1593–1597]
REPORT CONCERNING FILIPINAS
109
- Majesty's royal exchequer, as your Majesty has done in the kingdom of Peru. [In the margin: "Let him be given the decree in accordance with the declaration made."]
- The said father Fray Francisco de Ortega informs your Majesty that the bishop of those islands, of his own notion and at his own pleasure, placed religious of his own order of St. Dominic in a settlement of Sangleys (natives of the kingdom of China) near the city of Manila, and across a river that flows through it. From the beginning when that island was gained and settled, the religious of the order of St. Augustine have had the said Chinese and natives in charge, to whose conversion and baptism they have paid special attention. From the monastery of his order to the place where the Dominican fathers have settled the distance is but two shots of an arquebus. This is in direct opposition to your Majesty's orders and the commands of your royal decrees—namely, that wherever the monastery of one order is established, no other shall be placed except at the distance appointed by your Majesty. As most of the Chinese settled there are idolatrous heathen, it is a great disadvantage for them to be mingled with the newly-converted Christian Indians, the natives of another race; and from this mingling arise many offenses against God our Lord. In order to avoid these, it would be advisable for your Majesty to have those Chinese removed thence to the place where the rest of their nation have settled, leaving those natives free. It would be well also to decree that the Dominican fathers there shall settle in another place, where there is greater need for them; and that your Majesty entrust the execution of all the above to the governor
