Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 06).djvu/20

 counters many difficulties—coolness on the part of the bishop, lack of support from his associates in the Audiencia, and but little acquaintance with the needs of the islands in the royal Council of the Indias. His duties are onerous and his responsibilities too great; he asks the archbishop to aid him in an appeal to the king for relief from these burdens and vexations. Vera cannot yet procure the quicksilver which he has been asked to send to Mexico, but will try to obtain it from the Chinese traders. The king of Ternate has revolted, and affairs there are in bad condition; more troops are needed, but cannot be spared from Manila. Vera discusses various matters concerning some of his officers, and affairs both military and civil. He sends to Spain, under arrest, two prisoners—one of them Diego Ronquillo, a kinsman of the late governor Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa, charged with defalcation in the trust of the latter's estate.

A Franciscan official in Spain, Geronimo de Guzman, sends to the king (1585) certain recommendations regarding the government of the Franciscan friars in the Philippines. An Augustinian friar, Jhoan de Vascones, who has evidently gone from the islands to Spain, writes in behalf of his brethren there (1585?) to ask the king that more religious be sent to the Philippines and to other Oriental lands; that these friars be sent from Spain by way of India instead of Nueva España; that the authorities of India, secular and ecclesiastical, be commanded to aid the friars in their missionary journeys; that the latter be permitted to build monasteries as they may choose, "in remote and infidel lands," without awaiting government permission; and that the authorities