Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 02).djvu/297

has been or will be done thereon, if his grace and his fleet are willing to keep peace and friendship with me, as is incumbent upon Christians and vassals of sovereigns so closely connected and related. This I do in order that no statement or calumny for breaking the said peace may be uttered against me. And, regarding what he says in the rejoinder to my second reply, namely, that I refused to show the instructions which I bear, his grace knows perfectly well that I have offered many times to show him the same, and that nothing was sent by him. And to do everything possible on my own part, and to make my cause a just one, I send to him enclosed herewith those clauses of my instructions bearing upon the present business, which were copied from the original, and signed and approved by the chief notary of this camp, in order that they might be produced as witness and proof, at any time or place whatever; besides this, his grace will be allowed, if he so desire, to send some person here to see them collated with the original. Throughout these instructions is evident and deducible the Christian spirit, greatness, rectitude, and kindness of his majesty King Don Felipe, as well as the moderation which he orders to be maintained wherever we should fall in with Portuguese—which is very different in its nature from what is essayed and planned against me and the vassals of his majesty. It will be seen, moreover, how just is his majesty's cause, and, in his royal name, our own. Therefore, in the name of God omnipotent, our Lord, and of his majesty, I beg and summon his grace once, twice, thrice, and as many more times as I am bound by law—not to consent to or permit any wrong or injury to be done, directly or indirectly, by evasions,