The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55: 1597-1599; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55: 1597-1599; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
I do not care to write concerning Don Francisco Tello, as when this
arrives another will already have been appointed, and he will go to
his home; may God guide him, and give him good fortune and penitence
for his misdeeds. What I write concerning the great evil of having a
ship go to China from these islands to trade--at any rate near where
the Portuguese are, and even in all parts of China--is at present so
true that, if this evil be not remedied, these islands must be ruined,
and the Portuguese will be destroyed. The Catholic faith must lose
much; and I hold it certain that there will be a war between us and
the Portuguese, for they have sought to take up arms with less cause
than this, or even have taken them up, against the Castilians there
in Macan. In short, they will not allow themselves to be ruined, and
that so evidently for merely the interest of the Castilians; but it
is not for the interest of the Castilians, but that of the governor
and auditors, and their retainers. The Portuguese know well, and so
do we all, that this is not the will of the king nor of the Council.
I write also that it is necessary to correct the freedom, ignorance,
and boldness of certain religious. I am still of the opinion which
we all had at that time, that the brief which Father Alonso Sanchez
secured from Gregory XIV, giving the bishop power to make visitations,
in person or by any clergyman, of the religious and their mission
villages, is certainly a most damaging one. Although no doubt some
superiors of the religious orders deserve to have this put in execution
at times, yet the religious orders are the walls of the church, and it
is not well to treat them thus. But likewise it is necessary that the
pope establish some order in the irregularity which your Grace will see
described in my letter for the Council. Let the bishop keep his place,
and the religious theirs; and let this divine work of preaching the
gospel be continued, which is our greatest desire. If the captain of
infantry tries to take up the duties of the master-of-camp, and the
soldier those of the captain or of the general, it will go ill with
the war. I am sending the Council the letter which I am writing to
the pope--first, because I wish that the Council should see first
what I have to say to the pope, that they should place it before
the pope, and that everything may be done by his order. In this way
everything will be regular, and, God willing, we shall achieve the
desired result. In the second place I have not and do not desire
any agent, because through the mercy of God, I solicit nothing for
my private interests, but only for the service of God and that of my
king. It seems to me sufficient to write what I think, to the Council,
so that those lords may attend to it, since that is their affair;
and they and their consciences will be excellent solicitors for the
adjustment of the matters that I write about, and the zeal of your
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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