The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 20 of 55. Unknown
forty-five thousand by Franciscans, and three thousand two hundred by Jesuits. The total number of souls of natives under religious instruction in the islands amounts to over half a million—apparently not counting therein the children. But the great number of Indians still unconverted demands many more missionaries, whom the king is urged to send. The archbishop gives some account of the hospitals and their management; he recommends that they be placed in care of the hospital order of St. John of God. He also enumerates the various religious and benevolent confraternities in Manila, with their purposes and revenues; of these the chief is that of La Misericordia. Serrano describes the character and present condition of the two colleges in Manila, San José and Santo Tomás, and of the seminary for girls, Santa Potenciana; for the former he requests faculty for granting decrees to their students, and for the latter substantial pecuniary aid. He states that, in general, the Indians are well treated by their religious teachers; but he recommends that more power over these ministers be given to the Philippine bishops. The constant menace of the islands by the Dutch enemy, however, lays cruel burdens upon the Indians, in ship-building and in other preparations for war which they are compelled to make by the royal officials. Serrano closes by answering certain questions about prebends, curacies, etc.
A royal decree (December 31, 1622) orders the Dominicans in the Philippines not to meddle in affairs of government. Another of the same date confirms and enforces a previous decree (1603) of Felipe II, ordering that all religious who are missionaries to the Indians be examined as to their competency for such work, especially in their knowledge of the native language, by the archbishop or some person appointed by him. A letter from the king (October 9, 1623) directs Fajardo to push the exploration of the Igorrote mining region, and to send nutmeg from the islands to Nueva España. Various matters mentioned by the governor receive perfunctory and formal answers. On November 27 following, Felipe IV confirms the permission given by the governor and archbishop to the Dominicans to found a college at Manila.
At the close of the year 1623, an expedition is sent to explore and pacify the province of the Igorrotes (in northern Luzon), already famous for its rich gold mines. The report of this enterprise, furnished (June 5, 1624) by its leader, Alonso Martin Quirante, narrates its progress from day to day, the plan of the campaign, the encounters between the Spaniards and the Igorrotes, and the success of the former in repulsing the attacks of the natives and obtaining ore from the mines. Martin describes the country through which he passes; the native tribes, their customs, and their methods of obtaining gold; the mines, and the ore secured from them. He considers the general idea of the richness of these mines incorrect and exaggerated; he examines them, however, carefully, and obtains specimens of the ore from each. Then follows a report of the various tests and assays made thereon, from which the results are not very satisfactory; a table showing the values of the metal obtained in each of the assays; and the action of the Audiencia of Manila thereon—they deciding to abandon further attempts to explore or work the Igorrote mines, and to send to Nueva España for further test the ores brought by Martin to Manila; moreover, the men now at the mines are to be sent to Nueva Segovia, to subdue the revolted Indians there.
September, 1904.
Documents of 1621
• News from the province of Filipinas. Alonso Roman; [July?].
• Death of Doña Catalina Zambrano. [Unsigned]; July.
• Letter to the king. Alonso Fajardo de Tença; July 21.
• Letter from the archbishop of Manila to the king. Miguel Garcia Serrano, O.S.A., July 30.
• Letter to the king. Geronimo de Silva; August 1.
• Affairs in the Franciscan province. Pedro de Sant Pablo, O.S.F., and others; 1620–21.
• Letter to the king. Alonso Fajardo de Tença; December 10.
Sources: The first of these documents is obtained from a MS. in the Real Academia de Historia, Madrid; the second, from the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer Library), i, pp. 509–514; the remainder, from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.
Translations: The first of these documents is translated by Arthur B. Myrick, of Harvard University; the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth, by James A. Robertson—except the Latin bull in the fourth, translated by Rev. T.C. Middleton, O.S.A.; the third and seventh, by Robert W. Haight.
News from the Province of Filipinas, This Year, 1621
By letters which we have received from Japon this January, 1621, we heard how bitterly the persecution of God’s religion is carried on in Boxu, the country of Masamune,1 who has been accustomed to send embassies to Spain in past years. The spread of the holy gospel and uninterrupted preaching went on until the return of the ambassador. Hitherto Masamune had dissimulated for reasons of state, hoping that he would be allowed to send one ship from his kingdoms to Nueva España, where he had large interests. Seeing that this would not be conceded, he commenced to persecute Christians openly and secretly. On the twentieth of September, 1620, he ordered prohibitions and edicts to be issued in various places, in which it was ordered that no one should receive the religion of God; and that all those who had adopted it should abandon it, under penalty of being deprived of the property and incomes which the chiefs of equal rank hold from the tono [i.e., daimio], while in the case of the common people, the plebeians, they should be put to death. He also commanded that any person having any knowledge of any Christian should denounce him; and that all preachers of the holy gospel should leave his kingdom and state. In case that they would not abandon the religion which they preached, the officials of Masamune commenced to execute their orders. Many were therefore banished and dispossessed of their property, others abandoned the faith, and to six fell the best lot of all in giving up their lives, being beheaded for this reason.
In the city of Nangasaqui, as all its people are Christians, the persecution is directed not so much against the Christians, for that would utterly destroy the place, as against those who conceal the religious who are under penalty of death.
On the seventeenth of December, they arrested two religious of St. Francis, one a priest named Fray Pedro de Avila,2 and another a layman, Fray Vicente. On the twelfth of February they beheaded two leading natives for their faith. On the thirteenth of the same month they bound to the stake, in order to burn alive, a man who had two religious in his house. On account of his anxiety to escape the fire, he confessed; and leaping from it (they say) he begged them not to kill him, saying that [illegible in MS.]. They cut him to pieces, however, without mercy, and he was sent to the Lord.
At this same time they seized in Nangasaqui a servant of the father provincial, Matheo Couros, who was washing his clothes. When he was thus recognized, they inflicted sharp torments upon him, to make him disclose what he knew; but he, although mangled, bravely gave up his life in the torture rather than betray the father. There are at present in Japanese prisons [MS. torn] of religious and Christians: of the Order of St Francis there are five; of that of St. Dominic, three or four; of the Jesuits one, Father Carlos de Espinola. There were three, but one was burned alive for his faith; and the other, who was a Portuguese brother, [died]3 with the hardships of the prison, and it is thought to be certain that [his death was hastened] by poison.
The Dutch and English seized, on board a Japanese ship which sailed from Manila for Japan, two religious—one a Dominican, and the other an Augustinian—who were identified by letters and papers that they had with them.4 The letters [MS. torn] nevertheless, presented at court, for it was not considered wrong for them to have [MS. torn] a ship of Japanese, who extended them a kindly welcome to their kingdom. They jointly presented a petition, stating to the emperor that until [MS. torn] destroy Manila and Macan, there
Pedro de Avila joined the Franciscan missions in the Philippines in 1616, and immediately requested from his superiors permission to go to Japan. This was finally granted; he went there in 1619, but was imprisoned for preaching the faith, in 1620, and, after nearly two years of most painful and wretched imprisonment, was burned at the stake at Nangasaqui, on September 10, 1622, at the age of thirty years.
The original MS. of this document is badly worn, in places; and the words enclosed in brackets, in the two following paragraphs, indicate the conjectures of the transcriber.
These priests were Pedro de Zuñiga, an Augustinian, and Luis Flores, a Dominican. In 1622, they, with the Japanese captain of the vessel, were burned to death by a slow fire, and the crew were beheaded. The Japanese shogun appropriated the cargo of the ship, leaving only the empty hull for the Dutch and English. (See Cocks’s