; and therefore royal decrees were continually emanating,
forbidding our archbishop to prosecute suits and proceedings, and
commanding him to deliver up the documents regarding them--by which the
course of the suits was hindered or delayed. His illustrious Lordship
answered these requisitions with so much clearness and proof that the
officials who issued them often considered themselves vanquished, and
did not follow up their efforts; and although they resented what they
called rebellion and audacity, they found his opposition so justified
by law that they did not dare to condemn him for disobedience,
no matter how much they chose to give his conduct this title to
outsiders--for these tribunals are not accustomed to hear "no" to
what they ordain in the name of the king our sovereign. And knowing
that the greater force of the replies and representations of the
archbishop depended on the assistance of the consultor, father Fray
Raymundo Berart, they strove to separate the latter from his side,
in order that his illustrious Lordship, destitute of this aid, might
be reduced with more blind submission to the decrees and despatches
of the royal Audiencia; and therefore that court issued a mandate
demanding and requiring our archbishop to remove from his side Father
Berart, and another to the same effect, addressed to our provincial,
to assign that father to a ministry among the Indians. Suitable reply
was made to both these decrees, without causing any change, for the
time, in the aspect of affairs--until, a new occasion and emergency
arising, they again insisted upon this point.

At the first foundation of Manila, only two parishes were formed for
the Spaniards--one for those who lived within the walls, and another
for those who lived outside the city, this latter being located in a
place where at that time most of them were wont to live. Afterward that
site appeared to them unsuitable for the conveniences of human life,
and so they went to live in another part of the city, and even on
the other side of the river which washes it. Consequently, they lived
very far from their parish church, and suffered great inconvenience in
attending it, because it was necessary for the administration of the
sacraments that the parish priest should cross the entire city, or make
the circuit of its walls, and finally he had to cross the river. As
this often had to be done at night, and at other times with the risk
of being drowned through the