t of the
Spaniards, which is so great that discreet and Christian people have
remarked it. What makes me fear much, Sire, is not what I have told
of, but what I shall now tell your Majesty--although I know that your
Majesty will say that I am unreasonable, and will feel much aggrieved
that I am so intrusive. The first matter is the continual sodomy
which the Chinese practice in these islands to so great an extent,
and communicate to the Indians--which is the worse, for the Indians
were formerly most clean in this matter, so far as can be learned. God
will consume us all with fire some day, or in some other way destroy
us, since we, a Christian people, are tolerating and supporting in
our own country a people so given to this vice. Each year one of the
auditors takes in charge the expulsion of the Chinese, and this comes
to no purpose except that such auditor gives a living or enrichment to
some friend or relative of his; since for every license that they give
for remaining here they take, besides the tribute for your Majesty,
two reals from each Chinaman; this is a large tribute, as there are
always eight or ten thousand of them. This is without counting the
additional payments which, if the auditor or the person he appoints
wishes to open his hand to receive, will amount to a great deal. While
I am writing this, I am in receipt of a note from the commissary
of the Holy Office, in connection with this matter, which, as it is
so much to the purpose, I will give here in full. It is as follows:
"Jesus be with your Lordship. Several Sangleys tried to persuade me to
procure for them licenses to remain in the country, but I would not
consider the matter. A few days later they came with the licenses,
and told me that each one had cost them twenty reals, amounting
to five tostons. If this goes on in this way, what they tell me of
past years appears probable--namely, that the licenses cost seventy
thousand pesos, since there was more fraud. May our Lord protect
your Lordship." These are the words of the said commissary. [_In the
margin_: "So great an excess seems to be an exaggeration, and it did
not occur at a time when the auditors could attend to this."]

These two reals from each Chinaman for the license, each year, ought
to be expended to pay the salary of the man appointed by the auditor,
and for other matters. These Chinese are never effectually driven out,
nor is their number diminished, and I fear that these Chinese wil