ctor of
tributes and encomiendas, and once alcalde-mayor, when the Audiencia
was governing; and after his services in these employments, he was
found deserving of an encomienda of two thousand tributes, of being
appointed commander in the Nueva Espana line, and of an allowance);
because cognizance was not taken of this in its order, in the report,
Don Albaro was made especially angry. There are also other and less
justifiable inquiries, for there was an excellent notary, named Goncalo
Velazquez de Lara, who forged many inquiries and other papers; and
who recently forged my signature, in order to defraud your Majesty
of the fees from the licenses of the Sangley Chinese. I sentenced
him to be hanged yesterday, so that he may do it no more, and that
others might be warned.

The fathers of the Society of Jesus say that they need more religious
of their order than are here. They have asked me to petition your
Majesty to grant them the accustomed grace in this matter. What I can
certify is that whatever aid and concession your Majesty may grant them
will be well employed, for they are men who bear considerable fruit,
and not as many of them return [to Nueva Espana] as of the other
orders, particularly that of St. Dominic. Of the latter I have heard
that more of them than I would wish have left the order," [87] for they
are well regulated men and furnish a good example. Although they deny
it, I have come to believe that it is not because of the strictness
of their life, and that they can all endure it, if your Majesty
will order something to prevent it. Of the Order of St. Augustine,
I can tell your Majesty that I have heard that they have always
applied themselves very earnestly to their charge of facilitating
and executing all that has been, and is, necessary to be done in
your royal service. In what I have experienced hitherto, I am under
obligations to them to confess it, and of especial indebtedness and
gratefulness to the provincial, namely, Fray Alonso Barahona, [88]
and to the definitors; and inasmuch as it is a matter that concerns
the service of your Majesty, I have wished in this letter to mention
it to you. I shall close at this point, acknowledging the receipt
of only one letter that has come to me from your Majesty in these
vessels that have just arrived. It is dated El Pardo, November twenty,
one thousand six hundred and seventeen. Consequently with what I have
written, I have nothing more to reply to it than t