Volume 42 — Chapter I

[Diaz mentions the calamitous times experienced in the islands during the rule of most of the governors from Corcuera to Salcedo, which at last are succeeded, in the plan of Providence, by peace and comfort.] The peacemaker [iris] whom divine Providence seems to have selected for this general benefit was Governor Don Manuel de León y Sarabia; for his taking possession of his government was the shifting of the scenes in this melancholy theater, the calming of the tempests, and the succession of rest after fatigue, and peace after war. The former lines of commerce were renewed, and other and new ones opened up—such as that of the coast of Malabar and Santo Tomé, called the Coromandel coast; and those of Suratte, Macán and Batavia. All these improvements were facilitated by the wholesome purposes and the kindly disposition of Don Manuel de León, and especially by his great disinterestedness; this last would, if it had not been accompanied by the rest, have failed of success, as did the lofty and incomparable [disinterestedness] of Don Diego Fajardo, since it was obscured by his coldness and excessive severity—which, although accompanied by justice, was, being excessive, known as injustice.

The flagship “Buen Socorro,” which had made the voyage to Nueva España in charge of General Diego de Arévalo, had a fortunate arrival at the islands—although not at the port of Cavite, but at that of Palapag in the province of Leyte, outside of the Embocadero. It brought an auditor, Licentiate Don Fernando Escaño, a native of Ecija; he was a great jurisconsult, as is evident from the learned books which he had printed in España—De testamento imperfecto, and the history of the Order of St. John of Malta, which he wrote in the Latin language, by order of his most serene Highness Don Juan of Austria, grand prior of Castilla and León. He came with his wife, Doña Leonor de Córdoba, a native of Sevilla, and four [six] children: Don Fernando, who was a captain, and lived but a few years; Don Juan de Escaño, an alférez who reached the age of fifty years, an unmarried man, very virtuous, and an example for laymen; Don José and Don Manuel, afterward religious of St. Dominic; Don Alonso, who was an Augustinian religious, and at his death a minister in Pampanga; and a daughter, Doña María, who married the sargento-mayor Don Francisco de Moya y Torres, alguazil-mayor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The auditor’s wife was a professed member of our tertiary order; and all of them were people of great virtue.

With appointment as bishop of Nueva Segovia came the dean of Manila, Master Don José Millán de Poblete, a priest of much virtue and discretion, and nephew of the archbishop Doctor Don Miguel Millán de Poblete, of honored memory. The vigorous age at which this dignity came to him (for he was not yet fifty) did not enable him to enjoy it [long]; for he lived very few years in the government of that church, not long enough to reach his consecration—with general regret in these islands at having lost a grand prelate, heir to the many virtues of his uncle....

Auditor Don Fernando de Escaño began to fill his office with great rectitude and disinterestedness, for he was a learned man, and stood in fear of God, which is the true wisdom. But, influenced by his desires for good, yet lacking in judgment and experience, he proceeded to enter the labyrinth of trying to reform more than what is in need of reform—being counseled by persons who aimed only at gaining by calumny what they could not prove in law. From this he undertook to follow the opinions of Auditor Don Salvador Gómez de Espinosa, of whom we have already written, and to subscribe to his manifestoes, as the Parenético; and without further investigation than the depositions of persons who were prejudiced against the clergy and the religious orders, he made attacks on them in letters written to his Majesty. Afterward, he recognized that the evidence did not agree with what had been told him; and he came to repentance when the shot was already fired and much damage done thereby. These false notions, and others like them, as well as his considering the little or nothing that can be accomplished in these islands by the ministers of his Majesty, who never goes beyond what the governors desire, wore him out in a few years; and he died as the excellent Christian that he was, and so indifferent to worldly advantages that he had not money enough for his burial, and was buried in our convent at Manila. All his family inherited his virtue, and were the only children of an auditor who came out so well, for all strove to grow in virtue to the standard of their honored father; they were therefore highly esteemed, and their lives came to a holy end. Don Juan de Escaño, who attained the rank of general, was an example of virtue in Manila, and died with the reputation of unbroken chastity [con opinion de virgen]; and his property, which was large and justly gained, he left, well invested as it was, for the building and maintenance of the beaterio of Santa Catalina de Sena [i.e., St. Catherine of Sienna], of the tertiary Order of St. Dominic in Manila, in which foundation he had much share and influence.

These religious remained a long time in the islands of Siao, increasing that Christian church; but the enemy of mankind, who resented their driving him out after he had so long possessed the souls of those unfortunate people, influenced the Dutch heretics of Nueva Batavia, in the island of Jacatra, to destroy them by a secular persecution. For, as they are lords of all the islands where grows the clove of the spice-trade, in Maluco—Amboyno, Tidore, Ternate, Montiel, and many others—and this is the commerce which has returned most profits to their company they have always endeavored that this aromatic merchandise be not transported by any other hands than their own, in order to assure their gains. They knew that some Spaniards had settled in the islands of Siao, and that by them was carried away the clove product of that region, and that it might eventually diminish their own commerce. For that astute nation has so perseveringly maintained that the Dutch alone shall be absolute masters of the cloves and cinnamon; and so skilfully do they manage these commodities that in any year when there is an abundant product of cloves they burn such quantity of it as they consider superfluous, according to the computation that they have made of that crop (which is sufficient for the supply of the whole world), in order that their price may not be lowered, and that the commodity may not fall in value by becoming common and abundant. So great is the wisdom of these children of the world, in which they greatly exceed the children of the light.

All the triennial during which our provincial father Fray Dionisio Suárez ruled was very propitious for this province—not only because he was a religious very observant, kind, and lovable, but because this province possessed so many members of virtue and learning that they restored it to its first luster. The ministries in the doctrinas were well served, by one or two religious, according to their needs. The erection of many new convents was begun, some having been ruined by the earthquakes, and others torn down by military orders, when we were threatened with the coming of Kuesing Pompoan; but there was so much to restore that it kept us busy for more than three succeeding trienniums. Our provincial applied himself closely to the repairs on the magnificent convent at Manila, which greatly needed them, on the plan which he had made in the preceding triennium, when he was prior of that house; [and he accomplished] so much that to the diligence and zeal of that devout religious may be attributed its preservation.

The fourth definitor, Fray Francisco de Medina Basco, who was associate and secretary of the provincial Fray Dionisio Suárez, had displayed so much ability and good intention in administering his office—for he was an angel of peace, following the advice of our holy constitutions—that all desired that he should succeed to the office of him to whom he had been so capable an associate. This was desired by the provincial most of all; for, as he was of so peaceable a disposition, he wished to leave the province in the hands of one who could maintain it in the tranquillity which it was enjoying. But the malign father of discord was not pleased at seeing the great peace and concord which this province had enjoyed for so many years; he therefore strove with his arts to disturb and disunite it. The time for holding the chapter-session arrived apparently as peaceful as usual; and so the religious who were its members assembled, quite unconscious of what was to occur.

Father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco lived but a short time in Cebú, for while officiating there human weakness, resulting from melancholy and grief at what had occurred, prostrated him with a long illness; this time he knew how to improve to good purpose, seeking the welfare of his soul. His confessor, director, and teacher was the bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Juan López, a prelate of great wisdom and virtue, who took such personal interest in the spiritual welfare of this afflicted religious that he spent most of his time with him, until in his care the sick man gave up his soul to the Lord, with great consolation to the holy bishop and to all who were present at his death. [The proceedings of] this chapter went to Rome, to our very reverend father general; he confirmed father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco as provincial, and annulled the second election, that of father Fray Jerónimo de León, commanding the chapter to guard their prerogatives; otherwise, it would have been a legitimate election, on account of his having conducted himself as merely passive in his election, and it appeared that he had not taken part in the tumults of the chapter-session....