to this country a Spaniard of great genius, good birth, and singular virtue, who came with Don Luis Perez das Marinas.  This Spaniard cast artillery very ingeniously at this post where I am at present, which is on the river in the middle of Manila.  During all the time that I have been here I have not seen the governor go to examine this work, or have anything more to do with it than if it were in Constantinople.  In short, his God is his belly, and his feasts, and the vices and sins consequent upon this.  That his drink may be cold he uses from the warehouses of your Majesty an endless amount of saltpeter, which is difficult to procure.  He expends an immense amount of powder in his feasts.

To fulfil my duty to God and His faith, and to your Majesty, and the fidelity of a vassal, which I particularly owe, through the obligation placed upon me by being bishop, I say that this man has no good in him; nor is there anything bad lacking, to make him in the highest degree a bad governor.  Every instant that the remedy is delayed will bring on more surely the wrath of God by delivering us into the hands of Japon and other worse enemies or scourges.  The only remedy is to appoint here the good Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas, a well-known knight, and proved to be just and discreet, with long experience in these lands—­and, above all, with great respect for God and His laws and those of your Majesty.  He is a friend of prayer, and believes in considering his affairs with God.  He need not be embarrassed in coming here, nor come loaded down with persons to whom he is bound.  And if perchance Don Luis should not be available—­although it certainly appears that he is so, particularly since the coming of the Audiencia—­for the love of God may your Majesty not send us a person who is so boastful of being a knight; but rather a nobleman, a prudent soldier, who will be alone, and neither greedy, nor brought up in the vices of Sevilla, nor with the braggarts there.  It seems to me that I have said enough of this.  Manilla, the last of June, 1598.

It is said that he is sending great presents, and will try in that way to maintain himself here.

Fray Miguel, Bishop of Nueva Segovia. [15]

Sire: 

After I had written your Majesty my grief at the condition of these islands, a number of Chinese, both Christians and infidels, came to me, all bewailing the grievous injuries that they suffer daily from your Majesty’s officials and other Spaniards.  They delivered to me two letters addressed to your Majesty, and written in their characters and language and after their manner; and I had these letters translated into Castilian characters.  These people have no other protection than the Order of our father St. Dominic; and, as I am the head of that order here, they have recourse to me for protection, asking that I send the letters to your Majesty.  I assure your Majesty that these wretched people are receiving so many wrongs and injuries,