fear they could not
increase. I always endeavored to furnish a good example in the matter
of any actions and life, and at the same time to persuade and advise
the governor of what I deemed worthy of reform, so that reason and
not inclination might rule. I avoided conforming to his will in all
things that came to my hands by reason of my office which were not to
the service of your Majesty. By deed, example, and advice, or at least
by efficient warnings, I exerted myself, so that only your Majesty's
service should be striven for, and I am persevering in this course. I
desire and am endeavoring to be on my guard respecting matters which
concern his inclination and not his reason. For in fact, although
the governor has done what he wished in many things, because he does
not know how to conduct negotiations otherwise, at least he did not
so act with me; and because of me and the openness of my nature, he
ceased to attempt and to do other things--I persevering in my purpose,
and he in his; and, although disabusing his mind of the idea that I
would surrender myself to an evil thing, humoring him and giving him
pleasure in all that I could freely. Inasmuch as that was so little
and the matter of justice so great, because your Majesty's royal
treasury and other most important things enter into it, he readily
abandoned the path of perverting me. He said, with promises, that
he would esteem my compliance more highly than that of all others,
or than a great sum of money, besides other exaggerations (from which
I think that he did not ill judge me), and changed the course that
he had pursued by means of insults and injuries. [As an instance of
the latter], after talking to me with his usual harshness while in
his house--that which your Majesty assigns and gives to the president
[of the Audiencia] by an order that you have given to the effect that
there be houses for the president and auditors--one of the houses of
one of the auditors having become vacant because Licentiate Alcaraz
left it, the governor (although it pertained to me by my seniority,
because Licentiate Legaspi already had a house) took it from me, moved
into it, and left his own under pretext that he wished to demolish it,
because it was falling down. He has lived in both houses (for one is
near the other) for two years, although there have been most furious
winds and storms, which makes his object evident. Besides, since your
Majesty assigns a house to the president