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                   The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898

   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, commercial and religious conditions of those
   islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the
                    close of the nineteenth century,

                           Volume XXVI, 1636



 Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson
  with historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord
                                Bourne.





CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXVI


    Preface   9
    Documents of 1636

        The nuns of St. Clare at Manila. Miguel Perez, O.S.F., and
        others; Manila, 1635-36   19
        Relation of 1635-36. [Unsigned; Manila?]; June   31
        Letters to Felipe IV. Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera; Manila,
        June 30   60
        Letter to Father Felipe de Cardenas. Cristobal de Lara, S.J.;
        Manila, July 3   265
        Letter to Felipe IV. Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, Cavite,
        July 11   269
        Hospitals and hospital contributions. Sebastian Hurtado de
        Corcuera, and others; Manila, July-August   291

    Bibliographical Data   315





ILLUSTRATIONS


    View of city of Manila; photographic facsimile of engraving in
    Valentyn's _Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien_ (Dordrecht and Amsterdam,
    1724), i, p. 154; from copy in library of Wisconsin State
    Historical Society   33
    View of Malacca; photographic facsimile of engraving in _Recueil
    des voiages... de la Compagnie des Indes orientales_ (Amsterdam,
    1725); from copy in library of Wisconsin State Historical
    Society   45
    Map of Molucca Islands; photographic facsimile of map in Bellin's
    _Petit atlas maritime_ (Paris, 1764), iii, no. 68; from copy in
    library of Wisconsin State Historical Society   229
    View of the city of Macao; photographic facsimile of engraving in
    _Recueil des voiages Comp. Indes Orient. Pais-Bas_ (Amsterdam,
    1725), v, facing p. 208; from copy in the library of Wisconsin
    State Historical Society 275







PREFACE


The scope of the present volume is confined to the year 1636, but
enough of interest occurs within that time--thanks to the overflowing
energy of the new governor, Corcuera, who promptly reorganizes all
departments of the government; his controversies with the archbishop
and the friars; and the difficulties and dissensions which affect
the orders themselves. The greater part of this volume is occupied
by Corcuera's report for the first year of his governorship.

The nuns of St. Clare ask (probably in 1635) for certain favors from
the royal treasury; and their agent avails himself of this opportunity
to ask favors for his own order, the Franciscan Recollects. The nuns
themselves write to the king (June 30, 1636), through their abbess,
Ana de Christo, informing him of their progress and growth in the
Philippines, and other matters. They have founded a convent of
their order at Macao; and have built a house at Manila for their
residence. They complain that Governor Corcuera has driven the
Franciscans from the administration of the royal hospital, and coerced
the archbishop--the story of whose ill-treatment by the governor
they briefly repeat, asking the king to grant the prelate redress
therefor. They also ask that their confessor may have a cell at the
hospital, which is near them; and complain that their convent is
much injured by the walls and buildings that are being erected about
it--some of these arbitrarily ordered by the governor, who ignores
the needs and comfort of the nuns. They close with another appeal
for royal aid to finish the building of their convent, and thanks
for the king's effort to secure the canonization of their foundress.

A relation for the year 1635-36 describes the arrival at Manila
of Governor Corcuera, and narrates his controversies with the
archbishop. The account is more detailed and circumstantial than that