Disponga de su affmo. amigo s. s. q. s. m. b.
Luis Taviel de Andrade.
La carta, autógrafa de Fr. Matías Gómez, interesantísima y que no tiene precio para todo investigador de cuestiones filipinas, se la debemos á la generosa bizarría del P. Aglipay, que la halló entre los papeles del que fué Cura Párroco de Malasiqui, Pangasinán, en 1898.
El apéndice C., ó sea la Memoria dirigida al Ministerio de Ultramar (21 Abril 1898) por los «Superiores de las Corporaciones de Agustinos, Franciscanos, Recoletos, Dominicos y Jesuitas establecidas en Filipinas»... es reproducción de un ejemplar impreso, igual al descrito bajo el núm. 3991 en el Aparato de Retana (III, página 1399). Nuestro ejemplar es primera reproducción del impreso hecho en Manila; un ejemplar de este último posee hoy la Philippine Library de Manila. La segunda, se describe bajo el núm. 1862 en la Biblioteca Filipina de Vindel. Una versión inglesa de esta Memoria hallará el lector en The Philippine Islands 1493–1898 (LII, páginas 227 al 286). Después de las firmas, léese al pie de esta versión la siguiente advertencia:
«Notice. Because of the impossibility, due to the length of this exposition, of drawing up the copies necessary for the archives of each corporation, it has been agreed by the respective superiors to print an edition of fifty copies, ten for each corporation, which are destined for the purpose stated above.
Collated faithfully with its original, and to be considered throughout as an authentic text. In affirmation of which, as secretary of my corporation and by the order of my prelate, I sign and seal the present copy in Manila, April 21, 1898.
Fr. Francisco Sadaba del Carmen,
secretary-provincial of the Recollects.
There is a Seal that says: «Provincialate of the Recollects.»
Antes de esta versión inglesa, hízose otra, parcial é inadecuada, por Ambrose Colman, O. P., publicada en Rosary Magazine, 1900. James A. Robertson dice que esta memoria «is one by those who are fighting for life, and who see dimly ahead the fate that may overtake them (obra citada, página 25), James A. LeRoy, refiriéndose á esta versión de Robertson, dice lo siguiente:
«The chronological record of Spanish rule is very appropriately closed with a document of the religious orders, which had from the first been at the forefront in this history; it is the memorial signed by the four Philippine orders that had figured in the political controversy and by the Jesuits and addressed to the Colonial Minister at Madrid (but never formally presented) on the eve of the outlook of war in 1898 and just before Dewey's ships sailed from Hong-kong. Those who believe that the friars' mission in the Philippines was over will find confirmation of that view in the arrogant tone and intolerant viewpoint of this message, a veritable gauntlet of defiance flung down before the Liberal administration at Madrid. But it is an eloquent defense of the friars' record in the Philippines, nevertheless, and a fine piece of rhetoric. Though the translation is faulty in places, it makes available a document practically unknown heretofore», [The American Historical Review, núm. de Oct., 1908, págs. 159 y 160.]