(Source: Blair & Robertson, The Philippine Islands, volume 44, pp. 182-195)

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 1717; 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.

With this consideration [i.e., his own advantage], and in order to find the goods of the master-of-camp Don Esteban de Higuiño (whom he had kept a prisoner since the beginning of August), he gave orders that the chief notary of the municipal council of this city should demand, at the end of September, the official records of a notary-public who had taken refuge in my cathedral on the same day when the arrest of the said master-of-camp occurred. The consultation which he held and the petition which he presented to the ad interim fiscal of the Audiencia were merely formal; the matter was referred to the royal Audiencia, without stating whether it was by a consultory or a decisive vote; and the papers were considered in the royal Audiencia, which was composed of only one official, who had for associate judge the counselor [asesor] of the government. This auditor was commanded to despatch officially a royal decree for the surrender of those notarial records; and I was notified of this on the twenty-sixth of September, and the papers offered to me with a view of the decree of August 11, in which the said auditor was qualified for [transacting] the business of the Audiencia—a copy of which decree I send with this. There were various difficulties in regard to the fulfilment and observance of this decree ⁴⁹ on account of the serious injuries which might result to the administration of justice in the ecclesiastical estate, and to the sheep of my flock. Obliged as I am in conscience to attend to their relief, I conferred regarding these doubts with persons in whom I had confidence, and with the [heads of the] two universities of this city—in whose opinions I tried to find ground for the decree which enabled this single auditor to have his abode in the royal hall [of justice]; because for this he had exchanged the imprisonment in which he had remained in the fort and castle of Santiago. Their uniform reply to me was, that I ought not to consider the Audiencia which was formed in this manner as a royal Audiencia, or the decree which was issued [by it], with the royal name and the seal of his Majesty, as a royal decree. I did not [at once] come to a decision in a matter so important, and on which so many things depended; and moreover, in order to show my profound veneration for the royal prerogatives of his Majesty and my earnest desire for the public tranquillity—to which I have given attention from my first entrance into this archbishopric, as also to the amicable relations which I have maintained with the royal officials of his Majesty (especially with the governor of these islands), since this contributes much to the service of God and of his Majesty—I presented my doubts, with a copy of the replies given by the universities, to the said deceased governor, at a conference which was held on the seventh of October. I charged him as his friend that, considering these questions with the careful reflection which is demanded by the strict account of our deeds which we must render to God, he should do what was most safe for the discharge of our consciences in the service of God and his Majesty. To this advice he gave me no answer, either written or verbal; and when I was waiting for one, in order to choose the safest [course] and avoid, consequences which always are injurious to the public welfare, on October 8 (which was Sunday), a little before twelve o'clock, I was annoyed by a second, royal decree—in which, professing not to understand the reasons which I had for doubts, he insisted on the surrender of the said records. Having answered that in order to make my decision I was waiting for his reply, I pressed him for it [on the next day,] the ninth, with another [written] communication of substantially the same tenor as the first one, exhorting him to make the best decision, that is, the one which he would at the hour of death wish to have made; but he declined to receive it for that morning, on the pretext that he was ill—although it was plain to me that he was well [enough] to hold conferences with the single auditor of whom the Audiencia was composed. In the afternoon, he gave orders to receive my communication, at the repeated insistence of the chief notary of my archbishopric, who carried it; but he would not allow the notary to enter the palace or to see him.

From this stoppage of friendly relations and lack of civility which I began to experience in regard to this matter, and on account of the news that I had of the repeated deliberations that he held [with the auditor], I could only expect very evil results in the banishment of myself and of the ecclesiastics—which I mistrusted from the twenty-seventh day of September, when I had sent my provisor with the cura of Balayan, for them to certify to the said governor the information which on this very point had been privately given to the said cura by an alférez named Antonio de Torres, who had much familiar intercourse with the said governor. This information was reduced to the statement that a certain alférez had told how his Lordship had resolved to banish me from this city by the middle of October, because he had made ready to demand from me, about that time, that he might remove to the most distant of these islands all the persons who had taken refuge in these churches, both within and without this city; and, taking for granted, at the start, that I would not permit it, with that ground for action he would proceed to carry out the said banishment. When I learned that the said alférez, when summoned to the governor's presence, confirmed his statement, although he exculpated himself with frivolous pretexts; and when I did not see any punishment inflicted on him for this insolence, and knew, moreover, that they only gave him orders that the matter should be kept secret (as it was): I had sufficient grounds for the said suspicion. And as it was quite consonant with prudence to prevent the dangers and obviate the measures from which might result these evil consequences, having assured myself of the only arguments ⁵⁰ with which I could prevent this act—to command the single minister in this Audiencia and his associate, under penalty of major excommunication and [a fine] of five hundred ducados in silver, to abstain and refrain from sitting as judges and transacting the affairs of the Audiencia, the formation of which, in my judgment, had been invalid—I acted accordingly, in conformity with the opinions for which I had obtained confirmation by the vote of my cabildo and the superiors of the holy religious orders. Availing myself of this means for ending the controversy, as conducive to the public tranquillity for which I was striving, without intermeddling with the governor I issued two monitory decrees, in which I gave orders as above, in order that at the very same time they might be notified, to the said minister and his associate; and I committed this business to the doctoral canon of my church, in order that, as a discreet and capable person (since he is morning professor of canon law for his Majesty), he might conduct it with the judgment and the precautions which are desirable in a matter so delicate. He went to execute this commission in the hall of the Audiencia, in which building this single minister of that court has his abode, abandoning the obligations of his rank, and trampling on both human and divine laws. Hardly, had he heard my name, when the notification of this decree was begun, when he snatched it from the hands of the doctoral canon and tore it to pieces; he demanded a sword and buckler, and the protection of the king; and he uttered so many cries, and left his room with so much noise, that he disturbed the entire palace of the governor. He goaded on the governor so that, without any warrants and without a session of this so-called royal Audiencia, he seized the said canon and the prebend Doctor Don Juan de la Fuente, who accompanied him, in the porch of the court prison; and there they remained, surrounded by soldiers with pikes and naked cutlasses, during all the night of October 10. At that time he gave orders to surround his entire palace with a guard of infantry, and would not allow that three ecclesiastics should go up to see him, whom I sent with a courteous message, in order to obtain information as to the motive of this singular proceeding. The governor gave orders to detain them in the guard-house, where they remained among the rabble of soldiers, exposed to the inclemency of the wind and of the rain which fell that night, until the morning; and then they locked up the ecclesiastics in a small room which was connected with the guardroom of the halberdiers, without any food—at which the city began to be disquieted. The doctoral canon. and the prebend were conveyed by an escort of soldiers with an officer to the castle and fort of Santiago, where the castellan kept them confined under a guard of his soldiers, and without any communication [with other persons]; and as soon as they reached this place, at daybreak, the military watchword was changed, [accompanied] with [the firing of] a cannon loaded with balls, and [the beating of] war-drums; and the bells were rung as a summons for the entire city. Disturbed at this signal—which, by an edict published in the preceding year, was given for their attendance at the royal palace—all the citizens gathered there; and when they were assembled the late governor addressed to them a vigorous exhortation that they should defend the royal jurisdiction, which he assumed that I had injured and usurped. He censured the opinions of the two universities, and berated the persons who signed them, saying that they did not understand the laws, and that they were disturbing the church just as one Molinos ⁵¹ and one Luther had disturbed it.

After six on the morning of October 11, as it was evident to me that the notification had been actually made—by the information which by my order was received; and by a brief letter which they brought me from the said doctoral canon and prebend, in which they assured me of their imprisonment on account of the notification to the single minister of the Audiencia of the monitory decree (which was made ipso voce) warning him that his name would be placed on the list of excommunicates [tablilla]—as also to the eldest son of the governor (who was sargento-mayor of this army) and his adjutant, I gave orders that they be posted as publicly excommunicated, about seven o'clock in the morning.

At that hour the superiors of the holy religious orders, with other prominent religious who were under their direction; assembled at my archiepiscopal palace in order to console me in the trouble that had come upon me from such noisy preparations and violent demonstrations; and while we were discussing these matters, and inferring from these premises the evil consequences which openly were dreaded for the ecclesiastical estate, through the doors of my archiepiscopal palace (which were open) entered military officers, armed, with a great number of soldiers; and, having filled the palace and surrounded it with infantry, the officers came upstairs, with the adjutant who had been publicly excommunicated, until they reached the room where I was with the said superiors and religious. A captain named Don Pedro de Velasco said that he came in behalf of his Majesty, and by order of his governor and captain-general, in order that I might go with him to the royal court; and he would not accept the reply which I gave him in writing, assuring me that he was under penalty of death. if he acted differently. Although I did not consider the court to which he summoned me as the royal court, since the single auditor who composed it was execrable, I resolved to go (as I solemnly declared) in consideration of the public tranquillity and the respect due to the royal name of his Majesty. But as soon as I left my palace, the military officers and soldiers surrounded me; and when we reached the door of the governor's apartments, by which I had to enter, I saw that it was locked. I recognized the deceit and malicious subterfuge by which they had drawn me [from my house]; and I declared this, as well as that I would not go of my own will to any other place than the royal court. I tried to shelter myself in the royal seminary of San Felipe, in order not to he wet by the heavy rain that was falling, but the military officers would not allow me to do this; and therefore I leaned against the lintel of a door that stood open in a private house. The sargento-mayor, who was a son of the governor, apologized for taking part with his father in this deceit, since it was required from him. Don Benito Carrasco, an alcalde-in-ordinary, came to tell me of the order of his Lordship that I must go wherever the military officers and the soldiers carried me. They, seeing my unwillingness, lifted the chair in which I was sitting, and by force carried me to the public street; where my sedan-chair was which I had to enter, in order to avoid even more disgraceful, scandalous, and sacrilegious acts; and I allowed myself to be carried—surrounded by armed soldiers, as if I were a criminal who had committed atrocious offenses—through the public streets to the fort and castle of Santiago. There they delivered me as a prisoner to the castellan, Don Ygnacio Navamuel, and he received me as such, and kept me in his dwelling-house; nor would the sargento-mayor, who remained in command at my archiepiscopal palace, permit them to bring me the bed and small chest of clothing which the members of my household tried to send me for my personal comfort and cleanliness.

After seizing me, they proceeded to convey other prisoners with a guard of soldiers: my secretary, who was confined in the same castle; the commissary of the Crusade; the schoolmaster and a prebend of the cathedral; the commissary and secretary of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, with two other religious of St. Dominic; the prior of the convent of San Agustin; the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus, together with the master Father Avina; and my provisor—placing them in the infantry barracks and the quarters of the royal accountancy, with orders that no one should speak to them.⁵² They would have carried away, in the same manner, all the persons who were in my palace, if the common people had not opposed them; for it seems that the intention of the governor was, as his corresponding secretary has deposed, to seize all the persons who signed the opinions which the universities gave me.

For this so execrable deed there was no cause on my part, since I did not prosecute any determination of my own that was opposed to the royal laws of his Majesty; nor was the monitory decree of that character, which was notified to the single auditor of whom the royal Audiencia was composed—for with that document I aimed, as a prelate, to deprive the governor of the pernicious means which he was employing in order that he might not have in his government any other law than his own ambitious and depraved will. Nor for carrying out my seizure, under the pretext of banishment, did he previously take the steps which the royal laws provide; for the royal writs were not issued which should have been, to know whether there had been any failure of obedience on my part—a proceeding which is required in order that the penalty of [loss of] the temporal revenues may be applied to ecclesiastics—as the auditor himself and his associate have testified. For it was resolved, in a session which they held on October 9, that an official of the royal Audiencia should go to confer with me over the difficulties about which I had consulted the governor; but this formality was not carried out. On the other hand, availing himself of his administrative ⁵³ power—to which, at the time, they likewise agreed—for use in case of any emergency, when that arose of the outcry which this single auditor made at the time when he was notified of the said monitory decree, the governor compelled them [i.e., the auditor and his associate] to dictate an act, assuming that it was one proceeding from the royal court (although it was not such), on the night of October 10, in which they decided that what had been agreed upon the day before should be carried out, in regard to the use of the [governor's] administrative power against my person and those of the other ecclesiastics. Although, in order to excuse themselves for the many offenses that they committed in this so discordant session [acuerdo], they undertake to avail themselves of the fear and coercion in which they say the governor kept them, I know not whether this evasion which they use as an excuse can assist them, when as Christians they know that they ought to die rather than sin; and when, since they could have availed themselves of the privilege of sanctuary (as others did) to prevent injury to their souls, they did not do so, through caring for the comfort of their bodies.

After the unfortunate event which I have related had occurred, all the people hastened to the castle where I was, and, without my being able to resist their impetuosity, they liberated me from that place, generally acclaiming me as their governor in the name of his Majesty. This was the greatest blow that could happen to me, and I protested against it before God—[saying that], if my imprisonment and its previous hardships could serve as a mortification to me, this demonstration grieved me far more, without comparison, as being so entirely contrary to my own judgment and disposition. But the people, who still remained under arms, cried out that they would not lay down their weapons, until I should accept, in the name of his Majesty, the government over them. At this I made all possible protests, and efforts to resist this, with the prominent and learned persons of the city, not only ecclesiastics but laymen; but as they were unanimously agreed, with the general feeling and opinion that I ought in conscience and justice to accept this post, for the sake of quieting this community—which otherwise would run great risk, and the disturbances would increase, and be the cause of greater misfortunes and more violent deaths—I was obliged to    accept ⁵⁴ the said government, sacrificing my own [mode of] life to the service of God our Lord and that of his Majesty (whom may God preserve), and for the welfare of the people.

It is impossible, even with the greatest care and attention, to relate this affair with all its circumstances, so marvelous and mysterious were many of them. Likewise, it is impossible to explain the ruined, wasted, and unsettled condition in which everything remains; therefore, I will only say to your Paternity that I ask you to have compassion on me, and that you will earnestly commend me to God our Lord in your prayers, that He may grant me light, and judgment, and strength for the great task in which I am engaged. I remain, as I should, entirely at your Paternity's orders, continually entreating that His [Divine] Majesty may preserve you for happy years, as I desire. Manila, June 28, 1720.

[FRANCISCO, archbishop of Manila].

49 Cuesta here alludes to the decree ordering the surrender of the records, and to its encroachment on the ecclesiastical immunity. [back to text]

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