Countersigned by Pedro de Ledesma; signed by the Council.
[Note at beginning of MS.: "Your Majesty's decision and mandates concerning the trade of the Philipinas Islands with Nueva España. Corrected.">[
DOCUMENTS OF 1605
Complaints against the Chinese. Miguel de Benavides, and others;
February 3-9.
Letter from a Chinese official to Acuña. March.
Letters from Augustinian friars to Felipe III. Estevan Carrillo,
and others; May 4-June 20.
Letter to Felipe III. Antonio de Ribera Maldonado; June 28.
Source: All of these documents are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.
Translations: The first and fourth are translated by Robert W. Haight; the second and third, by Henry B. Lathrop, of the University of Wisconsin.
COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE CHINESE
In the city of Manila, on the third day of the month of February in the year one thousand six hundred and five, the most reverend Señor Don Fray Miguel de Benavides, archbishop of these islands, member of the council of the king our lord, etc., declared that, since the uprising of the Chinese Sangleys who were formerly settled in this city, in a market [alcayçeria], or large town (which they call Parian) that was situated there, the said Parian and town has been commanded to be built, and has now been built anew, and is at this time again peopled with the said infidel Sangleys. The said Sangleys are infidels and idolaters, and a most pernicious and injurious people to be settled among the Christian natives, newly converted to our holy Catholic faith; for the said infidel Sangleys are most vicious, both with women and in an unnatural manner, and are extremely liberal in spending money for their purposes and desires, and artful and crafty for every form of evil. Moreover, these Indian men and women of these islands, especially those of the neighborhod of Manila, are very easily persuaded to carnal sins, in short, as natives of so hot and humid a climate; although it is a crime against nature, this they do not know, and in some regions did not even have a word for it in their language, until these infidel Chinese made this sin known to them. These native Indian men and women are very greedy, and as they are but lately made Christians, and are not thoroughly instructed, a great many of them find it very easy to leave not only Christian morals, but even the Catholic faith as well, and embrace the superstitions and rites which the idolatrous infidels desire to teach them. Likewise—and this is very important, considering the state of the faith here, and upon what depends the peace and preservation of these islands (namely, the faith in God and obedience to the king our lord), and the extreme danger and peril in which these infidel Sangleys placed us in the previous year of one thousand six hundred and three, in the month of October, from which we were delivered only by the mercy and infinite power of God, by which alone we could be freed—their desire to slaughter all of us Spaniards, and to make themselves masters of this kingdom, is much inflamed now at seeing so many thousands as were here of their fathers, sons, brothers, and kinsmen, and of their friends and countrymen, slain; and how so great an amount of their property here was destroyed. With this so open enmity, hatred, and thirst for vengeance so aroused, they will seek, great in cunning and craft as they are, to sow discord between us Spaniards and the Indian natives of these islands, and separate us, mind and heart. For this purpose they promise and give them articles of value; for of all known people they best understand how to bribe, and they will contrive to know all secrets. And all this they can easily accomplish, if they succeed in maintaining dishonorable carnal intercourse with the Indian men and women. To stop all this, there is no other means out to send all the said infidel Sangleys out of this city, and give them only a place to live and dwell in during the two or three months of April, May, and June, while the trading and lading for Nueva España is being carried on; or, if it seems best to his Majesty, to give license to a few of them, even though they be such cruel and open enemies of him and of God; and to give an order that no Indians, men or women, shall settle near them, but shall remain at a considerable distance from the settlement or market where these infidel Sangleys may dwell. His most reverend Lordship, considering these things from the point of view of a person who has known the Sangleys so many years, is acquainted with their language and customs, has been in that country of China for a long time, and has noticed that since the said rebellion and war which the said Sangleys set on foot and waged against us, some of the natives have made a settlement on a part of the site where the market and Parian formerly stood, in which dwelt these infidel Sangleys; and that the new settlement of the said natives adjoins the new market and Parian which has been erected for the said infidel Sangleys, in which they now are, and at present dwell. The said natives are so near to the said infidel Sangleys, that it is not more than a rivulet, no wider than a narrow street, that separates them; and it has a foot-bridge of timbers, which affords passage from one side to the other. And even this is not the only evil and danger, but as the said Parian of the said infidels is midway between Manila and the said new settlement of the natives, every time when those Indian men or women have to come to this city, they must do so by passing through the street of the said Parian of the said infidel Sangleys; and at morning, noon, and night the latter can securely plan and execute all their misdeeds. What is perhaps the worst is, that from birth the Indians of this country, men and women, grow up in the water, bathing and swimming. The said Sangleys see them naked in the said creek, or at best in the river which is there, close to both districts. What with this unavoidable chance for caressing them, and particularly for attracting the boys with fruits and other little presents, they must draw them into their own vices. This is particularly so as these boys actually go upon the bank in the district of the infidel Sangleys, and there disport, and enjoy themselves; and they are usually naked, or, if dressed, they are almost the same as naked. It is very noticeable with these Sangley people that they intermix with any other people who are here, in a very singular fashion; for at once they intermarry with the women of these nations, adopt their customs, and live like Indians. These are not the only evils connected with the said settlement of the said natives remaining there, but there are even other injuries, perhaps greater, at any rate as great. One is that the said settlement and district of these said Indian natives is very close to another district and market, that of the Japonese, so near that they are only about a stone's throw from each other; and the Japonese are fully as bad as the Sangley infidels, both on the score of the infamous sin, and as concerns the need of protecting ourselves from them as from enemies. For on the banner that the infidel Sangleys raised when they rebelled and made the late war against us, so endangering us, there were written Chinese letters, which declared the Sangleys to be friends of the Japonese; and in the rebellion about sixteen years ago, when the former royal Audiencia of these islands commanded and caused to be executed Don Agustin and Don Martin Panga, Indian chiefs from Tondo, they found a Japonese implicated in the plots and the rebellion, and hanged him in the plaza here at Manila. There is no one that does not know the well-founded rumors and suspicions that have been afloat to the effect that the king of Japon wished to come against this city. It is likewise a matter of importance that these natives of this new village and district before mentioned, neither sow grain nor have lands for that purpose, but can only act as peddlers and wanderers; and as such, must be ready for any ill deed, especially if there be profit in it—as there will be, and that a great one, as has been pointed out. His most reverend Lordship, considering that he stood alone, has done his utmost to persuade the lord governor of these islands, Don Pedro de Acuña, to provide a remedy for an evil so greatly developed (or rather for so many evils), by removing the said natives from the vicinity of the said infidel Sangleys; but the said lord governor would not do it. When his most reverend Lordship commenced to point out the great evils attendant on having the said natives so near the said infidel Sangleys, the remedy was easy and without difficulty; for the said district and settlement of natives had but just begun, and they had not even commenced to build the new Parian of the infidel Sangleys. Thus, each day the said settlement grows larger, and its destruction grows every day more difficult; and later it will be a greater damage to the said natives to remove them.
Therefore his most reverend Lordship, desiring to check so enormous sins, and to avert the so evident dangers from them, and the destruction and end of this kingdom—both in faith and morals, and in loyalty to the king our lord—commanded and commands that there be drawn and received an investigation of the said matter, to seek and apply the remedy, if in justice and right that be fitting; and that the witnesses received shall declare the truth in all matters, under oath, and under penalty of major excommunication, late sententia, ipso facto, incurring [word illegible in MS.] canonical admonition and [word illegible]—as only this said penalty and oath will secure secrecy so that they will not tell that they were cited for this purpose, or what they declared, or any part thereof, or that this investigation is being made, or anything concerning or touching the matter. Accordingly I so provide, command, and sign; and they shall declare, under the said oath and penalty, not only whether there have not been infidel Sangleys here, since his Lordship has taken up this matter of separating these natives from the said infidel Sangleys in the district of the said Parian; but likewise whether they were not living there in the said quarter of the said natives, until his most reverend Lordship was constrained to make known the truth, and cause them to be removed from the place—for it had already become an intolerable thing, in the sight of any man whatsoever.
Fray Miguel, archbishop of Manila. By command of his most reverend Lordship: Francisco de Carranca