The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55 / 1625-29 / 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

The King. To Don Juan Niño de Tavora, member of my Council of War, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein, or the person or persons in whose charge their government may be: I ordered you by a decree of September 10, 627, to appoint to the office of protector of the Sangley Chinese (which was held by the fiscal of that Audiencia) a person who should prove competent, with the salary that was assigned to him; and to order that my said fiscal of those regions exercise the office no longer. You were ordered to charge the person whom you thus appointed to watch over the said Sangley Chinese most carefully, so that they might not be troubled or annoyed, or any ill-treatment shown them; and that any balance left any year in the fund that he keeps should remain there, in order that the Sangleys may be assessed so much less the following year. When that order was executed, you were to inform me of what had been done and what took place in respect to those who are mentioned in the said decree, as well as the advantages or troubles that its execution might cause, as is contained more in detail in the decree, to which I refer. Doctor Don Juan de Quesada Hurtado de Mendoza, whom I have appointed as my fiscal of that Audiencia, has reported to me that, having petitioned that the documents be given to him as to his predecessors, and one of them being the decree that orders that the fiscal of that my Audiencia be the protector of the natives and the Sangleys, he found that the above decree had been despatched, ordering you to appoint a competent person. The cause therefor was that Fray Melchor Manzano, of the Order of St. Dominic, urged it for private purposes, until he actually obtained it. The fiscal declared that it was advisable for my service to have the decree suspended, and that my fiscals of that Audiencia exercise the said office, as they had always done; and that the said Fray Melchor Manzano, while he was in those islands, and other religious of his order, having made themselves protectors of the said Sangleys, and having petitioned the governor to order that the fiscal be not the protector of them, and that the salary of whoever should be protector be moderated, the said governor did not change the custom of whether the fiscal should or should not be the protector. In regard to the salary, it was moderated only to eight hundred pesos. When the matter came before that my Audiencia, it declared by acts of examination and review that the said protection pertained to the said my fiscal. In consideration of that, Don Fernando de Silva, my governor ad interim of those islands, ordered that the said acts be executed; and that, in conformity with them, the office of protector of natives and Sangleys be exercised by Licentiate Marcos Zapata de Galvèz, my fiscal of that my Audiencia at that time. I am petitioned, in consideration of that, to be pleased to have a decree despatched ordering that he and other fiscals who shall succeed him in that my Audiencia be protectors of the said Sangleys and natives, as they have been, notwithstanding the ruling of the said decree of September 10, 627. Having examined the matter in my royal Council of the Indias, together with what Licentiate Juan Pardo, my fiscal therein, stated and alleged—for I wish to know whether the Sangleys have need of that protector and whether they ask for him—I order you to inform me of what you find out concerning this; and in case that it appears necessary that they have one, I order you and that Audiencia to appoint six persons who may be suitable for such protector. You shall cause such nominations to be sent to the said my Council, so that it may indicate that one of the six appointees who is most suitable. He must not have trade or business relations with the said Sangleys; and the one named by the said Council shall be, for the time being, the one who shall seem most suitable to the Council. Madrid, March 27, 1629.

I The King

By order of his Majesty:
Andres de Rozas

Relations of 1628–29

I

Relation of affairs in the Filipinas and in other regions, for the year of 1628 and 629, sent by the fathers [of the Society]; and of a victory gained by our men.

An excellent and large fleet has left this great island of Mindanao during these last few days to punish the insolence of the Dutch and of the Joloans, the neighbors of Mindanao, who are robbing the country from us and capturing the Indians of these Filipinas. The fleet is there, and I was to embark with it, but in order not to leave this district alone Father Fabricio Sersali, a Sicilian, went. The fleet consisted of thirty ships and more, and in them sailed two hundred Spaniards and innumerable Indian soldiers and rowers. May our Lord give us the success that we hope.[1]

A fleet of two galleons with high freeboard has also left, and in them four companies of soldiers, in pursuit of the Dutch enemy who were in Macan and along the coast of Great China. Advices were received of a Dutch ship which was carrying one million pesos’ worth of wealth. The result has not been ascertained as yet.

[Word in MS. illegible] On March 13, fire fell from heaven upon the Parian or fair of the Chinese (according to what they themselves swear, namely, that they saw it fall), and burned it all, without a single one of the more than eight hundred houses that it contained being left; and the only thing that was left standing was a church which was in the Parian.[2] The Parian of Manila and almost all the city of Zebu were burned, with great loss.