The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 35, 1640-1649: 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 35, 1640-1649: 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
For the leading events in the history of the Dominican order in the
islands at this period, we resort to the pages of Santa Cruz's Historia
de la provincia del Santo Rosario (Zaragoça, 1693), a continuation
of Aduarte's Historia, already presented in this series. Beginning
with 1635, Santa Cruz gives an account, more detailed than Aduarte's,
of the coming of Collado and the "Barbones" friars; and he adds the
punishment and tragic death of Fray Collado. In 1637, Fray Carlos Gant
is chosen provincial. Santa Cruz describes the island of Formosa,
its people, and the Dominican mission established among them. He
enumerates some of the mistakes and faults of Governor Corcuera,
with their evil results to the islands; of these, the event most
deplored by the Dominicans is the loss of Formosa (1642). The lives
and achievements of various missionaries of the order are related. In
1639 occurs an insurrection among the Cagayán natives, caused by
ill-treatment from the Spaniards: the latter are unable to subdue
these people, who take refuge in their mountains. In the same year,
both the galleons from Acapulco are wrecked, which inflicts heavy
losses on the islands. Santa Cruz copies the royal decrees relating
to Collado and the suppression of the congregation of San Pablo.
An account of the Recollect missions for the period 1625-38 is
furnished by Luis de Jesús, in his Historia de los religiosos descalzos
de San Augustin (Madrid, 1681). In 1625, Recollect missionaries
extend their work in northern Mindanao, Fray Juan de San Nicolás and
a companion. In the following year, the Moros, instigated by the noted
Corralat, attack the village of Cagaiang; but it is fortified, and its
people trained in military exercises, by the "fighting parson" of those
missions, Fray Agustin de San Pedro, who defeats the enemy. In 1631
the Indians of Caraga, ill-treated by the Spanish commandant there,
rebel; they kill him and some of the soldiers, and several of the
Recollect missionaries in Caraga; some others are saved by friendly
Indians. The natives of Butuan remain faithful to the missionaries,
notwithstanding the efforts of the insurgents to seduce them. One
of the fathers sails to Cebu to procure relief for the endangered
garrison at Tandag; this is promptly sent, and soon quells the
insurrection. Much consolation is afforded to the fathers in this
distressful period by the conversion of an outlaw Indian chief and his
hundred followers. Some mention is made of the persecutions in Japan,
and of the Spanish occupation and subsequent loss of Formosa. In
1635 the Recollects enter Romblón and its dependent islands, where
they labor bravely, but exposed to continual danger by the piratical
raids of the Moros. Several of those who occupy Cuyo and Calamianes
Islands are captured by those enemies, and become martyrs for the
faith. This account is supplemented by that presented by Juan de la
Concepción in his Historia general de Philipinas (Manila, 1788). He
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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