alue. That blow caused great
sorrow to that good prelate, for the Mindanaos killed most of the men
whom they captured, and it was only after many difficulties that a few
could be ransomed. The bishop became very ill with a serious sickness,
from sorrow and his past troubles. [49]

LETTER WRITTEN BY A CITIZEN OF MANILA TO AN ABSENT FRIEND

I will try to give your Grace an accurate account of the changes
that have occurred this year, and of the anxiety and unrest of this
community, so that your Grace may have an adequate conception of the
matter, and may judge it on its merits, since you have no reason to
distrust him who relates it--a thing which would cast doubt on the
relation itself. Such has actually been the case with a relation
written by the Order of St. Dominic, which has been sent from this
city to that of Zebu and other parts, whose author shows manifest
prejudice and but little accuracy in what he relates. Laying aside
then, all partiality, and as one who has been a witness of everything,
although I had no part in it, I shall relate to your Grace all that
has happened.

An artilleryman, named Francisco de Nava, seems to have been
maintaining illicit relations with a slave-girl whom he owned, named
Maria. That gave rise to troubles, and the artilleryman was placed in
the house of brother Guerrero; and finally the slave-girl was taken
away from him, and the archbishop, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, had
her sold. The artilleryman was very angry and vexed at that, and his
love drew him so powerfully that he said that he wished to marry the
slave-girl. She answered that she preferred to be the slave of another
than his wife. For that reason, when the slave was very unguardedly
following the coach of her mistress on Sunday, August nineteen, one
thousand six hundred and thirty-five, that man, with deliberate purpose
and overconfident, stealthily approached her in the principal street,
near the cemetery of Sant Agustin; and, embracing her from behind,
asked her whether she knew him. She answered in the affirmative,
and he treacherously stabbed and killed her. He sought refuge in
the convent of St. Augustine, where neither the sargento-mayor
nor the master-of-camp, who surrounded the convent with soldiers,
could find him. At a hazard, they prevented any religious from going
out--an abuse contingent on the military, which cannot be checked
by a captain-general. Accordingly, the Order of St. Dominic did
t