The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55 / 1621-1624 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

by Unknown

The letters of your Majesty have not arrived, but we are waiting for them and hope that in time they will come, and that these ships will not lose the favorable weather necessary for their voyage, on account of the great importance of securing it. If they should come with the promptness with which I charged the person whom I sent for them, I shall answer them in the most important matters. If not, I shall do so as soon as possible, as befits the importance of what is contained in them, and the service of your Majesty. [In the margin: “Examined.”]

I have ordered in the session, several times, that careful abstracts should be made of the enactments made therein of which it is desirable that an account should be given your Majesty. Thus far it has not been possible to carry this out, in which matter I did not choose, merely in order to avoid trouble with them, to employ any repressive measure, which might increase their ill-humor; and likewise because I do not know that anything more has happened than what I write to your Majesty. The reason for the auditors neglecting this matter is well known to be that the definite account which we must make to your Majesty from this Audiencia may not clash with that which the auditors who met together separately have made to your Majesty and your ministers. This leads me, every time when I speak of it, to repeat my supplication to your Majesty, as I now humbly do, that this may not go on without the inquiry of residencia which I have requested, and the punishment due each one. May God protect the Catholic person of your Majesty in accordance with the needs of Christendom. Manila, July 21, 1621.

Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenca

[In the margin: “Examined.”]

[Endorsed: “Examined and decreed within on the margin, that which concerns both the Council and the Junta. On September 22, 622.”]

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[1] i.e., for prayers or works for the benefit of the souls in purgatory.

Letter from Archbishop Miguel Garcia Serrano to the King

Condition of the archbishopric of Manila in regard to the affairs of ecclesiastical and secular government.