.

I found the deanship of this holy church vacant because of the death
of Don Francisco Gomez de Arrellano. On the twenty-eighth of the
past month the archdeanship fell vacant because of the death of
Ssantiago de Castro. I have made presentations in the following
dignities in your Majesty's name, for your royal patronage, _ad
interim_, and I trust that your Majesty will confirm them: dean,
precentor, schoolmaster, archdean, one canon for the precentorship,
one cura for the schoolmaster, canon, one racionero, in the ration
of Lorenzo Rramirez--all persons of proved virtue and deserving of
these rewards. May God preserve your Majesty. Manila, August 4, 1625.

_Fernando de Silva_

DOCUMENTS OF 1626

Letter from the archbishop to Felipe IV. Miguel Garcia Serrano;
July 25.
Letter to Felipe IV. Fernando de Silva; July 30.
Letter from the sisters of St. Clare to Felipe IV. Jeronima
de la Asunsion, and others; July 31.
Petition for aid to the seminary of San Juan Letran. Juan
Geronimo de Guerrero; August 1.
Royal decrees. Felipe IV; June-October.
Military affairs of the islands. [Unsigned]; 1626.

_Sources_: Most of these documents are obtained from MSS. in the
Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla. The last two of the "Royal decrees"
are from MSS. in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid; and the
sixth document is from a rare pamphlet in the British Museum, London.

_Translations_: These are all made by James A. Robertson, except the
second, by Robert W. Haight.

LETTER FROM ARCHBISHOP SERRANO TO FELIPE IV

Sire:

In the ships that came from Nueva Espana to these islands this last
month of June, I received a decree of your Majesty dated Madrid,
December six of the former year six hundred and twenty-four, with
a copy of the one that your Majesty wrote to the governor of these
islands, in respect to the gold mines of the Ygolotes. I shall discuss
it with the said governor, as your Majesty orders, as soon as this
despatch shall be made, which will be at the end of this month. I
shall exert all the effort possible, so far as I am concerned, so
that your Majesty may be well served in everything. I believe that
Governor Don Juan Nino de Tavora will not be lacking in the same,
for he shows very earnest desires to employ himself in your Majesty's
service. [_In the margin_: "That it is well."]

I received two other decrees, of the fourteenth and thirtieth of
A