tion of the infantry, etc. This city petitions
your Majesty to be pleased to concede permission to the said order,
so that religious may pass from those kingdoms to these islands to
the number that your Majesty may decree, in consideration of the fact
that the need for them, in ministries so distant as theirs, is very
great. In those ministries, through the little nourishment of the
food which they use for the sustenance of human life, for they live
as those who are truly poor, and with great abstinence, which they
observe, without reserving any time because of discomforts, whether of
sun or shower, going through dense forests and inaccessible mountains
in order to reduce the many millions of souls of those districts to
our holy Catholic faith, not one of whom has any light, etc."

Don Joan Nino de Tavora, governor and captain-general of the
above-named islands, and president of the royal Chancilleria of Manila,
says in another letter to the same king:

"The Recollect Augustinian fathers who reside in these islands,
inasmuch as they arrived last, have taken the districts most distant
from this city. They are extending their labors into the district of
Caragha, and Calamianes, with success among those Indians, etc. During
the last four years, more than four thousand persons have been baptized
by that order alone. I petition your Majesty to be pleased to order
that their procurators be despatched with the greatest number of
religious possible, etc."

Lastly, Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, who exercised the aforesaid office,
concludes in another letter, in which he affirms the proposition:

"The order of discalced Recollects of St. Augustine who reside in
these islands and the districts of them, preserves in its members,
with all virtue and exemplary life, its obligations for the service
of God, in the protection and instruction of their parishioners,
the Indian natives; and in what regards the service of your Majesty,
they show the efficacious zeal of good vassals. For during the time of
my government they have not at all embarrassed me in any way. On the
contrary, as I recognize their good conduct, I am obliged to represent
it to your Majesty; and will your Majesty be pleased to show them every
favor and grace, in whatever opportunity may occur to your Majesty."

A letter came with those that are here given as addressed to the
sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith, who ordered the
two following letters to