ain
rewards there, seeking to enjoy at the same time those grants which
they have here also in encomiendas, and will solicit that favor
from your Majesty through third persons. This is to the injury and
disappointment of those who remain here, as I say above; and others
will not be encouraged to come here, when they see beforehand the great
troubles that they will undergo before they can merit and obtain some
[reward] for living in so uncertain a country.

Some of the encomiendas here are very large, having incomes of from
one to four thousand pesos. If your Majesty be pleased to give me
permission, so that they may be reduced to five hundred pesos, by
dividing these among those who best deserve them, and are poorest, all
will be rewarded and paid; and there will be much to give, and also
to place in your Majesty's royal treasury. The services [rendered]
in these regions, Sire, are not so arduous that this should not be a
good and sufficient reward, although those who are from Flandes know
better how to exaggerate them. I shall await your Majesty's order,
for I have not learned in so many years aught else than to obey. May
our Lord preserve your Majesty's Catholic person, as is necessary to
Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Your vassal kisses your
Majesty's feet.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

_Administrative and financial_

Sire:

Your Majesty has conceded to your viceroys of Nueva Espana authority,
in the case of deaths and vacancies in this government, to send
commissions to those who are to have charge of military matters;
and until the arrival of the regularly-appointed governor you order
them to send another governor from Mexico. That has been done twice
by the marquis de Cerralbo--once with Don Fernando de Silva, of the
Habit of Santiago, because of the death of Don Alonso Faxardo; and
[the other time] with Don Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, because of the
death of Don Juan Nino de Tabora. Your Majesty is greatly disserved in
all of the things that I shall now mention. First, when the Audiencia
was governing the [royal] estate, your Majesty's royal treasury was
pledged to more than eighty or one hundred thousand pesos, which they
obtained by a forced loan from the inhabitants, by placing soldiers
of the guard in their houses, quartering these on them until they lent
this money; and the officials spent the money in paying warrants that
were ordered to be issued to please the soldiers and sailors. I