Monacillos que lo sean los hijos de los mestizos de sangley. 1732

= Monacillos: That the children of the Mestizos would become them =

= Testimonies about: That the Mestizos and natives of Vetuz and of Pasay become monacillos in the service of the church.

=Chinese-Mestizos: That their children become monacillos of the church and that they do not oppose it =

There are two such [items], the first is this one, and the other is that which follows, and is confirmatory =

It pertains to the shelf outside the wall Box number 9, papers of the Tagalogs 5th Folder =

This page is blank

Seal: four [and] one quarter, years one thousand seven hundred and thirty one

and thirty two.

{Left margin: Petition}

Very illustrious lord = Fray Pedro Orense of the Order of Our Father St. Augustine, and parish priest of the town of Malate, before your lordship, I present myself and I say that the right of my parish makes it appropriate for me to be given two such written legal assessments and their accompaniments with the decree and so on, about the fact that the natives and Mestizos of Vetuz and of Pasay have come to the agreement that their children would serve as altar boys in this church. This decree being the result of what the prosecutor of his majesty said. The date of said decree being the first of this present month of August, thus = I ask and beg your lordship to consider it useful that I present myself, and to instruct according to what I requested, as it is justice that I hope for from your lordship, etc. = Fray Pero Orense

{Right margin: Decree}

Manila, August fourteen of one thousand seven hundred thirty-two = Do as the supplicant asks= Signed by his lordship= Allanegui

In execution of what is mandated and ordered by the decree and petition above, I asked and retrieved the documents that he ordered and requested for. The contents of one and the other are as follows.

{Left margin: Petition}

Our most reverend provincial father = The captain Don Francisco Nicolás, current governor of this town of Malate, the village headmen and other principales who sign below on our behalf, and in behalf of this town’s común, before your most reverend self with due humility, we present ourselves and we say that there are only sixteen boys from among our children who can serve as altar boys. Thus on a weekly basis, only one altar boy and no more may serve, given that the rest usually fall sick, who number four in total. And this week there are only three, and one of them recently

finished schooling. As such we cannot comply with the six altar boys [required] of us by the most reverend father minister. And on this [matter], in Pasay as well as in Vetuz and in the rest of the district of this jurisdiction, there are enough baguntao children, from the Mestizos as well as from Tagalogs, and other nations, to whom, when possible, our children bring vestments and everything else necessary for the administration of the sacraments, the blessing of the sick, and the last rites. As a result, some (as has happened) made our children sick given the extreme fatigue of walking across such wide expanses and at very uncomfortable hours given the extreme heat waves from the sun or coldness from the rain. [All this] without the said Mestizos' nor the rest of the nations recognizing that we are not their slaves, nor have we obliged ourselves to serve them given that they do not serve us in the least. [They] go as far as to [have our children] become bantayes for the fires, not wanting to come [themselves].