Consequently we, these least important vassals of your Majesty, do not need human aid, but the divine.  That aid we have entreated from the royal favor, so that no restriction be laid on the nuns that the convent shall contain.  It is a great pity to see how they hinder the souls who serve God in so great perfection as those women who are here, the natives of these kingdoms.  I consider beyond any doubt that they will be most devoted servants of God, who works marvels in all those whom He shrives, and all set themselves to observe the warnings of the gospel.  An infinite number of little girls and older orphans come weeping, with their widowed mothers, begging us for the love of God to give them the habit.  Since the king, our sovereign, sent them so great a spiritual and temporal consolation, and since their parents gained it for them by conquering this country at the cost of their own lives, we all are so bounden.  Beseeching our Lord to prosper your royal Majesty, spiritually and temporally, with infinite increase; and may He subject to the royal power of your royal Majesty all empires and kingdoms that He has created for the greater honor, glory, and increase of the faithful, and the exaltation of the holy Catholic faith.  Manila, July 31.  Given in this convent of La Concepcion of the discalced nuns of St. Clare, in the year 1626.

The most humble vassals of your royal and sacred Majesty,

Jeronima de la Asunsion, [23]

abbess, and her sisters,

Ana de Christo Bicaria Leonor [de] San Francisco Leonor de Sant Buena Bentura Lueysa de Jesus Magdalena de Christo Juana de San Antonio Maria de los Angeles Maria Magdalena Ana de Jesus Ana de Christo Bicaria

PETITION FOR AID TO THE SEMINARY OF SAN JUAN DE LETRAN

Sire: 

Brother Juan Geronimo Guerrero, [24] who has charge of the seminary of Sant Juan de Letran for orphan boys in the city of Manila, declares that in consideration of the general welfare of the said children, and their education and teaching, your Majesty was pleased to order Don Fernando de Silva, governor of those islands, by your royal decree of July 16, 623, to aid the said seminary with some taxes, so that the boys in it might be reared and supported.  But, as no taxes were found, the said royal decree has had no effect; and to this day not more than the small sum of three hundred pesos has been assigned to the seminary—­an amount so small that it does not suffice to provide shoes for the boys who are now there.  The number there is daily increasing, and the expenses incurred are very considerable and the alms but little.  With what they have they cannot be supported.  In order that so pious a work may continue, and so that those orphan boys may be suitably assisted with the necessaries of life, and not be ruined: