in that said city, and remain there as prelate for such time as may please you.  That bishopric shall be suffragan to the archbishop of Manila, and you shall have the latter as your metropolitan bishop and shall repair to that city for the synods and other matters arranged by the canons and councils.  It is my will that you shall have what is necessary for your sustenance and the maintenance of your episcopal dignities.  The tithes in your district are at present to be gathered into one amount, and you are to have all that pertains to the prelates and to the prebendaries, dignitaries, and canons.  In case this is not sufficient, you will repair to the officials of my royal exchequer in those islands, whom I command, upon establishment by evidence that all the aforesaid does not reach five hundred thousand maravedis yearly, that they shall grant and pay you such deficit from my royal exchequer.  And with the said testimony, and with a copy of this my decree and your receipt, I order that what is thus granted and paid you be received and audited.  Done in Ateca, the fifteenth of May, in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-six.

I The King [32]

Instructions for Governor Tello

What you, Don Francisco Tello, knight of the order of Santiago, whom I have appointed as my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia, which I have ordered to be reestablished there, are to do in the service of God, and my own, and for the good government of those islands, is as follows: 

Infinite praises must be given to our Lord, and I accordingly offer them to Him, for the great blessing that He has been pleased to grant me, inasmuch as, during the time that I by His mercy and will am king, He has chosen me as the instrument for the discovery of islands so remote and unknown; and because, after those peoples have lived for so many years in the blindness of their heathendom, the gospel has recently been published in them, the Catholic faith planted therein and received, and so many native Indians converted, who enjoy the teaching of the gospel.  And thanks are due to God also for the natural expectation and hope that may and ought to exist that, by the same mercy of God, He must be pleased that the preaching of His gospel should be spread farther, and that all the other islands, of that vast archipelago, which extends through more than nine hundred leguas of latitude, and more than five hundred of longitude—­exclusive of the great surrounding kingdoms of the mainland, round about those islands, namely China, Cochina, Cochinchina, Chanpa, Canboja, Sian, Patan, Joor, and others—­by receiving Him and the faith, may come into the true knowledge of the faith.