uan de Alcega, Juan de la Pena,
Captain Villafana, Juan de Ybarra, Marcos Diaz, Luys de Vetasco,
Estevan de Marquina, Tomas Bravo de Acuna, besides many others,
both officers and men, among them a number of friars. [26]]

Letter from the Audiencia to Felipe III

Sire:

By the death of Don Pedro de Acuna, governor of these islands, who died
on Saturday, June 24, this Audiencia succeeds to their government. In
it has been considered a new order which your Majesty commands to be
followed in sending out the merchant ships that are to go from these
islands to Nueva Espana. Since those which are to go this year are
already laded, and must set sail within three or four days, it has not
been possible to put your Majesty's commands into execution for the
present year. Although this city has prayed for this new order and for
the decrees which have been granted in pursuance of it, yet on account
of the many fires which have occurred in this city in recent years,
the wars, the forced return of some ships, and the loss of others,
by which a great amount of property has been lost, the inhabitants of
these islands are burdened with heavy afflictions and necessities,
which render them unable to pay the new duties imposed by the royal
command. Although these necessities are well known, the new order
of your Majesty will be followed next year, in spite of the fact
that some details involve much difficulty, and that some sections
might well be moderated and limited in the form in which each one is
stated. This matter is of importance to your Majesty's royal service,
and to the welfare of the inhabitants of these islands.

In the first section your Majesty commands that only the inhabitants
of these islands and no others may ship the merchandise which is to
be transported to Nueva Espana, and that the amount invested therein
shall not exceed two hundred and fifty thousand pesos of eight reals,
as was previously determined by other orders and decrees; while
the returns from this shall not exceed, in principal and profit,
five hundred thousand pesos. As for this section, it deserves serious
consideration that after the expenses of sending out a cargo--including
the fees to be paid here and in Nueva Espana, which amount to thirty
per cent in all, with the addition which the new decree imposes--it is
impossible to recover from five hundred thousand pesos the principal
and the [present] profits on the investment of the said two hund