The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898

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,

Volume XIX, 1620–1621

Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson with historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne.

Contents of Volume XIX

• Preface 9
• Documents of 1620
  
  • Reforms needed in the Filipinas (concluded). Hernando de los Rios Coronel; (Madrid, 1619–20) 25
  • Letter to Alonso de Escovar. Francisco de Otaço, S.J.; Madrid, January 14. 35
  • Decree ordering reforms in the friars’ treatment of the Indians. Felipe III; Madrid, May 29. 40
  • Relation of events in the Philipinas Islands, 1619–20. (Unsigned); Manila, June 14. 42
  • Compulsory service by the Indians. Pedro de Sant Pablo, O.S.F.; Dilao, August 7. 71
  • Letter from the Audiencia to Felipe III. Hieronimo Legaspi de Cheverria, and others; Manila, August 8. 77
  • Letter to Felipe III. Alonso Fajardo de Tenza: Manila, August 15. 90
  • Letter to Alonso Fajardo de Tenza. Felipe III; Madrid, December 13. 173
• Memorial, y relacion para sv magestad, Hernando de los Rios Coronel; Madrid, 1621. 183
• Bibliographical Data. 299
• Appendix: Buying and selling prices of Oriental products. Martin Castaños (in part); (undated.) 301

Illustrations

• Autograph signature of Alonso Fajardo de Tenza; photographic facsimile from MS. in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla 165
• Title-page of Memorial y relacion, by Hernando de los Rios Coronel (Madrid, 1621); photographic facsimile from copy in Library of Congress 185

Preface

The documents in the present volume cover a wide range. In greater or less detail are discussed affairs in the islands—civil, military, and religious, in which all the various ramifications of each estate are touched upon. Reforms, both civil and religious, are urged and ordered; and trade and commerce, and general economic and social conditions pervade all the documents. The efforts of Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish in eastern waters are a portent of coming struggles for supremacy in later times. Japan, meditating on the closed door to Europeans, though still permitting the Dutch to trade there, continues to persecute the Christians, while that persecution is, on the other hand, lessening in violence in China. The piracies of the Moros endanger the islands, and allow the Dutch to hope for alliance with them against the Spaniards; and the importance of the islands to Spain is urged forcibly.

A letter addressed by Los Rios Coronel to the king (probably in 1620) urges that prompt aid be sent to Filipinas for its defense against the Dutch and English who threaten its coasts. To it he adds an outline “treatise on the navigation of Filipinas,” which sustains his demand by forcible arguments. The rich Oriental trade amounts to five millions of pesos a year, which mainly goes to sustain the Dutch and their allies, the enemies of Spain, whose commerce they will utterly destroy unless some check is placed on their audacity; and the effectual method of doing this is to deprive them of that trade. An armed expedition for the relief of the islands is being prepared by the king; it should be despatched via the Cape of Good Hope, and all possible efforts should be made to drive out the Dutch and English from the Eastern seas. Los Rios proposes that for this purpose loans be asked from wealthy persons in Nueva España and Peru; and that the vessels needed be built in India. He makes recommendations for the routes and equipment of the vessels, both going and returning; and for the seasons best for sailing.

A letter from Francisco de Otaço, S.J. (January 14, 1620), mentions various arrangements for the despatch of more missionaries to the islands, and laments the recent loss of a fleet sent to the aid of the Philippine colony. A royal decree of May 29 in the same year orders the governor and Audiencia to correct the religious who have levied on the Indians exactions of forced service.

The Jesuit chronicler of events in 1619 continues the record for the year ending July, 1620. Some account of the war waged by the Chinese and the Tartars is given. The persecution of the Christians in China has slackened, and the authorities of that country are more favorable to the Jesuit missionaries there. But in Japan the persecution continues, and the college at Macao is crowded with Jesuits who are disappointed in their efforts to enter Japan. Letters from Jesuits in that country enumerate many martyrdoms, of both missionaries and their converts, and describe their holy