2. That it is expedient, in order to realize the results of the great expense in these islands, that religious should be sent each year to gather the harvest which should be taken from it; and that an account should be sent of the Indians here, both Christians and infidels, and a memorandum of the religious.

As the holy intention of your Majesty, in the expenses which from your patrimony you incur in this country, is principally the conversion or the heathen here, and the establishment of the holy gospel in place of their idolatries, there is no better means than the teaching of the Christian doctrine and the presence of its ministers.  That your Majesty may have a fuller report of it, I am sending an account stating how many Indians are pacified, and acknowledge the royal name of your Majesty in these said islands; the number of Christians and infidels; and how many are taught and how many to be taught—­not only in the encomiendas under your royal crown but in the private ones.  Accordingly I beg your Majesty to be pleased to further this, appointing each year, as usual, religious of exemplary life, so that they may bring with more love and gentleness our holy Catholic faith to the Indians; for certainly as much as a good minister edifies, finding fault injures.  With this goes the memorandum which your Majesty ordered me to send, of the religious in these islands and those whom it will be necessary to bring from Espana each year.  Those who are here are assigned as well as was possible, so as to give instruction to all.  The mission villages are in some confusion and the orders somewhat mixed with one another.  This could not be remedied as it should have been, owing to the untimely death of the archbishop, which occurred on the fourteenth of August of the said year of 1598.

3. That the bishop of Camarines has not come, and that the other two arrived in the year 98, and did not bring bulls for the partition of their bishoprics, and that they are getting along well.

The bishop of the province of Camarines [32] did not come, and therefore it is being ecclesiastically governed by the chapter of the cathedral of Manila, sede vacante, as has been done hitherto.  The bishops of the city of Nueva Segovia and of Cebu arrived in these islands in the past year of 1598, as I wrote to your Majesty.  They did not bring bulls from his Holiness nor decrees from your Majesty, directing the division of their bishoprics.  Each one has therefore taken what seemed best to him:  he of Nueva Segovia took the territory beyond the province of Pangasinan, and he of Cebu took possession of the island of Panay, saying that his bishopric included all the province of the Pintados.  The chapter of this holy metropolitan church, sede vacante, held otherwise, and the case was brought before this royal Audiencia.  Its decision left the bishop in possession, to avoid disagreement, until your Majesty should command that the partition be definitively made.  He is at present in this city celebrating confirmation in the place of the archbishop, and will officiate at the obsequies of the king our lord, of glorious memory.  The bishop of Nueva Segovia is in his church.  They are men of holy life and fulfil their duties well.