neficiaries in this land is secular. As I am poor, and have little
power, these injuries and similar ones have not been heard of in
Spain. I have suffered them and have kept silence, in order to avoid
scandal; but for having resisted in but two cases, in which I was
obliged to defend the right of my jurisdiction, in order to comply
with the duties of my office, they made a damaging report of me to
your Majesty. They say that I would not permit a report to be made,
and took the records of the suit from the notary, so that they could
not be dealt with. In order that your Majesty may see the difference
between what I here declare (which is the actual truth), and what
they wrote to your Majesty, accusing me of resisting _in toto_ the
commands of the Audiencia in regard to the cases of fuerca (which
was glaringly false testimony against me), I have decided--although
everything touching the Audiencia is now settled, since your Majesty
has commanded it to be suppressed--to answer the account which they
gave your Majesty about the places and the cases of fuerca. Although I
am sure that my cause has been justified before God and those men who
know what has happened, I do it to satisfy your Majesty, to whom I owe
all obedience and subjection as to my king and lord. I am even bound
to explain my conduct; because, by the grace of God, your Majesty has
no one in this kingdom who serves you with greater love and zeal. I
claim no payment nor temporal interest whatever, because this I
neither desire nor demand; but I do only my duty, and that I do with
all my might. I could send your Majesty good and sufficient proofs
of everything which I have said here; for I certify, in all truth,
that everyone to whom I have shown these decrees has crossed himself
in surprise that there should be a person or persons who would dare
to make such malicious reports to your Majesty. It suffices me to say
that, if credit be not given me, not much time will pass before this
truth will be revealed, beyond all possibility of hiding.

May our Lord guard the royal person of your Majesty, and preserve
you many years. At Manila, the twenty-fourth of June, one thousand
five hundred and ninety.

_Fray Domingo_, Bishop of the Filipinas.

[_Endorsed_: "To the king our lord, in his royal Council of the
Indias. Filipinas. 1590. The bishop; June 24." "Received and read,
June 19, of the year 1591. It is unnecessary to respond thereto."]

Sire:

The letter which y