Permission asked by the governor to leave the Philipinas
14. I have written at this length not for fear of someone having written against me—for to think that no one would do so would be great arrogance—but only to give account to your Majesty of what passes here; to ask pardon for my omissions, and that you will not believe those who are affected by passion; and that you be pleased to withdraw me hence, as I petitioned you last year. The toil endured here is vast, and I have now but little strength and health to be able to endure it, when I have so little success in attaining my loyal desires. My agents will present memorials in that royal Council, in which I beg your Majesty for some gratuity and accommodations with which to leave this exile. I promise myself a very liberal one from your royal kindness and generosity, in proportion to my services and those of my ancestors and forbears. May our Lord preserve the Catholic and royal person of your Majesty, with increase of kingdoms and states, as is necessary to Christendom. Cavite, August 4, 1630. Sire, your Majesty’s humble vassal,
[1] The festival here mentioned would seem, from its length, to mean the two feasts observed by the Chinese in the first month of the year—New Year’s and the “feast of lanterns.” See accounts of these and other feasts in Williams’s Middle Kingdom, ii, pp. 76–84; and Winterbotham’s Chinese Empire, ii, pp. 49, 50, 138–142.
Historia de la Orden de S. Agustín de Estas Islas Filipinas
By Fray Juan de Medina, O.S.A., Manila, 1893 [but written in 1630].
Source: Translated from a copy of the above work, in the possession of the Editors.
Translation: This document it translated (and in part synopsized) by James A. Robertson.