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
demonstrations of displeasure that all of us perceived the difficulty
[of enforcing the demand], and several undertook to represent it
[to the authorities]. Don Diego de Faxardo was the governor, a man
so harsh in his methods, and having so little pious regard for the
[religious] ministers, that their intercessions only made him more
cruel, on account of the dogmatic opinion which he followed, that
the ministers are the ones who oppose the royal service. Accordingly
they all gave up any active opposition, but moderated in a thousand
ways the execution [of the decree] (which they saw could not be
avoided), sometimes with gifts, sometimes with considerations of
utility. The men of Ibabao, trusting in the ruggedness of their
coast or the inaccessibility of their mountains, or in the succor
which had been positively promised to them by the Dutch--who every
year make port on their coasts, awaiting with their armed fleets the
relief [sent us] from Nueva España--immediately declared themselves
[against us]. At the outset, in their stubbornness and disobedience,
until their affairs were settled and their retreat prevented, they
talked of fleeing to the mountains. This was their first opinion; but
a malicious Indian interfered in the discussion, and told them that
they could not accomplish anything by that course, because the village
would not be destroyed, nor would the promoters [of the rebellion]
have the following that they desired, unless they ordered that all
should rebel, and slay the father, and burn the church; for their guilt
in such action would intimidate all of them. As their councils were
held in the excitement of wine, all readily approved this extravagant
proposal. Immediately the demon offered them, for its execution, the
evilly-inclined mind of a vile Indian named Sumoroy, who, although
he had been much favored by the fathers as being a skilful pilot
on the sea, and on this account had always enjoyed immunity from
tribute and personal services, and was actually the castellan of the
fortified residence that they had there, yet desired--because they had
removed an obstacle [64] which for many years had kept him at variance
with and separated from his lawful wife--to find an opportunity for
vengeance. This man offered to kill the father; and, confirming his
resolve with many draughts to his success, and loud shouts, they
dreamed that they were already masters of the entire world, and had
slain all the Spaniards. He had already prejudiced their minds against
his enemy, telling each Indian in the village separately that he had
been assigned by the father to go to the Manila shore; consequently,
no one now repaired to mass or took notice of public affairs. The
father rector--who was Father Miguel Ponce Barberan, a native of the
kingdom of Aragon--saw plainly the hostile disposition of the people,
but never could have imagined so insane a resolve; and if any one could
most confidently throw aside anxiety it was this father, for he had
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