m one by one
to be absolved, without sword or hat. In this were ranked all the
military and officials of Manila--all solemnly swearing never again to
take action or render obedience for such occasions, even though the
king should command them to. All those who were absent were likewise
absolved, Don Juan de Vargas being excepted, nominatim. This function
was ended by the promise that with this God would be placated, and the
earth rendered quiet--although His Divine Majesty, for [the ends of]
His lofty judgments, continued the incessant tremblings of the earth.

It seems that with this the tragedies were ended, all [the culprits]
absolved, and the earth blessed; but his illustrious Lordship and
the friars, recalling to mind the former preposterous attempt to
change all the [members of the] cabildo and arrange it according to
their own humor and taste, and seeing themselves masters of the field,
without any one remaining who could resist them, undertook to put that
scheme into execution, bringing against all the prebends such suits
as they pleased. Commencing with the dean, after a long imprisonment
they passed sentence on him that he should be deprived of his dignity
and should go to Espana; and, being meanwhile suspended from office,
he should remain in Manila. Then they put in his place, and made dean,
the provisor Juan Gonzalez--a person of the qualifications that we all
know. Soon they attacked in the rear the good old archdeacon, Doctor
Francisco Deza, and brought against him a very infamous complaint,
entirely unworthy of his exemplary life and gray hairs, in order
to deprive him of his prebend. God chose, rather, to take him to
himself; but on the day when he died they seized all his goods,
and placed in the prebend the cura of Quiapo, Caraballo--a Visayan
by birth, and a notorious [167] mestizo. By way of courtesy, they
passed then to the schoolmaster, Don Francisco Gutierrez; and, not
finding any worse fault than the report that he had spoken ill of his
prelate, it was enough for their purpose. After a long imprisonment,
his sentence was pronounced--the loss of his prebend, and perpetual
seclusion in a religious order, which he might choose; accordingly,
he entered the convent of San Agustin. Thus they had a position into
which to thrust a student from Santo Tomas, named Altamirano--of whom,
when I say that he is a nephew of Cervantes, there is nothing more
to be added. Another prebend, a racionero, named Don Jo