Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 01).djvu/223

 our rights that you ask for, looked up, and will send them to you. Likewise I will have secured the hydrographical maps of which you say you have been advised, and which are in the possession of Francisco de Lerma, an inhabitant of this city, and the one that the pilot Estéban Gomez gave to Colonel Espinosa. These latter I shall send by another messenger, for this one does not take them, in order not to be detained.

I have ordered sent you with the present letter the copy of the letter you mention that I wrote to my ambassador in Portugal, and in which I give the reasons for our right, and reply to the reasons brought forward on the side of the most serene King.

This mail bears a packet of letters written by the ambassadors of the most serene and excellent King, my cousin, residing at my court, to the licentiate Antonio de Acevedo, his chief magistrate, or to whatever other such official resides in the city of Yelves as his deputy. As it is a thing which concerns this negotiation in my service, as soon as this post arrives, you are to give or send this packet to him with all care, and you shall make him certify that it has been delivered to him, and shall send me the certification.

[The letter closes with the king prescribing the order in which the deputies shall be seated at their general councils.]

[Another letter of the same date as the preceding commands the astrologers and pilots named as deputies to summon to their councils those who, though not named on the commission are there to give their