Footnote 24: Duhalde and de Rochefort.]

[Footnote 25: Rawl. MSS., A. 175, 313 b; Oppenheim, ii. p. 338.]

[Footnote 26: Here I am following the MSS. quoted by Oppenheim (ii. pp.
335 _ff._). Instead of watering in Hispaniola, the fleet sometimes
stopped at Dominica, or at Aguada in Porto Rico.]

[Footnote 27: Duhalde and de Rochefort.]

[Footnote 28: Quintal=about 100 pounds.]

[Footnote 29: These "vaisseaux de registre" were supposed not to exceed
300 tons, but through fraud were often double that burden.]

[Footnote 30: Duhalde and de Rochefort; Scelle, _op. cit._, i. p. 54.]

[Footnote 31: Gage, _ed._ 1655, pp. 199-200.]

[Footnote 32: Duhalde and de Rochefort; Oppenheim, ii. p. 318.]

[Footnote 33: Scelle, _op. cit._, i. p. 45; Recop., t. i. lib. iii. tit.
viii.]

[Footnote 34: There seems to have been a contraband trade carried on at
Cadiz itself. Foreign merchants embarked their goods upon the galleons
directly from their own vessels in the harbour, without registering them
with the _Contratacion_; and on the return of the fleets received the
price of their goods in ingots of gold and silver by the same fraud. It
is scarcely possible that this was done without the tacit authorization
of the Council of the Indies at Madrid, for if the Council had insisted
upon a rigid execution of the laws regarding registration, detection
would have been inevitable.]

[Footnote 35: Weiss, _op. cit._, ii. p. 226.]

[Footnote 36: Most of the offices in the Spanish Indies were venal. No
one obtained a post without paying dearly for it, except the viceroys of
Mexico and Peru, who were grandees, and received their places through
favour at court. The governors of the ports, and the presidents of the
Audiencias established at Panama, San Domingo, and Gautemala, bought
their posts in Spain. The offices in the interior were in the gift of
the viceroys and sold to the highest bidder. Although each port had
three corregidors who audited the finances, as they also paid for their
places, they connived with the governors. The consequence was
inevitable. Each official during his tenure of office expected to
recover his initial outlay, and amass a small fortune besides. So not
only were the bribes of interlopers acceptable, but the officials often
themselves bought and sold the contraband articles.]

[Footnote 37: Froude: History of England, viii. p. 436 _ff._]

[Footnote 38: 1585, August 12th. Ralph Lane to Sir Philip Sidney. Port