ple,
and I refer to that. And the said petition and order I gave the
present, witnesses being Juan Vazquez de Miranda and Don Francisco
Veltran, citizens of Manila, where this is given on the fourteenth
of the month of August, one thousand six hundred and seventeen.

_Christoval Martin Franco_

Corrected.

Sire:

The seminary of Santa Potenciana of the city of Manila, where your
Majesty has had the kindness to order the poor unmarried daughters
of conquerors to be sheltered, and which your Majesty sustains and
founded, declares that your governor Don Juan de Silva took from
it a pension that it possessed for the aid of its support in the
said city, and in its place, applied the products of the encomienda
of Guas and Libon in the province of Camarines, and apportioned the
said encomienda to your royal crown for the support of the girls and
for divine worship. The seminary petitions your Majesty to concede
it the grace of confirming that favor, since its service to God and
to your Majesty is so great.

[_Addressed_: "To Secretary Santiago Florez."]

[_Endorsed_: "The Council ordered, September 9, 1619, that the fiscal
examine the matter."]

The fiscal declares that this confirmation is not asked for within
the four years, although the patent of the governor does not assign
any period for obtaining the confirmation; neither does it state
that a confirmation must be obtained. The work appears charitable
and advisable, and consequently the Council can grant it what favor
it pleases. Madrid, September 10, 1619.

On the 23d of November, 619, the Council, after consideration, ordered
the governor and Audiencia, at the summons of his Majesty's fiscal,
to report on the value and advisability [of such grant]; and that for
that purpose a decree of investigation be given in legal form. They
shall cite especially what charitable works have been strengthened by
other encomiendas; the disadvantages or benefits that may result from
this; whether it is an estate that continues to increase or decrease;
and what harm may result to the royal patrimony.

REFORMS NEEDED IN THE FILIPINAS

Sire:

Fernando de los Rios Coronel, procurator-general of the Filipinas
Islands and of all their estates, declares that, inasmuch as all
that community insisted that he come to inform your Majesty of the
distressed condition which it has reached, and of what was advisable
both for the service of your Majesty and that community's conse