The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815. A Reader of Primary Sources 9789463720649, 9789048552276

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The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815

Connected Histories in the Early Modern World Connected Histories in the Early Modern World contributes to our growing understanding of the connectedness of the world during a period in history when an unprecedented number of people—Africans, Asians, Americans, and Europeans—made transoceanic or other long distance journeys. Inspired by Sanjay Subrahmanyam’s innovative approach to early modern historical scholarship, it explores topics that highlight the cultural impact of the movement of people, animals, and objects at a global scale. The series editors welcome proposals for monographs and collections of essays in English from literary critics, art historians, and cultural historians that address the changes and cross-fertilizations of cultural practices of specific societies. General topics may concern, among other possibilities: cultural confluences, objects in motion, appropriations of material cultures, cross-cultural exoticization, transcultural identities, religious practices, translations and mistranslations, cultural impacts of trade, discourses of dislocation, globalism in literary/visual arts, and cultural histories of lesser studied regions (such as the Philippines, Macau, African societies). Series editors Christina Lee, Princeton University Julia Schleck, University of Nebraska, Lincoln Advisory Board Serge Gruzinski, CNRS, Paris Michael Laffan, Princeton University Ricardo Padron, University of Virginia Elizabeth Rodini, American Academy in Rome Kaya Sahin, Indiana University, Bloomington

The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815 A Reader of Primary Sources

Edited by Christina H. Lee and Ricardo Padrón

Amsterdam University Press

The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from Princeton University.

Cover illustrations: Guanyin with child (public domain) / Spanish coin suspended on Ocean (public domain) / Map of the “Yndias de Ocidente” (Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library). Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6372 064 9 e-isbn 978 90 4855 227 6 doi 10.5117/9789463720649 nur 685 © C.H. Lee and R. Padrón / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2020 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.



Table of Contents

Abbreviations

7

Acknowledgements

9

Introduction

11

1. An Early Transpacific Account of the Spice Islandsby Andrés de Urdaneta (1536)

21

2. Domingo de Salazar’s Letter to the King of Spainin Defense of the Indians and the Chinese of the Philippine Islands (1582)

37

3. Juan Cobo’s Map of the Pacific World (1593)

53

4. A Royal Decree of Philip IIIRegulating Trade between the Philippines and New Spain (1604)

61

5. Manila’s Sangleys and a Chinese Wedding (1625)

73

6. Don Luis Castilla Offers to Sell Land in Manila (1629)

91

7. Idolatry and Apostasy in the 1633 Jesuit Annual Letter

115

8. The Will of an Indian Oriental and her Chinos in Peru (1644)

131

9. Francisco de Combés’s History of Mindanao and Jolo (1667)

141

Christina H. Lee and Ricardo Padrón

Jorge Mojarro Romero

Christina H. Lee

Ricardo Padrón, with translation by Timothy Brook

Natalie Cobo and Tatiana Seijas

Miguel Martínez

Regalado Trota José

John Blanco

Leo J. Garofalo

Ana M. Rodríguez-Rodríguez, with translation assisted by Cortney Benjamin

10. Between Fiction and History in the Spanish Pacific

157

11. A Moluccan Crypto-Muslim before the Transpacific Inquisition (1623–1645)

171

12. Constitutions and Rules of the Beatas Indias (1726)

189

13. The Poetics of Praise and the Demands of Confessionin the Early Spanish Philippines

205

14. The Pacific Theater of the Seven Years’ War in a Latin Poemby an Indigenous Priest, Bartolomé Saguinsín (1766)

223

15. A Prohibition on Digging Up the Bones of the Dead (1813)

239

Index

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The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) Nicole D. Legnani

Ryan Dominic Crewe

Kathryn Santner

Notes and Documents Vicente L. Rafael

Stuart M. McManus

Ino Manalo

Abbreviations AGI AGN AUST UST

Archivo General de Indias Archivo General de la Nación Archives of the University of Santo Tomas University of Santo Tomas

Acknowledgements We are most indebted to our contributors, all of whom were present at the workshop in Princeton in April of 2018, where we met to dialogue about what we had identified as an emerging field. We agreed in that meeting that The Spanish Pacific described the spaces and themes that had become subjects of our investigations. Vicente Rafael should be credited for recognizing the need for a reader of primary sources of this nature. John Blanco was the scholar who conceptually set the tone for this reader to be one that speaks against the grain. We are also grateful to the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, its Program in Latin American Studies, and its Department of Spanish and Portuguese for co-sponsoring our crucial event and, especially, to Nikki Woolward for her instrumental role in the process. We thank the Princeton University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences for funding editorial assistance, provided by Joann Messina and Yangyou Fang. We are grateful to our copy-editor at AUP, James Thomas, for his meticulous and careful reading of the final version of this manuscript. Finally, we would like to recognize Julia Schleck, the co-editor of the Connected Histories series, for supporting and encouraging the vision for this volume; and Erika Gaffney, the Senior Commissioning Editor of Early Modern Studies at AUP, who guided us at every step in the production of this book with the utmost professionalism.

Introduction Christina H. Lee and Ricardo Padrón The “Spanish Pacific” designates the space Spain colonized or aspired to rule in Asia between 1521, the year Ferdinand Magellan reached the East by sailing west, and 1815, the year when the annual galleon that linked Mexico to the Philippines stopped operating. The Spanish Pacific encompasses the area in Asia that Spanish officials willfully called “the Indies of the West,” in order to clarify that they were not “the Indies of the East,” and, therefore, not Portuguese. It includes the Philippines and the Marianas—territories ruled by the Spanish Crown—but also parts of China, Japan, and other parts of Asia that Spanish officials and missionaries imagined as extensions of their American colonies (Fig. I.1). The study of the early modern Spanish Pacific was once the exclusive purview of Philippine studies, the history of exploration, and economic history, but over the course of the past few decades, it has attracted interest from Latin American studies, Sinology, and Hispanic studies, as well as other fields. This reader is meant to support this expansion of interest, by providing a varied collection of primary sources, translated into English, that can be incorporated into existing course syllabi in a variety of disciplines, at the graduate and undergraduate level. It is the collective work of a group of scholars in Spanish Pacific studies who participated in an interdisciplinary symposium held at Princeton University in April of 2018. Each participant was asked to pick a text that illuminated a vital area of contemporary research, to transcribe, edit, and translate it, and to provide a general introduction for his or her selection. As a result, the collection provides a snapshot of the field as understood by the participants in the symposium, rather than a documentary history of the Spanish Pacific. It leaves many bases uncovered, but only so that it can push against the boundaries of the field as it has been conventionally understood. This introduction provides an overview of Spanish Pacific studies as the editors of this volume understand it, and situates The Spanish Pacific reader within this emerging field.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_intro

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Figure I.1. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Descripción de las Indias del Poniente. Rare Books, Firestone Library, Princeton University.

The boundaries to which we refer were established long ago, as far as English-language scholarship is concerned, by a trio of scholarly monuments dealing with the neglected history of the Philippines under Spain. All three were produced before 1960 and all three are still cited today. The first, and the one most relevant to this text as a collection of primary source material, is the fifty-five volume collection of documents about the history of the Philippines under Spain constructed by Emma Blair and James Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, and published between 1903 and 1909. Widely available in both print and digital form, Blair and Robertson’s collection has informed the work of scholars interested in the colonial history of the Philippines for over a century. Nevertheless, the collection is highly problematic and should only be used with extreme caution. The translations are often poor and based on faulty transcriptions of the Spanish-language originals, many of which are available in print in more reliable editions. More importantly, the collection as a whole is very much a product of its times. It was produced when the United States had seized control of the Philippines from Spain, and Americans were fretting about how to rule an archipelago inhabited by what they considered to be inferior racial minorities. As Gloria Cano has argued, the pattern of inclusions and exclusions

Introduction

13

that mark the selection of the documents was designed to present Spanish rule as despotic and fanatical and, thereby, support the official story that the rule of the United States was fundamentally humanitarian in nature, designed to enlighten a people left benighted by Catholic Spain.1 No room is given to subaltern voices. Just as Blair and Robertson became the most famous and most cited collection of primary source materials, so James Phelan’s 1959 monograph, The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700, became the standard one-volume account of the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Philippine Islands. It is still cited today as the standard account of the subject, not necessarily because of its continued usefulness, but because nothing has effectively emerged to replace it, at least not in English. Its title encapsulates its principal theoretical shortcomings. Phelan treats the history of the Philippines as an encounter between two groups, Spaniards and Filipinos, assigning agency to the first and treating the actions of the second as “responses.” Those responses are the same that a Latin Americanist like Phelan would have identified in the colonial history of Spanish America, various forms of social, political, and cultural syncretism or mestizaje, and isolated pockets of outright resistance, leaving relatively little room for indigenous agency as contemporary Latin American colonial studies has come to understand it. The enormous role played by China as a market for the American silver that funneled through Manila, as a threat to the continued existence of the Spanish colony, and as the home of a group of immigrants whose significance to the operation of the colony cannot be underestimated, gets short shrift, as do other aspects of the enmeshment of the Philippines in a broad political, cultural, and economic geography. During the decades between the publication of Blair and Robertson’s volumes and of Phelan’s monograph, William Schurz published the third leg of our tripod, The Manila Galleon (1939). This colorful and highly readable volume tells the story of the galleon trade that flourished between Manila and Acapulco from roughly 1570 until 1815, a trade involving the exchange of American silver for Asian luxury goods, primarily Chinese silk. Blair and Robertson had certainly not neglected the galleons, and neither would Phelan, in his turn, but it was Schurz who converted them into an object of analysis in their own right. Like the other two legs of the tripod, the Schurz volume suffers from numerous limitations, especially when viewed from the perspective of the twenty-first century. Schurz, for example, 1 Cano, “Evidence for the Deliberate Distortion”; see also Gloria Cano, “Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands.”

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interprets encounters across cultures through a framework informed by highly problematic notions of race and nation, and gives short shrift to the role of Filipinos in the construction and navigation of the galleons, beyond their brute labor.2 Nevertheless, it reframes the Spanish Philippines and their historical significance in ways that have proven to be quite influential. In Schurz’s book, the Philippines are not Blair and Robertson’s forgotten outpost of a despotic empire, or Phelan’s curious appendix to Spanish America, but the nerve center of a thriving transoceanic exchange linking America to Asia by way of Manila, and the focal point of global encounters. It is Schurz’s perspective, if not his particular ideas or approach, that animates contemporary Spanish Pacific studies. During the 1980s and 90s, scholars working in Australia and Hawaii began to place the history of the Spanish Philippines within the larger context of the construction of Pacific space and the emergence of globalization. The historian Oskar Spate produced a three-volume history of the Pacific since the initial European encounters that remains useful today. The first of these volumes focuses primarily on Spain’s sixteenth-century experience.3 Yet it is the work of the latter group of scholars, the ones interested in the role played by the Manila galleons in the history of globalization, that has had the greatest impact. These scholars, primarily economic historians, brought our attention to the centrality of India and China in the early modern global economy, upending established notions about the drivers behind the emergence of capitalism previously advanced by Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein, and others.4 Within this framework, the Philippines were no longer peripheral, but surprisingly central. They were one of the gateways through which the upstart powers of the Atlantic accessed the center of the world economy, Ming China. The work of Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giráldez was particularly prominent in the recent expansion of interest in the Spanish Pacific. Their studies of the flow of silver from America to Asia, and their insistence on the importance of this flow to the development of early modern globalization, inspired art historians to scrutinize the flow of luxury goods in the other direction, assessing the impact of Chinese silk, Philippine ivories, Japanese screens, and the like on the material culture of Spanish America.5 Spanish American 2 Schurz, Manila Galleon, 83, 129, 197, 289. 3 Spate, Spanish Lake; Spate, Monopolists and Freebooters; Spate, Paradise Found and Lost; Flynn et al., Global Connections and Monetary History; Flynn and Giráldez, China and the Birth of Globalization. 4 See Frank, Reorient. 5 For a survey of this scholarship, see Leibsohn and Priyadarshini, “Transpacific”; the essays in Pierce and Otsuka, Asia and Spanish America, are particularly useful.

Introduction

15

colonial art, which had once been dismissed as derivative of metropolitan models, now appeared to sit at the vanguard of emerging aesthetic trends, embracing and even imitating all sorts of Asian art long before it became all the rage in Europe. Historians in other fields, meanwhile, asked questions about other types of exchanges, including foodstuffs, slaves, and even music, while scholars in literary and cultural studies began to analyze the neglected corpus of early modern Spanish writing about the Philippines, the Pacific, and East and Southeast Asia, not as historical documents, but as instances of early modern ethnography and of colonial discourse.6 It is this body of scholarship, produced primarily during the last thirty years, that constitutes early modern Spanish Pacific studies. Given the vital importance of the Philippine Islands to everything the Spanish did or hoped to do in the Pacific Rim and Basin, the field of Spanish Pacific studies inevitably concerns itself with the colonial Philippines, but not with the archipelago alone or in isolation. It treats the Philippines as a contact zone among actors of various origins and ethnicities, all with varying levels of agency. Spaniards and Filipinos feature prominently, but the former is understood to be only one among various groups seeking hegemony over the islands, while the latter is understood in and through their particular linguistic and ethnic groupings. The Spanish colonial project is seen to emerge from engagement with the local population, but also with the Chinese and the Japanese as crucial immigrant populations, foreign commercial partners, and potential external threats. In this way, the Philippine contact zone becomes the nexus that connects the histories of the islands themselves, China, and Japan.7 That web of connections, moreover, extends farther afield to the rest of Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean Basin, the Americas, and the Atlantic world. Spanish Pacific studies thus operates on a variety of geographical scales, from the local scene where wide-ranging forces come together to create colonial settings, to the regional and global spaces needed to understand the migrations, long-range commodity exchanges, and cultural transfers involved in Spain’s attempt to extend its empire across the South Sea. It requires attention to such matters as Spain’s ongoing rivalry with Islam, particularly in Southeast Asia, as well as its competition with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English for global hegemony. It is inseparable 6 See, for example, Mazumdar, “Impact of New World Crops”; Irving, Colonial Counterpoint; Ellis, They Need Nothing; Lee, Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age; Seijas, Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico. 7 Rafael, Contracting Colonialism; Tremml-Werner, Spain, China, and Japan in Manila.

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from the history of late Ming and early Qing China, the economic and political elephant in the room, yet it involves connecting the history of East and Southeast Asia to distant phenomena of all kinds, like the dynamics of silver production and silk consumption in Spain, Spanish America, and elsewhere. It involves probing the cultural imaginaries of Europeans and Asians as they compete, overlap, and change in tandem with developments on the ground. It should become clear from these brief remarks that while the name of the field, “Spanish Pacific studies,” alludes to a particular physical geography, be it the Pacific Ocean, Rim, or Basin, and identifies that space as “Spanish,” the space that the field actually constructs and scrutinizes is not precisely physical and certainly not natural. Neither was it ever the “Spanish Lake” that some have made it out to be. Spanish Pacific studies begins by recognizing that Spain’s presence in the Pacific was always slim, tenuous, and contested. The Spanish Philippines lived under the constant fear of aggression from the Japanese to the north, the Chinese to the west, and the Muslims to the south. Attempts by Spain to become the most influential European power in transpacific Asia struggled against the challenges posed by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English. The Spanish Pacific, in other words, was nothing like the Spanish Atlantic. While Spain cast a net over the Atlantic that extended deep into the Americas, producing dramatic changes of all kinds, it cast only a slender line across the Pacific, a single galleon route, whose primary purpose was to keep its lonely colonial outpost on the far side of the ocean from falling into the hands of its more powerful neighbors. The exchanges that took place along that line, however, helped produce a social, cultural, and political space whose frontiers were ragged and whose borders were malleable, but that nevertheless extended far beyond the territories effectively controlled by Spain. The documents in this collection reflect these assumptions and priorities. They are arranged chronologically and range in date from 1536, thirty years before the establishment of the Spanish Philippines, to 1813, the twilight of the galleon trade. In this way, they span the entire history of the Spanish Pacif ic from one of Spain’s f irst encounters with insular Southeast Asia to the early nineteenth century, when the loss of Spain’s American viceroyalties fundamentally altered its relationship with its sole Asian colony. Nevertheless, they do not constitute a documentary history of the Spanish Pacific, something far beyond the scope of a single volume. There are countless issues, events, and historical f igures that are indispensable for a full understanding of the Spanish Pacif ic that are not even mentioned here. Many of those omissions are accidental,

Introduction

17

the result of the admittedly arbitrary process by which this particular collection was brought together, but at the heart of that arbitrariness lies a deliberate choice. The editors decided not to begin with a list of obligatory topics or texts that had to be represented in order to cover all the bases, so to speak, in an attempt to avoid the otherwise inevitable influence of existing historical paradigms, particularly those established by Blair and Robertson. The result is a collection free of certain topics that appear in scholarship on the colonial Philippines and the Spanish Pacific with oppressive regularity, but which are very well represented in existing scholarship. The most salient example is the Magellan expedition, which is often taken as a point of departure for the history of the Philippines. Rather than include excerpts from Antonio Pigafetta’s chronicle of the first circumnavigation of the Earth, or from Maximilanus Translyvanus’s influential letter about the expedition, we are happy to offer excerpts from an account of the follow-up voyage by García Jofre de Loaysa, previously unavailable in English. We are also pleased that Pigafetta was not alone among the obvious canonical voices that our symposium participants could have brought to the table, but did not. Noticeably absent are almost all of the major Spanish chroniclers of Philippine history who take up so many pages in Blair and Robertson, authors like Antonio de Morga, Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, and Gaspar de San Agustín, whose work is available in numerous editions, both in Spanish and English. Instead, we feature Francisco de Combés and his fascinating seventeenth-century chronicle of Spain’s contentious relationship with the Muslim population of Mindanao and Jolo, which has never been translated in full. Most of the texts included here favor scenes of encounter and acts of translation, both physical and cultural, and they often provide glimpses of subaltern subjectivities. Collectively, they construct the Spanish Philippines as a colonial contact zone, as a nexus of transpacif ic trade, as a focus of imperial rivalry, and as a node in the networks of early modern globalization. They vary widely in genre, encompassing official correspondence and travel narrative, excerpts from printed histories, a royal decree, a will, a court case, a constitution, poetry, a historical novel, a confessional manual, and a map. Most of them use Spanish as the principal language, although Tagalog, Visayan, Chinese, and Latin are also represented, as is the native script of the Philippine Islands, baybayin. In this way, they attest to the multicultural and multilinguistic nature of life in the Spanish Pacific. The creators of these documents include ecclesiastics, would-be conquistadors, government off icials, a native Filipino Latinist, and a

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disgraced Jesuit turned secular intellectual. Most of them were created in the Philippine Islands, although some are from New Spain, Peru, and metropolitan Spain, and speak of how far the Spanish Pacif ic could be thought to extend. Most have never been published before, at least not in English. Although the documents do not tell a continuous narrative, they can be grouped thematically in a variety of ways. Religion features prominently in the documents set out in Chapters 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 15, which shed light on the complex negotiations that were characteristic of religious life in the colonial Philippines. They involve Christian missionaries, off icials of the Inquisition, and local populations of various kinds, including Sangleys, Tagalog speakers, Visayan speakers, a Moluccan Muslim, and mestiza women. Most of these documents shed light on local settings and events, but one (in Chapter 3) brings a global imaginary to bear on the work of conversion, while another (in Chapter 12) explicitly involves transpacif ic displacement, connecting Manila to Mexico. The spatial practices of Spanish colonialism emerge as prominent themes in documents exhibited in Chapters 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11, covering such themes as the regulation of the galleon trade, the slave trade, the problems of governing the Philippines from far-off New Spain, the attempt to organize Filipinos into European-style towns, debates over landownership, and the frustrated effort to exert power over Muslim Mindanao. The physical violence of colonialism is a theme in a number of documents, particularly those in Chapters 2 and 9, while others, particularly the second document in Chapter 13, deal with the symbolic and even psychological violence of religious conversion. Spain’s rivalries with other empires emerge as a theme most prominently in documents brought to light in Chapters 2, 10, and 14. The document in Chapter 2 tells us something about how one Spanish speaker imagined transpacif ic space from his perspective in Manila, while the document in Chapter 10 allows us to glimpse how another Spanish speaker viewed it from Mexico City. The document in Chapter 8 reveals a household in Lima composed of a mix of people from China, the Philippines, Eastern India, and Africa, all drawn together by transpacific migration and the slave trade. The documents in Chapters 5 and 12 offer windows into the social life of Manila, the first emphasizing interethnic relations with the resident Chinese, and the second, the life of women. Of course, there are other themes that could be pointed out, and other groupings that would emerge from selecting them. We invite our readers to delve into the collection and discover for themselves what is of most interest.

Introduction

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Bibliography Blair, Emma Helen, and James Alexander Robertson. 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 Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. 55 vols. Cleveland, OH: A. H. Clark Co., 1903.

Cano, Glòria. “Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898: Scholarship or Imperialist Propaganda?” Philippine Studies 56, no. 1 (2008): 3–46. ———. “Evidence for the Deliberate Distortion of the Spanish Philippine Colonial Historical Record in The Philippine Islands 1493–1898.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 39, no. 1 (February 2008): 1–30. Ellis, Robert Richmond. They Need Nothing: Hispanic-Asian Encounters of the Colonial Period. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Flynn, Dennis Owen, and Arturo Giráldez, eds. China and the Birth of Globalization in the 16th Century. Farnham: Ashgate Variorum, 2010. Flynn, Dennis Owen, Arturo Giráldez, and Richard von Glahn, eds. Global Connections and Monetary History, 1470–1800. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003. Frank, Andre Gunder. Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998. Irving, D. R. M. Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Lee, Christina H., ed. Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012. Leibsohn, Dana, and Meha Priyadarshini. “Transpacific: Beyond Silk and Silver.” Colonial Latin American Review 25, no. 1 (2 January 2016): 1–15. Mazumdar, Sucheta. “The Impact of New World Crops on the Diet and Economy of China and India, 1600–1900.” In Food in Global History, edited by Raymond Grew, 58–78. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999. Phelan, John Leddy. The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959. Pierce, Donna, and Ronald Y. Otsuka, eds. Asia and Spanish America: Trans-Pacific Artistic and Cultural Exchange, 1500–1850: Papers from the 2006 Mayer Center Symposium at the Denver Art Museum. Denver, CO: Denver Art Museum, 2009. Rafael, Vicente L. Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. Schurz, William Lytle. The Manila Galleon: Illustrated with Maps. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1939.

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Seijas, Tatiana. Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Spate, O. H. K. Monopolists and Freebooters. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983. ———. Paradise Found and Lost. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988. ———. The Spanish Lake. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1979. Tremml-Werner, Birgit. Spain, China, and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644: Local Comparisons and Global Connections. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015.

About the Editors Christina H. Lee is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University. She has written extensively about religion and race in the making of the Spanish identity in the early modern period. Her book publications include The Anxiety of Sameness in Early Modern Spain (Manchester University Press, 2015), Reading and Writing Subjects in Medieval and Golden Age Spain, with José Luis Gastañaga (Juan de la Cuesta, 2016), Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age (Routledge, 2012), and the critical edition of Lope de Vega’s Los mártires de Japón (Juan de la Cuesta, 2006). Her current book project analyzes forms of dissent in globalized forms of Catholicism in the Spanish Philippines. Ricardo Padrón is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature and Empire in Early Modern Spain (University of Chicago Press, 2004). His forthcoming book, The Indies of the Setting Sun: The Pacific and Asia in the Spanish Geopolitical Imagination, 1513–1610 (University of Chicago Press), examines the geopolitical imagination of sixteenth-century Spain in its construction of America and East/Southeast Asia as connected spaces within the broad and always elastic notion of “the Indies.”

1.

An Early Transpacific Account of the Spice Islandsby Andrés de Urdaneta (1536) Jorge Mojarro Romero

Abstract Andrés de Urdaneta (1508?–1568) tells the story of the ill-fated expedition of Jofre García de Loaysa (1490–1526), which was meant to consolidate the Spanish claim to the Spice Islands in the aftermath of the Magellan expedition. Urdaneta, a participant in the expedition who later made important contributions to Pacific navigation, covers the ill-fated voyage of Loaysa’s fleet as well as the armed conflict that ensued when the Spanish arrived in the Moluccas only to find the Portuguese already ensconced on the island of Ternate. This brief narrative provides an insight into a complex political and military situation, in which the rivalry between the two Iberian empires overlaps with the local rivalries of sixteenth-century insular Southeast Asia. Jorge Mojarro provides the necessary historical context. Keywords: Pacific exploration; Moluccas war; military transculturation; Hispano-Portuguese rivalry

The arrival of the ship (or nao) Victoria, in Sanlúcar—loaded with spices— in September 1522 seemed to promise great prof its to the emperor as well as to the creditors who risked sponsoring the successive overseas expeditions. The doors had been opened for Spain to reach the Moluccas through the Strait of Magellan, an unacceptable situation to the new king of Portugal, João III, who claimed that the Spice Islands were within its demarcation. The Portuguese king agreed with Carlos V that expert navigators and geographers of both nations would hold a meeting in

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1524, known as la Junta de Badajoz y Elvas (Board of Badajoz and Elvas), which ended after two months of discussions without any agreement. This temporary limbo in geographical knowledge served the Spanish Crown as a legal subterfuge to organize another expedition. This time, a larger and better equipped crew was under the command of García Jofre de Loaysa (1490–1526). It would leave from the port in La Coruña, where the central trading agency for the Spice Islands—the Casa de Contratación—was founded in July 1525. Loaysa’s expedition, which was unknown to almost everyone except navigation historians, is one of the most fascinating and tragic adventures ever narrated despite its failure to achieve its objectives. In this sense, the various chronicles of this transpacific odyssey deserve a careful reading, given that they have not received much attention beyond serving as sources for the biographies of the Augustinian Andrés de Urdaneta (1508?–1568). Among the seven ships that left La Coruña, only the flagship Santa María de la Victoria managed to reach Tidore with a hundred men—at the verge of starvation—among whom were neither Loaysa nor Juan Sebastián Elcano: both had died crossing the Pacific. The fate of the other six boats varied. Scurvy began to take its toll on the crew of the flagship Santa María de la Victoria after the storm that separated the last four boats in the Pacific. They had agreed to stop over in one of the Islands of the Thieves—Islas de los Ladrones—so that the sick could rest and they could get hold of the supplies they needed. There, they found Gonzalo de Vigo, a sailor who years earlier had run away from Magellan’s flagship Trinidad, at the time when it was commanded by Gómez de Espinosa. This Galician sailor learned to speak the indigenous languages of the region and served as a translator to the explorers. Once they arrived in the Moluccas, they found themselves in an odd situation: the Portuguese were in control of Ternate where they had strong and good relations with the local chieftain. They traded with other islands of the archipelago from there but the chieftains of Gilolo and Tidore were at odds with the Portuguese owing to recent abuses. The Spaniards took advantage of this situation and they divided themselves between those two towns, where they were well received. The remaining years marked a continuous struggle between the two Iberian overseas powers to take control of the archipelago, with poisonings, short battles, cultural misunderstandings, continuous betrayals, and unfulfilled truces. While all this was happening in the Moluccas, Hernán Cortés prepared three ships under the command of his cousin Álvaro de Saavedra with the

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objective of rescuing the survivors of the ship, Trinidad, reinforcing Loaysa’s fleet, and finding the route of return. He was also tasked with learning about the commercial possibilities offered by the Moluccas. Only the nao Florida was able to reach the Moluccas, where they were eagerly welcomed by the Spaniards, who were waiting for supplies and personnel. Saavedra made two failed attempts to find the way back to Mexico in June 1528 and June 1529. He died on his second try. The handful of Spaniards who remained in Tidore were forced to abandon their place in a battle where they were largely overwhelmed. Some joined the Portuguese to return to Spain, but most of them, including Hernando de la Torre, Andrés de Urdaneta, and Martín de Islares continued to resist defeat in Gilolo—where they enjoyed the protection of the chieftain—and hoped that a new expedition would arrive from Spain with reinforcements. The last months on the islands became tense because Gilolo’s natives were tired of supporting the Spaniards and those of Ternate were fed up with the abuses and cruelties of the Portuguese who decapitated a local chief in public. Then, for the first time, Spaniards and Portuguese had to join forces to resist the natives who had entered a pact in order to expel them. Finally, in 1532, the news of the Treaty of Zaragoza of 1529, in which the king of Spain sold his rights in the Moluccas to the king of Portugal, arrived by way of the Portuguese. The handful of remaining Spaniards returned to the peninsula in the middle of 1536 by different routes but always stopped in places that the Portuguese had in Asia (Malacca, Conchín, Díu). The narrator of this lively transpacific odyssey was the young Andrés de Urdaneta, who would have a crucial role in the expedition led by Miguel López de Legazpi some decades later; an expedition that would conclude with the conquest of the Philippine Islands. The text is a report in the form of a diary that was intended to narrate the fate of the seven ships of the expedition to the emperor and the events of their complicated stay in the Moluccas, which involved a prolonged conflict with the natives of Ternate and their Portuguese partners. The account is a continuous narration without divisions or annotations in the margins, at least in the manuscript copy that has survived. Urdaneta writes in an animated style, detailing his service in the rapid turn of occurrences, perhaps pushed unconsciously by his desire to be recognized for his role in the historical events. This report ends up being engulfed by an “I” that is imposed throughout the text, which somewhat exemplifies the implacable imperial logic that permeates early colonial literature.

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Account of the Journey of the Army of Commander García de Loaysa to the Spice Islands or Moluccas in 1525 and Events that Happened then until 1536 by Captain Andrés de Urdaneta1 The Crossing of the Pacific On Tuesday, four days into the month of September, at dawn, we saw land and it was one of the Islas de los Ladrones that had been discovered during the other trip.2 When we saw it, we were north of it. We hurried to get to the southern part of island but coming close to it, the wind was scarce, and the current was moving us away from it. We were beating to windward this day and night and the following Wednesday, under the same conditions, many indios came aboard on canoes. Among them came a Spaniard who greeted us from afar the way we do in Spain. We were so delighted that we made him come aboard. The Christian asked for assurance not to be arrested before he came on board to which captain Toribio Alonso de Salazar agreed and, thus, he entered the ship. He was a native from Galicia and Gonzalo de Vigo was his name. He came completely naked except for his private parts, which were covered with a piece of mat. His hair was very bristly, and it reached his buttocks. He told us that he was from Magellan’s fleet on board the nao where captain Espinosa was.3 They wanted to go to New Spain, but were unable to go to New Spain. They decided to return to the Moluccas. When the nao had passed by one of those Islas de los Ladrones and had dropped 1 The translation is based on the transcription provided by Rodríguez, 56–71 and 89–95. The section headings and the paragraphs correspond to those of the modernized annotated edition of the text I am currently preparing. 2 Just before reaching the Mariana Islands, the expedition had successively lost the two leaders of the expedition: García de Loaysa and Juan Sebastián Elcano. Among the eight ships that departed from La Coruña, five were dispersed in the Strait of Magellan for different reasons, one went up to New Spain to inform Hernán Cortés of the changes of the expedition, two managed to reach Mindanao and only the captaina (flagship), as it is referred to here, managed to reach the Moluccas. 3 Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa commanded the nao Trinidad during the first attempt to find the route of the tornaviaje to New Spain in 1522. The lack of progress and the high mortality of the crew made him return to the Moluccas and surrender to the Portuguese. Gonzalo de Vigo escaped from the ship with two companions near the coast of Guam as it is narrated here. This action constituted a serious crime of treason punishable by death, hence he asked for assurance before boarding the ship.

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anchor in the hindmost island closer to the north among thirteen that there are, he and two other companions went ashore and they remained [there] for fear of dying because many people were dying in the nao. And [he said] that the nao had gone to the Moluccas and that his two companions were killed by the indios of that same island where he presently was, and he had been on the island for three years. The Islas de los Ladrones is composed of thirteen islands that go from north to south one after the other and they are close to each other, according to the Galician. We arrived at this island this afternoon. You must go through the northern part from the cape of this island to a point you will find in the center of the island. There is 12 leagues from east to west. From this point that is in the center of the island you will find the cape of the east. You must go from northeast to southwest. It is about 10 leagues away. There is a good place to anchor inside the cape. In the cove from northeast to southwest we were anchored 150 fathoms deep. It could be reasonably said that it is a high island. The top part is limestone. All the surrounding coast is populated. The people from the island are strong and well built. They walk stark naked showing their private parts and so do the women except for their front parts, which they cover with some leaves from a tree. The leaves hang from a thread around their waist and sway in front of their genitals. And because the wind sometimes blows off the leaves, they always bring extra leaves. Men and women have very long and loose hair and they are constantly chewing a certain leaf and an acorn and lime, all mixed, which turn their lips red and is good for the gums as it tightens them. They call this pinanco in the Moluccas. All the indios eat it from these islands to the Portuguese Indies. All these Indians of Islas de los Ladrones smear themselves with coconut oil and their teeth are blackened by certain juice of a grass and some of them grow long beards like us. They go to war among themselves. They use slingshots and hardened wood sticks as weapons and they also use a stick where they put human bones that can kill in the course of battle when they fight. There is a chieftain in each town. They do not have any kind of metal, which is why they are very fond of iron, and will give everything they have for any iron object that cuts and if it is not sold for the price they want, they will do what they can to have it or they just steal it and flee with it. In the nao, many of them snatched the machetes or knives or daggers from the tape and threw themselves into the sea and fled, and due to such robbery, the place is called Islas de los Ladrones. They use the heads of their fathers and grandfathers, which they take out from under the earth once the flesh is gone, to adorn their houses. They anoint them with oil and worship them in their houses. They do not own many things. Though they use the shells of

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turtles a lot to make combs and hooks for fishing. They work with stones. Rice is their staple food, though there is not much of it on the island. They also have sweet potatoes, bananas and coconuts. They make oil from coconuts to smear on their bodies and for eating. There are also many kinds of fruits that are different from ours. They catch a lot of fish with their hooks. The canoes in which they go fishing are small and have a counterweight on one part produced from thick tuna-shaped wood. This counterbalance goes continuously windward and is tied in two sticks that extend outside the body of the canoe. The canoe is made with two prows, which could very well be the stern as the prow, and both parts are strong. The sails are lateen and are made of woven mats and they are very appropriate for sailing. To turn around they do not turn the canoe but just use the sail. They just surround the stern, which is like the prow itself, and thus the windward counterweight remains. There is a custom in these islands. All the single men who are about to get married bring two sticks in their hands and all of them usually bring their own very well-cut mat holding pineapples, which they eat afterwards. The unmarried indios, who bring the rods, have such freedom that they can enter the house of any married indio whose wife seems alright to them and he can do what he wants with her, and if at the time the young man wants to enter her husband is at home, after the other enters, they exchange baskets and if the husband leaves and the young man remains inside, the married man will not arrive home until he knows that the other is out. And many very good mats are made on these islands. These indios are very strong. Two of these indios take a half full barrel of water and carry it and put it inside the small boat. There was [an] indio who took an iron bar of up to 25 or 30 pounds from one point and lifted it up and did three or four laps with the iron bars on his head. There is no livestock on these islands, and neither are there chickens or other birds, except turtledoves or birds that appear to be similar to them, which they raise in their houses. They put them in cages and accustom them to fight with others and they bet on the winner. They also have salt that they produce this way: they get water from the sea and put it in some canoes on land under the sun, and they leave it that way for forty days and then they cook that water until it curds and becomes salt. These Islas de los Ladrones are 130 leagues away from San Bartolomé. 4 A lot of rice is produced on some of these islands, which supplies others that do not have as much as they need. And this said island has a small island to the northeast and is full of many trees and populated with people. The 4

One of the Marshall Islands, where they had passed during the crossing.

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distance from one to the other must be about half a league. The distance was taken in the inlet where we were anchored. It is situated 13 degrees longitude.

6. Mindanao On Monday, the tenth day of September, we leave these islands to go [in] search of the Moluccas Islands, taking the west-southeast route. On Saturday, September 15, Captain Toribio Alonso de Salazar died and there were some differences about who would be captain because some wanted Martín Íñiguez de Carquizano, senior accountant, and others wanted Fernando de Bustamante, accountant of the nao that Captain Juan Sebastián Elcano had served because of the death of Íñigo Cortés de Perea, accountant of the said nao. And to avoid scandal we all agreed that we would choose a captain by votes and so everyone voted. Some voted for the aforementioned Martín Íñiguez de Carquizano and the others for the said Fernando de Bustamante and before the votes were seen, Martín Íñiguez insisted that Bustamante would have more votes and the clerk wrote the votes and threw them into the sea, which would have caused a great disturbance if we had not arranged it this way: that the said Martín Íñiguez and Bustamante governed and administered together until we arrived on the islands of the archipelago, and if there was no news of the other naos, then we would choose a captain by votes and that in the meantime we were without an appointed captain. Juan Huelva, maestre [deputy captain] of the said ship died next to the Islas de los Ladrones and Íñigo de Lorriaga, the boatswain of the said nao, was appointed in his place. On Tuesday, the second day of October, when the sun was rising, we saw land west of us. It was 12 leagues away and it was the island of Mindanao.5 This day, Martín Íñiguez de Carquizano called Fernando de Bustamante and the officers of the nao to the naval aft chamber as well as Gonzalo de Campo, senior officer, and another fifteen or sixteen upstanding men who were on the ship. He gave a talk, saying that they had already realized we were in the archipelago of the Celebes and very close to Molucas. [He said] that we were very few on board and it would be a great disservice for His Majesty to leave us without a captain and leader. And because there was a great possibility that we would come across some Portuguese ships or indio 5 It is impossible to know exactly where they landed, but it must be in the bay of Lanuza, northeast of Mindanao, very close to the Siargao archipelago.

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boats, some disaster could occur, as we were leaderless and disordered men who had not elected and sworn in a captain. So, he asked us and required us on behalf of God and of His Majesty, that we should name, receive, and swear in the said Martín Íñiguez de Carquizano, because His Majesty commanded an instruction that he showed to us. [It said that] in the event that the captain was missing that His Majesty approved a new one, and declared that he was the rightly captain as he was an officer of His Majesty in the same way he was senior accountant, and there was no other general officer. He was also more capable and sufficient for the government and position than Hernando de Bustamante, who was present. Then everyone, except for Bustamante, agreed in unison with everything they had said and were ready and prepared to do what was needed. Then, they all swore to obey him. Therefore, all those in the nao swore obedience, except Bustamante whom he threatened to put in shackles [so] that he got so frightened that he had to swear to obey. On Wednesday, the third day of October, Martín Íñiguez appointed the general officers of His Majesty and other officers. It is convenient to know: Martin García Carquizano was appointed general treasurer; Francisco de Soto, general accountant, and Diego de Soler as general official and Gutierre de Tuño as treasurer of the nao. On Saturday, the sixth of October, we emerged on the island of Mindanao, 1 league away from land, within a bay, between some islands that were inside the bay, which extends up to 5 leagues inland, and from there we sent the small boat further inside to find out where we were and if there were people there. We also wanted to know if there was a good place to drop anchor. I was on board the small boat and, when we arrived ashore, we found trees cut in the woods by knife or ax that made us realize that it was populated. From there we went along the coast to the interior of the inlet. We saw two indios on the coast to whom we called, and we made signs to them to come to our small boat, but they refused to come. We sent Gonzalo de Vigo, the one we found in the Islas de los Ladrones to talk to the indios because he knew how to speak the language of the Moluccas a bit. The indios did not understand him, nor did he understand them. But they made signs for us to go inside the inlet. From there the indios boarded a canoe and went to the inlet and we followed them with the dinghy. It was almost nighttime when we arrived. There was a town and the indios from there were on the riverbank making a lot of noise. We were at the dinghy until dawn and at dawn we went ashore where there were many indios and we began to speak by signs and some of them came to the dinghy and gave us coconuts, bananas, sweet potatoes, cider and other fruits as well as

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palm wine and we gave them some glass beads with which they were very comfortable. We signaled to them to bring us pigs and chickens and they said yes, and showed us a lot of good will, and with some chickens and rice we returned to the nao. This day we set sail with the nao and went further inland, and we emerged at the head of the cove in 50 fathoms. The whole bay is so deep and by this place where we dropped anchor there were very good rivers a quarter of a league away where we got water. While we were here, an indio came from another province of this island in a boat called a caluz, who brought many chickens and a pig, and part of them he gave to the captain and the others he sold in exchange for beads. The captain gave this man a rod of stick, a certain canvas, beads and other things that satisfied the indio. This indio was dressed in crimson satin and wore thick golden bracelets and gold earrings hanging from his ears and there were also some indios who wore gold earrings and whose teeth were pierced a bit and gold was inserted in them. They sold the gold they brought very cheaply and the captain ordered that no one should barter for it or buy it, and so the indios were very happy. On the morning of the following Tuesday, October 9, the boat went ashore and when we arrived, the indios came, and they began to signal to us to throw the guns that we brought on the prow and to throw our shotguns ashore and they would trade with us. Then we were suspicious that they were up to no good so we were much more careful from then on, although we had always been like this. We were not able to trade anything during the whole day; before that an indio [who] spoke to us in the Malay language told us that we were farangüis,6 thieves and robbers wherever we went. These dogs thought that we were Portuguese and that is why they called us farangüis, because farangüis means Portuguese, and no matter how much we asked, they never brought us anything, given that we went the next day and that by then they would have pigs, chickens, rice and many other supplies, and all this was done to take our dinghy. A lot of indios gathered in that town. We would return to the nao without any food. On Wednesday, the tenth day of the said month, before daybreak, the eleven slaves that we had taken from la Islas de los Ladrones went ashore with the boat we took from them and the indios killed them. On Thursday, the eleventh day of that month, we went ashore with our dinghy again and we found the indios very upset and we begged them to sell us some supplies paying them with our money. They asked us what 6 All white foreigners were called farangüis in much of Southeast Asia. The term became so famous that it spread across the Indian Ocean.

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we wanted and for us to come ashore to get all we needed from what they had to sell to us. We told them that because of what they had told us the day before, threatening us, we did not trust them, and so that we would be safe from each other, one of them would get into the dinghy and one of us would go with them so that in the meantime we would buy whatever they brought us to sell. They answered that it was alright with them and then an Indian dressed in silk with a dagger on his waist came and some of our people said that the dagger’s grip was solid gold. We told him to leave the dagger and silk cloth on the ground before he came into the dinghy. We sent Gonzalo de Vigo ashore because he knew how to speak a little [with the natives] and as he went with them, they brought a pig to sell us, but they did not want to come over to the dinghy. Gonzalo de Vigo was guarded by twelve indios with cutlasses and shields and they started to tell him to ask us for a few yards of canvas in exchange for a certain cloth and we were happy to give them what they asked for and, as they saw this, they asked us for more until they had been asking for so much that what they were demanding was unreasonable. In this interval, Gonzalo de Vigo discovered the trick that they had to f ind us, and he warned us. He told us that he wanted to get into the dinghy and for us to be alert; and so, while he was amidst them, he began to flee and we took him into the dinghy although they followed him to the water and we also took the pig they had brought to sell, and we returned to the ship bringing an indio with us. On the following Friday, the twelfth day of the said month, we returned with the dinghy bringing the indio with us to the town and we arrived where the indios were and we said that we wanted to return their indio and we wanted them to give us some provisions for our money. We did not want to make them angry. On Sunday, October 13, it was Captain Martín Íñiguez de Carquizano who went ashore with sixty men using the skiff of the ship. They were all very well armed. And when they arrived in the town, he requested peace with the indios and for them to sell us some provisions, which they did not want to do. They armed themselves and they started playing many dirty tricks on us. When the captain saw this, he began to leave towards the town and as the indios saw that we were determined, they abandoned the town and gathered in the forest. The soldiers wanted to fight the indios although they were many, but the captain did not consent; he ordered us back to the dinghies to be able to return to the ship because the indios had nothing in that place. Thus, we returned to the nao.

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This indio we had in the nao knew how to speak the Malay language and told us that the province where we were was called Bisaya and that there were many other provinces in that island, and gold and a lot of cinnamon were found in one of those islands, and likewise there were other islands near there, by the names of Enzegua,7 Mactan,8 Babay,9 where much gold and many other things were available. [He said] that a junk from China came every year to that island of Mindanao and to the other islands and he bought gold, pearls, cinnamon and other riches that are in the islands. The Indians from this island are men of medium height and are all painted [tattooed]. They are dressed in cotton cloths and silk from the waist down. They are constantly at war among themselves as well as with the neighboring islands. They have bows, arrows and cutlasses of iron and assegais,10 daggers and hot smut and other kinds of arms. They have ships they row with sticks called calaludes. They use these boats a lot and they are very well built. They also have other types of boats, big and small. The indios of this island and of others are the most treacherous indios there are in the area and to whoever comes to this part of the Indies it is not advisable to get lost as these indios are very insidious. They are gentiles, they adore idols of wood, they have long hair, which is tied, or they run down to the nape. They do not grow beards. In their penis, they have stones which they insert inside the flesh; whoever has more stones is considered more apt for the game; others have a small tube of silver or tin or gold in their penis, and a small rod inside the tube and all for sex so that the women can have a lot of fun with it. None of these indios can def lower any woman for the sake of love. There are indio servants who have no other job than that and there is one in each town [to] deflower them, and they do not have those stones and tubes. While we were anchored in this bay, the height of the sun was taken at eight long degrees. The island of Bisaya is where we are, with the island of Bacán, which is another island among the Islas de los Ladrones that is closer to the east-west line of the northeast-southwest, [at a] longitude of 140 leagues. This island of Bisaya or Mindanao is a large island. 11 It has a radius of more than 280 leagues. 7 It was referred to by Pigafetta as Mazaua. Probably it is Limasawa which is small island south of Leyte. 8 It is the island opposite Cebu where its chief Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan in April 1521. 9 Baybay, west of Leyte. 10 Throwing spears. 11 Urdaneta confuses the language of the natives (Bisaya) with the name of the island.

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7. Arrival in the Moluccas On Tuesday, the first day of January of 1527, in the morning, we set sail from where we were waiting to go to the main town of the island of Tidore, which is on the east-southeast side.12 We arrived in the village at ten o’clock in the morning and the king came aboard, he and his brothers, and the governor and many other gentlemen. And, indeed, the indios were crying with pleasure at seeing us as if we were their cousins or brothers and they did it from the heart, because we arrived in time to redeem them from captivity. We were just as pleased to see them as we had wanted to find indios with so much desire to favor and help us for so long. Soon, Captain Martín Íñiguez told the king how His Majesty sent us to find someone to be able to buy spices from and ordered us to build a fortress on the islands of Gilolo and Tidore and defend and guard the lands from anyone who wanted to offend them. Since His Majesty commanded him, he was ready and prepared to personally favor and help them with his people, artillery and ammunition, and everything else. The governor replied in the name of the king and explained how the Portuguese had destroyed that kingdom because King Almanzor, father of this small king, accepted to be a vassal of His Majesty and since he had favored his captains and traders King Almanzor told them that when he died, if an army or ships of His Majesty contributed [to] those parts, he would give them all the help and favor that he could in everything that was offered. King Mir, his son, who now reigned, ordered them to do the same and that all the lords and gentlemen and the rest of the people of his kingdoms would not disobey his mandate. They were prepared and ready to die in the service of His Majesty and the king. Martin Iñiguez was coming as captain and governor of His Majesty. The king was a child who was not old enough to understand what was convenient. His Mercy ordered and commanded what should be done and all would obey whatever was mandated. Afterwards, the captain thanked them and said that he would do so as agreed and that it was convenient that they should swear in their law or sect. They are Muslims. The captain and officers of the king should swear in our law to comply and keep everything that was agreed upon as well as other things that they capitulated. This included the prices of the spices and of other things, with which the indios were happy, and then they brought their Qur’an and a canvas as a non-verbal communication. The king put his hand first on top of the Qur’an, then Lebeñama, and Quichilrede, 12 The settlers of Tidore were aligned with the Spaniards since the arrival of Elcano in 1521. They were at enmity with the neighboring island of Ternate, aligned with the Portuguese, installed with a fort from 1512.

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brother of the king, and Colanoduce, the senior justice of the island, and they promised to fulfill all that was agreed upon. Likewise, the captain swore on some gospels and the king’s officers and when this was done, they blew the trumpets and fired all the artillery. After lunch, the king left the ship with his people with much pleasure and rejoicing. We began to construct a bastion from wood and loose stones on land this very same day and many indios came to help us. Before two days we had made a lot of progress. The indios built all the fences of the city, which were made of loose stones and began to dig and populate the city that was unpopulated and burned. On Thursday, January 3, we brought certain bronze and iron stacks ashore and put them in the bulwark. Captain Martín Íñiguez assigned Fernando de la Torre as his lieutenant with forty men and sixty of us stayed on the ship with the captain general, thinking that the Portuguese would come to attack the ship. There were about fifty steps from the nao to the bastion and another two hundred steps, more or less, from the point from where we were anchored. We made another bulwark that three men could defend on this point. There, we put a wall bushing on the fortification and another one with a thick strap from the other cape of the city. After unloading the nao, we were quite ready, waiting for the armada of the Portuguese every day. And two boats from Terrenate came there after four or five days, in which Fernando de Baldaya, the scribe of the post came, with other Portuguese. When the captain gave his permission and reassurance, they came aboard the ship. They came to make some requests and see how we were doing. After these requirements, they returned with the usual response to their fortress, which was there 4 leagues on the island of Terrenate. On Thursday, January 18, 1527, the Portuguese came at midnight with a large army of indios in a vessel and a wooden ship and a large dinghy intentionally made to fit artillery and thinking that we were not alert, they rushed to get towards the nao. And the soldier in charge of the lombardy gun from the wall bushing fired at them and this made them retreat a little but they began to fire at us with a lombardy canon too and they hit the side of our ship with the big ball they fired. Later, they came closer to our nao with some light in order to see if they had done any damage to our ship. And from below, they fired another shot and it hit in the same place it had hit earlier and the canon ball went inside the ship killing one man and injuring three or four. At that moment, we were firing our artillery and we had been intensely firing the lombardy canon at each other. The battle lasted until Friday at midday and the Portuguese retreated behind a point. On that day at vespers, we found out from the indios how the Portuguese and the

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indios from Terrenate were behind that point and a lot of them had gone ashore and were on the seashore. Captain Martín Íñiguez later sent fifteen Spaniards with a group of two hundred indios and they found them and ended up killing two Portuguese and hundreds of indios according to what they said. They made them swim to be able to board their vessel and none of them were injured by the Portuguese even if they had been fired at a lot. Later that afternoon, the Portuguese returned with their army and began to fire at us with their lombardy canon. We fired back at them and they did not injure any of us. That afternoon, they had installed a red flag on the stem of the wooden ship representing blood as well as the war by artillery. On Saturday, on the morning of January 19, the Portuguese returned with their army and we were bombarded until noon, and we fired back at them from four parts. Later that day, a big cannon exploded in the Portuguese ship, which made it impossible for the Portuguese to proceed, and they retreated to Terrenate. We suffered a lot of damage, but not from the cannons that were fired at us, but because of a big leak in the nao where we carried the artillery. Water kept on leaking in the ship and it took a lot of work to be able to keep the ship afloat […]. That day in the afternoon, five paraos [Philippine boats] came from Gilolo with two Christians aboard. They were those who had remained in the company of Alonso de Ríos, with whom the king of Gilolo sent the captain much food provisions for his people. The following Sunday, the twentieth of that month, while these paraos were next to the ship, about two ships loaded with cloves crossed the island of Natiel, which is 5 leagues away from here to the island of Terrenate. Then the paraos took three or four gunmen each in search of the boats and at night they reached one of the two and fought it until they took it. These cloves belonged to don García Enríquez, the captain of the Portuguese, and a Portuguese and twenty-some slaves came on the ship, whom the indios killed and cut off their heads except for a slave or two because they were taken alive. The Spaniards [Castilians] tried hard to take the Portuguese alive. However, they were not able to do so because the indios entered the ship first. They killed him [the captain] by hand and threw him into the sea in which he sank to the bottom because he was well-armed. And so, the five paraos returned with a great beating of drums and blowing of reed horns, bringing with them the ship with one hundred quintals of cloves. These indios are very mean and cruel in war, and the men [are cruel] and they cut the heads off of the men they kill and hang them on sticks inside the paraos, and so [they are] taken to the towns from where they are and when they arrive they make great celebrations honoring the killers as brave men. The king rewards them for every head they cut during a war.

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Bibliography De la Costa, Horacio. “Loaisa’s Voyage to the Philippines.” Philippine Social Sciences and Humanities Review 17, no.1 (1952): 81–90. ———. “The Voyage of Saavedra to the Philippines, 1527–1529.” Bulletin of the Philippine Historical Association 4 (1958): 1–12. Fernández de Navarrete, Martín. Obras. Edited by Carlos Seco Serrano. Vols. 1–3. Madrid: Atlas, 1954–1955. Mojarro Romero, Jorge. “Crónicas de las indias orientales: orígenes de la literatura hispanofilipina.” PhD diss., Universidad de Salamanca, 2016. Noone, Martin. The Discovery and Conquest of the Philippines (1521–1581). Manila: Historical Conservation Society, 1986. Nowell, Charles E. “The Loaisa Expedition and the Ownership of the Moluccas.” Pacific Historical Review 5, no. 4 (1936): 325–336. Pastells, Pablo. Catálogo de los documentos relativos a las islas Filipinas existentes en el Archivo General de Indias (AGI). Vol. 1. Barcelona: Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas, 1925. Rodríguez, Isacio R. Historia de la Provincia Agustiniana del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús de Filipinas. Vol 13. Manila: Arnoldus Press, 1978. Sitoy, Jr., Valentino. The Initial Encounter. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1985. Spate, O. H. K. The Spanish Lake. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1979.

About the Editor Jorge Mojarro Romero is Associate Professorial Lecturer III in the Department of Literature at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. He is the author of La prosa vanguardista de Arqueles Vela (Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española, 2011) and the editor of the special issue, Literatura Hispanofilipina, for the journal Revista Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana (2018). His other publications include, the critical editions of Teodoro M. Kalaw’s Hacia las tierras del Zar (Renacimiento, 2014) and Buenaventura Campa’s Entre las tribus del Norte de Luzón (Renacimiento, 2016).

2.

Domingo de Salazar’s Letter to the King of Spainin Defense of the Indians and the Chinese of the Philippine Islands (1582) Christina H. Lee Abstract Domingo de Salazar (c.1512–1594) was the first bishop of the Philippines, a member of the Dominican order, and a follower of noted critics of the Spanish imperial enterprise like the jurist Francisco de Vitoria and the historian/activist Bartolomé de las Casas. In this letter to King Philip II, Salazar denounces the abuses of the indigenous population and the mistreatment of Chinese migrants by the Spanish colonists, and calls upon the crown to intervene in the colony’s affairs. In so doing, he provides invaluable insight into the work of colonization, and the complex relationship that the Spanish Philippines developed with China and with the burgeoning Chinese population of the islands themselves. Christina Lee provides biographical and historical context. Keywords: conquest and colonization; critique of empire; Philippine religious discourse; Dominican order

Domingo de Salazar (c.1512–1594), the first bishop of the Philippines, was born in the region of La Rioja in Spain. He studied theology at the University of Salamanca at the same time Francisco de Vitoria lectured on the illegality of the Spanish claim to Indian property. He took vows in the Dominican order in 1546 and, about seven years later, was sent as a missionary to New Spain. For the following twenty-three years, Salazar worked as a theologian and jurist in the city of Mexico, with a brief stay in Oaxaca and a failed expedition to Florida. Like many other members of the Dominican order

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch02

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in New Spain, he followed the leadership of Bartolomé de Las Casas and, at some point during his time in Mexico, wrote a treatise rejecting the legitimacy of the Spanish conquest of American territories. He returned to Spain in 1575 in the capacity of official advocate of his order in the courts of the king and the pope. Salazar’s vehement attack on abusive Spanish officials in New Spain and his defense of the natives in the colonies made him more than a few enemies in Madrid, but it appears to have impressed Philip II who championed his candidacy to the pope as bishop of Manila. Salazar claimed to have accepted the post in order to follow his calling to convert the natives of the Philippines as well as the Chinese who had settled in the Spanish-controlled areas of the islands. But Salazar was a paradoxical figure. Once he arrived in the Philippines in 1581, he contradicted his former stance regarding Spanish sovereignty and showed unquestioning support of the Spanish Crown’s right to rule over the islands. Salazar continued to advocate on behalf of Philippine natives, however, arguing for the reform of the encomienda system—though never opposing the institution itself—and repudiating all forms of slavery.1 Frustrated by the Spanish government’s unwillingness to rectify the abuses of encomenderos, Salazar writes the letter included below. Salazar shows support for Philip II’s rule over the islands while at the same time insisting on the point that the main objective of the conquest, which was the Christianization of the natives, was failing. He believes that Spanish officials, encomenderos, and soldiers are destroying the land and causing the demise of its people because of their greed for “gold” and their desire to enrich themselves quickly. He denounces the encomenderos for their cruel and violent means of collecting tribute. He also informs the king that the prohibition of the Spanish ownership of slaves is not being observed and requests that the mandate be strictly enforced. Salazar argues that the natives are not converting to Christianity, because of the mistreatment, torture, and enslavement they suffer under Spanish officials and soldiers. He maintains that the abuses the natives suffer under the Christians are encouraging them to join the Muslims of Mindanao and Borneo and convert to Islam. He suggests the king appoint morally upright individuals to official posts and to encomiendas whose objective is not personal gain, but the 1 An encomienda—in all the Spanish colonies—was a grant given to a Spaniard—the encomendero—who was paid tributes, in theory, for providing a community of natives with Christian instruction and protection. The most comprehensive biography of Salazar is Gutiérrez’s Domingo de Salazar. For an excellent discussion of slavery in the Philippines, see Seijas’s Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico, 32–71.

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instruction of Christian doctrine to the natives. Salazar repeatedly insists on the injustice of expecting natives to pay tribute when they do not receive the benefit of Christian teachings. Salazar also asks the Spanish king to improve the living conditions of the Chinese migrants in Manila and surrounding areas. He provides specific details of the abuse Chinese merchants and workers experience under Spanish authorities. He believes that the flow of basic staples has been hindered in Manila because Spanish officials are taking the provisions for themselves for little money from the Chinese and have removed Chinese providers from the market by forcing them to row in Spanish ships due to a shortage in labor. As Salazar knew prior to arriving in the Philippines, Chinese traders began to frequent and increasingly take residence in the islands of Luzon and the Visayas with the opening of Manila as a trading port in 1571. Spaniards called Chinese individuals living or trading in the Philippines Sangleys but, occasionally, they are called Chinos, as seen in the letter below.2 Sangleys provided many of the goods that were sent to Acapulco in the yearly galleon that came to be known as “the ship of China,” la nao de la China. The Chinese supplied many of the basic staples to Spaniards and natives whose subsistence agricultural practices had been disrupted by the conquest. The Chinese also provided much of the skilled labor to the Spanish as stonecutters, tailors, bakers, carpenters, shoemakers, silversmiths, silk weavers, ironworkers, and locksmiths. Although the Chinese were essential for the sustenance of the economy of the colony, they were perceived to pose a threat due to their large numbers. It is estimated that there were only up to 3,000 Spaniards in the Philippines and up to 30,000 Chinese residents at the beginning of the 1600s. Both missionaries and official authorities were also mistrustful of the Chinese because of their manifest refusal to convert and the harmful influence they were believed to exert over the natives. Governor Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa responded to this anxiety by ghettoizing the Chinese in 1581 in an area outside the walls of the city.3 This is the context in which Salazar wrote this letter. Salazar was not opposed to the segregation of the Chinese outside the city but was critical of the mistreatment Chinese migrants suffered in the parián. For Salazar, 2 The Spanish took the term from Tagalog natives who used the term to designate Chinese traders. The word might have been derived from “sionglai” (常来), which in the Hokkien dialect literally means “frequently coming.” It could have also been a transliteration of “sengdi/shengli” (生理), meaning trade or commerce (Ollé, “Interacción y conflicto”). 3 For sources and a history of the Chinese in the Philippines, see Gil, Los chinos en Manila, and Lee, “Chinese Problem.”

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the conversion of the Sangleys in Manila was a means to reach the Chinese in the mainland. Soon after dispatching the letter below, Salazar sent an envoy—the Jesuit Alonso Sánchez—to the Spanish king, to advocate for the armed conquest of China, a project that never took off. Historians and cultural critics still debate Salazar’s contradictory stance on China, especially given his former belief that conversion—whenever possible—should be conducted through peaceful means. 4 In sum, Salazar writes the letter below with the hopes that a royal intervention would put an end to the enslavement of the indigenous population, the mistreatment of the Chinese, and more generally halt the abuses of encomenderos, officials, and soldiers. It would take about a century for officials in the Philippines to seriously address some of the listed abuses.

4 See De la Costa, Jesuits in the Philippines, 37–106; Gutiérrez, Domingo de Salazar, 187–218; Ollé, La empresa de China, and Phelan, “Some Ideological Aspects of the Conquest of the Philippines.”

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Memorial of the Things Happening in These Philippine Islands of the West and of their Condition, and of What Must be Remedied, Written by Friar Domingo de Salazar, Bishop of the Said Islands; to be Read by Your Majesty and the Lords of the Royal Council of the Indies (1582)5 […] when the Spaniards came to these islands there was a great abundance of provisions from what this land provides, that is, rice, beans, chickens, pigs, deer, buffaloes, fish, coconuts, plantains and some other fruits, wine and honey, which could be purchased in great quantities from the natives with very little money. And although they [the natives] handled and traded with gold, it was more common to see them trade foodstuffs for rice until the Spaniards introduced the use of money, from which no little harm has come to this land […]. [The foodstuff] of this land has become so scarce, and the situation has come to such an extreme and misery that, today, no one can have the things that used to be sold on the streets, even if one goes searching for them in the Indian villages […]. I have tried to investigate the reason for such great change and scarcity. And after being very well informed by knowledgeable people and [after] what I have been witnessing on my own, I have found the reasons to be the following: First: when Don Gonzalo Ronquillo came as governor to Pampanga— which is from where this land took its rice, wine and chickens—he sent a large number of Indians to the mines in Illocos, where they remained during the time they should have sowed their fields. And many of those [who went to Illocos] died there. And the ones who came back were so exhausted that they needed to rest and were unable to work. The effect was that in that year there was a great lack of rice and such lack caused many Indians to die of hunger in the said Pampanga. Just in Lubao, in the encomienda of Guido de Lavezaris, there were more than a thousand dead. Second: because the Indians are employed in many occupations, such as rowing in the galleys and warships […], and sometimes they are sent so far they stay away between four and six months and, many of those who 5 This letter is archived in the AGI, in Seville, under Filipinas 6 R.10 N.180. The islands comprising the Philippines were identif ied in the 1500s in Spanish maps, accounts, and documents as “the islands of the west” or Las Islas del Poniente. This name reveals the efforts of Spanish authorities to include the Asian islands as a part of the westernmost part of the Castilian “West Indies” (see Padrón, “Indies of the West”).

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go, die while away and others run away and hide in the mountains because they want to run away from their predicament. Others are conscripted in the cutting of timber in the mountains and in carrying it to this city, and yet others are employed for other jobs. Hence, they [the natives] are not allowed to rest, to take care of their fields, and hardly sow [any grain], much less reap any crops, and do not come to learn their Christian doctrine […]. Third: before Governor Don Gonzalo Ronquillo arrived, there were only three or four alcaldes mayores [administrators of provinces or districts] in these islands.6 Now there are sixteen, most of whom arrived [here] with him. And because they were poor and their salaries are low, they detain the Indians at the time of the rice harvest—as it is confirmed by everyone and well-known—so that they can take all their [the Indians’] crops to resell them. This is why the prices have gone up, because they have prevented the Indians from dealing and trading and have sold their goods as they wish. Before, the Indians used to go door to door to sell their foodstuffs […] at low prices because they are content without much profit, which is different from the Spaniards. This is so that we do not assign the sole blame to men, but to our sins […].

Injuries Suffered by the Indians […] I will not recount the injuries that they [the natives] have suffered under the Spaniards when they were conquered, because one should assume that whatever happened in the other parts of the Indies happened here in no lesser but in greater degree in some places. I will deal with what has happened and is happening now in the collection of tributes so that Your Majesty could judge if it is reasonable to overlook things that go far beyond human reason. First, Your Majesty should consider as true that even now these Indians neither understand nor have been made to understand that the Spaniards entered this land in order to subjugate them and to force them to pay them tributes […]. And without telling them about God and the goodness that they have come to bring, they ask them for tributes every year […]. [This is] because, from the Christians, they do not hear another word other than “pay tribute” […]. They are told, “you have to pay such amount every year.” And the governor sends a tribute collector, even to those who have not been subjected to an encomienda.7 And it is common to later subject them [to an encomienda]. 6 As in the Spanish Americas, an alcalde mayor was an administrator in charge of a province or districts, a post comparable to that of the corregidor. 7 See note 1 in the commentary (p. 38).

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And although the encomienda decree says, “on the condition that you teach them the things related to our holy faith,” […] the encomendero brings with him eight to ten soldiers with their harquebuses and weapons, and orders the chieftains to be called upon and demands to be given the tributes from all the Indians in the village. At this point I get distressed and discouraged and I cannot find the words to describe to Your Majesty the misfortunes, injuries and humiliations, torments and miseries that they [the natives] suffer over the collection of tributes. The tribute that is ordinarily imposed on all is valued at 8 reales paid in gold or in the form of things they gather from their fields.8 But this rate is observed in the way that all other affairs are carried out regarding the Indians, that is, it is never observed. Some are forced to pay in gold, even if they do not have any. And there are also great injuries caused by [the handling of] gold, because here there are differences in the quality of gold, and they demand the finest. He who collects the tribute determines the weight used to measure the tribute [the gold] and it is never the lighter [weight]. Others are forced to pay in the form of cloths or threads. But the greater evil is not in this, but in the way of collecting [tributes], because if they [the natives] do not give them as much gold as they request, or if they do not pay the equivalent of the number of Indians they [the Spaniards] say there are, they crucify the unhappy chief or they put his head in the stocks. Because all the encomenderos bring their stocks when they go to collect [their tributes], and there they whip and torment them until they are given everything they demand. The wife or daughter of the chief is taken if he does not appear. Many chiefs have died due to torture for the causes that have been mentioned. When I was at the port of Ibalon, some chiefs came to see me and the first thing they said was that a man who collected tributes in that settlement had killed a chief, and the same Indians demonstrated the way in which he was killed, which was crucified, with his arms hung. I saw this soldier [the collector of tributes] in the village of Caceres, in the province of Camarines, and learned that justice authorities had arrested him for it and that he had paid 50 pesos to the treasury and the same to the administration of justice. And with this punishment he walked out free.9 I also learned that an encomendero took an Indian to the galleon and sold him for 35 pesos, because his chief did not have gold or silver or cloth with which to pay the tribute. And although I gave account of this to the defender [of natives] and he placed a demand, the Indian remained a slave. 8 The real was a Spanish silver coin, issued in units of 1 half-, 1, 2, and 4 reales. 9 The peso was a Spanish silver coin worth 8 reales.

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They collect tribute from children, the elderly and slaves, and [as a result] many remain unmarried and kill their children. From the island of Borneo came the Moors to preach the law of Mohammad, and their preaching has converted a great number of gentiles into Moors, and those who have accepted this tainted law, keep it, and [do so] with a lot of willfulness. And it is very difficult to get them to leave it. And it is known that their motives [to convert to Islam] bring shame to us and confuse us, because [they say that] they have been better treated by the preachers of Mohammad than by the preachers of Christ. And due to the sect’s good and loving treatment they received it very willingly, they take it in their hearts, and now it is difficult for them to leave it. This is different from our evangelizing, which comes accompanied by bad treatment and bad examples. [As a consequence] they say “yes,” with words, but “no” in their hearts, and if given a chance, they leave [the faith]. Despite this, God is remedying [this problem] to some extent with the coming of the ministers of the Gospel [to the Philippines], and these injuries are coming to an end in some places […]. It would never end, and it would be very irritating to Your Majesty, if I made references to all the trials that these unfortunate [natives] suffer in this land, when they should be indulged and favored so that they can be interested in our faith and recognize the mercy that God has given them by drawing them to [His] knowledge and evidence. But the ones [Spaniards] who are here have forgotten this and are the cause for them [the natives] to abhor the faith, and Your Majesty is taken as a cruel king and one who does not seek anything other than their properties and to subject them to servitude, which is the opposite of Your Majesty’s [aim], as seen in the holy laws and orders that Your Majesty for the good government of these lands has devised and ordered to be upheld. Well, if it is true, most Christian king, that the intent of Your Majesty is to send to this land his Spaniards in order to make God known on it, his faith preached and his Holy law received, and that these Indians, with love and good works and examples, be attracted to the knowledge of God and obedience of Your Majesty, by what law and reason do you tolerate—given the [the Spaniards’] excesses caused by their greed and interest—that they do the opposite of what Your Majesty orders? So that in your royal name and with sacred royal authority they govern this land, honored for this with very honorable titles and paid with large salaries? And although Your Majesty has put them so affectionately in charge of the good treatment of these natives, giving them for it so many holy laws, orders and instructions, they ignore all of this and close their eyes to the

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injuries and bad treatment that these unfortunate [natives] suffer, which results in their abhorrence of our holy faith? And the impediment that they cause so that the heathens do not convert […] even if it is against what Your Majesty has ordered and which is prohibited by the laws of the kingdom and the orders of the Indies, and even if it is with the damage and hurt of those who—with the authority of Your Majesty—should be free and protected from these injuries? […] We despair because Your Majesty is so far away! Because if you were closer, none of these evils would last long, as I hope that—given your divine goodness and Your Majesty’s holy zeal—these would not last long after you hear of them and not in an account, but in an investigation that will be conducted thoroughly in New Spain. What I tell you here is for Your Majesty to be informed of everything that is happening so that you can remedy [the problems]. And Your Majesty—by royal order—mandates that if the governor does not keep the laws and royal ordinances made for this land, Your Majesty should be advised of it. What I can say in all truth is that I don’t know which of the decrees, provisions or ordinances, which have been passed for the benefit and protection of the Indians, are observed or taken into consideration. And if any of them are fulfilled by obligation. And I have never seen a man punished for going against them [the laws] and for sinning in a scandalous manner […].

Account of What Concerns the Sangleys Commerce with the Sangleys [Chinese in the Philippines] has always been very important due to their provisions and the trade with this city and due to the ones [the Sangleys] who come to the city to spend their money as well as what will be provided by them in what lies ahead […] In the past year and in this one the distress increased because, at the beginning, they didn’t pay any [levies]. In the past year and in this one they were ordered to pay 3 percent, and more offenses followed: the first was that these days they have all been ordered to reside in a gated dwelling, where they resided very much against their will and there they were overcharged for [provisions in] shops. And they were assigned a judge with the authority to punish them. And there, as it has been said, they suffered many injuries and inconveniences, because for small causes they were sent to the stocks and they were charged fines. And they were punished because they went out at night to find provisions or because they did not keep their belongings clean.

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Under the pretext of collecting taxes for Your Majesty, they have imposed penalties on anyone who makes a sale of anything without first registering it. This is because at the time of registration, they [the Spaniards in charge] take the best of what they [the Sangleys] have and take it at the price of the visitor [the inspector] or the person registering it. If they hid any pieces of silk to sell them at a higher price or to give them to whom they had promised, they were punished as harshly as if they had known the mandate for many years, even if it had been only the first or second time they had heard of it. Among others, I know of one, a Chinese merchant who hid certain pieces of silk and, as a result, was taken by the treasurer Antonio Yofre and sentenced to a hundred lashes and to [pay a fine of] 75 tostones.10 And his brother came to me to beg for his favor and, due to my pleading, they retracted the lashes but not the [fine of] tostones, [which] he paid before leaving jail. […] The disturbance and the disorder that happened when they took their goods was great. For those with authority did not let the Sangleys sell to whomever they wanted, because they wanted to get [the goods] better and cheaper. And after they took everything they wanted at the price they wanted, they gave the remains to their servants, friends and allies. As a result, although twenty ships came from China, which is a large number never seen in these times, I have not seen a single thing that has come from China this year. Rather, [the goods] from China have become expensive at excessive prices. A piece of silk that used to cost 10 or 12 tostones is sold at 40 and at 45 [tostones] and [still] cannot be found. Even for the Church, which is in great need, it is not possible to find silk to make an ornament and the same thing [could be said] of all the other things from China that used to be sold on the streets at bargains […]. The same merchants [who arrived this past year] were conscripted to go on a journey to Japan with a fleet arranged for the purpose and, in order to avoid going there they had to pay between 30 and 40 pesos [each]. In this way, trade has been unfortunate this year. The latest injury done to the Chinese, which irritated them, was that for the galley that was sent to the journey I mentioned to Japan, they took twenty to thirty Sangleys who had arrived this year to stay here and forced them to row. Many came to me to complain and to say that they had come here to be able to earn food for their children. And because they didn’t let them do what they had come here to do, they requested to be able to go back to their land. But neither they nor I were heard on this [request]. They [the Sangleys forced to row] 10 A tostón in Spanish and tostão in Portuguese was a silver coin unit. The Spanish tostón was a silver coin worth 4 reales and half a peso.

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went away and have not returned. Another harm was caused by this. Due to those who went in the galley and to others sent afterwards who were fishermen, it is now difficult to find fish—which used to be abundant on the streets—unless it is for a lot of money. They later sent another ship loaded with rice to provide for the fleet and they conscripted many more Sangleys to go there. And in order to avoid going, the person who did not have a slave to send paid 7 pesos to another to take his place. This and other injuries have caused two hundred Sangleys who had come this year to live here to return and two hundred of those who were already here to go away. There used to be a good population of them on the other side of the river, but there remains almost none, as Your Majesty can see from the letter written by the vicar of the Sangleys, who is an Augustinian friar. Another injury done to the Indians, not generally to all of them, but to many, is to hold them as slaves. And this chapter also belongs to the subject of the governors not obeying Your Majesty’s decrees and provisions. For there are so many [decrees and provisions] given and provided in which it is ordered that in all of the Indies on islands or the mainland discovered and to be discovered there cannot be slaves of Spaniards, regardless of how they acquired them, whether it be in a just war or whether they were sold by [other] Indians who say they are slaves, and regardless of whether they really are or are not [slaves] in any other deed or [for another] reason. In the ship I arrived in, a father of [the order of] St. Augustine brought a new decree from Your Majesty in which with rigor and very strong terms it is ordered that the slaves held by the Spaniards be set free, regardless of how they were acquired. This [decree] was presented to the governor, [which I know] because he spoke of it. And so that you see that what I say about decrees favoring the Indians are never executed, [I tell you that] today the Indians remain in the same servitude in which they were before, and some are more mistreated than they were in the past. He [the governor] did not delay in executing the decree to take a fifth of the gold—if there ever was one—because the first thing he did when he took his post was to demand it.11 And yet the decree for the freedom [of the Indians] has not been executed. Many things have happened regarding this issue that I withhold from writing here because it would bring Your Majesty grief. A report has been sent on behalf of the city to prove that there is much need in this land for service and [to relay] that the Spaniards here suffer 11 Salazar is referring to the tax on precious metals that were mined in the Indies. In theory this tax belonged to the Crown, but it was generally pocketed by high Spanish officials.

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many ordeals […], and there is much need for Your Majesty to favor and have mercy on them, but not by sending slaves. Your Majesty should have this [issue] well examined, because it is a very certain thing, and is known here and admitted by those who own and attempt to keep them [the slaves]. Although among the Indians there are some who are true slaves, there are few of these […]. All the other slaves have been acquired by bad means and made slaves against the law, for they are sold by people [Indians] currently who are barbarous and who for their own profit would sell a relative. And those who are more powerful [sell] the weak and the latter kind are the ones who are in Manila and are owned by the Spaniards. […] The requests made on behalf of the city and the protector of the Indians [regarding the slavery of Indians] have been sent to you. Your Majesty should have it examined and see what is most fitting for you and you should make your decrees accordingly, because many of the friars do not want to absolve them [the Spaniards who own slaves]—even though I think they should be for now—unless they free their slaves. Next to this, Your Majesty is informed of what is done here with the prelates. And the matter is that, when a Spaniard arrives on this land, they soon order him to serve under the flag, even if he is a merchant who comes to buy and sell, because it is better for him for the time being. It is given that merchants fend for themselves and the encomenderos eat from their encomiendas, but the rest live a poor and wretched life, because they do not get any provisions and do not have a means to get food and clothing. And in all of it, they are ordered with great severity to assist in the sentinels and in the other duties of war as if they were paid very well. The Indians suffer humiliation and bad treatment, because if an Indian has a stew to eat, a soldier comes and takes it from him, and even after doing so they mistreat and beat them. And when I stop them and reprimand them, they respond by asking “what can be done?” “should they let themselves die?” I confirm to Your Majesty that I find this issue intolerable because all of them [the natives] come to me to tell me about their needs and I do not have the means to help them. I can only feel sorry for them and do whatever I can to help them in my misery. And neither do the encomenderos want to pay their tithes in spite of having been ordered to do so nor are royal officials able to pay me the amount Your Majesty ordered [the governor to pay] from the royal treasury, because they say that the decrees are insufficient. And, hence, here I am, without anything for myself or for the poor. Former governors used to distribute among the poor soldiers some of the rice that was given to Your Majesty as tribute, with which they placated their misery, but now not even this is given. And what afflicts them the most is that they neither give them food nor give them permission to find it or to leave this

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island. I gave the governor the decree that Your Majesty sent about this, but nothing has been done because in it Your Majesty only ordered that he examine [the problem] and solve it in the way he deems appropriate. […] In these islands there are many soldiers who were married in Mexico and in Spain, and in other parts and, many of them have been here away from their wives for twenty-five years, others ten, fifteen or twenty years, more or less. I have tried to convince them to go back to their women or to bring them here, but it has been in vain. Your Majesty, given your authority, order that they [the soldiers] abide by what you have also stated, because they do not do it. The governors are not interested in enforcing it [your order] because they say that they [the soldiers] are needed, and hence they spend so many years offending God and the sanctity of matrimony. I beg Your Majesty to remedy this, because if Your Majesty does not mandate it, there will not be anyone here who will expel them. What is most necessary for the conservation of these Indians until they understand our things better is that a protector watches over them and defends them against the thousand offenses they are made to suffer. The governor has named one, who—to my knowledge—works with care and diligence. But because [his appointment] is by contract, he does not dare to fulfill his duties with the freedom he would if he had been appointed by Your Majesty. I beg Your Majesty that you order that this [matter] be resolved in a way that is beneficial and not harmful to the Indians, which would be the case if the post were granted to an independent person and [someone] very zealous to be in the service of Your Majesty and the welfare of the Indians—who will be few—rather than by favor or negotiations […]. In order to fulfill our obligation and close this very long narration, I will not, as server and chaplain of Your Majesty, refrain from saying that in these lands that are Your Majesty’s—for the reason that there are many loyal and obedient vassals, Spaniards as well as Indians—you should order that they be cared for and be well treated, and that the governors keep their freedom and not subject the government to the benefit of those who govern as it has been done until now, in great harm and detriment of these republics. In order to remedy this, Your Majesty should have them governed, not by those who want to do it, but by those who Your Majesty find to be Christian men without avarice. That is what they [the natives] desire and it is convenient for them and for us. It is best that Your Majesty send here men who come alone and without obligations to relatives or to allies […] and who will be satisfied with the salary Your Majesty designates for them, which is always sufficient. And Your Majesty will see that the service [given by these governors] will be better [than the one provided by the current

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governors]. Because they will not, in order to enrich themselves within a matter of two years, attempt to destroy this land or disallow others reaping its benefits or earning a living. If Your Majesty proceeds in this way, you will have the best things from the Indies. But if matters continue in the same way, it is better to abandon it, as it [the situation] is not sustainable. And if Your Majesty decided to entrust your government to the ones [Spaniards] who are already here, there are men who could do it well and avoid the many inconveniences that are caused by those who come from there [Spain]. The information I am sending from here to Your Majesty regards the care and the transgression of your mandates, laws and royal provisions, as well as the state of this land, and the wrongs that occur in them, and of the things that could be remedied. Due to the fact that the ship [which will carry the correspondence] is about to depart, it is not as polished as it should be for Your Majesty. If this account contains errors, which is probably the case, it is not in its lack of truth or lack of the desire to serve Your Majesty and seek the welfare of the souls […]. Your Majesty should be aware that I am [located] 5,000 leagues away from your court, surrounded by so many griefs and afflictions. Your Majesty should not be disturbed by what I say, but by what I refrain from saying, and [you will understand] why I have not carried this news myself to beg for a remedy, for it is one thing to see everything and live through this here, and another to hear about it there.

Fray Domingo, Bishop of the Philippines

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Bibliography De la Costa, Horacio. The Jesuits in the Philippines, 1581–1768. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. Gil, Juan. Los chinos en Manila, siglos XVI y XVII. Lisbon: Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau, 2011. Gutiérrez, Lucio. Domingo de Salazar O.P.: First Bishop of the Philippines 1512–1594. Manila: UST Press, 2001. Lee, Christina. “The Chinese Problem in the Early Modern Missionary Project of the Spanish Philippines.” Laberinto Journal 9 (2016): 5–32. Morga, Antonio de. Sucesos de las Filipinas. Edited by Francisca Perujo. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007. Ollé, Manel. “Interacción y conflicto en el parián de Manila.” Illes i Imperis, nos. 10–11 (2008): 61–90. ———. La empresa de China: de la Armada Invencible al Galeón de Manila. Barcelona: Acantilado, 2002. Padrón, Ricardo. “‘The Indies of the West’ or, The tale of How an Imaginary Geography Circumnavigated the Globe.” In Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657, edited by Christina H. Lee, 19–42. New York: Routledge, 2012. Phelan, John Leddy. The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959. ———. “Some Ideological Aspects of the Conquest of the Philippines.” Americas 13, no. 3 (1957): 221–239. Salazar, Domingo de. “Carta del obispo de Manila, Domingo de Salazar al Rey Felipe II.” AGI, Filipinas 74 N.25. Transcribed by Manel Ollé Rodríguez. www.upf.edu/ asia/projectes/che/s16/salazar4.htm (accessed 9 October 2019). ———. “Carta-Relación de las cosas de la China y de los chinos del Parián de Manila, enviada al Rey Felipe II por Fr. Domingo de Salazar, O.P., primer obispo de Filipinas: Desde Manila, á 24 de junio, de 1590.” AGI, Filipinas 74 N.38. Transcribed by Carles Brasó Brogi. www.upf.edu/asia/projectes/che/s16/salazar8. htm (accessed 9 October 2019). ———. “Memorial de las cosas que en estas Islas Filipinas de Poniente pasan y del estado de ellas y de lo que hay que remediar, hecho por fray Domingo de Salazar, obispo de las dichas islas, para que lo vea Su Majestad y los Señores de su Real Consejo de Indias” (1582) AGI, Filipinas 6 R.10 N.180. ———. “Ynformación sobre los impedimentos a la predicación en China realizado por el obispo Domingo de Salazar para el Papa Gregorio XIII y el rey Felipe II.” Transcribed by Manel Ollé Rodríguez. AGI, Patronato 25 N.8. www.upf.edu/ asia/projectes/che/s16/salazar2.htm (accessed 9 October 2019).

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Schumacher, John N. “The Manila Synodal Tradition: A Brief History.” Philippine Studies 27, no. 3 (1979): 285–348. Scott, William Henry. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994. Seijas, Tatiana. Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians. Cambridge Latin American Studies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

About the Editor Christina H. Lee is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University. She has written extensively about religion and race in the making of the Spanish identity in the early modern period. Her book publications include The Anxiety of Sameness in Early Modern Spain (Manchester University Press, 2015), Reading and Writing Subjects in Medieval and Golden Age Spain, with José Luis Gastañaga (Juan de la Cuesta, 2016), Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age (Routledge, 2012), and the critical edition of Lope de Vega’s Los mártires de Japón (Juan de la Cuesta, 2006). Her current book project analyzes forms of dissent in globalized forms of Catholicism in the Spanish Philippines.

3.

Juan Cobo’s Map of the Pacific World (1593) Ricardo Padrón, with translation by Timothy Brook

Abstract Juan Cobo (1546/47–1592) was a Dominican priest who devoted most of his efforts in the Philippines to proselytizing the resident Chinese population of Manila and its environs. This map of the Pacif ic world from China to Mexico appears in a translation of an influential piece of CounterReformation apologetics that Cobo prepared with the help, most likely, of unnamed Chinese collaborators, and that he had published in Manila in 1593 for the benefit of Chinese prospects for Christian conversion. It is the first European-style map created for a Chinese reader. Timothy Brook provides an English translation of the map’s Chinese inscriptions, while Ricardo Padrón analyzes the map’s rhetorical position. Keywords: colonial cartography; sangleys; early publishing in the Philippines; Christian apologetics

The map below appeared in one of the first printed works to be produced in Spanish Manila, Juan Cobo’s Bian zhengjiao zhenchuan shilu 辨正教 真传实录 (Apology for the True Religion)—published in 1593—and was often referred to simply as the Shilu 实录. Produced on fragile rice paper, it survives in a single copy held by the Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional.1 Its author, Juan Cobo (1546/47–1592) was a Spanish Dominican friar trained at the Convent of Santo Tomas in the Castilian city of Ávila and at the University of Alcalá who arrived in the Philippines in 1588, to proselytize Manila’s 1 The Biblioteca Nacional has digitalized the text and made it available on its Biblioteca Digital Hispánica at http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000165702&page=1 (accessed 6 January 2019). The sole modern edition was published in 1986 by the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and includes an English translation of Cobo’s text.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch03

54 Ricardo Padrón, with tr ansl ation by Timothy Brook

Sangleys, as the members of the resident Chinese population were known. Enjoying a reputation as a master of the Chinese language, albeit only among people who did not themselves speak Chinese, Cobo was responsible for several translations of religious and philosophical works from Spanish into Chinese and from Chinese into Spanish. Among them is the Shilu, a Chinese rendering of part of Fray Luis de Granada’s Introduction to the Symbol of Faith (Introducción al símbolo de la fe; Salamanca, 1584), a significant work of Catholic apologetics written in response to the challenge posed by the Protestant Reformation. Anticipating the work of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, Cobo mixes early modern science into his religious and philosophical stew, dealing briefly with astronomy, geography, botany, and zoology. The map appears in the fourth chapter and answers to the long-standing Chinese tradition of mapping the world as a square with China at the center. It argues that the earth is in fact round and divided into five climatic zones; two frigid ones at the poles, a torrid one near the equator, and two temperate ones in the middle latitudes. The map serves to illustrate these ideas, but it also does much more. It uses geography and cartography to persuade the learned Chinese reader of the scientific sophistication of Christian culture, and thereby establish the ground from which to preach Christianity with some hope of being taken seriously. In doing so, however, it runs into the wall of Ming Sinocentrism, and reveals some of the difficulties that Europeans faced in their early modern European encounters with China. In order to understand how this happens, it is necessary to look closely at its design and inscriptions. Cobo’s map draws upon the tradition of the “Macrobian” map, which provided a unique model for mapping the globe that was popular throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Macrobian maps depicted the globe in profile, and divided it into the five climatic zones that appear on Cobo’s map.2 The friar departs from his model, however, by placing south at the top and north at the bottom, and by flipping the map over, so as to depict the side of the world that was unknown to ancient and medieval geography. He leaves most of the hemisphere blank, depicting landmasses and bodies of water only in the northern torrid and temperate zones, that is, the bottom half of his map image. There, he traces a single continuous coastline from Mexico in the eight-o’clock position to China in the four-o’clock position, depicting North America and Asia as 2 The style is named for Macrobius, the author of a fifth-century commentary on Scipio that includes an early prototype. Macrobian maps often include major landmasses, like the traditional orbis terrarum in the northern hemisphere, and the hypothetical antipodal continent in the south. On Macrobian maps, see Woodward, “Medieval Mappaemundi,” 300.

Juan Cobo’s Map of the Pacific World (1593)

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a single continuous continent, despite the efforts of Mercator, Ortelius, and others to render this once popular idea obsolete.3 Japan appears as a peninsula halfway along the length of this arc, where the lightly colored waters of the Pacific Ocean yield to the darkly colored waters of the islands off the coast of China. 4 No land appears south of the equator, in the upper half of the map. The English translation of the map, also included below, helps us understand how this image serves to establish the authority of Christian culture in the mind of the Chinese reader.5 The Chinese inscriptions around the circumference of the image provide a scale of latitude and identify the cardinal directions. A few of the inscriptions inside the circle serve to name geographical locations: Mexico, Japan, China, Malacca and the Western Sea, and Luzon. The “Western Sea” is how the Ming referred to the Indian Ocean, so this inscription signals that Malacca sits at the passage to that body of water. Luzon is the island where Manila is located. The rest of the inscriptions explain the significance of the zonal system. Following the dictates of Renaissance cosmography, they declare the frigid zones uninhabitable due to the extreme cold and identify the two temperate zones as fit for human habitation, while admitting that no significant populations have been found in the southern temperate zone. They also follow the Moderns rather than the Ancients in declaring that the torrid zone, although very hot, is not only inhabitable, but inhabited and densely so. The Ancients, by contrast, had thought it hostile to human life due to the extreme heat and aridity.6 Yet the map draws a subtle but significant contrast in the way it refers to the torrid zone and the northern temperate zone, and this contrast is at the heart of Cobo’s rhetorical program. The inscriptions regarding the torrid zone state that it is “densely populated by men” or more accurately, that 3 On the surprising longevity of this idea, see Zerubavel, Terra Cognita, 101–112. 4 According to Robert Batchelor, the difference in coloration may reflect the Chinese distinction between hai 海 (sea) and yang 洋 (ocean; Robert Batchelor, email message to author, 12 October 2018). If he is right, it would seem that the unnamed sangley collaborators who were certainly involved in the production of the Shilu as a whole also made substantive contributions to the creation of the map. 5 The translations I provide were worked out by Timothy Brook, when I asked him to comment upon the translation of the inscriptions in the 1986 edition of the Shilu (Timothy Brook, email message to author, 26 March 2018). Professor Brook, along with Kenneth Hammond and Santiago Padrón, also helped me understand the implications of the Chinese terms involved. Although I assume full responsibility for my argument, I also acknowledge that nothing I say in the balance of this essay would have been possible without their generous assistance. 6 On the transformation of the ancient torrid zone into the modern tropics in late medieval thought, see Wey Gómez, Tropics of Empire.

56 Ricardo Padrón, with tr ansl ation by Timothy Brook

“People live densely [here],” using the expression renmin 人民 to refer to the inhabitants. The inscription in the northern temperate zone, however, says that, “The ten thousand countries are all clustered here,” using the character bang 邦, for “countries.” The shift in terminology suggests that Cobo is trying to render European ideas about the consequences of climate for human culture in Chinese. According to the Greeks, extreme heat affected the body’s humors in such a way as to produce people who were incapable of developing high degrees of social and political organization, or of attaining high forms of cultural achievement. Temperate climates, by contrast, produced people who were ideally disposed to govern themselves, and to cultivate the arts of civilization.7 Hence, the terminological shift. The inhabitants of the torrid zone, where the heat renders human beings inherently incapable of governing themselves, are merely renmin 人民, while the inhabitants of the temperate zone, where people are well-disposed to rational, organized government, exist as bang 邦. Most importantly for our purposes, the countries of the northern temperate zone include not only China and Japan, which any Chinese reader would have taken for civilized countries, but Mexico as well, standing synecdochally perhaps for the Spanish empire as a whole. The map asserts that New Spain is a bang 邦, a civilized place, and thereby asserts that Spanish speakers are to be taken seriously, as inhabitants of a civilized country. They are not like the inhabitants of the regions to the south of China, whom the Chinese often dismissed as uncouth, but more like the people of Japan, whom the Chinese recognized as their near peers. Nevertheless, there is some slippage in the map’s rhetoric that may be attributable to the intervention of Cobo’s Chinese collaborators. While China and Japan clearly count among the bang of the northern temperate zone, the names used for these countries incorporate the character guo 国. This character does not form part of the name for Mexico, which is nothing but a transliteration of the Spanish name as it must have sounded to Cobo’s local collaborators. Mexico, therefore, is a bang 邦, but not a guo 国, and this is significant. Guo 国, formed by enclosing the character that means “jade” inside the character that means “wall,” was the term that the Ming used for China itself, as well as for those countries they considered to be their near peers in the hierarchy of civilization. It suggests a large, well-ordered, hereditary monarchy that made it a point to conform to 7 For a lucid exposition of the theory, see Davies, Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human, 25–30; for the significance of these ideas to early modern imperialism, see Wey Gómez, Tropics of Empire.

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the Ming’s strict rules for interaction with China.8 Lying well outside the Chinese orbit, Mexico cannot possibly be guo 国, even though it counts among the ten thousand bang 邦 of the Ming geographical imagination. The map thus leaves room for the marked Sinocentrism of the Chinese imagination, elevating Mexico above the savages of the torrid zone, while simultaneously acknowledging China’s position at the apex of the cultural hierarchy, or as Chinese geography expressed it, at the center of the world. The Cobo map, thus, epitomizes the clash between Eurocentrism and Sinocentrism that marked the sixteenth-century encounter between Iberians and the Chinese. Elsewhere, but particularly in Africa and America, Westerners had no trouble asserting the authority of their culture, and especially of their religion, over those of the local populations they encountered. In the South China Sea, however, European expansion ran up against large and highly sophisticated cultures organized into powerful states that defied the Europeans’ sense of superiority, whose people often looked down upon Europeans as barbarian outsiders. The hierarchy of civilization that was becoming a matter of course in the West, one that placed Europe at the apex of human cultures, could not be too strongly asserted in the encounter with East Asians who had their own notions of their own superiority or centrality. Ironically, this limitation could even play out in a document like the Cobo map, which is designed to displace Chinese cartographies of the world as a square with China at its center. Even on Cobo’s map, which so powerfully asserts the truth of European cosmography and the sophistication of Christian culture, China continued to constitute the Middle Kingdom.

8 Dardess, Ming China, 2.

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A Map of the Eastern Hemisphere with the Original Chinese and English Translations of Chinese Inscriptions9

9 From Juan Cobo, Bian zheng jiao zhen chuan shi lu 辨正教真传实录 (Apology for the True Religion), Manila, 1593, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid. English translations of Chinese inscriptions by Timothy Brook.

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60 Ricardo Padrón, with tr ansl ation by Timothy Brook

Bibliography Cobo, Juan. Bian zhengjiao zhenchuan shilu = Apologia de la verdadera religion. Edited by Fidel Villaroel. Manila: UST Press, 1986. Dardess, John W. Ming China, 1368–1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Davies, Surekha. Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters. London/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Felix, Alfonso, ed. The Chinese in the Philippines: 1570–1770. 2 vols. Manila/New York: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1966. Gil, Juan. Los chinos en Manila: siglos XVI y XVII. Lisbon: Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, 2011. Mungello, David Emil. The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. Ollé, Manel. La invención de China: percepciones y estrategias filipinas respecto a China durante el siglo XVI. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2000. Spence, Jonathan D. The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1999. Wey Gómez, Nicolás. The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. Woodward, David. “Medieval Mappaemundi.” In Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Vol. 1 of The History of Cartography, 286–370. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Zerubavel, Eviatar. Terra Cognita: The Mental Discovery of America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992.

About the Editor Ricardo Padrón is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature and Empire in Early Modern Spain (University of Chicago Press, 2004). His forthcoming book, The Indies of the Setting Sun: The Pacific and Asia in the Spanish Geopolitical Imagination, 1513–1610 (University of Chicago Press), examines the geopolitical imagination of sixteenth-century Spain in its construction of America and East/Southeast Asia as connected spaces within the broad and always elastic notion of “the Indies.”

4. A Royal Decree of Philip IIIRegulating Trade between the Philippines and New Spain (1604) Natalie Cobo and Tatiana Seijas

Abstract This decree represents one of the earliest attempts made by the Spanish crown to regulate the transpacific trade between Acapulco and Manila. In reaction to complaints that transpacif ic commerce was harmful to Spain and its Atlantic possessions, the crown attempted to regulate such matters as the number and tonnage of the galleons, the penalties for transporting contraband, the salary of galleon commanders, the manner in which accounts would be kept, procedures for inspecting ships and cargo, and much else. Natalie Cobo and Tatiana Seijas place the document in the context of early modern Spanish mercantilism, intra-imperial commercial rivalries, and the reactive patterns of imperial governance. Keywords: Manila galleons; early modern trade; mercantilism; colonial legislation

The Manila Galleon was a royal fleet that sailed between Manila and Acapulco from the late 1560s to 1815 to sustain the Spanish government in the Philippine islands with people and funds and to facilitate trade. The excellent harbor conditions of Manila Bay and its geographic location made it a focal point for exchange, where merchants converged with spices, textiles, ceramics, and other goods from China, Japan, India, and other parts of Asia. The ships of the Galleon transported these commodities, including slaves, to the Americas. On their return, the ships primarily carried minted silver and products like cochineal.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch04

62 Natalie Cobo and Tatiana Seijas

The Hapsburg Crown moved to regulate this fleet in 1593, with additional decrees that were codified in the Laws of the Indies. The 1604 decree by Philip III is one of these documents (Fig. 4.1). Merchants initially carried out trade freely, including by chartering their own ships. The lack of regulation sparked protests from various quarters, from competing merchants in Seville to government officials concerned with the safety and regularity of the ships. The Crown set out the conditions detailed in this decree to address their concerns. The decision to administer and fund an annual fleet had the primary purpose of encouraging vassals to live in Spain’s most far-flung settlement in return for trading opportunities. Its chief outcome was to enrich silver merchants in Mexico City, who sent large amounts of capital to Manila to invest in Asian goods, which were then sold back in New Spain (Mexico) for extravagant profits. The decree sets out how the Manila Galleon fleet is to be governed. It combines specifications for the route and ships with dictates for the government officials who run it. The Crown’s mercantilist economic policy, which dictated that trade should benefit the mother country at the expense of the colonies, informed the decree’s guidelines, such as the limits set on the cargo carried from Asia and the profits that could be made from their sale. A concern for safety was prominent as well. This voyage was the longest (six months on the way to Mexico and three months to return to the Philippines), and it was the most difficult regular route of the early modern period. Approximately one out of seven trips failed due to severe weather conditions, the difficulty of the navigation, and enemy attacks. The king’s decree addressed some of the problems associated with customary practices, like employing inexperienced personnel and overburdening ships with merchandise (sacrificing on provisions and arms for the sake of additional cargo space). The king was also concerned with fairness, firstly by trying to avoid cronyism in official appointments, and secondly by requiring that traders be residents of the Philippines. The Philippines had a bad reputation among colonists due to the difficulty of the Pacific crossing and the perceived unhealthy climate of the islands. The Spanish population was consequently small, so that even the soldiers were at times convicts forced to serve in Spain’s most distant outpost. The style and content of this decree reflect the reactive nature of the legislation that governed the empire, which tended to respond to petitions from interested parties to ameliorate any given situation. Royal decrees were subject to modification and revocation at the center and to contestation on

A Royal Decree of Philip III

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Figure 4.1.  Trade decree of 1604. Source: “Mandamientos sobre la contratación de las Islas Filipinas con la Nueva España”, AGN, Cédulas Duplicadas 4 exp. 61, fols.61-63v

the ground, particularly when a group argued that the provisions would harm their own interests or that they went against customary local practices. A comparison of this decree with the section on trade found in the Laws of the Indies reflects how some of these same provisions changed over time. This decree’s mandate—for example, that both the governor and the archbishop

64 Natalie Cobo and Tatiana Seijas

appoint ship officials—was later revised so that the governor alone made the appointments “without the intervention of the archbishop.”1 The impact of the 1604 decrees was greater in terms of the route and administration of the fleet than on its intent to safeguard the financial interests of Manila residents. Mexico City merchants remained key investors in the trade, the value of the goods and profits far exceeded the limits, and officials continued to engage in the trade that was forbidden to them. Attempts to enforce the legislation by independent inspectors frequently ended in violence and disruption; there was too much vested interest in maintaining the status quo, by those in Mexico and the Philippines, to allow demands from the other side of the world to change it.

1

Book 9, title 45, law 40, Pinelo and Solórzano Pereira, “De la navegación y comercio.”

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The 1604 Decree of Philip III Regulating Philippine Trade2 The King, 1604

Trade in the Philippine Islands The late king, my lord and father, glory be upon him, prohibited trade and commerce between the West Indies and the Philippine Islands and China to avoid the damage caused by this trade to the trade and commerce of these kingdoms [Spain]. He ordered and commanded that no ships were to sail from the provinces of Peru, Tierra Firme, Guatemala or any other part of the West Indies to the said kingdoms of China and the Philippine Islands, imposing various penalties for doing so.3 Due, however, to the importance of safeguarding our rule in the Philippines and Christianity, and of facilitating the expansion of the Gospel and our holy Catholic faith, he permitted and gave license for two 300-ton ships to sail from New Spain to the Philippine Islands to deliver supplies and other necessities and return with trade goods to New Spain. The ships sailed at the expense of the royal treasury, paid from levies on the transport of merchandise. The value of the merchandise brought to New Spain was not to exceed 250,000 pesos of 8 reales each year, with a limit of 500,000 pesos in the sum of the principal and profits returned to the Philippines. Only residents of the Philippine Islands were to engage in this trade. The merchandise had to be consumed in New Spain or brought to these kingdoms [Spain], and it could not be taken to Peru or to any other part of the Indies, with penalties imposed on offenders as detailed in the king’s decrees. Various decrees have demanded compliance, but I have nonetheless been informed that trade has greatly exceeded the limits by large quantities. More than 2 million ducats are transported each year, with the public knowledge and permission of my viceroys, Audiencia judges, and governors, in addition to whatever else is transported illegally—all of which ends up in infidel kingdoms and increases their power. 4 This excess trade has resulted in grave damage to our treasury and to the trade between these kingdoms and the West Indies. Most of the people involved in this trade are residents 2 Source: “Mandamientos sobre la contratación de las Islas Filipinas con la Nueva España”, AGN, Cédulas Duplicadas 4 exp. 61, fols.61-63v. 3 Tierra Firme refers to the mainland territory south of the Caribbean, covering parts of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama. 4 The Audiencias or high courts constituted the highest executive, judicial, and legislative bodies within each kingdom or jurisdictional region of the Spanish empire and were subject to the Council of the Indies in Seville.

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of New Spain and Peru and other provinces, who import merchandise in excess of the decrees. Letters and warnings sent to the viceroys, Audiencias and governors, and their own efforts, have not sufficed to prevent this malfeasance. Aware of such enormous abuses and eager to avoid larger damages, the prior and the consul of the Merchants Guild in Seville and other conscientious people in my service brought these issues to my attention and begged me to ban this trade altogether, including all trade between New Spain and the Philippine Islands. I raised and discussed this matter with members of my royal Council of the Indies, who considered and informed me on all matters relating to the topic. I wish to prevent and avoid future damages and to promote the conservation and expansion of Christianity in the said islands and neighboring kingdoms in service of Our Lord. So, I have decided that the trade and commerce of the said Philippine Islands and New Spain will continue at present, under the terms previously ordered. The amount of merchandise brought from the Philippine Islands to New Spain each year will not exceed 250,000 pesos, as previously established, and the sum of the principal and profit sent back to the Philippines will not exceed 500,000 pesos in cash under any pretext or reason. Residents of the Philippine Islands will be the only people allowed to engage in this trade and no one else, as already ordered by the same decrees of the king my lord. The imposition of the penalties detailed in these decrees for offenders is mandatory, without any possibility of pardon or evasion for offenders. In order to ensure compliance, to prevent ships from being overloaded, and to ensure that people travel safely, it is my will that no more than four 200-ton ships will be involved in this trade. These ships will belong to me. Two of them will sail every year at my expense, while the other two remain in port for outfitting for the following year, as previously ordered. The ships will sail in good time [seasonally], without one pair waiting for the other. They are not to exceed this number or size, and they must be built according to the appropriate measurements and deadweight tonnage to prevent the inconveniences that have occurred when the ships have sailed overburdened with merchandise and at the expense of private individuals. The private administration of ships will no longer happen. It is my will and I order that, from now on, there will be only one fleet admiral for the two ships and one lieutenant admiral. Each ship should have no more than one captain of war, one shipmaster and up to fifty trained soldiers. The sailors need to have experience and set sail and return in good order. There will be two qualified pilots with an assistant—all with the necessary ability. Until I order otherwise, it is my will that the governor and captain general of the Philippine Islands and the Archbishop of Manila,

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present and future, appoint all of these officials—fleet admiral, lieutenant admiral, captains, masters and pilots—on the grounds that the ships’ merchandise will belong to residents of the Philippine Islands. Until now, my viceroy of New Spain has appointed and filled these [positions]; he will abstain from doing so in the future. If the governor and archbishop do not agree on these appointments, I order the most senior Audiencia judge to join them, and whatever the majority decides will be carried out. They will appoint prominent and honest residents of those islands to these positions, and those most suitable for their roles. The appointees will have to give guarantees in the form and amount decided by the governor and archbishop to ensure proper conduct in office.5 The judges of my Audiencia in Manila will audit the officers after each trip; they cannot make another trip until they are audited and satisfy the requirements of their office. I have been informed that there has been much excess and disorder on the part of commanders, admirals and officials of these ships in previous years, who have taken money and carried merchandise on their own account, much to the annoyance of traders and particularly the residents of the islands. I forbid and prohibit them from trading or making contracts in any way when they travel on a ship in an official capacity, or from loading or carrying any amount [of merchandise] no matter how great or little, personally, or for a third party. They will not be allocated a portion of the freight, unlike other residents, nor can they buy or take someone else’s portion. The penalties [for doing otherwise] include removal from their posts on this trade route and confiscation of the property they loaded, carried, or brought onboard. I think it best and order that the commander be given a salary of 4,000 ducats and the admiral 3,000 for each round trip, so that they can maintain themselves as befits their rank and the exigencies of their positions. And I allow and permit the governor and archbishop to set a fair salary for the captains, soldiers, sailors and artillerymen sailing on the ship, given that they too are forbidden from carrying merchandise, whether in great or little quantity, under [pain of] the same penalties. We understand that in the past there were more appointed admirals on the ships of this route than necessary, and that the ships have taken men as sailors and artillerymen who were not trained in these capacities. It is my will that this [malfeasance] be avoided and remedied from now on, so that each piece of artillery on the ship has only one artilleryman and no more, so that all salaries are justified. 5 The crown required officials like these to deposit funds (make a guarantee), which was forfeited if they failed to perform their duties adequately.

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It is my will and I order that an inspector and an accountant sail on these ships; these men will keep an account and record of everything, verifying in their books all the ships’ merchandise, on both legs of the trip. They will ensure that everyone follows our orders properly and promptly. My governor and archbishop will choose the inspector and accountant in the same way as they appoint the commander, admiral and other officials, again with the intervention of the most senior Audiencia judge if they do not agree. They will ensure that the appointees are well recommended, competent, and trustworthy. They will accord them fair and sufficient salaries that are not to exceed 2,000 ducats each per voyage. The inspector and accountant will not be allowed to load any [merchandise] under [pain of] the same penalties imposed on the fleet admiral and lieutenant admiral. One of the two will sail on the fleet admiral’s ship and the other on the lieutenant admiral’s ship, alternating on each leg of the trip. The governor and archbishop will give them instructions and orders to observe on the journey, and they will be audited like the other officials of the fleet before they embark again. We charge the consciences of the governor and archbishop in the selection and appointment of all these ministers and officials. There has been great loss of life and property in the past when ships on this Philippines route sailed overloaded; it is necessary to remedy and prevent this excess in the future. So, we order that the freight loaded be appropriate for the ships’ deadweight. The ships will carry whatever is necessary for those onboard; there must be enough supplies in the event of a prolonged journey so that crewmen do not perish from a lack of provisions. Ships cannot travel overloaded or overburdened, which risks loss and misfortune. The ships cannot travel without ballast; and they must have the appropriate [equipment] to survive storms and enemy attacks. My governor, the Archbishop of Manila, the most senior judge, the public prosecutor of my Audiencia, and two aldermen of the city council of Manila will distribute the freight space between the residents of those islands who have the resources to carry out trade. This division will be fair so as not to prejudice anyone, as entrusted. It is fair that everyone should enjoy this business and benefit from trade for their own sustenance and profit. This allowance will encourage population growth and that practical people remain in that land. I order my viceroy of New Spain and the governor of the Philippine Islands in what concerns each of them to oversee and regulate the freight of these ships, the number of people who sail in them, and other matters to avoid unnecessary expenses. It should not be necessary to supplement funds from my treasury to cover the costs of running the fleet. To avoid this event, they

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may increase the duties currently levied on the merchandise by 2 percent, and increase the avería tax levied on silver by 2 percent, as is charged on the [silver] carried across the North Sea on the fleet and armada.6 These levies are justified by the profits of those who trade on the Philippines fleet. The proceeds from the levies will be kept safely in separate coffers and accounts in the city of Manila to cover the expense of maintaining these ships and crews, along with what is charged for freight, as accorded and carried out until now. The inspector, accountant, and my royal officials in the Philippine Islands will keep the necessary accounts and records of all [costs and revenues]. I enjoin and command my viceroy of New Spain, present and future, to pay particular attention to fulfilling and carrying out everything written above, and to appoint a very good, trustworthy, and competent person with the title of alcalde mayor in the port of Acapulco to serve alongside the royal officials already posted there, so that no excess money be allowed to leave [New Spain], with or without [special] permission.7 The person thus appointed by my viceroy and the officials of my royal treasury will review the shop registers that detail everything that arrives in Acapulco from the Philippine Islands. Together, they will inspect and examine the bales and trunks, scrutinizing them and carrying out the necessary procedures to find out and determine what was shipped without due registration in the manifest and in violation of permissions. They will send the registers and manifests to Mexico City, as customary, along with an account of their actions in Acapulco, in the hands of an honest person or with one of my said officials. Once in Mexico City, officials will reinspect everything, value it, and collect the duties owed to my royal treasury. They will make the necessary enquiries to determine what merchandise shipped without being recorded in the manifest; and they will confiscate all that is found off-register and in violation of the said prohibitions. This procedure must not be a pretext to prejudice the owners of this property or to treat them unfairly.

6 Avería was a tax levied on trade in the Indies to finance the armed protection of that trade. The North Sea here refers to the Atlantic Ocean, in contrast to the South Sea, or Pacific. 7 An alcalde mayor in New Spain was an official responsible for an administrative unit called an alcaldía mayor, which could be a territorial subdistrict of a realm or kingdom or a specific concern. The alcalde mayor was responsible for governing, administering justice, and to a limited extent legislating for that unit. These districts varied in size and importance and were not found across all parts of the empire. Outside of New Spain, these officials were generally called corregidores.

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I order that royal officials take the same care in the port of Acapulco to inspect the coins, silver, and other things that are loaded and taken to the Philippine Islands, and that they make an account of it and inform my governor and royal officials in those islands about it, sending them the manifests and advising them as convenient. Most people who travel from New Spain to the Philippines each year do not stay there, but later return at their own expense. So, I order my viceroy of New Spain not to allow anyone to travel to the Philippines without them first issuing guarantees that they will become residents and live there for more than eight years, except for soldiers sent to the governor. The established penalties will be incurred, without exception, by anyone who violates this mandate, and their guarantors. It is my will that everything above be observed, kept, and carried out without exception. The same applies to the decrees of the king my lord concerning this trade, insofar as they do not contradict what I have established and ordered in this one. Therefore, I command my viceroy of New Spain, my governor and captain general of the Philippine Islands, my Audiencias in these places, all my other judges and justices, and individual persons—each to the extent that it concerns him—to keep and obey them, and to ensure exact compliance. They must execute the said penalties without any exceptions or dispensations, mindful that an example will be made of them if they make any error, remission or neglect in fulfilling and carrying out these orders, as the case requires. To this end, I order that all audits on officials include their responsibilities regarding these matters. And I order that this my decree, given in Valladolid at the end of December 1604, be publicly announced so that everyone is aware of it and no one can feign ignorance. I the King. By order of the King Our Lord Andrés de Tobalina Corrected [version of] what your Majesty has decided and ordered about the trade between the Philippine Islands and New Spain.

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Bibliography Bonialian, Mariano A. El pacífico hispanoamericano: política y comercio asiático en el imperio español, 1680–1784; la centralidad de lo marginal. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2012. Carrera Stampa, Manuel. “La Nao de la China.” Historia Mexicana 9, no. 33 (1959): 97–118. Fish, Shirley. The Manila-Acapulco Galleons: The Treasure Ships of the Pacific, with an Annotated List of the Transpacific Galleons 1565–1815. Central Milton Keynes: Authorhouse, 2011. Hoberman, Louisa S. Mexico’s Merchant Elite, 1590–1660: Silver, State, and Society. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991. Leibsohn, Dana, and Meha Priyadarshini. “Transpacific: Beyond Silk and Silver.” Colonial Latin American Review 25, no. 1 (2016): 1–15. León Pinelo, Antonio de, and Juan de Solórzano Pereira, comps. “De la navegación y comercio de las Islas Filipinas, China, Nueva España y Perú.” In Recopilación de leyes de los Reynos de Indias. Madrid: Julián de Paredes, 1681. https://catalog. hathitrust.org/Record/100240199 (accessed 9 October 2019). Recopilación de leyes de los Reynos de Indias. Madrid: Julián de Paredes, 1681. https:// catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100240199 (accessed 9 October 2019). Sales Colín, Ostwald. “Las cargazones del galeón de la carrera de poniente: primera mitad del siglo XVII.” Revista de Historia Económica 18, no. 3 (2000): 629–661. Schurz, William L. The Manila Galleon. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1939. Seijas, Tatiana. Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. ———. “Inns, Mules, and Hardtack for the Voyage: The Local Economy of the Manila Galleon in Mexico.” Colonial Latin American Review 25, no. 1 (2016): 56–76. Yuste López, Carmen. Emporios transpacíficos: comerciantes mexicanos en Manila, 1710–1815. Mexico City: UNAM, 2007.

About the Editors Natalie Cobo is a doctoral student in the faculty of History at the University of Oxford. Her thesis examines the process of constructing a colonial society in the Philippines in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She is also a translator of early modern Latin and has published an edition of ecclesiastical legislation with Juan Cobo Betancourt, La legislación de la arquidiócesis de Santafé en el periodo colonial. She also currently works at the Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte translating Juan de Solórzano Pereira’s De Gubernatione.

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Tatiana Seijas is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She writes about the history of slavery, the Pacific World, and North America.

5.

Manila’s Sangleys and a Chinese Wedding (1625) Miguel Martínez

Abstract This excerpt from Diego de Rueda y Mendoza’s True Account of the Funeral Exequies that the Illustrious City of Manila Celebrated to the Death of His Majesty Philip III (1625) provides an eye-witness account of a Catholic Chinese wedding celebrated in Manila during the early seventeenth century. It provides tantalizing glimpses of transculturation among Manila’s small Spanish ruling class, as well as insights into the culture of the sangleys, the Chinese residents whose numbers exceeded those of the Spanish by several orders of magnitude. Miguel Martínez places Rueda’s account of the wedding within the context of the broader pseudoethnographic work carried out by the True Account, as well as the early history of Manila’s sangleys. Keywords: sangleys; transculturation; early modern ethnography; early Philippine literature

The Sangleys were a populous group of Chinese merchants and artisans who lived in segregated areas around Intramuros, the walled urban core of Spanish Manila.1 Largely coming from the Fujian region of mainland China, this partly settled and partly floating community provided most of the goods needed daily in the colonial capital and other parts of the Spanish Philippines, and some of its members became crucial actors in the commercial networks that connected the South China Sea and the 1 The bibliography on Manila’s Sangleys is vast. For the purposes of the following document, see mainly Gil, Los chinos en Manila; Crewe, “Pacific Purgatory”; Kueh, “Manila Chinese”; Ollé, “Interacción y conflicto.”

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch05

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transpacific trade. After the arrival of the first Fujianese merchants to the riverbanks of the Pasig in the 1570s, the Chinese population of Manila and its surroundings must have largely outnumbered the Spanish colonists almost at any point in history. Their prominence in the social and economic life of the colony and their distinctive treatment vis-à-vis the native Filipino population of the area have led some historians to assert that Spanish Manila was actually a Chinese city. The following document is a detailed description of Manila’s Chinese neighborhoods and people, paying particular attention to everyday life, popular cultural practices, and the activity of the Dominican friars in charge of converting and preaching to the Chinese population of the city. It was written between 1623 and 1625 by soldier and public notary Diego de Rueda y Mendoza, as part of his True Account of the Funeral Exequies that the Illustrious City of Manila Celebrated to the Death of His Majesty King Philip III and the Royal Festivities to the Succession of His Only Son and Heir Our King Philip IV (Relación verdadera de las exequias funerales que la insigne ciudad de Manila celebró a la muerte de la majestad del Rey Felipe III y reales fiestas que se hicieron a la felice sucesión de su único heredero y señor nuestro Felipe IV).2 In addition to narrating the royal funerals and city festivals, this account vividly depicts the social and cultural life of Manila’s streets, from the cabildo’s civic ritual to bullfighting, the carnival, and theatrical performances. It also gathers the first significant collection of colonial Philippine poetry, written in Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Tagalog, and Chinese (Fig. 5.1).3 A keen ethnographer in general, Rueda had privileged access to the society and culture of this diasporic community. The soldier describes the Parian, the Chinese market and residence largely populated by migrants and the unconverted, and Binondo, a community populated by Chinese converts and their mestizo offspring. Rueda pays special attention to the religious institutions established and led by Dominicans such as Miguel de Benavides and Juan Cobo in these neighborhoods. The first section of the text is an informative exposition of urban development and evangelizing practices regarding the Sangleys of Manila, but it also offers rich details about Chinese vernacular Catholicism. Rueda also documents the movement between coercion and accommodation 2 This manuscript is now held at the Hispanic Society of America (MS HC-397-501), in New York City, but managed to escape the attention of all scholars other than Rodríguez Moñino, who described it in detail in his Catálogo de manuscritos poéticos de la Hispanic Society of América. The fragment included in this reader is on fols. 107r–125r. I have discussed this manuscript and its author more in detail in Martínez, “Don Quijote, Manila, 1623.” 3 These Chinese poems in Rueda’s Relación have been recently translated by Carl Kubler in McManus and Leibsohn (573–574).

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Figure 5.1. Anonymous poems in classical Chinese in which Manila’s Sangleys mourn the death of King Philip III. Diego de Rueda y Mendoza, Relación verdadera de las exequias funerales […] (Manila, 1625), fol. 100r.

as a key feature of Spanish colonial policy regarding the Chinese, as well as the impact this tension had on familial and economic networks divided by the South China Sea—observations about the requirement that Chinese new Christians cut their hair for the reception of baptism are telling in this regard.4 Rueda then moves on to provide an eyewitness account of a Catholic Chinese wedding in which he and his wife participated as godfather (padrino) and godmother (madrina). Rueda counts both the groom’s and the bride’s fathers among his friends: establishing compadrazgo relations with Spaniards in the colony, whether when getting married or baptizing their children and was one of the chief social strategies among elite Sangleys.5 Rueda y Mendoza describes the practices of gift-giving that preceded the ceremony—including the distribution of buyo silver containers among the guests. Buyo refers to the mix of areca nut (bonga in Tagalog), betel leaves, and lime that was chewed in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast 4 On the relations between mainland China and Manila’s Sangleys see mainly Chia, “The Butcher, the Baker, and the Carpenter”; and Chin, “Junk Trade, Business Networks, and Sojourning Communities”; Ollé, “La proyección de Fujian en Manila”; Chan, “Chinese-Philippine Relations.” 5 On this phenomenon see Kueh, “Adaptive Strategies of Parián Chinese,” and Crewe, “Pacific Purgatory.”

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Asia. According to Rueda, the Filipino practice of buyo chewing entered Chinese society via the Tagalog or mestiza wives of most married Chinese men living in Manila—only Catholic Chinese converts were allowed to marry in the Philippines.6 Judging by the detail of the author’s description of the practice, it would be safe to assume that Rueda was himself a consumer of buyo. The bride’s dress and jewelry, as well as the social rituals that tie the Sangley community together are also given proper attention in his account. The text rejoices in describing the songs sung, the dishes served, and other details of a Catholic Chinese ceremony. One of the most interesting aspects of this document is the description of a “Chinese play” that went on for the entire duration of the banquet and until sunset. As early as 1592, the ecclesiastical authorities in charge of evangelizing to the Sangleys, banned Chinese comedias performed during the Chinese New Year—which often coincided with the Spanish Carnival—for “mixing superstitions and idolatries” in their dramatic plots. “Even though they are fictional—the ban says—the plays are performed to thank their gods or to beg them, the same way they do when they arrive safely into a new port.”7 The prohibition did not last long, because the civic authorities disagreed with the local church about the convenience of allowing the Sangleys to perform their plays, for they derived a significant income from taxing a Chinese game associated with New Year’s theater.8 This is, in sum, a richly textured and quite complete document of interethnic relations in the Sangley community of Manila at a time of peace. Rueda’s account includes observations on matters as diverse as the grammar and phonetics of Chinese, the complex political economy of the South China Sea, Spanish evangelizing practices, gender relations in the colony, Chinese food, and the rituals and devotions of new converts. The Relación records the full economic and demographic recovery of Chinese Manila after the brutal repression of the 1603 Sangley uprising, which Rueda, significantly, passes in silence. It includes, moreover, an eyewitness perspective on some of the early history of the Parian and Binondo, their peculiar urban identity, and their always tense interaction with the society of the European colonizer. This form of precarious “transpacific convivencia,” as Ryan Dominic Crewe put it, required unprecedented accommodations on the part of the Europeans, yet proved nonetheless unable to avoid conflict and systematic colonial violence.9 6 7 8 9

See Wickberg, “Chinese Mestizo,” and Crewe, “Pacific Purgatory.” Salvatierra, “Un auto.” Calvo, “Fiestas y juegos chinos.” Crewe, “Pacific Purgatory.”

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True Account of the Funeral Exequies that the Illustrious City of Manila Celebrated to the Death of His Majesty King Philip III and the Royal Festivities to the Succession of His Only Son and Heir Our King Philip IV10 Among the groups of people who come from foreign kingdoms to Manila, the head and metropolis of this archipelago, are the Sangleys, who hail from the populous and vast kingdom of China. They come with their exquisite and costly goods, mainly gold, fabrics, brocades, bundles of embroidered silk, musk, pearls and gemstones, and countless other curiosities that enrich all of its neighbors with much abundance, while they also swell with exotic merchandise from the viceroyalty of New Spain and the kingdoms of Castile, and others of the world, as it is widely known. These Chinese people are usually good-looking men, tall, handsome faced, embodying much authority. Their beards develop much too late. Young men are as beautiful as (and even more than) women before their fuzz grows. Their eyes are small, as is their nose. Some of them have round faces, while others are sharp featured. Their complexion is white, their lips beautiful, their hands long; and some merchants, to prove that they are not manual workers, let the nails of their thumbs, index and middle fingers grow extremely long. They let their beards—which despite being sparse—grow in such a fashion that they tend to fall down their waist and for some men, below that; and they frequently wear them tied up and braided. They have five toes, not six as one historian said; and they also have five fingernails, for their little finger does not have two nails, as another historian claimed—this has been seen with special curiosity, and a careful investigation has been carried out to certify the truth. They are people of fine ingenuity, generous merchants, men of their word and in everything, very reasonable. Many come each year from their land and, although many return, even more of them tend to stay here. Although they scatter among the small villages of these islands, the larger number of them can be found outside the walls of this city, to the northeast, where the two previously mentioned populations lay: one that is solely composed of those Chinese who, having been baptized, cut their hair, which the infidels do not do after turning twelve. They are wedded to native women of these 10 The source for this selection is Diego de Rueda y Mendoza’s Relación verdadera de las exequias funerales que la insigne ciudad de Manila celebró a la muerte de la majestad del Rey Felipe III y reales fiestas que se hicieron a la felice sucesión de su único heredero y señor nuestro Felipe IV (Manila, 1625), 107r–125r.

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islands and others to the daughters of Chinese men and Indian women, and rarely with purely Chinese women, as it is too difficult to take them out of China due to the strict laws of the kingdom. The other town, which is the Parian, consists of both heathen and Christian Chinese who do not cut their hair or marry. In these two villages there are two churches and one hospital, endowed by alms from His Majesty, and members of the Dominican Order who administer the mentioned Chinese live there. The village of married Christians is divided from this city by the river named Pasig, notable for its clear, light, and healthy waters, and the most wonderful riverbank, boasting much amusement, verdure and lushness, for which it is known in many parts of the world. This village is called Binondo and its church is dedicated to their protector St. Gabriel, where ordinarily two priests oversee the administration of the holy sacraments. So plentiful are the Christians and their children in this village that the number of those from eight to twenty years of age is incredible, and this is without counting those who are married. The main town of the Chinese is named the Parian or alcaicería, close to walls of Manila, which—though small—is abundant in people. It is inhabited by people of all the trades required in this land, and there is no other town of its size that provides the king—our lord—with as much revenue, utility, and advantages as this one. The Order of Preachers arrived in these Philippine Islands and the city of Manila on July 22 of 1587, the day of our glorious St. Mary Magdalene, when Governor Santiago de Vera ruled over secular affairs and Father Domingo de Salazar—the first bishop of these islands, erudite, pious, and saintly man, who adorned his life with miracles—presided over the church. A few days after they arrived, they built a church and convent in this town, which burned down. For more than twenty years no one rebuilt it, until the year of 1610 [when] the Dominican Order, which has always overseen ministering and converting these people, built another convent with the approval from the secular and ecclesiastical governments. Before, the Chinese who were baptized were required to cut their hair, which prevented this mission from flourishing; because among them, cutting their hair is taken as an infamous rejection of their kingdom, land, and obedience to the [Chinese] king, so they were not allowed to return to their kingdom. When they were baptized, they lost their kingdom, property, parents, wives and children that they had left in mainland China, burying themselves in this land of the Philippines, which pales in comparison to theirs. Once it was known in China that the son, brother or husband had been baptized, they mourned him as if he were already dead, and they loathed Christianity in that great kingdom, saying that it could not be a

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good religion if it forever separated children from their parents, husbands from wives, and vassals from their king. And many, even on their deathbeds, refused to be baptized and condemned themselves. Once he learned about this, King Philip II dispatched a government order commanding that Sangleys who wanted to be baptized should not be forced to cut their hair, neither should they be prevented from returning to their kingdom; rather, they should be allowed to do it at their own liberty, so that such a pious and heroic endeavor as conversion would not be hindered. This decree was not executed until 1618, on the Day of the Holy Kings, to which the new church and convent [in the Parian] were dedicated, and where they began to baptize long-haired Chinese to everyone’s content. […] In this way, their hate has turned into love, and the Christians who come to these islands from China now say that God’s law teaches all kinds of virtue and does not undermine obedience to fathers and elders. On the contrary, one rigorous precept of God’s law is that fathers are to be obeyed; and this seems very good to them. […] Father Bartolomé Martínez is a great servant of God, leads an exemplary life, and has a thorough command of Chinese. He has written books and catechisms in the language for instruction and preaching. As a good missionary, he gave them a short speech, telling them that heaven and earth—from which they expected favor and good fortune—could not provide for them, for heaven and earth did not see, did not have a soul, and were created by God. Earth [was created] for the living, hell for those who were not baptized or those baptized who died in mortal sin, and heaven for the baptized who exited this life without sin to meet God. So, they better be sure that only the Lord of Heaven, who is God, and not heaven itself, could help them. If they wanted to dedicate their feast to Our Mother, the Lady of the Rosary, she would help them obtain from God all they desired for their bodies and souls, many gifts unknown to them. The good father told them this and other things with so much passion and zeal for their salvation that they agreed to celebrate this festivity in honor of Our Lady the Virgin Mary. The Sangleys asked him how to proceed and he told them to place an image of Our Lady in every street, and that each lamp should have a cross or an image of Christ Our Lord or of his Holy Mother. They did as they were told, astounding the Spaniards who witnessed such a sudden transformation. The third night they staged a procession in which there was much to see. Most people from Manila attended, and they infinitely thanked God Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, for seeing so many infidels thronging to their service and dedicating to them the most important and joyful celebration of their kingdom. The following two years they organized

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the same festivities for three consecutive nights in that church; they were a sight to behold. Today, as they keep celebrating this festivity, some nonChristian Sangleys assist with fireworks and dances, according to their customs. They divide themselves up by trade, in fifteen groups, and they build altars to the Mother of God, each of which represents one of the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary. As usual, however, the enemy of the Christian religion never sleeps; and seeing that he was no longer venerated, he raised a storm through some of his followers, who argued that the celebrations were expensive and should not continue. [This is] despite [the fact that] this nation’s custom [of venerating the devil] is very old, as the only thing that changed is that they honor God, not the devil as they used to. The rumors reached the priest’s ears. The infidels of different trades went to the archbishop with petitions, arguing that the said celebrations were a very ancient custom in China, and that after admonishment from the priest, they had dedicated them to the Mother of God, our Lady of the Rosary, instead of to the devil. […] Amazed by the infidels’ petition, the archbishop had a meeting with learned churchmen and mandated that the festivities were to be continued, which brought so much joy to the infidels that with great fervor they extended it to three days each year. They painted fifteen canvases of the mysteries of the Rosary, which they placed in fifteen altars. There was also a great variety of flowers and lamps of different shapes and designs, trimmings of paper, and a variety of fireworks, firecrackers, rockets, castles, lions and tigers. Moreover, on the last night, five big spouts of fire were displayed with great care. The Sangleys are instructed on what each mystery contains and those who are Christian teach the others. As a result, each day more of them are baptized, which bestows the festivity with greater splendor and is celebrated with much solemnity and pomp […]. The Lord should not be less praised for the mission in the town of Binondo, which serves hairless Sangleys and for the hospital that is in the same town by the Pasig river. It has always had vigilant ministers, careful laborers, pious fathers, and very knowledgeable religious men, who have gathered abundant fruits, which they increased by writing books aimed at saving souls. The first founders of this mission were two reverend fathers as saintly as learned; one of them was brother Miguel de Benavides, first bishop of Nueva Segovia—and the third archbishop of this city of Manila—and the other one was brother Juan Cobo, bishop elect of Nueva Segovia, who having been sent as ambassador to Japan, died in Formosa while returning to Manila, famed as a martyr.

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Father Miguel went to China and, being present at the hearing of Canton’s mandarin, he wrote a petition in Chinese characters that amazed everyone. Father Juan Cobo was the first missionary to preach in the Chinese language, which he learned so well that he knew many characters, [which is] a feat hard to believe for those who know of the language’s unfathomable difficulty. In addition to this, Cobo wrote a book in Castilian and Chinese characters. These mostly reverend fathers were the first ones to make the effort to preach to the Chinese in their language, which no missionary had ever undertaken for its intricate difficulty and inexplicable obscurity. Because, in addition to being contrary to everything to our tongue, it [Chinese] is a language of very few words in terms of sound and each of them full of a thousand meanings that are distinct in writing, but barely differentiated in their pronunciation. This is very difficult, because there are some words that if written in Spanish one would use the same letters, but the Chinese would use many different characters to write the same word, each one with a different meaning, which can only be gathered through a variation in how it is pronounced. […] Other saintly and exemplary men have followed these fathers, and today Father Francisco Carrero, as learned as he is a humble and pious servant of God, takes care of the mission in Binondo. He preaches to the Sangleys on Sundays and holidays in their Chinese language, while he uses Tagalog to their wives and daughters, for almost all of them are Indians or daughters of Indians and Sangleys. In each sermon, he uses Chinese for half an hour, and Tagalog for the other half, for this is the natural tongue of this city. He performs two masses. The church is large, though it is not enough for everyone due to the many people in attendance, particularly during processions and holidays. And this all happens with so many inventions of luminaries, lamps, roses and bouquets—all handmade and unique, very costly—as well as with beautiful and entertaining fireworks: nowhere in Europe are masses held with such great devotion, solemnity and cleanliness as [it is] in this city of Manila […]. The hospital that tends to the Chinese is on the side that overlooks Manila, on the riverbank. […] In it, the foreigners are cured, the infidels are given medicine and it is free of charge for the sick Chinese, who do not move out unless it is for a profit. And it is true that in all the spacious world where our king has extended his empire and placed his throne, he has no other institution that provides so rich a harvest as this one. For when the sick walk into this hospital, blinded by the darkness of paganism, they walk out enlightened with faith and the holy water of baptism. In which other land has the king our lord a hospital for the heathens? In which kingdom is there

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a house that snatches souls from the devil’s teeth with the water of baptism? If one saved soul gives so much glory and happiness to Our Lord, how much more will this pious enterprise give him, the thousands of souls saved in this hospital? […] The founders of this heroic institution were the reverend fathers Miguel de Benavides and Juan Cobo. They determined to build it for the Chinese nation after considering how many of them died as infidels. And seeing the abandonment of the sick, they thought it would be charitable to assist them and, in that way, gain their souls for heaven by baptizing them at the moment of death. They got permission from their superiors in the ecclesiastical and secular governments, who were then, Domingo de Salazar—the first bishop—and Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas. And getting on with it, they sought some wood to build a small house where they laid some beds and used their own blankets for the sick. They went out around the streets looking for the ill and begging them to come along; and they would use some men to bring them [the ill] on their backs. Sometimes, instead of having someone else do it, it was the fathers themselves who would carry them on their backs to the new hospital, where they cured them, washed their feet, fed them, made their beds, and all the other lowly tasks, while tending to the good of their souls. After these beginnings, the number of the ill and the expenses of the hospital started to grow, which the missionaries paid for with the alms of the mass and with the food they received from their orders. And they used their own capes to cover the sick: charity warmed up the friars but left them naked. Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, considering that this saintly and pious work needed royal help, made a gift of a hundred thick, cotton blankets for the beds of the sick, whose numbers rose every day. The hospital became too small and it was necessary to build a bigger one, enlarging it to the point that it can be seen today, with a very big and spacious room, with its oratory to hold the mass, and with bedrooms and workshops for the friars. While right now it never lacks room for the sick, it will soon be enlarged again as to hold many more of them. We do not know the number of those baptized, for the book in which they were written was lost. But the book that is there today shows that 614 patients have been baptized in four years. If we extrapolate this to the thirty-five years that the hospital has been in use—although in the last three [the Chinese] have been very healthy—they add up to 5,374 people, in addition to those that have been indoctrinated while being cured, who many times get baptized three or four days after being released. Yet, others get baptized only after convalescing, for it is the custom of this hospital to christen only those who are very sick or without remedy. Those who get

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baptized with all their due solemnity normally go to the church of San Gabriel here in Binondo or to the one in the Parian […]. I could write a long work on the various and curious things of the great China, but I will reserve this for the history I am composing about the Philippines, which is already very advanced, from their discovery to their present state, in which I deal with many curious things, and where I describe the surrounding kingdoms and the most memorable aspects of them all. Here, I will recount the wedding of a Christian Sangley who invited me to be the godfather, and their customs in this regard. It is quite amusing to come out of a hospital and walk into a wedding, where many delicacies are ordinarily served; and it is not very strange that I, as the godfather, invite the curious reader to take the dish they [might] enjoy the most. One Christian Sangley, a neighbor in this town of Binondo, arranged to marry the daughter of another Christian Sangley of the same town. Both are my friends, so they let me know and asked me and my wife to sponsor this wedding, which we accepted due to our friendship and their insistence. They went on arranging everything and, when the time came, the groom came to us with his mother-in-law and other friends and relatives, dressed up in their best attire. They offered us a silver platter full of food in appreciation of our approval of the wedding. After this, the groom bade farewell and went around visiting friends and relatives, giving each one of them a food platter of a size according to the guest’s status, telling them about the wedding date. The guests responded by congratulating the groom, and they had a conversation full of courtesies, according to their customs. After this, the groom’s relatives and friends accompanied him back home. The expenses of this round of invitations depend on the rank and status of the groom. They go on arranging everything necessary for the couple’s wedding. The groom’s side and the bride’s side exchange gifts, clothes, jewelry and presents with much solemnity, according to their capacities. Once everything is ready, one day before the wedding the bride sends a very well-dressed maid, accompanied by two or three more people with a silver buyero, which is like a censer full of holes, with a tall plinth. It carries a lot of buyo, which is a leaf that resembles ivy and which they fold like a cone of candy to place inside a piece of bonga, which is like a Castilian acorn, just a little bigger. Between these leaves, they put a little bit of lime mixed with certain things that make it fragrant. Then they eat it, which is a very warm thing to savor and with a very pleasant smell, and it reddens your lips and protects your teeth from rotting. The groom goes to the houses of all the guests who have been invited to the wedding, and to each one he gives his buyo. This is like a sign of their invitation to the wedding: they become obliged to attend the party at the

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bride’s house, which is normally the place where the wedding is celebrated the day after. He who receives the buyo offers 1, 2 or 3 pesos—some give 10 or 20 according to their capacity and will—and sends a piece of paper with this quantity written on it, which is paid in cash once at the wedding. With this, they can sometimes raise 2,000 or 3,000 pesos. When they go to the wedding, they adorn themselves with their best costumes. In the morning of the wedding’s eve, the bride and the groom sent a boat to fetch the godparents. It sailed on the river of this city very well adorned with flowers, bouquets, pennants, rugs and cushions. Once the godmother arrives in the house, they come out to receive her with their music. She goes to dress and adorn the bride, which is all done according to their customs and with their best outfit, which is very honest and all made of silk of different colors: it shines. The bride wore an underskirt made of crimson damask with stripes of gold and on top of it she donned a garment they call tahania, made in damask of a different color. This garment falls to the shin and is open on both sides; on the left one is some ribbons to fasten it around the body. It is tied on the chest and it hangs down. It does not have a collar […], but it has very wide sleeves, in the fashion of a friar’s habit. They have shirts with elaborate and nuanced embroideries, and they do not wear doublets, blouses or anything else. They surround their waists with a garter of many fringes, tassels and laces of gold and silver. The headdress is very costly and elegant. They gather their hair from the roots upwards, and once it is well combed and upswept, they wind the hair around two or three times and finish it with a knot or bow and with a gold pin encrusted with gems or other decorations of gold and silver with rubies, sapphires, red zircons, pearls and other precious stones, which are all very costly. All of this covers her hair to the point that it can barely be seen. They adorn themselves with earrings, necklaces, bracelets and gold chains—all the jewelry normally amounts to between 2,000 and 3,000 pesos. And since for the most part they are white and beautiful, with so many jewels and rich apparel, they look very good and show off a lot. They tend to carry a lot of weight, which weighs on them when the jewelry is not theirs and they have to return it to its owner, for they are very greedy and envious people who do not tolerate seeing anyone of their nation ahead of themselves. The bride spends the entire day dressed like this, and the groom can see her, as well as her relatives who go to help her with the hair dress. During this time, the house, windows, door and staircase are covered with green branches, roses and flowers, which in this warm and humid land proliferate the whole year round, as well as the greenery of the trees and plants.

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When the sun rises on the wedding day, the families of both sides gather and decorate the house with flags and pennants in many colors that they place everywhere, but particularly in the windows and doors. They play music in their style, which resembles a kind of hurdy-gurdy and tin bells, like large basins, which they hit with a drumstick to make a bombastic, bell-like sound. With these and other instruments they play some resounding and pleasant music. They dress and prepare the bride with the same attire as the day before, yet with different colors. When the time comes to go to church, the bridal party first leaves with flags, pennants and music and, then, the accompanying men, and finally the groom and the godfather. After them, somewhat far behind, come six or eight beautiful maidens, richly attired in their customary colors; and then come the bride and the godmother, walking elegantly and with great composure. The bride and the maidens covered their hair with a veil, a sign that they were unmarried and virgins. The female relatives and the rest of the women follow and the female servants go last. In this order, they arrive at the church’s door, where the awaiting parish’s minister marries them. Once married, they walk in to take their seats to hear mass, receive the nuptial blessings, and conduct the other ceremonies mandated by the Holy Catholic Church. And in the same order they came to church, they return to the bride’s house from which they left. Once there, the whole party goes up to the main bedroom, where the wedding bed is located. While the rest stop at the door, the couple and godparents walk in and sit down on an estrado that is very well decorated.11 The groom stands up and crosses his hands—left hand on top—in front of the bride and brings them up to his mouth and then down to the floor, with his whole body: he does this ceremony three times. Once he finishes, the bride stands up and, with her hands crossed, she does the same as the groom has done, three times. Finally, the groom approaches the bride and takes the veil off her hair dress as a sign that she is already his wife. After this, bride and groom sit apart from each other with great composure and elegance. After a while, the groom performs the same ceremony with his hands crossed, bringing them up and down from his chest to his waist, which is a form of salutation and courtesy, just as we bow down or take our hats off. With this ends the wedding vows and the veiling ceremony. I will not spare you from hearing about the banquet and the play that was performed in Chinese fashion, for the wedding guests would starve without the food, and those who paid for it would be very disappointed. 11 An estrado is a kind of dais.

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Preparations began more than eight days before the banquet with the gathering of hens, pigs, piglets, ducks, eggs, fish, vegetables, legumes, and other foodstuffs that the Chinese use, including wine, fruits and everything else necessary for the celebration. On the wedding’s eve, the cooks killed the pigs, piglets, hens and ducks and prepared the stuffing, meatballs, sauces and everything that is proper for such an occasion. A large canopy of branches was built in front of the bride’s house, made of many flowers, sedges, roses and green branches. To its side, they built a theater for the performance of the play, and they designed the canvases that depicted the rooms, the wardrobe and the stage. Then they placed tables and benches for the guests. The couple and the guests arrived in the church at around nine or ten in the morning; at this very moment the play started, not finishing until sunset. On stage there were many ridiculous figures, who made many courteous gestures and grimaces, and represented plots of love and disdain, of solitude and wars; all of which seemed to me performed with cold and impertinent movements (as I did not understand them), but it was all pleasurable and entertaining to the Chinese, as it was all done in their tongue and according to their customs. The guests sat at the tables, under the canopy, looking at the playhouse. There were around 300 guests at the banquet, who were served and accommodated according to their gifts, giving precedence to those who had offered more. This custom, which is observed in the great kingdom of China, is also allowed here because it does not go against our Holy Faith. The banquet lasted until two in the afternoon, though with as much order and peace as if there had been only four or five diners. All the food was served at once, with their sauces and condiments, which they ate with pleasure and delight. The drinks were heated on the fire—as it is the custom of the Japanese—and served in very little porcelain cups. It was admirable to see the number of delicacies that were served, so many kinds of stews and casseroles presented in very small bowls. They do not use tablecloths, for they do not need them; the way they eat is not with their hands—like we do—but with a pair of very curious sticks, which they handle to bring the food to their mouths. And they are so skillful that they can even pick a grain of rice or the like with these sticks and bring it to their mouths or wherever, with much subtlety. They do not use knives or any other cutting instruments at the table, because when the food is served it is already cut so that it is ready to be chewed, whether it is meat, fish or any other dish. And though the stew bowls are many, they are small; and since the Sangleys are avid eaters, the

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meal can last for a very long time, during which they do not stop eating. They ate while they watched the performance—without being distracted—and after finishing their meal they kept watching, satisfying their stomachs with the food and their eyes with the play. Women had their own separate meal on low tables, and the bride and groom sat at the heads of the tables. They were served different dishes at different times, which must have been the time at which we Spaniards normally eat. They used tablecloths and they ate according to the Indians’ customs—with their hands, just like us. They ate savory dishes, which one would like better than the fresh ones, but cooked in a manner very different from ours. While they dined, and afterwards, the women enjoyed music in their style and in ours, which they danced to with great delight until it was time to rest. The godparents were all placed at four separate tall tables and they were served stuffed roasted meat and a variety of other dishes in our style, enjoying the views of the Pasig river; the couple’s house was by its riverbanks, so it had a very pleasant view and a smooth, enjoyable breeze. And with this, the wedding ended. (The weddings of noblemen in China last for fifteen or twenty days, during which they exchange very impressive gifts.) I have been motivated to write about this wedding because one author who had written earlier about Chinese practices and their marriage customs from second-hand sources stopped short of properly referring [to the fact] that weddings are celebrated in the manner I have just described. Although, in the great kingdom of China, they use separate tables for each guest—which they paint in many shades and decorate with flowers of admirable beauty—and they serve each dish on a separate table with a hanging tablecloth, in the manner of frontal canvases.

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Bibliography Brey Mariño, María, and Antonio R. Rodríguez Moñino. Catálogo de los manuscritos poéticos castellanos existentes en la Biblioteca de the Hispanic Society of America (siglos XV, XVI y XVII). New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1965. Calvo, Thomas. “Fiestas y juegos chinos en Manila: otra forma de acercamiento a la mecánica imperial (siglo XVII).” In Entre la solemnidad y el regocijo: fiestas, devociones y religiosidad en Nueva España y el mundo hispánico, edited by Rafael Castañeda García and Rosa Alicia Pérez Luque, 297-324 . Zamora, Michoacán (Mexico): El Colegio de Michoacán, 2015. Chan, Albert. “Chinese-Philippine Relations in the Late Sixteenth Century and to 1603.” Philippine Studies 26, nos. 1–2 (1978): 51–82. Chia, Lucille. “The Butcher, the Baker, and the Carpenter: Chinese Sojourners in the Spanish Philippines and their Impact on Southern Fujian (Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuries).” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49, no. 4 (2006): 509–534. Chin, James K. “Junk Trade, Business Networks, and Sojourning Communities: Hokkien Merchants in Early Maritime Asia.” Journal of Chinese Overseas 6, no. 2 (2010): 157–215. Crewe, Ryan Dominic. “Pacific Purgatory: Spanish Dominicans, Chinese Sangleys, and the Entanglement of Mission and Commerce in Manila, 1580–1620.” Journal of Early Modern History 19, no. 4 (2015): 337–365. Gil, Juan. Los chinos en Manila: siglos XVI y XVII. Lisbon: Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, 2011. Kueh, Joshua Eng Sin. “Adaptive Strategies of Parián Chinese. Fictive Kinship and Credit in Seventeenth-Century Manila.” Philippine Studies 61, no. 3 (2013): 362–384. ———. “The Manila Chinese: Community, Trade, and Empire, c. 1570–c. 1770.” PhD diss., Georgetown University, 2014. McManus, Stuart M., and Dana Leibsohn. “Eloquence and Ethnohistory: Indigenous Loyalty and the Making of a Tagalog Letrado.” Colonial Latin American Review 27, no. 4 (2018): 522–574. Martínez, Miguel. “Don Quijote, Manila, 1623: orden colonial y cultura popular.” Revista Hispánica Moderna 70, no. 2 (2017): 143–159. Ollé, Manel. “Interacción y conflicto en el parián de Manila.” Illes i imperis, nos. 10–11 (2008): 61–90. ———. “La proyección de Fujian en Manila: los sangleyes del parián y el comercio de la Nao de China.” In Un océano de seda y plata: el universo económico del Galeón de Manila, edited by Salvador Bernabéu Albert and Carlos Martínez Shaw, 155–78. Sevilla: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2013.

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Rueda y Mendoza, Diego de. Relación verdadera de las exequias funerales que la insigne ciudad de Manila celebró a la muerte de la majestad del Rey Felipe III y reales fiestas que se hicieron a la felice sucesión de su único heredero y señor nuestro Felipe IV (Manila, 1625), 107r–125r. Salvatierra, Cristóbal de. “Un auto que apareció fijado en las puertas de Santo Domingo, firmado por Fray Cristóbal de Salvatierra, sobre la representación de comedias de los Chinos (1592).” AGI, Filipinas 6, R.7, N.90. Edited by Manel Ollé Rodríguez. www.upf.edu/asia/projectes/che/s16/comedias.htm (accessed

9 October 2019).

Wickberg, E. “The Chinese Mestizo in Philippine History.” Journal of Southeast Asian History 5, no. 1 (1964): 62–100.

About the Editor Miguel Martínez is Associate Professor of Spanish Literature and the College at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Front Lines: Soldiers’ Writing in the Early Modern Hispanic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), which explores the writing and reading practices of the Spanish popular soldiery in early modern Spain and colonial Latin America. He is currently working on two book projects: one on the literary culture of early colonial Manila in relation to the global Renaissance; and the other on popular culture in early modern Iberia.

6. Don Luis Castilla Offers to Sell Land in Manila (1629) Regalado Trota José

Abstract A series of documents from the Archives of the University of Santo Tomás in Manila tell of the attempt by one Luis Castilla, an indigenous Tagalog speaker and member of the local aristocracy or “principalía,” to sell various parcels of land. As one of the oldest surviving examples of legal process in the Philippines, the Castilla dossier speaks of the rapid implantation of Spanish legal culture in Luzon, and of its adaptation to colonial conditions. The documents combine Spanish with Romanized Tagalog and Tagalog written in the native baybayin script, as well as some Chinese characters. They also help us appreciate how the early principalía managed to acquire land in the face of opposition from powerful forces in the Church. Regalado Trota José provides context and comments on the material aspects of the manuscripts. Keywords: colonial legal culture; principalía; land use; baybayin; archival documents from the Philippines

In 1629 don Luis Castilla offered several parcels of land for sale to the Colegio de Santo Tomas in Manila.1 According to the protocol of the time, public calls for any opposition to the transaction were made in a major church and outside the main government building in Manila. Due to some opposition, the land was not sold until 1634. The present article is a selection of contracts that form a dossier on the lands of Luis Castilla, whose file itself is one of many others bound in a 1 Manila was founded as a Spanish city by Miguel López de Legazpi on 24 June 1571. The Colegio de Santo Tomás de Aquino was founded in Manila by the Dominicans in 1611. Today’s University of Santo Tomas is considered the oldest university in Asia.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch06

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thick volume documenting lands eventually acquired by the Colegio of Santo Tomas for its maintenance. Two land contracts in Castilla’s dossier are written in baybayin, the pre-Hispanic script of the Tagalogs of Manila.2 Two other contracts are written in romanized Tagalog. The dossier presents hardly known and surprising glimpses of how Manila’s citizens were encountering and responding to the interactions of indigenous and Hispanic norms and culture. Apart from its unique cultural aspects, Castilla’s dossier was chosen for this reader because it seems rather poetic that the name of the vendor was Luis Castilla, a native, who sold land to the Castilians; hence the title of this article. The volume containing Castilla’s dossier is catalogued as Libros 22 of the Archives of the University of Santo Tomas, hereafter referred to as AUST.3 The folios in this and other seventeenth-century volumes in the AUST bear crease marks indicating each one was folded in half, then folded in half again, and repeated a third time. Thus, the folio would have been folded into eight roughly equal spaces; when folded, the folio would have been slightly larger than the size of a modern-day cigarette pack. On the front part of the “eighth” of a folio heading a new set of documents a label, akin 2 Baybayin is defined in early seventeenth century dictionaries as the “A-B-C” of the Tagalogs. It is incorrect to use the popular word alibata, which was invented in 1914. Recent scholarship proposes that baybayin and similar Indic-derived Southeast Asian scripts, whose characters are essentially consonants with diacritics to indicate the following vowel, should be grouped under the term “aksary,” a word borrowed from Sanskrit aksara that means letter of the alphabet, character, or script. This is to differentiate such scripts from the syllabaries, which have a unique symbol for each consonant-vowel combination. See Guillermo, introduction to 3 Baybayin Studies, xiii–xv. 3 The full title on the cover of the volume reads: Libro Litera B Del Archibo del colegio de S Thomas/ ESCRITVRAS DE/ las Guertas, y tierras de Gagalanguin/ cavayanan Quinamatayan Maba/ban Bacoor Botabota/ M[erdo?] de las [tierras de?]/ Sumandal pertenecien/tes a el colegio. It is composed of 326 fragile folios of what is commonly referred to as “rice paper.” These are bound within covers of animal skin. The oldest document dates from 1593; the latest is from 1707. Some documents, including the baybayin contracts, were subsequently separated from Libros 22; these were subjected to a flood in the 1930s, but the ink did not run. The pages were imbued with the colors from an adjacent volume, possibly a Book of Hours which is still extant in the AUST and whose end pages are stuck to each other, indicative of having been exposed to water. The papers are not arranged chronologically, but according to sets of land transactions. Thus, Luis Castilla’s files appear in folios 152 to 182. Individual dossiers were numbered on the upper-right corner of the page. In the manner of the time, only the “front” side of the folio was numbered; the next number was inscribed on the next folio, not the back of the previous folio, and so on. When the dossiers were compiled for Libros 22, a new numbering sequence was adopted, and the original numbers were stricken through. At some time during the production of the document, perhaps when it was being included in the compilation, a short title was given (“Lands of Gagalangin,” “Report,” etc.).

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Figure 6.1. Don Luis Castilla’s offer to sell land, 1629, in Document 1. Source: AUST.

to a “cover page,” indicating the contents of the file, was inscribed. In Libros 22, the labels include the names of the vendors of land, the year or date of transaction, and the price. Several such labels were written in baybayin, indicating that the Tagalog landowners had adopted the Spanish way of filing and folding documents. The folded papers would have presumably

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Figure 6.2. Deed of sale of Catalina Baycan in baybayin script, 1613, in Document 6b. Source: AUST.

fit a narrow wooden box not too different from the ones used by today’s cigarette vendors. Our selection begins with the first document in the dossier (Document 1), with Castilla’s proposal to sell land in 1629 [Fig. 6.1]. It ends with the last document in the dossier (Document 15), with the eventual sale of land in 1634. Documents 1 to 5 are concerned with the process of having the sale of land announced publicly. Documents 6 to 10 are deeds of sale of land presented by Castilla to show his ownership; among the contracts in the

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dossier, documents written in baybayin and in romanized Tagalog were chosen, as well as some in Spanish for comparison of the wording [Fig. 6.2]. Documents 11 to 15 deal with the process of getting the land sold, including a summons and a counterclaim, and the last one is the actual sale of what turned out to be eleven pieces of land. 4 Castilla’s dossier is one of the oldest extant written examples of a legal process (Spanish or otherwise) in the Philippines. We see how the Spanish legal system had already been implemented and how it functioned. The Spaniards accepted documents and signatures in the local scripts and languages as legal and binding. We see the various steps it took to sell land, from the proposal, to a preliminary announcement in church, to the collection of proofs of ownership, to contestation, to the actual sale. The beginnings of a land survey system may be perceived. We also see the role of town criers and scribes, and of witnesses, who testified under oath, making the sign of the cross. The paper trail presented here contains texts in Spanish and Tagalog (both in baybayin and in the romanized version), an inscription in Chinese, and a reference to land owned by a Japanese lady. These provide glimpses of a certain plurality of the cultures interacting with each other in early seventeenth-century Manila. Some place names mentioned might refer to pre-Hispanic naming practices. Amagdangal and Amatias could refer to the father of Magdangal (ama ni Magdangal) and the father of Matias (ama ni Matias) respectively. Though the practice was noted by the missionaries, here we have some of the rare pieces of evidence for it.5 In these documents we also have a surprising glimpse of how much land was actually owned by the principalía or native elite at the time. Apart from the land sold, the Castillas owned other lands nearer the place of their residence. How these lands were acquired by the local aristocracy still remains to be studied; but we can already perceive here how successful the principalía were in using the Spanish legal system to amass property.6 Although Luis Castilla is named the protagonist in this dossier, the contracts show that women just as men could own and sell land. The lands in question were actually owned by Castilla’s wife, Francisca Longad—she had inherited them from her previous husband, Andrés Capiit—and in the end it was she who presided over the sale of the eleven properties. 4 The selected texts in this article were transcribed and translated by the author except for Documents 6 and 10, which were transcribed and translated by Ignacio Villamor and Alberto Santamaria, OP, as will be duly noted. 5 Scott, Barangay, 217. 6 A similar case, where the land was also sold to the Dominicans, is in Scott, Barangay, 230–231.

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There is ample material in the dossier of Luis Castilla and Francisca Longad for a dramatic narrative. The many remaining questions only provoke a writer to weave a web of mystery and intrigue. How was so much property amassed? How did the couple placate the protests of their neighbors, including the powerful parish priest of Tondo, an Augustinian? What was the unseen hand of the Dominicans, who ran the Colegio de Santo Tomas, in facilitating the transactions? What caused the vehemence of Miguel Talimbao in refusing a summons to formalize his complaint “because he was planting his field”? Yet the dossier of these native residents of Manila forms just one among many others that comprise AUST Libros 22.7

7 This article is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Remedios Trota José, and my sister, Maria Regina J. Clamor, who unexpectedly left this world for a better one in August and December 2018, respectively. They pass on the tradition set by the Tagalog matrons spoken of above: being independent-minded, literate, enterprising, and loving.

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Papers and Titles of Lands Sold by Don Luis Castilla8 Document 1—February 15, 16299 Lands of Gagalangin, 1631 10 In Manila,11 on the fifteenth of February of 1629, the following petition was presented before Admiral Geronimo Henriquez Sotelo, by His Majesty the ordinary mayor of this city and its jurisdiction: I, don Luis Castilla,12 native of the town of Pasig,13 declare as husband of doña Francisca Longat 14 that we have and possess some highlands and lowlands within the boundaries of Gagalangin. These consist of several separate pieces of property that would total 100 brazas15 wide and 100 long, more or less. Because these are far from our residence in Pasig, where we have more and better pieces of property, we cannot attend to the lands. Furthermore, it would be more useful and advantageous to us to sell said lands of Gagalangin and use the income from the sale to improve the lands in Pasig. Therefore, we have agreed to sell said lands to the College of Lord Saint Thomas of this city for the price of 950 pesos. 8 This is the title inscribed on the dossier of Luis Castilla, Libros 22, AUST. 9 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 152. 10 This heading was possibly inscribed two years after the document was written, when it was being compiled in a dossier. Gagalangin is a large, populous community in the northern end of Tondo district of the city of Manila, verging on the border with today’s Caloocan City. The name, from the root word galang, literally means “to be respected” or “to pay respect.” 11 Manila in this context referred to the walled city, Intramuros, where the chief administrative and religious institutions were located. 12 For biographical notes on some of the names of those who signed in baybayin in the UST documents, see José, “Lux aeterna.” 13 Pasig, now a city, was an ancient settlement along the eponymous river that flowed between Manila and Tondo. It laid about 16 kilometers east of Manila and was an important stopover between the capital and the inland lake, Laguna de Bay. 14 The name Longat also appears in other documents as Longad. As will be seen throughout the documents presented in this selection, there was a certain variety in the spelling of native first and family names. The introduction of the Spanish alphabet had a great impact in the systematizing of Filipino names. For various versions of spelling names in baybayin, see Santamaria, “El ‘Baybayin’.” 15 Braza was a Spanish unit of measurement equivalent to a fathom, now reckoned at 1.67 meters but probably somewhat shorter in the period under consideration. See Scott, Barangay, 278.

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I request and supplicate that Your Mercy acknowledge receipt of the information contained here and thereafter grant me license to sell said lands interposing Your Mercy, authority, and judicial decree, and I plead justice.

Don Luis Castilla [signed in baybayin] And seen by His Mercy, he said, accept the said information and entrust it to the present scribe, and let it be issued and thus was ordered and signed. Guillermo Enriquez Sotelo Before me, Juan Vasquez de Miranda, public scribe

Document 2—February 15, 162916 Report In the city of Manila, on February 15, 1629, said don Luis Castilla—for the information he has offered and is ordered to receive—presented as a witness a native who through the interpreter Josephe Díaz said his name was don Alonso Taas, resident and leading citizen of the town of Passi [Pasig] although at present residing in the town of San Miguel, in the barangay17 of don Diego Bicho. Through the said interpreter he swore an oath before me, which he made by invoking God Our Lord, making the sign of the cross in the forma de derecho,18 and he promised to tell the truth. Questioned about the petition [of don Luis Castilla] which was read to him and made understandable, he answered that he knew both don Luis Castilla and his wife doña Francisca Longat; that they had and possessed a quantity of lowlands within the boundaries of Gagalangin in Tondo; that though separate from each other would measure 100 brazas wide and 700 long if combined; that he had seen and walked these lands many times; that they were some distance away from Passi [Pasig] where the couple lived; that being scattered these lots were inconvenient and costly to work and benefit from; that possessing a great quantity of other lands almost adjacent to each other and nearer Pasig, it would be useful and beneficial for the couple to sell said lands in Gagalangin, 16 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 153. 17 The barangay was the Spanish understanding of the basic local social unit. See Woods, “Myth of the Barangay.” 18 A reference to the Latin way of crossing oneself, wherein the right hand began by touching the forehead, then the chest, then the left shoulder going on to the right shoulder (hombro derecho), as opposed to the earlier Byzantine manner, where the right hand ended with the left shoulder (hombro izquierdo).

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especially at the reasonable price of 900 pesos, which I have heard offered for them by the Colegio de Santo Tomas; […] with the price that is offered now to him he will be able to work the lands that he has next to the said town of Passi. The said lands of Gagalangin border the lands that belonged to Capitan Pedro de Rojas which at present are owned by the said college, and the lands of the convent of San Agustin, and other lands owned by the citizens of Tondo, which are cultivated by the Sangleys.19 This is the truth given under oath, which he ratified and signed according to his custom. He was more than forty years old, and the general prescriptions of the law did not apply to him.

Don Alonso Taas [signed in baybayin] Joseph [Días, interpreter] Before me, Juan Vázquez de Miranda, public scribe Document 3—February 16, 162920 Decree In the city of Manila, on February 16, 1629, the aforementioned information was seen by the Admiral Geronimo Enriques Sotelo, ordinary mayor of said city […], who decreed: That it must be ordered—and was so ordered—that the petition should be publicized in the church of the district where the lands in question are located [in this case, Tondo], on a holiday when the residents are all gathered. Here they can comment on whether giving a license to don Luis Castilla to sell land will cause any harm or damage. When this inquiry is done, it shall be duly certified by the minister of doctrine of the said district before a public or royal scribe who will testify that there is no contradiction whatsoever. The matter of the said lands will then be announced by the town crier in the public plaza on three different dates, so that whoever is 19 The Chinese in the Philippines were known by the end of the sixteenth century as Sangleys, an appellation which seems to be the Filipinization of a word from a dialect of the southeastern part of Fujian meaning traveling merchant. Variants in Chinese also refer to “business” or “coming often.” Several sources from North America have defined Sangley as non-Christian Chinese, when in fact the word as it was used in Philippine records referred to all Chinese in the country; the word infiel was added to denote a non-Christian Sangley. See Chu, Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila, 69, and Chong y Galindo, “Los sangleyes chinos en el comercio novohispano,” 183. 20 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 155.

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interested in buying them will propose a price. This done, the pertinent papers will be brought to the lord fiscal of His Majesty who as protector general of the natives of these islands shall give his opinion regarding the petition and if there is any objection that should negate the granting of such license, in conformity to what His Majesty had ordered and decreed. Thus, resolved and signed.

Geronimo Enrríquez Sotelo Before me, Juan Vázquez de Miranda, public scribe Document 4—February 25, 162921 Public announcement to the leading citizens of Tondo, in the church In the town of Tondo, on February 25, 1629, I, the scribe in compliance with the above decree and that provided therein, through the voice and words of Antonio López the interpreter and in the presence of Father Fray Juan de Tapia, prior of the convent of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of this town, and all the residents and principal citizens gathered in said church before the celebration of High Mass, announced the contents of said decree. In high and sonorous voices—particularly those of don Francisco Liuag, 22 governor of said town, of don Miguel Nuñes Talimbao, principal23 and head of a barangay, and especially of Father Preacher Fray Juan de Tapia prior of said convent—they responded that the sale of land that don Luis Castilla was proposing contradicted the fact that most of the lands in question were mortgaged, that they were not owned by Castilla but by his relatives who have vested interests and who have other lands next to those for sale. Furthermore, to sell these lands to Spaniards or powerful persons would reinforce the damage that would follow […]. It is not good to sell the lands. The same father prior said that the attempted sale of the land would be detrimental to the convent because many natives had declared their lands as alms […] and these are under litigation; the convent has not been able to take possession of said properties, and without its blessing some have pawned them to don Andres Piit, predecessor of said don Luis. The convent also owned some land adjoining the properties for sale. This is their response 21 AUST, Libros 22, fols. 155v–156. 22 Liuag means “slowness to act.” 23 Principal as used in this article refers to how the Spaniards referred to the local aristocracy or maginoo.

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and they protested that […] the harm would not end. Those who agreed with the said father prior signed, together with the said interpreter. Likewise, there appeared doña Maria Ganda24 and doña Maria Hinhinan. Doña Maria [Ganda] said that she had a piece of land next to those being sold, and though she had not sold it she came to know that it was also among those don Luis wanted to sell. Doña Hinhinan said she had a lot that was mortgaged for 10 pesos and that if she wanted to have the 10 pesos back the land had to be returned. Then don Ambrocio Hubad,25 principal of the said town appeared and said that it was true that he sold to don Andres Capiit a square piece of land 100 brazas long and 100 brazas wide for 350 pesos; he was paid 50 pesos but the rest was not actually paid until after more than twenty years; the remaining amount was paid through the rent of the same lands, which would have been made within the same period with the said money. The witnesses were don Lorenzo Galera, Captain don Luis de Almario, and don Andres Gutierrez, all from the said town.

Don Francisco Liuag; Fray Juan de Tapia; Don Ambrosio Hubar; Don Miguel Nuñes Talimbao; Antonio López Before me, Luis de Torres, royal scribe [Afterwards various titles and deeds of sale were presented. Since some of them were in romanized Tagalog or in baybayin script, the interpreter Diego Lacsamana26 was requested to translate and summarize them, respectively.]

Document 5—March 29, 162927 In the city of Manila on May 29, 1629, I, the scribe, notified the contents of the petition presented on the third of the present month and year [March 1629] regarding the translation,28 which was ordered to be made of the docu24 Ganda means “beautiful.” 25 Depending on the way it is read, this name could mean “naked from the waist up,” “fake or imitation,” or “mould.” In Tagalog and other Philippine languages, the sound and letter “d” can be interchanged with “r” without changing meaning; hence Hubad also appears as Hubar, at the end of this document. 26 Diego Lacsamana also appears as the scribe for the juridical proceedings on the beatification of Madre Doña Jerónima de la Asunción (1555–1630), in Manila, 1631–1633. Santiago, “First Filipino Witnesses in a Cause for Beatification,” 12–13. 27 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 167. 28 The word used was trasumpto, “copy,” but in reality this was a translation of several documents.

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ments29 presented to don Diego Lacsamana, who said he was quick to do so and comply with what the lord mayor ordered, and having seen the aforesaid documents translated the same, as follows: [Included among the papers presented were Documents 6 to 10, below:]

Document 6a—February 15, 161330 [In baybayin script] Document on the land of doña Catalina Baycan—seventy salapi.31 [With a note in Spanish:] 35 pesos.

Document 6b—February 15, 161332 In the town of Tondo, on the fifteenth day of February, in the year 1613. I, doña Catalina Baycan, a principal in Tondo own land in common with my sister 29 The word used was recaudos, “receipts,” but in reality these were documents such as titles or deeds of sale. 30 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 166 bis. Cover page for Document 6b. Documents 6 and 10, dating from 1613 and 1625 respectively, are the only ones known anywhere to be written wholly in baybayin script (other documents only have signatures or phrases in those characters). One early seventeenth-century book censor, the Jesuit Pedro Chirino, noted that the natives of both sexes owned at least one volume written in their own characters, where they placed their notes on the sermons they heard, or the lives of the saints, prayers, and pious poems they themselves composed. See García Espallargas, “Philippine Script at the Arrival of the Spaniards,” 76. Since no examples of these works have survived, our aforementioned documents provide us precious images of just how the script was used. Because of their significance, the “UST Baybayin Documents” were declared National Cultural Treasures by the National Archives of the Philippines on 22 August 2014. Against the oft-repeated charges that the friars systematically destroyed baybayin texts along with other aspects of Filipino pre-Hispanic culture, recent scholars present the Tagalogs themselves as the game-changers. According to Damon Woods, “The reality is that Tagalogs quickly made the transition to the new way of writing—the new technology, a borrowed technology—just as they had done when they first borrowed the system that came to be known as baybayin.” See Woods, Tomas Pinpin and Tagalog Survival, 51. 31 One salapi or tostón was worth 1 half-peso. 32 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 166. This document, which was written in baybayin script, was transcribed by Ignacio Villamor, in his La antigua escritura filipina, and translated into Spanish and English. The latter version is used here, with some emendations concerning numbers and names made by Alberto Santamaria, OP, “El ‘Baybayin’,” and with some stylistic adjustments made by this author. Santamaria was aided with the summary in Spanish prepared by Diego Lacsamana, on 29 March 1629, in AUST, Libros 22, fol. 170v. For the modern rediscovery, transcription, and appreciation of these UST baybayin documents, see José, “Transcribing the UST Baybayin Documents.”

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doña Cecilia. I have sold to don Andres Capiit of Dilao33 for 70 half-pesos34 one-half of that irrigable land. Our stipulation with don Andres Piit is that should this same land be disputed, the expenses will be defrayed by doña Catalina Baycan, and then the 70 half-pesos shall be returned to don Andres Piit, and the land shall revert to doña Catalina Baycan, which is one-half of the irrigable land that I sold. And, as this is true, our witnesses to this contract are don Agustin Casso, doña Maria Guintoin, who is married. I signed my name, likewise the witnesses did. I am the one who wrote, Luis Pagondatan.

Doña Catalina Baycan. I wrote, Luis Pagondatan. Doña Maria Guintoin; Don Agustin Casso [signed in baybayin] Document 7—October 30, 161435 In the town of Tondo on the thirtieth day of October, in the year 1614, Don Agustin Caso and doña Maria Guinto, who is married, together with don Andres Capiit of Dilao, prepared this document that they agree upon; and this don Agustin Caso and his wife sold a piece of highland36 and small irrigable land with a width of 12 brazas and 40 in length. It is bordered on the south by land owned by doña Maria Ganda in Bacouod, and it is bordered on the other side by the mountain with irrigable land owned by don Miguel Talimbao. This land was sold for 265 salapi that was counted and [?].37 The agreement between don Agustin Caso and doña Maria Guintoin his wife on this cultivated land with don Andres Capiit is that if a complaint will arise from this land don Agustin Caso and his spouse will pay for whatever 33 Dilao was a district about a kilometer and a half southeast of the walled city of Manila, Intramuros. 34 In the original: 70 tostones (1 tostón equaled 1 half-peso). 35 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 163–163v. This document and the next one, written in romanized Tagalog, are of great interest. Dating from 1614 and 1619 respectively, they are some of the earliest documents prepared by Filipinos using a romanized form of a native language. Diego Lacsamana provided a Spanish translation for these documents in Libros 22, fols. 169 and 169v–170 respectively. 36 Bacououd, now bacood: highland that remained dry in time of flooding, or an islet. Scott, Barangay, 190. 37 One undecipherable word: ualanholijan? The nearest reading, walang hulihan, would mean “no capturing.” Diego Lacsamana’s translation is a bit longer: “It cost two hundred sixty-five tostones, which Don Andres Piit gave in reales de contado to Don Augustin Casso and Doña Maria Guinto.”

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costs arise from said complaint. Or else the money will be returned to don Andres Capiit. This land is solely owned38 by doña Maria Guintoin, the wife of don Augustin Caso. She inherited the land from her elders. It is not the common property of the spouses. And to testify to the truth of this the spouses signed; I, Juan Tembag of Taguig 39 wrote this. The witnesses are Juan Gutierrez and don Juan Tangso.

Witness: Don Juan Gutierrez I wrote this: Juan Tembang [Signed in baybayin] Don Augustin Casso, Doña Maria Guinto, and Don Juan Tangso.40 [Four baybayin lines:] Deed of sale of land by don Agustin Casso for 265 salapi. [Vertical baybayin line:] Here in the town of Tondo, on [sentence not completed] [In Spanish:] L 32 p.s ms./ Land of Don Augustin Caso in favor of Captain Don Andres Piit. Document 8a—December 18, 161941 In the town of Tondo on the twelfth rising of the day of December of the year 1619. This don Andres Capiyt, principal of the town of Dilao, bought irrigable land from doña Maria Ganda and don Grabiel de Mercado. The land that was sold by these two, doña Maria Ganda and don Grabiel42 de Mercado, came from don Francisco de Mendoça as an inheritance. The price of this land is 35 salapi paid by don Andres Piit of Dilao. The width of this land is 12 brazas and the length is a little less than 50; it is bordered by land owned by don Andres Piit, Panangbo and Amatia. 43 What was 38 The Tagalog word used is sadili, the personal possessions brought into marriage by either spouse: Scott, Barangay, 229. The word is obsolete today, but it is akin to sarili, “self” or “one’s own.” 39 A town about 15 kilometers southeast of Manila, connected to the Pasig river through two rivulets. 40 Guinto means “gold,” while tangso means “bronze” or “copper.” 41 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 164. 42 The “Grabiel” form of “Gabriel” is also found in ample usage in Spain. Santamaria, “El ‘Baybayin,’” 141. 43 Panangbo: gold somewhat less than 20 karats. Scott, Barangay, 202. Amatia: if this is derived from ama ni Matias, “son of Matias,” then it is a rare example of a pre-Hispanic naming practice.

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spoken among these doña Maria Ganda, don Grabiel de Mercado and don Andres Capiit is that if by chance there arose a complaint about this land, that don Andres should not worry, and that the two vendors would defend themselves against the complainants, and if the vendors lost then they would return the money to Piit. And if by chance there was another piece of land, they would exchange this with the one sold to Piit. This is the agreement of the three, of the one who bought and the two who sold, in front of the witness don Bartolome Magalao and don Tomas Hiyip and don Alonso Cupi, who signed their names in testimony thereof.

Doña Maria Ganda, Tomas Hiyip, Alonso Cupi, and Bartolome Magalao [signed in baybayin] Don Gabriel de Mercado

Figure 6.3.  Cover label for Document 8a, in baybayin and Spanish, 1620. Source: AUST.

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Document 8b—February 21, 162044

Figure 6.4.  Chinese promissory note in Document 8b, 1615. Source: AUST.

[Left: two vertical lines of Chinese characters, Fig. 6.3.] This note of indebtedness dated eighth month of 1615 will be settled by my sixth brother. 45 [Right: three lines in baybayin, Fig. 6.4.] Don Gabriel Mercado. In the fourth piece of land […]46 Document of doña Maria Ganda and of don Gabriel de Mercado regarding a piece of land sold to Captain don Andres Piit for 17 pesos and 4 reales.

44 AUST, Libros 22, 164v. 45 Translation courtesy of Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center, Intramuros, Manila, 2 February 2018. This Chinese inscription is curious. Dated 1615, it is a promissory note, and as such does not relate to the rest of the document on which it appears. On the right side of the document, that is, opposite the Chinese note on the left-hand side, is a label for the sale of land in 1619. In all likelihood, the paper on which this 1615 declaration was made was reused as a “cover page” such as those described above. Its recycling is one more indication of the preciousness of paper at the time. 46 Transcribed by Santamaria, “El ‘Baybayin,’” 129, N.

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Document 9—February 21, 162047 In the city of Manila on February 21, 1620, don Augustin Juica principal of the town of Tondo appeared before me the scribe and witnesses. I testify that I know this person, and although he is very fluent in our Castilian language he deposed through Antonio Lopez the interpreter that he was selling land to don Andres Peet a resident of the town of Dilao, who is here present for himself and his heirs, to wit: a piece of land 40 brazas long and 20 wide, in the town and lands of Gagalangin, in which there is a santor48 tree, and it is within the boundaries of the said town of Tondo. On one side it adjoins the lands of doña Maria Guintoin and on another with those of don Felipe Dalo. Said land is being sold as state land, free of tax and tribute, and of any other mortgage, whether special or general, and for the price of 40 pesos I have given and paid. I declare […] that the said land is ceded and turned over to the buyer to whom is given the power to take over and possess the land whenever and however he wishes. In the meantime, it is maintained by its tenant, and as a sign of possession he deposed in his favor this document with its translation, which shows his acquisition of the property. The sister of the executor of this document, doña Mónica Laloyn, who is not present, is a co-owner of the land and she has sold her half of the property and received half of the price quoted. The vendor of the property wishes to advise his sister that she is obliged to be present, and to approve and ratify this agreement upon her being and possessions. Furthermore, as the truthful owner he obliges himself to resolve any complaints that may arise, of which he will take up the voice and defense whenever he is called upon, even though this will be after the public announcements and he will follow up and settle at his own expense all such suits until the buyer will be in quiet and peaceful possession of said piece of land. If he will not be able to resolve the complaints the vendor will return the said 40 pesos and will pay the corresponding expenses and damages as well as the improvements and works that would have been placed there after the sale. And for the payment the vendor obliges his person and property and he gave authority to the justices of His Majesty […]. And he renounced the laws in his defense as well as other rights, and he signed according to his custom with the said interpreter, with witnesses Antonio Despexo, Spaniard, don Alonso Pimentel and Pedro Cabuli, residents of Tondo, and Antonio Lopez [interpreter]. Before me, Alonso Gomez, public scribe. In conclusion I fixed my signature in testimony of the truth. Alonso Gomez, scribe to His Majesty 47 AUST, Libros 22, fols. 158–159. 48 A tree known in most Philippine languages as santol (Sandoricum koetjape Burm.F., Merr.).

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Document 10a—December 4, 162549 [In baybayin script] Land of doña Maria Silang, highland and irrigable land.50 Document of doña Maria Silang, resident of Tondo, regarding a piece of land she sold to doña Francisca Longar resident and principal citizen of the town of Dilao for 145 pesos.

Document 10b—December 4, 162551 As reckoned, in the year 1605 towards thirty years52 on the fourth day of the month of December. I, doña Maria Silang, principal here in the town of Tondo, have sold a piece of land to doña Francisca Longar [that is taxable?] in the area of Mayhaligue;53 the adjacent landowner to the south is don Pedro Salonquilat; the landowner, on the north [repetition: on the north] is doña Maria Ganda. The purchase made by doña Francisca Longar from doña Maria Silang is for 300 less 50 half-pesos [125 pesos]. The purchase of the irrigable land for 40 half-pesos [20 pesos] was made by doña Francisca Longar principal in the town of Dilao. Of that irrigable land in Sogmandal the adjacent owner is doña Maria Ganda, which came from Amagdangal,54 on the side of Sogmandal a small irrigable land. The price of this irrigable land is 40 half-pesos [20 pesos]. And as this writing of mine is true, I signed. The ready witnesses are don Agustin Casa, [Ni]colas Pagtalunan, Mateo Domingo, Lucia Tayasin.

[signed also in baybayin] Doña Maria Silang; Don Antonio Banaag; Don Mateo Pasombongan; Don Agustin Cassa 49 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 165 bis. This is the cover page for Document 10b. 50 As transcribed by Santamaria, “El ‘Baybayin,’” 127, F. 51 AUST Libros 22, fol. 165. As noted in note 18 (p. 98), this document in baybayin script was transcribed and translated by Villamor and Santamaria, with some stylistic adjustments by the author. A summary in Spanish was prepared by Diego Lacsamana in Libros 22, fol. 170. 52 In Old Tagalog, expressing a number from twenty to another number was achieved counting the next higher decade and affixing the lower number. For example, forty-two would be written micaliman dalawa (two towards the fifth decade), and so forth. Santamaria, “El ‘Baybayin,’” 113. 53 Quite possibly the area around the Department of Health in Santa Cruz, Manila, just a few hundred meters away from the present UST campus. 54 Amagdangal could derive from ama ni magdangal, “father of Magdangal,” another example of a pre-Hispanic naming practice.

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Document 11—March 11, 162955 [After translating the above documents from the Tagalog, and summarizing two written in baybayin:] The said don Diego Lacsamana declared that the translation was made faithfully according to the best of his knowledge without fraud or deceit and against none of the interested parties, and he signed and swore in the forma de derecho that the above-mentioned translations were certain and true. Done in Manila on March 29, 1629; witnesses Francisco de la Torre and Juan Gonzales Mexia, residents of this city.

Diego Lacsamana Before me, Juan Vazquez de Miranda, public scribe Document 12—June 6, 162956 First public announcement In Manila on June 15, 1629, in the public plaza of this city next to the ordinary door of the Audiencia with many people present, Augustin de Navarrete the town crier publicized the pertinent decrees with the corresponding lands and concerns, but there was no interested party. Witnesses: Miguel Rodriguez and Gerónimo de Segura, of which I certify.

Juan Vazquez de Miranda Document 13—August 11, 162957 Notice for Don Miguel Nuñez Talimbao In the town of Tondo on August 11, 1629, I, the scribe, read and notified the petition in the page before this one with its corresponding decree to don Miguel Nuñez Talimbao, principal of this town; being well-versed in the Castilian tongue an interpreter was not necessary. Having understood it he replied that it was the season to sow his fields and he could not therefore

55 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 170v. 56 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 172v. 57 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 174.

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respond. He would respond as soon as he finished sowing. He also has documents. This being his response he signed, to which I certify.

Don Miguel Nuñez Talimbao Don Luis de Torres, royal scribe Document 14—April 12, 163158 In the city of Manila on April 12, 1631: before me and the witnesses appeared Captain Miguel Nuñez Talimbao, principal and native of the town of Tondo and well-versed in the Spanish language, whom I certify that I know. He gave his power of authority such as it is necessary and his right as it is required of the licentiate Gaspar Arias y Rivera special procurator of causes of the Real Audiencia of this city and the islands, so that in his name he should follow up and conclude all the petitions and sentences linked to the complaint with regard to don Luis Castilla indio who is trying to sell some lands to the College of Saint Thomas. As such he should appear before the judge who knows the affair and before whom it is right he should present testaments, petitions, witnesses, proofs, information, titles and other documents and collect them from those who keep them […]; and make protests, injunctions, oaths, challenges, seizures, appeals, supplications of decrees and interlocutory and definitive sentences and pursue and follow these up and produce all other decrees and proceedings which judicially and extrajudicially agree; […] he gives him said authority with free and general administration and with exemption of expenses and to certify this he so deposed and signed. Witnesses Captain don Juan de Salinas, Second Lieutenant Juan de Rivera, and Ygnaçio de la Barrera, residents and citizens of Manila.

Don Miguel Nuñez Talimbao Before me, Juan Vazquez de Miranda, public scribe Document 15—December 13, 163459 Gagalangin 1634 In the town of Tondo, on December 13, 1634, there appeared before me and the witnesses doña Francisca Longad principal of the town of Dilao, widow 58 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 180–180v. 59 AUST, Libros 22, fol. 181.

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of don Andres Capiit, with the license requested and demanded of don Luis Castilla her legitimate spouse, to declare this deed of sale, which was so given and conceded, to which I the present scribe attest to, as well as to her being legitimate heir of don Andres Capiit, her late husband, and of her children, also dead. I also testify that I know said declarants, and that through an interpreter, Agustin Ombeng, they state that they truthfully and effectively sell now and forever to Sergeant Major Grabiel de la Anunziaçión, resident of Binondo, for him and his descendants forever, eleven pieces of land within the boundaries of Gagalangin and Sumandal behind the town of Tondo in different sections, with their entrances and exits, pertinent uses and customs; and these are free of any mortgage or other charge. The first piece of land was owned by, and bought from, don Benito Tuliau. It is 20 brazas wide and 92 long. One side borders the mountain at Sumandal, while another borders the lands of don Felipe Dalo, and still another the highlands of the College [of St. Thomas]. The second parcel, 15 brazas wide and 56 long, consists of lowlands that belonged to doña Maria Silang. One side borders the lands of don Felipe Dalo, another the lands of doña Ysabel Tambohin, and another the lands of a Japanese lady who lives in Tondo. The third parcel consists of lowlands that belonged to doña Ysabel Piyaalacan. One side measures 26 brazas wide and 135 long, while another likewise measures 26 brazas wide. Two sides border the lands of don Miguel Talimbao, while another those of don Felipe Dalo. The fourth parcel consists of lowlands that belonged to doña Maria Silan and doña Catalina Bayican, which measure 40 brazas long and 40 brazas wide.60 One side borders the lands of don Matthias de Molina, the other side those of don Felipe Dalo. The f ifth parcel consisting of low- and highlands belonged to don Ambrosio Hubar. Together it measures 56 brazas wide and 80 long. They border the lands of don Alonzo de Vera on one side and those of Juan de Ayala on the other. The sixth parcel consists of highlands belonging to don Agustin Vica, which measure 40 brazas wide and 63 long. One side borders the lands of don Augustin Caso, another side the lands of don Gaspar Tahan and the other the lands of don Francisco Liuag. The seventh parcel consists of lowlands that belonged to doña Sayian, which are 60 brazas wide and 75 long. One side borders the lands of don Francisco Liuag, another the lands of the convent of Tondo, and the other the lands of don Gazpar Tahan. 60 These are the lands referred to in Documents 6 and 10.

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The eighth parcel consists of highlands that belonged to doña Maria Silan, which are, more or less, 40 brazas squared. One side borders the lands of the said College [of St. Thomas], and on the other side those of don Matthias de Molina. The ninth parcel consists of highlands that belonged to doña Maria Guintoin, which measure 40 brazas wide and 50 long. One side borders the lands of don Matthias de Molina, and the other side those of doña Maria Ganda. The tenth parcel consists of lowlands called Santa Monica and belonged to don Agustin Vica and doña Monica Sayian. These measure 95 brazas wide and 80 long. One part borders the lands of Domingo Hernandes, another the lands of Pedro Cabulit, still another the lands of don Alonzo Talauos, and the last likewise lands of Talauos. These lands are for planting rice. The eleventh parcel consists of highlands that belonged to don Agustin Vica.61 These are 40 brazas long and 20 wide and are within the limits of Gagalangin where there is a santol tree. One side borders the lands of doña Maria Guintoyn and the other the lands of don Felipe Dalo. These eleven pieces measure a total of 452 brazas wide and 762 long, and all of these are being sold for 950 pesos. […] The vendors declared that said lands do not cost more than the said 950 pesos and if these exceed or fall short of the value then the corresponding difference is made as a gracious donation among the parties. […] And doña Francisca Longad, as a woman, renounced Velianus’ laws of the senate as well as the law of the emperors Velianus and Justinian that are in her favor, which she understood through the interpreter. Doña Francisca responded that the sale of land was of her own volition because it was useful to her, and it was not made upon force or fear of her husband nor of any other person, but because the sale was for her own interests. This was what she declared, and both she and her husband deposed this. And both signed according to their custom with the interpreter, with witnesses Juan Pascual de Vera, don Alonso Manaquil, Domingo de Vi[ctori?] and Nicolas Lindo, residents of said town. There are two signatures in baybayin. Agustin Ombeng. Before me, Luis de Torres, royal scribe. I fixed my seal, in testimony of the truth to which I attest. Luis de Torres, royal scribe.

61 This is the land referred to in Document 9.

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Bibliography Chong y Galindo, José Luis. “Los sangleyes chinos en el comercio novohispano (1580–1800).” PhD diss., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2013. Chu, Richard T. Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila: Family, Identity, and Culture, 1860s–1930s. Manila: Anvil, 2012. Orig. publ. in 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden. García Espallargas, José, CM. “The Philippine Script at the Arrival of the Spaniards.” Philippiniana Sacra 10, no. 28 (January–April 1975): 73–94. Guillermo, Ramon. Introduction to 3 Baybayin Studies, by Ramon Guillermo et al. Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2017. José, Regalado Trota. “Lux aeterna: Illuminating Catalina Baycan and her Baybayin Contract.” In Lumina Pandit: A Continuum, edited by Ángel Aparicio, OP, 435–463. Manila: UST Miguel de Benavides Library/UnionBank of the Philippines, 2015. Santamaria, Alberto, OP. “El ‘Baybayin’ en el Archivo de Santo Tomás.” Philippiniana Sacra 47, no. 139 (January–March 2012): 103–146. Santiago, Luciano P. R. Laying the Foundations: Kapampangan Pioneers in the Philippine Church 1592–2001. Angeles City: Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies, Holy Angel University, 2002. Scott, William Henry. Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994. ———. “Transcribing the UST Baybayin Documents: Shedding light on Early 17th–century Philippine Writing.” Journal of History 62 (January–December 2016): 162–185. Villamor, Ignacio. La antigua escritura filipina deducida por Dn. Ignacio Villamor del Belarmino y otros antiguos documentos. Manila: Tipografia Pontificia del Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1922. Woods, Damon L. Tomas Pinpin and Tagalog Survival in Early Spanish Philippines. Manila: UST Publishing House, 2011.

About the Editor Regalado Trota José is the Director of the Archives of the University of Santo Tomás in Manila. His publications include, Simbahan: Church Art in Colonial Philippines, 1565–1898 (Ayala Museum, Manila, 1991), Faith, Power + Faith + Image (Ayala Foundation, Manila, 2004), and Images of Faith: Religious Ivory Carvings from the Philippines (Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena,1990). He was the associate editor of the volume on architecture of the revised edition of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Art (Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila, 2018).

7.

Idolatry and Apostasy in the 1633 Jesuit Annual Letter John Blanco

Abstract In this excerpt from the annual letter reporting on the state of the Jesuit order in the Philippines, Fr. Juan de Bueras, the Jesuit provincial, relates the difficulties that the Church was experiencing among the indigenous communities of the island of Mindoro. Hoping to convert the Magayanes people of the mountains to Christianity, the Jesuits found that they had to redirect their efforts to the supposedly Catholic communities of the coast, which had reverted to pre-Christian beliefs and practices. Bueras’s letter provides insight into the limitations of the Church’s effort to convert native Filipinos, and the nature of Filipino religious life in the early colonial context. John Blanco places the letter in the broader context of religious and secular colonialism, and broader questions about the supposed Hispanization of the Philippines. Keywords: Society of Jesus; Jesuits; Hispanization; mission history; religion and colonialism

The following selection is excerpted from the 1633 Jesuit annual letter, written by the provincial head and procurator Fr. Juan de Bueras, to the superior general. These annual letters would serve as a general report on the status and plans of the missionary province in question, and oftentimes consisted of transcriptions from letters written by other Jesuits throughout the province and addressed to the provincial head. Seen in the wider context of colonial history and Philippine culture, however, the letter also obliges us to question our basic assumptions about religious conversion and native resistance on the transpacific frontier of the Spanish empire.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch07

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Father Bueras arrived in the archipelago in 1622, along with a number of Jesuits sent from Europe via the Mexico-Acapulco galleon for the purpose of expanding the Jesuit mission.1 The areas of Jesuit missionary activity included the island of Mindoro, just south of Luzon where the walled city of Intramuros lay on the banks of the Manila Bay. Prior to the Jesuits’ arrival in Nauhan, the settlement had been under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Manila for fifty years. The primary purpose of the Jesuit mission in Mindoro was to preach to the native highland group known as Mangyanes, with the ultimate goal of converting them to Christianity and persuading them to be resettled or “reduced” (reducción) or “congregated” (congregación) around the coastal, presumably Christian, settlements. These coastal settlements were predominantly occupied by native Tagalog peoples or indios. As we see in the example below, however, Fr. Bueras soon discovers that the proposed Christian conversion of the Mangyanes would remain a futile quest if the Christian settlements on the coast were not first attended to. These consisted largely of Christian apostates observing practices that either originated in pre-Hispanic religious customs and beliefs or that developed alongside the uneven spread of Christianity throughout the first sixty odd years of the Spanish colonization. This predicament of Fr. Bueras and the Jesuit mission turns out to be a relatively common one in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As Bruce Cruikshank, among others, has recently argued, the great feats of mass pacification, conversion, and baptism recounted by the religious chroniclers of the seventeenth century all mask or downplay the severe shortage of missionaries and priests to actually administer the Christian sacraments and services to the communities that presumably fell under the shadow of both the Church and the Crown.2 In many areas outside Manila, missionaries would build a residence and church in the settlement, then leave in order to proselytize to the surrounding area, with promises to return periodically in order to administer the religious sacraments. The production of some real or potential native commodity (as in the case of beeswax in Mindoro) would serve as an additional incentive for the Crown, through its royal patronage (patronato) of the Church overseas, to request the establishment of missions in various islands while attempting to turn over established Christian settlements to the secular priests under the Archbishopric of Manila. This strategy was often accompanied by the 1 See De la Costa, SJ, Jesuits in the Philippines, 224. 2 See Cruikshank, “Disobedient but Faithful”; Bankoff, “Devils, Familiars and Spaniards; Brewer, Shamanism, Catholicism, and Gender Relations in Colonial Philippines, xxi.

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encomienda, or royal grant given by the Crown, to individuals tasked with the responsibility of administering to the needs of colonial subjects within a given area of land, which included the collection of tribute, the enforcement of civil laws among the natives including mandatory government service, and support for religious instruction. The theory was that the parceling out of encomiendas and the spread of missionary residences throughout the archipelago signified the slow but continuous Christianization and “Hispanization” of the natives; however, the truth was a point that John Phelan himself conceded when he adopted these terms as a lens for bringing colonial history into focus, in his well-known thesis on the Hispanization of the Philippines.3 That point, quite simply, is that the theory of Hispanization and Christian conversion never actually happened in many places throughout the archipelago; which is why Phelan had to settle for describing the Philippines as “partially Hispanized,” and describing Christianity as having been “Philippinized.”4 During the time of Bueras’s predecessor Pedro Chirino, the phenomenon of apostasy was obviously still quite new: in Chirino’s account of relapsed Christianity in Taytay, a province some 31 kilometers outside the walled city of Intramuros, the author ascribes the apostasy of natives from Christianity to the “fervor of the new ministers,” who, says Chirino, “think that one only has to arrive and baptize millions, and with it form model Christian communities, without any effort or difficulty.”5 We find the same lapses taking place, however, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on an almost continuous basis.6 Returning to the 1633 Jesuit annual letter, the account of the Jesuit procurator general Juan de Bueras describes in great detail the social anomie that characterized many places outside the walled city of Intramuros until at least the late eighteenth century.7 From the time of the conquest, native indios living in coastal and lowland regions throughout the archipelago were forced to reorient their society and economy around a new power, but one whose theoretical, legal, religious, and cultural pretensions never failed to fall short of what it was actually able to do. Neither completely bound nor completely free of this power, natives wandered in a cultural frontier that marked their gradual alienation from an understanding of their 3 Phelan, Hispanization of the Philippines, 153–161. 4 Phelan, Hispanization of the Philippines, 72–92. 5 Chirino, History of the Philippine Province, 80. 6 Phelan, Hispanization of the Philippines, 101, 104. 7 For a comparative perspective to that of the Philippines, see Scott, Art of Not Being Governed.

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own traditions, even as they failed to secure a stable relationship with the imperial and Christian authority. But in this frontier situation of protracted colonialism, Fr. Bueras could not wait for the arrival of spiritual and temporal reinforcements. He, too, is on the move, visiting one missionary station after another, exhorting his fellow priests to bring light to the presumed “dark” corners of the earth.

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1633 Annual Letter8 There are in this province of the Philippines 115 subjects, 73 priests, 13 brothers and 9 assistants, divided up in the following manner: [there follows a list of religious ministers, ministers in training (brothers), and assistants (coadjutors) according to their geographic distribution]. With all due respect it may be said in general that the spiritual fervor and zeal of the Company, with which its members have sought to aid in good of those souls around them has burned brightly, beginning with their individual profession in those spiritual exercises with those improvements that your province will see by what follows.

Nauhan Residence […] I give your Reverence news of what has transpired in these Nauhan satellite villages [visitas], and I understand it to be of solace to your Reverence as the principal instrument used by Our Lord, that the Company has entered and remained on this mission on the island of Mindoro.9 Although it is true that secular priests have administered the area these past fifty years, the natives were found so lacking in matters concerning the faith and teaching, [it is] as if they were from the most remote parts of Japan, or China, given to their idolatries and superstitions, as if they had never been Christians, and thus it is that entering into this mission was akin to entering an insular jungle. I confess to your Reverence that I so grieved seeing myself alone amidst these people that, even as I committed myself ever more to God and St. Xavier, whom I claim as my intercessor, I asked him to help me uncover the cause of resistance, in particular among those in a village where not a single person had received communion, where before, on a certain occasion a woman from the neighboring village had received communion, came to this other village, and jokingly told them that receiving communion had 8 This letter excerpted from “Carta Anua de la Provincia de Philipinas de la Compañia de Jesus del año 1633,” found in the Vatican Film Library (Saint Louis University), Roll 163, 84r-132r. Special thanks to Mayra Cortes for her assistance in the transcription of the original materials from the microfilm copies. The translation is mine. 9 Visitas refers to the satellite settlements or hamlets within the range of a given missionary’s f ield of action, which consisted primarily of preaching and the administration of Christian sacraments. While missionaries might stay in a given visita for a short period of time, their more permanent base of operation resided in the largest town or settlement in the area, referred to as the cabecera. See Schumacher, Readings in Philippine Church History, 409–410; Reed, Colonial Manila, 11–16.

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made her fat. Desiring thus to find the root of that weak devotion and sympathy for matters of the Church, I called the Indian who had received communion, who was in the village at that time, and I asked her why the people of that village were so unaccepting, in contrast to those who had come there from other villages and had received communion: why they did not receive communion, seeming to abhor all matters of the Church. The Indian woman, smiling, responded: Father, do you think these Indians are Christians? In no way: all the principal leaders [principales] worship the devil, this person here (naming another Indian woman) is the priestess, or catalona, that person there disinterred the bones of his wife from the churchyard and brought them to the field (leading to many others either disinterring the bones of their relatives from the church, or not burying them there, but rather in the field, and so I made many of them return the bones to the church over the preference of the entire village), so-and-so has a great idol and this person, and that person, and the others (naming many people) call on the catalona, and she will tell you about the rest of them, and this is the cause of their not being true Christians, and abhorring the Church, because their inclination is invested in the Idols and they offer [the Idols] all they have. Hearing this I gave thanks to Our Lord for having opened the way toward grasping the superstitions of this people; I told the Indian woman to go, which she did after entreating me to secrecy, and she warned me to consider how I would verify all this because those Indians who had idols were in agreement to not say anything to anyone; and to stay away from the people of other villages, so that they would not be discovered. Then I called the catalona, an old and very respected [principal] Indian woman, and spoke to her as best as I knew how, and enjoined her to reveal the truth to me, and she responded: Father, well, you know how it is, and you have a good heart so I want to tell you what there is to tell. I have two idols with me, like a husband and wife that I inherited from my parents (others identified for me the other idols that were of the village). Interrogating her further, and asking her what she knew, or what exactly her duties were, she responded that the village people regarded her as their teacher [maestra], and thus they came to her with all their problems: when someone was sick the husband, father, or mother of the sick person would come, and ask her what should we do, this person is sick, then she would take something akin to a fan, and as she held it with two hands it would begin to flutter (which she says would happen without her waving it) she would say kill a pig, or a chicken, or hen, according to the sick person’s rank, and call your relatives, and offer the sacrifice to the souls of your ancestors; and ask those who come to help the sick person, and with that the person will get better as you

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eat, and drink, and the souls of your ancestors aid you. These, and other absurdities were what this maestra taught them, and when she came to the idol she would be dressed in a long, white dress, with the sleeves and hem colored, and she would place gold upon the idol and tie upon its head a handkerchief […]. I asked her to bring me the idols and she did, I exhorted her to try to be a true Christian, and make a general confession, all of which she did with a great show of repentance saying, Padre I suddenly now see the absurdity of these [practices], which have neither feet nor head, and that I have sinned greatly, but don’t be shocked. Although it is true that for many years this island was in the power of the fathers of St. Peter, they never taught us anything. During the wax harvesting season the father would pass by here, two or three days, and collect the wax that is abundant on this island, he would come to the barangay chiefs but they would give it to him immediately, and then he would leave us without even an image for the church, and would administer confession to almost everyone without detaining us, or teaching us, [and] if [the San Pedro fathers] had done what you are doing now, there would be no idols, nor trace of them, and so for the love of God have mercy on us, for from now on we will begin to be Christians, since there is no longer any obstacle, which was only that of the idols. I want to try to confess and receive communion like a Christian, if only you would advise the same to the rest of those who have idols as I have told you. With this I called all of the village people together, and they surrendered to me what they had, along with other instruments that served as accessories for their superstitions, [and] some told me, Father, I would call the pagan priestesses [baylanas] for them to cure me, and I have great faith in them; and so I asked an Indian whose wife had been cured, and he told me that, being at the end of his rope, and not knowing what remedy to try, he went to the mountains, where an unbaptized Indian woman was, who served as a priestess. He offered her gold and other things if she would only bring health back to his wife; with this he led her to his plot of land [sementera], [and] upon seeing the sick woman the priestess said don’t worry, your wife will live, but it will cost a great deal of work and so that you see how much, follow me, [upon which] the old woman picked up a bow and arrows, and walked to the mountain until she reached a rock, where she had hidden a small bottle of unknown oils with which she sprinkled the arrow. She began to gesture threateningly with it towards the sky and said that the soul of that sick woman was trapped in the bulalakaw, which is a bright light that the Indian says he saw, and gazing at her from afar, he says that the old woman became ever more erratic and began to raise her voice, then lower it, sometimes making grimaces, and always threatening the bright light. She told

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the sick woman’s husband, these are very exalted words and you can’t understand them. I am just now retrieving the soul of your wife from that bulalakaw, which was swallowing it, and then the husband asked her, isn’t my wife’s soul in her body?10 [The priestess] said look, your wife has eight souls: some are in the body and those aren’t the bad ones, this one is the bad one and if I can retrieve it with this labor it will return to the body, after which your wife will be good and finally healthy. With this the Indian felt somewhat persuaded by the old woman’s deceptions, although it still seemed to him to be the work of the devil, because others had died in her care, without the benefit of either bow or arrow, or little bottles of oil. Countless other absurdities emerged with each passing day. One told me: here, Father, when we want to hunt and cannot catch anything, we return to a small hut or shrine [chozuela] that stands alongside our cultivated plot, to perform what we call Pagawa, in which we kill a chicken, and call upon the souls of our departed, and we offer them wine and other kinds of food and we ask them to help us with the hunt, and after doing so we are confident that the dogs will attract [sic] wild pigs and deer. This is why I took this piece of cane stalk that came from the shrine where we made the offering. One can see how by learning these things easily they would be undeceived, and they would burn the huts because they would immediately see how it was all the devil’s deception, and that the souls of their ancestors were in Hell, for dying unbaptized, the effect of which little could help them. One well-respected Indian woman was similarly deceived: she had two idols set upon the same pole. This woman would be working on her plot of land when the locusts passed through it; and believing that her idols would defend her rice harvest she put the pole in the middle of the cultivated plot with a chain of gold around the idols’ neck[s], asking them to drive the locusts away, and other favors, as if [the idols] could understand her, and, as if the idols would provide her relief, she planted them in the middle of the plot, and in less than two hours the field was destroyed all the way down to the roots. If I had to write down all the superstitions of these people in all their activities to your Reverence, it would amount to a great undertaking, besides which thanks to God the greater part of these [superstitions] have been corrected, even if it will still take many years of [our] being on this island full of infidels [infieles], and if one does not take care in cultivating the vine, it would doubtless grow thorns and weeds. I accomplished something in this particular matter, although I would have done more, had I not been alone, and 10 Bulalakaw is a Tagalog word that can refer to either a meteor or St. Elmo’s Fire (in this case probably the latter).

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lacking in health for much of the time, and as so many more remain to be baptized, with many things yet to be remedied, I trust in the Lord to remedy them soon; because we were only two and when more [of us] are sent we will better help and reduce the unfaithful, of which there are many, and some are being baptized, and everything is just beginning. The important thing is to not leave them without guidance, which could be done with the charity that your Reverence makes us by sending us another father, after which we would be four; one to assist our work in Marinduque, the other in this Nauhan mission town [cabecera], and two who would travel about in missions for much of the year. If it is indeed true that the unbaptized Indians called Mangyanes have assumed a sedentary life (at least many of them), and even pay half the tribute amount as the rest of the Christian Indians; even with all this until now they had not been baptized. Although now they are doing it, giving permission to their children to be baptized, and they say that it is to be seen whether their children end up as slaves for converting to Christianity. But seeing that it is for this reason that we must try to unburden them, I trust in Our Lord to have the elder members baptized first and these will attract the other, more remote ones, the ones that do not pay tribute, nor have ever seen a Spaniard. It is true, that at the beginning as a general rule, one had to work more with those who had been baptized, not only in teaching them, but also clothing them, since they neither wear clothing nor have any way of procuring them and so it takes effort to find something to cover them, after which there will be little difficulty in reducing the rest, and particularly [if we] treat them gently, because they are a timid people, and when they appear before the father they arrive trembling, even if he is known amongst the elder ones. One thing has given us great solace and even admiration among those unbaptized natives, that despite being pagans they are a very honest people, because the Mangyanes never lie, and thus it is that the Christians, upon being told “this is what the Mangyan says,” will agree that it must be the truth, even if it goes against them. This I have experienced among a number of disputes that have arisen on this mission, and I have always sided in favor of the Mangyanes for whatever it is they say is known to be true. In order to reduce [reducir] this people, one does not need many arguments, because they ordinarily desire little as one would see from the following example.11 I was informed that there was a respected elder Indian 11 The policy of congregating native populations and forcing them to live in larger settlements was called alternately congregation (congregación) or reduction (reducción). See Reed, Colonial Manila, 11–16.

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woman of reasonable understanding who said she would be baptized, and from the time of her agreement to live a sedentary life, many outside her circle of children and relatives had also agreed to settle. I called her and exhorted her to become a Christian. She asked me to begin with the others first, and that she would see about it later. I told her my understanding was that we were relatives, because we were all descended from Adam and Eve, and that she might well be my mother, since she was already very old; and as I was explaining this good genealogy, many Indians gathered about with great admiration, saying that the fathers know everything, that everything is written in that large book gesturing to the book that I had which was […] of Fr. Cornelio a Lapide […], thereby convincing the Indian woman, who said that it was true and that she wanted to become Christian, as well as her daughters, and thus it was done, and became the reason that more than seventy people were baptized later, with many more preparing to do so on a future occasion. The Indians know her by no name other than that of the father’s [minister’s] mother, and when I write to her I address her as my Mother, and send her tobacco and other small things that she later sends to the rest of the unbaptized and coddle them, thus, with demonstrations of friendliness and gentleness in our treatment of them. It is true that there is no lack of effort nor obstacles that the devil imposes on them, whether by means of the priestesses or by directly appearing to them in various guises. One Indian woman told me that she had seen a wild demon in the uncultivated regions: a demon they call Ocon, a name with which they address the chief demon, who appears to them as a black dog with long teeth, like a wild boar, with a long-haired mane. This demon began to follow the Indian woman, although she fled, and turning back later she no longer saw him. Others have seen him in the different shapes of diverse animals, and he attempts to render them helpless: they fear him, and offer sacrifices so that he does them no ill, lest he eat them; because it is an ancient tradition among these people, that this Ocon, or wild demon, wanders endlessly through the mountains hunting Indians and eating them, and if until now this devil has been enraged, he now shows himself to be even more enraged as he sees himself divested and dethroned from his kingdom, scaring many Indians and particularly those who accompany me. One night, one of the first in which I had various idols in my bedroom, I was lying down and I think awake, when I seemed to hear a great noise, and feel a phantasm or monster at my side, threatening me; I remember calling for those who were more deeply asleep, and they did not hear me; I spent the entire night with this apprehension, which by morning had turned into the desire to know whether there had been some noise in the village,

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even as I committed myself to not saying anything, because the Indians are easily fooled and there was no need to give them reason to stir them up. That morning various choir members who lived in a house separated from the main village came, telling me Padre, what is it about this village, that they were unwilling to sleep the night prior, under the impression that the devil was roaming throughout the area. I responded that these were mere dreams, and headaches, as there was nothing in the village, and upon hearing this they desisted, and I did not want them to discover what passed through my heart, as God knows it all, even if I am most certain that the noise I had sensed was real. After I left this village, two or three days later, I received notice of how the Camucones (about whom I have written your Reverence earlier) had captured about ten Indians, two of them women.12 One was a teacher of the maganitos or idolatrous rites, and the other her companion. The devil proceeded to take advantage of all this and appeared to the Indians, as punishment for their having abandoned their idols, but God and his gospel would prevail, as many are undeceived when provided with some scapulars and saints’ medallions, especially those that are distributed among them every month, which they keep in their pockets, and bring them to their cultivated plots, and wherever they want to go; one is indeed struck by the devotion they develop with these saints, which luckily works for them. There was one village where I had never given them out, and misleading them about the possession of these medallions, I informed them about this devotion, and that the saints were a weapon against the devil and his temptations; later I distributed them. In this village there was an Indian woman who would occasionally go mad, and one time in her madness she seized the gold she wore, and threw it in the wild countryside, without any hope of ever finding it, because when she returned to herself she knew neither where she had been nor where she had thrown her jewelry. This Indian woman accepted the gift of a saint’s medallion before the others, and that same day my other Indian woman arrived, after having found the gold that was lost. In the church she gave it to me in front of all the townsfolk, and everyone said in one voice that it was a miracle wrought by the saint, which this Indian woman had accepted, and was rewarded by having her gold returned. I confess that I do not recall ascribing this to the saint, but seeing what the Indians were saying, I took the occasion to reaffirm even more the estimation and devotion they dedicated to these accessories. 12 Camucones was the term Spaniards gave to the “pagan” indigenous communities inhabiting the islands between Palawan and Borneo.

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The most laborious mission, and for this reason the most glorious among those of our order is the town of Hilin, not so much because it is the last of these hamlets [visitas], and very separated from the others, with the path full of dangerous enemies and having besides many coves for them to hide, kidnapping those who pass; but rather because there are so many people there, and yet the population has not been reduced. In earlier times these people lived like wild deer, searching for food in the mountains because they did not ordinarily plant crops or hardly anything, and even though I was with the brothers there for more than a month I left with even more work yet to be done: first, because I had fallen ill, and second, because I believed that the designated spot for constructing the church, and the village settlement is prone to disease[s], given that in the month I was there all of my companions fell ill. I sought solace in Our Lord in the hope that although the settlement, made in haste, turned out to be so rudimentary, it would one day transform into a pleasant and delightful garden in the eyes of Divine Majesty. While I was on this mission, Our Lord so desired to glorify Our Father Ignatius [Loyola] in Nauhan, where the resident priest there attempted to celebrate his festival with the greatest possible solemnity, it being the first one financed by these people from the frontier areas. There was in the village a very sick boy, whom I sent for by means of his companion, who was the one who had burned the idols and for this reason they said that the boy was sick. The father instructed them to bring the boy to the church on San Ignatius’s feast day, where he administered communion; that same afternoon they called [the father] with great haste, as the boy was dying. The father took a little oil with him, which he had taken from a lamp that burned before the image of our glorious saint in Munebrega, and which the father now considers to be a miraculous one, [for] upon arriving at the house he found the sick boy already unconscious, and then at that point he anointed the sick boy’s chest with that oil in complete solemnity, saying St. Ignatius’s prayer. What a wonder that in that instant the sick boy spoke, giving thanks to God and the saint, “now I am well, he whom they presumed would die.” No less was what happened to the same father with this oil regarding an Indian woman from the same village: she suffered from a long-term lung ailment. They called the father because she was dying. He ran to her, fearful that such a devout Indian woman, who practiced many matters of the Church, would die, thus did they arrive at the house of this sick woman, and with the oil encouraged her to commit herself sincerely to the saint, with the nurse who enjoyed the sick woman’s trust telling her that that oil from the lamp would bring her back to health. They anointed

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her chest, saying the saint’s prayer and then the sick woman said, “Jesus, what a joke is this sickness of mine,” and got better, such that the following day she came to the church to give thanks to the saint and pray a novena and since then the pain has not returned, so that every day one sees her helping to establish devotion to the glorious saint, with everyone trusting Saint Ignatius to make ever more manifest his responsibility for these poor people. Thus ends the letter of Fr. Alonso de Arroyo, rector of this residence.

Ilog Residence The need of these Indians from the mountains has been great during these years, as they have suffered from war and this need shows itself in every way, lacking as the Indians do any reliable resting place or house to take shelter: this spectacle of compassion finds them naked, ruined, and dying of hunger[…] it has been necessary to administer to them with both hands, the one tending to the sustenance and covering of their bodies, the other to the well-being of their souls, so that they have shown themselves to be like a fertile land for receiving the seed of God, their efforts in the faith earnest, and this in only a few days, although they have learned all the prayers from previous years. This Lent they requested communion, which has been given to many. And such were their shows of devotion when they arrived, especially during the days of the great jubilee, which features solely newly baptized Christians, despite being old in feeling, tenderness and devotion. They make great efforts to distance themselves from the errors of their ancient ways, and, as they do, they become more immersed in the matters of our faith; and thus many have surrendered the instruments of their [pagan] sacrifices, such as these hornlike utensils carved from cane stalk, which these people would bring with them to the mountains where they gathered for such occasions, and these ornate jugs, prized highly among them, where (so they said) their diwata or god resided, while they offered sacrifices […]. Thanks to Our Lord, the plague has ceased, which had afflicted these settlements for many days, killing many people who had come from the mountains in order to receive the sacraments by divine mercy; and had they not taken on this quest, they would have caught death in the mountains as unbaptized pagans. These days many more are concerned, as some are struck suddenly as if spellbound, and stupefied, as if without judgment, this happening even among Spaniards; and many reported having seen terrible figures, such as (they say) the father and the village mayor being in hell, for having set fire to a large swath of land full of reeds, where the Indians

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would commit great offenses against God, the place being reserved for their idolatries. [The priest and mayor] did this to make them understand better the traces left by the devil, with all the more reason to do so when we see how the cure comes with ever greater ease: as when they are sprinkled with holy water, and they are pacified. Others feel at peace with images and medallions, especially that of Our Father St. Ignatius, which they bring with them as an expression of devotion, ever mindful of their past danger. This is a custom that has continued to this day in the village; and, as further proof, when a young man was suddenly afflicted by either a serious illness or accident brought about by the devil, the mayor arrived, and placed in the young man’s hands a small sack of relics, after which the sick young man became calm. When the mayor took it back, the illness returned; they gave him the sack again, and the young man’s calmness returned, and he kept the sack with him until he was completely healed. There occurred in this village a strange case: when the plague was at its peak, and the Indians went about in a fearful state, a ghost appeared to one [Indian], taking him from his house as if dragged out with great force and violence, and brought him to the mountain. The boy’s parents lamented his loss, and for three days they went about in search of him, until they found him; and, upon being asked the cause of his departure, the boy responded that it had not been voluntary, but violent and by the force of the ghost he had seen; who, after taking him to the mountain, prevailed upon the boy to surrender his bararao, which is a broad knife that the Visayan Indians carry with them. When the Indian responded that he carried neither dagger nor another weapon, the ghost insisted that he take off that which was tied around his wrist (which was a rosary). The Indian realized that the rosary was the weapon that the ghost so feared, and that his best defense lay in keeping it. Refusing to disarm himself, he remained there several days, after which, by virtue of the rosary the ghost let him free. Although shocked by the events and quite outside himself, he was brought to the village and the church afterwards, where, with the help of holy water and the gospel (the only cure for this evil) became well, thanks to the Lord and with great estimation for the devotion of the Holy Rosary. A similar event took place in another settlement in that residence, which the authorities determined to move to a better site, closer to the head mission town [cabecera] where it could be administered with greater ease and assistance from the ordained minister; a Spaniard, and other people, were given the charge of moving the settlement. At night, there appeared before them misshapen forms, whistling and making noises as if to scare them. The animated Spaniard thought that discharging his crossbow would put

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an end to everything, but the opposite happened. Upon firing at them, he felt the weapon seized from his hands as if by a great force, after which everyone began to loudly invoke Mary and Jesus. With that the misshapen forms disappeared, and the noise was heard no more. Everyone says it was the work of the devil: a way to show his sentiment, about the prospect of that village moving to the planned site. It is a very common thing among the Indians to say that there was no one in that place who would dare to stop in the presence of that great noise, which was heard at night, and which was accompanied by sticks and stones being cast about. All these happenings have ceased since the erection of the church and even beforehand the raising of the standard of our redemption. Perhaps for fear of losing this site the devil tried to terrify those charged with the transference of the village.

Fr. Juan de Bueras, SJ

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Bibliography Bankoff, Greg. “Devils, Familiars and Spaniards: Spheres of Power and the Supernatural in the World of Seberina Candelaria and Her Village in Early 19th Century Philippines.” Journal of Social History 33, no. 1 (Fall 1999): 37–55. Brewer, Carolyn. Shamanism, Catholicism, and Gender Relations in Colonial Philippines, 1521–1685. Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Chirino, Pedro. History of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus. Edited by Jaume Gorriz i Abella. Translated by José S. Arcilla. Vol. 2. Quezon City/Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2010. Cruikshank, Bruce. “Disobedient but Faithful: An Argument against the Classic View of the Priest in the Period of Spanish Rule in the Philippines.” Philippiniana Sacra 43, no. 129 (September–December 2008): 567–584. De la Costa, Horacio. The Jesuits in the Philippines 1581–1768. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961. Phelan, John Leddy. The Hispanization of the Philippines. Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959. Reed, Robert Ronald. Colonial Manila: The Context of Hispanic Urbanism and Proces of Morphogenesis. University of California Publications in Geography 22. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978. Schumacher, John. Readings in Philippine Church History. Quezon City/Manila: Loyola School of Theology/Ateneo de Manila University, 1987. Scott, James C. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

About the Editor John Blanco is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Spanish, and Cultural Studies at the University of California San Diego. He is the author of Frontier Constitutions: Christianity and Colonial Empire in the Nineteenth Century Philippines (University of California Press, 2009; University of the Philippines Press, 2010) and the translator of Julio Ramos’s Divergent Modernities in Latin America: Culture and Politics in the Nineteenth Century (Duke University Press, 2001). He has also published multiple articles and book chapters that explore issues concerning the Spanish empire in the Americas and the Philippines.

8. The Will of an Indian Oriental and her Chinos in Peru (1644) Leo J. Garofalo

Abstract In her 1644 will, a widow named Leonor Alvarez made arrangements for her funeral and granted freedom to four people whom she had held as slaves. Alvarez identified herself as the “Peruvian daughter of gentile parents from Oriental India.” She had been married to one Hernando Gutierrez, of Chinese origin, and the people she freed were from Africa and Asia. Leo Garofalo places this document in the context of Lima’s complex racial demography, which included significant numbers of people from East, Southeast, and South Asia, both free and enslaved. The will provides a glimpse into the life or Asian men and women who had migrated either freely or by force to South America. Keywords: colonial Lima; Peru; indios chinos; enslavement; women

The central document presented here is the 1644 will in Lima, Peru, of Leonor Alvarez from India, widow of Hernando Gutierrez of the Chinese nation (“nación chino”). Upon her death, Alvarez’s will frees her four slaves from Africa and Asia, including their children, and makes one of them her sole heir and a co-executor of her will. How do we understand the presence of Asians in Spanish South America in this period? And what do the actions set in motion by Leonor Alvarez’s illness and death tell us about her role in colonial Andean society? Leonor Alvarez lived in a Lima famous for the complex mix of people drawn together by colonial migration, commerce, and the slave trade. Already by the end of the sixteenth century these forces had converted Lima into a key imperial and religious administrative center as well as a commercial crossroads with a majority black population

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch08

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in a majority indigenous colony.1 Accounts by observers like Fray Martín de Murúa and Portuguese crypto-Jew don Pedro de León Portocarrero in Lima around this time mentioned the presence of people from China and India in the markets and streets. The trade items of silks, spices, porcelains, carved ivory, and other luxuries from Asia were in Lima’s markets, shops, and wealthy homes and ornate churches. People also came south from New Spain’s Manila Galleon trade with Asia. The viceroy’s 1614 census of the city recorded 25,154 residents (including monks, nuns, priests, and novices), and it placed the black population at 10,386 followed by 9,616 lay Spanish, 1,978 indigenous people, 744 mulattoes, and 192 mestizos. 2 The Indian category included enslaved—or formerly enslaved—Asian and indigenous people. Among Lima’s indios, appeared 114 people termed indios chinos (literally “Chinese Indians” or “native people of China”). Thirty-eight people were labeled as from China, 56 from Portugal (meaning from Portugal’s Asian ventures), and 20 from Japan. Those identified more specifically came from Diu, Goa, Malabar in India, China, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Java, Burma, and Cambodia, victims of raiding, trading, warfare, and possibly self-sale due to destitution or starvation. The census also listed 82 indios of Chile (taken in ongoing wars of conquest in Chile).3 In 1636, the Archbishop of Lima listed 13,620 blacks, 11,088 Spaniards, 1,426 Indians, 861 mulattoes, 377 mestizos, and 22 Asian slaves.4 The enslaved population and the indigenous population contained tremendous internal diversity, and the diversity in Leonor Alvarez’s household fit into this. The Asian people in the viceroy’s census in 1614 were men, women, and children, both enslaved and free. They took part in the economic activity of Lima, working as slaves, domestics, off icial tailors, lace shirt-collar ironers (abridores de cuellos), stocking-sole repairers (soleteros), and in retail and petty commerce. Unlike in Acapulco in Mexico where most of these people probably originally disembarked in the Americas, Peru’s indios chinos are not found among agricultural laborers, shipbuilders, and caulkers. Among the f irst hundred Indians recorded in 1614 (including 1 James Lockhart characterized the city as a recreation of Hispanic society from Europe. Lockhart, Spanish Peru. More recently, Karen Graubart emphasized a more varied set of forces and outcomes and over a much longer period. Graubart, With Our Labor and Sweat. 2 Contreras, Padrón de los indios que se hallaron en la ciudad de Los Reyes del Perú. 3 For example, see AGN, Protocolos Siglo XVII, 383, Joseph de Corro, 1647, fols. 176, 617. 4 Comprehensive social histories of enslaved Asians in Mexico and Africans in Peru can be found in: Seijas, Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico; Bowser, The African Slave in Colonial Peru; and McKinley, Fractional Freedoms.

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Indians from Chile, Panama, Quito, and other parts of Peru), the census takers noted Andrés Taotan and Pablo Perera, who said they were natives “of Manila, in China” (“de Manila en la China”) and now living in Simón Díaz’s store on a street in the Cercado parish. Within the first twelve streets census takers visited, appears the store of the Spanish tailor Antonio Melon and in it the tailor Juan Rodriguez, a native of the “India de Portugal de Malaco” (today’s Malaca on the Malaysian Peninsula), who was more than thirty-four years old, unmarried, and whose slaveholder was the merchant Francisco Donosso. It is also possible that some merchants were using or also using these enslaved men and other workers labeled so often as collar pressers (abridores de cuellos), sock menders (soleteros), and tailors (sastres) to distribute contraband goods around the city in small quantities. One last example is Mateo Sánchez, from the Street of the Main Post Office in a store located in the houses of Doctor Cipriano de Medina. Sánchez worked as an abridor de cuellos and soletero. He said he was a native of Manila in China and that he came to Lima when the Viceroy Conde de Monterrey came (viceroy in Mexico 1595–1603, viceroy of Peru 1604–1606). Sánchez was forty years old and married to Crispina Bazquez, twenty-four, a native of the India de Portugal, and they had no children. Like Leonor Alvarez, the members of this group proved quite active in all the major economic activities of the time in Lima and they did this working, living, and worshiping alongside the city’s Spanish, African, and indigenous peoples. The case of Leonor Alvarez both indicates some of the ways people from Asia arrived in seventeenth-century Peru and shows how a former bondswoman strove to dictate the lives of the enslaved people from her household whom she left behind. Alvarez died on Sunday, 23 October 1644, of natural causes. Her slaves washed her body and laid her dressed in the Franciscans’ simple brown habit for mourning. In a will she dictated five days earlier on 18 October 1644, Alvarez herself arranged the well-orchestrated burial, masses, bells, and procession. She cautioned her executors to carry out the funeral with moderation and limited expense. Protected by the Church and officialized by a royal notary, the will allowed her a powerful tool to shape her legacy and document her life—including enslavement and emancipation. Four African and Asian slaves were freed upon her death, and she dictated their “freedom letters” to the royal notary who kept these together with her will.5 By ensuring that the value of her other property 5 These “cartas de libertad” were legal, notarized deed of manumission allowing each to act and move as free persons.

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more than covered the costs of burial, donations to the Church, and the requisite memorial masses, she helped guarantee that these people were freed rather than sold to meet expenses.6 Alvarez’s plan worked: the will and her death gave Francisco, Marcos, Grace de la Ascensión, and Isabel some room to negotiate freedom.

6 Leonor Alvarez’s testament and her efforts to preserve her wealth show how she made special efforts to modify the rigors of the slave regime. Bequests to the Church could be a double-edged sword: added scrutiny and protection of her requests by ecclesiastical authorities, but also added pressures to favor paid masses and other religious donations over perhaps higher priorities.

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Leonor Alvarez versus Tomas de Aquino, Chinese, her Executor 7 The Kings [Lima], January 7, 1648. Declaration of Tomas de Aquino, executor. He was named executor of Leonor Alvarez’s will, but never had the property. The property was held by Isabel Alvarez, her slave. He did not sign. Francisco Gomez de Silva, defender of Pious Works, to see that the last will and testament of Leonor Alvarez is obeyed and enforced against Tomas de Aquino and Isabel Alvarez. The Kings, January 23, 1648, a woman appeared and swore to be Isabel Alvarez. She was asked if she was the executor of Tomas de Aquino, now deceased. She answered yes. He was to carry out the will. And he gave her 150 pesos of eight to carry out the funeral. She does not know how to write or sign her name. Isabel Alvarez presented receipts. They showed that she complied with the requests of the testament of Leonor Alvarez. Testament of Leonor Alvarez, widow of Hernando Gutierrez of the Chinese nation and resident as I am of this city of the Kings, Peruvian daughter of gentile parents from Oriental India being sick in bed of the illness that God Our Lord was served to give me and in my right mind and full understanding and believing as I firmly and truly believe in the mystery of the very Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three separate persons and not just the true God. I believe in all of that and I confess and proclaim that I believe in Our Holy Mother Roman Catholic Church as a faithful and true Christian. Desiring to place my soul on the path to salvation and fearing death, which is natural to all living creatures, I declare for the honor and Glory of God Our Lord and taking as my intercessor and lawyer the very serene Virgin Mary, his Blessed Mother and Our Lady, that I make and put in order this last testament and final will in the following manner and form. – Firstly I entrust my soul to God Our Lord who created and redeemed it with his precious blood, death, and passion to whom I beg that I want him to take it to his saintly glory of the paradise where it was created and the body to the ground where it was formed. – I order that when it is God Our Lord’s will to take me from this present life that my body be buried in the Church of the Convent of St. Augustine of this city in the vault of the Chapel of Lord St. Nicholas of Tolentino […]. I 7 Archivo Arzobispal de Lima, Testamentos, Legajo 26, Expediente 2, “Leonor Alvarez contra Tomas de Aquino, chino, su albacea,” Lima, 1647, fols. 1v–23v.

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have my burial paid, so my executors should give notice to the majordomos and deputies of the confraternity so that they pay for my masses and favors as they are obliged to for a sister of the twenty-four of the confraternity. I order on the day of my burial that my body be accompanied by the high cross of the main church where I am a parishioner, the parish priest, and the sacristan and a major tolling of the bells and five lesser ones. The rest of my burial, spending on wax and funeral, I leave up to my executors to carry out in moderation. I order fifty masses. For the obligatory donations I leave 2 pesos. I send for the Franciscan friars who guard the holy places of Jerusalem another 2 pesos. I declare that I gave freedom to Francisco, negro of the Terranova caste, my slave after my days. The [letter of freedom] which I dictated before the present scribe of this will I want kept and complied with just as is contained therein. I declare that I gave freedom to Marcos of the Chinese nation, son of Isabel China from when he was born until after my days as it appears in the document that I made before this scribe here present. Given that the boy turned out somewhat naughty, I ask and charge my executers to urge, contain, and hold him down so that he attends and works and helps himself because my intention was to give him freedom with this nature so that he did not end up in jail or punished by the justice. Thus, I ask for the love of God that they comply with what is contained in this clause. I declare that I purchased Isabel China, born in the city of Canton. She was sold to me by Juan Domingues Vizcayno. She has a daughter named Grace de la Ascension, born in this city, who is nine years old. Even though both were my slaves, I have raised them and had them as my companions. Therefore, after my days I give them freedom so that Isabel spends from my goods and property the quantity of 200 pesos of eight on my burial, masses and candles [paper is broken] and other expenses and costs [paper is broken] of which all should come from the said 200 pesos giving her permission to sell from my possessions those which she believes sufficient for it and to pay for my burial and mass and costs and if there is extra to do something good for my soul and in this form I leave her free. I declare that the goods that I have are furniture and household goods. All of it I leave and give to Isabel China because of the love and goodwill I have for her and for the purposes referred to, and that Grace is subject to Isabel her mother because with this will I set her free after my days.

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– To carry out and pay this my testament and the orders and bequests that it contains I leave and name as my executors and holders of my property Isabel China and to Tomas de Aquino, born in Manila, resident in this city [Lima], to whom and to each of whom, jointly or separately, I give my authority to do what is required and necessary so that after I die they take my goods and sell them in a public auction or outside of the auction extrajudicially or how so ever they like or appears best to them up to the quantity of 200 pesos. And from that price and value they comply with and pay my testament. Whatever else is necessary relating to the executorship they can judge and authorize everything that might be needed, and for all of that I give them the power required for free and general administration, and they can use the executorship for a year for that is my ultimate and final will. – Complied with and paid this my testament and the donations and bequests contained in it know that, although I was married to Hernando Gutierrez, I had no children whatsoever. I have other heirs, and by right I name as my universal heir in the sale of everything Isabel China so that she has and inherits with the blessing of God and mine and with the charge to pay what is contained in this my testament and the rest of the good that she wants to do for my soul and is her will not because they ask it of her but because she can and wishes to do it. This is my last and final will. – I revoke and annul and value at nothing of no value nor effect any other testaments, codicils and powers and other dispositions that before this one I had made and ordered in writing or by word or in whatever other manner. None of which I wanted obeyed, implemented, or enforced except for this present will that I make. This I want done because this is my last testament and final will. I authorize this testimony in the city of the Kings on October 18, 1644. I, the scribe, know the testator, and when she authorized this will she seemed to be in her natural understanding. = She said she cannot sign her name. At her request a witness signed. Being called as witnesses Diego de la Oliva and Juan Bautista de la Cruz and Juan Villa and Juan Sanchez de Vimes and Andres de la Cruz all present, I witness = Diego de la Oliva before me Marcos de Santiesteban, scribe of His Majesty. I, Marcos de Santiesteban, scribe, good Christian, scribe of the king our lord, give faith that today Sunday, October 23, 1644, I saw dead of seemingly natural causes Leonor Alvarez, widow, who authorized this testament and whom I knew well. She was shrouded in the habit and cord of San Francisco in her dwelling house. At the request of Isabel China, I write this being

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present in the city of the Kings in the said day, month and year with the witnesses Antonio de Mendoza and Juan de Bonilla and Manuel de Parraga. In faith of which I signed Marcos de Santiesteban, scribe of His Majesty. I, Marcos de Santiesteban, scribe of the king our lord and his public notary of the Indies, faithfully swear I was present and make my sign. Marcos de Santiesteban The monarchs [Los reyes], October 24, 1644. Receipt from the priest for 49 pesos 9 reales, received from Isabel by hand of Tomas de Aquino for the funeral. high cross 21 pesos priest, sacristan, in San Agustin transport 2 pesos 2 reales incense 1 peso 1 real 2 lodgings 2 pesos 2 reales major tolling 3 pesos 3 reales 5 minor tollings 5 pesos 5 reales 50 masses 13 pesos 4 reales 49 pesos 4 reales

Received from Isabel de la Cruz 35 pesos that Leonor Alvarez deceased owed for the time she lived in a house he owned. Diego García Jimenez. November 12, 1644. Juan Francisco de Ribera, majordomo of Nuestra Señora de Agua Santa received from Tomas de Aquino 5 patacones for the standard and wax. 8 patacones for the musicians. August 28, 1645. Father friar Juan Martinez major sacristan of the Convent of St. Agustin. From Tomas Aquino 57 pesos for the expenditures of burial, honors, masses, offerings, sung masses. October 25, 1644. From Tomas de Aquino. 3 sung masses. December 2, 1644. 30 pesos. Bachiller Melechor de Segurra. Alms for a mass that Tomas de Aquino gave me for the soul. Alms from Tomas de Aquino. October 26, 1644.

Receipts Canopy 4 and a half varas long requires 51 varas of silk For one of 4 varas 48 varas of silk.8 8 A vara was a linear measure of about 33 inches (84 centimeters).

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The wax used since her death is 2 patacones.9 The dinner and food are 3 patacones. Paid to the black man who brought the cloth 2 reales. A mass 1 patacón. What I received from Leonor Alvarez deceased 148 pesos. The box in 12 patacones The mattress 7 patacones

List of the goods of Leonor Alvarez deceased. First sold 2 small chairs for 12 reales A bed frame for 10 reales A box for 10 reales A small door a cloak sold for a bench

1 peso 4 reales 1 peso 2 reales 1 peso 2 reales 5 pesos 15 pesos 2 pesos makes 26 pesos

This money was used to pay what was needed. First the habit 12 pesos plus the cord 3 patacones And paid the house where the said deceased lived 35 patacones. Amounts to 50 pesos Francisco de Tores majordomo of Nuestra Señora de Loreto from Tomas de Aquino 4 patacones for the standard. From Tomas de Aquino 20 reales for using the funeral clothing: 2 pesos 4 reales. Receipt from Isabel de la Cruz China executor 6 patacones for registering the will with stamped paper. May 24, 1646. 20 masses, the obligator donations, holy lands of Jerusalem 7 pesos and 5 reales.

9 A patacón was a silver coin valued at about 8 reales.

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Bibliography Bowser, Frederick P. The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524–1650. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974. Contreras, Miguel de. Padrón de los indios que se hallaron en la ciudad de Los Reyes del Perú hecho en virtud de comision del excelentisimo señor Marques de Montesclaro Virrey del Perú. Edited by Noble David Cook. Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos, 1968 [1613–1614]. Graubart, Karen B. With Our Labor and Sweat: Indigenous Women and the Formation of Colonial Society in Peru, 1550–1700. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. Lockhart, James. Spanish Peru, 1532–1560: A Colonial Society. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. McKinley, Michelle A. Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600–1700. Studies in Legal History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Seijas, Tatiana. Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

About the Editor Leo J. Garofalo is Associate Professor of History at Connecticut College. He has co-edited the books, Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1550–1812, with Kathryn Joy McKnight (Hackett, 2009), Más allá de la dominación y la resistencia: estudios de historia peruana, siglos XVI–XX, with Paulo Drinot (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2005), and the first two volumes of Documenting Latin America, with Erin O’Connor (Pearson, 2010). He has also published numerous articles in journals which include, The Americas, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, and Hispanic American Historical Review.

9. Francisco de Combés’s History of Mindanao and Jolo (1667) Ana M. Rodríguez-Rodríguez, with translation assisted by Cortney Benjamin

Abstract In this excerpt from his history of the southern Philippines and of the efforts of the Jesuits to convert its inhabitants, Francisco de Combés (1620–1665) paints a sensationalist image of the religious life of Mindanao, emphasizing the supposed atheism of the common people and the practice of sorcery by their Muslim rulers. The heroic Jesuits operating out of the Spanish settlement of Zamboanga struggle with the volatile politics of the Islamicate south in their heroic efforts to bring Christianity to people that they misrecognize as “moors.” Ana M. Rodríguez-Rodríguez places the text in the context of Spain’s troubled relationship with Mindanao. Keywords: Jesuits; Islam; Mindanao; missionary rhetoric; Zamboanga

The History of Mindanao and Jolo (Historia de Mindanao y Joló), written by the Jesuit Francisco de Combés and published in Madrid in 1667, is a long treatise comprised of eight books that study the geography of the southern Philippines and the ethnic, social, political, and religious characteristics of their inhabitants. It includes a presentation of the Spanish conquest in the area and the Spaniards’ relationships and conflicts with the natives, focusing mainly on the presence of Muslims in this part of the Spanish empire. When the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines at the beginning of the sixteenth century, they were surprised by the presence of Muslim communities in the South of the archipelago. The arrival of the Spaniards to the southern islands of the Philippines gave way to a series of politicomilitary battles known as Moro Wars, which determined life in the islands for generations. Between 1599 and 1635, there were active rebellions against

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch09

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Spanish settlements. In 1635, the Zamboanga fort was established in the south of Mindanao. Threatened by a possible Dutch attack in Manila and exhausted by the ineffectiveness of their efforts, the Spaniards were forced to establish peace treaties with the Muslim rulers. These treaties, however, did not last long. Finally, the Spaniards left Zamboanga and the other forts in the area in 1663, afraid of a Chinese attack in Manila led by the corsair Koxinga (or Coseng in Spanish). The abandonment of the Zamboanga fort in 1663 meant the end of Spanish aspirations in Muslim-inhabited lands in the Philippines. This moment might have triggered one of the greatest resistance movements in the context of the colonial enterprises of the Spanish empire. The Zamboanga fort reopened in 1718 and the conflict prolonged itself throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Combés arrived in the Philippines in 1643 and was sent to Zamboanga in 1645 under the direct orders of Fr. Alejandro López. Combés’s time in the southern islands was very active and, in addition to traveling extensively in the area, he performed diverse duties related to preaching and converting the indigenous population, serving at times as ambassador and translator. He went back to Manila when Governor Manrique de Lara received a threatening letter from the Chinese pirate Koxinga demanding control of the Philippines. As a result of this crisis, the Spaniards abandoned the garrisons in the south of the archipelago—among them Zamboanga—a decision Combés opposed repeatedly, especially in the last book of the History of Mindanao and Jolo. The History of Mindanao and Jolo is—in part—a propagandistic weapon to discredit the decision to abandon the Zamboanga fort by the civil authorities. Evangelization was understood as an essential part of the conquest when Combés wrote his book and he was convinced that the decision to leave the fort would ruin all previous efforts to convert both the Muslim and non-Muslim indigenous population. Combés also attempted to rescue from the periphery the project of evangelization in the southern Philippines, which Combés defines as the “most defenseless, and remote region in [the Indies].” His book fundamentally served as a constant Jesuit instrument to persuade the Spanish Court of the need for missions in the Philippines and of Mindanao and Sulu, the two peripheral regions of the Spanish empire where the Moors had to be defeated. Combés was also eager to celebrate Jesuit glories and their primordial place in politics and in the evangelization of these islands. He emphasized repeatedly that the southern islands were the exclusive operations camp of the Jesuits, the great evangelical project of the order. This propaganda was reinforced with the narration of conversions and miracles inspired by their great spiritual model, St. Francisco Xavier.

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Combés’s book is an attempt to collectively and symbolically possess a space that was neither attractive for Spanish civil and military authorities, nor for commercial leaders. He embarks on the production of his text in order to transform Mindanao and Sulu, which epitomized the failure of the confrontation with Islam and of the imperial difficulties in the Philippines, into a space symbolic of the redeeming power of faith for natives and for the colonizers and their enterprise. The History of Mindanao and Jolo reveals an urgent need to “create” the Philippines in the Spanish imagination and to reconsider the Spaniards’ relationship with Islam. Some historians are surprised by the incapacity of Spaniards to understand Philippine Muslims after centuries of contact with Islam, but it was precisely this previous knowledge that obstructed the understanding of the reality of Mindanao and Sulu. In the midst of this disorientation is Combés who, while attacking Islam with common anti-Islamic rhetoric, tries to rescue the possibility of bridging cultural and religious difference through conversion, a type of conversion that would erase the disturbing complexity of the Other. The History of Mindanao and Jolo is characterized by ambivalence and contradiction. It tries to rhetorically unify conflicting discourses for the representation of Muslims in a new, colonial context. The Spanish-Muslim contact in the Philippines redefines the ability to interpret and assimilate difference, and it reconsiders also an imperial subject that in many ways had been constituted in opposition to the traditionally rejected Muslim Other. This is probably the biggest originality of Combés’s text; the capacity to open, from the margins of the empire—the Philippines Islands—the way for the exploration of unknown symbolic spaces for the imperial enterprise, and to unveil the need to constantly re-evaluate the connections between the past, the present, and the future of the empire.

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Francisco de Combés’s History of Mindanao and Jolo1 Book 1 Chapter 12 Sects and superstitions of these islands. Paganism is common on these islands. From Sangil to Zamboanga, the fish-sellers follow the sect of Muhammad. On the islands of Basilan and Jolo, which is the center of the false religion and the Mecca of this archipelago because their first teacher is buried there, the caciques [chiefs]—through their deceits—have started a thousand myths about him that have already become a misleading tradition in this century, like that he came from heaven with three others. One of them went to Java, the other to Burney, and the final two to Jolo, and from there, one proceeded to Mindanao. […] In spite of the many lies that work to sustain this deceit, few believe it, and it is common for everyone to be an atheist. Those who do have a religion are sorcerers because aside from not eating pork, circumcision and [being with] a multitude of women, they do not know anything about Muslims. They drink wine better than we do, and their happiness consists of being drunk and [in participating in] grand ceremonies. All their gallantries involve their ability to empty as many tinajas of wine as possible.2 During a wedding, they drink two hundred of them. All their celebrations are like this. They all live as lawless men who do not know God, without a method of worship. They do not recall that religion exists in the world, so everyone accepts some, or less of it, and they follow the customs and laws of the region where they live. Therefore, they are not Muslims or Gentiles or Christians, but rather atheist barbarians. [King Corralat], who has put some order in his territory, has his mosque, and he makes people attend, but outside of his town, each person lives as he likes, with the exception of a few important people, who, at the example of the king, have made it a point of honor to appear to be Muslim. However, it is true that the common people pay little attention to it all. […] The one that combines the courtesy of the Moors with the distinction of a brave sorcerer is King Corralat, who can make fish come aboard the ship. One of our priests was aboard the vessel when one of the fishes jumped in, 1 Source: Francisco de Combés, Historia de las islas de Mindanao, Iolo, y sus Adyacentes: progressos de la Religion, y Armas Catolicas (Madrid: Herederos de Pablo del Val, 1667). 2 A tinaja was an earthenware jar that could hold about 41 liters.

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and the king stood and gave it to the priest. He said, “This is for the father.” They also say that with an oar in the mouth of the catch, he can make it swim on top of the water. He has a saker, which serves to predict a good or bad omen. The truth is that he speaks personally with the devil and, according to what a Spaniard told me, he confirmed it on his way from Zamboanga on a certain mission just as he entered the river. Corralat’s privado told him that the night before his king asked him if any ship had appeared and that he answered no.3 The king said to him, “well, tomorrow three ships will arrive and one will be Spanish.” It happened like that; two ships came from Java, and the Spanish ship arrived. The privado exclaimed, “Great Sacred Corralat, there is no other truth.” He established such a reputation with these occurrences that if God does not bury his body in hell, the people of Mindanao will worship him and create another place of Mecca like the one established in Jolo, as he has become more of a king than any of his predecessors. Because the fear they have for him is incredible, as if they recognize he has a superior power for vengeance, they do not dare go against his will to undertake any action because they believe it will end in disaster. As the devil has found this path so beneficial, he perhaps ensures their real fear so that his reputation is secure among them. […]

Book 7 Chapter 8 About other fortunate events for our armed forces in this government, and the conversion of don Francisco Ugbu, general of Mindanao. During the same time, the governor’s favors, with the designated gifts, were flattering to our people, and he honored God by showing interest in his spirit and an apostolic zeal, placing in their hands the best bounty that Mindanao could give. He was Orancaya Ugbu, grandee of Mindanao, second in the kingdom, general of its armed forces and everything in the government of the kingdom, with equal authority to the king and superior esteem. This Moor was worthy of great fortune for both his disposition as well as his good sense; I have never seen his equal in ability, and he was well-known in various enterprises, and his good sense was noted in various missions in Jacatra or the Dutch and to other rulers. He was prof icient in many 3 The term privado, in this context, is used to refer to King Corralat’s favored and most trusted minister.

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languages. In addition to his native Mindanao and Lutaya, he spoke Malay with authority, and he could be understood in Visayan and Tagalog; he understood Spanish and learned to speak it quickly. This Moor was banished from Mindanao by special interests, which allowed God to grant him his salvation, and only this made the event a success, as his people were unsure of our preaching. It was astonishing [to us] and a cause of worry when he had declared himself opposed to our faith [prior to his conversion]. He could have pursued the advantages of his marriage later to the daughter of Orancaya Sofocan, general of our Lutaos, prince of Zamboanga and its coasts, or of his lineage, which—for being from the Basilan nation—flowed in his blood. But these advantages were not equal to those that were left in Mindanao, with the authority he had in the managing of all the incomes, the king’s tributes, authority and absolute license, which he employed all over the kingdom, and the immensely precious gifts of his daughters, whose reputation was his greatest promise and always a tender, unseeing memory in his eyes. To leave so much greatness in pursuit of loyalty and subordination to our government made his efforts suspicious. […] His conversion to Christianity was very difficult, as he obstinately defended his faithlessness. When the loving reasoning of Fr. Alejandro López finally convinced him [to convert], he asked to be Christian, at the same time leaving behind his identity as a Muslim. He was made to understand […] what an enemy the light of our holy faith is to the darkness of the Moors. Finally, he surrendered to the continuous battery of our vigilant minister, and he bowed down to Jesus Christ’s gentle chains. He was baptized, sponsored by the governor of Zamboanga, [and] he was named don Francisco, and the baptism was celebrated with the best demonstrations of rejoicing and splendor that brought joy to everyone from the most illustrious victory that was dedicated to the Holy Gospel. Then, he was given the honor of general of the Lutaya nation by his father-in-law, General Sofocan […]. The same day, he was appointed “fiscal mayor” of the church, 4 a sensible decision from the priests, who showed in that action their trust in his Christianity. They wanted to give him more responsibility and to rid him of his desires, along with those [desires] of his people, [who] seeing themselves guided in matters of the faith by the man who was their prince would more quickly turn to it. […] 4 In the context of the missions in the Philippines, the “fiscal mayor” was a native official appointed by the missionaries who was charged with overseeing the religious lives of his fellow converts.

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Chapter 14 It continues with the ministry of the coast of Siocon with the same spirit. […] In these villages there is no other mayor, governor or authority than the priest because, although they recognize the governor of Zamboanga, it is through fear rather than skill, as the people’s terror and the mistrust from their natural timidity keep them averse to the protection of the Spanish. They think of the priests as people of a different lineage, as their wild apprehension makes their graceful disposition seem natural and since they are indomitable with each other, as well as proud, they readily quell their differences in whom they revere as superior and recognize as selfless and just. And it is encouraging to hear of their impertinences so they can be liberated from their tyranny and be rid of the harshness of their laws, which are biased against the innocent. With care, today they are peaceable, more just, and less tyrannical in their behavior, because there is someone [the Christian] who understands their manner and can undo their deceptions[…].

Book 8 Chapter 3 The emissaries arrive in Zamboanga, they continue their journey, and an event at the embassy in Mindanao. The emissaries [from Governor Sabiniano Manrique de Lara] entered Zamboanga on November 1, 1655, and whether it was the Moor’s distraction by the Lutaos, his confidants, or it was more news received of Corralat’s corrupt intents, almost all of the leaders devoutly opposed the priest’s [Fr. Alejandro López’s] decision. And one named Imán [an enemy of Corralat], who was not invited by the priest to accompany him on the journey, told him with tears in his eyes that to enter Mindanao with the current state of matters was to seek death. The priest—because of past experiences [of conversion], of which there are many cases throughout in [this] history—was so convinced by his affection for Corralat and of the honorable reciprocation [he thought he would receive] that he laughed about everything. And he [Fr. López] left with the goals of establishing Christianity, founding a church, and creating a stable ministry. To accomplish this, he took with him Fr. Juan de Montiel from Zamboanga, to leave him in Mindanao as minister,

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and children well-trained to help with mass, as many as he needed for his church. With this preparation and energy, they all left in three joangas.5 To tell the truth, the decision was not a sign of imprudence or recklessness because everyone was sure that, in worse conditions, he [Fr. López] had left with more gallant bravery. […] Danger never makes brave men reckless, but rather it glorifies them as vigilant. They [the Christians and priests] did not cease their warnings, having noted the many dangerous events that had taken place without his [Fr. Lopez’s] notice. While Fr. Juan de Montiel was bidding farewell to his close friend, he [Fr. Montiel]—feeling everyone’s fear—assured him that his death was inevitable. This was a warning from the heart, which in this case was true. Already near the Court of Simuey, a pocket watch that the priest [Fr. Montiel] wore, which had not worked for days […] was now able to tell time. In response, the priest said, “come on, the hour is here, our time has arrived.” While getting ready to enter Simuey, Fr. Alejandro had to shave the hair on the top of his head, and later, the action was interpreted as a sign of what awaited him in Simuey. Everyone does this when he is about to interact with barbarians (a practice that I took part in when I was the messenger to the king of Jolo to present to him the rightful complaints related to a treaty he had made with some vassals from the islands) to lead them to believe the glory of the priesthood of Christ with the respect that we—priests—demonstrate through the display of this exterior “adornment” that is the sum of our pride. Corralat’s envoy had arrived early, and it was clear that the king was not waiting for anything except for the message with the decision to break relations. The priest [Fr. López] and Captain Claudio de Ribera followed him in two juangas. In Barra, they received a warm welcome from the Basilan fugitives—Boto and Ondol—who had their people located there, receiving him with a salute, a courtesy owed after many years of acquaintance. Upon their arrival in the village of the king, there was no other demonstration than the careful silence of the Moors. This was quite a change from the acclaim and glory that they had previously enjoyed. The king had to be informed of his arrival and the work he came to do in the name of the governor and capitan general. The response was to ask him for the letters. The priest answered that it was not done that way, nor could he give them unless it was done personally. The argument was repeated many times, and because the king knew of his valiant determination, he gave up and allowed the meeting that Father [López] wanted, who trusted the blessing God had always given 5 A joanga or juanga is a small flat-bottom sailing vessel.

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him so that he could soothe the king’s irritated mood and persuade him to follow his intent [to convert to Christianity]. It did not happen that way this time because God wanted to reward him for his many labors between those nations with a better ending. He [Fr. López] put the letters in his hands. The content could be reduced to two points: satisfying the complaints that his lordship had of his poor treatment. It asked him to rectify his behavior with his compliance in the erection of a church, according to the previous agreement, and if not, there would be war and he would let loose his lions (the actual words in the letter) that were eager to employ their viciousness, and he would lead everything to fire and blood. At this point, they say his countenance changed, showing signs of becoming very angry. The priest continued, softening the harshness of the letter with the conf idence that came from how well the Moor [Corralat] had always listened to matters of the holy faith. He [Fr. López] told him that he had come because—given his advanced age—he wished to end his life in glory with the knowledge that he [Corralat] had become a Christian. The king, who was perhaps agitated by the threats that he had heard or by the impression that they were already putting demands on him as if he were already defeated—became angrier and made signs of throwing the fan he was holding. He was only stopped by the fear of hitting the queen, who was behind the priest [Fr. López] unfolding the present that the governor sent, an action that would have been enough for the Moors of the guard to kill the priest right then to satisfy the king’s anger. Then, he took off the kris, which is the common weapon of this nation, and, bringing it to one side, he said enraged: “I am not a man now,” referring to the contempt that he suffered and [to the fact that] he could not continue without the vengeance that would undo it. He told the priest not to mention the topic [of conversion] because he would order him killed. The priest responded that it would suit him well because he would then be a martyr. Then the Moor asked, “did you come as an emissary or to be a martyr?” The priest responded that the most important part of his mission was to address the true faith, and with this, he accomplished the precepts of his mission and he accepted the risks. The Moor could not endure it anymore and, with a flash of fury, he told him to get to the point for being there. The priest became very unhappy about the king’s lack of efforts for a positive result and the poor willingness that he saw to establish the peace that was desired. He was weary of getting to the boat alive because all the brave nobles and Moors were armed, circling close to the king’s house like they were waiting for the desired order, and he could detect the conspiracy in their demeanor.

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Some have called the priest’s [Fr. López’s] speech reckless and blamed him for the king’s [Corralat’s] dramatic change [in attitude] and agitation. Even in this type of instance, when the Catholic zeal and effort produced some blend of indiscreet enthusiasm, the martyr’s glory does not diminish. But this is not the case of the father, because he behaved with great caution and faithful attention, as he softened the message and calmed the brusqueness of the [Spanish governor’s] letter. I say this with complete certainty because when the priest passed through the city of Cebu, where I was at the time, he entrusted me to translate the letter to the Visayan language so that it could be understood by a captive of their nation [of Mindanao], [for there are many there] and especially because the Cebuano language is so common that no self-respecting Moor does not speak it. And I remember the first clauses very well, and especially those that I put above, because of the effort it cost me to find the words to convey the intensity and severity of the language. And I remember that while reading the original Spanish and the translation to the priest, he laughed about the threat and told me he could not read that to Corralat, as it was too much for his natural arrogance, so he tempered it. No matter how much he spoke on the subject, it was not half of what the letter contained, and it would have lacked the faithfulness of a Christian mission if, due to cowardice, he had omitted the main point of the mission, which was to preach the faith of Jesus Christ and establish a church. When the petition was excessive, the king could not denounce it, since he agreed to it, nor could the Father avoid it, as it provided protection to the envoy. Once outside the boundaries of the reasons for the envoy and the mission, the priest avoided giving the king, who had heard him with pleasure so many times before, further updates as the priest had made many trips to the kingdom. The king allowed him to disagree publicly with his chiefs [caciques] in his presence, and one time he allowed his son to attend a mass given by the priest. In the end, he had reached a place of such high esteem in the region that he had Corralat and his sons worshiping a baby Jesus that he always had with him, and he called him the founder of Zamboanga. The young princes showed so much affinity to matters of faith that they secretly watched our mass, and no one knew except the priest, who did not discuss other subjects with them. No priest would take on these trips and envoy commissions without taking the opportunity to introduce a dialogue about faith and do God’s work. The priest [Fr. López] served as envoy and preacher without the two roles converging. Because the purpose of this envoy so far exceeded his standards, he moderated the harshness of them. The truth is that the Moor was already resolved [to wage war], and his determination was deeply rooted, as his precautions prove. He already had his concerns in

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order and his retreat fortified, and the year before, he had sent four hundred of the most spirited Moors to Terrenate, where the fighting is so common, to train in battle. They are among those who excel today and whose skills result in many factions. [They] have shared advice [regarding armaments] with our Dutch enemies and those of Terrenate, who, despite [our] peace agreements, have always behaved in this way […]. The Lutaos brought over by the priest, attentively observed the king’s anger and when the priest returned to the caracoa,6 the most senior of them told him: “Father, what are we doing here? Have you not noticed that the king’s heart is damaged? Do you not see the cold reception that he has given you, as he has not offered you or the captain a place to stay, which is the custom?” The priest told them to have patience and wait for God, who would soften his heart. The king did not stop feeling the pressure from the shame of violating so clearly the holiness of the envoy, and to satisfy his sense of decorum and his anger, he arranged for his nephew, Balatamay, to take control of the events. This prince [Balatamay] controls the territory in the upper part of Buayen, as it is noted in this History. One day he sent for the priest on behalf of the queen with the warning that he not bring more than one servant. The priest was filled with happiness at the message, because he thought that the placated king wanted, by means of the queen, to have more success resolving the disagreements and securing an honorable departure in peace. Upon returning to the Lutaos, who had persuaded him to leave the river, he said to them, “do you see how little faith you have? Come on, the queen called for me and everything will end well.” If the summons were from her, the priest would have reasoned well because she is good-natured and lamented Corralat’s decision, and it is even said that she cried a lot due to its consequences while remembering the sorry state to which she was reduced by the last war. But the messenger took the priest to Balatamay. He [Balatamay] had an agreement with the Moors to spear him [the priest] while he was talking with him. He [Balatamay] waited for him lying down on the floor, with his shield on his back so that his whole body was protected. […] He distracted the priest with impertinent chatter as he waited for the attackers to arrive. Given that it [the conversation] was of little substance, they ended it promptly and the priest bid him goodbye. He started to walk away from the prince when a spear suddenly lanced his back, and as he was sure he would die, he quickly readied himself to receive his crown [in heaven]. He took out 6 A caracoa or karakoa was a short, light ship propelled by a sail and 80 to 100 rowers.

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a crucifix that he had across his chest and kneeled with it in his hand to receive his last wounds until the insatiable thirst for blood of those beasts was satisfied. He accepted them [the wounds] with much courage as he fell from the first blow of the sword, which laid his head open and knocked his cap to the ground. He picked it up and put it on again and, for a second time [his head was hit] and, with the sweet names of Jesus and Mary, he ended the battle as a victor with God. The two wounds made the mark of a cleaved cross on his head. Others approached Fr. Juan de Montiel and, with the same fierceness, killed him. The priest endured it [the attack] with much strength and with a cry to heaven he said, “Jesus, Mary,” which gave them the impression that he was not troubled by death […] and had the courage to say farewell with a full voice. The assailants continued to search for Spaniards and killed them, almost without knowing one from the other because they had confidently scattered throughout the village of native and Chinese people, and only three [of the Spaniards] remained. They were ordered to leave one of them alive, because according to some messages that came to Mindanao, he was seen favorably for giving good gifts [to the natives]. He watched over one of his friends, who, although alive, was made a slave and sold in Makassar along with servants from Pampanga. They were set free by the king who sent them to the city of Manila. The third defended his life with infamy. Seeing that they were going to kill him, he said, “do not kill me, for I am a Muslim.” So they let him live. He was the one who was handed over to serve as interpreter to the envoy for his trip to Manila. Since he spoke the Malayan language, he was the usual messenger to that king. As time passed, his depraved religion became less strange to him. His cowardliness matched the deformity of his illegitimate birth and his barbarous blood, and he [rejected] the grace that he inherited through baptism. But to make the point that no one should diminish Christian courage for his love of life—and with the belief that one can secure it through treachery—God allowed the appropriate dangers to find the vile, cowardly, and despicable traitor; leaving him in disgrace, injured by the same men to whom he entrusted his life, those who hate the Spanish more than religion. […] Chapter 14 The turmoil in Zamboanga caused by the order to retire the infantry, and the ruins of that community of Christians. On June 19 [1662], the order [to retire the infantry] arrived in Zamboanga, where the armada of sampans in the charge of Admiral D. Diego Cortés

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from Terrenate had arrived earlier to provide reinforcements. […] But on the twenty-first of the month, upon seeing the Spaniards take down the artillery from their fort, they [the Christian Lutaos] were persuaded to abandon the post. There were a thousand different accounts of what was happening, for the versions depended on who fabricated them, and all were designed to cause unrest among the Lutaos. The governor [Fernando de Bobadilla] was warned by a loyal Lutao called don Juan Dumapiag that the people of his nation were trying to run away. This was intensified by the arrival of two more sampans from Terrenate, and by the general distribution of weapons, artillery and munitions. The governor gathered them [the Lutaos] and was able to calm them down by saying that they would not leave completely because fifty men were staying on patrol, and they would bring down the fortifications outside the fort while they went to fight against the Chinese, who were threatening the islands, and suggested they prepare their armada. […] In his presence, they were saying that they would do it, but in his absence, they laughed, and mentioning the governor’s offer, which had come on behalf of the captain general [Sabiniano Manrique de Lara], [they questioned] why they would want reserves or looting, if when they returned [from battle with the Chinese], they would find their wives and children captured. Don Pedro Tamyio was the one that governed these native people and he persuaded them to abandon the Spaniards, so they left and took refuge soon after with Corralat, having gained his mercy. Doña Ana Lampuyot, the daughter of the [Lutao] deputy general [maestro de campo] don Alonso Macombon, warned of what was happening and behaved as a true Spaniard and Christian, because she preferred her faith to her familial obligations, [despite the fact that] her father-in-law was the man who led the Lutaos’ efforts. She warned the governor that the unrest was widespread, and [as a result] all the people were convened: Jolos, Mindanaos and Lutaos. She was unaware of the day, but she warned him [the governor] not to allow her father-in-law to take her to the village of Buayabuaya because he would restrain her in Mindanao without her prior knowledge and without any warning. [This is] because they knew that she wanted to die among Christians. […] [How] admirable of a fourteen-year-old girl to have the determination to renounce her parents’ house and the authority she would enjoy in her village and in her husband’s village without the Spaniards. […] The person in charge [of defending the fort] was a lively ensign Nicolás García, a great favorite of the previous governor, who was compelled to betray [his fellow Spaniards] due to a lawless passion, and had planned to hand over the fort [to the Muslims]. […] He escaped first in a small boat

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with the [Lutao] leader’s mother-in-law and his brother-in-law, the latter being the person with whom he revealed information and had a deplorable relationship, turning the banner he carried into a vile and treacherous one. […] Those [natives] of Basilan knew better, as they sent him [the governor] the traitor ensign’s head, which had his beard trimmed and clothing worn by the Moors for their amusement. For he who is a traitor to the earthly king is a few steps away from being a traitor to the heavenly king; for he who lost his strength and shame does not fear God. […] Chapter 16 What happened in Zamboanga until its miserable abandonment […] These reasons did not provide any other comfort than some hope for the governor and priest, whose fallen spirits, so weak in their hearts, gave little encouragement to their fears. Falsely comforted with the arrival of aid from Terrenate, the orders from Manila were repeated; the governor lost the hope that his reports gave him of some change in the decision and everyone’s hearts fell with the knowledge they were bound to carry out such a merciless action. Those that said goodbye were just as teary-eyed as those that stayed […]. The priests gave them the house and church with all the treasures and altarpieces without taking out more than the images, ornaments, chalices and books due to the overcrowding of the ships on which more than a thousand souls and the ammunition and supplies were about to embark. More than 6,000 Christians [natives] were left to the cruelty of the Moors, enemies of our holy faith. And all of the islands were left exposed to their viciousness, which was bolder every day for having broken free from the chains that controlled it and not yet suspicious of another power that could take over and more motivated by greed, proud of the small price to pay for such great success. Father Luis Pimentel, the general procurator of this province of the Philippines, presented to the Royal Council, in the year 1666, the fatal and ruinous damage that the islands have suffered without redress due to the retreat of those guards, and those they can fear going forward. [These] are already known or predictable, from many years of experience, such as the corsairs who invaded the islands. The merciful compassion of the Royal Council of War and the Catholic majesty of our lady, the queen, who rules in these kingdoms was served with a royal document shown on December 30 of the same year that ordered the military to return to Zamboanga, on the islands of Mindanao, the only restraint for the prideful boldness of these Moors. Our Lord God, in your mercy, take charge of carrying out this decree that

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consists of the protection and defense of the flourishing Christianity that is so persecuted today and close to being lost due to the heart of the man that governs those provinces and to the execution of the prince’s will, as is expected of his zeal and prompt obedience, as everyone judges to be very necessary to the preservation of those islands, protection and refuge for all Christianity in the Orient, persecuted presently as far as great China, which was where it had been practiced with the most freedom. […]

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Bibliography Barrantes, Vicente. Guerras piráticas de Filipinas contra mindanaos y joloanos. Madrid: M. G. Fernández, 1878. Combés, Francisco de. Historia de las islas de Mindanao, Iolo, y sus Adyacentes: progressos de la Religion, y Armas Catolicas. Madrid: Herederos de Pablo del Val, 1667, Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, R/33103. ———. Historia de Mindanao y Joló. Edited by W. E. Retana. Madrid: Viuda de M. Minuesa de los Ríos, 1897. Demetrio, Francisco, SJ. “Religious Dimensions of the Moro Wars.” Mindanao Journal 3, no. 1 (1976): 35–64. Majul, Cesar Adib. Muslims in the Philippines. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1999. Montero y Vidal, José. Historia de la piratería malayo-mahometana en Mindanao, Joló y Borneo. Madrid: M. Tello, 1888. Phelan, John Leddy. The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses, 1565–1700. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959. Prieto Lucena, Ana María. “Musulmanes y españoles en Filipinas a finales del siglo XVI.” In Homenaje a la profesora Lourdes Díaz-Trechuelo, 115–122. Córdoba: Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Córdoba, 1991. Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Ana M. “Mapping Islam in the Philippines: Moro Anxieties of the Spanish Empire in the Pacific.” In The Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe, 1492–1700, edited by Javier Irigoyen-García and Marcus Keller, 85–99. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2018. ———. “Old Enemies, New Contexts: Early Modern Spanish (Re)-Writing of Islam in the Philippines.” In Coloniality, Religion, and the Law in the Early Iberian World, edited by Santa Arias and Raúl Marrero, 137–157. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2013. Sarangani, Datumanong Di A. “Islamic Penetration in Mindanao and Sulu.” Mindanao Journal 3, no. 3–4 (1977): 29–53.

About the Editor Ana M. Rodríguez-Rodríguez is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Letras liberadas: cautiverio, escritura y subjetividad en el Mediterráneo de la época imperial española (Visor, 2013), which explores the Spanish textual manifestations of captivity during the early modern period. She has published several articles about the Islamic regions of the Philippines in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is currently writing a book on Spanish presence in the Philippines during the early period of Spain’s colonial rule of the archipelago.

10. Between Fiction and History in the Spanish Pacific The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) Nicole D. Legnani

Abstract Chapter Three of The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez, attributed to the Novohispanic polymath Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora but widely believed to be based on a true account, tells the tale of the title character’s captivity among English pirates, who supposedly torture him for the information they need to execute savage raids on Spanish positions in the Philippines, and then plunder their way from Cambodia to Madagascar and Brazil. Nicole Legnani situates the excerpt in the larger story told by the novel as a whole and discusses the novel’s place in the broader context of colonial Latin American literature and its transpacific commitments. Keywords: colonial Latin American literature; New Spain; picaresque; Sigüenza y Góngora

At the intersection of transpacific and transatlantic commerce, the Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez (1690) was produced in New Spain during the late seventeenth century. While the narrative’s authorship is largely attributed to Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora—polymath, polyglot, cosmographer, archivist, historian, and frustrated Jesuit of New Spain—since 2007 a critical consensus has been reached that identifies Alonso Ramírez as the primary source of the story published by Sigüenza y Góngora in 1690.1 1 See Fabio López Lázaro’s introduction to his translation and Buscaglia’s critical edition for more on the historical Alonso Ramírez and his contact with Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora. A similar collaboration between author and shipwreck survivor is repeated three centuries later with Gabriel García Márquez, Luis Alejandro Velasco and the Relato de un náufrago (1970).

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch10

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The Infortunios is considered a foundational text, one of a few that contend for the status of “first novel” in the Latin American lettered tradition, all the while it exceeds—as Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel (2008) has argued—the transatlantic paradigm. Various elements of the narrative herald the themes and positions taken by Latin American authors over the longue durée: hybrid genre, multiple authorship, the blurring of history and fiction, and the various plays on political authority as well as authorial voice in the text. At the same time, the travails narrated in the Infortunios serve as a reminder of the discontinuities as well as the continuities between the precarious conditions faced by peripatetic subjects in the Hispanic-inflected world, both in the seventeenth as well as the twenty-first centuries. The itinerary of Alonso Ramírez’s various misfortunes invites us to think of New Spain at the center of the Spanish empire, but also of Spain at the periphery of the Pacific theater where various European empires—including the Dutch, English, and Portuguese—competed for regional hegemony. Narrated in the first-person, the Infortunios or Misfortunes tells the story of Alonso Ramírez, who, as a creole carpenter from Puerto Rico, decides to leave his native island for New Spain in search of work at thirteen years of age. In the first chapter, his decision to leave Puerto Rico is rendered in terms that are painfully topical: “Acknowledging that there was no steady work and fearing that I would be unable to make a living in the future […] I decided to steal my body away from my country in order to search for a better life in foreign ones.”2 His life in New Spain is filled with hunger, followed by marriage, then life as a widower, all within two years on the mainland. Ramírez then decides to punish himself for the crime of unemployment noting, “at this point I lost all hope of ever amounting to anything, and, finding myself both accused and convinced of my ineptitude in the court of my own conscience, I chose to condemn myself for this crime with the punishment that is given in Mexico to delinquents, which is to send them into exile in the Philippines.”3 Lest we believe the narrator’s portrayal of himself as a victim and an outcast, we should note that his self-imposed banishment is to follow the lucrative route of the Manila Galleon. Between the second and third chapters we follow his treacherous circumnavigation from Acapulco to the Philippines, around the Cape of Good Hope and back to the American hemisphere, off the coast of Brazil. Soon after receiving his commission and provisions from the presidio of Cavite in the Philippines, Alonso Ramírez is taken prisoner by British 2 3

Sigüenza y Góngora, Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez, 32–33. Sigüenza y Góngora, Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez, 36.

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and Protestant pirates. A journey that begins, ironically, as a self-imposed banishment for the crime of unemployment is transformed into one of wandering captivity; one that could have, perhaps, been prevented, were it not for the ineptitude of Spanish imperial bureaucracy—as Ramírez reports it—to provide more weapons and ammunition for the ship under his command. The British pirates quickly overcome their “ridiculous resistance,” in Ramírez’s appraisal, while the captives are soon put to work for their new masters. 4 As the pirates’ captive, Ramírez bears witness to massacre and English cannibalism of Pacific islanders. The fourth chapter of the Infortunios is dedicated to a detailed description of his travails. And yet we must question Ramírez’s judgement or the veracity of his tale when he offers the rationale behind his choices. For example, when given the option to become a free man in Madagascar, where blacks and Muslims rule, Ramírez chooses slavery among the pirates. At the same time, the narrator offers a contradictory portrayal of his indentured status with the English pirates: he was a “slave,” but one given command of one of the pirate ships. What are we to make of this wandering, prodigal creole son of Imperial Spain? Eventually, Ramírez and his men will be set free off the coast of Brazil, left to wend their way back to Veracruz. They are hardly welcomed back into the fold of the Spanish empire, however; suspicions remain. Could he be a double agent? His liberty once more becomes constrained as his ship is confiscated for a crusade and his tale of forced circumnavigation of the globe is investigated. The proceedings against Ramírez and the viceroy’s own interest in his story, perhaps as propaganda to procure more funds to protect New Spain against piracy, led to the recruitment of renowned Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora to retell Ramírez’s story of wandering captivity for a wider audience.

4

Sigüenza y Góngora, Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez, 43.

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Chapter Three of The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) by Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora An Account of the Robberies and Cruelties that These Pirates Waged on Land and at Sea until They Reached America5 As it was common knowledge that I was in command of the ship, the [pirates’] captain received me with feigned kindness. The first words out of his mouth were promises to free me, if I apprised him of which of the [Philippine] islands were the richest, or where the greatest pockets of resistance were to be found. I replied that we had only set sail from Cavite for the province of Ilocos, whence we came; yet my responses did not satisfy him. He pressed me, asking whether on the island of Capones, which from northwest to southeast lies 14 leagues from Mariveles, he could provision his ships, and if there were people there who would get in his way. I told him there was no settlement to be found there, but that I knew of a bay where he could procure his desired provisions. Had they followed my counsel, I intended for them to be caught unawares, not only by the native islanders, but also imprisoned by the Spanish who govern the island. Around ten that night they laid anchor where they thought suitable, and with these and other questions they asked me, we passed the night away. Before raising anchor, they brought my twenty-five men aboard the captain’s ship. An Englishman called Master Bel was at the helm; he had eighty men, twenty-four pieces of artillery and eight cannons, all bronze. The owner of the second ship was Captain Donkin; he had seventy men, twenty pieces of artillery and eight cannons; each had many shotguns, cutlasses, hatchets, grapnels, grenades, and pots filled with various foul-smelling ingredients. Despite my inquiries, I never learned where they had outfitted their ships to set sail for the open ocean. I only discovered that they had passed to the South Sea [Pacific Ocean] by Le Maire strait [Tierra del Fuego, Argentina], but then found it impossible to raid the coasts of Peru and Chile, as was their original intent, because they got hit by a gale of notable vehemence and persistence out of the east. Over eleven days they were driven 500 leagues from their meridian, and since it was not easy to make their way back, they decided to make do with what they had traveled thus far, and rob India, which was far richer. 5 Sigüenza y Góngora, Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own with Sarah L. Lehman’s 2011 edition as its base.

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I also learned that they had been on the Mariana Islands, after which, while grappling with noxious weather and high seas, they rounded Capes Engaño [Palaui Island, the Philippines] and Bojeador [Luzon Island, the Philippines], captured some Chinese and Indian junks and sampans,6 and arrived at Mariveles Bay [Luzon Island, the Phillipines], where they found me. With their frigates heading for Capones Island (with mine in tow), they started interrogating me again—even tormenting me—with pistols and swords; they bound me and a shipmate to the main mast, and, as I did not supply them with the places where they might find gold and silver, despite their questioning, they then laid hands on Francisco de la Cruz, a Sangley mestizo,7 my shipmate, and suspended him by a rope, upside down, until he fainted—his life hanging by a thread—onto the deck. They put me and my mates in the hold, whence I heard shouts and a blast. After a while, I was forced outside, and saw much blood; this they showed me, saying that one of my men had died and the same would happen to me if I didn’t give them the information they required. Humbly, I told them to do with me as they wished, because I had nothing to add to my first responses. From that moment on I sought to find out which of my companions had been killed, but after making my inquiries, I found all accounted for; this confused me. I later learned that the blood I had seen belonged to a dog, and that burden [on my conscience] was lifted. Disgruntled with my earlier responses, they then interrogated my boatswain, and—Indian8 that he was, he was always up to no good—from him 6 Sampan (champán) refers to a small flat-bottomed boat used for trading. 7 In the Philippines, Sangley referred to ethnically Chinese residents, mainly merchants in Manila. In the second chapter of the Infortunios, the narrator explains that the Sangleys lived and traded in lucrative businesses in “their Parián,” outside the city walls of Manila and only with the permission of the Spanish governor (11). In his identification of Francisco de la Cruz as a Sangley mestizo, the narrator may be indicating that Cruz is someone of Chinese and Spanish ancestry; thus far, this has been the critical consensus for interpreting Sangley mestizo in the Infortunios. However, Sangley mestizo may refer, instead, to a member of the far more numerous mestizo de sangley population in the Philippines, descended from unions between Sangley men who professed Catholicism and indias (native Filipino women). Converted Sangley men and their Catholic descendants often adopted Hispanic names. 8 Indian (indio) likely refers to native (Philippine islander) as opposed to mainland Chinese (chino), although in earlier and later chapters of the Infortunios set in New Spain, indio refers instead to natives of various Mesoamerican ethnicities. In its description of Ramírez’s encounters with many peoples in the Hispanic-inflected Pacif ic and Atlantic, the Infortunios provide reiterated examples of how interpretation of the term indio depended entirely on context. Even as it was applied to different peoples across the globe, use of the term indio denoted a distinct power relation between the Spanish empire and “the natives” of the Americas, India, Asia and the Pacific Islands.

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they heard about the settlement and fortress on Capones Island, the very same I had claimed was deserted. These reports, in addition to the pirates’ sighting of two horsemen following the coastline, were compounded by the lie that I had never left Cavite for Ilocos or known about the bay of Capones. Though they pretended otherwise, my captors had found me out; then they unsheathed their cutlasses and came at me with insults and curses. I never feared death more than at that very instant. But they commuted the sentence by pummeling me with so many kicks and blows that I was unable to move for days thereafter. They laid anchor where the islanders were least likely to harm them, and marooned the Indian owners of a junk, which they had seized on the sad and ill-fated day of my capture. They then charted their course to Pulo Condore [Con Son Island, Vietnam], an island inhabited by the Cochin Chinese off the coast of Cambodia, whereupon finding a port they set fire to my ship after emptying everything on it into their two frigates. Arming the dugouts with enough men, they landed and found the island’s denizens waiting for them without repugnance. The pirates told them that they would only take provisions and supplies to clean their ships’ hulls and would trade for local products, as needed. Out of fear, or other motives unbeknownst to me, the poor savages consented; in exchange for tar, fat, salted tortoise meat and other things, they received stolen clothes. Due to the lack of shelter on that island or their desire for what in other parts is considered too much, their nudity or curiosity forced them to commit the most shameless and base deed I have ever seen. While praising them for their beauty, mothers brought their daughters, husbands their own wives, to the Englishmen in exchange for a blanket or some other trinket. Their four-month stay in those parts thus became tolerable by such an ugly convenience, and yet the pirates could not live if they were not plundering. Once their ships were seaworthy, they loaded up as many supplies as they could before leaving the island. Yet they could not leave before repaying the people of Pulo Condore for their hospitality. On the very day they set sail, they attacked them at dawn while they were sleeping unawares, stabbing even the women they had impregnated, and setting fire to the rest of the village, all the while waving their flags as they joyously boarded their ships. I did not witness such unspeakable cruelty; but fearing that I would soon experience something similar, I heard the shots of artillery and saw the fires from the flagship, where I had remained behind. Had they celebrated such an abominable victory draining cases of liquor, as was their wont, it would matter little if the deed were relegated to silence; but having seen what I have seen, how could I remain silent without feeling

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the pain and qualms of not saying it? Among the spoils they brought, from their women and the supplies they had been given in the village, was a human arm from one who had perished in the fire; over repeated toasts, everyone took a slice and praised the succulent morsels until it was picked clean. As I watched, this brutish action scandalized and distressed me. One of the pirates sidled over to me with a piece, pestering me to try a bit. In response to my entirely warranted rejection, he told me: That since I was a Spaniard, and therefore, a coward, I ought to equal their valor by overcoming my squeamishness. He didn’t press me again after he was drawn away by his companions to second another toast. They spotted the Cambodian mainland on the third day and turning one way and the next they captured a sampan full of pepper; to those aboard the sampan they did what they had done to me, taking their silver and valuables. Without giving a thought to the pepper, they then removed the helm and sails before setting it adrift. Once they had left the people of the sampan ashore, they went to the deserted island of Pulo Ubi, where they found many coconuts and yams. Since they knew that my men and I had nowhere to run and hide, they took us off the boats to have us twist green reeds into cables. As we finished the job in a short number of days, we lost the use of our hands for many days thereafter. The prizes they had in these parts amounted to quite a sum, though there were no more than three vessels: one belonged to the king of Siam, and the other two to the Portuguese of Macao and Goa. In the first vessel was the ambassador of the aforesaid king to the governor of Manila, and he brought with him gifts of highly prized gems, many fruits, and precious cloths of that land. The profit from the second vessel was even greater, for its cargo was solely made up of extremely rich silk textiles from China and filigree gold jewelry in wholesale quantities destined for Europe via Goa. The third vessel belonged to the viceroy of Goa. It was under command of the ambassador being sent to the king of Siam for the following reason: A Genovese man—I know not the circumstances that brought him there—not only managed to gain the king of Siam’s favor, but also to be made the deputy of his main port. Made drunk with the power of such a position, he sentenced two Portuguese gentlemen who were visiting to have their hands cut off for minor infractions. When the viceroy of Goa heard the news, he asked not only for compensation but also for the Genovese man to be turned over to him for punishment. The gift served as a security deposit, meant to win over the king of Siam to whom it was addressed, as the viceroy’s demands did not belong within

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the realm of reasonable requests. On that ship, I saw and touched with my own hands: a tower or castle atop a goldenrod strewn with diamonds and other precious stones, in addition to, though not quite as valuable, much silver treasure, and camphor, ambergris and musk, besides the remaining items destined for barter and sale in the aforesaid kingdom [of Siam]. Now relieved of their burden, the three vessels were set alight; in this way the Portuguese, the Siamese and eight of my men were left on that deserted island as they left for Siantan [Pulau Tarempa, Indonesia], which is inhabited by Malays, a people whose dress does not cover past their waist and whose weapons are krisses. There the pirates traded for goats, coconuts and the oil used for landaians [kriss hilts] and other items, then attacked the poor savages in a dawn raid. After killing some and robbing all they set off for Tamburlan Island. The Macassars live there, whereupon the English—upset that they were unable to find what they had found elsewhere—set the settlement alight while its residents were still sleeping, then sailed for the great island of Borney [Borneo]. Having luffed for fourteen days along its western coast without any pillaging to show for it, they approached the port of Cicudana [Sukadana, Borneo] on that same island. In this land they found many precious stones, especially diamonds of great clarity. Inspired by greed to raid for, and possess, these gems, it so happened that some months before our arrival, the English who live in India asked the king of Borney—in the person of the governor of Cicudana—to open a trading post there. In dugout canoes the pirates sounded the riverbed, not only to sail there with larger ships, but to case the place. A native sampan, doing reconnaissance for the local governor, interrupted their exercise. They responded by asserting they were Englishmen who brought many noble and exquisite wares to trade for diamonds. As the Macassars had had friendly trade relations with Englishmen in the past and were shown the rich samples from the spoils of the ships sacked on Pulo Ubi, right then and there, they granted the pirates a commercial license. The pirates made the governor a hefty gift for which they received permission to sail upriver to the town—which is a quarter league from the marina—whenever they wished. During the three days we were there they confirmed that the place was defenseless and wide open [to attack]. Then the pirates suggested to the natives of Cicudana that since they could not tarry much longer that the diamonds be collected in the governor’s house, where the trade fair would be held. Leaving us prisoners heavily guarded aboard the ship, they sailed upriver heavily armed, caught the town by surprise, and struck the governor’s house first. There, they sacked the diamonds and gemstones that had been

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already collected [for the trade fair], and gathered many more from the many buildings, and other ships, that they then set alight. Having safely performed such an abominable betrayal, and having captured the governor and other illustrious notables, they hurried aboard and raised anchor at once. This pillage was exceptional for the incommensurate wealth gained at such little cost. Who might know its worth? I saw Captain Bel fill his hat to the brim just with diamonds. We reached the port of Baturiñan [Batudinging Island, Indonesia] in six days and then abandoned it for useless and dropped anchor, instead, in Pulitiman [Pulo Tioman, Malaysia], where they brought provisions of drinking water and wood aboard. After marooning the governor and other grandees of Cicudana (not before torturing and starving them first), they set their course for Bengala [the Bay of Bengal] as it is the most frequented by ships. In just a few days they caught two large ships belonging to black Moors, loaded with satin, ivory tusks, silk gazar, and cotton chintzes, and after unburdening them of their most precious cargo, they set their ship on fire and killed many Moors in cold blood, though they let the survivors avail themselves of their own small launches to depart. Until this moment they had not encountered any ship capable of opposing them, but it was there, perhaps by chance, or because they had already made a name for themselves as thieves in these parts, that four heavily armed warships appeared, all manned by the Dutch, so it seemed. The Dutch were on our leeward side, while the pirates tried to keep the weather gauge as much as possible until under the cover of night, they veered course for Pulilaor [Puli Aur], where they replenished their supplies and took on fresh water. No longer feeling safe anywhere, and fearful of losing the invaluable riches they already had, they decided to leave that archipelago. Wondering whether it would be better to reach the open sea through the Sunda or Sincapura Straits, they chose the latter as it was closer, though lengthier and treacherous, casting aside the other option which, though shorter and easier to sail, was farther off; more to the point, Sunda had more traffic from the many ships that go to and from New Batavia, as I mentioned above. Trusting in a pilot of that aforementioned strait whom they already had aboard, and aided by the wind and currents, flying Dutch flags and with arms at the ready, they waited for the cover of night, then entered the strait with desperate resolve and ran almost the entire length of it without crossing another ship until the second day. It was a frigate whose keel was 33 cubits long, carrying rice and a fruit called “bonga” [mace], and while they attacked it (so as not to lose the habit of stealing, even as they fled) the Malay sailors jumped ship and swam ashore, thus saving their lives. Happy to have found

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a new vessel that they could use to redistribute the heavy cargo, the pirates reallocated it in this way: seven men were assigned with ten artillery pieces with ammunition from each ship to the new one. They then set sail and at around five in the evening that very day they left the strait. At this moment five of my men disappeared. I presume they were able to take advantage of how close we were to land and, thus, swam to their liberty. After twenty-five days at sea we saw an island whose name I don’t recall. As it was likely inhabited by Portuguese, or so they said or presumed, we kept our distance and set course instead for New Holland, a land yet to be reconnoitered by the Europeans, and possessed, it seems, by savages. After three months we arrived there. Once the men who were sent in the dugouts came ashore, they found the vestiges of people who had been in those parts, but since forceful winds were against us and no good anchorage to be found, a better mooring was sought. A flat island served this purpose, providing not only shelter and sea room for the ships, but also a sweet water stream, many tortoises, and no people; there they decided to heave down the ships before returning home. They did so, while my men and I mended their sails and salted meat. After four months or so, we were ready to voyage again, and set sail for the island of Madagascar, or San Lorenzo; by running on easterly winds, we arrived in twenty-eight days. With the blacks who live on the island they traded for many chickens, goats and cows, and as they were informed that an English merchant ship was about to make port there to trade with the blacks, they decided to wait for it and so they did. This is not what I inferred from their actions and conversations, rather I expected them to try and capture the ship; but once they saw that the merchant ship was heavily armed and well-manned, both parties exchanged many salutes and pleasantries. The merchants gave the pirates liquor and wine, and the latter gave several choice gifts from what they had stolen in abundance. Though not by force (which was impossible), Captain Bel wasted no opportunity to take possession of that vessel in any way possible; but what Captain Bel did not want for cunning and greed, the merchant captain did not lack in vigilance and wisdom, and so the latter never came aboard our ship (despite the many and insistent invitations extended his way, all declined) and proceeded with caution. Nor were Bel and Donkin any less cautious. So that the merchants would not find out what they were up to, the pirates commanded me and my men under penalty of death to say that we were voluntary sailors in their employ as we were the only ones who raised the merchants’ suspicions. Two of my companions disobeyed this command by speaking to a Portuguese man who was traveling with them, and suddenly merciful—to

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the extent that they did not take their lives—they instantly sentenced my two companions to receive six lashes from each pirate. Since the pirates numbered 150, the lashes totaled 900, and the whip was such and the whipping so violent that they were dead by morning. They tried to leave me and my few companions who remained on that island; but considering the savagery of the black Moors who lived there, I got down on my knees and kissed their feet, reminding them of how well I had served them, so that they offered me to remain for the rest of their trip as their slave; in this way, I succeeded in convincing them to bring me along. Then they offered, as they had on other occasions, that if I swore an oath to join them that they would give me weapons. I thanked them for the favor, and reflecting on my obligations acquired at birth, I responded with affected humility that it was easier for me to serve them than to fight against others, because of my great fear of bullets. Then they called me a Spanish coward and chicken, unworthy of joining their company, which would do me too great an honor; in this way, they stopped entreating me to join them. Having taken their leave from the merchants, and well stocked in supplies, they set the course for the Cape of Good Hope, off the African coast, and after two months of sailing, after luffing along the coast for five days, they rounded it. Then for about a month and a half they followed a long stretch of coastline, until they reached an Island of Stones, whereupon they took provisions of wood and fresh water, with prows aiming west and strong winds behind us, we reached the Brazilian coast in twenty-five days. We sailed along the coast for two weeks, tacking and closing our distance to the coastline, during which time they twice sent ashore six men who spoke with some Portuguese—I know not who they were—and traded for some refreshments. We followed this course until we came upon a vast river, measuring 5 fathoms at the mouth, where they laid anchor. If I’m not mistaken, it was the Amazon river.

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Bibliography First and Selected Recent Editions and Translations of the Infortunios Sigüenza y Góngora, Carlos de. Infortunios que Alonso Ramírez natural de la ciudad de S. Juan de Puerto Rico padeció […] en poder de ingleses piratas. Mexico City: Viuda de Bernardo Calderón, 1690. ———. Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez. Edited by Sara L. Lehman. Newark, DE: Cervantes & Co., 2011. ———. Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez. Edited by José Francisco Buscaglia Salgado. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2011. ———. The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez: The True Adventures of a Spanish American with 17th-century Pirates. Translated from the Spanish by Fabio López Lázaro. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2011. ———. Peripezie di Alonso Ramírez. Translated from the Spanish by Teresa Cirillo Sirri. Napoli: Alfredo Guida, 1996.

Selected Bibliography on the Infortunios Arrom, José Juan. “Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora. Relectura criolla de los Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez.” Thesaurus, Boletín del Instituto Caro y Cuervo 42, no. 1 (1987): 23–46. Bazarte Cerdán, Willebaldo. “La primera novela mexicana.” Humanismo 7, no. 50–51 (1958): 88–107. Bost, David H. “Historians of the Colonial Period: 1620–1700.” In The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, edited by Roberto González Echevarría and Aníbal González, vol. 1: 143–190. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Buscaglia-Salgado, José F. “The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) and the Duplicitous Complicity between the Narrator, the Writer, and the Censor.” Dissidences: Hispanic Journal of Theory and Criticism 1, no. 1 (2005): 1–42. Castagnino, Raúl H. “Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora o la picaresca a la inversa.” Razón y Fábula, no. 25 (1971): 27–34. González, Aníbal. “Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez: picaresca e historia.” Hispanic Review 5, no. 3 (1983): 189–204. Greer Johnson, Julie. “Picaresque Elements in Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora’s Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez.” Hispania 64, no. 1 (March 1981): 60–67. Leonard, Irving Albert. Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, a Mexican Savant of the Seventeenth Century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1929. López Arias, Julio. “El género en Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez.” In Época Colonial. Vol. 1 of Historia y crítica de la literatura hispanoamericana, edited by

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Cedomil Goïc, 411–416. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica/Grupo Editorial Grijalbo, 1998. López Lázaro, Fabio. “La mentira histórica de un pirata caribeño: el trasfondo histórico de Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez (1690).” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 64, no. 2 (2007): 87–104. Lorente Medina, Antonio. La prosa de Sigüenza y Góngora y la formación de la conciencia criolla mexicana. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultural Económica, 1996. Martínez-San Miguel, Yolanda. “Colonial No More: Limits of the Transatlantic Episteme.” In From Lack to Excess: “Minor” Readings of Latin American Colonial Discourse, 142–184. The Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2008. More, Anna. Baroque Sovereignty: Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora and the Creole Archive of Colonial Mexico. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Riobó, Carlos. “Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez: de crónica a protonovela americana.” Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana 27, no. 1 (1998): 70–78. Ross, Kathleen. “Cuestiones de género en Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez.” Revista Iberoamericana 61, no. 172–73 (1995): 591–603. Torres Duque, Oscar. “El infortunio como valor épico: una aproximación a la dimensión épica de la crónica novelesca Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez de Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora.” Inti: Revista de Literatura Hispánica 55–56 (2002): 109–128.

About the Editor Nicole D. Legnani is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University. Her work focuses on the intersection between venture capital, the laws of peoples, and theology in the conquest of America. She is currently working on two book projects, tentatively titled Trading Fictions: Love, Enterprise, and the Law in Iberian Conquests of the Long Sixteenth Century and The (Dis)Possessed: Insurgent Voices in 1560s Peru. She is also the translator and editor of Titu Cusi: A 16th-century Account of the Conquest (Harvard University Press, 2005). Her articles have appeared in Hispanic American Historical Review, Romance Notes, and in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.

11. A Moluccan Crypto-Muslim before the Transpacific Inquisition (1623–1645) Ryan Dominic Crewe

Abstract In 1623 and again in 1643, a Moluccan soldier by the name of Alexo de Castro became one of the few individuals to be shipped from Manila to Mexico to face trial by the Inquisition, which operated out of New Spain. In the trial documents, we learn of his life as a mestizo of Portuguese and Southeast Asian lineage who traveled from the Moluccas to Goa and then to Manila in the course of his career as a soldier. We also learn of this mestizo’s alleged adherence to the practice of Islam and hear the voices of the women who accused him of sexual assault. Ryan Dominic Crewe places the document in the context of institutional history and in that of the global mestizaje characteristic of Iberian maritime imperialism. Keywords: Inquisition; Islam; mestizaje; women; sexual assault

In 1623, a Moluccan soldier named Alexo de Castro was arrested by authorities of the Holy Off ice of the Inquisition in Manila. Denounced by his wife, Ynés de Lima, for secretly observing the Muslim faith in Manila, Castro faced inquisitorial investigations that initially were inconclusive. Alexo de Castro was released. Two decades later, Ynés de Lima and her slave María de Lima denounced Alexo de Castro for secretly observing Islam in Manila, for sexually abusing women in his household, and for making heretical statements regarding fornication. Considering this alleged crypto-Muslim a threat to Christianity society, inquisitors sent him to Mexico City, the seat of the inquisitorial district of which the Philippines was a part, for trial. Castro was ultimately tried, found guilty,

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and sentenced to perpetual confinement in a monastery in Mexico City for the remainder of his life.1 The Inquisition trials of Alexo de Castro are valuable to the history of the early modern Hispano-Asian Pacific world on several levels. In institutional terms, the case is entirely unique: the Comissariat of the Inquisition in Manila was a branch of the Holy Office that reported to the Tribunal of the Inquisition based in Mexico City, which throughout the early modern period retained its exclusive authority to conduct trials and issue sentences. The fraught logistics of the transpacific galleon links between the Philippines and Mexico all but guaranteed that very few inquisitorial prisoners would ever be sent to Mexico for trial. Alexo de Castro’s case was therefore a rarity: it is one of but a handful of complete inquisitorial trials from the colonial Philippines.2 Inquisitors in Manila deemed Alexo de Castro’s case to be exceptional due to the perceived gravity and danger of his offenses. Seventeenth-century Manila was, in addition to a thriving multicultural port, a vulnerable strategic base for a series of unending wars that Spanish Manila helped wage on southern maritime frontiers with Islamic communities in Mindanao, Sulu, and Maluku. Although he had served in numerous military campaigns in defense of the Habsburg monarchy in the Spice Islands, India, and northern Luzon, Alexo de Castro was suspect precisely because he was a native of the Moluccas, where Muslim sultanates inflicted great humiliations on Spanish arms and local alliances were notoriously unreliable. In Manila, Castro formed part of a growing community of Moluccan immigrants and refugees whose loyalty to Christianity was highly suspect. The allegations that Alexo de Castro was secretly observing Islam therefore played into geopolitical anxieties and local security concerns that were specific to seventeenth-century Manila. Yet while Alexo de Castro’s case is exceptional, its rich documentation connects with broader social and cultural patterns in the early modern Pacific world. As Edoardo Grendi remarked, “an exceptional document can turn out to be exceptionally normal.”3 The Castro trials connect to multiple 1 For a full contextualization of both trials in the context of the Pacific world, see Crewe, “Transpacific Mestizo.” 2 During the 230-year life of the Comissariat of the Inquisition in Manila, only twenty-eight suspects were transferred to Mexico City for trial. Nonetheless, the Comissariat received and processed denunciations and confessions, and it still applied penitential punishments that fell short of full sentencing. See Delor Angeles, “Philippine Inquisition”; Toribio Medina, El Tribunal del Santo Oficio; and Bertrand, Le long remords de la conquête. 3 Grendi, “Micro-Analisi e storia sociale,” 512.

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contexts: the global conflict that enveloped Castro’s Moluccan archipelago, the experience of dispersal and mobility in the Indian Ocean and Pacific worlds, the global scale of mestizaje that unfolded in ordinary families in Manila, and the perils of negotiating ethno-religious politics in Iberian structures of power—especially for neophytes, mestizos, and indigenous peoples. Finally, at the core of this trial record there is also a family history, in which victims of gruesome domestic abuses evidently used the Inquisition as an instrument to bring their suffering to an end. The following selection from Alexo de Castro’s trial provides a snapshot of inquisitorial procedure, Castro’s mestizo genealogy, accusations of cryptoIslam, domestic abuse allegations, and final sentencing.

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Alexo de Castro’s Two Trials4 Trial 1—Manila, 1623–1625 Criminal Trial Agaist Alexo de Castro, mestizo, native of Tidore in Ternate. ~~Case not pursued.~~ Accusation In Manila, on June 20, 1623 […] before the Reverend Fr. Fray Domingo González, vicar and provincial of the Order of Preachers, commissary of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in these islands, Fr. Juan Rodríguez Gutiérrez, priest at the parish of Santiago, outside the walls of this city, of fifty years of age more or less, appeared without being summoned. And to unburden his conscience he states and denounces the following: ~ That he has been serving as priest for two years at the said parish, at which one of his parishioners is Alexo de Castro, mestizo born of a Spaniard and a woman from Ternate [terrenata], which is Mohammedan. And in all this time the said Alexo de Castro has never attended mass nor confession, nor any other sacraments. For this reason, this witness has placed him on the list [tablilla] of excommunications for the past four years. And although this witness on many occasions has admonished [Alexo de Castro] to confess, he has never seen him [in church] nor has he given his excommunication any consideration. Furthermore, the mother-in-law of the said Alexo de Castro has told this witness that [Alexo] does not attend mass nor does he go to confession. Instead he has performed prayers that seem to be Moorish. And [she adds] that he maintained a close friendship with the king of Ternate, who is imprisoned in this city and is a Mohammedan Moor. And this is the truth, by the oath that this witness has made. And having had his statement read to him, he stated that it was correct and that he has not made this denunciation out of hatred. He has been sworn to secrecy and he signed his name.

Juan Rodríguez Gutiérrez

4 Both trials are housed at the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City. The first trial can be found in Inquisición vol. 350, exp. 1; the second trial is in Inquisición vol. 418, exp. 5.

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First Hearing In the city of Manila, on the eighth of July in the year 1624, being present the Reverend Fr. Fray Francisco de Herrera of the Order of St. Dominic, commissary of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, in his monastery in an afternoon hearing, he commanded that Alexo de Castro, soldier, be brought from the public jail of this city to appear before him. And in his presence, the said Alexo de Castro made an oath according to the law, promising to tell the whole truth in this hearing as well as in all others that will be held until his case is decided, and he promised to uphold secrecy regarding everything that he sees and understands here, and everything that takes place regarding his case. ~ The commissary asked him to state his name, his place of birth, his age, his occupation, and how long he has been imprisoned. The prisoner stated that his name is Alexo de Castro, native of Tidore in Ternate, is thirty-six years old more or less, is a soldier by occupation, and he has been imprisoned for two days. ~ The commissary asked him for the names of his parents. Alexo de Castro stated that his father is Juan de Castro, who died more than twenty years ago. And [though] he was of the Portuguese nation, he does not know in which land he was born. His mother was doña Felipa Duca, an india5 of Tidore and sister of the king of Bachan. She died ten years ago. And he is married to Ynés de Lima, an india native of India, and he does not know her natural parents, though he does know that she was born here in Manila, and an indio named Pablo de Lima took her as his daughter. ~ The commissary asked him regarding his paternal grandparents. Alexo de Castro stated that he does not know them, and he has only heard that his paternal grandfather was named Lorenço de Castro, and he does not know where he was born. And regarding his paternal grandmother, he does not recall ever hearing her name, nor where she was born. ~ The commissary asked him regarding his maternal grandparents. Alexo de Castro stated that he has never heard their names; he has only heard that they were Moors in the sect of Mohammed. ~ The commissary asked him regarding his paternal uncles. Alexo de Castro stated that he did not know any of them, though he has heard of an aunt who lived in India, named Angela de Castro, who was 5 In this usage, indio/a indicates an indigenous person. The term connotes gentile status as opposed to an affiliation with Islam (moro/a). The distinction between indios and moros is pivotal in this trial, as Alexo de Castro seeks as much as possible to identify his origins with indios—gentiles—while his opponents directly associate him with moros—Muslims. See Crewe, “Transpacific Mestizo,” 476.

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widowed without children. And of her husband he does not know anything. She now is also deceased. ~ The commissary asked him regarding his maternal uncles. Alexo de Castro stated that he knew five uncles, all his mother’s brothers born to both of her parents. All are moros and one of them was the king of the island of Bachan, but he does not know his name and he is now deceased. Another uncle is named Quichil Muça; he is a lord of vassals married to a mora named Boquiquire, and he does not have children. And the abovementioned uncle who was king had two children, one of whom is currently reigning as king of Bachan, but he does not know his name. The king’s other child is a daughter named Nichilihongue. And another uncle is named Chicatara, also deceased, who was married with a mora whose name he does not know, and he does not know if they had children. The fifth uncle was named Datudara, who is not married and is the lord of Bachan. ~ The commissary asked if he has brothers. Alexo de Castro stated that he had eight brothers, all deceased. The oldest was named Sebastián de Castro, unmarried, native of Tidore. Only this brother remains alive, but he considers him dead because he was held captive by the Dutch; the second was named Baltaçar de Castro, who was unmarried. And of the rest, the third was named Melchior de Castro; the fourth was Silvestre de Castro; the fifth was Thome de Castro; the sixth brother was named Gregorio de Castro; the seventh was named Domingo de Castro, the eighth and last [sic]. ~ The commissary asked him if he is married and if he has a wife. Alexo de Castro stated that he is married with an india named Ynés de Lima, native of India and raised in this city [criolla desta ciudad], and he married her about twelve years ago more or less, and he has a daughter by her, who is now a young girl. ~ The commissary asked him of what caste and generación were his parents and grandparents […] and if any of them have been imprisoned, subjected to inquisitorial penitence [penitençiado], reconciled, or condemned by the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Alexo de Castro stated that on his father’s side, his paternal grandparents are Portuguese, and he does not know, nor has he ever heard of them being imprisoned or condemned by the Holy Office. On his mother’s side, his maternal grandparents are all Mohammedans of Ternate [terrenates mahometanos], and none of them has been nor is Christian, except for his mother. ~ The commissary asked him if he is a baptized and confirmed Christian, and if he hears mass and takes communion when mandated by the Holy Mother Church.

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Alexo de Castro stated that he is Christian and was baptized in Tidore as a child, and he does not know if he is confirmed, although his mother and friends have told him that he is. ~ The commissary asked him if he hears mass on holy days. Alexo de Castro stated that he attends mass in monasteries and churches wherever he finds himself, sometimes in the Church of St. Dominic, others in the cathedral or at the Recollects, and he has confessed and taken communion every year with Fr. Lorenço Masonio of the Company of Jesus, and he has taken communion in the cathedral of this city. Alexo de Castro then made the sign of the cross and said the Our Father, Ave Maria and the Credo. He said the prayers clearly and well, and he does not know the rest of the Christian doctrine. ~ The commissary asked him if he knows how to read and write, and if he has learned a trade. Alexo de Castro stated that he knows how to read and write and knows no other trade than soldiering, and that a Portuguese priest named Matheo Luis taught him to read and write. ~ The commissary asked him if he has traveled outside the kingdom of Luzon. Alexo de Castro stated that he has made two return trips to Ternate as a soldier to join the forces there. ~ The commissary asked him to tell his life story [discurso de la vida]. Alexo de Castro stated that he was born in Tidore, where he was raised until he was twelve or thirteen years old, and from there he fled school and went to Malacca, and from there he went to India, where he served as a page for the Portuguese. He was in Cochin for two or three months, and then traveled from there to Goa with a Portuguese gentleman [caballero] named Simón Serrano, where he lived for some years, about six or seven years. From there he returned to Ternate as a soldier in the service of Simón Serrano, where he also lived for some years until the [Spanish] forces in Tidore were defeated [by the Dutch]. After that he came to this city of Manila where he took a post as a soldier, and in this capacity, he returned to Ternate [in the reconquest led by Juan de Silva in 1606], where he stayed for over a year. He then returned to this city, where he got married, and after marrying he returned to serve in Ternate without a salary due to a debt he owed to his parents-in-law. He remained in Ternate for more than two years, and then he returned to this city, where he has since had contact with Moors, although he has not attended any of their ceremonies. ~ The commissary asked him if he knows or suspects why he has been imprisoned and brought before this Holy Office.

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Alexo de Castro stated that he does not know the reason. The commissary informed Alexo de Castro that this Holy Office is not accustomed to arrest anyone without sufficient information that certain things have been said, done, or performed, or information that someone had witnessed others say or do something that is or seems to be contrary to our holy Catholic faith and evangelical law, which the holy Roman Catholic Church preaches, follows, and teaches, or that obstructs the proper and free functions of this Holy Office. Accordingly, he should understand that he has been brought here based on such information. Therefore, in reverence for God Our Father and his Glorious and Blessed Mother Our Lady the Virgin Mary, he is admonished and instructed to recall his memory, declare, and confess completely the truth of anything for which he may be guilty, or anything he might know about others who may be guilty, without concealing anything. Nor should he give false testimony against himself or anyone else. By [testifying honestly], he would unburden his conscience as a Catholic Christian and he would save his soul, and his case would be closed with all appropriate speed and mercy. If not, justice will be served. Alexo de Castro stated that he does not know anything, except for the fact that he was placed on the list at the parish of Santiago Outside-the-Walls [extramuros]. Otherwise he fulfilled his duties there and in the parish of this city. After his statement was read back to him in this hearing, he stated that it was well written and he stated that it is true, and there is nothing that needs to be amended, and, if necessary, he could say the same thing again. And having been admonished to think carefully and say the complete truth, he was sent back to prison. Signed by Fray Francisco de Herrera; Alexo de Castro; before me, Santiago de Gastelu, notary. On July 11, 1624, the Reverend Fr. Fray Francisco Herrera in his morning hearing ordered Alexo de Castro to be brought back from prison. And having arrived at the hearing Alexo de Castro was asked to recall his memory, and under the oath that he made, he was [ordered] to speak the whole truth. Alexo de Castro stated that what he remembers and recalls is that more than a year ago he was discussing a story about St. Joan with an Indian native of Cochin named Antonio Lopez, who had told him that the stories about St. Joan were not valid because her confessor had revealed at the hour of his death that they were all a fiction and that the said saint was not a saint, and that she had even sinned with her confessor. This is what Alexo de Castro heard from the said Indian, and exactly as he heard this,

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he retold it to his wife. He therefore believes that it is she who must have accused him. And he knows of nothing else. Alexo de Castro was reminded that in the previous hearing he was admonished in the name of God and his Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary that he recall his memory and unburden his conscience, stating the whole truth about what he might have done or said, or about anything he might have witnessed or heard others do or say things that were or might seem to be in offense of the Lord Our God or against his holy Catholic faith and evangelical law that the Holy Mother Church guards and teaches, or against the proper and free exercise of this Holy Office, without concealing anything about himself or others, or incriminating himself or anyone else through false testimonies. And now, for the third admonishment he is admonished and charged to do the same, because in doing so rightly, he will do what he must as a Catholic Christian and his case will be dispatched with all the brevity that is possible. If not, justice will be served. Alexo de Castro stated that he does not recall anything else other than what he has already stated, and upon being admonished to think carefully again and state the whole truth, he was sent back to prison. Signed Friar Francisco de Herrera; Alexo de Castro; before me, Fr. Andrés Gómez, notary. In the city of Manila, on July 13, 1624, the Reverend Commissary Fray Francisco de Herrera in his afternoon hearing ordered that Alexo de Castro be brought from prison, and in his presence Alexo de Castro was asked if he remembered anything, and by his oath that he made he was to tell the whole truth. Alexo de Castro stated that he has nothing to add beyond what he has already stated. The commissary informed Alexo de Castro that in previous hearings he was admonished on behalf of God the Father and his Glorious and Blessed Mother Our Lady the Virgin Mary that he should recall his memory and unburden his conscience by stating the whole truth […] And now for the third admonishment he is admonished and charged to do the same, because by doing so he will do what he must as a Catholic Christian and his case will be dispatched with all brevity and mercy possible, and if he does not do so, justice will be served. Alexo de Castro stated the same thing that he said before, that he does not know anything. The commissary informed Alexo de Castro that the prosecutor of this Holy Office wishes to subject him to torture, and that this would be very good

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for the unburdening of his conscience as well as for the quick and effective dispatch of his case. But before this is done, he should state the truth, as he has been admonished […] If he does so there will be mercy, as the Holy Office’s custom towards good confessants. If not, however, he is informed that the prosecutor will be heard, and justice will be served. Alexo de Castro stated that he does not have anything to say. […] In the city of Mexico, on Tuesday, March 18, 1625, being present the inquisitors Doctor Juan Gutiérrez Florez, Licentiate Gonçalo Messia Lobo, and Doctor don Francisco Bazán de Albornoz, and Doctor Pedro Garçés del Portillo, canon of the cathedral of the city and governor of this archdiocese and its district, and the fathers Doctor Pedro de Fatigosa, of the Company of Jesus, and Fray Batholomé de Burguillos of the Discalced Order of St. Francis, difinidor of the Province of San Diego, all of whom are calificadores [internal reviewers] of the Holy Office, reviewed inquisitorial cases during their afternoon hearing. They examined the criminal case brought in Manila by the commissary of this Holy Office against Alexo de Castro, mestizo. And they were unanimous in the opinion that the commissary of this Holy Office in the city of Manila should summon Alexo de Castro, without being apprehended by the familiares [lay informants], and in his presence he should admonish him that henceforth he must reform himself, otherwise he shall be gravely punished. And the commissary is to order Fr. Masonio of the Company of Jesus to instruct Alexo de Castro well in matters of our holy Catholic faith and Christian doctrine, and with this the sequestration of [Alexo’s] belongings is to be completely ended, his belongings are to be returned to him, and he is to be released from prison. […]

Trial 2—Manila and Mexico, 1643–1645 Very Illustrious Lord, I, Doctor Antonio de Gaviola, prosecutor of this Holy Office, in the best way and form in which the law allows, appear before Your Lordship to lodge this criminal accusation against Alexo de Castro, vecino of this city of Manila, native of the city of Tidore in the Moluccas, island of Ternate,6 imprisoned in the secret prison of this Holy Office, who is here present. And I state: 6 Here the Mexican Inquisitors made a geographical error: Tidore is an island in the same northern Moluccan archipelago as Ternate. Indeed, Tidore and Ternate were traditional rivals and enemies throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Mexico, which both

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That the said Alexo de Castro, being a baptized Christian and as such enjoying the privileges and exemptions to which he is entitled, has said and committed many grave crimes against our holy Catholic faith and evangelical law, living in observance and obedience in the false sect and law of Mohammed, for which he is highly suspect as a heretic, as is demonstrated by the information that I present. I request of your graces that the said Alexo de Castro be apprehended, that all of his belongings be sequestered, and that he be brought to the secret prison of this Holy Office, and upon his arrival at the said prison I intend to present a more formal accusation. For which I ask for justice and I give my oath according to the law: Signed: Doctor don Antonio de Gaviola First Witness: María de Lima, slave of this prisoner. In the town [pueblo] of Binondo, on August 18, 1643, before the Reverend Fr. Fray Francisco de Herrera, commissary of the Holy Office, there appeared a woman named María de Lima, a slave of Ynés de Lima, born and raised in this land [criolla], of forty-five years of age more or less. And she swore to tell the truth regarding what she knew, and she was asked the following: Asked if she knows or has heard anything about any person who might have committed any acts under the purview of the Holy Office: She stated that about three days ago Alexo de Castro, the husband of her mistress, Ynés de Castro, took her to the town [pueblo] of Tondo and tried to violate her. And she told him not to do this, since he had had sex with her younger daughter, and with a sister. He replied that this was not a sin as long as sex was not with one’s parents. She resisted, and he then assaulted her, and in a shack, he violated her. And not satisfied with this, he did many rough things by placing rings on [his member], stating that he did this to provoke volition. And on other occasions he would chase after her, whipping her, cutting her hair, and branding her on her face. For this reason, she has lived most of the time outside the [Castro] household, absenting herself and fleeing because she knew that he would force himself on her, and when he found her alone he would insist that this was not a sin, since even priests would go do the same right after they said mass. ~ Also, she has seen Alexo de Castro perform the salah, which is a Moorish ceremony, joining his hands and kissing them, and then lying on the ground funded and provided recruits for Spain’s Moluccan wars from 1580 to 1662, the entire Moluccan archipelago was often referred to simply as “Ternate,” the foremost kingdom in the region. See Andaya, World of Maluku.

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and raising his eyes to heaven, which he does in front of a wooden pillar, from which a key is hanging. ~ Also, Alexo de Castro has asked her to bring him graveyard soil [tierra de muertos] from the cemetery of the church of San Antón. And because she refused to do this, he abused her on several occasions. ~ Also, she has seen that on his left arm there are three or four scars, in which he inserts various herbs, and she does not know how he manages to put them in his flesh without drawing blood from his arm. And in sum, she considers him more a Moor than a Christian, not only in light of what she has said here, but also due to his bad reputation. And this is the truth, by the oath that she made, and it is not necessary to amend her statement, and she states that she has not testified out of hatred or passion towards him, and she has only been moved by her conscience. Signed: Fray Francisco de Herrera; before me Nicolás de Luzuriaga, notary of the Holy Office. This corresponds with the original, which is filed in the archive of the Holy Office. Nicolás Luzuriaga, notary of the Holy Office. Second witness: Ynés de Lima, wife of Alexo de Castro. In the town of Binondo, on August 18, 1643, before the Reverend Fr. Fray Francisco de Herrera, commissary of the Holy Office, a woman appeared without being summoned who stated that her name was Ynés de Lima, legal resident [vecina] of the town [pueblo] of San Antón, outside the city walls, born in Portuguese India to Christian parents, of forty years of age more or less, married to Alexo de Castro, mestizo son of a Portuguese man and a Ternatan woman [terrenata]. And she swore to tell the truth so that her conscience may be unburdened. She stated that she denounced her said husband for his doubtful faith, having seen him perform a Moorish ceremony in which he hung a sword and a key with a thread tied around a beam, and then in the style of the salah with his hands raised to his mouth, he knelt and outstretched his arms in the form of a cross. And she has seen him [do this] on three occasions at night around ten o’clock. Moreover, she has seen him insert herbs and other things into his left arm, where he has three or four scars. And she cannot understand how he is able to do this without cutting his flesh, and she has marveled much at this. And when she asked him what this was for, he responded that he did this to ward off his enemies in wartime, evade the law, and attract all who looked upon him. Moreover, she discovered some roots beneath her own pillow, which she presumes was sorcery.

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Moreover, she stated that he had carnal relations inside their own home with two sisters of the town, and with this witness’s own slaves, and also with a daughter of one of these slaves, who is now dead, whom he had deflowered. Moreover, her husband had abused her because she had not consented to his performing brutish things during intercourse, the details of which shall not be written here for prudence. For this reason, they no longer cohabit. Moreover, Alexo de Castro showed her four rings, which had the circumference of a real a cuatro, made of thin roots. He placed these on his member every time he wished to have intercourse with her. This caused her great shame and abhorrence. And when she scolded him for behaving so badly in their marriage, he would simply go make yet another ring for himself. Asked if she knows if Alexo de Castro confesses, takes communion, and hears mass: Ynés de Lima stated that she has not seen him at mass for three years, except during Holy Week. Nonetheless she has heard others state that they have seen him at mass, and this witness would tell him that they could attend mass together during jubilees and feast days to obtain indulgences and graces that are given on those days. Alexo de Castro responded that she should leave him alone and she could account for her own soul and had no need to give him such advice. And in sum she stated that Alexo de Castro is not very Christian, but has much that is Moorish [tiene mucho de moro] due to the frequent communication that he has always had with the moros of Ternate, although she has also seen him continuously with a rosary in his hand. And this is the truth, by the oath she has made, and she has not done this out of hatred or abhorrence towards him, but rather to unburden her conscience, as her confessors have recommended. She did not sign because she is illiterate. Signed: Fray Francisco de Herrera; before me Nicolás de Luzurriega, notary of the Holy Office. Accusation against Alexo de Castro, for Mohammedan heresy. Illustrious Lords, The Licentiate Thomás López de Erenchún, secretary of this Holy Office, presently acting inquisitorial prosecutor […] I appear before Your Lordships and I present this criminal accusation against Alexo de Castro, native of Tidore in Maluku, vecino of the city of Manila, who married Ynés de Lima, and is imprisoned in the secret prison of this Holy Office, who is here present: And I state that the aforementioned, being a baptized and confirmed

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Christian; enjoying the privileges and exemptions that faithful and Catholic Christians enjoy, and should enjoy, contravening the profession and promise made in holy baptism; with little fear of God Our Lord and in great damage to his conscience and condemnation of his own soul, has said and committed, against what the Holy Roman Catholic Church and evangelical law preaches and instructs. He has followed the false and degenerate sect of the perverse Mohammed, in which it is presumed his parents lived and died, keeping and observing many of its rites and ceremonies and believing that the sect was good. He also followed the degenerate sects of many other heretics. Among many other errors Alexo de Castro affirmed that simple fornication was not a sin. All of this he has said and committed, and he has been seen to commit, do, and say, as is demonstrated in the evidence. For this, in particular, I accuse him: […] As a person who has rooted his soul in the sect of the perverse Mohammed, and who persists in his depraved opinion and that of his other heretical followers, Alexo de Castro ordinarily performed the salah, which is a certain ceremony (among others) that the Moors are accustomed to do […] and he committed this crime generally on Fridays. And in order to perform the ceremony of the salah, he would raise hands and kiss them, then place them in a cross form and raise his eyes to heaven, and on other occasions he would bow his head while kneeling, and he would put his hands on the wall. This he did on many occasions in a specified place, where there was a key dangling from a beam […] and for these reasons one should presume, that he did this to honor and observe the false and reprobate sect that this prisoner follows, and that he continues to wish, like such a fine Moor, to strive to perfect his observation of this sect. […] And Alexo de Castro is cut in the manner of Moorish sect according to its rites, and it is probable that his parents as such would have performed this ceremony (because the said scar indicates that the incision is old). Likewise, in his two arms […] he has certain tumors and scarring, apparently made with fire or some other caustic, and it is likely that this prisoner would have made them with some bad purpose, or as part of his perverse sect, or with some other depraved intent, which he is maliciously silencing and concealing. […] And as a person whose soul is so rooted in the cursed sect of the perverse Mohammed and the other heretics who are his followers, following his law […] this prisoner kept malicious friendships with two people close to him, and with the same carnal relations he had known another person in addition to the two referred to above, imitating in this (as in other things) the errors and opinions of many heretics, stating that fornication was not a sin […] And

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as such he had friendship and correspondence with the Ternatan Moors, with whom it can be presumed and believed that he would commit and do many other crimes in observance of his false sect. […] And in addition, it can be presumed and believed that Alexo de Castro has done, said, and committed many more grave crimes, and that he has seen other crimes being said and committed, all of which he silences and covers up […] For which I hereby accuse Alexo de Castro as a heretic; Mohammedan; as an apostate against our holy Catholic faith; as one who lives and has lived in the false and reprobate sect of the perverse Mohammed, who wishes to live and die in it; as one who commits superstition and perjury; and as one who performs and conceals heresies. […] IN CHRIST’S NAME WE FIND, in consideration of the proceedings and merits of this trial, and the guilty verdict that results against Alexo de Castro, that if we were to fully follow the law with all vigor, indeed we could condemn him with great and grave punishments. However, wishing to moderate the penalties with equity and mercy, for some just causes that move us […] we should order, as we do order, that on the day of the Auto he is to leave the prison as a penitent in procession with the other condemned prisoners, he is to participate without wearing a sash or bonnet [sanbenito], holding a green candle in his hands. At the Auto our sentence shall be read. And due to the suspicion against Alexo de Castro that results from this trial, we command that Alexo de Castro recant in public de levi7 for the errors that have been witnessed, and for which he was accused and remains under suspicion […] and he is suspected of any other type of heresy. We therefore order him removed forever from the Philippine Islands. And in consideration of his advanced age, we command that he be secluded in a religious monastery in this city for the rest of his life so that he may be 7 Alexo de Castro fulf illed his penitence at the auto particular de fé—a small-scale auto de fé without public executions—at the Jesuit Casa Profesa in Mexico City on 30 March 1648, alongside several dozen other prisoners from throughout Mexico and the world. An account of the auto, which included biographies of the victims, was published by one of the foremost Mexican inquisitors. See Estrada y Escobedo, Relación del tercer auto particular de fé. The abjuración de levi, or simple abjuration, was the lightest public punishment issued to those declared guilty by the Inquisition. The abjuration generally involved a public procession to a church, where prior to mass prisoners would confess their crimes. The green candle was associated with this light punishment. Here the inquisitors emphasize that Alexo de Castro will not be compelled to wear the infamous sanbenito, the conical cap reserved for harsher punishments. For an explanation of punishments and a wide array of translated Mexican inquisition cases, see Chuchiak, Inquisition in New Spain.

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instructed in the matters of our holy Catholic faith, with a warning that if he does not fulfill these demands, he will be punished with all rigor, and no mercy shall be shown to him as it is shown to him now in this definitive sentence […] And this we pronounce and command. Signed: don Francisco de Estrada y Escovedo; don Bernabe de la Higuera y Amarrilla.

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Bibliography Andaya, Leonard. The World of Maluku: Eastern Indonesia in the Early Modern Period. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993. Bertrand, Romain. Le long remords de la conquête. Paris: Seuil, 2015. Chuchiak, John F. The Inquisition in New Spain, 1536–1820. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Crewe, Ryan Dominic. “Transpacific Mestizo: Religion and Caste in the Worlds of a Moluccan Prisoner of the Mexican Inquisition.” Itinerario 39, no. 3 (2015): 463–485. Delor Angeles, F. “The Philippine Inquisition: A Survey.” Philippine Studies 28, no. 3 (1980): 253–283. Estrada y Escobedo, Francisco de. Relación del tercer auto particular de fé. Mexico, 1648. Grendi, Edoardo. “Micro-Analisi e storia sociale.” Quaderni Storici 35 (1977): 506–520. Toribio Medina, José. El Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en las Islas Filipinas. Santiago de Chile, 1899.

About the Editor Ryan Dominic Crewe is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Colorado Denver. His book, The Mexican Mission: Indigenous Reconstruction and Mendicant Enterprise in New Spain, 1521–1600, has been published by Cambridge University Press. He is currently working on a book project on the interactions between colonial Latin America and Asia in the early modern period, with a focus on the ethno-religious conflict in the Hispano-Asian Pacific and the globally connected Inquisition courtroom in Mexico City.

12. Constitutions and Rules of the Beatas Indias (1726) Kathryn Santner

Abstract In 1726, a Chinese mestiza woman named Ignacia del Espiritu Santo (1663–1748) sought ecclesiastical approval for a beaterio, or house of religious retreat for women, that she had founded in Manila. It was the first such community intended for women of native, sangley and mestizo origin. With the help of unnamed Jesuit collaborators, she composed a constitution for the community, called La Compañia, outlining criteria for admission and a series of requirements meant to structure the community’s life of prayer and austerity. Kathryn Santner places the text in the context of female religious life in colonial Manila. Keywords: religion; women; colonial Manila; Jesuits; beatas

As the Catholic Church sought to establish itself in the Philippines, the mendicant religious orders founded numerous missions and monasteries for male ecclesiastics, but only one convent for women was ever established. The Real Monasterio de Santa Clara, was founded as a Franciscan convent in 1621, exactly a century after the arrival of the Spanish to the Philippines. The reluctance of ecclesiastical and royal authorities to grant licenses for new convents, as well as the restriction of membership to Spanish women, contributed to the dearth of these foundations in the Philippines. With little hope of joining a convent, Manila’s women founded beaterios, lay houses of religious retreat whose members took only simple vows and did not live in claustration. Many such institutions also served as schools, teaching young girls Christian doctrine, sewing and embroidery, the basics of reading and writing, and other subjects suitable to their sex.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch12

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La Compañia, the foundation for which these Constitutions were written, was the first beaterio in the Philippines established explicitly for native women, Sangleys, and mestizas.1 It was founded through the efforts of Ignacia del Espiritu Santo (1663–1748), an indigenous-Chinese mestiza born in the predominantly Chinese parish of Binondo. Ignacia and other pious women began to congregate around the Jesuit Church in 1685 and receive instruction from the Jesuit fathers. Unlike other monastic orders, the Jesuit rules preclude the formal participation of women in religious life; though not officially members of the order, nor under Jesuit authority, the beatas still visited the church for mass daily and Jesuit priests served as their spiritual instructors. The lifestyle practiced by the beatas was remarkably austere: “Mother Ignacia went out with a rope around her neck, and the other [sisters] would pull her all about the house, she would carry a heavy cross on her back, and would prostrate herself on the ground, so that the others could step on her and she would lie down on the ground in the midday sun with her arms stretched out in the form of a cross.”2 The routine of penance, fasting, and sleep-deprivation was so extreme that nearly all the beatas fell ill. Despite their ascetic regimen, the community expanded to 80 beatas by 1726 and numbered more than 111 in 1760, including 4 black women, possibly African slaves.3 The beatas were accompanied at any given time by 40 to 50 young girls (niñas recogidas) seeking education. In 1726, when seeking ecclesiastical and royal approval for the beaterio, Ignacia first recorded the rules and constitutions governing the community with the help of unnamed Jesuit fathers—perhaps Pedro Murillo Velarde, the chronicler who later included Ignacia and her beaterio in his Jesuit history. 4 The constitutions outline the basic requirements for joining the community as a religious woman, as well as the process that she would follow in her spiritual journey. They also detail the rhythms of the annual religious calendar and of daily life; the hours of prayer, reflection, penance, and sewing (with which the beatas financially supported their congregation). The constitutions give us a window into the lives of Manila’s women and girls of all ethnic backgrounds, revealing the conditions of their lived existences, religious preoccupations, and education. The constitutions draw heavily on the Jesuit rules and constitutions and reflect a particularly Jesuit strain of Catholic spirituality. This influence is 1 2 3 4

Sangley: term used in the colonial Philippines to denote Chinese ancestry. Murillo Velarde, Historia de la Provincia, 359. Archivo Arzobispal de Manila, Padrones 9.C.7 fols. 5, 48r–49r. Schumacher, “Ignacia del Espiritu Santo,” 425.

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demonstrated through the beaterio’s patronage under the Assumption of the Virgin, a favored devotion of St. Ignatius, and the beatas’ devotion to Jesuit saints like Francis Xavier, Diego San Vitores, and Stanislaus. In addition, the community also venerated the seven archangels (three canonical and four apocryphal). While not particular to the Order, this devotion seems to have resulted from Ignacia’s contact with Andrés Serrano, rector of the Jesuit Colegio de San José, from whom she begged alms. Serrano, with the help of Pablo Clain, Ignacia’s confessor, published a text in 1699 on the archangels, entitled Los siete principes de los angeles, that was crucial to the spread of this devotion across the Spanish realms.5 One of the most important features of life at the beaterio was the practice of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises annually and at key moments of transition in a beata’s spiritual life. The Exercises, written by Ignatius of Loyola during the sixteenth century, are a series of meditations and contemplative prayers originally performed over the course of thirty days and form the cornerstone of Jesuit spirituality. During the months of September, October, and November, the beatas invited up to 250 secular women from across Manila’s ethnic and socioeconomic spectrum for eight days of retreat at the beaterio to perform the Spiritual Exercises.6 During this period, the beatas gave instruction in Tagalog and Spanish to guide retreatants through the Exercises and prepare them for confession. The beatas played an important acculturative role, both by hosting spiritual retreats and educating young girls in Spanish Manila.7 Like nuns, the beatas of La Compañía also performed the social function of praying on behalf of members of the local community—an act that earned them the patronage of General Juan Ignacio Vertis, a knight of the Order of St. James, who bade them to pray not only for his soul, but for the safe passage of the Manila Galleon and the endurance of the Spanish colony.8

5 6 7 8

Schumacher, “Ignacia del Espiritu Santo,” 421–422. AGI, Filipinas 292, N.3, fol. 2v. See for example Burns, Colonial Habits. AGI, Filipinas 186, N.7, fol. 59.

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Constitutions and Rules of the Beatas Indias, Maidens, Who Serve God Our Lord in This Beaterio of Manila, under the Spiritual Direction of the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus9 Chapter 1: Concerning the Spiritual Formation of the Beatas and That They Should All Observe 1. The goal that should motivate each maiden who wishes to live in this house, should be to serve God Our Lord with all her heart, and to learn the Way of Perfection through which one achieves a good death and the Glory of Heaven. 2. Keep God’s presence always in your mind; in order to accomplish this, keep your thoughts pure, removing yourself from all that could hinder this divine presence. 3. Let no sister speak to another, unless on matters benef icial to their souls—this goes double for persons from outside the beaterio. Sisters’s regular conversation must be with God Our Lord, Christ the Redeemer, his precious Holy Mother, and the angels of heaven: there is no danger in these conversations, but other conversations are dangerous. 4. The prioress should not allow sisters to speak to people outside the convent during their first two years at the house, not even to their relatives, except in the case of great urgency. In that case, the sister will speak to her relatives in the presence of a wise and elderly sister. 5. Frivolous and dangerous words should not be heard in this house and should be viewed as a plague on spiritual perfection. Therefore, sisters should not speak of trivial matters from outside the beaterio. Instead, their conversations must be on spiritual subjects such as charity, humility, mortification and other virtues. 6. Let no sister seek the empty aspiration of being esteemed as wise, prudent or eloquent so that others honor and praise her. It would be better for her to fix her eyes on Jesus Christ, who sought humiliation and scorn for us. 7. In all your words and deeds, keep the presence of God and his angels in your mind and do nothing that might cause shame before men. 9 This spiritual guide was authored by Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, likely with the assistance of one or more Jesuit fathers. This translation comes from a copy at the Archivo de Indias in Seville, Filipinas 162, N. 6. I would like to thank Ana María Silva for her valuable comments on, and corrections to, my translation.

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8. In order to please God, there should be a mutual love and union of wills among sisters, because discord is a great obstacle to perfection. It is through their benevolence that Christ recognizes the sheep of his flock. 9. For this reason, do not quarrel with each other. However, if it is necessary to make the Truth known, sisters should manifest it with humility and without the desire to outdo their sisters. 10. If one sister should commit an offense known to another sister, who indiscreetly reprimands her, do not be set back on the road to perfection. She should ask forgiveness of the sister who pointed out the fault and ask penitence from the prioress. Give thanks to God who allows you to see your faults in order to humble your will. For those sisters who have seen the shortcomings of their sisters, they must consider that God could allow them to falter with greater faults and ask God to lift the sister who has stumbled. 11. See in the prioress, who governs this house, the living image of the Mother of God. Do all that she bids you, as if you were obeying the Holy Virgin herself, because as the scriptures explain, this is the will of Christ: whoever obeys the prioress obeys God; and she who scorns the prioress scorns him. 12. Admit to your Confessor all the temptations of the devil, and reveal to him all your pious thoughts and divine inspirations. Do not follow your own will in the manner of resisting the temptations of Satan or in the exercise of virtue; rather leave this to your spiritual father or to the prioress, because the devil often transforms himself into an Angel of Light in order to deceive careless and arrogant souls who want to follow their own bidding. 13. When sisters leave the house, they should not go alone; but rather must go in groups of two, silently and without turning their heads to look around, as this is indecent. Instead they must fix their eyes on the ground and meditate on how Christ carried the cross out of his mercy for us. 14. After two years in the community, at the end of their novitiate, sisters who have demonstrated their good virtues and who wish to remain in the community for the remainder of their lives, must profess and make their vows of chastity and obedience to the prioress. They must be firm in their commitment not to return to their homes or to abandon the path of divine service that they have begun, aided by the help of God, Our Lord, and his Holy Mother. Those sisters wishing to leave should not be deterred after they have considered what is best for them, lest they be regretful at the hour of their deaths. 15. Before being admitted to the community, all sisters must make a general confession beginning from the last confession that they have made. 16. Each sister who lives in this house should remember that God is her Father, Jesus Christ is her husband, the Virgin Mary is her mother, her sisters are the

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angels, and her relatives are the saints of heaven. She must forget her relatives on earth who can only hinder her in her divine service, except to entrust them to God, Our Lord, that they may observe his divine commandments. 17. All those living in this house of God should perform mental prayer each day for one hour, and the examination of conscience at noon and at night. They should also perform half an hour of spiritual reading and pray the Rosary of the Virgin Mary. The prioress will choose a sister to visit the house during the hours of prayer and examinations of conscience to note which sisters fail to maintain these hours. 18. All must make confession and receive communion each Sunday and on the principal feast days of Christ and his Holy Mother; on the two feasts of St. Michael the Archangel in May and September; the principal feasts of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul; as well as those of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. In order to make confession and take communion on other feast days, sisters must ask permission of their confessors. 19. All sisters must attend mass each day, apart from those who are sick, as well as listen to sermons whenever these are given in the Church. 20. All sisters must fast each Friday and Saturday, as well as on the vigils of the principal feasts of Christ, Our Lord, and the Virgin Mary, and the vigils of the two feasts of St. Michael the Archangel, the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. However, the prioress should be careful to dispense the very weak from fasting so as not to endanger their health. 21. The principal feast of this house, to whom it is dedicated, is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to God in Heaven, whose virginal purity and angelic virtues all should imitate, looking to the angels who surround her holy image. 22. Your daily sustenance comes from the labor of your hands: however, from time to time, a wise man travels to the villages to beg alms on our behalf. Keep your confidence placed in God, who is rich in mercy for those who trust in his generous and merciful providence. 23. No one in this house should possess their own property, and whosoever possesses individual property does not deserve to be called a disciple of Jesus Christ. Both alms received as well as money earned from sisters’ labor is kept in a common chest locked with a key from which the prioress or sister procurator can pay for necessary expenses for the community. […] 26. If a sister should take notice that one of her sisters is plagued by the temptations of the devil, she should inform the prioress or the Spiritual Father of the tempted sister so that they can implement a solution to deliver her from evil and danger. 27. All sisters must perform the Spiritual Exercises each year during eight days. During this time, they should not speak to another person; their only

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conversation must be with God and the saints, following the schedule set out in the exercises. […] 36. Sisters who feel inclined to pride should be especially careful to perform mortification frequently in order to uproot the evil entrenched in their souls. Through the same means they can overcome their other evil inclinations and passions. […] 38. Always and everywhere, all should look up to God absolutely as their Father, loving him with a f ilial and constant love, and with the sacred reverence that all good daughters have for their loving father. 39. Out of love for Christ, all should love poverty, holding it in their hearts and seeing it as the fortress of all virtues. […] 44. Accept with great humility whatever penance the prioress or mistress imposes on you, even if you have not committed any offense that merits such punishment just as Jesus Christ Our Lord, who possessed not even the shadow of sin, suffered countless ignominies and torments to save the souls of us sinners. […] 47. In your mortifications and physical penance, exercise prudence and moderation in order to persevere in your good habits as long as your body maintains its strength. If one performs excessive penance, it is certain that the body will become weak to the point that one cannot continue therefore, be in keeping with the Castilian proverb: “slow and steady.” […] 49. Each of these rules, documents, and advice, although not binding under pain of sin, are necessary for all those who wish to serve God with perfection in this house. Therefore, so that no one forgets them, these rules are to be read each month in the presence of the whole community. When a young woman wishes to join the community, all of these rules must be explained to her so that she can decide whether she can follow them, trusting that God will help her, for whose glory they are written, and for the spiritual perfection and the salvation of souls.

Chapter 2: Spiritual Advice for Those Who Seek Perfection and the Service of God 1. Because of the great envy of the devil for those withdrawn from the world who seek only to love God, he seeks to tempt them in order to deter them from the path they have begun or to sow discontentment in their lives. It is therefore necessary to prepare these souls with sage advice against the enchantments of the devil so that they can continue to live peacefully and constantly in the life they have begun, waiting for God to aid their service

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and help them to love Him more perfectly, and to reap the rewards of their blessedness. 2. Souls who began to serve God fervently in spiritual recollection can be brought to ruin through the gradual abandonment or mere routine performance of the devotional exercises they are obliged by the Rules or their spiritual advisors to perform. This negligence allows vices to take hold and gives the devil power over souls who lack spiritual fortitude. To overcome these temptations easily, one must readily admit to even small failings. Otherwise one will begin to permit larger and larger offenses, losing one’s fervor and desire to serve God and destroy the spiritual fortress one has begun to construct. 3. Prayer, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, frequent reception of sacraments, conversation on holy subjects, silence, withdrawal from worldly concerns, penitence and regular mortification should be practiced always without dispensation or interruption. In neglecting these practices or doing them perfunctorily we allow worldly life to take hold in this house of recollection and allow it to be transformed into a microcosm of the outside world with all the passions that rule it, devoid of the aid of heaven. 4. It is a great deception to try to serve God and fail to subdue one’s passions and displeasing vices such as disunion, envy, impatience, chatter and immodesty. To do so is to attempt to join the light with the darkness. Following the word of Christ and later rejecting it transforms the spirit into flesh. It is impossible to love God and the world at the same time. […] 8. The tongue, which causes disputes and confrontation, is full of poison, says St. Bernard, and if it is not reined in it will scandalize those around you. […] 10. All should have good will toward their sisters, according to St. Bonaventure, and must refrain from advertising the failings of others. They must not diminish their sisters’ good qualities, neither criticize nor belittle them but instead they must praise and uplift them. She who truly displays charity sympathizes with the failings of others and is pleased with her growth and practice of virtue. […] 12. Those living in this community must avoid any partialities, and not demonstrate any preferences or particular friendship to any sister but only to love Christ Our Lord. Those governing the community must show equal kindness to all sisters and aid them in all they do, suffering their imperfections and correcting them with motherly love. If ever a preference must be made, it should be to those who are more ardent in their pursuit of virtue. […] 26. If this counsel is heeded, God will live among the sisters and the house will be like heaven on earth. But in failing to observe them, the house will

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be a little hell and its governance will be chaos. In order to remember these rules better, they must be read before the community each month and attended to carefully.

Chapter 3: On the Distribution of Time 1. Everyone must rise promptly at four o’clock in the morning, making the sign of the cross and giving thanks to God for the benefits received during the night, and offering to serve him with greater fervor in the new day, dedicating all of their thoughts, words, and deeds to him. Then the sisters must prepare themselves for mental prayer. 2. At four-thirty, mental prayer. 3. At five, the Holy Rosary, after which sisters must proceed two by two with modesty and silence to the church to hear mass. 4. A little before seven in the morning, the sisters are to return to the house in the same order and modest manner; after breakfast, the sisters are to occupy themselves with the work or task assigned to them by the prioress. 5. At eight in the morning, the community prays seven Our Fathers and seven Ave Marias together in honor of the seven archangels, princes of the celestial court. After that, the community returns to work until ten-thirty, remaining silent during this period. While they work, a spiritual book is to be read aloud for at least half an hour. 6. At ten-forty-five in the morning, examination of conscience. 7. At eleven, lunch. After eating, sisters have an hour of conversation in which they must demonstrate modesty, cheerfulness and amiability with everyone, refraining from the extremes of sadness, dryness in speaking, frivolity, excessive laughter, and avoiding topics contrary to charity and those that dampen spiritual fervor. 8. At twelve-thirty in the afternoon, silence resumes and sisters rest for an hour and a half. 9. At two in the afternoon, sisters return to their work. 10. At three in the afternoon, as is custom, all pray the devotion of the agonies of Christ Our Lord and the sorrows of his Holy Mother, and afterward sisters continue with their work, maintaining silence until four in the afternoon. 11. From four to five, sisters may speak to one another on matters of spiritual edification and virtue as a respite from the work with which they are occupied. 12. From five to six-thirty in the evening, they resume silence to recollect themselves and prepare for mental prayer.

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13. At six-thirty in the evening, mental prayer. 14. At seven, the Holy Rosary. 15. At eight, dinner. 16. At eight-forty-five, examination of conscience 17. At nine o’clock, go to bed. Each Saturday, sisters go at seven o’clock in the morning to hear a sung mass in honor of the Virgin and then join the congregation to hear the exhortation given to the Tagalog congregation. On Sundays and feast days on which sisters take communion, they must observe the following: – First: In the morning, after returning from church, sisters must maintain total silence and withdrawal in the house. In order to avoid disturbances, sisters should refrain from admitting visitors whenever possible. And by no means should they allow visitors to go upstairs unless they are of a superior category or are special benefactors. – Second: On these days, sisters must refrain from external occupations unless they are urgent in order to be alone with God their Spouse in their souls, who has deigned to visit them through the means of Holy Communion. – Third: In the afternoon, sisters must return to the Jesuit Church to hear the exhortation of the Spanish congregation and to visit the church’s altars. – Fourth: After prayers, the community should pray the Holy Rosary together and afterward they may entertain themselves by recounting stories from the lives of the saints until dinner.

Chapter 4: On the Form of Governance of This House 1. The community of beatas, aside from the niñas recogidas who are placed in their charge for a good education and upbringing, are composed of three states, namely: novices, temporary professed, and perpetual professed as explained in chapter 6. 2. There will be a prioress, subprioress and six advisors in this house. Such offices are to be elected in the form dictated in the following chapter. 3. The prioress will be the superior of the whole house, and all the sisters and niñas recogidas must obey her. 4. The subprioress will also be the sister procurator and shall assist the prioress in the governance of the house, and in all serious matters. […]

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15. The prioress must take care that the work assigned to the sisters is not excessive and unduly burdensome. On feast days, she must permit them to go down to the garden and enjoy themselves. But she should not allow musicians or dancers into the community to play instruments, sing, or dance for the sisters. […] 17. If a sister should ask to leave the beaterio and return to her home, the prioress will comfort her with the sound advice to continue in her divine service and give her several days to consider the matter better and to speak to her spiritual director. But if she insists a second and a third time, she should be granted permission. This sister, as well as those who were dismissed for failing to conform to the spiritual life needed to profess as brides of Christ in this house, cannot be readmitted unless with a vote of two-thirds of the senior sisters. If she is readmitted, she must begin her novitiate with the novices who have just entered the community for the first time.

Chapter 5: On the Manner of Electing the Prioress and Other Offices For the spiritual and temporal good of this house, and for the peace and harmony of all the sisters, the prioress and advisors must maintain good governance. Therefore, when the day of an election approaches, which falls on the first of August, all sisters must be earnest in their prayers to God Our Lord and his Holy Mother and ask humbly to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit in choosing the prioress. Sisters must watch themselves for the enemy of fraternal charity—gossip and discord within the community, and no one should attempt to sway others to her side. Each should attempt to avoid all passion, self-love and particular friendship, voting instead for those they judge most suited for their offices, especially for the office of prioress, who should be chosen with the greatest service to God and the well-being of the house kept in mind.

Chapter 6: On the Manner of Admitting Beatas and Niñas Recogidas 1. Under no circumstance should married women fleeing their husbands, women being deposited by either husbands or by persons of authority, nor women of ill-repute be admitted. Nor should maidens waiting for marriage be admitted, nor those with any other motivation except for those who ask to be admitted for eight or more days to take part in the Spiritual Exercises, or to make a general confession.

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2. Girls younger than eleven, if they are the daughters of Spaniards, Spanish mestizas, indias or Chinese [Sangley] mestizas can be admitted to be educated in the Holy Reverence of God, the Christian doctrine, and be given a proper upbringing in the skills appropriate to women, namely sewing, embroidery, reading and writing. Depending on the number of these girls, the prioress will assign them to Teachers. 3. Those who may be admitted as beatas must have the following qualities: – First: they should be pure indias, mestizas or the daughters of Chinese mestizos. – Second: They should be born of legitimate marriages. – Third: They must be unmarried, and not widows. – Fourth: They must have good morals and a good reputation. And in this last quality, no one can dispense them, and in the first three they can only be dispensed by an agreement of all the senior beatas through a vote of two-thirds majority. Notwithstanding this rule, those sisters who have already been admitted as beatas and who lack one of these qualities may remain in the beaterio. […] 5. On being admitted, an aspirant maiden is given a month probation to see if she can carry out her good intentions. During this time, she will make a general confession for the whole of her life. At the end of the month, she should be repentant and have the desire to persevere in her good resolutions until her death; then she will enter the novitiate, and her hair shall be cut to signify her renunciation of all worldly vanities in order to join the beloved brides of Christ, and she will take on the humble dress that this community wears. An aspirant must be at least fourteen years old in order to enter the novitiate. Until she is that age she can learn to sew, read, and write. 6. The novitiate must last two full years, during which the novices must learn to progress with the help of divine grace, in all manner of virtues, of mortification of the flesh in accordance with their state and strength, according to the guidance of their spiritual fathers. It will aid the novice’s progress greatly if she guards all her faculties and senses with great recollection, and forms a secret oratory in her heart where, like St. Catherine of Siena, she can commune alone with Christ. […] 8. The novices are to live in a separate room with their mistress. If there is no such room available, they may live in the same room as the temporary professed. However, they must go to the chapel to pray and examine their consciences, to pray the Rosary with the beatas, and eat with them. […] 10. Those who wish to profess must spend the eight days preceding their profession withdrawn in the Spiritual Exercises of Our Father St. Ignatius of Loyola, and must make their general confession from their last confession

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to prepare themselves to offer their sacrifice with the greatest purity of heart and fervor of spirit. 11. On the day of profession, novices must go to confession and take communion in the church, and afterwards, at eight o’clock in the morning, the community will gather in the chapel. All the sisters will kneel, and the prioress will stand in front of the base of the altar on the side of the Gospel, holding a crucifix in her hands, facing the aspirant beata. The aspirant is to be accompanied by her mistress, who will stand in front of the same altar and then the aspirant sister will read out in a high and clear voice the formula of the profession, which she will have written on a piece of paper, in the following manner: I, [name], though unworthy to be in your Divine Presence and company, trusting fully in your infinite goodness, in the presence of your Holy Mother and my loving Mother, the Virgin Mary, and all of the celestial court of heaven, choose you as my spouse and consecrate my soul and my body to you with vows of chastity and obedience, that I promise to keep during the time that I live in this sacred house. I implore You, my most loving Spouse, to deign, with your infinite mercy, to remove me from the dangers of the world and admit me into your celestial spousal, and in so doing, grant me the grace to free my heart from the love of all creatures and to remain in your sacred love and service until my death. Amen. On completing the vows, the newly professed sister will give the paper of profession to the prioress who gives the crucifix to her to kiss and embrace. Then the newly professed sister embraces all the sisters, beginning with the prioress. 12. Having made her profession, she is entrusted to the mistress of the temporary professed. This is the second stage of the beatas, after their novitiate in which they spend seven years continuing the withdrawal and fervor of their novitiate, and cultivating in themselves all the heavenly virtues, particularly the love of poverty, chastity, obedience, humility and charity towards all her sisters in order to please her Divine Spouse with these ornaments of virtue. During these seven years all sisters must renew their vows twice a year, on the Day of the Assumption of the Virgin to Heaven and the Day of her Purification, after having confessed and taken communion. sisters will renew their profession in the chapel of the beaterio one by one in the presence of the prioress. And so that this renewal is also of their spirit, the temporary professed must maintain perfect silence for three days prior to the day of renovation and give more time to the Spiritual Exercises by praying and reading pious books under the direction of their mistress. On

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the eve of their renewal, the prioress will read publicly in the refectory or in the chapel, the offenses that she has noted in the temporary professed, charging them to amend their faults, in the presence of the beatas but in such a way that the niñas recogidas are not aware. […] 14. Each sister must understand that the vows of chastity and obedience that they take during their professions are not binding if they should leave the beaterio. And if a sister is dismissed or leaves of her own will she is free of these vows. It should also be noted that their vow of Obedience is binding under penalty of mortal sin, only when the prioress, and no other sister, shall order by virtue of Holy Obedience, which the prioress shall do only in rare cases of great necessity and with much consideration.

Allegation Written. Ygnacia del Espiritu Santo, current prioress of the indias who live in the beaterio under the direction of the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus, respectfully state before Your Lordship: That from the year 1685, several poor indias began to congregate who asked the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus to attend to, console, and teach them the way of perfection and so that in 1725 the beatas received an annual endowment of 300 pesos from the estate of General Juan Ygnacio de Vertis, knight of the Order of St. James.10 With this endowment, they repaired and expanded the beaterio for the benefit of the beatas. Until the present, having increased the number of beatas to about eighty, and having formed rules for their spiritual direction, which consist of six chapters and of thirteen pages, which I hereby present to you, for the consolation and encouragement of the beatas to serve and please God under the protection of the Most Holy Virgin and under the spiritual direction of the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus. To Your Lordship, to whom I here present these rules, I ask and beg to examine them closely and to visit our beaterio and house so that Your Lordship may see for yourself the fruits they have yielded to the present. 10 A Catholic military order from Spain, founded in Castile in the twelfth century and named for St. James the Greater. Membership was limited to those of noble, Catholic backgrounds, and the order was dedicated to the protection of the pilgrimage route of St. James Way and to the expulsion of Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.

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In light of these facts, I implore Your Lordship to approve these rules and to recommend and entrust to the reverend father provincial of the Society of Jesus, that for the love of God, we are kept in the charge of the province, continuing the spiritual direction of these indias. I implore Your Lordship and your successors to the office of judge and vicar general of the diocese to take the beaterio under your protection, for which myself and my sisters will be blessed with the mercy and benefit that we hope to receive from your patronage.

Ygnacia del Espiritu Santo Manila, July 1, 1726

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Bibliography Burns, Kathryn. Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. Ferraris, Rita. And the Woman’s Name Is Ignacia: Ignacia del Espiritu Santo; Foundress of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary, 1663–1748. Quezon City: R. V. M. Publications Committee, 1993. Murillo Velarde, Pedro. Historia de la Provincia de Philipinas de la Compañía de Jesús. Manila: En la Imprenta de La Compañía de Jesus, 1749. Santiago, Luciano P. R. To Love and to Suffer: The Development of the Religious Congregations for Women in the Spanish Philippines, 1565–1898. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2005. Schumacher, John N. “Ignacia del Espiritu Santo: The Historical Reliability of her Principal Contemporary Biography.” Philippine Studies 50, no. 3 (2002): 416–434. Serrano, Andrés. Feliz memoria de los siete principes de los Angeles Assistentes al throno de Dios, y estimulo á su utilissima devocion: Miguel, Gabriel, Rafael, Uriel, Sealtiel, Jehudiel, Barachiel. Mexico City: Juan Joseph Guillena Carrascoso, 1699.

About the Editor Kathryn Santner is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies, the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She received her PhD in Art History from Cambridge University in 2016. Her book project, Transpacific Sisters: Art and the Lived Experience of Peruvian and Philippine Religious Women, focuses on cloistered religious women on both sides of the Spanish Pacific and the role of artwork in shaping the contours of their daily and religious lives.

13. The Poetics of Praise and the Demands of Confessionin the Early Spanish Philippines Notes and Documents Vicente L. Rafael

Abstract This chapter combines two very different but intimately related texts. On the one hand, it reproduces three dalits, devotional poems by Tagalog natives praising the work of Catholic missionaries. On the other, it provides a questionnaire from an eighteenth-century confessional manual used by missionaries to administer the sacrament of Penance. Vicente L. Rafael argues that each text embodies a different attitude toward the written word in the religious life of the colonial Philippines. For the Tagalog authors of the dalits, the book becomes a magical talisman of sorts. For the missionaries, it provides the tactics of an intimate disciplinary strategy meant to alter the behavior of Filipino natives. Keywords: Filipino poetry; colonial religion; culture of the book; biopolitics

The documents below consist of two kinds of writing: a series of dalit—a kind of devotional poetry praising the works of missionaries written by Tagalog natives—and an excerpt from a bilingual confessional manual by a Franciscan friar typical of guides used by Spanish priests to aid them in hearing the confessions of native converts. Both sets of documents were published in the Philippines during the early part of Spanish colonial rule between the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries.1 In trying to 1 Lumbera, Tagalog Poetry; Rafael, Contracting Colonialism.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch13

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understand these texts, we might begin by asking: what is relationship between the discourses of devotion and the practice of confession? In the vernacular devotional poems, praise is directed to the book itself. Referred to by the Spanish word libro or by the vernacular term, sulat by the Tagalog poets, the book comes across as the object of esteem radiating a kind of magical power.2 For this reason, it was a source of great fascination and attachment for native converts. This intense fascination may have to do with the novelty of the book as such: the very first book published in the Philippines after all was the Doctrina Christiana (1593), a catechism that contained a confessional manual. In the printed books introduced by the Spanish missionaries, Latin letters replaced the native baybayin script.3 Whereas the baybayin was widely understood by native populations prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the libro came across as a series of undecipherable signs during the onset of colonial rule. Laden with mysterious inscriptions, the libro was the repository of a new language, a vernacular speech laced with novel terms for God, the Virgin, and the Holy Spirit, which were left untranslated in Castilian and Latin by the Spaniards for fear that natives would conflate them with the terms for local beliefs. Instead, Spanish writing in the vernaculars referenced novel figures with no immediate equivalents in the local spirit world. Small wonder that in the poems, the book seems invested with magical powers. Like amulets—fetish objects that were widely known in native society for their protective effects—the libro’s magical potency was in direct relationship to its dense opacity. As with local amulets, the libro’s uncanny obscurity suggested the workings of layers of potency that could be activated with the proper performance of rituals. It thus promised a means of protecting one from the penetration of malevolent spirits. Such potency was further underwritten by the libro’s provenance from a powerful source because it was distant and foreign. 4 In the devotional poems, the book is thus treated as a thing, and its thing was to provide the things for keeping its holders safe. Like a sturdy staff or a strong boat, the libro was a loadstar and a weapon. It was spoken of as a storehouse of rich resources—jewelry and silk, for example—with which to hone the skills of its holders and guide them on their journeys. Along the same vein, the book had an apotropaic function: it was meant to fend off evil spirits, including the devil, and shield one from catastrophic events 2 Sulat refers to inscriptions or writings, a word derived from Sanskrit. 3 Baybayin is the Philippine script derived from Sanskrit, like most indigenous Southeast Asian writing systems. 4 Rafael, Contracting Colonialism.

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such as illness and death, unknown forces, and so on. In short, the libro as a magical object was meant to keep one from being carried away—from being possessed, occupied, perhaps even, colonized by alien spirits. However, the libro as object was one thing, but its content was another matter. The libro usually contained a set of sermons or a catechism that often was appended with a confessional manual. Confessional manuals in Spanish and Tagalog moved in the opposite direction of devotional-laudatory poetry. Such manuals were codified in Europe in the thirteenth century after the Fourth Lateran Council. Confession is the sacrament meant to continue and consolidate baptism. Where the latter initiated one into the Christian faith, the former grew out of an acknowledgement of the inherent sinfulness of human beings, requiring the need for continuous penance. Confession was thus crucial to sustaining conversion, which was not merely a matter of denouncing the devil and affirming the faith. It was also a continuous process of accounting, in the double sense of that word, for one’s sinfulness and submitting to the mercy of God via the clergy. Confession thereby linked obligation with obedience by way of regulating conduct down to the most intimate levels of thinking and behavior. We see this in the list of questions and demands indexed to the sixth and seventh commandment in the confessional manual below (pp. 218–220). This regulation of conduct required submitting to the guidance of the priest, who in turn drew his authority from a chain of submissions he performed to higher authorities all the way to God the Father.5 With confession, we get an instantiation of what Foucault calls pastoral power characteristic of the Christian Church and other Abrahamic faiths. Just as the shepherd took care of the flock by caring for each and every sheep, so the priest sought to care for the entire population of converts by attending to each individual member. The practice of confession crystalized this mode of pastoral governance with great clarity. By the late Middle Ages, the rules for confessing had become highly codified. It was to be auricular, individual, and regularly practiced through the year. Such rules were meant to produce a power relation between priest and penitent that was as intimate as it was hierarchical. Its tactics, as detailed in the confessional manuals, are well-known. They entailed constant surveillance (via examination of conscience), narrative exposition (via the accounting for one’s sins to another who dispenses penance), economic expenditure (the exchange of a narrative of sin for a formula for repentance), and redemptive expectation 5 Foucault, Introduction, vol. 1 of the History of Sexuality; Michel Foucault, Government of Self and Others; Rafael, Contracting Colonialism.

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(the promise of salvation in the hereafter and with it, the very end of the demand for and of confession).6 As a protocol for governing both colonizers and the colonized, confession was also a means for forging a sense of self that was steeped in sin. This sinful state was the condition of possibility from which the converts could gain knowledge of themselves through the examination of conscience necessary for making a good confession. Through the work of sustained self-interrogation, the convert recalled their past into a narrative of offenses against God. Assuming guilt, the well-examined conscience could now turn to the priest and reiterate the penitent’s complete dependence on God for redemption. We can thus think of confession as integral to the logic and logistics of colonial rule. Simply put, confessional practice encapsulated the whole range of discursive and ritual elements for enforcing and materializing colonial power as a mode of pastoral governance. We can then return to the question: what’s the relationship between the poetry of praise and the confessional manuals? Unlike the dalit or devotional poems that praised the libro while invoking its protection, bilingual confessional manuals were meant to have disciplinary effects. They targeted the population as a whole by targeting each and every member of it. Confession was the revelation of one’s sins in response to the revelation of the mystery of the Passion. Rather than protect one from the invasion of outside alien forces as in the dalit, confession interpolated both convert and priest into a discourse of guilt. Guilt emerges through the assumption of individual responsibility for sins. To become responsible in this case is to respond to the questioning of the confessor. The questions in the confessional manuals were structured by way of the Ten Commandments. God’s Law determined the content and style of the priest’s questioning and the penitents’ response. Each commandment furnished a guide with which to examine the nature and number of transgressions of the penitent. What was important was not just the quality, then, of one’s sins, but their quantity as well: not just the variety of acts, but the intensity of desire that accompanied them; not just their occurrence, but the frequency of their recurrence; not just what one did, and not just what one thought while doing it, but how many times one did and thought such things.7 In the discourse of confession, guilt produced self-knowledge through the examination of conscience. It entailed the performance of a certain 6 Foucault, The History of Sexuality; Barthes, Sade, Fourier, Loyola; Rafael, Contracting Colonialism. 7 Barthes, Sade, Fourier, Loyola; Rafael, Contracting Colonialism.

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intimacy: an opening-up, a surrendering to the relentless probing, poking and penetration of the priest, who himself is a product of this same ongoing process of submission. Confession, hence, introduced a new kind of subjectivity in native society. It was the subject whose speech is about him or herself but only to the extent that speech itself had been highly regulated, codified and temporalized. The convert was a subject who participated in their own governing by way of ferreting out and subjugating their sinful self, delivering themselves up for the judgment of the confessor, and submitting themselves as a recipient of God’s mercy. We can see from this brief discussion a central and ongoing tension within the project of colonial conversion. On the one hand, native poets seized upon a poetics of devotion to protect themselves. They treated the book as if it were a storehouse of amulets. On the other hand, confessional manuals were meant to establish a colonial power relationship based on discipline and self-disclosure. It was meant to govern the convert at their most intimate and interior places, encouraging them to expose themselves to the relentless inquisition of the confessor. One sees traces of this tension in various missionary accounts. For example, priests complained about the putative perversions of native confession. For instance, they would complain about the native’s tendency to proclaim their innocence and instead blurt out the purported sins of their neighbors and friends. Similarly, priests lamented the evasions and indirectness of native speech so that their confessions were less a straightforward accounting of their sins and seemed more like the telling of riddles (bugtong) that confounded and confused the priest about the nature of their transgressions. In other words, from the perspective of missionaries, there was no shortage of tactics on the part of the natives for escaping confession’s demands for forced intimacy.8 Seen from a broader perspective, the juxtaposition of these two kinds of colonial documents show the workings of what Foucault elsewhere has referred to as spiritual politics.9 On the one hand, colonial rule was and is the attempt to convert the conduct of its subjects. On the other hand, we see how every attempt at controlling native conduct gave rise to attempts at counter-conduct on the part of the converts. Such counter-conduct represents arguably nascent forms of resistance. But they can also be understood as tacit forms of capitulation. The practice of native confession had ambivalent effects. It undermined as much as it propped up the demands of colonial authority. Why should this be the case? 8 Rafael, Contracting Colonialism. 9 Anderson and Afary, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution; Foucault, Power, vol. 3 of Essential Works; Harcourt, “Introduction to Foucault on Iran.”

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Again, we need to return to the question of poetry and how the poetic is, in some ways, continuous with the magical. One of the stakes in the fetishization of the libro is the struggle over new forms of magical power. Spiritual politics here are manifest in the attempts to imagine the libro as a magical instrument with which to shape both the world and the self. By magic, I mean not superstition but a set of practices with which to come to terms with the accidental, the unexpected, and the uncanny.10 The most uncanny and accidental event from the perspective of native peoples were the Spanish invasion and occupation of the archipelago. As I have argued elsewhere, Christian conversion on the part of the natives was one of the attempts with which to come to terms with the shock occasioned by the colonial-Christian uncanny.11 Conversion allowed the convert to tap into the magical potency of the book. As extolled in the dalit, the very means for governing native souls were seized upon by native poets to imagine new ways of protecting themselves and their fellow Tagalogs from the trauma of conquest. And since the Spanish friar monopolized access to the libro—its mysterious languages and its promise of protection—he was invested with a certain power. What is this power? It is no less and no more than the power of mediation. The friar’s power lied in his ability to serve as a conduit and a translator. He was therefore a medium for the circulation of what was from the native perspective a magical language that could reach other worlds and other beings. Put differently, the friar drew his power from being the medium for mediation itself. For natives, to confess was to submit to the demands of the friar and thereby establish a certain proximity and access to this power of mediation. Confession afforded a kind of tactical intimacy that allowed the native to appropriate, or better yet, expropriate the very native language—now infused with foreign words and foreign notions—with which his or her obedience was being hailed. By confessing, the native gave in, but did not necessarily give up. The obligation to confess arguably deferred rather than merely led to unqualified obedience among native converts. All of which is to say that an examination of the tensions and seeming contradictions between the devotion to the libro on the one hand, and the forced intimacy of confession on the other, indicates some of the ways in which spiritual politics were at work. As with all politics, it is always doubled. It can bring with it the emancipatory promise of another self by presenting possibilities for another, redeemed world. But that other world and the other self also came at a steep price: the absolutism of colonial rule and the ongoing terrors of its violent demands. 10 Siegel, Naming the Witch. 11 Rafael, Contracting Colonialism.

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Devotional Texts: Dalits, or Poems of Praise What follows are examples of texts written by Tagalog converts. The first is an anonymous poem and is perhaps the earliest published poem by a native writer. Pedro Ossorio’s text follows in the same pattern of praising the work of the Spanish friar to which it is appended. The third text, by Francisco Bagongbanta, is written in verses in the ladino style. In the ladino style, verse lines alternate between Tagalog and Castilian. Aside from their names, little is known about these early Tagalog poets.12 Untitled Dalit—anonymous13 Though it be stormy and dark, The tearful plaints notwithstanding I’ll struggle on: I will voyage on And persist in searching For God our Father. I may not sleep at all This temptation bearing down on me, I will continue to dare: This book I will read, And find here The weapon I need. Though blind in the past I will give thanks For this, the light For God who spoke For the priest preached For this good book. Though tossed and dashed By huge waves, I’ll try my best 12 Lumbera, Tagalog Poetry. I’ve modified the translations from the original Tagalog/ladino into English found in Lumbera’s book. 13 “Untitled Dalit,” in Blancas de San José, Memorial de la vida cristiana en la lengua tagala, first published in Manila, 1605.

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And renew my strength In this book I will grasp The buoy that saves. Though I be lame and broken Nothing can hold me back For this book will take care to guide me Teaching me the way: The staff was prepared Fitted to strengthen [me]. Unending Thanks [“Salamat nang Ualang Hoyang”]—Pedro Suarez Ossorio14 Prayer: Unending Thanks Unending thanks To you, all-knowing God For this your holy mercy For the Tagalog people. And this holy book Whose contents are your teachings You have quickly allowed To be published and praised. So that we new converts May have something to read day and night That would enliven us Here in this land of sorrow. Here to think and realize The right work and deeds We will learn without the slightest trouble How to be holy.

14 Pedro Suarez Ossorio, “Unending Thanks,” in Lumbera, Tagalog Poetry. This poem praises R. P. Fr. Alonso de Santa Ana, Explicación de la Doctrina Cristiana en lingua tagala, first published in Manila, 1627.

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So, whoever you might be Set aside your laziness Set yourself to learn This entire story. If we exert our efforts Follow and learn these lessons Our souls and bodies Can only benefit greatly. If we follow and keep them, What manner of goodness would not be ours? The soul will come to love Finding comfort as we grow older. Oh, good and holy book All that you contain Could never be equaled By all the wealth in the world. Oh, book that fills one with delight A boat so strong To take us all home To the blissful land. You are our lodestar That which is our guide Until we all reach The peaceful harbor. You are the great mine Where we can dig For true wealth And life everlasting.



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Endless Gratitude [“Salamat nang Ualang Hanga”]—Francisco Bagongbanta 15 Endless gratitude Gracias se den sempiternas, To the one who gave birth to the star Al que hizo salir la estrella; To dissipate the darkness Que destierre las tinieblas Everywhere in our land De toda esta nuestra tierra. Oh, book most holy O libro preciosa pieza You enfold in your pages Tu en ti contienes, y encierras All of the good teachings Cualquiera doctrina buena That penetrate the soul Que dentro al alma penetra. You are the chest so full Tu eres cual arca llena, Of all kinds of precious silk De todas preciosas sedas Which adorns and beautifies Que engalanan y hermosean The holy soul Al alma que es justa y buena. You are the precious jewel Joya linda, rica, bella, That enriches the Christian Que al pecho Christiano arreas Pendant to a golden chain Y de oro rica cadena That I will never take off Que no te sufrire suelta. 15 Francisco Bagongbanta, “Undying Gratitude” [“Salamat nang Ualang Hanga”], in Lumbera, Tagalog Poetry.

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You are the sturdy weapon Tu eres arma fuerte y cierta Which I will use in the battle De que usare yo en la guerra When I am tempted by the devil. Cuando el mal Diablo me tienta. You are the firm staff Bordon de strana firmeza And you give me great skills Y dara gran ligereza In my journey on this earth Mientras ando en esta tierra Until I behold God himself. Hasta que al mismo Dios vea. You are the unbreakable rudder Eres timon que no quiebra Even if tempest rages Aunque haya tempestad recia In you I trust completely Mi esperanza en ti está puesta To bring me to a safe place En aquesta mi carrera. You are the clear evidence Tu haces clara, y manifiesta Of the singular ability De la singular destreza Of the Father who authored you Del Padre Autor de esta empresa And his great diligence Y de su gran diligencia In searching for a printing press En el buscar de la imprenta. O my fellow Tagalogs O la gente de mi tierra Set aside your laziness Vaya fuera la pereza Whether you be man or woman



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Los varones, y las hembras Or children of tender age Y los niños de edad tierna Study this book Aprended aquesta letra For it costs so little effort Muy poco trabajo cuesta And brings so much profit, Mucho es lo que se interesa And we will become men of learning Seremos hombres de ciencia While we become sanctified Y de ajustada conciencia And there be no more difference Que no haya ya diferencia Between the Spaniards and the Tagalog. Del de España al de esta tierra. What great fortune and blessing it is O grande ventura, y buena For one who enjoys this reading Del que goza esta legenda His soul would be filled quedará su alma llena With heavenly riches, De celestiales riquezas. I shall make you my very own Tu seas mi propia hacienda By my side you will always be with me Siempre estes junto á mi cerca And if sadness comes to me Si me llegare tristeza You will give me true consolation Darme has consuelo de veras And if there be weariness and pain Si hubiera cansancio, o pena It is in your heart that I will find rest En tu corazon alienta What good is everything else

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Los provechos son sin cuenta Because my soul hopes to receive from you Que de ti mi alma espera Grace and everlasting glory La gracia, y la Gloria eterna. Amen.

Confessional Manual16

Explication of the Circumstances for a Good Confession — Sebastián de Totanés17 97. Every person who wishes to confess must prepare their soul and conscience in the presence of Our Lord God. 98. The first thing they should do is to ask for the help of the Lord God through the blessed Virgin and the angels and saints so that they should learn to follow this first instrument for a good confession. They should then ascertain when they confessed last—what year, month, week, if it was during the fiesta that they last confessed? That way, they can know how far back to remember their new sins, which they will tell when they confess anew […] 102. And when they determine that their last confession was good (that it was really truthful in the presence of Lord God who knows everything and cannot be fooled by anyone), then, they must remember all the mortal sins that they committed against God since their last good confession and start from that point to confess anew. And they will run through the Ten Commandments of God and the Five Commandments of the Holy Church, Our Mother, and forcefully unearth and examine their deepest soul [loob] and remember all the mortal sins they committed against each of the Commandments whether by way of thoughts, or by deeds, so that these can be told to the priest Confessor […] Confessional Manual Regularly Used for Indios and What the Priests Are Generally Obligated to Ask Them […] On the sixth and seventh commandments of the Lord God. 16 Totanés, Manual Tagalog. 17 Note on the translation: I flip back and forth between the Tagalog and Spanish, though tend to follow the former more closely when notable gaps appear between the two.

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Thou shalt not have relations with someone who is not your spouse. Though shalt not covet the spouse of another. 354. Did you sin against the sixth commandment of the Lord God since your last good confession? 355. Did you sin with some other woman? 356. How many did you sin with? 357. Were they married, or not? 358. Go slowly, because with each one, you must tell carefully every single sin you committed against God according to what I will ask you in the order of your sins, etc. 359. The first woman you sinned with since your last confession, is she married? 360. Is she a relative? 361. How are you related? Are you first cousins, etc.? […] 366. How many times did you sin with her? 367. You say that you always see each other by yourselves, so how would I know how many times those were? 368. If you cannot tell me the exact number, tell me more or less according to your best guess. 369. If you cannot tell me as much, tell me how many years, or months, or weeks or days since you first started sinning with her. 370. And throughout this time, how many times did you sin with her each week? Was it every day, every other day, or what? 371. And other than being together, on other days, and hours, did you not joke around and play around in a wanton manner? [maralas]? 372. In your playing, did you not also speak lasciviously, and at other times embrace each other, and kiss each other, and touch each other all over your bodies without reserve? 373. And did something dirty come out [nilabasan] of your body? 374. And did you also cause her to emit something dirty? 375. How many times did you play during the day, or every week? And how many times did you cause each other to emit something? Because this is a particularly serious and grave sin. 376. Other than this, I suspect that every time you see each other or when you think of her, you lustfully desire her. Isn’t this right? 377. And because of this desire for her, did you play with your body, some lewd thing? And did your body emit something dirty? 378. Well, did you leave that woman? Have you separated from her? 379. How many times did the priests hearing your confession order you to leave her? 380. What did they give you as penance? Tell me, so I can tell if you were faithful to the cure they gave you for your sick soul […]

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385. Among the women you sinned with, which ones did you force against their will, or did they consent to you? 386. How many did you force? And of those you took advantage of, or forced, were there young women whose entire body [caboong catawan, i.e. virginity] you took? 387. Well, did your taking of her become public, this forcible destruction of her womanhood? Did she complain at all, or did she ask of you something in return? […] 399. Other than this, did you also play and fool around with other women? Or did you fool around with other men? Your fellow males, or females? 400. And in your fooling around, did you say lewd things to one another? 401.Was it just with words that you were playing around, or did you also fool around with your hands? 402. And how did you do this? Did you poke and touch each other, and did you show each others’ bodies? 403. And did you emit something dirty? And did you cause the other to emit something dirty? 404. How many of you were fooling around in this way? And how many of you had spouses, and how many of you were single? And were there others watching you? 405. And how many times did you fool around in that manner? 406. Those lewd games you think are just for fun (like a fiesta); but in hell, it is only the devils who take delight in that infernal feast. It is indeed they who excite and tempt you into that kind of lewd speech, in that touching, and dirtiness that is so abominable for any good Christian to see, for this is truly the behavior of animals. And seeing you falling for their temptation in offending God, the devils rejoice, and circle around you in victory. That is what your carnal act is about. That is why my advice to you, my child, is to avoid this kind of infernal fiesta. Do not fool around. Do not conduct yourself in that way with others. And dissuade them, and if they do not listen to you, then leave their presence so that you do not commit so many mortal sins against God and against your soul. 407. With another man like you, or another woman, did you commit some particular offense? 408. And what was that? Did you sleep together? Did you lie on top of each other? What did you do? Do not be ashamed to say it, since you had no shame doing it in front of God who saw you and who is here in front of you, and he is watching your confession. 409. And did you do anything lewd to some other animal? And what was that? And how many times? And was this in front of others? How many? 410. Did you refuse your spouse when he wanted to sleep with you?

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411. And why did you refuse? How many times did you refuse him? Do you ordinarily have difficulty obeying him? And did he become angry by your refusal? 412. And in your relationship with your spouse, do you think of someone else and delight in the thought of being with another person? 413. And is that other person married, or perhaps your relative or your spouse’s relative? And how many times did you think this way with the intention of taking pleasure with all your heart? 414. When you are sleeping with your spouse, do you change the position of your bodies in what you are doing? And what sort of change do you make? And why did you change your usual practice? Did something dirty come out of your body as a result of your new position? Did you intend it that way, or were you just careless, or what? […] 418. Did you have lewd [mahalay] dreams? 419. And what happened when you woke up? Did you recall the lewd dream and enjoy it? Or did you try to suppress it and fight it? 420. Did you sing lewd songs, or did you listen to them? 421. And did you remember those lewd songs with the intention of taking pleasure in them? […] 427. Did you bathe with persons of the opposite sex? Is this not a sin and a great danger for sinning against God when you wish and desire men and women upon seeing them naked while they bathe and rise from the water and get dressed? […] 430. And during those times when you think about those things, did you do something lewd with your body? 431. And what did you do? Did you feel and touch that shameful part of yourself and play with it? 432. And did you dirty yourself? How many times?18 […] 436. My child, every time you are aroused by lewd thoughts and desires, you should pray and try with all your might to suppress and fight them. Ask God to care for you [ampunan], make the sign of the cross on your body and ask the Virgin to help you. Take care and fear God in His presence; and even if you suffer now, who knows what suffering will await you? So many have God condemned to hell for indulging in lewd games and pleasures; they were judged by God and given the ultimate punishment, thrown to eternal damnation. Oh, woe to you, were you to join them in eternity.

18 See no. 367.

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Bibliography Afary, Janet, and Kevin B. Anderson. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Barthes, Roland. Sade, Fourier, Loyola. Translated by Richard Miller. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976. Blancas de San José, Francisco. Memorial de la vida cristiana en la lengua tagala [Librong mahal na ang ngala’y Memorial de la Vida Christiana]. 2nd ed. Manila: Imprenta de José Ma. Dayot, 1835. Foucault, Michel. The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the College de France, 1982–83. Translated by Graham Burchell, New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2010. ———. Introduction. Vol. 1 of The History of Sexuality. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1978. ———. Power. Edited by James D. Faubion. Vol. 3 of Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954–1984. New York: New Press, 2000. ———. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–78. Translated by Graham Burchell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Harcourt, Bernard E. “Introduction to Foucault on Iran: Revolt as Political Spirituality.” 13 Forms of Uprising/13 Seminars at Columbia [blog], 11 December 2017. http:// blogs.law.columbia.edu/uprising1313/bernard-e-harcourt-introduction-tofoucault-on-iran-revolt-as-political-spirituality/?cn-reloaded=1&cn-reloaded=1 (accessed 9 October 2019). Lumbera, Bienvenido. Tagalog Poetry, 1570–1898: Tradition and Influences in its Development. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1986. Rafael, Vicente L. Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993. Santa Ana, Alonso de. Explicación de la Doctrina Cristiana en lingua tagala. Manila: Imprenta de los Amigos del País, 1853. Siegel, James T. Naming the Witch. Cultural Memory in the Present. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006. Totanés, Sebastián de. Manual Tagalog, para auxilio a los religiosos de esta santa provincial de San Gregoria Magno de Descalzos de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Filipinas. Sampaloc, Manila: Convento de Nuestra Señora de Loretto, 1745. Wolf, Edwin, ed. Doctrina Christiana: The First Book Printed in the Philippines, Manila, 1593; A Facsimile of the Copy in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, with an Introductory Essay by Edwin Wolf 2nd. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1947.

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About the Editor Vicente L. Rafael is the Giovanni and Amne Costigan Professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Washington. He has written widely about the Philippines of the Spanish and American colonial periods. His publications include, Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule (Cornell University Press, 1988), Discrepant Histories: Translocal Essays on Filipino Cultures (Temple University Press, 1995), White Love and Other Events in Filipino History (Duke University Press, 2000), The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines (Duke University Press, 2005), and Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language amid Wars of Translation (Duke University Press, 2016).

14. The Pacific Theater of the Seven Years’ War in a Latin Poemby an Indigenous Priest, Bartolomé Saguinsín (1766) Stuart M. McManus

Abstract The Latin epigrams of the Tagalog parish priest Bartolomé Saguinsín (c.1696–1772) commemorate the loss of Manila to the British East India Company in the Seven Years’ War, and the subsequent recuperation of the city by Spain. They plot events into a predictably providentialist structure, lionizing the Spanish commander, praising the Hispanized natives who helped recover the city, criticizing the inhabitants of less Hispanized areas who stood idly by, and casting aspersions on the Sangleys who supposedly collaborated with the invaders. Stuart M. McManus provides background on the author and his involvement with the war, and discusses the poem as an instance of participation by a Tagalog native in the Catholic Republic of Letters. Keywords: Neo-Latin poetry; imperial rivalry in the Pacific; Seven Years’ War; Filipino literature

The following text is a translation of a collection of Latin epigrams by the erudite Tagalog priest, Bartolomé Saguinsín (c.1696–1772). This recounts one of the most important events in both the history of the Hispanic world and the Philippine nation, the British occupation of Manila during the Seven Years’ War (1762–1764). It is also worth noting that it is dedicated to the lieutenant governor of the Philippines, Simón de Anda y Salazar (1709–1776), and that it was printed thanks to the generosity of Mateo de los Angeles (dates unknown), a Chinese mestizo militiaman, who before the War had spent some time at the court of Philip V in Madrid.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch14

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As for the author himself, Saguinsín was born in 1694 in Antipolo on the outskirts of Manila to a family of Hispanized Tagalog principales, and attended the Jesuit school in the town, before receiving a degree in arts from the Real Colegio de San José in Manila. From there, he quickly rose in the church hierarchy, eventually becoming the parish priest of Quiapo, a canon of the cathedral and synodal examiner of morality and the Tagalog language. It was in this final capacity that in the 1750s he was asked to re-edit the Tagalog Doctrina Christiana, a central text for indigenous Christianity. The immediate context for the composition of the epigrams is the British siege and occupation of Manila, during which the European and Sepoy (i.e. South Asian) troops of the British East India Company attacked Saguinsín’s church and murdered several members of his congregation. Despite his years, Saguinsín resisted the invaders, although he was easily overcome. He was about to be marched into captivity in Intramuros, when he was rescued by a band of Spanish and loyal indigenous forces, who were conducting a raid on the British-controlled city for church bells, which they planned to melt down for shot. Although liberated and witness to the eventual expulsion of the British East India Company in 1764, as one Spanish source put it: “The parish priest of Quiapo […] recovered from his wounds, but not from the pain caused by the desecration of his church and the other aforementioned atrocities.”1 Printed a few years later in 1766, the verses reflect his harrowing experience in Quiapo and his understandable joy at the departure of the British. Written in workmanlike elegiac couplets, the epigrams present a highly providential account of the war and the eventual Hispanic victory, which is guaranteed from the beginning by the virtue and piety of Anda and his forces, and foretold by the apparition of a cross in the sky above Manila, which mirrors the famous vision of the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great before the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 ce. This then is a defense of Catholic community against its debauched and heretical foreign enemies, a predictable narrative in many ways from the pen of a learned priest. At the same time, it is important to note that the epigrams also make an intervention in Manila’s post-occupation ethnic politics. Throughout the epigrams, the Tagalog Latinist lionizes the deeds of the Hispanized and loyal indios and condemns the supposedly fickle and wicked inhabitants of distant provinces, such as Ilocos and Pangasinan, the sites of the famous revolts led by Diego Silang and Juan de la Cruz “Palaris.” However, the group for which Saguinsín reserves the greater part of his ire is the Chinese 1 Navarro, Documentos indispensables, 291.

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population of Manila. In epigram after epigram, the Sangleys emerge as irredeemably debauched and untrustworthy. Unlike Tagalogs, Pampangos, and Bulaqueños, the Chinese are portrayed as having a bio-moral inclination to violence, treachery, and rebellion. While he viewed some indigenous groups as less than wholly trustworthy, they could be redeemed in his estimations. Not so the Chinese. This was because they were widely believed to have collaborated with the British (some, but certainly not all, did), a fact that also led to anti-Chinese pogroms and the expulsion of a large part of the Chinese population from the islands following the reassertion of Spanish sovereignty. Saguinsín’s epigrams are therefore an example of epideictic poetics that combines praise of the loyal indigenous inhabitants of the archipelago’s Hispanized provinces with vituperation of those from less Hispanized regions and above all the Chinese. Finally, Saguinsín’s epigrams also underline that the Hispanic world was not only multiethnic, but also multilingual. Whereas Castilian was the Hispanic world’s lingua franca, and Nahuatl, Quechua, and Tagalog some of its leading regional languages, Latin was its sacred and learned tongue. To be sure this was less the case in the 1760s than it had been in the 1660s when Sor Juana set out on the path to learn the Latin conjugations and declensions that would give her access to the texts of Aristotle, Pliny, and Athanasius Kircher. However, for Saguinsín and his contemporaries, Latin was still the language of the mass, of prayer, of serious theology, rhetoric, poetics, and all education, as well as the language in which William Draper, the commander of the British forces, and Manuel Rojo del Rio, the archbishop and captain general of the Philippines, corresponded during the siege of Manila. Saguinsín’s epigrams represent therefore an important chapter in the literary history of the Philippines and the Hispanic world more broadly that shows that people of indigenous descent also interacted with the longstanding humanistic traditions of the Catholic Republic of Letters.

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A Latin Poem by a Tagalog Priest, Bartolomé Saguinsín 2 Dedication Distinguished hero and outstanding consul, Whom both poles applaud for your commendable deeds, To whom the Hispanic world gives public praise And laurels worthy of your extraordinary feats. And whom Luzon acknowledges as father of the fatherland And all Manila as her protector. Thereupon, rich and poor both clamor That you are their savior and divinely appointed guardian. This gift is unworthy, although it comes from the heart, Not daring to raise its face to meet you. For indeed I perceive your unapproachable majesty Not, I resolve, to be sanctified with the incense of a small gift. But no one is in doubt that you will grace it with a glance. For, being pious and clement, you know how to give each their due. It is, of course, a tiny offering, no sacrifice of a hundred oxen; You will, however, not be dissatisfied with this unworthy gift. Please allow with tranquil countenance, oh upstanding consul, This timid offering to approach your highness. Do not turn your back on this trifling reward of duty. Accept what are the pious prayers of my heart. Yet, here I recount your deeds with an untried Minerva But no clouds cover the light of the sun. The following pages will fear the judgment of the learned But they will read of the strength of the consul’s virtue. Please accept this gift from the least of your many admirers Who with pious affection proffers this offering? I am no Virgil, Ovid, or another Homer, By whose verses you should be celebrated, Nor does the flute of the Muses lend me song. Love alone furnishes me with this courage. For truly I believe that no one should sing the praises of a single one Of your opponents for any good deeds of theirs. 2 Source: Bartolomé Saguinsín, Epigrammata (Sampaloc: In Typographia caenobii B. V. Lauretanae, 1766). The translation is mine.

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But love, abandoning such things, bravely stutters Words about the honor that you possessed.

To the Reader Not with Andine3 verses do I record the British War, When Manila was captured by force of arms. Nor our arms, which put to flight not twice, but many times The English forces, who were repelled in the slaughter. Nor, for instance, by what encampments the British were surrounded And finally cornered and defeated on the outskirts of the city. These things worthy of their song the Muses will rightly sing With draughts from the fountain of Helicon. Such lofty heights are beyond my powers Words fail me and my Muse is silent I sing of deeds and a man, who since he is the greatest of heroes, Gazes on the tiny work of his admirer, And respectfully holds his tongue and suffers my blottings, Forgiving the feet even though they limp. Farewell.

Epigram 1 During the siege, the day before the British entered Manila by force of arms, the Real Audiencia sent don Simón de Anda, who was one of the judges, to protect and encourage the Indians in the jurisdiction of the Catholic monarch. The day before Manila was captured by British forces, Anda was sent forth to attend to the local people. The Real Audiencia sent him to steady the trembling Indians And at the same time to maintain the rule of law. He left immediately followed by no accompanying crowd And in this, he had no help from funds or force. Where are you hurrying, oh great Simón? Where are you heading unprotected? 3 This is a play on words taking advantage of the similarity between Anda’s name and Virgil’s birthplace, Andes.

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Consider the people you will encounter, and the dangers you are rushing into. People unfaithful to God, with undecided hearts Who know no law and whose word means nothing. The wretched Sangleys haunt the streets, an ungodly and treacherous race; The envious Sangley prepares for you a cruel death. You seemed to me to have been sent like a lamb to the slaughter. Who thinks that your defenses will hold? Go, but arm yourself with the sturdy force of virtue. Love of God and country conquers all.

Epigram 2 As soon as don Simón arrived in [the] province of Bulacán, he was informed of the capture of Manila, and so he sent out an edict to all the provinces that reminded them that the Catholic monarch, not the British monarch was their lord, and Anda himself now served as the king’s governor and the head of the Real Audiencia, as stipulated by Hispanic law. He immediately brought together the leading caciques and principales from both the neighboring provinces of Bulacán and Pampagna to swear fealty to Charles III, which they gladly did. Once our magnanimous hero had arrived in Bulacán, Whose people are the most prominent of the region, As soon as he knew that the city had been taken And the governor and the Audiencia captured He sent out an edict to the people commanding them To obey and pledge allegiance to the Catholic Monarch. What support did you have, oh great Simón, in all this? And how did you make them recognize you as governor? The Indians, deceived by lies and cowering in fear Will set traps for you and attack you. Fortune favors the brave! Finish what you started! The Lord has appointed you and will always be at your side. Anda called the elders, leading men and caciques From Pampanga and Bulacán, which are neighboring provinces. He ordered them to swear fealty to Charles, 4 4

Charles III (r. 1759–1788).

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To the Hispanic laws and their duties and never to abandon them. This was astonishing since the English had promised them Freedom from both Hispanic rule and tribute. But what was more amazing was that the Indians kept their word. The unwavering fidelity of the Indians was not in doubt. Oh, great hero, your voice embodied in the minds of the Indians Strong and unwavering virtue and great trustworthiness.

Epigram 3 The English summoned to Manila don Simón de Anda, who was held up in the main town of the Bulacán province a few miles from the city. He had already been proclaimed and recognized as governor, head of the Real Audiencia and commander of Spain’s forces by all the provinces of the Philippine Islands after Manila had been captured along with the governor and the city’s inhabitants, who were forced to swear loyalty to the English and to keep an oath not to take up arms against them. Your rivals, the English,5 called for you, Anda, with treacherous intentions, Summoning and ordering you back to the city. Feigning good faith, the cunning English called for you Perhaps because you could hinder their plans. They declare their peaceful intentions, but do not put down their weapons. They lie in wait to strike the incautious and their word is not to be trusted. They want to convince you that it would not be a disgrace To abandon the king’s laws and your honor. The English wanted to give orders to a man, over whom they have no authority. I am amazed and do not understand their reasoning. They call on you to be their subject and to be faithful to them. It was a foolish thing, I think, or they lacked all forethought. Englishmen, why do you give orders to those you do not command? Neither can he obey, nor does he want to. You think it is rash to render service to one’s king And preserve the laws of one’s lord and master?

5

Saguinsín uses “British” and “English” interchangeably.

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Epigram 4 Since Governor Simón de Anda did not heed the English order and summons, they declared him a traitor and a rebel against both the Catholic monarch and His Britannic Majesty and declared him an outlaw, putting a price of 5,000 escudos on his head. Who is called a traitor in a hoarse whisper? The loud herald shouts out “Anda is a traitor!” O madness, oh rage, what insanity has seized you! Is it treason to keep the laws of your sovereign? A man has been declared a traitor, who serves as governor, And commands and serves. This is what our law commands. You promised 5,000 coins, oh Britisher, In exchange for his severed head, a greater sum than the wealth of all England. But why this crime? Do you lack strong fortresses? He who fears the sword also dreads Mammon’s power. Do you stand against common decency? Put aside your tricks And wage war with your strength, arms and men. Now, I dare say, you have given up all hope. Nay, perhaps you have seen that you have much to fear.

Epigram 5 Having received news of the vicious edict, in which the English declared him a traitor to both the Catholic king and His Britannic Majesty and sentenced him to death, don Simón de Anda sent out his own edict, copies of which were also placed in certain places in the city, which declared similarly that the English were the real traitors against both the Catholic king and His Britannic Majesty, or rather, against law both divine and human, and the laws of both men and of warfare. He also promised 10,000 coins for each of their severed heads. Upon hearing of the English mockery, The governor wasted no time in responding. Throwing the vile edict of the British back in their faces, He produced his own audacious reply. Which he dispatched to all the Indians and to Manila as well.

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It declared that the English were guilty of treachery And had conspired against both the Catholic monarch and His Britannic Majesty, Against the laws, peoples and the very heavens. Without reverence for religion they invaded churches, Plundered, degraded, and stole sacred vessels. The camp followers put on church vestments in jest Donning them without regard for faith or holiness. You break your sworn word to the people and to God! This is their nature, nor does reason ever darken their door. Do you censure the English for their crimes and impieties, Simón? And condemn them without fear? For every English commander whose head is worth 1,000 coins You promise to give that tenfold. The enemy is battle-hardened; the foe is a fierce force. Do you scorn them without fear? What support do you have? You are David against Goliath. Against you stands an unyielding force. Yet, you will triumph. Lo, God is with you!

Epigram 6 The Sangleys supported the British and treacherously conspired against the Catholic king, opposing don Simón, the governor, who was at that time in the town of Bacolor, the capital of Pampanga province. This conspiracy was miraculously discovered, and in an even more miraculous series of events was put down as an example to others. What torturous madness burns in the hearts of the Sangleys? It is a burning rage against the life of the governor. For the conflagration of their rage slowly envelops them And is only to be extinguished by his death. O Sangleys, what frenzy lashes your souls And mysteriously overwhelms your hearts? Such madness digs for you wide graves! For whoever sets snares for others, falls in himself. This is the work of cruel furies and a godless people. I ask you what harm the pious Anda has done to any one of you? That he understands your people, and that he himself looks to their interests,

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Does this offend your eyes and stir you up? Who heard of such things? Your sickness has been diagnosed and demands That a doctor attend and administer the medicine. Behold Simón stops them in their tracks. Although his forces are few, Jupiter backs his cause. These things I recount are marvelous yet true. Two thousand or more attack, yet none are injured. Onwards Simón, whom I should call a new Alexander! While the Macedonian conqueror was once wounded, you are without injury. Simón sets upon them, and hems in the beleaguered enemy. He captures many, those who did not flee. Exact the punishments that should be meted out To that depraved race! Put down the awful crime!

Epigram 7 Once don Simón had collected his troops, set up camps, defeated numerous British forces, and strengthened his position with arms and funds, many citizens who had escaped from the British, along with the royal auditor with the other members of the Real Audiencia, sought refuge with him, and were given asylum. A Philippine galleon was also taken from the English under the direction of Anda. What a metamorphosis! What an amazing transformation! Before Anda was a mere official, now he is the commanding officer. When did Minerva teach him to lead the vanguard of the forces of Mars? In fact, now the learned Dr. Anda commands men of war. Now he who was sent alone and arrived without a military escort Now approaches surrounded by valiant men at arms. But who has given you soldiers and weapons To wage war on British strongholds? The outer wall has become a haven For all those who come and flee to your fortress. High-minded citizens, who are so weighed down with cares, Here is your solace! Cast off your hated bonds! Now that the Audiencia has fled from our forces And the enemy has been driven out, Anda will take care of them And prudently seize the riches of the galleon, Filipina, From the hands of the British, of this there should be no doubt.

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Indeed, he will also faithfully make sure to protect The treasure, which the now lightened ship carried. There is no doubt that this took place with divine sanction, With Anda acting as the mediator. Thus, Anda was your salvation.

Epigram 8 At the suggestion of the British, the province of Pangasinan and a part of the province of Ilocos rebelled. When Anda sent a few soldiers to put down the rebellion, they pretended to ask for pardon. They then pretended that they did not trust his pardon, so Simón sent his son as a hostage, whom they did not accept as they said it was unnecessary, but instead promised their loyalty to him and Anda sent them a new governor. But afterwards, they rose up in an even greater rebellion and Anda sent a force to put this down and to bring them to heel. As the British forces despaired of their martial abilities, They thought of trapping their valiant foe with a dirty trick. They sent out men to make trouble among the Indians, And a fire broke out, as if from the Styx itself. In the province of Pangasinan and part of the province of Ilocos Are peoples infected with a violent poison? The furies came hither and entered the hearts of the wretched Indians. The faint of heart became violent, Rejecting their bonds and rebelling against all laws, And killing the Spaniards and priests that they had. Thus, you can see that Anda was thrust into a bitter fight. Wherever you look, there are great dangers. From the north came violent wrath, and rage threatened from the south And yet Anda girded his loins for what was to come. He immediately sent out a few chosen soldiers from among his forces. Who put out the flames, which were fanned by every delay. So the defeated Indians insincerely sought pardon. The vanquished dissimulated, fraudulently hiding their real intent. Anda even brought his son as a hostage as a sign of his forgiveness. The mob rejected this, and a new governor made his way there. Whereupon they reverted to their old ways and an even greater rebellion arose. This he punished, as such a violent crime demanded.

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What shall I say about you, oh pious father? What should I think? What should I say about such a son, so like his father? As a father, you offer your son for king and country And for you, your son is ready to lay down his life. You are justly honored; your son too is honored by your name. As a father, you are Abraham, your son, Isaac.

Epigram 9 Giving up hope of resisting Anda and the Hispanic forces and defeating them, the English sent him envoys to sue for peace and free trade between the two sides. The enemy race, oh valiant governor, sent you Envoys of peace. Who would have thought this possible before? Do you sincerely seek and strive after peace, Britisher? Your leaders cannot be trusted. You sue for peace, but you ask in a haughty manner. Reluctant to recognize who will grant it. You called Anda a traitor and rebel, And yet you now seek peace? This ill will complicates matters. You upstart, false governor, so unfaithful and deceitful, Disloyal even unto your British king. Those who show favor to the enemy, are traitors to their own king, And the king will become his enemy in turn. Thus, they deceive their king, or they are the enemies of both Spain and Britain, Seeking, as they do, the friendship of their king’s enemy. Besides, they lay down their arms (so it seems) But refuse to return the spoils as requested of them. Cities, strongholds, arms and all rights must be returned, So that the longed-for peace may be achieved.

Epigram 10 There appeared in the sky signs to our forces, which assembled almost from nothing in the provinces of Pampanga and Bulacán, and later in a short time grew miraculously and still more miraculously increased in size daily. These

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signs were very favorable and were good omens for us. They included a tall cross and beside it a long and leafy palm tree, whose spread-out branches at times made a pleasant verdant image and at others came together into a single trunk and several times made the shape of an anchor. At the time of the English expedition to Malinta, where their greatly superior numbers and arms were no match for us and were routed, a host of soldiers was seen in the sky in a distant province. On the outskirts of Manila, a sword was even seen in the sky a little before the capture of eleven members of the Society of Jesus and the burning of the towns of Santa Cruz and Quiapo. God himself showed with portents the places Where deeds fair and foul would occur. Often at God’s desire, mortal hearts grow weak. When piety has slipped, he raises up his own. Your spirits had been punished during these two years of war. And you, Manila, had surely lost hope of deliverance. But now the firmament bears portents. A cross appears in the sky, and a tall, lush palm. Raise your eyes to the heavens, great Simón! Behold the sign of the cross and the palm! A cross has appeared, which will strengthen your shoulders. And a tall palm so richly deserved. Bravo, oh happy and thrice and four times blessed Simón Who takes up any burden for his monarch? Continue the undertakings of the Lord, confident of his firm support. The heavens have already shown how your deeds will be rewarded.

Epigram 11 With peace approaching, don Simón gave control of the Philippines to the appointed official, but, due to illness, the latter was unable to take up his post and so the baton was once again passed to don Simón, except for the command of soldiers defending certain fortresses, and he entered the city, which he took from the English. Oh, happy Atlas, who was burdened by heavy weights In time of war; without hesitation you take up the load. Now peace takes this weight from your shoulders But when you have tirelessly saved all lives, riches and royal privileges,

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When you have overcome the strong British forces with ease, Despite their great army and many men, After your virtue has formed and equipped, So many soldiers, knights and camps, Peace advocates reducing your labor And wiping the pious sweat from your weathered face. Who does not rightly marvel at such amazing and lofty deeds Which are beyond words? Although from small sparks great fires grow, Burning flames do not come from nothing. There is no other occurrence that can be recounted In the venerable annals of the past, which is its equal. In previous wars Anda had no match. Thus, if not greater, he is no less than them. He had the advantage of neither funds nor a retinue, As the Hispanic troops could be counted on the fingers of one hand. But a year did not have to pass Until he had over four thousand men at his command. At the same time, he prepared arms of every martial type And clothes and victuals too for his army. I should think you did not do this with human strength alone. Oh, great Simón, you are the handmaid of the Lord!

Epigram 12 When the Catholic monarch learned of don Simón’s deeds during the war, he elevated him to the dignity of councilor of the kingdom of Castile. May Anda’s soaring fame swiftly take flight And hasten to the height of honor. Thus, may the herald quickly catch the breeze, And may speedy prayers make their way to their master. Now your mother, Europe is said to be full Of your praises and merits and celebrates you gladly. Gifts are not given by such a magnificent monarch as Charles, Which would not be worthy of such a great prince. Charles the Great gives rewards equal to greatness. He has many gifts that he distributes to his subjects. Behold Simón: he readily exalts you and raises you up

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To the highest dignity, which you so richly deserve. You have been made a councilor of Castile And placed at the king’s right hand. Soaring thus, your virtue has reached the highest peak of honor, Which it has achieved on the wings of your merit. You lived for the king, and now the king lives for you, And you will live on forever in our memories. Thus, may you shine like a glittering star In the Hispanic sky, like a beautiful, glistening orb. Pray, send your bright rays as far as the Philippines Illuminating us and easing our sorrows. Fiat.

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Bibliography Alonso Álvarez, Luis. “Los señores del barangay: la principalía indígena en las islas Filipinas, 1565–1789; viejas evidencias y nuevas hipótesis.” In El cacicazgo en la Nueva España y Filipinas, edited by Margarita Menegus, 355–406. Mexico City: CESU-UNAM/Plaza y Valdés Editores, 2005. MacCormack, Sabine. On the Wings of Time: Rome, the Incas, Spain, and Peru. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. Mancini, J. M. Art and War in the Pacific World: Making, Breaking and Taking from Anson’s Voyage to the Philippine-American War. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2018. Navarro, P. Eduardo. Documentos indispensables para la verdadera historia de Filipinas. Vol. 2 of 2 vols. Madrid: Imprenta del Asilo de Huérfanos, 1908. Palanco, Fernando, and José S. Arcilla. “Diego Silang’s Revolt: A New Approach.” Philippine Studies 50, no. 4 (2002): 512–537. Saguinsín, Bartolomé. Epigrammata. Sampaloc: In Typographia caenobii B. V. Lauretanae, 1766. Santiago, Luciano P. R. The Hidden Light: The First Filipino Priests. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1987.

About the Editor Stuart M. McManus is Assistant Professor of Premodern World History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently completing a book on the global history of Renaissance humanism based on primary research in thirteen countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia, and is beginning work on a second book on the reception of Roman slave law in the early modern world and its interactions with Chinese, South Asian, African, and indigenous American concepts of slavery and freedom. His articles have appeared in venues such as Hispanic American Historical Review, Colonial Latin American Review, Latino Studies, and Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. 

15. A Prohibition on Digging Up the Bones of the Dead (1813) Ino Manalo

Abstract In 1813, the Bishop of Cebu, Joaquín Encabo de la Virgen de Sopetrán, issued an edict prohibiting the exhumation of the dead, written primarily in the local language of Cebuano Visayan. This document from the archives of the Roman Catholic parish of Patrocinio de Maria in Boljoon, a town in the Philippine province of Cebu, suggests that inhabitants of the diocese were digging up the bones of the dead in order to hold rituals for a secondary burial along traditional, non-Christian lines. Ino Manalo discusses the edict in light of the emphasis placed by Spanish colonialism on urbanism and literacy, and outlines the ways in which it provides evidence of the persistence of traditional beliefs and practices centuries after the introduction of Christianity to the Visayas. Keywords: religion; evangelization; resistance; Visayas

The 1813 document presented here comes from the archival collection of the Roman Catholic parish of Patrocinio de Maria in Boljoon, a town in the Philippine province of Cebu.1 The parish archive contains church records from the late eighteenth century to the present among which are baptism, marriage, and death registers. Mostly written in the local language—Cebuano Visayan—the document is probably an order from the Bishop of Cebu that was disseminated among the different parishes where it would be copied for future reference. In the case of Boljoon, the order was transcribed in a bound ledger that also contained other records including a 1795 inventory.

1

Vitexculie Lumactud brought this record to this author’s attention.

Lee, C.H. and R. Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020 doi 10.5117/9789463720649_ch15

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Though it is assumed that the order was for all the parishes of the diocese, it is also possible that it was directed solely at Boljoon. The initial lines in Spanish introduce the author as the Joaquín Encabo de la Virgen de Sopetrán, Bishop of Cebu. Encabo was born in Jarandilla de la Vera in Caceres, Spain on 15 August 1740. He was ordained a priest with the Augustinian Recollects in 1768. He was selected bishop of Cebu in 1803 but was only confirmed as such in 1808, holding his post until his death in 1818.2 In his order, Bishop Encabo is reprimanding certain members of his flock who have resorted to the practice of digging up the bones of their ancestors presumably to hold rituals for a secondary burial. These rituals have long been practiced in the Philippines as suggested by archaeological data and by ethnographic surveys.3 That these rites are reported in Cebu 250 years after its Christianization attests to their continuing relevance. The bishop seems to understand the importance of the rituals and the intimacy with the dead that they may have afforded. One can note how, perhaps to counter the highly emotional nature of what he is addressing, he takes on a paternal tone saying that while it is just that he mete out swift and harsh punishment, he has chosen to be more lenient as he is “still a father.” Encabo’s choice to write his order in the local language may have been part of the strategy to enhance the familial effect. The same may be said of the bishop dramatically declaring how the offensive practice “saddens my heart” as well as his elaborate manifestations of love. Moreover, Encabo makes it clear that he knows his flock well. Rather than imposing a blanket castigation, he calibrates his punishment. This conveys the idea that he is aware that there are distinctions among the parishioners—some may be guiltier than others. The main criterion for differentiation is literacy. Those who can read are given three months to return to the fold while those who cannot read are given six months. Evidently, heresy is magnified by the ability to comprehend the word of God or at least the pronouncements of earthly representatives. Interestingly, the contrite were to kneel at the heart of the town, in front of the church as the congregation filed past after mass. Meanwhile, the residue of crimes was to be scattered at the seaside, at the periphery of civilization. Exile and excommunication are made palpable by being localized in a geography of punishment. The juxtaposition of urban landscape and literacy may call to mind how this very same interplay was said to be part of the foundational concepts of 2 Abella, “Succession of Bishops of Cebu,” 541. 3 Discussion with Filipino anthropologist, Malot Ingel, 25 March 2018. See also Junker, “Archeological Excavations.”

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Spanish colonization which, collectively, were dubbed by Angel Rama “the Lettered City.”4 Rama was, of course, speaking about the Americas during a much earlier period yet the shadow of what he describes may still be detected in the early nineteenth-century Philippine document being studied. From Rama’s work, Rappaport and Cummins have observed, “the town grid […] and the alphabetic document were all understood as bestowing order upon the chaos the Spanish discovered when they arrived in the New World […] which they considered diabolical.”5 This observation can help unpack one more significant feature of the bishop’s ordinance: the use of many terms for what are, in fact, the agents of alternative forms of knowledge that are outside of and in opposition to that of “the Lettered City.” Despite the brevity of his edict, Encabo manages to mention many terms for who he considers the foes of the colonial order: the sorcerers and the shamans that he calls diwata, taguibanua, and taguisaquit. He also refers to the condemned practices as minoros or Moor-like, thus attributing them to Spain’s long-time archenemies, the moros. Encabo does not elaborate just exactly how digging up the dead goes against Christian doctrine. He does not even quote the Bible. For him, it is enough to associate the rituals with indigenous religious leaders to clarify that these are unacceptable activities. The fact that the main body of the order is in Cebuano Visayan may indicate the intervention of an unnamed translator/scribe, the agent who Rama considers an important player in the world of lettered Hispanization. It is not known how proficient Encabo was in the language of his constituents, but it is very likely that he relied on native assistants to aid him in crafting his pronouncements by providing translation and perhaps even espionage. It may be the agency of these Cebuano interlocutors that enables the Spanish bishop’s directive to have such currency with the many terms for the shamanistic. Remarkably, Encabo’s order parallels a late nineteenth-century story told by Philippine national hero José Rizal. Rizal’s tale also centers on a secret funerary rite but in this case the participants are depicted as offering personal prayers to traditional gods. They are interrupted by church authorities who wrongly accuse them of being led by a native female priest—the catalona.6 What becomes clear in both the Encabo order and the Rizal story is that the rites may not be offensive in themselves. Even more horrifying for the 4 Rama, Lettered City, 1–28. 5 Rappaport and Cummins, Beyond the Lettered City, 221. 6 Rizal, “Maligaya y María Sinagtala.” For its version in English translation, see Rizal, Rizal’s Prose, 170–203.

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church is the proximity to primordial forces ranging from Encabo’s diwata to Rizal’s catalona. Evidently, by practicing the old rituals one transgresses by breaking away from the logical and literate confines of the ordered city into an ancient and demonic wildness, a wildness that by naming in all its variations and gradations, the record does the service of preserving.

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Regarding the Digging Up the Bones of your Dead (1813)7 The digging up of the bones of your dead—an act both frightening and distasteful, the alliance with the unrefined ones and those who deal with sickness, the following of the [old] rituals, the mocking and transgression of Christian teachings, and your other acts I know are improper—reveal and make known to me that you are like the sorcerers and this greatly pierces and saddens my heart. As such, I should—if we follow the correct procedure—punish severely, firmly, and painfully, so that you may be made examples for everyone. However, as I am still a father, I will not use punishment but instead [I will use] admonition and teaching, yet if you will not heed my words, then I shall immediately follow with punishment. Henceforth, if there is a person who will join in the digging of bones in the cemetery, those bones shall be gathered before everyone, and he who dug them shall be made to burn them, [then] the ashes will be scattered there at the sea, and the digger will be excommunicated. Likewise, those who know this, who henceforth shall [still] be allied with the shamans and the sorcerers shall be exiled from the Church and shall also be excommunicated. Therefore, in order to recognize and know those that are not involved in these rituals; and so that those who are involved will understand and will repent their Moor-like ways, starting from the day you were told of this letter, those who can read are given three months while those who cannot read are given six months to follow the order of your parish priest to follow the duties of being Christians. If there are those who shall mock [heaven forbid] this order, [they] will be made to kneel outside of the church on Sundays and feasts, from the start of the mass until all the mass-goers have exited the church; if [they] do not heed this order, but continue in [their] deviant ways, I will use the power of the Holy Church, which is excommunication, and whatever else, and separate [them] from the company of Christians so that others will not be infected by this deviance. I hope that I touch your heart, and that you do not continue in your old ways as before, and hopefully, you follow the words of one who loves you with a true love, and teaches you the path to heaven. To attest to the truth of this, I sign this on April 30, 1813

Fr. Joachin, Bishop of Cebu 7 This document resides at the archival collection of the Roman Catholic parish of Patrocinio de Maria in Boljoon (Philippines). Dr. Teresita Ignacio, Dr. Jobers Bersales, Dr. Marjorie Evasco, Dr. Resil Mojares, and Mr. Vitexculie Lumactud aided with this translation.

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Bibliography Abella, Domingo. “The Succession of Bishops of Cebu.” Philippine Studies 8, no. 3 (1960): 535–543. Alcina, Francisco Ignacio. Historia natural de las Islas Bisayas del padre Alzina. Edited by Victoria Yepes. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1996. Cavada y Méndez de Vigo, Augustín de la. Historia geográfica, geológica y estadística de Filipinas. Manila: Ramírez y Giraudier, 1876. Junker, Laura Lee. “Archeological Excavations at the 12th–16th Century Settlement of Tanjay, Negros Oriental: The Burial Evidence for Social and Status-Symbolism, Head-taking and Inter-polity Raiding.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society 21, no. 1 (1993): 39–82. Lara, Myra. “Archaeological Recognition of Mortuary Behavior in Callao Cave, Northern Luzon, Philippines through Taphonomic Analysis of Isolated Human Remains.” Archaelogical and Anthropological Sciences 9, no. 6 (2017): 1169–1186. Rama, Angel. The Lettered City. Translated by John Charles Chasteen. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996. Rappaport, Joanne. Beyond the Lettered City: Indigenous Literacies in the Andes. Narrating Native Histories. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012. Rizal, José. “Maligaya y María Sinagtala.” In Prosa selecta: narraciones y ensayos. Edited by Isaac Donoso, 108–134. Madrid: Verbum, 2011. ———. Rizal’s Prose. Manila: José Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1962.

About the Editor Ino Manalo has been the Director of the National Archives of the Philippines in Manila since 2011. In this capacity, he manages the country’s national repository of 50 million records including 13 million documents from the Spanish period. He is the editor of two books, based on museum exhibits he co-curated, Conscripción: Imagining and Inscribing the Ilocano World (National Archives of the Philippines and the Provincial Government of Ilocos Sur, 2014) and Integración/Internación: The Urbanization of Cebu in Archival Records of the Spanish Colonial Period, with José Eleazar Bersales (University of San Carlos Press and the National Archives of the Philippines, 2017).

Index References to illustrations are in bold Acapulco, Manila, galleon trade see Manila Galleon fleet alcalde mayor 69fn7 Almanzor, King 32 Alvarez, Leonor Death 133 will (1644) executors 135, 137 list of goods 139 payments 138–9 receipts 138–9 slaves freed 133–4, 136 text 135–9 witnesses 137 Amazon River 167 Anda y Salazar, Simón de, Lt Governor 223–4 apostasy, Philippines 117 art Asian 15 colonial, Spanish American 14–5 avería tax 69 Babay island 31 Bacán island 31 Bagongbanta, Francisco, “Endless Gratitude” 214–7 Baldaya, Fernando de 33 Basilan island 144 Baturiñan port 165 baybayin script 17, 92, 92fn2, 93, 94, 95, 206, 206fn3 beatas acculturative role 191 austere lifestyle 190 Constitutions and Rules (1726) 190–1 admissions 199–202 daily routine 197–8 spiritual formation 192–7 text 192–203 Ignatian Spiritual Exercises 191, 194–5 see also beaterio beaterio features 189–90 La Compañia election of prioress 199 expansion 190 governance 198–9 inclusiveness 190 beeswax production, Mindoro island 116 Benavides, Miguel de, bishop of Nueva Segovia 80–2 Bengala (Bay of Bengal) 165

Binondo town, Manila 74, 76, 78, 80–1, 181, 190 black population, Lima 132 Blair, Emma & Robertson, James, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 12 criticism of 12–3 Bobadilla, Fernando de 153 Bojeador, Cape 161 Borneo 44 Braudel, Fernand 14 British East India Company, capture of Manila 223–4 Buayabuaya village 153 Bueras, Juan de healing 126–7 Jesuit Annual Letter (1633) Christian healing 126–8 ghost events 128–9 Ilog Residence 127–9 Indian sufferings 127 Nauhan Residence 119–27 non-Christian practices 120–3, 125 plague 127–8 superstitions 122 text 119–29 wild demon 124 Bustamante, Fernando de 27–8 buyo chewing, among Sangleys 75–6, 83–4 Camucones (pagan) communities 125 Cano, Gloria 12–3 Cape of Good Hope 167 Capones Island 160–2 caracoa (Karakoa) ship 151 Carlos V, King of Spain 21 Carrero, Francisco, multilingual preacher 81 Castilla, Luis, land sales 91–112 documents 93–4, 97–112, 105–6 baybayin script 17, 92, 92fn2, 93, 94, 95 Castro, Alexo de, crypto-Muslim, Inquisition trials 171–3 accusations against 174, 181–5 attendance at mass 177 contexts 173 denunciation of 175 family 175–6 first hearing 175–80 inquisitors 180 judgment 185–6 life story 177 Muslim prayer performance 181–2, 184 rape accusation 181

246 Index texts 174–86 trial 1 (Manila, 1623-5) 174–80 trial 2 (Manila, and Mexico 1643-5) 180–6 catalona (priestess) 120, 241–2 Cebu city 150 Cebuano Visayan language 150, 239, 241 Chinese language 81 Chinese New Year 76 Chinese people in the Philippines see Sangleys Chinos 39 Chirino, Pedro 117 Christianity apostasy from 117 Chinese opposition to 78–9 native resistance to 38–9, 42, 115–23 Clain, Pablo 191 Cobo, Juan 74, 80–2 Apology for the True Religion 53 map of the Pacific world (1593) 53–7, 58–9 bang and renmin 56 and Christian authority 55 climatic zones 54–6 English translation 55 Eurocentrism v. Sinocentrism 57 guo 56–7 Japan 54 Macrobian map tradition 54 Mexico 56 purpose 54 rhetorical content 55–6 missionary work among Philippine Chinese 54 Cochin Chinese 162 colonial rule, and confession 208 colonialism see Spanish colonialism Combés, Francisco de career 142 History of Mindanao and Jolo (1667) 141–2 ambiguities 143 evangelization 142 paganism 144 priests, in praise of 147 as propaganda tool 142–3 representations of Islam 17, 143–4, 152 superstitions 144 text 144–55 Conchin 23 confession and colonial rule 208 pastoral power of 207 and riddling evasions 209 rules for 207–8 and self-knowledge 208 confessional manual and dalit poems 208–9 Doctrina Christiana 206 text 217–20

Constantine the Great, Emperor 224 Corralat, King of Mindanao 144–5, 147, 149–50 Cortés de Perea, Íñigo 27 Cortés, Diego, Admiral 152–3 Cortés, Hernán 22 dalit poems and confessional manual 208–9 definition 205 examples 211–7 Doctrina Christiana, catechism/confessional manual 206, 224 Dominican Order, Manila 74, 78 Draper, William 225 Dumapiag, don Juan 153 Elcano, Juan Sebastián 22, 27, 32fn12 Encabo de la Virgen de Sopetrán, Joaquín, Bishop of Cebu 239–40 career 240 prohibition against digging up bones of the dead (1813) 243 punishment 240 encomenderos 38, 40, 43, 48 encomienda system 38, 41–3, 48, 117 Engaño, Cape 161 Enríquez, don Garcia, Captain 34 Enzegua 31 Espinosa, Gómez de 22, 24 Espiritu Santo, Ignacia del 190, 202 Florida, ship 23 Foucault, Michel 207, 209, 221 galleon trade, Manila to Acapulco 11, 13 see also Manila Galleon García, Nicolás 153–4 Gaviola, Dr Antonio de 180–1 Gilolo island 22–3, 32, 34 globalization, early modern 14 Goa 163, 177 Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, Governor 82 González, Domingo 174 Granada, Luis de, Introduction to the Symbol of Faith 54 Grendi, Edoardo 172 Gutiérrez, Hernando 131, 135, 137 Gutiérrez, Juan Rodríguez 174 Herrera, Francisco de 175, 178–9, 182–3 Hilin town 126 Hispanization, Philippines 117 Huelva, Juan 27 Indians injuries suffered in Philippines 41–5, 47 Mindanao 31 as slaves 47–8

247

Index

indio, meaning 161fn8, 175n5 indios chinos, Lima 132–3 Íñiguez de Carquizano, Martín, Captain 27– 8, 30, 32–4 Intramuros, walled city, Manila 73, 116–7 Islam in Combé’s History of Mindanao and Jolo (1667) 17, 143–4, 152 in the Philippines 44, 141 Spain, rivalry 15 see also Muslims Islares, Martín de 23 Islas de los Ladrones 22, 24, 31 customs 26 diet 26 inhabitants 25–6 origin of name 25 Japan, on Cobo’s map of the Pacif ic world 54 Jesuit missionary work annual letter (1633) 119–29 limitations 116 Mindoro island 116, 119 resistance to 119–21 João III, King of Portugal 21 Jolo island 144 juanga ( juanga), boat 148 la Junta de Badajoz y Elvas (Board of Badajoz and Elvas) 21 Koxinga (Coseng), pirate, threat to Philippines 142 Lampuyot, Doña Ana 153 Lara, Manrique de, Governor 142, 147, 153 Las Casas, Bartolomé de 38 Latin epigrams 223, 226–37 Lavezaris, Guido de 41 Laws of the Indies 62–3 León Portocarrero, don Pedro de 132 libro, magical power 206–7, 210 Lima 131–2 black population 132 census (1614) 132 census (1636) 132 indigenous population 132 indios chinos 132–3 mestizos 132 mulattoes 132 occupations 133 slaves 132 Spanish (lay) population 132 trade items 132 Loaysa, García Jofre de, expedition 17, 22 Longad, Francisca 95–6 López, Alejandro 142, 146–50 death 151–2

López de Erenchún, Thomás de 183 López de Legazpi, Miguel 23 Lubao 41 Lutaos people 153 Luzon island 39, 55 Macao 163 Macombon, don Alonso 153 Mactan island 31 Madagascar 166 Magellan, Ferdinand, expedition 11, 17 Magellan, Strait of 21 Makassar 152 Malacca 55 Malay language 31 Malays 164 Mangyanes people 116, 123–4 Manila Acapulco, galleon trade see Manila Galleon fleet Binondo town 74, 76, 78, 80–1, 181, 190 British East India Company capture by 223–4 expulsion of 224 Dominican Order 74, 78 foundation 91fn1 Intramuros, walled city 73, 116–7 Parian town 39, 74, 76, 78 Quiapo 224 Sangleys in 73–4 Manila Galleon fleet 11, 13, 61, 116, 158 decree of Philip III regulating trade (1604) 65–70 and Sangleys 39 Schurz’s The Manila Galleon 13–4 Mariana Islands 11, 161 Mariveles 160 Martínez, Bartolomé 79 Martínez-San Miguel, Yolanda 158 mestizaje 13, 173 mestizos, Lima 132 Mexico, on Cobo’s map of the Pacific world 56–7 Mindanao island Indians 31 Urdaneta’s diary 27–31 Zamboanga fort 142, 147, 150, 154 Mindoro island beeswax production 116 Jesuit missionary work 116, 119 Mir, King 32 Moluccas see Spice Islands Monterrey, Conde de, Viceroy 133 Montiel, Juan de 147–8 death 152 Moro Wars (1599-1635) 141–2 mulattoes, Lima 132 Murillo Velarde, Pedro 190

248 Index Murúa, Martín de 132 Muslims communities 172 in Tidore 32 see also Islam Natiel island 34 New Batavia 165 New Holland 166 New Spain 24, 56 in The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) 158 Ocon demon 124 Ossorio, Pedro Suarez, “Unending Thanks” 212–3 Pampanga 41 Parian 39, 74, 76, 78 Phelan, John, The Hispanization of the Philippines 13, 117 Philip II, King of Spain 38, 79 Philip III, King of Spain, decree regulating trade, Philippines/New Spain (1604) 63, 65–70 Philippines apostasy 117 Bishop Salazar’s letter (1582) 41–50 as contact zone 15, 17 global perspective 14 Hispanization 117 Islam in 44 key texts on 12–15 Philip III’s decree regulating trade (1604) 65–7 religious life 18 Sangleys in 45–7, 73–4 web of connections 15–6, 78–9 Pigafetta, Antonio, chronicle 17 Pimentel, Luis 154 Pulilaor 165 Pulitiman 165 Pulo Condore island, massacre 162–3 Pulo Ubi island 163 Quiapo, Manila 224 Qur’an 32 Rama, Angel 241 Ramírez, Alonso 158 captured by pirates 158–9 veracity in doubt 159 Real Monasterio de Santa Clara, foundation 189 religious life, Philippines 18 Ribera, Claudio de, Captain 148 Ricci, Matteo, S.J. 54 Ríos, Alonso de 34

Rizal, José 241 Rojo del Rio, Manuel 225 Ronquillo de Peñalosa, don Gonzalo, Governor 39, 41–2 Rueda y Mendoza, Diego de, True Account of the Funeral Exequies (1625) 73–5 Chinese Catholic wedding 75–6, 83–7 poems in classical Chinese 75 Sangleys, description of 77–8 text 77–87 Saavedra, Álmuvaro de 22–3 Saguinsín, Bartolomé career 224 Latin epigrams 223 dedication 226–7 text 227–37 to the reader 227 Salazar, Domingo de 78, 82 career 37–8 letter to King of Spain (1582) 41–50 account of what concerns the Sangleys 45–50 injuries suffered by Indians 41–5, 47 Salazar, Toribio Alonso de, Captain 24, 27 San Bartolomé 26 Sánchez, Alonso 40 Sangil island 144 Sangleys (Chinese in the Philippines) attempts to proselytize 40, 53–4 baptisms 82–3 buyo chewing 75–6, 83–4 Catholic Chinese wedding 75–6, 83–7 Chinese plays, banning of 76 description of 77–8 festivities 79–80 Holy Rosary Celebrations 80 hospital 81–2 in Manila 45-7, 73–4 and Manila Galleon 39 origins 77 poems in classical Chinese, examples 75 in Saguinsín’s Latin epigrams 224–5 in Salazar’s letter to King of Spain (1582) 45–50 sufferings 45–7 in The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) 161fn7 uprising (1603), suppression of 76 see also Chinos Santa María de la Victoria, ship 22 Schurz, William, The Manila Galleon criticism of 13–4 influence 14 self-knowledge, and confession 208 Serrano, Andrés 191 Siam, King of 163 Siantan (Pulau Tarempa) 164

249

Index

Sigüenza y Góngora, Carlos de The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez (1690) first Latin American novel 158 history/fiction, blurring 158 New Spain in 158 Sangleys in 161fn7 text, chapter 3 160–7 see also Ramirez, Alonso silver trade, America to Asia 13–4 Simuey 148 Sincapura (Singapore) Strait 165 slaves Indians as 47–8 Lima 132 South China Sea 57, 73 Spain, Islam, rivalry 15 Spanish Atlantic 16 Spanish colonialism 18 Spanish Inquisition see under Castro, Alexo de Spanish (lay) population, Lima 132 Spanish Pacific contested zone 16 definition 11 map 12 scope of studies on 11, 14–7 Spanish Philippines see Philippines Spate, Oskar, history of the Pacific 14 Spice Islands (Moluccas) 21–3, 27, 172 central trading agency 22 Portuguese claim to 21 Spanish claim to 21 Sulu 143 Talimbao, Miguel 96 Taytay province 117

Ternate 22, 174, 180 Portuguese in 33–4 Tidore island 22, 23, 180 Muslims 32d Torre, Hernando de la 23, 33 Totanés, Sebastián de, making a good confession 217–20 Translyvanus, Maximilanus, letter 17 Trinidad, ship 22–4, 24fn3, 25 Ugbu, don Francisco abilities 145–6 conversion to Christianity 146 fiscal mayor appointment 146 Urdaneta, Andrés de, diary (1536) arrival in Moluccas 32–4 crossing the Pacific 24–7 Mindanao 27–31 style 23 text 24–34 Vera, Santiago de, Governor 78 Vertis, Juan Ignacio, General 191, 202 Victoria, ship 21 Vigo, Gonzalo de 22, 24, 28, 30 Visayan language 31 Wallerstein, Immanuel 14 Yofre, Antonio 46 Zamboanga fort, Mindanao 142, 147, 150, 152 abandonment of 154 Zaragoza, Treaty (1529) 23