As I thought from the beginning, as soon as I knew of the loss of our flagship, that they would try to conceal it from your Majesty, I made an investigation about it, a copy of which is subjoined. [48] From this it can be seen who was to blame; and whatever is written to your Majesty contrary to this, or to what is contained in the report on the investigation, is not to be relied upon. The president has made an investigation in this matter, trying to shield himself and the guilty ones; and it has been carried on in such a way that it is known that no witness has dared to tell the truth. On this account I presented a petition to the president, asking that he refrain from trying the case, because the witnesses did not speak freely for fear of the power of the guilty, and because I intended to ask your Majesty to appoint a judge who could try the case, since the president could not do so. I also asked that a copy might be given to me of all that had been written about this matter, in order that I might give it to your Majesty and ask for what might be proper. This was denied me by the president, and I appealed to the royal Audiencia, but for lack of auditors, of whom there was only the licentiate Tellez de Almazan, no action was taken. If a judge were to be appointed, there would be none who would dare to declare against the will of the guilty. Although the licentiate Don Antonio de Rivera Maldonado has come since, it has been impossible for me to take up this matter, because I have been ill now for more than forty days. So I beg your Majesty to order that this report be examined, and that whatever is proper may be done. Our Lord keep the Catholic and royal person of your Majesty, with a greater increase of realms and power. From Manila, which is in the Philipinas Islands, on the sixteenth of July of the year 1601.
Hieronimo de Salazar y Salcedo
Complaint of the Cabildo of Manila Against Morga
Sire:
The most faithful city of Manila in the Philipinas Islands humbly informs your Majesty that for some years past this city and realm have suffered, and are at present suffering, so many hardships and misfortunes, both in wars and in the loss of wealth and prestige, that it has been very close to entire ruin. This has arisen and arises not from unavoidable accidents which ordinarily happen in states and communities, but from those which the persons in charge of the government and who reside there could avoid, but do not prepare for; and they are notoriously due to the fault and misgovernment of the persons to whom your Majesty has entrusted the administration of these islands—partly on account of their scant energy and vigilance, but most of all through what has resulted from their not being willing to fulfil the orders, instructions, and royal decrees which your Majesty had previously issued for the attainment of your objects and for particular ends; these they have directly violated. Since such conditions require a remedy, and as this must depend upon the royal will of your Majesty, who are not informed of the actual truth concerning events which have occurred here, these states must remain without relief on your Majesty's part, and with the said danger of our ruin. Owing to the general obligation which rests upon us as vassals of your Majesty, and that which in conscience especially obliges us as regidors of this city, which is the capital of all these islands, the following account has been written.
In the first place, a matter whence many other losses have resulted is this. Your Majesty having ordered the conquest of the kingdom of Mindanao to be entrusted to Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, conformably to the edict or ordinance which treats of the conquest of newly-discovered countries and settlements in the Yndias, and this order having been despatched to the said Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, Governor Don Louis Das Mariñas arrived here in the year 96. When the former reached Mindanao with his expedition, he (and he alone) was killed by the natives of that island on the unfortunate day of St. Mark of the same year. When Don Francisco Tello arrived in the following June of the said year and took this government, he immediately undertook to send a person to conduct the said conquest of Mindanao. As all the troops were there which had been taken by the said Captain Estevan Rodriguez, and as Don Joan Ronquillo (your Majesty's commander of the galleys and of naval affairs in these islands) had gone there with another detachment of troops, and had remained in the said islands until March of the year 98—where, during all this time, he won many victories over the enemy, and latterly one against the king of Terrenate (who was sending his fleet to aid the said island), wherein he routed and captured the vessels and killed their commander, who was an uncle of the said king of Terrenate—at this the natives of the said island of Mindanao, who until that time had defended themselves, began negotiations for surrender, and for rendering submission to your Majesty; a part of them did so, and paid tribute to your Majesty. The said Don Francisco Tello, with the approval of Doctor Antonio de Morga, without considering the state in which this matter lay, or reflecting upon the injuries which might result from issuing such orders as they did (as may be seen later by what will be written further on), sent the said Don Joan Rronquillo an order to dismantle the fortifications of the said island, without leaving any fortified station, and to tear down the forts which your Majesty held there. Although he saw the great loss which would result from this, yet, as there was a clause in the said order directing him to do this without any reply, under penalty of being held contumacious and liable to punishment, he left the said island and came to this city with the fleet and troops which he had there, in the month of April of the year 98. The said Don Francisco Tello and the said Doctor Morga, seeing the great error which they had committed, attempted to exonerate themselves before the said Don Joan Rronquillo should arrive in this city. They arrested him, charging him with having taken away the protection of the said island of Mindanao, without their having sent him any strict order which would oblige him to do it. In order to give color to this—as they were aware that, in the voyage which the said Don Joan Rronquillo made while returning, his ship was partly wrecked, and they supposed that the said order which they had sent him had been lost, they intrigued with the government notary, and had him produce in the prosecution against the said Don Joan the order which had been given to dismantle the fortresses of Mindanao, omitting therefrom those words which made it obligatory for him to do so—namely, that he should do so under penalty of being contumacious and liable to punishment. In this way they were released from responsibility for their act, and the said Don Joan Ronquillo was inculpated without excuse, since in so serious an affair he, being on the spot, should not have done so for a simple command. The case having been continued, and he having presented the original order which they thought had been lost, and having given other explanations, he was even by them acquitted of that charge. All this appears sufficiently by the record of the case, which remains in these islands. Your Majesty having been made aware of the abandonment of the said islands during the last year, there arrived here your royal decree directing the investigation and punishment of whomsoever was responsible. As they were to blame in the affair, as can be seen by this relation, they remained silent, and have taken no action. From the abandonment of what was already gained, through the said order, it has followed that the Indians who are natives of the said islands of Ufanos, which the Spaniards had left, considering that this was due to fear, assembled, with others from other neighboring kingdoms, to come to work havoc in the lands of your Majesty. Accordingly, in the past year of 1600 they came with a fleet of many vessels to the Pintados provinces, which are subject to your Majesty; and in the region known as Bantayan they burned the village and the church, killed many, and took captive more than eight hundred persons. Thence they came to the river of Panay, an encomienda assigned to the royal crown, and killed a great many more, taking six hundred more prisoners from the said encomiendas. They burned the church and the image of our Lady which was in it, which a few days before that had for a considerable time miraculously sweated out many drops of water, as if in premonition of the impending event. They drank out of the chalice in their feasts, scoffing at the consecration of it, after the fashion of Mahometan people, whereby the natives and Spaniards of those regions were greatly afflicted and terrorized, as may be imagined.
As has already been said, the reason for the coming of these Indians to inflict the said damage was the command to take away your Majesty's camp from the said land of Mindanao. But the cause for their having wrought those injuries after they arrived was, as was said at the beginning, that the order and decree of your Majesty was not obeyed. For your Majesty had in this camp four captains of infantry with the four hundred soldiers which your Majesty had commanded to be left there as a garrison, and the said captains were satisfactory persons; and it was ordered that there should be no more than the said four captains there, as any more would be superfluous, since there were so few soldiers. Doctor Antonio de Morga, auditor of this royal Audiencia, has reached such arrogance and restlessness of mind, caused by his having wrought so many injuries to this afflicted commonwealth through the power and authority which he has, both in general and in particular, to many citizens thereof; but, with his customary facility for speaking ill to some one's prejudice, he escapes, without anyone daring to speak of the matter. In the little time which he had spent in this country, he found himself rich and powerful through his trading and commerce. Accordingly he commenced to procure taking away the employments and offices from soldiers and men of war whom your Majesty has here, and appropriated them to himself and his relations. Thus, contrary to the said limitation of number, and in violation of what your Majesty commands by your ordinances and decrees—namely, that offices of profit shall not be given to the auditors, or to their kindred, servants, or dependents—Governor Don Francisco Tello appointed, as alcalde-mayor of the island of Mindoro, a certain Pedro Cotelo de Morales, a first cousin of the wife of the said Doctor Morga, who came with the latter to these islands; and passed by, in giving it, many of the conquerors and poor settlers. But the said Doctor Morga would not accept this, saying that he would have no appointment for him unless it was a paid captaincy. The man was a mere youth, and in all his life had never fired an arquebus, and was not skilled or experienced in war. On the contrary, he had led a very evil life, which cannot be fittingly described to your Majesty, and so is left unsaid. Accordingly, to give some color to what he desired to do, and in order that he might not appear to be exceeding the said number of four captains, the said governor appointed this man captain of infantry, so that he could go out of this city to the said Pintados provinces, where they were in fear that the said enemies were going. He was assigned the regular salary for a captain, and in like manner the other officers of his company were established with pay; and they likewise were men of the same way of life and the same amount of experience in war as the said Pedro Cotelo. He went with the troops to the city of Santisimo Nombre de Jhesus, which is in the said provinces of the Pintados, thus leaving in this city of Manila the four regular captains of infantry, who had some knowledge of the affair, in idleness and without any troops; for among all four of the companies there did not remain a hundred soldiers fit for service. As he was in the said city at the time when the said enemies came, and received word that they were in the said village of Bantayan, the alcalde-mayor and commander of the troops of war, who was in the said city, despatched the said Pedro Cotelo de Morales with ships and troops against them. Although the journey from the place where he was to that where the enemies were situated was two days long, he took four to it. If he had arrived at the time when he might have done so, he would have found the enemy drawn up on the land, and would have burned their fleet and taken away their prizes. When he arrived, sailing on from that place, he again heard the noise of the engines of war which they had with them, near some islands; and some of the soldiers, even, climbing up the masts of the ships, saw those of the enemy. But he would not go against them either, alleging various excuses—as your Majesty may have seen more at length by the information which accompanies this.
Besides this, the said Pedro Cotelo Morales, having arrived with his fleet at the town of Arevalo, a settlement of Spaniards, the commander and alcalde-mayor there resident gave him more ships and troops, and ordered him in a council of war (in which Pedro Cotelo himself took part) to go and seek the enemy; and, if he did not find him in an island near there, to come back immediately to the said town of Arevalo on account of the fear lest the enemy should escape thither. The said Pedro Cotelo, taking no heed of the said order, as one who held the post of alcalde should, and in order to flee the battle, did not observe this command, and went into another region without coming back to the said town. In the meantime the enemy came there and landed, and the town was almost ruined. They killed the alcalde-mayor and commander of the troops, and then withdrew. If the said Pedro Cotelo had come back as had been ordered by the said council of war, he would have found them fighting there with their ships in the bays and rivers, in such wise that not a man or a ship could escape. In this way the enemy left with the two prizes mentioned. And this year we have even now information that they are coming back with increased forces; and in the preparation which has been already made or is now under way, more than fifty thousand pesos have been spent from the exchequer of your Majesty and furnished by private persons, to say nothing of the losses which the pirates will inflict when they return. The said Doctor Morga has been to blame for all this; because, contrary to the orders of your Majesty, he succeeded in having his relative placed in an office which he did not deserve, and for which he was not competent. Concerning this last affair, a copy of the proceedings of the council of war was sent to your Majesty, in which was the above-mentioned order to the said Cotelo. In order that it may be more thoroughly proved, they sent to the said town of Arevalo to have the matter investigated; but the magistrate there, for fear of the said Doctor Morga, would take no action.
The said Doctor Morga, continuing his bold acts, was not content with having been responsible for the losses to property. Two Dutch ships having arrived in the past year of six hundred, in these islands, and having come in the month of November to the mouth of the bay of this city, while they were beating about in the bay, ships were put in readiness to go out against them. The said Don Joan Ronquillo, commander of the naval forces of your Majesty, having gone to the port of Cavite for this purpose, the said Doctor Morga commenced his machinations, and claimed that he should go as commander of the said expedition. To give this some foundation and color, when the said Don Joan Ronquillo had come to this city to seek various supplies for the said expedition, he was arrested; and on the next day following the said Doctor Morga went to the port of Cavite, saying that he had best be present in person to encourage the despatching of the fleet. In fact, through scheming and plotting, and by the authority of his office, he succeeded in taking the said expedition away from the said Don Joan Rronquillo, and having it given to himself. He wrote letters, the originals of which are extant, to the governor of these islands, asking him that, even if Don Joan Rronquillo should petition for judgment against him, he in no wise respond or have to do with him until the despatch of the vessels should be completed, so that the latter might not appeal to the Audiencia and obtain a decree which would hinder the said Doctor Morga in the expedition. When three ships were armed and fitted with artillery to go out against the enemy's fleet, he went with the two vessels, which were the flagship and almiranta, to the island of Mariveles, eight leagues from the point of Cavite and five leagues from where the enemy were—without awaiting the other third ship which lay at Cavite, and belonged to several Portuguese, which arrived at the said island of Marbeles the same night when Doctor Morga sailed away. Having sighted the enemy on Thursday morning, without waiting for Captain Joan de Alcega, who was in the other ship, as admiral, or taking advice as to what should be done, he was confident of the victory on account of the report which had been made concerning the few troops which the enemy carried, and the large number that he himself had on board with him. Consequently the flukes of the anchors were put upon the side of the ship; and having come up with and grappled the enemy at the sixth hour, the latter, seeing the force which the flagship had, gave up, and put himself with all his men under cover, without firing a single arquebus for more than an hour by the clock. Some of the soldiers and sailors from our ship, having entered theirs without orders (for the said Doctor was not able to give the order), and having found the deck of the enemy's ship without men and all the troops withdrawn—the banners being captured, and cast over to our ships—when the enemy saw how little care was given to the taking possession, since the troops were coming aboard without orders or any plan, they began to recover their courage somewhat, and commenced to defend themselves. When they had killed one or two of ours, as the latter had no one to command or direct them—because the said Doctor, as soon as they came in to close quarters with the enemy, had thrown himself down behind the capstan of the ship with a number of mattresses—the troops became so demoralized that no one was able to accomplish anything. Although some of them went up to the said Doctor and told him to board the ship, or to send troops on board of it with an order, he would not do so, as he was so overcome by fright and lacking in courage. Likewise, when they came to tell him that the ship was taking in much water through the gun-ports, because, when the fleeing troops left the side where they were grappled, and passed to the other side without fighting, the said ship careened and the water entered—although he was told of this several times, that he might remedy it, it was the same in this matter as the rest. Accordingly so much water was entering the ship that it was in danger. A father of the Society of Jesus, bearing a crucifix in his hand, told him that since the ship was in danger he should go over with the men to that of the enemy; since as they were so near together, and there was no resistance, it would be like passing from one dwelling to another. He would not do it, but on the contrary threw the mattresses with which he had fortified the capstan into the water, in order to go to a small islet which lay near and escape, as he did. The enemy rushed upon all the troops, who threw themselves into the water, and the killed and drowned amounted to more than one hundred and twenty Spaniards of the most distinguished and important people of these islands, without counting more than a hundred negroes and natives beside.
Such was the manner of the surrender of the said ship of the enemy as soon as it was grappled. When the said captain, Joan de Alcega, arrived with his almiranta on the other beam of the enemy, giving him a volley of artillery and musketry, and when he finally undertook to board the enemy's ship, the Spaniards who were on the inside under its deck (among them being the adjutant of the sargento-mayor), told them not to fire, or they would kill the Spaniards; and to go ahead and follow the enemy's almiranta, which had taken to flight, as the flagship was already in your Majesty's hands, and there was nothing to do there. Accordingly the said admiral went after the other ship, and, coming up with it three or four leagues away, caused its surrender and brought the enemies who remained alive to this city, where justice was meted to them. The ship, with very good artillery, lies in this port.