The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 49 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

41. This temerity has been the origin of many evils, which have increased the misfortune of these inhabitants, both secular and religious. They have been reduced to prison on various occasions, with sufficient contempt, occasioning that, together with injury to the natives, notable disturbances, disasters, fires, murders, robberies, and rapines have been experienced through the same agents and other evildoers. They have even been propagated through diverse places and estates with the destruction of their fields and herds; and, on the other side, the English irritated, not only have committed in the vicinity of Manila, many annoyances, burning of villages and buildings, and taking by force of arms (without resistance), all kinds of grain and animals, food, and a very great number of buffaloes, which were destined for the plough and the cultivation of the land, but they have also penetrated into some provinces with very few men, taking therefrom whatever they have wished, as they did in the month of November in the village of Pasig, where especially the food of all the Lake of Bay was gathered, and where trenches had been made in the church and convent. With all kinds of arms they had been occupied by ten thousand Indians, who were defeated at their first arrival by five hundred English. About one thousand five hundred of both sexes and all ages were killed, part of them with gun and cannon, and part precipitated into and drowned in the river Pasig. From that time a detachment of English troops remained in said village.[32] For that reason the English have penetrated about all the lake and through the province of Taal and Balayan, and have always brought vast supplies of food for their troops and for the storehouses. All these inhabitants always furnish them (for their money) with flesh, wheat, and palay. In any other way they would have suffered many more miseries. In the month of February, they did the same in Bulacan, which was the province where the above-mentioned Anda had established his fort in the church and convent. They advanced and forced his trenches, where some Spaniards and religious were killed, and four hundred Indians were put to the sword. The only difference was that in this place they did not carry back provisions or fortify themselves, but retired after demolishing the fortifications in the convent. They have also made many extortions in other villages which they would not have done had they not been provoked.[33]

42. All these injuries and many others, which are the necessary sequel of them, the archbishop thought over from that beginning, [which had been] without any fruit or advantage to our side, but, indeed, had, on the contrary, the pernicious effects that experience has proved, and which had already commenced to show themselves. Consequently, he found it necessary to write to Anda again, mitigating with the greatest mildness the ardor of his preceding letter, in order that Anda might consider these calamities, and change direction, increasing and arranging the terms of his commission as visitor of the land and lieutenant of the captain-general. But there was no other answer to this letter except notice of its receipt written on its envelope.

43. A like effect was obtained by the order that he gave in his letter to the treasurer, ordering him to transfer to the city the money in his care, in order that it might escape the theft which many evil natives had attempted. They would have succeeded in one of their most vigorous attacks, had not this disturbance been calmed by the alcalde of Pagsanjan, the marquises of Villamediana and Monte Castro being present. The latter were abused by three Franciscan religious, who, armed, captained the Indians in order to get possession of the treasury. In order to avoid this danger and the loss of this money, the archbishop had conferred with the generals, saying that he would hand it over to them on condition that it be reckoned as a part of the millions demanded, and that they supply him with the pay for the ministers, officers, troops, and others whose support depended on his Majesty. The relief of the community would also follow the exhibition of this treasury, and would lessen the payment of his Majesty. Nothing sufficed to make the treasurer Echauz obey. He went to Pampanga with the treasury, which he placed at the disposition of Auditor Anda, who began to use it recently for the expenses which he believed advisable or necessary, according to his projects.

44. To the question of the British, which was urgently put to him, in regard to the royal treasury and possessions, the archbishop responded briefly and truly, showing them that the king, his master, had no temporal interest in these islands, but only that strictly of the souls of his vassals, and the causing them to live as civilized beings and Christians, according to the Catholic law for their salvation; and that in order to maintain them with his ecclesiastical and secular ministers, he spent the tributes which were collected with so great right, and the two departments only of buyo and wine. In this regard he distributed very large sums annually from the treasury of Mexico. In no other manner could these islands subsist.

45. The city, orders, and Spaniards having been summoned to the royal palace, in order to express their loyalty and not to take arms against his Britannic Majesty, before his generals, an act in which their loyalty and love to his Catholic Majesty, their legitimate king, shone forth brightly, through the unwillingness, sadness, and repugnance, with which it was celebrated. Slightly before as well and separately was given the word of honor not to take arms during the war or until another arrangement was made by the sovereigns (in a certain Latin form, and which necessarily contained nothing of vassalage to his Britannic Majesty), by the archbishop, auditors, and royal officials present. The polite representation of the archbishop to the generals in the said house where they were lodging, namely, the archiepiscopal, enabled them [i.e., the above officials] to gain exemption from mixing with the others, or in their formula [of loyalty or allegiance to the British sovereign].

46. Thence, at their instance, they [i.e., the cabildo, religious, and Spaniards] were conducted to the royal palace, and in the presence of so numerous a gathering, a paper was read, in which the archbishop was reproved as one who robbed from the churches, the sum to which their silver amounted, and that of the pious funds already delivered and received; and that in regard to this, that silver would soon complete a million. And now he was about to surrender the forces and islands dependent on Manila. By that paper the heart of the archbishop was wounded as if by a double-edged sword. On two points he was unable to restrain his wrath, and he uttered in the presence of the two generals the words that his zeal dictated to him, namely, that the instance and threat of the victors had been necessary for the withdrawal of the abovesaid silver, and there were no other resources near at hand. He does not rob, who makes use, in extreme need, of the most sacred thing, which is destined in such cases most suitably to the living temples of God, namely, His faithful. But he cannot clear himself from this sacrilegious crime, who causes it by violence, and who willingly and eagerly receives its effects, and whatever is left over and above them. In regard to the second point, that meant to attempt another act of violence quite contrary to the day and to the act which was being celebrated on it to the honor and memory of the birthday of his Britannic Majesty, whose protection he implored, so that such a matter might not be discussed on such a day. And the archbishop insisted that he would sacrifice his life for his faithfulness to his king, and for his honor, which would be vindicated by his Catholic Majesty, his sovereign.

47. With this expression of anger, the archbishop retired to his room, where the above-mentioned paper was sent him. In order to deliberate on its contents, he had a general council summoned for next day, October 26, consisting of the ministers, the chief military men, and the city and ecclesiastical [cabildos]. In a few words the archbishop explained to the council the arguments pro and con regarding the cession of the islands. Since he gave all his attention and time to this, he ordered a council of those interested to discuss, with the assistance of the fiscal, and under the presidency of the senior auditor, the matter of the completion of the million. The result of that discussion will be stated later.

48. But in regard to the point of the islands, which was discussed in general council, the regulars excused themselves from voting, by saying that their rules forbade them to vote on war questions, and that they feared to act irregularly. The archbishop was unable to overlook this pretext, and told them that they had voted in like assemblies at the time of the siege, and had permitted or given license to their subjects to take all kinds of arms, to patrol the walls, and to guard the posts which were entrusted to them; and had sent the Indians from their villages to take part in the conflict. They had not done otherwise in their missions exposed to the dangers of the Moros, than to manufacture and buy all sorts of arms, and importune the superior government to supply arms to them, and afterward to handle them and make use of them in defense of their parishioners, and to fight the enemies of the faith and religion. At present it was not necessary to take these arms or to make use of them, but it was necessary to declare what was advisable in regard to conceding or denying the submission of the provinces in which religion and the instruction of their neophytes were at stake. But nothing was sufficient to get them to give their vote, that which the archbishop had alleged causing them great irritation. As their obstinacy angered the archbishop still more, he did not have them summoned to the second council.

49. In the voting of that council of the twenty-sixth, it happened that the engineer, by whom the voting commenced, refused strongly to pass any opinion, saying that he was prevented from doing so, as he was a prisoner of war. This murmur spread among the other military men present, and they added that the license of the generals was necessary in order that this council might be held. Consequently, it was necessary for the archbishop to explain these matters, by telling them that this was not a clandestine council, but one called openly and in plain sight and with the knowledge and suffrance of the generals. In it they were not discussing the taking of arms by the prisoners for the defense of the provinces, but whether the islands were to be yielded under present circumstances by the archbishop-governor. Thereupon, the voting went on with varying results. When it came to the fiscal’s vote, he again was obstinate on the points prisoners of war and the license of the generals for the council, and he said that he would accordingly take his position on the principle of it. The archbishop answered what he had said in regard to the said points, and that this was to place in doubt what he had signed. Thereupon, there was great altercation, anger, and notable incivility, with visible signs of the agony which the archbishop was suffering from this blow. But the altercation having subsided, and all of them having quieted down, the fiscal and other ministers declared their vote. Since it was now very late and the vote was not cleared up, and since it could not be well enough discerned at that time, it was ordered that the same council be convoked on the following day, with the exception of the regulars.

50. In fact, on the following day, October 27, another council was held in the afternoon. At it the archbishop had the Latin letter read which he had received on the morning of that day from General Draper, with the date of the twenty-eighth (which corresponds to the twenty-seventh of our reckoning and calendar). The vote was put, and some who had given their vote in the negative on the preceding day, namely, not to surrender the islands, retracted, and voted affirmatively. The ministers and some others expressed their opinion and gave it in writing. The vote was equally cast with but a little difference of one or two votes. The archbishop asserted that he would decide without delay what appeared most advisable to him, commending, as he had done, so grave a matter to our Lord, so that He might inspire him as to what was for His best service and that of His as well as our Catholic king. Before dissolving this council, an envoy came from General Draper with another letter bearing date of the twenty-eighth (which corresponds in our calendar to the twenty-seventh) written in the English language. It was read there by an interpreter. It was reduced to saying that, with only the cession of a few places of little importance, he would save (he gave to understand with whom he spoke, namely the archbishop) the lives of a multitude; that he was sure that his Catholic Majesty would consider himself as well served; and that those who were endeavoring to persuade the archbishop not to yield, if they did not promptly change their opinion, would answer with their lives, and that the auditors were to affix their signatures.