1116. In the year 1724, the province of Philipinas begged the king to confirm, by special decree, the possession that had been given them in his royal name of the islands of Masbàte. His Majesty ordered the governor of Philipinas and the bishop of Nueva Cáceres, on the eleventh of February, 1725, to make no innovation in regard to the spiritual administration of the said district until he should provide what was needful in his royal Council. He ordered them also to inform him of the progress that had been made by the faith in that territory since it had been in our charge. On that account some juridical investigations were made in Manìla in order to inform the king with acts. By them it appeared that, although there had been only one single parish priest in all the district of Masbàte before, since it had been placed in charge of the Recollect fathers, three religious at least had always lived there; and that, as was proved by the books of the royal treasury, in the year 1687, anterior to our possession, there were only one hundred and eighty-seven families in the whole mission, while in the year 1722, there were five hundred and eighty-five: so that in the space of thirty-four years they had increased by three hundred and ninety-eight. For that reason the governor, Marquès de Torrecampo, gave his king June 30, 1727, a very favorable report of our discalced order in the terms of this honorable clause. "The district of Masbàte, in charge of the discalced Augustinians, has had an increase of 398 whole tributes through the apostolic zeal of those ministers. They, not only in that district, but also in the rest of these islands, dedicate themselves to the propagation of our holy Catholic faith with the greatest toil and with the most visible fruit."