wherewith it may be supported. I have tried to reduce it to a convent of professed nuns and have done my best with the viceroy of Nueva España, to have him send me two religious women, of pious life, from Mexico to found it. He answers me that there is no one who dares to go to these islands, on account of the difficulty of the journey and the inconvenience of the ships. I beseech your Majesty that—as this work is so important to this commonwealth, and in order to place in a better position here the daughters of honorable men who have not the money to marry them, on account of the depreciation of the encomiendas and property—you may be pleased to order the viceroy to be diligent in coming to our aid by enabling these religious to come; and that you will give to this seminary an income adequate for its maintenance, or give me permission to apply to it some repartimiento of Indians.
8. That Captain Don Luis Perez and the fathers of the Society are establishing a seminary for the natives; that this had not been done earlier, because the income assigned to it has not been furnished; and that the work should be furthered.
Don Luis Perez Dasmariñas, according to an order which he had from your Majesty, agreed with the fathers of the Society of Jesus that they should establish a seminary for the natives, where they might be taught civilized ways and instructed in religion; and that he should give them the wherewithal to erect a building, and a thousand pesos of income for its maintenance. To begin the work, he presented to the said Society six hundred pesos, and the income was put in the treasury of the fourths. When I arrived here I confirmed these negotiations, according
