Note 1 — MANILA AND THE PHILIPPINES ABOUT 1650

In the year of 53, Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, a brother of the Conde de Friginiana, arrived in Manila as governor of the islands. He was accompanied by the archbishop, Don Miguel de Poblete, a creole from La Puebla de los Angeles; the bishop of Nueva Segovia, Señor Cardenas, a creole of Pirù, of my order, a very learned and illustrious preacher; the bishop of Nueva Caceres, one San Gregorio, a Franciscan; and Doctor Ucles,1 dean of the Manila cathedral, as bishop of Zibu. He brought people and money, with which the islands were resuscitated. All their citizens were worn out, poor, sad, and exhausted with the severity and too great seclusion of Don Diego Faxardo. The affability of the new governor was very pleasing. He held intercourse with all, gave audience to all, went through the city, visited the convents, and scrupulously attended the feasts, and sermons published on the list. He was entertaining, and could sustain a conversation very agreeably with his fine understanding. He was not at all vain or proud, but was pious and very religious. At times when I heard him speak of the things of God and of freeing oneself from the deceits of the world, he kept my attention, absorbed, both with the words that he uttered, and with the effective way and the spirit with which he expressed them. He was never partial [in dealing] with the orders; but he venerated, loved, and wished well to them all, bearing himself toward them as a prince ought. He showed himself to be devout, and very devout on not few occasions; and he personally attended the processions which were formed in the city. He was a giver of alms, and tried hard to advance the [welfare of the] community. For that purpose, many marriages took place by his arrangement; and he aided in them by bestowing some offices. On the occasion when the new archbishop absolved that land, by special order of his Holiness, from the censures incurred through the exile pronounced against the archbishop by Corcuera (of which mention has been made above), the same Don Sabiniano brought Señor Poblete to the postern of the Almacenes [i.e., magazines], where that exile had been enforced, so that he might pronounce his blessing there. When it was done, Don Sabiniano threw himself at the archbishop’s feet, and said: “Your Excellency may be assured that I shall never cause such disturbances.” That action was a fine example for all men.