tice the rigor which they themselves make the
governors of Philipinas overlook, and considering the present thing,
and watching out for the greater service of your Majesty, I am grieved
because the royal officials of the ships enjoy this advantage--which
as I have seen, amounts to more than one hundred thousand pesos per
year--and, notwithstanding this new tax, the inconvenience of the
quantities of money passing from those regions will increase; for it
is most certain that those to whom belongs the trade of Philipinas
always find a way by which to attain their objects; and because the
viceroy of Mexico undertook to check it this year, by only threats,
the inhabitants of these islands are ruined and left without their
capital, which remained in Nueva Espana. May our Lord preserve and
prosper the royal person of your Majesty, as we your vassals desire
and need. Manila, August 10, 1634.

_Don Juan Cerezo Salamanca_

_Government affairs_

Sire:

I have given your Majesty an account on all occasions of my coming
to these islands, and of the condition of affairs in them, although
with limitations, and with the caution of a new arrival. But now,
after having governed them a year, I shall be able to discuss their
affairs with experience and more freedom, so that your Majesty, having
been informed, may enact what is most advisable for your royal service.

The disputes which generally arise between the governor and the
auditors of this royal Audiencia are usually more prejudicial in these
islands than in the rest of your Majesty's monarchy, as these are
the most remote; for their preservation lies in the governor being
obeyed and respected, and in his orders being executed and entirely
observed, without the auditors hindering him, or casting any doubt
on his supremacy, as they are often wont to do.

The jurisdiction of this Audiencia is set at rest from the
ecclesiastical fuerzas and the litigations of these inhabitants--who,
as is seen from the chart which I am sending under other covers, amount
in all to 151 married men, 81 single men, 45 widows, and 160 children,
besides fifty other men who live in other places. All the rest are
paid sailors and soldiers, with whom the Audiencia has nothing to do;
and from that one can infer how few affairs of justice arise. That
is the cause of the disputes, and of the auditors actually deciding
the affairs of government under pretext of appeals, without waiting
until the g