Then follows a list of letters and other documents accompanying the “Memorial,” several of which are presented in our text.  On the right hand is written:  “Filipinas Islands, city of Manila, assembly of April 19, 1586.  Royal Audiencia, judiciary, and magistracy.  Bishop and clergy.  Orders, and religious and ecclesiastical estate.  The master-of-camp, captains, and soldiers, and the secular estate.  The person who should come:  Father Sanchez.”  Other memoranda refer to various letters from Philippine officials, dated during the years 1583-86, which seem to have been consulted in reference to the “Memorial.”]

[In the library of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago, is a collection of MSS., transcripts from documents in Spanish archives, which were made during the years 1859-65 by a Spanish official at Madrid, who had been in the Philippine Islands, named Ventura del Arco:  it has been kindly loaned to us by Mr. Ayer for use in the present work.  This series, in five volumes, large octavo size, contains some 3,000 pages of matter regarding these islands, from the original MSS. in the archives; some is copied in full, but often a synopsis only is given.  To many of the documents are added tracings of the original autograph signatures.  Although spelling, punctuation, and capitals are considerably modernized, the work of transcription appears to have been otherwise done carefully, intelligently, and con amore; and the collection contains much valuable material in Philippine history.  It covers the period of 1586-1709, and begins with the proceedings of the junta of 1586, which are found in vol. i, pp. 1-101.  The “Memorial” is given in a full resume; and at the end is cited (pp. 48-49) the following paragraph, which is not contained in our Sevilla copy, or in that of the Madrid MS. which we have followed:]

In the city of Manila, on July 26 of the year 1586, the following persons met in the royal building:  The honorable president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of these islands, and his Majesty’s fiscal of the Audiencia; Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, bishop of the Filipinas; and the religious, the captains, the magistrates, and the municipal officers of this city—­who hereunder signed their names.  They met to discuss fully the matters contained in this document, about which Father Alonso Sanchez as procurator-general of this country, and acting in its name, is to confer with his Majesty, and solicit aid from him, that the prosperity and colonization of these islands may continue to increase, and that God and his Majesty may be served.  The above articles having been read, as they are here recorded, de verbo ad verbum, all the above persons declared, unanimously and with one consent and opinion, that this memorial was properly drawn up; and that Father Alonso Sanchez should communicate all its contents to his Majesty, and other matters as seemed to him necessary.  The above honorable persons made the required attestations to the document, and signed it with their names, as did other persons.  I, the clerk of the court [of the Audiencia], attest this.