o ask for such bounty. Inasmuch
as affairs of greater consequence are entrusted to me, I beg your
Majesty to be pleased to give me authority to aid such persons from
the royal treasury of these islands, bestowing upon them annually such
an amount as their service to your Majesty shall have deserved. I beg
also for authority to give some false musters to such as deserve them,
that they may be able to live and maintain themselves. Such a course,
in addition to being worthy of your Majesty's greatness, will have
the important effect of animating the others to do good service on
occasion, stimulated as they will be by the hope of reward. Our Lord
protect the Catholic person of your Majesty in the happiness necessary
to the good of Christendom. Manila, the twenty-sixth of October, 1602.

_Don Pedro de Acuna_

[_Endorsed_: "Manila. To his Majesty; Don Pedro de Acuna, the
[twenty-sixth] of October. Let it be seen if this is a duplicate,
and if the original has been filed." "Filed and registered
within. Let attention be paid to the part on which a consultation
is directed." "Two sections have already been epitomized, and were
sent on to the council of war in Valladolid, on the twenty-eighth of
June, 1605."]

PRINCIPAL POINTS IN REGARD TO THE TRADE OF THE FILIPINAS

First Point

_The quantity of merchandise which may be traded with; and that which,
contrary to the prohibition, is brought from the Western Indias to
the Filipinas._

By decrees of his Majesty, of January 11, 93, and of July 9 and 5, 95,
the trade of the Western Indias with China and the Filipinas Islands
is prohibited. It is only permitted therein that the citizens of the
Filipinas may trade with Nueva Espana; and that two ships, each of no
more than three hundred toneladas, shall sail from Nueva Espana every
year, in which may be sent 250,000 pesos of Tepuzque [6] in coin,
and which may carry back the proceeds thereof in merchandise, which,
under fixed penalties, shall not exceed another 250,000 pesos--that
is, in all, 500,000 pesos.

Notwithstanding these prohibitions, and although the same is also
commanded by other decrees to be strictly observed, two million reals
are usually taken out of the Indias for the Filipinas, according to
advices from the viceroy of Nueva Espana, and from Senor Don Bernardino
de Avellaneda.

Second Point

_To whom it is permitted to trade and traffic in the Filipinas
Islands._

By the aforesaid decree, it is per