The King. Don Rafael María de Aguilar, whom I have appointed as my
governor of the provinces of the Filipinas Islands, in the district
of my royal Audiencia of Manila: My Council of the Indias having
conferred in regard to the measures which my royal Audiencia of
Charcas, [109] in a report of March 7, 1777, stated that it had given
for the establishment of schools for teaching the Castilian language
in the Indian villages of their district, and in regard to what my
fiscal declared in his report, resolved that when my royal titles are
delivered to the governors or corregidors of those my dominions, they
be advised in a separate despatch of what they are to do concerning
this matter. Consequently, I order you to strictly observe the royal
decrees, that have been issued in general on May 10, 1770, November
28, 1772, and November 24, 1774, in regard to the establishment of
schools for the Castilian language in all the Indian villages, so
that they may learn to read, write, and speak Castilian, prohibiting
them from using their native language, and appointing for it teachers
in whom are found the qualifications of Christianity, sufficiency,
and good deportment that are required for so useful and delicate an
employment. They shall be assigned the salary for the present from the
receipts of my royal treasury, by way of teaching fund [preceptoría] in
the villages where this contribution is current, while what is lacking
shall be paid from the communal properties and treasuries. You shall
propose to your superiors the means which you consider most fitting for
the solid establishment of the above-mentioned schools, and you shall
order that no other language be spoken in the convents, monasteries,
and in all judicial, extrajudicial, and domestic affairs than the
Castilian. The justices, prelates, masters, and patrons of the houses
shall keep watch over that. You are warned that if you do not perform
your duty in this regard, for every omission which you shall make in
the abovesaid, and in what pertains to the district of that province,
it shall be made a charge against you in your residencia; and for that
purpose, the advisable order is being communicated to the respective,
my royal Audiencia. [110] Given in Madrid, December 22, 1792.