The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 38, 1674-1683: 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 38, 1674-1683: 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 spirit of discord also roamed through the mountains of the province
of Ogtong in the island of Panay, causing a disturbance which had an
aspect more ridiculous than serious; and if I have concluded to set it
down here it is only to show the pliability of disposition in these
Indians in believing every new thing, even when it is groundless,
simply because fear persuades them to believe whatever is inimical
to the Spaniards, and especially if it is to their discredit. In
the villages of Miagao and other visitas of Tigbauan, the collector
of tributes for the king was a soldier born in Nueva España, of a
merry and jesting disposition; he without heeding what would result,
told among the Indians this exceedingly absurd story: "That the king
of España had gone out to the seashore for recreation, so heedless
of danger and so lightly attended that he had been captured by some
Turkish galleys that landed at that shore, and had been carried
away to the court of the Grand Turk, who demanded for his ransom an
enormous number of slaves; and that to comply with this demand he
had sent many ships, which were to carry all the natives of that
province to him, so that he could deliver them to the Turks." The
soldier told them that several ships had come for this purpose, which
were already in the harbor of Iloilo; and that the alcalde-mayor
Don Sebastián de Villarreal and other Spaniards had to go with the
ships, in order to make this delivery. This foolish and so perverse
story was so thoroughly believed by the Bisayan Indians [108] that
it caused a great disturbance and commotion among the inhabitants
of the villages of Tigbauan, Miagao, Guimbal, and their visitas--so
that, abandoning their homes and villages, they fled to the woods
without concerted action, publishing the story that the Turks were
already close by to seize them, and would carry the natives to their
king as prisoners. The father ministers, as being nearest to them,
experienced great perplexity, not being able to bring back the
fugitives, as they did not know the cause of their disturbance; for
when the natives perceived any religious they only took to flight,
crying out, "Turks!" and thus the villages were being depopulated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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