Note 1 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1739–1762
Reading edition
[The government of the islands by Valdés y Tamón ended in the summer of 1739, when he was succeeded by Gaspar de la Torre. Just before this time, the former ordered the royal fiscal, Christoval Perez de Arroyo,1 to be sent to prison for refusing to give up certain documents in his possession; the fiscal then took refuge in the Recollect convent, and his property was seized. After Torre’s coming, the archbishop (Fray Juan Angel Rodriguez), at the instance of the Recollects, made arrangements with him for Arroyo’s restitution to office; but the governor, instead, imprisoned the fiscal. The suit against him could not be decided at Manila, and was therefore referred to the court at Madrid, Arroyo meanwhile remaining a prisoner, and harshly treated. The archbishop was so grieved at this, and at his having been the cause (although innocent) of Arroyo’s imprisonment, by inducing him to leave his asylum in the convent, that he became seriously ill; and the heroic remedies prescribed by the physicians so reduced his strength that he soon died. Among the accusations made against Arroyo was that he had married (in 1738) Doña Maria Luisa Josepha de Morales y Santistevan without the knowledge and consent of her guardian; but this was apparently settled by the proof afterward adduced that the marriage took place on August 12, 1742, and was performed by the guardian himself, Juan de la Fuente y Yepes, dean of the cathedral. In the following December Arroyo died; his widow was summoned to take his place in the legal proceedings then pending against him, but asked the authorities to release her from this requirement; nevertheless, her property was seized, and the case was referred to Madrid for settlement. The court censured both Valdés y Tamón and Torre for their proceedings in the matter, and ordered that Arroyo be restored to his office, with pay for the time which he had spent in prison; but this decision reached Manila (April, 1743) only after his death. (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, xi, pp. 89–121.)]