hat, after
having examined the orders that have been given, and obtained thorough
information of what is expedient to do, you send me an account of it,
together with your opinion about the matter.

Although, as there are so excellent judges and officials in the
Audiencia of Manila, it is reasonable to believe that justice is
administered therein, I have learned that in certain cases there
has been laxity, and especially in two--namely, when Melchor Ramirez
de Alarcon, being intoxicated in the said city of Manila, and being
reprimanded by his son-in-law, Pedro Munez, gave the latter a blow
with his fist, receiving in return nine dagger-thrusts, of which he
died; and when, in the city of Cazeres, Captain Pedro Cid killed Joan
Martin Morcillo in a duel. In spite of the gravity of these cases,
the delinquents were not sent to prison, but were set free on paying
a fine of eight hundred pesos each--a procedure which caused censure
and discontent among the people. Since it is right that similar cases
be not left unpunished, I charge and command you that, as soon as you
reach the islands, you demand and copy, without declaring your purpose,
the record of the proceedings in regard to the said two murders,
and examine it in company with the licentiate Don Antonio de Rivera,
auditor of the Audiencia; and with the consent of the fiscal; and,
if you find sufficient cause for action, you will have the culprits
seized, and will make all the investigations and efforts necessary for
ascertaining the truth. If it seem to you that the administration of
justice requires it, you will send the prisoners under arrest to Nueva
Espana, together with the records of their cases, and will inform me
of what has been done and of the investigation made. You will always
take great care that justice be done and administered in every case,
and that crimes which merit punishment receive it, so that disorders
may be repressed and justice exist and be feared, and that it shall
not set a bad example or occasion lawless conduct in the land.

I have learned that many of the decrees and orders issued for those
islands are not being executed, and that there is laxity in this
respect, especially as concerns the ordinances about the equity with
which the positions of profit in that country should be apportioned,
and those persons who have not yet been remunerated should be
rewarded. When my fiscal demanded the observance of the decrees,
and especially in the ca