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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 36, 1649-1666: 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 36, 1649-1666: 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

Everything relating to the Inquisition of the Filipinas is carried to
the tribunal of Mexico, with great hardships to the persons, expense
to the treasury, and the risk of losing everything--sometimes years
being spent in questions and answers, and the enemy capturing (as
happened at various times) not only the records but the criminals
as well. And when affairs are settled, whether the criminals are
punished or freed, they are left about two thousand five hundred
leguas from their home and abode, and sometimes it is impossible
for them to return. One would think that, since it was considered an
inconvenience for the vassals of the Canarias (who are distant only
two hundred odd leguas from Hespaña) to go to Sevilla, and a tribunal
was established there for their alleviation, there is not less but
much [more] reason in the Filipinas for your Majesty to be pleased
to order that a tribunal be erected in the city of Manila, as was
done in the Canarias. Moreover, supposing that Goa return later to
the allegiance of your Majesty, it is as difficult to take criminals
and records from the forts of Terrenate to that place as to Mexico;
and, in proportion to the dangers of the sea, much greater.

At present, even if the road from Terrenate to Goa were short and easy,
it is not right to take the faithful vassals of your Majesty to be
punished by rebels, and by secret decrees, in districts so distant
from one another. And if they are not taken--as they have not been
taken for many years, during which acts have been fulminated--evildoers
remain without punishment, and the one evil is as bad as the other. All
that will be avoided by establishing a new tribunal in Manila. By that
erection no new expense will be added to the royal treasury other than
that of the inquisitor, and the amount given him will be proportioned
to the income of the country, and can be obtained by assigning a
certain number of Indian tributes to the royal treasury for that
purpose; and he can afterward be advanced to bishop and archbishop,
with greater experience than those have who go from other regions. The
other officials do not receive a salary. I trust in God, and the
piety of your Majesty, that provision will be made for this in the
manner most to our Lord's glory and the welfare of your vassals, etc.

Francisco Vello [16]


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