tor--namely,
your Majesty. The collectors would be appointed by one person, and
would be men of merit, and conscientious and moral. The estate of
the temporal [12] encomenderos would be managed for them at less cost
than they themselves would incur therein, and all the tributes would
be collected without any care or trouble on their part. Although this
might be somewhat severe on those who already possess encomiendas,
it might at least be adopted for those in the future who are granted
favors and new appointments (just as if the encomienda were vacant),
so that this so commendable usage might be introduced. In reality
the value of the encomienda would be given to them, minus the cost of
collection; and the instruction, would be much better paid, although
this latter is regulated as carefully as possible. By this method,
too, certain soldiers who are poor and still in service could be
appointed to make these collections. May our Lord, etc. From Manila,
June xx, 1593.

_Gomez Perez Dasmarinas_

Sire:

Because of the great need, I have granted in your Majesty's name a
license for this once for the printing of the "Christian Doctrine,"
copies of which I enclose herewith--one in the Tagal language, which
is the native and the best language of these islands, and the other
in the Chinese language. [13] I hope that great benefits will result
therefrom in the conversion and instruction of the people of both
nations. And because the countries of the Yndias are on a larger scale
in everything, and because things are more expensive in them, I have
set the price at four reals apiece until your Majesty is pleased to
decree what is to be done.

On certain of the buildings of this city upon which it is advisable to
have the city's arms placed--as the houses of the cabildo, the prison,
and others built at the expense of the city--I have not allowed
the arms to be placed; for the arms which are now on some cloths
[14] on its cabildo, which are those used at the discovery of this
country, seem to me to have more meaning and to be more pleasing to
the natives of the country than to the Spaniards who settled it. For
they represent a bark or frigate in a river, with a shore lined with
cocoa-palms, which is a fruit of this country. If some memorial of
some king imprisoned, or some notable deed were to be placed on them,
they [the Spaniards] would consider them suitable. But of them, I say,
that should the Indians seek for a coat of