same royal obligation, especially when hitherto in all these islands there have been military posts and the necessary forces, not only in the interior of the country but also on its coasts. From this grievous neglect it results that it is impossible for us to carry out our desire for the new conversions and reductions so earnestly charged by his Majesty; for if at present even our own preservation is difficult, how can any new conquest be easy? or how can it be right for our zeal to consider the acquisition of new Christian communities while leaving those that are now in our charge exposed to every invasion by the enemy and to total ruin? One thing that has contributed greatly to this wretched state of affairs is, that the expeditions for converting infidels and conquering apostates have ceased which in other days were made by the orders of your Lordship's predecessors, in accordance with the royal laws, after having consulted the royal court of justice--in whose decisions the hopes that were entertained of the great usefulness of those expeditions were not mocked. It seems as if that experience would incline [the government] to renew the said expeditions, which for some time have been neglected; and in this very island there is so great a number of infidels, who are confirmed in their very infidelity and iniquity because they know that there is never any effort to subdue and conquer them, just as if his Majesty (whom may God preserve) had not the right to do so. From these deficiencies grievous results have followed, in depopulating the islands, which at present lack their former abundance of the peoples and sources of wealth that are native to them. Confirmation and proof of the truth of this statement is especially furnished by the five provinces near to this city. As for those which are more remote, it is known and is evident that all the coast of Tayabas, which extends from Sariaya to the headland of Bondoc, was formerly very populous and rich, but now it has hardly a village that can be called such; there are [only] some groups of huts jumbled together, inhabited by some Indians who are kept there by their desire of obtaining some petty commodities of the country, such as wax, skins, and pitch. All are destitute of churches and ministers; for their churches have been destroyed at various times by pirates and Mindanaos, and no attention has ever been paid to reëstablishing those places anew as military posts, and with the means of defense that were necessary in order that the great number of people that were in that region might be able to maintain themselves as Christians. It is also a fact that there have been [other] very weighty causes for the depopulation of the islands: the building [of ships] within these five provinces; and the excessive and rigorous exactions in the collection of the tributes, and the excessive polos [34] and personal services [required]. The sad thing is, that all those who leave the islands are ordinarily