Events in Filipinas, 1686–88
Diary of new events in Filipinas, from June, 1686 to June in 87
On June 11, 1686, the galleon “Santo Niño” discovered, twenty-two leguas from the island of San Juan, a new island, larger than any of those discovered in Marianas; it is named San Bernabé, because it was discovered on the day of that saint.
On July 11 the bells were rung in Manila for the arrival of the galleon “Santa Rosa.”
On the twelfth they hanged five Sangleys, who were found guilty in the mutiny.
On the fourteenth news came that all the people who were in the lancha that lost its course in Marianas had safely reached port in Cagayan.
On the eighteenth the courier[1] arrived with the mail.
On the nineteenth the auditor Don Diego Calderon died.
On the second of August, Licentiate Don Rafael Tome, a student in San José, died.
On the twenty-seventh, the sloop for Marianas sailed from Cavite; and Fathers Diego de Zarzosa and Jacinto Garcia,[2] and Brother Melchor de los Reyes, embarked in it.
On the twenty-sixth, our mail reached Manila. On the twenty-eighth, that from Roma was opened, and no [provision for our] government was found.
At the beginning of September, the Augustinians brought suit against us before the archbishop, regarding the administration of Mariquina.
On the sixth of October, Father Jose Lopez died in Palapag.
On the twelfth the father provincial, Francisco Salgado,[3] and the father rector, Luis Pimentel,[4] were notified of the judicial decision by the archbishop—who, declaring himself to be a competent judge, notwithstanding [our] challenge of his cognizance, although he had approved our licenses and our administration of the sacraments, revoked the said licenses, and decreed that no one of the Society should minister in Mariquina,[5] and that the ministry there should devolve upon the Augustinians.
On the same day, the twelfth of October, it was decided in a provincial council that the paths of government should be opened. The first was entered by Father Geronimo de Ortega, and the second by Father Juan Andres de Palavicino; but, on account of the death of both these, Father Luis Pimentel—at the time, rector of the college of San Ignacio—began to govern.
On the thirteenth of October, the armada entered the port of Cavite.
On the fifteenth, Father Antonio Jaramillo[6] began to officiate as rector of the college of Manila.
On the eighteenth of October, a decree was made known to the provisor, who had gone to Mariquina and Pasig, forbidding any official whatever of the archbishopric from taking action in matters pertaining to the lawsuit of Mariquina.
On the twenty-first, a decree was made known to the archbishop strictly charging him that he must refrain from taking action in the lawsuit of Mariquina, and that he must exhibit the records.
On the eighteenth of December, the archbishop was notified and charged not to disturb us in the Mariquina affair. On the nineteenth, a similar charge was laid upon the prior of Pasig; and another, on the twentieth, on the prior-general of the Augustinians.
On the same day, the twentieth of December, the archbishop sent a denunciation of excommunication, with the curse of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and his own, and that of the apostles Peter and Paul, to the governor and to Auditor Bolivar, in order that they should not interfere in the Mariquina affair.
Year of 1687
On the twenty-first of January, 1687, General Don Juan de Zalaeta was arrested by order of the governor, and thrust into the sulphur dungeon [calabozo de azufre]. Item, they also arrested Licentiate Don Miguel de Lozama, and conveyed him, wearing two pairs of fetters, to the fort of San Gabriel. The goods of both were seized, and several of their clerks arrested.
On the twenty-second, Doña Ynes, the wife of the said Don Miguel, sent a petition to the said governor, who answered that the judge of the suit was Don Francisco Velasco, alcalde-in-ordinary. Doña Ynes came before the royal Audiencia, and that body passed an act providing that the said alcalde should, after taking the confession of the accused, present the documents within twenty-four hours. The governor, having seen this decree, issued another, prohibiting further action by the royal Audiencia, and ordering the alcalde to prosecute the case without surrendering the documents. At night the governor summoned the auditors and fiscal to a conference, and made an address to them—from which resulted, as was noticed, great fear in the auditors, who almost decided to forsake the Audiencia, and take refuge in sanctuary.
On the seventh of February, they arrested the auditor Don Diego de Viga, put him on a vessel, and conveyed him to the island of Mariveles. At the same time they made the most careful search, in order to seize the auditor Don Pedro de Bolivar; but by that time he had fled to sanctuary.
On the fourteenth of February, they took from his house, where she had remained with guards, Doña Josefa Moran de la Cueva, the wife of the auditor Don Pedro de Bolivar, and carried her into banishment at Abucay.
On the sixteenth, they also seized Doña Ynes, sister of the said Doña Josefa, and wife of Licentiate Don Miguel de Lezama, and carried her to the same place, Abucay.
On the twenty-sixth of February, the college of the Society of Jesus was surrounded [by soldiers], to remove thence the person of the auditor Don Pedro de Bolivar; and not finding him, the men remained on guard, both within and without the college, for the space of nine days. In that time they searched the house eleven times—four of these with violence, wrenching the locks from doors, and breaking open tables; but they did not find the said Don Pedro. At the end of the nine days, he showed himself, of his own accord, and they arrested him and took him to Mariveles; several days before they had removed from the said island the auditor Don Diego de Viga, and transferred him to that of Lucban.
Just about this time a new Audiencia was formed, which was thus arranged: the governor was its president; the royal fiscal became an auditor, Captain Don Jose Cervantes was judge of Audiencia, and Captain Juan de Agulo attorney-general.
On the fourth of March—the day on which [the college of] the Society was first searched with violence—the English pirate captured a sloop of the king’s, which was coming from Pangasinan laden with three thousand cabans of cleaned rice. Item, he also captured a champan belonging to the alcalde of Pangasinan, which came laden with rice and other products.[7]
On the same day, the fourth of March, the archbishop sent to Mariquina to investigate whether Father Diego de Ayala was officiating as cura; the latter prevented the notary from doing so, and, when other people went to make the said investigation, he told them that they need not take that trouble—that he was acting as cura in virtue of the bull of St. Pius V and of his assignment [to that parish] by the [royal] patron.
On the fifth of March there was preaching in the royal chapel by a Recollect friar, against whom the governor issued a royal decree very sharply rebuking him, which he caused to be read to all the religious orders. A few days later, the archbishop sent an act to the prior of Pasig, ordering him to officiate as cura to the people of Cainta.[8]
About Christmas, the royal magazines in Panay were burned, and in them some six thousand cabans of rice. On the first of March, Saturday, the Augustinians set fire to the cottage on the ranch which the college of the Society of Jesus at Yloilo owns in Suaraga. On the following Saturday, March 8, fire visited the Augustinians, destroying a visita, a church and convent, and more than forty houses in the village. Item, and the following Saturday, March 15, the church and house were burned in the village of Dumangas, without their being able to save their valuables, or to prevent the burning of the pious offerings [colectas] of Cebu, which had been stored [in that convent]; and, besides this, more than two thousand cabans of rice.
On the sixteenth of March, Passion Sunday, while Father Diego de Ayala was saying mass in the village, the church was entered by armed men, with Bachelor Teodoro de Aldana, the notary of the archbishop; the prior of Pasig, with two laymen; and other people. After mass was ended, they read to the Indians an act by the archbishop, which commanded them, under penalty of flogging and the galleys, to appear within three days before the prior of Pasig, resorting to the latter for religious ministrations, and to repeat the sacraments.
On the seventeenth of March, the father procurator, Antonio de Borja,[9] presented a petition to the governor that he, as vice-patron, should take measures regarding the violent spoliation which the archbishop had inflicted on the Society. The governor referred the petition to the royal fiscal, as being his Lordship’s counselor, but the said fiscal excused himself. Then it was referred to Doctor Cervantes, to Fray Francisco de Santa Ynes, and to many other persons, both ecclesiastics and laymen, but all excused themselves; and in these proceedings much time passed, so that it was the end of May before anything was accomplished.
On the nineteenth of March, in the afternoon, the secretary came to deliver in behalf of the royal court a verbal message to the father procurator [sic] Antonio Jaramillo, advising him of the oversight of the preacher, who that morning in the sermon—at which the governor and the king’s fiscal were present—had omitted to use the phrase, “very potent sir.” The same message was sent to the superiors of the other religious orders, because, several days before, the prior of St. Augustine and another religious, a Dominican, had fallen into the same offense, when preaching in the royal chapel.
On the twenty-seventh of March, Holy Thursday, the monument[10] of the Tagálogs in the church of Santo Domingo was burned. On the twenty-eighth, Good Friday, there was a fire in Binondo and part of Tondo; and one thousand two hundred and sixty houses were destroyed—two hundred and fifty-eight in the village of Tondo, and one thousand and two in that of Binondo. Thirteen persons were burned to death, and many others escaped only with serious injuries. The fire caught three times in the church of Binondo, but the Indians of San Miguel and Dilao put it out.
On the twelfth of April the archbishop demanded aid from the governor, and with it arrested the cantor Don Geronimo de Herrera, and placed him in the fort of Santiago. Soon afterward, the governor caused the arrest of Don Juan de Cordoba and one Carcano, respectively procurator and receptor in the royal Audiencia; and afterward, on the twentieth of April, of Blas de Armenta, secretary of the court, and of Captain Diego de Vargas and others.
On the twenty-second of April Father Ferragut died in the college.
On the eighteenth of April, Domingo Diaz came to give the father rector, Antonio Jaramillo, a copy of a petition by the Augustinians; the father rector, before he knew that the said Domingo Diaz had come, had made, in scriptis [i.e., in writing], his protest of incompetency of the judge, and of challenge and appeal.
On the twenty-third of April, the father procurator, Antonio de Borja, sent to the archbishop a document in which was set forth in due form the said protest, challenge, and appeal. He also presented to the governor a petition that he would give proper attention to the disturbance which the Society had suffered, and the injury inflicted on the royal patronage.
On the twenty-eighth of April, Domingo Diaz came again to give Father Borja a copy of another petition from the Augustinians, who said that the challenge and appeal which he had interposed were of no force.
On the fourth of May, they brought Captain Mateo Perea under arrest from the Lake [of Bay], and left him in his own house with guards. On the sixth of May, Domingo Diaz came to make known to Father Borja an act of the archbishop—who declaring that there was no occasion for the challenge and appeal interposed, commanded that the parties should make their complaint; and that within six days the documents for the sentence should be brought to his illustrious Lordship. On the tenth of May, Father Antonio Borja presented before the royal Audiencia a plea of fuerza, in order that he might make known the injury which the archbishop had done to the Society and the royal patronage.
On the fourteenth of May, Domingo Diaz came to summon for the sentence of the archbishop the father rector, Pedro de Oriol,[11] who replied that he did not regard himself as summoned, or acknowledge his illustrious Lordship as a competent judge. On the same day, the fourteenth, Licentiate Don Antonio Roberto was brought a prisoner from Marinduque; and they placed him in the provisor’s house, with a pair of very heavy fetters.
On the fifteenth of May, the father rector, Pedro de Oriol, presented a petition to the governor, asking him to issue a juridical testimony of his recourse [to the Audiencia] with a plea of fuerza; and that notification be sent to the archbishop that his illustrious Lordship must not take any further action until the royal court should decide what must be done.
On the seventeenth of May, Domingo Diaz came to make known the sentence of the archbishop, which declared that the Augustinians were the lawful parish priests of Mariquina, and that the sacraments administered by the fathers of the Society since October 12, 1686, had no force. The reply to all was, [that such proceeding was] null, and contrary to law. On the nineteenth of May, Father Borja came before the royal court a second time with a plea of fuerza. On the twentieth of May, the royal court resolved to issue a royal decree to the archbishop, commanding him to deliver up the documents in the Mariquina lawsuit.
On the twenty-third of May, they arrested the dean, Don Miguel Ortiz de Cobarrubias, by order of the archbishop; they placed him in the provisor’s house, and seized his goods. At the end of May, they carried the two auditors, and soon afterward Don Juan de Zalaeta and Don Miguel de Lezama, to Cagayan, as exiles; and they were placed one in each of the four garrisons that are maintained in the said province.
On the third of June, a notary came from the archbishop with a petition from the Augustinians, who were asking his illustrious Lordship to confirm the sentence that he had pronounced. Father Borja made a reply, more than two sheets in length.
On the fifth of June, a royal decree was made known to the archbishop that he must exhibit the documents in the Mariquina lawsuit, and his illustrious Lordship said that he would reply and would send the papers—which were in regard to the value of the sacraments.
On the eighth of June the archbishop held a consultation with the royal Audiencia, asking its aid to arrest and punish Fathers Diego de Ayala and Pedro Cano.[12] Up to today, June 24, the archbishop has not exhibited the documents in the Mariquina lawsuit.
News of this year of 1688 and part of the last one, with an appendix of other points
1. The ship “Santo Niño” which sailed from Cavite last year, 1687, put back to the port of Bagatao, to the grief of everyone—not only on account of the deterioration of property and the very considerable damages, but also this greatly delayed the remedy which is needed by the public calamities and the oppression under which this colony lies. The ship’s return to port is attributed to the excessive lading which it carried, to careless arrangements and lack of proper outfit, and to the undue timidity of those who had charge of the vessel.
2. The Recollect fathers made a raid through the lands of Silang, which they call Alipaopao, Oyaye, Malinta, etc.; and, trying to adjudge them to the ranch of Sarmiento, which they had recently bought through the agency of General Endaya, they committed unheard-of atrocities in the houses and grain-fields of the Indians—burning and ravaging them as furiously and horribly as if an army of Camucones had raided them. The Indians lost, as appears from a juridical statement that was drawn up, more than three thousand pesos.
3. A Dominican friar in Cagayan refused to absolve a Spaniard at the hour of death, in spite of all his entreaties for absolution. Although the friar had begun to hear his confession, the dying man could not proceed with it, being stopped by the nausea which comes at death, and he therefore died without absolution. I do not know all the circumstances in this case.
4. Another friar in the same province refused to absolve Auditor Don Diego de Viga, unless he would first express I know not what protestations and detestations. The auditor replied that, for what concerned the banishment of the archbishop, his conscience had not given him any uneasiness, because he had understood that he acted in regard to it in accordance with the laws and decrees of our king a sovereign so Catholic as is that of España; and that in affairs in which he had felt scruples, and had proceeded according to human judgment, there was nothing for which to employ the friar’s zeal, and still less occasion for his trying to have him make those detestations and protestations. Nevertheless, the friar persisted [se estuvó en sus trece] in refusing to absolve him; and Don Diego, embracing the holy Christ and uttering fervent acts of contrition, said that he appealed to the mercy of God, and thus he died. He was buried in consecrated ground, although afterward, it is reported, the archbishop sent orders that his bones should be disinterred, and removed from consecrated ground.
5. Doña Josefa de la Cerda, the wife of Auditor Bolivar, died[13] in her exile, from anxiety and grief and despair. She asked for a confessor from the Society, which was not granted to her. The Dominican friar who served as parish priest in the village where she was an exile refused to absolve her unless she would comply with certain conditions, with which those fathers are wont to fetter and hinder souls. She was not minded to comply with these, or to make her confession to a religious of that order; and while a Franciscan who had been granted to her was on his way, she died. They spread the report that she had died impenitent, and buried her on the seashore.
6. The archbishop, since he came back from his exile, has not ceased to wage war on this city. He demanded aid for arresting the religious of the seraphic father St. Francis, who preached in favor of the royal patronage; item, for arresting those who were ministering in Mariquina, the fathers of the Society; item, for seizing Father Cano; and all these acts proceed from the fury and partiality of Father Verart.
7. The bishop of Sinopolis died, and orders were given that he be buried in [the church of] the Society of Jesus. This the archbishop and his friars took so ill that the latter refused to go to his funeral and burial, to the surprise and scandal of the whole city; and the archbishop prevented the cabildo from paying the last honors to the bishop in the church of the said order, declaring that it was polluted by [containing] the remains of Señor Grimaldos, who in the opinion of the said fathers died excommunicate.
8. The archbishop forcibly took from the fathers of the Society the administration of the village of Cainta and Jesus de la Peña, and gave it to the Augustinian fathers—thus revenging himself on those of the Society, whom he regarded as enemies; and for this cause he commanded them to tear down their buildings at Jesus de la Peña, to the foundations—the governor aiding him in this atrocious act, contrary to the laws and privileges of the royal patronage.
Appendix
1. The goods which the governor shipped as contraband, of which the accountant made a written statement, are two hundred and thirty-five packages.
2. The vessels which Endaya has built, with the authority that he possesses, are two pataches and a champan.
3. The amount which the governor received from the Marques de la Laguna, at Santa Rosa, was one hundred thousand pesos.
4. What the governor did with Blas Rodriguez[14] on account of the quantity of gold taels which he gave him.
5. Of the Dominican friar who went to look at the bulls of Don Fernando, that he might enter as a Franciscan.
6. How not even this gentleman has escaped from the anger of the archbishop and Verart.
7. Of the inundation in Cagayan; of the locusts, famine, earthquakes, and drouths; of disturbances, etc.[15]
8. Of the rosary entirely made of silver coins,[16] one hundred and fifty thousand in number, which, it is said, the blessed Dominican fathers gave to the governor.
9. Of the imprisonment of Roberto; and why and how the provisor went, with great clatter of weapons and constables, to arrest a brother of the Society.
10. How Father Pedroche, who had been banished from these islands, escaped from Acapulco, and came back dressed as a Recollect.
11. Of the Dominican friar who killed another in Cagayan.[17]
[1] Spanish, gentilhombre: an obsolete word, meaning a person sent to the king with important despatches (Velázquez’s Dictionary, Appleton’s ed.).
[2] Jacinto Garcia was born in Castellar, November 6, 1654, and at the age of twenty-one entered the Jesuit order. Four years later he joined the Philippine mission, he was procurator of the Manila college for three years, and superior in Marinduque for the same time. He died at Manila, May 1, 1710. (Murillo Velarde, fol. 397 b.)
[3] Fiancisco Salgado was born in Galacia, April 2, 1629, and at the age of nineteen became a Jesuit novice. In 1662 he went to the Philippines. He spent several years as a teacher, and afterwards as vice-rector, in the college of St. Joseph, and later was rector of Silang. He went to Europe (about 1674?) as procurator for his order, and returned in 1679 with a band of missionaries; later, he was rector of the Manila college, and provincial (1683). His death occurred at Manila, July 14, 1689. (Murillo Velarde, fol. 357.)
[4] Luis Pimentel was born in Portillo, on May 30, 1612. In 1632 he entered the Jesuit order, and eleven years later joined the Philippine mission. He was a teacher in the college at Manila for two years, and afterward was at the head of various Jesuit residences. He was sent to Europe as procurator (about 1656?), and came back in 1666 with a band of missionaries; and afterward was three times rector of St. Joseph college, and three times provincial (1670, 1675, 1687). He died at San Miguel on July 5, 1689. (Murillo Velarde, fol. 356 b.)
[5] On account of a ranch which the college of San Ignacio at Manila possesses in the land of Meybonga, not far from the said city—its name being Jesus de la Peña, or Mariquina—the Society began to administer the sacraments, establishing the mission village of Mariquina, or Jesus de la Peña, by authority from Don Fray Pedro de Arce, bishop of Zebù and apostolic ruler of the archbishopric of Manila, on April 16, 1630; this was confirmed by the vice-patron, Don Juan Niño de Tabora, governor of these islands, on April 22, 1630. The said village was cared for by the minister stationed in Santa Cruz, or by a father sent by the rector of the college of Manila, who was the director of the said village; for this no stipend was asked from his Majesty, because the minister was not permanently established there, and therefore the said college maintained him, without suspending, for lack of a stipend, the ministry in the said village. In the year 1675, the Society was confirmed in this administration by a royal decree, dated July 26, on account of the Society’s right to the said parish having been disputed by the religious of St. Augustine, from November, 1669. In 1681, the number of parishioners having increased, it was judged necessary to station a permanent minister there, for the better administration of the sacraments, and to build a house and a larger church; and, as it was thus necessary to incur larger expenses, the Society asked, in 1685, that to this minister be given the stipend which his Majesty assigns to the parish priests, in accordance with the number of tributes. The fiscal of his Majesty replied that in view of what the Society was accomplishing there, a suitable stipend should be given. In the year 1686, the religious of St. Augustine claimed that that Indian village belonged to them, as an annex to the ministry of Pasig. The archbishop issued an act, on October 11, 1686, in which, while admitting as valid the sacraments administered by the Society, he took from all its religious permission to minister in Jesus de la Peña; and on March 10, 1687, he declared that the lawful parish priest of the mission of Jesus de la Peña was the prior of Pasig, a religious of St. Augustine. In this spoliation concurred also, through complaisance, the governor Don Gabriel Curuzelaegui, who on March 23 of the said year decreed that Don Juan Pimentel, alcalde of Tondo, should begin proceedings against the Society in the mission of Jesus de la Peña, as the king commanded; and that he should assist the provisor in tearing down our church—which he did, commanding the Indians to demolish that temple. “What obedience! the monster of the Indias, an unnatural birth of remoteness, of power, and of prejudice.” (Murillo Velarde, Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 345 b.)
[6] Antonio Mateo Xaramillo was born at Zafra February 23, 1648, and became a Jesuit novice at the age of seventeen. He was sent to the Marianas Islands in 1678, and spent sixteen years in missionary labors. While rector at Manila he was sent to Spain as procurator; and he died at Ocaña, on December 30, 1707. (Sommervogel, Bibliothèque Comp. Jésus, viii, col. 1321.)
[7] The English pirate here alluded to was probably the ship on which Dampier voyaged to the Philippines, as that vessel was, at the time here mentioned, cruising off the coast of Luzón (see his own account of this, ante, p. 91). The name of Captain Swan’s vessel in which Dampier sailed was the “Cygnet.” That ship separated from Captain Davis in the “Batchelor’s Delight” in Realejo Harbor, August 27, 1685. See Lionel Wafer’s Voyage and description of Isthmus of America (London, 1699), p. 189.
[8] “Soon after the beginning of the spiritual conquest of Tagalos, the Society undertook the administration of Cainta, a village close to Mariquina. Because the rectitude of its minister, Father Miguel Pareja, restrained some Indian chiefs, so that they should not use for themselves the property of the community, to the injury of the rest, they, seeing the excellent opportunity afforded to them by the ecclesiastical tribunal, endeavored to avail themselves of it, instigated by one who should, on account of his character and his obligations, have restrained them. They are an insolent people, and a seditious person (who is never lacking) can easily disturb the minds of the crowd. They hastened to complain to the archbishop of his ministers, and he, without hearing the Society, despoiled it of that administration, on March 16, 1688, and bestowed it on the religious of St. Augustine. The archbishop demanded aid from the governor in order to arrest Father Diego de Ayala and Father Pedro Cano, on complaints either frivolous or false, without having made any specific charges against them, or notifying their superiors.” (Murillo Velarde, fol. 345.)
“From the first conquest Cainta was a visita of Taytay, the ministry of both villages being the very same, until, its population increasing—Indians, and creoles or morenos (thus they designate the black negroes [negros atezados])—it seemed expedient to give Cainta its own minister.” (Murillo Velarde, fol. 406b.)
[9] Antonio de Borja was born at Valencia in 1644, and at the age of twenty-seven went to the Philippine missions. He acted as rector of various Jesuit colleges, and died at Manila on January 27, 1711. (Sommervogel.) He is only mentioned incidentally by Murillo Velarde (fol. 383), as being an envoy to the kings of Mindanao and Joló.
[10] “An altar raised in churches on Holy Thursday to resemble a sepulchre” (Velázquez).
[11] Pedro de Oriol was born at Urgel in Cataluña, August 15, 1639; at the age of nineteen he entered the Jesuit novitiate, and in 1663 joined the Philippine mission. “He was two years rector of Bohol, three of Zebu, and two of Yloylo; seven years vice-provincial, and twice filled that office for Pintados; was two years rector of Cavite, and one year vice-rector of the college of Manila, where also he was minister; and, being chosen provincial, would not accept that office.” He died September 27, 1705. (Murillo Velarde, fol. 389 b–393.)
[12] Pedro Cano was born in the archbishopric of Toledo, on February 22, 1649. In 1670 he entered the Jesuit order at Sevilla, in order to join the province of Filipinas, where he arrived in the following year. He was procurator of the college, and of the province. Being appointed procurator for Madrid and Rome, he died while on the voyage thither, near Acapulco, December 18. 1692. (Murillo Velarde, fol. 369.)
[13] On September 28, 1687 (Diaz, p. 788).
[14] This man held the office of sargento-mayor, and had been (before 1683) alcalde-mayor of Cagayán.
[15] In 1687 “there was an increase in the calamities of the country, which suffered great scarcity of provisions on account of the grain-fields having been ruined by the heavy and constant rains which fell—which injured the salt springs even more, so that a half-fanega of salt, which usually is worth two or three reals, reached the price of twelve pesos. In La Estacada there was a great conflagration on Good Friday, in the night, which destroyed many houses. In the following year the scarcity of food was increased by a plague of locusts, which swept away all [vegetation]; and a caban of rice came to be worth twenty and twenty-four reals. But what caused the most suffering was the havoc made by the catarrh, in the year 1687–88; it was a sort of epidemic sickness, which killed many persons, especially children and the aged; and so many were sick that they could hardly cultivate the fields, or do other things necessary for human life.” (Murillo Velarde, fol. 345 b, 346.)
[16] Spanish patacones; “a silver coin weighing one onza, and current in Batavia, Brazil, and Turkey.” (Dominguez).
[17] These seem to be memoranda intended by the writer of this document to be expanded and written out in detail.