Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara had governed these islands with great prudence, but notwithstanding this, several articles of impeachment were preferred against him, and he was fined seventy thousand dollars. On appealing, however, to the council of the Indies, the sentence was reversed, and the fine remitted; but disgusted with the world, he retired to Malaga, his native country, and took the monastic habit.
CHAPTER XX.
ANNO DOM. 1663.
The Administration of Don Diego Salcedo.
Don Diego de Salcedo not being able, by the prevalence of the south-west-monsoon, to reach Manila by the ordinary route of the straits of Bernardino, he made Cagayan, where he landed, and travelled across the island to the city, and took possession of his government in September, 1663. Immediately on his arrival, he held out every encouragement to commerce, and preparation was made for sending the usual ship to Acapulco as early in the season as possible, in order to avoid those misfortunes which had too frequently taken place.
This conduct of the Governor at first gave great satisfaction to the merchants of Manila; but they began very soon to discover his diligence was directed only to his own individual benefit, or that of his friends, as due care had been taken by them to buy up all the best goods, leaving in the market only those of inferior quality; and that no opportunity might be afforded to the merchants to procure a fresh supply of the different articles from the coast, he despatched the ship before the coasters could possibly arrive. By this means almost all the commerce of Acapulco, for that season, centered in him and his friends. About this time the news arrived of the death of Philip the Fourth, and the Archbishop was attacked with protracted illness, which ended in extreme debility, of which he died, 1667. The attention of Salcedo had been completely occupied by the violent disputes, which, during the whole period of his government, subsisted between him and the ecclesiastical authorities, and which terminated in the Commissary of the Inquisition of Mexico ordering him to be seized, and conveyed on board the patache destined for Acapulco, in which ship he died, 1669.
END OF VOL. I.