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 please your Majesty to entrust the government to men who live here, there are those who could conduct it very well and creditably, without the many disadvantages which attend those who come from España.

The foregoing is such information as I can give your Majesty from here regarding the transgression and observance of the royal commands, laws, and decrees; and of the present state of this country, the wrongs that occur in it, and what matters ought to be remedied. On account of the little time before the ship departs, not all of this letter is so polished as to be fit to appear before your Majesty. If this relation is deficient (as it cannot fail to be), it is not in lack of truth or in desire to serve your Majesty and secure the welfare of these souls whom, because of their sins and my own, I have in charge. If there is anything which to your Majesty appears worthy of remedy, I humbly ask for it; and if I have said anything about which it appears to your Majesty I ought to have been silent, I also humbly beg that I may be pardoned. Since your Majesty knows that I am five thousand leagues distant from your court, and surrounded by so many griefs and afflictions, you will not be surprised at what I say, but at what I leave unsaid—and even why I myself did not go to beg for the remedy; for it certainly is a different thing to see and endure it here, than to hear it mentioned there.

bishop of the Filipinas