ity ought to prevail and be preferred. This
conclusion was reached by experience, on the occasion of the former
year 632, when the said visitor tried to put the said duty in force,
in which he found himself confounded; for he beheld the cessation of
commerce, and the resolve made by the said inhabitants that they would
not export or risk their wealth, without receiving any profit--by which
it resulted that the despatch of the ships which were being sent to
Nueva Espana was delayed, the cause of which was the said visitor,
because of the said collection that he was trying to enforce. The
governors of those islands--of whom there have been many, very prudent
and clear-headed, and eminent in their zeal for the service of your
Majesty--never came to such a determination, in all these years. And
the strength and resistance of the obstacles that they found, and
which they were considering in person, compelled them to consult with
your Majesty, as they always have done--regarding that as much more
proper than to execute [a decree] and risk the condition of those
islands, and considering the matter with mature judgment and prudent
deliberation. Consequently, they never reached the said decision that
the said visitor attempted. And although the latter tried to remedy it,
by proposing the means (that he alleges as a counterbalance) of the
payment of four thousand pesos, by way of gift and gracious service,
that gift was not perpetual, as appears on the contrary, and as is
given to understand; but it was only for that time, and until the
decision of your Majesty should be made. That is well verified by
the fact of what afterward occurred; for in the following year the
said visitor--recognizing that the gift of the four thousand pesos
had been limited, and for once only, and that by virtue of that the
said inhabitants were not bound to anything--attempted to make again,
through some of the regidors, the same suspension that he had already
made of the execution of the said duty, until your Majesty determined
with what they should serve, with some gift, even though it should be
only a small sum. That which was finally assigned was from one to two
thousand pesos, the visitor again with this new occasion placing the
despatch of the said ships in peril, causing by the least delay more
loss than the said profit. Therefore the royal Audiencia, in order to
proceed with more certainty, called a council of the bishop who was
governor of that