The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 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 XXVIII

Arrival of a new mission of religious at the province; the province assumes the administration of the Zambals.

[In 1679 a band of Dominicans arrive at the islands in charge of Fray Francisco Villalba.[3] Those religious are as follows:]

The father vicar, Fray Francisco Villalba, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Burgos.

The father presentee, Fray Manuel Trigueros, son of the convent of the Preachers, of Zaragoça.

The father presentee, Fray Francisco Matoces, son of the convent of Santa Catharina Virgen y Martir, of Barzelona.

Father Fray Magino Ventallol, doctor in the holy canons, son of the same convent.

Father Fray Raymundo Berart, doctor in both laws, and professor of the university of Lerida, son of the said convent of Barzelona.

Father Fray Raphael Morert, graduate from the same branches, and son of the said convent.

Father Fray Joseph Vila, son of the said convent.

The father lector, Fray Miguel Ossorio, of the convent of San Pablo, of Sevilla.

The father lector, Fray Francisco Ruiz, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Valladolid.

The father lector, Fray Francisco Vargas, son of the convent of San Estevan, of Salamanca.

The father lector, Fray Francisco Ximenez, son of the convent of Xerez.

Father Fray Juan Yñiguez, son of the convent of San Pablo, of Sevilla.

Father Fray Miguel de Castro, son of the same convent.

Father Fray Diego Burguillos, son of the same convent.

Father Fray Juan de Santo Thomas, son of the same convent, collegiate and now lector in the college of Santo Thomas, of the said city.

Father Fray Juan Rois, son of the convent of Lugo.

Father Fray Juan Fernandez, son of the convent of Valladolid.

Father Fray Juan de Todos Santos, son of the said convent.

Father Fray Juan Gonçalez, son of the royal convent of Nuestra Señora, of Atocha.

Father Fray Gregorio Xiraldez, son of the convent of Pontevedra.

Father Fray Francisco Nuñez Bravo, son of the convent of Santa Cruz, of Segovia.

Father Fray Fernando Ortubia, son of the convent of Santiago de Galicia.

Father Fray Domingo Muta, a Sicilian, son of the convent of Turin.

Father Fray Bernardo Lopez, son of the convent of San Pedro Martir, of Toledo.

Father Fray Antonio de Santa Maria, son of the convent of Valladolid.

Father Fray Alonso de Herrera, son of the convent of San Estevan, of Salamanca.

Father Fray Alonso Cobelo, son of the convent of Lugo.

Fray Francisco de Frias, deacon, son of the convent of Burgos.

Fray Iñigo de San Joseph, son of the convent of San Pablo of Palencia.

Fray Thomas de el Rosario, of the convent of La Puebla de los Angeles.

And three lay-brethren, as follows:

Brother Fray Juan Calvo, of the convent of Santa Cruz, of Segovia.

Brother Fray Juan Martinez, of the convent of Nuestra Señora of Nieva.

Brother Fray Francisco de la Cruz, of the convent of San Estevan, of Salamanca.

That same year, on the first of February, a student, a native of Galicia, and a relative of the archbishop of Mexico, one Antonio de Eguiar y Seijas, took the habit for this province in the hospice of San Jacinto in Mexico; and at the proper time in the following year he professed and immediately came to this his province.

That new reënforcement was very necessary because of the great amount of work to be done in this province. For, besides the Christian districts in its charge, and the Chinese missions, and those of Tunking, on the eleventh of May of the said year, the governor of these islands as vice-patron of these churches, in the name of the king our lord, had entrusted us with the administration of the province of Zambales, which had thitherto been in charge of the Augustinian Recollect fathers.[4] Its administration was now entrusted to our province for the following cause and reason. Those Indians were and are the rudest that are known in these environs of Manila. They are very cruel and bloodthirsty, and fond of murdering people without more cause than their liking for cutting off heads. They were always the bugaboo of the Spaniards, and the terror of the Indians of the other provinces. They could never be wholly conquered, especially those living in Buquil; for they were a people who lived in the mountains where the Spanish arms could not reach them. And less was it possible to conquer them by means of mildness, gentleness, kindness, and caresses, although the preachers of the holy gospel of the Recollects of our father St. Augustine tried to invite and lure them to the knowledge of the true God and to consider the welfare of their souls. Consequently, although those missionaries were among them for more than seventy years, they were unable to reduce them to the mild yoke of the law of Christ. And although they worked with zeal in that attempt, with great merit and profit to themselves, yet they always lived in great disconsolation, at beholding the hardness of those hearts. Not less affliction and trouble was caused to the Indians when they saw fathers and Spaniards in their lands, for since they were so stiff-necked, and accustomed to liberty, they did not look with favor on the payment of tribute or submission and obedience to the fathers. Consequently, they were dissatisfied with the fathers, and discussed various plans to oust them. They did not dare to murder them for fear of the Spaniards, who had a presidio or fort in Paynaven (the center of that province), and because since they were near Manila, any action that they attempted would be avenged by the Spaniards who would send troops of soldiers there by both land and sea. Hence the final plan discussed by the inhabitants of Buquil was to have recourse to the governor, asking him to remove those fathers, and in their place give them Dominican fathers. This was not because of any greater affection that they had for us than for them, but because they imagined that by successive changes, they could better conserve their liberty. This seems clearly to be their end, for before the end of seven years after our entrance into that province, they were dissatisfied with us, and begged fathers of the Society. They are a fickle people and fond of change. Their idea was that one sort of ministers succeeding thus to others, neither the one nor the other sort could get a foothold, or be able to put the preaching or the evangelical instruction on a sound basis among them.

Chart of the harbor bar of Manila, and vicinity of river Pasig, 1757

[Photographic facsimile from original MS. in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla]

It happened, then, in the year 1676, that the alcalde-mayor of Pampanga, then Sargento-mayor Don Francisco de Texada, and Sargento-mayor Alonso Fernandez Pacheco, former chief commandant of the fort of Balas, began communication with the Zambal Indians of Buquil and having gained their good will with their zeal for the welfare of their souls, persuaded them to become baptized, for as abovesaid, most of the people of Buquil were heathens. They answered that they would become baptized if they were given Dominican ministers; for they wished to be administered by them alone. Having received that petition and proposal of the Indians, the said alcalde and commandant informed the governor of these islands, then the master-of-camp, Don Manuel de Leon. He desirous of the reduction of those infidels, petitioned the father provincial of this province, then father Fray Phelipe Pardo, to send some religious to Zambales as missionaries for those mountains, in order to ascertain whether the effect of reducing those barbarians to the faith of Christ could be obtained in that way—a matter that all desired greatly. By virtue of that, the father provincial sent father Fray Pedro de Alarcon[5] and father Fray Domingo de Escalera to the place called Buquil. To another place called Balacbac, which is located behind the mountains of Abucay, he sent the father vicar of the said village, namely, Father Domingo Perez. The latter immediately departed for Balacbac and having assembled some Indians there, baptized nine, and returned to Abucay, bringing five Zambals with him whom he afterward catechised and baptized. One of them was the nephew of the priest of the idols, and the father taught him to read and write, for he was more clever than the others. That Indian was very useful, and afterward was of much help to the said father in the reduction of the Zimarrones of the mountains, and in telling their customs and idolatries. The two fathers who were at Buquil, assembled some Indians into a place which they called Nuestra Señora de Atocha, where they baptized some and catechised others. But the governor having died at the beginning of the following year, the former ministers of that province began to complain to the father provincial that we were entering their administration. Notwithstanding that he had a sound reply that the vice-patron of those fields of Christendom had entrusted the matter to us, the father provincial in order to avoid anger between both orders, enjoined the fathers to return. That was the end of that first entrance which our religious made in Zambales. The provincial chapter was held after that, and in it the said father Fray Domingo Perez was elected vicar of Samal. The latter, by virtue of the order which was enacted in the said provincial chapter for all the father vicars of the houses near the mountains where there were any heathens to reduce, to endeavor to make entrances among them in order to allure them to the faith of Christ, did in that part what was ordered, by making some entrances among those mountains in order to reduce some Negritos, who are called Zambals.[6] Although the father worked with energy in that attempt, and went to great expense in kindnesses to them, he could obtain nothing from them because of their great barbarity and other reasons which it is not the present purpose to mention.

In the year 1678, Master-of-camp Don Juan de Vargas y Hurtado, knight of the Order of Santiago, came to govern these islands. With the coming of the new governor, the Zambals of Buquil renewed their former petition that Dominican fathers be given them. In order to make surer of their demands, they presented themselves to the archbishop, saying that they would quickly be reduced and would embrace the faith of Jesus Christ, if ministers of our order were given them. The archbishop, having seen that proposal, informed the governor of it, to whom as vice-patron belonged the right of assigning one or another sort of ministers to those Indians. The governor brought with him a royal decree from his Majesty ordering him to entrust to one of the orders the administration of the island of Mindoro, which was in charge of secular priests. Upon seeing the representation of the Zambals, he offered the administration of the said island of Mindoro to the Augustinian Recollect fathers, on condition that they leave the province of Zambales, in order that our religious might assume its administration in accordance with the petition of the Indians of that province. The father provincial of the Recollects accepted the exchange, although they assert that the cession was not legal, as it was not made by the provincial chapter of their province. That annulling clause was not put forward then, and the cession made by the father provincial of the administration of Zambales before the said governor having been seen, the Recollects were given that of the island of Mindoro. By virtue of that, the said governor in his Majesty’s name, conceded to the Order of St. Dominic the administration of the province of Zambales from the village of Marivelez to that of Bolinao. The father provincial of this province, namely, the father commissary Fray Balthasar de Santa Cruz, immediately sent some religious to administer the said Indians. In the intermediate congregation of the following year, the houses of the said province were accepted in due form, and ten religious were established in them for the cultivation of those fields of Christendom, and for the new reductions of the heathens....

[Chapter xxix deals with the customs of the Zambals, and is omitted here, as we shall give in a future volume the original MS., on which it is based.]