A second general relation (but unsigned) for the same year contains mention of various events both ecclesiastical and secular.  On the night of November 25 the Jesuit church falls in ruins, for the third time; it is being rebuilt.  The monstrance and host kept in the cathedral are stolen by sacrilegious hands, (an occurrence which causes the death of Archbishop Serrano).  An image of the Virgin Mary is seen to weep, as if lamenting the ravages made by pirates in the Pintados.  In these raids several of the Jesuit missionaries have narrowly escaped death.  The Dutch in Java have been attacked by the natives, and are menaced by the Portuguese there and elsewhere.  The Spaniards go to Camboja for lumber, and Dominican missionaries go with them to labor among the heathen.  Affairs with Siam are not yet restored to a peaceful condition.  The missions in Cochinchina and Tonkin are doing well.  The Chinese, at war with the Tartars, borrow aid from the Portuguese at Macao.  In Japan the Christians are being exterminated by torture and death.  There was talk of expelling the Dutch from that country; but news arrives there of the destruction of a Japanese ship off Siam by the Spaniards, and the Japanese begin to talk of uniting with the Dutch to attack the Spaniards in Formosa and even Manila.  “The Philipinas Islands are at present in a ruinous condition.”  A postscript to this relation describes an encounter between a small Spanish ship from India and a large English ship, at Fayal, in which the former saves itself, after inflicting much damage on its opponent.

The Editors

October, 1904.

DOCUMENTS OF 1625

Report of the Spanish Council of State on the appointment of a governor for the Philippines.  March 7.  Royal decree granting income to the Society of Jesus.  Felipe iv; June 1.  Letter from the archbishop of Manila to Felipe iv.  Miguel Garcia Serrano; July 25.  Royal festivities at Manila.  Diego de Rueda y Mendosa; August 1.  Letter to Felipe iv.  Fernando de Silva; August 4.

Sources:  The first, third, and fifth of these documents are from MSS. in the Archive general de Indias, Sevilla; the second, from Pastells’s edition of Colin’s Labor evangelica, iii, pp. 754-755; the fourth, from a pamphlet, Toros y canas (Barcelona, 1903).

Translations:  These are all made by James A. Robertson.

REPORT OF THE SPANISH COUNCIL OF STATE ON APPOINTMENT OF A GOVERNOR FOR THE PHILIPPINES

Sire: