operty
which is lost. Every day more will be wasted unless your Majesty orders
a speedy remedy, with punishment of the guilty, which shall serve as a
warning for the future. In the meanwhile much suffering will be felt
here, as at present; and even a large part of your Majesty's estate
in Nueva Espana will not suffice to meet the needs here.

There are very few in these islands capable of handling the arquebus,
although they used to be the best and most skilful soldiers in the
Yndias. The cause of this is that they have so devoted themselves
to trade that they have no desire for anything else. Nevertheless,
your Majesty ordered, in the instructions given to Gomez Perez, when
he came here to govern, that those who drew pay from your Majesty as
fighting men should not be allowed to trade. Afterward in a clause of
the letter of January, 1593, replying to another of his, your Majesty
ordered the same thing. This has not been complied with, however,
and as the captains and higher officers are rich and rewarded by
their salaries and grants, it is not just that they be merchants,
as is the case. They are so diverted from military exercise that they
are as useless as if they were in Toledo; and elsewhere they engross,
by their large shipments, the space required for the merchandise and
freight of the citizens. Your Majesty therefore spends the revenue on
them and their soldiers uselessly; and it is necessary that this be
corrected, in order that affairs may return to their normal condition.

The city was sufficiently supplied with public endowments, because
in addition to what the governor held, he made a grant to it, in
the name of your Majesty, of the shops and rents of a new parian,
which had been built after my arrival for the Chinese, outside the
walls, on the border of Sant Gabriel. Consequently there comes in
from the property more than four thousand pesos annually, which is
fully sufficient for necessary expenses, and in the future should be
used for public buildings, which are needed. None such have ever been
attempted, except the wall and fortifications which were built by the
governor Gomez Perez. In respect to the traffic of the citizens of
these islands and the administration of their commerce, your Majesty
made suitable provisions by a decree of the same month of January,
ninety-three. This is as is necessary; and since the returns from
all the merchandise from Nueva Spana come to them without limitation,
there