LETTER FROM FRANCISCO DE ORTEGA TO THE VICEROY
Your Excellency: May the grace and consolation of the Holy Ghost dwell forever in the soul of your Excellency. Last year I wrote a report and an account to your Excellency of the affairs of this region, in fulfilment of the directions given me by your Excellency when I came to this country. Since in the previous report I wrote at length, I shall be brief in this one, referring to the other one and to the statements in it for the explanation of some things which I say here. I ratify anew everything that I have said, and purpose now to give information to your Excellency of what has happened in this country since my last writing. I have accordingly to inform you that on August 13, of last year, there set sail two vessels named “Santiago” and “San Juan.” One week later, namely, the twenty-first of the said month, our Lord took from this life by sudden death the adelantado and governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (may he be in glory). His death was greatly deplored and is so even at the present day, for doubtless his valor and wisdom have been greatly needed. Those who regarded him as wicked in his life will now canonize him as a saint. I believe that he is in glory or on the way to it, for he was a good Christian and if he erred in some things, I believe that he desired to do right, while in some other things he did the best he could. He died poor, which is a great evidence of his goodness. That was a cause for great confusion to those who regarded him as very rich, and who were murmuring about him saying that he had a chest of gold and more than 25,000 pesos in tostons. All that he was found to have on the day of his death was 460 pesos in two little sacks. These he had asked as a loan a few days before. He had also in gold about 120 pesos not counting one large chain and one small one which he brought from his own land. He had also the wrought silver of his table service. All the rest of this was not worth 500 pesos. This is the whole of the wealth and treasure which he had. Of this fact I am practically an eyewitness, for I was present at his death and at the inventory of his property. Three days after he had died his grandson, Captain Joan de Salzedo, came from the opposite coast of the island, where he had been three months, having gone by the direction of the governor to explore that country and to pacify the people who lived in it. He brought back very good news from there, though he could not give it to him who had sent him out, and hence great sorrow was caused to him who brought the news and even to the rest. They reported that the population there was large and that there were many good settlements close to one another and that they were better ordered and governed than in the other parts. They said that there were villages with 300 or 400 houses together, some more and some less, and that there was among them one village that seemed to contain more than three thousand houses, and another with 800, where he left his alférez with thirty-five soldiers while he came to tell the news and to make an extended report. He accomplished one thing which astonished everybody, because without doubt it was a very daring and courageous exploit. This was to attempt to circumnavigate the island, which he accomplished in two tiny boats with 15 soldiers. These boats did not draw one palmo of water. They are called barangays in this country and are rowed with very short oars by Indians seated in the boat. Though these vessels are of this character, and the sea of that coast is so rough that not one of the natives, as they say, has ventured to navigate it, still he dared to do it in order to know and see what there is on the opposite coast. He suffered great hardships but God delivered him from all of them. His boat was ofttimes almost swamped, and he and the others with him on the point of drowning. Finally he sailed one hundred leguas, coasting along the island to the point of his settlement, and he has explored and circumnavigated it. In all the length of that coast there was not a single village nor one Indian, for the whole country is desolate where they supposed there would be a great many people.
In the villages to which he went on this exploring and pacifying expedition, he collected 800 gold taes in tribute. A tae is a weight of one onza or a little more. Of this amount he gave half to the soldiers and the other half to his Majesty’s treasury. This is the largest amount of treasure that had hitherto been received in these islands. Three months after his alférez, who had remained behind, arrived. The reason of his coming was that almost all his soldiers were taken sick and that they had no ammunition. He brought back a thousand taes of gold in addition to as many more which he shared between himself and the soldiers. All this was put in the royal treasury under the control of our new governor, Guido de Lavezaris. Because of what he heard of the country and its people and their wealth, the latter decided to send the master-of-camp there with one or two captains to inspect the population and the villages which were to be divided into repartimientos. He who should not have gone, went [on that expedition], and with him Captain Lorenço Chacon with more than 130 soldiers and more than 800 Indians who rowed the boats in which they went. Without discovering any new lands or seeing any new villages besides those which Captain Joan de Salzedo had discovered and pacified, they collected in tribute three thousand taes or more. It is fitting that your Excellency should know the manner in which these tributes are collected, and the way in which they are demanded before the time, contrary to the law of God and the directions of his Majesty. The first thing they do when they reach any village or province is to send them an interpreter or two, not with gifts or presents, not to preach to them or to speak to them of the things of God, but to order them to bring tribute immediately and to be friendly to the Castilians. Since this is a so new and strange thing for them, as being something to which they have not been accustomed, as they have not been either subjects or vassals of any native king or lord (of whom they have none in any part of these islands, as was written in my other letter to your Excellency), all this is confusion to them and causes them much evil by forcing them to give as tributes the necklaces which they wear about their necks and the bracelets which they and their women wear on their arms. For few or none of them have any other property but what they wear on their persons. When these so evil abuses are inflicted upon them, some of them refuse to give the tribute or do not give as liberally as those who ask it desire. Others, on account of having to give this and of their fear at seeing a strange and new race of armed people, abandon their houses and flee to the tingues [i.e., hills] and mountains. When the Spaniards see this, they follow them, discharging their arquebuses at them and mercilessly killing as many as they can. Then they go back to the village and kill all the fowls and swine there and carry off all the rice which the poor wretches had for their support. After this and after they have robbed them of everything they have in their miserable houses, they set fire to them. In this way they burned and destroyed more than four thousand houses in this expedition to Ylocos, and killed more than five hundred Indians, they themselves confessing that they committed that exploit. Your Excellency may infer how desolate and ruined this will make the country, for those who have done the mischief say that it will not reach its former state within six years and others say not in a lifetime. Will your Excellency determine whether this is consistent with law, divine or human, with religion or Christian charity. Your Excellency will also consider that in these invasions and explorations the law of Mahomet is followed rather than the law of God; for no account is taken of His precepts and there is no care to follow His law and the Christian instructions conformable with and akin to them, which have been given by our Catholic and very Christian king and lord Don Ffelipe. The latter commanded that by love and kindly treatment and with gifts and presents the natives should be caressed and attracted to love and friendship for us, so that in this manner they might come to the knowledge of our God and Creator, and might subject themselves to his royal protection and might recognize him as their king and lord. For all these purposes, he spends most freely from his royal treasury, buying fine scarlet cloths, stuffs, caps, silks, and other things suitable for this purpose, as your Excellency knows better than I. Yet they do not follow his will but invade the country of the Indians, killing and robbing, burning their villages and houses, and collecting as enemies what his Majesty commands us to take and receive from them as friends. In place of engendering in their breasts and souls love and goodwill, they create and engender hate and abhorrence against us and against the name of Jesus Christ crucified whom they ought to teach and preach to the natives. If by such pilgrimages and pacifications and services God our Lord and his Majesty are pleased, let your Excellency judge.[1]
They also said in the beginning that in the province of Ylocos and in the other three provinces which were explored on the opposite coast and which they declare that they have pacified, there were more than four hundred thousand Indians, and that there were enough to afford repartimientos for all those who are in these regions. Now they declare that there are not enough for forty soldiers, according to the account which they bring back from there, for according to them there are not as many as 40,000 Indians. I say this so that your Excellency may see how closely this report conforms to the others which I wrote in my former letter, and that your Excellency may be informed and may know the truth if it should not be written [by others] from here.
It seems to me also desirable to inform your Excellency how and in what manner they send the present of gold to his Majesty, that you may understand the wealth of this country and the service rendered him in it by them, and how that gold was got. In accordance with what has been related and declared above, the quantity would be at most about 30,000 pesos; and how little appropriate it is to send this quantity of pesos as a present, and to send as many more debts to the royal treasury of this country is very clear. It is also very clear and plain that this present is a trifling one after the royal treasury has spent more than two millions or but little less as I am informed, within the fifteen years since the expense of this expedition [i.e., Legazpi’s] began. How far from the royal magnanimous, Caesarean, and more than Alexandrine heart of our king, Don Ffelipe, this present is, is so plain that the blind could see it and the most ignorant judge it; hence on this point I do not ask your Excellency to form a judgment, but I do ask you to decide what reward it deserves from a king so Catholic as ours to make him a present and a payment into his treasury of what has been robbed and wrung [from the natives] contrary to what God and the king himself have commanded. In conformity with what your Excellency with your delicate and most Christian conscience may feel and judge in this matter, will you send thanks in the royal name. How much more would God our Lord and his Majesty be served if the gold which is sent to him as a present were worn on the arms of the Indians of the Ylucos to whom it belonged, than that the ladies of our lady the queen should wear it about their necks in the court.
This has been said partly that your Excellency might know what takes place here and might understand the way in which this present was sent to his Majesty, and partly to state again that, in spite of the wealth which they will say and write to your Excellency as existing in Ylucos and the other provinces, when his Majesty shall have paid the expenses of this region, he will receive no lawful and Christian profit from these islands, except perhaps the cinnamon which is taken from the island of Bindanao as it is now taken, unless the gold mines in these regions are worked. I believe that they will not be worked except with the great oppression and loss of the natives, and that will mean their total destruction, for experience has undeceived us in this matter by what has happened in the island of Española and in other regions.
As for the government of the new governor, Guido de Lavezaris, I shall discuss or say nothing; for your Excellency can learn about it there from the people who go [there] from here, and by the letters which will be written. Only I beg your Excellency not to take your information from Joan Pacheco alone, for, according to his statement and opinion, because of his obligation to the governor, and his affection and friendship, and the things that the governor has done for him, he will say that he is fit to rule and govern the kingdom of Napoles and the state of Millan. It is no wonder that he says that, for the governor has given him more than four thousand Indians in repartimiento, so that there is not a better encomienda in this region, though Pacheco is but a private soldier, and one of those who has seen least service in this country. He has done nothing but act as sentinel for the adelantado—may he be in glory—and that not for very many years, though he is a man of wealth and of noble birth, as your Excellency will have heard. Your Excellency may obtain specific information regarding him, and that from father Fray Diego de Herrera[2] who is on his way to inform your Excellency and his Majesty of affairs in this country and of the events therein. He deserves great faith and credit on account of his great goodness and devotion, for without anger or bias or self-interest, he will tell your Excellency truthfully and with a zealous Christian heart desirous to serve God and his Majesty, the state of affairs here. He will give you a particular account of the small favor in which the religious and the ministers of God are now held here more than ever, and how insulted and little regarded they are by the governor and his followers and allies and by those who have any command and power here now. He will tell you how little is done for them, and how little aid and favor is given to the instruction and the things of God, and also how little favored and protected are these natives and how oppressed and molested they are ordinarily. He will also inform your Excellency how under color of sending his Majesty a very rich present from everything brought from China by the Sangleys, he has demanded a loan in the camp of more than four hundred taes, taking from one ten, and from another twenty, and from another fifty, in accordance with what he is sending, and what each one possessed. I do not understand how the judge who receives loans as gifts or pledges from those whom he must punish, can rightly judge and enforce justice. He will also inform your Excellency of the many revolts and riots, the factions and enmities which arise among the people here, how much complaint all have in general to make of the new governor, and how they are irritated by his policy and government and murmur at it, and how well known he is to have a passionate temperament, as is manifest by those whom he is sending to that country under arrest, which will appear in the records of the process. He is also known to be very biased and partial, and that not to the older, the more prudent, and leading persons in the camp. For his companions he has an open door and has always time to spend three or four hours talking with them, while his door is shut to the religious and to the minister of God and to the poor soldier who has any occasion to do business with him, and he has no time to listen to the poor Indian about the wrongs that have been done to him, or to the Spaniard who comes to state his complaints and troubles, or to listen calmly and kindly to what is affirmed and declared regarding a demand for justice. Upon these and other matters of the same kind and quality one might say much and might write a long document. This I do not do, but refer to those who are going there to tell your Excellency that never have the forces in this camp been so disturbed and divided as at present. In almost nine years during which the good old man now departed—may he be in glory—governed us, there were not so many dissensions and disturbances, nor so much discontent, as there have been and are during the nine months in which Guido de Lavezaris has been governing us. On this account, and since he is now more than seventy years of age, and I think desires quiet, it is necessary to provide a remedy; and that is for your Excellency to send from there any person soever that is suitable for such a duty and fit for the present necessity. For I believe before God and my conscience, casting aside all bias and partiality, which in this matter have no control over me, that this is desirable for the service of God our Lord, and of his Majesty, the good of the natives, and the pacification and preservation of this country. Believing this with honest purpose and with a Christian heart desirous of the common welfare and of the service of God and of his Majesty, I give your Excellency this advice, so that, as a pious and most Christian prince you may, with your great prudence and liberality, quickly provide the remedy. If your Excellency does not see fit to send another new governor, it would be desirable in my judgment for your Excellency to send an auditor of that royal Audiencia and some person learned in the law, a man of character and a good Christian, to visit and inspect this country and to undeceive your Excellency with regard to some matters which have been written to you there with perverse reports. It will be better to send a rich advocate than a poor knight who as is suspected is pledged by gifts and by the grant of a good repartimiento. This last point, however, I know only by hearsay. If it is true, your Excellency will ascertain it there and will judge if it is right that the encomienda should not be given to those who have been here in service nine years pacifying the country, and that it should be given to a man who came and goes back again with a good salary without having been engaged in the pacification and without any of the labor of conquest. At the same time I think it is necessary that your Excellency in the name of his Majesty, or his Majesty in person should confirm the repartimientos and grants which the new governor has made without having had special permission therefor and without special command from his Majesty. Your Excellency will also decide if the regranting in encomienda of the villages which became vacant, and were in his Majesty’s hands, has been proper. All that I know of this is that the adelantado (may he be in glory) was often importuned to have this done, but never could it be brought about because he said that he had a command from his Majesty to the contrary. What the other, in his great prudence and matured wisdom did not do, he who now governs us has done with great promptness and liberality. The cause which I believe has moved him to this is the lack of Indians to be given in encomiendas to the soldiers; if this is true, it is very clear and may easily be perceived and understood that there is not in these islands the population which has been reported to your Excellency by letter, though there has been no lack of Indians for him and for the officials of the king, contrary to his Majesty’s prohibition.
If your Excellency should not send and provide another governor for these islands, it would be just for your Excellency to have our present governor ordered to take care to protect the affairs of the adelantado, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (may he be in glory), since he governed this country with so great quietness and prudence, spent upon it his own property, and died poor in the service of his Majesty. That is very just, as is also that particular care be taken to show kindness and favor to Captain Joan de Salzedo, inasmuch as he is one of those who have labored most in this country and have shown the greatest zeal in the service of his Majesty. He is very spirited and energetic, and for a man so young, very cautious and prudent, and he has good desires and purposes to serve God and his Majesty. Hence some office might be assigned and entrusted to him. Therefore, any favor that your Excellency may extend or may command to be shown him will be very well conceded; although the governor has given him but scant reward, since he has given as much or more to a private soldier, as has already been said, by which he has given rise to comment and occasion to murmuring.
It is also just that your Excellency should show all possible favor to the sargento-mayor, Joan de Moron, who is going to that country under arrest on grounds which seem very slight, besides being imprisoned here for ten months in his house and being burdened by the expenses of the suit. Everybody thinks that there has been more passion than reason or justice in this case, as may be seen there by the report of the process.[3] He is a man of very good qualities, and though he is not at all a courtier, he is prudent and very careful and diligent in the service of his Majesty, and very useful. There is no one in this region who has seen more service than he. If your Excellency is about to send forces to this country, he might well be put in command of them, because he is one of the first who came to this region, and because he has served his Majesty so well in it, as is well known to all, and as your Excellency will already have received report. If it should be necessary for your Excellency to appoint a new captain of experience in matters here, I think it would be the best thing for your Excellency to assign to him and to the inferior captains whatever your Excellency may be able to provide here, for there are many of them and few soldiers. In this and in all other matters will your Excellency decide upon that which is most for the advantage of the service of God and of his Majesty.
The voyage to explore China has not been carried out, because of the death of Governor Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, who was very obedient to the command of his Majesty and your Excellency. After his death there was little goodwill in him who had the duty of ordering the execution of this command, since he and other captains had done what they could to prevent it from the beginning. Hence, they gave their votes against carrying it out. In spite of this, the adelantado—may he be in glory—was determined to accomplish what your Excellency had directed. After his death it happened that the ships which were going to that country put back, and since the ship “Santiago” arrived at Çubu without rigging or equipment, they took advantage of the occasion to strip and dismantle one vessel in order to equip another. Thus they did away with that which was necessary for the journey to China. However, if they had not had this opportunity, I believe that they would not have gone on with the voyage because of the little disposition which the governor had for it. Upon this point, I believe that they have sent full reports to your Excellency. What I am able to say from the little that I know, and from what those say who judge the matter dispassionately, is that it was a very desirable thing and a very important matter, and one from which great service might result to our Lord and to his Majesty, profit to the royal treasury, and increase to the royal estate, and that this might all be done in a lawful and Christian manner as is commanded and directed by his Majesty and by your Excellency in his royal name. When it was supposed that the voyage would he carried out, our father provincial commanded me to go with the forces which were about to depart on this voyage of discovery. Although the voyage is uncertain and the dangers and hardships are certain, I had offered myself for the undertaking because of my desire to serve our Lord and my king and your Excellency and would go with great willingness. If the said voyage is undertaken again, I offer myself anew to go on the expedition if your Excellency will regard that as a service and will send me a command to that effect. Should it be the will of your Excellency that the voyage should be prosecuted, it would be necessary to send from there two or three thousand pesos in tostons and to carry from here fifty quintals of wax and as many more of cotton, which are the articles of barter that have the greatest value there. It seems to me also very desirable that there should be two ships in the squadron, so that if one of them suffer any mishap, such as often occurs at sea, the men may be assisted and saved in the other. It would also be possible for them to make their voyage with greater safety from enemies, if any strive to do them harm. If it should be your Excellency’s decision and if it should seem desirable to you for two ships to go, the two above named, the “Santiago” and the “Espiritu Santo” may go. By bringing from that country what is necessary in the way of sails, rigging, and equipment, they may very well be fitted out in this country with carpentry and calking. A brigantine or pinnace may also be made for the return voyage to that country. Your Excellency may discuss there with the pilots whether they can go to the island of Cauchill[4] if the voyage is made; for it is a matter of the greatest importance for this island to be explored and examined, for it is said to be very rich and to have a great trade. According to what is said, a great deal of pepper and Moluccan cloves are exported every year. It is very near China and is also near Sian, and I think not very far from Burney. In that island the king of China has a governor and maintains a garrison. Yet as that race goes, 300 Spanish soldiers could take by assault twenty or thirty thousand of them. They say that there are horses and elephants there, and that it is a very rich and very important island. With reference to this matter will your Excellency examine it and command what is of greatest advantage to the service of his Majesty and to that of God our Lord. May God preserve the very excellent person of your Excellency for many years in His holy service with an increase of prosperity for the good of that country and the preservation and increase of this, and after this life may He grant you eternal and everlasting life. Amen. From the city of Manila, June 6, 1573. Most excellent Lord, your Excellency’s unworthy chaplain and suppliant kisses your hands.
Fray Francisco de Ortega[5]
[1] On the question of the tribute, see VOL. VII, pp. 267–318, and VOL. VIII, pp. 25–69. [↑]
[2] See post, the memoranda of the Augustinians, regarding the various questions to be discussed in Spain by Diego de Herrera. [↑]
[3] See the viceroy’s report to Felipe II, regarding the arrest of Mirandaola and Moron, VOL. III, p. 210. The viceroy appears to have formed his judgment regarding the matter from the present letter. [↑]
[4] Evidently a reference to Cochinchina, and hence not an island, but part of the mainland. See VOL. IV, p. 131, note 14. [↑]
[5] For sketch of this religious see VOL. IX, p. 95, note 18. See also his reports on the Philippines in the same volume, pp. 95–119. [↑]