Volume 42 — Chapter X

General Antonio Nieto returned from Macán, leaving the affairs of the commerce with these islands regulated, as well as the entrance of missionaries into China by that door—although it never has been assured, because the Portuguese allege that such entrance is opposed to the right of patronage of their king, with other absurdities which only excite a smile; for it is a fact that many of the more southern provinces of China fall within the demarcation of Castilla, in proof of which not much mathematics is needed. Moreover, the Portuguese do not hold a palmo of conquered land on which they have erected churches, or founded bishoprics, with the right of patronage; for in that very city of Macán the emperor of China possesses as much authority as in Cantón, and they pay him customs, duties and other royal tributes. And within that same city, while General Antonio Nieto was there, an incident occurred which would cause shame [even] to a nation less Catholic than the Portuguese, whom no other people outdo in that respect.

In that city the Chinese make their idolatrous processions, and commit other abominations, as they do in every other part of their lands. It happened that in one of these processions, at that time, they carried an idol, a figure of a beautiful woman with a child in her arms, whom they call Sanpuerstsa; this is the idol to which they pay most devotion, for they call her “Mother of Mercy.” This confirms what is told by the traditions in China, which declare that our holy faith was preached in that country; and that when it was forgotten some images of saints remained which were made idols. Captain Nicolás Pérez looked closely at the idols, and asked a Chinaman in the procession what image that was; and the Chinaman replied, “Here, like St. Mary at Manila.” Nicolás Pérez, hearing this, raised his hand, and gave the Chinaman a heavy blow in the face. The procession was thrown into confusion, and the Chinese and the whole city disturbed; the aggressor was seized; and it cost Nicolás Pérez and General Nieto many pesos and much effort to leave the Chinese satisfied, and the Portuguese free from their fear that their city and all their royal patronage would be destroyed.

When Antonio Nieto returned to Manila, he was accompanied by three clerics, who came to be ordained as priests, as at that time they had no bishop in Macán. One was Antonio Melo, the son of a rich Portuguese of much repute in Macán named Basco Barbosa; and the others were people of the country, that is, mestizos of Portuguese and Chinese blood. They were ordained by the bishop of Zebú, Don Fray Diego de Aguilar; and soon afterward they returned to Macán in a patache belonging to that city, accompanied by two priests of the Society of Jesus, mathematicians, who had come in the year 1679 with Father Francisco Salgado, assigned by their general to the mission of China. This vessel sailed about October, which is the time of the monsoon that is unfavorable to this voyage; and no information whatever has been received about it, or how or where it was lost, although great efforts have been made for this by the citizens of Macán.

[Here follows an account of a punitive expedition against the Zambals, which we have already given; see VOL. XXXVIII, pp. 226–228.]

The galleon “San Antonio,” which had sailed in the previous year in charge of General Don Francisco Enrique de Losada, reached Acapulco, although it encountered heavy gales in the high latitudes, and returned prosperously to these islands. It had not the good-fortune to come in as far as the point of Cavite (a piece of luck which seldom occurs), on account of the vendavals having set in steadily; and therefore it made port in Solsogón. In this galleon came the following persons: The father master Don Fray Ginés Barrientos, of the Order of Preachers, and preacher to his Majesty, consecrated as bishop of Troya, to be assistant for the archbishopric of Manila. He was a son of the convent of Peña de Francia, and native of a place in Sayago called Barroco Pardo; he was a very learned scholastic, a great preacher, and a very observant religious. The father master Don Fray Juan Durán, of the Order of Mercy, and a native of Lima; he came as consecrated bishop of Sinopolis, and assistant to the bishop of Zebú; he was very learned, and of very handsome figure and lofty stature. The entreaties of his Majesty had obtained from his Holiness these two auxiliary bishops, with two thousand pesos of income from his royal treasury, and with the right of future succession to assume the government of the vacant sees as they might occur. They brought the bulls and pallium for the archbishop Don Fray Felipe Pardo, who in virtue of these was consecrated on October 28; this was performed by the bishop of Zebú, Don Fray Diego de Aguilar and the bishop of Troya, with the assistance of the dean, Master Don Miguel Ortiz de Covarrubias, who carried the mitre.

Presentation came as bishop of Nueva Segovia to Doctor Don Francisco Pizarro de Orellana, the archdeacon of Manila, and a native of that city; [the see was vacant] by the death of Master Don Lucas de Arqueros de Robles, a native of Vigan in Ilocos; and a son of Lorenzo Arqueros, so renowned in the revolt of the Zambals and in their destructive raid into Ilocos. [The said archdeacon] was a priest of lofty virtue, the fame of which had secured for him this dignity—which he did not enjoy, as he lived but a short time, and died before the bulls for his consecration arrived.

The bishop of Troya was accompanied by father Fray Alonso García, a native of Tamanes in Sayago, a religious of the order of our father St. Augustine, who had been left in Mexico, belonging to the mission of the year 1679; he was a son of the convent at Ciudad Rodrigo, and was twenty-five years old; he was a minister in Tagalos, and died in the convent at Bulacán, in the year 1704. [With him was] also father Fray José de Andrada, a Portuguese, a native of Lisboa, and a son of the congregation of Eastern India. Having spent several years in this province, and desiring to be adopted into it, but not being able to secure that privilege for lack of the consent and permission of his Majesty and of our very reverend general, he went by land to Roma and Madrid—going to Surrate, and thence to Alepo and Venecia—and obtained a warrant from our father general, and a decree from his Majesty, ordaining that he be received into this province, but with a clause which stated that this should not be regarded as a precedent. This religious was an excellent minister in the province of Ilocos, where he died at an advanced age in the year 1705. He deserves that record be made of him, since his adoption into this province cost him so many peregrinations and hardships; for to obtain it he made the entire circuit of the terraqueous globe.