encia. The testimonies were brought
to it, and it became sufficiently public. On that account the father
procurator-general of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Juan Peguero
[79] appeared before the superior government. He stated that his
Excellency the archbishop and the governor had removed the Order of the
Augustinian Recollects from the province of Zambales for reasons that
they considered just, necessary, or reasonable, in accordance with the
rulings of the laws of the new Recopilacion, [80] and had given it to
his province, they on their part having first made no efforts to get
it. His order had received it only that they might serve God and the
king. The Recollect fathers had received the island of Mindoro as a
recompense, without offering any objection, and had expressly given
up their rights to the province of Zambales. Nevertheless father Fray
Juan de la Madre de Dios had presented a writing before the supreme
Council, which was sent to this royal Audiencia, where as yet, more
than eight months after the arrival of the galleons at the islands,
it did not appear to have been presented. Without petitioning in
any tribunal, [he said], a rumor was spread to the discredit of his
province and to the prejudice of the propagation of the faith among
the Zambals. The latter, in the hope which they had received from
their former ministers that they would soon return to take charge of
them, were fleeing to the mountains to become infidels, apostates,
and idolaters, as they were formerly. Consequently, the ministers
of his province found themselves hindered in the conversions and the
administrations of the sacraments, as they were so disturbed that it
was necessary for the commandant of the fort to seize some persons
who returned from Manila and spread such a report. Not even this
was a sufficient relief for the continual flights of the natives. On
that account he petitioned his Lordship, in the name of his province,
to be pleased to employ suitable means, and what he believed best,
for the avoidance of those scandals. His Lordship furnished a copy
of the judicial proceedings [81] to the Recollect side, ordering that
they, with the reply that they should make, should give account of the
royal decree mentioned in the allegation [aforesaid, by Fray Juan de
la Madre de Dios]. Notification of this was communicated, on May 2,
1685, to father Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, procurator-general of the
discalced religious of St. Augustine.