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 XVIII

The Conde de Mondova,[75] viceroy of Nueva España, seeing that for two successive years there had been no galleons from Filipinas, [influenced] not only by the order which the royal Council has given for such emergencies, but by finding that he was responsible for the despatch of the investigating judge and the new royal Audiencia who were on their way to these islands to replace and depose the auditors (whom either death or exile had already deposed), ordered that a Peruvian patache be made ready which was then at Acapulco, the owner of which was Felipe Vertis, a citizen of Callao. The viceroy appointed as its commander the then admiral of the Windward fleet, Antonio de Astina, a native of San Sebastián; and for seamen the best who were found in the said armada. In this patache embarked the following persons: The investigating judge, who was Licentiate Don Francisco Campos Valdivia, then alcalde de casa y corte[76] of Madrid, and royal deputy provincial notary at the said court. The new auditors, of whom the senior was Licentiate Don Alonso Abellafuertes, a knight of the Order of Alcántara, a native of Oviedo, who had recently finished his term as corregidor of the city of Burgos; [the others were] Licentiate Don Juan de Sierra y Osorio, a knight of the Order of Calatrava, an Asturian, and Doctor Don Lorenzo de Acina y Havalría, a native of Sevilla—who is still living as a religious and priest, a professed of the fourth vow in the Society of Jesus, who is an example of virtue and truly exemplary. The auditor second in seniority, Licentiate Don Juan de Ozaeta y Oro, a native of Lima, failed to embark on this occasion, on account of being married and having a large family, but did so in the following year. As fiscal for his Majesty came Licentiate Don Jerónimo de Barredo Valdés, also an Asturian. All these four auditors carried appointments as criminal auditors for Méjico at the expiration of six years which they were to spend in Filipinas, exercising the functions of auditor; and this went into force afterward with Auditors Alonso de Abellafuertes and Don Juan de Ozaeta, who, after the six years, went to Mexico. Don Juan de Sierra also returned, having completed his term as auditor, and died at Acapulco, where he found letters promoting him to be auditor at Granada; for it must have been of some service to him to be a nephew of Don Lope de Sierra, a member of the supreme Council of the Indias.

With the new auditors also embarked very distinguished persons of their kindred and households, such as Don Manuel de Argüelles, an Asturian, who is still alive, and a general; Don Juan Infanzón, and Don Francisco Giménez de Valerio; the owner of the patache, Felipe de Vertis; and others. On this occasion also came father Fray Juan de Alarcón, a native of Valladolid and a son of the [Augustinian] house there; he had been left in Nueva España, and was now very old. He retired to this province (for which he had enlisted in 1679), and served only a few years on account of poor health; and, while he was procurator-general, died in the convent of Manila, in the year 1695.

This patache made its voyage very prosperously, and passed the Embocadero without any difficulty, reaching the port of Cavite, where it remained until Mateo de Urquiza sailed with the galleon “Santo Christo de Burgos” for Nueva España. This privilege of entering the port of Cavite is, it seems, enjoyed as their own by all the pataches which come from Acapulco, which are not built in these islands; as it were, they are free from the sin which they contract in the acts of oppression and tyranny which are committed, not only in the cutting of the timber for them, but in their construction; and, either for this or for other and hidden causes, hardly a galleon built in these islands succeeds in making the entrance of the port of Cavite.

The auditors on reaching Manila took possession of their offices in the hall of the Audiencia, which they found empty of their predecessors—some being dead, and another in banishment—and the only one they found living was the fiscal, Don Esteban de la Fuente Alanis. The investigating judge likewise found the greater part of his commission accomplished, which was the deposition of the auditors. He sent for Don Pedro Bolivar, who was a prisoner in Cagayán, in the fort of Tuao; but he died while on the way, at one of the first villages of the province of Ilocos; God gave him a very good end, in return for the many excellent traits that he displayed in his life, such as being very courteous and very charitable to the poor.

To Governor Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui came very favorable decrees from his Majesty—who thanked him for what he had done in the restitution of the archbishop, in which his Majesty considered himself well served. To the archbishop came others, also very favorable, which I do not insert here, in order to avoid being tedious, and because that is not in my obligation; and I only repeat here a letter or bull which his Holiness Pope Innocent XI sent to the archbishop, since that is a very unusual favor, and because he was a pontiff so greatly to be venerated by posterity, on account of his great sanctity of life. [The letter is given in both Latin and Spanish; it simply expresses the approval of the pope for Pardo’s course, and encouragement to persevere if he shall encounter other like trials.]

The news of what had been done in the banishment and confinement of the archbishop produced great disturbance in the royal mind of his Majesty and in his ministers of the supreme Council of the Indias, as may be imagined from the punishment which by their orders was inflicted on Don Juan de Vargas and on the auditors and the other persons inculpated therein. It is not denied by this atonement and punishment that many cases can occur in which it may be lawful to banish bishops and ecclesiastical superiors; and this matter is treated at length [lato modo] and very judiciously by many writers—Don Cristóbal Crespi de Valduura, vice-chancellor of Aragon, in his learned Observaciones, obs. iii, illat. iii, no. 19; Solórzano, De jure Indico, tom. ii, lib. iii, chap. 29, no. 71; Salgado, De regia potestate, part i, chap. 2, no. 276; and others. But this is executed by legitimate procedure, and with much circumspection and moderation, without touching or impeding the exercise of the episcopal power (the opposite seems to be an Anglican dogma, and one of Marsilius de Padua), as was done with Don Fray Felipe Pardo—confining his person in the village of Lingayén, and suspending his spiritual jurisdiction; commanding the cabildo to exercise the right of sede vacante; and not accepting the appointment which the archbishop had made of the bishop of Troya to govern in his absence—because this does not concern the temporal revenues, which the prelates who incur the penalty of banishment lose. What causes no little wonder is, that all the auditors were very learned, and they four, with the fiscal, had held chairs in [the universities of] Méjico, Sevilla, and Granada; but when one lacks the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, one cannot gain real success in matters in which his will prevails over his judgment. How useful it would be to the governors and auditors of Filipinas to have these words written as a reminder in the hall where they transact business, the words of the Holy Ghost in chapter vi, no. 3 of Wisdom.[77]

The first step made by the investigating judge was to imprison in his own house the fiscal, Doctor Don Estebán de la Fuente Alanis, and to bring charges against him, in accordance with the orders that he carried from the royal Council of the Indias; he did the same with the other auditors, [although they were] dead, through their executors. He proceeded with the residencia of Don Juan de Vargas, which had been delayed by the challenging of the associate judges; and he sent Governor Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado into exile in the village of Lingayén, Where the archbishop had been, and he was taken away by an escort of soldiers, under the command of Sargento-mayor Martínez León. He went hither as excommunicated, and unable to have any intercourse with any person save those allowed by law. Upon his arrival at the said village, he built in it a house of bamboo and nipa, where he lived a long time in company with his spirited wife, Doña Isabel de Ardila, enduring much loneliness and lack of respect, until they recalled him, after two years, in order to send him to España; and he died during this first voyage [i.e., on the Pacific Ocean].

This gentleman was truly unfortunate, for although he had not been a bad governor, his lack of courtesy and his harsh disposition gained for him many enemies. The time of his rule was very prosperous, and the ample commerce with the neighboring kingdoms engaged many persons and brought great gains. He was very diligent in keeping the Manila garrison strengthened with capable soldiers, and took much pains to have the men well fed and clothed, and military discipline strictly maintained—and in this he was surpassed only by Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera. His covetousness was not so great as appearances indicated, and with it he did not injure the commonwealth, for those times furnished [profit] for all. He was very punctual in fulfilling the duties of a Christian governor, and also in attending, almost without missing a day, all the sessions of the Audiencia and royal court; and therefore the lawsuits were not so interminable as we find them at the present time.

In his time came a royal decree that investigation should be made of the lawfulness of the slavery in which any were held, and that those persons whose condition of servitude was not well grounded should be set free. This action seems somewhat harsh; for so many persons of different nationality were liberated that both the Spaniards and the natives were left destitute of servants, and the city and the villages were full of beggars—and, what is worse, of thieves and incendiaries. This dispossession would have caused the utmost distress if General Cristóbal Romero, the castellan of Santiago, had not resolved to write to the king our sovereign about it, with arguments so forcible that a royal decree came directing that the execution of the other be suspended.

The new fiscal of his Majesty, Don Jerónimo Barredo y Valdés, a young man of suitable age [for this lady?] married the widow of Auditor Don Cristóbal Grimaldos, Doña María Manuela Carrillo y Barrientos—a woman in whom, although great was her beauty, virtue was still greater, and she furnished an excellent example in the time of her widowhood, suffering continually the siege and attacks made against her chastity by influential persons. But God recompensed her by giving her a numerous offspring and long life, both in these islands and in the city of Méjico—from which place no news has come of her death, but we have heard that she has remained the widow of Don Jerónimo Barredo, who was many years the senior auditor of this royal Audiencia.

The investigating judge, Don Francisco Campos de Valdivia, brought [an order for] the liberation of the Marqués de Villasierra, Don Fernando de Valuenzuela, because the term of ten years since his removal from the monastery of the Escorial was now completed. The judge went in person to Cavite, to notify him of the order and set him at liberty, as he did. The marqués left the port of Cavite and came to Manila, but he took up his residence in a country-house which our Manila convent possesses, on a sugar-plantation called Pasay. This house is on the sea-shore, in a very convenient location for trips back and forth from Manila; and one can easily enjoy visits there, as it is only one legua distant from the city. Here the marqués lived during all the time while he had to wait and make preparations for his journey, in order to sail in the first galleon which should return to Nueva España; for such was the command given to him, until his Majesty should decide whether or not he should go to España.

He embarked in this year of 1689 and arrived at Méjico, where he found as viceroy the Conde de Galves,[78] who, as the son of the Duke de Infantado, in whose service Don Fernando de Valuenzuela had begun his career of fortune, received him very hospitably, as lords are wont to receive persons who have a claim upon such considerations. It seems as if the patient endurance of this gentleman had conquered the influences of fortune, so various and inconstant in his rise and fall; for it was said with good ground that he would be viceroy of Nueva España; but his death closed the term of his life, which was an astonishing one, and an example for the study of admonitions. His death was occasioned by the kick of a horse, and on the ninth day a fever attacked him from which he died in a few days. He had previously fulfilled all the obligations of a Christian, and ordered that his body be deposited in the hospice of this province, outside the walls of Méjico, where it remained until the marquesa his wife sent orders to convey it for burial to the city of Talavera. [Diaz here inserts a Latin epitaph on this cavalier, written by some person in Filipinas.]

The investigating judge with his notary managed so well that in ten months he had completed all the commissions which he brought with him; for he was a man of great activity and energy, and very skilful in judicial practice. He brought to an end the residencia of Don Juan de Vargas, which was much entangled, and had overstepped the peremptory limits of such judgments. He also tried those who were accomplices in the imprisonment of Master-of-camp Don Diego de Salcedo, of whom now few remained alive, and those were the least guilty; but these paid for all the rest, which usually is the purse from which [such acts] are paid. He was not as scrupulous as other ministers, and as he ought to be, although he affected to be very upright and just; and neither he nor his notary went back with empty hands, as was proved at Acapulco by some chests of his which were searched, notwithstanding the protests that he made that these were the documents belonging to his commission. In them were found very valuable goods, and very few documents; these would certainly aid him to pass his old age in the honorable post which was given to him as soon as he arrived at court, that of member of the Treasury Council, which he enjoyed for several years.

The archbishop brought to an end the suits which he had begun against the principal members of the [cathedral] chapter, of whom only one had remained alive, the dean, Don Miguel Ortiz de Covarrubias; for the archdeacon, Don Francisco Deza, had died in an epidemic of influenza, and soon afterward Don Francisco Gutiérrez Briceño died suddenly in the village of Betis. Accordingly the dean, as head of the chapter and vicar-general, and the one who had been leader in the arrests of Master Juan González, the father provincial Fray Antonio Calderón, and the father professors Fray Juan Ibáñez and Fray Francisco de Vargas, on account of these and other occurrences made amends for all the chapter-members, and ended by going to Madrid. There he secured permission to return to Méjico, his native country, with half the income of a dean (which is very small), and with this spent the few years of life that remained to him, dying as a good priest.

While Governor Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui was most occupied in making ready the galleon in which were to return the investigating judge, Don Fernando de Valuenzuela, Fiscal Don Estebán de la Fuente Alanis and the admiral of the Windward fleet, Don Antonio de Astina, with many other persons who were going to embark—such as the dean and father Fray Raimundo Verart, who was going as the archbishop’s attorney—while busily engaged in these preparations he was assailed by death, by means of a painful suppression of urine, which in a few days ended his life, after he had received all the holy sacraments. He died at ten o’clock at night, on April 27, of this year 1689, at the age of more than sixty years. They buried him in our church at Manila, at the foot of the altar of the holy Christ of Burgos, to whom he had been very devoted, and had gone punctually every Friday to hear his mass sung. With him were buried also the devotion and concourse to this sacred image, until they were revived twenty years later, during the term of government of the Conde de Lizárraga, Don Martín de Ursua y Arismendi; this is the usual condition of devotions in these islands, for they do not last long, and have their seasons, and these are not wont to be very long.

The death of this governor was much regretted by every one; he was worthy of being counted among the best whom these islands have had, because in him were united the highest qualities which are required to constitute an accomplished governor. He was very pacific, and so plain in his manners that he was censured for not maintaining his authority; he was very charitable, and magnanimous of heart, although small in body. He had the noble quality of being exceedingly disinterested, and of placing little value on riches—which in these regions, where covetousness has so many opportunities to tempt and conquer, is the greatest virtue; and it is such even throughout the world, since it is almost a miracle.... These islands did not keep him long, it may be because they did not deserve him.... For in these regions there is little regret for governors who are not good, and little esteem for those who are not bad; but he who rules can never find himself free from malcontents, because it is not his function to please every one. But, since goodness is better recognized after it is lost, the governor’s death caused much regret. He left as his executor Master-of-camp Don Tomás de Endaya, and so small was his estate which they found that there was not even enough for the expenses of his burial or for the mourning garb of his servants.

On account of his death, the military government was assumed by the senior auditor, Licentiate Don Alonso de Abella Fuertes, knight of the Order of Alcántara; and together with the royal Audiencia [he governed] also in civil affairs, as is decreed by royal commands. During the time while Don Alonso de Abella governed, which was sixteen months (for it was that length of time before Don Fausto Cruzat y Góngora arrived), this commonwealth enjoyed great peace and tranquillity. If there were any dissensions in the ecclesiastical state, he took no part in them; and if it had not been for his great forethought those differences would have been greater, as will be related in the proper place.

With the death of the governor, and the excellent intentions of the temporary ruler, the affairs of Don Juan de Zalaeta assumed another shape. He had suffered great hardships and privations in his imprisonment and banishment, and all his property, even to his clothing, had been sold at auction; for before his departure from these islands the authorities had taken his residencia for the time when he was alcalde-mayor of Calamianes, and some charges against him resulted. The acting governor ordered that he be released from prison, and that both he and Don Miguel de Lezama should come to Manila, where their causes were settled with less harshness. Don Juan de Zalaeta returned to España, thoroughly warned by the bad outcome of the residencia of Don Juan de Vargas, which he had so eagerly desired, imagining that it would be of great honor and profit to him. He reached Madrid very poor, and ill provided with supplies, and died there suddenly....