every year for sixteen years to the convent of St. Augustine, of the said city, in tributes of vacant Indians of the said islands, so that with this grant they might continue the erection of the said church, and build a comfortable house in which the religious may live, and apply themselves to the said branches, and where missionaries may be trained with whom to attend to the conversion of the Indians and the preaching of the holy gospel.  After having examined what your predecessor and the archbishop of the said city reported to me in my royal Council of the Indias, and after they consulted with me, I have considered it advisable to concede to the college of the Society of Jesus in the said city of Manila, for the present, for each of ten years, one thousand ducados, which amount to three hundred and seventy-five thousand maravedis, in Indians of whom the encomienda shall be vacant, or shall first become vacant, in the said Philipinas Islands, just in the same way as the concession was made to the said convent of the Order of St. Augustine of the said city for its buildings.  Accordingly, I command you to assign to the said college of the Society of Jesus in the said city of Manila, the said one thousand ducados in tributes of the Indians whose encomienda shall be vacant, or shall first become vacant, in the said islands, so that this sum may be paid to them in each one of ten years, as above said.  You shall give the necessary despatch to this, so that those fathers may be assisted with it for the said purpose.  I order the officials of my treasury of the said Filipinas Islands to obey what you shall order by virtue of this my decree; and they shall not place any obstacle to it, notwithstanding anything provided to the contrary.  Given in Madrid, June first, one thousand six hundred and twenty-five.

I The King

Countersigned by Don Francisco Ruis de Contreras, and signed by the members of the Council.

LETTER FROM THE ARCHBISHOP TO FELIPE IV

I have informed your Majesty fully of the condition of these Filipinas Islands in all the despatches that have left them, in what concerns both ecclesiastical and secular affairs.  As I am certain that my letters have been received in that royal Council, I am now only advising you of the arrival of Governor Don Fernando de Silva, knight of the habit of Sanctiago, who left these islands for those kingdoms in the former year 21, and returned to govern them about twenty days ago, with the appointment given him by the viceroy of Nueva Espana, marques de Cerralvo. [6] The choice of Don Fernando has seemed a good one, and he is governing well, as one who knows the country and has experience in it, and of the merits of his subordinates; and I see these inhabitants universally contented, [In the margin:  “Seen.”]