Volume 34 — LETTER FROM ANTONIO SEDEÑO TO FELIPE II

Royal Cæsarean Majesty:

In order that we might know your Majesty’s will, and thereby that of God; and since those of us who are here are in duty bound, since we live in lands so remote from the shade of their king, to give you advice of what we think will fulfil that obligation: I thought (since it was necessary to write), that I would tell your Majesty the reason for the many troubles and evils that have come upon this country, and the wrongs that are worth correction. Your Majesty will be informed of them in detail in many other ways, and they relate not only to the wrongs against the native Indians of the country and against the Chinese, which are of so great importance, but against the Spaniards themselves and that which is most to the wrong of your Majesty and your royal crown. Although the branch whence this fruit [of troubles] is gathered, is other, yet the root which is reported is the governors who come to these islands, and the insatiable greed which they bring hither or which, at their arrival, is impressed sufficiently on them. Consequently, not only to God (which is more easy for them), but even to men (and of which men may judge and advise your Majesty), do they break through the veil of their shame in order to do things that neither I nor anyone else who has any shame would dare to break in order to relate them—and nearly everything, or everything in this matter of injuries, has every kind of mediator mixed up in it. For if already God has desired to give your Majesty occasion to make an innovation in the matter of the governor, it must now be innovated, even if in regard to former governors, neither in person nor in fact is there anything to say. But that which in the future we dare report with all humility (only because of the compassion which the destruction of this land of your Majesty causes us) is that if it be possible he who shall be governor do not come from España. For since he is suddenly changed and dispossessed of his possessions and property that he had there, and spends all his substance on account of the so long journey and preparation for it, and even arrives deeply in debt, and with many followers and people who are destitute and rely on his protection; and also perhaps has to provide and to satisfy their past expenses and even present hunger, to provide houses for them, and to give them the offices which he has promised—this, and what is necessary to reimburse him for his expenses, and afterward to fatten him to the proportion that his hunger demands and that the pasturage invites (that pasture here being very sufficient to swell the breasts, although it be at the cost of the poor and beyond doubt that of your Majesty, for whom the governor with his artifices and those of his intimate friends is destroying the land)—I declare that for only the abovesaid for each new governor who comes from España, we need a new and a very rich and abundant land such as this was formerly. Now we behold it almost destroyed and it does not need much to completely destroy it, [which will happen] if only another governor comes who will exercise the cunning abovementioned; especially if he should have the support of a wife and children, and some relatives and friends and clients for whom to provide in proportion to their imagination and their desires.

In addition to the above, I am obliged to inform your Majesty that in the year 81, and at your Majesty’s order and decree, which the viceroy of Nueva España has for that purpose, I was sent to these islands with three others—one the priest whom I mentioned above as having served your Majesty in the expedition to China, and the other two well fitted for the service of this land, although one of them has died. We came to consider whether this land was a place where we could serve God and your Majesty. Now, inasmuch as we have to send our determination concerning the matter to our general as he is awaiting it, we find ourselves in confusion, for we had to write that we cannot stay here, or else to tell him in what way we can stay and to ask for more men. We have not been able to find any other way except to do our duty. Will your Majesty order that the Society occupy itself as in the other parts [of the Indias] where they are established, in rearing and instructing the children of this city and of these islands, and in teaching grammar to those who should be [fitted] for it. Let those who are now about to be able to do something take some lectures in philosophy, or theology, or at least cases of conscience, so that the Society may have something to do, and the community be aided. For now not only the children, but also many adults and those ordained by some of the orders are misguided. Both they and many others whom God influences and will influence to change their estate and become priests or religious have no relief or do one or the other thing, or else go to España. Many seculars and religious have not been completely reformed in their studies, or do nothing or do it wrongly. They are filled with doubts and have no one who can settle those doubts for them. They will not be able to take any Indians into the Society unless there is a house in Manila to serve as the mother of all the ministers who should go to the Indians; for, according to their custom, they do not fulfil their duty by having absolute and exclusive houses however few they be—one or two or three—but although they be among Indians, those houses must be subordinate to the large house so that the order may be preserved. If this house and seminary be thus established for the said teaching, your Majesty will save much of the trouble and expense of sending ministers from so great a distance as five thousand leguas, who after their arrival do not accustom themselves to the land or to the difficulty of the language. Some of them return and few of them really settle. But those here are already accustomed to the climate and are skilled in the customs and language. Consequently, in the time that it takes one to come from España, one is turned out here, and one of those already naturalized and with two years of grammar is worth more than a preacher who comes from España and at so great an expense. For the little with which your Majesty can establish this seminary or fount of ministers here, it appears that it would be sufficient to apply some little trifle from your Majesty’s treasury; and with that the Society will have a new obligation here and everywhere to serve your Majesty, in addition to the many that it has already. May God preserve your Majesty’s health and life, and prolong it for as many years as we see to be necessary here for His great honor and glory. Manila, June 17, 1583. Your Majesty’s unworthy servant in the Lord.

Antonio Sedeño