Note 59 — The Pardo Controversy

Diaz states (Conquistas, p. 777) that Curuzelaegui declared on this occasion that if the home government should be offended at his restoring the archbishop, he would consider punishment by them for this cause “a great honor, even if it be capital.” Diaz praises him as “one of the best governors that these islands have had; affable, pious, magnanimous, wholly disinterested, and very liberal. He also said that he had come to Filipinas to be poor, where other governors had come to be rich. This he said very truly, for in España and Indias he had possessed much wealth—gained in the many voyages that he had made as commander of the fleet and galleons to Perú and Nueva España—which his ostentation and liberality had consumed.”