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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55: 1621-1624; 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 20 of 55: 1621-1624; 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

the oldest residents here, as well as by me. They bewail Don Juan de
Silva, for, although they say that he was covetous and revengeful, yet
he was moderate in these faults; besides, he was prudent, and watchful
of your Majesty's service, and of the preservation [of the country]
and credit in war, and of the honor of your Spanish nation. Many
of them fear, and I with them, some great chastisement from heaven,
because of the publicity and multitude of the sins of us who live here.

In the particulars of the above matters [your Majesty's revenues]
have been and are being wasted during the time of this government,
and I fear greatly that it will continue in the same way until the
end of it; and I do not know that it can become worse. For I assure
your Majesty that I am talking with some caution, although I could
enlarge on this subject--because when I talk with my king, I am
talking with God, for the satisfaction and security of my conscience;
and because from my entrance into this Audiencia, I thought that I
would not be fulfilling my obligations unless I endeavored to do my
duty in what concerns me, and in the rest what I could, so that the
service of God our Lord and that of your Majesty might be furthered. I
thought that if evil beginnings be looked on with fear they could not
increase. I always endeavored to furnish a good example in the matter
of any actions and life, and at the same time to persuade and advise
the governor of what I deemed worthy of reform, so that reason and
not inclination might rule. I avoided conforming to his will in all
things that came to my hands by reason of my office which were not to
the service of your Majesty. By deed, example, and advice, or at least
by efficient warnings, I exerted myself, so that only your Majesty's
service should be striven for, and I am persevering in this course. I
desire and am endeavoring to be on my guard respecting matters which
concern his inclination and not his reason. For in fact, although
the governor has done what he wished in many things, because he does
not know how to conduct negotiations otherwise, at least he did not
so act with me; and because of me and the openness of my nature, he
ceased to attempt and to do other things--I persevering in my purpose,
and he in his; and, although disabusing his mind of the idea that I
would surrender myself to an evil thing, humoring him and giving him
pleasure in all that I could freely. Inasmuch as that was so little
and the matter of justice so great, because your Majesty's royal
treasury and other most important things enter into it, he readily
abandoned the path of perverting me. He said, with promises, that
he would esteem my compliance more highly than that of all others,
or than a great sum of money, besides other exaggerations (from which
I think that he did not ill judge me), and changed the course that
he had pursued by means of insults and injuries. [As an instance of

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55: 1621-1624; 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

the oldest residents here, as well as by me. They bewail Don Juan de
Silva, for, although they say that he was covetous and revengeful, yet
he was moderate in these faults; besides, he was prudent, and watchful
of your Majesty's service, and of the preservation [of the country]
and credit in war, and of the honor of your Spanish nation. Many
of them fear, and I with them, some great chastisement from heaven,
because of the publicity and multitude of the sins of us who live here.

In the particulars of the above matters [your Majesty's revenues]
have been and are being wasted during the time of this government,
and I fear greatly that it will continue in the same way until the
end of it; and I do not know that it can become worse. For I assure
your Majesty that I am talking with some caution, although I could
enlarge on this subject--because when I talk with my king, I am
talking with God, for the satisfaction and security of my conscience;
and because from my entrance into this Audiencia, I thought that I
would not be fulfilling my obligations unless I endeavored to do my
duty in what concerns me, and in the rest what I could, so that the
service of God our Lord and that of your Majesty might be furthered. I
thought that if evil beginnings be looked on with fear they could not
increase. I always endeavored to furnish a good example in the matter
of any actions and life, and at the same time to persuade and advise
the governor of what I deemed worthy of reform, so that reason and
not inclination might rule. I avoided conforming to his will in all
things that came to my hands by reason of my office which were not to
the service of your Majesty. By deed, example, and advice, or at least
by efficient warnings, I exerted myself, so that only your Majesty's
service should be striven for, and I am persevering in this course. I
desire and am endeavoring to be on my guard respecting matters which
concern his inclination and not his reason. For in fact, although
the governor has done what he wished in many things, because he does
not know how to conduct negotiations otherwise, at least he did not
so act with me; and because of me and the openness of my nature, he
ceased to attempt and to do other things--I persevering in my purpose,
and he in his; and, although disabusing his mind of the idea that I
would surrender myself to an evil thing, humoring him and giving him
pleasure in all that I could freely. Inasmuch as that was so little
and the matter of justice so great, because your Majesty's royal
treasury and other most important things enter into it, he readily
abandoned the path of perverting me. He said, with promises, that
he would esteem my compliance more highly than that of all others,
or than a great sum of money, besides other exaggerations (from which
I think that he did not ill judge me), and changed the course that
he had pursued by means of insults and injuries. [As an instance of

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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