# The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898/Volume 10/Letter from the bishop of Nueva Segovia to the king

LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF NUEVA SEGOVIA TO THE KING
I have no doubt that by other ways your Majesty will learn of the affairs of Manila. Even to seek correction for them I would be unwilling to recall them to mind, were I not obliged to do so by the service of God and the welfare of my afflicted fellow men. With the fidelity which I owe to your Majesty, I must proclaim aloud before God and your Majesty everything in Manila outside of the monasteries, and declare what thing or what person is offensive to God, to your Majesty, and to his fellow man. God is severely punishing that city by poverty and losses of property. Such is the chastisement in spiritual affairs, that, after so many years had passed without a prelate or father to sympathize with and help the people, the archbishop who came last year fell into a profound melancholy; and when he had been here two months and a half God called him to Himself. He was removed from many misfortunes which could not be relieved; and before he had preached a single time, or given one call to his flock, the Lord took ​him. It was said, however, that he died of a poisonous herb which was given him; and they say that his symptoms proved it. Whether that is true or not, this land is such that it could be suspected and said that in so short a time they took the life of their prelate. In the temporal government, the death of the good licentiate, Alvaro de Çambrano, was very unfortunate for the poor and for persons of little influence. He was a pious man and one of noble purposes, and he died of grief, as may be deduced from a letter which he wrote me before his death. There is no doubt that the reason we do not die is because we have not grieved over matters with the charity and good zeal which were his.
Something has been done by the governor of these islands, Don Francisco Tello, in which the auditors also must have been concerned. A ship was sent from these islands to China, and, as I understand—your Majesty will learn the facts by other means—it sailed to a port very near to the town of the Portuguese. If God and your Majesty provide no remedy, this expedition will be the total destruction of what is held here by the crowns of Castilla and Portogal, with great offense to the faith, or the destruction of preaching and conversion. It is most difficult of correction, for there are interested in this matter first, the governor; secondly, the auditors; and thirdly, their followers and ministers. I hope, God helping, that all the good works which have been commenced here will not be abandoned for aught but the interest and profit of those who, according to right, should not regard their private welfare, but the common good, and the service of God and their king. In this I do not refer to the ​present auditors and governor, for I do not know what they have done of good or of bad in this despatch to China, but I speak of what is their custom and what is infallibly done by governors and auditors, unless they are people very much devoted to God's service. There are few if any persons that come who do not destroy this land, by sending much money to China. Of this there is no doubt, and every day more light is shed upon the subject. From this vessel sent to China is resulting the total destruction of the Portuguese town called Macan. Its sole support consists of the trade carried on there with the Chinese, exporting goods thence to Japon and elsewhere. By means of the friendly relations between the Portuguese and the Chinese, they succeed in buying the stuffs very cheaply, and by the little which is afterward gained in Japon and other places, these people are supported. Even should we go there, we have not that success in business, that concord among ourselves, or that patience and phlegm, and we seek greater profits. Necessarily, we must greatly increase the price of the goods more especially as the Chinese are very shrewd traders; and on seeing our ship there laden with money, and knowing that it could not return empty, they may raise the prices at their pleasure. As the profits of the Portuguese are not so great that they can afford to suffer this, they must therefore give up that trade, and abandon that town, which has no other means of support, thus leaving the Christian Chinese to return to their idolatries and mingle again with the heathen.
From this great and evident wrong, follow others even greater; for whatever of Christianity there is in Japon, and the beginning which your Majesty has ​there is supported solely by the traffic of the Portuguese of Macan with Japon. When Macan is lost, Japon is destroyed. The other parts of India which have traffic in Chinese goods, and in goods which are carried to España—such as porcelains, silks, and chests—must lose very materially. The royal income of your Majesty must be greatly diminished, because all the duties from Chinese merchandise are collected in India. Then in conveying them to Portogal and from thence to Castilla you must also lose, for all these affairs are moved by but one wheel, namely, Macan. Not the slightest doubt can be entertained of the destruction of Macan, if ships from the Philipinas go to that port or to any other of China, unless it be very far away from Macan. Even in the latter case, Macan must receive serious damage. It will also be necessary for the Portuguese to fit out ships and try to capture what vessel or vessels go there from the Philipinas. That there will be war between us is not doubtful, but certain.
If the Portuguese must receive these serious damages, greater injuries must be suffered by the Philipinas and the unfortunate Castilians who have settled them, sustained them with their blood, maintained in them the faith of Jesus Christ, and fulfilled their duty to your Majesty by means of the continual labors of themselves and their descendants. If this is continued, the governor, the auditors, and their followers will send their property to China, and have the ship brought back full of merchandise for themselves alone; and consequently will supply the cargoes for the ships which sail hence to Mexico. Thus the poor vassals of your Majesty, who have nothing whereby to support themselves or their poor children ​except in this traffic with Mexico, must be left like poor Indians, only because the devilish avarice of those persons sent by your Majesty to govern and care for this land leads them to take for themselves all the profits thereof. At present—with much honor to your Majesty's royal crown and to the Spanish nation—the Chinese come with their goods to the Philipinas, and each Spaniard may buy and export goods; although even of this traffic, it is said commonly that there is nothing to be expected except thunderbolts from heaven to punish what is done, if report be true. But at last shame must check these injustices sometime, and not permit them to be done so openly. But if vessels are sent from here to China, the Chinese merchants will not come here, nor will goods from China be brought here; and should such goods come, the governor and auditors will export their own goods, depriving of space those to whom all the exportation is granted, according to the just and holy will of your Majesty.
Even were it only for the sake of not seeing the Spanish nation so defamed as it must be in China, and hated and scorned in these regions even by the school-children, the governor and auditors should not be willing to enter into a traffic so costly to the honor and reputation of our nation. Here we have no large armies to sustain us, nothing but reputation alone, and if they treat us as avaricious persons, there will not be an Indian who will not be insolent to the Spaniards on account of this, and more in proportion as we are always blinded by avarice. What must be lost by the holy gospel and the Christian law is evident; for sailors and soldiers will go hence in the ship—an ungodly people, guilty of sins of the flesh as ​well as other offenses, who know naught except to commit offenses against those with whom they deal. Moreover, the heathen cannot receive a very good example from the wars and enmity which will exist between the Castilians and the Portuguese. The Chinese who come here to Manila have some poor examples; but they also receive very good lessons from the religious, and in the churches, the holy ceremonies of the church, and in the life of several very good Spaniards, and even of some Indians. But when the ship of the governor and auditors, or any others, is sent there, the Chinese can have but the examples of soldiers, sailors, and impious people.
God knows what the import and export duties and incomes of your Majesty would profit and gain by the bringing of goods from China and exporting them to Nueva España, because everything has to pass through the hands of avarice, and of ministers who can do as they please here.
I do not know what can have been the reason for sending this ship to China and beginning an enterprise so prejudicial. In a general clause, however, of an instruction to the governor, your Majesty ordains that the governor may send to Japon, Macan, or other pagan countries, also to ports of the heathen and of the Portuguese in order to ascertain if they would like trade with us. But China is not mentioned by name in said clause; and the law of justice is that what is not conceded in particular is not understood to be granted in a general statement. The point under discussion was not only not particularly conceded by your Majesty, but had been expressly prohibited by a special decree. Not only did your Majesty ordain that no ship whatever should go from ​other Spanish possessions to China, but it is even decreed that the Chinese merchants coming here shall not take back Spanish money to China; and that merchandise shall not be exported from China on account of the Spaniards, but on account of the Chinese themselves. Even in the same instruction, in the two clauses immediately preceding the one to which I refer, your Majesty commands a thing incompatible with the sending of a vessel to China, which has been undertaken this year. Your Majesty decrees that all the goods coming from China should be sold at the pancada and that nothing should be bought on private account until after the pancada. The aforesaid decree would be futile if license were then to be given to send money to China, and also ships, to buy there the stuffs and merchandise for the Spaniards. It may be that there are those who represent that this has been done for the sake of opening a door to the evangelization of China; but such persons do not have as a profession the preaching of the gospel. The evident truth is what I state.
The sole correction for these evils, and for all the misfortunes of this land, is for your Majesty to send—besides a holy and learned archbishop, zealous in honoring God, your Majesty, and the common welfare—a disinterested and God-fearing governor, such as Don Luis Perez Dasmariñas, and, according to my information, Don Pedro Brabo de Acuña, who has been governor for some years in Cartagena in the Indias. But I understand that, at the receipt of these letters and other things, your Majesty will have ordered Don Francisco Tello to return [to España] and another governor will be provided. May God have granted light to your Majesty, and continue to ​give you light always, in order that your Majesty may be guided aright in a government so far away from the royal eyes as this, where the governors have so many opportunities to cause the destruction of the poor vassals of your Majesty. Tulac, May 17, 1599.
Fray Miguel de Benavides, Bishop of Nueva Segovia.
Layout 2