SYNOPSIS OF COMMUNICATIONS BY ANDA TO CARLOS III
Substantial extract of the result and purpose of forty-six representations made to his Majesty by Don Simon de Anda Salazar, informing him of what he has done as Audiencia, governor, and captain-general of Filipinas during all the time that the English occupied the city of Manila and its port of Cavite, under terms of the capitulation which was made between the English general and the reverend archbishop who was governing those islands at that time.
All the representations are dated June and July, of last year 1764. Among them some relate that the archbishop-governor and the other auditors of that Audiencia having been made prisoners of war in Manila, Don Simon not having been included among them because of being in the village of Bulacan at that time, attending to the general inspection of all the provinces of the district of that Audiencia, in accordance with the order and prescription of law clxxx of título xv, book ii of the laws of the Yndias, by which it is ordered that if the auditors of the Audiencia are absent and only one of them remain, the Audiencia is to be conserved and continued in him as said governor and captain-general, in accordance with other determining laws.
Under this character, he proceeded immediately to enact measures according as his spirit dictated to him, both for the military, and in order to restrict the English to the vicinity of Manila, causing himself to be obeyed, assembling troops, furnishing arms, getting ammunition, and doing in this line whatever he could, the most experienced and practical general making sallies, holding functions, remaining glorious in his expeditions, and the enemy conquered and intimidated.
In regard to what concerns the representation of the Audiencia, he exercised all the jurisdiction which belonged to it, administering justice to the parties at law, punishing criminals, and fulminating causes against those under suspicion of disloyalty.
As governor he attended to all economic matters. In order that provisions might not fail, or be sold at a dearer price than they had before the siege of Manila in those provinces, for that purpose he made regulations, published edicts, imposing severe penalties on those who transgressed them. By this method he obtained the end which he desired. He also succeeded in getting the royal official treasurer who had removed the treasury from Manila as soon as the squadron of the enemy entered that bay, to transfer it from the province of Laguna to that of Bulacan, where the above-mentioned Don Simon was stationed in order that he might have some means to meet the needs that might arise. He forbade anyone to dare to go to the city of Manila, or under any pretext, to carry food, or arms [thither]. Neither was permission given to give entrance, lodging, aid, or help to the English. Those vassals obeyed that as well as the calced religious of St. Augustine, who had the province of Bulacan in charge. The Augustinians attended the several meetings which he called, all of them showing love and zeal for the service of their king and sovereign, and a blind obedience to Don Simon de Anda, whom they recognized as Audiencia, governor, and captain-general. They succeeded in preventing the blotting out of the name of his Majesty from those provinces, and observed a steadfast obedience to him.[1]
There result also the various measures which he enacted in order to assure the patache “Filipino” and its wealth, which came from Acapulco and had arrived at the province of Leite, and which was thought to be exposed to surprise and capture by the enemy. Those attempts succeeded so happily that they were landed and taken overland to the province of Pampanga.
The treasure carried by said patache belonging to his Majesty, the ecclesiastical estate, and the trade of those islands, reached the sum of two million two hundred and fifty-three thousand one hundred and eleven pesos. To that sum was added fifty-six thousand pesos which were collected from various private persons, in obedience to the order despatched for that purpose. And with previous proof that they, the interested persons, were faithful vassals, and by virtue of the reports of two arbitrators of the commerce, he delivered them some sums so that they could support themselves. He also caused the wine casks, chests, and other articles of volume, which the said patache carried to be kept until he placed all in safety with the exception of the cargo of a champan which was lost in the province of Batangas. Among those effects was the stamped [i.e., official] paper. As soon as Manila was surrendered and the English dislodged, Don Simon placed in the hands of his successor, Don Francisco de la Torre, the testimony of the acts which he had drawn up in this particular for its convoy, and asserts that from the saving of the wealth of said patache has resulted the conservation of the islands, and that the English did not leave them completely desolate, since without this aid, the subsistence of the state would have been impossible.
He also gives information that the English declared him a rebel and offered a reward for his head, having made two embassies to him through Father Bernardo Pazuengos, provincial of the Society of Jesus, and Fray Pedro Luis de Sierra, of the Order of Preachers. The first one having gone without any credentials or authorization, but only as referring to the British governor, and having refused to make a deposition before a notary who might attest it, saying that he was to treat alone and in secret with Don Simon in regard to the matter for which he went, therefore audience was refused him, and he was despatched with a warning.
At the second embassy, inasmuch as letters were taken from the archbishop and from the auditor Don Francisco Enrriquez de Villacorta and from the above-mentioned father provincial in which they intimated to him that they would admit means of peace, in order to free the said auditor from the sentence of death, passed upon him by the council of war of the British nation, because some letters which he had written had been intercepted, he would not consent to it, and despatched the religious and ordered edicts to be published in opposition to theirs, offering ten thousand pesos to whomever would deliver alive or dead each one who had signed the edict [against him]. Finally, there was a suspension of hostilities until the evacuation of the fort. During this interim, the province of Ylocos revolted and rendered homage to the king of Gran Bretaña. At its head was Diego Silan, a Pangasinan Indian, a plebeian, who, according to public report, had been a coachman in Manila. He succeeded in getting the English to appoint him alcalde-mayor for life of that jurisdiction, and he accomplished many atrocities and acts of sacrilege. They seized the alcalde-mayor and his family; took possession of the arms and effects belonging to his Majesty; and the recognition of paying him tribute and of assisting with the polos and personal services; obliged the reverend bishop, Don Fray Bernardo Ustariz, to retire and take to flight, because he tried to reduce them to reason; committed many thefts and extortions in the estates; and burned many houses, proceeding with inhuman cruelty. An expedition was made against them, in which they were almost defeated, but since the loyal people of Ylocos were cowardly, and as they were not accustomed to fight, the tyrant was allowed to reform his forces and to continue with greater violence to further his prowess and to increase his troops.
Having been informed of such fatal occurrences, and treating for the common relief, he gave commission to said bishop and to the vicar-provincial of that province to pacify it. He communicated to them all his own powers, and wrote various letters to the villages which remained loyal, exhorting them to continue so. But not having been able to obtain any results by this method, he drew up a cause, and gave it in review to the fiscal. The latter petitioned that the most severe punishments be meted out to Diego Silang and the insurgents. As a result he ordered that a peremptory order of imprisonment and an edict of citation be issued, entrusting the measure of its publication to Fray Francisco Antonio Maldonado, an Augustinian religious, and promising a reward to whomever would communicate it to Diego Silang, and a greater one if he should obtain his reply. Don Diego Aldais, a Spanish mestizo, moved by his good zeal, determined to do this. He passing through the village of Santa Lucia, was seized by the partisans of the traitor and his letters intercepted. They deprived the religious ministers of the right to communicate [with one another] and imprisoned their diocesan prelate. By various letters which he received, he discovered the alliance which the Ilocans had made with the Pangasinans,[2] Sangleys, and the English enemy, to whom the province had been delivered, the go-between in so execrable an outrage being Don Santiago Orendain, as was proved also by a rough draft of another letter which he made and sent to Diego Silang, which was intercepted in his state by Don Manuel Alvarez and presented to him [i.e., to Anda].
Informed that the Ilocan Indians were committing disorders in this state, some following steadfastly the party of his Majesty, and others that of Diego Silang,[3] he determined with the advice of experienced persons, to appoint a chief justice and a master-of-camp as generalisimo, a sargento-mayor of the Catholic villages, and another master-of-camp and a sargento-mayor in the name of the Monteses infidels. He despatched them their titles in the name of his Majesty, granting them the fitting powers for the pacification. That provision resulted in happy successes, the most happy being that Don Miguel Vicos killed Diego Silang, at the very time that said tyrant had resolved to kill the reverend bishop and other religious ministers whom he had seized. Therefore, that province began to settle down until it became quiet and restored to the obedience of his Majesty, said prelate having promised (and Don Simon confirmed it in his Majesty’s name) a general pardon to the natives of that province and exemption from tribute during the whole time of the war on the necessary condition that they furnish their ministers of the doctrine with the necessary stipends for their support. He declared as faithful and noble the villages of Santa Catalina, Vigan, Bantay, and San Vicente, as they were the ones which chiefly took part in the enterprise, and opposed the mutiny; and he gave them the arms which were taken from the leader of the sedition.
He also gives information of another insurrection which was stirred up in the province of Pangasinan, and which originated in the village of Binalatongan, which was under the spiritual charge of the religious of St. Dominic. Those natives, also instigated by the English, taking as their leader Juan de la Cruz Palaris, an unworthy man, who had also been a coachman in Manila in the employ of Auditor Don Francisco Enrriquez de Villacorta, revolted, under the pretext of various unjust, extravagant, and malicious demands: such as that the sum of money which they had paid on the account of their tributes was to be restored, since they could not have any trade with Manila, as the English were in power there, and if the latter were to make them pay tribute, they would be paying a double tribute; that four men, whom they gave as a guard of the prisoners of the prison were to be relieved from the polos; that the dignity of cacique was to be taken from two heads of barangay; that the boys schoolmaster was to be changed as he was a flatterer; that the badge of general master-of-camp of that province was not to be given outside the village of Binalatongan; that the alcalde, the father ministers, and their convents were to be removed if they did not aid them in the attainment of their attempt, and they would build new churches and would establish new fathers. Finally they petitioned that no one who did not originate from his village should hold the staff of office in the tribunal.
This insurrection, after various incidents in which it was necessary to give the fitting authorizations to various religious, and appoint Don Juan Antonio Panelo, a person of great merit and conduct as his lieutenant, in order that they might pacify and reduce that province, and that some Spaniards might accompany the latter, giving them the necessary instructions; yet they could do nothing, since, fearful of the death which the insurgents wished to inflict on them, they fled the province. Consequently, he gave commission to other religious; prepared soldiers so that they might go to reduce the province, under command of Don Fernando Arayat. The latter’s troop departed on the expedition, and the Pampangos advancing on their march, took position in front of the enemy. Having sent an embassy to them, so that they might submit, they answered that they did not wish it, since, if his Majesty had muskets, they had cannons and muskets. Notwithstanding that they had them, the commandant, having summoned them in writing, and inviting them to make peace, and seeing the contempt that they showed of his proposition, was compelled to make war upon them, attacking them in the trenches which they had made with thirty-four muskets and five hundred natives, counting Pampangos and Cagayans, after summoning them to peace five times. They replied to his summons from the trench that they had flung their banner to the breeze, with a shot from a cannon of the caliber of four, and two shots from falconets. Thereupon, Don Pedro Hernani, lieutenant of Spanish infantry, with one sergeant, one corporal, and twenty soldiers, began to cross the river in pursuit of the Cagayans, leaving Alférez Don Jose Solorzano as a reserve. Don Pedro Hernani invested the trenches with so great courage, that he succeeded in taking the banner from them, although he suffered the misfortune of being run through the breast with a lance and fell dead. But Don Pedro Fagle substituted him, and picked up the flag, which he delivered to his commandant. The latter afterward presented it to Don Simon de Anda. It was two varas long and a trifle more narrow. At each corner it had a two-headed eagle, and in the center an escutcheon with its border, and within it the arms of the Order of St. Dominic. They also wounded a Spanish soldier with a poisoned arrow from which he died raving. Since the number of the enemy was vast, their position advantageous, and the river which they had in front, not being able [to be crossed] as it had swollen, obliged them to retire. But desiring to avoid all confusion of blood, and manifesting to them the love of his Majesty for his vassals, he [i.e., the Spanish commander] forbore to attack them again, reiterating that he would act mildly, entrusting the matter to another Dominican religious and the practical business to the master-of-camp Manalartay.
Finally, the bishop of Nueva Segovia, Don Fray Bernardo Ustariz, having taken upon himself the obligation of pacifying them, set about various measures and succeeded in reducing them. A few days afterward they sent a deputation to Don Simon, asking mercy, bearing recommendations from the abovesaid bishop, and manifesting their repentance. They recognized his Majesty as their only sovereign and asked for an alcalde-mayor to govern them. He condescended to this, pardoning them with warning that he would proceed against them in case they repeated their error. Juan Palaris and Domingo Magalog, his brother, were included in the pardon. He ordered Don Joaquin Gamboa to be restored to his office as alcalde-mayor, but the latter resigned. Consequently, the office of alcalde-mayor was given to Don Jose Acevedo. Various measures were taken so that the families who had retired to Pampanga and fled the insurrection, might be restored to Pangasinan.
He also recommends the religious orders for the good services which they have rendered, especially that of the calced Augustinians, who have suffered total ruin, as have those who have most shown their love and fidelity during the invasion of the English.
He also manifests the distrust which he recognized in some religious of St. John of God, as they had opposed a government measure conducive to the royal service. But since this was a prohibition to taking from an estate, which they had, food for their hospital of Manila, it is to be noted that this is a complaint or accusation more befitting an indiscreet zeal, namely, of the charity with which the religious must have worked, in order that their sick might not perish, without one being able for this reason to attribute it to disloyalty.
Lastly, he gives account of the measures which he took in order to continue the aid which had been established on his Majesty’s account in honor of Fernando I, king of Joló. He states that, at the beginning of the expedition, the king showed himself loyal to his Majesty, and recognized Don Simon as Audiencia, and governor, asking him to assign him to those provinces or to send him to his country, whence he would send him the aid, which he asked of him. Having advised him that he would transfer him to Pampanga, he promptly arranged his voyage, and having arrived at the village of Pasig, he was overtaken by an accident which impeded him for six days. During that interim, the enemy made him a prisoner. The English, taking advantage of the occasion, sent him to Joló. Afterward when the English evacuated Manila, they took the prince Ysrael and all those of his kingdom. It was presumed that the English had made some agreement with him, so that they might establish themselves in Joló. That would be to the great prejudice of the Visayan provinces and their trade both because of the English and the Moros.
In a separate measure, both Don Simon de Anda, in his representations, and the royal lieutenant, Don Francisco de la Torre, governor ad interim of Filipinas, discuss the receipt of a royal decree, despatched July 18, 1762, by which a fine of two thousand pesos was declared against the auditor Don Francisco de Villacorta, and the fiscal, Don Francisco Leandro de Viana, because of the irregularity of the process which they prosecuted against Doctor Don Santiago Orendain, which they have not made manifest because of having produced various exceptions which appear from the records which he remits. In regard to this affair, he has not wished to make any innovation until his Majesty decide as to the matter what he considers just. He encloses a report of the royal officials in favor of the conduct of the above-mentioned fiscal Viana.
He also reports with records, the summary investigation of the crime of disloyalty, which was incurred by Doctor Don Santiago Orendain as being partial to and director of the British government. Don Simon delivered that matter to his successor, so that he might continue it. This man and his family went with the English when they evacuated the fort of Manila, to the city of Madras.
The royal lieutenant also discusses, when advising of the receipt of a royal decree, dated July 23, 762, the question of not forbidding Sangley converts from going to the house of the catechumens, and gives information of the league which the Christian Sangleys made with the English, and the atrocities which they committed. He publicly ordered their rites, and concluded with petitioning the total expulsion of the Sangleys who have kept the title of Christian, as was done with the infidels; in which Don Simon and the ecclesiastical estate also coöperate with convincing and practical reasons.
From all the above, it results from this extract that measures could have been taken in regard to only the two matters: one in regard to the absolute expulsion of the Christian Sangleys from those islands; and the other ordering that a rule be given as to what ought to be done in the future in a like case, when one single minister remains as governor as happened to Don Simon, and restitution [of the government] having been made, if the governor has acted with ignominy, whether the staff of office is or is not to be given to him by the minister who has held the command. These two measures look toward the future; for what was done by Don Simon is approved by his Majesty and whatever said Don Simon has done ought to be approved—the posts which he has given, the expenses which he has incurred, and which he has made on the account of the royal treasury. In a word he has become worthy, not only of the reward which he has now obtained from the royal magnificence, but also of eternal memory.
[1] When Manila was surrendered, in order to receive the Augustinian convent, it was necessary for the provincial to make a contract to pay 10,000 pesos, in case that the confiscation of its effects should be considered as proper in the courts of Madrid and London. The British court approved the operations of the English council, and by virtue of their sentence, an Englishman went to Madrid to collect the 10,000 pesos. See Mas, i, p. 195, note. [↑]
[2] Upon the outbreak of the first insurrection in Pangasinan, Anda wrote to the religious for aid in quelling it; and in order to quiet the insurgents, promised them full pardon (Mas, i, pp. 148, 149). [↑]
[3] A communication from Drake to Silán, May 9, grants him the titles of governor, alcalde, and sargento-mayor, of Ilocos. Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 100. [↑]