Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 09).pdf/305



[This memorial, addressed to Felipe II by Hernando de los Rios, is prefaced by a letter from Luis Perez Dasmariñas, as follows:]

Sire: In these islands resides a person named Hernando de los Ryos, a colonel, a man of much information concerning important matters, and particularly learned in mathematics and astrology, and possessed of such virtue and such uprightness of life, and so zealous and desirous of the service of God and your Majesty, and of the common welfare, that I know not if there be a man in these parts to exceed him in this; and may it please our Lord to give us many who shall succeed in being so disinterested in worldly things and earthly claims. At any rate, in the secular estate, in my opinion and perhaps that of many good men, I know not if you will find in this country, or even for the most part in others, a man of more learning, respectability, and virtue, accompanied by other good qualities and gifts with which God has graced him, and which are so well employed and profited by, as in himself. For his sole object is to serve God and desire his service and that of your Majesty, and the great good which can be accomplished in these regions; and he is not interested in