The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 44, 1700-1736: 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 44, 1700-1736: 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
I had given to your Paternity account [of affairs] last year, by
way of Mejico, of the wretched condition in which this commonwealth
and these islands were, and of the unspeakable grief with which I
was living at seeing the lawlessness, tyranny, misgovernment, and
insatiable greed of the new governor, Field-Marshal Don Fernando
Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda; and afterward in the same
year, by the Eastern [India] route, I also sent to your Paternity an
account of the commotion [here] and the violent death of the said
gentleman, who perished on the eleventh day of October in the same
year. Nevertheless, as the latter route is so irregular, and it may
have happened that the said letter of mine has not reached your hands,
it has seemed to me prudent to repeat my last letter, and send it
by the galleon which is now sailing for Acapulco, in order that your
Paternity may be fully informed about that event (although summarily),
on account of what may yet occur.
The said gentleman reached this city on the thirty-first of July in the
year 17; and from the outset it seemed, with his disposition--unquiet,
changeable, petulant, and with inordinately bad tendencies--that he
directed all his efforts to the ruin of these islands. He persecuted
the citizens, arresting some, exiling others with pretexts of
embassies, conquests, and new expeditions, and causing others to
seek refuge for themselves, fearful of his harsh treatment; and he
fattened on the wealth of all the people.
To these evil beginnings corresponded like ends; and from so
mischievous causes were experienced the effects in the unlooked-for
and miserable death which he, with his eldest son, encountered on
the eleventh day of October in the past year. At that time the common
people rose in rebellion, and, going to his palace, deprived him of
life, without his having at his side any person who would defend him,
even among his own servants. This is a proof that he was hated by all;
and it is notorious confirmation of the truth of this statement that
the great precautions which he had taken since the tenth [of that
month] for his safety in his own palace availed him nothing; he had
provided soldiers, both infantry and cavalry, who, as they affirmed
to me, numbered more than three hundred. In the general opinion this
success [in killing the governor] was gained by especial permission
of His [Divine] Majesty, who by this act of providence, through His
lofty and venerable judgments, chose to furnish relief when it could
not be looked for so soon from human sources.
This tumult was caused by the arbitrary nature of the governor's
proceedings; for, without conforming to laws, either human or divine,
it seems as if he had--according to my judgment before God, in whose
presence I speak--no other law than his own will, from which proceeded
his despotic decisions, directed to his own advantage and not to the
general and public welfare, which ought to have been his chief care.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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