Loading your reading…

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55: 1625-29; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55: 1625-29; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

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
August, of the same year, in which your Majesty is pleased to lay down
the form that must be observed in the visitation of the missionary
religious; and ordering that the latter may not make arrests or employ
stocks or prisons, or fiscals or constables who make arrests, besides
those whom the archbishop or bishop shall assign, or who shall have
the latter's authority to do so in cases permitted by law--all of which
will be observed and obeyed as your Majesty orders, [_In the margin_:
"Seen."]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

No reviews yet