it, so that the retreat of Sancta Potenciana may enjoy and collect forever the products and profits of the said encomienda.  The pension of five hundred pesos received annually from the gambling-houses of this camp by the said retreat is repealed and suppressed, provided it be paid the amount due therefrom up to the day of this concession.  In respect to the collection of the tributes of the said natives, the appraisement last made for that province must be observed, and it shall not be exceeded under any consideration, under penalty of the ordinances, decrees, and provisions of his Majesty, made for the Yndias.  It shall be seen to that the said natives are well treated, and instructed in the matters of our holy Catholic faith; and in regard to that, it is charged upon the consciences [of the directors of the seminary] and taken from that of his Majesty, and from mine in his royal name.  The Indians shall not be harassed or injured by the collectors who go to collect the said tributes, nor by any other person.  Given in Manila, December twenty-seven, one thousand six hundred and ten.

Don Juan De Silva

By order of the governor: 

Gaspar Alvarez

The account of the concession of this other part was taken from the record-book of royal decrees and other papers of this accountancy of Manila.  Given in that city, April twenty-eight, one thousand six hundred and eleven.

Thomas Montero

The above copy is faithful, and is accurately corrected and collated with the said original concession, which was returned to the people, and I refer to that.  And the said petition and order I gave the present, witnesses being Juan Vazquez de Miranda and Don Francisco Veltran, citizens of Manila, where this is given on the fourteenth of the month of August, one thousand six hundred and seventeen.

Christoval Martin Franco

Corrected.

Sire: 

The seminary of Santa Potenciana of the city of Manila, where your Majesty has had the kindness to order the poor unmarried daughters of conquerors to be sheltered, and which your Majesty sustains and founded, declares that your governor Don Juan de Silva took from it a pension that it possessed for the aid of its support in the said city, and in its place, applied the products of the encomienda of Guas and Libon in the province of Camarines, and apportioned the said encomienda to your royal crown for the support of the girls and for divine worship.  The seminary petitions your Majesty to concede it the grace of confirming that favor, since its service to God and to your Majesty is so great.

[Addressed:  “To Secretary Santiago Florez.”]

[Endorsed:  “The Council ordered, September 9, 1619, that the fiscal examine the matter.”]

The fiscal declares that this confirmation is not asked for within the four years, although the patent of the governor does not assign any period for obtaining the confirmation; neither does it state that a confirmation must be obtained.  The work appears charitable and advisable, and consequently the Council can grant it what favor it pleases.  Madrid, September 10, 1619.