12. Letter by Moron. "Simancas—Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de personas seculares de Filipinas vistos en el Consejo; año de 1565 á 1594; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 34."
13. Measures regarding trade with China.—The same as No. 10 (which is one of the papers grouped in this document).
14. Letter by Villamanriquez.—Same as No. 6.
15. Letter by Vera (1587).—The same as No. 12.
16. Letter by the Audiencia (1588).—The same as No. 2.
NOTES
[1] Something is apparently omitted here, perhaps a statement that the Audiencia shall make the necessary ordinance, to have provisional force (cf. section 310); but a careful examination of the original document fails to explain the difficulty.
[2] Andres de Aguirre was one of the Augustinians who came with Rada and Herrera to the Philippines with Legazpi's expedition. He was a native of Vizcaya, Spain, and made his religious profession at Salamanca in 1532. He was a missionary among the natives of Mexico from 1536 to 1564; the rest of his life was spent in connection with the Philippine missions, largely as an envoy for their affairs to the court of Spain. He died at Manila (where he was then prior of his order) in September, 1593. See sketch of his life and list of his writings in Pérez's Catálogo religiosos agustinos (Manila, 1901), pp. 6-7.
[3] The symbol U was used, in accounts, to designate thousands, in the same way as the comma, or the comma with ciphers, is now used in numerical notation.
[4] The deposition of Juan Arze de Sadornel, which is very similar to this, contains some further items of information, summarized thus: "Prices are especially high when ships from Nueva España fail to arrive, or when a great number of people come on them. At such times, a jar of olives may cost eleven or twelve pesos, and a quire of Castilian paper four or five pesos. The so-called linen cloth is really of cotton, and is very warm and quite worthless. The Sangleys do not bring flour made of pure wheat. Three or four years ago, the pork, fowls, rice, and other produce of the country were sold very cheaply; now there is great scarcity (and has been for two years) of rice in the market, and its price has advanced from four tomins for six fanégas to a tostón for one fanéga. Consequently the poor inhabitants are suffering great distress, and cannot support themselves. Formerly a soldier could live on 15 or 20 pesos a year; now that sum will maintain him only one month. Many of the natives have died in the expeditions made to Maluco, Borneo, and elsewhere; and a plague of locusts has added to the distress in the islands. Sadornel is thirty-one years of age, and has spent thirteen years in this country."