The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 16 of 55: 1609; 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 16 of 55: 1609; 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
Finally, all of the slaves demanded by Governor Gomez Perez had to be
supplied, but with injuries and acts of oppression; and with the same
injuries and oppression they were all put on the galleys. There they
remained some time before sailing, and some of them died, because they
were unused to that life. All those slaves proved insufficient to man
all the galleys, and the flagship was without rowers. On that account,
and in order to complete the work, more severe methods were used than
at first. The governor ordered that two hundred and fifty Chinese be
drafted from those who go to Filipinas to trade, in order to man or
equip the flagship. Each of them was to be paid two pesos monthly from
the royal treasury. The governor assured them that they would not be
chained, but free, and could have their weapons and serve as soldiers,
and would only have to row the galley during calms, if any should
occur, and in order to double certain headlands. This decision being
communicated to the Chinese, they ail refused it as an intolerable
burden. But when our governor insisted upon this, in order to carry
out his design, the Chinese governor assembled his people in order
to discuss the matter, and to plan how they might choose two hundred
and fifty from among them all; and he threatened that he would take
every tenth man by their houses. That threat disturbed them so much,
that the next day, all their windows were closed, and the merchants
closed their shops; and the community was deprived of the provisions
which were supplied to it by them. Our governor, upon seeing this,
saying that they had mutinied, had about fifty of them seized,
the first whom he could find, and put them in the galleys at the
oar. Thereupon the rest, being cowed, assembled, and made up from
among their number all the two hundred and fifty. And inasmuch as no
one of them wished to be of that number, they distributed among those
who accepted that service twenty thousand pesos, which were given
as a present to those Chinese who would go on the galley, each one
being given eighty pesos, besides the king's pay. With this good aid,
Chinese were not wanting to consent to act as rowers, although the
twenty thousand pesos were spent among them--or, more correctly, among
the officers. From those two hundred and fifty Chinese, five companies
were formed, and five Chinese Christians appointed as captains. They
made their musters and reviews, with pikes and catans--which are
but slightly different from cutlasses--and appeared to be happy
and contented. Amid these occupations Brother Gaspar Gomez came
unexpectedly to Manila, loaded with information which he referred to
the governor in a number of private conferences. He said that the king
of Ternate was not badly prepared, although his forces were somewhat
weakened by his not being in very great harmony with the majority of
the chiefs of his kingdom. Many were threatening to rebel because of
his tyrannies and excessive levies of tribute.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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