han one real.

Communication from the Governor to the Ecclesiastics

_Relation of the proposition made by Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, knight
of the order of Santiago, and governor and captain-general in these
islands, for the king, our sovereign, to the fathers provincial of the
orders, and to other superiors, religious, and ecclesiastics at the
meeting that he held with them; and the response of the said fathers._
[52]

Since my arrival in this kingdom, whose government and defense the
king, our sovereign, was pleased to entrust to me--certainly a trust
greatly disproportionate to my poor strength--I have ever watched
over its conservation and perpetuation, as being a new land, in the
midst of infidel and idolatrous enemies; and I have even peopled the
greater part of it with them; and those so far away have a remedy
and aid from their hardships and dangers. In this, God has willed, by
His mercy, to plant His faith among and to enlighten those natives,
by preaching to them, through His ministers, His holy law, with
a zeal so fervid. And this is very different from other provinces
in these regions, where there is likewise a Christian faith, and
the name of church of the faithful; but their people are so remiss
that they content themselves with furthering only their trading and
commerce, caring only for their own individual aims and interests,
and peradventure, to no little renunciation of the name of Christian,
and causing it to be despised (as in Goa, Malaca, Macan, Maluco, and
other parts)--who, satisfied with their own individual interests and
business, do not, as here, regard the propagation of the holy gospel
as their principal purpose. The maintenance of this is costing so
many deaths of blessed fathers religious, who, in the planting of
this vine in the Lord, completed so much toil and affliction with
their lives, and who, in the conversion of souls, were laboring
and overcoming ail manner of danger and fatigue; so much blood and
lives of so many honorable Spaniards, who have so happily ended their
days in the furthering and building of this new church; and lastly,
the vast amount of wealth and royal patrimony which his Majesty has
expended, and is expending daily, in the prosecution of so glorious an
object. This is none other than the exaltation of the Catholic faith,
although it costs so much, as is known, that every year he expends
money from his own house, while the temporal gain derived here is so
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