For some time past I have withheld the appointment to several encomiendas which have been vacated, not only for the aid which resulted from their tributes to the expenses of the royal treasury, but particularly because their number was not sufficient to satisfy and render content so many claimants as there are here—­some of them deserving, and others with a backing of auditors, ecclesiastics, and religious.  These latter are the ones whose demands are most pressing, and who make the most outcry with their claims and complaints—­going so far as to murmur and consider it unjust that such rewards are given to those who have not been here so long—­although the services of the latter were rendered in Terrenate, under such hardships and during war—­desiring that their longer residence in this city should be preferred to the services of the others. [In the margin:  “Let him deal out justice as seems most fitting to him.”]

The bishop of Camarines, Don Fray Diego de Guevara, died in his bishopric.  He had ardently desired, as he explained and told me many times, to leave it and go to Espana to beseech your Majesty to approve his departure from this country—­for it appeared to him that no bishop was necessary in that region [of Camarines], nor so many in so small a country as are these islands—­if it were not that the disagreements and difficulties which he had with the friars of that province obliged him to remain.  There was lost in his person one of the most zealous for the service of your Majesty that were here; and one who labored for it with most affection, good sense, and integrity, without aiming at private ends or his own aggrandizement. [In the margin:  “There is already a person appointed in his place.”]

The bishop of Cebu, Don Fray Pedro de Arce, is likewise little or not at all desirous of greater honors.  On the contrary, according to his own words, he desires the quiet of a cell, with scant alms from your Majesty, for the repose of his old age; and we all believe this, for we regard him, as he is generally reputed, as a holy man, as humble as the latest novice of his order. [In the margin:  “It is well.”]

The archbishop of this city, Don Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano, showing his zeal for the service of your Majesty and for procuring the assistance and welfare of these islands, planned and offered himself to go to that court [of Espana], laying aside his own repose for the hardships of so long a voyage.  In this matter, I think that the officials of his church did not divert him from the exercise of his office—­this being my opinion, and that of many others—­in order to leave themselves freed from so much domination and authority as this office entails, and with more free will, as they were wont to be before [he came]; and for this reason I will not say that they were making illegal use of that office—­although they have discussed my affairs in an unfriendly way, at the instance of someone who induced them to do so;