the Audiencia that
a certain report be sent to your Majesty in this letter, of which
it took charge, made against Don Hieronimo de Silva; consequently
I am sending it in accordance with their opinion, since they are
lawyers. Nevertheless, my opinion was that it should be suspended
until the trial of the said Don Hieronimo, and the truth were known
with certainty; and not to discredit him beforehand with depositions
of certain persons, by whom he has been accused, without allowing
him any opportunity to defend himself.

_Don Alonso Faxardo de Tenca_

[Appended to the letter are the following letters on Moluccan affairs,
mentioned by Fajardo.]

_Letter from Manuel Ribeyra, S.J._

As I arrived from this voyage from Maluco ailing and crippled in
one foot, I have not gone to pay my respects to your Lordship and
to welcome you, in accordance with my obligations, to these islands,
whither in a time of so great need our Lord has brought you for the
relief of all of them. I give a thousand thanks to your Lordship for
the so signal grace that you do me in ordering me to advise you briefly
of the condition of Maluco, and of whatever I deem in need of reform,
trusting that I shall only pay attention in this to the question how
their two Majesties, the Divine and the human, may be better served;
and that I shall proceed throughout truthfully and with integrity,
as a religious of the Society, which I am. In order that I may comply
with what your Lordship orders, I declare, sir:

That the forts of Terrenate, Tidore, Gilolo, Tafongo, and Payagi (which
are all that the king our sovereign possesses in the Maiucas Islands)
are in the best condition in which they have ever been; because for
a year past, since Master-of-camp Lucas de Bergara Gaviria has been
governing them, he has labored at their fortification, so that all
are in an excellent state of defense. At present there is no cavalier
in Maluco that is not built of stone, although until now many were
built of fascines, and whenever it rained heavily they were washed
down, and at times with the death of those in them. Besides that,
he has had the island of Tidore and the post of Socanora fortified;
this is very important, as the enemy try so hard to take them. Thus
it is in security, and he has also enclosed and surrounded the two
towns in the respective islands of Tidore and Terrenate, which were
outside our forts, with two curtains of rampart which are very good
and very str