Among the great hardships which in this year were suffered in Manila, one was that the rains were heavier than any known to living men. Not only were they very heavy, but they lasted many months, and were the cause of many fields and crops being ruined, which caused a great scarcity of provisions; and, as it was impossible to work the salt-beds, the price of salt rose so high that it came to be worth twelve pesos for half a fanega, although its ordinary price was two or three reals—and some years even less, depending on the [height of the] water and on the heat of the sun, on which conditions this so necessary industry depends.
The most memorable event of this year, and one which may be counted among the most important which have occurred in these islands since their conquest, is the imprisonment of the auditors, Don Diego Antonio de Viga and Don Pedro Sebastián de Bolivar, by the governor. It is an event to cause astonishment—and more, as it came so soon after the imprisonment and exile of the archbishop, Don Fray Felipe Pardo—at seeing in so short a time Doctor Don Cristóbal de Herrera Grimaldos dead, and two auditors deprived forever of their togas (since never again could they put these on), and their families ruined and almost destroyed. It is not my intention to interpret the inscrutable secrets of divine justice, but only to set down the times and occasions in which so notable events occurred. [Diaz’s account of the imprisonment and deaths of the auditors is here omitted, as it has already been sufficiently related in VOL. XXXIX.]
Chapter XVII
The governor, seeing the Audiencia broken up (since it consisted of only one individual, the auditor Don Diego Calderón), named two associates to assist the auditor in despatching the business of this supreme tribunal; these were Licentiate Don José de Herrera, an advocate of the royal Audiencia, and the doctor and captain whom I have already mentioned, Don José de Cervantes Altamirano; and they issued royal decrees, Doctor Don Esteban de la Fuente filling his office of fiscal. They alleged that there had been a precedent for this in the time of Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, when there was no other auditor than Don Marcos Zapata, by whose aid was carried out the banishment and imprisonment of Don Fray Fernando Guerrero—and this proceeding had been an example to be repeated in these times. Afterward, on account of the sickness and death of Don Diego Calderón, the governor continued to form an Audiencia with the two associates, which the royal Council of the Indias condemned.
Under this kind of government two years passed by, until, in the year 1688, a new Audiencia arrived, as we shall soon see. The year 1687 was no less grievous than the preceding one, for various misfortunes followed each other, which were generally felt by all the citizens, in order that they might share in the punishment merited by their offenses, since always proves true the proverb, Delirant reges, semper plectuntur Achivi.[73] The first was the failure of the galleon from Nueva España, for it could not come that year because none had been despatched [from Manila] the year before; this was because of the armada sent against the pirates, which only served to cause great expenses to the royal treasury, the wreck of the galleon “Santo Niño,” and the failure of the galleon in this and the following years—which, as we have often said, is the life of the poor colony of Manila and of all these Filipinas Islands.
The governor, having determined to send to Nueva España the galleon “Santo Niño,” ordered that it be repaired as well as it could be; but even then it was not very strong, because most of its strength had been taken from it by the windows which had been opened in it for the artillery. But there was no other ship to depend upon, for the construction of the “Santo Cristo de Burgos,” which they had placed on the stocks, was only begun. The governor appointed as its commander Lucas Mateo Urquina, who sailed for Nueva España with but slight hope on the part of those who understood the situation for the success of the voyage. The worst was, that their fears were realized; for the galleon not being able to endure the fierce storms that attacked it in high latitudes, it was compelled to put back to port. This it did, about the month of November, causing great affliction to all; for it came only to aggravate the sufferings that were already experienced through the failure to receive a galleon that year.
At night of Holy Thursday, March 28, at the time when in the village of Binondo arrangements were being made for the procession which the mestizo Sangleys make on the occasion of the “holy burial,” (which is one of the most brilliant and magnificent of the processions that are made in Holy Week), one of the greatest disasters that have ever been seen in these islands occurred. Fire caught in the first house on the point of land which is called Punta de la Estacada, and the crowd of people who had made ready for this devout function were unable to extinguish the fire; and the devouring flames made such havoc that they destroyed the great number of houses that stood in all the territory of the said Estacada, Baybay, and Tondo, finally consuming the entire barrio of Bancusay, in which this so widespread settlement [of Sangleys] finds its limit. It was no small good-fortune that the fire passed by the other side of the river, where lies the great town of Binondoc, Tondo, Santa Cruz, and Quiapo—which, as contiguous villages, together constitute one body—for [if the fire had reached them] the loss would have been irreparable; for many splendid houses of wealthy Spaniards and mestizos would have been consumed, and those of many Portuguese and Armenian traders who live in those places as being more convenient [for their business]. There were no deaths of persons from the flames; but great was the loss of the many people who saw their poor houses and property disappear.
The gates of Manila were opened, and the governor, in person hastened to give aid, with a great number of people, who could check the fire so that it should not cross over to the other part of Binondoc and Tondo. What was more, he prevented the robberies which in such emergencies are committed by some soldiers and wicked people, who on such occasions are worse than the fire, as has been found by experience at various times; for in times of drouth fires are very frequent in the suburbs of Manila, most of them being occasioned by fire set by these soulless incendiaries, who find their profit in such destruction.
To this local calamity at La Estacada succeeded another affliction, which was general through the greater part of these islands; this was a plague of locusts, one of the worst which has been seen in them, for the locusts were so many that in dense and opaque clouds they darkened the sun, and covered the ground on which they settled. These insects ravaged the grain-fields, and left the meadows scorched; and even the trees and canebrakes they stripped of the green leaves. These locusts were so voracious that they not only laid waste every kind of herbage and verdure, but they entered the houses, and gnawed and pierced with holes every kind of cloth; and those who flapped sheets and coverlets at the locusts to drive them away—as is usually done at other times in the invasions of this pest, with some effect—on this occasion found that the only result was to ruin those articles, for the locusts ate them, and destroyed them with their poisonous jaws. Thereupon the people began to feel the loss which ensued from this calamity, in the great scarcity and want of provisions—so great that a cabán of rice (which is half a fanega) came to be worth two pesos and a half, and in some places three pesos. (Nor has the poverty been less which is being experienced while I am writing this, on account of the great plague of locusts which occurred in the past year of 1717 and the present one.) And it can be said that the poor died in great numbers, not so much because the rice (which is the general food of the regions) cost so much, as through their lack of forethought, and of money with which to buy rice; and because there was so excessive a number of beggars—some through necessity, and others through laziness and dislike for work—that it was impossible to relieve them; for when there is but little to give it is not possible to divide it so that all shall be sufficiently cared for.