the Audiencia--not only by way of appeal from fuerza, but also on
behalf of the right of the royal patronage, which resided in that body,
since the said Audiencia was exercising the civil government in these
islands. These efforts were hindered by the efforts of the auditor
Don Alonso, former commander of the troops, and Don Tomas de Endaya,
master-of-camp of the army in Manila for which I refer to the account
which was given to his Majesty.

This, then, by way of preliminary. When the galleon "Santo Cristo
de Burgos" set sail for Nueva Espana, there was little respite from
negotiations of this sort, as we had hoped would be the case until the
arrival of the new governor, [1] who thought that he would certainly
arrive that year. Thus ran the talk of all. But, as the said bishop
is so peculiar in his decisions, he made an astonishing resolution;
this was, to go in person to the convent of San Agustin, a little
after two o'clock in the afternoon, having crossed a great part of
the city on foot, accompanied by two clerics (it is evident that they
must have been among the most unassuming ones), laden with pistols
and other weapons, in order to take away from the said convent the
dean, the cantor, and other prebends from the place where they had
taken refuge--their safety being, for fear of the bishop, protected
by royal decrees.

This performance gave much material for gossip, in which the blame was
laid upon the commander of the troops and his favorite Don Tomas, and
even on the Augustinian friars themselves, for having all left the city
that day in order that thus the bishop could carry out his purpose,
without its being easy to secure recourse from the violence which he
intended; for the commander of troops had gone to take supper at a
country house, the provincial of St. Augustine had betaken himself
to a resort on the river, and the prior had left the convent just at
two o'clock.

This scheme, if it were one, was not carried out; for the choristers
and the vicar of the convent, being informed how the bishop intended
to remove thence the persons who were protected by his Majesty and
entrusted to their care, made it a point of honor that such an accident
should [not] happen, since neither the provincial nor the prior was in
the convent; accordingly, by the time the bishop arrived they closed
the gates of the convent, not permitting him to enter. Thereupon
various colloquies took place between the two parties, making t