s
office. He has property of his own, and claims and suits give him no
anxiety. Accordingly, I have made special efforts to induce him to
accept the position; for it is necessary to seek persons like him for
such offices. Since he has had so much experience with the business
of this office, I have no doubt that he will give a good account of
himself. [_Marginal note_: "Referred to the Council."]

The commanders of the galleys which your Majesty has in Hespana,
Italia, Yndias, and other regions appoint for the said galleys
a chief chaplain and chaplains. After these are approved and have
obtained a license from the ordinary to carry on their ministries, the
archbishops and their vicars and the bishops do not trouble themselves
about the chaplains. This is a settled and recognized custom, so
that no one pays any attention to it except the archbishop of this
city, because there is nothing with which he does not meddle. He
has handed in a document, maintaining that this is not a concern
of your Majesty's but belongs to him, and that he has the right to
nominate and approve the chaplains to these positions if he desires,
or to decline to approve them. Accordingly, after I had nominated
an approved religious, a preacher of the Order of St. Augustine,
as chaplain of these galleys, the bishop directed him, under pain of
excommunication, not to fulfil this ministry, declaring that I had
no authority to make the nomination. Certain other religious who had
been chaplains of galleys in Spain, and General Don Diego de Mendoca,
and others who had sailed in galleys there, and who were acquainted
with the system followed in them, all gave testimony; but this was
not sufficient to restrain him from carrying out his purpose. I beg
that your Majesty will be pleased to give command that since this
matter does not concern him he shall not meddle with it, nor with the
other things which are outside his jurisdiction. [_Marginal note_:
"Referred to the Council of War."]

In other letters I have reported to your Majesty the great importance,
for the security and defense of this country, of maintaining a supply
of galleys, and I have also reported the number which I have supplied
with arms. Since they cannot be kept up without an allowance of money
sufficient for them, I beg your Majesty to be pleased to command that
there shall be set aside twenty thousand ducados from the treasury of
Mexico, or else from the ten per cent duty levied at Acapu