tle, and will be spent to establish a known gain. He only
stops to consider that, in order to carry out this measure and the
preceding one, the governor requests further increase in the situado
which is generally given from Mexico to those islands; and he does
not know whether the royal treasury of that city is at present able
to furnish that increase, because of the loss which his Majesty's
incomes have sustained from the inundation [5] and other troubles
which have come upon them, and the heavy burdens of the said treasury.

3. In regard to the third point, concerning what is owed to the fund
of the goods of deceased persons--a sum which exceeds forty thousand
pesos, because the governors have used it on various urgent occasions
that have arisen and have not repaid it--the fiscal recognizes how
just it is that an effort be made to repay and satisfy those funds,
but he finds this unadvisable at present for the royal treasury;
for it is first necessary to liquidate the accounts and investigate
how all that sum was spent, and whether it could have been avoided,
and why the governors have not always made it up from the situado
which has been sent to them all these years. That must depend on the
investigation which shall be made in the inspection which has been
ordered to be made of the governors, auditors, treasuries, and royal
officials of those islands. This point must be set down in writing,
as it is so essential, so that the inspector who shall be appointed
may have it well in hand. After knowing the result and report of the
inspection, orders will be given as to what shall be just in regard
to the payment and integrity of the said fund of the goods of deceased
persons. A royal decree must be despatched, so that this indebtedness
be made no greater in the future, and so that the governors take
upon themselves no authority to make payments out of the said fund;
and such proceeding shall be strictly prohibited to them, as it was
by another decree which was despatched to Piru in regard to this same
matter, and the custom of the viceroys in making payments from the
fund of the goods of deceased persons.

4. In regard to the fourth point, concerning the sale of the office
of [secretary of] government and war, which the governor says he has
sold for fifty-four thousand pesos, the fiscal will place before
the Council what will be advisable for the investigation of this
matter, when the purchaser shall come to ask for the co