g reasons were given, with precedents
and instances, that were deemed sufficient for them to resolve to
distribute among themselves and other officials of the Audiencia,
and the archbishop of this church, three thousand five hundred fanegas
of rice, at the price at which the grain is furnished as tributes to
your Majesty. Since I saw that there was no royal order for it from
you, and that no approbation of the resolution had come in so long an
interval; and considering that that quantity, and much more which is
added to it, is bought on the account of the royal treasury for the
ordinary expenses and rations furnished by the royal treasury, which
makes an assessment among the Indians in order to get it, and that
your Majesty pays for what we take, at the rate of four reals, and
at times four pesos--but more often without paying the poor Indians,
because [the treasury] has not the wherewithal; [and considering that]
for that reason of not giving those Indians the money and of the loss
suffered by them--who, in order to comply with the assessment, have
to buy at much dearer rates--not only resulted the harm in the loss of
the money, but sometimes loss of liberty to some, as they have become
slaves because of it: therefore, in order to reform so great an evil,
I have enacted that this rice should not continue to be given to us,
and that what has been received be restored, unless your Majesty
shall order otherwise. [84] I have enacted the same in regard to
four hundred pesos that were ordered to be given to the government
secretary every year, by a similar meeting of the royal treasury,
and excusing him from securing your Majesty's confirmation. Since
his office is such that he bought it for seventeen thousand pesos
at a time when it had no more perquisites than now, and not so many,
consequently, that increased salary will cease and the money withdrawn
on this account from the royal treasury will be returned to it. I have
ordered that the money which is generally removed from the division of
the accounts of probated estates [_bienes de difuntos_] here to that
of Mexico, without any benefit from their property for the souls of
the deceased or for the heirs, when distributed or invested by order
of the judge of those estates [i.e., probate judge] shall be placed
in this royal treasury. The necessary vouchers shall be given, so
that an amount equal thereto may be delivered to the division of the
accounts of probated property in