t has
been the custom to order those warrants to be despatched so that they
might be paid when there should be any money.

As for those poor men, they have not been paid in one, three, ten,
or fifteen years. They sell their warrants during such times for
the fourth, fifth, or sixth part of their face value; and many have
been paid at one hundred pesos for one thousand. The warrants are
bought by the servants of the auditors, royal officials, governors,
and other ministers, and to them is paid the face value. Thus the
poor soldiers are so unjustly dispossessed of [the rewards for] their
hardships; and on this account is your Majesty's royal treasury so
pledged. In the term of Don Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, more than one
hundred thousand odd pesos had been paid in this kind of warrants. Your
Majesty having issued a decree, in the time of Don Juan Nino de Tabora,
ordering such warrants to be paid at the third of their face value,
he began to do so one year with twelve thousand pesos, that he set
apart for that purpose. The said Don Juan Cerezo did not pursue the
custom, as he declared that the said Don Juan Nino had exceeded
the bounds in the execution of your Majesty's decree. Although
this charge was brought against him in the residencia, it was not
proved that he had actually paid that sum during his term. It is,
however, clear to me, outside of judgment, that his own secretary,
while he was judge and collector of the licenses of the Sangleys, who
should have deposited that money in your Majesty's royal treasury,
deposited a great sum of it in this kind of warrants; and so that
it might not be proved judicially, the owners went to receive the
money from the royal officials; and while they were there, and almost
before their eyes, the said secretary again took it. And perhaps it
happened that a soldier, having collected it, would say that he did
not wish to return it, whereupon the secretary would give ten pesos
for the transaction, and thus obtained his purpose. Although I was so
sure and convinced of this truth, nevertheless, as it was not proved
entirely in the residencia, I did not wish to render sentence on
this point, but instead to send it to your Majesty's royal Council;
for I confess, Sire, that if I had committed that outrage, as I have
investigated it, I would be of the opinion that your Majesty would
not be fulfilling your duty, as a just king, if you did not order
me to be beheaded. After my arrival at these