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

51. All those present having heard the context of the above-mentioned letter, without any more being added or mentioned than what was declared in the above-mentioned council, it was dissolved, and the thorn (which was very sharp) remained in the heart of the archbishop in deliberating on so serious a point. In that deliberation the least thing involved was the danger to his own life, of which he was tired and of which he almost desired the end. But that is always placed in the hands of divine Providence who directs everything positively or permissively for His greater service and glory. Not only did he consider the extermination of the city and the lives of many with which he was threatened, but also (and which was very easy), the uneasiness of the villages and missions of the provinces, in great part ruined and destroyed by their old-time enemies, the Moros, who with a little stimulus and encouragement from their new enemies would assault them on all sides and would finish with their mission ministers and justices. It was greatly to be feared that if the natives were offered exemption from tribute, and subjection, they would be the instruments of these disasters.

52. This effort tied the hands of the English, who irritated by a negative answer, could have assigned two fragatas of their squadron to coast along the provinces, and cause this horrible uneasiness. If they did that, (unless it was averted by divine Providence), the ruin of the instruction and faith of the neophytes would be experienced. These reasons having been meditated upon before Jesus Christ, our life, from whose service depended that of a Catholic king, the archbishop resolved on the twenty-eighth to avoid the greater evil, and to assure the conservation of the islands, and the teaching and doctrine of our holy religion in them by keeping their natives quiet. Thereupon, on the said day, and on the following, the twenty-ninth, he wrote letters to the prelates and to the provinces, with the intention of using them opportunely;[34] and without making mention of those letters, he replied on the date of the twenty-ninth[35] in the Latin language to the above-mentioned letter, also in Latin, of General Draper, explaining to him diffusely and vigorously the difficulty of What he asked. His reasons, if they did not suffice to convince him, lessened the violence and force which were uttered a thousand times in said letter.

53. He summoned the auditors in order to show this letter to them, but they did not come as they were busy, answering that they would come if the matter were urgent. But the instances of the general of the day before having been repeated for the reply, it was sent to him in said letter between seven and eight in the morning of the said day, the twenty-ninth. But after eleven o’clock on the same day, the general sent his letter of the thirtieth of the same month (which corresponds to our date of the twenty-ninth) with the message for me not to bother myself, that that letter was to be signed by myself and the auditors, to whom he sent word that if they did not do it, he would have them immediately thrown into a galley. Instantly upon receiving this message they immediately appeared, and signed the letter together with the archbishop, both the original letter in English and its translation into Spanish. It was sent to the said general, and said auditors only gave notice that they had made their protest before the notary, and that it should not be written at the foot of said letter, in order that the general might not happen to see it, if he asked for said original letter. With such fear did they proceed, but the archbishop showed them the copy of his letter above-mentioned, in which is manifest his protest with the declaration of repeating it a thousand times.

54. This point has been treated with prolixity, for besides being one of the most serious, and one of greatest pain, it has been shifted and juggled [adviterado?] variously, blackening enormously the conduct of the archbishop, even to affirming that it is evident that he had an understanding with the English for this cession, in a journal full of false entries and of black impostures, composed by the fiscal. But God be thanked, that the evidence of this criminal calumny is false, and the weak apprehensions or inferences on which it is founded have been clearly dissipated. For what is affirmed is false, namely, that the cession of the islands had been discussed or made before October 26, and that letters had been written for their surrender, as the first council was held on the said day, and the second on the following day (the twenty-seventh and the twenty-eighth). On the twenty-ninth, the archbishop made his resolution, and wrote the rough drafts of said letters with his own hand on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth. The statement also is false, namely, that on the twenty-ninth, said letters were sent with one of the same date in which the archbishop answered the general ceding the islands. For these original letters are yet in possession of the secretary of the assembly, and neither then nor at any time have they been sent or delivered. So true is this that the commanders having gone—Draper on the twelfth of November[36] of the past year, and Cornish on the first of March of the present year, who never asked him for a letter for the surrender of the islands—the British government tried afterwards to get the archbishop to give letters of surrender for Zebu, Yloylo, and Zamboanga, which he refused and did not give, as appears from his letters, rejecting the instances of the above-mentioned British government.

55. Also false is the end of this report, which asserts, not indeed that it is presumed, but that it is presumed if not proved, that the archbishop tried to shield himself. Without this protection or shelter, he made the cession in his letter of the said twenty-ninth day, as is said above, with the signature of the auditors, which they placed in the letter of Draper on the thirtieth (in our calendar, the twenty-ninth), which in view of and after the receipt of that of the archbishop, the said general sent on that same twenty-ninth day, with the threatening message that he would send them to the galleys. Only the constancy of the archbishop can be well inferred. In his protest he asserts and [MS. worn] to the general in consideration of his threat of the extermination of the city the lives of many, which did not move the animosity of the auditors for their signature until they received the personal threat of their own imprisonment.

56. The ambiguous letter of Draper of the twenty-eighth (in our calendar, the twenty-seventh), is slight foundation for so gross a suspicion and its proof; in which he seems to infer that the archbishop had made the cession, and infers on the other hand, that he was in condition of acting in regard to the cession. For the letter says that those who endeavored to persuade him not to make the cession would answer with their lives. It is a proof of the sincerity of the archbishop that he showed the said letter in the second council, for if it contained anything suspicious, or anything by which he would be discovered to be lacking in application, it would have been very easy for him to suppress it and return it to the general, in order that the latter might write another, in which nothing would be understood in regard to the secret understanding. It is not the mark of a good reason and less is it Christian to assert so great a crime as proved without having had any motive. For to such infamies, one is moved either by self-interest or the expectations of honors, or important posts which both lacked. For the archbishop had previously stripped himself of all his few valuables and pectorals, without reserving any; and he was clothed in the greatest honors and employments with which the powerful Catholic king can honor a vassal of his in these islands. And only by depriving himself of this recognition, and of his character as a Christian and archbishop could he offend so enormously against his king and religion because of the expectation or promise of greater honors in Londres or with the very crown of all Ynglaterra. Through the mercy of God, the archbishop has not been abandoned by His divine hand in his right judgment or in the works of his misery and weakness. Neither does he live so forgetful of quid prodest homini,[37] etc.

57. The reason of the archbishop not having used said letters which they falsely affirmed had been delivered, and of the originals being conserved in the possession of the secretary, was that having been sent (as he thought they ought first to be sent) to the regular superiors living in Manila on the thirtieth (the following day) of October, who [MS. worn] to their most [MS. worn] in the margin to be understood by it the said original message [cordillera]. The above-mentioned reason having been given, the rumor spread among the populace that the said letter had been the cause of the disaster of the alcalde-mayor of Pagsanjan,[38] who was lanced by the Indians themselves on the gallows. That was mentioned to the archbishop by a trustworthy and God-fearing person who grieved at his carelessness in said letter.

58. Surprised at this information, the archbishop had the above-mentioned letter brought into the presence of the said person, together with the others, and had the secretary read them with their dates. By their very dates, namely, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth of October, it was plain that they could not have occasioned the event of Pagsanjan which occurred the day before, namely, the twenty-seventh of the same month. This casualty was made more impossible by the distance of said village from Manila, which is at the least three days’ journey. The legitimate cause of this insurrection and tyrannical murder of their alcalde was that which appears in the documents formed of this matter, where it is evident that this cloud of dust which was raised was no other thing than the racial inconstancy and disloyalty of the natives of that village and its environs. The fact that the archbishop had not had any support or reply to the contents of his letter from the superiors of Manila, and the knowledge that Auditor Anda had already sent his message [cordillera] through the provinces,[39] in which he declared himself to be governor and captain-general, made it necessary for the archbishop not to disturb the provinces and accede to the times and to the circumstances thereof, and ordered that none of the said letters be sent. That order was executed as given and the originals were kept in the possession of the secretary. That which can have happened, and of which there is frequent experience in any part, as well as in this city, is that a copy of one or more of said letters may have been drawn by the infidelity of some clerk without the archbishop or his secretary being able to remedy it, and in this way their contents may have become known and explained by the malicious rivalry in as sinister a manner as is usual.

59. In regard to the other point of the completion of the million, the archbishop entrusted it to the senior auditor, Don Francisco Villacorta,[40] in order that having assembled those interested, together with the fiscal, they might determine what the matter demanded according to its circumstances. They held several meetings, in one of which a plan was adopted for demanding of each person the contribution in accordance with his wealth and the sack which he had suffered. But there was great opposition, and some made complaint to General Draper and to the archbishop. The latter assembling them all, exhorted their help to the extent possible, to which they were obliged by their conscience and by the circumstances, in order to avoid greater extortions. For the representation to the general of not having promised to complete the million was not received, but this matter was strongly insisted upon. Finally, the only success achieved was in getting each one to offer what he deemed best. With the valuables and money [given], scarce did the sum reach twenty-six thousand pesos. But a very great quantity was needed to complete the million in addition to that raised by the pious funds, the chaplaincies, and the silver of the churches. This reached the sum of four hundred and forty-three thousand pesos.[41] However great the effort and attempt made by the English to have the million paid, yet it was found impossible on the part of the citizens to raise hastily a greater sum than that above-mentioned because of the sack and destruction which they suffered even in their furniture and houses; and because some few, who could have aided, were not living in the city, but had taken to the mountains in several places, while some others, as was said, placed what money they could in safety outside the city, so that the richest who were absent refused to aid.

60. At this time the two fragatas, which had been assigned by the enemy, at the time of the siege, to capture the “Philipino,” entered the bay with the ship “Trinidad,” which they had fought and captured after a vigorous defense on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth of October. This ship left for its voyage to Acapulco from the Embocadero under a favorable wind on September 13, but lost its mast in a severe storm at a distance of three hundred leguas at the parallel of the Marianas. It was all but gone, and it became necessary to put back [which was done] with great difficulty. When it was in the Embocadero near San Jacinto, without being aware of what was happening in Manila, it was attacked by said two fragatas and captured. From the time of its arrival, the claim was begun to be made that it was not a legitimate prize, the freedom of trade, possessions, and property having been agreed upon in anticipation. And although the instance of the commerce body was continued to the British government for this declaration, the government sent it to Admiral Cornish, and the latter after many delays, and by nature serious, harsh, and hard, because the Spaniards had not fulfilled the stipulation regarding the millions, answered that that matter belonged to the admiralty of Londres, whither it was sent.[42] He would never consent to have the cargo remain on deposit, or to have it delivered to those interested in it, under the guaranty which was lastly proposed by the archbishop, he having previously supported the right of the citizens to its restitution; for said admiral said that it was no time now to discuss this matter, as he was just about to sail, and left on the first of March with his squadron, taking said ship.[43]