ships, and it is rather profit than loss for the
citizens here, and likewise for the service of your Majesty--although
the citizens of the city of Mexico who have correspondents and secret
factors here will be affected by it, because they will not obtain so
large a portion of the investment and the cheap cargo, as the people
here will need all that the ships can carry. This is all I can say
regarding this at present.

As for what your Majesty writes me concerning the factor and inspector,
Diego de Castro Lisson, in the matter of this office of accounts,
in which relation your Majesty orders me to appoint to the office of
accountant thereof someone who is a fit person, I will say that you
may have information as to what the said Diego de Castro Lisson is,
as he was already in your service when I arrived here. I do not find
him, but in his place Luis de Vera Encalada, a person who for this
office or any other of this profession, or one of trust, ought not
to be preferred to Juan de Messa Suero, if the latter were not dead
(as I have explained to your Majesty in another letter). As for your
Majesty making the choice and appointment of this office, there will
be no other difficulty than that the salary must be larger--as the
authority will be, if the appointment is from the royal hand of your
Majesty--and the business is of so little importance and no profit;
for although he is called accountant of accounts, in my opinion
he is coming to be the director thereof, since the examination and
decision of difficulties or additions is made by us, the president,
two auditors, and a fiscal.

The offices which, being vacant, are filled in the interim until your
Majesty shall grant the appointment and favor thereof have been in
my term merely for half the salary, without the person who served in
them in this way having received any allowance for expenses, in any
manner whatsoever; nor is there anything here with which to make such
allowance, and I have understood that this has always been the case.

The memorial of the pilot Gaspar Conquero, which treats of the
exploring of the island of Oro, which is here called Rica de Oro,
has been examined; and as soon as he makes this port, or there is any
other person suitable for conducting this exploration, and to be given
the island as an encomienda, I shall do so as your Majesty orders.

As for what your Majesty orders to the effect that I should inform
you of the wound which was given