nd extension of the holy
Catholic faith in those so remote islands, by the conversion of so
many souls who are so ready to receive it. May your Paternity and all
those who are able to come to their aid take pity upon them, so that
ministers of the gospel may distribute to them the bread of heaven,
for the hunger from which they are dying. It is a sorrowful thing,
more sorrowful than can be told, to see them die without relief. At
Roma, March 5, 1604.

_Father Chirino_, of the Society of Jesus.

DOCUMENTS OF 1604

Letters to Felipe III. Pedro de Acuna; July 15 and 19.
Decrees regarding religious orders. Felipe III, and others;
February-July.
Grant to the Jesuit seminary at Cebu. Pedro Chirino; [undated;
1604?].
Decree regulating commerce with Nueva Espana. Felipe III;
December 31.

_Source_: All of these documents are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo
general de Indias, Sevilla.

_Translations_: These are made by Robert W. Haight--excepting the
third, which is by Henry B. Lathrop, of the University of Wisconsin.

LETTERS TO FELIPE III FROM PEDRO DE ACUNA

On the Sangleys

Sire:

The two ships which came this year from Nueva Hespana arrived in sight
of these islands on the tenth of last month, and the captain made the
port of Cavite on St. John's day. The Almiranta, not being so good a
ship, could not follow him, and remained on the shoal of Mindoro until
the fifth of the present month, which caused great loss. The viceroy of
Nueva Hespana writes me that the cause of these ships leaving Acapulco
so late was because they had met this despatch and that of the Conde
de Monterey for Peru, and that for the coming year he will see to
it that it is earlier. This is necessary, for it has likewise been
unavoidable, on this account, that those who were going back to Nueva
Hespana should be late in leaving here; for the Sangley merchants,
taking warning from the many losses which they have suffered, and the
neglect of the Spaniards to pay them during years past, will not give
up their cloth without first seeing the silver at hand. Accordingly
they waited until the money came before buying the goods and making
up the packages and cases, all of which used to run on credit.

I wrote your Majesty by way of Yndia, in November and December past,
of the uprising by the Sangleys, and the outcome of it, with what up
to that time had occurred to me, which your Majesty will have ordere