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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 26 of 55, 1636: 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 26 of 55, 1636: 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

It also appears that these orders can obtain religious from Mexico,
without causing so great expense to your Majesty's treasury--creoles,
or at least those who have gone thither from Espana, who are more
habituated to a hot climate, and will not enter suddenly so great a
change of climate as that of these islands; and even were there none
of this change, it would be well for them. Your Majesty ought also,
in justice, to favor the ecclesiastical estate, so that, if there are
benefices and missions, these may be given to it. For almost all such
are in the possession of the religious; and the seculars who are now
studying in the colleges, from whose number some very good candidates
graduate, have nothing to which to aspire. It is a shame that there
is nothing in which to occupy them. They do not cause any expense to
your Majesty in a journey hither, nor in their studies, and are more
easily reduced to reason; while the friar is one with his community,
and no one denies that the religious outside his convent would die as
a fish out of water. I entreat your Majesty to be pleased to believe
me that I do not inform you of all these things from hate, passion,
or ill-will; but only from my desire that your Majesty's service may be
uppermost. Your Majesty will never have a true report concerning these
islands, if your disinterested governors do not give it--for which
reason, since this country is so far away, no relief can he furnished
in matters that need it so greatly. For my part, I shall ever endeavor
to comply with the obligations under which your Majesty has placed me,
together with those which I have as a Christian, and those which I owe
to my lineage. I shall do my uttermost, and that will be something; but
if your Majesty will aid me by means of some ordinances and mandates,
there will remain nothing for me to do. May our Lord preserve your
Majesty's Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila,
the last of June, 1636. Sire, your Majesty's vassal kisses your feet,

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera [22]

[_Endorsed_: "Read and decreed within. December 12, 637."]

Sire:

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

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 26 of 55, 1636: 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

It also appears that these orders can obtain religious from Mexico,
without causing so great expense to your Majesty's treasury--creoles,
or at least those who have gone thither from Espana, who are more
habituated to a hot climate, and will not enter suddenly so great a
change of climate as that of these islands; and even were there none
of this change, it would be well for them. Your Majesty ought also,
in justice, to favor the ecclesiastical estate, so that, if there are
benefices and missions, these may be given to it. For almost all such
are in the possession of the religious; and the seculars who are now
studying in the colleges, from whose number some very good candidates
graduate, have nothing to which to aspire. It is a shame that there
is nothing in which to occupy them. They do not cause any expense to
your Majesty in a journey hither, nor in their studies, and are more
easily reduced to reason; while the friar is one with his community,
and no one denies that the religious outside his convent would die as
a fish out of water. I entreat your Majesty to be pleased to believe
me that I do not inform you of all these things from hate, passion,
or ill-will; but only from my desire that your Majesty's service may be
uppermost. Your Majesty will never have a true report concerning these
islands, if your disinterested governors do not give it--for which
reason, since this country is so far away, no relief can he furnished
in matters that need it so greatly. For my part, I shall ever endeavor
to comply with the obligations under which your Majesty has placed me,
together with those which I have as a Christian, and those which I owe
to my lineage. I shall do my uttermost, and that will be something; but
if your Majesty will aid me by means of some ordinances and mandates,
there will remain nothing for me to do. May our Lord preserve your
Majesty's Catholic person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila,
the last of June, 1636. Sire, your Majesty's vassal kisses your feet,

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera [22]

[_Endorsed_: "Read and decreed within. December 12, 637."]

Sire:

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

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