The Petition Presented to the Governor by the City and the Encomenderos
on the Fifteenth of February, 1591


We, the corporation and magistrates of the city of Manila, for
ourselves, and in the name of all these Filipinas Islands, and of their
encomenderos, settlers, and discoverers, do declare the following: As
is well known, many of us came here twenty-seven years ago, when these
islands were discovered, and have spent years in the propagation of
our holy Catholic faith, the defense of the preaching of the gospel,
and the service of the king, our lord. On account of this devotion
we abandoned our fatherland, and forgot our parents, brothers, and
relatives, and the comforts which each one of us possessed; and after
having endured the great dangers of a long and hitherto unknown voyage,
we settled in a land where we have shed our blood, and suffered the
fearful miseries of hunger, thirst, exposure, and many other hardships,
so great that they have cost the lives of the many thousands of men
who are known to have come to these islands--not to mention all those
valiant soldiers who serve his Majesty throughout his realm. At the
conclusion of so many toils and misfortunes--after we had made this
discovery, and had pacified and brought under the royal crown the
many vassals who today are to be found throughout these islands,
and had brought to the bosom of our faith the great number of souls
who have already received baptism--his Majesty and the governors
in his name have rewarded us by allotting to us a certain number of
natives. But these grants are under such limitations and the tributes
are so moderate that the most prosperous among us (and there are but
few) are living in straitened circumstances, and the others do not