e. Of the Chinese Doctrina no
copy has yet come to light, and except for two 1593 references,
there are no records of its existence.

Another document [8] of 1593 verifies the information given in the
letter of Dasmarinas, differing from it only in one detail. In the
Archives of the Indies was found a manuscript account of 1593 listing
books written in the Philippines, which says:

"There have been printed primers and catechisms of the faith,
one in Spanish and Tagalog, which is the native language, and
the other in Chinese, which are being sent to Your Majesty,
the Tagalog priced at two reales and the Chinese at four,
which is hoped will be of great benefit."

The accounts of the printing of two Doctrinas contained in these
documents confirm some of the information of the title and add a bit
more. First, the letter says that the book was printed by permission
given by the Governor, which agrees with the "with license" of the
title, "for this once because of the existing great need." By a royal
cedula [9] of September 21, 1556, which was promulgated again on August
14, 1560, it had been ordered that Justices "not consent to or permit
to be printed or sold any book containing material concerning the
Indies without having special license sent by our Royal Council of the
Indies," and on May 8, 1584 this was implemented by the further order
"that when any grammar or dictionary of the language of the Indies be
made it shall not be published, or printed or used unless it has first
been examined by the Bishop and seen by the Royal Audiencia." This
latter portion was applied specifically to the Philippines in a letter
[10] from Philip II to the Audiencia of Manila, also dated May 8,
1584, to which further reference will be made. It can be gathered
from Dasmarinas' implied apology that he had never before given such
a license, and, since he had arrived in the Philippines in 1590, that
no books had been printed between that time and the licensing of the
Doctrinas. It is, moreover, likely that if any similar books had been
printed during the administrations of his predecessors he would have
mentioned the fact as a precedent for acting contrary to the cedulas.

According to Dasmarinas he had priced the books at four reales a
piece, which followed the regular Spanish procedure, under which
books were subject to price control. The Governor, it will be noted,
also apologized for the high price he was forced