at the order of the Inquisitors of Méjico, these were present not only with banners, but also with the white and black cross (the insignia of this holy office) on their capes and mantles--the religious wearing it on their cowls, worked in gold and silver. On the evening of Saturday, March 12, the procession marched through all the city, the standard of the faith setting out from the convent of St. Dominic, carried by Sargento-mayor Don Domingo Bermúdez, a citizen of Manila, who had been alcalde-in-ordinary the preceding year. The regidors and most eminent citizens accompanied him, dressed in gala attire and on gaily decked horses, and followed by many lackeys wearing rich livery (which is less costly in Manila than in other places). The father commissary rode a mule with trappings, and was accompanied by the servants of the holy tribunal, both ecclesiastical and lay, the alcaldes with their maces, and the drums, and followed by the other officials, all on horseback. The second Sunday of Lent, March 13, the same parade was held from the convent of St. Dominic to the cathedral. The father commissary was there, under a canopy in the chancel on the gospel side; and the ministers of the Holy Office in the body of the church, on their benches on the epistle side. The above-mentioned governor was there, and was the head of the city, as there was no royal Audiencia. The father secretary, Fray Francisco de Contreras, read the edicts, and the father lecturer Varela, of the Order of St. Dominic, preached. After mass the standard of the faith was returned, and the father commissary and all the tribunal went to the convent of St. Dominic, accompanied by the governor and captain-general, and by the rest of his retinue of the preceding day. The following Sunday, March 20, the father commissary and all the tribunal left the convent of St. Dominic, and went afoot to the cathedral, where the serious and fearful ceremony was performed of reading the letter of excommunication against those who do not denounce persons whom they know to have fallen into heresies and the sins mentioned in the edicts. That is a ceremony that strikes fear and terror into the hardest heart; its tenor and details I omit, as it is long to tell and terrifying to hear. That ceremony was performed with the greatest solemnity and gravity possible. Inasmuch as it is not my intention, nor ought I, to come down to these present times with my records [in this history], I have thought it advisable to mention that matter in this place as a memorial of so holy a ceremony.