Desdevises du Dezert, in his article on “Vice-rois et capitaines généraux des Indes espagnoles” (Revue historique, CXXV, 241), shows that Marquina continued his peculations while viceroy of New Spain, engaging in the smuggling trade with Jamaica, and enriching himself to the extent that in thirty-two months he was able to send twelve million pesos on his own account to Spain. Desdevises du Dezert inadvertently refers to Marquina as having come from the Marianas to Mexico. He came from the Philippines and not from the Marianas.
[63] Recopilación, 5–15, notes 4 and 5.
[64] Reales resoluciones del Consejo, 4 de Marzo, 1794, A. I., 106–4–18; Royal Order of January 18, 1848, Rodríguez San Pedro, Legislación ultramarina, I, 290.
[65] These discounts were “considered subversive of their authority [that of the governors]; ... the best guarantee of their acts is not a discount of some thousands of pesos, which is always penurious when compared with the honor and dignity of the persons called, on account of their elevated character and distinguished services, to hold these posts, and if, in former times, this practice had some foundation in the tardiness of communication between the Peninsula and these provinces, it does not exist today in view of the frequency of communication which enables said authorities to consult with the government of Her Majesty in all the steps which are considered necessary in the territory of their command.”—Royal order of July 7, 1860, in Rodríguez San Pedro, Legislación ultramarina, I, 287.
[66] Recopilación, 5–15–20.
[67] Ibid., 4.
[68] Ibid., 5–2–1, 2, 7.
[69] Ibid., 5–15–19.
[70] Ibid., 7–1–16; 5–15–21.
[71] Ibid., 2–15–69; see 2–2–58, 64.