and royal officials of the difficulty of its observance, it has been
abandoned and repealed in order to avoid so many and so great dangers
as above stated, and injuries to the said inhabitants and residents of
those islands--an intent quite in accord with the first decree of the
said year six hundred and four, in which, although it was ordered to
impose the said two per cent, it commanded that this was to be done
with the greatest mildness possible. Consequently, as this mildness
was not and could not be exercised, the imposition occasioning only
great troubles and difficulties, the decree itself intimates, as if
by express statements, that the said collection was impracticable.

Thus the request of the said city and its inhabitants, and of the
said islands, is that your Majesty be pleased to have it so declared
and ordered, not only for the future, but also for the past; since the
said royal decree has not been put in force, nor has it been advisable
at any time, for either the future or the past. The impossibility
[of enforcing the decree] is even greater [at this time], because of
the many years that have passed, and the many persons against whom
it might be attempted, who have died; so that to undertake it would
mean nothing else than a beginning of lawsuits, and the disquiet
and revolution of all the inhabitants of the said city, or of most
of them--for those who have trafficked here from the said year of
six hundred and seven are many, and most of them have died, without
leaving any property from which to collect the arrears of duty--in
case that that effort is made. By that [concession] the inhabitants
will receive an especial favor, as is hoped from the greatness of
your Majesty. Madrid, September 6, 1635.

_Reply of the fiscal_

The fiscal declares that he has examined the documents sent with
this memorial, and the other papers and letters from the Audiencia,
the visitor, and the superiors of the orders; that the decision [of
this question] demands close attention, and all that the council is
wont to exercise for its sure action, for the great necessity of its
inhabitants which the city represents, confronts us. We must consider
not only the impracticability of enforcing the impost, but no less his
Majesty's lack of means (caused by the wars and necessary occasions
for expense that have limited the royal incomes), which constrains
him so that he can do no more--a course which, as so Christian and
pious a k