About this time began the fury of the archbishop and the Dominicans against the Society. [The remains of] Auditor Grimaldos having reposed five years in the sepulcher of the college at Manila, the archbishop was pricked by scruples on the day of St. Ignatius; and, when the church was full, and the governor and the Audiencia were expected for the fiesta, a notary came in, publishing the declaration that the church was polluted—that the auditor Grimaldos had died impenitent, and that everyone should go out of the church, under penalty of excommunication. The church remained closed until the second day of October. On that day the provisor went and opened the sepulcher, and, seeing therein three corpses, among which he could not distinguish the one that he sought, he proceeded to bless what he called the “contaminated” church. The examiner [i.e., Campos y Valdivia], playing the rôle of a reconciler, obliged the fathers of the Society to go to attend a feast-day of the Dominicans, and the latter to be present at another in the Society’s house. Afterward the archbishop arranged the cabildo to suit himself, without accepting or noticing the prebends who came appointed by his Majesty, and replaced all of them from his own college of Santo Tomas; and among these were men most unworthy [of such posts], mestizos who were half negro. His principal object is, that if he should die the cabildo may appoint the bishop of Troya as ruler [of the diocese], in order that the disturbances may not cease; and very strung recommendations are going for the court, to appoint in that church the said bishop of Troya, in order that he may more vigorously continue the disputes and lawsuits, which do not cease. Meanwhile, at court let not efforts cease to persuade that this religious order is not suited for sees [mitras] so remote—as the father confessor sets forth, and that boldly. In every Dominican there is a bishop, a governor, and an absolute monarch; nor will he acknowledge himself to be a vassal—as is shown by a fiscal reply that comes from Filipinas and will go to the court, in the terms of which is recognized the intention of that prelate [i.e., Barrientos].
In the course of the investigation the visitor did not spare the [belongings required by] decency for the governor’s wife, Doña Isabel de Ardila, taking away from her at public auction even the bed and the jewels that she used, and from her husband even the sword that he carried at his belt. The annoyances inflicted upon the citizens are innumerable; and in order that the jewels and other valuables which he obtained from the seizures of goods should not be sold at a low price, at auctions, he caused them to be knocked down to himself, but in the names of other persons, and he is becoming, therefore, enormously wealthy.
Nor was the archbishop idle at this time. He proceeded to give rules to the new Audiencia as to the manner in which it was to conduct itself, declaring that recourse to it in cases of fuerza and banishment was faulty; and a little later, when urged to absolve Governor Vargas, he replied that he challenged the new auditors for cause, since he considered them all to be in love with the governor’s wife. Consequently, it would be necessary that another Audiencia should come, or that, to check lawsuits, they delegate the authority to him—which they refused, since the ecclesiastics are vassals.
In this so tangled web of mischiefs occasioned by his cause, died very suddenly Governor Don Gabriel de Curuzaelegui; so many pecuniary obligations of his were made public that they seem incredible, even to those who do not know the opportunities for profit of that governmental post. He left the administration of his estate to the man who had been the mainstay of his government, Don Tomas de Andaya—a native of Andaya in France,[9] however much he has tried to persuade people that he was born in Viscaya.
On December 19, 1689, the ship “Santo Niño” cast anchor in Acapulco, and in it came the dean of Manila, Don Miguel Ortiz de Cobarrubias; the fiscal, Don Lorenzo de Alanis; the Dominican father Fray Raimundo Verart; and the examiner, Don Francisco Campos y Valdivia. The last-named was detained in the said port, continuing some investigations with which he was charged—especially that concerning the registration [of the galleon’s cargo] for the year 1684; and in regard to the seizure in the same year of the property of Governor Don Juan de Vargas, in which he supposed there had been some formal act of the royal officials, with information from the viceroy, Marques de la Laguna—investigations all upon uncertain matters, little praised by his subordinates, or acceptable to them. On occasion of receiving a declaration, the examiner compelled General Antonio de Aztina to surrender his authority, at the same time appointing, de plenitudine potestatis [i.e., “in the fulness of his power”], as commander Captain Oriosola—who enjoyed this new favor no long time; for the viceroy, Conde de Galvez, being informed of this, immediately gave the appointment of commander to Don Juan de Garaicochea.
On the fourteenth of January, 1690, his investigations being concluded, the examiner left Acapulco, and sent ahead by the fast carriers as many as twenty loads of his own equipage, with a servant, and verbal orders that the guards should give them free passage. Information of this exemption reached the custom-house of this city, and its special judge, Don Juan Jose de Ciga y Linage, stationed officers on the route for safety. The examiner set out, by easy stages, because he was conveying a woman who had lately become a mother—one of his two maidservants, with whom he traveled, whom he had secretly married while in the bay, a little before landing at Vera Cruz; and the said lady died, a few days after leaving Acapulco, and was buried in the town of Cuernavaca. The said freight and equipage arrived at Mexico, and, notwithstanding the orders of the examiner, the following articles were unloaded in the custom-house: twenty-one chests, four boxes, two escritoires, three boxes, one screen, four china jars [tibores],[10] one trunk of clothes, and four civet-cats. Permission was given that the animals be sent to the house of Don Geronimo de Chacon, to whom the above goods came directed; but the rest was kept [at the custom-house], the packages being opened, and a list of the goods being made. The said examiner being asked for a load that had gone astray on the journey, he replied, desiring to shield himself and another person, that it did not belong to him, and he knew nothing about it. The cause of this search was, it seems, that secret warning had been given [to the customs officers] of perfumes, fine stuffs, and other goods improper for [the possession of] an examiner.
On the fifteenth of February, 1690, after various protests and threatening statements that the said boxes contained only his clothing, and especially that three contained only the private papers and documents of his visitation and commission, as he resisted surrendering the keys the locks were broken of the said three boxes; and in them was found not one paper. The contents of these, as in the boxes above mentioned, were as follows: three ornamental boxes and two writing-desks of lacquered wood, perfume-caskets, trays, combs, fans, porcelain cups, and curious articles of japanned ware. Besides these, there were forty cases of fans; item, eighty-six bundles of untwisted silk, and several libras more of spun silk; item, two hundred and seventy-five pieces of stuffs—satin, lampotes, ribbed silk, Chinese silk, velvets, and other wares from Canton; item, one hundred and fifty-eight onzas of musk; item, three hundred and forty-four pairs of silk hose.
They are sure that he is bringing many more packets in the names of Commander Aztina and Captain Oriosola, the source of these being the fines—which, they say, he regulated more by the wealth than by the faults of the citizens of Manila, levying the fines in merchandise at low prices, by a third hand, that of the said commander. It is currently reported that the bales which he is bringing on his own account, under the names of other persons, exceed one hundred and fifty in number. It is certain that in the custom-house were opened two lots of goods [shipped] in the name of the said commander—one of forty bales of various commodities, and another of thirty bales of Canton silk stuffs, both without invoices; also packets, which show little care and arrangement. This almost entirely confirms the suspicions entertained, all the more as it is well known that the said commander has no wealth, and even hardly enough to eat. But as the merchants of China are here—who have come, like many of the citizens of Mejico, frightened by the extortions imposed in Manila—it is difficult to declare the [contents of the] said packets while the examiner remains in these kingdoms.
[1] He came with commission to bring suit against the auditors who had banished the archbishop.