Therefore the said province, and the said Fray Francisco de Villalva in its name, have recourse to the kindness and fervent zeal of your Majesty, with which you have always striven for the preservation and propagation of the Catholic faith; and prostrate at your royal feet he entreats that your Majesty will be pleased to take pity on so many souls and the conversions for which the religious of St. Dominic are caring and in which they are laboring in the said Filipinas Islands. They ask that you will grant to the said province forty religious,[3] and a suitable number of lay brethren; and to the petitioner permission to conduct them thither in his company, and the necessary supplies for him and them, so that on the first opportunity when there is a fleet they may embark for their voyage. In this, God our Lord will regard himself as well served; and that poor and remote province will be anew constrained, in return for this favor and grace, to continue its prayers and sacrifices for the life and health of your Majesty, and for the welfare and increase of your entire monarchy.
[1] So in the text; probably a typographical error, since Villalba did not leave the Philippines until 1683, and remained in Nueva España until at least 1686 (Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 79–80). It is probable that this document was written at least as late as 1687, for confirmation of which see Villalba’s own statement, post, that the mission band for which he was asking would go about eleven or twelve years after the last concession of this sort had been made; the mission before this one had reached Manila in August, 1679.
[2] In the Dominican mission of 1671 came thirty-five religious (Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 101–194).
[3] The mission which came to the islands in 1694 contained forty-three religious, besides four others who remained in Nueva España. (Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 363–457.)
Events in Filipinas, 1686–88
Diary of new events in Filipinas, from June, 1686 to June in 87
On June 11, 1686, the galleon “Santo Niño” discovered, twenty-two leguas from the island of San Juan, a new island, larger than any of those discovered in Marianas; it is named San Bernabé, because it was discovered on the day of that saint.
On July 11 the bells were rung in Manila for the arrival of the galleon “Santa Rosa.”