Archbishop Don Diego Vazquez de Mercado reached this city this month of June, and was received with universal rejoicing and happiness; for he is well-known, and the people know his earnest zeal, and that it is expended for the service of your Majesty and that of God, and the increase of our holy faith.  We trust that life will be given him to reestablish all this country that has remained without a shepherd for so long.  The pity is, that he has not the means with which to assist the poor, as their father which he is, and all are grieving over this.  Will your Majesty encourage him to continue with holy zeal in the future and not to become faint-hearted on account of poverty; and surely it is poverty to be an archbishop in this land.

The royal officials, whose duty it is, by right, to inform your Majesty of everything here, will inform you and attend to that.  They are honorable men and fulfil their obligations, as we see.  Especially does the factor Juan Saenz de Hegoen attend in a very Christian and faithful manner, and very assiduously and carefully, to what is in his charge.  He shows his zeal for the service of your Majesty and for the increase of your royal treasury.  He is deserving of favor from your Majesty.  Inasmuch as others will inform you of this, we shall not enlarge more on it, but beg from the Lord the life that we all wish for your Majesty, even if it be taken from ours, for the welfare of His church, the glory of the Lord, and the increase of the estates of your Majesty.  Manila, June the last, 1610.

Fray Baltasar Fort, [18] prior provincial.

Fray Francisco Minayo, [19] prior of St. Dominic, Manila.

Fray Bernardo De Santo Catalina, commissary of the Holy Office.

Memorandum, in order that his Majesty may see why it is not advisable to have an Audiencia in the city of Manila.

Many great disadvantages result from having an Audiencia in the Philipinas Islands.  Only those that appear to be the worst are mentioned.

1st.  As to the first, it has been seen by experience that, since the arrival of the royal Audiencia, many more suits occur than before.  The jails are full of prisoners; that of Manila contains usually more than one hundred prisoners.  Some of them are there for a considerable time, even for many years, because the auditors do not attend to their duty.  A Sangley infidel of those imprisoned during the war was seven full years in prison.  After that, for want of galley criminals, he was placed in the galleys, while his case was being investigated.  He was one of those who afterward mutinied in the galley, and killed the captain, after which he and his companions went to China.  There is at present an Indian woman of La Panpanga imprisoned in the Manila prison.  She was incarcerated there when a girl, for she was said to have been accomplice in a murder.  She has grown up in the prison, and is now a woman in years; and her case is still to be investigated.  In conclusion, it is an open fact that those imprisoned at the order of the governor or alcaldes are generally let out of prison quickly, and their affairs are soon concluded.  But those imprisoned by the royal Audiencia either have no hope of leaving, or else they leave the prison only after a long period.