Volume 20 — Letter from Felipe IV to Fajardo
Reading edition
The King. Don Alonso de Tenza, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia thereof: The letter which you wrote me on August 20, 1622, containing information regarding the state of those islands, has been received; and in my royal Council of the Indias the points that belong to their province have been considered, and you will be furnished with the resolutions adopted thereon.
You mention the revolt and retreat to the hills of certain natives of the provinces of Pintados, Nueva Segovia, and Cambales, and the reason which you think they had for it. I appreciate the care which you have exercised in that matter, since on other occasions when you have been directed to see that the Indians be treated as well as possible, you have endeavored to have my orders carried out, for in this way they will be preserved as we desire. Again I charge you that you inform the superiors of the convents, and religious who are busied in the conversion and teaching of the Indians, how important it is to treat them well.
As regards your remarks concerning the Licentiate Geronimo de Legaspi, auditor of that Audiencia, you will execute your orders in the matter, and I shall await the result. What you write in response to my decree, which was sent you on June 8, 1621, that you should investigate the mode of life of the wives of the auditors and other officials therein mentioned, is noted; and all this is placed in your charge and on your conscience. You are to correct the abuses which you find existing, no matter whom they concern, and shall read this section in the Audiencia, so that they may know my will.
I am advised of what you say, and have often represented, as to the necessity that the persons who are appointed to that Audiencia shall be well-known and approved. I am also advised as to what you say of the person of Don Geronimo de Silva, and the assistance which you have had from him. The embassy for Japan—with a gift, which shall not seem an acknowledgment—you say, could not be sent off last year, which is well. In the future, you will execute your orders in this matter.
All the other sections which your letter contains have been considered, and now nothing remains but to make suitable provisions regarding them. [Madrid, October 9, 1623.]
I The King
By order of the king, our lord: Juan Ruiz de Contreras [260]
Delgado states (Historia, p. 537) that in 1737 he found the nutmeg growing wild in Leyte, a native of the Visayas Islands. He adds: “It could be cultivated in these islands, if the natives would apply themselves to this work—or at least if the alcaldes-mayor would compel them to do so, as they do now in La Laguna of Manila, from which results to the people of the islands no little benefit.”