Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera
[Endorsed: “Manila. Government matters. 1636.”
“June ten, six hundred and thirty-eight.”
“Ascertain whether anything has been written about this matter by the previous governors, and take it to the fiscal to be examined, together with what advices there are concerning this.”
“It does not appear that the governors have written anything about this.”
“The fiscal declares that since there are interested parties in this separation of the communal fund (namely, the Chinese of the Parián and those of Tondo), and since there is a suit pending between the two orders of St. Dominic and the Society, he cannot decide upon this matter until the parties have been heard in court, and the dispute between them settled according to law, especially if the facts are not evident by other authentic papers in this case which justify it, besides only this letter of the governor. Consequently, he opposes the approval that is requested, until he can examine in greater detail the things mentioned here by a more thorough knowledge of the cause, after the parties have been cited in court. Madrid, June 30, 1638.”
“July 24, 638. The new governor who shall go [to the islands] shall, together with the Audiencia, investigate the matter.”]
[In the margin: “He proposes names for protector of the Chinese; and in the meantime, Doctor Luis Arias de Mora is appointed, to whom are assigned two hundred pesos in addition to the eight hundred that he receives as a salary, so that he may exercise his duties as the archbishop’s counselor jointly with this office.”]
Sire:
Your Majesty has ordered that your fiscal shall not be protector of the Chinese who live near the city, and that six persons be proposed so that your Majesty may choose according to your pleasure. All the time while I have been in this government, the said Chinese have been without a protector. Thus I have had the care and task of administering justice to them; and, although they have an alcalde-mayor, they are satisfied only with what rulings the government makes. This royal Audiencia has only three advocates—or four, counting Doctor Ledo, who is at present serving as your Majesty’s fiscal. I have appointed Doctor Luis Arias de Mora, who is the senior, and a person of excellent abilities, to attend to this matter until your Majesty shall order otherwise. Licentiate Nicolas Antonio de Omaña is also a good person, as is Licentiate Manuel Suarez de Olibera, who is serving as auditor-general and my assessor. I have assigned two hundred pesos additional salary to the eight hundred of the protectorship to Don Luis Arias de Mora; for, in addition to exercising this office, he is the archbishop’s counselor. Therefore he despatches and performs what pertains to him in ecclesiastical matters, without meddling with the royal patronage and jurisdiction of your Majesty, as the archbishop has tried to do hitherto. By that means I think that the archbishop will be quiet, and we shall be able to live in peace. Doctor Luis Arias is a person who merits honor from your Majesty by giving him this charge, in which he will be excellently employed. May our Lord preserve your Majesty’s Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Sire, your vassal kisses your Majesty’s feet.