Note 19 — Letter Written by a Citizen of Manila to an Absent Friend

On Sunday, the third day of Lent, February 24, 1636, at the publication of the ordinary edict, the whole city gathered in the cathedral, where I was present. The father guardian of St. Francis, Fray Juan de Piña, preached. He mentioned in the pulpit a balance that the accountant Juan Bautista de Zubiaga had brought forward against the fathers of St. Francis (who have had charge of the royal hospitals), of more than thirty thousand pesos. Inasmuch as soldiers without weapons have not been received in the hospital for many years, and a great number of men have died in it, and there is no account of what has been done with those arms, they amount, when appraised at low prices, to over thirty thousand pesos. The preacher declared that he had reason to make a greater charge and declare a larger balance against the king of España. The charge was that Fray Francisco Ximenez conquered Oran; and that one of their friars, named Zumarraga,19 pacified Nueva España. Thus a great part of his sermon was taken up in indecorously contending and taking issue with the king of España. On the Wednesday following, February 27, the same preacher delivering a sermon in the same cathedral church, returned to the same balance, and treated the said computer of accounts, Juan Bautista de Cubiaga, with great contumely. He called him a Gascon devil, disguised as a Viscayan or Navarrese, who getting a smattering of accounts, gave out that he was an accountant, in order to come to give him a beating. And this he said amid the laughter and commotion of the audience.