The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 19 of 55. Unknown

A letter from Lucas de Vergara, commandant in Maluco, is here inserted. He recounts the losses of the Dutch in their late attack on Manila (1617), and their schemes for driving out the Spaniards from the Moluccas; also his own difficulties in procuring food, fortifying the posts under his care, and keeping up his troops who are being decimated by sickness and death. He urges that the fleet at Manila proceed at once to his succor, and thus prevent the Dutch from securing this year’s rich clove-harvest.

      In the third part of the Memorial, Los Rios gives a brief description of the Philippines and the Moluccas, with interesting but somewhat desultory information of their peoples and natural products, of the Dutch factories, and of the produce and value of the clove trade. He describes the custom of head-hunting among the Zambales, and advocates their reduction to slavery as the only means of rendering the friendly natives safe from their attacks. The numbers of encomiendas and their tributarios, and of monasteries and religious, in the islands, are stated, with the size and extent of Manila. All the natives are now converted, except some tribes in Central Luzón. Los Rios describes the Malucas Islands and others in their vicinity, and enumerates the Dutch and Spanish forts therein; and proceeds to state the extent and profits of the spice trade. He closes his memoir with an itemized statement of the expenses incurred by the Spanish crown in maintaining the forts at Tidore and Ternate. These amount yearly to nearly two hundred and twenty thousand pesos.

      In an appendix to this volume are presented several short papers which constitute a brief epitome of early seventeenth-century commerce in the Far East—entitled “Buying and selling prices of Oriental products.” Martin Castaños, procurator-general of Filipinas, endeavors to show that the spices of Malucas and the silks of China, handled through Manila, ought to bring the Spanish crown an annual net income of nearly six million pesos. Another paper shows the extent and value of the trade carried on with Japan by the Portuguese at Macao; and another, the kind of commerce maintained by those enterprising traders with the countries of southern Asia from the Moluccas to Arabia. All these enumerate the various kinds of goods, the buying and selling prices of most articles, the rate of profit, etc.

The Editors

      September, 1904.

      Documents of 1620

      • Reforms needed in the Filipinas (concluded). Hernando de los Rios Coronel; [1619–20].

      • Letter to Alonso de Escovar. Francisco de Otaço, S.J.; January 14.

      • Decree ordering reforms in the friars’ treatment of the Indians. Felipe III; May 29.

      • Relation of events in the Philipinas Islands, 1619–20. [Unsigned]; June 14.

      • Compulsory service by the Indians. Pedro de Sant Pablo, O.S.F.; August 7.

      • Letter from the Audiencia to Felipe III. Hieronimo Legaspi de Cheverria, and others; August 8.

      • Letter to Felipe III. Alonso Fajardo de Tenza; August 15.

      • Letter to Alonso Fajardo de Tenza. Felipe III; December 13.

      Sources: All of these documents, except the second, fourth, and eighth, are obtained from the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla. The second and fourth are from the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid; and the eighth from the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid.

      Translations: The second and fourth are translated by Herbert E. Bolton, Ethel Z. Rather, and Mattie A. Austen, of the University of Texas; the eighth by Robert W. Haight; and the remainder by James A. Robertson.

Reforms Needed in the Filipinas (concluded)

      Aid against the Dutch requested

      Sire:

      Hernando de los Rios Coronel, procurator-general of the Filipinas Islands and of all their estates, declares that he came the past year to inform your Majesty and your royal Council of the Indias, in the name of those islands, of the desperate condition to which the Dutch enemy have brought them. Desiring that your Majesty understand the importance of the matter, he gave you a long printed relation in which he discussed points important for their recovery from the enemy and the expulsion of the latter from that archipelago. Your Majesty, upon seeing it, ordered a fleet to be prepared; but that fleet was so unfortunate as to be lost before beginning its voyage. Although your Council of the Indias is discussing the formation of another fleet to sail by way of the Strait of Magallanes, or by the new strait [i.e., of Le Maire], it cannot, if it leaves here any time in July (which is the earliest time when it can be sent from España) possibly arrive [at Filipinas] until one and one-half years from now—or a little less, if it has no bad luck. Now considering the watchfulness of the enemy, and the forces that they are sending this year, namely, forty ships, which have left Olanda—whence can be inferred the importance to them of making themselves masters of those regions, since they are so persistent in their efforts, and incur so heavy expenses—he [i.e., Los Rios] advises you for the discharge of his conscience, and his obligation, and his duty as a good vassal of your Majesty, that there is urgent need that, notwithstanding the relief that your Council of the Indias is about to despatch by way of the straits, other help be furnished from Nueva España and Piru; of both men and money, and to employ this [aid from España] with as great care as the gravity of the matter requires, and to realize the fact that, were it lost, both Eastern and Western India would be endangered. They would be in great danger, as would also these kingdoms; for it would mean to permit the enemy to become so powerful and so rich as all know who are aware of the wealth of those regions. Besides, it would mean the extinction of whatever Christian element is there, and would shut the doors to the preaching of the gospel, which your Majesty and your ancestors have procured with so great glory and so many expenses. [That relief of Nueva España and Piru should be prepared] also, for if the relief [from España] should suffer an equal disaster with the last, and that country could not be succored, it would all be lost.

      I petition your Majesty to order that this matter be considered, as a matter of so great importance; and that your president of the Indias call a conference of those most experienced in the Indias, so that they may discuss what measures can be taken most fitting for the relief of that country, and as speedily as possible, where he [i.e., Los Rios] will also declare the measures that occur to him.

      [Endorsed: “To the president of the Indias. Examined, in the meeting of April 7, 620.”]

      Treatise on the navigation of Filipinas, reduced to four chapters

      Sire:

      Your Majesty orders me to declare my opinion in regard to the navigation from España to the Philipinas and Malucas Islands, from them to España, the mutual navigation between those island groups; and the seasons suitable for such navigation. In obedience to your royal order, I declare, Sire, that the propositions cover four principal points, each of which I shall explain in order. [The original document contains a marginal abstract of each of the four points that follow; but these abstracts are here omitted.]

      First point. This point contains in brief the substance of all the others. In explaining it, I declare that the navigations from these kingdoms to those islands are so worthy of consideration, and so important, that no others in the world at this time are equal to them. For the drugs, fragrant gums, spices, precious stones, and silks that the Dutch enemy and their allies bring thence—obtained partly by pillaging, and partly by trading in their forts and factories which they own throughout that archipelago—amount, as they do at present, to five millions [of pesos] annually. It has been stated how paramount is this undertaking to any others that can today be attempted; for besides the spiritual injury inflicted by those heretical pirates among all that multitude [of heathen peoples] (which I think the universal Master has delivered to your Majesty so that you may cultivate it and cleanse it for His celestial granaries), it is quite certain—since the enemy are collecting annually