and there was no place for the Audiencia to meet, nor for the residence
of your Majesty's servant who governs here. I therefore used all my
efforts to erect royal buildings which should be substantial, and they
have been built, and are at present finished off with hewn stone. There
are three suites of apartments: one toward the street, in which the
Audiencia meets, and where the royal seal is; a second toward the sea,
where I live; and the third is situated in the middle, where resides
Doctor Morga, auditor of this royal Audiencia. It will be expedient
to continue work on this building until it is made large enough for
the rest of the auditors and officials of the royal Audiencia to live
in. I assure your Majesty that they suffer inconveniences in coming
from their homes to the Audiencia and its sessions, in so intemperate
a climate; and if they lived together they could attend better to the
service of your Majesty. To put this work in the state in which it is,
ten thousand pesos, which was its cost, were borrowed, as there was
no money in the royal treasury, from the funds of the fourths; and I
wrote to Mexico to send me that amount in order to pay it back. This
has not been done, and I beg your Majesty to order the viceroy to
send that sum of ten thousand pesos, since it was spent in a work so
important for the service of your Majesty; and to send as much more
to continue the work, if that already used be considered well spent.

18. _That houses of stone were built for the cabildo and in them was
placed the coat-of-arms which your Majesty granted to this city_.

I also found this city without houses for the cabildo and that the
regidors with great inconvenience and little dignity were going about
seeking the houses of citizens for the meeting of the cabildo. At
the expense of the city funds I have built some good stone cabildo
buildings on the plaza here, and in them is placed the coat-of-arms
which your Majesty presented to this city. With these and other
buildings which have been built during the time I have been here,
or are now being erected, this city is much improved in appearance.

19. _That the powder-house being too near and in an unsafe position,
a vault was made in the fort of Santiago, where it is now kept_.

I found the powder-house in an unsafe place, and as it is so necessary
to guard and preserve the powder, I ordered a vault of stone to be
made in the fort on the point called Santiago, where it wa