In a vessel from the Coromandel coast came Juan Antúnez de Portugal, a knight of the Order of Christ, and a son of the celebrated Portuguese jurist Domingo de Antúnez de Portugal (of the same order), who wrote the very learned book, De regalibus. He came with an appointment from his king as governor of the islands of Timor and Solor, and, having fallen dangerously ill at Malaca, he feared, as a good Catholic, to die among those Calvinistic heretics; and therefore embarked in a coasting vessel which was coming to Manila with merchandise. He was received by Governor Don Juan de Vargas with the hospitality which his person and noble rank merited, and medical treatment was provided for him with great care. As soon as he became well and was ready to continue his voyage to Timor, the governor sent him, well provided, in a very good vessel belonging to some Portuguese traders, and gave him some Spaniards to accompany him.
The islands of Timor and Solor are the last of which we have knowledge toward the south beyond the island of Jacatra, where the Dutch have founded the city of Nueva Batavia, the capital of all the colonies and factories that they possess in Eastern India from the Cape of Good Hope, which are numerous and rich. The islands of Timor and Solor abound with gold, and in them alone grows the sandalwood, a very fragrant and esteemed wood, and a great article of trade for China—although the transportation of it is very unbecoming for Christians, because it is the incense and timiama which the Chinese use most in the sacrifices to their idols; and therefore the Portuguese have found by experience that wealth gained by this wretched traffic never is profitable. These islands are under the Portuguese dominion and are relics of its ancient colonies, although they are but little subject to it on account of being more than twelve hundred leguas from Goa. At that time the rule over them had been usurped by a Dutch mestizo (although he feigned to be a Catholic), named Antonio de Ornay, a very sagacious man and an able politician, who governed them more as a king than as a vassal (as he said he was) of the king of Portugal—whom he recognized so far as it seemed good to him, and made contributions to his revenues with part of the great and almost incredible riches which it was said he possessed, especially in gold; but most of his wealth was hidden and buried in the ground. The king of Portugal and the viceroy of India, knowing that they could do no more, allowed him to remain in that power, and sent him [the insignia of] the Order of Christ, and other titles of honor. It seems that the cabinet at Lisboa were displeased at the limited power that the Portuguese crown possessed in Timor, and decided to send Juan Antúnez to replace Antonio de Ornay, but armed and escorted only by the royal warrant, which is more than enough for Portuguese loyalty. Juan Antúnez arrived at the principal port of Timor, and found it in hostile array and garrisoned by soldiers of all nations, sent by Antonio de Ornay, who already had information (by way of Batavia) of his new successor; these soldiers had orders from him not to allow Juan Antúnez or any other person to land from the vessel, and not to accept from him any despatch or letter. The new governor spent many days there, waiting to see if he could at least write a letter to Antonio de Ornay; but seeing that he had no remedy except to return to Manila, he did so, with much difficulty and lack of provisions. From Manila he set out for India, where he was afterward governor of Mozambique and other places in Africa. Antonio de Ornay remained absolute master of Timor and Solor, until he died suddenly, of old age; and without the assistance of a priest, because the influence [aires] of the neighboring Batavia had so weakened his scruples. At his death was present a citizen of Macán, Antonio de Vasconcelos, of the same Order of Christ, who told us in these islands that all the wealth of Antonio de Ornay, a great quantity of gold, had been lost; for, as he had buried all his treasures and died suddenly, they remained for the court of Pluto, the imaginary god of riches and also of hell.
About the end of the year, Auditor Doctor Don Cristóbal Herrera Grimaldos died, aged more than seventy years. The cause of his death—which came rapidly, in an illness of a few weeks—was that a running sore that he had in his right arm became cancerous. It is said that it was this arm that he stretched out to seize the archbishop when he ordered [the soldiers] to carry out the prelate in the chair on which he was sitting; such is the story, but it is not confirmed.... What is certainly known is, that he made no effort to secure absolution from the excommunication. He publicly received the holy viaticum, which was administered to him by the dean, Don Miguel Ortiz de Covarrubias; and they buried him in the church of the Society of Jesus at Manila. Afterward the archbishop, having returned from his exile (as we shall soon relate), by sentence and demand from his attorney-general ordered that the auditor’s body be disinterred; but this proved ineffectual, because it was alleged that the body had been buried in a general sepulchre, in which were the bones of others of the faithful, and those of the auditor could not be recognized. At this, the ecclesiastical officials desisted from their attempt; but there was no other declaration to the contrary.
While the archbishop was enduring his exile in Lingayén—or, to speak more correctly, his imprisonment, since he had not the liberty that exiled persons enjoy—in Manila the tempest continued against the religious of St. Dominic, who, as being his brethren in the order, had great share in his troubles. The usurping provisor, Dean Don Miguel de Covarrubias, and the cabildo, successful in maintaining the vacant see [sede vacante], arrested and harassed all those who, as it seemed to them, did not agree with their opinion. And as it seemed to them that all the force in this opposition came from the religious of St. Dominic—especially from the provincial, Fray Antonio Calderón; father Fray Cristóbal Pedroche, commissary of the Holy Office and vicar-provincial; father Fray Bartolomé Marrón, rector of the college of Santo Tomás; and the two lecturers in theology, father Fray Juan Ibáñez and Fray Francisco de Vargas—they demanded aid from the governor, Don Juan de Vargas, to banish those religious. The governor issued a royal decree, signed only with his own name, directing the provincial to send the five religious above mentioned to the village of Lalo, the capital of the bishopric of Nueva Segovia, distant a hundred leguas from Manila, on the pretext that some of them were preaching, and others teaching, erroneous doctrines in the community. The said provincial replied to this that if the errors consisted in saying that the cabildo and their provisor had usurped the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and that the persons who had banished the archbishop and arrested the ecclesiastics deserved the censures [of the church], it was himself who had most influence [in forming that opinion in them], and who with most firmness maintained it; and that as his subordinates were not to blame in the matter, since they obeyed the commands laid on them, he could not fulfil the orders given by the royal decree. The said master-of-camp issued a second decree in the same form as the first, repeating its commands, and ordering that the provincial with the five religious be brought to this capital.
To the end that this order might be executed, he gave commission to Licentiate Don Diego Antonio de Viga, auditor of that Audiencia—who, accompanied by several companies of arquebusiers and other soldiers under the command of the said governor, went to the convent of San Domingo; and, leaving it surrounded with many of the soldiers, with others he entered it to make known the said royal decree. He actually notified the provincial and Fray Cristóbal Pedroche, commissary of the Holy Office and vicar-provincial of Manila; and the soldiers looked through the entire convent in search for the rector, Fray Bartolomé Marron. Not finding him, they went on to the college of Santo Tomás, and, after making the same efforts to find the said rector, but in vain, notified the two professors of the same decree. They made substantially the same reply as the provincial—all of them saying that they could not voluntarily leave their offices and province; but that they were ready to endure any violence for the sake of God and His cause. The news of this was sent to the said master-of-camp Don Juan de Vargas, and he was told how in the convent and the college all the doors and offices had been opened to the soldiers, without resistance; he gave orders that the soldiers should remain round about the convent and college, and should not permit the entrance of any provision of food or water for the religious until the six should be surrendered, and should go alone to the places designated in the said royal decree. This blockade, with this rigor, lasted four days, and on the last day, which was the day next following Corpus [Christi], the same auditor went to the convent; and, having made various protestations and requisitions, ordered the usurping provisor (who was present) to remove those religious. After some questions and replies the provisor commanded the soldiers to carry in chairs, in their arms, to the place of embarkation of the provincial and his vicar-provincial; this was actually done, carrying them until they placed the religious in the vessel which had been made ready for this purpose. This having been accomplished at the convent, they went to the college of Santo Tomás, and the same thing was done to the two professors of theology; and, all being placed together in the same vessel, they were conveyed to the port of Cavite. From that place the two professors were transported in another vessel to the island of Mariveles; and the provincial and vicar-provincial were detained there until the time for the sailing of the ship for Nueva España, in which they were embarked. The said provincial reached the kingdom of España, where he died a few months after his arrival.
At the same time, by order of the said master-of-camp, Doctor Don Diego Calderón went to the convent of the Parián (which is the village of the heathen Chinese), with the same display of arms and soldiers, in quest of the said vicar-provincial, and searched the entire convent—where he could not be found, since he was, as has been stated, in the convent of Manila, in company with the provincial. With the same commission Captain Don Luis de Morales Camacho, alcalde-in-ordinary, went with armed soldiers to a ranch named Biñán, distant eight leguas from Manila, and belonging to the said college, to seize the rector, thinking that they would find him there; and General Antonio Vásquez went, with the same accompaniment of soldiers, to the convent of Abucay, a ministry for the Indians, distant eight leguas from Manila by sea, to look for Fray Raimundo Verart; but, as they could not find those two religious, they could not in their case put into execution the [sentence for their] removal from the islands. Strenuous efforts were made in Manila to look for the father rector, Fray Bartolomé Marron, but they could not find him; for he was safely hidden in the house of a person who was strongly attached to the order; so they desisted from their search for him.
Chapter XIV
The two galleons which had sailed for Nueva España in the preceding year arrived safely at Filipinas [1684], although they did not make port at Cavite, but at Solsogon, within the Embocadero. The flagship “Santa Rosa,” which had gone out in charge of Antonio Nieto (who had remained as warden of the castle at Capulco), brought back as its commander Don Juan de Zalaeta, a native of Vizcaya, and a knight of the Order of Santiago. He had spent many years in these islands, and had been a soldier in Ternate; and, having returned to [Nueva?] España, had held several honorable offices—as, being alcalde-mayor of Hicayán and Puebla de los Angeles, and warden of Acapulco. In this galleon came the governor who was to succeed Don Juan de Vargas; this was the admiral of galleons, Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui y Arriola, a knight of the Order of Santiago, and a member of the “twenty-four” of Sevilla and of the supreme Council of War. He had been commander of the Windward fleet,[59] and had held other responsible positions on sea and land; and he was a Vizcayan, a native of Elgoibar. Don Juan de Zalaeta carried the commission for taking the residencia of Don Juan de Vargas, and other warrants; but the most important person among those whose residencias he must take was the master-of-camp Don Francisco Guerrero de Ardila, uncle of Don Juan de Vargas’s wife. It was this man who had enjoyed the profits of the office of government, and this year he was returning to España as commander of the galleon “Santo Niño.” That vessel met within the Embocadero the galleon “Santa Rosa,” and, learning that in the latter had come a successor to Don Juan de Vargas, he hoisted the anchors without waiting for further information, whether opportune or not [con tiempo ó sin él], and sailed into the sea outside; and he was not ill-advised in this step, since in the residencia he would have been the chief personage. When Don Juan de Zalaeta learned that the best of the hunt had escaped from him, he was much grieved that he could not catch him; although it would have grieved Don Francisco Guerrero more if they had seized him. That gentleman knew how to enjoy the advantages of Filipinas quite alone, and to go away laughing at the citizens and every one else; but Don Juan de Vargas remained behind, in custody, to make amends for his own faults and those of others.
In company with the above-mentioned governor came very distinguished officers, all Vizcayans; there were Don José de Escorta, Don Pedro Uriósolo, Don Francisco Alvarez, Don Bernardo de Endaya (who carried the despatches from his Majesty), Don Pedro de Avendaño, Don Matías de Mugórtegui, Don Francisco de León y Leal, Don Juan Bautista Curucelaegui, Don Andrés de Mirafuentes, Don José de Herrera, Don Manuel González, Don Lorenzo Mesala, Don Francisco Carsiga (who died a priest), Don José Arriola, Don Martín Martínez de Tejada, and Don Lucas Vais; all of them were generals and sargentos-mayor, whom we know as captains, and rendered much service and honor to these islands. In this galleon came Don Mateo Lucas de Urquiza; also Captain Lorenzo Lázaro, a noted pilot; Captain Don Francisco Cortés, boatswain; and for ship’s storekeeper Juan de Aramburu, a brave Vizcayan who served in many important exploits.