Our father Fray Diego de Ordás presented a petition to the definitorio, yielding and renouncing the right that he held according to our rules, as immediate outgoing provincial, to be able to assume the government of the province in case of the death of the recently-elected provincial, who was very aged. That resignation was accepted in order to console him and because of the many entreaties therefor which he proffered. All the fathers were edified at beholding him so free from ambition, although they forced him in the following chapter to receive the office of provincial, which he accepted very reluctantly.
Since the pacification of the insurrection of the Indians of Palapag (in the province of Leite) in Pintados was finished in that year of one thousand six hundred and fifty, I shall here insert some notice of that insurrection, leaving the historians of the Society of Jesus to deal with it more particularly—who as they were eyewitnesses of it, will have more individual information about its events. [Diaz’s account of this insurrection will appear in another place.]
Another very considerable misfortune happened at that time, namely, the loss of the galleon “Encarnación,” under command of General Don López Colíndrico. It was broken to pieces at a place called Balón, because it left Acapulco late, and because, having lost the better season of the brisas, the favorable winds, ran aground at Bagambog, on the coast of Caraga in the island of Mindanao—a place where no ship had passed since the year 1542, when General Ruy López de Villalobos anchored there with his fleet. The governor sent orders to Andrés López de Asaldigui, his chief lieutenant, to go to investigate the loss of the galleon “Encarnación.”
CHAPTER IX
Events of the years 1651 and 1652.
[Manila had been in distress for some years because of the loss of various galleons, and because of the unfortunate temperament of the governor, Diego Fajardo, and his consequent governing through his favorite.]
That internal war lasted for seven years in the afflicted community of Manila, and no one dared to undeceive the severe governor regarding the injuries committed in his name by his favorite, who made him hated in the community, and guilty of the imprisonment and exiles that were executed not only on laymen but also on the secular clergy and religious. For in order to have control of those whom the Church exempted from his jurisdiction, he succeeded in removing the dean, Doctor Don Juan Vélez, from the post of provisor and vicar-general of the vacant see, and having it given to his intimate friend and confederate, Doctor Don Francisco Fernández Ledo. With that same diligence he contrived and obtained the exile of Doctor Don Diego de Cartagena y Pantoja[23] and other secular clergy to Macasar.
Those who suffered most from his harsh and violent acts were the [fathers of the] order of our father, St. Augustine, the cause of his wrath being that they had refused to elect as provincial one of their members who was acceptable and dear to him. Although the abilities of that father made him merit the office, yet it was not allowable that it be conferred by that method, so strictly forbidden by the sacred counsels and canons. Consequently, his wrath was aroused against the order of our father St. Augustine, and he sent malicious reports against it to his Majesty in the royal and supreme Council of the Indias, in letters apparently signed by Governor Don Diego Fajardo—who, when he waked from that lethargy, declared under oath that they were not his. At our petition, the following governor, Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, made a full investigation before Auditor Don Álvaro García de Ocampo, the commissioned judge, in January, 1654—which proved that all that was charged by the said favorite against the order was false. He sent that report to the said royal and supreme Council, and a copy of it is kept in our archives.
The divine clemency did not choose that the troubles of afflicted Manila should go further. Therefore He encouraged and strengthened our father Fray Jerónimo de Medrano—who had been provincial of this province of ours for three terms, and was its true father—to penetrate the deep retirement of the deluded governor (in whom the father’s virtue and age had inspired some affection and considerable veneration). He informed the governor of the truth with efficacious arguments, showing him the deceit in which the cunning of the favorite had kept him buried, while he yielded to the violent operations of the ambition and cruelty of that man, injuring his own reputation. Divine Providence permitted him to open the eyes of the deceived governor, because of the favorable idea that the latter had formed of the accuser; and, seeing that his honor and his conscience were being endangered, he made the investigations on his part that were necessary, in order not to discredit his determination as being precipitate. He found all that father Fray Jerónimo de Medrano had said, and much more, to be true. Thereupon, he resolved to come to himself, for the sake of the community of Manila, and had his favorite arrested, September 16, 1651. Formulating legal proceedings against him for the crimes that he had committed, he questioned him under torture, in which the prisoner answered nothing—either because of his great courage, or because he had taken some confection of opium, which they purposely gave him to drink, and which has so narcotic a virtue that it renders those who drink it insensible to pain.