nt me, inasmuch as, during the time that I by His mercy and
will am king, He has chosen me as the instrument for the discovery
of islands so remote and unknown; and because, after those peoples
have lived for so many years in the blindness of their heathendom,
the gospel has recently been published in them, the Catholic faith
planted therein and received, and so many native Indians converted,
who enjoy the teaching of the gospel. And thanks are due to God also
for the natural expectation and hope that may and ought to exist that,
by the same mercy of God, He must be pleased that the preaching of
His gospel should be spread farther, and that all the other islands,
of that vast archipelago, which extends through more than nine hundred
leguas of latitude, and more than five hundred of longitude--exclusive
of the great surrounding kingdoms of the mainland, round about those
islands, namely China, Cochina, Cochinchina, Chanpa, Canboja, Sian,
Patan, Joor, and others--by receiving Him and the faith, may come
into the true knowledge of the faith.

Therefore, notwithstanding that all my will and desire is that, by the
aid of the good spiritual and temporal government in what is explored
of the said islands, and the care that must be had in the reduction
of the rest, the end be attained to which the grace that God has shown
me and is now showing me, constrains me so straitly; still, until He,
in His infinite providence, shall dispose it, the most advisable thing
is to watch carefully over the sure preservation and increase of what
has been reduced and pacified at so great expense. I charge you that
you strive for this end, considering the condition in which you find
affairs and the great importance and advisability of bringing them to
perfection and placing foundations so firm and secure that not only
will there be naught to fear from the many enemies surrounding that
part explored, but that it shall be preserved and increased.

Since there is nothing which will have so much influence over all
affairs as the care that you are to exercise, I charge you with rigor
that those new plants be instructed in the teachings of the gospel and
of Christianity by the ecclesiastics whom I have sent, and am sending,
for that purpose, with so great trouble and expense; and in civil and
moral matters, by the temporal ministers, protecting them so that they
may receive good treatment, and maintaining them in peace and justice,
so that their labor