And you shall have especial care that, in all your negotiations with the natives of those regions some of the religious accompanying you be present, both in order to avail yourself of their good counsel and advice, and so that the natives may see and understand your high estimation of them; for seeing this, and the great reverence of the soldiers toward them, they themselves will hold the religious in great respect. This will be of great moment, so that, when the religious shall understand their language, or have interpreters through whom they may make them understand our holy Catholic faith, the Indians shall put entire faith in them; since you are aware that the chief thing sought after by his Majesty is the increase of our holy Catholic faith, and the salvation of the souls of those infidels.[25]
In 1566, a petition was sent from Cebu to the King of Spain, bearing the signatures of Martin de Goiti, Guido de Labezari, and the other leading officers under Legaspi, setting forth, among other requests, the following:
That the Moros, “because they try to prevent our trade with the natives and preach to them the religion of Mohammed,” may be enslaved and lose their property. That slave traffic be allowed, “that the Spaniards may make use of them, as do the chiefs and natives of those regions, both in mines and other works that offer themselves.”[26]
In a letter addressed to Legaspi King Philip II said:
We have also been petitioned in your behalf concerning the Moro Islands in that land, and how those men come to trade and carry on commerce, hindering the preaching of the holy gospel and disturbing you. We give you permission to make such Moros slaves and to seize their property. You are warned that you can make them slaves only if the said Moros are such by birth and choice, and if they come to preach their Mohammedan doctrine or to make war against you or against the Indians, who are our subjects and in our royal service.
In a letter addressed to King Philip II Bishop Salazar writes, June 27, 1588, as follows:
The second point is that, in the Island of Mindanao, which is subject to your Majesty, and for many years has paid you tribute, the law of Mohammed has been publicly proclaimed, for somewhat more than three years, by preachers from Bruney and Ternate who have come there—some of them even, it is believed, having come from Mecca. They have erected and are now building mosques, and the boys are being circumcised, and there is a school where they are taught the Quran. I was promptly informed of this, and urged the president to supply a remedy therefor at once, in order that that pestilential fire should not spread in these islands. I could not persuade them to go, and thus the hatred of Christianity is there; and we are striving no more to remedy this than if the matter did not concern us. Such are the calamities and miseries to which we have come, and the punishments which God inflicts upon us.[27]
In drawing a contract with Capt. Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, in 1591, for the pacification and conquest of Mindanao, the Governor and Captain-General Gomez Perez Dasmariñas makes the following declarations:
His Majesty orders and charges me, by his royal instructions and decrees, as the most worthy and important thing in these islands, to strive for the propagation of our holy faith among the natives herein, their conversion to the knowledge of the true God, and their reduction to the obedience of His holy church and of the king, our sovereign. * * *