Letter Written by a Citizen of Manila to an Absent Friend
I will try to give your Grace an accurate account of the changes that have occurred this year, and of the anxiety and unrest of this community, so that your Grace may have an adequate conception of the matter, and may judge it on its merits, since you have no reason to distrust him who relates it—a thing which would cast doubt on the relation itself. Such has actually been the case with a relation written by the Order of St. Dominic, which has been sent from this city to that of Zebu and other parts, whose author shows manifest prejudice and but little accuracy in what he relates. Laying aside then, all partiality, and as one who has been a witness of everything, although I had no part in it, I shall relate to your Grace all that has happened.
An artilleryman, named Francisco de Nava, seems to have been maintaining illicit relations with a slave-girl whom he owned, named Maria. That gave rise to troubles, and the artilleryman was placed in the house of brother Guerrero; and finally the slave-girl was taken away from him, and the archbishop, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, had her sold. The artilleryman was very angry and vexed at that, and his love drew him so powerfully that he said that he wished to marry the slave-girl. She answered that she preferred to be the slave of another than his wife. For that reason, when the slave was very unguardedly following the coach of her mistress on Sunday, August nineteen, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five, that man, with deliberate purpose and overconfident, stealthily approached her in the principal street, near the cemetery of Sant Agustín; and, embracing her from behind, asked her whether she knew him. She answered in the affirmative, and he treacherously stabbed and killed her. He sought refuge in the convent of St. Augustine, where neither the sargento-mayor nor the master-of-camp, who surrounded the convent with soldiers, could find him. At a hazard, they prevented any religious from going out—an abuse contingent on the military, which cannot be checked by a captain-general. Accordingly, the Order of St. Dominic did the governor an injury in their relation, by declaring that he had incurred excommunication on that account, since he had no share in it, but only ordered the soldiers not to allow the treacherous homicide to leave the church. A few days after that, when the matter had cooled down somewhat, an adjutant of the camp, one Don Juan de Frias, because of the reward that was offered, entered the convent at midday, where he found and seized the artilleryman. The cause was referred to the commander of artillery (for the artilleryman was under his command), in order that he might try it in the first instance; and he condemned the artilleryman to death. The latter appealed to his captain-general and the auditor-general of war. The cause was returned, as the appeal was considered out of order, for the captain-general was convinced of the treachery and treason of [the artilleryman]; whereupon the commander of artillery tried to execute the sentence of death.
The archbishop of this church of Manila excommunicated the commander of artillery; and his provisor, one Don Pedro de Monrroy, had two notifications served on the governor, although there was no reason for his so doing. Once the notification was made after ten o’clock at night, when the governor had already retired. Two clerics entered for that purpose through the midst of the body-guard. As the governor was already asleep, and his servants had retired, and the doors of their chambers were locked, they could not serve their notification at all; accordingly, they turned to go. Trying to depart by passing through the body-guard, by the way that they had entered, he who was stationed at the door would not suffer it—in accordance with a general order received many days previously to the effect that, although they should allow entrance into his house at night, they should not allow anyone to leave; as he judged such an order expedient for the proper government of his household. Consequently, the clerics who had entered could not leave; for, when they went back to the governor, they found him shut in his room and asleep, and when they returned to the guardroom, the soldiers were minded to observe their orders without any distinction of persons. Hence the clerics had to stay all night and until dawn on the stairway and in the corridors of the palace. On that account, certain persons also took opportunity to say, and not with any good intention, that the governor had incurred excommunication—although he was so far from that, and this was so accidental a case that it could not have been foreseen in the order that was issued so many days previously. The relation of the fathers of St. Dominic charges that accident to the governor, unjustly and with prejudice.
During the execution of the sentence on the night of Thursday, September six, an interdict was imposed and the cessation of divine services ordered. The sentence was executed, and the artilleryman was hanged on the same spot where he had killed the slave-girl. The provisor was so carried away by passion that he tried to make (and it is even said that he did make) a report that they hanged the culprit in a sacred place—although the street was public, and [the hanging occurred] at the same place where the artilleryman had committed the homicide. Your Grace can see the so great want of logic [in this matter]; for if that were a sacred place, then the crime had been committed in it, and the artilleryman could not avail himself of the church as he was trying to do.
The governor wrote to the archbishop in terms of the greatest courtesy, requesting him to throw open the churches, and not to deprive this community of mass and consolation on a day of so great importance as was the nativity of our Lady, which came on the following Saturday; for, since the execution was already over, there was no remedy for the matter. The archbishop called a meeting of the religious of all the orders, who thought by that means to avenge themselves for the injuries which they imagined that they had received from the governor—those of St. Dominic, because he had divided the Parián treasury; those of St. Francis, because he had regulated the hospital expenses, which they were incurring to the so great detriment of the royal estate; and those of St. Augustine, because he had deprived them of some Sangley shops in Tondo—and for other private feelings of resentment. They carried the torch into that meeting, making the encounter between the governor and the archbishop a political matter; consequently, they expressed the opinion that the censures should not be raised under any circumstances. A religious of St. Dominic said that they ought to last for five hundred years, while another added “even to the end of the world.” Very indecorous was their speech regarding the person of the governor, for they did not stop to consider that he represents the royal person by reason of his office. Only one Franciscan father, named Fray Bartolome Bermudez, and the two of the Society who were present—namely, the reverend fathers Luis de Pedrasa and Father Lorenço Goreto,”[1] master in the morning classes[2]—were of the opinion that the censures should be raised. They even showed clearly that justice had been rightly exercised, since the treacherous murder had been committed so openly. Therefore, and because of other defects in what had been enacted, they proved that the censures did not bind the commander of artillery, or any one else. On this account the other religious gave much [opportunity for] merit to those of the Society, by uttering insulting words against them. From that time, they conceived so great an aversion for the fathers of the Society, that it was the beginning of the disturbances that afterward arose. The governor again requested the archbishop, for the second and third time, to raise the interdict and the cessation of divine service. But the latter was so far from complying, that he refused to answer the papers, and so the matter stood. But afterward, when we least expected it, in order to please the Recollects and allow them to celebrate their festival of St. Nicholas, the archbishop lifted the censures and absolved the commander of artillery, ad cautelam[3]. For the latter did not consider himself as excommunicated, nor even did learned men regard him as such. That was very apparent then, for, when he had appealed to the bishop of Camarines, the sentence was in his favor; and the bishop absolved him from the pecuniary fines which the archbishop had imposed. Thereupon that tempest was laid, the principal cause of which was the provisor, Don Pedro de Monroy; while those who increased its fury were the religious of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine. On that account, in order to prevent similar troubles that might arise in the future, the governor undertook to execute a royal decree, by the terms of which the said provisor had been proclaimed, in the time of Governor Don Alonso Fajardo, as banished from the kingdoms. The temporalities had been taken from him, as is clear from the authentic royal decree which was despatched for that purpose. Your Grace will notice the lack of accuracy in the other relation, since its author declares therein that that royal decree had been repealed, while in truth it was in full vigor and force. That is so true that there is no unprejudiced man in this city who does not know it. This year, as I have heard reported, the original of that decree has been sent to his Majesty. The archbishop held various meetings with the religious, and they agreed to defend the said provisor to the death, as they said, if necessary. The governor, in order to remedy these troubles in so small a community, desisted from his purpose, and tried to conduct the matter along smoother channels. He offered the said provisor the chaplaincy-in-chief and vicariate of the island of Hermosa, in a letter of the following tenor:
“It is necessary for his Majesty’s service that your Grace go to serve in the island of Hermosa as chaplain-in-chief, and vicar of those presidios. [You will receive] three hundred pesos salary per year, the altar fees, and the fees from the confraternity of the soldiers, which has been lately instituted; and, with these and the pay, you will be able to live well. Thus will certain irreparable disadvantages, that might ensue if you do not accept this service for his Majesty, be avoided. And inasmuch as I have received letters from the said island of Hermosa this morning, in which the governor begs me to send him such a person very speedily, your Grace will make the decision to depart, so that this same champan may return to Cagayan, whence it and one other are to take fifty native soldiers, so that the two may go together. May our Lord preserve your Grace, as He is able. The palace; October eight, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.
Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera”
Although the governor does not state the motive in this letter, his motive was to remove the occasion for disputes; and also because the commandant of the island of Hermosa, Francisco Hernandez, wrote him a letter, part of which is as follows: