The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 40]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 40

cising the civil government in these islands. These
efforts were hindered by the efforts of the auditor
Don Alonso, former commander of the troops, and
Don Tomas de Endaya, master-of-camp of the army
in Manila- for which I refer to the account which
was given to his Majesty.
This, then, by way of preliminary. When the galleon "Santo Cristo de Burgos" set sail for Nueva
Espafia, there was little respite from negotiations of
this sort, as we had hoped would be the case until
the arrival of the new governor,' who thought that
he would certainly arrive that year. Thus ran the
talk of all. But, as the said bishop is so peculiar in
his decisions, he made an astonishing resolution;
this was, to go in person to the convent of San
Agustin, a little after two o'clock in the afternoon,
having crossed a great part of the city on foot, accompanied by two clerics (it is evident that they
must have been among the most unassuming ones),
laden with pistols and other weapons, in order to
take away from the said convent the dean, the cantor, and other prebends from the place where they
had taken refuge - their safety being, for fear of the
bishop, protected by royal decrees.
This performance gave much material for gossip,
in which the blame was laid upon the commander
of the troops and his favorite Don Tomas, and even
on the Augustinian friars themselves, for having all
left the city that day in order that thus the bishop
could carry out his purpose, without its being easy
to secure recourse from the violence which he intended; for the commander of troops had gone to take
supper at a country house, the provincial of St. AuDomingo Zabalburu de Echevarri (see VOL. xvII, p. 294).