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34

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 51

Cortes (July 3, 1813) extended to the veteran troops of the over-seas colonies the same scale of rewards as had been recently granted to the soldiers of the Peninsula. In that same year a special effort was made by the Spanish government to add to its revenues by pushing in the colonies the sale of bulls of the Crusade.^[1]

A new governor arrived at Manila, assuming command on September 4, 1813; this was José de Gardoqui Jaraveitia, who also had appointment as chief of the naval station. This exasperated the treasury officials, for thus the entire naval force was under one head, that sent against the pirates [which Aguilar had stubbornly kept separate from the naval bureau – see "Events in Filipinas," vol. l, pp. 23-74] being now taken from their control, with all its opportunities for their personal profit; and they opposed Gardoqui in whatever he proposed or undertook.^[2] On February 1, 1814, a fearful eruption

↑ According to Jagor (Reisen, pp. 108, 109), "the receipts from the sale of the bulls of the Crusade in 1819 were $15,930, in 1839, $36,390, and in 1860, $58,954. In the two years 1844-45 they rose to $292,115, because the families and the heads of barangay were forcibly obliged to accept the certificates of indulgences, 'with the assistance and supervision of the curas and subordinate officials' (who for this received 8 and 5 per cent respectively), and thus they were distributed in the houses — certainly one of the most shameless applications of the repartimiento system."
↑ A note by Montero y Vidal cites José R. Trujillo, a Philippine official, as stating (1887) that the chief opponent and plotter against Gardoqui was Joaquín Cirilo de la Cajigas, the chief accountant of the treasury board and head of the naval bureau; he left a great fortune to his descendants, "who even now figure as rich men in the country, while the naval chiefs and officers who served here at that epoch did not bequeath to their descendants more than poverty and honor, although some of them had risen to high positions in the naval forces."

[1] According to Jagor (Reisen, pp. 108, 109), "the receipts from the sale of the bulls of the Crusade in 1819 were $15,930, in 1839, $36,390, and in 1860, $58,954. In the two years 1844-45 they rose to $292,115, because the families and the heads of barangay were forcibly obliged to accept the certificates of indulgences, 'with the assistance and supervision of the curas and subordinate officials' (who for this received 8 and 5 per cent respectively), and thus they were distributed in the houses — certainly one of the most shameless applications of the repartimiento system."

[2] A note by Montero y Vidal cites José R. Trujillo, a Philippine official, as stating (1887) that the chief opponent and plotter against Gardoqui was Joaquín Cirilo de la Cajigas, the chief accountant of the treasury board and head of the naval bureau; he left a great fortune to his descendants, "who even now figure as rich men in the country, while the naval chiefs and officers who served here at that epoch did not bequeath to their descendants more than poverty and honor, although some of them had risen to high positions in the naval forces."

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