What is most important for our history is, that a numerous and choice mission of religious for this province came, in charge of father Fray Álvaro de Benavente, who in 1686 had been sent [to Europa] for this purpose, and made his voyage by way of Batavia and Holanda, as we have briefly related. That navigation was very difficult, because when the Dutch ships with which he was going approached the English Channel they learned that at its entrance was a French fleet. For this reason they changed their route, doubling Cape Clare, a promontory of Ireland; and they went as far as 63° of [north] latitude, so that they could sail around the northern extremity of Scotland, and therefore they suffered great cold and hardship. As soon as father Fray Álvaro de Benavente arrived at Bilbao with his companion Fray Juan Verganzo, he set out on his journey to the court, where he presented his despatches, and explained the reasons why he had made his voyage by way of Batavia; for this route was strictly prohibited by his Majesty, and might cause much hindrance to the procurators. Having secured the approval of the Duke de Medinaceli and the lords of the royal Council of the Indias, he departed for the Roman court, to ask for the relaxation of the oaths which the missionaries in China were commanded to take, of obedience to the apostolic vicars sent out by the holy Congregation of the Propaganda. [Diaz relates with some detail the progress and success of this embassy by Benavente, because the question at issue therein has an important place in the controversy over the line of demarcation between the domains of Spain and Portugal in the East; but we omit this part, as it is unimportant for our narrative.]
[Father Fray Álvaro] also had to obtain from our very reverend general Fray Fulgencio Travalloni various statutes and corporate laws for the government of this province; and these were [in the form of] fifty-eight decrees, given in the convent of San Martín at Sena [i.e., Sienna], on May 28, 1688, [while the father general was engaged] in the general visitation of Italia; father Fray Álvaro brought them in printed form, with a Roman imprint. But with the course of time it was found by experience that these laws were unduly rigorous, and not very satisfactory for the government of this province; and it was continually asking for dispensations from them, until our father general Fray Adeodato Nuzzi, of Altimira, sent orders that this province should change and correct them as it should find expedient; and this was done in the intermediate chapter of the year 1710. Father Fray Álvaro brought many favors and jubilees from his Holiness for many convents of this province, and a bull to the effect that the religious who, knowing any language of the provinces under our charge, should explain [the Christian doctrine] in the convent of Manila for a period of eight years should bear the title of “Master,” with the exemptions belonging to that dignity, and that he might exercise a perpetual vote in the provincial chapters; but up to the present time there has been no religious who has devoted himself to that occupation, or attracted much importance to this so unusual concession.
For the missionaries in China he gained the subsidy and stipend which his Majesty gives to the missionaries of the other religious orders, that is, a hundred pesos to each one for a year’s support. He obtained a royal decree that the trade and commerce with the Portuguese of Macán, which until that time had been forbidden and full of risk, should be free; and this dispensation was obtained only by the information given by father Fray Álvaro de Benavente that this was the safest door by which the missionaries could gain entrance into China. But the Portuguese, although they enjoy greatly to their profit the commerce of Manila, which is the chief means of their preservation, carry out very poorly the arrangement, as regards giving passage to the missionaries; for not only do they not give them entrance, but they inflict many annoyances on the religious, as they did with this very father Fray Álvaro, in both his first and his second visit to China. What keeps them in this attitude is the incorrectly understood patronage of their king of Portugal; for they can claim the same things in Mogol, Persia, Turquia and Constantinopla, and in the empire of Trapisonda, as included in the hemisphere of their demarcation. Father Fray Álvaro returned to España with a commission of vicar-general (which had been granted to him very fully by our own reverend father general); and he busied himself in calling together the religious who were to come in the mission [to Filipinas]. Since he had passed through the province of Aragón on his return from Roma, some religious offered themselves to him there, not only from Aragón but from Valencia; and there some others who afterward were enlisted by father Fray Pedro Cerro—to whom father Fray Álvaro had delegated his own powers, since father Fray Pedro was a religious who was very friendly to this province, and zealous for the good of souls.
Before father Fray Álvaro reached Manila with his religious, Governor Don Fausto Cruzat y Góngora made his entry into the city; this was done on St. James’s day, in the afternoon. Two magnificent and very beautiful triumphal arches were erected for him, with large emblematic representations and ingenious allegories. One was made at the cost and by the care of the Society of Jesus; and the other by the care of our Augustinian fathers, at the place where the governor would pass our convent of San Pablo, with the idea of the history of Janus—with ingenious Latin inscriptions and epigrams, explained in Castilian eight-line stanzas; and to these were added, in all these places, praises [of the governor]. This was the last reception of this sort that was given to the governors, its disuse being begun with the next governor, Don Domingo de Zabalburu—who, as he came wearing mourning for the death of our king Don Carlos II, would not allow this festal mode of reception.
Chapter XX
On the third day after the solemn entry of the governor, the religious of the mission here by father Fray Álvaro de Benavente made their entrance into the convent of Manila; and on July 28 a private session of the definitory was held in order to admit and adopt them into this province. The following is a list of them:
1. Father Fray Diego Bañales, a native of Coruña, and a son of the convent at Santiago; aged forty years, and twenty-three in the order; a preacher and confessor. He came as confessor to the governor’s wife; was prior of Guadalupe, a definitor, and president of the chapter; and died at Manila, on January 29, 1706.
2. The father reader Fray Carlos Terrazas, a son of the house at Valencia, thirty-two years old and having professed sixteen years before; he was minister in the Pintados or Bisayas provinces, and of very great virtue; he died in the convent of Dumarao, on October 18, 1694.
3. The father reader Fray Nicolás Bernet, a native of the town of Epila, and son of the convent at Zaragoza; twenty-seven years old, and a professed for ten years; he was prior of Cebú; and died at Manila, on May 1, 1701.