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The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish

Manila: 1580–1640

Tatiana Seijas

Itinerario / Volume 32 / Issue 01 / March 2008, pp 19 - 38

DOI: 10.1017/S0165115300001686, Published online: 11 January 2010

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/

abstract_S0165115300001686

How to cite this article:

Tatiana Seijas (2008). The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish Manila: 1580–
1640. Itinerario, 32, pp 19-38 doi:10.1017/S0165115300001686

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The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish Manila:
1580-1640

TATIANA SEIJAS*

Catarina de San Juan was a slave woman who was brought to the Philippines in the
1610s on her way to Mexico, where she became a beata1 of great renown. Her expe-
riences in the slave markets of Cochin and Manila suggest that Portuguese traders
played a key role as the primary suppliers of Asian slaves to the Philippines. This
paper argues that Portuguese slavers made a significant contribution to the Manila
economy by providing an important labour force that helped build and maintain the
colony from 1580 to 1640, the years of Iberian Union or, from the Portuguese per-
spective, the "Spanish Captivity".2 One-crown rule gave Portuguese traders free
trade access to Manila, allowing them to meet the city's demand for this important
commodity. The slave trade's volume and profits testify to its social and economic
significance and suggests that the Portuguese helped sustain the Philippines, even
as they faced the logistical difficulties and legal barriers evident in Catarina's story.
This paper shows that the forced migration of individuals like Catarina was a
notable outcome of "Spain's Asian presence"3—less significant in economic terms
than the transfer of silver and textiles, but no less important in human terms.
Catarina was one woman, but her testimony personalises the plight of all those
who were captured, and her story sheds light on the lives of Asian slaves who left
few surviving records.
Her birthplace was unknown; she was said to have left home at a very young age
and travelled through "distant provinces."4 This ambiguity reflects the wide-ranging
ethnicities of those enslaved, who came from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast
Asia, China and Japan. She was "a poor girl from China, Mogor or India, picked
from among the thorny bushes and hidden jungles of Cambaya and Bengal".5
Whatever her real origins may have been, she fashioned herself a Mughal princess
and claimed that her father's court was in a "maritime city", possibly Surat. close
"to the commerce of the Portuguese of India".6 It was there that she was captured
and taken with a number of prisoners to Cochin, where she remained for some time
working in several homes before her Portuguese master embarked on a trading voy-
age to the Far East with a large slave cargo.7 Many months later she was purchased
at auction in Manila and shipped on the next Manila galleon8 to a Portuguese cap-
tain residing in Mexico. She said that her experiences during these "peregrinations"
through "distant provinces" were enough to take years from her life.9 The men she

Itinerario volume XXXII (2008) number 1

20 TATIANA SEIJAS

held responsible were all Portuguese traders. This paper contextualises Catarina's
story and seeks to understand the social and economic dynamics that drove
Portuguese slaving activities in Asia. Furthermore, it examines the transit networks,
forces of supply and demand, and legal system that allowed this trade in Asian
slaves.
The primary sources for Catarina are two biographies written in support of
beatification by her confessors Alonso Ramos and Jose del Castillo Grajeda, who
followed the model of hagiography—a literary style that tells the lives of saints.10
These works, which emphasise miraculous visions and saintly deeds, also provide
important details regarding Catarina's early life in India, her capture by Portuguese
pirates, and her journey to Manila, providing a window into the workings of this slave
trade. Both hagiographies offer a wealth of information, but Grajeda is particularly
noteworthy for his attempt to record Catarina's own words. As Grajeda wrote, he
sought to convey her "ordinary language" and "voice" as spoken "by all those who
are of the Chinese nation".11 What we have then is a rare opportunity to hear a
young woman's vivid testimony of her experiences in captivity, including her harrow-
ing tales of sexual abuse.
A number of scholars have commented more broadly on the Portuguese slave
trade to Manila.12 This paper departs from their studies by focusing on someone's
personal experience, which in turn sheds light on what continues to be an under-
studied group: Asian slaves in the Spanish colonies. This slave population came
from widely dispersed places, which perhaps makes the category "Asian" both geo-
graphically and culturally imprecise. Nevertheless, it is used here as a shorthand
term for the non-African, non-Filipino slaves who were brought together by Iberian
captivity. The analysis emphasises that this slave trade operated under distinct com-
mercial pressures, which set it apart from its more widely-studied Atlantic counter-
part. It follows the lead of historian Markus Vink, who has sought to redress a "his-
toriographical imbalance" in slavery studies which has focused on the Middle
Passage.13 The paper complements Vink's study of Dutch trading activities in the
Indian Ocean world by providing an analysis of their Portuguese counterparts and
underscoring the trades' similar socioeconomic impact. Furthermore, a study of the
factors that shaped the slave trade to Manila should enhance our understanding of
Iberian relations under the Hapsburgs.14
The Hapsburgs clearly allowed Portuguese traders to control the transport and
supply networks that made this slave trade possible, which raises questions relating
to the crown's support of the slave trade and handling of its vassals' competing
interests. The uecinos (settlers) of Manila sought, with little success, to restrict the
activities of Portuguese traders, particularly those from Macao who, according to
Manilenos (Spanish residents of Manila), sought to redirect the galleon trade
between Acapulco and Manila toward their port and to control access to Canton
(Guangzhou). The Spaniards' goal was to have Cantonese traders come to trade
directly with them, cutting-off Portuguese middlemen in order to increase their prof-
its on merchandise bound for the New World. However, the colony's dependence
on imports (including food) guaranteed the Portuguese direct trade access. For
apart from the Chinese, whom Manilenos also resented, the Portuguese were the
only ones capable of supplying the Philippines. Portuguese traders, in fact, connect-
ed Manila to the rest of Asia, particularly during the period of Iberian Union, carry-
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640 21

ing goods from all over the Estado da India15 and Europe for the local market and
reexport to New Spain and Peru.16 For their part, the Portuguese actively defended
their trading rights, "alleging" that they "were the vassals" of the same king, and
that "it was just for them to trade and contract in Manila" as in other parts of Spain.17
The Hapsburgs were clearly willing to sacrifice the material interests of Manila
settlers as long as Portuguese traders kept the colony supplied with merchandise
including slaves. The Hapsburg connection came to an end in the 1640s, and slave
trade diminished when Portuguese were officially prohibited from Manila in 1644,
but merchants/smugglers continued to arrive. In 1670, for example, a Portuguese
captain delivered contraband merchandise from Bengal to the port of Cavite.16
Moreover, according to Dutch East India Company (VOC) cargo records, in 1690 a
Portuguese ship left Malacca for Manila with two hundred slaves.19 Their continued
trading activities suggests that slaves' services remained in high demand, and that
officials in the Philippines turned a blind eye to these dealings.
Chronicles, official Spanish correspondence, and other sources leave no doubt
that the Portuguese were the primary suppliers of foreign slaves to the Philippines,20
or Islas de Manilla as they would have called them.21 Chronicler Antonio de Morga
testified to this trade in the early 1600s, noting that Portuguese ships came to
Manila "from the Moluccas, and Malacca, and India...with the monsoon winds",
carrying "clove spice, cinnamon, and pepper, and black slaves, and Kafir [slaves]"
along with a long list of other goods.22 Antonio Bocarro, another chronicler, also
bore witness to this trade; he wrote that ships regularly left Qoa to Manila with slaves
"in which there was much profit", and claimed that the Portuguese took part in ille-
gal slaving expeditions and that "many offenses to God [were) committed on slave
carriers".23 Moral condemnation aside, it is evident that the Portuguese extended
their slaving forays from the coast of Africa to the Philippine Islands,24 and that the
slaves they brought to Manila were from all over Asia.
Officials in Manila regularly gave account of the activities of Portuguese slavers.
A major Spanish complaint was that they avoided tariffs. The Manila Audiencia
(court) reported to Spain in 1584, and again in 1586, that Portuguese traders did
not pay duties on slaves brought from India and Macao, even for those sent to New
Spain, and recommended that they do so.25 Ten years later, a treasury official reit-
erated the proposal,26 which was finally implemented in 1612, when they levied
almqjarifazgo (import/export) duties on merchandise and slaves brought on seven
Portuguese ships from Macao.27 Crown officials were also particularly concerned
with the volume of the slave trade, especially regarding the number of Africans. In
1605, it was reported that "many black slaves brought by the Portuguese ran away
and became drunkards and robbers".26 In response, the king ordered the governor
and Audiencia to send an account regarding the "disadvantages resulting from the
slaves that the Portuguese bring from Malacca to sell in those islands" and to take
steps to remedy the situation.29 Trafficking and slave unrest continued unabated; by
1621, slaves within the muros (walls) of Manila numbered 1,970 out of a popula-
tion of 6,HO.30 Fifteen years later, the number of slaves and black freedman was
such that the governor actually recommended that 400 to 500 of these "disorder-
ly" men be forcibly relocated to a nearby island under the care of Jesuits.31 These
documents show that Portuguese trading activities had a significant socioeconom-
ic impact on Manila, which was well apparent to contemporaries.
22 TATIANA SEIJAS

In terms of ethnic and racial perceptions, it is noteworthy that the Spaniards' fear
of blacks was not shared by Chinese officials, who preferred them to Japanese
slaves. In 1613, and again in 1617, they ordered that Portuguese "not retain
Japanese people" in Macao, adding: "You are Westerners and so of what use are
Japanese to you when you [can] use blacks?"37 Their comments suggest that the
perceived threat posed by Portuguese trafficking varied according to regional, cul-
tural and ethnic attitudes, and that social dynamics between masters and slaves
sometimes varied according to their race and place of origin. From the perspective
of the Portuguese, all slaves were commodities equal in their subjugation, as evi-
dent in the following Japanese source: "In the Goto islands, Hlrado, or Nagasaki,
all is readied for the Iberian ships.. .They buy several hundred men and women and
take them aboard their black ships. They place chains on their hands and feet and
throw them into the holds of their ships. Their torments are worse than those in
hell."33 Catarina was similarly thrown "in a corner below deck";34 and when her cap-
tors stopped at ports, "if they sometimes threw her on land, it was to live forgotten
in the most base and foulest inns, or to experience severe weather in the bush and
sandy grounds, suffering scorn, hunger, nudity and shame".35 Race was obviously
not a determining factor in how Portuguese traders transported their captives as
they found it more profitable to maximise cargo space and ensure physical control.
Perceptions of race were apparently more important to the host societies than to
their suppliers, and relations between masters and slaves surely varied according to
their ethnicity. In the case of Manila, it appears that Asian slaves were much pre-
ferred over African slaves.
Portuguese traders moved people in all directions. As further testament of this
exchange, we have a strongly-worded letter from the ruler Hideyoshi to the Jesuit
Provincial at Kyushu from 1587:
It has come to our attention that Portuguese...are buying many people...
This is insufferable. Thus would the Padre ensure that all those Japanese
who have up until now been sold in India and other distant places be
returned again to Japan. If this is not possible, because they are far away in
remote kingdoms, then at least have the Portuguese set free the people
whom they have bought recently.36
The networks responsible for the above complaint brought slaves to Manila as part
of a large system of exchange or comercio de India a India ("country trade") that
operated in a kind of circular traffic. Portuguese carried "merchandise from all parts
of the Indies and Portugal"37 from port to port on board royal, private, and foreign
ships, making stops at Qoa and Cochin, Malacca, Macao, Nagasaki,38 Manila, and
various other coastal outposts. For example, according to English traveller Ralph
Fitch, the Portuguese would take "white and brown sugar, tortoise-shell and gold"
from the Philippines to Malacca, which they then exchanged "for slaves and cloth".39
This was a complex commercial maritime system that circulated European and
Asian commodities, including slaves, across vast expanses.
Various archival sources show that Portuguese traders brought slaves to Manila
from Macao, the Malabar Coast of India, Pegu (Burma), Malacca, Java, and other
trading areas.40 Court records, for example, show that one capitan Francisco
Hernandez was awarded legal title to over forty slaves from "Bengal, Mogor,
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640 23

Chingala, Borneo, Malay, and Corunbi".41 Reports from the Mexican Inquisition also
testify to this traffic. Manila was under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Inquisition,
whose officials had to carry out visitations on incoming ships to check for prohibit-
ed material. Their reports offer a glimpse into the workings of this trade, document-
ing, for example, that in 1625 a galley owned and captained by Portuguese left the
port of Bengal for Malacca carrying rice, oil, textiles, and slaves and that the same
ship travelled from Malacca to the Philippines with 200 slaves on board.42 Another
such ship that carried slaves from India to the Philippines was the Nuestra Sefiora
del Rosario, belonging to a uecino of Qoa, which stopped in Malacca on its way to
the port of Cavite in the Philippines in 1626.43 Apart from such large-scale mer-
chants, slaves were also bought and sold by small traders, mariners, and lowly sol-
diers. One such Portuguese sailor, for instance, claimed in 1599 that missionaries
were harbouring his runaway "Bengali" slave, who he had brought to sell in Manila.44
Determining the exact numbers associated with this Portuguese trade to Manila
is a challenge; Spanish customs records are incomplete, and few Portuguese
account books are known to have survived, which hinders our ability to quantify
individual trading transactions. VOC records, however, provide some glimpses of
the trade's volume. For instance, the Santa Catarina had "100 women" on board
when it was captured by the Dutch in 1603.45 These and the above mentioned
records allow us to estimate that this trade usually involved the arrival in the
Philippines of several hundred slaves per year. Many of these would have been
African slaves, but Asians were a significant part of the slave cargoes, as evident
from their presence in Manila.
Slaves' long journeys to Manila required that the Portuguese maintain extensive
trading networks, which partly served to keep the Portuguese diaspora supplied with
slaves. Portuguese colonists depended on slave labour in their strongholds through-
out the Estado da India, where slaves made up a great part of the population.46
Their reach is evident from Catarina's story; she came to America because a
Portuguese uecino of Puebla asked a paisano (compatriot) who was visiting that
city to send "a modest and attractive chinita to serve as a comfort for him and his
spouse".47 That merchant, in turn, purchased her in Manila from the Portuguese
captain who had captured Catarina and carried her from India and across
Southeast Asia.
Apart from private Portuguese ventures, royal officials were also charged with
organising trading expeditions to benefit the Hapsburgs' treasury. These were main-
ly outfitted from Goa, but also from Manila. A dispatch to the governor of the
Philippines from 1621 shows that the king was well aware of his ships' participation
in the Indies slave trade and that he willingly partook of its profits. In one piece of
correspondence the king wrote: "You have informed me about the arrival of slaves
...[on board] the ship that went to Qoa, with the clove that you traded on my
account at Malacca."48 This kind of trade attests to the difficulties faced by the
crown in balancing its own interests along with those of merchants and missionar-
ies. In 1605, Phillip III amended a decree issued by Sebastian of Portugal (r. 1557-
78) to satisfy Jesuit complaints against his previous decree that had proved a "hin-
drance to the conversion of the heathen", which outlawed the trade in Japanese
slaves.49 The Spanish king made the following clarification: "It was not my intention
.. .to prevent Japanese being held as slaves when there are just and lawful titles and
24 TATIANA SEIJAS

in those cases in which the law permits it to be done as with the people of other
nations."50 These "people" tended to be Africans, but they included individuals from
all over Asia as well. The king, in other words, supported Portuguese slaving activi-
ties as long as they employed legal fictions that turned people into chattel, as will
be discussed later.
When procuring a supply, men's roles in the slave trade often blurred, as mer-
chants turned into pirates. As Catarina explained, on the coast of India "some
Portuguese, under the pretext of being merchants, sailed those seas and lands in
the condemnable pirating of goods and people".51 In her case, slavers had sailed to
"a distant place where, assured that no one would take away their prey, [they]
leaped on shore and removed all the stolen prisoners and goods, in order to make
a fair distribution of unjust plunder".52 Two other Asian slaves sold in Manila had
similar tales. According to Anton, a native of Cochin, he was captured on board a
Portuguese ship where he had gone to sell pepper and then taken to Malacca along
with eight or nine other chinos under the cover of darkness.53 Francisco Corubi suf-
fered a similar fate. He explained to a court that he was captured by fishermen as
a young boy and sold to a succession of Portuguese masters who took him from
Goa to Malacca and then to Manila.54 All three had fateful encounters with
Portuguese pirates, which eventually led to their being taken half way around the
world to Mexico.
Active slaving was likely limited to Portuguese who specialised in that activity, who
in turn supplied their compatriots. According to French traveller Francois Bernier,
Portuguese pirates in the Bay of Bengal, "by a mutual understanding, waited for the
arrival of the Portuguese [traders], who bought whole cargoes at a cheap rate".55
This slaving activity in the Bay of Bengal increased in the early seventeenth centu-
ry, when Portuguese adventurers allied with the kings of Arakan in order to raid
Burma and Bengal.56 Bernier described the practice as follows:
The kingdom of Rakan or Mog harboured during many years several
Portuguese settlers...unrestrained by the government, it was not surprising
that these renegades pursued no other trade than that of rapine and pira-
cy; they scoured the neighboring seas in light galleys called galleasses,
entered the numerous arms and branches of the Ganges, ravaged the
islands of the Lower Bengale...marauders made slaves of their unhappy
captives.57
The institutionalised nature of Portuguese slaving is laid bare by this kind of geo-
political agreement, which relied on regional fighting between independent coun-
tries to further European commercial interests. Other Portuguese depended on
local agents to procure their slaves. Those seeking Chinese slaves, for example,
would arrange to "meet Chinese merchants somewhere in the Pearl River estuary
or the islands south of Macao to purchase human cargo"; these were mostly chil-
dren who were then sold in Manila.58 Traders could also purchase slaves directly
from their parents, particularly girls, at Canton,59 where "impoverished widows" were
permitted by law to sell their children.60 Moreover, apart from capture and pirating,
Portuguese were able to acquire supplies of slaves because some people sold them-
selves into slavery due, for example, to periodic famines. We have the testimony of
one such person, an "infidel" named Menayte, who admitted that he had been
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1E80-1640 25

forced to sell himself to a Portuguese "due to hunger and necessity".61 Portuguese

slavers had relatively easy access to Asian slaves, which they channelled into a sup-
ply network that led them to Manila. Once there, further trading allowed Portuguese
to acquire American silver, which served to buttress their economic interests in the
Far East and back home in Portugal.
In terms of demand, Spaniards expressed a desperate need for slaves from the
beginning of the colony. In 1584, for example, the Audiencia petitioned the king to
revoke an ordinance that prohibited native Filipinos from "carrying water and chop-
ping wood", citing the lack of slaves to do this kind of work.62 Historian Nicholas
Cushner has argued that the Portuguese slave trade was fostered by the labour
requirements of agricultural production.63 Now some foreign slaves, particularly
Africans, were certainly made to do hard manual labour in landed estates, joining
native slaves and Filipinos in encomienda (tribute labour) and repartimiento (state
work draft).64 But there is evidence that Portuguese slavers were also driven by
Spaniards' demand for skilled Asians. For example, in 1584 and again in 1597,
treasury officials recommended the purchase of slaves from India to serve as caulk-
ers and carpenters for the king's ships and in this way save on salaries.65 Also,
according to Jesuit Pedro Chirino, the male slaves that the Portuguese brought
from India, Malacca, and the Moluccas were "industrious and serviceable and many
good musicians", while the women were "great seamstresses, cooks and very
orderly and clean in their service".66 Portuguese traders, therefore, banked on
Spaniards' need for skilled "auxiliaries" much in the way that historian James
Lockhart explains happened in Peru.67
Furthermore, Catarina's story suggests that Portuguese trading activity included
the traffic of sex slaves. The following account of an incident that took place in
Manila bears testament to the abuses experienced by these slave women: "In the
house where they hid her... a lascivious and cruel man attacked her honesty... blind
to the offense of harming a slave... [she] one time found herself naked, tied, and tor-
mented with shame and by the blows of this brute."68 Significantly, sexual threats
are a recurring theme in Catarina's story. She had to face sexual advances at a very
young age, when a crazed man sought to "have her in his hands to praise her" and
make her his wife.69 In fact, such was her fear of men that at one point she had a
vision of Saint Anne who asked her what she was doing alone, to which Catarina
replied: "Lady, here 1 am, crying for myself, I have such fear of men."70 Her confes-
sors no doubt sought to exalt her chastity (a hagiographic trope), but these were
nonetheless painful memories that bear testament to the nature of this trade in
women. Catarina's continued fear of sexual abuse speaks to the threats faced by all
those who were sold at market.
Official records also suggest that this trade involved sexual captives. A 1608 royal
decree ordered the Manila Audiencia to prevent "passengers and sailors of the trad-
ing ships of Philippines" from transporting slave women "who are the cause of very
great offenses to God and other troubles".71 The prohibition was routinely ignored
and this activity escalated, so that in 1620 the king called on the archbishop to
excommunicate those involved in the traffic.72 There was an official recognition,
therefore, that female captives were being transported and abused on board ships
operating in the region. In the case of Catarina, her owner had to disguise her in
boys' clothing to prevent such mistreatment.73 Sexual cruelty is a recurring theme
26 TATIANA SEIJAS

in the history of slavery, but it is nonetheless necessary to emphasise this reality to

counter generalisations that Asian slaves were favoured concubines, when the real-
ity was that all slaves were defenceless in this regard.
Asian slaves were also prominent in the concubine/wife market. The evident
demand for young Indian slaves as potential wives lends some credence to
Catarina's claims of having had many "suitors". The intended "purpose" for these
women was made evident from the time of their purchase. Manila slave auctions
were likely similar to what took place in Qoa. In the words of French traveler
Francois Pyrard: "Girls that are virgins are sold as such, and are examined by
women, so that none dare use any trickery.. .for a girls master being the man who
marries her, she may not be used after a man has plighted his troth to her."74
Moreover, it may be that traders made color choices at the market, with slaves that
were "pretty fair and comely" and "olive-colored" set aside as potential wives and
concubines and "Caffre girls of Mozambique and other places in Africa" for prosti-
tution.75 The influx of such slaves is testified by the fact that in 1634 a number of
Spaniards and mestizos living in Manila and its surroundings were married to
women of Indian and Bengali descent.76 Spaniards seem to have taken foreign
slaves as both legal and "temporary wives", following a pattern common in other
parts of Southeast Asia. And it was more likely that Asian concubines would make
the transition to "real" wives than African slaves. Historian Anthony Reid discusses
the practice of "temporary marriage" in the region between "itinerant traders" (both
Asian and European), noting that in parts of the archipelago it was restricted to
slave women "who differed from the free in that they could be sold by one 'husband'
to another and had few rights over children".77 The fact that very few Iberian women
traveled to the Far East certainly contributed to this marriage trend, but this does
not explain Iberian men's very real racial preferences when it came to their legal
consorts. A more detailed analysis of Manilenos' marriage patterns would comple-
ment the work of Leonard Blusse, who has asked similar questions regarding Dutch
colonists' choice of "Portuguese-speaking women of Indian origin" as wives, focus-
ing specifically on issues relating to Dutch "colonization policy" and the role of the
Church in "acculturation".78 What is clear, however, is that these women—slaves,
concubines, and wives—all played a key role in the maintenance of the colony, con-
tributing to social cohesion and public peace. And Portuguese traders contributed
to the construction of this social reality and colonial order in their role as suppliers.
Also at issue regarding slaves becoming wives is the fact that their child-bearing
capacity added to their value and multiplied their owners' capital, which may have
discouraged manumission. Racial attitudes influenced social norms regarding
inheritance and legitimation, which casts doubt on Pyrard's claim that "in the
Indies, if a man has a child by his slave, it is legitimate, and the slave becomes
free".79 Pyrard surely overstated this practice, because in other parts of the Iberian
empires fathers had to acknowledge their children in order for them to be legitimate
and free. Moreover, as in Brazil, many slave women purchased their own freedom
rather than having it gifted for bearing children. Much research remains to be
done regarding manumission patterns in Manila, but present evidence suggests
that most slaves/concubines were not enfranchised or favoured with marriage. As
noted by Hendrik E. Niemeijer, "the interaction between domestic slavery and
marriage in the lives" of European colonists was complicated to say the least.80
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640 27

The problematic legal status of slaves that married their masters indicates that
there were concerns regarding the legality of Asian slavery in general. As noted,
there were legal safeguards against the "unlawful" enslavement of individuals.
Portuguese and Spanish officials, however, enforced these restrictions with varying
degrees of resolve and success. For one, it was commonly thought that each time
a slave was sold the owner had a lessened responsibility to know the legality of the
original enslavement, so it was assumed that all slaves came from "just wars". This
recourse to the medieval theory of "just war" that justified war for various ethical and
political reasons was widespread, popularised by sixteenth-century Spanish jurists
like Francisco de Vitoria. For example, in relation to the African slave trade, Mexican
jurist Juan de Solorzano argued that they were "legally" slaves because they had
been captured in "just wars" in their own nations.81 Portuguese traders who brought
slaves from Timor, Bengal, Malabar, and other areas in Asia, as well as from Africa,
employed this rationalisation. They provided papers verifying they had been taken
in "just wars", which they presented to the "competent judge" once they got to the
Philippines.82 In the case of Catarina, she explained that her captors, "in order to dis-
guise the infamy of their raids, claimed that all their captives were slaves, some pur-
chased, and others acquired in just war".83
Slavers needed to have bills of sale establishing ownership of each slave and
detailing their provenance, which they acquired through various means. The story
of one Japanese slave provides insight into how Portuguese merchants were able
to acquire the required legal papers for slaves purchased or taken in different Asian
countries. It also is telling of the contradictions inherent in the Jesuits' willingness
to justify and in fact legitimate certain kinds of slavery. In 1599, Gaspar Fernandez—
originally from Japan—complained to the Mexican Inquisition that he was being
held illegally as part of the confiscated goods of a deceased Portuguese merchant
named Rui Perez. He claimed that Perez had purchased his services from a Jesuit
priest in Nagasaki for seven pesos for a set number of years; it was not an outright
purchase.84 Complicating matters, Perez had actually purchased Gaspar Fernandez
from a fellow Japanese for ten silver pesos, but had received no title.85 Perez had
then taken him to the Jesuit college and received a signed testament allowing him
to keep the hostage for twelve years—a term that had, according to Fernandez,
been unjustly extended.85 In this case, there was no recourse to a "just war" cor-
roboration; the enslavement depended on the judgment of a particular churchman.
The church was seemingly divided, for though some religious protested that
enslavement hindered the missionary enterprise, others were clearly proponents of
the system. As in parts of Africa and Latin America, it was the Jesuits in particular
who appear to have held the most slaves.87 They were implicated as both apologists
and slave masters.
Other cases make evident that churchmen throughout the region were willing to
provide the necessary paperwork to turn an "illegal" purchase into a long-term
labour or permanent slave contract. A common line of reasoning was that a person
was a slave if he or she belonged to a group of people that had been labelled as
such by an ecclesiastical council. For example, a Portuguese merchant justified his
property rights by claiming that others of the same nation "were declared slaves in
provincial councils...in India because they were enemies of Christians".BB Another
merchant brought Francisco Corunbi and other slaves before an ecclesiastical
28 TATIANA SEIJAS

judge in Manila, testifying that he had lost their titles, and had the cleric draw up a
slave licenses89 which he then took to the secular authorities to further legitimate his
enslavement. In a similar case, in the town of Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion de
Nagayatan, the vicar general wrote that he had examined a slave named Meneyta
and was convinced that he was "of good captivity"; he then cleared the buyer's con-
science and gave him license to sell Meneyta as a slave.90
The legal safeguards requiring that traders have legal slave licenses could, there-
fore, be circumvented. In fact, traders used a process ostensibly meant to provide
slaves with some legal recourse to their advantage. In the Spanish legal system, a
master or a slave could demand to review the legality of the enslavement in court.
For instance, a 1605 decree from Philip 111 directed that Japanese slaves living in
Qoa and Cochin be allowed "to seek justice if they claim their captivity is illegal and
lacks legitimate title".91 In the Philippines, an official appointed by the governor and
known as the "defender general of the slaves brought to the city of Manila from
Oriental India and other parts" was charged with "presenting the petitions against
their enslavement"92 before the Alcalde Ordinario (mayor).93 Judicial reports, how-
ever, reveal that owners in Manila often turned to the courts to acquire legal titles,
and these suggest that few slaves attained their freedom through this process.
Likely failing to understand the procedures, most slaves received little help from
their "defenders".
One example of owners using this legal process is the case of the Portuguese
capitan Manuel Jorge de Silva, who in 1635 submitted a request for verification of
his slaves' papers. He wanted to dispose of them at will and have them be able to
leave the Philippines, so he asked the court to hear their testimonies and declare
them to be his property.94 Through an interpreter, one of Silva's slaves testified that
he was indeed a slave "because in his homeland he was captured by Portuguese
men in the wars they had with his nation and since then had been sold other
times''.9^ His defensor advised him to tell the truth and warned him of "the harm
that would come in remaining a slave", but Gaspar allegedly had nothing to say in
his defence.96 Another slave named Jacinto, from the Malabar coast, testified that a
Portuguese man had captured him in a war against his nation and sold him off in
Malacca; he too had allegedly nothing to say to help his cause.97 All were sentenced
to perpetual slavery. Language was one reason, for slaves were clearly at a dis-
advantage when having to speak through an interpreter. A broader explanation,
however, is that institutional procedures to contest unlawful enslavement were
essentially corrupt and turned to the advantage of masters. As such, the legal
system was a key factor in the working of the slave trade, allowing masters to
arrange for their re-export to Mexico. Notably, there were exceptions. As Catarina's
experience makes evident, some slaves did take advantage of these legal resources,
which speaks to the power of slaves' agency and individuals' readiness to seek
institutional protections. At Cochin a number of her fellow slaves claimed they were
illegally captured and successfully petitioned to be set free.98
Significantly, slaves that passed through Manila were much more successful in
Mexico at appealing to the courts for protection against unlawful enslavement than
in the Philippines. In fact, at times the system did enable slaves to carry forward with
their suits for freedom. In the case of Maria Moreno, a slave from Java, the Mexico
City Audiencia ordered the officials of the town of Otucpa to secure a witness in her
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640 29

favour and forward the testimony to the capitol where her case was being heard."
In 1653, another slave named Ursula brought suit for her own and her children's
freedom, and the courts ordered the owner to get copy of the sale license in Manila
and bring forward witnesses that would testify that Ursula was indeed a lawfully-
gained slave. And we know that some slaves succeeded. In 1662, the Mexico City
Audiencia declared that Pedro de la Cruz from Bengal had to be set free, agreeing
with the defence that his people had never been enslaved.100 Another successful
case took place in 1634, when Cecilia "de nacion Mengala" brought suit against
Geronimo de Aristi for her freedom. She too claimed that she was born a free per-
son, and was in fact from a place where there was "open trade and commerce with
the Portuguese" and with whom there had never been war. It was her misfortune
that some of the same Portuguese had captured her at age six and taken her to the
Philippines and then to Mexico.101 She turned to the courts at great personal risk.
Cecilia was threatened by her masters to cease her suit; they placed her in chains
and told her they would brand her face and sell her far away. When she carried on
with her suit they made true their threats by calling for a barber for the branding.102
Cecilia paid a great price for her freedom, but her case does make evident that
some Asian slaves were able to challenge their owners' mastery.
The Portuguese slave trade was a significant commercial activity in Manila dur-
ing the period of Iberian union. It victimised an untold number of individuals to
meet that city's demand for slaves. A few of them, however, eventually achieved
manumission, which is a testament to people's capacity to alter their circumstances
given the opportunity. A case in point is the experience of Catarina de San Juan
who, once free from the dynamics that first enslaved her, survived horrific ordeals
to become a legendary religious figure.
30 TATIANA SEIJAS

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Schurz, William Lytle. The Manila Galleon. 1939. 2nd ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1959.
Scott, William Henry. Slavery in the Spanish Philippines. Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1991.
Solorzano Pereira, Juan de, and Francisco Ramiro de Valenzuela. Politica Indiana. Madrid, Buenos Aires:
Compania Ibero-Americana de Publicaciones, 1930.
Souza, George Bryan. The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South
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Vink, Markus. "The World's Oldest Trade: Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the
Seventeenth Century". Journal of World History 14:2 (2003): 76 pars.
Yoshitomo, Okamoto. Juroku Seiki Nichi-O Kotsu Shi No Kenkyu. Hara Shobo, 1931.

Notes
* Tatiana Seijas (Yale Ph.D. 2008) studies colo-
nial Latin American Histoiy She will be
Assistant Professor at Miami University start-
ing in August 2008.
E-mail: ts492001 (ffiyahoo.com.
The author would like to thank the anony-
mous reviewer for Itinerario for his or her
comments, and Stuart B. Schwartz for his
encouragement and support.
1 A benta was a lay religious woman—usually
one who did not have a dowry for entrance
into a formal convent—that followed ascetic
practices and dedicated herself to leading a
spiritual life.
1 am not the First to be drawn to Catarina's
story. There is mention of Catarina, for exam-
ple, in Boxer, Mary and Misogyny, 41. See
also Maza, Catarina. de San Juan. Morgan,
'"Very Good Blood'".
2 During this period, the kingdom of Portugal
and all of its colonial possessions came under
the control of the Spanish Empire.
3 Phrase from Headley, "Spain's Asian
Presence".
4 "Porque...sali6 muy nina de su tierra, navego
escondida por varios rumbos, y se detuvo
encubierta en tan distantes provincias, donde
siempre vivio desconocida, como oMdada de
todo el mundo." Ramos, Primera Parte Vida
de Catharina, f. 4r. All translations are my
own unless otherwise noted. I have moderni-
sed spelling and grammar.
5 "Pobre extranjera China, Mogora, o India
arrancada de entre los matorrales espinosos
e incultas selvas de Cambaya y Bengala."
Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de Catharina, f.
ttt2v.
6 "Este principe padre de Myrrha [Catarina's
pre-Christian name]...determin6 por buen
gobierno, o por necesidad, mudar su corte a
otra ciudad marftima de las de su corona,
apartado de la hostilidad de los Turcos...y
mas cercana al comercio de los Portugueses
de la India." Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de
Catharina, f. 16. Q.A. Bailey suggests that
Catarina's "maritime city" was Surat; see
Bailey, "A Mughal Princess in Baroque Mew
Spain", 47.
7 "Llegaron estos piratas con todo su pillaje a
Cochin, habiendo hecho escala a otros...
puertos"; "Salio de Cochin...y el mismo capi-
tan que la llevaba...obligaba a traerla entre la
chusma de las demas prisioneras." Ramos,
Primera Parte Vida de Catharina, f. 17v, 26.
TATIANA SEIJAS
8 The Manila galleon, which travelled yearly
between Manila and the port of Acapulco,
was the only royally sanctioned trade route
connecting the Philippines and Mexico.
9 "Y se detuvo encubierta en tan distantes
provincias, donde siempre vivio desconocida,
como olvidada de todo el mundo."; "Lo que
padecio...en tan dilatadas peregrinaciones,
hasta llegar a Manila... fuera bastante, para
quitarle muchas vidas." Ramos, Primera
Parte Vida de Catharina, f. 4r, 26r.
10 For literary analyses of Catarina's hagiogra-
phies see: Myers, "La China Poblana"; Myers,
"Testimony for Canonization or Proof of
Blasphemy?". Locklin, "Orientalism and the
Nation". Ortega Hernandez, "Woman, Virtue,
and Desire".
11 Castillo made an effort to convey her broken
Spanish: "£ste era su ordinario lenguaje,
estas las voces de su uso, como lo son y
hablan todas las que son de nacion china,
dandome Dios su gracia, explicare en nues-
tro castellano...lo que ella no podia por el
natural origen de su balbuciente pronun-
ciacion." Castillo Grajeda, Compendio de la
Vida y Virtudes de la Venerable Catarina de
San Juan, 24.
12 See especially: Scott, Slauery in the Spanish
Philippines. Cushner, Landed Estates in the
Colonial Philippines; Girard, "Les Africains
aux Philippines aux XVIe et XVIle Siecles".
13 Vink, "The World's Oldest Trade".
14 For a study of Portuguese commerce that
touches on Iberian relations vis-a-vis the
Atlantic slave trade, see Boyajian, Portuguese
Trade in Asia.
15 The Estado da India constituted all
Portuguese holdings in Asia.
16 For an analysis of Portuguese contributions to
the rise of a global economy, see Russell-
Wood, A World on the Move.
17 "Alegan en su favor para continuar el trato
que son vasallos de V Majestad, y que es
justo que traten, y contraten en Manila como
en Castiila, y otras partes de Espana."
Archivo General de Indias (AGI) Filipinas 41-
16 (1636). Various documents regarding
Portuguese trade in Manila in the 1630s,
including this Memorial, are translated in
Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands.
18 "Dio cuenta de que por agosto del mil y seis-
cientos y setenta, Uego al puerto de Cavite un
patache del Reino de Bengala, Cap. Antonio
Maxino, Portugu^s, con algunos mercaderes
de esta naci6n, que...fueron al comercio
desde la contra costa de la India con canti-
dad de ropa que vender." AGI Filipinas 331 -7-
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640
28v-30r (1672).
19 Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC).
Souza, The Suroiual of Empire: Portuguese
Trade and Society in China and the South
China Sea, 1630-1754, 166.
20 Other nations were occasional suppliers; in
the mid-1590s, for example, the king of Siam
sent "beneath the hatches...some Cam-
bodian slaves" from his recent conquests; see
Schurz, The Manila Galleon, 145.
21 French chronicler Francois Pyrard wrote:
"Not having been there I will only say in pass-
ing what I have been able to learn from the
Portuguese. By them they are called Islas de
Manilla...from the principal town thus named,
where the chief trade is carried on." Pyrard,
Voyage of Frangois Pyrard, 171.
22 "De Maluco, y de Malaca, y la India, vienen a
Manila con la monz6n de los vendavales cada
ano, algunos navfos de Portugueses, con
mercaderias, clavo de especia, canela, y
pimiento, y esclavos negros, y cafres, panos
de algodon...no se cobran derechos reales de
estos navfos", Morga, Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas, 314. Cafre could refer to a kafir,
meaning pagan, or to a person from
Caffraria or Caffre-land in present-day South
Africa. Kafir was also used more generally to
refer to black slaves from all parts of Africa.
23 "N'este tempo se comecaram a frequentar
com muitas embarcacoes as viagens d'este
Estado para Manilha com differentes sortes
de fazendas, em que havia mui grandes gan-
hos, d'onde algumas passavam a China, e
vinham d'ella na propria moncao com aven-
tejados interesses: porSrn elles foram causa,
particularmente os dos escravos que os por-
tugueses levavam, de se empregarem tanto
em os buscar, que vieram a se nao examinar
com tanto rigor como convinha seus cap-
tiveiros, conforme o muito que requer haver
para homem que nosso Senhor criou livre
poder perder a sua liberdade. E assim, ou por
esta causa, ou pelas muitas offensas de
Deus, que se commettiam nas embarcacoes
de escravos, com haver muito ganho n'elles
raros foram os que o lograram; nem Ihes
ficou luzindo e aproveitando." Bocarro,
Decada XIII da Historia da India, 697-98. In
Boxer's words, Bocarro noted "with satisfac-
tion that the slavers' voyages seldom turned
out profitable in the long run; see Boxer, The
Great Ship from Amacon, 94.
24 "Carta de los oficiales reales de Filipinas
...dan cuenta del dano que hicieron los por-
tugueses del Maluco en Bohol, donde
mataron y apresaron gran cantidad de indios,
y matanza que hicieron en la isla de
Managua." AQI Filipinas 29-3-12r-13v
(1565).
25 "De la India y de la poblacion de Macao se
traen algunos esclavos a estas islas y como
VM no ha mandado declarar si han de pagar
derechos los que los traen como los pagan
los que los llevan de Sto. Domingo y otras
partes a la Nueva Espana y Peru, no los han
cobrado [vuestros] oficiales reales ni de los
que llevan de estas Islas a la Nueva Espana
suplicamos a VM, mande lo que sea servido."
AGI Filipinas 18a-4-24 (1586).
26 "Aqui suelen venir cada ano uno o dos navios
de Portugueses...Malaca y Macao con mer-
caderias y esclavos...derechos de tres por
ciento de almojarifazgo como lo pagan los
sangleyes...el gobernador no quizo que lo
pagasen... es cosa a mi parecer justa que lo
paguen tanto de la ropa como de los escla-
vos y asf lo mando pagar y se cobra de un
navio que aqui vino en tiempo de Gomes."
AGI Filipinas 29-57-382r-404v (1595). AGI
Filipinas 34-78-796r-809r (1588).
27 "7 navires Portugais que vinieron a dichas
islas en el dicho ano, por los derechos de
almojarifazgo de las mercaderfas y esclavos
que trajeron en los dichos navios', a repartir
dans une proportion qu'il n'est pas possible
de preciser entre la rubrique Macao et la
rubrique Inde." Chaunu, Les Philippines et le
Pacifique des Iberiques, 155, n. 17.
28 "Que hay muchos negros esclavos trafdos
por los Portugueses que huyen y se convier-
ten en borrachosy salteadores." AGI Filipinas
27-51-310r-336v(1605).
29 "Que informen de lo inconveniente que se
siguen de los esclavos que en aquellas Islas
venden los Portugueses, Uevandolos desde
Malaca." AGI Filipinas 340-3-23r-23v (1608).
30 "Archbishop Miguel Garcia Serrano to the
King, 25 July 1621"; letter cited by Scott,
which was published in Rodriguez, Historia
de la Provincia Agustiniana.
31 "Real Cedula...sobre sacar de la ciudad de
Manila a los 400 o 500 negros libres y liber-
tos que en ella habia, por los robos que ha-
cian ayudados de los esclavos y desordenes
que provocaban. La ciudad pretendia que se
les expulsase a 9 leguas y los Jesuitas ofrecie-
ron una isleta que tenfan en el rio para que se
poblasen allf y darles doctrina junto a los chi-
nos. Se considera que esto tambien puede
ser peligroso." AGI Filipinas 330-4 40v-42r
(1638).
32 Nelson, "Slavery in Medieval Japan", 464.

1613 edict from Documentos Remetidos da
India, 1:43. Boxer cites the 1617 edict
"prohibiting the Macaonese from keeping
Japanese slaves" which was published, but
"wrongly dated 1583" in Instruqao Para O
Bispo De Pequim E Outros Documentos
Para a Historia De Macau, ed. M. Murias
(Lisbon: Agencia Geral das Colonias, 1943)
116-8.
33 Nelson, "Slavery in Medieval Japan", 465-6.
Nelson quotes a Japanese "account of
Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign" by Kyushu
godo zaki, which can be found in Yoshitomo,
Juroku Seiki Nichi-O Kotsu Shi No Kenkyu,
734.
34 "Arrinconada debajo de cubierta." Ramos,
Primera Parte Vida de Catharina, f. 26r.
35 "En el mar vivia debajo de cubierta afligida, y
en los puertos donde llegaba el navio, si la
echaban alguna vez en tierra; era para vivir
olvidada en lo mas bajo, e inmundo de los
mesones; o para experimentar en los
montes, y arenales todas las inclemencias de
el cielo, entre desprecios, hambres,
desnudez, y tantos bochornos." Ramos,
Primera Pane Vida de Catharina, f. 26r.
36 Nelson, "Slavery in Medieval Japan", 465.
Nelson quotes from the Portuguese transla-
tion of the letter, which was published in
Frois, Historia de Japam, 4:402.
37 Pyrard, Voyage of Franqois Pyrard, 173.
38 It should be noted that restrictions were
imposed by the Estado on the trade to
Japan.
39 Edwardes, Ralph Fitch, Elizabethan in the
Indies, 130.
40 Archivo General de la Nacion (AGN) Jesuitas
4-26.2 91620). Another Portuguese mer-
chant had the following slave lot: "Declaro a
los dichos Bartolome casta mogo, Catalina
casta chingala, Antonio chingala, Pedro,
Antonio, Pheliciana, Juan, Phelipa, Catalina
bengala, Leonor, Parachi, Oxa infiel,
Augustin, Adriana, Maria, Jacinto castas
malabares, Maria Java, Leonor casta pegu,
Sebastian, Adrian bengalas, Francisco parea,
Pascual chingala por esclavos cautivos." AGN
Historia 406-187r-191v (1616).
41 AGN Historia 407-162r-164r (1616).
42 "Bengala nombrado puerto pequeno de
donde sali6 la dicha galeota a 2 de enero de
este presente afio despachada para la ciudad
de Malaca cargada de arroz, aceite y mante-
ca, ropas...y otros generos y esclavos, y des-
pues salio la dicha galeota de la dicha ciudad
de Malaca a primero de mayo para estas
islas...y que solamente traen doscientos
TATIANA SEIJAS
esclavos y esclavas poco mas o menos...y
otros generos que embarcaron en la dicha
ciudad de Malaca para beneficiarlo en esta
ciudad." AGN Inquisicion 903-32-257r-258v
(1626).
43 "Cargado de mercaden'a y esclavonia para
este puerto de la ciudad de Manila." AGN
Inquisicion 903-32-249r-250v (1626). There
are a number of similar visitation records,
such as AGN Inquisicion 903-29-242r-243v
(1625).
44 "Aqui vino un soldado portugues Uamado
Fernando de Navas...diciendo que un esclavo
suyo casta bengala de hasta veinte y un anos
de edad Uamado Miguel que tiene en un lado
del rostro una sena...se le huy6 habra quince
meses...y ha sabido que en el opinar se llego
a esta compani'a es cautivo," AGI Filipinas 6 -
8-130(1599).
45 According to historian Peter Borschberg,
these records can "be taken as evidence that
the Portuguese were actively involved in ship-
ping human cargo out of China" to sell in
Macao and "other destinations in Asia"; see
Borschberg, "The Seizure of the Sta.
Catarina Revisited", 43.
46 In the 1630s, for example, there were approx-
imately 5,000 slaves in Macao, averaging six
slaves per casado (married man); the slaves
"came from all over Asia and Africa"; see
Souza, Survival of Empire, 34.
47 "La Providencia, tom6 por medio poner un
pensamiento, y eflcaz deseo en el Capitan
Miguel de Sosa, vecino de esta Ciudad de los
Angeles, de tener en su casa una Chinita
modesta, y agraciada, que le sirviese a el, y a
su consorte de consuelo...luego le puso la
ocasion en las manos, llegandose a despedir
de el otro noble portugues paisano, y compa-
dre suyo, que iba a embarcarse para las Islas
Filipinas; y a este encargo con todo empeno
la diligencia; y el respondio que se la remitiria
en la primera ocasion con todo cuidado."
Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de Catharina , f.
28v. In Grajeda's version of the story, Catarina
was chosen to satisfy the request of the vice-
roy of New Spain: "En este tiempo, habia
encargado el Marques de Gelves, Virrey que
fue de esta Nueva Espana, algunas esclavas
de buen parecer y gracia para el ministerio de
su palacio, y para este encargo fue una de las
elegidas Catarina, que con efecto llego dirigi-
da al puerto de Acapulco para su
Excelencia." Castillo Grajeda, Compendio De
La Vida, 45.
48 "Tambien avisais llego con esclavos...y otros
generos y cosas necesarias...el navio que fue
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640
a Goa, con el clavo que hiciste rescatar en el
Maluco y llevar por mi cuenta y que se hara lo
mismo...lo cual esta bien." AGI Filipinas 329-
2-402v-424r (1621).
49 See Boxer, The Great Ship from Amacon, 36.
Boxer quotes the decree, which was pub-
lished as document number 723 in Rivara,
Archivo Portuguez-Oriental, 791-93.
50 Nelson, "Slavery in Medieval Japan", 464.
Nelson quotes the decree, which was pub-
lished in Docwnentos Remetidos da India,
1:43. King Phillip III was responding to
Portuguese in Goa, who in the early 1600s
warned of a revolt if the 1571 decree was
actually enforced; see Boxer, Portuguese
Merchants and Missionaries, 1:46 V-20.
Boxer quotes from Goa camara letters.
51 "Algunos de los Portugueses con pretexto de
comerciantes, corrian aquellos mares, y tie-
rras en el execrable ejercicio de piratas de
haciendas, y personas." Ramos, Primera
Parte Vida de Catharina, f. 16r.
52 "Navegando esta nifia...lleg6 con los piratas a
un distante paraje, donde asegurados, que
no habn'a quien les quitase la presa; saltaron
en tierra, y sacaron todos prisioneros, y
haciendas, que habian robado, para hacer un
justo repartimiento, de un pillaje injusto."
Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de Catharina, f.
17r.
53 At his inquisition trial, Anton testified as
follows: "dijo que es cristiano...bautizado en
la ciudad de Malaca, y fue su padrino un por-
tugues llamado Anton que le puso su propio
nombre luego que lo cautivaran habra tiem-
po de treinta y cinco anos unos Portugueses
a quienes habiendo ido a vender cantidad de
pimienta que era su trato se quedaron a dor-
mir en el navfo el y ocho o nueve chinos y
aquella noche alzaron velas y lo llevaron a
Malaca." AGN Inquisicion 456-2-55r-98v
(1650).
54 The testimony reads as follows: "dijo que se
llama Francisco y que es de casta corunbi y
que estando en su tierra donde era persona
libre siendo muy pequeno lo cogieron unos
Pescadores...y lo llevaron a Bassen [?] y alli
lo vendieron a un criado de un fidalgo de
cuyo nombre no se acuerda mas de que lo
vendio a don Alvarez Persija el que lo llevo a
Goa y de alli a Malaca y alli lo vendio a
Domingo de Araujo y el dicho...lo vendio a
Pedro Alvarez Pinto y este lo vendio al capitan
Francisco Hernandez que lo trujo a esta ciu-
dad a quien sirve como esclavo." AGN
Historia 407-162r-164r (1616).
55 Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 176.
56 Arasaratnam, "Slave Trade in the Indian
Ocean in the Seventeenth Century", 197-98.
For a discussion of slavery in the Indian
Ocean World, see Chatterjee and Eaton,
Slavery & South Asian History.
57 Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 175.
58 Souza, Survival of Empire, 195. He cites
documents at the Archivo Nacional da Torre
do Tombo in Lisbon.
59 Italian traveller Francesco Carletti wrote in
1599 that one could buy a child from his par-
ents in China for "two or three ducats"; see
Carletti, My Voyage around the World, 177.
60 "Es permitido por ley a las viudas que quedan
pobres, cuando no tienen con que susten-
tarse, vender los hijos para su remedio, y con
esta necesidad acuden a los mercaderes
ricos para que se los compren," De
Escalante, Discurso de la Navegacion. The
Spanish chronicler did not actually visit
China; writing in the late 1570s Escalante
explained his sources as follows: "De todo lo
que se ha escrito del gran senorio de la China
en esta obra, me informe con mucha diligen-
cia y cuidado, de hombres fidedignos
Portugueses, que nan estado en aquel Reino
con comercios, y otros negocios, y de los
mismos naturales Chinos que han venido a
Espana; de los cuales tome lo que me pare-
cio mas autentico, segun lo que convenia a
esta breve narracion" (f. lOOr).
61 An "infiel" denoted an unbaptised person.
Menayte "de casta y nacion Parea" said that
"el mismo por hambres y necesidades que
pasaba se vendio su cuerpo a un Portugues
de cuyo nombre no se acuerda mas de que
le llevo a Joto Carin [?] y alli lo vendio al dicho
capitan Francisco Macedo que le trajo a esta
ciudad a quien sirve como tal esclavo." AGN
Jesuitas 4-26.2 (1620).
62 "Trabajos con agua y lena por falta de
esclavos negros." AGI Filipinas 18a-2-8
(1584).
63 Cushner, Landed Estates, 46-48.
64 For discussion regarding the workings of the
encomienda institution and forced labour;
see Hidalgo Nuchera, Encomienda, Tributo y
Trabajo en Filipinas.
65 "Carta de los oficiales de la Real Hacienda de
Filipinas.. .Proponen sustituir a los calafates y
carpinteros de naos por esclavos de la India
que sepan esos oficios, para ahorrar el sala-
rio que se les paga." AGI Filipinas 29-50-
230r-232v (1584). AGI Filipinas 29-63-427r-
428v(1597).
66 "De la India, de Malaca y de Maluco, le vienen
a Manila los esclavos y esclavas, blancos y

negros, ninos pequenos y de mayor edad;
ellos industriosos y serviciales y muchos
buenos musicos; ellas grandes costureras,
cocineras y conserveras y de servicio muy
aseado y limpio." Chirino, Relacion de la
Islas Filipinas.
67 Lockhart argues: "A striking characteristic of
the Spanish occupation of Peru was the lavish
use made of semi-acculturated auxiliaries, in
the first instance of Indians from Nicaragua
and then increasingly Negro slaves, who by
the end of the period must have been at least
as numerous as Spaniards"; see Lockhart,
Spanish Peru, 230.
68 "En la casa donde la escondieron...un hom-
bre tan lascivo, como cruel, quizo robar
muchas veces su honestidad, y pureza, va-
liendose de el retiro donde estaba
oculta...para lograr sus depravados inten-
tos.... Paso a desahogar su pasion con cruel-
dades, y sin reparar ciego en el duelo grosero
de maltratar asi a una esclava, la heria
muchas veces a mano abierta, y cerrada;
hasta dejarla un di'a banada en su sangre...En
otra ocasion se vio desnuda, atada, y ator-
mentada, con la vergiienza, y con los azotes
de este hombre bruto". Ramos, Primera
Parte Vida de Catharina, 27v.
69 "Prueba esta verdad, la virtud de su pureza y
el realce de su castidad cuando se dejo llevar
un mogor de algunas palabras amorosas
...porfiando con locas caricias a haberla a las
manos para halagarla, llevado aun en aquella
pequefiez de Mirra, de capitularla para espo-
sa cuando fuese grande; pero ella, con
valiente resistencia, disuadio a breves ratos
las necias porfias del mogor, con escapes
cuerdos que hizo, pues, valiente, huyo a la
soledad, valiendose en ella de una cueva."
Castillo Grajeda, Compendio de la Vlda, 37.
70 Catarina lamented: "Senora, aqui estoy
echando Man to para mi, tengo grandis medo
dil hombres", which Castillo translated as
"como si dijera: Me vengo a la soledad,
huyendo del riesgo de los hombres." Castillo
Grajeda, Compendio de la Vlda, 38.
71 King Felipe III, Decree, 22-April-1608, trans-
lated in Blair and Robertson, The Philippine
islands, 17:49.
72 "Mandar que en las naos del comercio no se
lleven ni traigan esclavas por evitar muchas
ofensas de Nuestro Senor. Porque aunque
esta prohibido por cedula Real no se guarda
y que el Arzobispo de esas islas para reme-
diarlo ponga pena de descomunion y lo cas-
tigue." AG1 Filipinas 340-3-68v-69 (1620).
73 "El correspondiente de Sosa se vio obligado
TATIANA SEIJAS
a esconderla, y embarcarla de hombre, para
asegurarla con este disfraz, llego al puerto de
Acapulco." Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de
Catharina, f. 28v.
74 Pyrard, Voyage of Francois Pyrard, 66.
Emphasis added.
75 Pyrard, Voyage of Francois Pyrard^ 66.
76 "No constan los espafioles y mestizos que no
hacen vecindad, la mayoria casados con
mestizas indias y bengalas, por lo que no se
incorporan a la relacion." AG1 Filipinas 27-
181-999r-1006v (1634).
77 See Reid, "Female Roles in Pre-Colonial
Southeast Asia", 633.
78 Blusse, Strange Company, 156.
79 Pyrard, Voyage of Francois Pyrard, 66.
80 Niemeijer, "Slavery", 175.
81 Solorzano wrote the following: "Tienen [los
africanos] justas guerras entre si, en que se
cautivan unos a otros, y a estos cautivos los
venden despues a los Portugueses, que nos
los traen." Solorzano Pereira and Valenzuela,
Politlca Indiana, 138.
82 "Esclavos Timores Bengalas malabares
cafres y otras naciones.. .traidos a vender a
estas islas por Portugueses...traen justifica-
ciones de las esclavitudes de los esclavos
...de ser habidos en buena guerra sujetos a
servidumbre y que en estas islas se hacen
recaudos nuevos justificando los dichos por-
tugueses las dichas esclavitudes ante juez
eompetente." AG1 Filipinas 25-1-46 (1689).
83 "Y para desmentir la infamia de sus latroci-
nios, echaron voz, de que eran esclavos
todos los prisioneros, que traian, unos com-
prados, y otros habidos en justa guerra."
Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de Catharina f.
17v.
84 "Para que le sirviese por cierto termino limita-
do." AGN Real Fisco 8-9-262r-270r (1599).
85 As a witness explained, it was apparently not
customary to give slave titles in Nagasaki:
"Dijo que en las dichas Islas de Jap6n se usa
vender algunos Japoneses a otros Japoneses
que traen de otros pueblos hurtados o presos
en guerras y diferencias que unos con otros
tienen y en la tal venta no entregan titulo ni
recaudo alguno." AGN Real Fisco 8-9-262r-
270r (1599).
86 "Dijo el dicho padre Antonio Lopez que se sir-
viesen del dicho Japon doce anos poco mas
o menos...y de ello dio una cedula firmada
de su nombre." AGN Real Fisco 8-9-262r-
270r (1599).
87 AGN Historia 406-192r-192v (1621).
88 Francisco Macedo said: "que el tenia en su
poder y servicio a los dichos Andres y consor-
THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE TO SPANISH MANILA, 1580-1640
tes y que se estaba sirviendose de ellos sin
contradiccion ninguna de mas de lo cual
queria justificar su esclavonia y probar y ave-
riguar como eran tales esclavos porque otros
de su nacion estaban declarados por tales en
los concilios provinciates que sobre ello se
habian hecho en la India por ser enemigos de
los cristianos y traer de ordinario guerras con
ellos y como tales se comprarfan y vendian."
AGN Jesuitas 4-26.2 (1620).
Another Portuguese merchant, Pedro de
Angulo Tovar, had the same to say: "queria
justificar sus esclavonias y probar y averiguar
como eran tdles esclavos, porque dichos de
su misma casta y nacion estaban declarados
por tales en" los concilios provinciales de la
India." AQN Historia 406-187r-191v (1616).
89 The juez provisor y vicario del arzobispado
de Manila (judge and vicar of the archbisho-
pric of Manila) wrote, "certifico como ante mi
parecio el capitan Francisco Hernandez por-
tugues recien veyiido de Malaca y me hizo
relacion diciendb que el habfa traido cantidad
de esclavos y que entre .ellos era uno llamado
Francisco casta Corunbi cuyos recaudos se le
habian perdido y no los habfa podido hallar y
para disponer de el y venderlo tenia necesi-
dad de que haci£rfdose con los dichos mozos
las diligencias necesarias y constando por
ellos ser esclavos le mandase despachar tes-
tificacion en forma sobre quef pidio justicia y
juro ser cierto este su pedimento y por mi
visto hice parecer un mozo llamado
Francisco Corunbi que parecio de veinte y
cinco anos y habiendose hecho las diligen-
cias necesarias y por la declaracion que hizo
me consto ser esclavo de buen titulo y cauti-
verio y la casta de los comprendidos por
esclavos en el capftulo de el concilio provin-
cial de las lndias...con lo que [-] doy licencia
para su esclavonia pueda pasar y justificar-
se." AGN Historia 407-162r-164r (1616).
90 The vicar general wrote: "con poderes en lo
espiritual e temporal en esta poblacion de
Nuestra Senora de la Concepci6n de
Nagayatan en Cheramandel [?]...hago saber
que por ante mi fue examinado Meneyta
casta parea de edad de 25 anos...y por el exa-
men...le consto ser de buen cautiverio...y por
descargo de la conciencia del comprador le
df esta [licencia] por mi firmado." AQN
Jesuitas 4-26.2 (1620).
91 Nelson, "Slavery in Medieval Japan", 464.
Nelson quotes the decree, which was pub-
lished in Documentos Remetidos da India.
92 "El gobernador don Alonso Faxardo le ha
dado el oficio de defensor general de los
esclavos que se traen a la ciudad de Manila
de la India Oriental y de otras partes para que
los defienda en la justiflcacion de sus esclavo-
nias." AGI Filipinas 39-19 (1623).
93 AGN Historia 406-7 lr-74v (1635).
94 "Capitan Manuel Jorge de Silva...hizo rela-
cion diciendo que el tenia en su poder y ser-
vicio al dicho Gaspar y consortes...tales
esclavos de buen titulo y cautiverio como
constara de los recaudos de algunos de ellos
que presento, con el juramento necesario, y
para disponer de ellos a su voluntad convenfa
a su derecho y litigar sus esclavonias en este
juicio sobre las cuales les puso demandas en
forma y pidio y suplico al dicho alcalde de
que habida su relacion por verdad...manda-
se se les nombrase a los dichos mozos y
mozas un defensor para que en su presencia
se les tomase en sus declara[ciones] a los
dichos mozos y mozas y constando.. .ser sus
esclavos se les adjudicasen por tales dando-
les licencia para poder sacar de estas islas y
Uevarlos a las partes que les pareciere." AGN
Historia 406-71r-74v (1635).
95 "Dijo que se llama Gaspar casta balala y que
es esclavo porque estando en su tierra le cau-
tivaron los Portugueses en las guerras que
tuvieron con los de su nacion y desde enton-
ces ha sido vendido otras veces y esta que
vino en poder del demandante que lo trujo a
esta ciudad." AGN Historia 406-7lr-74v
(1635).
96 "El dano que le viniese en quedar esclavo."
AGN Historia 406-71r-74v (1635).
97 Jacinto said, "que es de casta y nacion mala-
bar y que es esclavo de Benito Fereira que lo
trujo a esta ciudad de la de Malaca donde lo
compro de un portugues que no sabe su
nombre el cual lo cogio en una guerra que
tubo contra los de su nacion el cual lo vendio
a Salvador de los Rios y no supo dar dicha
razon ni decir su edad, parecio de quince
anos y su defensor le apercibio diga si tiene
alguna defensa para ser libre se lo de que
esta presto de le ayudar el cual dijo que no
sabe dicha cosa ni firmar." AGN Historia 406-
187r-191v(1616).
98 "En virtud de algunas declaraciones, y damo-
res de los robados, se di6 libertad a los mas;
y otros quedaron declarados por esclavos."
Ramos, Primera Parte Vida de Catharina, f.
17v.
99 "A vos el mi corregidor del pueblo de
Otucpa...hagais parecer ante vos a la perso-
na que por su parte de la dicha Maria Moreno
os fuere senalado por testigo en la dicha
causa de la cual vos en persona sin lo come-

ter a otra alguna." AGN Tierras 2973-73-
fl70r-v (1634).
100 The lawyer asked that he be given his liberty
"por ser de naci6n Bengala la cual nunca
habia estado sujeta a servidumbre". AGN
Tierras 2663-69-218r-220r (1662).
101 Cecilia testified the following: "[era de] naci-
miento persona libre y no sujeta a servi-
dumbre ni cautiverio como lo eran los
demas de la dicha nacion y provincia y los
naturales del dicho pueblo...que era en
puerto donde habia trato abierto y contrata-
cion con los mercaderes espanoles lusita-
nos a donde llegaban con sus fragatas y
bajeles sin que nunca jamas los de la dicha
su nacion y pueblo hubiesen estado de
TATIANA SEIJAS
guerra ni tornado armas contra los dichos
espanoles lusitanos...que en otras ocasio-
nes habia sucedido deportar y robar peque-
nos a los dichos naturales los marineros y
soldados hurtasen a la dicha suplicante
siendo muy nifia de edad de seis a siete
anos haciendola esdava sin serlo y vendien-
dola, y con este injusto ti'tulo." AGN Tierras
2973-53-f.ll6r-126r (1634).
102 Cecilia told the court: "y hacian muchos
malos tratamientos echandole prisiones y la
quen'an herrar el rostro trasponerla y envlar-
la tierra adentro"; and in a subsequent tes-
timony, "luego habia llamado a un barbero
y herradla en el rostro". AGN Tierras 2973-
53-f.ll6r-126r(1634).