[_Endorsed:_ "Fray Francisco de Ortega of the order of St. Augustine."]



What He Begs for the Monasteries of His Order


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Sire:

Fray Francisco de Ortega, visitor-general of his order of
St. Augustine, and prior of the convent of the city of Manila, in
the name of that province, and by the authority which he has for that
purpose, humbly begs and beseeches the following from your Majesty.

1. That your Majesty be pleased to bestow, as a grant and as alms for
the building of the monastery of that city, a fixed sum for a certain
period, as you did in past years for the building of the church of
the said monastery. In that case were assigned for the period of
ten years one thousand ducados annually. This grant is asked in
consideration of the fact that it has been burned twice, and has
been in part rebuilt from the alms that the religious have acquired
with great difficulty. Another ground is the many services performed
by his order in that country for your Majesty from the beginning,
when it was settled, with innumerable hardships which they endured
when engaged in implanting the faith, and in the service and relief
of the royal conscience of your Majesty--there being then no other
ministers there except them alone, as is quite well and commonly known,
and as will appear by the evidence which he adduces thereof. Finally,