sness in executing what your Majesty provides and orders for the
good of this land, that thus it has come to its present extremity. I
trust in our Lord that this state of affairs will not continue, but
that the principal aim of the governor and of all the rest will be
to procure the good of these natives whom we have so afflicted.

This whole country has been well satisfied at your Majesty's
suppression of the Audiencia, for without doubt it was a greater
burden than a country so feeble and poor could bear; although I was
always of the opinion that, if it were paid from Mexico, the Audiencia
would work no harm here. But what your Majesty orders and commands is
expedient for all of us; and so we hold it a great favor, especially
as your Majesty sends in place of the Audiencia, as governor, Gomez
Perez Dasmarinas--who, from the good example which he has furnished
and the zeal which he has disclosed in the service of your Majesty
and the good of these realms, has given universal satisfaction, and
the hope that he will improve the condition of the land, and give it
the orderly condition which it was losing. May the divine Majesty
preserve in him these excellent intentions, and give him strength
and grace to execute them; because as the heart of man is so hard to
understand, and of itself so variable, and this land is so exposed,
it is not strange that we fear some alteration, having seen it in
others who also gave excellent examples. But if the governor who has
now come to us shall persevere in what he has begun (as I hope in
God he will persevere), your Majesty has sent us the man whom we need.

When Doctor Santiago de Vera came by command of your Majesty to
establish the Audiencia in this country, he set up for himself a seat
of honor in the church, as the viceroys do. The adelantado, Miguel
Lopez de Legaspi, did not establish one, nor did the governors who
afterward succeeded him. Gomez Perez, who is now governor, did not
wish to set one up; for in this and in all other things he has shown
himself very moderate. But it seemed to me that he should not fail to
establish it, and thus at my importunity, and that of other persons,
he has done so. Because your Majesty has already honored him in other
respects, favoring him with a guard of halberdiers, and as people from
all the kingdoms of the infidels by whom we are surrounded resort to
this city, and as these barbarians respect their superiors as gods,
it did not appear to