At this time this has been done, the allowance having been taken away; but the Lord in return has given much more than that. In these first years Doña Ana de Vera, wife of the master-of-camp Pedro de Chaves, and Doña Marina de Cespedes were great benefactors of the religious; and to them the convent, in gratitude, has given chapels in the church for their interment. In general, both poor and rich have given alms to the convent out of good-will; and the religious have paid them all very fully, not only by commending them to the Lord in all their masses and prayers, but by earnestly laboring for the good of their souls with sermons, advice, and exhortation, as well as other spiritual exercises. This was soon evident in the reformation that began to be seen in their habits, and in the improvement in their life. Accordingly, one of the citizens wrote to Captain Chacon (who was at that time governor of the province of Nueva Segovia) telling him as news that the Dominican friars had come to Manila; and that the city was turned into a monastery in the reformation of the lives and morals of the inhabitants, and, in particular, in the abstraction of the women from worldly concerns. This was indeed the case; one reason was, that the example given by the religious was of great influence, and, though they were few in number, they effected as much as if they were many. They acted in harmony, and devoted themselves to the divine offices as systematically as in great and well-ordered convents. They were all men of education (some of very superior education), all virtuous men, all given to prayer, all very penitent, very harmonious, very zealous for the salvation of souls, very poor, and disengaged from the things of this world. Therefore, all esteemed them and desired them as guides of their souls; and they performed this office with so much care and diligence that the reformation of the aforesaid city resulted. For those who confessed to them were either obliged to reform, or were dismissed by them; for in the conduct of the penitents they refused to consent to deceit, in the collection of tributes they would not allow extortion, in women they would not suffer frivolity or impropriety of manners. As learned men, they revealed the evils in such acts, and could make these understood by their penitents; and as men without any personal motive they held themselves ready to dismiss those who with vain and plausible reasons, with the pretext of evil customs, or with other like cloaks strove to cover their acts of injustice, and to justify the wrongs which they committed through evil desires. Hence those persons who confessed in the Dominican convent came to be known and esteemed, as they still are; and there came to exist in the city more light in regard to things to which previously no attention had been given, and more care was taken of conduct. This was the reason why they said that the city had become a monastery; and in truth, in many cases the conduct of