Fray Miguel, bishop, and archbishop elect of the Philipinas.

[Endorsed:  “Manila, to his Majesty; 1603.  The archbishop; December 16, 1603.”  “September 26, 1606.  Have this placed with the other letters-credential of Fray Diego de Guevara.”]

LETTERS FROM PEDRO DE ACUNA

Sire: 

Having written and sealed the folio which will go with this, on Friday the eve of St. Francis’ day of this year, and set thereto the date of the following day, when some one was to depart and take it, on that same Friday night there occurred the insurrection of the Chinese which I shall recount in this.

In the letter of the third of July of this year, which went with the ship which left here for Nueva Hespana, I wrote to your Majesty that three mandarins had come to this city from the kingdom of China, under pretense that they were coming to investigate a lie which a Sangley who had been here had told to their king—­saying that in Cavite there was a great quantity of gold; and that with that and the silver which could be obtained from this kingdom every year his vassals might be relieved from tribute.  The care which was exercised in this matter, and what occurred to me in regard to it, I have written to your Majesty in the said letter.  I told you how I was preparing, being in uncertainty, what appeared to me necessary, so that if anything should happen I should not be caught unprepared; accordingly, as the houses of the Parian were very near to the wall, I had several of them demolished so that this space might be free.  I wrote to the alcaldes-mayor and magistrates of this district, and they sent me a memorial concerning the natives in the jurisdiction of each one, what weapons they possessed, and in how far they might be trusted.  I had them visit the Sangleys, and see what arms and provisions they had, particularly the stone-workers, lime-burners, sawyers, fishermen, and gardeners, as they were people who reside in the country, and for this reason it will be right to exercise more caution in living with them; and likewise in order to have them make arrows, bows, pikes, baqueruelos, and other articles for the royal warehouses, as it is from these that all of the military supplies are provided.  I likewise ordered that they should collect, bring together, and transport as many provisions as possible.  I was not careless in regard to the walls, but rather with much diligence repaired what was necessary; and I continued the building of the fort which I wrote your Majesty was being made on the point, as it was so necessary a defense, and the supplies and other articles had to be gathered and guarded there.  To this end I had brought a great number of Sangleys for the works, and had contracted with them to construct a ditch in the part where their Parian and alcayceria stand, and along the whole front from the river to the sea; and, as the plan shows, this may be flooded with water at high tide, which