to plunder and to seize captives throughout our islands, for they have given themselves up to this kind of life; and only the spiritual conquest of their provinces is adequate to deliver us from these troublesome enemies. During this government was undertaken the reËstablishment of the missions in the islands of Batanes, which lie to the north of Cagayan. From early times the Dominican fathers maintained in the islands of Babuyanes religious ministers, who gave instruction to their inhabitants; but in the year 1690 they removed these people to Cagayan. The king having decreed that they should go back to their own land, the religious who directed them established a mission in the islands of the Batanes,40 distant some thirty leguas from Cagayan; and after his death his companion withdrew, leaving the mission abandoned until the year 1718. It was then reËstablished by another Dominican religious, who fixed his headquarters in the island of Calayan, in which place he attempted to make the Indians in the other islands settle, in order that, brought together there, they might be instructed in the Christian religion. Great as was the desire of the Batanes to enter the bosom of the church, only a hundred and fifty persons took the resolution to change their place of abode; and half of these died in a short time. That island offered few means of comfort, for which reason the father missionary became sick; and, although he had a successor, the mission was entirely abandoned.41 In the year 1754, two religious were sent, of whom one died and the other retired to Cagayan, seriously ill; but he returned in the following year with another companion. In order to ameliorate the destitution which they had suffered in the preceding year, they determined to take with them a carpenter, a lay brother of their order, in order that he might, as soon as they reached the place, put together a house, which was to go in the vessel, in pieces. Their zeal did not permit them to wait until the work was finished; and, fearing that the monsoon would pass away, they embarked without their little house. Hardly had they reached Calayan when the two fell sick; other fathers went to succor them, and all became sick; accordingly, they returned [to the mainland] one after another, and it was necessary to abandon the mission after the Dominican fathers had incurred large expenses for it. Afterward, this conquest was again undertaken, by SeÑor Basco in 1783; and this effort has been successful in maintaining there the Dominican fathers, converting those islanders to the faith. A commandant was stationed there with his garrison, which caused much expense, because it was necessary to send them all their supplies from Philipinas; for in all those islands the only produce is camotes and such other eatable things as grow in the country itself. There is no doubt that other articles would be produced, but so numerous are the rats, which consume everything, and so frequent the baguios or hurricanes, that one may rest assured that these plagues would devastate the fields before the crops could mature. Every year a bark was sent to carry succor to the islands, but, as the baguios are so frequent in those seas, many of these vessels were wrecked; it has therefore been recognized that the maintenance of that post is impossible, and the result is, that only the Dominican fathers remain there with a small guard, who must be succored from Cagayan. For this enterprise SeÑor Basco was granted the title of Conde de la Conquista; but I assert that if half of what he spent in Batanes had been expended in placing missionaries in Ylocos, Pangasinan, and Cagayan, he would have gained more vassals for the king of EspaÑa, and with less risk. I am astonished that we should have left the beaten track of the conquest or pacification of the Indians, and taken up another which is more dangerous and more costly, only because it makes more noise and a more showy appearance, that is, [the conquest] by arms, which always has produced bad effects—as occurred at this time, in the hill-country of the Igorrots. In the year of 1740, the Augustinian fathers handed over to the Dominicans the missions of Ytuy, or Ysinay, in order that, these being joined to the missions of Panique which they had established in the preceding year, the provinces of Pangasinan and Cagayan might be united on their southern borders.42 The Indians, both Christians and unbelievers, resented this change of missionaries, from which resulted a species of civil wars among them; and it was necessary for the auditor Don Ygnacio Arzadun y Rebolledo, who was then making official visitation of the province of Pangasinan, to send troops [to Ytuy] to silence the malcontents. Our men fought a battle with them, in which the natives were defeated and pacified; but a few years later they again became restless, and finally, in the year 1756, many Christians apostatized; and these, united with the unbelievers, raised a furious tempest. They burned some churches, slew many of the people who remained faithful, and, losing reverence for the missionary fathers, searched for them to take their lives. On account of this, SeÑor Arandia despatched an expedition to this mission and to the hill-country of the Ygorrots, which had very little effect; for it accomplished nothing save to frighten the Indians and make them flee to the hills, to come down again as soon as the soldiers should go away. In order to know how to pacify the Indians, it is necessary to understand their character. Whether because of their naturally superstitious disposition, or because God has thus ordained it, they are very affectionate to the missionary fathers, and have much reverence for them; but there are not lacking some who dare to plan some perfidy against the fathers, and for this reason they need escorts to protect them from audacious attempts of that sort. At times the natives become heated and rise against authority, and the multitude come out against the fathers, unless there is some check to restrain them; such a check, is in the military posts, which ought to be near the missions, so that the Indians may have respect for these, and fear lest they will be immediately punished if they commit any insolent act. With these measures of precaution the islands were conquered, and the same are observed at the present time; but the missionaries are very few, from which it results that they are so widely separated that they have to make a day’s journey to visit one another, when they need to be confessed or on other occasions, and they are very poorly paid. For what is a hundred pesos and two hundred cavans of rice for a Spaniard to maintain himself with decency in the missions? [Even] this small stipend they sometimes cannot collect without a thousand annoyances and vexations which are occasioned to them by the alcaldes-mayor, who seek various pretexts for not paying them, and compel them to go from the mission to the [provincial] capital to collect it, as I have seen. So wretchedly do these poor religious live that there are occasions in which they find themselves obliged to use for their own support what was given to them for their guards; and they live without these, preferring to remain exposed to the affronts of the heathens rather than perish with hunger. The military posts are also few in number, and the Indians in them are unable to impose respect on their countrymen. If the money that has been spent in useless expeditions could have been employed in these sure means of pacification, that undertaking would have made much greater progress. It is true, we shall never see the rapid advances made by our ancestors in the conquest [of the islands], because the Indians have their eyes more open; the Christians themselves persuade the others not to be baptized, in order that the tribute and other taxes may not be imposed on them. Moreover, they themselves have a custom which greatly hinders their civilization, and consequently their conversion. If any one commits a murder in another village, its people do not rest until they have avenged the crime; the consequence is, that the weaker villages are obliged to remove from the district, or to league themselves with other villages. In either case, the Christian church suffers much, because those who are baptized must follow the infidels of their own village and separate themselves from the [missionary] fathers, or else must enter into the general hostilities. Nevertheless, gradually they would all be converted; for if in the neighboring villages many unbelievers are continually being baptized, who leave their own lands and are held in less regard than are the oldtime Christians, how many more would not be baptized if they could remain in their own homes, honored and courted by their old acquaintances? Christian morality is very holy, and attracts all hearts in which vice has not become deeply rooted. On May 15, 1757, the holy Congregation [i.e., of Propaganda] at Rome issued the decree which put an end to the controversies which the discalced Augustinians (or Recollects) sent out by the Propaganda had in the kingdom of Tungquin with the Dominican missionary fathers from Philipinas over the administration of certain districts, and in regard to the [association called the] “Lovers of the Cross” [Amatrices de la Cruz].43 The Dominicans had received into their missions various priests sent out by the Propaganda, who—for lack of ministers, or on account of the persecutions—had ministered to some villages in the Dominican territory. On this account his Lordship Fray Hilario de Jesus, bishop of Coriza, asked from the Dominicans a residence for a Recollect (as the latter belonged to his own order); and soon after that he asked for the entire district, which was granted to him during the lifetime of that religious. When the bishop saw the Dominicans so compliant, he did not delay in demanding another district for his discalced fathers. The Dominicans did not accede to this demand, and his illustrious Lordship, availing himself of various pretexts, introduced into that district a Recollect religious; from this resulted a sort of schism, in which papers were written on both sides, insulting remarks were made, and neither party would yield. Like altercations occurred in other districts, because the Recollects tried to thrust themselves into the missions of the Dominicans. The “Lovers of the Cross” were a sort of beatas, who lived in a community, and, although they did not take the vow of chastity, observed the [rules of the] religious life; some of them belonged to the Tertiary Order of St. Dominic, and others to the discalced religious women of St. Augustine. It was made evident that these beaterios ought to be subject to the parish priests; but, bringing forward various pretexts, the Dominicans and Recollects disputed over the direction of these beatas. In order to stop the scandals which resulted from these disputes, the bishop of Coriza assembled a [diocesan] synod in the village of Luctuy; it was the second synod held in Tungquin, and held its first session on June 24, 1753. Among the other points that were settled, action was taken on the “Lovers of the Cross,” and on the distribution of districts. As the bishop was a Recollect, and the rest of those who attended the council were his confederates, everything was decided against the Dominicans; Father Hernandez, therefore, who was the only member of his order who attended the synod, protested against all its decrees, appealed to the Apostolic See, and went out of the meeting before it was ended. After the synod closed, the Dominicans, seeing that a Recollect was going to Rome to secure approbation for the acts of the council, sent another envoy, a Dominican, to prevent this. When the whole matter was examined in the holy Congregation, two districts were set aside for the Recollect fathers, and the rest were continued in charge of the Dominicans, the beaterios of the “Lovers of the Cross” were left subject to their respective parish priests. In regard to the [acts of the] second council of Tungquin, it was ordained that they should not be carried into effect until the holy Congregation should, after a thorough examination, agree to confirm them. Returning to Manila, one of the good things which SeÑor Arandia did in his term of office was the expulsion of the Chinese. He sent away all the heathen to their own country, and, in order that hereafter they might not remain in Philipinas, he founded the market [alcayseria] of San Fernando,44 in which all the Sangleys who come here to trade must dwell until the time for the departure of their champans arrives; and then all must embark in their vessels except the Christians, who have permission to live in the islands, provided they devote themselves to the cultivation of the soil. The Spaniards who were interested in the residence of the Sangleys in Manila persuaded him that, if he expelled them, there would not be people enough to carry on the internal trade; and, in order to counteract this frivolous pretext, he established a [commercial] company of Spaniards and mestizos. This lasted only one year,45 because there was little need of it in some islands where there are more than enough to carry on this sort of traffic. The Asiatics are naturally slothful, and consequently enjoy greatly the kind of life—since it gives them food without labor—which they secure by buying and selling the commodities which are consumed in the country; and, even if some are unsuccessful, every one has a very moderate [amount of] trade; but there is hardly any one among them who does not carry it on very steadily. This abundance of petty traders makes their wares much dearer, since they pass through many hands before they reach the last buyer; and each trader, since he operates with little capital, must make large gains in order to support himself. From this it must be inferred that the Sangleys, far from being necessary to this commerce, greatly injure it; and it should have been considered desirable to lessen, in place of increasing, the number of these traders or dealers. Notwithstanding the wisdom of this measure, SeÑor Arandia lost much in popular esteem by it; and this, added to others of his actions, brought upon him the hatred of the community. In virtue of the ample powers which he brought from the court, he drew up instructions for the alcaldes-mayor and the government of the provinces, in which he openly declared himself against the regulars. At the beginning, he had treated these religious bodies with respect; but, resenting some acts of disrespect manifested toward him by certain individuals, in these instructions he deprived the orders of the kitchen-boys who had been furnished to them by the king since the conquest, and the servants granted them by the crown for sacristans. Not content with causing them these losses,46 he made various remonstrances against them to his Majesty, in which he spoke of them with little civility; and in the instructions he spared no means of injuring them, seeking opportunity to speak ill of them even in those sections of that document which have no connection with the religious. The blame for all this was laid on his favorite, Don Santiago Orendain,47 who was the declared enemy of the ecclesiastics; but this could not excuse SeÑor Arandia for issuing directions which the king had the goodness to censure as soon as he saw them, for depriving the ecclesiastics of the groves of nipa palms which they held in La Hermita and Bagunbayan, for stirring up several groundless controversies with them, for imposing taxes on the goods which the religious in the provinces were sending to their convents,48 and for expressing his [unfavorable] opinion of them in public. He had a dispute with the royal Audiencia because he was not willing to render military honors to them when they went in a formal body, on occasions when he did not preside over their sessions. He imprisoned the treasurer and auditor of accounts of the royal exchequer, and caused them great suffering, because they had sent information to the court of some things that was contrary to the explanations given by him in his reports. Unwearied in the government, he conceived many projects which he considered necessary for the proper government of the islands. He talked of removing the arsenal from Cavite to the port of Lampon; and he ordered a ship to be built in the kingdom of Siam, which had such ill-fortune that in bringing it over to Manila it was driven to port in China three times, and once to Batavia, causing enormous expenses to the royal treasury.49 The governor made reports to the king, and proposed to him various plans for the promotion of [operations in] the mines of iron and gold. He abolished the corregidorship of Mariveles, annexing Marigondon and the other little villages of that shore to the district of Cavite, and forming from the villages on the opposite shore and from others which belonged to Pampanga the alcaldÍa which we call Batan.50 He made regulations for the soldiery, the royal exchequer, and the Acapulco ship51—on all occasions giving many proofs of his zeal for the royal service, by which he was aroused to enthusiasm; but this disposition, ill directed by Orendain, was the cause for his being abhorred by every one. It was so wearing upon him that he reached the point of feeling a distaste for every kind of business, and experienced so great a failure of his vital powers that in the night of May 31, 1759, it was known that he was dying; and, after receiving all the sacraments, he expired at two o’clock in the morning of the following day.52 He left by his will two hundred and fifty thousand pesoty and one cannot guess how he gained them in the less than five years during which his term of office lasted; but at the hour of death he distributed them in a pious and Christian manner. Through the death of SeÑor Arandia, the bishop of Zebu, SeÑor Espeleta, assumed the government. Soon afterward, the new archbishop of Manila arrived here, Don Manuel Roxo,53 a native of Tala [sc. Tula] in the kingdom of Nueva EspaÑa; his Majesty had taken him from the post of canon and provisor at Mexico, for this see, giving him permission to be consecrated in Nueva EspaÑa. He took possession of his church on July 22, 1759, and immediately claimed that he should be put in possession of the military government, which it seems belonged to him by the royal orders. The four auditors were divided in opinion, SeÑors CalderÓn and Davila deciding that the archbishop should assume the governorship, and SeÑors Villacorta and Galban that no change ought to be made. While they were in session in their hall, discussing this question, his illustrious Lordship Espeleta entered; he spoke with decision, and, in order to intimidate them more, made ready the artillery and placed the troops under arms; at these preparations the auditors and the archbishop gave way, and the bishop of Zebu remained in peaceable possession [of the government]. The first thing that he did was to revoke the ordinances of SeÑor Arandia, and to make some preparations against the Moros, who since the year fifty-four had been ravaging our provinces; but the event which made most noise in his time was the lawsuit against Doctor Orendain. Every one placed on him the blame for the actions of SeÑor Arandia; and the fiscal of the king, SeÑor Viana, believed that he had been placed under arrest in his own house by the favorite’s suggestion. Orendain, either because his conscience stung him, or because reports had been spread that some design was formed against his person, took refuge in the Augustinian convent at Tondo. The fiscal made it a pretext for claiming Orendain from this asylum, that he should be arrested because he was treasurer for the Crusade, and, by his voluntary withdrawal [to asylum], indicated that he might prove to be a debtor to the royal treasury. He then left his refuge, and was imprisoned in the fort of Santiago, the authorities commissioning SeÑor Villacorta to bring legal proceedings against Orendain. It was found that he had hidden various jewels in the convents, and, while these investigations were being pursued, he made his escape from the fortress in the dress of a woman, going away in a coach, without the guard recognizing him, and took refuge in the convent of the Recollects. The auditor thus commissioned had recourse to the provisor, in order that the latter might give orders for Orendain’s removal thence; but, as the provisor did not accede to this after three demands, the auditor sent a notary with soldiers, and removed Orendain by force from the sanctuary. The provisor declared SeÑor Villacorta publicly excommunicated, and his name was placed on the list. That gentleman had recourse to the royal Audiencia, which ordered the provisor to absolve the auditor; this was done through the cura of the cathedral, but ad reincidentiam, and for the period of thirty days—that is, if the accused did not return to the church within the thirty days, he would incur excommunication the second time. SeÑor Villacorta challenged the provisor, and this lawsuit became so tangled that various judges were challenged by one side and the other, and even SeÑors Calderon and Davila were challenged by the king’s fiscal, who had taken part in the dispute; and there was no one who could give judgment in the suit, because some refused to take the responsibility, and others were challenged by one or the other party. In such condition was the Orendain affair, when a decree arrived from his Majesty in which he appointed the archbishop as governor ad interim on account of the death of SeÑor Arandia. He assumed the authority in the year 1761, and put an end to this clamorous lawsuit by commanding that Orendain should leave the fort, and all his property be returned to him, with [his giving] security for all that he owed to the Holy Crusade; he also imposed on all persons perpetual silence during the time until his Majesty (whom he informed of his proceedings) should make some other decision. His most illustrious Lordship continued to rule the islands in much peace, fulfilling rather the office of father than that of governor, conciliating those who were turbulent, and extending his charity to the king of JolÓ, who was living in the fort with much lack of comfort. The governor quartered him in a house in Manila, decently furnished, with a coach and with menials enough for his service. He wished, besides this, to restore him to his kingdom, and after listening to the opinions of the leading persons in Manila, it was decided that the king Don Fernando and his son Israel should be sent back to JolÓ, and that they should take with them a guard of Spaniards, in order that the chiefs in that island should not compel him to abjure the Catholic religion which he had embraced. When they were ready to carry out this undertaking the English arrived [at Manila], the war with whom it is necessary to relate in separate chapters.54 |
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