Request for Jesuit Missionaries
Sire:
The Order of the Society of Jesus is serving your Majesty with great love, without ever refusing to do what is asked from them in your royal name—not only as chaplains for the galleons, but for the forts, the missions, and whatever else is entrusted to them. They do not object when it is necessary to decrease their stipends somewhat; for they are vassals in both good and ill treatment. They do not receive members in these islands, for those who are of excellent ability are very rare; and, as your Majesty knows, they readily dismiss those who do not walk on the highway and heed the royal law.[1] For this reason your Majesty’s governor is relieved in his conscience, whenever he asks for any member of that order, to occupy him in your royal service; for the governor has no need of investigating or inquiring into the qualifications of the religious given him, for the superior has considered them thoroughly, and they know the intention to change them when advisable. This relief for the governor is not enjoyed with all [the orders]. Consequently, I petition your Majesty, in all humility and reverence, to be pleased to have these islands furnished with subjects of this order from España, to the number that your Majesty can send from it, and fewer from the other orders. Your Majesty will be served, and God our Lord also. I assure your Majesty, as a good vassal, that neither prepossession nor prejudice influences me to make this report, but the belief that I am thereby discharging the obligations of my conscience. May our Lord preserve the Catholic person of your Majesty in its greatness, as is needful to Christendom. Cavite, June 19, 1636. Your Majesty’s vassal kisses your feet,
[1] There is here a play on words, the text reading, que no andan Por El camino Rl y derecho. Derecho has a now obsolete meaning, “road,” or “path.”