Sire:
In the ships that came from Nueva España to these islands this last month of June, I received a decree of your Majesty dated Madrid, December six of the former year six hundred and twenty-four, with a copy of the one that your Majesty wrote to the governor of these islands, in respect to the gold mines of the Ygolotes. I shall discuss it with the said governor, as your Majesty orders, as soon as this despatch shall be made, which will be at the end of this month. I shall exert all the effort possible, so far as I am concerned, so that your Majesty may be well served in everything. I believe that Governor Don Juan Niño de Tavora will not be lacking in the same, for he shows very earnest desires to employ himself in your Majesty’s service. [In the margin: “That it is well.”]
I received two other decrees, of the fourteenth and thirtieth of August, of the same year, in which your Majesty is pleased to lay down the form that must be observed in the visitation of the missionary religious; and ordering that the latter may not make arrests or employ stocks or prisons, or fiscals or constables who make arrests, besides those whom the archbishop or bishop shall assign, or who shall have the latter’s authority to do so in cases permitted by law—all of which will be observed and obeyed as your Majesty orders, [In the margin: “Seen.”]
In another decree, of June twenty of the past year twenty-five, your Majesty also orders me to inform you, with the distinctness and clearness necessary for the better understanding of what you desire, of the annual incomes and values of the benefices and revenues of this archbishopric of Manila, and what sum pertains to the dignidades, canonries, and prebends, both of this church and of the others of my diocese. [Your Majesty also asks for] the number in each church; how many beneficed curacies there are in each district, and their income; the number of missions, their value, and whether they are in charge of seculars or religious of the orders. I gave your Majesty a long account of that in a letter that I wrote the former year of six hundred and twenty-one on the twenty-fifth of July, to which I have had answer from that royal Council that it was received in the following year of six hundred and twenty-two. I only neglected to place in that letter the incomes of the archbishopric and the prebends of this church—taking that for granted, as a matter very well known, since your Majesty sustains both the archbishop and the dignidades, canonries, and prebends from your royal treasury, because there is no other source, and the tithes are not sufficient. The latter are placed in the said treasury, and are collected at the account of your Majesty. They amount to a very small sum, since, from what I have experienced, only the stock farms of the larger cattle of the Spaniards pay tithes to your Majesty, and that has not, as yet, been practiced with the Indians. Consequently your Majesty pays the archbishop a salary of three thousand ducados of eleven reals each; the dean, six hundred pesos of eight-real pieces; the four dignities of archdean, precentor, schoolmaster, and treasurer, five hundred pesos; four canons, four hundred pesos; two racions, three hundred pesos; two media-racions, each two hundred pesos—all paid in thirds. Consequently both the archbishop and his prebendaries suffer abundant misery; and, because of that, your Majesty is petitioned to favor us by increasing these salaries, since they hardly suffice to pay their house-rent, and support them very moderately. [In the margin: “Set down everything in the books that have been ordered to be made.”]
This cathedral church has no other revenue than the alms received from burials; and if it were not for the four hundred pesos that your Majesty has granted it for a limited time, it would have nothing for the wine, wax, and flour for divine worship. With this and with some allotment of cargo (although little) that the city generally gives it, the band of musicians, who come to serve on their feast days in the same church, is maintained.
What seculars administer in this archbishopric is divided into nine benefices, besides the three curacies of Spaniards in Manila, Santiago (which is in Manila’s suburbs), and the port of Cavite. Twenty thousand souls are ministered to in the said benefices. [In the margin: “Idem.”][1]
The Order of St. Augustine has thirty-two convents, in all of which are fifty-six priests, who have in charge ninety thousand souls.
The Order of St. Francis has thirty-eight convents, with guardianias and presidencies, in which are forty-seven priests. In all of them forty-eight thousand four hundred souls are ministered to.
The Order of St. Dominic has three convents in this archbishopric. It ministers to three thousand souls, and has five religious.
The Society of Jesus has eight priests in three residences, and ministers to ten thousand six hundred souls.