Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano,
archbishop of Manila.
[1] This letter is published, in an abridged form, by Rev. Pablo Pastells, in his edition of Colin’s Labor evangélica, ii, pp. 688, 689; but he there dates the letter July 25, while the Sevilla MS. (here followed) makes it August, in 1621.
[2] The italic side heads and center heads throughout this letter appear in the margin of the original, and were made either by the archbishop himself or by a government clerk.
[3] i.e., guardianship: the district allowed to each convent in which to beg.
[4] This last sentence is evidently the correction in the margin noted by the archbishop in the last clause of the present letter.
[5] The numbers given in the text (all written out in words, not figures) amount to 205,000.
[6] The numbers given in the text, for the various bishoprics, amount to 509,450.
[7] Conducted by the confraternity of that name; see letter of Audiencia regarding the objects and work of this association, in Vol. XIV, pp. 208–313. See also Dasmariñas’s account of the royal hospital, in Vol. X, pp. 28–40.
[8] At that period the (new) Parián, as shown by a plan of 1641, was opposite the city of Manila on the other side of the Pasig River. Evidently, then, the Chinese and Indians were obliged to pay tolls for crossing the river to the city.