Note 3 — LETTER OF A JESUIT TO HIS BROTHER

If what Governor Arrechedera is doing here in Manila with the sultan of Joló could be known in Madrid and Roma, and in every other country, people would have no difficulty in believing the enormous perfidy, treachery, and deceit of the said sultan and other Moros. It is nearly a year since the said sultan of Joló arrived at Manila, accompanied by three concubines and several slave-girls. At his arrival the artillery was discharged; and he was lodged very magnificently, in a house provided beforehand for this purpose, outside the walls of Manila, with a continual guard of soldiers, whose captain was always under the orders of the sultan. The entry of the sultan into Manila was arranged with so much pomp and ostentation that everyone said no more could have been done for the entry of the prince of España if he should come to Manila; but all that is told is less [than the reality]. The governor seeing a scarf woven with pearls and ornaments in gold, immediately his eyes and his heart went out toward the scarf and the many other pearls and jewels which he knew the sultan carried. At this the governor entirely closed his eyes to all the information that was given to him—not only that furnished by the fathers of the said missions who had come back to Manila, but the letters which the governor of Samboanga had written to him—openly saying that he placed more confidence in the king of Joló than in the fathers who sent the information. What causes most general sorrow here (and especially to the archbishop)3 is, that on account of the governor not being willing to listen to anything against the sultan, that is coming true which the fathers said to his Lordship—that the said sultan from Manila would cause the ruin of these islands, causing the Jolóans by piratical raids to carry away many Christian Indians as captives, and to destroy churches and villages. This is what they are actually doing, as is written by the fathers in Visayas, whose letters I have seen within a few days, and the governor will not permit that a word be uttered in order that it may not be said (although it is well known) that the Moros are destroying the island with the gunpowder and balls which have been sent them from Manila, and the sultan is paying for them with the pearls and gold which he has given to the said governor. What continually renews the grief of all is, that not only is no remedy applied to so dire evils, but that the governor continues to entertain the sultan in Manila as if he were our friend or defender, while he is the greatest traitor and enemy that this Christian church has had; and we greatly fear that by this time the said sultan is making himself master of the post at Samboangan.4