The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 37, 1669-1676: 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 37, 1669-1676: 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 coast of Cagayán, they all make their way overland to Manila,
experiencing great hardships. Diaz presents brief notices of all
the new missionaries of his order, and relates the more important
events in the early years of Salcedo's term of office. Dissensions
arise between the two new auditors, which later result in disaster
to the whole community. Manrique de Lara is sent back to Spain,
and exonerated from the charges made in his residencia. Salcedo
accomplishes much in shipbuilding and the extension of commerce. Fray
Alonso Quijano is reëlected provincial of the Augustinians in
1665; that chapter again refuses the governor's demand for lists
of its priests who act as curas, the Dominicans also declining to
furnish such information. In that same year the Augustinians begin
a mission to the Apayaos, in charge of the fervent Fray Benito de
Mena; he succeeds after many labors and hardships, in establishing
three villages of these converts. Salcedo determines "to undertake
some conquest that would result to the honor of God and extend the
Spanish government;" the council that he summons for advice on this
point agree (both military officers and superiors of religious orders)
that the most promising enterprise of this sort is the conquest of the
Igorot tribes in northern Luzón. Diaz gives a brief sketch of these
peoples, and relates their conquest by a Spanish expedition (1668),
and the subsequent conversion of many heathen there by Augustinian
missionaries.
Salcedo causes a galleon to be built at Albay, the largest and best
yet made in these islands. Diaz complains of the practice of sending
criminals from Mexico to Filipinas. In 1667, the first mission to
the Marianas Islands sets out; it is composed of Jesuits, under the
leadership of Sanvitores, later famous for his martyrdom in those
islands. The provincial elected by the Augustinians in 1668 is Fray
Dionisio Suárez, characterized later by our writer as being "more
angel than man." The number of missionaries in the order is far
too small for its needs (a lack shared also by the other orders),
and they are rejoiced when a reënforcement of seventeen religious
arrive in that same year at Manila. Certain shipwrecked people from
some remote and unknown island are driven at that time on the shores
of Capul Island; and some Spaniards are drowned while trying to cross
the Embocadero. Salcedo governs five years, incurring great enmities
among prominent persons in the community, which end in his arrest by
the Inquisition, and a harsh imprisonment until his death. Diaz, who
often visited Salcedo while in durance, gives an interesting sketch
of him, and praises his pious resignation and patience in affliction;
but he carefully refrains from further comment on the events connected
with Salcedo's arrest, or the persons engaged in it. Diaz mentions
very briefly the assumption of gubernatorial authority by the
auditor Bonifaz (whom he commends as discreet and disinterested),
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