The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 1640

After the fifty years of this history were completed, there came the following letter from his Majesty, which settled the matter which had disturbed the religious of this province and kept them in affliction. This letter was received, as has been said in the history, without any representation from the province having come to the royal ears; hence it is a most certain proof that it was given by the special providence of the Lord, and by the aid of our great patroness the Virgin Mother; and that it is worthy to be placed as a conclusion to this history.

Letter written by his Majesty to the venerable and devout father provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of the Philipinas Islands

(Copied faithfully from the original.)

The King. To the venerable and devout father provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of the Philipinas Islands. From different reports which I have received, I have learned of the disturbance and disquiet caused among the religious of that province by the division of it that was made by virtue of letters obtained from the general of the order by Fray Diego Collado, and by the aid given him for the purpose by Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, my governor and captain-general of these islands. I desired that the said briefs should not be executed, since they were not approved by my royal Council of the Indias; and hence, looking rather to the conformity of the religious with the rule of the order, and to the quiet of that province, and perceiving that the said division must cause some relaxation therein, I have commanded my said governor and captain-general of these islands, and my royal Audiencia, to suspend the said brief and all other briefs brought by the said Fray Diego Collado, without permitting them to be executed. And I have commanded that the division of the provinces which has been made shall be annulled, and that they shall return to the condition in which they were before the said division. I accordingly request and direct you to attend to it, on your part, that these said provinces shall be placed in the state in which they were before Collado to España immediately. That this may have effect, I have in a letter of this day commanded my said governor to have him provided with passage. You will inform me at the first opportunity of what you shall have done in execution of what I thus request of you. Dated at Madrid, February first, in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-seven.

I the King

By command of our lord the king:

Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon

1

i. e., “In the beginning was the Word.” The other quotation reads, in English, “May the reading of the gospel be health and protection to thee.”

2

Karatsu is a town in Hizen, north of Nagasaki; it possesses large deposits of coal and kaolin. It was formerly called Nagoya.

3

The shôgun at that time was Hidetada (1605–1623); but his father Iyeyasu, although nominally retired from the government, still inspired its proceedings in great degree, until his death in 1616.

4

For description of the Kuwantô, see Vol. XVI, p. 47. This group of provinces lies near the center of Hondo, and includes the city of Tôkio (Yedo).

5

According to Rein (Japan, p. 304), he had put away his Christian wife to marry a daughter of Hidetada, and had become an apostate. Then he removed his residence from Arima to Shimabara, and began a fierce persecution of the Christians.

6

Evidently referring to Santiago de Vera.

7

Notwithstanding this fierce persecution – which, thus begun, culminated in the massacre of Shimabara (1637), and lasted as long as Christians could be discovered by the Japanese authorities – a considerable number of Japanese converts maintained their Christian faith, unknown to their rulers, handing it down from one generation to another until 1868, when their existence became known to the government, and for a time they were exiled from their homes, but were restored to them a few years later. This Christian church was at Urakami, about seven miles north of Nagasaki.

8

Rein states (Japan, p. 306) that there were 22 Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians (agreeing with Aduarte’s total), 117 Jesuits, and nearly 200 native priests and catechists; and that these were shipped to Macao. Murdoch and Yamagata say (Hist. Japan, p. 503) that 63 Jesuits were sent to Macao; and 23 Jesuits, all the Philippine religious, and several distinguished Japanese exiles, to Manila.

9

Cf. Vol. IX, p. 68, for mention of earliest printing in the islands.

10

See Vol. XII, p. 222.

11

Angelo Orsucci e Ferrer was born in Lucca, Italy, in 1570, also entering there the Dominican order. Hearing of the Filipinas missions, he went to Valencia, in Spain, to join them, and arrived at Manila in 1602. He labored successively in the Cagayán and Bataán missions, and in 1612 went to Mexico to take charge of the Dominican hospice there. In 1615 he returned to Manila, conducting the mission band which Aduarte had brought to Mexico. He went again to Bataán for a time; but, hearing of the persecutions in Japan, determined to go thither, reaching that country in August, 1618. In the following December he was arrested, and imprisoned in Omura. He remained there nearly four years, and was burned alive on September 10, 1622. He was beatified in 1867.

See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 211–214.

12

This was Juan de Silva, who died on April 19, 1616 (see Vol. XVII, p. 279).

13

A letter written by the Franciscan Fray Pedro de Alfaro to Fray Juan de Ayora, commissary in Manila, under date of Canton, October 13, 1579, and existing (in copy) in Archivo general de Indias (with pressmark, “Simancas-eclesiastico; cartas y expedientes de personas eclesiasticas vistos en el consejo; años 1570 á 1608; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 42”), says of the Ilocos district: “Also it should be noted by your charity and the superiors who shall come that the province of Ylocos is the destruction and sepulcher of friars; for it is known how the first who went there returned, while I found the next ones, although they had come there so short a time before, with very ill-looking, flabby, and colorless countenances, and brother Fray Sebastian (may he rest in glory), smitten with stomach trouble. His sickness began there, and there was its ending. In consideration of this, and of the common rumor and report of all, I do not believe that it is a district where we can live.” The sick friar here mentioned was Sebastian de Baeza, who, at the time Alfaro wrote, had just died on a ship in Canton Bay.

14

Melchor Manzano came to Manila in 1606, and ministered in the Cagayán missions until he was chosen provincial in 1617. In 1621 he was appointed procurator of the province at Madrid; and he died in Italy, about 1630, as bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia.

15

After the battle of Sekigahara (1600) Iyeyasu had left Hideyori (the infant son of Hideyoshi), with his mother, in the castle of Osaka. After this child grew to manhood, he incurred the jealousy of Iyeyasu, which was doubtless aggravated by his intimacy with the Jesuits, and the shelter given by him to many discontented Japanese, both heathen and Christian. Armies were raised on both sides, and on June 4, 1615, the castle of Osaka was carried by assault, and burned, Hideyori and his mother both perishing. See Murdoch and Yamagata’s full account of this war, its causes, and its immediate results (Hist. Japan, pp. 507–567); cf. Rein’s Japan, p. 306.

16

i. e., “the lord shogun;” it is only a title of honor, not a personal name. It here refers to Hidetada, who had been associated with his father Iyeyasu in the government.

17

Later (at the beginning of chap. xiiii) Aduarte states that under Safioye were two officials in charge of the Nagasaki government – Antonio Toan, a Christian; and Feizó, a renegade Christian. After Safioye’s death, dissensions arose between these two; and finally the emperor made Feizó and Gonrozu (a nephew of Safioye) joint governors of the city, who proceeded to persecute the Christians with renewed severity.

18

This sentence may be a later addition by Aduarte himself; but is more probably written by his editor, Fray Domingo Gonçalez.

19

Among these Korean captives were numerous potters, who were carried to Kiôto, Hagi, Satsuma, and other towns of Japan, in order to introduce into that country the ceramic arts of Korea. Descendants of these potters are still living in Tsuboya, a village of Satsuma, where they still carry on their craft. See Rein’s Japan, pp. 289, 527.

20

Jacinto Calvo came to Manila in 1604, from the convent of Peña de Francia; but he soon returned to Spain, on business of his order. It is probable that he spent the rest of his life there, except for some years while he was in charge of the hospice at Mexico; it is not known when he died.

21

The Babuyan and Batan Islands, groups lying north of Luzón, extend northward to near the southern end of Formosa. From near the northern end of that island, the Riu-Kiu Island stretches in a long northeastward curve to the vicinity of Kiushiu Island, in southern Japan.

22

A vulgar appellation of the fish called rompecandados (“padlock-breaker”), according to note by Retana and Pastells in their edition of Combés’s Mindanao, col. 770. Taraquito may possibly be a diminutive form derived from tarascar, meaning “to bite, or tear with the teeth.”

23

The tribe best known as Mandaya are found in Mindanao; but the same name is conferred by some Spanish writers on the Apayaos (a head-hunting tribe in northwestern Cagayán and the adjoining portions of Ilocos Norte and Abra) – with doubtful accuracy, according to Blumentritt (Native Tribes of Philippines, p. 531). In U.S. Philippine Commission’s Report, 1900, iii, p. 19, is the following statement: “In the hamlets on the western side of the river [i. e., Rio Grande de Cagayán], Itaves, Apayao, and Mandayo are spoken;” but there is no further reference to a Mandaya tribe in Cagayán. See Aduarte’s mention of Mandayas in later chapters.

24

Juan de San Lorenzo came to Manila with the mission of 1618; he labored in the Cagayán missions, and died at Lal-ló in 1623.

25

A sort of trousers, generally made of cloth, covering the legs as far as the knees, buttoned or hooked together on the outside. It has also a dust-guard, which extends to the shoe. It is mainly used by laborers, carriers, and the like. (Dominguez’s Diccionario nacional.)

26

See book i of Aduarte’s work, chapters xii–xv (in Vol. XXX of this series).

27

Blumentritt characterizes the Gaddanes as “a Malay head-hunting people, with a language of their own, settled in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayán.” Landor mentions them (Gems of the East, p. 478) as having delicately chiseled features, and being now civilized and christianized.

The bulk of the population of Nueva Vizcaya is made up of converts from two of the mountain Igorot tribes, the Isinay and the Gaddang or Gaddan. This valley was called Ituy or Isinay. There are but three or four thousand people in each of these tribes, the rest of the christianized population of this province being made up of Ilocano immigrants. (U. S. Census of Philippines, i, pp. 449, 471. 472.)

28

Constantius, second son of Constantine the Great; he reigned from 337 A. D. to 361, and adopted the Arian doctrine, of which he was a powerful supporter.

29

Pedro de Zúñiga was a native of Sevilla, and a son of Marqués de Villamanrique, viceroy of Mexico; he entered the Augustinian order at Sevilla, in 1604. He came to Manila in 1610, and spent several years as a missionary in Pampanga. Fired with zeal for the Japanese missions, he entered them in 1618, only to be sent back to Manila the next year with other priests banished from Japan; but, as recounted in our text, Zúñiga returned to that land to end his life as a martyr (August 19, 1622). He was beatified in 1867. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 82.

30

Probably a reference to the rōnins, men who had left their masters, under the old feudal system in Japan, and spent their time in low company and in idleness and excesses; see Griffis’s Mikado’s Empire, p. 278.

31

This brother’s proper name was Mangorochi. The term donado, like the French donné (in each case meaning, literally, “one who is given”) was applied to devout persons who voluntarily entered the service of the missions, giving themselves (often for life) to that cause, and sharing the lot of the missionaries. All the martyrs whose fate Aduarte describes were afterward beatified.

32

Diego de Rivera came to Manila from Córdoba, in 1615. He ministered in Bataán at first, but was lecturer in Santo Tomás from 1619 to 1623 – in which year he lost his life as described in our text.

33

Francisco Galvez, a native of Utiel, made his profession in the Franciscan order in 1600, at the age of twenty-six. In 1609 he departed for the Philippines, where for some time he ministered to the Japanese Christians resident near Manila. He went to Japan in 1612, but was banished thence in 1614; after several vain efforts, he succeeded in returning to that country in 1618. He was arrested by the Japanese authorities, and after great sufferings in prison was burned alive at Yendo, December 4, 1623. (See Huerta’s Estado, pp. 391, 392.)

34

Aparri is a port of entry on the northern coast of Luzón, at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Cagayán. It is the chief port of coast and ocean trade in that region, and the starting-point for inland river navigation.

35

Alonso García came from Córdoba to Manila, in 1622; he was sent to the Cagayán missions, where he died as here related. Onofre Palau was a native of Valencia, but entered the Dominican order at Manila, in 1620. In the following year he made his profession, and was sent to Cagayán, where he died with García. (See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 294, 373.)

36

i. e., “Island of Fishermen,” indicating the occupation of nearly all the 50,000 inhabitants (of Chinese race) of the group known as Pescadores Islands, west of Formosa, and under the jurisdiction of that island (which has been, since 1895, a possession of Japan). The location of the Pescadores is such as to make them of strategic importance, and Japan is now (1905) fortifying them.

37

The Chinese refused to allow the Dutch to trade with them unless the latter would depart from the Pescadores, but permitted them to occupy Formosa. The Dutch settled there in 1624, at Tainan (formerly Taiwan) near Anping, remains of old Dutch forts still existing at both places; and this island was their headquarters for trade with Japan and China. See Basil H. Chamberlain’s account of Formosa in Murray’s Handbook for Travelers in Japan (4th ed., New York and London, 1898), pp. 536–542; Davidson’s historical sketch in Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxiv, pp. 112–136.

38

One of the small islands in the bay of Kelung.

39

Francisco Mola was born in Madrid, and there made his profession as a Dominican, in 1600. He came to the Philippines in 1611, and spent many years in the Cagayán missions; afterward having charge of the mission in Formosa. After 1643 his name is not mentioned in the provincial records, as he returned to Spain about that time. (Reseña biográfica, i, p. 339.)

40

Juan García Lacalle entered the Dominican order at Manila, in 1602; he spent many years in the Cagayán missions.

41

Apparently a misprint for 1611. Sanchez remained in the Cagayán missions until his death, which must have occurred about 1640. The missionaries brought by him in 1626 numbered sixteen, sketches of whom are given in Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 375–381.

42

A play upon words, the Spanish hierro (“iron”) having almost the same pronunciation as yerro (“error”).

43

Both these missionaries came to Manila in the mission of 1609. Fray Francisco labored in the villages of Balete and Polo – the former being originally a village of Japanese, formed in 1601 by Tello from that of Dilao, near Manila, but again restored to Dilao in 1626. Fray Francisco went to Japan in 1623, and was burned at the stake on August 17, 1627. Fray Bartolomé served in a hospital (probably that at Los Baños), went to Japan in 1623, and met the same fate as befell Fray Francisco. See Huerta’s Estado, pp. 395, 557.

44

He had come to Manila in 1618, and labored in the Cagayán missions and the Babuyanes.

45

In this band were twenty friars; for sketches of their lives, see Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 381–390.

46

Spanish, castillo (“little castle”); apparently an imitation of the castillo de fuego, a contrivance built of wood in the shape of a castle, to which are attached various fireworks.

47

The reference in our text is to Go-Midzuno-o, who was mikado from 1611 to 1630; in the latter year he abdicated that dignity, forced to this step by petty persecutions and interference by the shôgun Hidetada, and lived in retirement for the rest of his life, dying in 1680. The statement as to cutting off his hair is hardly accurate in regard to its rarity, as it was then the custom for potentates of various degrees to abdicate their office at an early period therein, and retire into a Buddhist monastery, on which occasion the head of the candidate was shaved. Dairi is merely one of the appellations bestowed upon the mikado of Japan (see Vol. XIX, p. 51). The term mikado is practically the equivalent of “Sublime Porte;” the first to bear this name was Jimmu-Tennô (660–585 B. C.), and his dynasty has continued to the present day. After the conquest of Korea (202 A. D.) Chinese influences began to affect Japan; and the mikado’s authority was gradually diminished by powerful chiefs and lords, until the dignity of shôgun – a military title of honor – was conferred (1192) upon Yoritomo, and made hereditary in his family. From that time dates the dual monarchy which ruled Japan – the mikado being but the nominal sovereign – until 1868; the revolution of that year suppressed the shôgunate, and restored to the mikado his rightful authority. The mikado’s residence was established at Kiôto in 793, where it remained until 1868, being then transferred to Yedo (now Tôkiô). The comparison of the mikado to a pope arose from his possessing certain prerogatives in religious matters, and because a sort of divine character was ascribed to him from the claim of the first mikado that he was a descendant of the sun-goddess Amaterasu. See Rein’s Japan, pp. 214, 224, 315–317; also Murdoch and Yamagata’s Hist. Japan, chap. i, and pp. 697–700.

48

A variant form of Alcarazo, as the name is spelled elsewhere. These variations, which occur in numerous cases, may be due to additions made by Aduarte’s editor; or possibly to his employing more than one amanuensis.

49

The modern province of Nueva Vizcaya.

50

Juan Arjona came from the convent at Córdoba, in the mission of 1628, and was assigned to the Pangasinan field. In 1637–38 he was ministering in Ituy, and in 1639 was appointed to a station in Formosa. Afterward he returned to Pangasinan, and, after filling various offices in Manila, died there on September 4, 1666, at the age of eighty-four.

51

There are more than a hundred different varieties of rice, some of which are lowland, cultivated by irrigation, and some upland, grown in the dry lands (these being more numerous than the former). See U. S. Philippine Commission’s Report, 1900, iii, pp. 244, 245.

52

The province of Nueva Vizcaya (Ituy) is drained by the great river Magat and its tributaries, which fertilize its soil; this stream flows into the Rio Grande de Cagayán, which Aduarte seems to regard as the continuation of the Magat.

53

Jerónimo de Zamora came to the islands in 1615, and labored thirty-eight years in the Cagayán missions; at times he occupied various offices, among them that of commissary of the Inquisition. He died at Lal-ló about 1655.

54

i. e., “Equal shall be the portion of him that went down to battle and of him that abode at the baggage, and they shall divide alike;” in I Kings (of the Douay version; I Samuel of the Protestant versions), xxx, v. 24.

55

Hidetada died in 1632, hut he had, following the usual custom, abdicated the shôgunate in 1623, in favor of his son Iyemitsu – retaining, however, as Iyeyasu had done, the actual control of the empire until his death.

56

i. e., “That which decayeth and groweth old is near its end” (Hebrews, viii, 13).

57

i. e., “The old man carried the child, but the child directed the old man.”

58

The torment of the pit (French, fosse, Spanish, hoyo); a hole six feet deep and three in diameter was dug, and a post with a projecting arm was planted by its side. To this arm the victim was suspended, being lowered head downward into the pit, and left thus until he either died or recanted; his body had been previously tightly corded, to impede the circulation of the blood, but one hand was left free, to make the sign of recantation. This horrible torment did not bring death until two, three, or even six days; but most of the religious endured it unto death, rather than recant. Of the few who did so was Christoval Ferreira (Vol. XXIV, note 91). See Murdoch and Yamagata’s Hist. Japan, pp. 632–633.

59

Jacobo Somonaga (in religion, de Santa Maria) was born in Omura of Christian parents; he had ability as a speaker, and often preached while a student. He came to Manila, and at first became an Augustinian; afterward, he entered the Dominican order (August 15, 1624), being then forty-three years of age. In 1627 he was in Formosa; in 1632 he went from Manila to Japan, and in the following year died as a martyr. (See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 256, 257.)

60

Domingo Ibañez de Erquicia was born about 1587, in San Sebastian, Spain, and entered the Dominican order there. He came to the islands in 1611, and was sent to Pangasinan. From 1616 he remained in Manila – except 1619–21, at Binondo – until 1623, when he went to Japan – where he labored, in spite of persecution and sufferings, until his martyrdom, August 18, 1633. (See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 235–241.)

61

Spanish, de grãde estampida; literally, “causes a great stampede thither.”

62

Alluding to the cathedral El Pilar at Zaragoza, in which is a famous statue of the Virgin descending upon a pillar. It soon became a rival of the noted shrine of St. James at Compostella, in the number of pilgrims attracted thither, and miracles performed. Maria del Pilar is a favorite name for girls in Spain, commonly abbreviated to Pilar.

63

Carlos Clemente Gant made his profession at Zaragoza, in 1602. He came to Manila in 1611, and spent most of his life in the Cagayán missions, filling many high offices in that region; he was also provincial for two terms. He died at Lal-ló, in 1660, at the age of seventy-two.