districts
for its better ecclesiastical administration, eighteen of which are
in charge of the parish priests of the following villages: in the
province of Negros, those of Jimamailan and Siquijor; in the island of
Cebu, there is one in the city of that name, and the rest in Danao,
Barilis, Siquijor, and Dimiao; in Caraga, that of Bacuag; in the
island of Leyte, that of Jilongos or Hilongos, and that of Burauen or
Buraven--the first on the western coast, and the second on the eastern;
in the province of Iloilo, that of Tigbauan (which also belongs to
the province of Antique), and that of Mandurreao in the province of
Capiz, that of Manga or Banga, and that of Mandalay or Mandalag; in
the province of Nisamis, that of Cagayan; and in the Marianas Islands,
some three hundred leguas distant, those of Agana, Agat, and Rota. In
this number are lacking those of the provinces of Nueva-Guipuzcoa,
Calamianes, and Samar, which can all be thus calculated: at one
parish in the first province, as it is of modern creation and thinly
populated; three in the second, as it is composed of various islands;
and some two in the last. This is a total of twenty-four vicariates
or outside districts. The ecclesiastics, both secular and regular,
appointed to discharge these duties, exercise, in addition to the
functions peculiar to their ministry, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction
in the villages assigned to their respective outside districts,
which are immediately subordinate to the vicar-general of the diocese,
who is the provisor of the same. It is to be noted, in regard to this
ecclesiastical division, that it is found to be subject to continual
alterations, in regard both to the number of ecclesiastical vicariates,
and to the curas who discharge these duties.

The considerable extent of this bishopric, which is the largest in
the Filipinas Islands--whose provinces are widely separated from
one another, some of those provinces even being composed of numerous
islets as its separate parts--has given occasion for various petitions
proposing the division of this bishopric into two parts, as a matter of
greater advantage to the Church and to the State. Apropos of this, the
bishop of Cebu, Don Fray Santos Gomez Maranon, declared in a respectful
representation which he addressed to his Majesty, King Don Fernando
VII, under date of Cebu, August 25, 1831, the following, which we copy:

"Sire:

"The bishop of Cebu, in order to relieve his conscienc