without the light of our holy Catholic faith, for lack of ministers.  Since the fathers of St Dominic have taken that conquest in charge, it will be very advisable for the present to settle it with religious of that order, if your Majesty be pleased to have a goodly consignment of religious sent to them; for, although eighteen or twenty of them came in these ships, the need of this province was so great, because of the many who have died, that scarcely are there sufficient for their ministries, even if they did not have the island of Hermosa, as I have said. [In the margin:  “They have been given to them already.”]

Governor Don Juan Nino will report on the other matters touching this community.  Consequently I shall not relate them in this letter to your Majesty, whose very Catholic person may our Lord preserve, with the increase of great kingdoms, as is necessary to Christendom.  Manila, July 25, 1626.

Fray Miguel, archbishop of Manila.

[Endorsed: “Manila.  To his Majesty; 1626.  The archbishop of Manila, [MS. holed] of July.  Seen and decreed within, July 30, 627.”]

LETTER FROM FERNANDO DE SILVA TO FELIPE IV

Sire: 

Last year I advised your Majesty of the state in which I found these islands; and now I could tell you that they have not been in better condition for thirty years past.  I kiss your Majesty’s hand for the great favor which you do me in sending as my successor Don Juan Nino de Tabora, a person who, I am confident, will carry out whatever is ordered there for the service of your Majesty; for my part I shall aid him as much as I can, without heeding trifles.

As the despatch of last year was made early, the ships arrived at Nueva Espana in less than six months, and returned to this city on the twenty-eighth of June, the day on which the governor took possession of these offices.

The commander of the Terrenate relief expedition arrived, and we learn from those forts that all the aid reached them, as it was sent early—­which could not have been accomplished if it had been eight days later.  They are in peace and well provisioned, since the people of Terrenate and Tidore are friendly.  They likewise inform us that the fort of Calomata, which the enemy dismantled, which is half a legua from Malayo, has been fortified, because it was understood that the Dutch were about to come back again; and that the natives killed two hundred men of the enemy, who had arrived to punish them with fifteen ships, which seem few for those seas.

This year there has been peace everywhere in this commonwealth, and I have maintained it with the Audiencia—­being patient with them when necessary, and at times administering rebuke, whereby your Majesty’s service was furthered.  Commodities nave been cheap, and all necessary supplies have been procured without our having felt the much-feared failure of iron, bronze, and tin from Japon.  Through my diligence, there is abundance in the warehouses, with which we could construct and cast [cannon for] fifty moulds which I have had made for more than four months, whereby the islands are fully supplied with the necessary artillery.