The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 07 of 55 / 1588-1591 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

The Petition Presented to the Governor by the City and the Encomenderos on the Fifteenth of February, 1591

We, the corporation and magistrates of the city of Manila, for ourselves, and in the name of all these Filipinas Islands, and of their encomenderos, settlers, and discoverers, do declare the following: As is well known, many of us came here twenty-seven years ago, when these islands were discovered, and have spent years in the propagation of our holy Catholic faith, the defense of the preaching of the gospel, and the service of the king, our lord. On account of this devotion we abandoned our fatherland, and forgot our parents, brothers, and relatives, and the comforts which each one of us possessed; and after having endured the great dangers of a long and hitherto unknown voyage, we settled in a land where we have shed our blood, and suffered the fearful miseries of hunger, thirst, exposure, and many other hardships, so great that they have cost the lives of the many thousands of men who are known to have come to these islands—not to mention all those valiant soldiers who serve his Majesty throughout his realm. At the conclusion of so many toils and misfortunes—after we had made this discovery, and had pacified and brought under the royal crown the many vassals who today are to be found throughout these islands, and had brought to the bosom of our faith the great number of souls who have already received baptism—his Majesty and the governors in his name have rewarded us by allotting to us a certain number of natives. But these grants are under such limitations and the tributes are so moderate that the most prosperous among us (and there are but few) are living Page 289in straitened circumstances, and the others do not receive the half of what is necessary for their sustenance; many of these have no recompense. Although our possessions are so scanty, we have been content therewith, inasmuch as we consider them as being a reward which we have won with our blood and so great labors; for we are thereby encouraged to serve our Lord and his Majesty—enjoying, as we do, these tributes and encomiendas in tranquil and peaceable possession of them, after they have been assigned to us. The king, our lord, also is profited by those who hold positions in the service of his royal crown; for they, with the tributes, assist in the great expenses which his royal patrimony incurs for the churches, religious orders, and ministers of the evangelical teaching, and for the supplies necessary for their maintenance. In this state of affairs it seems that on the part of the bishop of these islands and some of the religious thereof—not only generally, in sermons and in the pulpit, but privately, in the confessional—obstacles and difficulties are imposed upon our consciences by maintaining that we cannot exact the [illegible in MS.] his Majesty those which he exacts, and that we are going straight to hell [illegible in MS.] and that we are under obligation to make restitution for them. For this reason they refuse us the sacraments of absolution and communion; and, finally, they so obstruct us in the collection of this slender means of livelihood that we, and in fact the whole colony, are continually disconsolate and afflicted, and our consciences disturbed and ill at ease. We know not what plan we are to pursue in making these collections; for if we submit to the constraint which the aforesaid bishop and a portion of the religious would impose upon us, Page 290the necessary result will be that we cannot support ourselves, or even live; and his Majesty will be unable to meet the costs and expenses necessary for the preservation of the land—although our aim now as always, is to live and die in the service of his Majesty like faithful and loyal vassals.

We therefore entreat and supplicate your Lordship—inasmuch as the royal presence is so distant, and his authority is delegated to you in order to preserve us in peace and justice—to decree, in the name of his Majesty, as the person from whose hand we possess these encomiendas, that orders and explicit statements be given us as to what extent and in what manner we are to collect the aforesaid tributes, in order that with definite knowledge and freedom from misunderstanding, and without this present trouble and confusion, we may collect them by virtue of the order which your Lordship may give us to make such collections. And so likewise do we entreat your Lordship to command that his Majesty be informed as promptly as possible of what your Lordship shall order and decree, so that he may confirm and approve it, and determine what plan shall be pursued in this matter; and so that we may know and abide by it, and thus be delivered from these scruples and anxieties. In case the above should not be done as we petition, we would be deprived of part of the little that we possess; and, if compelled to make our collections in conformity with the ideas of the bishop and some of the religious, we shall not be able to support ourselves. We therefore entreat your Lordship, inasmuch as we do not depart from or fail in what we owe to the service of his Majesty as his loyal vassals, to give us permission to depart for Spain, where we may serve his Majesty Page 291in what he shall command us to do, and where he may favor us in proportion to the quality of the services of each one of us; thus we shall receive grace and justice, which is what we request.

Francisco Mereado Dandrade
Pedro Davalos y Vargas
Juan de Moron
Diego de Castillo
Juan Pacheco Maldonado
Don Francisco de Poca y Pendara
Hernan Gomez de Cespedes
Don Luis Enriques de Guzman
Antonio de Canedo
Alonso Garrido de Salcedo

[The remaining documents on tributes are presented partly in full, partly in synopsis, because of the repetitions and diffuseness which are frequent therein. Such parts as are thus synopsized will appear in brackets.]