The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 18 of 55. Unknown

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 18 of 55

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 Jerónimo de Salas, Father Sepúlveda 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.” (Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 76.)

17

Jerónimo 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 Catálogo, 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 reënforcements of nearly six hundred men.

22

This was Alonso Fajardó y Tenza; for sketch of his career as governor, see appendix at end of Vol. XVII.

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