ns from persons who are parties to
suits at the time, who grant these to the auditors in order to place
them under obligations, and profit by them.

The difficulty which presents itself to me in this matter is that,
if the Audiencia is abolished and everything left in charge of the
governor, there will be but slow and poor remedy for the grievances and
disorders which may occur. For they must be taken to the Audiencia of
Mexico, which is so far away that the aggrieved ones would consume
both life and property before the business was settled. Several
difficulties occur to me, which are connected with this; but having
informed myself fully on this point as to what has happened in the
past, all say that they consider government by one person the best,
when he governs justly. These men know what the governor can do
without the Audiencia, and with it; and they believe that it is
better when there are not so many to command them, for they have
never seen the audiencias redress illegal acts by the governors. I
therefore consider it better, before God and my conscience, that your
Majesty should choose for this charge some gentleman and soldier who
has proved trustworthy, and whose mode of governing and procedure has
been learned and tried in other offices. He should be a good Christian,
and, above all, not greedy; for if he is affected with this last the
country is ready and eager for an alteration of its condition, whereby
the same losses which we have seen in other cases might be caused here.

I am likewise confronted with another difficulty, which is redress
for violations of the law by the ecclesiastical judges; but these
are cases which seldom happen, and it does not seem just, in order
to settle an affair of this sort, that others of a different nature
should be deranged, and that an opportunity should be given for so many
troubles as result from the contrary--especially as we might attend
to such a case by some suitable means, referring it to trustworthy
persons here, who would take it in charge.

Although there is no doubt that much of what this paper recounts occurs
in other regions where there are audiencias, it must be remembered
that in this country, which is the newest of all and more engaged in
war than any of the others; and where the hardships of conquest and
maintenance are so omnipresent; and your Majesty has little profit or
advantage, except the cargo of cloth which goes to Nueva Hespana, and
which is div