Note 3 — Some Things Worth Knowing About the Governors of the Filipinas Islands

In no kingdom or province of the Spanish crown do the viceroys or governors enjoy greater privileges, superiority, and grandeur than in Filipinas. That is advisable because of the long distance from the court, and their proximity to so many kingdoms and nations, some of them civilized but others barbaric. Consequently those assigned to this government should be well tested and picked men; for, because of the difficulty of appeal, as so many seas and lands have to be passed, where shipwrecks are continually suffered, there are great setbacks. Therefore it is very difficult and at times impossible to remedy quickly the disadvantages which may arise (and which have been experienced) from an absolute and selfish governor—who has no one to oppose him in Page 315his cupidity, cruelty, headlong disposition, or other vices to which the disordered condition of these so distant lands inclines one. Father Alonso Sánchez of the Society of Jesus, ambassador of this community at the two courts [i.e., Spain and Rome], presented to his Majesty Don Felipe II a standard or description of the qualities which should adorn the person who should be appointed governor of Filipinas. That most judicious monarch thought it so difficult to find a man of so many and such gifts, that he bargained with the father, and arranged that the latter himself should seek and select the man. Those same gifts and qualities must be found in those appointed as governors, especially in these times,3 when it seems as-if cupidity, ambition, pride, and haughtiness have fortified themselves in these lands. For it often happens that the governor is so facile, that he allows himself to be governed by one whom he should not [allow to do so]. Consequently it is very advisable that he should have great courage, in addition to goodness and disinterestedness, so that he may act and judge in his government without subjecting himself to any private person—whether he need such for his temporal advancement, or, through friendship or relationship, incurs that disadvantage by undue intimacy.