Note 17 — Chapter XVIII

The sardines were once as ordinary a food in Manila as in Coruña; but from the time of that lamentable exile, they have so abandoned those waters that one can catch them but seldom, and then it is a matter for surprise. And (in order to publish more fully that that [exile] was the cause), whenever any consecrated archbishop or bishop arrives at Manila, on those days some sardines are caught, and then they retire to continue their interdict.17 Pens have not been wanting to undertake as their employment the defense of Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, chiefly those from one order—to which he was very devoted until, as is said, they came to regard him as a saint. But they do their duty as thankful [for favors received], although it was not necessary for them to do so much that they should declare themselves his admirers. The worst is that in the year of 1683, Manila again relapsed into this scandalous sin with the exile and banishment of Don Fray Felipe Pardo, of the Order of Preachers. But I shall relate, in its proper place, the disastrous end that all those who were guilty in that affair suffered.