The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 13]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 13

secure the remedy which the vassals of your Majesty
hope for, when your Majesty shall cast your gaze
upon this land which was so cared for and favored
by his Catholic Majesty (whom may God keepl)
which your Majesty is still caring for, with the great
favors which your Majesty grants it for the spiritual
and temporal good which is your object.
The royal [estate] in these islands is in debt for a
large sum of money in gold, as your Majesty has been
informed; on this account all those who draw salaries and stipends therefrom are in the utmost need -
so much so that we have not been able to pay this
year the president, auditors, archbishop, bishops,
prebendaries, or ministers of instruction and justice,
not having the means to pay them. Most pitiable of
all has been the plight of the soldiers, who are suffering the utmost extremity, without there being any
resources with which to aid them. All this has been
caused by the excessive cost of the galleys, and the
great expenses incurred by some expeditions made
with them without anything being thus gained. In
the interim, until your Majesty be pleased to order
some provision, we shall take great pains to do what
is most expedient so that these expenses may cease
and the country be defended without them. [In the
margin of this paragraph is written: " No answer to
be given."]
This year it will be very necessary to appropriate
a considerable loan of money from what comes from
Nueva Spafa-because the viceroy of Mexico has
not sent the usual aid, and it is impossible to get along
without obtaining it from private persons - that the
land may not go to ruin; for I can assure you that it
has come to this extremity.