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A few very honest gentlemen tried to do their duty under evil conditions. Occasionally an energetic governor like Enrile attempted to rouse the land from its lethargy. Fortunate indeed were the ones who escaped unscathed from the mob, the Holy Inquisition, or the residencia. Those who were sufficiently tactful to avoid friction with the ecclesiastical authorities earned thereby consideration for piety.

The ordinary Spanish civil official was there to accumulate a fortune, and from this he did not propose to be diverted by any religious or fanciful scruples with reference to the rights of the natives. Under such conditions more than royal mandates were necessary to secure good government in a far-away colony where public opinion did not exist, and that of the home land was ineffective. The public revenues were of course mismanaged. They seemed to dissolve on the way from the taxpayer to the treasury, and even what reached the treasury was too often misappropriated or wasted on dishonest projects. Hence, the financial condition of the colony was always deplorable. During the early years it was natural that the expenses of the government should be greater than any income which could be raised without exploiting the natives, but as time passed and the government became more settled it seemed reasonable to the authorities in Spain that the colony should become self-supporting.

About thirty years after the death of Legaspi we find the Manila procurator soliciting financial aid from Spain to meet the deficits created by official misconduct. A Royal Commission, after a full investigation of the conditions in the Philippines, reported that owing to the constant disputes, ill feeling and general bad government the islands were and would continue to be unproductive and unprofitable, and recommended that they should be abandoned. But for the opportune presence of a missionary named Morga it is probable that the king would have approved

2 "Alas, how sad a soul I bear
Until I see what is my share."

this report. Morga protested energetically against the abandonment of the work of the Church and induced the king to announce that “even though the maintenance of the colony should exhaust the Mexican treasury his conscience would not allow him to consent to the perdition of souls which had been saved and the hope of rescuing far more in the distant region."

Brief reference to a few of the bitter controversies, some of them tragic and bloody, will give an idea of the difficulties and obstacles which obstructed the growth and progress of the country. Governor Corcuera,3 who ruled with a high hand, quarreled with Archbishop Guerrero. The friars, he declared, "were lawless people;" he "would rather fight the Dutch in Flanders than them." After a stormy period, during which the churches were closed, the archbishop was overcome, imprisoned, fined and banished to Corregidor. But the governor's triumph was only temporary, as his successor, after inquiring into his conduct, caused him to be imprisoned for five years.

4

Diego de Salcedo, who was governor from 1663 to 1668, carried on a constant quarrel with Archbishop Pobleta, who by the ill-advised courtesy of the preceding governor had been conceded the privilege of vetoing all his official acts. Archbishop Pobleta refused to obey certain decrees of Governor Salcedo and was finally banished to Marivales. Ultimately the archbishop was compelled to pay a heavy fine, and when he died the governor prohibited the de profundis mass on the ground that its observance would interfere with the feasts by which he proposed to celebrate the archbishop's demise. But Salcedo's triumph was also temporary. He was soon in the hands of the Inquisition,

3 1635 to 1644. Corcuera was an energetic governor who reorganized all the departments of the government and quarreled indiscriminately with friars, bishops and civilians. His reports to the king are interesting. See Rept. for 1636, B. & R., XXVI, p. 60 et seq. For his account of the trouble with the ecclesiastical authorities, B. & R., XXVI, p. 60.

* Lea, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies, p. 309. After Corcuero was out of office the Augustinians prosecuted him for removing one of their buildings while constructing the defensive city walls. They secured a judgment against him for $2,500, which he was unable to pay-a very good evidence of his honesty while in office. On his liberation Philip IV appointed him governor of the Canary Islands.

and after years of imprisonment died while on his way to Mexico for trial.

5

During the reign of Governor Vargas, Archbishop Pardo was banished from Manila. When restored to his See after the retirement of Vargas, he proceeded to equalize matters by imposing the severest penalties possible upon all of his enemies. He ordered the governor to adjure his past acts, to "wear a penitent's garb, to place a rope about his neck, and to carry a lighted candle to the doors of the Cathedral and churches of Parion, San Gabriel, and San Binondo on every feast day during the four months."

Vargas claimed privilege on the ground that he was a Cavalier of the Military Order of St. James, but the archbishop refused to recognize the privilege and desisted only when the new governor threatened to send him again into banishment. Many other such instances might be cited.

After a corrupt system of government has been thoroughly established the way of the reformer is difficult and dangerous. The beneficiaries of the system feel that they have vested rights. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, financial abuses in all parts of the government of the Philippines had become so general as to make the work of reform extremely difficult. Most of the prominent officials were involved. To the interested the mass of corruption was sacrosanct, and woe to him who assumed to touch it with irreverent hands.

6

Ferdinand de Bustamente was the victim of an attempt to protect the public treasury. While neither tactful nor considerate, nor always right, he seems in a large way to have had the good of the colony at heart. Having discovered irregularities in the management of the public funds, he caused the delinquents, some of them of high degree, to be imprisoned and prosecuted. The monastic orders furnished refuge in the churches to the

5 For an account of Pardo's controversy with the audiencia, see B. & R., XXXIX, p. 149.

6 1717 to 1719. For an account of his government and death, see B. & R., XLIV, p. 148.

enemies of the governor. Certain influential men, including many advocates, signed a statement which denied the right of the governor to arrest a certain notary who had taken refuge in the Cathedral. Bustamente thereupon lost his head and injudiciously threw the archbishop and the lawyers into jail. The feelings of the people were outraged by the imprisonment of the archbishop. The refugees came out of the churches and joined a mob which marched against the palace. The soldiers, when ordered to fire on the rioters, lowered their arms before the crucifixes and images of the saints which were carried by the friars before the advancing mob. The ill-fated governor and his son met the attack almost alone on the stairway of the palace, and both fell mortally wounded.

After his death every effort was made to blacken the character of Bustamente. So many charges were filed during the period of his residencia that the commission was overwhelmed and never made a report.

The capture of Manila by the British during the Seven Years' War was but an incident of that memorable struggle, but it might well have changed the course of history in the Orient. Had England retained possession of the Archipelago the new era would have opened at least a century earlier than it did." The orders as originally issued directed General William Draper to capture Manila and then establish a permanent settlement in the island of Mindanao "which could be kept after peace." The news of the capture did not reach Europe until after the signing of the definitive treaty. Manila was therefore not mentioned in that instrument, and was returned to the Spaniards without any compensation. The king of Spain dishonored the drafts drawn by the authorities at Manila to cover part of the indemnity. It is probable that had the news of the capture reached

In a manifesto issued by the Filipino junta at Hong Kong about the time the American fleet sailed for Manila, the following appears in their list of grievances: "We were compelled to spill our blood by Simon de Anda against the English, who in any case would have made better rulers than the Spaniards."

Europe at an earlier date, Mindanao, at least, would have remained British territory.

There is a striking resemblance between the methods followed by the British in the seventeenth century and by the Americans more than one hundred years later. Had the latter withdrawn their troops after suppressing the native revolt, the resemblance, barring the sacking of the city by the British, would have been even greater. In both instances events followed almost the

same course.

On September 23, 1762, just a week after the fall of Habana, thirteen ships with about two thousand troops under the command of General William Draper entered Manila Bay and demanded the surrender of the city. The Spaniards had not yet learned of the existence of war between England and Spain and were, as usual, unprepared for defense. The governor was absent and Archbishop Rojo was in charge. After the surrender of the city the usual controversy arose as to who was responsible for its unprepared condition. One of the ecclesiastics wrote to Madrid that "Manila well deserved it, not indeed because of its total lack of Christian procedure, but singularly because of its cursed neglect of politics, as if the whole world had to respect and fear us because of our boasting that we are Spaniards."

Archibishop Rojo should not be blamed for the situation which the British found in Manila. The city was not properly fortified or manned for defense against an attack by an European power. It was a short-sighted policy, but it was the policy of Spain and not of the individual who was so unfortunate as to hold power at the time of the invasion. La Gentil says that the garrison was composed of Mexicans whom he described as good enough indeed but of little skill in the military art, "as they had never fired a gun."

8 Baltasar Vela to Antonio Gonzales in Madrid, July 24, 1764, B. & R., XLIX, p. 288. That Spain continued to rely on the terror of her name appears from the history of the Spanish-American War. After that war the usual controversy arose as to who was responsible for the lack of preparation for the defense of Manila.

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