1649.

[This document is presented in translation and synopsis, because of the
light it throws on the religio-social life of Manila in the middle of
the seventeenth century. It is preceded by the license to print given
(June 5, 1649), for the archbishop by Doctor Don Juan Fernandez de
Ledo, precentor of Manila cathedral, judge-provisor, official and
vicar-general of the archbishopric; by that of the government, given
(May 27, 1649), on recommendation of Joseph de la Anunciacion, prior
of the Recollect convent in Manila; and by a letter (dated Manila,
December 15, 1648, and signed by Lucas de Porras, Gabriel Gomez del
Castillo, and Diego Morales) addressed to the governor Diego Faxardo
y Chacon, which amounts to a dedicatory epistle. The relation begins
with the grief that comes to the city of Manila with the announcement
of the sudden death (at the age of seventeen) of the prince Balthasar
Carlos, heir to the throne and son of Felipe IV and Isabel of Bourbon,
who had died but a short time before. The document continues:]

The first rumors of this so sad event reached this city in the
middle of December, 1647, by means of the Dutch, who were harassing
these islands at that time with a large fleet of twelve galleons,
which sailed from Nueva Batavia with the intention of capturing this
stronghold. But they, after having experienced the valor and boldness
of our Spaniards in the severe and obstinate combat in the port of
Cabite, of which a full relation has been written in former years, [1]
attempted to terrify the hearts and take away the courage of those whom
they had not been able to resist by hostilities, by sending a letter to
Don Diego Faxardo, knight of the Order of Santiago, member of the War
Council, and president, governor, and captain-general of these islands;
and with it part of a gazette printed in the Flemish characters
and language, which contained a copy of a letter from his Majesty
to the Marques de Leganes, in which was mentioned the heavy grief
of his royal heart because of the sudden death of his son and heir,
Don Balthassar Carlos. The minds of so loyal vassals were alarmed,
and their hearts chilled, on hearing so sad news; and those who had
not given way before the violent attack of cannon-balls yielded to
the tenderness of grief, and to the sighs of sorrow; and they bore in
their faces the effects of their dismay and the marks of their pain,
as if the prince were seen dead in each one.... There wa