In the city of Manila, on the twenty-first day of the month of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas the alcaldes-in-ordinary of this city, notaries, commissioners, attorneys, and other officials, both of this royal Audiencia and of the ordinary court, whenever they see fit, leave the city without license—whence results much harm to the litigants, on account of the delay and unsatisfactory conduct of their business, beside many other inconveniences resulting therefrom: therefore, to remedy this evil, they decreed and ordered that, now and henceforth, no alcalde-in-ordinary, commissioner, attorney, notary-public, or other official of this royal Audiencia or of the ordinary court, shall go anywhere outside of this city, without the express permission of this royal Audiencia, under a penalty of a fine of six pesos of common gold, in which sum anyone adjudged guilty of the contrary shall be immediately fined—one-half for the poor in the prison, and the other half for the poor in the Spanish hospital—beside the loss and interest which may result to the parties concerned on account of the delay in justice. By this act they so proclaimed, ordered and decreed.
Before me:
Pedro Hurtado Desquibel
Ordinances and laws for the Sangleys.
We, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of these Philipinas Islands. Whereas it has been learned by experience in this city that the Sangleys residing in the islands and their neighborhood have had and maintain among them a custom of practicing, and they do practice an abominable sin against nature, not only with the Chinese, but with the Moro and Indian boys of these islands, by which God, our Lord, is greatly disserved; and, whereas, the said Chinese have had and have the habit and custom of bringing from China, or making in this city, money of base metal, and they pare and clip the royal money, to the great fraud and injury of the royal exchequer; and although they have seen that some are punished for this, they have not taken warning; and whereas, the said Sangleys, who are infidels, ally themselves with the Christian Indian women, and have lawless carnal intercourse with them; and whereas, besides the aforesaid crimes, the said Sangleys are wont to buy from slaves and Indians golden jewels, trinkets, clothes, and other articles which are stolen: therefore, to supply a remedy for all that, and in order that such crimes and disorders shall cease, now and henceforth, we command the following orders to be observed in everything.
Laws.—First, we ordain and command that none of the said Chinese Sangleys, or any other persons whatsoever, shall commit or practice the said abominable sin against nature, or try to commit it. Whoever shall do so shall incur the penalty of being burned alive by fire, beside having all his goods confiscated to the treasury of his Majesty.
Item: We ordain and command that none of the said Sangleys shall dare to make or coin any sort of silver or gold money, or of any other metal, nor shall they clip or scrape money already made, or make use of it, under the penalties contained in the above ordinance.
Item: We ordain and command that none of the aforesaid shall cohabit or have carnal intercourse with any [Spanish?] woman or Christian Indian woman, under the penalty that, in such case, he shall incur a punishment of two hundred lashes and ten years in the galleys, as criminals sentenced to row, without pay, and of the confiscation of one-half his property, to be applied as above stated.
Further, we ordain and command, that none of the said Sangleys, for any reason or consideration, shall buy from negro slaves or freemen, Indians or mulattoes, any gold jewels, trinkets, garments, or any other articles which they sell; but when the said Sangleys go to them, they shall arrest them and take them before the magistrate, under penalty that whoever shall disobey this decree shall fall under and incur the penalties incurred by robbers, and said penalties will be rigorously executed on their persons and goods.
And in order that the aforesaid shall be observed and executed without remission of penalty, and so that no one may pretend ignorance, we order that these ordinances shall be publicly proclaimed in the public square, in all other public places of this city, in the Sangley Parian, and in the village of Tondo, in order that everyone may know of them; and in each one of the said places a copy of them, written in the Chinese language, shall be posted. No person shall dare to remove the said placards, under penalty of two hundred lashes. We order all the alcaldes-mayor of the environs of this city to have them published and made known to the natives. We request and charge all the religious to give instructions to the said Indians, and cause them to understand these laws and ordinances, and the penalties attached thereto. Given in the city of Manila, on the twenty-sixth of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine.