Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 02).djvu/254

 of the month of October, in the year of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight,

(Reply: This is the copy of the answer which the very illustrious Miguel Lopez de Legazpi sent to Gonçalo Pereira, captain-general of the armada in the South Sea. I, Pero Bernaldez, notary-public of this fleet for the king our sovereign, copied the summons of the said Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.)

I, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, governor and captain-general for his majesty the king Don Felipe, our sovereign, of his forces and the royal fleet, for the discovery of these islands of the West: inasmuch as certain demands, contained in a summons which Pero Bernaldez—notary-public, as he said, of his armada—read to me on behalf of the very illustrious Gonçalo Pereira, captain-general of the Portuguese armada, have been made upon me on the petition of Alonso Alvarez [Furtado], factor of the said armada (as in the said summons to which I refer, is set forth, at greater length); therefore replying to the said demand and to the things contained therein, I say that I came by command of his majesty the king Don Felipe, our sovereign, and with his royal fleet as the governor and general thereof, with the purpose of discovering the lands and islands of the West, which are and always were within his demarcation, in order to propagate and teach therein the gospel and the evangelical law, and to spread the Christian sway of our holy Catholic faith—the thing which, most of all, his majesty purposes in these parts. In the course of my expedition I arrived at these islands,