Official Visitation by Valdivia
An account of the occurrences in Manila on the occasion of the arrival of the [royal] visitor, Don Francisco Campos de Valdivia.
The said gentleman arrived in this city,[1] and on the same day he arrested the fiscal, Don Esteban de la Puente y Alanis, seizing his goods. He did the same with the notaries who had aided [the proceedings] against the church, and with the military leaders—beginning with Don Juan de Vargas, whom he left with guards in his own house. He made inquiries into many facts which had gone forth on the part of the archbishop, and many lies on the part of the Audiencia; many false statements in the acts, and many other things by which people in Manila have been undeceived regarding the just acts of the archbishop—who is lauded by that visitor as upright, just, and holy; and who told all who entered his house what was going on. He sent for the auditor Bolivar, the only one of the four who was yet alive, who had been for another reason banished to Cagayan; he was very repentant, according to report, and was absolved with his solemn declarations—which were published, by command of the archbishop, in all the pulpits of Manila—expressing detestation of all his actions against the church, in detail, up to his neglect to give aid for seizing the two hundred or more bales belonging to the Society. He came with the intention of dying, if it were necessary, in professing what he had detested; but in Ylocos he died suddenly and without the sacraments, while still near Pangasinan. Of his property and of that of Viga, little or nothing has appeared.
The archbishop, seeing that all that he had done had pleased the Council at Madrid and that at Roma, proceeded to lay aside his scruples, by imposing and declaring an interdict against the church of the Society, because the body of Auditor Grimaldos[2] reposed therein; and it was kept closed from the eve of St. Ignatius’s day for the space of two months, until the conclusion of the lawsuit which the widow of the said Grimaldos undertook to defend. They went to bring out the bones for sentence, and these were so intermingled with others—they say, it was done purposely or by artifice—that, in order not to deprive of asylum those of the just, the bones of Grimaldos were left in the church. It was blessed by the provisor with much solemnity, and the doors were opened with a peal of bells and the universal joy. Seeing this obstacle removed, on account of which that order were not entering that church, the Catholic visitor spoke in reconciliation of the two orders. At the first movement for peace, our order [i.e., the Dominican] declared that we desired it; and an agreement was reached, all the Society repairing to our convent on the octave of the naval feast. Our provincial preached, the archbishop and the Audiencia being present, and, I think, all Manila; for never was seen such a crowd of people. In a few days, I think in that same week, the feast of St. Ignatius was celebrated at the house of the Society; it had not been done [at the proper time], since on the eve of that day the church of the Society was placed under interdict. They had the same large attendance; Father Cani[3] preached, delivering a very spiritual and appropriate sermon.
The archbishop, seeing that God was on his side, concluded to give a public atonement to the church. In the courtyard of our church was erected a stage, on which sat his illustrious Lordship and his cabildo; one day at twelve o’clock he laid an interdict throughout the city, and on the following day were present all the culprits who had concurred in violating the sacred persons and places—in a body, without swords. They were absolved, with scourges [varillas] and miserere, and afterward his illustrious Lordship restored them to the church. Then the next day a procession was formed, accompanied by our Lady of the Rosary. For the morrow there was a sermon, at which the governor and the city were present; and in the afternoon, for the procession, all the Audiencia, and the archbishop, etc.
The visitor sent Don Juan de Vargas to Pangasinan, as excommunicated, since he had refused to submit to the sentence of his illustrious Lordship; he is still there, and will remain there. He is not going to España, as he has not paid the amount to which he was sentenced, which the visitor imposed upon him on account of the residencia, in either silver or jewels; nor has he provided securities for it. As for what concerns the residencia, the sum will be about one hundred thousand pesos; in this decision the judge has, in the opinion of all, proceeded most mercifully. The king’s fiscal has been banished to the island of Mariveles until the ship sails. The dean, Don Miguel Ortiz de Cobarrubias, was involved in the libels that were current last year, and in other matters against the archbishop, in contravention of what he had decreed—as he said under oath when they absolved him; accordingly he was arrested, and came out of prison deprived of all ecclesiastical benefice. Our Fray Raimundo Bertist [i.e., Berart] also is going to España. The schoolmaster, Don Francisco Briçeno, was also deprived of all benefice on account of his talk, and sentenced to perpetual seclusion in a convent, from which he will not emerge unless he takes the vows; they say that he is going into [the convent of] San Agustin. Very recently occurred the fall of another member of the usurping cabildo, who in my opinion was the worst of them; but he has escaped, through his crafty devices. This is Don José de Nava y Albiz, a racionero. They discovered that some sessions of the cabildo had been held without informing the new dean and canons, in opposition to his illustrious Lordship; also they found a libel against the archbishop and our religious order. The treasurer Valencia is also entangled in this matter. I do not know how the affair will end; they will find themselves in bad health if God preserves the archbishop.
Of the four dignitaries who came with the visitor, the two auditors and the fiscal ranged themselves on the side of the governor, Don Juan de Vargas; and when excommunication was laid on those who should have intercourse with him, these persons went in and out, entirely disregarding this, and causing great scandal. On this account the visitor challenged them in a suit which the party of Vargas carried to the Audiencia; and for the same reason the archbishop kept challenging them in regard to ecclesiastical affairs. The fiscal married the widow of the auditor Grimaldos. The other of those auditors—who is the senior, and who is now governing—has much fear of God; and he is all the more discreet and experienced for having been judge in Burgos.
Among other calamities which this community has suffered, not the least is the death of the governor, Don Gabriel de Curuzalegui, who died April 27; for the political government depends on so many heads that, as there is little concord among them and they are young men, much trouble is feared.
In this year, toward the end of January, God sent us an epidemic of influenza, very malignant, from which many children and old persons died throughout the islands. The prominent persons who have died in this city are: Don Francisco Beza, archdeacon of the cathedral; Gallardo, who died suddenly in prison; Master Don Pablo de Aduna, Don Francisco de Ocampo, and others. The governor died poor, and with many debts—a proof of his upright conduct. All feel that these islands have not had [in that post] a man who was more disinterested, or who took better care of the royal exchequer and the credit of the church. God repaid him for this, since our king sent him several letters of thanks for what he had accomplished—especially for having brought back the archbishop to his see, and secured the removal of that monster, the usurping government of the cabildo. The supreme pontiff wrote letters to the archbishop, thanking him for what he had done and suffered, and encouraging him for what was before him—saying that he himself is imitating him, and using very affectionate terms.
Relation of events in Filipinas arising from the coming of a visitor
While all these islands were in the disconsolate and afflicted condition of which an account was given last year, at the beginning of July arrived the patache that was despatched from Nueva España to bring the usual aid. It had a quick voyage, and in this vessel came an entire Audiencia, and a visitor.[4] The latter, disembarking at Bagatao, set out for this city with the utmost speed, in a fragata belonging to the alcalde-mayor of Leyte; and left orders in the patache that no one should go ashore or write letters. He arrived at Manila very quickly, and, landing at Cavite—where he was received with a salvo of artillery—he went to the fort only. Having spent three-quarters of an hour with Don Fernando, without going anywhere else, he continued his journey to this city, where he arrived at two o’clock, and was received with a salvo. He entered the coach of the governor, and going from the fort of Santiago (by the postern gate of which he made his entry), he reached the palace. On the plaza a body of troops had been formed in order, who received him with a general salute of arquebus-shots. He spent about an hour with the governor, at the time making known to him only the commissions which he bore; meanwhile, the faces of various persons expressed their wonder, for it began to be rumored that whatever the archbishop and governor had done received the visitor’s entire approval. This statement was very soon confirmed; for the said visitor, leaving the palace, asked for some soldiers, and, riding in the coach, went first to the house of the former governor, Don Juan de Vargas, but did not find him at home because he was outside the city, in his country house, by order of the governor. Leaving some guards there, and sending orders to Don Juan to come within the city, the visitor went to the house of Don Pedro de Bolivar; and when he asked for him and for his goods, he was told that Don Pedro was banished, and confined in the fort at Cagayan, and his goods had been confiscated and sold at public auction, by order of the governor. The visitor proceeded thence to the house of Don Diego de Calderon, and asking for him and for his goods, he was answered that Don Diego was dead, and they did not know of any goods. He left that place and went to the house of Don Diego de Viga, where he made the same inquiry and answer was made that he had died in exile and prison in Cagayan, and his goods also had been sold and confiscated by the governor. He finally proceeded to the house of the king’s fiscal, Don Esteban de la Fuente Alanis, whom he found at home in great fear and perturbation. Immediately the visitor told him that he might regard the house as his prison, and withdrawing him to an apartment, he seized all Don Esteban’s goods; by this time the afternoon was ended. On the following day, Don Juan de Vargas, having returned to the city, was promptly visited; and after a polite visit, he was told that he must remain a prisoner in his own house, without leaving it, under a penalty of one thousand ducados. On this day, it was published that all acts by the royal Council in favor of the archbishop, the governor, and the Dominicans were approved; that the auditors were suspended; that the ex-governor was fined two thousand pesos; that all were summoned to Nueva España—where they must await their sentence, in the place that had been selected, twenty leguas distant from Mejico; and, until a ship was ready, they were all banished from Manila to the same places where the archbishop and the other Dominican religious had been confined. They all were stupefied with fear, at hearing a decision so unexpected; and those of the [archbishop’s] following and partners were full of satisfaction and triumph. Fear increased, and no one felt any security in so fierce a storm, thinking that the said visitor was in the place of the governor and the Dominicans. With this it was expected that affairs would be in worse confusion than before, and that the truth of events would be disguised and covered as those personages might choose, with the fraudulent statements made in the earlier accounts.
The said visitor began his investigation, and for it demanded that the court notaries should immediately surrender to him the original documents of all the past disputes between the Audiencia and archbishop, appeals [on the ground] of fuerza, and other causes; of these he furnished a list. Then, in a few days, taking the declaration of the said fiscal of the king, the visitor brought charges against him, and commanded that he should go into banishment on the island of Mariveles, and from that place should answer the charges. In the intervening time while his cause was being prepared, a chaplain said mass in his house; and the archbishop despatched a letter threatening to place him on the public list of the excommunicated, unless he first drew up and signed the same expressions of detestation that Don Pedro de Bolivar had made, commanding that no priest should be allowed to say mass for him; and thus was repaid his good services to his illustrious Lordship during the entire term of the governor Don Gabriel. At the beginning, Don Esteban resisted; but seeing that he had no human recourse, and that, when he demanded counsel from the visitor, that person gave him to understand that he must do it, he had to yield under compulsion, and do what was commanded him. Another strong reason why he consented to do it was, that he might not go to his destination as an excommunicate; he went thither absolved, leaving the said act of detestation dated and signed, to the pleasure and satisfaction of the archbishop.
So frequent were now the visits of the reverend Verart, and so close was his intimacy with the visitor, that he did not leave the latter’s house by day or even by night—so that it was soon rumored that the said Father Verart was the one who acted and took the management in the inquiries, investigations, and charges which were made in regard to those who were included therein by the worthy visitor. This has been made more certain by time, not only by information and occurrences which have come to our knowledge, but by seeing how ignorant and unlearned the said visitor was; and if Verart did not draw up the allegations and other documents, many will doubt that the visitor could succeed in doing anything to advantage. We shall see how the whole affair will turn out, and how thoroughly investigated the truth as to affairs in these islands will go to the Council. The governor, the archbishop, the visitor, and the Dominicans [will figure] tied together by pairs, and Fray Raimundo Verart as the leader [corifeo] of the dance.
When the patache reached the port, and the auditors this city, various mails from his Majesty were opened, and it was found that the remedy was worse than the disease itself; since the Dominicans and the archbishop, like headlong furies, began a fierce tempest of vengeance against all those who were not of their faction and at their disposal, without heeding or fearing any one who might restrain them in whatever they might attempt. Accordingly, they made the first attack, or rather continued the old persecution, against the fathers of the Society (using a pretext, in order to close our church for a long time), the archbishop declaring that it had been profaned, meaning that in it was interred [the body of] Don Cristobal Grimaldos—who, he said, had died an excommunicate by having incurred that penalty in the archbishop’s banishment—although it was five years since he had died, and only now for the first time did his illustrious Lordship begin to have scruples, which he could not lay aside. In order to conceal better his revengeful spirit against the Society, he waited until the day of most publicity and greatest attendance [at our church], which was the day of our great patriarch St. Ignatius; choosing this day, he waited until the hour of nine, when the church was full of people, including all the religious communities of this city, and only the arrival of the royal Audiencia was awaited to begin high mass for the saint. For that time and hour, then, his illustrious Lordship reserved his scruples; and, sending two notaries, they published and posted on the church door his edict, declaring the church of the Society of Jesus to be polluted—declaring under penalty of major excommunication, latæ sententiæ, that no faithful Christian should attend divine worship in the said church. All the people, therefore, were obliged to go out, and the doors were locked for two months and two days, from July 31 to October 2; and, although Doña Manuela Barrientos, formerly the wife of the said Señor Grimaldos, came out in our defense—proving not only by the confessors who assisted him, but by the testimony of other witnesses, that he had died with all the sacraments and with great contrition—nothing of this was sufficient to prevent the archbishop from pronouncing notices that he had died impenitent and excommunicate. He therefore commanded that the bones should be exhumed, for which purpose the provisor, Juan Gonzalez, went one afternoon, October 2, with other officials and some negroes with spades, and opened the tomb; but, finding many bones, and among them three skulls, they had to leave these in their place, as they could not distinguish which were those of the auditor Grimaldos. On the following day the said provisor came to bless our church, and the gates were again opened, to the great joy and consolation of the people.
At this time, when the archbishop was engaged in disinterring the bones of the said auditor Grimaldos, the visitor—who had been declared investigating judge for special suits and commissions only—was going about in another direction, making his secret inquiries about past affairs. In everything he proceeded greatly in favor of the archbishop, governor, and Dominicans, but with general complaints from all the witnesses, who said that the examiner had come not to ascertain the truth, but to confirm the fraudulent and malicious reports of the archbishop and the friars—for, as soon as they said anything against the latter, they were immediately checked, and what was set down in the document was moderated; but if it was anything in favor of them, the examiner heard it at much length, and employed his rhetoric to dilate upon it very extensively. He very soon gave orders that Captain Lerma (who took the place of Armenta, the secretary of the Audiencia, who was banished to Pangasinan) and Sargento-mayor Juan Sanchez (who was secretary of that court in the time of the controversies between the Audiencia and the archbishop) should enter the fort as prisoners. Every day his friendship and intercourse with the governor grew more and more intimate, so much so that not a night passed when he did not inform the governor of all that he had accomplished that day, praising himself for having gained control of everything [de hechar todo a su barda]. This was seen by what occurred in the country; and he took away life from whomever he chose, as easily as if he had been a governor. It being necessary for his investigation that Auditor Bolivar should come to this city, the examiner demanded that he be brought from Cagayan, where he was at the time; and the latter while coming, in good health, upon entering the province of Pangasinan from that of Ylocos fell dead, from [drinking] one cup of chocolate, without obtaining the sacraments. This rumor of poisoning was so widely spread in all this region that the governor, notwithstanding all his efforts, could not stop the mouths of all; accordingly the worthy examiner was full of fear and dread lest they should do as much more to him, and did all that the governor, archbishop, and Dominicans desired—if before with some concealment, from that day with entire publicity—calling the archbishop a saintly old man.
The residencia of the ex-governor was published, and in the course of it and of other investigations (all which were proceeding at the same time) the goods of most of the prominent citizens of Manila were seized and detained—some having incurred blame in certain charges of the residencia, and others because they had been commanded by the [former] royal Audiencia and its governor and captain-general, under grave penalties in the decrees, to find and seize the Dominican religious. Consequently the people were in great perplexity, not knowing what was to be done; for it went ill with them if they obeyed the king, and still worse if they did not obey. They showed the [former] orders and decrees, but nothing availed them; consequently all went out after several days of imprisonment (in which time died Sargento-mayor Don Juan Gallardo), mulcted in amounts of three hundred, four hundred, and even five hundred pesos [each].
At the beginning of the month of October, the examiner took greatly to heart the establishment of peace between the Dominican fathers and those of the Society, in which negotiation the governor and the archbishop were active, since now the latter found no longer the means for annoying us. The affair was very diligently conducted, but always with the claim of advantages for the other side. The worthy man was quite deceived, having been told that the Dominican fathers had only broken off their former intercourse with our church inasmuch as it had been polluted from the time when Auditor Grimaldos was interred in it; but this was a great lie, and quite notorious, since, a year before the said auditor died, since the controversy over the arms,[5] they had ceased intercourse [with us]. Notwithstanding all this, they always directed their efforts to the end that the Society should yield; and, the octave of the naval feast falling on the very day of St. Francis de Borgia, we had to delay until the octave the feast and sermon for the saint, and went in a body to the church. Great rejoicing was displayed in the city; much artillery was fired; the [Dominican] provincial Marron preached; the archbishop, governor, and Audiencia were present. All this was repeated on the day of the octave of St. Francis Borgia, when Father Cani preached; and from that day the Dominican fathers and their archbishop have displayed, at least externally, their former friendliness.
A little while afterward, on the day of St. Peter [of] Alcantara,[6] occurred the most fearful earthquake that ever, according to report, was known in these islands, the shocks being repeated at various times. The father rector went to the archbishop to ask his permission to offer the act of contrition, but he refused to allow it—saying that he had thought of something else that was better, which was, to carry the Virgin of the Rosary through the streets, all reciting the rosary aloud. Moreover, in order to make peace with God and placate His just anger, he commanded one day that a general interdict be rung, publishing as excommunicated all those who had in any manner been concerned in the banishment of his illustrious Lordship and the other Dominican religious, and all the officers who had taken part in the blockade of the convent of Santo Domingo. Afterward, having erected a scaffold or stage in the courtyard of his convent, he published the absolution—for which they went past him one by one to be absolved, without sword or hat. In this were ranked all the military and officials of Manila—all solemnly swearing never again to take action or render obedience for such occasions, even though the king should command them to. All those who were absent were likewise absolved, Don Juan de Vargas being excepted, nominatim. This function was ended by the promise that with this God would be placated, and the earth rendered quiet—although His Divine Majesty, for [the ends of] His lofty judgments, continued the incessant tremblings of the earth.
It seems that with this the tragedies were ended, all [the culprits] absolved, and the earth blessed; but his illustrious Lordship and the friars, recalling to mind the former preposterous attempt to change all the [members of the] cabildo and arrange it according to their own humor and taste, and seeing themselves masters of the field, without any one remaining who could resist them, undertook to put that scheme into execution, bringing against all the prebends such suits as they pleased. Commencing with the dean, after a long imprisonment they passed sentence on him that he should be deprived of his dignity and should go to España; and, being meanwhile suspended from office, he should remain in Manila. Then they put in his place, and made dean, the provisor Juan Gonzalez—a person of the qualifications that we all know. Soon they attacked in the rear the good old archdeacon, Doctor Francisco Deza, and brought against him a very infamous complaint, entirely unworthy of his exemplary life and gray hairs, in order to deprive him of his prebend. God chose, rather, to take him to himself; but on the day when he died they seized all his goods, and placed in the prebend the cura of Quiapo, Caraballo—a Visayan by birth, and a notorious[7] mestizo. By way of courtesy, they passed then to the schoolmaster, Don Francisco Gutierrez; and, not finding any worse fault than the report that he had spoken ill of his prelate, it was enough for their purpose. After a long imprisonment, his sentence was pronounced—the loss of his prebend, and perpetual seclusion in a religious order, which he might choose; accordingly, he entered the convent of San Agustin. Thus they had a position into which to thrust a student from Santo Tomas, named Altamirano—of whom, when I say that he is a nephew of Cervantes, there is nothing more to be added. Another prebend, a racionero, named Don Jose de Nava, they got into their clutches a little while ago—because it is known that he wrote to his Majesty the excellent qualifications of those whom his illustrious Lordship was placing in the cabildo, which are admirable and undoubted—and seized all his goods. They are keeping him in fetters, in a place where he does not even know whether it is day or night, without [allowing him to] communicate with a soul. That they might more effectually form the entire cabildo from their own faction, and to suit themselves, his illustrious Lordship posted edicts regarding the two canonries, the doctoral and the magistral, saying that his Majesty commands that these prebends shall be given by competition in this cathedral, as in the others. Those who competed for them were the Japanese Naito, the little Visayan Caraballo, the mulatto Rocha, and Altamirano; and although Doctor Don Jose de Atienza entered the competition, and gave his competitive discourse in public, and preached on short notice to the admiration of his hearers, no one in the city doubts that he will not succeed in obtaining anything, as he is not of their faction and was graduated by the Society. He felt so certain of this that he said so in his sermon. For they will strive to form the entire cabildo of their own men and from their following, so that, even if the archbishop dies, the Dominican fathers will not cease to rule, which is the object at which they aim. Thus far the canonries have not been conferred; it seems that they are waiting until the ship shall sail, so that they may send word [to España that the matter remains] in doubt; but no one has any doubt that two will surely enter upon these prebends, and that Atienza has no chance at all. That clique are proceeding, in regard to everything, in a reckless and very insolent manner, and without any caution, for there is no one who can resist them; and therefore they have rendered themselves formidable in this country, and the arbitrators of all matters. It is hoped that the storm will not be so severe now, with the entrance of the royal Audiencia upon the government—on account of the very unexpected and sudden death of the governor, Don Gabriel de Curuzelaegui, the abettor of all these doings. This occurred in the month of April last, and was caused by a retention of urine, which ended his life in three days. At that time, governor, archbishop, investigating judge, and Dominicans were preparing a farrago of documents to mislead the Council and to further their own reckless proceedings; they even notified the ex-governor, Don Juan de Vargas, that he must go into exile to Pangasinan, to which place he had banished the archbishop. He made an urgent plea for his absolution, in view of his Majesty’s decree which ordered the archbishop to absolve him, but the latter would not listen to it. On the day when they carried him into exile, he entered the house of the archbishop, and, ascending the stairs on his knees until he reached the prelate’s feet, Don Juan begged him, with tears in his eyes, to absolve him; but the archbishop, with a heart like a tiger’s, refused to hear him, and answered him only with harsh words. He told Don Juan that he must submit to the penance imposed, which required him to wear the sackcloth robe, the halter round his neck, the yellow breeches, etc., going through the churches, as he had been commanded to do; and that, if he did not consent to this, he must go to Lingayen without absolution. Thence he repaired to the royal Audiencia, who issued a royal decree to the archbishop that he must absolve Don Juan; but immediately the governor and archbishop joined hands to avert this pressure, and drew up an iniquitous accusation against the auditors, containing many falsehoods and charges. Among other things, they brought forward evidence that the auditors had illicit relations with Doña Isabel, the wife of Don Juan de Vargas, and this by several witnesses. It may be imagined what sort of a country this is, and how much credit is due to the accusations that are made here—and to the witnesses in Manila, who swear to anything that suits a governor. This done, the archbishop replied to the royal decree by challenging the auditors, for the causes which he proved against them. This answer was made a very short time before the governor’s death; it was sent to him sealed, and afterward was found with the above accusation—which as some declared, was for the purpose of ruining this Audiencia as he had destroyed the other.
In this condition are affairs at present. Father Fray Raimundo Verart, the instigator of so many disturbances, is going there [i.e., to España], summoned by his Majesty. May it please God that now the misfortunes of this unhappy land may cease.
Information from Filipinas and Nueva España
With the arrival of the galleon from Filipinas in this Nueva España has been unladen a raft [flota] of news, which other pens, less awkward than mine, will relate; I can only tell what I have known. In the year 1687 the examiner [pesquisidor]—as the Chinese say, the fisherman [pescador]—Don Francisco Campos y Valdivia arrived at Manila; according to the reports, it would seem that he went there to encourage anew and continue the malignant acts of the archbishop and the Dominicans, and to pillage the wealth of that community and finally squeeze out of it the little blood that it has. He immediately joined hands with Governor Curuzealegui, the archbishop, and the Dominicans; he selected as his adviser, director, and counselor the Dominican Fray Raimundo Verart, the source of so many disturbances; and—without heeding that his Majesty, on account of the latter’s turbulent disposition, had commanded that the said religious should proceed to the court [at Madrid]—he immediately took possession of the said religious, who was with him at all hours of day and night, in his house. [He did so] in order that the religious should prepare for him the documents, acts, and inquiries for which he was commissioned, on account of the illiterate manner in which the fisherman usually drew them up. From this may be interred what documents he will carry to the court, with a hand so malicious and bold—but with the safety of the father confessor’s broad shoulders, and the cunning tendencies of the chief, of vast piety.
There are more than three hundred thousand pesos, in jewels and commodities, that he has carried away, well guarded; and he is full of confidence of new rewards. I do not doubt that the chief distributor will enjoy a very pleasant time, knowing that the Jesuits remain humbled, trampled down, and without recourse—they, to whom on so many grounds he ought to show himself at least indifferent.
He discharged his fury against the governor, Don Juan de Vargas, and, without allowing him to defend himself—since hardly had Don Juan chosen a lawyer or notary when he awoke in exile—he banished him to a distant place, and among Dominicans. And, to soften this humiliation, the archbishop denied him the absolution that he sought (going up to the prelate’s house on his knees), without paying any attention to the strict injunction of his Majesty, or urging the visitor to secure its fulfilment; and demanding an order to carry Don Juan to Mexico, notwithstanding the securities [that he had given] for his residencia. He was left in the hands of the Dominicans and the archbishop, in order that the latter might satiate himself more at leisure with Don Juan’s sorrows.
The visitor turned his attention to the auditors, whom he found already exiled by the governor; and, two of them having died a little while before, he sent for the auditor Bolivar. It is reported that the governor, fearing this man, gave orders that they should put him to death on the route.[8] What is certain is, that as he finished drinking a cup of chocolate, he fell dead, and his finger-nails and lips made known the poison; and it is noted that in the following year, about the same time, the said governor died very suddenly, and in melancholy circumstances—according to rumor and letters, like a beast. The last of the officials, the fiscal Alanis, the visitor brought with him to Nueva España, after having confiscated all his goods and inflicted on him a thousand annoyances—as also the dean, Don Miguel Ortiz. With him came the Dominican Verart, in order that with his assistance the visitor might continue the management of his documents.
About this time began the fury of the archbishop and the Dominicans against the Society. [The remains of] Auditor Grimaldos having reposed five years in the sepulcher of the college at Manila, the archbishop was pricked by scruples on the day of St. Ignatius; and, when the church was full, and the governor and the Audiencia were expected for the fiesta, a notary came in, publishing the declaration that the church was polluted—that the auditor Grimaldos had died impenitent, and that everyone should go out of the church, under penalty of excommunication. The church remained closed until the second day of October. On that day the provisor went and opened the sepulcher, and, seeing therein three corpses, among which he could not distinguish the one that he sought, he proceeded to bless what he called the “contaminated” church. The examiner [i.e., Campos y Valdivia], playing the rôle of a reconciler, obliged the fathers of the Society to go to attend a feast-day of the Dominicans, and the latter to be present at another in the Society’s house. Afterward the archbishop arranged the cabildo to suit himself, without accepting or noticing the prebends who came appointed by his Majesty, and replaced all of them from his own college of Santo Tomas; and among these were men most unworthy [of such posts], mestizos who were half negro. His principal object is, that if he should die the cabildo may appoint the bishop of Troya as ruler [of the diocese], in order that the disturbances may not cease; and very strung recommendations are going for the court, to appoint in that church the said bishop of Troya, in order that he may more vigorously continue the disputes and lawsuits, which do not cease. Meanwhile, at court let not efforts cease to persuade that this religious order is not suited for sees [mitras] so remote—as the father confessor sets forth, and that boldly. In every Dominican there is a bishop, a governor, and an absolute monarch; nor will he acknowledge himself to be a vassal—as is shown by a fiscal reply that comes from Filipinas and will go to the court, in the terms of which is recognized the intention of that prelate [i.e., Barrientos].
In the course of the investigation the visitor did not spare the [belongings required by] decency for the governor’s wife, Doña Isabel de Ardila, taking away from her at public auction even the bed and the jewels that she used, and from her husband even the sword that he carried at his belt. The annoyances inflicted upon the citizens are innumerable; and in order that the jewels and other valuables which he obtained from the seizures of goods should not be sold at a low price, at auctions, he caused them to be knocked down to himself, but in the names of other persons, and he is becoming, therefore, enormously wealthy.
Nor was the archbishop idle at this time. He proceeded to give rules to the new Audiencia as to the manner in which it was to conduct itself, declaring that recourse to it in cases of fuerza and banishment was faulty; and a little later, when urged to absolve Governor Vargas, he replied that he challenged the new auditors for cause, since he considered them all to be in love with the governor’s wife. Consequently, it would be necessary that another Audiencia should come, or that, to check lawsuits, they delegate the authority to him—which they refused, since the ecclesiastics are vassals.
In this so tangled web of mischiefs occasioned by his cause, died very suddenly Governor Don Gabriel de Curuzaelegui; so many pecuniary obligations of his were made public that they seem incredible, even to those who do not know the opportunities for profit of that governmental post. He left the administration of his estate to the man who had been the mainstay of his government, Don Tomas de Andaya—a native of Andaya in France,[9] however much he has tried to persuade people that he was born in Viscaya.
On December 19, 1689, the ship “Santo Niño” cast anchor in Acapulco, and in it came the dean of Manila, Don Miguel Ortiz de Cobarrubias; the fiscal, Don Lorenzo de Alanis; the Dominican father Fray Raimundo Verart; and the examiner, Don Francisco Campos y Valdivia. The last-named was detained in the said port, continuing some investigations with which he was charged—especially that concerning the registration [of the galleon’s cargo] for the year 1684; and in regard to the seizure in the same year of the property of Governor Don Juan de Vargas, in which he supposed there had been some formal act of the royal officials, with information from the viceroy, Marques de la Laguna—investigations all upon uncertain matters, little praised by his subordinates, or acceptable to them. On occasion of receiving a declaration, the examiner compelled General Antonio de Aztina to surrender his authority, at the same time appointing, de plenitudine potestatis [i.e., “in the fulness of his power”], as commander Captain Oriosola—who enjoyed this new favor no long time; for the viceroy, Conde de Galvez, being informed of this, immediately gave the appointment of commander to Don Juan de Garaicochea.
On the fourteenth of January, 1690, his investigations being concluded, the examiner left Acapulco, and sent ahead by the fast carriers as many as twenty loads of his own equipage, with a servant, and verbal orders that the guards should give them free passage. Information of this exemption reached the custom-house of this city, and its special judge, Don Juan Jose de Ciga y Linage, stationed officers on the route for safety. The examiner set out, by easy stages, because he was conveying a woman who had lately become a mother—one of his two maidservants, with whom he traveled, whom he had secretly married while in the bay, a little before landing at Vera Cruz; and the said lady died, a few days after leaving Acapulco, and was buried in the town of Cuernavaca. The said freight and equipage arrived at Mexico, and, notwithstanding the orders of the examiner, the following articles were unloaded in the custom-house: twenty-one chests, four boxes, two escritoires, three boxes, one screen, four china jars [tibores],[10] one trunk of clothes, and four civet-cats. Permission was given that the animals be sent to the house of Don Geronimo de Chacon, to whom the above goods came directed; but the rest was kept [at the custom-house], the packages being opened, and a list of the goods being made. The said examiner being asked for a load that had gone astray on the journey, he replied, desiring to shield himself and another person, that it did not belong to him, and he knew nothing about it. The cause of this search was, it seems, that secret warning had been given [to the customs officers] of perfumes, fine stuffs, and other goods improper for [the possession of] an examiner.
On the fifteenth of February, 1690, after various protests and threatening statements that the said boxes contained only his clothing, and especially that three contained only the private papers and documents of his visitation and commission, as he resisted surrendering the keys the locks were broken of the said three boxes; and in them was found not one paper. The contents of these, as in the boxes above mentioned, were as follows: three ornamental boxes and two writing-desks of lacquered wood, perfume-caskets, trays, combs, fans, porcelain cups, and curious articles of japanned ware. Besides these, there were forty cases of fans; item, eighty-six bundles of untwisted silk, and several libras more of spun silk; item, two hundred and seventy-five pieces of stuffs—satin, lampotes, ribbed silk, Chinese silk, velvets, and other wares from Canton; item, one hundred and fifty-eight onzas of musk; item, three hundred and forty-four pairs of silk hose.
They are sure that he is bringing many more packets in the names of Commander Aztina and Captain Oriosola, the source of these being the fines—which, they say, he regulated more by the wealth than by the faults of the citizens of Manila, levying the fines in merchandise at low prices, by a third hand, that of the said commander. It is currently reported that the bales which he is bringing on his own account, under the names of other persons, exceed one hundred and fifty in number. It is certain that in the custom-house were opened two lots of goods [shipped] in the name of the said commander—one of forty bales of various commodities, and another of thirty bales of Canton silk stuffs, both without invoices; also packets, which show little care and arrangement. This almost entirely confirms the suspicions entertained, all the more as it is well known that the said commander has no wealth, and even hardly enough to eat. But as the merchants of China are here—who have come, like many of the citizens of Mejico, frightened by the extortions imposed in Manila—it is difficult to declare the [contents of the] said packets while the examiner remains in these kingdoms.
[1] He came with commission to bring suit against the auditors who had banished the archbishop.
[2] He had died toward the end of the year 1683, aged more than seventy years.
[3] Nicolas Cani was born in 1611, a Sardinian by nation; and became a Jesuit novice March 27, 1628. In 1653 he entered the Philippine missions, and labored in the Visayan Islands. Murillo Velarde states (fol. 367 b) that he was unable to learn further particulars as to Cani’s life and ministries, except vague statements as to his admirable character and some few incidents in which he figured. The date of his death is not recorded, but signatures by him existed that were made in 1671.
[4] The letter following this says that the visitor and Audiencia reached Manila in 1687; Montero y Vidal says 1688; and Diaz’s editor, 1689. It seems more probable that 1688 is the correct date, from various allusions made in these letters and by Diaz.
[5] Referring to the dispute between the two universities of San José and Santo Tomás; and the placing, by the latter, of the royal arms over its entrance.
[6] That is, October 19. This saint was Pedro Garavito, born at Alcántara in 1499; at the age of fifteen he entered the Franciscan order, and was ordained in 1524. In 1554 he instituted a reform, exceedingly austere and rigorous, in his order, and erected the first convent for these discalced Franciscans at Pedroso. Other houses adopted this rule, and in 1562 these reformed convents were freed by papal orders from the jurisdiction of the general of the Franciscan order. Garavito died on October 18 of that same year; he was canonized in 1669 as St. Peter of Alcántara. (Baring-Gould’s Lives of the Saints, xii, pp. 487–494.)
[7] Spanish buen; but obviously used with satirical meaning.
[8] When Bolivar was arrested, he was sent to “a small fortified post in the province of Cagayán, called Tuao, where he remained until the investigating judge who came to Manila in 1688 ordered him to return [to that city], but he died on the way” (Diaz, p. 788).
[9] Andaye, a fortified town at the mouth of the Bidassoa River, which forms part of the boundary between Spain and France and empties into the Bay of Biscay. Andaye is directly opposite Fontarabia in Spain.
[10] These jars are still highly valued by the Malays; see Furness’s mention of this, with photographic illustration, in his Borneo Head-Hunters, pp. 125, 126.