Volume 24 — Events in Filipinas, 1630–32
Reading edition
Relation of what has occurred in the Filipinas Islands and other regions adjacent, from July, 1630, to July, 1632.
Great has been the peace which we have enjoyed in these Philipinas Islands for the last two years; for the forces of the Dutch have been scanty, owing to the failure of reënforcements; from Holland, and hence there has been peace in the Malucas Islands as well. Nevertheless, there have not been wanting here some disturbances from domestic enemies. The Indians of the province of Caraga, which is in one of these Philipinas Islands, rebelled and killed the Spaniards and the religious, their ministers (although not for any cause connected with the faith); these are discalced Augustinian friars. This uprising gave us anxiety enough, as it seemed to be the beginning of a universal mutiny; and it was particularly disturbing to us, as all our missions are in the neighborhood of the said province of Caraga, which is gradually being subdued and the leaders of the mutiny punished.
In Japon they are still pricked with the thorn of the ship which some years ago our galleons captured and burned on the bar of Sian. To avenge this, notable councils have been held in Japon, in order to come and wage war against this land; in order beforehand to have it well explored, they sent last year in January two merchant ships, under cloak of trade and traffic. Although in Manilla warning of this double object had been received, this was not made known; and they were received and regaled as ambassadors from the Tono of Arima and Bungo. A ceremonious reception and very handsome present were given to them; but the city was put in readiness for whatever might happen. This year they have begun again to send ships to trade and traffic, and asked that our ships should go to Japon. But we are holding back here, because what they wish to do is to seize the property which might be in the vessels, and put the Castilians to the sword. They sent in these ships a hundred or more Christian lepers, who, whatever they did with them, would not abandon the faith; and in order not to stain their catans, as they said, with such people, they left them alive and exiled them to the Philipinas. Here they were very kindly received—as was required by Christian piety, and by the cause for which they had been exiled—without considering the affront which the Japanese thought to put upon us by sending the dregs of that kingdom.
“By the last ship, I wrote to your Reverence the state of the Christian church here. I shall now continue with what has happened since then; and it may all be summed up as new persecutions, labors, and hardships. I will commence with the five religious who, in the year twenty-nine, were taken prisoners on account of the faith. These are fathers Fray Bartolome Gutierrez, Fray Francisco de Jesus, Fray Vicente de San Antonio, all three Augustinians; Father Antonio Yxida, of our Society; and brother Fray Gabriel de Magdalena, a Franciscan. The governor of Nangasaqui, named Uneme, attempted to make them deny the faith, and in this way to discredit our holy faith and its ministers, and to break the spirit of the Christians, so that with the example of these they might more easily leave the faith, and thus he would gain credit and honor before Xongun [i.e., the Shogun], emperor of Japon.
“With this diabolical intention—which, it appears, he had already discussed in the court—he ordered them to be taken from the prison of Omura and brought to Nangasaqui, on the twenty-fifth of November last. As he did not say for what purpose, they were persuaded that it was to burn them alive for the faith which they professed and taught; therefore they all went very joyfully, as men who were sighing for such a happy death. But contrary to what they expected, they were put in the prison of that city, where they remained until the third of December, without knowing in the meantime what the governor intended to do.
“This counsel being refused, the learned man set about convincing him by argument, attempting to prove that the Tayquio was the same, and that the Juto sect was based upon, and regarded as the beginning of all things, the God which we Christians adore. Wherefore, as the question was one of names, and not of substance, the two faiths were in accord, and that he should conform to the words also of the Juto sect. Easily and clearly the father showed him the difference between the one sect and he other, and in what each consisted; and convinced him in such wise that the ignorant learned man had no other refuge but to fall back on his reason—saying that it was indeed as the father declared, but that reason dictated that he should follow and obey the mandate of the emperor, whose vassal he was, and abandon the faith of God, at least outwardly, following in his heart whatever he pleased. ‘Neither the faith which I profess,’ answered the father, ‘nor pure reason itself, will consent to these deceits and maskings. The faith of God which I follow in my heart I shall follow and confess outwardly still; nor can the mandate of the emperor have force or strength against that of God, the universal Lord of all things.’
“This dispute and combat lasted a day and a night, during which time the father maintained such resolution and firmness that when the governor tried to be stern, in order to make him change his opinion of that idolatry, the father told him, undeceiving him, that he was striving in vain, for in no way could he win him over. On this account, the next day he was sent back to the prison. But as the governor’s servants knew that he desired to succeed in his endeavor, one of them asked that the father be called out again and delivered to him, for he hoped to subdue him. Accordingly the father himself, as well as the others, was persuaded that this second time he was called out to be tortured, that he might deny his faith and reveal the other religious and their households, for this had been the practice in the city for some time past. With astonishing courage the father went out, resolved to suffer any torment whatever before he would deny Christ or reveal his brothers.
“When he arrived at the house of the governor there came out to meet him the servant who had sought to see him, who had been present at the late dispute, and at one which the father had formerly had with the governor, when they arrested him. Although now the same means of controversy were attempted, finding that, nevertheless, the more they argued the more convinced he was, the principal means which they used was to explain to the father how much the governor desired to grant him life and to favor him, as he could have seen every time he discussed this matter. He was promised in behalf of the same governor great riches and position; and they strongly insisted that not only on account of what he owed to the friendship which the governor showed him, but for what concerned his own welfare and interest, he ought to abandon the faith of God, outwardly only, and to follow it in his heart, as any man of good judgment would do—saying that he would show himself to be such by using this expedient, for he would not abandon the faith which he followed, and would attain riches and repose. The answer was that even if the governor should give him all the riches that he possessed and all that there are in the world, and should make him lord of all, by no means would he turn his back to God or abandon His most holy faith—no, not even outwardly.
“On the third of December they left Nangasaqui alone, and started for Unjen. The two women rode in a litter, and the five religious on horseback, each one in the habit of his order, accompanied by many people as a guard; they were very joyful as they took leave of a multitude of people who came out to see this spectacle, in spite of the fact that the governor had rigorously prohibited it. When they arrived at the point of Fimi, a league distant from there, their arms were tied, fetters were put upon their feet, and each one was put on board separately, being tied to the boat. On this same afternoon they arrived at the point of Oharna, which is within the boundaries of Tacacu, and at the foot of the mountain Unjen. The next day they ascended the mountain, where they immediately erected a number of huts; then they placed the seven prisoners therein, each in a separate one, without allowing them to see each other again so long as they were there, so that they might not encourage one another. They kept them day and night with fetters on their feet, and manacles upon their hands, watched by guards.
“Besides the men of the governor of Nangasaqui, the governors of Tacacu sent theirs likewise to be present at this act, as well as to aid whenever necessary. Beside these, there were a number of others as sentinels on all the roads through which this mountain could be approached, who let no person pass by without a written permission from the officials who were assigned to this duty.
“On the next day, the fourth of the same month, the torture commenced in the following manner: They took each one of the seven by himself to the most furious pool there, and, showing him the boiling water, tried to persuade him to leave the faith of Christ before undergoing that most horrible torture, which certainly they would not be able to endure. Father Antonio writes that, notwithstanding the severity of the cold that then prevailed, the water in the ponds did [not] cease boiling, with such fury that the sight of it alone would strike dismay to any one who was not greatly comforted by the grace of God; but they were comforted in such manner that all, with extraordinary courage, answered without delay that they would be tortured, for in no wise would they abandon the faith which they profess. When this steadfast answer was heard, they were stripped naked and, tied hand and foot with four cords, were borne each by four men. They took some of the water which was boiling most furiously, in a wooden dish which held about a half-arroba; this water they poured upon each one from the dish thrice filled—not all at once, but little by little, opening a minute hole in the bottom so that it would last longer. The constancy, courage, and valor with which the confessors of Christ suffered that most horrible torment was such that they never made the slightest movement of their bodies, to the great fright of those who saw and heard them. Maria alone, as she was young and delicate, was dismayed by the severity of the torture, and fell to the ground and the torturers, who only desired some pretext whereby they could say that she had recanted, and misrepresenting this fall, cried out, saying, ‘She has yielded, she has yielded!’ Thereupon they took her back to her hut, and the next day to Nangasaqui—although she opposed them violently and protested that she had not given up the faith, and that they had no reason for torturing her, or for tormenting and killing her mother and the rest.
“The reason for torturing some oftener than others was that Father Antonio, being a Japanese, had disobeyed the mandate of the emperor, and would not follow the counsels and persuasions of the governor of Nangasaqui and his ministers, nor be affected by the tortures. Father Fray Francisco suffered because he spoke to them with much Christian freedom, sang, and prayed in a loud voice, contrary to their prohibition; and Beatriz de Acosta because, although a woman, she showed more than a man’s courage, both in the tortures and in resisting the advice which they gave her—for which reason, beside the torture of boiling water, they inflicted others upon her. They made her stand upright a long time upon a small rock, threatening her with insults and affronts; but the more they insisted, the stronger they found her. The others, being weak and infirm, were not tortured so long, because the tyrant did not intend to kill them, but only to conquer them; and for this reason they had, during the whole time, a physician upon the mountain to cure their hurts.
“Finally the governor saw that he could by no means conquer them; but, on the contrary, his men informed him that, judging by the courage and valor which they showed, they would suffer till all the pools and wells in Unjen were drained, rather than give in. He therefore lost all hope of a victory over them, and decided to order that they be taken to Nangasaqui, although he would not do so before his departure for the court at Meaco; for he thought that it would diminish his prestige to have them enter as victors into that city while he was there. After his departure, therefore, he sent on the way advice to his deputy whom he left there, to bring them to Nangasaqui. This he accordingly did on the fifth of January, placing Beatriz de Acosta in a certain house, and putting the five religious into the public prison, where they still remain. Such was the victorious end of this battle, wherein our holy faith was nobly vindicated, the Christians encouraged, and the tyrant overcome and confounded, quite the contrary of what he had expected and promised.
“The governors of Tacacu sent the same information regarding Paulo, who, although he was not in that city, was so diligently sought after that they succeeded in arresting him; and some time afterward he, with his wife Maria and four sons, suffered martyrdom. This led to a furious persecution, not only in Oxu, but likewise in other parts of the country, and in the cities of Cami, Meaco, Fugimi, Ojaca, and Sacay. The cruelty of the tyrant reached such a point that he sent this year, as exiles to Manilla, even the infirm and leprous Christians of the before-mentioned cities of Cami; and already more than ninety of them are at Nangasaqui, awaiting the monsoon, and others are expected to go. With this, under the holy benediction of your Reverence, etc. March 22, 1632.
Christoval Ferreyra”
From Japon we pass on to China, where the state of Christianity has been more quiet, and where it is very prosperous. The Society is established in eight provinces and eleven cities, and, if it were not for the lack of workers, it would he extended much farther, and with great results. At present there are in the whole of China seventeen priests and a few brothers-coadjutor, who are all laboring with praiseworthy zeal for the conversion of this great kingdom of China. May the Lord prosper and protect your Reverence as I desire. Manila, July 2, 1632.
[Another copy of this document, in the same collection (to. 114, no. 401), adds the following matter as a postscript, dated July 6, 1632:]