o sell my estates,
I was obliged to leave them deserted, because I had already sold my
negroes. I shall be entirely ruined unless your Majesty release me
from the payment of those two thousand pesos, or at least give me
a continuance of ten years. I entreat your Majesty for this, since
in order to foster decency among the women I brought here three sons
and a nephew, whose exceedingly honorable and virtuous reputation is
known throughout Nueva Espana, where I brought them up.

With the help of God, who in His infinite mercy made me pleasing
and well liked, I shall endeavor to live, administer justice, and
deal with others irreproachably. Since this is so, and I dwell in
a land where there is so little stability and truth, I beseech your
Majesty not to judge me without first hearing me. I greatly honor the
president, and the authority which even a duke would maintain if he
were here as your Majesty's lieutenant; for in distant regions this
befits the service of your Majesty. Nevertheless, in what concerns
the administration of justice, I strive to lose no opportunity. The
president is in poor health at present, and I do not know whether in
his letters he has touched upon the matters which I shall mention here.

I wrote from Mexico beseeching your Majesty, for the peace of the
royal conscience and of the consciences of us who serve here, that
a consultation be held to decide upon what shall be done with the
Mahometans, of whom these islands are full. I sent a report, and
said that, keeping the matter in mind, I would send a more detailed
account from here; but I could not find time for study, on account of
my continual occupation in the sessions of the Audiencia and rendering
opinions. This year I am probate judge, and for the first four months
of the year provincial alcalde; and since people find that matters are
readily settled I am beset by the natives with their petty lawsuits. I
wish that I might have had more time to collect what can be put
together, and to write on law. However I shall not neglect perchance
to make some slight report. The following is a clause from a letter of
your Majesty which I found, addressed to the adelantado Miguel Lopez
de Legaspi, the first discoverer of these islands, in effect this:

"We have also been petitioned in your behalf concerning the Moro
islands in that land, and how those men come to trade and carry on
commerce, hindering the preaching of the holy gospel and disturbing
you.