The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 42, 1670-1700: 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

In Short

This monumental volume gathers key historical source materials, official correspondence, and friar chronicles detailing the civil, economic, and religious turmoil of the Philippine Islands between 1670 and 1700. Dominated by the fierce jurisdictional clash between Archbishop Diego Camacho y Avila and the powerful monastic orders, as well as the extended historical records of the Augustinians, the text reveals a colony wrestling with internal administrative corruption, local revolts, diplomatic overtures from neighboring Asian rulers, and devastating natural plagues. It survives as an essential primary documentation of late Spanish colonial rule in East Asia.

The Story

The volume constructs an unvarnished portrait of the Philippine colony at the close of the seventeenth century through two central pillars: official records of the high-stakes Camacho ecclesiastical controversy and Casimiro Diaz's detailed Augustinian chronicle. The primary narrative arc opens with the arrival of Archbishop Diego Camacho y Avila in Manila, a determined prelate intent on enforcing canonical visitation over parish churches managed by regular friars. This initiative sparks immediate and fierce resistance from the established religious orders—the Augustinians, Dominicans, and others—who view diocesan oversight as a direct threat to their traditional autonomy, corporate privileges, and economic holdings.

As Camacho pushes forward with formal edicts and visits stations such as Tondo, Binondoc, and Santa Cruz, the friars respond with drastic defiance. Ministers abandon their parishes, consume the holy sacrament, and strip churches of holy oils and sacred ornaments before retreating. The religious orders collectively threaten to resign their curacies entirely, forcing the royal Audiencia and successive civil governors to intervene to prevent a total collapse of religious administration.

Parallel to this institutional deadlock, the volume traces the wider social and geopolitical dynamics of the archipelago. Foreign intrusions and diplomatic maneuvers continually test the Spanish administration. When French bishop François de Palu arrives in Manila seeking transit to Asian missions, Spanish officials forcibly detain and deport him aboard a galleon to protect the crown's exclusive patronato real against papal and rival European encroachment. Meanwhile, diplomatic relations with nearby Asian powers are negotiated, highlighted by a grand embassy sent by the emperor of Borneo to establish trade and resolve territorial disputes over Paragua.

Within the colony, domestic stability is repeatedly shattered. Minor insurgencies arise, such as the Sangley revolt led by Tingco, which ends in swift executions and military pacification. Environmental and biological disasters further strain the population; swarms of locusts destroy crops, followed by a deadly influenza pandemic that depopulates rural provinces like Pampanga, leaving agricultural fields untended and requiring community Confraternities to distribute basic rations to starving households.

As the decade draws to a close, civil governance remains fraught with petty political infighting and bitter feuds. Governors-general face strict residencias upon leaving office, with some, like Don Juan de Vargas, dying in disgrace during the arduous voyage back to New Spain. Through all these developments, the central struggle over regular diocesan visitation remains largely unresolved, left to linger as a perpetual tension in the colonial administration.

How It Unfolds

The visitation mandate begins Archbishop Diego Camacho y Avila arrives in Manila and immediately issues formal edicts asserting his right to conduct canonical visitations over the parishes run by friars.

The friars stage their retreat Resisting episcopal authority, regular ministers abandon their churches in Tondo and Binondoc, stripping the altars of sacred items and threatening a total resignation of their curacies.

Foreign envoys spark suspicion The arrival of French bishop François de Palu causes an uproar among royal officials, who view his papal mission as a threat to Spanish patronato real and quickly deport him to Spain.

A Bornean embassy reaches Manila An embassy from the emperor of Borneo enters the city barefooted but fully armed to settle territorial disputes, negotiate trade terms, and restore peace after military skirmishes.

Revolt and plague strike the provinces Local uprisings are brutally suppressed by Spanish forces, while a catastrophic influenza epidemic paralyzes agricultural labor across provinces like Pampanga, prompting organized relief efforts to stave off mass starvation.

Legal battles and exile end in death Former governor Don Juan de Vargas suffers harsh exile at Lingayen following his administrative review, ultimately dying at sea during his forced return voyage to New Spain.

The People

• Diego Camacho y Avila: The Archbishop of Manila who aggressively attempts to enforce canonical visitation over friar-run parishes, determined to uphold diocesan authority despite intense institutional resistance.
• Andres Gonzalez: A Dominican prelate who writes directly to the Pope to counter the Archbishop's jurisdictional claims, fighting to protect the traditional privileges and exemptions of the regular orders.
• François de Palu: A French bishop and vicar-apostolic whose unexpected arrival in Manila triggers fear of foreign ecclesiastical intrusion, leading to his detention and subsequent deportation by Spanish authorities.
• Juan de Vargas: A former Governor-General of the Philippines whose harsh rule and private financial dealings spark severe backlash, resulting in a punishing post-tenure review and exile.
• Casimiro Diaz: An Augustinian chronicler whose historical writings document the internal life, missionary work, and administrative challenges of his order during this turbulent thirty-year period.
• Tingco: A Sangley leader who instigates an armed insurgent movement against Spanish authority, ultimately captured and executed alongside his co-conspirators.

In Its Own Voice

"The wooden one they take out for common baptisms and burials, and those of poor persons; and that of silver for the baptisms and burials of the rich--as if both crosses ought not to have the same value, veneration, and efficacy for the object to which they are directed..."

Context: Archbishop Camacho issues a decree forbidding parish priests in Balayan from charging extra fees or reserving silver processional crosses exclusively for wealthy parishioners.

"The shrewdness of the Chinese in business dealings and their skill in carrying on the mechanical trades turn us from these callings so entirely that Spaniards who in their own country practiced them here consider it foolish to do so..."

Context: The chronicler reflects on the economic dependence of Manila's Spanish population on Chinese craftsmen and merchants despite prevailing racial anxieties.

"...for most of the people were without it, and others could not cook it and have no one who was able to do so."

Context: A vivid description of the severity of the 1688 influenza outbreak in Pampanga, where entire households were incapacitated by disease.

What It's Really About

At its core, the volume is an examination of institutional authority and corporate privilege within a isolated colonial apparatus. It explores the inherent friction between centralized church governance and the entrenched local power of missionary orders who built the foundation of Spanish rule in the archipelago. Beyond high-level ecclesiastical disputes, the text addresses the fragile nature of colonial control, exposing how European authority was constantly compromised by internal administrative greed, economic dependence on non-Spanish populations, and the unyielding realities of geography, disease, and native resistance.

Why Read It Today

This volume offers a raw, unvarnished look at late seventeenth-century colonial mechanics, far removed from polished historical summaries. Readers interested in original archival history, missiology, or Southeast Asian colonial dynamics will find it an indispensable resource filled with vivid period details—from diplomatic protocols with regional rulers to detailed descriptions of parish abuses and regional epidemics.

However, reading it requires patience. The text presents significant hurdles: it is a dense collection of translated primary documents, legal manifestos, and historical chronicles rather than a cohesive singular story. Readers must navigate archaic administrative jargon, lengthy ecclesiastical arguments, and the open biases of its period authors, who unabashedly voice period prejudices toward non-European populations and competing religious institutions. For those willing to wade through these structural complexities, it delivers a rare, granular view of a distant colonial frontier in total friction with itself.