Note 10 — THE GOVERNMENT AND DEATH OF BUSTAMANTE

From this stoppage of friendly relations and lack of civility which I began to experience in regard to this matter, and on account of the news that I had of the repeated deliberations that he held [with the auditor], I could only expect very evil results in the banishment of myself and of the ecclesiastics—which I mistrusted from the twenty-seventh day of September, when I had sent my provisor with the cura of Balayan, for them to certify to the said governor the information which on this very point had been privately given to the said cura by an alférez named Antonio de Torres, who had much familiar intercourse with the said governor. This information was reduced to the statement that a certain alférez had told how his Lordship had resolved to banish me from this city by the middle of October, because he had made ready to demand from me, about that time, that he might remove to the most distant of these islands all the persons who had taken refuge in these churches, both within and without this city; and, taking for granted, at the start, that I would not permit it, with that ground for action he would proceed to carry out the said banishment. When I learned that the said alférez, when summoned to the governor’s presence, confirmed his statement, although he exculpated himself with frivolous pretexts; and when I did not see any punishment inflicted on him for this insolence, and knew, moreover, that they only gave him orders that the matter should be kept secret (as it was): I had sufficient grounds for the said suspicion. And as it was quite consonant with prudence to prevent the dangers and obviate the measures from which might result these evil consequences, having assured myself of the only arguments10 with which I could prevent this act—to command the single minister in this Audiencia and his associate, under penalty of major excommunication and [a fine] of five hundred ducados in silver, to abstain and refrain from sitting as judges and transacting the affairs of the Audiencia, the formation of which, in my judgment, had been invalid—I acted accordingly, in conformity with the opinions for which I had obtained confirmation by the vote of my cabildo and the superiors of the holy religious orders. Availing myself of this means for ending the controversy, as conducive to the public tranquillity for which I was striving, without intermeddling with the governor I issued two monitory decrees, in which I gave orders as above, in order that at the very same time they might be notified, to the said minister and his associate; and I committed this business to the doctoral canon of my church, in order that, as a discreet and capable person (since he is morning professor of canon law for his Majesty), he might conduct it with the judgment and the precautions which are desirable in a matter so delicate. He went to execute this commission in the hall of the Audiencia, in which building this single minister of that court has his abode, abandoning the obligations of his rank, and trampling on both human and divine laws. Hardly had he heard my name, when the notification of this decree was begun, when he snatched it from the hands of the doctoral canon and tore it to pieces; he demanded a sword and buckler, and the protection of the king; and he uttered so many cries, and left his room with so much noise, that he disturbed the entire palace of the governor. He goaded on the governor so that, without any warrants and without a session of this so-called royal Audiencia, he seized the said canon and the prebend Doctor Don Juan de la Fuente, who accompanied him, in the porch of the court prison; and there they remained, surrounded by soldiers with pikes and naked cutlasses, during all the night of October 10. At that time he gave orders to surround his entire palace with a guard of infantry, and would not allow that three ecclesiastics should go up to see him, whom I sent with a courteous message, in order to obtain information as to the motive of this singular proceeding. The governor gave orders to detain them in the guard-house, where they remained among the rabble of soldiers, exposed to the inclemency of the wind and of the rain which fell that night, until the morning; and then they locked up the ecclesiastics in a small room which was connected with the guardroom of the halberdiers, without any food—at which the city began to be disquieted. The doctoral canon and the prebend were conveyed by an escort of soldiers with an officer to the castle and fort of Santiago, where the castellan kept them confined under a guard of his soldiers, and without any communication [with other persons]; and as soon as they reached this place, at daybreak, the military watchword was changed, [accompanied] with [the firing of] a cannon loaded with balls, and [the beating of] war-drums; and the bells were rung as a summons for the entire city. Disturbed at this signal—which, by an edict published in the preceding year, was given for their attendance at the royal palace—all the citizens gathered there; and when they were assembled the late governor addressed to them a vigorous exhortation that they should defend the royal jurisdiction, which he assumed that I had injured and usurped. He censured the opinions of the two universities, and berated the persons who signed them, saying that they did not understand the laws, and that they were disturbing the church just as one Molinos11 and one Luther had disturbed it.