Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/307

 the necessary result will be that we cannot support ourselves, or even live; and his Majesty will be unable to meet the costs and expenses necessary for the preservation of the land—although our aim, now as always, is to live and die in the service of his Majesty like faithful and loyal vassals.

We therefore entreat and supplicate your Lordship—inasmuch as the royal presence is so distant, and his authority is delegated to you in order to preserve us in peace and justice—to decree, in the name of his Majesty, as the person from whose hand we possess these encomiendas, that orders and explicit statements be given us as to what extent and in what manner we are to collect the aforesaid tributes, in order that with definite knowledge and freedom from misunderstanding, and without this present trouble and confusion, we may collect them by virtue of the order which your Lordship may give us to make such collections. And so likewise do we entreat your Lordship to command that his Majesty be informed as promptly as possible of what your Lordship shall order and decree, so that he may confirm and approve it, and determine what plan shall be pursued in this matter; and so that we may know and abide by it, and thus be delivered from these scruples and anxieties. In case the above should not be done as we petition, we would be deprived of part of the little that we possess; and, if compelled to make our collections in conformity with the ideas of the bishop and some of the religious, we shall not be able to support ourselves. We therefore entreat your Lordship, inasmuch as we do not depart from or fail in what we owe to the service of his Majesty as his loyal vassals, to give us permission to depart for Spain, where we may serve his Majesty