51. All those present having heard the context of the above-mentioned letter, without any more being added or mentioned than what was declared in the above-mentioned council, it was dissolved, and the thorn (which was very sharp) remained in the heart of the archbishop in deliberating on so serious a point. In that deliberation the least thing involved was the danger to his own life, of which he was tired and of which he almost desired the end. But that is always placed in the hands of divine Providence who directs everything positively or permissively for His greater service and glory. Not only did he consider the extermination of the city and the lives of many with which he was threatened, but also (and which was very easy), the uneasiness of the villages and missions of the provinces, in great part ruined and destroyed by their old-time enemies, the Moros, who with a little stimulus and encouragement from their new enemies would assault them on all sides and would finish with their mission ministers and justices. It was greatly to be feared that if the natives were offered exemption from tribute, and subjection, they would be the instruments of these disasters. 52. This effort tied the hands of the English, who irritated by a negative answer, could have assigned two fragatas of their squadron to coast along the provinces, and cause this horrible uneasiness. If they did that, (unless it was averted by divine Providence), the ruin of the instruction and faith of the neophytes would be experienced. These reasons having been meditated upon before Jesus Christ, our life, from whose service depended that of a Catholic king, the archbishop resolved on the twenty-eighth to avoid the greater evil, and to assure the conservation of the islands, and the teaching and doctrine of our holy religion in them by keeping their natives quiet. Thereupon, on the said day, and on the following, the twenty-ninth, he wrote letters to the prelates and to the provinces, with the intention of using them opportunely; [149] and without making mention of those letters, he replied on the date of the twenty-ninth [150] in the Latin language to the above-mentioned letter, also in Latin, of General Draper, explaining to him diffusely and vigorously the difficulty of What he asked. His reasons, if they did not suffice to convince him, lessened the violence and force which were uttered a thousand times in said letter.