therefore we do hereby grant permission to the said Doctor Antonio de
Morga, to have the said book of the said conquest and conversion of
the Filipinas Islands printed in any of the printing establishments
of the city. Given in Mexico, on the seventh of April, one thousand
six hundred and nine.

FRAY GARCIA, archbishop of Mexico.

By order of his most illustrious Lordship, the archbishop of Mexico:

DON JUAN DE PORTILLA, secretary.

¶To Don Cristoval Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas, duke of Cea [1]

I offer your Excellency this small work, worthy of a kind reception as
much for its faithful relation as for its freedom from artifice and
adornment. Knowing my poor resources, I began it with fear; but what
encouraged me to proceed was the fact that, if what is given were
to bear an equal proportion to the receiver, there would be no one
worthy of placing his works in your Excellency's hands; and oblivion
would await the deeds achieved in these times by our Spaniards in
the discovery, conquest, and conversion of the Filipinas Islands--as
well as various fortunes which they have had from time to time in the
great kingdoms and among the pagan peoples surrounding the islands:
for, on account of the remoteness of those regions, no account has
been given to the public which purports to treat of them from their
beginnings down to the present condition. I entreat your Excellency to
accept my good will, which is laid prostrate at your feet; and should
this short treatise not afford that pleasure, which self-love--that
infirmity of the human mind--leads me to expect, will your Excellency