CHAPTER XIX.
ANNO DOM. 1653.
The Administration of Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara.
The ship San Francisco Xavier arrived in Cavite in July, 1653, bringing the new Governor, Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara; the Archbishop of Manila, Don Miguel Poblete; the Bishop of Ylocos, Don Rodrigo de Cordinas, a Dominican; and the Oidor, Don Juan Bolivar. The Governor immediately, as was usual, sat in judgment on his predecessor, who, apprehensive that he might be deprived of his liberty, retired into the college of Jesuits, securing his personal safety in this sacred asylum. The Archbishop fixed the month of March for a jubilee, on which occasion an immense concourse of people assembled, and he, with great solemnity, invoked the blessing of the Almighty on these islands.
Many calamities occurred during this administration, such as the small-pox, famine, and a dreadful earthquake, which ruined many edifices, and did much injury; but what affected the Governor much more than all these, was the revolt of the Indians and Chinese, and the ravages committed by the Moors of Mindanao. The Spaniards were at peace with Corrolat, King of Mindanao, and he appeared perfectly satisfied; but the chief men, turbulent and warlike, urged him to break it.
The Governor sent two Jesuits and some Spaniards, in the nature of an embassy, to strengthen our existing amity with the King: when, without any respect for their characters as ambassadors, and, listening to the representations of his nephew Balatamay, he murdered them all, and excused his atrocity to the Governor of Zamboanga, throwing the blame on his nephew, whom, he alleged, he could not punish, on account of his great power in the state.
In the letter which he wrote to the Governor of Manila, he laid the blame on the Jesuit, who was at the head of the embassy; thus indicating his intention, by these contradictory falsehoods, of gaining time to draw to his party the King of Jolo, and other chiefs of the Moluccas.
Don Francisco Esteyvar, who was Governor of Zamboanga, despatched against him an armament of ten carracoas, whose rowers were Indians of Lutao, and who, though they had been converted to Christianity, felt for Corrolat as a countryman. Nothing could persuade them to row against the Moors, excusing themselves under various pretexts; and, although they could have been compelled, yet Don Fernando Bobadilla, who commanded the expedition, fearing that they would desert him in the time he most wanted them, and not desirous of exposing himself to such a risk, returned to Zamboanga.
As the Spaniards had delayed the chastisement of the Moors for the murder of their ambassadors, they were induced, as might be expected, to commit still greater ravages than those they had yet been guilty of, and Don Sabiniano de Lara sent against them a considerable squadron, under the command of a man, valiant in the cabinet, but who proved the reverse in the field. He repeatedly showed a disposition to attack the Moors; but, on various pretexts, avoided coming to an engagement, and at last retired to Zebu, abandoning the cause, and leaving the Moors to return quietly to their own country. The Governor of Zamboanga, however, acting a different part, and determined to chastise the Moors, collected some vessels, and retaliated on their country, the ravages they had committed on ours.
A slight disturbance, about this time, took place in the province of Pampanga, the cause of which was as follows: the late Governor having ordered a ship to be built in Camboxa, sent all the necessary workmen in a vessel, which he patched up, and launched for the purpose. After having completed their work, and when they were on their return from Camboxa to Manila, they encountered a storm, so violent, that the vessel was wrecked, and almost all the people perished. The galleon, San Francisco Xavier, was lost in the same storm on the coast of Samar, and two other ships which were going to Acapulco were forced back. The galleon, La Concepcion, too, was so unfortunate as to be driven back twice, having suffered severely in her rigging. To repair these losses, it was necessary that a greater quantity of wood should be cut than was customary, and that with unusual expedition. The Indians suffered always severely in these undertakings, as they were obliged to leave their towns for the mountains, where, their wages being very small, and their treatment very bad, they too often fell a sacrifice to sickness. The overseer of the present wood cutting was a man of great severity, and, as the wood was to be cut with all despatch, he had recourse, with the poor Indians, to measures which humanity could not justify, in order to expedite the work. Resisting this oppressive conduct, they mutinied, and the mutiny extended through all the towns, although they did not behave with disrespect to the church or friars. To quell this sedition before it took a wider range, the Governor took up his residence in Macabebe, which is the first town in the province, from Manila, taking with him some troops, and ordering into his presence some of the ringleaders. The Indians, naturally timid, had already repented of this disturbance, when the friars interfering, it was completely quelled, and the principal ringleader, an Indian named Maniago, was conveyed to Manila, being considered as too dangerous an inhabitant of the province.
The bad example of those in Pampanga, induced the Indians of Pangasinan to rebel, electing as their King an Indian, called Marlong. They murdered the Alcalde Mayor of the province, with all his family, and, upon this being known in Manila, the Governor sent troops by sea and land to quell the sedition; but the Dominican friars possessed such power over the Indians, that they were restored to their duty without firing one gun; and their King, Marlong, was delivered up and hanged immediately.
When the Indians of Pangasinan began their rebellion, they had sent emissaries to the provinces of Cagayan, Ylocos, and Zambales. In this last they made little progress, but in Ylocos, an Indian called Manzano, headed the rebellion, and, having collected a number of malcontents, he attacked the Spaniards, murdered the Friar Bacarra, and ill treated the Bishop Cardinas, on which the Alcalde Mayor and some friars fled to Manila; but the province of Pangasinan being by this time reduced to subjection, the troops were sent against Manzano, and soon reduced him likewise; and the ringleaders of both were executed.
The civil wars of China were the cause of the conquest of that country by the Tartars. A Chinese named Ly, having urged the provinces remote from the court to revolt, and meeting with no opposition, arrived at the capital (Pekin), on which occasion, either from treason or cowardice, all abandoned the Emperor, who, seeing himself thus forsaken, cut off, according to their usual custom, the head of his daughter, that she might not fall into the hands of the rebels, and afterwards hanged himself on a tree, to avoid a similar disgrace.
All acknowledged the authority of Ly, except the army, which had been opposed to the Tartars, and which, fearing the result of this rebellion, made peace with them, and they united against the common enemy, Ly, whom they soon drove from Pekin. Nothing more was ever heard of this rebellion; but, the Tartars having by this means got into the interior of China, though they met with some opposition, yet, finally, they reduced the whole of the empire, and it continues still under the Tartar dynasty.
A poor Chinese, who had fled from Macao to Manila, where he was baptized by the name of Nicolas, and where he became a shop-keeper, afterwards went to Japan, where he married; but finding that he did not acquire riches quick enough, he entered the Chinese army, where he rose very high, being appointed General against the rebels. Zunchin, who was the last Emperor of the Chinese race, having hanged himself, as already noticed, Nicolas sided with the Tartars, by whom he was apparently well received. The Tartar Emperor heaped favours upon him, and named him as one of his tributary monarchs, under the title of Pignan, which signifies, conqueror of the south. By these means he lulled him into security; and having at last imprisoned him and all his family, completed his treachery by blowing him, and the greater part of them, up with gunpowder.
His son, Cogseng, after this disgraceful transaction, turned pirate, and sufficiently revenged the death of his father by ravaging the Chinese coasts and islands. He was the conqueror of the island of Formosa, and the first who triumphed over the arms of Europeans. The Dutch, at this time, were complete masters of the island, they possessed two thousand Europeans, with sufficient artillery and ships; when hearing that the Chinese intended to attack them, they united all their forces in Tayguan; but the pirate, who came with about one hundred thousand men, landed on the opposite coast of the island, and immediately entered on the cultivation of the soil. A short time after, he invested the fort of Tayguan, and the Dutch capitulated, after a seven months siege, by which they were allowed to leave the island, with the ships they had in the port.
Cogseng, elated with this success, determined to become master of the Philippines, for which purpose he sent the Friar Victorio Riccio, a Dominican, with the title of his Ambassador, to Manila, with a letter to the Governor, in which he required him to recognize him as Sovereign, and pay him tribute, threatening, if he refused, to ravage his coasts with his fleet. On the 18th of May, 1662, the friar arrived on this embassy at Manila, and delivered his letter with great secrecy, which, however, was not long withheld from the public. The Governor without delay began to levy troops, repair the fortifications, and recall all the forces to the capital; and in order to be as secure as possible, he sent away all the Chinese merchants, and others that were established in the islands. Upon this being known, it was whispered that the Governor intended to decapitate all the Chinese, who, being naturally cowards, believed the knife already at their throats, and retired to the mountains, from whence some passed, with great risk, in small boats to Formosa. The day on which the Governor called the Chinese chiefs before him, in order to intimate to them that they must retire, the remaining Chinese believing that they were all to be murdered, took up arms; but the Dominicans had sufficient influence to prevail on them to remain quiet. The Governor now sent back Friar Riccio to Cogseng with an answer to his letter, but, on Riccio's arrival, he found the pirate dead of a fever, Manila being by this means released from the danger with which she was threatened. The Chinese who had fled to Formosa, circulated a thousand calumnies, which would have cost Friar Riccio his life, if he had not been saved by the son of Cogseng, who had succeeded his father in power; but not possessing the warlike spirit of his father, he sent an Ambassador to Manila, to make a treaty of amity and commerce with the Spaniards. Although the expedition of Cogseng had not reached Manila, the place of its destination, the effects of it had fallen very heavy on the islands, as all the churches and convents near Manila were destroyed, to prevent the enemy from converting them into military stations.
The Governor of Ternate had abandoned that station, by no means easy to be recovered, as the garrison was, in its retreat to Manila, accompanied by the Indians, called Mahhicas, who were the best friends to the Spanish cause, and who were then settled at the mouth of the river Marigondon, where their descendants remain to this hour. The garrisons too of Calamianes and Zamboanga evacuated these stations; and as they had always been a check on the Moors of Jolo and Mindanao, opportunities were by this means offered of committing with impunity such ravages in the Bisayas, that the friars were compelled to abandon the province of Calamianes.
Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara had governed these islands with great prudence, but notwithstanding this, several articles of impeachment were preferred against him, and he was fined seventy thousand dollars. On appealing, however, to the council of the Indies, the sentence was reversed, and the fine remitted; but disgusted with the world, he retired to Malaga, his native country, and took the monastic habit.