The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 42, 1670-1700 / 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 XVII

The governor, seeing the Audiencia broken up (since it consisted of only one individual, the auditor Don Diego Calderón), named two associates to assist the auditor in despatching the business of this supreme tribunal; these were Licentiate Don José de Herrera, an advocate of the royal Audiencia, and the doctor and captain whom I have already mentioned, Don José de Cervantes Altamirano; and they issued royal decrees, Doctor Don Esteban de la Fuente filling his office of fiscal. They alleged that there had been a precedent for this in the time of Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, when there was no other auditor than Don Marcos Zapata, by whose aid was carried out the banishment and imprisonment of Don Fray Fernando Guerrero—and this proceeding had been an example to be repeated in these times. Afterward, on account of the sickness and death of Don Diego Calderón, the governor continued to form an Audiencia with the two associates, which the royal Council of the Indias condemned.

Under this kind of government two years passed by, until, in the year 1688, a new Audiencia arrived, as we shall soon see. The year 1687 was no less grievous than the preceding one, for various misfortunes followed each other, which were generally felt by all the citizens, in order that they might share in the punishment merited by their offenses, since always proves true the proverb, Delirant reges, semper plectuntur Achivi.[73] The first was the failure of the galleon from Nueva España, for it could not come that year because none had been despatched [from Manila] the year before; this was because of the armada sent against the pirates, which only served to cause great expenses to the royal treasury, the wreck of the galleon “Santo Niño,” and the failure of the galleon in this and the following years—which, as we have often said, is the life of the poor colony of Manila and of all these Filipinas Islands.

The governor, having determined to send to Nueva España the galleon “Santo Niño,” ordered that it be repaired as well as it could be; but even then it was not very strong, because most of its strength had been taken from it by the windows which had been opened in it for the artillery. But there was no other ship to depend upon, for the construction of the “Santo Cristo de Burgos,” which they had placed on the stocks, was only begun. The governor appointed as its commander Lucas Mateo Urquina, who sailed for Nueva España with but slight hope on the part of those who understood the situation for the success of the voyage. The worst was, that their fears were realized; for the galleon not being able to endure the fierce storms that attacked it in high latitudes, it was compelled to put back to port. This it did, about the month of November, causing great affliction to all; for it came only to aggravate the sufferings that were already experienced through the failure to receive a galleon that year.

At night of Holy Thursday, March 28, at the time when in the village of Binondo arrangements were being made for the procession which the mestizo Sangleys make on the occasion of the “holy burial,” (which is one of the most brilliant and magnificent of the processions that are made in Holy Week), one of the greatest disasters that have ever been seen in these islands occurred. Fire caught in the first house on the point of land which is called Punta de la Estacada, and the crowd of people who had made ready for this devout function were unable to extinguish the fire; and the devouring flames made such havoc that they destroyed the great number of houses that stood in all the territory of the said Estacada, Baybay, and Tondo, finally consuming the entire barrio of Bancusay, in which this so widespread settlement [of Sangleys] finds its limit. It was no small good-fortune that the fire passed by the other side of the river, where lies the great town of Binondoc, Tondo, Santa Cruz, and Quiapo—which, as contiguous villages, together constitute one body—for [if the fire had reached them] the loss would have been irreparable; for many splendid houses of wealthy Spaniards and mestizos would have been consumed, and those of many Portuguese and Armenian traders who live in those places as being more convenient [for their business]. There were no deaths of persons from the flames; but great was the loss of the many people who saw their poor houses and property disappear.

The gates of Manila were opened, and the governor, in person hastened to give aid, with a great number of people, who could check the fire so that it should not cross over to the other part of Binondoc and Tondo. What was more, he prevented the robberies which in such emergencies are committed by some soldiers and wicked people, who on such occasions are worse than the fire, as has been found by experience at various times; for in times of drouth fires are very frequent in the suburbs of Manila, most of them being occasioned by fire set by these soulless incendiaries, who find their profit in such destruction.

To this local calamity at La Estacada succeeded another affliction, which was general through the greater part of these islands; this was a plague of locusts, one of the worst which has been seen in them, for the locusts were so many that in dense and opaque clouds they darkened the sun, and covered the ground on which they settled. These insects ravaged the grain-fields, and left the meadows scorched; and even the trees and canebrakes they stripped of the green leaves. These locusts were so voracious that they not only laid waste every kind of herbage and verdure, but they entered the houses, and gnawed and pierced with holes every kind of cloth; and those who flapped sheets and coverlets at the locusts to drive them away—as is usually done at other times in the invasions of this pest, with some effect—on this occasion found that the only result was to ruin those articles, for the locusts ate them, and destroyed them with their poisonous jaws. Thereupon the people began to feel the loss which ensued from this calamity, in the great scarcity and want of provisions—so great that a cabán of rice (which is half a fanega) came to be worth two pesos and a half, and in some places three pesos. (Nor has the poverty been less which is being experienced while I am writing this, on account of the great plague of locusts which occurred in the past year of 1717 and the present one.) And it can be said that the poor died in great numbers, not so much because the rice (which is the general food of the regions) cost so much, as through their lack of forethought, and of money with which to buy rice; and because there was so excessive a number of beggars—some through necessity, and others through laziness and dislike for work—that it was impossible to relieve them; for when there is but little to give it is not possible to divide it so that all shall be sufficiently cared for.

To these great troubles was added another; that in that year occurred many earthquakes, which although they did not cause the total destruction of buildings, left many houses and churches damaged. In the province of Cagayán, in the bishopric of Nueva Segovia, heavier shocks were experienced, for in the mountainous districts of that province chasms and vent-holes were opened, a phenomenon which usually results from such tremblings of the earth. From this it may be proved that a cause of these tremblings and earthquakes is the air which is shut in within the caverns of the globe, drawn into them through the crevices and openings which the heat causes in the soil, which afterward are closed by the rains; a great volume of air being thus gathered, it becomes rarefied, and, increasing in quantity or volume, it seeks an outlet, directing its force toward its center and causing so terrible a commotion. But the safe and useful way of maintaining ourselves faithful in the fulfilment of our obligations is to regard these earthquakes as tokens of the wrath of God against our transgressions, Qui respicit terram et facit eam tremere (Psalm ciii, v. 32).

Not long before these events, the death occurred in Cagayán of the auditor Licentiate Don Diego Antonio de Viga, a prisoner and exile in that province. [Here Diaz relates the circumstances of the deaths of Viga and other persons who had been concerned in the Pardo controversy, which have already been mentioned in previous documents. He cites a letter from Pardo to Curucelaegui, dated December 2, 1687, to show that Viga died impenitent; he was buried in the cathedral of Lalo, and Pardo connects with this circumstance the calamities which soon afterward afflicted the islands. He orders the remains of Viga to be disinterred and removed from the cathedral; Diaz thinks that this was done, but is not quite certain. He positively asserts, however, that Viga was a very upright official, and wholly disinterested; and thinks that he perhaps went too far in upholding the royal privileges, through misunderstanding their scope. Doña Josefa Bolivar also dies impenitent, and Pardo sends Bachelor Don Juan de Cazorla to investigate the matter, to know whether she may be buried in consecrated ground; he has her buried “in the plaza of the said village of Oriong.” Her husband meets “a better end;” he is reconciled to the Church, and dies after having “devoted himself to exercises of austere penance, fasts and scourgings and other mortifications.” Auditor Calderón dies at Manila in like exemplary manner (July 18, 1687); “this auditor was a very upright and disinterested official, a good Christian, pious, and much given to good works, and therefore was beloved by the entire community.” Master Jerónimo de Herrera is sentenced by the archbishop (March 16, 1687) to be deprived of all ecclesiastical benefices and offices, and is sent to Spain, but dies during the voyage. At this time, Barrientos, the bishop of Troya, is absent on official duties in the bishopric of Nueva Segovia. He had “issued a decree of excommunication against the alcaldes-mayor of Cagayán, Ilocos, and Pangasinán, prohibiting to them trade and traffic in those provinces, in virtue of the oath which those officials take in the royal Audiencia when they go to exercise their offices. This excommunication was the cause of many lawsuits, for Captain Don Francisco de Alzaga Voitia, alcalde-mayor of Pangasinán, defended them all, and appeared before the royal Audiencia with a plea of fuerza, complaining that the bishop of Troya was usurping the royal jurisdiction by taking cognizance of the oath taken in that court.... On this question royal decrees were issued, and the controversy lasted a long time, but the excommunication then laid has remained until this day; and the alcaldes-mayor continue with their trade and traffic as before, without the least scruple.” Returning to Manila, Barrientos declines the bishopric of Nueva Segovia, to which he is entitled as Pardo’s assistant; the archbishop therefore despatches to take charge of that diocese Doctor Nicolás de la Vega Caballero, then cura of Cavite.]

This province assumed charge of the ministry in the territory of Mariquina and Jesús de la Peña, which in times past was a dependency of the mission station of Pasig. It had been administered by the religious of the Society, by commission of Don Fray Pedro Arce, bishop of Cebú and ruler of the archbishopric of Manila, and by approval of Governor Don Juan Niño de Tabora, since the year 1630; and now it was restored to the ministry of Pasig by sentence of the archbishop, May 16, 1687, and this province added to that territory the convent of San Mateo—establishing the headquarters and residence of the minister at Mariquina, whose titular saint is our Lady of Protection; its first minister was father Fray Simón Martínez. The aforesaid archbishop also added to the said village of Pasig the mission village of San Andrés Apóstol de Cainta, also administered by the said religious of the Society, by decree of March 16, 1688—with the approbation, not only of this, but of the separation of Mariquina, by the vice-patron, Governor Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui. Its first minister was father Fray José del Valle, and it was preserved as a separate convent with the title of vicariate.[74]

We held these ministries, with great labor and inconvenience, until the year 1696, when there arrived a royal decree that they should again be administered by the fathers of the Society of Jesus, and we therefore surrendered them to those fathers. In order to show further our good-will and friendly relations with so holy a religious order, we exchanged the ministry of San Mateo for that of Binangonan—called “Binangonan of the dogs,” to distinguish it from the other town of the same name, which is on the opposite coast [of the island]; it has for its titular St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins her companions, in a church in Laguna de Bay. This was accomplished by the aid of the consent and approbation of the governor, Don Fausto Cruzat y Góngora. This village of Binangonan is very small, and had been at first administered by the religious of St. Francis, who had exchanged it for the ministry of Baras, which also belonged to the religious of the Society; and because it was so poor a living a visita was added to it from the ministry of Pasig, which is called Angono—its patron saint being St. Clement, pope and martyr—of a few tribute-payers. To this ministry were added fifty pesos more for its support, but it is so forlorn a one that even with all these aids the minister suffers a great lack of means for his support; and therefore on many occasions there has been talk of abandoning this charge, for it is not good for any other profit, either spiritual or temporal—not only on account of its poverty, but because of the intractable disposition of its people.

On February 19 of this year of 1688, our then father provincial, Fray Juan de Jeréz, died in the convent of Manila; his illness was caused by the great hardships of his visitation of the entire province, and the eagerness with which he undertook to perform this task in one year, while it was a task for two years, especially since he was sixty-two years old, and had many attacks of illness. At last he ended the visitation, but it put an end to him. He was one of the most exact in fulfilling obligations of all the religious who have been in this province, and great was his zeal for the religious observance. His solicitude and care for adornment in the things belonging to the divine worship was continual, using his utmost endeavors that the altars and ornaments should be the best that were possible, and spending on them all that he could obtain. The first indication of his [approaching] death was that he was freed from the scruples of conscience which had been throughout his life a continual torment; but at that time the Lord, who had given him these scruples in order to exercise his soul, imperavit ventis et mari, et facta est tranquillitas (Matthew viii, v. 26). His death was deeply regretted by all; for this province loved him as a father, and the people venerated him as a saint. In consequence of his death, the government was assumed by our father Fray José Duque, as being next to the provincial, with the title of rector-provincial; for in this province could not be observed the same rule as in those of España, where our very reverend father general makes appointments for the vacancies caused by the deaths of provincials, until the time appointed for convening the provincial chapter.

Among the troubles and calamities of this year a very great one was that occasioned by a pestilential epidemic of influenza, which had begun in the preceding year and continued in this year of 1688, with great ravages. Many died of this disease, especially children and old persons; and by this year the epidemic had so increased that many grain-fields could not be cultivated, for lack of people to do the work. This caused a great lack of provisions in this and the following years, just as the locusts had occasioned like loss in the preceding year. So prevalent was the disease that in the province of Pampanga, where I was serving in the village of Guagua, as secretary and assistant of the rector-provincial, the Indians were not seen in the streets, on account of most of them being prostrated by the cruel influenza, and the rest of them caring for the sick ones. Accordingly the deputies and officials of the confraternities went through the streets with jars of [cooked] rice, and went up into the houses and provided those who were in need with food; for most of the people were without it, and others could not cook it and had no one who was able to do so. These influenzas are very frequent in this country, but that in this year was the worst that the old men have seen; and since then, up to the present time, no other like it has been known.

The governor, Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui, desired to put a stop to the outrages which were being committed by the rebellious blacks of the mountains and the Zambals of the Playa Honda and the uninhabited places of the Puntalón (a route in the province of Pangasinán)—killing many travelers and cutting off their heads (which is the greatest trophy and desire of those people), and daring to approach the villages near Tarlac—Magalan, Telban, and Malunguey. The governor therefore prepared to make a vigorous invasion, not only with Spaniards, but with Pampangos, friendly Zambals, and Merdicas from Maluco; and he appointed as their leader Sargento-mayor Martín de León, and gave him [for officers], as being men experienced in that sort of war, Captain Alonso Martín Franco and Captain Bartolomé Prieto; the master-of-camp of the Merdicas, Cachil-Duco, the prince of Tidori; and Sargento-mayor Pedro Machado. He sent orders to the alcaldes-mayor of Cagayán and Pangasinán that they, with the best troops that they had, should scout through the mountains from north to south, so that they might go on until they should meet Martín de León and his companions, up to a locality and settlement of blacks that is called Culianán. Both parties carried out this plan, although with great difficulty, on account of those forests being very dense; they killed many insurgent blacks and Zambals; but before joining their troops they found themselves obliged to retreat, because the epidemic of pestilential influenza made great havoc among them, and many died from that disease. But the injury which our people could not inflict upon the enemy was wrought on them by the pest of the influenza, which caused as great ravages among them as the smallpox had made in previous years. Martín de León, Alonso Martín Franco, and Bartolomé Prieto came to Guagua in very bad condition; from there they sent word to the governor, who commanded them to withdraw [from the enterprise].