The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 1721-1739: 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 46, 1721-1739: 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 Council of the Indias gave answer to the royal Audiencia [of
Manila] that they had received the [papers in the] investigation of
the death of the governor, and were giving the matter due attention;
and at the same time came another order from the king to the Marqués
de Torre-Campo, in which the latter was commanded to take cognizance
of this affair and punish the culprits. The governor, who, it appears,
had little inclination to plunge into this labyrinth, a second time
consulted Father Totanes [3] and the Jesuits--who told him that,
just as he had before stayed the execution of the first order, he
ought to do the same with this one, until his Majesty, advised of the
governor's reply [to the first order], which had not yet been received,
should make another decision. Father Totanes in his advisory statement
exaggerated the ruin of the fortunes of the citizens of Manila, the
arrears [in the incomes] of the charitable funds, the scarcity of
rice, and the lack of those who might give alms (on account of which,
he said, many died of hunger), the cause of all these evils being
the mariscal. The father expatiated on his acts of violence, and the
consternation of the city, with which he strove to exculpate the action
of the Manila people, who had no other recourse, in order to escape
from such a throng of calamities, than to depose the governor from his
office. "But to what tribunal," he said, "were they to resort in order
to deprive him of his office? He had suppressed the royal Audiencia,
and held the archbishop and the ecclesiastics prisoners; and the city
[council] was composed of an alcalde-in-ordinary who was a nephew of
the governor, and two regidors who were his henchmen. Not having any
one to resort to, they tried to arrest the governor, in order to free
themselves from so many calamities; he resisted, turning his weapons
against the citizens, who wounded him mortally in defense of their own
lives; but this should be regarded as the misfortune of the mariscal
rather than the fault of the citizens." This statement, which veritably
is a seditious one, they presented to the king, in order to show him
the erroneous opinions of the religious of Philipinas; but it was a
calumny, for Father Totanes was not the oracle of the islands, and
most of the regulars thought as did the Jesuit fathers--who, while
condemning in their advisory report the act of the Manila people,
said only that the latter were worthy of the royal clemency. With
this came to a halt all the severity with which at first this process
was undertaken, and, the minds of people gradually becoming cool,
the prosecution entirely ceased, and all these who were inculpated
remained unpunished; the archbishop alone, he who had taken least
part in these commotions and disturbances, was chastised [4]--a worthy
prelate, who in imitation of Christ carried on his own shoulders the
sin of his people. (Zúñiga, Hist. de Philipinas, pp. 514-517.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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