Note 43 — Chapter XXXVI

Two ships were sent to Nueva España. One put back and the other, which was a Portuguese caravel, went to India and was wrecked. The ships for Castilla were being prepared, and were to sail by the first of August. Our father provincial tried to have father Fray Juan de Ocadiz sail in them, as he considered his return to España necessary for his own quiet; and since he was able to do so, he ordered that Fray Juan should go immediately to Cavite, for he suspected that, if anything evil was to occur, it would be perpetrated by that man. Finally, the religious left, after putting off his departure as long as possible. He said “goodby,” in order to go to embark in the morning, and permission was given him. That night, the first of August, 1617, one of the most tragic events that has ever happened in these islands occurred in our province—namely, that that same night our father rector-provincial, Fray Vicente de Sepúlveda, was choked to death, and was found dead in his bed at two o’clock in the morning, with clear signs of a violent death. In that most horrible crime were implicated three religious—one a priest, one a chorister, and one a lay-brother, namely, the creole who gave the poison to the father, and whom his relatives hid; and, as he had money, they helped him to escape out of these islands. The lay-brother was a European, and the father priest, Fray Juan de Ocadiz, an American. They [i.e., the last two] were hanged near the atrium of our church, in front of the well, after we had first unfrocked, expelled, and disgraced them. The two said men were buried beneath the cloister of our convent, near the porter’s lodge, before the altar of St. Nicolás de Tolentino.43