islands, I immediately
set about executing your Majesty's decrees. I ordered, by an act,
that all those persons to whom your Majesty owed money should come
to ask the third of it, the other two-thirds being commuted, so that
they could ask it at no future time. All have done it and up to date
we have paid in warrants of this kind the amount that your Majesty,
if so inclined, can have examined from the enclosed certification, as
well as what we have saved from the two-thirds that have been commuted.

Returning, Sire, to the trouble that arises from having the persons
whom the viceroy sends from Mexico in your Majesty's name to govern _ad
interim_, there is no one who does not take back one or two hundred
thousand pesos, as agents for the said inhabitants of Mexico. That
is very much to the damage and prejudice of this city, for how can
the goods of the inhabitants here go, and how can they make any
profit on them, if the goods of those Mexicans, which are carried
under charge of the commander and almirante and the other officials
(the creatures of the governor), are to be sold first? And since
those governors only come for one or two years, they do not exercise
justice, correct disorder, preserve the authority and jurisdiction
of your Majesty, or undertake any other thing than living in peace;
being the protectors of all, and good merchants, in order to return
very rich; complaining loudly of the hardships that they experienced
in coming to serve your Majesty; boasting of the many risks to their
lives, and the many expenses paid from their own property; and giving
the ignorant crowd to understand that your Majesty is under great
obligations to them. All this, Sire, will cease, if your Majesty
will send six gentlemen of thoroughly good abilities, soldiers of
Flandes, to act as substitutes and who shall have commissions for
the future succession to the government, through the death or absence
[of the governor]. Such men can bring their commissions, sealed, from
your Majesty, and should not come from Mexico. They can be employed
here as follows: the first in the fort of this city; the second in
that of Cavite, and in the government of the said port; the third
in Terrenate; the fourth in the island of Hermosa; the fifth in the
office of master-of-camp; the sixth as commander of the artillery,
in the office of sargento-mayor, and as governor and chief justice
of the Parian, or alcalde-mayor of Tondo. Encomiendas could be giv