By order of the king, our sovereign: 

Joan de Ybarra

Signed by the president and members of the Council.

Letter from Luis Perez Dasmarinas to Felipe II

Sire: 

With some misgiving and anxiety, Sire, I have considered whether or no I should write this to your Majesty, but necessity and not my wish obliges me.  For some reasons I would like to leave it unwritten, particularly because I do not care to contradict myself and appear, in what I am about to write and ask of your Majesty, to change my ground from what I have written to your Majesty before about some of my affairs.  I cease not to fear and dread that the reason of this may appear from what I write now and what has before been written, to be an invention, artifice, or plot.  It is not so, although I confess it does in some wise appear so.  Speaking with frankness and truth, Sire, which is the way in which I have concluded to write this, and as one should always write, particularly to your Majesty, the fact is, Sire, that my affairs have taken a different turn from what I expected when I wrote to your Majesty.  By the compassion and grace of God I have no longer that wish, intent, and desire, which I have expressed in other letters to your Majesty, concerning my wish and desire of obtaining a state more quiet and safe and less disturbed, and less dangerous for my past and present salvation.  In order not to tire or occupy your Majesty with an affair of so little weight and moment, although it means much to me, I declare, Sire, that, according to my desire and intention, I wrote to your Majesty exempting myself and bidding farewell to human and temporal pretensions, thinking that they were not necessary for me, and rather desiring to assist with what I had, some persons in need, debt, and obligation.  Since then my affairs here have gone in the usual and ordinary way of the world, which is unlike, even contrary to, human project, plan, and judgment.  Many times things are planned very differently from what actually happens afterwards, as is verified by my case.  For I thought to have something to leave, and I am obliged to ask for aid; and I may truly say that it is not for myself, but for those whom I owe and am under strict and just obligations to satisfy and pay.  The debts are such and so many, that no calculation can be made.  In December, when I wrote to your Majesty by way of Malaca, according to my understanding the debts were somewhat more than thirty-eight thousand pesos.  Although it is true that some were paid later, I have not adjusted or liquidated my debts so that I can state the amount; yet I can assure your Majesty that altogether I owe a very large sum at present.  God knows how overcome with confusion I am when I consider my debts and obligations and the little I have to satisfy them.  Thus, Sire, your Majesty cannot fail of the assistance which is necessary for one who has so little and owes so much, and who