his wishes. The chapter of
the church is the same, or worse; for he makes appointments, as your
Majesty is patron, and orders the stipends to be paid. Accordingly it
is necessary to be in his good graces. The cabildo of the city dare not
do anything against his will; for those who oppose him or say anything
in the sessions which is contrary to his wishes, it costs dear, and,
besides, he is aware of whatever they do there. They dare not write
to your Majesty, without taking to him the letters so that he may
examine them; and there have been times when he has had these torn
up, and ordered them to write others. Consequently, the religious who
are teaching, and those of the convents, are all dependent upon him.

The royal officials do no more than he wishes, and, besides, they
have the example of former ones, who for not acting thus were removed,
and held prisoners for three years until your Majesty learned of it,
and ordered their offices to be returned to them, and perchance the
many hardships and afflictions which the governor inflicted upon
them, and caused them to suffer, cost two of them their lives, and
lost for your Majesty, in the factor, one of the best servants whom
you had in the Filipinas. Accordingly, what I promised to prove is
well established; for the complaints were so long in arriving, and
the redress in returning, that he who awaited them was already dead.

In the third place, it is essential that he should not be excessively
grasping; and that your Majesty should give him such expectations,
if he conducts himself well, that his profit will rest more on them
than in what the government is worth to him. He should be of mature
age and great experience in handling the affairs of the commonwealth,
such as some knights possess who hold offices of corregidor on the
coasts of Espana, and who govern in peace and war, as they never lack
exercise for these abilities on the coasts. For if they were only
required to be expert in war, the country would be in ruins before
they became capable of governing it--as, for our sins, we have seen
in past years. They should not come burdened with debts, which are
demoralizing in a thousand ways. Notwithstanding that your Majesty
has issued decrees which prohibit them from giving offices of profit
to members of their households, rather than to the worthy persons of
the kingdom, these decrees are the least complied with; nor is there
any one who dares to interfere in this. If