erning them."]

9. In the building of churches on the encomiendas of these islands
your royal treasury is subjected to excessive expenses by their being
made, as they are, of wood. Your Majesty pays, for those which stand
on the encomiendas belonging to your royal crown, two-thirds of the
cost--one-third as encomendero, and another as king and lord. In those
possessed by private citizens you pay one-third as king. As woods in
this country decay very easily, they rot within five or six years,
and it is necessary to build the said churches over again. Besides, it
often happens that when they are finished they are soon burned down. It
would be well for the said churches henceforth to be built of stone
or brick; for, with little more than what it costs to build them of
wood, they can be built of stone or brick and will last for many years.

[_In the margin_: "Let the Audiencia investigate this."]

10. The custom has been introduced of supplying wine for the
celebration of the mass to the priests of all the orders--not only to
those which are in the encomiendas of the royal crown, but to those in
private ones. As I understand it, your Majesty is under no obligation
to furnish it, except to those who minister in the four convents of
Manila, and to the curates of Spaniards and Indians there, and to those
who are in your Majesty's missions; and the encomenderos are obliged
to furnish them with the said wine on their own encomiendas. Your
Majesty will order the action in this matter which is most fitting
to your royal service.

[_In the margin_: "Write to the governor to order that the secular
clergy, and those who give instruction in private encomiendas, are
not to be given wine on his Majesty's account for the celebration
of mass."]

11. During the time of the last royal Audiencia, several offices of
regidor were sold; but of those who bought them at that time two
only have come here. Governor Gomez Perez, by virtue of a clause
of his instructions, appointed, above those which had been bought,
enough to amount in all to twelve regidors, from the worthiest men
of this city. Some of them left in his time, and others in the time
of his son, and finally in that of Governor Don Francisco Tello;
others the latter removed. Thereupon he appointed to several of the
said offices unsatisfactory persons, for his own interests. Some
of these despise the said offices. As it is understood that these
appointments were not by honorable m