confriars, and others who wear the girdle."

This prelate confirmed the same in two other letters to the Catholic
monarch, in the following manner:

"The Recollect fathers of the Order of our father St. Augustine,
from their first arrival in these islands, have gathered a plentiful
harvest in souls by their good example. They have many convents
and many missions in their charge. In their care are the islands of
Calamianes, and they have charge of a great part of the island of
Mindanao, where they have convents and labor with great zeal for the
salvation of souls."

In the second letter he wrote these words:

"The Recollect fathers of the Order of our father St. Augustine
have many convents in these islands, where they administer, with
great care, Christian instruction to the natives of the islands,
to whom they furnish a good example and whom they treat with great
gentleness. Their missions are very dangerous and the people of some of
them are harsh and fierce. They have had very good success in Japon,
and have given many martyrs to the Church, who fortified their lives
by the confession of our holy faith, as will appear there [_i.e._,
in Europe] by the report made here in regard to this. They merit the
aid and protection of your Majesty, so that they may be encouraged
to serve our Lord."

The ecclesiastical cabildo of Manila, occupying the vacant see,
testified to the same king of Espana in another letter:

"The discalced Augustinian religious are very austere in their
institute, and in their ministrations to the natives in the missions
under their charge--who, as they are among the most untamable and
fierce people in these regions, have killed and captured several of
the religious. Consequently, they are very short of men, but have
not failed in the service of your Majesty on the occasions that have
offered by land and sea."

It would be an evident ingratitude not to record here three letters,
which the unconquerable city of Manila wrote to their king and
sovereign, giving him a definite relation of the condition of Ours.

_First letter_

"The order of the discalced Augustinians, which has extended into
these islands, has been and is of great fruit in the spiritual by
their general virtue, their exemplary lives, and their excellent
teaching--both in the settlements of the Spaniards, where they
have convents, and in those of the natives where the ministration
and preaching of the holy gospel results in a ve