Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/256

 The greater part of the religious and other principal persons of this land were of the same opinion as I, maintaining that I was in duty bound to go in person and give your Majesty an account of affairs here, because they see that everything here is going to ruin; and that this common expedient was of greater importance than the harm that might be done by my absence. But thanks be to God, in whose hands are the hearts of kings, and who put into the heart of your Majesty what is provided, ordained, and commanded by this letter for the weal and betterment of all this land. If this be executed as your Majesty has ordered, the country may be helped; but hitherto there has been so much sloth and carelessness 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 condi-