is on the river in the middle of Manila. During all the time that I have been here I have not seen the governor go to examine this work, or have anything more to do with it than if it were in Constantinople. In short, his God is his belly, and his feasts, and the vices and sins consequent upon this. That his drink may be cold he uses from the warehouses of your Majesty an endless amount of saltpeter, which is difficult to procure. He expends an immense amount of powder in his feasts.
To fulfil my duty to God and His faith, and to your Majesty, and the fidelity of a vassal, which I particularly owe, through the obligation placed upon me by being bishop, I say that this man has no good in him; nor is there anything bad lacking, to make him in the highest degree a bad governor. Every instant that the remedy is delayed will bring on more surely the wrath of God by delivering us into the hands of Japon and other worse enemies or scourges. The only remedy is to appoint here the good Don Luis Perez Dasmariñas, a well-known knight, and proved to be just and discreet, with long experience in these lands—and, above all, with great respect for God and His laws and those of your Majesty. He is a friend of prayer, and believes in considering his affairs with God. He need not be embarrassed in coming here, nor come loaded down with persons to whom he is bound. And if perchance Don Luis should not be available—although it certainly appears that he is so, particularly since the coming of the Audiencia—for the love of God may your Majesty not send us a person who is so boastful of being a knight; but rather a nobleman, a prudent soldier, who will be alone, and neither greedy, nor brought
