The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 27 of 55: 1636-37; 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 27 of 55: 1636-37; 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
After burying the father the next morning, Friday, March twentieth,
two days after the victory, we went up the hill with his Lordship;
but so great was the stench from the dead Moros in the ravines
(although many still lived, judging by the cries and groans of many
persons which were heard) that, almost as soon as we had reached
the top and had looked at the king's house, we returned to the
camp. His Lordship then commanded that with the exception of the
church ornaments, and the arms kept for his Majesty, everything
should be divided among the soldiers. His Lordship did not reserve
for himself or his friends even one blanca's worth--surely an action
very justly applauded, certainly, and admired because it is not now
practiced among the captains-general, and because it was, I believe,
the first [of its kind] in these Filipinas Islands; and it confirmed
the opinion that all held of the governor, as a wholly disinterested
gentleman. An enormous amount was found and divided; they say that
there were many cabinets full, and very heavy; what is certain is,
that the whole of Corralat's treasure was here, and whatever he had
plundered during so many years. Your Reverence does not need to be told
that the soldiers came back well satisfied, and many very rich. The
campaign brought them great profit; and truly they deserved it all,
for they all fought most valiantly. A great chest was filled with the
ornaments of the churches--sacred vessels, such as chalices, patens,
monstrances, censers, chrismatories, etc.--which we have now most
carefully returned to their owners; so that your Reverence was enabled
to fill four floats with these ornaments, in the solemn procession
which his Lordship held in Manila on Trinity Sunday, in thanksgiving
to God for the victory. It troubled me, however, on the day when we
climbed the hill, that I had not time to search for my beads, which I
had lost on the day of the assault--when, to placate the wrath of God,
I tore my cassock hastily down the middle. But the next day God chose
to console me; for, on my return from visiting the sick at the camp,
his Lordship gave me my beads. He had recognized them in the hand of a
soldier who had found them on his way down the hill, and had given the
man I know not how many pesos for them. They certainly were worth it,
because they were made from the stake at which the martyrs in Japan
were burned; and because they had touched the whole body of my most
glorious patron saint Francis Xavier, at Goa; these are the reasons
why I prize them so highly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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