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 VI

Of the intermediary meeting of the year 1639, and events of that time

In the year 1639 was held the intermediary meeting in the convent of St. Dominic in Manila, where besides the ordinary arrangements some rules were enacted, although only a few. One of those rules was much to the credit of holy Poverty: namely that no one could ask permission to spend any money, even to the extent of a small sum, unless he first declare the purpose of it to the superior. It was a very happily conceived rule; for supposing that to each religious is given whatever is religiously necessary for him in health and in sickness, it is right and proper, if the alms of any mass come into his hands—even though it be to give alms, or to aid religious friends who are in other villages with some trifles, which they do not possess—to tell it to the superior, and not to give any occasion for Poverty to complain, even in slight matters.

In March of that year a very disastrous insurrection occurred in the province of Cagayan, in some villages retired among some mountains, called Mandayas (whose discovery and reduction to our holy faith is treated in the first part, book 2, chapter 48; and which was due to our Order, at the hands of father Fray Lorenço de Zamora, who accomplished it all). The affair was so disastrous that it cost considerable blood and not a few scandals (which are yet bewailed). The alcalde-mayor of that province was Sargento-mayor Don Marcos Zapata, the son of an auditor of this royal Audiencia. The alcalde, not paying much attention to so noble a trust, or deceived by his own shadow—and, what is more, by the example of the governor (who was, as we have said, very decided in his opinions)—conducted his official duties by the method which he calls “the short cut” (which only shows little cleverness) namely, that of severity. (But this is an expedient which carries with it innumerable inconveniences. We know that the heathen, who drew gods out of the center of the earth, made Love a god, but it is not stated that they made Cruelty a god. The reason is, that, although it seems to one that he can do much by cruelty, he cannot do everything, as can love. Consequently, cruelty lacks qualifications for being called a god.) Following this his line of reasoning, the rigor of the said alcalde was great. Although by order of the central government he had made a fort with a new sentry-post, in the said Mandaya villages, and had a suitable garrison of soldiers, yet so many were the burdens that they put upon the shoulders of the wearied Indians for their support that the latter considered themselves as conquered, especially because of the ill-treatment that they experienced from the commandant of the said fort. The mine of anger exploded, because the said commandant punished one of the principal women, because she had displeased him, by forcing her to pound rice for a whole day; she and her husband were so angry thereat that they became the chief promoters of the insurrection. The nearby villages, which were tormented by the burden of the fort and the oppressions practiced by the soldiers, were invited [to aid in the conspiracy]. They entered the sentry-post at ten on the morning of March 6 with their arms, and killed the sentinel and others who offered them some resistance. They went thence to the fort, and breaking down the doors, or having them opened by the spies inside, they killed about twenty unarmed and naked soldiers, who formed the garrison; only five soldiers escaped, by hiding; but later, the fire increasing, these perished. The Indians entered the convent, and killed a Sangley, at the door of the cell of the father-vicar, who had just been baptized that day (whose death, we must believe, would be most fortunate for his soul). They showed respect to the father-vicar and, all of them weeping with him on account of the bold undertaking in which they found themselves involved, they embarked him together with his clothes, the ornaments from the sacristy, images, crosses, and books, and carried them down to a secure place, from whence he went to the first convent. It was learned afterward that they proceeded with their frenzied sacrilege, and burned the church and the convent. Although the attempt has been made more than once to obtain satisfaction, yet those people are so favored by their inaccessible mountains that this effort has been abandoned, as it is impossible to subdue them.

[A short description of the revolt of the Chinese follows (see Vol. XXIX, pp. 208–258).]

Native women pounding rice in the province of Cagayán

[From photograph taken by Otto Fischer, 1888; procured in Madrid]