convert and baptize these heathen more rapidly than they are doing.

The new governor, Santiago de Vera, writes (June 20, 1585) to the
archbishop of Mexico. He encounters many difficulties--coolness on
the part of the bishop, lack of support from his associates in the
Audiencia, and but little acquaintance with the needs of the islands
in the royal Council of the Indias. His duties are onerous and his
responsibilities too great; he asks the archbishop to aid him in an
appeal to the king for relief from these burdens and vexations. Vera
cannot yet procure the quicksilver which he has been asked to send to
Mexico, but will try to obtain it from the Chinese traders. The king
of Ternate has revolted, and affairs there are in bad condition;
more troops are needed, but cannot be spared from Manila. Vera
discusses various matters concerning some of his officers, and
affairs both military and civil. He sends to Spain, under arrest,
two prisoners--one of them Diego Ronquillo, a kinsman of the late
governor Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa, charged with defalcation in
the trust of the latter's estate.

A Franciscan official in Spain, Geronimo de Guzman, sends to the
king (1585) certain recommendations regarding the government of the
Franciscan friars in the Philippines. An Augustinian friar, Jhoan de
Vascones, who has evidently gone from the islands to Spain, writes
in behalf of his brethren there (1585?) to ask the king that more
religious be sent to the Philippines and to other Oriental lands;
that these friars be sent from Spain by way of India instead of Nueva
España; that the authorities of India, secular and ecclesiastical,
be commanded to aid the friars in their missionary journeys; that
the latter be permitted to build monasteries as they may choose, "in
remote and infidel lands," without awaiting government permission;