CHAPTER XV.

ANNO DOM. 1618.

The Administration of Don Alonzo Faxardo.

On the 2d of July, 1618, arrived Don Alonzo Faxardo, of the order of Alcantara, of Murcia, and on the day following he took possession of the government of these islands. His Majesty had appointed him chief of an armament which he had intended to send by the Straits of Magellan, to the relief of Don Juan de Silva, to drive the Dutch from these seas; but it was delayed by his sending the forces destined for the Philippines, to the relief of the Emperor of Germany, Ferdinand the Second. The voyage on this account did not take place, until the death of Silva was known, when his Majesty named Faxardo as Governor, charging him to be careful of the interests of the Indians, who had suffered much in the late struggles, and promising ample rewards to those Spaniards, who should make this an object of their special attention.

A short time after his arrival, the Dutch appeared in those seas, not with the intention of attempting Manila, as they were aware of the difficulty of the undertaking, but to intercept the galleons from Acapulco, richly laden with bullion. For this purpose they cruized with three ships off Cape Espiritu Santo, taking their station in the strait of St. Bernardino, as the galleons coming from Acapulco were in the constant habit of taking that route. On the 25th of February the Dutch got sight of them; they bore up, and ordered them to strike their colours, when a severe engagement took place. The Spaniards, under the veil of night, and in the confusion which prevailed, separated and escaped, one arriving at Palapag, and the other at Borongo, on the coast of Ybabao, where the cargoes were all saved, though the ships were lost. That the same misfortune might not occur again, the Governor ever after gave the commanders secret instructions, changing their route each voyage. On the 24th of August, this year, Friar Miguel Garcia Serrano, of the order of St. Augustine, late Bishop of New Segovia, took possession of the Archbishopric of Manila.

In the year 1623, upon the canonization of St. Ignacio and St. Francisco Xavier, the friars of that order celebrated a grand festival, and those of Zebu, desirous of imitating them, likewise celebrated one, at which all the Jesuits of the island of Bohol were present, leaving very few Spaniards in that island. The defenceless state of it induced two or three Indians to persuade the rest to rebel, assuring them that the Devil had appeared, ordering them not to pay tribute to the Spaniards, but to retire to the mountains, and erect a chapel, where they should worship him, and he would give them every thing they required, and defend them from the Spaniards. This was quite sufficient to set all the island in a flame, two towns alone remaining faithful to the Spaniards. The Alcalde Mayor of Zebu, immediately upon notice of this insurrection, sent fifty Spaniards, and one thousand friendly Indians to Bohol, who attacked the rebels with great vigour, made considerable slaughter, and completely routed them. This ought to have undeceived them, but they were obstinate, and fortified themselves on a rock, which, however, afforded them little defence, as our people being protected by their shields from the arrows and stones they hurled down, gained the height, and made great havock among them, making prisoners all that were not able to save themselves by flight. The Alcalde Mayor hanged some of the ringleaders, and pardoned the remainder; but insensible to this favour, they spurned at the proffered pardon, and fled to the mountains, to which, six months after, the Alcalde returned, and thoroughly quelled the insurrection.

The bad example of the people of Bohol was followed by those of the island of Leyte, and was fomented by an Indian who was not suspected of disaffection. This was Bancao, a petty chief of Dimasava, who had received Legaspi with great attention, and had accompanied him to Zebu, where he was baptized, for which conduct Philip the Second had sent him a royal order, granting him many privileges. He had been very faithful to the Spaniards in his youth, but turned traitor in his old age. In imitation of those of Bohol, he raised an insurrection among the Indians in the island of Leyte, so that it became necessary to send a force against them. Although they saw the Spaniards were superior in numbers to them, they were not dismayed, and received them firmly; but in a short time they fled with precipitation. In this flight Bancao was killed, having been transfixed by a lance: his head was placed on a pole, to serve as a warning to others, which had so good an effect, that order was immediately restored.

This year an expedition was sent to the mountains of Igorrotes, where there were mines of gold, and where the Indians were of fairer complexion, with the small eyes of the Chinese. It was imagined that when Limahon was in Pangasinan, many of his people, pressed by hunger, fled to the mountains, and mixed with the inhabitants, from which intercourse resulted this cast, so different from the rest.

This expedition, under charge of Francisco Carriño de Valdes, head of the provinces of Pangasinan and Ylocos, marched in good order seven days, and on the eighth arrived in the town of the mines, where the natives received them well; but the Spaniards placed too much confidence in them. The Igorrotes, when least expected, rose on them, and treacherously murdered the chief of the friendly Indians, on which de Valades retired, to wait a better opportunity. The following year the expedition was expected to be repeated, but it was not, as it became necessary for the troops to march to Cagayan, to quell an insurrection among the Indians of that province. Many expeditions have since taken place to these mountains, but with such ill success, that the Indians of this district remain independent to this hour. They, however, trade with the Spaniards in gold, wax, and tobacco, in return for cattle; and the Augustine friars have succeeded, in converting to Christianity, a few who live in the towns near the mountains.

The Governor persevered in pacific measures as much as possible, although those measures were deemed disgraceful. He had much domestic uneasiness on account of his wife, Dona Catalina Zembrano, who had an illicit connection, and was accustomed to steal out from the palace to a particular house, where she was at last discovered with her lover by Faxardo, who going his rounds through the city, as was his custom, from information, no doubt, which he had received, entered into the house in which this lady was with her paramour, and found her in a situation, which rendered her guilt sufficiently manifest. Don Alonzo, a man of high honour, severely felt this injury, and was determined to take proper vengeance. He ordered a confessor to be called to her; and the ceremony at an end, unmoved by the tears and persuasion of the priest to the contrary, he stabbed her with his own hand. The unworthy paramour saved his life by flight, and thus escaped the vengeance of the Governor. Don Alonzo soon after fell into a profound melancholy, of which he died in two years, and was buried in the church of the Franciscans, August, 1624. By his death Don Geronimo de Silva succeeded to the military government, and the civil government became vested in the Royal Audience. In a short time after, a fleet of seven Dutch men of war appeared off Playa Honda, and many of their soldiers landed on the island of Corrigidor, and took prisoners or killed such Indians as fell in their way. The Governor proceeded against them with five galleons and two large galleys, and fell in with them on the coast of Playa Honda, when the Dutch attempted to escape; but our commander's ship, by superiority of sailing, prevented it, when a warm engagement took place, and a Spaniard was killed close to the Governor. It is necessary to mention this accident, as he thought himself in great danger, and was so alarmed by it, that he ordered the ships to retire to Cavite, where he was received with the contempt he merited; the people imputing the loss of the victory to his cowardice. Complaints were made to the Royal Audience, who confined him in the fort of Santiago, where he remained until he was released by the Governor who succeeded him, ad interim, Don Fernando de Silva, knight of the order of Santiago.

Don Fernando had been in Manila before this time, having there made a most honourable matrimonial connection; and having accumulated a good fortune, he went with his wife to Mexico, and from thence to Madrid, having been sent thither by his near relation, the Viceroy of New Spain, Marquis de Cerralbo. Having returned to Mexico and this vacancy in the government of Manila occurring, it was given to him ad interim, and he arrived there in June 1625.

He was received in Manila with great satisfaction, as they knew he was prudent, and well acquainted with these islands: this he had sufficiently shewn in the measures he had adopted for the protection of our commerce, by means of the ships he had built at Cavite for that purpose. He ordered the Alcalde Mayor of Cagayan to land on the island of Formosa, and fortify it in that part of Fanchuy which was the nearest to Cagayan, in order, with greater facility to oppose the Dutch, who, the year before, had raised forts on the opposite side, called Tayguan, with the intention of obstructing the commerce of China with Manila. The Alcalde Mayor executed his commission, and constructed works sufficiently extensive to accommodate the troops, and the Dominican friars, who had gone there to convert the natives; and who exerted themselves with such zeal, that in a short time they built several towns, and were able to number the greater part of the natives, among the professors of our faith.