Part 12

Since men here are placed in danger they are continually giving out, and when any of them die others take under their guardianship the children of those who are left. Sometimes the guardians give sufficient bonds, and sometimes not; but with the progress of time these cases have grown steadily worse, and the poor minors lose their estates. There are many thousands of ducados in the hands of guardians; and although the alcaldes-in-ordinary have tried to make them render accounts, no accounts have ever been finished during the three years since they were begun, for they are all banded together. This is a wretched state of affairs; hence, in order to correct this, it will be well for your Majesty to give commands that the Audiencia shall take charge of this matter. It should be committed to one auditor, for it can be done in no other way. This community suffers from this evil.

The governor, Don Pedro de Acuña, being obliged to be absent from the city on the expedition to Maluco, appointed as his lieutenant in the governorship and in matters of war the licentiate Christoval Tellez de Almaçan, second auditor of this Audiencia. As soon as the governor left the city the licentiate Don Antonio de Ribera Maldonado asserted that he, as the senior auditor, had the right to command in war and the Audiencia to direct the government, in conformity with the decree which declares that if the governor shall become unable to perform the duties of his office, the Audiencia shall govern, and the senior auditor shall perform the functions of captain-general. With regard to this the Audiencia determined that the licentiate Don Antonio should fill the office of captain-general, under certain limitations which were set, while the governorship should remain as the governor Don Pedro had left it. If it were necessary to carry out the decree, and if the chief command in military affairs should have to be given to the senior auditor, it ought not to be with limitations. Likewise the Audiencia should assume the functions of the governor. Accordingly, I give a statement of that which has happened, as I am looking to the future. An explanation of the said decree is needed to determine whether, when the governor is absent from the city without leaving the jurisdiction, he shall have authority to appoint whomsoever he chooses, or if the decree must necessarily be carried out. The decree states that, in case the governor thus fails to act, it is necessary to send a report of the facts to your Majesty, that you may take suitable measures; and it seems to refer to the event of death. For deciding this question, it must be considered that it might happen that the abilities required for the conduct of military affairs would be lacking in the senior auditor, while they might be found in the one whom the governor should appoint. From this it will be clearly seen that for the conduct of military affairs--especially in the condition in which these islands and the new conquest of Maluco at present are--it is undesirable not to be provided in this jurisdiction with a person of much distinction and experience in the conduct of war.

Since your Majesty is at such a distance, and the remedy for these difficulties must come so slowly, there is no one to correct certain ecclesiastics. Their superiors sometimes pay very little attention to the complaints made against them, and hence there have existed and do exist serious acts of impropriety, especially among the religious. Since there is no one who has authority to investigate their cases or to write reports regarding these, matters are in a most lamentable condition, and mainly to the injury of the Indians. The religious make assessments on the natives under the name of benefactions, and employ them at their will, without limit. I have striven to find means to correct this, and have entered suit against the agents whom they employ to carry out their plans; these are called fiscals, and are cruel executors of the will of the religious. I offered my plea, and accordingly the Audiencia decided that none of them should have the right to hold Indians in service or should collect any contributions; and a certain amount of abatement of this unjust practice seems to have resulted. Those who are most notorious in this matter, and who are worse than all the others, are the members of the Order of St. Augustine. They are practically incorrigible, on account of having as provincial Fray Lorenço de Leon, a friar of much ambition and ostentation. He left these islands to ask your Majesty for bounty, and now he is striving to go again, and for that purpose has collected a large amount of money. He has even taken the silver from some of the mission churches of his order; and when he visited the province of Ylocos, he even carried away the monstrances for the most holy sacrament from Ylaguan, Vantay, Candon, Tagudin, and other places. It will be well for your Majesty to decree and grant authority to the Audiencia, that it may cause official investigation to be made into these matters and others which may arise, and that it may proceed as do the viceroys of Piru and Mexico. For, so soon as friars are interfered with in any respect, they begin to declare that ecclesiastical censures have been incurred and disturbances are raised, which give occasion for scandal to the common people. When I saw this, I petitioned the said Audiencia for some correction of the unlawful acts of the said provincial; and they directed that the bishop of Nueva Segovia (who was present in this city) and the vicar-general of this archbishopric should make an official report in the matter. This they have done in a secret document, stating the great transgressions of this friar. When I petitioned that some decree should be passed in session of the Audiencia, it was decided that a remedy should be provided; but I have not learned that anything has been done. I inform your Majesty of this, that you may take such measures as shall be necessary.

A great aid in making a beginning in correcting the unlawful proceedings of these religious of the Augustinian order has been the coming of the discalced friars of the order. They have been very well received and several of the others have begun to join with them, intending principally to escape the tyranny of their provincial. In this way the others and he himself, will be corrected, when the good result of their coming shall be evident in this effect, and in the conversion of souls which your Majesty has so much at heart. I have aided them in so far as to provide them with a house, where they now are.

In the vicinity of this city, and within it, there are Indians without number who have come from their native places to escape the labor of tilling the soil and raising animals as they have been commanded. They make their living by buying and selling provisions and other things, to the great damage of this community. I have brought suit that they may be compelled to return to their native places; and finally they have been commanded to do so, a certain number of them being retained for the service of each religious order; these are gathered by the religious into villages. The execution of this decree is very necessary, and your Majesty accordingly ordained it at the suit of this city. Your Majesty will please command that this decree be enforced without exception, especially by directing that these villages for the service of the religious orders be broken up. Each order having been allowed as many as thirty Indians, that number has greatly increased by the protection given to them. The reason why they protect them is, that the Indians serve them either for nothing or at less than the ordinary rate of pay, and the sum allowed them for these Indians who serve them is distributed among those who remain; but, in order to get these servants cheaply, the religious contrive that there shall be many of them. If those who are necessary are permitted to remain, it is but just that the religious should pay them the regular rate.

Your Majesty has commanded that no one shall enjoy any positions of profit in these islands without being resident here; and that if encomenderos are absent they shall not receive the tributes. In particular, your Majesty has decreed by your royal letters, at the suit of this city, that the encomiendas of the mariscal Gabriel de Ribera, who has long been absent, shall be vacated. The governor accordingly vacated them, giving part of them to Don Jhoan Ronquillo, and placing part of them under the administration of the royal treasury. After this had been executed and settled, another royal letter arrived in which your Majesty granted to the said mariscal the privilege of receiving his tributes during his absence. When his attorney presented this letter I opposed it, and declared that it had been obtained by some improper statement, as I now allege, and as will appear by the documents which I send. Nevertheless, they commanded that the encomiendas in charge of the treasury should be returned to him, bonds being taken; accordingly, they were given to his attorney, because he himself did not come to demand the fulfilment [of the Audiencia's decree]. With regard to this matter your Majesty will take such measures as shall please you--considering that there are many here who, although they have seen service, still suffer need; and who are discontented that others should be rich and, even while absent, enjoy what these men are protecting at so great risk.

The expedition against Mindanao having been arranged during the year ninety-five with Captain Estevan Rrodriguez de Figueroa, who was under obligations to carry it out, he began to do so, going thither in his own person; but in the year ninety-six he died, at the first assault. The army being unprovided with a commander, the governor of these islands, Don Francisco Tello, selected one. For the continuation of this expedition a very great expense was incurred by the command of the said governor, with the assent and advice of Dr. Antonio de Morga, his assessor and lieutenant. A suit from the heirs afterward followed, on the ground that they were not obliged to continue the expedition, and were not responsible for the expenses thereof. The Audiencia, as a court of appeal, revoked the governor's command, and declared the estate free from obligations. I appealed the case to your Majesty, and sent the original documents. This I did, not only that the principal case might be decided, but also because the heirs claim that your Majesty should cause them to be paid for the expenditure of their property. I offer the advice that even if they were not obliged to carry out the conquest, your Majesty is not their debtor, since you have commanded that such conquests are not to be made on your account and at your cost. Hence these expenses are owing by him who commanded them to be incurred. Since I have been in your Majesty's service I have placed this matter in a clear light, as was not previously the case. When claims were made for wages and other expenses, the Audiencia commanded them to be paid from the royal treasury; and thus many such payments have been made on the account of those who really owed them. At the present time the judges, being informed in regard to these claims, have decided that they are not due from your Majesty. Accordingly your Majesty is not only not obliged to pay them, but has a right to claim satisfaction, for the expenditures from the royal treasury, from the property of the governor Don Francisco; and, in case it is insufficient, from the property of the assessor by whose advice they were incurred.

As to the provision of an incumbent for this office, it should be noticed that most affairs in this country depend upon it--especially the proper care of the Indians, which is most important; for with this office is united that of being their protector. I have always striven to attend to this matter carefully, as I have done in other matters pertaining to your royal service. This I shall continue to do in these islands until an appointment is made: and I petition your Majesty to grant me, when that shall come, permission to leave this kingdom, the governor that shall be in office making me a sufficient allowance for my passage hence. God keep the Catholic personage of your Majesty, with the increase of your realms. Manila, July, 1606.

The licentiate _Rodrigo Diaz Guiral_

The Terrenate Expedition

Sire:

In the Council of War for the Indias there have been presented two letters from Don Pedro de Acuña, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas, written to your Majesty on the first and seventh of July of the year 605 just past, copies of which are enclosed. In them your Majesty, if so pleased, will see in what condition is the expedition for the capture of Terrenate, and how the governor went in person with it, with a great deal of confidence in a favorable outcome, on account of the excellent reënforcement that had been sent to him under the command of the master-of-camp, Juan Desquivel. Although they were fewer in number than what he had asked for, nevertheless he was pleased with the companies that he had seen, and he expected to join with them some men from that garrison and some other available men, and some Indians (Panpangas and others from that vicinity) among whom are excellent arquebusiers and musketeers, who approve themselves very well when in company with Spaniards. He says that he foresaw this undertaking as soon as he began that government; and for that reason he had built five galleys, as he considered them to be the vessels most effective for the defense of that realm. He wrote that he would take four of them, and five ships and seven brigantines; and besides this five lorchas, which are very good vessels after the Chinese and Japanese style, for both oars and sails, and are more capacious and better suited for carrying food than any other kind of oared vessel. He thought, then, that he would make that expedition, taking with him all these galleys on your Majesty's account, and providing that for the private persons and the encomenderos there should go seven or eight other medium-sized vessels, with high freeboard, in which their masters should take a quantity of biscuit, rice, wine, meat, and other things--which would help greatly, because a large number of volunteers were going. He had made every possible effort in urging these latter to go, representing your Majesty's service to them; and he said that they greatly needed this opportunity, on account of the losses and troubles which they have suffered, and because they are poor and much disheartened. With this force he thought that he would set out from Manila, after St. Francis's day, for the town at the port of Oton, in the island of Panay, where the infantry was stationed, in order that the whole fleet might sail from there at the end of January or the beginning of February of this year, which is the best time for Maluco. He says that he has no doubt of encountering vessels from Olanda and Zelanda, and more this year than in others--according to the reports which he has that in the city of Nostra Dama, and in another near to it, they were getting ready twelve or thirteen large vessels with the intention of coming to the Indias to capture Ambueno and the Malucas; and that they were bringing a large number of men, and also lime and cut stone, as ballast, with which to fortify themselves. He says that he fears greatly that this may be so because the king of Tidore informed him that the king of Terrenate had sent to the Dutch, offering to permit them to build a fortress and factory in his land, in order to keep them satisfied so that they should help him against the aforesaid king of Tidore and against the Portuguese and Castilians; and that for this reason the forts there and at Ambueno were in great danger. Don Pedro says that, if this is true, there will be a great deal of difficulty in his undertaking. This report by the king of Tidore seems to be confirmed and made more sure by another which he sends with the aforesaid letter of the seventh of July, a copy of which is enclosed. This was made by a Portuguese of Ambueno and a religious of the Society of Jesus, both of whom were living there. It tells more at length of the state of affairs in Maluco, and of the lawlessness of the Hollanders, and their motive in going there with twelve large ships well equipped with artillery, in the year 604 just past; and how they came to Ambueno on the twenty-third of February of 605, with eight ships and six pataches, and captured the fort which was there, and took possession of the Portuguese town--because, those within it, seeing the great number of men and pieces of artillery which they carried, made no defense. Then, with the brick, lime, and stone which they had brought they began to rebuild the fort which the Portuguese had, and they left there about one hundred and thirty men as a garrison. The same thing may be learned from the brother Gaspar Gomes of the Society of Jesus, who has come from the Filipinas, sent by the aforesaid Don Pedro de Acuña and bearing letters from him. He says that the aforesaid Don Pedro had told him that, when the affair of Maluco was accomplished and the land made safe, he intended to go quickly to settle affairs in Ambueno, because he had heard that the Hollanders who had obtained foothold there were expecting a son of Don Antonio. [30] On this account he desired, as quickly as possible, a special order from your Majesty; and he, the brother Gaspar Gomes, comes to ask for it in the name of Don Pedro. This should be considered with great care, and also what he says in that letter about the king of Japon, in regard to keeping friendship with him--as your Majesty, if you are so pleased, may examine in greater detail in the letter. It is well to note also what he says about the delay that there might be in his receiving succor because your Majesty is so far away, and the great hindrance that it would be to him if they were not very careful and prompt in sending him from Nueva España more men, arms, gunpowder, and munitions in plenty, and also money; for, although the men had been paid for a year, already more than half had passed, and when he shall have started from Oton the year will be entirely completed. It is also necessary that another goodly amount of money be sent to the treasury of the Filipinas Islands, on a separate account, because it is so empty and depleted. The garrison also is lacking in men, and this should be provided for in part. All this having been reviewed and examined with the attention which a matter of so much importance requires, it appears that Don Pedro de Acuña has the Terrenate undertaking well under way, and that he should be thanked for it, as well as for going thither in person, on which account it seems that that matter will have better support, and that better results may be expected from it, on account of the good judgment and experience which he is known to possess. The information which we have of the care with which the rebels are fortifying themselves in those regions and getting control of the trade with them is very important; for from this results very great loss to your Majesty's exchequer, and great benefit and increase to that of the enemy, which may be the greatest support they have for the war which they are carrying on. If God grants good success in the Terrenate undertaking, as is hoped, and if Don Pedro can put that stronghold in a state of defense with a sufficient garrison for safety, and if it appears to him that, with the remainder of his men and what fleet may be left to him, he can regain Ambueno and drive the Hollanders out from that island, as he has given notice that he can do (relying on what the aforesaid brother Gaspar Gomes has said), the aforesaid Don Pedro de Acuña might be commanded to do so, and to place it in such a state of defense and security as is necessary to that stronghold--which is of the greatest importance for the preservation and security of the trade of the crown of Portugal, and for obstructing and hindering the designs of the enemy. Since that nation [_i.e._, the Dutch] has more steadiness and courage in its military actions than the Indians, and as it is quite a different thing to fight with them, it is of great importance that Don Pedro should not lack sufficient forces, and that he should be succored from Mexico immediately. For this purpose the Marques de Montesclaros should be written to, and a despatch-boat sent to him, ordering him that without loss of time he should proceed to help Don Pedro with the men, arms, gunpowder, munitions, and money which he requires for this Terrenate expedition, and whatever may result from it, so that the expense which has been already incurred in this may not, for any lack of these things, be put to risk, and that the Holland rebels may not be allowed to get a foothold and establish strongholds in that land; for the honor of the state is imperiled, and very great loss to your Majesty's exchequer is made possible through the hindrance of the trade in spices, if they get it under their control. What should be still more thought of and defended, since it is in greater danger, is the Catholic faith, because the land is infested with heretics, and the Indians are a very pliant and changeable people. Don Pedro should be informed of what the marques has been commanded to do for his help, in order that he may understand, and arrange and provide for everything as is best, in order that the desired result may be obtained.

Dora Pedro writes also, in regard to the pay of the men who were sent to him for that expedition, that it seems to him that what a soldier of that military department gets--namely, six pesos a month--is little, when the fact is considered that the country is incomparably more dear than when the pay was fixed; and that the eight ducados which the soldiers of the expedition earn are a great deal. He thinks, therefore, that it would be well if both were paid at the rate of eight pesos of eight reals a month, besides the customary thirty ducados which are regularly given in addition to each company in Spain and other regions; and that the captains should earn at the rate of fifty pesos a month, and the sergeants ten, as they do now. As the captains of that region get no more than thirty-five pesos, and those of the expedition get sixty ducados, it seems best to him that these salaries should be adjusted in the way that he states--giving to each at the rate of eight pesos of eight reals a month, and the customary thirty additional ducados a month which are usually given to each company in Spain and elsewhere; and that the captains should receive equally at the rate of fifty pesos a month, and the ensigns twenty, and the sergeants ten, as he says they receive now. Thus all will have pay that is equal and well adjusted, by taking away from some and adding to others, in the way which Don Pedro has proposed. Your Majesty will examine and consider all this, and will order what is best for your service. In Madrid, August 5, 1606.

His Majesty orders that the enclosed report of the Council of War of the Indias concerning the Terrenate undertaking be considered in the Council of State, and that he be informed of what it shall decide. God keep your Lordship. St. Lorenzo, August 15, 1606.

_The Duke_ The honorable secretary, _Andres de Prada_

Sire:

The Council, having seen that your Majesty sent for the enclosed report and the papers of the Council of War of the Indias, voted as follows: