Note 71 — Chapter IV

6. The Augustinian Recollect fathers, who had not left that administration [of Zambales] voluntarily, although they could not resist the change with Mindoro, asked for testimonies that they might present them at court. They protested in due form, and appointed ministers in their chapters, of whose election they apprised the Dominican fathers in legal form. Their recourse to court had the result that the parties [in the matter] were referred by the Council of the Indias to this royal Audiencia. The testimonies were brought to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero71 appeared before the superior government. He stated that his Excellency the archbishop and the governor had removed the Order of the Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the rulings of the laws of the new Recopilación,72 and had given it to his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands, it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates, and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On that account he petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province, to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best, for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy of the judicial proceedings73 to the Recollect side, ordering that they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2, 1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the discalced religious of St. Augustine. The latter said that he heard it and would answer in due form.