to your Majesty
and your ministers. This leads me, every time when I speak of it, to
repeat my supplication to your Majesty, as I now humbly do, that this
may not go on without the inquiry of residencia which I have requested,
and the punishment due each one. May God protect the Catholic person
of your Majesty in accordance with the needs of Christendom. Manila,
July 21, 1621.

_Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenca_

[_In the margin_: "Examined."]

[_Endorsed_: "Examined and decreed within on the margin, that which
concerns both the Council and the Junta. On September 22, 622."]

Letter from Archbishop Miguel Garcia Serrano to the King

_Condition of the archbishopric of Manila in regard to the affairs
of ecclesiastical and secular government._

Sire:

Although I am writing to your Majesty at length informing you of
the condition of these islands regarding the enemies who come to
infest them, I cannot refrain from writing this letter apart,
in which I inform your Majesty of matters that, in my opinion,
your Majesty needs and ought to know. For, although I have written
concerning many of them these three years past, I must--inasmuch as
I have had no answer from your Majesty, not even of their receipt in
the Council--repeat what I have written, again and again, until I am
certain that my letters have reached that royal Council. Knowing that,
my mind will be at rest, and I shall be content with what your Majesty
shall be pleased to order to be done in all things.

From the time of the establishment of the faith in these islands,
no ecclesiastical council [8] has been held in them; [but this is] a
matter that is urgently recommended by the holy general councils, for
the correction of abuses and the reform of morals. It is most necessary
in this archbishopric, in order to establish the administration of
the sacraments with uniformity of ceremonies, the celebration of
holy days, and for unusual and peculiar cases that occur in this
new world. Therefore, I petition your Majesty to be pleased to
send me permission so that I, with my three suffragans, may hold
a council as soon as they reach these islands. [_Marginal note_:
"That a letter has already been sent to him regarding this matter;
and he is to follow its directions."]

The devotion, sire, to the most holy sacrament had greatly fallen
into disuse in this city, just as if we who are its residents had not
come from the Christian country of Espana. Consequentl