Filipino Responses To Spanish Colonization and Evangelization

Filipino Responses to Spanish Colonization and Evangelization
The Initial Encounter Vol. 1
A History of Christianity in the Philippines
T. Valentino Sitoy, Jr.
New Day Publishers, Quezon City, Phil. 1985
Chapter 5
In previous chapters, some indication had been made of the nature of
the Filipinos' response to the Spanish conquest and the initial evangelization
efforts of the Augustinian friars. This present chapter will carry the narrative
of the first quarter century of the Spanish domination of the Philippines up to
about 1590. While this terminal date is arbitrary, in terms of the Filipinos'
responses to Spanish temporal objectives, this date may be considered
significant, for it marked the end of the troubles immediately connected with
the conspiracies of 15871588, a rather widespread resistance movement,
which though poorly coordinated and ultimately unsuccessful, did cause no
small tremor on the part of the Spaniards. In terms of evangelization, 1590
also seems to mark the end of one era, characterized by an initially slow and
then moderately paced advance in conversions, the next era being ushered in
by a new Spanish program to hasten and intensify the evangelization of the
islands.
VISAYAN RESPONSES (15651571): A RESUME
As will be recalled, after initial friendliness which lasted only a few
days, it was hostility and defiance which the people of eastern Visayas
accorded Legazpi's fleet, especially as the latter coasted southward from
Samar to the central Visayan islands. The Spaniards' subsequent discovery of
the cause of this unfriendly welcome provided Legazpi a scapegoat for his
1
subsequent troubles, and up to 1571 he would still be blaming the Portuguese
for leaving the Spaniards "so badly accredited" with the local peoples,
apparently unable to appreciate the fact that the Visayans could have
justified reasons of their own for abhorring the Spaniards' presence.
The Cebuanos, with whom the Spaniards would have the most contact
during the first five years, likewise met the Spaniards with hostility and
defiance, and as late as 1574 the conquistadors would still hark to the fact
that the Cebuanos themselves had initiated the battle which led to the
destruction of Sugbu, forgetting that it was their sudden appearance and
their demands which had provoked such reaction from the local people. As
would be recalled, even after the Spaniards' capture of Sugbu, the Cebuanos
continued to engage them in guerrillatype action at Mandawe and what is
now Compostela, and then in the nightly raids on the Spanish camp. The
murder of Arana, which brought down heavy Spanish reprisals, was part of
this continuing defiance, aggravated by Spanish forages in the countryside
and the desecration and robbery of local burial grounds. It was not until the
capture of important hostages and Legazpi's skillful use of these as pawns in
the ensuing negotiations that Rajah Tupas and his chiefs were forced to
submit. Thus, despite subsequent Spanish claims, the submission of the
Cebuanos was neither voluntary nor the fruit of Legazpi's diplomacy, but was
rather the result of duress and distress. Legazpi did employ his diplomatic
skills, but only aftewardsin outmaneuvering the local chiefs in the
subsequent negotiations, so that not only were they inveigled to agree to an
unequal treaty but also to hand over their own settlement.
From this time onwards, two distinct Filipino responses may be
discerned the first was from those who would not surrender on any account to
the Spaniards, and the second, from those who were forced to submit and live
"in peace" with the latter.
DEFIANCE AND DECAMPMENT
The Cebuanos who had not submitted to Legazpi, or those who, after
submission had promptly renounced it, generally took the course of
2
decampment, withdrawal, and avoidance, and at times, but only when it
could not be helped, armed resistance. Thus, the people of Mactan fled to
Leyte rather than be forced to submit to Legazpi, and Spanish accounts
indicate that others took similar flight to other islands. The people who
remained on the island of Cebu either took to the mountains and secluded
valleys, or else congregated themselves in those settlements farthest from
Spanishoccupied Sugbu. As a Spanish account of 1582 would indicate,
Sugbu, which previously had probably up to 4,000 inhabitants, could boast of
no more than 800, and was not much larger than two or three of the bigger
settlements elsewhere on the island at that time,l when the Spaniards could
account for only a total of 3,500 people on the entire island.
When contact with the Spaniards was unavoidable, the Visayans

resorted to various strategems, such as profession of friendship or pretense of
having earlier submitted to Legazpi, as did the people of Cabalian and
Calabazan; an outward show of submission, as did Datu Siumbas of western
Negros, when cessation of further Spanish entradas was sought; ambush of
Spanish expeditions whenever a favorable opportunity arose, as did take
place in eastern Negros where one soldier was lost, or in southern Leyte
where another seven were slain; and in general, a systematic endeavor to
deprive the Spaniards of food resources. As would be recalled, this policy of
avoidance by the Visayans was such that the Spaniards would discover in
1570 that in many places, less than a sixth of the population earlier reported
to be in existence were actually there by that time.
SUBMISSION AND SUBTERFUGE
On the other hand, the response of those Visayans who were forced to
submit and live in peace, or at least, without open hostility, visavis the
Spaniards, presents an interesting case of coping through wits and wiles.
Although Spanish documents generally speak of such people as docile,
submissive, and friendly, a closer look into the more detailed accounts
actually show them to have taken the course of oblique resistance to Spanish
domination, their leaders sometimes proving to be skillful diplomatic artists,
3
blending submission and subterfuge, duplicity and dissimulation, in their

dealings with the Spaniards.
The best examples of these were perhaps Rajah Tupas himself and his
brother, Datu Simaquio. Unable to do anything about their earlier
submission to Legazpi, they sought to gain as much as they could, while
giving as little as possible in return, in their interactions with the Spaniards.
One would recall, for example, Tupas' false alibis and lame excuses in being
unable to bring the Mactan islanders to submission to Legazpiand this after
he had advised them to flee forthwith across the sea to Leyte! Or one can take
Simaquio's knavish transactions with the Spaniards. As a guide, he was
hopelessly unhelpful, and as a "friend," frustratingly vexatious. He could be
distressingly literal in his contractual dealings, when it suited his purpose, as
when he took Goyti's punitive expedition to Leyte and promptly left them
after arrival, on the ground that he had already accomplished his part of the
bargain to guide them across the sea. Or he could be tricky and mendacious,
as when he took a foodhunting party to eastern Negros, and on the pretext of
preparing the people to welcome the Spaniards, convinced the latter of
allowing him to go ashore aheadwhereupon he apparently tipped off the local
inhabitants who forthwith headed for the hills. But perhaps Simaquio's
greatest exploit in calculated deception, the subsequent telling and retelling
of which may have given the Cebuanos a whole bellyful of laughter, was in
the way he duped Legazpi of one cannon and gold for nine loads of rice by
unlikely alibis and plain lies, as told in an earlier chapter.
These artifices and chicaneries, of course, made the Cebuanos look

inveterately perfidious in Spanish eyes. But their actions, although not
excusable, are understandable in a people forced to put up with unwelcome
guests, whom they could not dislodge by force or by persuasion.
If the subjugated Sugbu people appeared to be docile vassals of King
Philip II, it was perhaps mainly because they did not have the means to raise
a viable armed opposition against the Spaniards. Thus, their resentment took
form in other ways. As would be recalled, for example, they did not have any
4
foodstuffs to share or sell to the Spaniards during the lean months at the end
of 1565.
But they suddenly seemed to have pigs, chickens, and rice to spare

when Muslim traders came from Manila to purchase these items of
merchandise, which the latter promptly sold to the Spaniards at much
inflated prices.
With the wider extension and increasing harshness of Spanish

entradas, especially, as it would seem, toward the closing years of the 1560s,
it is difficult to imagine the people of Central Visayas as having any but
heightened animosity towards the Spaniards.
This was apparently the reason – apart from the Augustinians'

admission that they had hesitated to baptize more people on account of the
uncertainties regarding King Philip II's future plans for the Philippines –
why so few Cebuanos were baptized during the period 15651570.
MOTIVES OF THE EARLY CONVERTS
Any study of the early conversions to Christianity among the Filipinos
would have to deal with those factors which, while they were still heathen,
convinced them that it was desirable to accept the Christian faith as it was
taught to them. Hence, the motivations for conversion and baptism at that
time can perhaps be best understood only from the standpoint of the
Filipinos' preChristian beliefs and outlook. The further task of the
missionaries was to get the new Christians to understand through religious
instruction what old Christians would consider to be the "proper" and
"genuine" motivations for accepting baptism.
What drew the earliest Filipino converts in the 1560s to accept

Christianity? Were the motivations connected with spiritual conversion, or
otherwise? A closer look at the pertinent circumstances is instructive and
revealing.
5
The very first convert of the Augustinians, the young woman

subsequently named Isabel, had reportedly asked for baptism upon arrival at
the Spanish camp, and after Legazpi had given her European clothes and had
spoken to her something about the Christian faith. Her response, although
desired, seemed too soon that the father prior, Fray Diego de Herrera,
"deferred it for some days, to instruct her on what it meant to be a Christian,
and what she had to believe and keep after she would be baptized." 2 Only
upon seeing her perseverance did Herrera baptize her and the two children
with her. It seems clear from this account that Isabel, for some peculiar
reason, had asked for baptism before she understood what it meant.
As to the other young women who subsequently came, wanting to be
made Christians, soon after Isabel's baptism and marriage to the Greek
caulker Andreas, it was apparent, as the Spanish account in fact puts it, that
they did so simply "in imitation of her" (a imitacion suya).3 Thus, the friars
did the wise thing in merely giving them some instruction in doctrine and in
the basic prayers, but refusing them baptism. As will be recalled, the only
other individuals baptized in 1565 were some seven or eight children of
native women serving in the Spanish camp, and this at the point of death. If
these baptismal figures typified the ratio of children to adults among the 100
or so baptized between 1565 and 1570, it would seem that the number of
adult conversions at that time cannot have been more than a few score, if not
a few dozen, at the most. As will later be seen, more or less the same ratio of
children to adults among those baptized continued to obtain by 1577, a dozen
years later.
In the absence of any other perceptible motive, the only ones that can
be attributed to Isabel's request for baptism, were gratitude for what Legazpi
had given her, and perhaps also the impression that being a Christian was
part and parcel of belonging to the Spanish camp. Since her uncle, Rajah
Tupas, had given her to serve Legazpi, she now belonged to the Spanish
community.
Something not too different may have been the understanding of
Christian baptism by Tupas, his son, and the other chiefs baptized in 1568,
6
although in this instance, it may have been more of a case of political

identification with the Spaniards. Their initial refusal to be baptizeduntil
they were assured that Spaniards would not go away and leave them to face
the consequencessuggests that they saw baptism as a further rite to confirm
their alliance with the Spaniards. Magellan had connected baptism with
attendant political blessings that would accrue to Rajah Humabon, if the
latter would become a Christian. The same impression may well have been
received by Rajah Tupas and his chiefs. In the Moluccas, the Portuguese had
attached Christian conversion to political alliance and commercial
partnership, so that it came to be believed by the various local islanders that
if one wished to have trade relations with the Portuguese, they could initiate
this intercourse by asking for Christian missionaries.4 Could the same
impression not have been conveyed by the Spaniards in the Philippines?
As it eventually turned out, Tupas and his son, and some other chiefs,
were baptized by Herrera on March 21, 1568, although the Spaniards had not
answered their earlier objection, for Spanish women, whose presence would
indicate the Europeans' intention to stay, would not arrive until 1570.
Perhaps the Cebu chiefs had acquired a more spiritual understanding of
baptism, unless they were convinced, in other ways, of the Spaniards'
intention to stay. Of the real motives and reasons, one can only hazard a
guess, though one would also hope that these were related to genuine
religious conversion.
Of the early converts at Cebu, perhaps the one who came closest to
having the proper motivation and understanding was the Bornean
interpreter Camotuan. As the Spaniards' local interpreter, he would have
been the best person to understand more correctly the meaning of Christian
conversion. His previous Islamic understanding, however little or however
much, would have helped him to appreciate better the monotheism of
Christianity, while any residual beliefs of preIslamic Bornean animism on
his part, with its concepts of the various intermediate divinities and spirits,
would have made appealing the Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary and
the saints. Without unnecessarily detracting from the real successes of the
7
Augustinian friars, considerations such as the above cannot be entirely

dismissed, in seeking to understand the early conversions among the
Filipinos.
There is one other element, however, at once significant and decisive,
and it is that the Filipinos seem to have been genuinely impressed with the
truly religious character of the Spaniards' faith. ' As would be recalled, many
heathen Cebuanos daily knelt and crossed themselves, in imitation of their
newly baptized neighbors, before the large wooden cross erected in front of
the Augustinians' church at Cebu.5 This, at least, is evidence that, although
uninstructed or only partially instructed in the Christian faith, they did
recognize the cross and the ceremonial gestures done before it as powerful
religious symbols, perhaps in warding off evil or in seeking protection against
its malevolent effects. There is thus the further suggestion that the heathen
Cebuanosand perhaps even the baptized converts, at least in the earliest
stages immediately following their baptismmay have appropriated Christian
symbols and usages for their own still heathen understanding and purposes,
in the manner of what modern Catholic anthropologists have termed
"Christopaganism."6 The fact that during a fire in 1566, the blaze had
stopped short of that cross, was seen as proof of the invincibility of the
Christians' God.7
BAPTISMS OUTSIDE CEBU, 15701571
As shown in the previous chapter, the disruptions and desolation on
Panay, much more chaotic and intense than the troubles earlier experienced
by the people of Cebu, could not have been conducive to winning any local
inhabitant to the Christian faith. As noted in that chapter, hardly any local
inhabitant, if ever, had been baptized on Panay during Legazpi's sojourn
there of nearly two years.
The only other baptisms outside Cebu during this period were those of
a few chiefs in the Bicol peninsula, administered by Fray Alonso de Jimenez
about 1571 in the five small villages which later formed the town of Nabua.
The rather precipitate fashion in which these baptisms were made suggests
8
the absence of any real Christian conversion. It is said that when Captain
Andres de Ybarra's expedition came to the village of Lupa, which was headed
by a petty chieftain of Bornean ancestry named Datu Panga, Jimenez had
raised up a makeshift altar and said mass, apparently with some local people
watching the proceedings. At the next village, also under the rule of the same
Panga, Jimenez erected a small shed of nipa and bamboo, where he put up a
cross, for which reason the place subsequently came to be known as
"Antacodos" (a local corruption of the Spanish Santa Cruz, that is, "Holy
Cross"). At this village, Jimenez remained for a few days to evangelize and
"baptize a few" inhabitants. Ybarra's party next came to another village
called Caobnan, ruled by another petty chief named Datu Bonayog. But
without tarrying, the Spaniards moved on to the village of Bua, or Nabua,
ruled by a chief named Datu Tongdo. Here the Spaniards gathered together
the inhabitants of two other nearby villages, namely, Binoyoan, ruled by one
Datu Magpaano, and Sabang, headed by one Datu Caayao. Just before
Ybarra's men moved further on, Jimenez baptized a few inhabitants and
convinced the three chiefs to put up a rr.akeshift church.8
How did the first Bicol Christians understand their baptism? The
available information is so scanty that one cannot make a definite judgment
on the matter. In any case, it is difficult to say that those baptized in the
course of a Spanish reconnaissance trip in the district could have understood,
to any imaginably satisfactory degree, the meaning of Christian baptism.
What did they understand of Jimenez's preaching? Did he know enough of
the Bicol tongue at this time for him to sufficiently communicate the most
basic doctrines of the Christian faith, or did he have to use interpreters? If so,
was the substance preserved in the process?
However these questions are to be answered, it seems fair to say that
the Bicol "converts" responded to the friar's preaching in terms of their own
traditional understanding of religion, and not necessarily in Christian terms
as the Spaniards would have supposed.
9
AUGUSTINIAN MISSIONS IN THE MANILA BAY AREA
The first Augustinian mission among the Tagalogs was naturally in
Manila. One of Legazpi's first acts after occupying the site of Rajah Soliman's
former settlement was to grant the friars a parcel of land for their convent
and church, both dedicated to San Agustin on completion. The Augustinian
property, which at that time was outside the Spanish town, was inland
toward the east, at the same place where there stands today the
Augustinian's mother convent and church. Since Herrera was then the father
provincial, it was the aged Alba who was named the first prior of the Manila
convent. By this time, there were six Augustinians in the Philippines, as two
more, Fray Diego de Ordoñez de Vivar and Fray Diego de Espinar, had
arrived in 1570,9 to join Herrera, Rada, Alba, and Jimenez.
With the arrival of five more friars on May 31, 1571, 10 and two more a
few months later, the Augustinians were able to expand mission work with
greater ease. Immediately, a second convent was established at Tondo, with
Fray Agustin de Alburquerque, one of the recent arrivals, as the first prior.
In the next few months, two more Augustinians arrived, while some four or
five novices among the local Spaniards were also admitted to the Manila
convent about this time. Thus, despite Herrera's departure (to present in
person before King Philip II the friars' complaint about the conquistadors'
unjust treatment of the Filipinos), Legazpi could report in August, 1572 that
there were twelve Augustinian priests in the colony.11
By 1572 the Augustinians had five established convents and centers of
mission, namely, Cebu, Oton (in Panay), Baco (in northern Mindoro), Manila,
and Tondo. Two years later, new Augustinian houses had been established at
Bai (Vahi) in the lake area (Laguna), and at Bombon in Batangas, although
the friars in these two places were not able at once to begin the task of
evangelization. By 1575 two more Augustinian convents were established, at
Pasig, further up the river from Manila, and at Lubao in Pampanga. Thus, a
decade after Legazpi's arrival, the Augustinians had nine centers of mission
in the Philippines.
10
MISSION TO THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE IN MANILA
It is interesting to note that the first baptisms performed by the

Augustinians in Manila were not of Filipinos but of Chinese and Japanese.
When Goyti first came to Manila in 1570, he discovered some forty married
Chinese traders and twenty Japanese. The presence of Chinese women
surprised the Spaniards, but as they subsequently found out, when the
Chinese traders fled their country, apparently in consequence of the Manchu
invasion, they "brought their wives along with them." 12
The discovery of this SinoJapanese merchant community caught the
special attention of the Spaniards, and soon led to the establishment of a
"Chinese mission." As would be recalled, the first Spanish contact with
Chinese traders was in 1569, when the former rescued two such traders from
Bornean pirates. From one of these, named Zanco, who lived for nearly half a
year in Fray Martin de Rada's house in Cebu, it was learned that most of the
Chinese traders in the Philippines came from the port of "Chianciu" (Chuang
chou?) and the province of "Hocchin" (Hookien, or Fukien).13
During Legazpi's brief stopover of a fortnight at Mindoro while en

route to Manila, he had ransomed from slavery some thirty Chinese traders,
who were among the crew and passengers of two junks shipwrecked near
Bombon (Batangas Bay) the previous year. The hapless men had been taken
captive by the local Tagalogs and sold into slavery in the various settlements
within the immediate region. Legazpi's act of kindness in giving them not
only their freedom but also a boat to take them home to China, 14 was
apparently in atonement for his grandson Salcedo's unprovoked attack on the
two Chinese junks at Baco in 1570.
What was even more surprising for the Spaniards was the discovery
that two of the Japanese were "baptized Christians" (cristianos bautizados)15
both baptized in Japan by a Jesuit missionary.16 One was named Anton, and
the other, Pablo; the latter had reportedly manned one of the native cannons
during the battle of Manila in 1570.17 This incidentally raises the question
whether Soliman's artillery men learned gunnery skills not only from the
11
Borneans, but also from the Japanese! In any case, what is certain is that the
Spaniards had accidentally come in contact with two Kirishitans (Japanese
for "Christian," from the Portuguese "Christao" or "Christan"). Though Pablo
"adored an image, and asked for some beads,"18 when Goyti first met him in
1570, it appeared to Legazpi that neither knew anything of the Christian
faith except to make the sign of the cross. It was observed, however, that they
immediately fell on their knees upon being shown a cross or an image of the
Virgin Mary. Since neither had been confirmed, Anton and Pablo were
promptly given Christian instruction – through the medium of what language
is not certain and subsequently confirmed in their faith.
With this as an initial point of contact with the SinoJapanese

community (the Chinese, their wives, and their children alone numbered
about 150),19 the Augustinians evangelized the rest, so that by the middle of
1572, more than forty Chinese had been baptized. One Spanish account says
that "being more reasonable," they had easily "recognized the truth of divine
law" and began to "live as Christians," in contrast to the native Tagalogs who,
"being Muslims," proved more difficult to convert to the Christian faith.20
Thus, the first significant number of conversions in Manila – reminiscent of
Camotuan's conversion in Cebu – came from a foreign merchant community
rather than from the local people.
Before long, however, a handful of Tagalogs received baptism, and it is
instructive to examine the circumstances under which these conversions took
place.
TAGALOG RESPONSES TO EVANGELIZATION
The very first Tagalog convert was the Muslim trader Mahomat, a
native of Manila, whose friendship with Legazpi's men dated back to the end
of 1565 when he supplied the starving Spaniards with muchneeded
provisions, though at exorbitant prices. Perhaps the converted Bornean
interpreter Camotuan himself was instrumental in Mahomat's conversion,
12
for in speaking of the latter, an anonymous Spanish account dated May 8,
1570 says that "when the camp was in Zebu, this Moro, and his wife and son,
had become Christians," and that he "has had intercourse with the Spaniards
for many years and is well known among them."21 He and his family,
however, were baptized only in 1570, in Panay. In fact, it was he who served
as interpreter for Goyti in 1570, and Legazpi, in 1571, when they came to
Manila. In the account of the peace treaty between Legazpi and the Manila
chiefs, he is referred to as "Juan Mahomat" and described as a "native
Christian interpreter" (yndio cristiano interprete).22
CONVERSION OF THE RAJAH MATANDA OF MANILA
After Juan Mahomat, the next Tagalog to be baptized – in whose

conversion the former almost certainly had had a hand – was Laya, the Rajah
Matanda of Manila. In Legazpi's very last letter before his death, dated
August 11, 1572, he said: "The Old Rajah, who was one of the three chiefs of
this city, and the better and more welldisposed of them all, fell ill, and thus
sick, he asked for baptism, was baptized, and then died."23 This event may
have taken place late in 1571 or early in 1572; for the anonymous "Relacion"
of the conquest of Luzon, dated April 20, 1572, speaks of Laya as already
dead – “he died a Christian” (murio cristianamente).24
The author of this "Relacion," who evinced a markedly sympathetic

attitude towards the Augustinian friars,25 also added that the local
inhabitants of Luzon
are people who easily are converted to our faith, and in the short time that
those friars have been on this island, they have reaped much fruit, in that
they have baptized many people, men and women and children, who have all
been baptized and no chief nor commoner of this land contradicts our faith,
but rather ... says that it is very holy and very good. 26
It is the cautious judgment, and perhaps the more accurate one, of an
accomplished modern Augustinian historian, however, that
13
the work of conversion by the missionaries was perhaps not as simple as the
author of the "Relacion" and other contemporary documents would have us
believe. Aside from the difficulty of language, the missionary would have to
penetrate into the mind of the native, it not being an easy thing to dispossess
him of his (old) beliefs, surely deeply rooted in his soul, in order to substitute
for these the truths of Christianity.27
Indeed, not all his contemporaries agreed with the author of the
"Relacion." One of Legazpi's captains, Juan Pacheco Maldonado, who, unlike
the general run of the Spanish soldiery at that time, was especially
distinguished for his singular saintliness,28 wrote in May, 1572 that the
people of the Manila Bay area, being morns (Muslims), had up to that time
largely frustrated the friars' evangelistic efforts "on account of their
resistance" (por su rresistencia).29 Three months later, Fray Martin de Rada
himself would write that, because the Tagalogs were an indomitable people
who had never known how to obey nor to be subject to anyone, they therefore
"come in very few at a time" (entrales muy poco a poco), although "some" had
been converted, and God has done and daily makes miracles through holy
baptism, in that the hopelessly sick have recovered upon being baptized."30
INITIALLY SLOW PACE OF CONVERSIONS
By the middle of 1572, three sons of Lakandula had been baptized.

Two of these are known by their Christian names – Dionisio Capulo
(Capulong) and Felipe Salonga. One prince named Magat Salamat is also
known to be Lakandula's son,31 though, because he did not carry a Christian
name till the Spaniards had him executed in 1588, it is not clear whether he
was one of the three baptized princes, or a fourth son who had refused to
accept Christianity. All these nobles were to figure prominently in the "Tondo
Conspiracy" of 15871588.
While not discounting the possibility that these conversions could have
been sincere, or that a truer understanding of baptism may have soon been
14
gained, the fact that Lakandula himself would not be baptized until
apparently much later (being then named "Don Carlos")32 raises the question
as to whether these were not simply, or at least initially, "political baptisms."
Did Lakandula and his sons in 1572 understand Christian baptism in the
same way as Humabon in 1521 and Tupas in 1568 had understood their
acceptance of it? In any case, by giving his sons over to be baptized,
Lakandula may have succeeded in deferring his own submission to the
Christian faith for some time, a step which probably was at that time thought
quite acceptable for his sons to take, though not for himself. Events in 1574,
as will soon be seen, would tend to show that many conversions in Tondo,
especially among the chiefs, were not as profound as they would appear.
The more patently religious conversions were those of a few others

referred to by Fray Martin de Rada in his letter of August 10, 1572, where he
mentions eight Tagalog converts by their Christian names – a boy named
Diego, two old people (probably husband and wife) named Andres and Maria,
a woman named Ines, one Anton, one Nicolas, and two Pedros.33 In one
specific case, which seems to have particularly struck Rada and was one of
those "miracles" he had mentioned, the person was very ill and "more dead
than alive," so that his relatives had begun "to mourn for him and had
finished his coffin." But when an Augustinian came to administer a deathbed
baptism, the person promptly recovered.34 Rada then alluded to "many other
persons," who, though not responding as dramatically as the moribund
convert above, were apparently cured of their various illnesses upon baptism.
In later years, the popular belief that Christian baptism had miraculous
healing powers would stand out as the one single factor that drew most
Filipinos to baptism.35 Aside from the account of Rajah Humabon's nephew in
1521,36 this is the first clear reference to Filipinos responding to Christian
baptism as a healing ceremony, reminiscent of the sacrifices for the sick in
preSpanish times, and a factor which will increasingly assume paramount
importance in the subsequent mass conversions of the Filipinos.
In 1572, however, there did not seem to be more than a few dozen
converts in Manila, at the most. Because of his previous statement that
15
conversions and baptisms among the Islamic Tagalogs came in trickles and
driblets, Rada's phrase, "many other persons" (otras muchas personas), is
probably in relation to the one dramatic case of healing rather than a
description of the general response of the people. Indeed, the general tone of
Rada's letter does not encourage the impression that conversions among the
Tagalogs at that time were more than a few handfuls, and his mention of the
converts by their Christian names suggests that he could account for all of
them easily in that manner.
Rada gave as the most important reason for the paucity of desired
results the "great lack of ministers and interpreters," although the very poor
witness given by the lay Spaniards themselves to their Christian faith was
not much less a restraining force in evangelization. Indeed, the Spaniards'
actuations were seen to be "very contrary" to the word preached to the
natives, so that it was "in those places where the Spaniards appear least
frequently that the word of God makes the greatest impression." Rada
lamented, however, that the friars could not sojourn at length and evangelize
the people in these more receptive places, because they [the friars] had no
means of either supporting themselves or building their own houses.37
These receptive places of which Rada spoke were apparently not the
more remote territories where the people would have been inevitably hostile
to the Spaniards, but those areas already subjugated but only occasionally
visited by the latter, and where the inhabitants, moreover, might have had
the opportunity to observe and distinguish between the friars' work and that
of the soldiers.
For the Filipinos to make this important distinction was a major step
in the evangelization of the islands, but in the early 1570s, this was
apparently but dimly perceived. The historical evidence rather seems to point
to the fact that the more prevalent response of the Tagalogs at this time was
resistance rather than attraction to the Christian faith. There is also
evidence suggesting that this resistance continued to be both political and
religious, fueled by agitation coming from Brunei.
16
EFFECTS OF ANNUAL RUMORS OF BORNEAN INVASION
As would be recalled, as early as 1571, while Legazpi was still en route
to Manila, rumors of Bornean intervention were peddled around as a
counterweight to the Spanish intrusion. In 1573 news was heard from some
Muslim merchants newly arrived from Borneo that the previous year, the
sultan of Brunei had mustered a large fleet to attack the Spaniards. This
force had reportedly actually embarked, but had to return only due to heavy
storms at sea. Fresh rumors also reached Manila in 1573 that the sultan was
once again preparing for a new invasion, and that some of his Portuguese
allies would be joining this expedition.38 Another report had it that leading
the invasion were two of the sultan's own sons,39 a piece of news that later
would lead to tragic consequences. If the dreaded attack did not materialize,
it was because some datus in Maguindanao, who seemed more interested for
the moment in what they could obtain from the Spaniards (namely, trade and
probably also modern war technology), had counseled the sultan against such
a venture.40 Nevertheless, this rumor so alarmed the Spaniards that
Governor Lavezares took the unprecedented measure of recalling the troops
that had gone on pacification campaigns in the provinces, particularly in the
Bicol peninsula and the Ilocos coast. He also sent a spy mission to Borneo,
guided by a Tagalog pilot, to find out what the sultan really had in mind.
This party came within eight leagues of Brunei and took captive six local
traders, who informed them to their relief that there was serious doubt about
the sultan being able to launch an attack on Manila that year.41
The following year (1574), however, new rumors were once again heard
that the Borneans had forged an antiSpanish pact in concert with four other
Muslim nations, and were reportedly sending to Manila an invasion force of
300 war vessels. In March of that year, Lavezares sent a Tagalog as Spanish
envoy to Borneo, with letters offering safe conduct for any Borneans who
might come to trade with Manila.42 But this Spanish effort came to naught,
for as it would appear from the circumstances, the sultan of Brunei, despite
whatever outward posture he might have taken, still recognized the authority
of the former native rulers of Manila, who were his vassals, and regarded the
17
Spaniards as intruders and usurpers.
These constant rumors of Bornean invasion kept Tagalog hopes

burning that sooner or later, the men of Brunei would come to help them
throw off the Spaniards. Under these circumstances also, the evangelistic
efforts of the friars could not gain more than little, hesitant response from the
Filipinos.
ADVANCE DESPITE DIFFICULTIES
Due to lack of assistance from the encomenderos and the adverse

effects of the Spaniards' abuses, some friars soon became discouraged and as
early as 1572 had expressed the desire to return to Mexico. In his letter of
August 11 of that year, Legazpi said that he believed that a number of
Augustinians "would be happy to go home" (holgaran de bolverse).43 Rada
himself in June, 1574 would also say that "some of the friars wish to return to
New Spain, and that he had only scarcely prevailed on them to stay, in the
hope that the next ship of the annual voyage from Mexico would bring the
necessary decrees from King Philip II or the Viceroy that would remedy the
situation."44
Thus, despite various difficulties, the Augustinians labored on, so that
by June, 1573 Governor Lavezares would write King Philip II that “everyday
these natives are being baptized and receive our faith.”45 He then asked the
king to send more Augustinians and Franciscans, though later, after the
conflict between him and the former came into the open, he would specifically
ask for Jesuits in their stead.
The Augustinians, however, were not as sanguine as Lavezares

regarding the Filipinos' response. In a memorial addressed to King Philip II
or his Royal Council of the Indies, dated about 1573, they affirmed that
because of the abuses of the Spaniards, “very few” (muy pocos) Filipinos had
been baptized, “except in Cebu” (fuera de çubu).46 Not until 1574 would Fray
Martin de Rada write to the viceroy that, although the friars are few, "the
faith marches on, and the natives come into it everyday; there are already
18
many Christians (muchos cristianos) here in Manila, in Tondo, in Lubao, in

Mindoro, in Oton, and in Cebu."47 By that year also, Augustinian monasteries
had been established at Bai (Vahi) in Laguna, Bombon in Batangas,
Calumpit in Bulacan, and Binalbagan on the island of Negros,48 though none,
or very few, converts had yet been gathered in these new places.
CONDITIONS IN THE VISAYAS
As previously noted, most of the conversions at this time in all the

archipelago were still largely confined to the island of Cebu. As a result of a
fresh burst of missionary activity, nearly all the inhabitants of that Island
were soon baptized. Thus, the treasurer Andres de Mirandaola would
enthusiastically report in 1574 that within a few months, the people of the
entire island had been baptized, except for two chiefs, the same wily Datu
Simaquio and Datu Batungay, and their retainers. Their refusal was
attributed to these chiefs' unwillingness to divorce all their other wives, of
whom Simaquio had two, and Batungay, three.49
Not everything was well, however, as Mirandaola would here suggest.
There is evidence to show that some Cebuanos not only resisted conversion,
but even turned hostile to those who had accepted baptism. Thus, one
Mamicoan, a leading man of the village of Jaro (laterday Carcar), and
himself a Christian, complained to the Spanish alcaldemayor of Cebu, Don
Pedro de Luna, that when he was away, his neighbor had burned his house
down, and with it his aged father and mother. The reason was simply
because Mamicoan had become a Christian and had been married by a
Christian priest in the town of Cebu.50
Elsewhere in the Visayas, there was also hardly any peace. It was
reported in 1572 that except for the islands of Cebu and Negros, all the other
places, especially Leyte and Samar, continued to resist Spanish rule,
although many river districts therein had already been partitioned into
encomiendas.51 In Bohol, the local people murdered their encomendero, one
19
Bexarano, because of the latter's excessive exactions. In reprisal, the

Spaniards, finding the village where Bexarano was killed completely
abandoned, passed on to another village (Baye, or Vahic) further up the
mountains, and summarily beheaded seven local inhabitants, simply because
they had confessed to having known of the plot to kill the unjust
encomendero.52 In Marinduque also, the local people killed their
encomendero Pedro de Mena and three other Spaniards when they came to
collect the tribute sometime in 1572 or 1573, for which cause Governor
Lavezares sent Captain Luis de la Haya to desolate the islands of
Marinduque and Banton. For some reason, a similar destruction was also
visited upon the village of Guimbal on Panay by another punitive
expedition.53
As the Augustinians had time and again lamented, Spanish rule had
not established peace and order in the Visayas. As illustration, they cited the
case of a Jalaur village chief named Dahmil, who had gone to Ajuy, and while
he was feasting with the local inhabitants, was treacherously set upon by the
latter. Fortunately for this Dahmil, he managed to escape, though badly
wounded by lance thrusts. About the same time, the chief of "Tanae" (Tanjay)
on eastern Negros had gone to hog on the opposite coast. But the people of
Ilog, though supposedly on friendly terms with those of Tanjay, massacred
the chief and his retainers.54 Yet all these were allowed by the Spanish
secular authorities to go unpunished.
It was also reported in 1573 that a pirate named Carabis ravaged

annually the islands of Samar and Masbate, while the Tausogs of Sulu also
raided continually the coasts of the entire Visayas and the Camarines.
Mention was also especially made of corsair raids on Ilog and Binalbagan in
southwestern Negros, without the Spaniards being able to restore order or
redress the local people's grievances.55 As late as 1577, Fray Martin de Rada
would also write that pirate raids were especially frequent during the months
of October and November, and then from February to April, with the corsairs
sweeping the coasts with impunity.56 To substantiate the friars' charge that
the Spaniards themselves had only compounded the people's misery with
20
their abuses, mention was made in 1573 of the case of a native woman slain
by a Spaniard named Luis Perez; and the other case of another woman of
high status who was "imprisoned" by another Spaniard named Godinez, as
well as that of a man, perhaps a relative of the woman, who was also slain by
the same Godinez.57 Although it is not stated exactly where these specific
cases of injustice took place, it seems from the context that these occurred
either in Panay or in Albay.
With this disorderly situation, it is no wonder that the friars could not
extend their evangelistic work very far from their doctrinas or mission
stations established within the shadow of the Spanish garrisons. Thus, the
Augustinians of Cebu confined their efforts largely to that island, and those
in Oton, not much farther beyond the immediate vicinity of that town. While
some missionary beginnings had been attempted in Binalbagan and Ilog in
1572, it was not until 1576 that work in these well populated districts of
southwestern Negros could be carried on more or less permanently.
DISTURBANCES DURING THE LIMAHONG INVASION, 1574
Although there was disorder and lawlessness in the Visayas, the

unrest in those islands, however, was not as potentially dangerous to the
Spaniards as that in southern Luzon. This was mainly because, due to the
insular character of the Visayans, they did not seem to have as cohesive and
extensive political organization as did the Tagalogs and their immediate
neighbors. The explosive situation around Manila Bay threatened to flare up
into a general revolt during the sudden attack on Manila by the Chinese
corsair "Limahong" (Lin Feng) at the end of November, 1574. The pirate came
with a fleet of more than seventy vessels of 150 to 200 tons each, and a force
of 4,000 soldiers and sailors, accompanied by their women who numbered
1,500.58
The Filipinos could not miss the significance of the fact that during
Limahong's initial probe of Manila's defenses, the first Spaniard to fall was
none other than the masterofcamp (or commanderinchief) Martin de
Goyti.59
21
The situation was aggravated by the murder of two "very highranking
youths" (mozos muy principales), whom one rumor gave to understand were
Bornean princes, but whom Lavezares at one point also identified as "two
chiefs of this bay" (dos principales desta uaya), obviously referring to Manila
Bay. Although the position of one of them, named Lumanatlan, cannot be
ascertained, the other was obviously very highranking, for the Spaniards
referred to him by the title raxa el uago. This was almost certainly a Spanish
rendition of the Tagalog Rajah Bago, meaning "The New (or Young) Rajah,"
itself the exact equivalent of the Malay Rajah Muda.
As Lavezares' report would put it, he had ordered the youths arrested,
for Lumanatlan had taken some gold "to another chief" (a otro principal),
probably a vague reference to some conspiracy; while the raxa el uago was
seized, because he and Lumanatlan were "thought to be Borneans." While in
prison, "they said they knew the coming of the Borneans," and for this reason
were executed by an overzealous prison official.60 Thus reads the terse report
of Governor Lavezares.
His successor, Governor Francisco de Sande, however, gave a slightly
different, though perhaps complementary, version of this episode. The
Tagalogs had apparently withheld food supplies from the Spaniards at the
coming of Limahong. The two princes, reported Sande, were held as hostages,
so that the people might be forced to give the needed provisions. But when
the Tagalogs revolted, a Spanish lieutenant named Sancho Ortiz de Agurto,
took matters into his own hands, and had the youthful chiefs and their
retainers slain in prison.61
Who was this Rajah Muda? Was he the son (or nephew) of Rajah
Soliman, who had gone to Borneo after the Spaniards took Manila, but was
now back on a delicate mission connected with a TagalogBornean plot? It is
known from other sources that Soliman, according to custom, had married a
Bornean princess. Or, was the youth in question not, in fact, the Rajah Muda
of Brunei, son of the reigning sultan? As would be recalled, the rumors
circulating in 1573 would have two sons of the sultan of Brunei leading a 300
vessel expedition against the Spaniards in Manila. Were the Rajah Muda and
22
Lumanatlan, in fact, these youths? In any case, there seems little doubt that
the two were close kinsmen of Soliman and Lakandula, and their murder in
prison might have aggravated the Tagalog revolt, the seriousness of which
may not have been given sufficient justice by the sparse reports of the
disturbances during the Limahong invasion.
Indeed, thinking that Limahong would soon vanquish the Spaniards,
some 10,000 Tagalogs – Governor Sande would call them moros, indicating
the extent of the continuing hold and influence of Islam in the Manila Bay
area at the time – came out in their praus, ready to pay homage to Limahong,
to whom they had previously sent messengers. They also spread the word of
revolt around, saying that Limahong had taken Manila and that all the
Spaniards, including Governor Lavezares, had been slain.62 Even the
Cebuanos, who had hitherto been peaceful, also raised the standard of
rebellion.63 Moreover, rumors circulated afresh that the Borneans and four
other nations – probably referring to the Tausogs, the Maguindanaos, the
Samals, and the Malays – were coming to invade Manila.64
In the ensuing turmoil, the Augustinians, some of whom by this time
lived in friaries in the larger native villages, suffered the worst. A number of
friars were taken prisoners by the revolting populace, subjected to insults,
and threatened with death. Governor Lavezares would later report to King
Philip II that Lakandula, of Tondo, conspired with several other lesser chiefs,
"to renounce the obedience and service of Your Majesty," despite the fact that
"most of them were already baptized as Christians."65 They tormented one of
the two Augustinians at the Tondo convent by jestingly threatening him:
"Padre, you baptize us with cold water; wait awhile, and we shall baptize you
with boiling water."66 One night, his captors began heating water, and the
hapless friar was placed in such dread for his life that he went out of his
mind.
Other Tagalog rebels profaned churches, smashed altar stones and

religious statues, and, as a deliberate affront to what the friars had taught
them, sacrificed "on the altars pigs and goats."67 Those of the northern
Mindoro coast also sacked the Baco convent and seized and threatened to kill
23
the prior, Fray Francisco de Ortega, and his companion, Fray Diego de
Mojica. The chiefs of Bombon in Batangas also went to the extent of making
arrangements for the appropriation of the local Augustinian monastery and
its properties. Ortega and Mojica were eventually released, but this episode
eventually caused the abandonment of the Augustinian mission in Mindoro,
where they were caring for a total of 1,300 catechumens at Baco and
Naujan.68
When Limahong's main attack force besieged Manila, during which the
churches of the Augustinians and of the secular clergy were burned, some
5,000 Tagalog warriors, "with banners flying," menacingly stationed
themselves across the river from Manila. While waiting for the outcome of
the battle, they busied themselves by slaying those slaves and servants of the
Spaniards who fled in their direction during the three hours of the Chinese
onslaught.69
But though the Spaniards were in no position to withstand a prolonged
siege, Limahong failed to press his advantage by not launching a sustained
attack. The Tagalogs likewise failed to pursue their revolt, partly due to lack
of preparation and cooperation, and partly to Limahong's just as sudden
retreat to Lingayen in Pangasinan, causing the abortive Filipino revolt to
fizzle out.
The Augustinian friars subsequently played an important role in

restoring peace and order, and in mollifying the rebels. Thus, Fray Francisco
de Ortega's intercessions saved the lives of half a dozen rebel leaders in
Mindoro, whom the Spanish captain Gabriel de Rivera had intended to hang.
Fray Geronimo Marin was also credited with softening the hostility of
Lakandula and Soliman, who, during the abortive revolt had reportedly
moved their residence to a place some three hours travel beyond Navotas,
probably Polo in Bulacan.70 But if the raxa el uago was indeed a close
kinsman of the chiefs of Manila and Tondo, it would have been impossible for
them to easily forget the murders of the youths in prison, which one Spanish
account specifically identifies as the immediate cause of the revolt.71 It
should be added, however, that perhaps with a touch of poetic justice, Sancho
24
Ortiz de Agurto was one of the Spanish officers killed during the Limahong
invasion,72 though whether by the Chinese corsairs or the Filipinos is not
known.
The disturbances occasioned by the Limahong invasion showed the

precariousness of missionary work unless the political situation were
stabilized. As in the past, if it was not stiff opposition that the friars
encountered, it was sullen withdrawal on the part of the Filipinos, especially
in areas where the Spaniards could exercise no more than nominal control.
As Governor Francisco de Sande would lament in 1576, the Filipinos were
elusive, "like deer, and anyone who goes out to find them must necessarily lie
in wait to seize one of them, who must then call back the others who had fled
to the mountains."73
AGITATION FROM BRUNEI
The Filipinos' resentment and resistance to the Spaniards were

abetted by the continuing agitation from Borneo, itself a reaction to the
Spaniards' conquest of what the sultan of Brunei, Seif urRijal, considered his
vassal territories. Indeed, as Legazpi had apparently foreseen, it was the
sultanate of Brunei which offered the largest threat to Spanish control in the
Philippines. Brunei had the naval capability to challenge the Spaniards, who
could not have forgotten that their fiercest sea clashes in the Philippines
were with the Islamic peoples to the south, as the battle with the Bornean
junk at Bohol in 1565 and later that between a combined BruneiSulu fleet of
twenty cannonarmed caracoas and nine Spanish galleys in the Mindanao
Sea in 1569.74 Moreover, since 1571, hardly a year passed without some
rumor that the Borneans were coming to attack the Spaniards in Manila.
Indeed, Filipino traders who went to Borneo were induced to wreak
havoc on the Spaniards, while the Brunei sultanate itself continued to collect
tribute from their vassals, though these were now also claimed by the
Spaniards to be subjects of King Philip II. As the Spaniards would learn from
a Christian chief of Balayan named "Magachina" (Magat Sina), the sultan of
Brunei also continued to send Muslim preachers to Cebu, Luzon and other
25
islands, to spread Islam or to incite the local peoples to armed resistance
against the invaders.75 This is reflected in a letter of 1578, written in Spanish
with accompanying translations in the Arabic and Tagalog scripts and
presented by Magat Sina and another Balayan noble named Magat, in which
Governor Sande told the Brunei sultan:
In Manila, Zubu and other districts, it has been reported that you
have tried and are trying to do us harm and make war upon us, and that you
have sought and are inducing the natives of Luzon and other districts to rise
and revolt against us, sending spies to Zubu and other districts, and that you
have embarked with a fleet to make war against us....
What you must do is to allow preachers of the holy Gospel to preach
the Christian faith in complete safety in these parts, and also to give liberty
and permission to any natives of this land to listen to the Christian
preachers, and allow no harm to come to anyone who desires to become a
Christian.
At the same time, I want you not to send preachers of the Mohametan
sect to any part of these islands, nor to the heathens who live in the
mountains and other parts of this island, for it is an evil law and that of
Mahoma is a false and evil sect (falsa y mala la seta de mahoma), and only
the religion of the Christians is true, holy, and good.76
Governor Sande, whose disposition was to attack first the enemy who
might be likely to attack him, himself led a preemptive strike to Borneo in
March, 1578, despite the objections of the Augustinians against the
enterprise.77 Sande's force consisted of forty vessels and 400 Spaniards,
supported by 1,500 Filipino auxiliaries. On arrival at Brunei, they were
joined by some 300 men of the Pangiran Sri Lela (Boung Manis), the
rebellious halfbrother of the sultan.78
It was not surprising that the Brunei sultan should reject Sande's
arrogant and triumphalist letter. In fact, he had Magat Sina ordered killed,
denouncing the victim as an unfaithful vassal who had left his service for
that of the Spaniards. In the subsequent battle, however, Sultan Seif urRijal
26
was forced to flee. Sande then sacked his palace and all of Brunei town
(modern Bandar Seri Begawan), razing to the ground most of its 4,000 houses
and seizing some 170 pieces of artillery (one of which weighed 30 quintales, or
3 tons, and another, 2.6 tons); a great supply of ammunition, sulphur,
saltpeter, and gunpowder; and some twentyone galleys and galiots, one
small galleon, five caracoas, and more than forty frigates – all belonging to
the sultan's fleet.79
Sande then declared Brunei a vassal state of Spain, and left a puppet,
the Pangiran Maharaja diRaja, on the throne, with the Pangiran Sri Lela
(the latter's cousin) as adviser. The Spaniards also brought back with them to
Manila as hostage Sri Lela's daughter, who was married to Agustin de
Legazpi, grandson of Lakandula and one of the Tagalog chiefs in the
expedition. The Spaniards also rescued from Bornean slavery more than 300
male captives from Luzon, along with their women, and more than 50
Christians from Cebu and other Visayan islands, about 10 Chinese
merchants, and 2 Malabar Christians from India.80
For years, the Portuguese had sought to incite against the Spaniards
not only the Borneans, but also the Maguindanaos and the Tausogs of Sulu,
providing them with European arms and ammunition. With this same view
in mind, King Sebastiao, of Portugal, had also written to the sultan of Brunei
on March 7, 1573.81 Not surprisingly, a Portuguese contingent led by one
Captain Antonio de Brito helped Sultan Seif urRijal in returning to power
within a few months of the Spaniards' return to Manila. By this time, there
was constant friendly contact between the Borneans and the Portuguese.
When Sande's expedition first arrived in Brunei, they had learned that there
were in town eight Portuguese with their retainers, a Spanish woman, and a
Dominican friar who perhaps was also Portuguese.82
The Pangiran Sri Lela soon died from poisoning, and the Maharaja di´Raja
was sent to exile in southern Borneo. When a small Spanish force once more
came to Brunei in 1579, they found the Borneans hostile, forcing them to
withdraw without accomplishing anything.83 In 1581, the next Spanish
governor, Gonzalo Ronquillo de Penalosa, sent a fresh expedition to Brunei.
27
But far from bringing the Spaniards any advantage, it only hardened
Bornean antagonism.
Failing to subdue permanently the sultanate of Brunei, the Spaniards
tried to bring to heel the Islamic areas in southern Philippines. This objective
was of serious importance to the Spaniards, for the constant threat from
these areas made doubly threatening any unrest in those districts already
under nominal Spanish control. That the Spaniards could not afford to be
complacent was shown in what seems to have been the threat of a fresh
revolt even while Governor Sande was blockading Brunei Bay. As a result, he
had to detach from his fleet a total of fourteen vessels with 70 Spanish
arquebusiers and perhaps up to 400 native allies, whom he sent back to
Manila by way of Palawan, Cebu, and Panay.84
When it was learned also that the sultan of Sulu (Muhammad ul
Halim Pangiran Buddiman, the Brunei sultan's brotherinlaw), who was
then at Brunei when Sande came, had evaded the Spanish blockade and
escaped back to Sulu, Sande late in May 1578 sent Captain Esteban
Rodriguez de Figueroa with thirteen vessels and more than 100 Spanish
soldiers and the usual complement of native auxiliaries to attempt to subdue
Sulu and Maguindanao.85 In 1581, Governor Ronquillo also sent Captain
Rodriguez once more to exact tribute from Sulu and attempt to bring the
Maguindanao chiefs to submission. The latter objective, however, ultimately
proved fruitless. A subsequent expedition to Maguindanao led by the Spanish
captain at Cebu, Gabriel de Rivera, succeeded in meeting with Datu
Bahandre, of Slangan. But the Spaniards failed to establish a Spanish
settlement there, because the climate proved uncongenial to the Spaniards'
health.86
All these Spanish military ventures naturally outraged the Borneans
and their Philippine allies and strengthened the resolve of the deposed rulers
of Manila and Tondo to throw off the unwelcome intruders. The destruction
and injuries that most of the subjugated areas had suffered were painfully
recalled each time the Spaniards made new entradas. If the Tagalogs joined
as mercenaries in the various Spanish expeditions, as that to Borneo, this
seemed to have been motivated more by the hope of plunder and gain rather
28
than love and loyalty to the Spaniards. Thus, Lakandula's grandson, Agustin
de Legazpi, had a personal reason for going to Brunei, namely, to seek a wife,
and in fact had cause to rue later on his association with the Spaniards, as
will be seen shortly. Suffice it to say for the moment, that within another
decade, Filipino resentment would soon flare up to revolt.
HINDRANCES TO EVANGELIZATION: 1570S
The Augustinians' efforts continued to bear fruit, although this seemed
to come ever so slowly. In a letter of June 5, 1577 to the Augustinian
provincial of Mexico, Fray Martin de Rada would report that in the
Philippines, "some ten or twelve thousand had been baptized, and the greater
number of these are children, because the adults are prone to taking off for
the hills."87 (italics supplied). The other reason, Rada added, why not more
had been converted was that the natives were "scattered throughout the
islands." Thus, from Rada's statement, one may deduce that the number of
adult converts by 1577 probably stood somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 –
not much more than the reported total population of the island of Cebu at the
time. While the reference to the dispersion of the people throughout the
islands explains much of the geographical difficulties encountered by the
Augustinians, the description of the people as montaraces, that is, "wild," or
better perhaps as "prone to taking off for the hills," provides an insight into
the response of the Filipinos to the friars' evangelization efforts at the time.
There were other reasons, however, for the comparatively slow growth
in missionary results during those years. These reasons, which had more to
do with the handicaps confronting the friars, were as follows: scarcity of
missionaries, the barrier of language, and the scandal of the lay Spaniards'
conduct.
SCARCITY OF MISSIONARIES
As would, be recalled, in 1572, there were only twelve Augustinians in
the Philippines serving as missionaries, plus five secular priests ministering
to the Spanish community and four or five Augustinian novices. In response
29
to urgent appeals for more missionaries, Philip II began sending more

Augustinians. Three arrived in 1574, and a similar number, in 1575. Yet the
distance from Spain or even Mexico, the hazards of the long journey across
the Atlantic and then the Pacific, illnesses and deaths while en route, and
various other factors worked against the easy reenforcement of missionary
personnel in the Philippines.
Illustrative of the difficulties and dangers in sending missionaries to
the Philippines was what happened to the Augustinian mission of 15751576.
This mission was originally composed of forty friars led by the commissary
Fray Diego de Herrera, who left Seville in June. 1575. Upon arrival in
Mexico, the greater majority refused to go on to the Philippines, reportedly in
protest against the injustices and abuses perpetrated against the Filipinos by
their encomenderos. The ten who went on with Herrera across the Pacific
reportedly "had to be made to go almost by force" (casi por fuerga los auia
hecho yr).88 As an ultimate irony, this muchneeded contingent of
missionaries was struck by an unexpected tragedy upon their arrival in
Philippine waters.
Shipwrecked on the treacherous coasts of the island of Catanduanes in
April, 1576, all but two of those who managed to escape drowning by
swimming ashore from their illfated ship, the Espiritu Sancto, were slain by
the islanders whose hostility had been aroused by Captain Pedro de Chaves'
brutal conquest of the island two years earlier. Aside from the Augustinians,
there were more than a hundred other men on board the ship. The only
survivors were one Geronimo Albez and another unnamed Spaniard. Both
were spared, because, having previously lived in the Philippines, they were
able to make themselves intelligible to the local inhabitants. The two were
made slaves, until they were subsequently released by Captain Chaves, who
made a reprisal raid against the Catanduanes islanders.89
Word of the tragedy, which was obtained only through accident by
Spanish troops stationed in the Camarines, came also just as rumors were
rife that Brunei had entered into a conspiracy with the states of Siam and
Patani against the Spaniards. The royal officials at Manila described it as
30
"the saddest news and greatest grief imaginable for us."90 For the
Augustinians, it was a particularly painful and heavy blow, for with the loss
of this group of missionaries, they had to give up even certain areas already
evangelized.
In the Actas of the Augustinian provincial chapter held at Manila on

April 20, 1574, there had appeared the names of nineteen friars distributed
among the fifteen residences then maintained by their order.91 But various
deaths soon began to thin out their ranks. With the passing away of
Francisco Merino in 1575, Alonso de Alvarado and Sebastian de Molina in
1576, and Alonso de Jimenez and Juan de Orta in 1577, the aged Juan de
Alba, who himself was to pass away at 79 some three months later, remarked
in June, 1577, that "everyday the Christians increase, though the ministers
decrease."92 That same year, Governor Sande would also report that only
thirteen Augustinian priests (frayles de myssa), five novices, and one secular
priest had remained.93 There was such "great lack of religious instruction,"
that even the sick among the Spaniards had no priests to receive their
confessions.94
Fortunately, three more Augustinians arrived in 1577, namely, Fray
Alonso de Castro, Fray Diego de Ochoa, and Fray Juan de Quiñones. Fray
Martin de Rada, at that time the most experienced missionary in the
Philippines, would perish on the return voyage of the Spanish expedition to
Borneo in 1578. But later that same year, nine more Augustinians, led by
Fray Andres de Aguirre who was returning for the first time since he
accompanied Urdaneta to Spain in 1565, would arrive in Manila with the
first Franciscan mission of fifteen friars.95 The situation slightly improved
with the arrival of these new friars, but still their numbers were far from
sufficient for the vast needs of the mission field.
Indeed, as early as 1575, the Augustinians had to temporarily adopt a
policy of retrenchment, and abandon their doctrina at Libon in the Bicol
peninsula, with the transfer of Jimenez to Cebu, and Orta to Manila. At their
triennial chapter in Manila on August 6, 1578, the Augustinians also decided
to abandon "the residences in Mindoro and Balayan, Lubang, and Jalaur, and
31
all those in the Visayas, except those located in well populated places such as
Cebu and Oton."96
THE LANGUAGE BARRIER
In 1572, Rada remarked that "the greatest lack is in ministers and

interpreters."97 Next to the scarcity of personnel, the barrier of language was
apparently the greatest problem faced by the early friars in the Philippines.
As the pioneer missionaries, the Augustinians encountered no small difficulty
in learning the various Philippine tongues, starting as they did from scratch.
There were no dictionaries nor grammars, and they had to study patiently
the vernacular in each linguistic area where they had doctrinas, struggling
with sounds quite unfamiliar to Spanish ears.98 Legazpi opined in 1572 that
lack of knowledge of the native languages was a major hindrance to
Augustinian work.99 In 1576, Governor Sande also wrote to Philip II: "I do not
know if any of them [the Augustinians] has learned well the language of the
natives."100 Two years later, the provincial Fray Agustin de Alburquerque, in
a circular to all Augustinians in the Philippine province, identified the
"greatest" concern as the need for all friars who did not as yet know the local
language in their respective districts to exert as much effort as possible in
language study.101
Sometime earlier, Fray Martin de Rada had prepared what was

apparently a simple vocabulary in Cebuano. By 1578, two language study
works, each comprising of vocabulary, grammar, and a confessional, were
produced by Augustinians who had arrived only the previous year. The first,
in Tagalog, was prepared by Fray Juan de Quiñones, and the other, in
Pampango, by Fray Diego de Ochoa.102 But not until the last two decades of
the sixteenth century did language study become more systematic with the
appearance of several other works – notably the Tagalog grammar and the
TagalogSpanish dictionary, both by Fray Juan de Plasencia, O.F.M., later
revised and augmented by his fellow Franciscan, Fray Juan de Oliver.103 The
other publications which came out at this time were printed tracts by the
32
Augustinian Fray Juan de Villanueva, and two other tracts, consisting of one
piece in Haraya and another in "Visayan" (perhaps Cebuano) by the Jesuit,
Father Mateo Sanchez; as well as another Visayan publication by another
Jesuit, Father Cristobal Jimenez. But what was undoubtedly the most
important publication at this time was the Doctrina Christiana, a manual of
Christian doctrine for converts, printed by woodblocks in Tagalog and
Spanish, and also in Chinese and Spanish, both bilingual editions coming out
in 1593.104
Although there were a good number of missionaries who had a gift for
languages, there were also cases of friars, usually older men, who seemed
unable to learn the local Philippine tongue. One could cite the particular case
of the Franciscan, Fray Juan Pacheco (1510c. 1590), who in 1586, when he
was seventysix, could simply not learn any Tagalog, so that his assigned
task at Morong was simply to administer the sacraments.105 There was also
the case of the Dominicans, Fray Alonso Jimenez (not the Augustinian of the
same name) and Fray Pedro Bolaños (c. 15251588), who were described by a
fellow Dominican as both being too old to learn Tagalog.106
The language barrier constituted a problem serious enough that King
Philip III in 1603 had to instruct the archbishop of Manila to see to it that
every friar or Jesuit who performed the duties of curate had the necessary
language skills, and to remove those "who do not know enough of the
language of the Indians whom they are to instruct."107
THE CONQUISTADORS' RELIGIOUS LAXITY AND ABUSES
“The word of God makes greater impression on those places least

visited by the Spaniards,” said Fray Martin de Rada in 1572. In the same
breath, he complained that the actions of the conquistadors were seen by the
Filipinos to be "most contrary" (muy contrarias) to the word preached to
them. This was one reason why not many natives at that time had been
converted. A year later, an Augustinian memorial also lamented that "in
general there is very little Christianity among the Spaniards, who pay very
little attention to divine worship and its ministers ... and there is much
33
dissoluteness with women, even though these are heathen." 108 Moreover, the
friars deplored the fact that the scandalous lives of the Spanish soldiers
militated against missionary work. As one vexed Augustinian was
constrained to say, when he preached that "God's law commands that a
Christian must neither rob nor kill, and must be clean in both body and soul,
they [the natives] would then answer, 'Then how come that the Spaniard does
not follow this?'” 109
Thus, there is probably truth to an Augustinian account of 1585 that
some Filipinos refused to avail themselves of the promises of reward in
heaven, because of their hostility to the Spaniards. As this account puts it, on
being urged to receive baptism so that they might join the ranks of those
destined for the "delights and happiness" of heaven, where "no one entered,
or could enter ... unless he were baptized according to the preaching of the
Castilians," some Filipinos refused, "saying that because there were Castilian
soldiers in glory, they did not care to go there, for they did not wish their
company."110
The Augustinians themselves also complained that contrary to King
Philip II's expectations, the encomenderos had given them "neither favor nor
assistance" in the preaching of the Gospel, for the former neither placed them
among the natives nor built convents for them. To their proposal that they be
allowed to work in the various encomienda territories, the friars were
reportedly generally rebuffed with the excuse that it was "yet too early"111 to
introduce the Christian faith and urge the natives to abandon their heathen
rites. Whatever merit, if any, this argument might have, the fact is that the
Augustinians found to their dismay that whatever missionary success they
might have achieved was often promptly eroded by the brutal policies of the
encomenderos.
These conditions continued to obtain when the next friar order, the
Franciscans, arrived on the scene in 1578.
p. 227
34
[The following paragraphs deal with the details of the arrival of the
Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, and the expansion of Agustinian missions
in Luzon. 15781586.
p. 245
THE ERECTION OF THE DIOCESE OF MANILA
Until the creation of the Bishopric of Manila in 1579, the Church in the
Philippines was governed by an Augustinian (and in 1578 by a Franciscan)
deputy ecclesiastical judge, in line with a privilege that Pope Paul III (1534
1549) had granted to the missionary orders in the overseas possessions of
Portugal and Spain. A controversy on the matter, however, arose when the
archbishop of Mexico, to the dismay of the Augustinians, designated as
deputy judges two of the early secular priests in the Philippines.174 The
matter was finally settled only with the consecration of the first bishop of
Manila in 1579.
THE FIRST BISHOP OF MANILA
As would be recalled, the Augustinians had hoped that the first bishop
of Manila would be a member of their order, and at various times had
suggested the names of Fray Diego de Herrera and after Herrera's tragic
death, Fray Francisco de Ortega. But the man eventually chosen was a
Dominican, Fray Domingo de Salazar. By the bull Illius fulti praesidio
(February 6, 1579),175 Pope Gregory XIII created the Diocese and Cathedral
Church of Manila. After his consecration, Bishop Salazar and his entourage
sailed for the Philippines, arriving in Manila in 1581, in the same ship that
brought the first Jesuits and a number of Augustinians and Franciscans.
The creation of the Manila diocese and the arrival of Bishop Salazar
was largely a Spanish affair; the early Filipino converts could not have
caught their significance. While Salazar's coming may have brought
35
ecclesiastical order to the Philippines, his presence was not welcomed by the
Augustinians. As a modern historian of that order has put it: "Fray Domingo
de Salazar, first bishop of the islands, from the moment of his arrival in
Manila did not have friendly relations with the Augustinians, nor they with
him, as the Augustinians believed that being the pioneers in the Philippines,
no one should have barged into (entrometerse) what they considered their
exclusive field."176
The first conflict between Salazar and the Augustinians took place at
the end of 1581, within months of the bishop's arrival, when he and the
Augustinians, Fray Diego de Mojica, prior of Tondo, clashed over the question
as to who had jurisdiction over a Filipino who had been arrested, apparently
for a violation of some ecclesiastical regulation.177 Early in 1582, Salazar and
the Augustinians again clashed on the question of jurisdiction over the
Chinese merchant colony, for whom the latter had founded in 1581 a new
mission in Tondo, where they evangelized the Chinese using the local
Tagalog tongue.178
SALAZAR AND FILIPINO RIGHTS
Bishop Salazar was to render important service to the Filipinos, in the
way he boldly spoke out for the latter against the abuses of the
encomenderos. Thus, in 1583, he wrote a letter of complaint to King Philip
about the continuing harsh treatment of the natives, especially in connection
with the collection of the annual tribute. The Spanish tribute collectors,
Salazar said, always demanded the finest gold, using the heavier measure of
weight as their whims desired. If the local chief could not hand in the tribute
exacted from his village, as when some of his people would take flight to
other places, or when the resources of the chief himself and those of his
people who had remained would not suffice, the collectors, reported Salazar,
crucify (aspan) the unfortunate chief, or put his head in the stocks, . . .
and they lash and torment the chiefs until they give the entire sum
demanded from them. Sometimes the wife or daughter of the chief is seized,
when he himself does not appear. Many are the chiefs who had died of torture
36
in this manner which I have stated.179
Citing a few specific cases, Bishop Salazar recounted that when he was
at the port of Ybalon in the Bicol peninsula, some local chiefs from the
surrounding districts came to him to report that a tribute collector, angered
at not receiving the amount he had demanded, hanged the late chief of
Ybalon by the arms, as if a crucifix, and tortured him to death. Bishop
Salazar later saw the perpetrator of this deed at Nueva Caceres (Naga), and
learned that the man had simply been fined fifty pesos and then set free. In
another instance, an encomendero sold a man as a galley slave for thirtyfive
pesos because his village chief was short of nine pesos of tribute. Salazar
remonstrated before the ship's steward to have the man released, but the
bishop's efforts came to no avail.180
Moreover, although only heads of families were supposed to pay

tribute, the collectors, said Salazar, sometimes assessed even children, old
men, and slaves.181 Great must have been the Filipinos' desperation indeed,
for as Salazar added, many "remained unmarried, because of the tribute,
while others kill their children,"182 whom they feared they could not support.
Furthermore, the forced labor exacted from the subjugated populations took
the men away from their farms for considerable lengths of time, in such jobs
as cutting timber for shipbuilding, rowing in the galleys for four or six
months in a year, or working at the gold mines in IIocos where many died.
Thus, in 1580, so many men of Pampanga were at the mines during the
planting season that a great famine afterwards ensued. In Lubao alone, more
than a thousand died from hunger in the encomienda of exGovernor
Lavezares.183 Salazar was little comforted that only in the immediate
environs of Manila, where there were missionaries, did many of these abuses
cease. "But in remote places and some not very far away," he added, "what I
have stated occurs, and even worse things are done."184
SALAZAR'S REASONS FOR SLOW EVANGELIZATION RESULTS
Salazar was of the opinion that the excessive requirement for Filipinos
to render personal services was one reason for the slow progress of the
37
missionary program. As he once again complained to King Philip II in 1583,
the Filipinos
have no opportunity to attend religious instruction. It sometimes

happens that while these miserable creatures are being instructed for
baptism the Spaniards force them to go to the tasks that I have mentioned;
and when they return they have forgotten what they know; for this reason
there are today many Indians to be baptized. In some cases when I have gone
to a village to administer confirmation, I have returned without confirming
anyone, because the Indians were not in the place but were occupied in labors
ordered by the alcaldemayor, and I could not collect them together.185
What specially scandalized Bishop Salazar was the apparent fact that
the Filipinos seemed to have received far better treatment under Islam than
under Christianity. After noting that "a large number of pagans have turned
Moros" as a result of Islamic preaching from Brunei, Bishop Salazar
lamented that
those who have received this vile law keep it with much pertinacity,
and there is great difficulty in getting them to leave it. Moreover.... to our
shame and confusion ..., they were better treated by the preachers of
Mahoma than they have been by the preachers of Christ [i.e., the
encomenderos and alcaldesmayores]. Since, through kind and gentle
treatment, they received that doctrine willingly, it took root in their hearts,
and so they leave it reluctantly. But this is not the case with what we preach
to them, for, as it is accompanied with so much bad treatment and with so
evil examples, they say "yes" with the mouth and "no" with the heart; and
thus when occasion arises they leave it, although by the mercy of God, this is
becoming somewhat remedied by the coming of the ministers of the gospel,
with whose advent these grievances cease in some places. 186
FILIPINO RESENTMENT AND RESISTANCE
The coming of the Spaniards had brought not only political and social
dislocation, but also economic inflation as well. The prices of prime
commodities in Manila tripled, or at least doubled, during the first three
years of the 1580s.187 Resentment continued to rise against the harsh
38
tribute and the frequently cruel means of collecting these exactions, not to
mention the onerous burden of personal services. All these would eventually
lead to the conspiracy of 15871588, which threatened to flare up into the
most extensive resistance that the Filipinos had yet mustered against the
Spaniards.
RANCOR AMONG THE FILIPINO UPPER CLASSES
While the common people suffered from the harshness of the

encomenderos and the alcaldesmayores, the ruling classes (datus or
maginoos) and the freemen (in Tagalog, maharlikas) just as distressedly felt
the sudden social changes imposed on them by the Spaniards. These upper
classes seethed with rancor and illwill, due largely to their displacement
from the former positions of privilege that they had enjoyed. While they were
exempt from personal tribute and statute labor,188 and their lands up to this
time were largely left untouched by the creation of encomiendas, the
Spaniards had nevertheless largely diminished their power and prestige. The
tribute which they had customarily received from their people, and the
anchorage fees they had levied on visiting trading vessels, had now been
channeled into Spanish coffers. By a Spanish proclamation, they also lost
their slaves, the possession of which was formerly considered a measure of
importance. More than this, since many of their own people had fled to other
places to escape the tributethus, in Tondo, Capaymisilo [Meysilo], and other
nearby places, one third of the total population had left by 1582189 – the
chiefs were forced to pay from their own coffers the tribute that would have
been paid by those who had gone away.
Thus, the ruling classes not only found their incomes greatly reduced;
they were also forced to gradually sell their lands and properties little by
little just to remain solvent.190 The consequence of these land sales may be
partly seen in the fact that eventually many, if not most, of the descendants
of Soliman and Lakandula left Manila and Tondo, and took up residence in
the province of Bulacan (particularly in the towns of Bulacan, Quingua, Polo,
and especially Calumpit); while a few others chose to live in Pampanga.191
39
In the end they gave voice to their complaint. There exists an official
Spanish document which records the visit to Bishop Salazar on June 15,
1582, of several leading persons of Tondo and Meysilo, namely, Luis Amani
calao, Martin Panga, Gabriel Tuambakar, Juan Bautangad, and Dona
Francisca Saygan, who were all Christians; and Salalila, Calao, and
Amarlangagui, who were heathens, to complain of the abuses of the rapacious
alcaldemayores, whose number had multiplied fourfold to sixteen during the
administration of the new governor, Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Penalosa.
These chiefs specifically asked Bishop Salazar to present their complaints to
King Philip II, who was, as Salazar assured them, "a most Christian king
who considers well their intentions, and has commanded that they be well
treated, and will order punishment for those who maltreat them."192 Not long
afterwards, other chieftains from as far as Mauban came to lay their
complaints before Salazar.
DIFFICULTIES OF LIVING UNDER SPANISH RULE
Aside from their resentment against abuses and cruelties, the ruling
classes also had trouble living under the new laws instituted by the
Spaniards. While it is true that the Spaniards had made them petty
governors (governadorcillos) of their own villages, they nevertheless no longer
enjoyed the sovereignty which they earlier had. But accustomed as they were
to ruling with a free hand, they not infrequently ran into trouble with their
own overlords. Thus, Agustin de Legazpi, grandson of Lakandula and former
gobernadorcillo of Tondo, was charged and pronounced guilty of
maladministration and spent some time in prison. Earlier, this same Tondo
nobleman had gone to Brunei to seek a wife from among his kinsmen, as was
customary, but he was rebuffed and made to feel guilty for having accepted
Christian baptism.193
If he got all these troubles for becoming a Christian and submitting to
Spanish rule, why should he continue to live under such a debilitating
circumstance? It was not surprising then that upon his release from prison,
he began to plot against the Spaniards – the sooner the better, before the
latter completed their work of fortifying Manila began by Governor Sande in
40
the aftermath of the Limahong invasion. The plot was not only politically

motivated, but apparently also had religious undertones, with the intention
of reinstituting the Islamic faith in the Manila Bay area. Governor Santiago
de Vera would later describe this plot as directed "against the service of God,
our Lord, and against his [Philip II's] Majesty."194
THE "TONDO CONSPIRACY" OF 15871588
The conspiracy began to materialize about July, 1587,195 when a

Japanese trading junk from Hirado arrived at Manila, to establish friendly
and commercial relations with the Spaniards and to bring letters from the
Japan Jesuits to the Jesuit superior at Manila, Father Antonio Sedeño. The
envoy and captain of the junk was a Kirishitan named João Gayo, a samurai
of the daimyo or feudal lord of Hirado, Matsuura Shigenobu. With Gayo's
crew was another Kirishitan named Gabriel, through whose Christian zeal
eight of his other companions had been converted during the voyage. It was
Bishop Salazar himself who baptized these new Japanese Christians at the
Jesuit's church, with Governor Vera and other highranking personages
acting as the baptismal sponsors.196
Gayo, a soldier of fortune, claimed to be a commander of 500 samurai
warriors at home and a friend of another Christian daimyo named "Dom
Agostino," apparently referring to General Agostino Konishi Yukinaga, the
Japanese strongman Hideyoshi's foremost general who would command the
First Division of the Japanese expeditionary forces in Hideyoshi's Korean
Campaign of 15921598. Gayo offered himself and as many as more than
6,000 samurai warriors from Hirado and other fiefs in Kyushu as
mercenaries for any Spanish military venture in Borneo, Siam, Moluccas, or
China.197
Startling as they might have been, Gayo's claims did have a ring of
truth. Though Matsuura was not a Christian, half of the other daimyos in the
southern Japanese island of kyushu were by this time Christian or in the
process of being converted. By the time of Hideyoshi's Korean invasion, all
but 3,000 of the 18,700 men of the First Division under General Konishi came
41
from Christian fiefs. So did the 12,000 men of the Third Division under
another Christian general, Damian Kuroda Nagasama, and his fellow daimyo
Constantino Otomo Yoshimune. Thus, out of the initial Japanese invasion
force of 138,900 men, some 27,700 or onefifth of the whole, came from
Christian fiefs in Kyushu.l98 Since Japanese Christian daimyos had adopted
since 1574 the European principle of cujus regio, ejus religio ("who reigns, his
religion"), the compromise formula adopted by Protestant and Catholic
princes in 1555, the troops from the Christian fiefs in Kyushu were
practically all Christians, or at least nominally so.
Governor Vera, however, being more concerned with consolidating

Spanish power in the Philippines, was not as enthusiastic about foreign
adventures as were his predecessors. He kept the interview with Gayo a well
guarded secret, lest knowledge of it arouse the suspicion and animosity of the
Chinese merchants in Manila. But treating the Japanese with "special
hospitality," he thanked Gayo, explained that King Philip II, though king of
both the Spaniards and the Portuguese, was "not now thinking of the
conquest of China or other kingdoms;" but should the Spaniards require to
execute such a plan, they would ask the Japanese for assistance.199 His
enthusiasm considerably dampened, the disappointed Gayo bided his time in
Manila, and soon made the acquaintance of the disgrunted Agustin de
Legazpi, through another Japanese Christian named Dionisio Fernandes,
who knew Tagalog.
THE FILIPINOJAPANESE PACT
Gayo and Legazpi quickly struck a close friendship. With the Spanish
refusal of Gayo's offer, the latter immediately warmed up to Legazpi's initial
inquiry as to whether he would not be interested in governing the
Philippines, with the local chieftains as his lieutenants, in the event that the
Spaniards were driven out of the country. This overture was made at a
meeting in Legazpi's home, where there were present his brother Geronimo
Basi; his uncle Magat Salamat, Lakandula's son who, still having no
Christian name, had probably refused to be baptized; Felipe Salalila, chief of
Meysilo; and Salalila's son, Agustin Manuguit. All these chiefs and nobles
42
were close relatives and members of the former ruling families of Manila and
Tondo.200 Salalila, as would be recalled, was one of the chiefs who had
complained to Bishop Salazar of Spanish abuses in 1582.
The plan that was accordingly hatched was for Gayo to fetch from
Japan more samurai warriors and weapons, and for them to come to the
Philippines under the guise of traders. They would then join the Tagalogs in
a concerted attack, and massacre all the Spaniards. On attaining victory, the
Filipino chiefs would then choose Agustin de Legazpi as rajah, but would
render homage to Gayo as their overlord, channeling to him a sufficient
portion of the tribute presently being collected by the Spanish usurpers. Gayo
readily assented to the bargain. Although there were several uncertainties
about the arrangement, the plotters were apparently content for the moment
to consign these questions to the future. Both parties then sealed their pact
according to the traditional Tagalog custom of breaking an egg over their
oaths – may they suffer destruction as the egg, if they proved false to their
promises! As proof of his own fidelity, Gayo presented to Legazpi a few
Japanesemade arquebuses and samurai swords (katanas), as well as a
quantity of samurai shields with special markings by which the Japanese
might later recognize their allies.201
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONSPIRACY
After Gayo returned to Japan, Agustin de Legazpi, now emboldened,
decided to enlarge the circle of conspiracy. He gave some of the Japanese
shields and weapons to Amaghikon, chief of Navotas, who apparently still
seethed with rancor over the ruthless attack on his village by Goyti in 1571.
Legazpi also brought into his confidence another Tagalog chief, Martin
Panga, who was probably the "Don Martin" which a Franciscan source
identified as the son of the Rajah Calamayin, of Namayan, ruler of the
districts east and south of Manila.202 Martin Panga was Legazpi's first cousin
and successor as gobernadorcillo of Tondo. Panga himself had been exiled by
the Spaniards to Tambobong on a charge of adultery, apparently because he
had refused to live by the Christian concept of monogamy. Legazpi also
recruited other nobles who had spent time in Spanish jails for various
43
reasons, including his own brother, Gabriel Tuambakar, the latter's son
Francisco Acta, and Pitong Gatang, a maharlika of Tondo, all of whom
eagerly joined the plot.
At a great feast, lasting three days, which Martin Panga gave at his
home in Tambobong, he and Agustin Legazpi invited to come other chieftains
around Manila and their retainers. As a result, the circle of conspirators
thereafter included Legazpi's uncles (Dionisio Capolo [Capulong], chief of
Candaba, Pampanga; Felipe Salonga, chief of Polo, Bulacan; and Magat
SaIamat, all sons of Lakandula); Legazpi's brother Geronimo Basi and
Gabriel Tuambakar; as well as Francisco Acta; Luis AmaniKalaw, of Tondo,
and his son Kalaw; Pedro Balinguit, chief of Pandacan; Amaghikon, chief of
Navotas; Pitong Gatang; Felipe Amarlangagui, chief of Catangalan (part of
what is now Polo, Bulacan); and most importantly, also apparently
Amarlangagui (perhaps Felipe's father), chief of Baybay, who was masterof
artillery and maestredecampo, or commanderinchief, of the Spaniards'
Tagalog auxiliaries,203 to mention only the chief leaders.
TWO FATEFUL INTERLUDES
Though the weeks dragged on and still no word came from Gayo, there
were two events late in 1587 and early in 1588, which , served to strengthen
the plotters' resolve. The first was a Bornean assault on the crew of a
Spanish ship which had called at Brunei, and the other, the sudden
appearance in Philippine waters of an English warship, the first to make
such visit.
About November, 1587, a Spanish ship bound for Malacca and Europe
was forced by contrary winds to seek shelter at "Mohala" (the present
Muara), some two leagues from Brunei. On board were two Spanish
Franciscans, Fray Francisco de Santa Maria and Fray Miguel de Talavera,
bound for Madrid and Rome on business of their order. In response to their
overtures of peace, the Spaniards were promised welcome by the sultan of
Brunei, who made them to understand that he would provide them with the
necessary provisions for their onward journey. Inasmuch as the zealously
44
Islamic Atjehs of north Sumatra were reportedly besieging Malacca and were
patrolling the sea lanes, the Spaniards decided to remain in Brunei until
after threat had subsided.
At first there was no indication of any impending trouble. When the
sultan asked Santa Maria to discuss with him certain religious questions, the
latter took the opportunity to proclaim the Christian faith with much zeal
and fervor, which quickly earned for him, however, a number of enemies.
Unknown to the Spaniards, moreover, plans were already afoot for a
concerted attack on Manila by the Tagalogs and Borneans and their allies.
One night when Santa Maria and Talavera were up on a hill to meditate and
observe the holy hours, a band of hostile Borneans, including one of the
sultan's brothers, attacked the Spaniards who had gone ashore, killing all but
three. Santa Maria himself barely had time to warn Talavera to flee back to
the ship, before he was lanced to, death and his body decapitated. The sultan
subsequently promised to punish the guilty parties, though this was
apparently no more than a diplomatic attempt to disown the deed. The result
was that the murder of Santa Maria and the other Spaniards committed the
Borneans to a hostile confrontation with the Europeans, which the Tagalogs
now exploited to advance their own intentions.204
Early in 1588, the Spaniards were also thrown into consternation with
the sudden appearance of an English warship, the Desire, commanded by the
youthful Captain Thomas Cavendish, who was to become the third
circumnavigator of the globe. The Spaniards in Manila were soon to learn to
their dismay that since this ship and two others had left England by way of
the Atlantic, they had plundered sixteen Spanish vessels off the coast of
Peru. Only one English ship was lost, and the other, subsequently separated
from Cavendish during a storm. But near the California coast, the
Englishman had captured and burned the Spanish galleon, Santa Ana, which
was on its regular run from Manila. The English had spared and put ashore
the crew and passengers of the galleon, except for a canon whom they
hanged, and a pilot and several skilled mariners whom they forced to guide
them to the Philippines.
45
The Desire sailed undetected into Visayan waters, captured a Spanish
sailor who had been unsuspectingly cruising in a small boat, and then
attacked the Spanish shipyard at Lauigan in northern Panay. Cavendish
then sailed southwards to Mindanao, where he left on an island the captured
sailor, so he could inform his superiors in Manila of their misfortunes. While
the Spaniards, including Bishop Salazar himself, seethed with anger against
the "Lutherans," the Tagalog conspirators hoped that Cavendish would
shortly sail back for an assault on Manila. The Englishman sailed on to Java,
without the local chiefs being able to make contact with him. But the news of
the Spaniards' defeat at the hands of this single English vessel removed the
aura of invincibility around the former and boosted the courage of the
Filipinos.205
DELAYS AND INDECISION
At this stage, a new but impatient member of the conspiracy, one

Esteban Tael, chief of Bulacan, demanded of the leaders in Tondo why they
had to wait for some foreigner to help, when they could, if only they had the
determination, exterminate the Spaniards in one blow. Offering to rouse to
arms himself the towns from Tondo to Bulacan, he encouraged Martin Panga
to do the same for those in the south as far as Cavite. The conspirators also
decided to enlist the participation of the peoples of Bataan, Komintang
(Batangas), and the villages around the lake of Bai. Indeed, they won over to
their side the villages of Malolos and Guiguinto in Bulacan. The more
headstrong among the conspirators were for making an immediate
rendezvous at Tondo, and then cross the Pasig River in force to attack
Manila.
When some Pampanga chiefs came to Manila to petition the Spanish
governor to suspend an edict emancipating their slaves, at least until after
the forthcoming rice harvest, the Tagalogs tried to win their support. The
negotiations, however, fell through, because they could not agree as to who
would be the overall commander for the campaign. The Tagalogs themselves
found out that they could not muster enough men, until after the rice
harvest.
46
As weeks passed, the Tondo chiefs returned to their original plan of
waiting for the Borneans and the Tausogs of Sulu, this time with or without
the Japanese. They apparently thought that these forces would suffice, even
without their Visayan and Maguindanao allies, who by this time seemed to
have assented to the conspiracy but had so far not been able to coordinate
their plans with the other allies. The Borneans, who were reportedly
completing their construction of seven new caracoas and other war vessels for
the enterprise, were expected to be ready within a short time.
The conspirators' plan was for the Borneans and the Tausogs to make
a feint at Cavite, in order to draw the Spanish cannons in that direction. As
the Spaniards had always done in times of crisis, it was expected that they
would send for levies from the subjugated provinces. The Tagalog chiefs
would then pretend to respond with great zeal by sending as many warriors
to Manila as possible. But once in position, they would quickly fall upon the
Spaniards. Even if the latter retreated to their citadel, the chiefs were
confident of victory due to sheer numbers, just as the Moluccans had done in
successfully wresting the strong Portuguese fortress at Ternate years
earlier.206
By this time, a few more new members had joined the conspiracy.
These included Luis Balaya, chief of Bangos; his nephews Agustin Lea and
Alonso Digma; Daulat, chief of Castilla; and Juan Basi, chief of Taguig. But
their earlier indecision and inability to launch an immediate attack had
increased the chances of discovery of the plot by the Spaniards. Indeed, by
October 1588, some fifteen months since the conspiracy was first hatched, the
Spaniards had become suspicious that something sinister was afoot. They
had apparently heard of the secret meetings and ostensibly festive
gatherings, where the various Tagalog chiefs were ominously present. They
also knew that Agustin de Legazpi, Magat Salamat, and Martin Panga had
been selling their landed estates, the huge sums of money paid out by
individual Spanish buyers raising speculations about some sinister plan
involved. It would also seem that the Spaniards who had survived the Muara
massacre in Borneo brought back to Manila newsbits that could not but be
47
regarded as ominous.
THE SPANIARDS' DISCOVERY OF THE CONSPIRACY
Finally, the conspirators agreed that Magat Salamat, his brotherin
law Juan Banal, and Agustin Manuguit, should go to the Calamian Islands,
attempt to win the local people to their cause, and from there send forthwith
for the Borneans. They brought along as presents some of Japanese
arquebuses and shields. During a stopover at the Cuyo Islands, Magat
Salamat persuaded the local chief, Datu Sumaelob, to join the conspirators,
the latter promising to send to Manila some 2,000 men.
The next move, however, proved fatal. For when the conspirators tried
to win Antonio Surabao, chief of the Calamianes, over to their cause, the
encomendero of those islands, Captain Pedro de Sarmiento, managed to
extract from Surabao knowledge of the plot. Sarmiento quickly rounded up
Salamat, Bana1, Manuguit and Sumaelob, and brought them back to Manila
in chains. The rest of the Tagalog chiefs were just as quickly arrested. From
the separate testimonies wrung out from each, the Spaniards gradually
pieced together the whole plot. The chiefs were accordingly tried, their
individual testimonies used to incriminate one another.
Agustin de Legazpi and Martin Panga, as the chief conspirators, were
condemned to be dragged by horses, hanged, and decapitated, their heads
being stuck on pikes inside iron cages and exposed to public view as a stern
warning to anyone who might in the future dare to oppose the might of
Spain. Their houses were also torn down, and the sites plowed and sown with
salt, so that no green thing might grow on it. Also sentenced to death, with
the loss of all their properties, were Magat Salamat, Amaghikon of Navotas,
Geronimo Basi, Felipe Salalila, Esteban Tael, and the Japanese interpreter
Dionisio Fernandes.207
Exiled to Mexico for varying periods from two to six years, and further
individually penalized with the loss of half of their properties or fines of 20
taels of fine gold, were Pitong Gatang, Felipe Salonga, and Agustin
48
Manuguit. Also exiled for varying periods from two to six years, some losing
half their properties or fined up to 15 taels of fine gold, were Pedro Balinguit,
Felipe Amarlangagui, Daulat of Castilla, Juan Basi, Dionisio Capulong, Luis
Balaya, and the following Tondo nobles: Gabriel Tuambakar, Luis Amani
Kalaw, his son Kalaw, Francisco Acta, Juan Banal, and Amarlangagui, the
maestredecampo or commander of the Tagalog auxiliaries. At the time the
report was made in 1589, Sumaelob had not yet been sentenced, though it
would appear that he too did not escape punishment. The only ones acquitted
were the nephews of Luis Balaya, namely, the brothers Agustin Lea and
Alonso Digma.208
Of those exiled to Mexico, only Dionisio Capulong, son of Lakandula, is
known to have definitely returned. In 1594, he reportedly guided the Spanish
expedition to Ituy sent by Acting Governor Luis Perez Dasmarinas.209
THE AFTERMATH
Only after the conspiracy had been crushed did a Japanese junk arrive
with Gayo in 1589, laden with more than 500 arquebuses, as many samurai
swords, and some battle axes. By then the Spaniards had been expecting
such a vessel. It was promptly boarded, its cargo seized, and the officers and
crew thrown into jail. Finding the Filipinos' cause hopelessly lost, Gayo and
his men tried as best they could to extricate themselves from their
predicament and gave the alibi that the weapons were destined for sale in
Siam. Not wishing to alienate Hideyoshi, who had ordered in 1587 the
expulsion of Christian missionaries from Japan, the Spaniards decided to
take Gayo's word at face value, and offered to release the prisoners, provided
the arms would be sold in Manila. Thus, the matter was decided to the
satisfaction of both parties, the Spaniards only too glad to acquire these
weapons for their armory, and the Japanese just as happy to gain their
freedom. 210
With such measures as the above, the Spaniards successfully put an
end to the most serious threat posed by the Tagalog ruling class. Though the
hope of a successful resistance movement with Bornean aid continued into
49
the next century, the power of the Tagalog chiefs was definitively broken in
1589. In 1643, one Pedro Ladia, apparently a descendant of Lakandula,211
tried to rouse the people of southern Luzon to revolt, but this came to no
avail. The Tausogs of Sulu and the Borneans also seem to have kept up the
claim to the throne of Manila, at least nominally, until the second half of the
eighteenth century.212 But not until the closing years of the nineteenth could
the Tagalog provinces substantially put up a challenge against the might of
Spain.
ENSUING REVOLTS OF OTHER FILIPINOS
The historical evidence suggests that the Tagalog chiefs had been in
communication not only with the Borneans and the latter's Islamic allies in
Mindanao, but also with the Visayans and the people of the Cagayan Valley
in northern Luzon, and perhaps also with the inhabitants of the Bicol
peninsula. In the Visayas, the people of Leyte rose in revolt in 1588, under
the leadership of one local chief who killed the Spanish encomendero of
Abuyog. Similar disturbances also arose at the same time in Cebu and
Panay.213
THE CEBUANO REVOLTS OF 1589
As in Leyte, the people of Cebu began their revolt by slaying some
encomenderos and their military escorts when these came to collect the
tribute for 1589. The Cebuanos then seized "the women" 214 – apparently
referring to the female members of the Spaniards' households. These were
detained and were not rescued until the alcaldemayor of Cebu, leading some
fifty or sixty Spanish soldiers, and a number of native mercenaries, launched
a successful counterattack. A good number of the Cebuano warriors were
killed in the encounter, and the captured leaders were later hanged.
But in June, 1589, the alcaldemayor discovered a new Cebuano

conspiracy, hatched in concert with the peoples of the neighboring islands, to
burn the Spanish city of Cebu and massacre all the Spaniards. Acting
quickly, he arrested the chief conspirators, and dealt with them in the same
50
harsh fashion as Governor Vera had done to the Tagalog chiefs. Five of the
top Cebuano leaders, probably including Rajah Tupas' son Pisuncan, were
beheaded, while the rest were exiled, imprisoned, or otherwise punished.215
THE CAGAYAN REVOLT OF 1589
In 1579, a Spanish party under Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion had
attempted to establish a settlement, which they called Valladolid, at the
mouth of the Cagayan River. They soon had to abandon the effort, however,
when nearly all of them fell ill..216 Beginning 1581, the region became a
source of concern to the Spaniards, due to rumors that the Japanese had
occupied the mouth of that river. At that time, the chief Japanese import
from Luzon was a type of native earthen jar, which was discovered to be an
excellent container for keeping tea, without losing its desired taste and
aroma. In Japan, these jars were usually lined on the outside with beaten
gold and decorated with typical Japanese designs. Highly valued by wealthy
Japanese, these jars often fetched fantastic prices, so that the strongman
Hideyoshi himself claimed a strict monopoly over their import.217
Unable to countenance this rival intrusion into Luzon, the Spaniards
determined to oust the Japanese. When Captain Carrion and a force of seven
galleys and frigates returned to Cagayan in 1582, he encountered the
Japanese as soon as he rounded Cape Bojeador at the northern end of the
IIocos coast. Near that cape, he engaged and grappled with a Japanese vessel
bearing 200 men. The battle was furious, and the Spaniards suffered serious
casualties, though in the end, the Spanish superiority in numbers prevailed
and only eighteen Japanese survived to surrender. As Carrion entered the
Cagayan River, he found another eleven Japanese vessels, a fortified
settlement, and reportedly about 1,000 Japanese warriors and traders. After
an unsuccessful initial attempt, Carrion finally forced an entry into the river
mouth, and fortified himself in a suitable location some six leagues (nearly
thirty kilometers) upriver.218 Eventually, the Spaniards drove out the
Japanese and established a Spanish settlement, called Nueva Segovia, near
51
the mouth of the Cagayan River. The first missionaries which accompanied
this expedition were Bishop Salazar's vicargeneral and fellow Dominican,
Fray Cristobal de Salvatierra, and an Augustinian, Fray Francisco
Rodriguez.219
Early in 1589, two Spanish soldiers came rushing to Manila from

Nueva Segovia to report that the entire province of Cagayan was up in arms.
The rebels had been reportedly bold enough to enter the Spanish settlement,
slaying many Spaniards, including the encomendero, Captain Martin de
Barrios. In response to the urgent request of the alcaldemayor of Cagayan,
Governor Vera sent the masterofcamp Pedro de Chaves, with 60 Spanish
soldiers and more than 800 native auxiliaries. Chaves devastated the
Cagayan countryside, cutting down coconut trees and burning rice fields, and
forcing the people to return to their villages. In retaliation, the people burnt
their homes and took to the mountains.220 Twice a Spanish punitive
expedition went to Cagayan, but on each occasion achieved nothing
substantial, since the people had free access to their mountain retreats.221
SPANISH ASSESSMENT OF THE SITUATION
In describing the stern measures he adopted to suppress the

conspiracies and uprisings in 15871589, Governor Santiago de Vera wrote to
King Philip II in July, 1589:
Without any fuss whatever, I beheaded seven of the authors of this
rebellion [i.e., the "Tondo Conspiracy"] – sons, nephews, and grandsons of the
lords of this land. Others who were not as guilty I punished with exile to
Nueva España and with other penalties, so that it seems that this
disturbance is now over. After that, in the province of Cebu and in that called
the Pintados, the chiefs held a conference, and plotted to kill the Spaniards.
The majority of those who took part in this have been imprisoned, and
proceedings are being instituted against them. I think this will cause us but
little trouble.222
52
It need only be added that, in the case of the Cebu uprising, the
Spaniards ultimately had to execute, as in Manila, the chief leaders of the
rebellion, to insure the nonrecurrence of trouble in the future.
Not as confident, however, was the opinion expressed by the fiscal of
the Royal Audiencia of Manila, Don Gaspar de Ayala, who wrote to the king
two days afterwards. As Ayala put it:
I am ready to certify that there are few places in these islands where the
natives are not disaffected. When there is any uprising they communicate with one
another, make allies, and send messengers to keep up relations. This is because the
Indians know that they are separated from one another, and that their punishments
are not inflicted as they formerly were, under a military regime, but by a judicial
order.223
Ayala added that the drastic measures Governor Vera had taken
against the rebel leaders had made the people "somewhat cowed," but he
himself was not too sure of that.224 That antiSpanish sentiment at that time
was widespread may be gleaned from a line in the Royal Audiencia report of
July 13, 1589, which says: "In many other parts and provinces, there are
disturbances, and [hostile] yndios kill many Spaniards and peaceful native
inhabitants, all these giving them temerity (atrevimiento) to see how few [our
people] are and with what difficulty do we mete out punishment due to the
extreme poverty of the royal coffers."225 Indeed, it was not until after 1591,
under a new governor, Don Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, that the Spaniards
were able to bring the situation under control. When the hitherto unsubdued
Zambals began harrassing nearby pacified areas, Dasmariñas, backed by the
religious orders who thought that such provocation sufficed to wage a just
war, ordered in 1591 a force of about 126 Spaniards and up to 3,500
Pampango native auxiliaries to devastate Zambales. The military expedition
slew or took captive more than 2,500 Zambals of both sexes; 400 of the male
captives were thereafter promptly made galley slaves.226 Nevertheless,
succeeding years would show that the people of Cagayan and the Zambales
were far from having been completely subjugated.
53
IMPLICATIONS FOR EVANGELIZATION
These episodes raise an important question with regard to the

missionaries' continuing task of evangelization. Simply put, in the light of the
apparently widespread discontent and hostility towards the Spaniards, how
could the friars be able to carry on effectively their task? The measures taken
by Governor Vera may have broken once and for all the power of the upper
classes of the Tagalogs and the Cebuanos. But this destruction of the native
ruling classes was something that would take decades for the Spaniards to
live down and for the Filipinos to forget. Undoubtedly, these measures
inspired fear but certainly did not elicit loyalty to the conquistador.
What is immediately apparent is that the missionary task was made
doubly difficult. Bishop Salazar blamed the sorry state of affairs during the
years immediately before 1590 on the indifference of the secular authorities
towards their religious duties, as well as the abuses and excesses committed
in connection with the collection of tributes. For even those people who had
already been baptized were reportedly so harassed by forced labor on various
public projects and personal enterprises of many Spaniards that these
baptized converts hardly had any time to receive religious instruction. There
was also so much shifting of population, even within the immediate vicinity
of Manila itself, as people tried to avoid the tribute and were forced later, so
that many people could not be given systematic instruction in their newly
embraced faith.
The pentup resentments of the Filipinos finally erupted in the

conspiracies and revolts of 15871588. As the last decade of the sixteenth
century unfolded, the overarching question might have been: how could the
missionaries somehow make the Filipinos understand that their purpose did
not quite completely coincide with that of the conquistador?
– p. 262
54
Notes
1. Miguel de Loarca, "Relación de las Yslas Filipinas por Miguel de Loarca. Tratado de las yslas
Philipinas en que, se Contiene todas las yslas y poblagones que. estan Reduçidas. Al
seruiçio de la magd. del Rey Don phelippe nro seiior y las poblagones de. estan fundadas
de españoles y la manera del gouierno de Espaiioles y naturales con Algunos condiçiones
de los yndios y moros destas yslas" (with accompanying English translation), in BRPI, V:
38.
2. See "Relación mui circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el Real y campo de la Isla de Zebu de las
Islas Philipinas desde 1 de Junio de 1565, que su Gobernador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi
despacho la Nao Capitana de su Armada a descubrir la Navegacion de la vuelta para
Nueva España; y de los varios descubrimientos y conquistas que hizo en aguellas Islas
hasta el mes de Julio 1567 ... ," in CDIU, 2nd series, III: 122.
3. Ibid., 122.
4. This practice seems to have begun about 1538, with the conversion of three, and later seven,
entire villages on the island of Amboina. A further example was the case of the people of
Makassar (modern Udjung Pandan) in southern Celebes, who, in seeking an alliance with
the Portuguese. at Ternate, also agreed to be evangelized. On the evangelization of these
places, see Hubert Jacobs, "Brief Notes on the Vicars and Other Secular Clerics of the
Portuguese Fortress in Maluku up to 1605," Neue Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft,
XXXI (1975), 217f.
5. Juan Martinez, "Relación detallada de los sucesos ocurridos durante el viaje de la nao San
Jerónimo que salio de Acapulco bajo el mando de Pero Sanchez Pericon y por piloto a
Lope Martin, con el objeto de llevar auxilios a Legazpi, y la noticia de arribo a Nueva
España del navio San Pedro. Fue escrita dicha relacion en Cebu a 25 de Julio de 1567,
por Juan Martinez, que iba de soldado en la propia nao. Narrase en ells ademas lo
ocurrido en aquel campo desda su llegada hasta la fecha de la misma relacion," dated
Cebu, July 25, 1567, in CDIU, 2nd series, III: 465.
6. On the idea of "Christopaganism," see William Madsen, Christopaganism: A Study of
Mexican Religious Syncretism (New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute,
Tulane University, 1957); and Tetsunao Yamamori and Charles R. Tauber, eds.,
Christopaganism or Indigenous Christianity? (South Pasadena, Cal.: William Carey
Library, 1975).
7. "Relación mui circunstanciada de lo ocurrido en el Real," 126.
8. Fray Felix de Huerta, O.F.M., Estado geográfico, topográfico, estadístico, históricoreligioso,
de la Santa y apostólica provincia de S. Gregorio Magno, de religiosos menores descalzos
de la regular y más estrecha observancia de N.S.P. S. Francisco, en las Islas Filipinas
(Binondo: Imp. de M."Sanchez y Ca., 1865), 183184.
55
9. Fray E. P. Jorde, O.S.A., Catdlogo biobibliográfico de los religiosos agustinos de la Prouincia
del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús de las Islas Filipinas desde su fundación hasta nuestros
dias (Manila, 1901), 910.
10. For the names of these Augustinians, twelve in all by 1571, see HPAF, I: 158159.
11. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, "Copia de carta que el general miguel lópez de legazpi strive al
virrey de la nueva españa, fecha en la ciudad de Manila a XI de agosto de 1572," dated
Manila, August 11, 1572, in HPAF, XIV : 129.
12. See "Relación anónima de la conquista de la isla de Luzón; de la expedicion que hizo el
capitan Juan de Salcedo; de las costumbres, trajes, etc., de los naturales de esta isla cuya
situation describe, asi como la de Mindanao y otras," dated Manila, April 20, 1572, in
HPAF, XIV: 96.
13. Fray Martin de Rada, O.S.A., "Copia de una carta quel Padre fray martín de Rada, prounçial
de la orden de San augustín, que reside en la China, escriue al Virrey de la nueua españa;
fecha en la çiudad de manilla a 10 de Agosto de 1572 años," dated Manila, August 10,
1572, in HPAF, XIV : 111.
14. Legazpi, "Copia de carta que el general miguel lópez de legazpi strive al virrey de la nueva
españa," in HPAF, XIV: 124.
15. Ibid., 126. See also "Relation of the Voyage to Luzon," dated May 8, 1570, in BRPI, III: 101
102.
16. Legazpi, "Copia de carta que el general miguel lópez de legazpi strive al virrey de la nueva
españa," in HPAF, XIV : 126.
17. "Voyage to Luzon," in BRPI, III: 102.
18. Ibid.
19. "Relación anónima de la conquista de Luzón," 96.
20. Juan de Maldonado, "Carta en relación de Juan de Maldonado tocante al viage y población de
la isla de Luzón en Filipinas, que emprendió Martín de Goyti por mandado del
Gobernador de la isla de Panae en aquel pays, López de Legazpi," dated Rio de Panay,
May 6, 1572, in HPAF, XIV: 106.
21. "Voyage to Luzon," in BRPI, III: 92.
22. [Riquel, Fernando (Hernando)], "Pacificación y amistad hechan entre el Rey y los naturales
de Manila, fecha en la isla de Luzón a 18 de mayo, y posesión que se tomó a nombre de
su magestad el general miguel lópez de legazpi de Manila," dated Manila, May 18, 1571,
in HPAF, XIV : 70.
23. Legazpi, "Copia de carta que el general miguel lópez de legazpi scrive al virrey de la nueva
24. "Relación anónima de la conquista de Luzon," 79.
56
25. The anonymous author thus spoke approvingly of Fray Diego de Herrera who, while still in
Panay, "preached to us everyday and pleaded much in the sermons which he did in public
and in private that the island be relinquished, and the people be not allowed to suffer so
much want." Then again, he said that he would have to give very little credit to the many
chroniclers among the Spaniards, save Fray Diego de Herrera and Fray Martin de Rada,
who, "being friars ... shall write all the truth." (See ibid., 83, 96).
26. Ibid. 93.
27. Isacio Rodriguez Rodriguez, O.S.A., in HPAF, XIV: 93n., citing J. M. Echevarria, O.R.S.A.,
"Origenes de las misiones de Agustinos Recoletos en el Extreme Oriente,"Missionalia
Hispanica, X (1953), 127128.
28. See Andrés de Mirandaola, "Carta a Felipe II de Andrés de Mirandaola, dándole importantes
noticias de las Islas Filipinas," dated Mexico, April 1, 1574, in HPAF, XIV : 177.
29. Maldonado, "Carta en relación de Juan de Maldonado," 106.
30. Rada, "Copia de una carta quel Padre fray martín de Rada," in HPAF, XIV : 113.
31. An unpublished document given the title "Lakandula, the Ruler of Tondo," notarially
authenticated back to the original, which is dated Manila, November 24, 1660, says that
Lakandula "had Don Dionisio Capulong and his other sons baptized, as the said
Lacandola was afterwards himself, at which baptism the said Lord Governor showed him
great honor by ordering the artillery and arquebuses which are now in the City
discharged." As quoted by William Henry Scott, Cracks in the Parchment Curtain and
Other Essays in Philippine History (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1982), 261262.
In Governor Santiago de Vera's report, dated Manila, May 25, 1589, he spoke of
Felipe Salonga, chief of Polo in Bulacan, as the "brother" Dionisio Capulong, chief of
Candaba in Pampanga. Magat Salamat is also described as a "son of the old ruler of this
land." See the footnote material supplied by Father Pablo Pastells, S.J. to Francisco
Colin, S.J., Labor evangelica: ministerios apostólicos de los obreros de la Compania de
lesus, fundación, y progressos de su provincia en las Islas Filipinas [1663]. New ed.,
illus., annotated, and documented Father Pablo Pastells, S.J. (Barcelona: Imprenta y
Litograffa de Henrich y Compaiiia, 19001902),1: 173n.176n.
32. Scott, Cracks in the Parchment Curtain, 261262.
33. Rada, "Copia de una carta quel Padre fray martín de Rada," in HPAF, XIV : 113.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's Voyage Around the World, by Antonio Pigafetta, trans. and
annotated James Alexander Robertson, 2 vols. + index (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark
Co., 1906),1: 160.
37. Rada, "Copia de una carta quel Padre fray martín de Rada," in HPAF, XIV: 113.
57
38. Guido de Lavezares, "Carta a S.M. del Governador de Filipinas, Guido de Lavezares, dando
cuenta de sus servicios, de la situación de la isla de Luzón, conversiones operadas entre
los naturales, y recomendando a otras personas," dated Manila, June 29, 1573, in HPAF,
XIV : 151.
39. Andrés de Cauchela and Salvador de Aldave to King Philip II, dated Manila, July 17, 1574, in
AGI, Audiencia de Filipinas, 29; as cited by HPAF, XIV : 197n.
40. Guido de Lavezares, "Carta del Governador General de Filipinas, Guido de Lavezares, a S.M.
dándole relación del estado de dichas Islas, necesidades que padecen, quejas que ha
tenido de los agustinos por causa de los tributos," dated Manila, July 30, 1574, in HPAF,
XIV : 198.
41. Lavezares, "Carta a S.M. del Governador de Filipinas, Guido de Lavezares," in HPAF, XIV :
151.
42. Lavezares, "Carta del Governador General de Filipinas, Guido de Lavezares," in HPAF,
XIV : 197.
43. Legazpi, "Copia de carta que el general miguel lbpez de legazpi scrive al virrey de la nueva
44. Fray Martfn de Rada, O.S.A., "Carta al Virrey de México del P. Martín de Rada, dándole
cuenta de cómo Juan de Salcedo fué a la conquista de Vicor e IIocos, atropellos que se
cometen con los indios, aumento de la doctrina, de las viruelas, y clases de esclavitud,"
dated Manila, June 30, 1574, in HPAF, XIV : 185.
45. Lavezares, "Carta a S.M. del Governador de Filipinas, Guido de Lavezares," in HPAF, XIV :
152153.
46. [Augustinians]. "Memoria de los Religiosos de las yslas del poniente de cosas quel padre fray
Diego de Herrera á de tratar con su magestad o su Real consejo de yndias," dated
[Manila, 1573?], in HPAF, XIV: 167.
47. Rada, "Carta al Virrey de Mexico del P. Martín de Rada," in HPAF, XIV : 184.
48. Rodriguez, HPAF, X: 28n., citing Archivo de la Prouincia agustiniana del Smo. Nombre de
Jesús de Filipinas (Madrid), Libro de Gobierno de la Provincia, I, fol. 19rv.
49. See BRPI, III: 60n., citing the report of Mirandaola.
50. "Memoria de los Religiosos de las yslas del poniente," in HPAF, XIV: 164.
51. "Relación anónima de la conquista de Luzón," in HPAF, XIV: 97.
52. Agustinians. Memorials., "Memoria de los Religiosos de las yslas del poniente," in HPAF,
XIV: 165. Cf. "Relación del orden que la gente española, que por mandado de su
magestad salió de la nueva españa para las islas Philipinas, á tenido y tiene en pacificar la
tierra y sustentarse en ella," dated September 17, 1574, in HPAF, XIV : 229.
58
53. Augustinians. Memorials., "Memoria de los Religiosos de las yslas del poniente," in HPAF,
XIV : 165166.
54. Fray Martfn de Rada, O.S.A., "Carta del P. Martin de Rada, OSA., al P. Alonso de la
Veracruz, OSA., drandole noticias de las costumbres, ritos y clases de esclavitud que hay
en las Filipinas, con otras informaciones importantes de las Islas," dated Calompit, July
16, 1577, in HPAF, XIV: 486.
XIV : 164.
56. Rada, "Carta del P. Martin de Rada, OSA., al P. Alonso de la Veracruz," dated July 16, 1577,
in HPAF, XIV: 479.
XIV : 167.
58. Lin Feng ("Limahong") was a native of Kwangtung province, and as a pirate was pursued by
elements of the Chinese army and navy under the command of his viceroys of Fukien and
Kwangtung provinces. Some Chinese accounts claim that Lin Feng operated under the
command of a more notorious pirate chief named Lin Taochian, before coming to Luzon
on his own. See Wu Chinghong, "A Study of References to the Philippines in Chinese
Sources from Earliest Times to the Ming Dynasty," Philippine Social Sciences and
Humanities Review, XXIV (1959), 130131.
For contemporaneous Spanish accounts of the Limahong invasion, see Fray Agustin de
Alburquerque, "Carta del P. Agustin de Alburquerque comunicando el suceso del
corsario Limahon, que habia ido contra la isla de Luzon con 70 navros," dated Campo de
Pangasinan, June 5, 1575, in HPAF, XIV: 234262. See also Francisco de Sande, "Carta a
Felipe II del Gobernador de Filipinas, doctor Sande. Da cuenta de su llegada y accidentes
de su viaje; de la que falta que hay alli de todo, y habla de Religiosos, minas, de la China,
Mindanao, Borneo, etc.," dated Manila, June 7, 1576, in HPAF, XIV: 389403. Cf.
"Copia de una carta que escrive la qiudad de Manila, de las Islas Philipinas, al Visorrey
de la nueva Espaiia," dated Manila, June 2, 1576, in HPAF, XIV: 365375.
59. See Sande, "Carta de Felipe II," in HPAF, XIV: 393, 396.
60. As Lavezares himself put it: ". . . tenia yo presos a dos principales desta uaya, el uno que se
decia lumanatlan, porque aura tornado igierta cantidad de oro a otro prinqipal para que lo
boluiese, y al otro se decia raxa el uago, porque al ynstante que los sangleyes vinieron se
hallo conmigo, y entendiendo que eran burneyes los mande lleuar a la carcel, a los quales
mataron estando presos en la carcel, diciendo que ellos sauian la benida de los borneyes,"
(I had as prisoners two chiefs of this bay, the first, named Lumanatlan, because he had
taken a certain quantity of gold to another chief, and so that this might be returned; and
the other, called the New Rajah, because the moment the Chinese arrived I found him
around, and understanding that they were Borneans, I ordered them placed in jail; both
were killed in prison, they having said that they knew of the coming of the Borneans.), in
La Ciudad de Dios, XXXV (1894), 435, as quoted by FlPAF, XIV : 243.
59
61. Sande, "Carta a Felipe II," in HPAF, XIV: 395.
62. See HPAF, I: 167, citing Fray Juan de Grijalva, O.S.A., Cr~nica de la Orden de N.P. S.
Agustin en las Provincias de la Nueva España (Mexico, 1624), fol. 151. Cf. Sande, "Carta
a Felipe II," in HPAF, XIV: 420.
63. Ibid.
64. Alburquerque, "Carta del P. Agustin de Alburquerque comunicando el suceso del corsario
Limahón," in HPAF, XIV : 243.
65. See HPAF, XIV : 244n., citing Lavezares' testimony published in Ciudad de Dios, XXXV:
433434.
66. Ibid. See also "Copia de una carta que escrive la ciudad de Manila," in HPAF, XIV : 371.
67. Ibid.
68. HPAF, I: 167168. See also Juan de Medina, O.S.A., Historia de la orden de N. gran P. S.
Agustfn de esta Islas Filipinas, desde que se descubrieron y poblaron por los espanoles
(1630), in Biblioteca Historica Filipina (Manila: TipoLitografica de Chofre y Comp.,
1893), IV: 94.
69. "Copia de una carta que escrive la ciudad de Manila," in HPAF, XIV: 369.
70. For more details, see Alburquerque, "Carta del P. Agustin de Alburquerque comunicando el
suceso del corsario Limahon," in HPAF, XIV : 235236. See also "Copia de una carta que
escrive la ciudad de Manila," in HPAF, XIV : 369. Cf. Oficiales Reales, "Carta a Felipe
II de los Oficiales de Filipinas, Guido de Lavezares, Andres de Cauchela, Andrés de
Mirandaola y Salvador de Aldave, dándole cuenta de la venida de Limahón, viaje a China
de los agustinos Martin de Rada y Jerónimo Marin, de las minas de oro, y cuentas que les
ha tomado el Gobernador Dr. Francisco de Sande," dated Manila, June 6, 1576, in HPAF,
XIV : 383, 402403.
71. See Sande, "Carta a Felipe II," in HPAF, XIV: 397.
72. Fray Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, O.S.A., "History of the Great Kingdom of China" (1585), in
BRPl, VI: 103.
74. See Jose Montero y Vidal, Historia general de Filipinas desde el descubrimiento de dichas
Islas hasta nuestros dias, 3 vols. (Manila: M. Tello, 18871895), 1: 136137.
75. See "Expeditions to Borneo, Jolo, and Mindanao," in BRPI, IV: 148152.
76. For the full text, see Francisco de Sande, "Carta del Doctor Francisco de Sande, Gobernador
de Filipinas, al Rey de Borneo, pidiéndo venga de paz y amistad con el Rey de España,
que tiene establecido ya sus dominio sobre las Islas Filipinas," dated Borneo, April 1578,
in HPAF, XIV : 506508. An English translation of this same letter also appears in BRPl,
IV: 152155.
60
77. The Augustinians' objections to the Borneo expedition are in the letter of Fray Alonso de
Castro, O.S.A., dated Calompit, June 12, 1578, in Fray Gregorio de Santiago Vela,
O.S.A., "Fragmentos de correspondencia de los primeros misioneros agustinos de
Filipinas," AHHA, XVIII (1922), 146.
78. Sir Hugh Low, "Selesilah (Book of Descent) of the Rajas of Brunei," The Journal of the
Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, V (1880), 10.
79. Rada, "Carta del P. Martin de Rada, O.S.A., al P. Alonso de la Veracruz," dated April 25,
1578, in HPAF, XIV: 505. See also "Relación de la isla de burney y jornada que allá hizo
el doctor francisco de sande, gobernador y capitán general de las yslas philipinas,
precisamente (?) este aiio de setenta y ocho," dated Manila, July 29, 1578, in HPAF,
XIV: 522.
80. "Relación de la isla de burney," in HPAF, XIV : 523.
81. For the text of the Portuguese king's letter, see BRPI, IV: 173174. 82. "Relación de la isla de
burney," in HPAF, XIV : 523.
83. D. E. Brown, "Four Brief Notes on the History of Brunei," The Brunei Museum Journal, II
(1971), 173.
84. "Relación de isla de burney," in HPAF, XIV : 520. 85. Ibid., 521.
86. Francisco Colin, S.J., Labor evangelica, I: 163n.
87. Fray Martín de Rada to Fray Alonso de la Veracruz, O.S.A., dated Manila, June 7, 1577, as
cited by Santiago Vela, O.S.A., "Fragmentos de correspondencia," in AHHA, XVIII:
158159.
88. Martin Enriquez, "Carta del Virrey de Nueva España, D. Martin Enriquez, a Felipe II sobre
varios asuntos de gobierno. Da ... noticias llegadas de las Indias de Poniente por cartas de
su governador, D. Francisco de Sande, de Guido Lavezarii, que fue el primero que dió
orden para la entrada de la china; y otras muchas sosas," dated Mexico, October 31, 1576,
in HPAF, XIV : 447.
89. The Jesuit historian, Father Pablo Pastells, S.J., in a footnote to Colin's Labor evangelica, II:
315n., says: "Ya en 1575 [the correct date is 1576] habia naufragado en las costas de
Catanduanes la nao Espiritu Santo en que pereció el P. Herrera, con todos los que en ellas
iban, a excepción de Geronimo Albez y otro español que se le arrimó, los cuales por
hablar la lengua de los naturales fueron hechos esclavos, hasta que los libertb Pedro de
Chaves, cuando fué alla para castigar a los naturales por los asesinatos cometidos en las
personas de los naufragos."
This seems to be a correction to an earlier footnote by Pastells in the same work (see 1:
25), where he says that the only survivor was Geronimo Albez, "vezino antiguo de las
Islas Bisayas, porque sabía hablar en su lengua."
61
For a contemporaneous account of the fate of the shipwrecked men, written a fortnight
after the incident, see "1576. Testimonio de la información y diligencias hechas en la
costa de la isla de Catanduanes, una de las filipinas, sobre la muerte y paradero de una
embarcación española, que habia dado al trabes en aquellas inmediaciónes, cuya
tripulación fue en parte ahogada y en parte muerta por los yndios," dated Isla de
Catanduanes, May 7, 1576, in HPAF, XIV: 359362.
This source identifies the assailants as the inhabitants of the river settlements of Laut and
Siut in Catanduanes. When a local man named Siango was subsequently interrogated by
the Spanish lieutenant Juan Arce de Sardonil, the former admitted that the people of Siut
had told him that they were keeping two captives. Another respondent named Sialon said
that one of the persons spared was a mere youth. (See ibid., 362, 364.) A later
Augustinian historian opined that this youth was probably the "Filipino servant of Padre
Herrera, who had gone with him to Spain, and whom Philip II had allowed to return to
the islands," quite incorrectly adding, "and this could have been the only one among the
passengers who managed to reach the shore." See Santiago Vela, "Fragmentos de
correspondencia," in AHHA, VIII (1917), 214n.
90. See "Copia de una carta que escrive la qiudad de Manila," in HPAF, XIV : 376.
91. See HPAF, XIV : 509n., citing Archivo de la Provincia Agustiniana del Smo. Nombre de
Jesús de Filipinas (Madrid), Libro de Gobierno de la Provincia, I, fol. 31rv.
92. Fray Juan de Alba, O.S.A., "Carta del P. Juan de Alba, y otros, al
P. Alonso de la Veracruz," dated Manila, June 8, 1577, in HPAF, XIV: 466.
94. Letter of Sande to the viceroy of Mexico, dated Manila, June 7, 1577, in AGI (Seville),
Audiencia de Filipinas, 6; as cited by HPAF, XIV: 435n.
95. See HPAF, 1: 286.
96. As cited in Santiago Vela, "Fragmentos de correspondencia," AHHA, XVIII (1922), 156.
97. Rada, "Copia de una carta quel Padre fray martfn de Rada, in HPAF, XIV: 113.
98. Echevarria, "Origenes de las misiones de Agustinos Recoletos," 127.
99. Legazpi, "Copia de carta que el general miguel lópez de legazpi scrive al virrey de la nueva
españa," in HPAF, XIV: 129.
101. Fray Agustin de Alburquerque, O.S.A., "Cartacircular del Provincial Fr. Agustin de
Alburquerque a todos los religiosos de la Provincia de agustinos de las Islas Filipinas,"
dated Lubao, August 20, 1578, in HPAF, XIV : 526527.
102. Ibid. Evidence for the existence of Rada's Cebuano vocabulary is given by Fray Juan de
Medina, O.S.A., who wrote in 1630 that in 1612, while he was a conventual in Cebu, he
62
had seen this vocabulario. (See Medina, Historia de la orden de N. gran P.S. Agustin, 54.)
The Jesuit, Father Pedro Chirino, writing in 1604, also speaks of this uocabulario and
claims to have seen and studied it while he was in Cebu. See Pedro Chirino, S.J.,
Relación de las islas Filipinas y de los que en ellas an trabajado los padres de la
Compania de Jesus (Rome, 1604). New Edition (Manila: Esteban Balbas, 1890), 8.
103. Huerta, Estado geografico, 443, 492.
104. HPAF, XIV: 528n., citing "Primera parte de la Historia de la Provincia de Philipinas de
Compania de Jesús," reproduced in Martinez Vigil, "La escritura," Revista de Filipinas, II
(1876), 33.
105. Fray Eusebio Gomez Platero, O.F.M., Catdlogo biogrdfico de los religiosos franciscanos de
la provincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas, desde 1577 en que llegan los primeros
a Manila hasta los de nuestros dias (Manila: Imprenta del Real Colegio de Santo Tomas,
1880),.33.
106. Fray Diego de Aduarte, O.P. Historia de la Provincia del Santrsimo Rosario de la Orden de
Predicadores en Filipinas, Japón y China (1640). First published in Zaragoza, 1693. New
ed. Manuel Ferrero, O.P., 2 vols. (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas, 19621963), 1: 117.
107. See King Philip III to Archbishop Miguel de Benavidez, O.P., dated 1603, in BRPI, XXI:
51. See also the king's letter to the Royal Audiencia in Madrid, dated November 14,
1603, in BRPI, XXI: 52n.
109. "Relación del orden que la gente española, que por mandado de su magestad salió de la
nueva españa para las islas Philipinas, á tenido y tiene en pacificar la tierra y sustentarse
en ella," dated [September 17, 1574], inHPAF, XIV: 231.
110. Fray Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, O.S.A., "History of the Great Kingdom of China," in
BRPI, VI: 149.

174. See "Anales Eclesiasticos," Philippiniana Sacra, II (1967), 193201. Cf. Pablo Fernandez,
O.P., The Church in the Philippines (15211898) (Manila: National Book Store, 1979),
2829.
175. For the English translation of this bull, and for the authenticity of this date and year (1579,
not 1578!), see "400th Year of the Archdiocese of Manila Bulletin," I: 2 (October, 1978),
57.
176. Fray Andres de Salazar, O.S.A., to Bishop Fray Domingo de Salazar, O.P., dated Mexico,
February 12, 1583, in Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio, O.F.M., Chronicas de la
apostolica prouincia de religiosos descalzos de N.S. P. San Francisco de San Gregorio
63
Magno, 3 vols. (Sampaloc & Manila: [Impr. de la Provincia de San Gregorio Magno],
17381744), 1: 585591. Cf. ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, I: 311313.
177. See HPAF, I: 258259.
178. Don Gaspar de Ayala, fiscal of the Royal Audiencia of Manila, to King Philip II, dated
Manila, July 15, 1589, as cited by HPAF, I: 288.
179. Bishop Domingo de Salazar, "Relación de las cosas de las Filipinas" [1583], in Wenceslao
E. Retana, Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino: Recopilación de documentos históricos,
científicos, literarios, y estudios bibliográficos, 5 vols. (Madrid: Impr. de la viuda de M.
Minuesa de los Rios, 18951905), III: 13.
180. Ibid., 14.
181. Ibid.
182. Ibid.
183. Ibid., 5.
184. Ibid., 14.
185. Ibid., 56.
186. Ibid., 1516.
187. Ibid., 4.
188. Thus, Legazpi had exempted Lakandula's descendants from tributes and personal services
(tributos, polos y servicios personales) and those of Rajah Soliman from manual services
(oficios y servicios mecánicos). See "Pleito promovido contra los heredores de
Lakandola," (proceedings of the Royal Council of the Indies), dated Buen Retiro, August
30, 1751, in The Christianization of the Philippines, ed. and trans. Rafael Lopez, O.S.A.,
and Alfonso Felix, Jr. (Manila: Historical Conservation Society and University of San
Agustin, 1965), doc. xiii, 225.
Similar privileges had earlier been granted to the people of San Nicolas and Mandawe in
Cebu.
189. See deposition by the notary Salvador de Aragon, dated [Manila, June 15, 1582], in BRPI,
V: 190.
190. "Conspiracy Against the Spaniards: Testimony in Certain investigations made by Doctor
Santiago de Vera, president of the Philippines," dated Manila, May 20, 1589, in BRPI,
VII: 96. Cf. Costa, Jesuits in Philippines, 112.
191. By 1750, many of the descendants of Lakandula and Soliman already had Spanish family
names, but others were still surnamed "Lacandola," "Capolong," "Macapagal," etc. One
barangay captain from San Simon, Pampanga, who was specifically identified as a
64
descendant of Lakandula was named Don Sebastian Puyat. See "Pleito promovido," 224
249.
192. "Letter from Domingo de Salazar to Felipe II," dated Manila, June 22, 1582, in BRPI, V:
188.
193. Costa, Jesuits in Philippines, 112.
194. "Conspiracy Against the Spaniards," in BRPI, VII: 95.
195. The official accounts of this "Tondo Conspiracy" are Vera's report of May 20, 1589 and that
of the Royal Audiencia of Manila, dated July 13, 1589, as quoted in ColinPastells, Labor
evangelica, II: 172n.174n. The English translations of these documents are in BRPI, VII:
95f.
196. See ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, I: 51; II; 676. Cf. Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las
Islas Filipinas, por el Doctor Antonio de Morga [edition by Wenceslao E. Retana]
(Madrid: Victoriano Suarez, 1909), 407.
197. Governor Santiago de Vera to King Philip II, dated Manila, June 26, 1587, in BRPI, VI:
308309.
198. S. R. Turnbull, The Samurai: A Military History (New York : Macmillan Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1977), 134, 202205.
199. Governor Vera to Philip II, dated Manila, June 26, 1587, in BRPI, VI: 309. Vera added: "I
have kept this conference secret, and ordered it kept so, in order that the Chinese might
not hear of it, as they are a very suspicious and timorous race. I have made much of these
Japanese, and am treating them with especial hospitality." See ibid., 310.
200. "Conspiracy Against the Spaniards," in BRPI, VII: 99100. 201. Ibid.
202. See Huerta, Estado geografico, 53.
203. "Conspiracy Against the Spaniards," in BRPI, VII: 98, 100. (/
204. See "Letter from Gaspar de Ayala to Felipe II," dated Manila, July 15, 1589, in BRPI, VII:
121122. Ribadeneyra, Historia de las Islas del Archipielago, y reynos de la Gran China,
Tartaria, Cuchinchina, Malaca, Sian, Camboxa y lappdn, bk. 3, ch. vi, 210211. Cf, also
Gomez Platero, Catalogo biografico de los religiosos franciscanos, 2728.
205. On the passing visit of Candish's Desire, see "Letter from Domingo de Salazar to Felipe II,"
dated Manila, June 27, 1588, in BRPI, VII: 68. Cf. "Conspiracy Against the Spaniards,"
in BRPI, VII: 101. Cf. also Governor Vera to Philip II, dated Manila, June 23, 1588, in
ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, I: 55n., 175n.
206. Vera to Philip II, dated Manila, May 20, 1589,.in ColinPastells, Labor euangelica, I: 173n.
207. "Conspiracy Against the Spaniards," in BRPI, VII: 104105.y 208. Ibid., 106110.
65
209. See Nicolas Zafra, "The Colonization of the Philippines and the Beginnings of the Spanish
City of Manila" (Manila: National Historical Commission, 1574), 58.
210. "Letter from Gaspar de Ayala to Felipe II" (July 15, 1589), in BRPI, VII: 126.
211. On Pedro Ladia's insurrection, see "Insurrections by Filipinos in the Seventeenth Century,"
in BRPI, XXXVIII: 9899.
The family name "Ladia" seems to have been a local variant for "Rajah," as suggested by
a marginal note in an official record of the Royal Audiencia of Manila, dated October 30,
1753, which refers to los descendientes de los Regulos Lacandola Ladia, Matanda y Raja
Soliman. Whether the title "Ladia"for that is what it seemsrefers to Lakandula or
Matanda is immaterial; what is important is that it appears to be a variant for the regal
title. See "Pleito promovido," in Lopez and Felix, Christianization, 231.
212. Thus, a British document dated ca. 1759 speaks of conveying "the Sultan" to Manila,
apparently referring to the deposed Sulu sultan, Ali Muddin, as soon as the British had
wrested control over the Visayas and Mindanao from the Spaniards. The context of the
statement gives the impression that "the Sultan" had a claim over Manila, and such an
item of information could have been obtained by the British from the people of Sulu,
which in turn indicates the political hopes still entertained by the latter with regard to the
restoration of the old principality of Manila. See "Plan of an Expedition for the Conquest
of the Southern Philippines," dated "23 November 1762" (but this is obviously incorrect,
since the British by then had taken Manila; the above date probably refers to the time
when the document was received in London, hence, the document was most probably
prepared about 1759, in BRPI, XXXVIII: 43.
213. See Pastell's notes in ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, I: 176n.
214. "Letter from Gaspar de Ayala to Felipe II," July 15, 1589, in BRPI, VII: 122.
215. ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, 176n. See also Ayala to Philip II (July 15, 1589), in BRPI,
VII: 122.
216. Andres de Cauchela and Salvador de Aldave to King Philip II, dated [Manila], June 10,
1579, in AGI (Sevilla), Audiencia de Filipinas, 29; as cited in HPAF, XIV: 537n. Cf.
Sande, "Carta a S.M. del Gobernador de Filipinas, Doctor Francisco de Sande," in HPAF,
XIV : 535.
217. The Italian traveler Francesco Carletti, who visited Japan by way of the Philippines in 1597,
reported that upon docking at Nagasaki, their vessel was boarded by customs officials to
search the cargo and the personal effects of the crew and passengers, especially for
Philippine jars. Since the Filipinos dramatically raised the prices for such jars as soon as
they realized the great value the Japanese placed on these items, prices equally rose in
Japan so that by the end of the sixteenth century, some were valued at the fantastic sum
of what today would range from $625 to $3,400 in U.S. currency, per jarthat is, after
Japanese craftsmen had embellished these items. In 1615, the powerful daimyo of Sendai,
Date Masamune, reportedly bought one such jar, after it was gilded and otherwise
66
decorated, for the staggering sum of 130,000 scudi ($40,000 U.S. today). See "The
Carletti Discourse," trans. Bishop Trollope, in The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of
Japan, 2nd series, IX (1932), 6.
218. See "Letter from Peñalosa [Governor Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa] to Felipe II," dated
July 1, 1582, in BRPI, V: 197.
219. Ibid., 196197. See also Bishop Salazar to King Philip II, dated Manila, June 18, 1582, as
cited in HPAF, I: 253.
220. "Letter from Gaspar de Ayala to Felipe II" (July 15, 1589), in BRPI, VII: 135.
221. ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, I: 176n.
222. Governor Vera to King Philip II, dated Manila, July 13, 1589, in Colin Pastells, Labor
evangelica, I: 174n.
223. "Letter from Gaspar de Ayala to Felipe II" (July 15, 1589), in BRPI, VIII: 123.
224. Ibid., 124.
225. ColinPastells, Labor evangelica, I: 176n.
226. See "Letter from Gomez Perez Dasmariñas to the King," dated Manila, May 31, 1592, in
BRPI, VIII: 240241.
end.
67

Filipino Responses To Spanish Colonization and Evangelization

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Filipino Responses To Spanish Colonization and Evangelization

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Filipino Responses to Spanish Colonization and Evangelization

When contact with the Spaniards was unavoidable, the Visayans

blending submission and subterfuge, duplicity and dissimulation, in their

These artifices and chicaneries, of course, made the Cebuanos look

But they suddenly seemed to have pigs, chickens, and rice to spare

With the wider extension and increasing harshness of Spanish

This was apparently the reason – apart from the Augustinians'

What drew the earliest Filipino converts in the 1560s to accept

The very first convert of the Augustinians, the young woman

although in this instance, it may have been more of a case of political

Augustinian friars, considerations such as the above cannot be entirely

It is interesting to note that the first baptisms performed by the

During Legazpi's brief stopover of a fortnight at Mindoro while en

With this as an initial point of contact with the Sino­Japanese

After Juan Mahomat, the next Tagalog to be baptized – in whose

The author of this "Relacion," who evinced a markedly sympathetic

By the middle of 1572, three sons of Lakandula had been baptized.

The more patently religious conversions were those of a few others

These constant rumors of Bornean invasion kept Tagalog hopes

Due to lack of assistance from the encomenderos and the adverse

The Augustinians, however, were not as sanguine as Lavezares

many Christians (muchos cristianos) here in Manila, in Tondo, in Lubao, in

As previously noted, most of the conversions at this time in all the

Bexarano, because of the latter's excessive exactions. In reprisal, the

It was also reported in 1573 that a pirate named Carabis ravaged

Although there was disorder and lawlessness in the Visayas, the

Other Tagalog rebels profaned churches, smashed altar stones and

The Augustinian friars subsequently played an important role in

The disturbances occasioned by the Limahong invasion showed the

The Filipinos' resentment and resistance to the Spaniards were

to urgent appeals for more missionaries, Philip II began sending more

In the Actas of the Augustinian provincial chapter held at Manila on

In 1572, Rada remarked that "the greatest lack is in ministers and

Sometime earlier, Fray Martin de Rada had prepared what was

“The word of God makes greater impression on those places least

Moreover, although only heads of families were supposed to pay

have no opportunity to attend religious instruction. It sometimes

While the common people suffered from the harshness of the

the aftermath of the Limahong invasion. The plot was not only politically

The conspiracy began to materialize about July, 1587,195 when a

Governor Vera, however, being more concerned with consolidating

At this stage, a new but impatient member of the conspiracy, one

But in June, 1589, the alcalde­mayor discovered a new Cebuano

Early in 1589, two Spanish soldiers came rushing to Manila from

In describing the stern measures he adopted to suppress the

These episodes raise an important question with regard to the

The pent­up resentments of the Filipinos finally erupted in the

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With this as an initial point of contact with the SinoJapanese

But in June, 1589, the alcaldemayor discovered a new Cebuano

The pentup resentments of the Filipinos finally erupted in the