another very abundantly a kind of almond, larger than that of Europa, for which it is mistaken in taste. They have many civet-cats; civet is a drug which was obtained there long before this time, and had a good sale in Acapulco, although that product is not in so great demand now. 2. Don Luis Henrriquez de Guzman, a knight of Sevilla, reduced those islands to the crown of España in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine. Their conquest was finished and they were left thoroughly subdued by Captain Andres de Ybarra. Protected by arms, father Fray Alonso Ximenez, an Observant Augustinian, introduced the evangelical law. In that he did excellent work and obtained much fruit in Masbate. Other religious, imbued with the same spirit and of the same institute, followed, and spread the work into Ticao and Burias. By that means a suitable mission field was established, and the Augustinians conserved the administration thereof until the year six hundred and nine. At that time they resigned that district into the hands of the bishop of Camarines, who employed seculars instead of those regulars. There were various seculars in charge of the administration there, until the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight. The district handed over by the Augustinian fathers had two hundred and fifty regular families; but that number was diminished by the terrible invasions of the Moros, so that the corresponding stipend was not sufficient for the maintenance of one cura, and no one could be found who was willing to take care of that district. On that account his Excellency, Master Don Fray Andres Gonzalez of the Order of Preachers, their bishop, represented to his Majesty that it was absolutely necessary to apportion the curacies in another manner for the just spiritual administration of his bishopric, by placing some of them in the charge of regulars; and he petitioned that his Majesty approve his new plan, by ordering his governor of those islands to proceed in it as vice-patron. The king consented to what the prelate asked, and despatched his royal decree, under date of Madrid, August thirteen, eighty-five. With that order his Excellency presented to the governor the new distribution of districts, with the changes necessary and fitting. In that distribution he applied all the ministry of Masbate to the province of San Nicolas of the Augustinian Recollects, and also on the mainland of Luzon the villages of Ingoso, Catanavan, and Vigò with its neighboring rancherías, of which was formed the curacy of Piris. The governor, Don Gabriel Curuzalaegui, by an act of November twenty-six, of eighty-six, approved the plan conceived by his Excellency the bishop, and informed the said Recollect fathers of the part of the distribution that pertained to them. They accepted the assigned administration. In the territory on the mainland disputes were imminent with the Franciscan fathers in regard to the ownership of those territories.