"The Recollect fathers of the Order of our father St. Augustine have many convents in these islands, where they administer, with great care, Christian instruction to the natives of the islands, to whom they furnish a good example and whom they treat with great gentleness. Their missions are very dangerous and the people of some of them are harsh and fierce. They have had very good success in Japon, and have given many martyrs to the Church, who fortified their lives by the confession of our holy faith, as will appear there [_i.e._, in Europe] by the report made here in regard to this. They merit the aid and protection of your Majesty, so that they may be encouraged to serve our Lord." The ecclesiastical cabildo of Manila, occupying the vacant see, testified to the same king of España in another letter: "The discalced Augustinian religious are very austere in their institute, and in their ministrations to the natives in the missions under their charge--who, as they are among the most untamable and fierce people in these regions, have killed and captured several of the religious. Consequently, they are very short of men, but have not failed in the service of your Majesty on the occasions that have offered by land and sea." It would be an evident ingratitude not to record here three letters, which the unconquerable city of Manila wrote to their king and sovereign, giving him a definite relation of the condition of Ours. _First letter_ "The order of the discalced Augustinians, which has extended into these islands, has been and is of great fruit in the spiritual by their general virtue, their exemplary lives, and their excellent teaching--both in the settlements of the Spaniards, where they have convents, and in those of the natives where the ministration and preaching of the holy gospel results in a very great harvest of souls. Because they were the last order to settle in these regions, they had to build some of their convents among the most rude and warlike natives of these provinces. They have had so good success with those natives that, through their efforts and the loving treatment which they have shown them, they have so converted them to the faith and so subjected them to the obedience of his Majesty, that the fervent spirit which those religious have infused into both those tasks is very evident. The order has a great lack of ministers to occupy their many missions; and they need the favor and protection of your Majesty, in order to attain their desire of carrying very far the conversion of souls, and of preserving those who have been converted to the faith. Therefore, this city is under obligations to represent it to your Majesty, and to petition your Majesty, as we do, with all humility, to be pleased to have a goodly number of religious sent to them, so that they may continue and carry on their good intentions in the service of God and that of your Majesty. For, besides that the number of religious here is very few, as they have