The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 35, 1640-1649 / 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

CHAPTER II

Election of provincial in the person of father Fray Carlos Clemente Gant, and events of that time.

The capitular fathers assembled in the convent of St. Dominic, May 2, 1637, and elected as provincial the reverend father Fray Carlos Clemente Gant, an Aragonese, and son of the Preachers of Zaragoça. He was an oldtime minister of Cagayan, had been definitor in the year 1633, and was elected provincial for the second time in 1648, of which we shall treat hereafter. Honorable mention was made in that chapter of some glorious martyrs whose lives and precious deaths were treated in the first part of this history [i.e., Aduarte’s Historia.]

Great deeds were performed at that time in the island of Hermosa, and abundant harvests were gathered, as the field was white for the harvest of the gospel. But it will be advisable for us to describe first the characteristics of that island, which was not touched upon in the first part. It deserves not to be passed by in silence, for it was for sixteen years the glorious theater of our Spanish arms and the greatest credit of these missions. [A description of the island and its products follows. Of the inhabitants Santa Cruz says:] As to the men they are tolerably clever; they are well-built and light-complexioned, although ruddy in some districts. They are valiant and strong, and greatly inclined to cutting off the heads of their enemies, with which they make merry in their celebrations, dances, and feasts.[5] They have no king, nor does their little ability allow such a thing. They get along better by families, where the father is the king. They have no idols or any other images which they adore with outward reverence. The devil only holds them deceived by many superstitions of chance, and of songs and flights of birds, which are consulted in their difficulties. They sacrifice the first fruits of everything[6] to their Berroas, which are certain imaginary spirits there—to such an extent that, whenever they are about to commence a new jar of wine, they first take out a few drops and throw them outside, which constitutes their reverence. They throw some grains of their morisqueta (which is their rice bread) on the ground, and that is their grace. They do the same with the rest of their food and drink. They have good characteristics; they abominate theft and unchaste acts and accordingly watch out for such very rigorously. They immediately kill the illegitimate child and punish the parents severely.[7] Their provinces, languages, and settlements are numerous. We found those people who came to us in the city of San Salvador, which we founded, to be very sociable, accommodating, and simple. Had God preserved us in that post, they would have constituted a good work for us and a great company for the advancement of empires so extensive as those which are near it. China is less than thirty leguas away from it; Japon is eighty; Camboja, Cochinchina, and Tunquin are one hundred and fifty leguas or two hundred or somewhat more. But our Lord ordained that the Dutch enemy should drive us out of so important a Plaza de Armas. Accordingly, what pertains to us is to yield ourselves with humility, and to see whether we can again open so suitable a door by making our lives better.

During those five years five fathers of our order lived in the convent of Todos Santos [i.e., All Saints], which was the church of that city, and their superior was father Fray Lucas Garcia. They were attending with all fervor to their ministries—some of Spaniards, some of Indians, and some of both—when Father Collado, vicar of the new and lately-formed congregation, despatched father Fray Juan de los Angeles[8] to take possession of that house for that congregation in the year 1636. As associate he assigned to him father Fray Miguel de Corena,[9] who had gone over to the congregation from the province [of Santo Rosario]. Those fathers, arriving there with their appointments and the orders of the governor for the governor of that island, deposed the vicar—although everything was adjusted amid great peace, and, until the first despatch, they all lived together as the closest of brothers. When opportunity offered, the former father-vicar, father Fray Lorenço Arnedo, and father Fray Felipe del Espiritu Santo, a Japanese, and Father Corena himself, who was unwell, went to Manila, leaving the said father-vicar, father Juan de los Angeles, father Fray Teodoro de la Madre de Dios, and father Fray Juan Garcia, for it was not advisable to leave the land without ministers who had been there some time. Father Fray Francisco Diaz (of whom a more detailed relation will be given later) also did his work, and it was great. He was an accomplished minister for China, and was detained in the island of Hermosa at that time, for the following reason. He had left his missions in the above kingdom to attend to the solution of certain serious doubts, in company with father Fray Antonio de Santa Maria of [the Order of] our father St. Francis. Going to the island of Hermosa, it was determined that father Fray Antonio should go to Manila, and that Father Diaz should await him there, which he did. Therefore, as the latter could not remain idle, he employed himself during that time in aiding his brothers, paying his score for lodging in works of example and virtue.

Before going farther, it will be advisable for us to present a brief summary of the incidents that concern the new governor of these islands, in order that we may get through with him. It cannot be doubted that a person of so many good qualities and one so noble had a strong desire to do well, and, above all, since he was selected by our Catholic monarch who confided to him in these islands the most precious gem of his crown—a jewel that his most prudent grandfather had given him, when in standing god-father to them in sacred baptism, in the time of his monarchy, he was pleased that they should give his name to the islands. That was a very well founded reasoning, for considering their land, their climate, their location, and their distances, proportions and neighbors, Alexander the Great did not dream of placing his banners over an empire of greater reputation [than these constitute]. Notwithstanding, then, the good intentions of that knight [i.e., Corcuera], from that time they were obstructed by so many untoward events that, although he governed nine whole years, and had the good luck to return to España (a thing that no other governor had done before him), and was there afterward governor of Cordova, and governor of Canarias, where he died, still he left few expressions of regret here for his departure—and, as says a Stoic, posts and dignities bear the letter of recommendation on their backs only. Few grieved over his absence, for he left the name of governor truly disgraced. The year after his arrival (namely, 1636), for reasons of state he sent no ship to España, although he should have considered the common good and the only consolation of these islands, which depends solely on the delicate thread of one poor ship of commerce and relief. The next year he did send it, and it happened to be received at Acapulco by a visitor, Quiroga, who ruined these islands by his rigor, although they ought to be treated with greater charity, for so many reasons. Our governor was over-zealous in the suit with the archbishop and in his exile, and was merciless in his decision—although the venerable prelate mounted to heaven, and protected himself with a sacred monstrance in which was present the person of God himself. But that did not avail the archbishop, for His [Divine] Majesty allowed human power to achieve its end. The governor proceeded with such passion in this holy province of ours that he gave it the stroke most keenly felt, by dividing it, without awaiting any order or authority. And although the Lord derived great glory from it, still that knight manifested his own character in dividing so holy a family, and again uniting it when that seemed fitting to him; and by such actions he showed his scant appreciation of persons so estimable, and whose profession is so sacred. In the wars that he waged in Samboangan and Jolo, in which he participated personally, it is certain that he did his duty as a brave soldier; and God gave him honorable victories, which were of great consequence for humbling those enemies. But they were very dear to us, for the best people of these islands perished there, but rather as the result of their own disorder than from the valor of others. In order that those sorties might be made, presidios were dismantled, and others were weakened, so that even at the present time [i.e., 1693] the islands have not reached the period of convalescence. The thing that must grieve us most is, that although our arms had possessed the greater part of the island of Hermosa, as above stated, with so great reputation for sixteen years—a possession which all the nations of the world might well envy—command was given, in order to carry on these wars [i.e., in Mindanao and Jolo], for three of the military companies in its garrison to retire to Manila, leaving only one, composed of boys and cripples, under the immediate control of the chief governor. On that account it was necessary for our religious to abandon the place where they lived outside (which was a village of considerable size), and to live in the fort, crowded with the men. When the Dutch, who were settled at the other point of the island, called Tayguan, discovered that, they attacked us once; and, having better equipped themselves, [attacked us] in the following year of 1642, and besieged and defeated us with the loss of credit that can be understood (although the conditions were honorable), after seven days of brave resistance, and took our people in their ships to Manila. But this caused the ruin of large Christian communities of Indians, and the total downfall of the increased hopes which, in so advantageous a post [as Hermosa], were continuing to grow, with greater effects in the service of both Majesties. Later, in the year 1660, the Chinese won that fort of ours and the land from the Dutch, so that that nation possesses it in peace today. The misfortunes of the governor went farther; and one of those years he despatched to our España the galleon “Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion”—the richest one that has ever been seen on that route and owned by citizens of this land (for then they had not invented the pernicious art of sending [agents] to buy here). It was in command of Don Juan Francisco de Corcuera, the governor’s nephew. Unfortunately it was wrecked during a storm, at an island of the Ladrones, and the cargo was lost, as well as the people—except some few who escaped by swimming, and afterward ventured themselves in the open sea, in a small boat made in those parts; and it was God’s will to allow them to reach Manila. At that time there was an insurrection of Sangleys—who hold in their grasp all the manufactures and trades of this community, and through whose hands passes all the bulk of the commerce. Consequently by the means of one lash they all perished, while we ourselves were badly wounded. Clearly our sins were the cause of all those calamities; but since the superior officer derives the greater part of the glory in prosperous affairs, there is sufficient foundation in adverse affairs for him to shoulder a great part of the misfortunes—and more so when, rendering himself inaccessible to counsel, he carries out his own resolution. Now his residencia has been obtained by his death, and the residencia which was taken here from him was not so mild that it did not cost him five years of close imprisonment.

[The chapter closes with the narration of the happy death at the island of Hermosa of the Portuguese lay-brother Fray Antonio de Viana, who had taken the Dominican habit at Manila. He had labored five years in the island.]