missions.  The tributary Indians are peaceable, and appreciate with gratitude Fajardo’s efforts to relieve them from taxes and wrongs.  One of their burdens has been the erection of many churches—­of which there are thirty, almost all of stone, in Manila and its immediate vicinity alone.  The Council order that no religious house or church be hereafter erected without the permission of both secular and ecclesiastical authorities.  At the end of Fajardo’s letter are added certain comments and directions by the Council.  They are inclined to send reenforcements, supplies, and merchandise to Filipinas via Panama, as Fajardo suggests, but direct the vessels to return to Acapulco instead.  Illicit participation of government officials in trade shall be severely punished.  The official visitations recommended by the governor are to be made, and the auditors are commanded to serve in this duty.

A letter from the king to Fajardo (December 13, 1620) answers previous despatches from the latter.  He commends Fajardo’s proceedings in discontinuing certain grants, and orders him to be careful in making his reports, to maintain harmony in the Audiencia as far as possible, to investigate the conduct of the auditor Legaspi, to correct with vigor the scandals at Santa Potenciana, to enforce discipline in the military department, and to maintain friendly relations with Japan.  Felipe returns thanks to the colonists for their loyalty and services in public affairs, and to the Augustinian order in the islands for their zeal in his service.

A document of especial interest and value is the Memorial (Madrid, 1621) of Hernando de los Rios Coronel, long procurator-general of the Philippine Islands.  Introducing the work with a statement of his coming to Spain as an envoy from “that entire kingdom and its estates,” he begins with an historical account of the discovery and settlement of the islands, and the growth of the Spanish colony.  The earlier historical matter in Part I of the Memorial is presented to our readers in synopsis, as being largely a repetition of what has already appeared in our former volumes.  In chapter vii Los Rios gives some account of the government of Juan de Silva, especially of the latter’s infatuation for shipbuilding, and its baneful effects on the prosperity of both the colony and the natives.  He recounts the disastrous attempt to expel the Dutch by means of a joint Spanish and Portuguese expedition (1615-16), and its ruin and Silva’s death at Malaca.  Then he describes the opposition to Silva’s schemes that had arisen in Manila, where, although, he had a faction who supported his ambitious projects, “all desired his absence.”  Los Rios cites part of a letter from Geronimo de Silva to the governor, blaming the latter for not going to Maluco, where he could have secured the submission of the natives in all those islands; and urging him to do so as soon as possible, as that is the only means of preserving the present foothold of the Spanish.