The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55 / 1625-29 / 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

Letter from Archbishop Serrano to Felipe IV

Sire:

In the ships that came from Nueva España to these islands this last month of June, I received a decree of your Majesty dated Madrid, December six of the former year six hundred and twenty-four, with a copy of the one that your Majesty wrote to the governor of these islands, in respect to the gold mines of the Ygolotes. I shall discuss it with the said governor, as your Majesty orders, as soon as this despatch shall be made, which will be at the end of this month. I shall exert all the effort possible, so far as I am concerned, so that your Majesty may be well served in everything. I believe that Governor Don Juan Niño de Tavora will not be lacking in the same, for he shows very earnest desires to employ himself in your Majesty’s service. [In the margin: “That it is well.”]

I received two other decrees, of the fourteenth and thirtieth of August, of the same year, in which your Majesty is pleased to lay down the form that must be observed in the visitation of the missionary religious; and ordering that the latter may not make arrests or employ stocks or prisons, or fiscals or constables who make arrests, besides those whom the archbishop or bishop shall assign, or who shall have the latter’s authority to do so in cases permitted by law—all of which will be observed and obeyed as your Majesty orders, [In the margin: “Seen.”]

In another decree, of June twenty of the past year twenty-five, your Majesty also orders me to inform you, with the distinctness and clearness necessary for the better understanding of what you desire, of the annual incomes and values of the benefices and revenues of this archbishopric of Manila, and what sum pertains to the dignidades, canonries, and prebends, both of this church and of the others of my diocese. [Your Majesty also asks for] the number in each church; how many beneficed curacies there are in each district, and their income; the number of missions, their value, and whether they are in charge of seculars or religious of the orders. I gave your Majesty a long account of that in a letter that I wrote the former year of six hundred and twenty-one on the twenty-fifth of July, to which I have had answer from that royal Council that it was received in the following year of six hundred and twenty-two. I only neglected to place in that letter the incomes of the archbishopric and the prebends of this church—taking that for granted, as a matter very well known, since your Majesty sustains both the archbishop and the dignidades, canonries, and prebends from your royal treasury, because there is no other source, and the tithes are not sufficient. The latter are placed in the said treasury, and are collected at the account of your Majesty. They amount to a very small sum, since, from what I have experienced, only the stock farms of the larger cattle of the Spaniards pay tithes to your Majesty, and that has not, as yet, been practiced with the Indians. Consequently your Majesty pays the archbishop a salary of three thousand ducados of eleven reals each; the dean, six hundred pesos of eight-real pieces; the four dignities of archdean, precentor, schoolmaster, and treasurer, five hundred pesos; four canons, four hundred pesos; two racions, three hundred pesos; two media-racions, each two hundred pesos—all paid in thirds. Consequently both the archbishop and his prebendaries suffer abundant misery; and, because of that, your Majesty is petitioned to favor us by increasing these salaries, since they hardly suffice to pay their house-rent, and support them very moderately. [In the margin: “Set down everything in the books that have been ordered to be made.”]

This cathedral church has no other revenue than the alms received from burials; and if it were not for the four hundred pesos that your Majesty has granted it for a limited time, it would have nothing for the wine, wax, and flour for divine worship. With this and with some allotment of cargo (although little) that the city generally gives it, the band of musicians, who come to serve on their feast days in the same church, is maintained.

What seculars administer in this archbishopric is divided into nine benefices, besides the three curacies of Spaniards in Manila, Santiago (which is in Manila’s suburbs), and the port of Cavite. Twenty thousand souls are ministered to in the said benefices. [In the margin: “Idem.”][1]

The Order of St. Augustine has thirty-two convents, in all of which are fifty-six priests, who have in charge ninety thousand souls.

The Order of St. Francis has thirty-eight convents, with guardianias and presidencies, in which are forty-seven priests. In all of them forty-eight thousand four hundred souls are ministered to.

The Order of St. Dominic has three convents in this archbishopric. It ministers to three thousand souls, and has five religious.

The Society of Jesus has eight priests in three residences, and ministers to ten thousand six hundred souls.

The discalced Augustinians have three convents in which are six priests. They minister to eight thousand souls.

Consequently, the souls of the natives alone who are ministered to in the district of this archbishopric of Manila amount to two hundred and one thousand, six hundred souls.

The bishopric of Nueva Segovia has four secular benefices, two of them for Spaniards, one in the said city of Nueva Segovia, and the other in Villa Fernandina. The other two benefices are for Indians.

The Order of St. Augustine has fifteen convents in this bishopric, and they minister to fifty-eight thousand souls there.

The Order of St. Dominic has twenty-five convents in the said bishopric, in the province of Cagayan and that of Pangasinan. They minister to seventy thousand souls in these.

Consequently the number of souls of the natives ministered to in the said bishopric of Nueva Segovia is one hundred and twenty-eight thousand.

There are six secular benefices in the bishopric of Camarines, whose seat is in the city of Caceres. They minister to ten thousand six hundred souls.

The Order of St. Francis has twenty-four convents, with guardianias and presidencies, in this bishopric, and minister to forty-five thousand souls.

All the souls ministered to in the said bishopric of Camarines amount to fifty-six thousand eight hundred.

These two churches of Caceres and Nueva Segovia (and the bishop of Zibu gives account of the church there to your Majesty) have no prebendaries; and there is no one besides the cura, who serves the said church and ministers to the few Spaniards there.

Each of the secular beneficiaries in these islands has an annual stipend of one hundred and ninety pesos, which are paid from your Majesty’s royal treasury to those who minister to your royal tributarios. The same sum is paid to the religious, except that the ninety pesos are given in rice. To both classes is given one arroba of Castilian wine, and flour for the mass. The other encomenderos give the same to the ministers of their encomiendas.

Now then I have satisfied what your Majesty orders me by the aforesaid royal decree, as clearly as possible. If I have not named the villages and chief places of the benefices, the reason is that I believe myself excused from that labor.

The government of Don Fernando de Silva, knight of the habit of Sanctiago, during this interim in these islands has been very successful; and he has proceeded as prudently as if he had exercised the government for many years. He has secured peace both with the royal Audiencia and with all the other corporations.

He has occupied a port of the island of Hermosa—the best or only good one—which was so recommended and ordered to be occupied by his Majesty Phillippo Second, your Majesty’s grandfather, in the instructions ordered given to Governor Don Francisco Tello; of its importance, time will tell. It has seemed a desirable thing, at least in the present, so that the Dutch shall not have the opportunity that they desire for taking the silk from China and transporting it to Europa and to Japon. That brought them very great wealth; for, selling it for the bars of silver with which the latter kingdom abounds, the Dutch had money enough to continue the trade with China. They shortened the voyage every year to that country. Don Fernando de Silva also built a galleon that is now in the port of Cavite. He built some small rooms or quarters of stone for the soldiers in the Plaza de Armas, wherein three hundred men may be lodged, without the expenditure of a single peso from your Majesty’s royal treasury. He is a calm and prudent man, one of good example, fearful of God, and zealous for your Majesty’s service and the increase of your royal treasury. He has abilities for governing, and if your Majesty occupies him in other governments, you will be as well served as you have been during the time while he has had this charge. [In the margin: “That we are advised of what he says.”]

Governor Don Juan Niño de Tavora, who just arrived in these ships that came from Nueva España with reënforcements, shows excellent valor and zeal for the service of your Majesty; and if God grants him life to execute the good purposes that he evidently possesses, I doubt not that these islands will not only lift their head, but that they will return to their former grandeur. He has entered on his government with a secure foothold, since he finds them free from the Dutch enemy—who have allowed us to breathe this year, and have given opportunity for more ships to come from China than for several years past. The same has been true of the ships from Goa, India, and Macan. All of them have entered the port of Cavite; so that already this community appears another and a very different one from what it was before. I trust, with the help of His Divine Majesty, that the governor will aid it, for the proofs that he has hitherto given are those of an excellent governor and Christian, and one fearful of his conscience.

Although we have had no Dutch enemies this past year, powerful enemies of the inhabitants about these islands have not been wanting to disturb the natives and those whom they capture suddenly in the villages of the coast. It is a thing that I have experienced myself, suffering so great anguish that I thought I should lose my life in it; for I found myself surrounded by thirty-four caracoas and galeotas of Mahometan enemies—Borneans, Joloans, Camucones, and Mindanaos—about one hundred leguas from this city of Manila, while going to visit my district at a village called Cabotagan. They assaulted me at five in the morning, while I and all my retinue were asleep. We awoke at the clamors, and had no other resolution or opportunity to take than to flee to the mountain; for we were abed, as I have stated. I secured my habit and girdle, which was a not slight act of mercy from the Lord, because of what I afterward suffered in the mountain, until the necessary clothing and food were brought to me and my followers from Manila. Although Governor Fernando de Silva exerted himself by sending men and several vessels in different directions after the enemy, he did not have the good luck to fall in with them. The new governor, Don Juan Niño de Tavora, tells me that he will make every effort to chastise those barbarians and assure the coasts. I trust thoroughly that he will succeed in his holy purpose, because he has so well understood that it is greatly to the service of our Lord and of your Majesty. [In the margin: “Thank him for his care in visiting his bishopric, and say that we are assured of his zeal, and trust that the same will be exercised in the future—in consideration of which, account will be taken of his person as opportunity offers, so that he may be promoted. Have a letter sent to Don Juan Niño, telling him what the archbishop writes of him; thank him, and let him advise us of what has been done.”]

Doctor Don Alvaro de Mesa y Lugo, auditor of this royal Audiencia, is one of the persons who most evidently excel in your Majesty’s royal service, and who most firmly defend everything touching it, in both matters of justice and of revenue. He has ever been so keen a defender of your Majesty’s interests that he has suffered for that many and very great annoyances and troubles. Thus has he shown by his actions that he has a very upright conscience. From this it results that he suffers great necessity, because he has not allowed or opened the door even to the gratuities that seem lawful to others not so well regulated in conscience. In short, his actions are such that I am obliged to continue in this letter, as in others, to inform your Majesty of his good and praiseworthy qualities. Will your Majesty, upon knowing them, be pleased to promote him and advance him to other posts of greater importance. I find him sufficiently capable and deserving of much better posts; for, wherever it please your Majesty to reward him, your Majesty will be well served, and he will be free from the sickness and the lack of health with which he lives in this country, to employ himself much better in your Majesty’s service. [In the margin: “At hand.”]

I was expecting the bishop of Nueva Caçeres this year, according to letters sent me last year. Not only has he not come, but also not even have I had any letter from him. Consequently I am appointing a governor of that bishopric for the good and necessary expedition of the ecclesiastical causes, which are falling behind for lack of the judge of appeals. Although those appeals could go to the tribunal of the bishopric of Zibu, it is necessary to conclude definitively that there be a third tribunal, according to the brief obtained by your Majesty regarding appeals. Consequently, it is necessary to provide now and henceforth for the government of the bishopric of Nueva Segovia, until the arrival of the rightfully-appointed bishop whom your Majesty may be pleased to send to that church. [In the margin: “That it is well, and that the necessary provision has been made in this, and the viceroy directed to make him embark.”]

Because we have settled in the island of Hermosa, our obligations to send ministers to those heathen nations who inhabit it, and are without the light of the holy gospel, are increased. The conquest or settlement has been effected by the energy of Fray Bartolome Martinez of the Order of St. Dominic, the present provincial of this province. To him is due the excellent success that it has hitherto had; for he himself, with other three or four associates, and no other order, went to explore it. They remained there and sent one religious here to Manila to report what had been done, and to get an order from the governor for what was to be done in the future. The island is densely populated, as they will relate to your Majesty. It will be a pity for those peoples to remain in the obscurity of their blindness, without the light of our holy Catholic faith, for lack of ministers. Since the fathers of St Dominic have taken that conquest in charge, it will be very advisable for the present to settle it with religious of that order, if your Majesty be pleased to have a goodly consignment of religious sent to them; for, although eighteen or twenty of them came in these ships, the need of this province was so great, because of the many who have died, that scarcely are there sufficient for their ministries, even if they did not have the island of Hermosa, as I have said. [In the margin: “They have been given to them already.”]

Governor Don Juan Niño will report on the other matters touching this community. Consequently I shall not relate them in this letter to your Majesty, whose very Catholic person may our Lord preserve, with the increase of great kingdoms, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, July 25, 1626.

Fray Miguel, archbishop of Manila.

[Endorsed: “Manila. To his Majesty; 1626. The archbishop of Manila, [MS. holed] of July. Seen and decreed within, July 30, 627.”]

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[1] The same instruction is given after nearly all the following statistics, namely “idem,” i.e., that they be entered in the book. Consequently, we omit all following instances.