Note 28 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1801–1840

On August 4, 1837, arrived at Manila the new governor of the islands, Andrés García Camba, a knight of the Order of Santiago. He had already spent ten years in Filipinas (April, 1825, to March, 1835), and had gone to Spain as the deputy of Manila to the Cortes, an honor twice again conferred upon him. He was received with the utmost enthusiasm, although the Liberals at Manila were irritated by the action of the Cortes in depriving the islands of representation therein; but Camba himself had liberal views, as well as a generous and kindly nature, and gained the good-will of that party. This made trouble for him, however, in another direction. The civil war in Spain aroused there great partisan bitterness, which spread to the colonies; and in Filipinas was a Carlist and reactionary faction, who opposed Camba in every way. “The regular clergy, as a body, were partisans of the Pretender, and not only gave him their sympathy but aided him, as well as the Carlist publications, with their money. The court of Madrid was aware of this attitude of the friars, and had already sharply censured Salazar for his indulgence and lenity toward them. Several Carlist partisans had been banished from Spain to the Marianas, but had gone to Manila instead, and were not only unmolested there, but visited and entertained by many of the most prominent people of the city, and especially by the ecclesiastical element. Camba found that Carlist reunions were being held in the convents of San Juan de Dios and Santo Domingo, and that even the archbishop, [Fray José Segui] was an avowed adherent of the Pretender; the governor tried to conciliate the disaffected, but with little success, since the clergy, the Audiencia, and many influential persons, both citizens and officials, were jealous and hostile toward him.”28 He was obliged to compel the archbishop to deposit certain funds, belonging to the Cavite hospital, in the royal treasury, instead of the Dominican convent; also to arrest a Dominican friar for conducting treasonable correspondence with Carlists, and to send to Spain a military officer concerned therein. Notwithstanding Camba’s ability, integrity, and devotion to the interests of the islands, and his patience with his opponents, they exerted so much influence and carried on so many intrigues against him, not only in Manila but at Madrid, that they procured his recall to Spain;29 and on December 29, 1838, he surrendered the governorship to his successor, Luis Lardizábal y Montoya. Notwithstanding the obstacles and difficulties which Camba continually encountered, he accomplished some important improvements in the administration,30 the chief of these being the reorganization of the postal service, which from 1838 was conducted under one bureau and on modern lines; he improved the means of communication between the provinces, and pushed forward the reduction of the heathen tribes. He informed the Spanish government that the attempts to make treaties and alliances with the sultans of Joló were of no use in bringing any permanent or substantial advantage to Spanish navigation and commerce. In 1837 was published the Flora de Filipinas of the Augustinian Fray Manuel Blanco, the first attempt to form a compendium of Philippine botany.31 A royal decree of October 24, 1838, “created in Spain a consulting committee for the administration of colonial affairs, as members of the same being appointed, among others, the ex-governors of Filipinas Ricafort and Enrile.”