Chapter 17

Your Majesty seems to hold me guilty for having encouraged the slaves to leave the Spaniards. I do not know how blame can be placed on me therefor, since the Indians held as slaves by the Spaniards (who were unwilling to let them go) have been declared free by your Majesty. It was evident that the former could not be absolved, any more than if they had stolen property; and your Majesty knows that, in the jurisdiction of the conscience, there is not the liberty that there is in external matters. Your Majesty may pardon a life, or remit the penalty of the law to him whom he may consider meet; but the tribunal of conscience is not free to pardon anyone, or to absolve persons from any sin, except when they act as they ought. Confession being thus rigorous, even greater laxity was permitted than should have been. Your Majesty must believe that I am trying to do everything possible here, so as not to exceed my duty, and I never take such action without first consulting with such persons of learning and conscience as are here.

In the second decree, your Majesty orders that when the Sangleys wish to be baptized, their hair shall not be cut off. He who reported this to your Majesty deceived you, for there are not only a hundred houses occupied by Sangleys who remain here for negotiations with their merchandise, but more than [_blank space in MS_.] who live in the alcaiceria of this city, called Parián, and more than [_blank space in MS_.] [39] in all the neighborhood. It is certain that in both places there are at the very least more than [_blank space in MS_.]. Since the religious of St. Dominic came to this country, more than two hundred have been baptized, and every day many more are receiving baptism. But inasmuch as what concerns the Sangleys, and the great compassion with which God has dealt with them and with us, will go in a separate letter, in order not to increase the length of this, your Majesty will read therein matters that will prove how well you are served, and you will give abundant thanks to God. He who reported this to your Majesty must have some zeal, but not with knowledge; for I consider all the conditions, desire the conversion of these Chinese, and obtain it, better than he who wrote to your Majesty. I would not decide to have their hair cut off, if it were not so necessary that not to do so would be to endanger greatly the faith and the persons with whom I deal. These affairs are of such a nature that no matter what opinion were given, I could not do anything else, even though I should wish to do so. Because I considered it fitting to baptize two of them without cutting off their hair, I thereby did myself much harm; your Majesty may thus see how contrary to actual facts are the things written you from here, and that the death-penalty is not suffered for cutting off their hair, as was written to your Majesty; for after the Dominican fathers learned the language we discovered vast secrets of that land, which were formerly well hidden.

The third decree states that there are many ecclesiastics in this bishopric who trade and carry on traffic, to the great scandal of and bad example to both Spaniards and Indians. He who wrote your Majesty told the truth in part, since two ecclesiastics from Nueva España furnished this bad example, although I did what I could to prevent them. Nevertheless, God punished them more severely than I did; for all the property of one was taken away by the Englishman, [40] and the other died here, and lost what he had sent to Nueva España. Those ecclesiastics who are under my government, however, have not exceeded their duty in this respect as much as your Majesty has been informed. Moreover, they are not so many as has been said in Spain, for there are not more than five who are stationed among the Indians, and these are so poor that they do not even have enough to eat. More than one and one-half years before this decree came, I had taken measures to correct the excess which might result, having ordered that no ecclesiastic should carry on traffic. This appears by the ordinances which I had made concerning this. That your Majesty may order them to be considered and amended, I enclose them with this letter. In the future this order will be more rigorously observed, according to your Majesty's command.

In the fourth decree, your Majesty says that the president of this Audiencia wrote that when he came to this land, he agreed with me as to the order [of precedence] to be followed when the Audiencia and I should encounter each other in public. He further says that, disregarding this arrangement, I sat in the place which did not belong to me, and turned my back on the Audiencia. I would be very glad to meet the president before your Majesty, and hear his reason for daring to inform your Majesty in such a manner. It is very certain that no such agreement was ever made between him and me, except that, when there was to be a procession in the church, the president should go with the auditors, and I with my clergy; for he claimed the right hand, and I did not have it to take. Thus we came to this agreement. The place, however, was not discussed, nor was there any excuse for doing so, as it is well known that the Audiencia is always seated on the gospel side in the body of the chapel; and, although the bishop is usually in the choir, he may, when he wishes to do so, sit on the gospel side, above the steps. Wherever I have been, this has been the practice; and I sent an account thereof, with the testimony of an eye-witness, to the Council of the Indias. Your Majesty provides and commands by this decree that I shall take the place belonging to me. This order means that I take the same place which I took then, as that is the proper place belonging to a bishop, without giving any cause whatever for the Audiencia to feel injured, as the places are very distinct from each other. Although the vexation ceased, because of the suppression of the Audiencia, the injury done me by the president, in writing to your Majesty, has not yet come to an end. I ought not to fail to reply to what is so unjustly imputed to me.

He who informed your Majesty of the matter contained in the fifth decree, namely, that when appeal is made to the royal Audiencia in cases of fuerça, [41] I do not allow the notaries to give an account thereof; and that I seize the writs and records of proceedings, so that they cannot be issued, the Audiencia having requested me in vain to do otherwise--whoever, I say, gave this account to your Majesty did me greater injury than any of the others. For not only is this not so, but I even urge the notary to give a report; and I am so far from [what has been said] to the contrary, that I assure your Majesty that I much regretted the suppression of the Audiencia. For I was very glad that, whenever I denied anything on appeal, the Audiencia examined my reasons therefor; and, whatever was determined there, my conscience was freed and at rest. Moreover, I always accepted, without making any objection, the decisions of the Audiencia; for I would consider it a grievous offense to deny your Majesty's right to make the final decision in cases of fuerça, and would not presume to contradict it in any manner whatsoever. If he who made that report based it on two cases which came up--one when they erased my name from the prayer at the mass of the Audiencia, and substituted their own names; the other when, in an investigation, they claimed the right to examine the proceedings which had been conducted in secret--in these two cases I confess that I refused to give up the records. I did so in one instance because there were therein very secret matters touching the office of the Inquisition, of which I was then in charge. When they commanded that report of this case be given, I said that it would be furnished in so far as concerned the chaplain of the said Audiencia. This was what they had asked, and claimed the right to try this case. Nevertheless, they would accept nothing but the entire proceedings; but with this I could not comply, for it would have been impossible to do so without very grave damage to my office. After considering my reasons therefor, the Audiencia insisted no more in the case. The other case concerned the general investigation which I had made of the prebendaries and clergy--two of whom appealed against the sentence which I imposed, stipulating that the tenor thereof be observed as is expressly commanded by the Council of Trent. They had recourse to the Audiencia; and when an order was given for the record of the case to be presented, I replied that there were secret matters touching the honor of the clergy, which I could not show, but that I would show that part referring to the two ecclesiastics; as they wished their offenses to be known. Nevertheless, it was not right to exhibit the guilt of the others, as they did not feel that their sentences were unjust. There were many arguments over this point, and all the theologians of this land said that I was right. To avoid scandal I openly consented that the two ecclesiastics should appeal to the archbishop. [42] Both then and now I have felt much aggrieved by the injustice done me by the Audiencia. I have sent a complaint thereof to your Majesty, and do not know why the testimony I sent has not yet arrived there. I had then and still have reason for complaining that the Audiencia usurped my jurisdiction and discussed proceedings which properly belong to me, but in which they have forestalled me. A citizen of this city left a piece of land whereon was built a hospital and church for the poor. Although this was ecclesiastical property, they deprived me of judgment in this case, and retained it in their own body. At another time, the Indians had dared to take a friar from his convent, and they dragged him to the place where I was. I commenced to try the case, and gave a verdict against the Indians, as it was doubly sacrilegious to take the friar from his convent, and to place hands on an ecclesiastic. This case came to the Audiencia by way of appeal, and it still remains there, with the records. A beneficed priest, who was performing the duties of his office, was refused its dues by the encomendero, and came to me for justice. After I had ordered the encomendero to make the payment, he appealed to the Audiencia, and they retained the suit there, claiming that the property given to beneficiaries in this land is secular. As I am poor, and have little power, these injuries and similar ones have not been heard of in Spain. I have suffered them and have kept silence, in order to avoid scandal; but for having resisted in but two cases, in which I was obliged to defend the right of my jurisdiction, in order to comply with the duties of my office, they made a damaging report of me to your Majesty. They say that I would not permit a report to be made, and took the records of the suit from the notary, so that they could not be dealt with. In order that your Majesty may see the difference between what I here declare (which is the actual truth), and what they wrote to your Majesty, accusing me of resisting _in toto_ the commands of the Audiencia in regard to the cases of fuerça (which was glaringly false testimony against me), I have decided--although everything touching the Audiencia is now settled, since your Majesty has commanded it to be suppressed--to answer the account which they gave your Majesty about the places and the cases of fuerça. Although I am sure that my cause has been justified before God and those men who know what has happened, I do it to satisfy your Majesty, to whom I owe all obedience and subjection as to my king and lord. I am even bound to explain my conduct; because, by the grace of God, your Majesty has no one in this kingdom who serves you with greater love and zeal. I claim no payment nor temporal interest whatever, because this I neither desire nor demand; but I do only my duty, and that I do with all my might. I could send your Majesty good and sufficient proofs of everything which I have said here; for I certify, in all truth, that everyone to whom I have shown these decrees has crossed himself in surprise that there should be a person or persons who would dare to make such malicious reports to your Majesty. It suffices me to say that, if credit be not given me, not much time will pass before this truth will be revealed, beyond all possibility of hiding.

May our Lord guard the royal person of your Majesty, and preserve you many years. At Manila, the twenty-fourth of June, one thousand five hundred and ninety.

_Fray Domingo_, Bishop of the Filipinas.

[_Endorsed_: "To the king our lord, in his royal Council of the Indias. Filipinas. 1590. The bishop; June 24." "Received and read, June 19, of the year 1591. It is unnecessary to respond thereto."]

Sire:

The letter which your Majesty ordered to be written to me from San Lorenço el Real [i.e., the Escorial], on the seventeenth of August of eighty-nine, I received by the hand of the secretary of the governor, Gomes Perez Dasmarinas, in the village of Tabuco, outside of this city, on the first of June of this year ninety. And for one so beset with afflictions, labors, and difficulties as I am, the favor which your Majesty therein shows me was no little comfort; for I have been freed by it from the pains of conscience, which I continually bore in my soul, at seeing the course of affairs in this land. I held myself obliged by conscience to go in person to inform your Majesty of these matters, as it appeared to me that my letters were accomplishing little, in accord with my hope that your Majesty would at once amend what you knew stood in need of betterment. And this thought gave me more anxiety because, as at other times I have written your Majesty, among the calamities and misfortunes under which this land suffers, none the least is that your Majesty must get information of them through the very men who have destroyed this land, and who work for their private interests rather than for the common good. As the reports are made by such persons, your Majesty can well see the result. Therefore this land has come to its present misery; and the new governor will have no small task if he maintains it, and saves it from ruin, and it is even now all but lost. I am emboldened to say this because hitherto there have been made to your Majesty many perverse reports; and by this ship we have received the decrees, by which it clearly appears that false reports were given your Majesty, because of the provisions made in these decrees, as I shall explain elsewhere.

The greater part of the religious and other principal persons of this land were of the same opinion as I, maintaining that I was in duty bound to go in person and give your Majesty an account of affairs here, because they see that everything here is going to ruin; and that this common expedient was of greater importance than the harm that might be done by my absence. But thanks be to God, in whose hands are the hearts of kings, and who put into the heart of your Majesty what is provided, ordained, and commanded by this letter for the weal and betterment of all this land. If this be executed as your Majesty has ordered, the country may be helped; but hitherto there has been so much sloth and carelessness in executing what your Majesty provides and orders for the good of this land, that thus it has come to its present extremity. I trust in our Lord that this state of affairs will not continue, but that the principal aim of the governor and of all the rest will be to procure the good of these natives whom we have so afflicted.

This whole country has been well satisfied at your Majesty's suppression of the Audiencia, for without doubt it was a greater burden than a country so feeble and poor could bear; although I was always of the opinion that, if it were paid from Mexico, the Audiencia would work no harm here. But what your Majesty orders and commands is expedient for all of us; and so we hold it a great favor, especially as your Majesty sends in place of the Audiencia, as governor, Gomez Perez Dasmarinas--who, from the good example which he has furnished and the zeal which he has disclosed in the service of your Majesty and the good of these realms, has given universal satisfaction, and the hope that he will improve the condition of the land, and give it the orderly condition which it was losing. May the divine Majesty preserve in him these excellent intentions, and give him strength and grace to execute them; because as the heart of man is so hard to understand, and of itself so variable, and this land is so exposed, it is not strange that we fear some alteration, having seen it in others who also gave excellent examples. But if the governor who has now come to us shall persevere in what he has begun (as I hope in God he will persevere), your Majesty has sent us the man whom we need.

When Doctor Santiago de Vera came by command of your Majesty to establish the Audiencia in this country, he set up for himself a seat of honor in the church, as the viceroys do. The adelantado, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, did not establish one, nor did the governors who afterward succeeded him. Gomez Perez, who is now governor, did not wish to set one up; for in this and in all other things he has shown himself very moderate. But it seemed to me that he should not fail to establish it, and thus at my importunity, and that of other persons, he has done so. Because your Majesty has already honored him in other respects, favoring him with a guard of halberdiers, and as people from all the kingdoms of the infidels by whom we are surrounded resort to this city, and as these barbarians respect their superiors as gods, it did not appear to me to be right that the person who represented your Majesty should discontinue the dignity which was required to represent you. And in order that your Majesty in the future may be pleased to provide this land with a governor who shall be capable and worthy to use his authority, I beg your Majesty to approve this and send him the order to continue and make permanent the practice.

The twelve thousand ducats which your Majesty has ordered to be paid in three installments for the work on this church, were necessary enough, although I fear that they are to avail as little as the rest; because, although your Majesty has so often commanded it, and we on our part have exercised the greatest possible diligence, it has not been possible to draw out from the royal treasury what was due from it for the said work; and so it has come to a standstill, or so little is done that it never advances. It really is a pity to see a cathedral church, in a city containing so great a concourse of heathen, where divine offices are celebrated in a church of straw, in which, on the coming of a storm, no one can remain. Your Majesty will see what the condition of the rest of the churches must be. It certainly is a pity to see the little care there is in this matter, and the scandal occasioned to the heathen and the recent converts by the little veneration that we who have so long been Christians bestow upon the temples in which we worship our God, for really many of them are not fit to serve as stables. I have given your Majesty an account of this before now. The two thousand ducats which your Majesty ordered paid from the treasury of Mexico for this work were not brought, because the governor could not bring the securities that were necessary to obtain that sum there, because of his hurried departure. Moreover, it should be understood that it will be very difficult to collect the portions to be paid by Indians and encomenderos, because of their want and poverty. And for this reason we do not dare to press them much, deeming it better that the work should be done slowly than to harass one who is unable to do more; and it has been the treasury of your Majesty which has aided us least.

Your Majesty's command that the religious should not depart from the bishopric without license of your Majesty, or that of the governor and myself, is a very just thing, and therefore it will be carried out; because it also seems fitting to me not to let the religious depart from here, where they are so few and so many are needed. Before this ship arrived the president and I had despatched two Dominican religious to Chincheo, which is the province of China nearest to this land, and the place whence all the Sangleys who come here to trade set forth. In this departure there was a punctual observance of what your Majesty commands in this clause of your letter, although we had not then received it. And owing to the fact that before we determined to send them, and at the time when we sent them, there occurred many notable things from which your Majesty should receive much satisfaction, I thought it better, in order not to make this letter so long, to place them by themselves in another, which will accompany this one, in order to give your Majesty a more detailed account of things so worthy to be heard.

With regard to what your Majesty orders concerning the remission of tithes for twenty years to those who now come to settle and who may come in the future, I would to God that the Spaniards were inclined to cultivate the land and to gather the fruits from it, rather than that we should ever afflict the natives by tithes. But your Majesty should know that when a man comes to this country, even if he were a beggar in Spain, here he seeks to be a gentleman, and is not willing to work, but desires to have all serve him; and so no one will give himself to labor, but undertakes trafficking in merchandise, and for this reason military and all other kinds of training have been forgotten. From this fact not a little damage will come to this land, if the governor does not regulate this. In the letter which the cabildo of the church wrote to your Majesty a much longer account is given of this.

To proceed informally [_de plano_], without insisting on legal technicalities [_sin llegar a tela de juicio_], and not to impose pecuniary punishments in the suits which occur in these regions, is a most holy and necessary practice. I desire greatly that in the tribunals of your Majesty this be observed; in mine I have so provided, and this practice has been observed and henceforth will be observed with greater rigor.