days they returned and showed me the licenses that had been given them, for which five tostons each had been exacted.  When I recounted this occurrence to a God-fearing person, he told me that there were licenses that cost as high as seven and eight pesos, and others sold at five or six.  For the punishment of past acts, and in provision for the future, your Majesty must send a rigorous inspection, in order that those who have put the country and the faith in such danger may be punished.  Your Majesty should not trust the various papers that come from here, for it is evident that those who feel themselves in the wrong, will attempt to clear themselves of the blame.  Some person should come to make the investigation who is zealous for the honor of God and the service of your Majesty, that he may punish the guilty and provide better things for the future.  We, the servants of your Majesty, pray to the Lord of light and to your Majesty to send such a person; but we believe that if he be not an ecclesiastic, all will remain in darkness; for, as your Majesty is so far away, there is not here due fear of punishment.  One of the auditors of these islands told me years ago that the judges in Castilla ordinarily performed their duties well because they were seeking honor, and this they could not gain except by such behavior; but that in the Yndias it was the reverse, and that what the judges seek is to enrich themselves.  If this be their aim, they must needs fail in their obligations.  Your Majesty, for the love of God, must have compassion on this land, and send someone to remedy it.  Your Majesty has holy prelates here who could assist in this.  May our Lord protect your Majesty for the good of His church for many years.  Manila, December 15, 1603.

Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina, vicar, and provincial of the Order of St. Dominic, and commissary of the Holy Office.

Sire:  The infidel Chinese, whom your Majesty’s ministers have allowed in these islands, had come to be so numerous that in their alcaiceria alone, and in the suburbs adjoining Manila, there were about fifteen thousand of them without counting those in other parts of the islands.  There were among these a certain number of worthless persons, vicious and criminal, who on that account did not dare to return to China.  As the multitude of Chinese was so great, and this low and vicious element was among them, they were emboldened; and, excited by a rumor (which was false, although by no means absurd to them) that the Spaniards intended to kill them, they revolted, on the night of the eve of St. Francis’ day of this year, six hundred and three.  With clubs for weapons, they killed on that same day many Spaniards, who were marching against them.  These were of the most noble and valiant men in the islands, and in the prime of life, under the command of that most Christian and valiant man, Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas.  On the third day, with their clubs only, and the few