Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/34

instruction to the natives therein. This letter, with all the others which went in the said year on the ship "Sancta Ana," was lost. For the relief of your royal conscience and my own, and for the welfare of the said natives, it is best that an order be given that those natives who are converted shall be supplied with ministers to instruct and maintain them in the Christian faith; for it is well known that, as soon as ministers fail them, they return to their rites and idolatries—in some districts, because they have lacked ministers for many years; and, in others quite near here, because those religious who had them in charge have abandoned them. This is well known to your Highness, through the information that has been given your Highness many times from this Audiencia. I am ready to furnish you sufficient information in this regard, if your Highness be so inclined. It is necessary also that ministers be furnished to the natives yet unconverted, that they may teach them and look after their conversion, since all of these Indians are under the dominion of your Highness, and pay tribute, as if they were Christians and received instruction. Unless ministers come hither from España, it is impossible to make good these deficiencies, or to supply the great lack of instruction. In order that this matter may be manifest to your Highness, and that you may be pleased to command that a remedy be provided, according to the great necessity for instruction in these islands, I ask, and, in order that the said need may be more certainly evident to your Highness, it is fitting, that the [above-mentioned] section of the said letter be sent to your royal hands. I beg and supplicate your Highness that you order the notary of the cabildo of