nder
an account of all transactions.

By another royal decree of the nineteenth of August of said year,
your Majesty orders that, if it should appear necessary to me,
certain offices of notaries and magistrates in these islands should
be sold, under the condition that the persons who should be the
highest bidders should obtain confirmation of their title within
three years. These offices are of very little profit, and of none
at all in some places, as the land has been settled so recently,
and there are few inhabitants and little business therein. As it is
continually becoming more populous and well established, it would
be more advantageous to postpone the sale of these offices for some
years, until they shall be worth more. I will make the necessary
investigations, as your Majesty commands me, and will advise your
Majesty of the prices offered. If I find that for any of them I
can obtain its value in the future I will have it auctioned. In the
meantime I will make endeavors to have them sold for a price that
can be profitable to your Majesty's royal exchequer.

By another decree of the twenty-seventh of August of said year,
your Majesty orders me to give my opinion of the arms that are in
the fort of the city of Manila, and those that are needed. In three
forts which your Majesty has here, there are twenty-four heavy pieces,
two small ones, and some culverins, as will be seen below.

In the stone fort there are three swivel-guns, located in the three
casemates, of about twenty quintals' weight. On the first floor over
the rampart, there are seven heavy pieces, extra thick and strong at
the breech. Two are of about forty quintals' weight, three varas in
length and carry a ball of cast iron weighing sixteen libras. Two
others are of wrought iron, of sixty quintals' weight, three and
two-thirds varas in length, and carry a ball of cast iron weighing
fifteen libras. One cannon is of fifty-five quintals' weight, four and
one-third varas in length, and carries a ball of cast iron weighing
fourteen libras; one culverin, five and one-half varas in length,
weighs one hundred and one quintals one arroba, and carries a cast
iron ball weighing seventeen libras; another piece of thirty-five
quintals' weight, three varas in length, carries a cast iron ball
weighing twelve libras.

The fort at the point has one cannon weighing twenty-five quintals;
three small cannon [_sacres_], weighing twenty-two; and a half-sacre
weighing t