LETTER FROM THE ECCLESIASTICAL CABILDO TO FELIPE III

Sire:

We have written your Majesty whenever occasion has offered by means of the ships that have left these islands, relating to you the necessity of this holy church, as you are its true protector and defense. Inasmuch as it is farther from this blessing, so much greater is the loneliness and disconsolation which it suffers especially in this the period of its widowhood,[1] which has been so long because of our sins. So long as we do not receive word that your Majesty has received our letters, we shall make use of our permission to write you. We shall continue in this letter to mention certain matters which we related in former ones. Perhaps this letter will have a different fate and will merit a royal reception by your Majesty.

The king our sovereign, your Majesty’s father, (may he be in heaven), having been informed of the slight service enjoyed by this church (which amounts to only four prebendaries, to whom a stipend is paid from your royal treasury), was pleased to despatch a decree ordering the president and auditors of these islands to inform him of the facts regarding this matter so that he could enact the advisable measures. An investigation was made in accordance with that order, and this cabildo published the need of this church of being better served than others, as it is surrounded by so many barbarous nations who are daily receiving the light of the gospel and entering through its gates. We petition your Majesty, as a service to your Lord to please consider this matter, and enact regarding it what most pleases you.

Report has also been given your Majesty that the royal Audiencia is trying to have the ecclesiastical judge plead its aid in arresting Indians. Were that to be done it would be a great wrong to the miserable wretches, for the aid is not given unless the secular judge first examine the acts which are not fulminated in regular form against the Indians. We however, proceed briefly and summarily against the Indians, conforming thereby with the royal decrees. If their aid had to be asked, it would necessarily become a cause for receiving witnesses and issuing peremptory orders, and the expenses which now amount to nothing would be heavy. The provisor is continually taking Indian women from the houses of the inhabitants and soldiers with whom they are living in evil relations. If account had to be given to the civil judge for that, delays would ensue and the [guilty] parties would hear of it and would hide themselves so that the sin could not be corrected. The correction of sin is the end of the ecclesiastical tribunal and it has no other object. Consequently, since the aid [of the Audiencia] is not asked for any matter concerning the Indians throughout the Indias, it would not be advisable to cause any innovation in this region where the Indians are so poor that besides a few chiefs no one possesses ten pesos’ worth of property. In consideration of the above arguments and others, the former Audiencia issued acts of revision and review, by which the ecclesiastical judge was permitted to arrest the Indians without any aid until your Majesty was consulted. We humbly petition you to please order the course taken in this hitherto to be followed; since in what concerns the Spaniards and other matters we conform so closely to the laws that we have never, so far as we are concerned, had any encounters with your judges.

Some of the orders in this city claim a concession from your Majesty for the founding of a university, the establishment of chairs, and the granting of degrees in their courses. The unfitness of that has also been expressed to your Majesty by our letters, and if for no other reason than the consideration that all the greater part and the best of these islands have religious, and that the latter are all from the outside, while the poor sons of this land who are inclined to take the habit of St. Peter (who are in great number now by the grace of God, and have nothing to which they can aspire while the bishop has nothing to give them), will with the attraction of a chair, and the so honorable reward that will thereby be attained, be encouraged to work in their studies and there will always be educated men who will glorify this holy church. For so just considerations it is wise for your Majesty to advance its interests and favor its causes. We consider this as one of the most important matters as we wrote more at length to your Majesty last year, six hundred and one. We petition your Majesty to have the matter re-examined and to have enacted what appears best for your royal service and the advancement of these islands.

We said in a private letter that we wrote to your Majesty in the said year six hundred and one that the conquistadors of these islands, in order to ease their consciences, had made certain restitutions to the natives in common by agreement with Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, first bishop of these islands. With those restitutions quitrents were bought, and the money received therefrom is spent in ransoming the many captives in the power of surrounding enemies and in other alms which are made, both general and private. In the times of famine and sickness which the Indians suffer, they are aided. Very often this alms assists the hospital of the Indians of this city and that of the city of [Nueva] Caceres in the province of Camarines. In particular another hospital was founded a year ago among various natives who have been discovered twelve leguas from this city, where a great number of sick people are found, who would die if deprived of this aid. The fathers of the Society of Jesus are trying to have these so fitting works of charity converted into a college building for students. Such an action would be to divert those funds from their true and legitimate masters who are so needy to a matter that can never under any circumstances be of any use to the Indians. A father of the said Society and others are now going [to Spain] with that object in view. We petition your Majesty, for the love of our Lord, not to allow any innovation in this particular or in any other that concerns us without first hearing us, and your Majesty being informed by disinterested persons.

Opposite this city on the river side is a small hamlet containing less than one hundred native houses, all poor folk. They with the permission of the governor, come during the solemn feast to adorn and clean this poor church. That village is instructed by the cura of the natives of this city. The said fathers of the Society bought an estate in that village some years ago.[2] Little by little they have been extending themselves in that village so that they now have the greater part of the little land that it contains. They rent it to heathen Chinese, from which results not only that the wretched Indians are despoiled of their lands whether they are paid or not and that they have no place where they may plant their rice fields except in the vicinity of the Chinese. That is very harmful to the Indians for the Chinese arc a vicious race with evil customs. It is also said that the above-mentioned father of the Society intends to beg your Majesty for the concession of the instruction of that village and another called Sant Miguel which lies on the other side outside the walls of this city. The inhabitants of the latter place attend service in the house of the Society, and they might be satisfied with that, and leave the instruction to the cura who is a canon of this church. The latter has no other income than fifty thousand maravedís, which your Majesty grants him for his curacy. We also petition your Majesty to concede us the favor to deny this to those fathers, and not to allow us seculars to be despoiled for the religious. For they have too much while we have some men so poor that they do not possess more than the alms of one mass.

As your Majesty will have heard, the Order of St. Augustine has charge of the instruction of the best villages in these islands. Although there are many villages in the island without any convent, where they could spread and exercise their charity by preaching to and teaching the people who have no knowledge of God, without going to any great distance from this city, they thought it best to found a convent in the port of Cavite, two leguas from this city, where there has been a racionero of this church for the last sixteen years, as poor as the others. For that purpose the Augustinians went to the said port one day accompanied by the governor, Don Francisco Tello, who gave it to them as theirs to found a convent without any permission from the ordinary (according to his right) having preceded. He put them in possession of it and they immediately established a chapel, and said mass. When we tried to repair the harm that had been done us by this, the said Don Francisco Tello favored the Augustinians by saying that his permission alone was sufficient for the deed, and that ours was unnecessary. We had the provincial of the said order notified of the acts in order that he might have the church torn down, but he answered us as had the governor, saying that it had been established by the latter’s permission, and no other was necessary. Although the ecclesiastical arm has sufficient authority of itself to tear down that church, in order to avoid a scandal and the wrath of the governor which was terrible, the aid of the royal Audiencia was asked. There in order to justify our cause more thoroughly, the royal patronage, which orders that such foundations be made with the double permissions of the patron and the ordinary, was presented, as was also a clause of a letter of the king our sovereign, your Majesty’s father who is with God, written to Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. In that letter order was given the governor not to allow a church to be established in any other village where there was an establishment without the said two licenses, and it is your royal will that one should not be given without the other. However, as yet no decision has been reached in regard to the matter. This same conduct is true of all the affairs that work in favor of the church in this land, while those things that work against it are rushed through as your Majesty will see. There is a chapel an arquebus-shot from the walls of this city, called Nuestra Señora de Guia, where the natives outside the walls have always been administered. Archbishop Don Fray Ygnacio de Santivañes erected it into a parish church, and placed a cura in charge of it, giving him lately charge of the instruction of the said natives with canonical provision and collation. There was a suit with your royal officials before your royal Audiencia, as to whether he was to be paid a stipend or not. Acts of investigation and review were issued by the Audiencia in which they were ordered to pay the stipend. The said beneficiary having been in quiet and peaceful possession for four years, the said religious of St. Augustine, not satisfied with the past, published a royal decree which had been gained at the petition of Fray Francisco de Ortega of their order in the year ninety-four, by mentioning a doubtful relation which he had made, so that if it seemed best to the governor, he could give them that chapel as a house of retreat.[3] However, it was so unsuitable for that, that they having recognized it, have kept the decree until the present without caring to make use of it. But now piqued by the affair of the house of Cabite, they presented the decree to the said Don Francisco Tello, who, as he was so favorable to them, deemed it advisable to give it to them without notifying us or giving a copy [of the decree] to the cura of the said chapel. He ordered the Augustinians to be put in possession of it, and immediately sent an alcalde-in-ordinary to give it to them, in company with eighteen friars. We heard of it, and it was necessary to defend our house by closing the door and by making protests and petitions to the alcalde. In the meanwhile the said cura presented himself as the interested party to the royal Audiencia and appealed from the governor’s measure. He was ordered to cease and to go to make a relation, by which a great scandal was avoided, which would easily have happened if we had not had patience. The cause is now pending. We humbly petition your Majesty to pity our want of protection, in consideration of the fact that we are subject to innumerable insults and so far from relief, and to have silence imposed on the claim of that chapel, since it has become a parish church and a collated curacy as abovesaid. Will your Majesty also order your governors to keep the royal patronage, and not permit or consent that a church be erected in any other place where there is a religious establishment unless that of the ordinary precede. By so doing troubles will cease and peace and harmony will reign among all. If the contrary be done, many damages will ensue, for license is being so extended that even the Franciscan friars, with all the humility that they profess, also deny the jurisdiction to the ordinary, and have built another church in the village of Dilao, outside the walls of this city, by their own authority and without other license or permission, in order to instruct the Japanese. Although the provisor enacted an act ordering them not to do it, they have also made a suit and have occasioned no less scandal than the other friars. In order that your Majesty may see how unrestrained some of the religious live here, in these ships which arrived here from Nueva España this year, came a visitor for the Order of St. Augustine with authority from their superiors. They have refused to receive him, but have on the contrary treated him so that they obliged him to retire to the convent of St. Francis. He goes through the village with a friar of the latter order at his side. That has caused a great scandal in the community among Spaniards and Indians. It is thought that he will return without making the visit, although there are so many excesses and disorders that demanded that correction be not postponed, that perhaps we can not have it later by human agencies.

It is the custom here to give to all the monasteries both of this city and those outside it wine and flour from your royal treasury in order to celebrate [mass] each year. Since this church is so poor as appears to your Majesty, we petition your Majesty to order that it enjoy this alms and that sufficient be given of these two articles for that purpose, since the conventual masses which are celebrated in it are for your Majesty to whom this church belongs.

We have also advised your Majesty of two innovations in this church which no other church has. The first is a bench for the wives of the auditors to use which fills a great part of the principal chapel. The other is a very long bench with an inscription in large letters for the officials of the Holy Office. Both are very improper for a cathedral and metropolitan church. From the second it has resulted, moreover, that because a canon of this church had the bench removed one day and shoved over to the wall, for just reason, the commissary who is a Dominican friar excommunicated him and had him placed on the lists as excommunicated. Not content with that he gave the tribunal of Mexico what information he wished, from which it has resulted that after the arrival of the ships from Nueva España at these islands this year he arrested the canon, and kept him in prison for seventeen days and fulminated a cause against him which he sent to Mexico. It is not known where he will stop; and the same may be said of an unbridled letter which the inquisitors wrote to this cabildo, of which we complain more at length to your Majesty in your royal Council of the Holy Inquisition. In this letter we petition your Majesty to please correct this matter, and have these two benches removed. There are just causes for it as may be seen in a letter written the past year of six hundred and one.

Above all we petition your Majesty to consider that this church is so poor that we are unable for that reason to send a person to look after its causes as the religious are doing. The latter are sending persons suitable for the matters that concern them, and so that they may not leave anything undone. We humbly petition your Majesty for correction in this and in all things. We petition our Lord God to communicate to your Majesty grace and ability to serve Him and aid you to govern the kingdoms rightly in which He has placed your Majesty. May He preserve you for us many long and happy years as He is able, and as we have need. Manila, July 3, 1602. Your Majesty’s chaplains and vassals.

[1] The first archbishop of Manila, Ignacio de Santibañez, O.S.F., died August 14, 1598, after having been in the islands only since May 28, of the same year. His successor Miguel de Benavides, O.P., did not assume his seat until 1603. [↑]

[2] This was the estate at Quiapo. See VOL. XIV, pp. 327–329. [↑]

[3] See Ortega’s relations and representations, VOL. IX, pp. 95–119. [↑]

LETTER FROM BERNARDINO MALDONADONADO[1] TO FELIPE III

Sire:

I have attended carefully to my obligations as your Majesty’s servant and to my duties as castellan of the chief fort and redoubt of this city of Manila every year, and have reported to your Majesty the advisable reform for its fortification and security. For in that consists the defense of this kingdom and that from which danger is most imminent, on account of its site which is on the point and at the junction of the river and sea. At that place anchor the ships that come to this city from the surrounding kingdoms of the Chinese, Japanese, Borneans, Siamese, and other nations. Although those people come under pretense of trading, they are suspicious and treacherous peoples, over whom we must keep a close and never-ceasing watch as is advisable. In order that we might maintain that watch here in this redoubt, I begged and petitioned Don Francisco Tello, the former governor, once and many times, to station the necessary presidio and garrison of soldiers here, for it had no guard, at the time when I was given charge of it, but only an outpost of three soldiers was set at night, and they stood watch in their quarters, although we were stationed so far distant from the city and had in our keeping the arms, artillery, ammunition, and powder which your Majesty has in this kingdom for its defense. Accordingly, I petitioned that greater care and vigilance be exercised than formerly, because of the great fear generally held of the enemies by whom we are so closely surrounded and who are inside the bar [of the river] by night and by day. I insisted that there should be a garrison of infantry sufficient for its ordinary defense, and intimated to the governor for this purpose the orders and instructions given him by your Majesty for his policy and to Gomez Perez Dasmariñas his predecessor, in which it was urgently ordered him. In accordance with that, the governor appointed some soldiers under command of an alférez and sergeant, as your Majesty will have seen by the testimonies which I have sent to the royal Council. Will your Majesty have them examined, since it is very important to your royal service and to the welfare and security of this kingdom that there should be no neglect in this redoubt and that it be placed in no danger as formerly; as has been experienced by the good which resulted in having it garrisoned with soldiers, by what happened in the former year of one thousand six hundred and three, when the Sangleys who were living here in this city rose in insurrection. Had it not been for the care that I exercised, the Sangleys would have entered the redoubt if it had been found with the neglect of former years.

A castellan’s lieutenant was also appointed. In order that he might get his pay it was necessary to bring a suit in the royal Audiencia because of the opposition of your Majesty’s fiscal. It was ordered that his pay be given him, although it was very short by three hundred pesos, because the governor had so provided in accordance with the instructions of your Majesty. In those instructions it is ordered that the alférez do not receive his pay until your Majesty so order and command, as it is a new office; although your Majesty has ordered and commanded that all that which is advisable be put into execution. It is a necessary office, and appeared to be so to the governor and captain-general when he made the appointment. Will your Majesty enact what is most in accordance with your will in all things.

There are not more than fifty soldiers in this redoubt, and they are the offscouring of the companies of this camp. Some of them have been exiled from Nueba España for crime and are mestizos from that country. They are a vile lot of men, although they ought to be the most honorable and trustworthy men of these islands. Both in the above regard and in the number of men necessary for a redoubt so large and which occupies so great an extent of space with its three bastions, we need two hundred soldiers for its ordinary defense. The governor intends to station a hundred soldiers [here] according to the answer he made me when I petitioned him for men. This number is to be understood together with those that I have at present. It is a very small number of soldiers for a place that has the enemy so near and close to the wall of this redoubt, and on the other side of the river.

It is also necessary that the artillerymen assigned to this redoubt live and reside inside the redoubt, and that they be in sufficient number and paid with the soldiers of the redoubt. They ought not to be taken to other places, so that it happens that there are no artillerymen for the manipulation of the artillery, as happened during the insurrection of the Chinese. At that time there were no more than three, and it might have given rise to the greatest injury. Fifteen or twenty artillerymen are needed, for each gun needs one man for any occasion that may arise. Those assigned should not be taken to other places for that would be the same as not having them. They must be instructed in the art [of handling artillery] and if not the castellan should be able to dismiss them and engage others who may be sufficient, since it is important for him and his reputation to have competent artillerymen and not those assigned by the royal official. Those soldiers are generally the latters’ pages and those of their wives; and the latter have influence to get such places. In regard to what concerns the soldiers, I had an order from Governor Don Francisco Tello to dismiss those who were not competent and to get others who were. Governor Don Pedro de Acuña does not want that to be done, and accordingly the redoubt has the men above mentioned.

I have already advised your Majesty that Don Francisco Tello took some of the artillery and the best of it for the expedition against the Dutch pirate.[2] It was lost and went to the bottom in the encounter with him and not more than twenty pieces or so, counting big and little, were left, not more than ten of which are serviceable. Governor Don Pedro de Acuña wishes now to take the best of those for the expedition to Maluco. I would not be complying with my obligation or covenant or my management if I did not oppose the taking of them, and, in regard to the matter, take the precautions necessary for the discharge of my conscience and for possible events, if the pieces were taken. I know well that I shall be treated as on other like occasions and shall be told in regard to it words that one could not believe would be addressed to a man in the most private walks of life, much more in a person who holds such offices and has such privileges [as I]. For it is not right that this redoubt and city be left without artillery, and more, that the most experienced and important men be taken away for the said expedition as are those who are being persuaded to take part in it.

[A short account of the three Chinese mandarins that came from China in 1603 and the Chinese insurrection of that year follows. For an account of this insurrection, see VOL. XII, pp. 83–97, 103–111, 136, 138, 139, 142–168; and VOL. XIV, pp. 119–139. Maldonado speaking of his own part in the insurrection says:]

Having considered how restless the Chinese were, and because of the war which was expected, I prepared provisions and other necessary things in anticipation of whatever might happen, at the expense of my private possessions so that this redoubt, the soldiers in its garrison, and whatever other reënforcement entered might have food with which to maintain and support ourselves. In order that we might not suffer any lack in the future, and inasmuch as I did not know how long that insurrection would last, I petitioned the governor to have this redoubt provided with some food. The governor referred me to the royal official judges saying that they would give them to me. They replied to my petition that they had none and that there were no supplies in the royal magazines which they could give me. The governor sent to ask me for those which I had, and I gave them to the sergeant, Alonso de Bargas, who has charge of the supplies and royal magazines. By that aid were the soldiers acting as a guard for the walls succored. Not only did I aid them with food on the said occasion but also with a sum of money as appears by the attestations and testimonies which your Majesty can have examined if it be your pleasure. By them will be seen how this affair stood, and the precautions which this city took in case that we had had a war as was expected. The governor will have written your Majesty in addition of the great fear in which we are constantly of the Japanese who were living in this city, and who generally live here.

Immediately the following year, a number of Chinese merchantmen came upon their ordinary trading, without knowing what had happened until they reached this bay. They exhibited great sorrow at the death of sons, brothers, and relatives, and the loss of the property which they had left here. The governor ordered them to be accommodated in this city in the houses of the inhabitants, for their alcaicería had been burned. Many persons were very angry when they saw so many Sangleys in the city and houses of the inhabitants. There were more than four thousand of them, while the inhabitants were so few that the number who could bear arms did not reach seven hundred. Had it happened by accident that any negro or Indian had set fire to any house (as has often happened) in order to pillage, the greatest kind of evil would have resulted. For no citizen would have dared to leave his wife and children in order to rejoin his company or the guardhouse and arsenal to which he belonged, without first having secured his house by killing the Chinese. They on their part being in so great number, and being so fearful and apprehensive of us, and thinking that we wished to kill them, could not have done otherwise than to cause a great insurrection, and endangered the majority of the Spaniards; by which everything would be lost together with the trade. Consequently, our men would never be assured.

The same thing has been done this year, although the number of Chinese was less than one thousand; for the rest were lodged in the Parián, which is being rebuilt.

I have also thought best to advise your Majesty of the many companies that have been enrolled and enlisted for the last two years from the natives of this country. They are put under regular captains and have an alférez and other officials and carry company banners like a regiment. They are in addition to the Spanish infantry which your Majesty has here in your royal service, in which we ought alone to trust. The latter have two masters-of-camp and sargentos-mayor to whom so great obedience is rendered that it is a cause for wonder. This is an occasion that demands that the faithful servants of your Majesty, and especially those of us who have such obligations as I, ought to report to you the manifest danger to this kingdom because of this. Those companies have the best arms, muskets, and arquebuses of this camp and in great quantity. A very considerable quantity of arms are sent from Japon, especially catans (a weapon resembling a broad cutlass), and a great number of iron pikeheads. Those weapons are used in those companies, for the Spaniards do not use the catan; and the native soldiers should be prohibited from carrying them. They go about with swords and gilded daggers at the belt and wear military badges. They pay one hundred pesos for a musket and do not refuse to buy them because of the price, for such is their happiness and pleasure in this and in being soldiers. Although this enrollment has been made because of the expedition to Maluco, it must prove of greater injury than gain. We lose great reputation if we give them to understand that we need them for any occasion of war rather than for only rowers and servants. It is, after God, the reputation of the Spanish nation in these districts that has sustained and is sustaining us here. Those people are now very skilful and are reared among us, especially those of Pampanga and the vicinity of this city. They are a people of great boldness only needing a leader whom they would recognize, and they are so many in number that it is a matter that must be feared considerably, and one of which your Majesty orders us to be fearful and watchful.

The soldiers of the garrison of this redoubt are ill paid their wages. On that account they suffer many and extreme necessities. Since they make no outside expeditions as do the soldiers of this camp, and since they generally live here and have no other resource than their pay, will your Majesty please have them paid according to the usual custom before the soldiers of the camp, so that this redoubt may not be deprived of its preëminence. For all the infantry and the galleys are paid and the soldiers here are left without any pay and they are injured thereby. Inasmuch as they entered suit in the royal Audiencia in regard to the fact that the royal official judges did not pay them from their situado, it resulted therefrom that the said royal officials were arrested because they did not pay them as appears by the records that I am sending to your Majesty. If I had not aided them from my own property, they would not have been paid at all. No honorable soldier, on this account, cares to enter upon service in this redoubt; and since the governor has to station here a hundred soldiers whom according to his declaration he is about to station here, for its ordinary defense, it will be advisable that they be soldiers of greater satisfaction. For if they are the class of people whom I have mentioned to your Majesty, we shall be more fearful of them than of those outside. Will your Majesty please order the pay of six reals which these soldiers receive increased somewhat, because this country is very dear in the matter of food; and I am enduring great anxiety and expense because of the great need that the soldiers are suffering, as do the other officials who are serving here, and endeavoring to have this redoubt an honored and good post, and your Majesty better served.

This city needs arms badly, especially arquebuses and muskets in case of any emergency. Will your Majesty please send one thousand muskets here for this purpose so that we may have them at hand and that they may not be taken out to any other place.

Now for twenty years I have served your Majesty in these islands in the posts of infantry captain and castellan of this city, during which time I was continually occupied in war matters; especially coming as master-of-camp and commander of three companies which I raised for the reënforcement of these islands for which purpose I went to Nueba España by order of Governor Gomez Perez. No pay or aid was given me because I offered to do it at my own cost, as appears from the paper and offer that I made although the others who come here with like duties receive a pay of three thousand pesos. The treasury saved six thousand pesos by that. I did that in order to accumulate services so that your Majesty might reward me more highly.

The command of this redoubt was given me in accordance with one of your Majesty’s decrees in the former year of ninety-five. I have had many expenses and costs in it as your Majesty will see by the testimonies and documents that I am sending. Will your Majesty please send me if my services deserve it, the title and confirmation [of this post], since that is fitting and I have it by decree, so that I may better serve your Majesty both in what pertains to this redoubt and in the cabildo of this city, where the castellan has a vote. Will you please order the privileges that are kept for those who serve your Majesty in similar posts kept for me, and grant me six halberdiers for my personal bodyguard from the number of soldiers assigned, without increasing their pay; and who when occasion offers shall serve as do the others, and whom it will be necessary that I have.

Also in accordance with my expenses and costs, which will appear there, will your Majesty please increase my salary and assign me another sum equal to the amount received by the master-of-camp. For this is a post of equal caliber and one of closer residence and greater expense. If there is no possibility for this will your Majesty please have the encomienda which was granted me by your Majesty’s decree (which amounts to an income of seven hundred pesos) increased for me, and give it precedence over all those who have been here less time than I, since I merit as much as he who merits the most in offices and services.

In the allotment of the cargo of the ships made to the citizens of this city, I petition your Majesty to have me granted some leeway when I pay the royal duties, for I am usually injured in this particular by the occasions that arise; and that I may have recourse to the royal Audiencia whenever I receive injury. May our Lord preserve the royal Catholic person of your Majesty with the increase of greater kingdoms and seigniories as is necessary to Christianity. Manila, June 24, 1604.

Don Bernardino Maldonado

[Endorsed: “Letter from Don Bernardino Maldonado, castellan of the redoubt of Manila, giving an account of the condition of that fortress. Manila June 21, 1605.”]

[1] The benefactor of the Recollects. See VOL. XXI, pp. 194, 284–289. [↑]

[2] See the accounts of Morga’s fight with Oliver van Noordt in VOL. XI, pp. 140–186, and VOL. XV, pp. 205–237, 300–306 (voyage of van Noordt). [↑]