The Philippine Islands, 1493 1898: Volume XVIII, 1617 1620 by Various

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Those ships above mentioned are not only useful for war, but can
save your Highness many expenses in ships, in carrying food and the
tributes; for, in the time while I had it, about two months, until
after I had given it to the governor, it alone accomplished more than
did all the other vessels. Consequently, a vast sum can be saved,
and the soldiers will be more eager, if they find themselves in so
advantageous a vessel. Also the natives will be spared injuries;
and innumerable other benefits will follow, which, in order to avoid
prolixity, I shall refrain from mentioning. Your viceroy of Nueva
Espana had me make a model of the said vessel for the exploration of
the sea of California in Mexico.

_Item_: The garrison soldiers of Manila are a cause [of the ruin of
the country], for many are killed, and they are lessened in numbers;
and they commit many vile acts, by which the Spanish nation suffers
great loss of reputation among those pagans. Inasmuch as they are
paid there in three yearly installments, the result is that, as soon
as they have received their money, most of them gamble it away in
their quarters, and then go about barefoot and naked. Many sell their
arquebuses to the natives, which is a great evil. They have to go
about begging alms and commit innumerable acts of meanness among the
pagans themselves--who, in contempt, call them "soldiers." Further,
will your Highness be pleased to order your viceroy of Nueva Espana
not to allow any mestizos or mulattoes to be admitted among the men
sent as reenforcements to the Filipinas; for such men give themselves
up to intoxication, and injure us greatly.

It is possible to remedy the needs of the soldiers in this manner. Your
Highness has imposed a situado of two reals on all the tributes of
those islands, in order to pay one and one-half reals to the soldiers
and one-half real to the prebendaries of the church. This amount is
paid into the royal treasury. As the treasury always falls short,
and the Audiencia has to be preferred in the payment of its salaries;
and as the galleys and many other things cause a shortage, eight or ten
months or one year are wont to pass without the soldiers receiving any
pay; consequently, one can imagine their sufferings. It will be very
important to have that situado placed in a separate fund. Since there
are three royal officials and in the said treasury two are sufficient
if one of them performs two duties (as has often been done), the third
official could take charge of that situado. He could purchase food at
the harvests which would be cheap, and every week he could give the
soldiers a ration of rice--the ordinary bread of that country--or
wheat, which is also produced there, besides giving them in money
one real per day. The amount still remaining could be paid to them
every four months in order that they might clothe themselves. If
their pay were increased by eight reals more, they could live well;
and one-half of those who die now would not die, which is much more
costly to your Highness. If your Highness is not willing to have the
royal official to whose charge that duty must fall perform it there,
a rich and very intelligent citizen should be charged with it; and
in cases of need he should have to supply what will be often necessary.

_Item_: Manila lacks artillerymen--I mean men who understand
artillery when need arises; for men are not lacking to take the
pay of artillerymen, some of whom have never heard a gun fired all
their life, but only enjoy that salary as a favor. Consequently your
Highness's revenues are spent uselessly, for such men are artillerymen
only in name. I petition your Highness that artillerymen be made to
pass an examination, or that on demand they furnish a certificate
of examination; and that whoever shall pay their salary or order
it to be paid [to incompetent men] shall incur a severe penalty;
and that any person who shall apply for a position in the artillery
service when one becomes vacant, shall, if a capable artilleryman,
be preferred to the others, and that no posts shall be granted by
favor to those who do not understand artillery.

_Item_: That camp needs a founder of artillery, who must be an
efficient and good workman; for during the last fourteen years nothing
else has been done than to spend your Highness's royal revenues in
salaries and making estimates of cost, and they have accomplished
nothing useful. There is a good supply of metals and everything else
necessary. It is extremely advisable that those islands have some
one who understands founding artillery, in order to fortify the city.

_Item_: Inasmuch as that city is so far from your Highness's eyes,
and where journeys to and fro are made with so great difficulty, it
is necessary for the good government of spiritual affairs, according
to the customary method in Yndia, that, in case of the decease of the
archbishop of Manila, his successor be appointed there; or that at
least the senior bishop, or whoever your Highness may choose, shall
govern the archbishopric. For, the first time when the archbishopric
was vacant, that city was seven years without a prelate; and the second
time, three or four years. In this matter, I must tell your Highness
that you could avoid having so many bishops there--especially those
of Caceres and Nueva Segovia, who are in that same island of Manila;
for they have no churches of importance, nor even any place wherein
suitably to keep the most holy sacrament. Neither do the bishops
do more than to confirm, and for that a bishop _in partibus_ [102]
would be sufficient. Considering that the royal treasury is poor and
cannot attend to many other necessary things, it is very inadvisable to
increase those expenses in other ways. And considering the future--for
there might happen to be persons in those bishoprics who do not think
of or profess the poverty and bareness now maintained by those who
are there--that would be a great burden on the Indian natives, and
of no use.

_Item_: That in the trade of the Filipinas with the kingdom of Japon,
in exchange for the merchandise shipped there they carry silver to
Manila; for Japon has quantities of silver, and many rich mines have
been discovered. The said silver is of the quality required by law,
its fifth is taken, and the Japanese emperor's duties are paid as they
are here paid to your Highness. Inasmuch as silver money is used in
those kingdoms and districts only by weight--and thus the citizens of
Manila receive it, while the same is usual in Piru and Nueva Espana,
wherever there are mines, in buying and selling with pieces of silver
marked by weight instead of being coined; and inasmuch as this is very
useful to the citizens of Manila, since, if this trade increases as it
is increasing now, it will not be necessary to trade at all with the
coined money of Nueva Espana: therefore I petition your Highness to
be pleased to allow the said silver to pass as it has always passed;
and that table service and other articles may be made of it without
new duties being demanded, since these are not due.

_Item_: That during the war with the Sangleys, when they revolted,
the Indian natives about Manila and La Laguna de Bay, and especially
those of the province of La Pampanga, fought with great valor against
the Sangleys, and aided us with great loyalty and willingness. It
was at a juncture when, had they joined the side of the enemies, the
Filipinas would have been ruined. Will your Highness be pleased to
order the governor to thank them for it in your Highness's name. They
will greatly esteem that, especially certain chiefs--as, for instance,
Don Guillermo, who on that occasion was master-of-camp of the
Pampanga Indians; and Don Ventura, master-of-camp of those of Bay. I
also request that the governor be commanded to order the religious
who have missions under their charge to treat the Indians well; for
they are wont to lash the natives for slight causes, and equally with
them even the chief Indian women. This is very necessary, both for
the conversion and for good example, and in order to incline them to
us and make them devoted to us. For they are a race, who, with little
effort on our part and with reasonable treatment, will do whatever we
desire. The same thing should be ordered to the alcaldes-mayor; and
your Highness should order the royal Audiencia to have any injuries
committed on the Indians rigorously punished--for, inasmuch as these
have not been so punished, many troubles have happened.

_Fernando de los Rios Coronel_

(_To be concluded_)

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

Most of the documents in this volume are obtained from MSS. in the
Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla; their pressmarks are as follows:

1. _Letter from Alcaraz_.--"Audiencia de Mexico; expedientes sobre
el apresto de la armada que salio de Nueva Espana para las islas
Filipinas; anos 1612 a 1617; est 96, caj. 1, leg. 22."

2. _Memorial regarding hospital_.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de
Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del gobernador de Filipinas vistos
en el Consejo; anos de 1600 a 1628; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 7."

3. _Letter from Tenza_.--The same as No. 2.

4. _Letters to Fajardo_.--"Audiencia de Filipinas; registros de
oficios; reales ordenes dirigidas a las autoridades del distrito de
la Audiencia; anos 1597 a 1634; est. 105, caj. 2, leg. 1."

5. _Filipinas menaced_.--"Simancas--Secular; cartas y expedientes
del presidente y oidores de dicha Audiencia vistos en el Consejo;
anos 1607 a 1626; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 20."

6. _Philippine shipbuilding_.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de
Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de personas seculares vistos en el
Consejo; anos 1619 a 1621; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 38."

7. _Decree regarding religious expelled_.--The same as No. 4--save
"anos 1605 a 1645," and "leg. 12."

8. _Proposal to destroy Macao_.--"Simancas--Eclesiastico; Audiencia de
Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de personas eclesiasticas de Filipinas;
anos 1609 a 1644; est. 68, caj. i, leg. 43."

9. _Letter from Pedro de Arce_.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de
Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de los obispos sufraganeos de Manila;
anos de 1579 a 1679; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 34."

10. _Letter from Fajardo_.--The same as No. 2.

11. _Grant to seminary_.--The same as No. 6.

12. _Reforms needed_.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas;
cartas y expedientes del cabildo secular de Manila vistos en el
Consejo; anos 1570 a 1640; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 27." Three documents
are combined in this one; of these the first is in the original a
printed pamphlet with MS. additions.

The following are obtained from MSS. in the Real Academia de la
Historia, Madrid; all are in the collection "Papeles de los Jesuitas:"

13. _Trade with the Far East_.--"Tomo 15, no. 19."

14. _Relation of 1617-18_.--"Tomo 84, no. 7."

15. _Description of islands_.--"Tomo 84, no. 22."

16. _Dutch factories_.--"Tomo 135, no. 34."

17. _Relation of 1618-19_.--"Tomo 112, no. 55."

NOTES

[1] Spanish, _se hierra_; an allusion to the branding of convicts with
a hot iron; that is, a defeat on the part of the Spaniards would be
an irremediable damage to their reputation.

[2] See _Vol_. XIV, p. 314, note 53.

[3] The property of deceased persons was carefully guarded by law, as
numerous decrees show; see _Recopilacion de leyes_, lib. ix, tit. xiv,
which contains twenty-five ordinances, devoted to "the property
of persons who have died in the Indias, and its administration and
accounts in the House of Trade at Sevilla;" and lib. ii, tit. xxxii,
with seventy ordinances regarding "the courts in charge of such
property, and its administration and accounts in the Indias, and on
vessels of war or trade." Two of these laws (ley xxii in the former
group, and ley lix in the latter) give definite and unqualified
command that the funds in the probate treasury shall not be used
for any purpose whatsoever, even for the needs of the royal service;
and another (ley lx, second group), dated December 13, 1620, commands
that the proceeds of estates left by persons dying in the Philippines
shall be accounted for and paid (to the heirs) at the royal treasury
in the city of Mexico.

[4] Juan Ronquillo was a relative of Gonzalo Ronquillo de
Penalosa. After the death of Rodriguez de Figueroa, he conducted
an expedition to Mindanao in 1597 at Governor Tello's order (see
description of that expedition, _Vol_. XV). In 1617 he defeated the
Dutch at Playa Honda, as above described.

[5] Playa Honda (signifying "a low beach") is the name of an extensive
plain in Batalan or Botolan mountain, 1,847 feet high, on the coast
of Zambales province, Luzon, to the northwest of Manila. In the text,
this name is applied to a road or anchorage on that coast; its early
name was Paynauen.

[6] This was Miguel Garcia Serrano; he made his profession as an
Augustinian friar in 1592, at Agreda, Spain. Three years later,
he arrived in the Philippines, where he was minister in several
native villages, and held various important offices in his order,
being provincial in 1611. Then he went to Spain and Rome; and, when
the see of Nueva Segovia became vacant, Serrano was appointed to
it. After ruling this bishopric for two years (June, 1617-August,
1619) he became archbishop of Manila. His death occurred in June, 1629.

[7] "At this time (i.e., late in the sixteenth century], also,
political and religious war was almost universal in Europe, and
the quarrels of the various nationalities followed the buccaneers,
pirates, traders, and missionaries to the distant seas of Japan
.... All foreigners, but especially Portuguese, were then slave
traders, and thousands of Japanese were bought and sold, and shipped
to Macao, in China, and to the Philippines. Hideyoshi repeatedly
issued decrees threatening with death these slave-traders, and even
the purchasers. The seaports of Hirado and Nagasaki were the resort
of the lowest class of adventurers from all European Nations, and the
result was a continual series of uproars, broils, and murders among
the foreigners, requiring ever and anon the intervention of the native
authorities to keep the peace." (Griffis's _Mikado's Empire_, p. 254.)

[8] A small island--the name meaning "Vay Island," Pulo being simply
the Malay word for "island"--situated near the island of Banda. The
English post thereon which is mentioned in the text was of little
consequence, according to Richard Cocks--see his _Diary, 1615-22_
(Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1883), i, pp. 269, 274, 275,
292; he states that there were "5 or 7 English men in that iland,"
and that they were slain by the Dutch and the natives. The editor of
the _Diary_, E.M. Thompson, cites (p. 269) mention of this event in
_Purchas His Pilgrimes_. The name Pulovay is also applied to a small
island north of Achen, Sumatra.

[9] This document is also contained in the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer
library), i, pp. 443-471. Certain variations occur therein from the
text we follow, which is transcribed from the original MS. in the Real
Academia de Historia, Madrid; and that of Ventura del Arco purports to
be taken from the same MS. This apparent discrepancy probably arises
from the two transcriptions being made from different copies of the
same document. In the collection of the Real Academia more than one
copy exists, in the case of certain documents; and there may be more
than one copy of the one here presented. It should be remembered,
in this connection, that in the religious houses in Europe manuscript
copies of letters from distant lands were largely circulated, at that
period, for the edification of their members (as we have before noted);
and these copies were often not verbatim, the transcriber sometimes
making slight changes, or omissions, or adding information which
he had received later or by other channels. Our own text has been
collated with that of Ventura del Arco, and variations or additions
found in the latter are indicated as above, in brackets, followed by
"_V.d.A._"--omitting, however, some typographical and other slight
variations, which are unimportant. In the Ventura del Arco transcript
there are considerable omissions of matter contained in the MS. that
we follow.

[10] For account of the arrival of these vessels in Japan, and various
details regarding their exploits in the Philippines, see Cocks's
_Diary_, i, pp. 259-281. The name "Leon Rojo" signifies "Red Lion;"
and "Fregelingas" is apparently a Spanish corruption of "Vlissingue"
("Flushing").

[11] This word is written Tono in the Ventura del Arco transcript. The
ruler of Firando (the local form of Hirado, as it is more correctly
written) was then Takanobu, who became daimio--"king," in the English
and Spanish writers; but equivalent to "baron"--of that island. The
name Tono Sama, applied to the daimio, is not a personal name, but
a polite form, equivalent to "your Lordship." See Satow's notes on
_Voyage of Saris_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1900),
p. 79. Cocks speaks of this ruler as Figen Sama.

The "history of Hirado as a commercial port" up to 1611 is recounted
by Satow (_ut supra_, pp. xliv-li).

[12] This commander is mentioned by Cocks as John Derickson Lamb. The
ship called "Galeaca" in our text is "Gallias" in that of Cocks.

[13] Evidently Ilocos, as is shown by another mention near the end
of this paragraph.

[14] Name of the Moro pirates who inhabit the little islands of
the Sulu group east of Tawi-tawi, and the islands between these and
Borneo; but on the last the name Tirones is also conferred--derived
from the province of Tiron in Borneo, to which these islands are
adjacent. See Blumentritt's list of Philippine tribes and languages
(Mason's translation), in _Smithsonian Report_, 1899. pp. 527-547.

[15] "In 1611, Iyeyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long
suspected, viz., the existence of a plot on the part of the native
converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of
a subject state... Iyeyasu now put forth strenuous measures to root
out utterly what he believed to be a pestilent breeder of sedition
and war. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan,
Dominican, and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits,
and hundreds of native priests and catechists, were embarked by force
on board junks, and sent out of the country." (Griffis's _Mikado's
Empire_, p. 256.)

The priests mentioned in our text were put to death in June, 1617,
at Omura (Cocks's _Diary_, i, pp. 256, 258).

[16] Vicente Sepulveda was a native of Castilla, and entered the
Augustinian order in that province; he was a religious of great
attainments in knowledge and virtue. He arrived in the Philippines in
1606, became very proficient in the language of the Pampangos, and
was a missionary among them for five years. In 1614 he was elected
provincial of his order in the islands. "Thoroughly inflexible in
character, he undertook to secure the most rigorous observance of
the decrees and mandates of the latest father-visitor, on which
account he incurred the great displeasure and resentment of many.
By the death of Father Jeronimo de Salas, Father Sepulveda became a
second time the ruler of the province, as rector provincial; but he
did not change in the least his harsh and rigid mode of government. A
lamentable and unexpected event put an end to his already harassed
life, on August 21, 1617." (Perez's _Catalogo_, p. 76.)

[17] Jeronimo de Salas made his profession in the Augustinian
convent at Madrid, in 1590, and reached the Philippines in 1595. He
was a missionary to the Indians for some fifteen years, and was
afterward elected to high positions in his order. "So exceptional
was the executive ability of which he gave proof in the discharge
of these offices that in the provincial chapter held in 1617 he was
unanimously elected prior provincial. Most unfortunately, when so
much was hoped from the eminent abilities of this very judicious and
learned religious, an acute illness ended his valuable life; he died
at Manila on May 17 of the same year." (Perez's _Catalogo_, p. 49.)

[18] Alonso Rincon was one of the Augustinians arriving in the
Philippines in 1606. He was minister in various Indian villages until
1617, when he was appointed prior of the Manila convent. He was sent
as procurator to Spain and Rome in 1618, and returned to Manila four
years afterward. He died there in 1631.

[19] The Ventura del Arco transcript ends here; but it is followed
by a note, thus:

_Note by the transcriber_: "The court of Rome was greatly offended
at the just and proper procedure of the definitorio of the Order,
giving them to understand that they should have concealed the crime
and the criminals; but that, besides being against all morality and
the necessity of making a public example of offenders, would have
been impossible in this case, so notorious in Manila from the hour
when the crime and the delinquents were discovered."

[20] Cf. the brief account of this tragic occurrence given by the
Augustinian chronicler Juan de Medina, in his _Historia_ (1630),
which will be presented in a later volume of this series.

[21] A fleet of five caravels arrived at Manila in 1612, which had
come from Cadiz via the Cape of Good Hope; they were commanded by
Ruy Gonzalez Sequeira, and brought reenforcements of nearly six
hundred men.

[22] This was Alonso Fajardo y Tenza; for sketch of his career as
governor, see appendix at end of _Vol_. XVII.

[23] These italic sidebeads represent marginal notes in the MS. from
which this document is translated.

[24] So in the transcription, but apparently a copyist's error of
_sesenta_ ("sixty") for _setenta_ ("seventy "). See _Vol_. III, p. 153.

[25] Evidently referring to the statement above (under the heading
"Camarines") as to the use of gold by the Indians for their ornaments.

[26] Achen is at the northwest extremity of Sumatra, and Jambi
is a state in the northeast part of the same island. Sumatra is
the principal source of the black pepper of commerce. See articles
"Sumatra," "Jambi," and "Pepper," in Crawfurd's _Dictionary of Indian
Islands_. Negapatan is on the eastern coast of Hindustan, not far
from Cape Comorin.

[27] Better known by its modern name of Johor; it is the Malay state at
the southern end of the Malayan peninsula, and the British territory
of Malacca and the Malay state of Pahang lie north of it. The town
of Johor was founded in 1511, by the Malays who were then expelled
from Malacca by the Portuguese. Johor was not an island, but part
of the mainland: the text probably refers to one of the islands off
its coast on which a Dutch post may have been located; some of these
islands are still possessed by the Dutch.

[28] Apparently a corruption of the name Masulipatam, a city on the
Coromandel coast of India--not, as Heredia calls it, an island.

[29] This last paragraph decides the authorship of this document,
plainly indicating that of Pedro de Heredia, who filled the post
he mentions in the last sentence, and captured the Dutch commander
van Caerden.

[30] Evidently a reference to the hospital at Los Banos (see
_Vol_. XIV, p. 211).

[31] _Achotes [hachotes] para los faroles_: A large wax candle, with
more than one wick, or a union of three or four candles, which was
used for the lanterns.

[32] The bahar (from _bahara_, a word of Sanscrit origin) has long been
in quite general use in the East. The word is found variously spelled,
"bahare," "bare," and "vare." Its value varies in different localities,
there being two distinct weights--one, the great bahar, used for
weighing cloves, other spices, etc.; and the small bahar, about 150
kilos or 400 pounds avoirdupois, used for weighing quicksilver, various
metals, certain drugs, etc. John Saris, writing of the commerce of
Bantam, says: "A sacke is called a Timbang, and two Timbanges is one
Peecull, three Peeculls is a small bahar, and foure Peeculls and an
halfe a great Bahar, which is foure hundred fortie fiue Cattees and
an halfe."

At Malacca and Achen, the great bahar is said by an old Dutch
voyageur to contain 200 cates, each cate containing 26 taiels or 38
1/2 Portuguese ounces, weak; the small bahar, also 200 cates, but each
cate of only 22 taiels or 32 1/2 ounces, strong; while in China the
bahar contained 300 cates, which were equivalent to the 200 cates of
Malacca. Instructions to Francois Wittert, commissary at Bantam, gives
the following table for weights: 1 picol = 2 Basouts or Basauts = 100
catis; 1 hare = 9 basauts = 4 1/2 picols--which should have amounted
to 600 Dutch pounds, but in the equivalent then rendered was only 540
pounds. Dutch annals also give equivalents in Dutch pounds as 380,
525, 550, and 625. Modern English equivalents in pounds avoirdupois for
various places are: Amboyna, 597.607; Arabia--(Bet-el-falsi), 815.625,
(Jidda), 183.008, (Mocha), 450; Bantam--(ordinary) 396, (for pepper)
406.780; Batavia, 610.170. See Satow's notes on _Voyage of John Saris
to Japan_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1900), pp. 212,
213; _Recueil des voyages_ (Amsterdam, 1725); and Clarke's _Weights,
Measures, and Money_ (N.Y., 1888).

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