The King. To Don Diego Fajardo, knight of the Order of Santiago, member of my Council of War, and my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands: In a clause of the letter which you wrote to me on the fifteenth of August in the past year of six hundred and forty-five, you say that the bishop-elect of Caceres is bringing suit against the religious of St. Francis in regard to some mission stations which those religious have held for the past thirty years and more; that he has asked you to aid him in taking possession of them; and that you have delayed doing so until you could report to me that in those islands the Indian natives are much better instructed by the religious than by the secular priests--considering that the latter are born in the islands, and are but few in number; and that many of them are by their habit of life not fitted to set an example for others, or [to carry out] what is decreed for the other parts of the Yndias. In regard to the missions, there are in those islands especial reasons why I should order this matter to be again considered, on account of not having secular priests of more approved life for the new conversions and doctrines; for since the natives of those islands have been instructed from the beginning by religious, they are more obedient to these. This matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Yndias, together with the opinion thereon of my fiscal of the Council, I have deemed it best to tell you that, in regard to the point of furnishing aid [to the bishop], it is your duty to consider what course you ought to pursue conformably to [the requirements of] justice, and whether it would be just to grant him aid according to law. You shall act accordingly in this, and in other matters that may arise in which it may be expedient to grant aid. In what concerns those missions which the religious may hold, you shall observe what has been ordained by the decrees and orders that have been issued on account of this, in all cases giving careful attention to [the requirements] of my royal patronage, without making any change in what has been commanded and decided in the matter. Dated at Madrid, on the seventeenth of September in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-seven. I the King By command of the king our sovereign: Juan Bauptista Saenz Navarrete Signed by the members of the Council. EARLY FRANCISCAN MISSIONS Entrance of the seraphic order of our father St. Francis into the Philipinas Islands