in these lands.  For it often happens that the governor is so facile, that he allows himself to be governed by one whom he should not [allow to do so].  Consequently it is very advisable that he should have great courage, in addition to goodness and disinterestedness, so that he may act and judge in his government without subjecting himself to any private person—­whether he need such for his temporal advancement, or, through friendship or relationship, incurs that disadvantage by undue intimacy.

Thus it happened to Governor Don Diego Fajardo during his term, as is read in various provincial histories; but the experience that he continued to gain daily opened his eyes to the recognition of his error.  Seeing certain disadvantages arising from his protection of certain individuals, he dismissed them from his favor to the prison in the redoubt of Santiago, and confiscated their property, without respect to, or fear of, the influence that they had acquired in the community because of their wealth and support.  A governor, whom I knew and with whom I was familiar, was told in Mexico that he would come to kiss the hand of a certain citizen distinguished for his wealth and rank.  But he, being a man of great courage and spirit, who knew how to hold every one in his own position, without permitting him to rise to greater, immediately upon his arrival in these islands ordered that man in the king’s name to perform a certain necessary and useful service.  As he, trusting in his favor among the citizens, did not obey the order, the governor condemned him to be beheaded.  For that purpose he tore him from the church in which he had sought refuge, and would have executed the sentence, had not the ecclesiastical estate interposed all its influence by pointing out several disadvantages, upon which his punishment was lessened and the penalty commuted.  Thus did he hold each one to his post, and all praised his rectitude, disinterestedness, and magnanimity; and he left his government with great honor and reputation.

These islands need disinterested military governors, not merchants; and men of resolution and character, not students, who are more fit to govern monasteries than communities of heroes.  They should be men who can make themselves feared and respected by the enemies who surround us on all sides, and who can go in person to punish their opponents (as did the former ones, with so great glory to God and credit to the Spanish arms), so that in that way the islands may be conserved in peace and be respected and feared by the Moro and Indian chiefs—­and those who are called kings or sultans of Jolo and Mindanao, who go with feet and legs bare, and have to go to sea to cast their fishing nets in order to live, are that and nothing more.  But if a governor comes to these islands with the intention of escaping his natural poverty by humoring the rich and powerful, and even obeying them, the wrongs accruing to the community are incredible, as well as those to Christianity, and to the country—­which is at times on the point of being lost because of this reason—­and especially since appeal is so distant, as was seen and experienced in the year of 1719. [96]