With the new auditors also embarked very distinguished persons of their kindred and households, such as Don Manuel de Argüelles, an Asturian, who is still alive, and a general; Don Juan Infanzón, and Don Francisco Giménez de Valerio; the owner of the patache, Felipe de Vertis; and others. On this occasion also came father Fray Juan de Alarcón, a native of Valladolid and a son of the [Augustinian] house there; he had been left in Nueva España, and was now very old. He retired to this province (for which he had enlisted in 1679), and served only a few years on account of poor health; and, while he was procurator-general, died in the convent of Manila, in the year 1695.
This patache made its voyage very prosperously, and passed the Embocadero without any difficulty, reaching the port of Cavite, where it remained until Mateo de Urquiza sailed with the galleon “Santo Christo de Burgos” for Nueva España. This privilege of entering the port of Cavite is, it seems, enjoyed as their own by all the pataches which come from Acapulco, which are not built in these islands; as it were, they are free from the sin which they contract in the acts of oppression and tyranny which are committed, not only in the cutting of the timber for them, but in their construction; and, either for this or for other and hidden causes, hardly a galleon built in these islands succeeds in making the entrance of the port of Cavite.
The auditors on reaching Manila took possession of their offices in the hall of the Audiencia, which they found empty of their predecessors—some being dead, and another in banishment—and the only one they found living was the fiscal, Don Esteban de la Fuente Alanis. The investigating judge likewise found the greater part of his commission accomplished, which was the deposition of the auditors. He sent for Don Pedro Bolivar, who was a prisoner in Cagayán, in the fort of Tuao; but he died while on the way, at one of the first villages of the province of Ilocos; God gave him a very good end, in return for the many excellent traits that he displayed in his life, such as being very courteous and very charitable to the poor.
To Governor Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui came very favorable decrees from his Majesty—who thanked him for what he had done in the restitution of the archbishop, in which his Majesty considered himself well served. To the archbishop came others, also very favorable, which I do not insert here, in order to avoid being tedious, and because that is not in my obligation; and I only repeat here a letter or bull which his Holiness Pope Innocent XI sent to the archbishop, since that is a very unusual favor, and because he was a pontiff so greatly to be venerated by posterity, on account of his great sanctity of life. [The letter is given in both Latin and Spanish; it simply expresses the approval of the pope for Pardo’s course, and encouragement to persevere if he shall encounter other like trials.]
The news of what had been done in the banishment and confinement of the archbishop produced great disturbance in the royal mind of his Majesty and in his ministers of the supreme Council of the Indias, as may be imagined from the punishment which by their orders was inflicted on Don Juan de Vargas and on the auditors and the other persons inculpated therein. It is not denied by this atonement and punishment that many cases can occur in which it may be lawful to banish bishops and ecclesiastical superiors; and this matter is treated at length [lato modo] and very judiciously by many writers—Don Cristóbal Crespi de Valduura, vice-chancellor of Aragon, in his learned Observaciones, obs. iii, illat. iii, no. 19; Solórzano, De jure Indico, tom. ii, lib. iii, chap. 29, no. 71; Salgado, De regia potestate, part i, chap. 2, no. 276; and others. But this is executed by legitimate procedure, and with much circumspection and moderation, without touching or impeding the exercise of the episcopal power (the opposite seems to be an Anglican dogma, and one of Marsilius de Padua), as was done with Don Fray Felipe Pardo—confining his person in the village of Lingayén, and suspending his spiritual jurisdiction; commanding the cabildo to exercise the right of sede vacante; and not accepting the appointment which the archbishop had made of the bishop of Troya to govern in his absence—because this does not concern the temporal revenues, which the prelates who incur the penalty of banishment lose. What causes no little wonder is, that all the auditors were very learned, and they four, with the fiscal, had held chairs in [the universities of] Méjico, Sevilla, and Granada; but when one lacks the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, one cannot gain real success in matters in which his will prevails over his judgment. How useful it would be to the governors and auditors of Filipinas to have these words written as a reminder in the hall where they transact business, the words of the Holy Ghost in chapter vi, no. 3 of Wisdom.[77]
The first step made by the investigating judge was to imprison in his own house the fiscal, Doctor Don Estebán de la Fuente Alanis, and to bring charges against him, in accordance with the orders that he carried from the royal Council of the Indias; he did the same with the other auditors, [although they were] dead, through their executors. He proceeded with the residencia of Don Juan de Vargas, which had been delayed by the challenging of the associate judges; and he sent Governor Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado into exile in the village of Lingayén, Where the archbishop had been, and he was taken away by an escort of soldiers, under the command of Sargento-mayor Martínez León. He went hither as excommunicated, and unable to have any intercourse with any person save those allowed by law. Upon his arrival at the said village, he built in it a house of bamboo and nipa, where he lived a long time in company with his spirited wife, Doña Isabel de Ardila, enduring much loneliness and lack of respect, until they recalled him, after two years, in order to send him to España; and he died during this first voyage [i.e., on the Pacific Ocean].
This gentleman was truly unfortunate, for although he had not been a bad governor, his lack of courtesy and his harsh disposition gained for him many enemies. The time of his rule was very prosperous, and the ample commerce with the neighboring kingdoms engaged many persons and brought great gains. He was very diligent in keeping the Manila garrison strengthened with capable soldiers, and took much pains to have the men well fed and clothed, and military discipline strictly maintained—and in this he was surpassed only by Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera. His covetousness was not so great as appearances indicated, and with it he did not injure the commonwealth, for those times furnished [profit] for all. He was very punctual in fulfilling the duties of a Christian governor, and also in attending, almost without missing a day, all the sessions of the Audiencia and royal court; and therefore the lawsuits were not so interminable as we find them at the present time.
In his time came a royal decree that investigation should be made of the lawfulness of the slavery in which any were held, and that those persons whose condition of servitude was not well grounded should be set free. This action seems somewhat harsh; for so many persons of different nationality were liberated that both the Spaniards and the natives were left destitute of servants, and the city and the villages were full of beggars—and, what is worse, of thieves and incendiaries. This dispossession would have caused the utmost distress if General Cristóbal Romero, the castellan of Santiago, had not resolved to write to the king our sovereign about it, with arguments so forcible that a royal decree came directing that the execution of the other be suspended.
The new fiscal of his Majesty, Don Jerónimo Barredo y Valdés, a young man of suitable age [for this lady?] married the widow of Auditor Don Cristóbal Grimaldos, Doña María Manuela Carrillo y Barrientos—a woman in whom, although great was her beauty, virtue was still greater, and she furnished an excellent example in the time of her widowhood, suffering continually the siege and attacks made against her chastity by influential persons. But God recompensed her by giving her a numerous offspring and long life, both in these islands and in the city of Méjico—from which place no news has come of her death, but we have heard that she has remained the widow of Don Jerónimo Barredo, who was many years the senior auditor of this royal Audiencia.
The investigating judge, Don Francisco Campos de Valdivia, brought [an order for] the liberation of the Marqués de Villasierra, Don Fernando de Valuenzuela, because the term of ten years since his removal from the monastery of the Escorial was now completed. The judge went in person to Cavite, to notify him of the order and set him at liberty, as he did. The marqués left the port of Cavite and came to Manila, but he took up his residence in a country-house which our Manila convent possesses, on a sugar-plantation called Pasay. This house is on the sea-shore, in a very convenient location for trips back and forth from Manila; and one can easily enjoy visits there, as it is only one legua distant from the city. Here the marqués lived during all the time while he had to wait and make preparations for his journey, in order to sail in the first galleon which should return to Nueva España; for such was the command given to him, until his Majesty should decide whether or not he should go to España.