Part 8

Sire:

The Order of St. Dominic and the other orders having so disturbed me and the community with the affairs of the archbishop, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, as I have related to your Majesty in other letters, Fray Diego Collado, who brought twenty-six religious of the said Order of St. Dominic last year with your Majesty's order and permission, presented to me certain letters from his general. He says that he presented them in the royal Council of the Indias, who ordered that these be returned to him, granting him the said permission to bring the religious; although it appears that it was under the leadership of another, the nephew of the said Fray Diego Collado, as the latter was sick. I consulted as to the matter with the Audiencia, and with other learned men. In accordance with their opinions (which I have in writing), although I have no decree from your Majesty ordering me to help him, I did aid him, at his petition, so that the provincial of this province should obey the letters of his general. In those letters the general orders, under penalty of major excommunication, that the provincial should deliver the government of five houses and one hospital of the Chinese to the said Fray Diego Collado, without making any excuse or delay, so that he might form therewith a separate congregation for the purpose of the propagation of the faith. Having, as I declare to your Majesty, consulted on and examined the matter, and as this division cannot harm your Majesty or the royal patronage, I deemed it advisable to grant him the aid in accordance with the opinions aforesaid. Those fathers, therefore, divided into two bodies, and the moods and restlessness in which they were keeping the said archbishop subsided, and in fact have died away; and they are allowing me to live and govern in peace. Until now, I have been unable to have peace during these ten months, by whatever means I have sought and striven. May God grant that it last, and that those fathers content themselves with governing within their gates, and do not endeavor to govern and manage your Majesty's governors--which they attempted to do the second or third day after I was received as such in these islands. One Fray Sebastian de Oquendo, a restless and impudent friar, and extravagant in his speech, came to give me his opinion, and to counsel me as to what persons were suitable for alcaldes-mayor and captains of the districts where those religious have their missions--praising some, and speaking evil of others; and endeavoring to make me believe that what he told me was the only thing that was advisable for your Majesty's service. He continued to do that twice more within one week, until I asked him who had told him that I needed his counsel and opinion to execute and carry out your Majesty's service, which was in my charge. Thereupon, he talked no more to me, but he has spoken evil things of the government in the pulpit at various times--and so scandalously that it obliged the Audiencia and its president to request his superior to cause him to leave the city for a season, together with Fray Francisco de Paula, another restless preacher, and a disturber of the peace and quiet and of the minds of your Majesty's vassals. The superior refused to accede to this request; accordingly, those fathers are always overbold and impudent in the pulpits. Unless your Majesty have the goodness to command that this be corrected, those of the province and those of this new congregation will have recourse to your Majesty, in order to lodge their complaints--those of the province declaring that your Majesty's patronage is not being observed, and that the aid given to Fray Diego de Collado is contrary to the royal patronage. This is the first time that has been seen in these islands, that the friars have defended the royal patronage, for they are through and through opposed to the said royal patronage. If your Majesty would be pleased to see it quite plainly, the royal patronage rules that the provincials shall propose two or three persons as priors and guardians, and that the government, representing your Majesty, shall appoint one of these. By decrees sent to my predecessor, Don Juan Niño de Tabora, in the year twenty-nine, your Majesty once more ordered that this be ordained by your royal Council of the Indias. But, notwithstanding what pertains to the patronage and what your Majesty orders, the religious have refused to do this, or to obey you. They offer certain cool excuses, and, although they see that that decree is executed in Piru and Nueva España, they refuse to obey in anything which pertains to the patronage, and which your Majesty orders by a special decree, unless it suits them very well to obey it. And since your Majesty has now sent an obedient governor, and one who does what he is ordered, he is the most evil man in all the world; and they parade him in their pulpits, attempting to ascertain and publish what belongs to God alone alone--[asking] whether the continence of the governor and his endeavor not to furnish a bad example, is the virtue of chastity, or the fault of nature. These things, Sire, are taught here in the pulpits by the Dominican friars. The guardian of St. Francis said publicly in the pulpit of the cathedral church (because the computer of accounts had presented an account against him) that he would show a balance due against the king of España--talking in this so discourteous manner of his natural lord, as if he were English, French, or of any other nation; and charging your Majesty with the fact that Fray Francisco Jimenez had gained Oran for you, and that another Franciscan friar had quieted and pacified Nueva España. From these things, he drew up results against your Majesty in the pulpit. He said of the accountant, Juan Bautista de Çubiaga, a Vizcayan (who is so well known that no one can be ignorant of his birth, and of the great fidelity and disinterestedness with which he serves your Majesty), that he was a Gascon devil, besides other very insolent words--although the said friar is a Mallorcan or a native of Cerdeña [i.e., Sardinia], which one could presume to be a more barbarous place than España. This is preached in the pulpits, and is winked at; for these religious are exciting and stirring up the community at any opportunity, and in order to avoid scandals, the mildest course possible is being taken. These religious, Sire, are very numerous, and must be trying to excite all these islands. They show humility only when the hostile Indians go to sack their missions; and then they come to ask for soldiers, and to set forth many things in favor of the honor of God, and the service of your Majesty. For both, with all humility I entreat your Majesty to be pleased to order these excesses to be corrected, or to give me orders for what I am to do in like cases.

Will your Majesty command that the question be considered whether it will suit your Majesty to order the approval of what has been done, or to take such action as may be most expedient for your royal service--on account of the advantages arising from the separation of this Order of St. Dominic into two factions, and for that reason, their becoming subject to your Majesty's orders. I shall obey you with my breast to the earth, as I ought to do, and as I have done for twenty-six years past. May our Lord preserve your Majesty's Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Sire, your vassal kisses your Majesty's feet.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

Sire:

Six months before my arrival here, the fathers of St. Francis had held a chapter. It was illegal, without question. Fray Francisco de Gabiria, an Observantine friar, came to them as visitor. He began his commission and visit by depriving all the definitors of the province of their offices, and appointed new definitors from the Observantine friars and others who took the habit in this country and belong to the Observantine faction. He continued [this course] by removing the guardians and appointing others who belonged to his following, until they had more than sufficient votes to hold a chapter. The commissary-visitor took the opportunity to do all this, because the legitimate definitors had deprived a friar, one Jose Fonte, of his guardianía. That religious was guardian of the convent of Manila, and a prime favorite of Don Juan Cereço, former governor ad interim. The legal definitors deprived him of the guardianía. Upon the coming of the father commissary, Fray Jose Fonte complained and requested his guardianía, although the matter had no appeal. The said Don Juan Cereço also lodged a complaint, because his favorite and adviser had been deprived of his guardianía. The commissary, who saw that the occasion was so opportune for his purposes, overrode the province and body of definitors, and on account of the above, deprived the high officials [of his order] of their offices. Sire, nothing is hidden from us in this land. In this case, one might tell your Majesty many things, but I shall relate only two. First, the father commissary offered to the father provincial and his definitors one of the greatest insults that have been known in your Majesty's kingdoms. For Fray Jose Fonte, as is the general opinion of the community, is a rather free-and-easy religious; and the reason why the father provincial deprived him of his guardianía--although he had, as was true, the said Don Juan Cereço so strongly on his side--was doubtless because his mode of life and his government of the convent were such that he could under no consideration be endured. Your Majesty can have no doubt of this, for it is proved beyond question by the loud murmuring of the community at the lack of devotion displayed by that religious. Therefore, your Majesty will reflect whether the removal of a provincial and the whole body of definitors, in order to reinstate this man, is an affront worthy of consideration. Second, I assert that his chapter was illegal, and that beyond question; for the father commissary-general, Fray Francisco de Ocaña, sent a very necessary letter of obedience throughout the provinces of the Indias, which has, among its other sections, one of the following tenor:

"Item: We ordain that the fathers commissaries-general and the fathers commissaries-visitors shall render sentences in the causes and processes that shall be brought to trial [i.e., in the tribunals of the order], one week before the provincial chapters; and on the actual day of the chapter-meeting these shall be pronounced and made known, in the manner generally used by the order--so that the matter may be apparent to those members capable of voting who assemble from the said province; and so that the electors in the chapter may enjoy the liberty that is proper. Whatever shall be done in any other manner, now and henceforth, we annul and revoke it."

The father commissary-visitor sentenced and deprived of their offices the father provincial and his definitors immediately, in the first month of his visit, and five months before the week assigned by the father commissary-general, Fray Francisco de Ocaña. Therefore, since the law is so clear, and in the Romance tongue, there is scant need of lawyers to judge that the manner in which Father Gabiria performed his commission is null and void. I was informed of these things, upon my arrival at the islands, by fathers of all the orders as well as by other persons of the city. I ordered the ex-provincial to come privately and talk with me. I asked him why these orders were issued and such things done, and promised to aid him in your Majesty's name if he wished to demand his justice. He replied to me that he saw that all things were in a very lamentable condition, but that he did not dare plead anything; for very great scandals would arise, and the superiors of his order would take it ill, and severely punish those who had written and reported it Therefore, he had resolved to be patient and to await their reply. The chief end of all this [scheming] was the capitular election, and because the father-commissary was trying to obtain the government of the province; and although it was founded and continued by discalced friars, to make it Observantine. Your Majesty has ordered that no Observantine friars may come to this country, but that all who come be discalced. Beyond question, it is not at all fitting for Observantines to come; for so long as there shall be Observantine and discalced friars, there can be no peace; and most serious troubles will result, both to the order itself and to the natives under its charge. Will your Majesty be pleased to order the father commissary-general to check these proceedings, and to prevent these scandals which have occurred so often among his friars; and that he obey your Majesty's decree not to send Observantine friars. For, notwithstanding your Majesty's order, they come here clad in the habit of discalced friars; and on their arrival at the province, their sole aim is to turn it topsy-turvy.

Thinking that the troubles of this order could be obviated, I requested the provincial to send that friar, Fray Jose Fonte, to Terrenate to take charge of your Majesty's hospital there (a post so honorable that the provincial himself exercised it before being provincial)--in order to get him away from here, and prevent the discalced religious from being ill treated and from being afflicted in mind; and so that the provincial could better discharge the duties of his government and denounce the invalid acts that had been committed. Although I told the provincial that it was advisable for your Majesty's service to have that religious leave here, for which I would be answerable to him, he refused to do so, excusing him as being a definitor. And although I told the provincial that, since he could not obey what was suggested to him in your Majesty's name as fitting to your service, no other religious nor any supplies of his would go to Terrenate in your Majesty's galleons, he gave himself no concern about it. Those friars, as I have written your Majesty in other letters, do not reckon themselves your vassals, and do not think that they have to obey you as such. Consequently, it is advisable, as your Majesty can do so, to have the matter examined, so that a suitable remedy may be applied. May our Lord preserve your Majesty's Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Sire, your vassal kisses your Majesty's feet.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

"The fiscal declares that the decrees and orders issued in regard to this matter must, as was ordered by the Council, be filed with this letter and the report of the father commissary-general. That done, let it all be delivered to him, so that he may answer. Madrid, July first, 638."

"No other papers than those which are brought are found in the secretary's office treating of this matter, or of what the governor says."

"The fiscal declares that the royal decrees and orders concerning this matter should be commanded to be observed, and that the father provincial of this order be commanded to apply the necessary correction so that these scandals may cease, and that information must be given to the Council of what shall be done--endeavoring to see to it that there are no scandals or excesses, which are a great injury to souls. Madrid, December 9, 1638."

"December 10, 638. Let the decrees that have been issued regarding this matter be observed. Write to the father commissary-general that it is expected from his care and attention that he will so manage that all things may have the desirable harmony and suitable regulation. He shall advise the Council of what occurs, and of the information that is expected. Write to the governor that he have all manner of care in this matter, so that the harmony and quiet of those religious may be attained."]

Commerce

Sire:

Your Majesty's orders are not obeyed strictly in the Indias, either for want of honest officials, or because your vassals would be ruined if your orders were executed strictly and to the letter. One of the most essential ordinances is that of the permission that your Majesty has been pleased to give to your vassals of these Filipinas Islands for [exporting] two hundred and fifty thousand pesos in cloth, and the provision that the proceeds therefrom shall not amount to more than five hundred thousand pesos of silver. It neither has been nor is observed; for if the officials were strict in not allowing more to be exported than your Majesty's ordinance states, then the merchants would do it privately, and as they could find means, and outside of the town; and there would be no remedy for it. The same takes place at the return of the [investment in] silver; and after that the truth could not be ascertained. This trouble can be obviated if your Majesty would be pleased to grant the vassals of these islands the favor to permit them to [send exports] of two hundred and fifty thousand pesos more. For as the people are increasing in number, and are becoming richer, they cannot be maintained, because of the very heavy expenses that vanity causes, unless they can export a greater quantity of merchandise than your Majesty has permitted them to. By that means they cheat your royal duties, and also by not paying the freight-charges in your galleons, although those payments are the backbone of your Majesty's treasury. By those funds the said islands are sustained, as are also the soldiers and sailors, and the galleons and other ordinary expenses--a great sum. I petition your Majesty to be pleased to have this matter examined in your royal Council; and to order me to execute what is most fitting for your service, as far as may be possible. But since I am but one man in this region, I have no one to aid me, and I shall not be able to carry out my wishes. Another means occurs to me, namely, for your Majesty to be pleased to grant tacit permission to your governor that, for all the goods exported over and above the amount permitted, he may strike a bargain with the said inhabitants, and oblige them to pay here all the duties and freight-charges that they would pay if such cloth were registered. This measure has one great drawback--namely, whether your Majesty can find vassals who will serve you as governors, whose consciences are so well regulated that they will serve you as is just. Therefore, Sire, I think it better, in order to obviate so great a loss as your Majesty suffers in your royal treasury, for you to be pleased to grant permission for the two hundred and fifty thousand pesos, whether to ecclesiastics or to laymen; and to order, under severe penalties of life or of loss of office in your royal service, that it be executed or observed inviolate. Account must also be rendered to your Majesty in this matter, in which there is so much corruption in all the Indias and in these islands--with flagrant violation of law, since it has obliged me to go in person to perform the duty of a royal official by lading the vessels myself, and not permitting any consignment outside the register. The governors cannot always do that personally, because of the many occupations and responsibilities imposed by government. In consequence, they are forced to entrust it to your Majesty's vassals, on whom the same penalties are laid and executed as are laid by your Majesty on your said governors. I discharge my conscience, and am awaiting the resolution that your Majesty may be pleased to take in this matter. May our Lord preserve your Catholic person in its greatness, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, June last, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six. Sire, your Majesty's vassal kisses your feet.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

Chinese

Sire:

The heathen Chinese who live in these islands and come to trade with the vassals of your Majesty, pay annually nine pesos less one real for the general license which is given them for permission to live in your Majesty's lands, and by way of recognition. They live in a place which has been built for them near the Manila walls, called in their language "the Parián." Many of them have gone to live outside in the stock-farms and gardens of the inhabitants, and in other parts, because of their convenience, without permission of the government. At petition of the city, I ordered an edict to be issued, ordering that all of these Chinese should return to live in their Parián, and most of them did so. Afterward, they asked with many requests and petitions to be allowed to return to live at their posts. That favor was permitted them, on condition of the payment of ten pesos two reals in place of the nine pesos less one real for their general licenses, and, in addition to this, the half-annats for the favor--the even ten pesos being for your Majesty's treasury, and the two reals for the printing of the said licenses, and for the judge, notary, chief constable, and other officials in the matter of the licenses, who issue them and collect the silver, in which your Majesty has a profit of nine reals from each one of those licenses. Those people have no room in their own land; and when they come in their ships to bring their merchandise to this city, many come who remain. In order that that number may not increase so much, it is ordered that they be returned in the same ships, after giving them the good usage and treatment that is shown them at present. They are so contented that, with but a message sent them by their alcalde-mayor [requesting] that they aid his Majesty with [a grant of] four thousand pesos for the erection of a bulwark which has been begun, to be built in the port of Cavite, they gave that sum very willingly, without making any opposition, and offered whatever else remained in their [communal] fund. For these reasons and for others, especially for the favors and kind treatment that are accorded them, I am obliged to petition your Majesty to be pleased to grant me permission, so that, setting before them skilfully and discreetly the necessities of your Majesty for maintaining the fortifications of the port and of this city, all the remainder of the said licenses may be paid at the rate of ten pesos two reals apiece. This will increase your Majesty's revenues by eighteen or twenty thousand pesos, and this additional income will remain in your royal treasury. I will assure to your Majesty, with the signatures of many theologians and the opinions of learned jurists, your [peace of] conscience and mine; and also by managing it with so much mildness that they themselves will ask it. That has been done by the four or five thousand Chinese who now pay it. By means of this aid and others which are being arranged, I preserve the authority of your Majesty, and free your conscience; and, provided that no one steals anything from your royal revenues, the support of these islands will be arranged for, without any help from Nueva España beyond the proceeds of the merchandise carried by the galleons. But by following this plan I have no need of anything else except that your Majesty be pleased to grant me permission to do this. May our Lord preserve your Majesty's Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six. Your vassal kisses your Majesty's feet.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

"Let this matter be looked up, and see whether anything has been enacted concerning it; and take it to the fiscal, with whatever notices there are concerning it."

"Nothing has been enacted."

"The fiscal declares that it is written in this letter that there are four or five thousand Chinese who are now paying this duty, and that it can be increased to eighteen or twenty thousand pesos of income, while the additional sum that will be paid by each one will not amount to more than nine reals. That cannot be, except by admitting into the Filipinas Islands as many more thousand Chinese, as they say, as will amount to pesos. That will be running great risk, as is well known, especially in islands so remote and so sparsely settled. And if before, when there were so few Chinese, so careful provisions were made to have them remain shut up within their Parián, so that they could not make any changes in the condition of those islands, one would think that not without danger can this be changed, with the people who come in the ships, which they are commencing to do there. Besides that, to raise the impost on his own authority, without having informed the Council thereof until after it was executed, is a matter that furnishes a very bad example; and since the amount concerned is so small as thirty-six thousand reals (at nine reals apiece, on the four thousand pesos [sic; sc. Chinese] who he says are there), it is not desirable to risk for that sum the government--which, it has been found by experience, is without danger--and to expose it to the possibility of danger. Therefore he petitions that it be ordered that no innovation be made. Madrid, June 30, 1638."

"July 28, 1638. Have the governor informed that, considering all the circumstances that he sets forth in his letter, the measure for benefiting the imposts for the royal treasury does not appear improper; but that it will be necessary to consider very carefully how this increase of duties may be attempted and obtained. For in order to obtain that increase we cannot risk the commerce, which must be considered with the coming of the Chinese, as it conduces to the benefit of those islands; nor also the security of the country, if their numbers be greatly multiplied. For it seems that this will be necessary, if the money were to increase to so great a sum as he mentions. Have the matter entrusted to the governor himself and to the Audiencia, so that, after weighing the advantages of this measure with the advantages which might occur in its execution, and considering all the above, the decision which shall be most to his Majesty's service and that of his royal Audiencia may be made; and that they shall report whatever they do to the Council. Have the Audiencia notified to the same effect."]

Sire:

A communal fund was established in the Parián or alcaicería of the Chinese, who are called Sangleys, in the time of Don Alonso Faxardo de Tenca, and with your approbation given April 8, 1622. Each Sangley pays into it three tostons annually, in two payments. The ministers of justice of the said Parián are paid from that fund, as are those who live there to administer the holy sacraments, in case that some [of the Sangleys] are converted--namely, two fathers of St. Dominic. That fund also takes care of the works that your Majesty needs; and the requisite sum is furnished from it for the payment of the laborers, so that they may go willingly, and so that no other assessment need be made. With the consent of the Sangleys, Don Juan Niño de Tabora assigned from this communal fund a salary for a minister to administer the holy sacraments to the Chinese living in the town of Santa Cruz, on the other side of the river, which is in charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesus; for the said Don Juan Niño deemed that necessary. But at his death, and when an attempt was made to collect that stipend belonging to the minister of Santa Cruz, the fathers of St. Dominic refused to pay it, but on the contrary went to law about it with him. And as if they were a party in this, they brought a very strenuous suit against him, before my predecessor, Don Juan Cereço Salamanca, who gave sentence in favor of the fathers of the Society. That sentence was appealed to the royal Audiencia, and although Don Juan Cereso judged, and rightly, that there was in this matter no appeal to the Audiencia, as it was purely a point of government, he did not dare to prevent the appeal, but allowed it to pass. Upon my arrival at this island, I found this suit in the stage of petition; and, esteeming it to belong to the government, I suspended the suit, and ordered that the sentence and decree of Don Juan Niño de Tabora be carried out. The fathers of St. Dominic were angry at that, but surely without any reason, as it was none of their business--although they had so possessed themselves of the communal fund of the Parián, and so controlled it, that in the fourteen years since it was established, they have used it to get more than one hundred thousand pesos from it for matters peculiar to their order. That has been an excess and irregularity that the governors should not have allowed, as is apparent from the accounts which I ordered the accountant Juan Bautista de Cubiaga to audit on this occasion. The Sangleys of Santa Cruz and of the jurisdiction of Tondo, seeing how small was the benefit that they derived from the communal fund of the Parián, and that it was converted only to the welfare of the Sangleys of the Parián and of the fathers of St. Dominic, petitioned me to be allowed to have a separate communal fund in Tondo. Considering that they were asking for justice, for Don Alonso Faxardo, who established the said fund, declared May 4, 1622, that whenever the said Sangleys thought that they could not endure the said fund, and whenever they should oppose it and petition that it be not continued or kept up, it would be proper to have it cease--in conformity with that, I, seeing that a number of the Sangleys of the villages of Santa Cruz and Tondo were opposing (and rightfully, as the fund of the Parián was of no use to them) the payment by them, as by the others, of three tostons annually for each person, and that they were asking for a separate fund for Tondo, which should be entrusted to the alcalde-mayor, I granted it to them. I was also influenced by the service which the Sangleys of Santa Cruz offered to perform for your Majesty, as I shall immediately relate--namely, that the alcalde-mayor of Tondo should be paid from this fund, and thus the salary paid him from the royal treasury would be saved; while in the works that offered, your Majesty would be better served by having two communal funds--one in the Parián, and the other in Tondo. Therefore will your Majesty be pleased to confirm this action accordingly, for it is beneficial to the royal treasury. May our Lord preserve the Catholic person of your Majesty, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Your vassal kisses your Majesty's feet.