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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

Of that of Don Juan de Silva, which your Majesty also ordered me to
take, I have informed your Majesty in other letters, that that order
reached me jointly with that of the fiscal, and that for certain
reasons of convenience I deemed it best to take that of the fiscal,
and afterward to enter upon that of Don Juan de Silva. The country has
been so scandalized by what occurred in that of the fiscal, Don Juan de
Alvarado, because of the violent demonstrations made by the governor in
favor of the fiscal, that many witnesses of those who swore, came to me
to ask me not to take Don Juan de Silva's residencia, because there was
not one man who would tell anything that he knew when summoned. Some of
the witnesses they tried to kill at night, and others fled the city,
having been threatened, it is said, by order of the governor, after
the charges against the fiscal were published, until which time he and
the governor thought that there could be no witness who would dare [say
anything]. On that account the demonstrations that arose were greater,
and I was requested, considering the condition of the affairs of the
country and the many objects of the governor, to do the same in the
residencia of Don Juan de Silva. [This was desired] on account not
only of the many connections that it must necessarily have with many
cases related to it, with which he has had connection during the time
while he has been here; but of other private persons, his friends,
who are involved in the residencia, especially one Josephe de Naveda
Alvarado, a relative of the fiscal, who was secretary to Don Juan de
Silva, and also served him in other offices of great danger. It is
well known that this man, for Don Juan's sake, has committed the most
dangerous and insolent acts that one can imagine, during that time
and at present. He is also secretary to this governor, whose especial
favor he enjoys. Whence I am persuaded beyond all doubt that nothing
good will be done, for what the governor would not do through Josephe
de Naveda and the others is much more than what he would do through
the fiscal. It is not many months since, because of a royal decree
that your Majesty sent to the Audiencia ordering the investigation
of the property of Don Juan de Silva and its sequestration, I found,
on attending to it, a process where it appeared that this Naveda owed
Don Juan de Silva eight thousand pesos. On taking it to the Audiencia
to have justice done there and to have it paid, notwithstanding
your Majesty's decree, the governor seized the process and kept it,
forbidding us, with frightful demonstrations [of anger], to discuss
it longer. Consequently, I thought it best to postpone taking the
residencia until I could see whether matters would mend, which God
is wont to bring about by methods unthought of--notwithstanding
that the governor, under pretext of service to your Majesty, told me
often to take the residencia, for, in the presence of the greatest

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

Of that of Don Juan de Silva, which your Majesty also ordered me to
take, I have informed your Majesty in other letters, that that order
reached me jointly with that of the fiscal, and that for certain
reasons of convenience I deemed it best to take that of the fiscal,
and afterward to enter upon that of Don Juan de Silva. The country has
been so scandalized by what occurred in that of the fiscal, Don Juan de
Alvarado, because of the violent demonstrations made by the governor in
favor of the fiscal, that many witnesses of those who swore, came to me
to ask me not to take Don Juan de Silva's residencia, because there was
not one man who would tell anything that he knew when summoned. Some of
the witnesses they tried to kill at night, and others fled the city,
having been threatened, it is said, by order of the governor, after
the charges against the fiscal were published, until which time he and
the governor thought that there could be no witness who would dare [say
anything]. On that account the demonstrations that arose were greater,
and I was requested, considering the condition of the affairs of the
country and the many objects of the governor, to do the same in the
residencia of Don Juan de Silva. [This was desired] on account not
only of the many connections that it must necessarily have with many
cases related to it, with which he has had connection during the time
while he has been here; but of other private persons, his friends,
who are involved in the residencia, especially one Josephe de Naveda
Alvarado, a relative of the fiscal, who was secretary to Don Juan de
Silva, and also served him in other offices of great danger. It is
well known that this man, for Don Juan's sake, has committed the most
dangerous and insolent acts that one can imagine, during that time
and at present. He is also secretary to this governor, whose especial
favor he enjoys. Whence I am persuaded beyond all doubt that nothing
good will be done, for what the governor would not do through Josephe
de Naveda and the others is much more than what he would do through
the fiscal. It is not many months since, because of a royal decree
that your Majesty sent to the Audiencia ordering the investigation
of the property of Don Juan de Silva and its sequestration, I found,
on attending to it, a process where it appeared that this Naveda owed
Don Juan de Silva eight thousand pesos. On taking it to the Audiencia
to have justice done there and to have it paid, notwithstanding
your Majesty's decree, the governor seized the process and kept it,
forbidding us, with frightful demonstrations [of anger], to discuss
it longer. Consequently, I thought it best to postpone taking the
residencia until I could see whether matters would mend, which God
is wont to bring about by methods unthought of--notwithstanding
that the governor, under pretext of service to your Majesty, told me
often to take the residencia, for, in the presence of the greatest

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

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