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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 47, 1728-1759: 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 47, 1728-1759: 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 years 1599 and the first four of the seventeenth  century
prove very disastrous for the Philippines, for they are visited by
many earthquakes, and suffer many other losses and misfortunes. The
first earthquake of June 21, 1599, does much damage to buildings,
and it is followed by other disastrous earthquakes in 1600. This year
also are lost the two ships "Santa Margarita," in the Ladrones, and
"San Geronimo," in Catanduanes; and the raid of Oliver van Noordt
occurs. In 1601, two galleons are lost in a hurricane--"Santo Thomas"
in Camarines on its way from Nueva España, and the second in the
shipyard of Pañamao near Leyte. Two ships from Acapulco land at the
islands in 1602 with goods wasted and rotten. In 1603, a fire causes
the loss of more than one million pesos in goods; and the disastrous
rising of the Chinese also occurs.]

This is a brief sketch of what happened during the five years in
this city of Manila--events which truly cannot be read without
great horror. During that time the extreme necessity of many poor
people was crying out for relief, especially that of many women,
who were coming from Nueva España, and wretched slaves who because
of the rigor of unsatisfied hunger were yielding up their lives. A
good proof of this truth is a letter (the original of which this
brotherhood preserves) from his Excellency, Don Diego Bazquez de
Mercado, most worthy archbishop of the holy cathedral church of
this city, who was promoted from bishop of Campeche to this church,
where he had before been its dean, and had been at the foundation
of this venerable brotherhood as the ecclesiastical governor of the
vacant see of Don Fray Domingo de Salazar. Its date is August 15, 613,
and it was written in duplicate to our most holy father, Paul Fifth,
and is of the following tenor.

[In this letter Vazquez de Mercado informs the pope of the growth
of Christianity in the Philippines, much of which he attributes,
in addition to the work of the religious orders, to the work of the
Santa Misericordia. He asks the pope to confirm the enclosed rules and
regulations of the brotherhood. He also asks for certain indulgences
in order that the rules may be followed properly.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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