_To the governor and Audiencia of Manila, directing them to give
information concerning the controversy that the natives of the village
of Quiapo have with the fathers of the Society concerning certain
lands; and, in the meantime, that they provide what is expedient._
The King: To my governor and captain-general, president and auditors
of my royal Audiencia of the city of Manila, of the Philipinas
Islands. Don Miguel Banal has informed me--in a letter of the fifteenth
of July, six hundred and nine--that, at the instance of the natives
of the village of Aquiapo, the late archbishop of that city wrote to
me that the fathers of the Society of Jesus, under pretense that the
metropolitan dean of Manila sold them a piece of arable land [_verta_]
which lies back of the said village, have appropriated it for their
own lands, taking from them more than the dean granted--to such an
extent that there hardly remains room to plant their crops, or even
to build their houses. And the said Miguel Banal, who is the chief of
that village, having built a house, one of the Society, called Brother
"Nieto," came into his fields, together with many blacks and Indians,
with halberds and other weapons; and they demolished the house, to the
great scandal of all who saw them, and without paying any attention
[to the remonstrances of] the alcalde-mayor of the village. He
entreats me, for assurance of the truth, to command you to make an
investigation regarding it; and in the meantime not to disturb them
in their ancient possession, which they have inherited from their
fathers and grandfathers. Having examined it in my Council for the
Yndias, it has appeared best to order and command you, as I do,
to inform me of what has occurred in this matter, and is occurring,
and in the meantime to take such measures as are expedient. Madrid,
on the seventh of December of one thousand six hundred and ten.
_I The King_
Countersigned by Juan Ruiz de Contreras.
Signed by the Council.