Note 66 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

The missions to the Zambals were previously in the hands the Augustinian Recollects. A royal decree dated June 18, 1677 commanded the archbishop of Manila to place the missions of Mindoro in charge of one of the religious orders. Concepción states (Hist. de Philipinas, viii, pp. 4–16) that Pardo thereupon compelled the Recollects to give up the Zambal missions to the Dominicans, receiving in exchange therefor those of Mindoro that the natives in the latter desired to have Jesuits sent to them, and that the Zambals preferred the Dominicans, but that the opposition of both was overcome by the persuasions of government officials; and that the Dominicans, in their zeal for condensing the scattered Zambal population, made several blunders by removing certain villages to very unsuitable and disadvantageous locations.

The compiler of Reseña biográfica asserts that Concepción’s statements are incorrect. He claims that the Zambal in 1676 asked for religious instruction, stipulating that Dominican missionaries be sent them, which was done; that soon the Recollects began to complain of this, as an intrusion on their field of labor, and the Dominicans therefore withdrew their laborers; that this field was afterward given to the Dominicans by Archbishop Pardo (1679), on account of its being neglected by the Recollects; that the attempt to carry on the Zambal missions cost the Dominicans great loss of money and men, without producing satisfactory results, and therefore they offered several times to give up this charge; and that finally (1712) they did actually renounce and surrender the Zambal missions. In proof of these statements he cites not only Salazar’s Historia, but various documents and records from the Dominican archives at Manila. (See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 486–504; this resumé is accompanied by an interesting report of the work accomplished by the Dominicans in those missions during the years 1680–90, made by Fray Gregorio Jiraldez, June 2, 1690.) ↑