is necessary to prepare them and fleets for the occasion of your Majesty’s service; for fleeing from the annoyances and ill treatment that they experience, many absent themselves on such occasions.  Verily, there is not a leech that sucks out the blood from the body more than these little ships do this camp of men.  It would be very expedient for your Majesty to order what measure is most fitting for your service; for if we weaken the body by our own hands, so that it will have but little strength in time of need, and if this land is exhausted of men, how can the enemy be resisted when they attack us?  In truth, Sire, I understand that the neighboring kingdoms of Macan, Japon, Malaca, Sian, Camboja, and all the other lands, have so many Spaniards that a great troop for your Majesty’s service could be formed from them alone. [Marginal note:  “Have sent to the governor a relation of this, and that he accordingly take upon himself the remedy for it, since it is so important a matter that the soldiers that he shall have do not leave there; and that he advise us of what shall be done.”]

Lastly, I petition your Majesty to be pleased to have an answer written to me regarding the matters of this letter that require a reply.  For since some of them concern the common welfare of the ministry, others the special welfare of this church, and others that of this city, I shall necessarily be forced to repeat them on all occasions until I am certain that they have come to the notice of that royal Council of your Majesty—­whose very Catholic person may our Lord preserve for the welfare of your kingdoms with the increase of many others, as we your humble chaplains desire.  Manila, July 30, 1621.

Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano, archbishop of Manila.

[Endorsed:  “Seen and decreed within.  In the Council, September 30, 622.”]

[The bull mentioned in the first part of the above letter follows:]

Copy well and faithfully drawn of the bull in which his Holiness concedes that the feast of Corpus Christi in Eastern Yndia and the regions subject to the crown of Portugal, be anticipated or transferred to another and more suitable day, besides other favors and privileges.

Antonius, by the divine mercy cardinal priest of the holy Quatuor Coronati, [11] to the illustrious the most serene king of Portugale and Algarbes, health in the Lord.  According to the pledge of loyalty enjoined upon us by the apostolic see, we willingly charge ourselves with those matters whereby divine worship may everywhere be advanced, the devotion of the faithful of Christ increased, and fitting regard paid to the safety of their souls in the Lord.

In truth, the petition presented to us not long ago concerning your interests stated that, since in the regions of the Indias, Ethiopia, Arabia, and Persia (through favor of the divine clemency lately brought under our rule), by reason of the difference of the seasons in those countries, the day whereon the solemn feast of the sacrament of Corpus Christi is celebrated, falls, according to ordinance of the universal Church, in the winter time, wherefore it cannot be celebrated at that season with due ceremonies and solemnity—­[the faithful] are desirous that the same feast be transferred to some other season outside of winter, that it may be kept more fittingly and with greater honor.