Signed by the members of the Council.
[Endorsed: “To the viceroy of Nueva España, ordering him to endeavor by all the means possible to send to Filipinas every year as many citizens as possible who should be of good standing and ability.”]
Directions to the archbishop
The King. To the very reverend father in Christ, archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila: your letter of July 31 of the past year, 1638, has been examined in my royal Council of the Yndias, and I shall answer you in the present in regard to some points that have been decided.
You state that, although the mode of the presentations for the missions has been resolved upon and determined, the decrees are not obeyed; that there is a very great need of seculars for those missions, and those who are there are but youths who do not understand the language [of the natives]; and that hence you have deemed it advisable not to assign any mission to seculars: You state that having conferred on this point with the Audiencia, they resolved that no innovation should be made until the arrival of the governor, who had gone on the Jolo expedition. It has been deemed best to tell you that when the governor shall arrive, and shall come to a decision, you shall advise me of the results of it. In the meanwhile you shall observe the decrees, unless serious troubles result from doing the contrary.
The prebends that you state are vacant in that church have been provided with incumbents, as you will have heard. My royal Council of the Yndias will take care of the names which you present to me, for the occasions that arise.
In regard to the property of Don Fray Francisco Zamudio, bishop of Nueva Caceres, who died on the twenty-seventh of last April, you shall cause the orders that have been issued to be observed, so that his creditors may be heard and paid, in accordance with justice, and upon legal proof of their claims.
I have read what you wrote about the great exhaustion and distress experienced by the natives of those islands through the many assessments that are made continually, throughout the year, on all the products of the country. I am writing to the governor and Audiencia not to make any innovation in these matters, so that this evil may be corrected; and under no consideration to load any new troubles or burdens on the Indians. Madrid, December 16, 1639.
I the King