religious,
and others brothers of the girdle--while the said two fathers were
arrested and destined for martyrdom, and it is expected will by today
have achieved the happy end of it."

_Third letter_

"This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on various occasions of
the great importance to these islands of the order of the discalced
Recollects of the Order of St. Augustine; of the apostolic men in
it; of the great harvest that they are gathering by the preaching
of the holy gospel; of the excellent example which they have always
given, and are giving, with their strict and religious life, and
their so close observance of their rules; and of the so considerable
results that have been achieved by them in the service of our Lord
and in that of your Majesty, with the aid of your royal arms, in
the great number of infidels who have been converted to our holy
Catholic faith, and have been subdued so that they render your
Majesty due homage and tribute. Those people have generally paid
that tribute and pay it every year. [We have written you] that
those religious have exercised and exercise with especial care in
all things the spiritual earnestness that concerns their profession,
both in the maintenance or their work and in their continual desire,
notwithstanding the innumerable annoyances which they endure, to carry
this work onward. They are ever converting new souls to the service
of our Lord and the obedience of your Majesty, while they preserve
great harmony and concord among themselves. Consequently, that order
has always been and is one of the most acceptable orders and one
of the most welcome in these islands. They are the poorest of all,
as all their ministries are in remote regions very distant from this
city, and among the most warlike people in all the provinces of these
islands, as they have been but lately reduced. [We have told you] of
the risk of their lives on account of this, because it has happened
at times that those who seemed to be pacified have rebelled; while at
other times the religious have fallen into the hands of those who were
not pacified, when preaching to them the holy gospel. There have been
many others also who have suffered martyrdom in the kingdom of Japon,
thus enriching the church of God with such noble actions, as well as
the crown of your Majesty. Above all, they have no income except the
alms given them by the faithful. There is no fleet in which they do
not sail for the consola