Native women pounding rice in the province of Cagayán
[From photograph taken by Otto Fischer, 1888; procured in Madrid]
CHAPTER VII
Continuation of the events of that year of 1639
On the seventh of August of that year, the desired news of two galleons which were coming from Nueva España, with the situado of these islands, arrived at Manila, which was decked in festival gladness [because of the termination of the Sangley insurrection]. One cannot easily imagine the general acclamation with which the news was received, and the festive demonstrations which were made [tokens of joy] in the hearts that were so full of mourning for the troubles of the above related insurrection, and other incidents which still kept the copious tears dropping from the eyes. Those were the results, doubtless, of our great sins, which to this very day have converted our joy into a tragedy, and a very painful one. For on the very day in which so famous news arrived at Manila—namely, that the said two ships were in Cagayan—because they had made a port badly sheltered, and had not been able to better it in so many days, at that unseasonable time so furious a tempest struck the same moorings, that all their skill was of no avail to them, and the tempest drove them upon some rocks, where both were miserably lost. Although it was God’s will that the money of the situado should be saved, and that registered as belonging to private persons, as it was already ashore, all the other things were lost—most of the infantry aboard, and all their goods, silver, and merchandise. That amounted to a great treasure and was the blood of this land gathered in those two hulks, and was so sadly shed in our very sight. Patience, hardly cured from the past blows, was much exhausted, when that misfortune became known. Its causes were differently construed, for in such strokes grief has license to arouse opinions, however little foundation they may have. But the truth is that alleged above, namely, our sins, and no other—which, in order to double their strength, are trying to leave us querulous of others, the good abandoned, and the detection of our errors left in uncertainty. He who would know what kind of a city Manila is, the latitude in which our Lord located it, and its characteristics and its strength, must not be governed by degrees, elevations, or charts, nor by its gains (although these have been so great), but by its losses, which are much greater and more continual; its site, looked on with envy by all the nations of the world, especially by those surrounding it who are as haughty as populous; its nourishment, which, as this is the most remote part of the body of our España, when it arrives is at least cold, however great the warmth displayed by the royal heart of the Council of the Indias. Its governors are and have been excellent Christians, and brave, for in this regard it has had good fortune. But since the express from Madrid, even when it is swiftest, takes three years, it is necessary that the government change its nature. Although it is monarchical in its form, it lacks the quickness in its relation to the heart and to the head which is the better life of its members, so that without doubt it is most difficult to administer. Whence we infer that this city, with its remote provinces, is one of the greatest miracles that the providence of God has gathered in His temple, who is preserving it supernaturally for His predestined ones, dispensing with the order of secondary causes, to the no little glory of our mother España. The latter is the instrument happily chosen for so lofty an end. España, with so Christian generosity, spends annually in its support a half million. That is the least thing, when one considers the so many and so competent sons in both estates [i.e., secular and religious] as are those of whom España is continually dispossessed, without hope of seeing them again. That does not happen in any other part of America. Fortunate is the Catholic spirit of the kings our sovereigns, who, following that honorable obligation, so free from temporal interests, have advanced this royal proof of the most Catholic zeal, and of a liberality without imitation among all the monarchs of the world! And happy a thousand times those who coöperate with their lives or their energy to so glorious an end!
Although the above-mentioned misfortune caused the loss of goods and lives of so much value, the royal despatches of his Majesty were saved, and the waves did not dare to profane their immunity. In the despatches was a decree for the father provincial of this province in regard to the division [of the province]—now buried in silence, but which disturbed it so greatly. As that decree seems highly significant of the care of our Catholic monarch, and of the warm place that his humble province has in his royal breast, we have thought best to insert it here. It is as follows:
“The King. To the venerable and devout father provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of my Filipinas Islands: I have been informed, by various relations which I have received, of the lack of peace and quiet enjoyed by the religious of that province, because of the division made in it, by virtue of letters which Fray Diego de Collado bore from his general, and aid given him for it by my governor and captain-general of those islands, Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera. However the said briefs ought not to have been executed, as they were not passed upon by my royal Council of the Indias. Regarding rather the harmony of the orders and the quiet of that province, and believing that the said division will be the occasion for laxity in the order, I have ordered my said governor and captain-general of those islands, and my royal Audiencia resident therein, to suspend the said brief and all others that the said Fray Diego Collado may have carried, and not allow them to be executed; and that the division that has been made in the provinces be annulled, and conditions remain as they were before the said division. Therefore, I ask and charge you that you on your part cause those provinces to assume the condition that they had before the said division, and you shall immediately send the said Fray Diego Collado to España. In order that this may have effect, I am ordering my governor in a letter of this same date to have transportation furnished to him for his return. You shall advise me of what you shall do in execution of what I ask you, on the first opportunity. Given at Madrid, February twenty-one, one thousand six hundred and thirty-seven.