of much holiness, learning, and very exemplary life, who has had much experience for many years in the affairs of this country, and to whom your Majesty should listen; and likewise father Fray Marcello[1] of the Order of our Father St. Francis, who will give a full account of everything; for it is zeal for the honor of God and the service of your Majesty, and the desire for the remedy of these islands, which alone bring them through so many dangers by land and by sea. But all I have been able to learn in this little time is that everything is like a clock out of order, and even in such condition that nothing will go into its right place unless the powerful hand of your Majesty be placed upon it.
In the first place your Majesty has here a cathedral and metropolitan church, and there is not a village church in Castilla so ill served, so lacking in ornament as this—to such an extent that although the quality of the ornaments is inferior, there are so few that they have not even the necessary colors for the feast-days, although they are in a place where silks are so cheap, as they are here.[2] Thus it is with all the
- ↑ Apparently referring to Fray Marcelo de Rivadeneira, one of the Franciscans who went to Japan with Pedro Baptista. Rivadeneira wrote a book, Historia de las islas del Archipiélago, etc. (Barcelona, m.dc.i), which describes the countries of Eastern Asia, and relates the history of Franciscan missions therein.
- ↑ In the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla, is a document which contains the following statement: "I, Captain Joan de Bustamante, accountant and official judge of the royal exchequer of the Filipinas islands, certify that, according to the books, accounts, and papers of the office and records of the said royal exchequer, it is not, since the past year of fifteen hundred and eighty-one, when the cathedral church of this city was founded by Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, first bishop of these islands, up to the present year of fifteen hundred and ninety-nine, evident nor apparent that there have been given from the royal exchequer to the said church any bells, images, ornaments, chalices, candelabra, mis-
