l from office.

298. _Item:_ They shall receive no gifts or promises from Spaniards,
or from the Indians, or from other persons who shall have or shall
expect to have businesses or suits with them. They shall not accept
such gifts or promises, of great or small amount, even for articles of
food or drink; and even if these are voluntarily offered, without any
request for them being made by the said interpreters or by others. In
case of violation of this ordinance, they shall pay sevenfold what
they have taken, for our exchequer; and charges thereof shall follow
the procedure prescribed for charges against the judges and officials
of our Audiencia.

299. _Item:_ We ordain that the said interpreters shall not listen,
in their own houses or out of them, to Indians who shall come to plead
or do business in our Audiencia; but shall take them, without listening
to them, to the said Audiencia, that there the case may be heard and
determined in conformity with justice. In case of violation of this
ordinance, they shall suffer for the first offense a penalty of three
pesos for the court-room; for the second, double the penalty applied as
aforesaid; and for the third, in addition to the said double penalty,
they shall be dismissed from office.

300. _Item:_ They shall not arrange the pleadings of Indians, nor be
attorneys or solicitors in their cases and affairs, under the penalty
prescribed in the preceding ordinance, applied as aforesaid.

301. _Item:_ They shall be present at the meetings of court, at
hearings, and at inspections of prisons, on every day that is not
a holiday. At least in the afternoons they shall be present in the
house of the president and auditors. All the above-mentioned duties,
and each and every part and matter thereof, they shall take care
to distribute among themselves in such a way that there shall not,
by the default of them or of any of them, be any failure or delay in
determining cases or other matters--under a penalty of two pesos for
the poor for each day when the interpreters, men or women, or any of
them, shall fail to do their duty in any of the aforesaid matters;
and that, in addition, they shall pay the damages, interests, and
costs to the party or parties detained for this cause.

302. _Item_: They shall not absent themselves without license from
our president, under penalty of losing salary for the time while
they were absent, and a fine of twelve pesos for the said court-room,
for ev