sent this year to that royal Council. Military affairs
are undertaken after full counsel. My presence in the government is
continuous. The community is quiet. The soldiers are in the best
state of discipline that can be had. The ships are despatched at
the monsoons. The provinces are reenforced at the proper time. The
cloth traded is procured with the help of the neighboring kings,
and of all your agents; and your Majesty keeps them occupied both
in Yndia and in this archipelago. The Indians are less oppressed
than ever, and, as I have written in other years, a great number of
burdens have been taken from them. No Spaniard is found who has been
ill-treated by words. What there has been to allot has been among many,
and all are supported therewith, although discontented. The city has
been fortified and beautified. Finally, I assert that I shall not
secure from the Philipinas by the end of eight years, if God give
me that long life, and your Majesty preserve me in the islands, the
dowry which Dona Madalena brought, although I live (as is a fact)
so moderately. Granting this, I do not know what more remains or
ought to be done.

_Permission asked by the governor to leave the Philipinas_

14. I have written at this length not for fear of someone having
written against me--for to think that no one would do so would be
great arrogance--but only to give account to your Majesty of what
passes here; to ask pardon for my omissions, and that you will not
believe those who are affected by passion; and that you be pleased
to withdraw me hence, as I petitioned you last year. The toil endured
here is vast, and I have now but little strength and health to be able
to endure it, when I have so little success in attaining my loyal
desires. My agents will present memorials in that royal Council, in
which I beg your Majesty for some gratuity and accommodations with
which to leave this exile. I promise myself a very liberal one from
your royal kindness and generosity, in proportion to my services and
those of my ancestors and forbears. May our Lord preserve the Catholic
and royal person of your Majesty, with increase of kingdoms and states,
as is necessary to Christendom. Cavite, August 4, 1630. Sire, your
Majesty's humble vassal,

_Don Juan Nino de Tavora_

Historia de la Orden de S. Agustin de Estas Islas Filipinas

By Fray Juan de Medina, O.S.A., Manila, 1893 [but written in 1630].

_Source_: Translated from a copy of