Volume 37 — CHAPTER XIII
Reading edition
Wreck at Boronga of the galleon “San Francisco Javier;” and the election of our father Fray Alonso Quijano as provincial.
[The loss of the galleon “San Francisco Javier” in the port of Boronga, in the island of Leyte—one of the best harbors in the Philippines—is keenly felt in the islands; and, together with the putting back in 1655 of the two ships “Victoria” and “Santiago,” which had sailed for Nueva España, is provocative of much misery. The people of the first-named vessel are all saved, but all the cargo and money are lost. The Filipinos along that coast are the only gainers of the wreck, for they recover much of the money. The loss is investigated by the auditor, Francisco Samaniego Cuesta, who shows himself unnecessarily severe in his investigations. The wreck is looked upon by people generally as a punishment from Heaven for the cruelties practiced on the natives in the building of the “San Francisco Javier.” The islands are reduced to a wretched condition “both for the lack of money (although some was recovered from the ‘San Francisco Javier’), and because the reënforcements of infantry were delayed which the governor had requested from the duke of Alburquerque, “who was governing Nueva España; as well as through the fact that trade with China had greatly fallen off, because of the lack of the food which preserves it, namely, Mexican pesos.”]
After that chapter had been concluded, not only our order but also the fathers of St. Dominic and our discalced Recollects (who had celebrated their chapters on the same day) were confronted by a great exigency. [This is an order by the governor and royal Audiencia requiring the presentation of the lists of the chapters, as is done in the other parts of the Indias. The Audiencia being petitioned allows the orders to continue their former practice in this regard, after sending an account of the matter to the Council of the Indias. After a digression called forth by this exigency, the author proceeds:]
As soon as the new governor, Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara assumed his office, and had performed his first duties, and had taken the residencia of his predecessor and given sentence in the cause of the latter’s favorite, he devoted himself with great activity to carrying out such measures as were possible for establishing the prosperity of his government. He found the community of Manila greatly afflicted and weakened by its past troubles and wars, and its wealth exhausted by the lack of commerce with Nueva España, because of the so repeated return of the ships in distress and the wrecking of the galleons. In that year of 1654 was lost a large galleon which was being built in the kingdom of Camboja at great expense to the royal treasury; it was dashed to pieces near Luban, fourteen leguas from Manila, when it was coming here after having been completely finished.
[The remainder of the chapter is concerned with Mindanao affairs, which will be sufficiently noted elsewhere.]
[Chapter xiv treats of the Chinese pirate Kuesing, and of the answer sent him by the governor of the Philippines; chapter xv of the earthquake at Manila, August 20, 1658, and the embassies from Siam and other kingdoms to the governor; and chapter xvi of Mindanao and Joló affairs, all of which will be noted hereafter.]