s put and
is now kept with entire safety.

20. _That it is necessary to establish religious instruction in the
Ladrones; and, as it cannot be sent from here, I have written to
the viceroy asking him to order the officers of the ships from Nueva
Espana to leave ministers there_.

As the royal instruction which I received had not been brought here
when I came to serve your Majesty in this government (as I have
before explained), what your Majesty ordered in one clause of it,
that on the passage by the island of Ladrones ministers for religious
instruction to those Indians should be left there--such persons as
I might select--has not been executed. Accordingly I have considered
it with the royal Audiencia here; and, together with their opinion,
the intention of your Majesty was communicated to the viceroy of Nueva
Espana, so that he might carry it out, by ordering the officers of
the ships which shall come in the year 600 to leave there a couple
of religious and ten soldiers as a guard. But as the ships arrived
here from a different direction, and the voyage was a difficult
one, the will of your Majesty has not been carried out. I believe
this will be a work very important for the service of God our Lord
and your Majesty; for in the year 1596 a religious of the Order
of St. Francis, with a sailor, who were passing by the islands of
Ladrones, disembarked from the almiranta "San Pablo" in the boats of
the Indians of those islands, more than three hundred skiffs having
come alongside of the said ship. The Indians took them on board and
carried them to land where they remained during the period of a year,
up to 1597--when, as the ships from Nueva Espana were again passing
on their way to these islands, having as commander Don Lope de Ulloa,
the said religious and soldiers [_sic_] arrived alongside the ships
in the boats of the Indians, and were received on board. When they
arrived here, the religious gave an account of what he had seen in
the islands of Ladrones, saying that there were many islands thickly
peopled with Indians, who are men of good stature, and strong. They
are a tractable and kindly people. They regaled him and his companion,
and showed them much respect. The land abounds in fish, rice, and
_camotes_. They are heathen; but if the religious would enter there
with love and tactfulness they would teach them. I hope in our Lord
that He and your Majesty will be served in bringing those heathen to
a true knowledg