The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803/Volume 4/Letter to Felipe II (1579)

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Royal decree regulating the foundation of monasteries

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume 4
edited by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson

Letter to Felipe II

Expeditions to Borneo, Jolo, and Mindanao

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3971858The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume 4 — Letter to Felipe IIEmma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson

LETTER FROM FRANCISCO DE SANDE TO FELIPE II

Royal Catholic Majesty:

Last year, seventy-eight, in July, I wrote to your Majesty and advised you of my expedition to the island of Borney, and its outcome. This year I sent thither a fleet, which brought news that the city had been rebuilt. The Moro king there detained the captain until he had placed his clothing and wives in safety. The captain, in accordance with his instructions, returned without doing them any damage. I am quite sure that that king will quietly submit, if we effect a settlement there.

The king of Jolo rendered obedience to your Majesty and surrendered his artillery. This year he gave as tribute a piece weighing fourteen quintals that must have been hidden away.

This year of seventy-nine, I sent an expedition to pacify the river of Mindanao. The king ruling there fled; but, as our people carried orders not to do any harm there also, peace was made, and some of the natives returned. If we plant a colony there, that king also will submit—which cannot be effected in any other way, because of our distance from there.

In August of seventy-eight a galleon and a large galley with five hundred men, and other necessary supplies for Maluco, passed Borney. It is said that one hundred were Portuguese and Spaniards, and the rest mestizos^[1] and people from Yndia. According to a Cafre [heathen], their hulks were in very poor condition. He says they were going to Maluco to collect the tribute which was lost three years ago. I am sending the investigations and accounts of this and of everything to your Majesty's royal Council, and am writing more in detail. I beg your Majesty to be so good as to favor this other world by examining this letter. Because of your Majesty's stringent orders not to go to Maluco, we have not gone thither. However, the compact, as I have advised your Majesty is not well considered; and Maluco is not comprehended in it, and is in your Majesty's demarcation.^[2] Thirty vessels leaving and returning to Sevilla could load cargoes of spices—pepper, camphor, and other drugs and spices. In these vessels, people could be brought from España, and a few fleets would populate this land, and clearly we could take possession of all of China; for by way of Nueva España the despatch of vessels will always be a trifling matter, and by way of the strait of Magallanes I do not believe that we can hope for so good a result. I am writing in detail regarding this to your Majesty's royal Council. I am writing also of the method which I think we should employ—namely, to settle in greater Java, whence we should despatch a vessel to Sevilla to give information of the route, although I believe that that made by the ship "Victoria" is not forgotten.

I have built a vessel here of six hundred toneladas, which can make the said voyage, if your Majesty will so order; and I am now building another. There is an excellent fleet of galleys; and with what was captured from the Borneans, and in Jolo and Vindanao, and with that taken from the Portuguese galley which I said was lost, we have more than two hundred pieces of artillery. From the useless pieces I am casting others. Certain Indians in this land have founded for me one piece weighing ninety quintals; and there is not in the castle of Milan a piece so well made. Another mold has been made, and the Indian says that he will make as many as are ordered. From Nueva España no favorable message, in regard to this or other things, is sent. Therefore if your Majesty wishes that China be yours in your days—please God, may they be many, as we your Majesty's servants need—it is necessary for the execution thereof that ships be sent here from Nueva España, since now we have some knowledge of this region, and the vessels have here a good port, and we know how to proceed.

This archipelago is secure from enemies, blessed be God. We have begun settlements—one in the province called Cagayan, in the northern part of this island, and sixty leagues from China.

In other letters I have begged your Majesty to be so kind as to favor me. Once more I bring this to your memory. I beg your Majesty to grant me a habit and an encomienda for myself, and another for one of my brothers. All of my brothers are serving your Majesty in the war, and I am sure that they deserve the most that I beg and entreat. I am writing to the royal council. I beg your Majesty to order that my case be examined, and to honor this office in which I serve you, and bestow favor upon one who has served you for so many years as I. May our Lord preserve your Majesty's Catholic and royal person, and increase you for many years as we, your servants and vassals, desire. Manila, in the island of Luçon, in Philipinas, May 30, 1579. Royal Catholic Majesty, your Majesty's loyal vassal and servant, who kisses your royal hands,

Doctor Francisco de Sande

[Endorsed: "Doctor Francisco de Sande. June four, 1581. He requests a habit and an encomienda. To the Council of the Indies." "Seen, and no answer is required."]

↑ Mestizo: the offspring of a white man and an Indian woman, or of an Indian man and a white woman—of course, almost entirely the former. See interesting notes on this subject by Retana, in his Zúñiga, ii, pp. 525*, 526*.
↑ Herrera says (Descripción de las Indias, cap. 26), that: "The West Indies [Indias del Poniente] comprise all the islands and mainland [Tierra firme] beyond the line of demarcation of Castilla and Leon, as far as the western bounds of that said demarcation, the line whereof passes around the other side of the world, through the city of Malacca." This is conformable with the law of February 22, 1632 (Recop. leyes Indias, lib. i, tit. xiv, ley xxxiii), which locates Japan and the Philippine Islands in the West Indies; it also corresponds with the Constitution (Onerosa) of Clement VIII, issued December 12, 1600, to be found in section 4, wherein the Philippines are located, it seems, in the West Indies, or what are considered as such. However, what really is the dividing line has not yet been decided.—Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

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[1] Mestizo: the offspring of a white man and an Indian woman, or of an Indian man and a white woman—of course, almost entirely the former. See interesting notes on this subject by Retana, in his Zúñiga, ii, pp. 525*, 526*.

[2] Herrera says (Descripción de las Indias, cap. 26), that: "The West Indies [Indias del Poniente] comprise all the islands and mainland [Tierra firme] beyond the line of demarcation of Castilla and Leon, as far as the western bounds of that said demarcation, the line whereof passes around the other side of the world, through the city of Malacca." This is conformable with the law of February 22, 1632 (Recop. leyes Indias, lib. i, tit. xiv, ley xxxiii), which locates Japan and the Philippine Islands in the West Indies; it also corresponds with the Constitution (Onerosa) of Clement VIII, issued December 12, 1600, to be found in section 4, wherein the Philippines are located, it seems, in the West Indies, or what are considered as such. However, what really is the dividing line has not yet been decided.—Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

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