The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 37, 1669-1676

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 37, 1669-1676 - 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

Most of this volume is occupied with accounts of the Dominican and Augustinian missions in the islands during the period 164170; they are enabled to maintain fairly flourishing activities by the aid of new renforcements. These chronicles also contain, as usual, much interesting secular information; the most important occurrences in the secular affairs of the islands are the rise and fall of Governor Fajardos favorite Venegas, and the arrest of Governor Diego Salcedo by the Inquisition (at the instance of Auditor Bonifaz, who then usurps the government). The latter incident is related in detail by a Spanish officer imprisoned by the usurper. A document of especial human interest is a letter (January 15, 1669) written from the dungeons of Fort Santiago in Manila, by an unnamed officer imprisoned therein by the usurping auditor Bonifaz. He relates in full the arrest (1668) of Governor Diego de Salcedo by the commissary of the Inquisition, the usurpation of the government of the islands by Bonifaz, and the imprisonment of himself and other loyalists on suspicion of attempting to rescue the governor from durance. The attitude of the writer is unusual, for at the outset he announces his gratitude and loyalty to his patron, Salcedos [10]predecessor, Manrique de Lara, then under chargesfrom which he was later acquittedin his residencia; and he speaks of Salcedo without any blame or resentment, although the governor had deprived him of his military command. This document is freely annotated from another contemporary account, long and diffuse; the two cast much light on political and religious affairs in Manila at the time, especially on the possibilities for evil embodied in the Inquisition. Extracts from Santa Cruzs Historia (Zaragoa, 1693) cover the history of the Dominican order in the Philippines for 164169. Fray Francisco de Paula is elected provincial in 1641, at which time the order has barely enough religious to fill its actual ministriesa lack which is afterward supplied as an answer to prayer. The location of the Parin is changed, in 1640; and the entire quarter is destroyed by fire, two years later. In 1644 Diego de Fajardo comes to the islands as governorunder whom they tasted all sorts of government. The chief events of his term of office are recounted, and the more important transactions of the Dominican chapter-sessions of 1647 and 1650. In the former year dies the aged provincial, Fray Domingo Gonalez; he is succeeded by Fray Carlos Gant. In 1648 a patache reaches the islands in safety, although it has to be burned, immediately after unlading, to save it from the Dutch; but those enemies thereupon leave the islands, which they have not since infested. This vessel also brings a renforcement of thirty Dominican religious, which greatly encourages the missionaries; and various ecclesiastical favors and concessions. Santa Cruz recounts the more important [11]acts of the provincial chapter-session of 1650, and furnishes biographical sketches of many Dominican missionaries in the islands. He then proceeds to relate the arrest and death of Fajardos quondam favorite Venegas. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 47953
Author: Bourne, Edward Gaylord
Release Date: Jan 13, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Blair, Emma Helen, 1851-1911 , Robertson, James Alexander, 1873-1939