which
is issued to him for his sweat and toil, or to his wife and children
on account of his death while serving your Majesty in the war--it is
sold for one-fourth or a less part of its face value, and that is
paid in full to its purchaser by the governor's decree. A vast sum
has been used up in this, for the money brought from Nueva Espana,
that derived from the Sangley licenses, the loans of citizens, and
that from other sources, have been spent in less than one year. In
order that it may be seen that there is no way in which he does not
endeavor to accommodate the fiscal, while the royal treasury was
without one single real, and in debt many thousands to citizens who
lent it money after the beginning of this year, the governor issued
a decree in the month of June (but without it, notwithstanding an
order may be issued, he has ordered that nothing be paid) that a
definite warrant for three thousand and ninety pesos (of which some
Sangleys had made him a gift for three or four years) be given to the
fiscal from the duties of the Chinese ships. But it was not advanced
immediately, because the officials of the royal treasury considered
that the Sangleys who made the gift were not legally parties [to such
a transaction]. As these things are so public, and the citizens are so
vexed with loans and ill-treatment, they resent these things greatly.

The same irregular procedure that was followed last year in regard
to taking the merchandise from the Chinese at their own weighing was
experienced this year. Although the governor issued a proclamation
ordering all persons who should have the merchandise in their
possession to return it immediately, so that it could be sold freely,
and imposing severe penalties, they did not comply with it; as has been
evident from its results, that edict must have been only to caution or
amuse, for they only sold openly those goods that they were unable to
sell privately without these being taken from them. And then--when,
with the delay of the ships from Nueva Espana, and the fear of the
danger that they ran of being captured by the Dutch; and the city,
with having invested its share, was drained of money--those who had
retained the said goods in their possession made lower prices with the
many Chinese than those prices at which the goods that were allowed
to be sold had been given. In consequence there were public murmurs
from all classes. One Gonzalez, the governor's barber, and a prime
favor