Volume 29 — Royal Orders and Decrees, 1638

Removal of negroes from Manila

The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia resident therein. In a letter which you wrote me on the last of June, 1636, you declare that shortly after your arrival at those islands, that city petitioned you to have the free negroes and the freedmen, who number about four hundred or five hundred, removed from it, because of the disorders that they were creating within the city, as well as the thefts that they were committing in union with the slaves—the former receiving and taking to other places to sell what these said negroes had stolen. You declare that that city demanded that the negroes should go to live nine leguas away from there, but that that measure has not seemed advisable; and the fathers of the Society gave you an islet which they possess in the middle of the river, in order that they might settle the negroes there, with the obligation to give them instruction—but there would be no obligation to give the fathers any stipend for that purpose beyond what is given them from the communal fund of the Sangleys whom they have in Santa Cruz. Those Sangleys also render me aid by giving me six reals per annum, besides the general license, so that they may be allowed to live there with the fathers. They number from about eight hundred to one thousand Chinese. The fathers minister to those who have become Christians from this number, as well as to the negroes—the latter being separated from the former by an arm of the river. Also the Chinese pay all his salary to the alcalde-mayor from their communal fund, which has been a saving to my royal treasury. You declare that, in your desire to economize and avoid so heavy expenses, you have deemed it best to give the commander of artillery, who receives seven hundred pesos monthly salary for his duties, the office of alcalde-mayor of the Parián; for during the time while he should hold that office, there would be an annual saving of seven thousand two hundred pesos to my royal treasury. You also ordered the master-of-camp, Don Lorenzo de Olaso, to go to live at the port of Cavite with his company, and to serve there as castellan, chief justice, and governor of that port, with the same salary as at present, as you say that the sargento-mayor would be sufficient for you in that city. The above you reported to me, so that I might understand it; and you say that by the aforesaid measures and your method of governing, and provided that no one steals from my royal treasury, you will entirely clear my royal treasury of debt, and govern those islands from the proceeds of them. The matter having been examined in my Council, it has been judged best to tell you that it is thought that you will have given careful consideration to the removal of the free negroes and freedmen from that city and their settlement on the islet which was given you by the brethren of the Society of Jesus; and the rest that you mention in the said letter touching the said matter is neither approved nor rejected here, for the present. It is to be feared, however, that those negroes, having been removed from the city, and settled with the Chinese on an uninhabited island, may commit more serious damage. Consequently, you shall watch carefully so that you may remedy what needs correction; and you are to note that in the matter of government, the best is not [always] the easiest to execute, nor its results satisfactory. Hence, for that reason, no new thing can be entered upon suddenly; and you will, therefore, not carry out the execution of these new measures until you shall have first reported to me all the things that you shall see to be for my service, so that orders as to your course of action may be issued to you. In the meanwhile, you shall not carry out your proposed change of the persons of the commander of artillery and of the master-of-camp, Don Lorenzo de Olaso; and I charge and order you, that, jointly with the session [of the Audiencia], you shall inform me, both in this regard and in others, of what changes should be made from the past government, so that in everything decision may be made as to what measures may be taken.

I the King

By order of the king our sovereign:

Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon

Restricting the religious orders

The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my Audiencia therein: your letter of June 30, 636, touching ecclesiastical matters, has been examined in my royal Council of the Yndias, and answer is [hereby] made you.

You say that the religious of the Order of St. Augustine need to be reformed, for they pay no heed to the bulls of his Holiness, or the decrees despatched in regard to the rotation; and that it would be advisable not to give them any more religious for eight years—both because they have many, and because of the causes that you mention for such measure. I have thought best to charge you to have the rule for rotation put in force strictly, without allowing more religious in each mission station [doctrina] than, in accordance with my royal patronage, shall be necessary for it; and that the others be occupied in missions [misiones] and in preaching, for which purpose they were sent.

In regard to what you write me concerning the advanced age of the archbishop of those islands (who is so aged that his hands and head tremble), namely, that it would be best to give him an assistant; and that you are arranging to give such assistant an income of two thousand pesos in addition to the four thousand pesos enjoyed by the said archbishop, without taking that sum from my royal treasury, or from my vassals: I charge you to explain to me the method or means by which you can get that money without damage to my royal treasury and the vassals who serve me, so that, if it be worth while to allow it, you may execute it.

So that the Order of St. Dominic, and the other orders resident in those islands, may live with the regulation and good example that is proper, and so that they may not increase the number of mission stations granted them by my decrees, you shall allow no new elections in them, which shall not be in harmony with my patronage. With the advice of the archbishop, you shall endeavor to unite some of the stations; and in those that shall be newly founded, you shall endeavor likewise to have secular priests introduced, if you find them intelligent and competent. Madrid. September 2, 1638.

I the King

By order of the king our sovereign:

Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon

Appointment of secular priests to missions

The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein: in one of the sections of a letter which that city [of Manila] wrote to me on June 27 of 636, it is stated that there are two colleges in that city—one that of Santo Tomas, with religious of the Order of St. Dominic; and the other that of San Josef, with religious of the Society of Jesus—both of which have possessed, for several years past, authority to confer degrees in all the sciences. It is also declared that, with this opportunity, many students have excelled in those studies, and especially various sons of poor citizens, who have graduated in all the degrees; but that, since they have no beneficed curacies on which they can depend for support, their studies bring them no advantage. It is said that this is caused by certain religious orders, who have acquired from the archbishop, bishops, and governors the aggrandizement of their orders with many benefices which formerly were administered by secular priests; and that this might be remedied if I would decree that all the benefices which have been annexed to the religious orders during the last twenty years should be restored to the [secular] clergy, and that edicts should be issued in the form which I have ordained. This matter having been considered in my royal Council of the Indias, I have thought it best to issue the present, by which I command you that in the new missions that shall be established, you shall—except when they are in a territory assigned to the religious—it being understood that there are virtuous secular priests, take pains to appoint them to such missions; for such is my will. [Madrid, October 2, 1638.]

I the King

By command of the king our sovereign:

Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon

Compensation to nuns of St. Clare

The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein: in a letter which the abbess and nuns of the convent of St. Clare in that city wrote me on the thirtieth of June, 636, they make the following statements: That the said convent was established so that they could live in it, with all decorum and humility, with certain alms from the citizens; and their house and church were built close to the wall of the said city that lies next the river—a place that seemed most separated from the business quarter, and so closely shut in that little save the sky could be seen. That in front, on the other side of the street, is the royal hospital for the Spaniards, which from the time of its foundation has been administered by the religious of St. Francis; and that in the hospital the religious who was vicar of the said convent [of St. Clare], and administered the holy sacraments to the nuns, had a cell, and they helped to support this religious out of the alms bestowed upon them. That you, without any occasion or just cause, drove out the religious from the said hospital by force and violence, with armed soldiers—saying that the hospital should be managed by a secular priest whom you took thither with you. That the said vicar was thereby compelled to find shelter in the convent of St. Francis, which is at a great distance from that of St. Clare; and consequently, with the inconveniences of the excessive heat and the violence of the rains in the wet season, he cannot go to hear confessions and administer the holy sacraments at St. Clare, especially at night. That their greatest annoyance is, that you are constructing in the hospital a ward for convalescents, on the side that faces the said convent; and that it is so high that it looks down upon the convent, notwithstanding the enclosure of the latter, and from the windows of that ward may be seen the beds of the nuns in their infirmary and dormitory—a matter which requires thorough reparation. They say that on the other side of their house is a space between the houses and the wall (which was formerly a street), which is a passage to the convent, and is useful to it; but that you have closed this way, and are building another house, which abuts upon their own ground-plot, for barracks and stables for the cavalry troops. They entreat me that I will be pleased to command that a check be placed upon this undertaking, and that, considering their poverty, I order you to pay them the amount of one hundred and twenty pesos in certified pay-warrants on the treasury there, which they hold, which sum will be a great benefit and charity to them. The complaint of these nuns has been considered in my royal Council of the Indias, and the damage which they say has been caused to them by closing up the street and by their being in sight of the ward that was built in the cells [at the hospital], and by the stables and barracks that have been placed so close to their house. I have therefore thought it best to ordain and command you, as I do, that you shall not in any way cause injury or inconvenience to the said nuns; and that the pay-warrants which they say they hold, you shall cause to be paid—provided they are duly certified—in their due value and at such time as the said nuns desire; for such is my will. [Madrid, October 2, 1638.]

I the King

By command of the king our sovereign:

Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon

Regulating the seminary of Santa Potenciana

The King. To the president and auditors of my royal Audiencia resident in the city of Manila of the Filipinas Islands: it has been reported in my royal Council of the Yndias that there is in that city a seminary named Santa Potenciana, of which I am patron; that it was established for orphan girls, and for the reception of married women when their husbands are occupied in my service in various parts; and that for some years the custom has been introduced of sheltering in the said seminary certain women who live scandalously. [I am also told] that, since this is of so great service to God our Lord, you, my president, have given orders to the mother rector of the said seminary not to receive in the seminary any woman sent by the archbishop of that church, or by his provisor; and that no one of its inmates may leave it. It has been judged best to order you (as I do hereby) to take what measures appear to you most advisable in this matter, considering all ends. Given in Madrid, November eight, one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight.

I the King

Countersigned by Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon, and signed by the members of the Council.

[Endorsed: “To the royal Audiencia of Manila, in regard to the order given by the president of the Audiencia to the mother rector of the seminary of Sancta Potenciana of that city, that she should not receive therein any woman sent by the archbishop or his provisor.” “Ordering that the president take what measures appear most fitting, considering all ends.”]

Commerce of the islands with Mexico

The King. To my viceroy, president, and auditors of my royal Audiencia resident in the City of Mexico, of Nueva España: Don Juan Grau Monfalcon, procurator-general of the Filipinas Islands, has reported to me that the permission possessed by those islands of two hundred and fifty thousand pesos of merchandise, and five hundred thousand for the returns thereon, is very small, as that was conceded thirty-four years ago, when the citizens and inhabitants were fewer, the duties and expenses not so great, and the islands less infested by their foes. Because of this latter, their needs have increased so greatly that, if the said permission be not increased, it will be impossible to maintain them, or for their citizens to support themselves. He tells me that some illegal acts may have resulted from the present narrow limit of the permission, both in the lading of the merchandise, and in the returns of the silver. In order that those violations may be avoided, and those islands and their inhabitants maintained in a less straitened manner, he has petitioned me to have the goodness to concede an increase of the two hundred and fifty thousand pesos of the merchandise to four hundred thousand, and also of the five hundred thousand pesos of silver to eight hundred thousand. For, besides the above-mentioned advantages, my royal duties will thus increase, to supply the expenses of the said islands; illegalities and frauds will cease; and the inhabitants will increase in wealth. The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, inasmuch as I wish to know what permission the said islands enjoy, and that of the count and duke of San Lucar, and whether it will be advisable to enlarge the permission of the said islands; and considering their needs and expenses, and other advantages: I order you to inform me very minutely in regard to it all, so that, after examination, the advisable measures may be taken. Given in Madrid, December eight, one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight.

I the King

Countersigned by Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon, and signed by the members of the Council.

[Endorsed: “Don Juan Grau Monfalcon. To the viceroy, president, and auditors of the Audiencia of Mexico, ordering information as to the permission [of trade] for the Filipinas Islands, and that conceded to the count and duke; and as to the advisability of increasing the amount permitted to the islands.”]

Jurisdiction over seamen

The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, or to the person or persons in whose charge that government shall be: in a letter which I wrote to you on the second of last September, on various matters, there is a section of the following tenor: “I have considered the arguments that you bring forward for its being so expedient that the commander and the admiral of the ships shall have authority and jurisdiction in the port of Acapulco, when he is not on shore, to punish his sailors and soldiers; and that the warder of the fort there shall not interfere with them by undertaking to punish them on shore (regarding them as his subordinates, as hitherto they have been) as they are persons of ability and good qualifications—since from the time when the ships cast anchor, during all the time while they remain in port, the men do not respect or obey, as it is right they should, the said commander or admiral. Desiring to avoid this difficulty, so that those officers may punish the culprits in such cases, I have decided that what you propose may be done, with the conditions that you mention; and, by a decree of the same date as this letter, I am sending to the viceroy of Nueva España advices to that effect. [I have told him] that as this seems to be a general complaint, to judge from the instances [reported] here, he must give the necessary orders for the execution of this decree, unless some difficulty shall arise that may oblige him to defer it; for when those men commit any disorderly acts on shore complaint can be made against them, and the matter referred to the said commander and admiral.” And now a report has been made to me, on the part of Don Juan Grao Monfalcon, procurator-general of that city of Manila, that it is very advisable that the said commander and admiral of the ships possess all necessary jurisdiction for punishing the men aboard them—as is done at Cartagena, Portovelo, and other places; and he entreats that I be pleased to command that this be accordingly done. The matter having been considered in my royal Council of the Indias, I have thought it best to issue the present, for such is my will, that the usage which I have mentioned be put in practice in the islands, as well as in Nueva España, since that is advisable for my service. [Madrid, December 8, 1638.]

I the King

By command of the king our sovereign:

Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon

On the lading of the galleons

The King. Don Juan Grau y Monfalcon, procurator-general of the Philipinas Islands, has reported to me that certain citizens of those islands, to whom were allotted toneladas in the amount [of lading] permitted, have, for lack of means to ship the goods, sold that space—which has thus been secured by the merchants of Nueva España and Peru, who for that purpose have their agents in Manila. He states that this practice is overlooked [by the officials], although, after the first distribution of the permitted lading space has been made, and the toneladas allotted, the citizens who through poverty or other causes are unable or unwilling to lade the goods which belong and are allotted to them cannot give, sell, or transfer that space to any other person, unless they again declare the toneladas before the bureau of allotment. The bureau again shares the space which was thus declared among such citizens as ask for it, or who can occupy it to better advantage; and these must pay for it, giving for each tonelada the amount appraised, according to the season and the circumstances, by the bureau itself. The proceeds from the said toneladas shall be given and paid to the owners who had declared them. Thus poor persons will obtain relief, and the citizens [of the islands] will have the benefit of the entire amount of trade permitted to them, while those of Nueva España will be excluded from it. [The said procurator] entreats me to issue a decree in accordance with these facts, including therein adequate penalties to secure its execution. The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, and the above statements carefully considered, I have approved [the said procurator’s request]. I command my governor and captain-general of the said Philipinas Islands who now holds or shall in future hold that office, and the auditors of my royal Audiencia therein, and other persons who shall have in charge the allotment of the said toneladas, and the bureau for the said allotment, that they observe and fulfil, and cause to be observed and fulfilled, exactly and inviolably, what is ordained in this my decree, without in any way contravening or exceeding its tenor or form. And those who disobey this decree are warned that such act will be charged to them in the visitations and their residencias, and they will be punished according to law; for such is my will. [Madrid, December 8, 1638.]