Copy of the letter which the chief Chinese mandarin of the three who came to Manila wrote at sea to the president, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas.
Mandarin is the same word as governor in Castilla.
The viceroys of the kingdom of China are for the most part eunuchs, and to that end the king bring up a number of them in his house; it is said that there are fourteen thousand from whom he may choose.
Cavite is the principal port of the Filipinas, and lies three leagues from Manila. Luzon is the name of the island on which Manila is situated.
Copy of the petition and information given by the fiscal of the royal Audiencia of the Filipinas concerning the three mandarins who came to the city of Manila.
Most potent lord: The licentiate Geronimo de Salazar y Salcedo, your fiscal in the royal Chancillería of the Philipinas Islands, will relate this as best he can. On Friday, which I reckon to be the twenty-third of this present month of May, there entered into this city three infidel Sangleys, who came in the last-arrived ships from the kingdom of China; and they wear the garments and caps which are usually worn in that kingdom by the great mandarins—for it is thus they call those who serve their king in some high office of justice. They say that they came by his order to see if there is a hill of gold in the port of Cavite; for he has been informed that his Chinese vassals who trade and traffic in these said islands bring a quantity of gold on which they do not pay him duty; and, that they may pay it, he wishes to know the truth. The said three Sangleys, who claim to be mandarins, go out from their houses on their way to this city, seated in chairs upon the shoulders of four Sangleys; and, attached to their persons, on each side go six of their guards armed as archers. Before them walk two Sangleys who bear suspended from their shoulders a porcelain case in which it is said they carry their chapas which indicate that they are mandarins, which is the same that we here call "decrees" and "royal commissions." Behind them goes another Sangley on a horse, who is said to be the secretary of the three mandarins. Before them go in file six Sangleys with staves upon their shoulders, on the ends of which are white tablets with characters of gold, which is said to be the insignia of alguacils. Six other Sangleys carry little banners of different colors, with characters written upon them in the Chinese tongue, which are said to indicate the great authority and wide jurisdiction of the said mandarins. One Sangley, who they say is a minister of justice, bears a piece of cane as thick as one's arm, lacquered in black. Among these goes a Sangley with two small kettle-drums and four others with canfonias and other musical instruments which they use, all of them playing. Before all these people go six Sangleys, two of whom carry two iron chains, which are said to be to put on those whom they are ordered to arrest; two others carry two cords tied to sticks upon their shoulders, which are said to be to tie those whom they are ordered to flog; the other two, who are called upos, which is the same as executioners in España, bear two half-canes four dedos wide and a braza long, with which they flog the delinquents, whom if they wished they could kill with a few strokes. Between these go two Sangleys each one of whom cries out in his own language from time to time, with loud shouts; and it is said that they are calling out, "Make way, for the mandarins are coming," and as soon as they come out of their houses, and until they enter them again, these cries are kept up. When the Sangleys meet the mandarins, they flee from them and hide themselves; and if they cannot do this they bend their backs very low with their arms extended upon the ground, and remain in this position while the mandarins pass, which is quite in the form and manner which is customary in the said kingdom of China. Sunday afternoon in front of the house of one of the said mandarins they [MS. torn—whipped?] an Indian or mulatto in the street before the house of the said mandarin (the latter being at the window), in judicial form according to the Chinese usage. Yesterday, Monday, they flogged a Sangley in his own house; and another one they put to the hand-torture, quite according to their usage. Two of those who are said to correspond to alguazils, bearing the said banners as a sign thereof (just as the long staves of justice are borne in España), seized a Christian Sangley in the [MS. illegible] of the licentiate Christoval Tellez de Almaçan, your auditor of the said royal Audiencia, saying that they were going to take him before a mandarin, who had ordered them to seize him; but when they were outside of the house of Doctor Antonio de Morga, an auditor of the said royal Chancillería, he came to a window at hearing the noise, and stopped them. He did so because this is administering justice, and all these things are insignia thereof—whence no little scandal has arisen in this city of Manila, on account of the grave offenses which have been committed here by the said persons who call themselves mandarins, and by the others whom they have with them. I give information of this so that suitable action in this matter may be decided upon and decreed, and which, if necessary, I offer my services to investigate. I beg and beseech your Highness to command and decree whatever may be fitting in such a case, and that information may be given concerning this my petition, and concerning what may be decreed in regard to it, in order to inform thereby the royal person of your Highness for which, etc., I demand justice.
The licentiate Geronimo de Salazar y Salcedo
In public session on the twenty-seventh of May in the year one thousand six hundred and three. Let the investigation be immediately made, and committed to the secretary, and the results brought up for judicial action.
Esquivel
[Then follows the above-mentioned investigation—depositions by various persons, corroborating the statements of the fiscal; and a decree by the governor, forbidding any Chinaman to insult or molest the mandarins, and the latter to exercise any rights of justice in Spanish territory.]