Chapter I
[Diaz mentions the calamitous times experienced in the islands during the rule of most of the governors from Corcuera to Salcedo, which at last are succeeded, in the plan of Providence, by peace and comfort.] The peacemaker [iris] whom divine Providence seems to have selected for this general benefit was Governor Don Manuel de León y Sarabia; for his taking possession of his government was the shifting of the scenes in this melancholy theater, the calming of the tempests, and the succession of rest after fatigue, and peace after war. The former lines of commerce were renewed, and other and new ones opened up—such as that of the coast of Malabar and Santo Tomé, called the Coromandel coast; and those of Suratte, Macán and Batavia. All these improvements were facilitated by the wholesome purposes and the kindly disposition of Don Manuel de León, and especially by his great disinterestedness; this last would, if it had not been accompanied by the rest, have failed of success, as did the lofty and incomparable [disinterestedness] of Don Diego Fajardo, since it was obscured by his coldness and excessive severity—which, although accompanied by justice, was, being excessive, known as injustice.
As soon as the new governor commenced his fortunate rule, he sent to Macán General Don Juan Enrique de Losada, accompanied by Father Francisco Mecinas,[1] of the Society of Jesus, in order to further the interests of that commerce, and to endeavor to open up the richer trade of Cantón. This was accomplished by the said envoys with so much ability that in the following year the Chinese began to come [to Manila], with barks from Macán and somas from Cantón, with great wealth of silks, damasks, and other stuffs. Trade was opened with Ningpú, a port of the province of Che-Kian in the empire of China, where is cultivated the greater part of the silk which supplies the world, a commodity which greatly advanced the commerce of Nueva España. The governor maintained courteous intercourse with Sipuán, the son of Kuesing, and from this originated the frequent visits of so many champans from China and somas (which are larger champans) from Cantón, which every year engage in the commerce with Manila; for in some years are counted thirty barks, and nearly as many from other regions, which supply merchandise to Manila, and contribute to the royal revenues great sums with their customs duties.[2]
The flagship “Buen Socorro,” which had made the voyage to Nueva España in charge of General Diego de Arévalo, had a fortunate arrival at the islands—although not at the port of Cavite, but at that of Palapag in the province of Leyte, outside of the Embocadero. It brought an auditor, Licentiate Don Fernando Escaño, a native of Ecija; he was a great jurisconsult, as is evident from the learned books which he had printed in España—De testamento imperfecto, and the history of the Order of St. John of Malta, which he wrote in the Latin language, by order of his most serene Highness Don Juan of Austria, grand prior of Castilla and León. He came with his wife, Doña Leonor de Córdoba, a native of Sevilla, and four [six] children: Don Fernando, who was a captain, and lived but a few years; Don Juan de Escaño, an alférez who reached the age of fifty years, an unmarried man, very virtuous, and an example for laymen; Don José and Don Manuel, afterward religious of St. Dominic; Don Alonso, who was an Augustinian religious, and at his death a minister in Pampanga; and a daughter, Doña María, who married the sargento-mayor Don Francisco de Moya y Torres, alguazil-mayor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The auditor’s wife was a professed member of our tertiary order; and all of them were people of great virtue.
With appointment as bishop of Nueva Segovia came the dean of Manila, Master Don José Millán de Poblete, a priest of much virtue and discretion, and nephew of the archbishop Doctor Don Miguel Millán de Poblete, of honored memory. The vigorous age at which this dignity came to him (for he was not yet fifty) did not enable him to enjoy it [long]; for he lived very few years in the government of that church, not long enough to reach his consecration—with general regret in these islands at having lost a grand prelate, heir to the many virtues of his uncle....
Auditor Don Fernando de Escaño began to fill his office with great rectitude and disinterestedness, for he was a learned man, and stood in fear of God, which is the true wisdom. But, influenced by his desires for good, yet lacking in judgment and experience, he proceeded to enter the labyrinth of trying to reform more than what is in need of reform—being counseled by persons who aimed only at gaining by calumny what they could not prove in law. From this he undertook to follow the opinions of Auditor Don Salvador Gómez de Espinosa, of whom we have already written, and to subscribe to his manifestoes, as the Parenético; and without further investigation than the depositions of persons who were prejudiced against the clergy and the religious orders, he made attacks on them in letters written to his Majesty. Afterward, he recognized that the evidence did not agree with what had been told him; and he came to repentance when the shot was already fired and much damage done thereby. These false notions, and others like them, as well as his considering the little or nothing that can be accomplished in these islands by the ministers of his Majesty, who never goes beyond what the governors desire, wore him out in a few years; and he died as the excellent Christian that he was, and so indifferent to worldly advantages that he had not money enough for his burial, and was buried in our convent at Manila. All his family inherited his virtue, and were the only children of an auditor who came out so well, for all strove to grow in virtue to the standard of their honored father; they were therefore highly esteemed, and their lives came to a holy end. Don Juan de Escaño, who attained the rank of general, was an example of virtue in Manila, and died with the reputation of unbroken chastity [con opinion de virgen]; and his property, which was large and justly gained, he left, well invested as it was, for the building and maintenance of the beaterio of Santa Catalina de Sena [i.e., St. Catherine of Sienna], of the tertiary Order of St. Dominic in Manila, in which foundation he had much share and influence.
About this time came to Manila the prince of Siao,[3] son of the king Don Ventura Pinto de Morales, to ask the governor for religious of the Society of Jesus to instruct the natives of his little kingdom, where there were many Christians—although the majority of that people were infected with the errors of the cursed Mahoma. These islands are in five and one-half degrees of latitude north, and one hundred and forty-nine degrees of longitude from the meridian of Tenerife; the seas about them are difficult of navigation, on account of being in the midst of a large and widespread bank [placer] of shoals which lie on all sides. They share the reputation of Maluco, not only for the warlike nature of their inhabitants, but for many spice-bearing trees, of clove and nutmeg; but in other means of support that country is very poor. This prince was received by the governor with much honor; he gave him the use of his own coach, and lodged him at the college of San José, in charge of the religious of the Society; and he took much pains to forward the business of the prince, since it was for so holy a purpose, the propagation of our holy faith. The prince returned to his own country, with the satisfactory result which he could desire; with him went four religious of the Society of Jesus—Father Juan de Miedes,[4] a native of Alcalá de Henares; Father Jerónimo Cebreros, a native of Acapulco; and Fathers Esquibel[5] and Español—all well fitted for so holy a ministry. The governor gave him twenty Spaniards and some Pampangos, to serve as an escort for the religious; and for their commander Captain Andrés Serrano—a veteran soldier, who had just finished a term as alcalde-mayor of Panay (a province in our spiritual charge)—as he was a very devout Christian and well suited for that occupation, so much to the service of God.
These religious remained a long time in the islands of Siao, increasing that Christian church; but the enemy of mankind, who resented their driving him out after he had so long possessed the souls of those unfortunate people, influenced the Dutch heretics of Nueva Batavia, in the island of Jacatra, to destroy them by a secular persecution. For, as they are lords of all the islands where grows the clove of the spice-trade, in Maluco—Amboyno, Tidore, Ternate, Montiel, and many others—and this is the commerce which has returned most profits to their company they have always endeavored that this aromatic merchandise be not transported by any other hands than their own, in order to assure their gains. They knew that some Spaniards had settled in the islands of Siao, and that by them was carried away the clove product of that region, and that it might eventually diminish their own commerce. For that astute nation has so perseveringly maintained that the Dutch alone shall be absolute masters of the cloves and cinnamon; and so skilfully do they manage these commodities that in any year when there is an abundant product of cloves they burn such quantity of it as they consider superfluous, according to the computation that they have made of that crop (which is sufficient for the supply of the whole world), in order that their price may not be lowered, and that the commodity may not fall in value by becoming common and abundant. So great is the wisdom of these children of the world, in which they greatly exceed the children of the light.
They manned two ships with three hundred men-at-arms; and when our people in Siao were least on their guard the Dutch arrived, and landed their men, which the Spaniards were unable to prevent, as they were so inferior in numbers.[6] The Dutch committed no other hostility than to carry away as prisoners the religious of the Society, and Andrés Serrano and his soldiers—together with their standard, which our men could neither hide nor destroy—all of whom they conveyed to Batavia. But before they left the islands of Siao they rooted out and cut down all the cinnamon trees that grew there, until no roots or other trace of them were left—all which they did quite at their leisure, without any one saying a word to them. Andrés Serrano died in Batavia of grief, although the Dutch treated him and his soldiers well, as also the fathers. The religious afterward came to Manila, some in the time of this governor, and others during the term of his successor, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado.