Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 09).pdf/117



Sire:

Fray Francisco de Ortega, of the order of St. Augustine, visitador-general of his order in the Philipinas Islands, by apostolic authority, and by the royal authority of your Majesty, and the authority of his general, declares that he has spent thirty-eight years in the Yndias—sixteen of them in Nueva España and the rest in the Philipinas Islands—preaching the word of God, and administering the holy sacraments to Spaniards and Indians. In this period is reckoned the time spent in voyaging to and fro between this kingdom and those districts twice (and with this last time, thrice) to your Majesty as a suppliant, and voyaging twenty-two thousand leguas and undergoing many dangers and hardships to inform your Majesty of the condition of those islands, and of what, in his opinion, by reason of his long experience in that country, was fitting for the service of God our Lord, and that of your Majesty. His purpose was that, with your royal clemency and magnanimity and most Christian zeal, you might decree a reform, and provide what should be most convenient for the aforesaid objects—which reform your Majesty decreed, and it has been placed in execution. He has conducted the religious whom your Majesty bade him take for the conversion of those natives—forty in number, except for those who died on the voyage; he has founded twelve monasteries beside the ones already there—in all, forty-three; he has visited the province and executed your Majesty's commands.