The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55 / 1597-1599 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

[5] See La Concepcion's account of Dasmariñas's unfortunate expedition (Hist. de Philipinas, iii, pp. 231–277).

[6] Bolinao is the name of a cape at the northwest extremity of the peninsula of Zambales, Luzón; also applied to a narrow channel between that cape and the small island of Santiago. The submarine cable from Hongkong formerly landed here, but now reaches Manila direct.

Letter from Governor Don Francisco Tello

1. This recounts that on all occasions the state of affairs of these islands has been reported, and was not enlarged upon because no instruction had been sent nor has been up to the year 1598, on which account many things pertaining to the service of his Majesty, and of importance for this country, have failed to receive attention.[1]

As I have at various times written to your Majesty, you ordered me to come here and serve in this country, without giving me the royal instructions of despatches to that end. Accordingly many things of importance which your Majesty commanded me to attend to were left undone at the time I came. When I arrived in these islands I wrote to your Majesty at length of those things which could be managed in spite of the short time I had spent here. These despatches were lost in the ship “San Phelipe” which Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas despatched in the year 1596, and which was lost in Xapon. The next year, 1597, I awaited the royal instruction of your Majesty in order to govern my action by it; but neither did that come, until the past year, 1598. I govern Page 231my action according to that of Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, my predecessor, and with that I have stumbled through various matters. In the past year, 1597, I wrote at length to your Majesty describing the condition of the country and that of Japon, together with the state of the expedition to Mindanao, and all other things which seemed expedient. I also wrote that I had married Doña Tomasina, my relative, and the daughter of Doctor Horosco, president of your royal Audiencia of Guadalaxara—humbly beseeching your Majesty to approve of this, since Doña Tomasina was not a native of this country; and I had not gone beyond your Majesty's intentions, for you gave me permission to bring my wife to this land. As she died on the way I married Doña Tomasina, whom I brought from Mexico. In the past year, 1598, I received the royal instruction of your Majesty and other royal decrees which were mentioned therein, at the time when the ships were being despatched. Those things which could be done at that time, considering the short time before they left, I attended to then. I have in everything worked for the service of our Lord and your Majesty, conformably to the pious zeal and spirit with which I am serving you here; and I have carried out those things entrusted in your royal service to my predecessor.

2. That it is expedient, in order to realize the results of the great expense in these islands, that religious should be sent each year to gather the harvest which should be taken from it; and that an account should be sent of the Indians here, both Christians and infidels, and a memorandum of the religious.

As the holy intention of your Majesty, in the expenses which from your patrimony you incur in this Page 232country, is principally the conversion or the heathen here, and the establishment of the holy gospel in place of their idolatries, there is no better means than the teaching of the Christian doctrine and the presence of its ministers. That your Majesty may have a fuller report of it, I am sending an account stating how many Indians are pacified, and acknowledge the royal name of your Majesty in these said islands; the number of Christians and infidels; and how many are taught and how many to be taught—not only in the encomiendas under your royal crown but in the private ones. Accordingly I beg your Majesty to be pleased to further this, appointing each year, as usual, religious of exemplary life, so that they may bring with more love and gentleness our holy Catholic faith to the Indians; for certainly as much as a good minister edifies, finding fault injures. With this goes the memorandum which your Majesty ordered me to send, of the religious in these islands and those whom it will be necessary to bring from España each year. Those who are here are assigned as well as was possible, so as to give instruction to all. The mission villages are in some confusion and the orders somewhat mixed with one another. This could not be remedied as it should have been, owing to the untimely death of the archbishop, which occurred on the fourteenth of August of the said year of 1598.

3. That the bishop of Camarines has not come, and that the other two arrived in the year 98, and did not bring bulls for the partition of their bishoprics, and that they are getting along well.

The bishop of the province of Camarines[2] did Page 233not come, and therefore it is being ecclesiastically governed by the chapter of the cathedral of Manila, sede vacante, as has been done hitherto. The bishops of the city of Nueva Segovia and of Cebu arrived in these islands in the past year of 1598, as I wrote to your Majesty. They did not bring bulls from his Holiness nor decrees from your Majesty, directing the division of their bishoprics. Each one has therefore taken what seemed best to him: he of Nueva Segovia took the territory beyond the province of Pangasinan, and he of Cebu took possession of the island of Panay, saying that his bishopric included all the province of the Pintados. The chapter of this holy metropolitan church, sede vacante, held otherwise, and the case was brought before this royal Audiencia. Its decision left the bishop in possession, to avoid disagreement, until your Majesty should command that the partition be definitively made. He is at present in this city celebrating confirmation in the place of the archbishop, and will officiate at the obsequies of the king our lord, of glorious memory. The bishop of Nueva Segovia is in his church. They are men of holy life and fulfil their duties well.