The Jesuits Expelled from the Philippines.--The order expelling the
Jesuits from the Philippines was put into effect in the year 1767. The
instructions authorized the governor in case of resistance to use
force of arms as against a rebellion. [81] Besides their colleges in
Manila, Tondo, Cavite, Leyte, Samar, Bohol, and Negros, the Jesuits
administered curacies in the vicinity of Manila, in Cavite province,
in Mindoro and Marinduque, while the islands of Bohol, Samar, and
Leyte were completely under their spiritual jurisdiction. In Mindanao
their missions, a dozen or more in number, were found on both the
northern and southern coasts. Outside of the Philippines proper they
were the missionaries on the Ladrones, or Marianas. Their property in
the Philippines, which was confiscated by the government, amounted to
1,320,000 pesos, although a great deal of their wealth was secreted
and escaped seizure through the connivance of the governor, Raon.
Governor Anda's Charges against the Religious Orders.--Don Simon
de Anda had been received in Spain with great honor for the defense
which he had made in the Islands, and in 1770 returned as governor
of the Philippines. His appointment was bitterly resented by the
friars. In 1768, Anda had addressed to the king a memorial upon the
disorders in the Philippines, in which he openly charged the friars
with commercialism, neglect of their spiritual duties, oppression
of the natives, opposition to the teaching of the Spanish language,
and scandalous interference with civil officials and affairs. Anda's
remedy for these abuses was the rigorous enforcement of the laws
actually existing for the punishment of such conduct and the return
to Spain of friars who refused to respect the law.
He was, however, only partially successful in his policy. During the
six years of his rule, he labored unremittingly to restore the Spanish
government and to lift it from the decadence and corruption that had so
long characterized it. There were strong traits of the modern man in
this independent and incorruptible official. If he made many enemies,
it is, perhaps, no less to the credit of his character; and if in the
few years of his official life he was unable to restore the colony,
it must be remembered that he had few assistants upon whom to rely
and was without adequate means.
The Moro Pirates.--The Moros were again upon their forays, and in
1771 even attacked Aparri, on the extreme northern coast of Luzon,
and captured a Spanish missionary. Anda reorganized the Armada de
Pintados, and toward the end of his life created also the Marina Sutil,
a fleet of light gunboats for the defense of the coasts against the
attacks of pirates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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