officials of the Audiencia.  With that sum, twice as much infantry could be maintained as that which your Majesty has here.  That, in the light of present conditions, is the most important thing for the necessary maintenance and defense of these islands.  I have dared to relate this to your Majesty because of my zeal as a loyal vassal, and as one who looks at things dispassionately.  Will your Majesty decide as is most advisable to your royal service.

In all the letters that I have written to your Majesty in the past, I have made a full report of the services that I have tried to perform for your Majesty in more than forty consecutive years, not only in these regions, but in the States of Flandes, and in Ytalia, and in other lands, of which your Majesty already has information.  At present I only beg your Majesty to be pleased to consider that my age is over sixty, and, although I might thereby be somewhat hindered, still I will appreciate it more than I can express, to finish the remainder of my life in the service of your Majesty, employed in the post and grant that your Majesty may be pleased to confer upon me, according to the capacity and talent found in me, as I hope from the royal hand of your Majesty.

When I was about to seal this packet, news reached this city of the happy arrival at these islands of the ship “San Andres,” which was expected from Nueva Espana.  That news has caused a quite universal happiness to this wretched community.  The ship has anchored in the province of Ylocos, eighty leguas from here, as the weather does not permit it to come to this port.  Your Majesty’s letters have not yet reached this port, and, as the vessels which are being despatched are on the point of sailing, it will not be possible to answer them, as the governor will more fully inform your Majesty—­whose Catholic and royal person may our Lord preserve for many years, as is necessary to Christendom, etc.  Manila, August first, 1621.  Your Majesty’s humble servant,

Don Hieronimo de Silva

Affairs in the Franciscan Province

Sire: 

I, Fray Pedro de Sant Pablo, [13] preacher and minister provincial of this province of Sant Gregorio of the Philipinas Islands of the order of the discalced religious of our seraphic father St. Francis, and son of the province of Sant Joseph of the same order, who minister in the convent of La Purissima Concepcion [i.e., “the most pure conception”] in the town of Barajas, and the least vassal of your Majesty, and your humble and unworthy chaplain, give your Majesty in the present an account of the unhappy condition of the province, in my own behalf and in the name of all this province.  I declare that for the last few years the province has become restless, factional, and divided into parties, which it is a pity to see.  It is one thing to see it, and another to bear it.  On account of its condition, I have often resolved