ty. Consequently I shall not relate them in this letter to your
Majesty, whose very Catholic person may our Lord preserve, with the
increase of great kingdoms, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila,
July 25, 1626.

_Fray Miguel_, archbishop of Manila.

[_Endorsed:_ "Manila. To his Majesty; 1626. The archbishop of Manila,
[_MS. holed_] of July. Seen and decreed within, July 30, 627."]

LETTER FROM FERNANDO DE SILVA TO FELIPE IV

Sire:

Last year I advised your Majesty of the state in which I found these
islands; and now I could tell you that they have not been in better
condition for thirty years past. I kiss your Majesty's hand for the
great favor which you do me in sending as my successor Don Juan Nino
de Tabora, a person who, I am confident, will carry out whatever is
ordered there for the service of your Majesty; for my part I shall
aid him as much as I can, without heeding trifles.

As the despatch of last year was made early, the ships arrived at
Nueva Espana in less than six months, and returned to this city on the
twenty-eighth of June, the day on which the governor took possession
of these offices.

The commander of the Terrenate relief expedition arrived, and we
learn from those forts that all the aid reached them, as it was sent
early--which could not have been accomplished if it had been eight
days later. They are in peace and well provisioned, since the people
of Terrenate and Tidore are friendly. They likewise inform us that
the fort of Calomata, which the enemy dismantled, which is half a
legua from Malayo, has been fortified, because it was understood
that the Dutch were about to come back again; and that the natives
killed two hundred men of the enemy, who had arrived to punish them
with fifteen ships, which seem few for those seas.

This year there has been peace everywhere in this commonwealth, and
I have maintained it with the Audiencia--being patient with them when
necessary, and at times administering rebuke, whereby your Majesty's
service was furthered. Commodities nave been cheap, and all necessary
supplies have been procured without our having felt the much-feared
failure of iron, bronze, and tin from Japon. Through my diligence,
there is abundance in the warehouses, with which we could construct
and cast [cannon for] fifty moulds which I have had made for more
than four months, whereby the islands are fully supplied with the
necessary artillery.

Of the ships which I inf