A hammock was brought, and, half dressed as he was, the governor was placed inside it. Descending by a private stairway, and taking him through a rear door quite remote from the guardroom, they took him to the convent of St. Francis,[104] where he stayed one day. Next day he was taken to the house of Captain Diego de Palencia, where he was kept for some days until he was removed to the convent of our father St. Augustine. There he was imprisoned in a high, large, and comfortable room, which was used by the religious for the view and for recreation. He remained there until he was embarked on the patache “San Diego;” and while there his custodian, steward, and servant was Captain Miguel de Cárdenas, who looked after his comfort with great care. That captain embarked with him and tended him until his death, which occurred in the year 1670, in the second voyage that he made; for the patache “San Diego” had put back to this port, under charge of Admiral Don Francisco de Vizcarra, alguacil-mayor of the Holy Office. After the eve of the Nativity, the father commissary, who was appointed prior of the convent—as the father-definitor, Fray Pedro de Mesa, who had been prior, had resigned—ordered that Don Diego be fastened to a chain. The reason for chaining him was, that many signs showed that his servants and adherents were trying to rescue him on the night of the Nativity. It was even reported, but not believed, that poison was first to be given to the prior and the commissary and to the religious of the convent, by means of a splendid collation which was to be sent them.
Don Diego de Salcedo sustained that so grievous blow with so great steadfastness that he caused admiration in all people; for he was never heard to assign another reason for his imprisonment than that it was a present which God was sending him for his many sins. For it is considered certain that if he had cried out, when he was arrested, to the halberdiers of his guard, and if they had called upon the soldiers of the guardroom, a great disturbance would have happened, however much the master-of-camp tried to restrain them. I am witness of that, for I went often by order of the father commissary and prior to amuse him when he was sick. I admired his great courage and prudence, as well as his strong mind; and it seemed as if he had no resentment that could give him anxiety. One may believe that so great conformity to His most holy will was gained by the aid of God. That which I always heard to be a fact must have been true, namely, that that gentleman had great love and special veneration for the most venerable father Diego de San Víctores,[105] of the holy Society of Jesus, whom the governor aided considerably by coöperation [with him] in his entrance into the Marianas Islands. It is said that he requested the said venerable father to ask God to give him in this world his purgatory for his sins. The venerable father replied that he should think well what he was asking, for the Lord’s aid is necessary when He bears down His hand, in order that one may not refuse to endure His paternal correction. The father told him that time after time, but Don Diego de Salcedo always persevered in asking the same thing. The venerable father must have obtained that heroic petition from God; for when he bade farewell to him on going to the mission of the Marianas Islands, it appears that he gave Don Diego de Salcedo to understand that the Lord had granted his petition. Therefore, that very submissive spirit and the prayers of the venerable father Diego Luís de San Vítores,one can believe, were the cause of his great patience and resignation.
Such was the imprisonment of Governor Don Diego de Salcedo, and the evil lot of that gentleman who possessed so great endowments of valor, discretion, and urbanity, besides his personal qualities; for he was tall and well-proportioned in all parts of his body, and his face was handsome, serious, and modest. His flowing hair was very long and white; and his mustache, a distinction in the men of that time, was very black. His complexion was very light, and his eyes blue, and all gave him a grave and noble appearance. Nothing could be seen in him that was not very chaste, and only in his covetousness was any transgression recognized in him. As covetousness is the root of all evils, his lukewarmness in attending to many obligations belonging to a Christian governor proceeded from that. The consequences of his imprisonment lasted for twenty years, counting imprisonments, embargoes, exiles, and refuge sought in the sanctuary by those who took part in that imprisonment. The father commissary, Fray José de Paternina, was summoned to Méjico by the Inquisitors; and the reverend father master Fray Felipe Pardo, of the Order of Preachers, afterward archbishop of Manila, was appointed in his place. Father Fray José de Paternina died on the voyage to Acapulco, and we only know that the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition of Méjico celebrated public and honorary funeral services for him. The rest of the matter does not concern me; it was my part only to refer to the fact of this imprisonment, in order to follow the thread of my history.
The alcaldes-in-ordinary and the municipal corporation of the cabildo informed the gentlemen of the royal Audiencia [of the arrest] that same night, in order that they might fulfil their obligation, which was to appoint the senior auditor to the government. The auditors—Licentiates Don Francisco de Coloma y Maceda, Don Francisco de Monsilla y Montemayor, and Don Juan Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz—and Doctor Don Diego de Corbera, the fiscal, met in the assembly hall. They discussed the question of who was the senior auditor; for Don Francisco de Coloma had held that office longer, but had assumed the office later, because Don Francisco Mansilla (as we have mentioned before) had gone on ahead from Cagayán. The controversy waxed very bitter, for neither would yield; and the third auditor, Don Juan Manuel, and the fiscal sided with neither of the contestants. Finally Don Juan Manuel treated the matter so ably and wisely that he made them agree to give him charge of the government until the controversy should be decided. The two other auditors and the fiscal assenting thereto, the charge of military affairs was given to Don Juan Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz; and the master-of-camp took possession of the army, and the city received his oath.
On the same day, Don Juan Manuel arranged the camp to suit his own pleasure. He appointed Don Juan de Morales Valenzuela sargento-mayor, after removing Don Nicolás Sarmiento; he made his own son, Don Juan Manuel, captain of his guard, and changed many of the infantry captains. It seems that the two auditors Coloma and Mansilla feared some violence; and for greater harmony retired, together with the fiscal Don Diego de Corbera and the secretary of the chamber, Tomás de Palenzuela Zurbarán to the college of the Society of Jesus, and convened the Audiencia in the library of the said college. They despatched a number of royal decrees ordering Don Juan Manuel to govern and rule as they two determined, since it was they who owned that right, which was still in litigation. But it appears that Don Juan Manuel had no such intention, and so much was he able to do by his sagacity and the interposition of grave persons (in which intervened Fathers Javier Riquelme,[106] the rector, Miguel Solana, and Pedro de Espinar[107] of the Society of Jesus)—and of lawyers, such as Manuel Suárez de Olivera, Don Eugenio Gutiérrez de Mendoza, and Don Juan de Rosales, that after many controversies, which have no place here, the two auditors and the fiscal were confined to their homes. When one would have thought them safest, Don Juan Manuel arrested them all in their own houses. He sent Don Francisco de Coloma to the village of Bay with an order to the alcalde-mayor Don Antonio Quijano to watch over his person; and Doctor Don Diego de Corbera, the fiscal, and his wife Doña María Jiménez to the island of Luban, fourteen leguas from Manila—where he died in a few months, I know not whether of sorrow or illness. He ordered Don Francisco Mansilla[108] to embark in a champan for Octong, delivering the care of his person to a brave mulatto—a native of Sevilla, and a soldier of Ternate—named Simón de Torres, whom he made captain of the fleet of Iloilo, sending a very stringent order to the sargento-mayor Francisco Prado de Quirós not to allow Don Francisco to leave that presidio. He did so, and the auditor remained there until the new governor, Don Manuel de León, ordered that he be recalled thence. Don Francisco de Coloma remained but a short time in Bay, for, like the good Christian that he was, he submitted himself, yielding to the condition of the times, in order to avoid scandal. Thus Don Juan Manuel withdrew him, and the two ruled over political matters, Don Francisco Coloma signing first, and Don Juan Manuel de la Peña governed in military affairs.
All that government of the usurper Don Juan Manuel was very peaceable; for he was a wise and prudent man, and of very excellent intentions. If the desire to command misled him into pushing himself into the government, which did not belong to him, the fault ought not to be attributed to him, but to those who allowed themselves to be deceived because of their passions.... The first thing that he did was to bring from Cebú that great soldier, so often appointed in past years, the commander Don Francisco de Atienza y Báñez—who had retired, and was passing his honorable old age in quiet; and Don Juan availed himself of his counsels for military arrangements. He treated the soldiers very well, and increased their pay, and paid them a sum of money on account of what was due them for their services. In that way he exhausted the royal treasury; and it was this which created most hostility against him in the royal Council. He must have thought that his government would last a longer time, for Don Diego de Salcedo had served five years in his government, and, according to the length of time that his three predecessors had governed, a long time was still left for Don Juan. But this reckoning ended ill; for Governor Don Manuel de León was in Méjico, because authentic information had reached the royal Council of the Indias of the irregularities committed by Don Diego de Salcedo.
At that time the bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Juan López, arrived at Manila on matters pertaining to his church concerning the result of the visitation which he had made in the province of Ogtong. But as he found the governor very busy in strengthening his intrusion, while the royal Audiencia was much in need of ministers, he could get nothing done except the issue of some pontifical acts regarding orders and confirmations, and to return to his church.
However much Don Juan Manuel de la Peña tried by diligence to please all, he was not without danger of his life through the malice of assassins or the neglect of undisciplined soldiers. For while he was one afternoon watching the marching of the companies which are changed daily as guards at the gates of the city, it happened that when an obsequious military officer was ordering that a general salute to him be fired, a musket ball passed over Don Juan Manuel’s right shoulder, and was embedded in a brick wall of the window from which he was leaning. Investigations were instituted in order to get at the cause; but they were all in vain, as those who fired were so many, and it could not be learned who had loaded with ball. The governors have many such dangers because of the carelessness of the undisciplined soldiers. Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara was in danger of being killed in another salute like that; and the ball passed clear through the hand of Licentiate Manuel de Olivera, who was at the governor’s side.
The pens of jurisconsults were not lacking to defend the government of Don Juan Manuel de la Peña as legitimate. Among others, Licentiate Don Juan de Rosales, a lawyer of the royal Audiencia and alcalde-mayor of Tondo for the new governor, published a printed manifesto of which many copies may be found in possession of persons who are curious. But afterward, at a safe time, he published another manuscript against his antagonist Licentiate Manuel Suárez de Olivera, in which he not only accuses Don Juan Manuel of being a usurper, but also as guilty of lese-majesty. Tot capita, tot sententiae.[109]