With the help of God, who in His infinite mercy made me pleasing and well liked, I shall endeavor to live, administer justice, and deal with others irreproachably.  Since this is so, and I dwell in a land where there is so little stability and truth, I beseech your Majesty not to judge me without first hearing me.  I greatly honor the president, and the authority which even a duke would maintain if he were here as your Majesty’s lieutenant; for in distant regions this befits the service of your Majesty.  Nevertheless, in what concerns the administration of justice, I strive to lose no opportunity.  The president is in poor health at present, and I do not know whether in his letters he has touched upon the matters which I shall mention here.

I wrote from Mexico beseeching your Majesty, for the peace of the royal conscience and of the consciences of us who serve here, that a consultation be held to decide upon what shall be done with the Mahometans, of whom these islands are full.  I sent a report, and said that, keeping the matter in mind, I would send a more detailed account from here; but I could not find time for study, on account of my continual occupation in the sessions of the Audiencia and rendering opinions.  This year I am probate judge, and for the first four months of the year provincial alcalde; and since people find that matters are readily settled I am beset by the natives with their petty lawsuits.  I wish that I might have had more time to collect what can be put together, and to write on law.  However I shall not neglect perchance to make some slight report.  The following is a clause from a letter of your Majesty which I found, addressed to the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, the first discoverer of these islands, in effect this: 

“We have also been petitioned in your behalf concerning the Moro islands in that land, and how those men come to trade and carry on commerce, hindering the preaching of the holy gospel and disturbing you.  We give you permission to make such Moros slaves, and to seize their property.  You are warned that you can make them slaves only if the said Moros are such by birth and choice, and if they come to preach their Mahometan doctrine, or to make war against you or against the Indians, who are our subjects and in our royal service.  But in no way or manner shall you enslave the Indians who have embraced the doctrine of Mahoma; on the contrary, you shall endeavor to persuade and convert them to our holy Catholic faith by kind and lawful methods.”

To make universal arrangements is to pass infallible rules, and in law we can hardly find such a rule; therefore we must distinguish in both times and occasions.  With due respect, it seems to me that all Mahometans are enemies of the Church; and all the Ismaelites, their allies, confederates, and descendants must have the words of the Scriptures (as found in the 16th chapter of Genesis) written in their hearts:  Hic erit ferus homo, manus ejus contra omnes et