Fray Juan de la Concepcion (1724 - 1786) born in Madrid, started as a young Augustinian Recollect missionary arriving in the Philippines in 1752 . He was assigned to a parish in Zambales and learned the language there as was the mission for most missionaries to achieve a greater facility in converting the community.
Having started work on the ground, his documentation of events till 1786 is stark without the flourish and habitual fealty to the Spanish Crown or to his organization. He writes about daily events and includes outbreaks of revolts against friar usurpation of lands unsparing on who the contending forces are. He is sent to Mindanao and reports about the antipathy between the Spaniards and the Moslems. Eventually, the Recollects abandon their work there and Concepcion cites - as he does often - the Jesuits as responsible for the problems there.
Published over a hundred years after Fr. Concepcion’s death, Historia General de Philipinas, the voluminous fourteen volumes with many accounts taken from colleagues, sources and personal observations, give us a a glimpse of the arduous period of spotty Spanish governance in so many islands with different languages and norms along with suspicious chieftains who wanted to retain local authority. The tensions and revolts by the populace endured for several centuries before the major national revolution began.
PROPERTY FROM THE ORTIGAS LIBRARY COLLECTION
CONDITION REPORT: Good condition, Philippine map missing
Minor insect damage and water stain on the edge