t
there was a house of human habitation. There is seen naught but an
open space, which forms a square for some splendid houses owned now
by Sargento-mayor Don Domingo Bermudez, alcalde-in-ordinary, who
inherited it from his father-in-law, Don Francisco de Moya y Torres,
chief constable of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Whenever I
pass by that place, this memorial of the Divine punishment presents
itself to me.

The sardines were once as ordinary a food in Manila as in Coruna; but
from the time of that lamentable exile, they have so abandoned those
waters that one can catch them but seldom, and then it is a matter for
surprise. And (in order to publish more fully that that [exile] was
the cause), whenever any consecrated archbishop or bishop arrives at
Manila, on those days some sardines are caught, and then they retire to
continue their interdict. [47] Pens have not been wanting to undertake
as their employment the defense of Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera,
chiefly those from one order--to which he was very devoted until, as
is said, they came to regard him as a saint. But they do their duty as
thankful [for favors received], although it was not necessary for them
to do so much that they should declare themselves his admirers. The
worst is that in the year of 1683, Manila again relapsed into this
scandalous sin with the exile and banishment of Don Fray Felipe Pardo,
of the Order of Preachers. But I shall relate, in its proper place, the
disastrous end that all those who were guilty in that affair suffered.

The common enemy of the human race was not content with the lamentable
tragedies of which he made the Filipinas Islands the sad theater;
on the contrary, fearful that the peace which all desired might be
established between the governor and the archbishop, he commenced to
arouse new contentions. Although they did not result in scandalous
outbreaks, they were sufficient to make the archbishop, Don Hernando
Guerrero, live in the midst of continual warfare, the matters of
controversy threatening to assume very quickly an evil aspect. Not the
least important of these was that which even until the present has
not ceased to result in disastrous effects--namely, the founding of
the royal chapel for the military forces of Manila, which was founded
by Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera. Thus did he separate from the
parochial right of the cura of the Spaniards all the soldiers, who
constitute the majority of the peop