Andres Martin de Arroyo, royal notary. [The notarial attestation of the validity of documents drawn up before the above notary, dated Manila, May 8, 1636, and signed by Agustin de Valencuela, Alfonso Baeza del Rio, and Francisco de la Torre, follows.] [20] [_In the margin_: "That during the eleven months while he has been in that government he has done no other thing than to establish the royal jurisdiction and patronage, and subdue the religious to [understand] that his Majesty is their natural seignior and the seignior of those islands; and he relates the mischievous proceedings of the religious of St. Francis, St. Augustine, and St. Dominic."] Sire: One would believe that your Majesty (may God preserve you) has sent me not to govern your Filipinas Islands, but to conquer them from the religious of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine; for in the eleven months since my arrival here, I have had no other thing to do than to establish the jurisdiction of your Majesty and your royal patronage, and to subdue the said religious to the understanding that your Majesty alone is their natural seignior, as well as the seignior of the said islands. And hitherto they have succeeded in and obtained whatever they desired, either because they have governed the governors, or the governor through fear of their so insolent preaching, or on account of their demands and threats, has never refused them anything. And if, in the course of the year, they have resorted to these measures at the time of the despatch of the galleons to Nueva Espana, the governors have granted their petitions, just or unjust--either that the religious might write well of their government, or so that they might not write ill of it. I am convinced that they will always write ill of me, because I am ever striving to regulate the service of God and that of your Majesty. As that is a labor in which both services may be free from self-interest and worldly ends, I shall not resent that they write to your Majesty whatever they like; for, since you are so just and so Catholic a sovereign, I cannot believe or expect that you will condemn me without a hearing. Therefore I petition your Majesty to be pleased to have your secretaries send a copy of my letters to your vassals, both regular ecclesiastics and seculars, of what I shall write concerning them; for they will find therein no deceit or falsehood (and it is impossible to deceive God and one's natural sovereign). Also they will find neither hate, love, nor passion, but only kind desires for correcting the faults of my neighbors, and those of the subjects of your Majesty whom you have given to me by your favor, so that I might maintain peace and justice among them, and keep them in the fear of God and that of your royal person. I also petition your Majesty to be pleased to have the said secretaries send me the letters, or copies of the letters, that they shall write, so that we may, on both sides, verify the truth here,