Don Alonso Fajardo, governor of these islands, will relate fully to your Majesty the present condition of their temporal affairs.  He attends with peculiar care to whatever concerns the service of your Majesty, as has been seen in the construction of the ships that he has built since his arrival in these islands.  Had he not been so assiduous in that, the enemy who came to this bay and coast of Manila would have committed very great depredations.  But since the enemy saw that the governor was getting ready very promptly, they thought it best to go away and not wait.  He is a gentleman very zealous for the service of your Majesty, and one who serves your Majesty with special and very disinterested love and affection.  I think that, if your Majesty will aid him with some fleet, he will, with that and what he has here, accomplish great results in your Majesty’s service.  But the fleet here is insufficient to root out the enemy.  Will your Majesty be pleased to send the aid which has for so many years been asked from your Majesty; for the profit that will accrue to your Majesty is vast in both the spiritual and the temporal.

[In the margin:  “It is well.”]

[Marginal note:  “He asks that his resignation of that bishopric be accepted, and that a certain income be granted him on which to live.”]

Last year I wrote your Majesty requesting you to be pleased to accept my resignation from my bishopric, and I send the same request in this letter to your Majesty; for I am worn out, and it is advisable for the security of my conscience—­your Majesty granting me the favor to give me the means for my support, so far as that may not be in your royal treasury, because of the great difficulty of collecting from it. [In the margin:  “It is provided for.”]

[Marginal note:  “That Admiral Pedro de Eredia is coming to this court to report on the condition of those islands; and, since he is one who knows them thoroughly by experience, and is zealous in your Majesty’s service, credit can be given to what he says.”]

Admiral Pedro de Heredia is going to that court of your Majesty to report the affairs of these islands.  He is a person on whose word your Majesty can rely, as he is a man of great integrity and greatly devoted to your Majesty’s service.  He is experienced by sea and by land in these islands and in the Malucas, where he has served your Majesty a long time.  He was the one who captured General Pablo Brancal [i.e., van Caerden], in those same Malucas Islands.  He burned another of the enemy’s ships in Playa Honda, and defeated the enemy’s almiranta in the expedition made by Don Juan de Silba; while in Don Juan Ronquillo’s expedition he captured the almiranta, but let it go, in order that his own ship might not be burnt.  He is one to whom your Majesty may entrust any undertaking of importance, because of his great courage and his devotion to your Majesty’s service.  He is deserving of whatever favor your Majesty may be pleased to bestow upon him.