Even were it only for the sake of not seeing the Spanish nation so defamed as it must be in China, and hated and scorned in these regions even by the school-children, the governor and auditors should not be willing to enter into a traffic so costly to the honor and reputation of our nation. Here we have no large armies to sustain us, nothing but reputation alone, and if they treat us as avaricious persons, there will not be an Indian who will not be insolent to the Spaniards on account of this, and more in proportion as we are always blinded by avarice. What must be lost by the holy gospel and the Christian law is evident; for sailors and soldiers will go hence in the ship—an ungodly people, guilty of sins of the flesh as Page 180well as other offenses, who know naught except to commit offenses against those with whom they deal. Moreover, the heathen cannot receive a very good example from the wars and enmity which will exist between the Castilians and the Portuguese. The Chinese who come here to Manila have some poor examples; but they also receive very good lessons from the religious, and in the churches, the holy ceremonies of the church, and in the life of several very good Spaniards, and even of some Indians. But when the ship of the governor and auditors, or any others, is sent there, the Chinese can have but the examples of soldiers, sailors, and impious people.
God knows what the import and export duties and incomes of your Majesty would profit and gain by the bringing of goods from China and exporting them to Nueva España, because everything has to pass through the hands of avarice, and of ministers who can do as they please here.
I do not know what can have been the reason for sending this ship to China and beginning an enterprise so prejudicial. In a general clause, however, of an instruction to the governor, your Majesty ordains that the governor may send to Japon, Macan, or other pagan countries, also to ports of the heathen and of the Portuguese in order to ascertain if they would like trade with us. But China is not mentioned by name in said clause; and the law of justice is that what is not conceded in particular is not understood to be granted in a general statement. The point under discussion was not only not particularly conceded by your Majesty, but had been expressly prohibited by a special decree. Not only did your Majesty ordain that no ship whatever should go from Page 181other Spanish possessions to China, but it is even decreed that the Chinese merchants coming here shall not take back Spanish money to China; and that merchandise shall not be exported from China on account of the Spaniards, but on account of the Chinese themselves. Even in the same instruction, in the two clauses immediately preceding the one to which I refer, your Majesty commands a thing incompatible with the sending of a vessel to China, which has been undertaken this year. Your Majesty decrees that all the goods coming from China should be sold at the pancada and that nothing should be bought on private account until after the pancada. The aforesaid decree would be futile if license were then to be given to send money to China, and also ships, to buy there the stuffs and merchandise for the Spaniards. It may be that there are those who represent that this has been done for the sake of opening a door to the evangelization of China; but such persons do not have as a profession the preaching of the gospel. The evident truth is what I state.
The sole correction for these evils, and for all the misfortunes of this land, is for your Majesty to send—besides a holy and learned archbishop, zealous in honoring God, your Majesty, and the common welfare—a disinterested and God-fearing governor, such as Don Luis Perez Dasmariñas, and, according to my information, Don Pedro Brabo de Acuña, who has been governor for some years in Cartagena in the Indias. But I understand that, at the receipt of these letters and other things, your Majesty will have ordered Don Francisco Tello to return [to España] and another governor will be provided. May God have granted light to your Majesty, and continue to Page 182give you light always, in order that your Majesty may be guided aright in a government so far away from the royal eyes as this, where the governors have so many opportunities to cause the destruction of the poor vassals of your Majesty. Tulac, May 17, 1599.
Fray Miguel de Benavides,
Bishop of Nueva Segovia. Page 183
[1] This letter was addressed to Felipe II; but of course its writer had not then received news of the king's death, which occurred September 13, 1598; he was succeeded by his son, Felipe III (Vol. 1, p. 353).