First, the governor, as above stated, was angered because, when I was judge of the probate court, it should happen that I should collect that property of Licentiate Andres de Alcazar, because of the latter’s death. Licentiate Legaspi was angered for the same reason. For both of them, as is very well known in this community, would have liked that to have happened when Licentiate Legaspi should be judge, and they know why. I dare only judge what is said, and what I see and hear outside, although there is so much grumbling at their objects, and at the wealth that they have retained for this, that it scandalizes me. However, I do not dare to believe it, in order to say whether it be true that the reputation and envy of each one of those two men that exists in this community, obliges everyone to form his own opinion of it. Desiring that the care of the fund and the office pass to better hands than mine, they thought that it would be done well if I were arrested. Accordingly, the governor took this as his guide for action, so that, while I was a prisoner, the care of the fund might be transferred to Licentiate Legaspi. The governor alone appointed the latter as probate judge, although I still had one year to serve, and at the fulfilment of that time it pertained in turn to Don Antonio Rodriguez; and then all the Audiencia exercises it and not he solely, by virtue of express orders and commands of your Majesty. Thereupon, the governor, in one way or another, together with Licentiate Legaspi, although no layman spoke to me in prison, permitted me to be notified to deliver the keys and the property. But I, fearing, as a man, what others feared, said that I had to give an account of that property, and that since I was a prisoner, I could not do so; and that he should free me, so that I could attend to my office and fulfil the commissions with which your Majesty had charged me—namely, the residencias of Don Juan de Silva and Don Juan de Alvarado—since I had committed no crime for which I should be arrested; and adduced other reasons why I could not deliver the key because of the risk that that property would be running should the key pass through other hands. As he thought that that was insufficient to obtain his will, they immediately added another reason according to which it was advisable to borrow from that fund thirty thousand pesos for your Majesty’s service, under pretext that it was to be used for the despatch of the fleet then preparing to sail. [But this was done] in violation of a decree of your Majesty ordering that the president and governor shall take no money, in small or large quantity, from the fund of the probate court, for any cause whatever. By the report of that fund your Majesty has been informed that they are wont to draw that money for their trading and personal advantage, as is murmured openly. That occurred in this instance, for with the above-said and with other formalities, the governor [broke] the lock of the chest, ordering thirty thousand pesos to be extracted from it and the rest delivered to Licentiate Legaspi, probate judge, whom the governor had appointed. They went to my house to do it. They left a guard of six or seven soldiers under a corporal, day and night, to guard the rest of the property, namely, a great quantity of gold and jewels. Consequently, my wife was compelled to leave her house that night, and went to the house of the widow of Doctor Juan Manuel de la Bega, until she found a house and moved into it, leaving the house to the governor. I think that the latter’s insults and discourtesy even produced considerable anger in the negroes. Even yet, a period of four months, the soldiers are guarding the chest, and will not allow me to do my duty, and do not deliver it to Licentiate Legaspi; for as is well known, they are keeping it for a better opportunity. This affair has much surprised this community, and the litigants in the court are calling out, although they are assured that it is not without foundation; for they cannot wish to have news taken in these ships that the chest was handed over, and that they did with it what is suspected, which will be seen later. The thirty thousand pesos were not intended for the fleet, for the fleet did not sail, nor is it expected that it will ever sail during the governor’s life. Neither was it used as a means of help for the infantry, who go complaining through the streets. Indeed I cannot tell whether any one can say with certainty what has been done with that sum; although it is said that another very large sum, which the governor obtained from the citizens almost by a forced loan, was spent in the preparation of the ships in the port—but which did not sail, as has been said. However, some assert that the governor divided them, he himself taking thirteen or fourteen thousand pesos on the account of future salary; and that in like manner he shared it with Licentiate Legaspi and the fiscal. God showed me especially great favor in my being able to keep the account-book of the fund in my own hands through the efforts of a good Christian, the defender of probated property, for my security of what had been placed in and what had been disbursed from the fund. For nothing is placed in or spent from it, except by notary’s authority, and the presence as witnesses of those who guard the fund. If they were to seize the book from me, I doubt not, Sire, that they would do me signal harm, and because, as I have said above to your Majesty, the governor can do whatever he wishes.
Another reason alleged for my arrest is because it is affirmed that, the governor planning as he did to kill his wife, my presence in the Audiencia would be a decidedly great inconvenience. For it is known, notwithstanding the few successes and works [that I have accomplished], through certain good desires that will have been recognized in me, that since I have been in the Audiencia, I endeavor as much as possible to see that affairs are managed with due regard for law; and that, had I been present in that so serious matter, I would have done my utmost; and what I ought to do, as would be fitting for the service of God and of your Majesty. That incident—which, I think, I cannot avoid relating, as one having accurate information—was as follows:
Having arrested me with the haste above mentioned, it happened that the governor—having planned, so says common rumor, the death of his wife—circulated the report one afternoon that he was going out of town to a place called Cavite. Departing that afternoon, he returned at night. Having notified the guards and soldiers to that effect, he climbed over the wall by means of a ladder, and went to the house of one of the companions who went with him (for many of his adherents went with him, and some who were hired). Going with them from this house, he stationed men at the place where he had planned that his wife would come with a young boy whom she sheltered at her house, and in whom she had confidence. This boy persuaded her to go out dressed as a gallant (a very wrong act, although she had been persuaded by the certainty that her husband had gone to Cavite), to the house of a man named Juan de Messa, who had been brought as chief clerk by the factor, Dionisio de Castro Licon, and whom the governor suspected of adultery with his wife. Arrived at the place above mentioned, the governor saw her coming with two men, one of whom is said to have been Juan de Messa, and the other his friend. Advised by the young lad that it was she, for he accompanied her in the street for some time, where he left her with her companion and went to give account of it to the governor, the latter went behind her with the retinue above mentioned. Arrived at Juan de Messa’s door, which is quite distant from that of the governor, he let them enter, but went in behind them before they shut the door. Mounting the stairs with some of his men behind Juan de Messa and his wife, who had ascended, and leaving the others below with the other friend who had come as companion to Juan de Messa, the death of his wife followed, as did that of Juan de Messa and of the latter’s escort, a pilot who had come from Castilla last year. They were killed up stairs and down, as I have said, and because the governor had taken possession of the streets, and stationed soldiers there with orders to allow no one to pass. The soldiers killed a young lad who tried to pass, or wounded him so severely that it is said that he died. Notwithstanding the unseemly hour, the people came running out at the outcry and clamor especially those from the nearest houses. They saw and noted everything with fairness, and consequently it has been published that the chief murderers were those whom the governor took with him, both those of his wife and of the others. That has seemed in this community to be a very lamentable occurrence. Then the governor went to his house after the event and the matter was immediately known throughout the city. Thereupon Licentiate Legaspi and Don Antonio Rodriguez proceeded to make investigations. What they began to do was, it is said, to furnish proofs of adultery. They have managed to do this by great efforts, and that with the criminals free, and with the power of the governor. And I am told that the governor ordained what had to be done, namely, to make no investigations against the dead woman. What is understood is, that many fine things have been done in the records, for they say that they have expunged, erased, and copied things according to their pleasure, the notary in the cause being the governor’s most devoted follower, Pedro Muñoz, secretary of the Audiencia court, as above stated. In everything has always been done what the governor has ordered and commanded—especially by Licentiate Legaspi, for Don Antonio withdrew then and refused to do anything further, at seeing how the governor flinched from everything. All the criminals go about and take their pleasure, thus occasioning much reproach. Will your Majesty consider what you shall be pleased to order done in this matter; for there is much talk of the hatred and great and long-standing enmity of the governor to his wife, and of the evil life that he led her. It is said that he had already given her poison three or four times, from which she escaped by antidotes that she took; and that one of her women, to whom she gave the remainder of a little chocolate[12] in which the poisons were administered to her, died within two days or so, because she did not take the antidote, while his wife escaped because she had done so.
Another reason alleged for my arrest is, that there might be no occasion or opportunity of [my] giving information to your Majesty, and that that accounts for the hastiness of the imprisonment; and that they would not allow me to touch pen to paper, having been warned of the letters that I wrote to your Majesty—which, as above stated, were seized from me. These have incited him to cruelty, and increased in me the suspicion that was told me after my arrival at [the convent of] St. Dominic, namely, that he tried to plan my murder there. That is the fear with which I have written, and in which are all those who give information to your Majesty, because of the vigilant measures taken to seize the letters.
Another reason alleged is, that I might not push forward the residencia of the fiscal, and send it to your Majesty; for, as considered by them, it must have been expedient for them that I should not send it to your Majesty; and because I had not taken that of Don Juan de Silva to his taste, awaiting an occasion for it when he should not be present and when he should have left this city sometime, for if he were present it would be impossible to take it.
Another reason is because, as he has seen your Majesty has been pleased to show me the favor to commit that residencia to me, and his conscience accuses him, he fears (as is reported) that it or the visit is near; and fearing that your Majesty would show me the favor to commit it to me, and fearing justice, because I am not a person who could overlook matters against your Majesty’s service, it has seemed to him, on the one hand, that if I were arrested and not in the Audiencia, it would be easy by active efforts to get hold of the letters and seize and conceal the decrees. On the other hand, he thought by means of the acts of violence and insult that he has used to disqualify me for such a responsibility with your Majesty, for which effect it is understood that he has also designedly made and procured my arrest. With what has been stated above (in which I could go into further details without charging my conscience), the case can be duly estimated by mentioning the particulars of one point, concerning which I have to say the following.
This country is at present in the most wretched condition imaginable. Moreover the governor has recently obtained his desires, namely, to be without an Audiencia, for Licentiate Legaspi is the only one in it. For, besides having driven me from it, it seems that he has also removed Don Antonio Rodriguez by treating him very ill and by grossly insulting him, because the latter petitioned that the acts by which the governor had arrested an auditor in the manner in which he had arrested me, be placed before the Audiencia. But the governor refused to give them; on the contrary, he has taken away every one of several petitions presented in the Audiencia, not wishing them to be seen publicly, for which arbitrary act redress was demanded. The governor recognizes neither justice nor king, but only his own absolute will and pleasure. For that reason, shortly after my imprisonment until now, Don Antonio has been and is quite unwell, and has less hope of going to the Audiencia for a long time. Don Antonio does not deserve that, for in many matters and on many occasions have I recognized in him very good desires and works for the service of your Majesty. Consequently, even if Licentiate Legaspi remains, that means to have no Audiencia, when one considers the close relations that exist between these two strong arguments, the disposition of the governor, and the way in which he treats the service of your Majesty. For the people generally say of him that it would be a miracle if another worse than he could be found. It is said of Licentiate Legaspi that he is the worst official that your Majesty has. The same has been said of Don Juan de Alvarado, ex-fiscal, and that is known throughout the country as a public matter. All three are so great friends that some call them “the union of the saints,” so that, of a truth, as the people understand, not one tittle more than the governor wishes ever happens. Consequently, a number of litigants are holding back their suits until there shall be an Audiencia. There is much outcry at there being no one from whom to demand justice for the insults cast on them by the governor, for, finally, if there were men to defend the service of your Majesty, the governor would not do whatever he wished, although they would suffer and endure many insults for it. The fact is that if all men had a desire and resolution to suffer hardships and even to die for justice and the service of their king, the community would suffer less hurt today, for the governor would not be so daring. And he would not in that case have dared to arrest me, had not he had the consent of Licentiate Legaspi in his grasp; and whenever he needs it he is quite sure of it, in exchange for the advantages that, as everyone knows, the governor has given to him and his sons and retainers—from which I have tried many times to divert him, constraining him by the fidelity due to his king, so that he take strength and write your Majesty. Although I have brought him over on some occasions, my effect has lasted less time than it would last if I had the opportunity and occasion that such things have when one goes straight to God. On the contrary, I think he gets along better without me in the Audiencia, both he and Don Juan de Valderrama—to whom I said what I could say to a brother as soon as he arrived here, because I saw the state of affairs and thought to better them somewhat. But I have indeed done little.
My conscience has made me write at such length, and although there is much to make me continue, I think that I shall have performed my duty with the above, so that all may be considered, provided your Majesty be pleased to send us redress with the haste that so serious matters as these require, by sending us a leader who is a good Christian and one very zealous for God’s service, and who will only strive to obtain that and to serve his king, and not the contrary. For with that the Audiencia will have its due place, and the auditors will attend strictly to their duties, and will conduct it for the peace and conservation of the country, and for your Majesty’s service. It is also important that your Majesty send an inspector here, inasmuch as the country is so full of schemes, tricks, and contrivances to destroy it and finish its ruin; and since your Majesty, as so holy a king, cannot abandon it, after having planted therein the holy gospel, and consequently, having sent the so great fruit of so many souls to heaven. Besides this, if it has peace and is free from enemies, and religiously governed, it will give the greatest wealth and grandeur to your Majesty that can be imagined. It is advisable that such a one be a picked man, and that he be such a person as is necessary, as I have written your Majesty at other times: that he be entirely disinterested, and a good lawyer, with clean hands; that he have great authority in regard to war and peace, and over high officials in both, and power to suspend, in case he deem it advisable, the most serious penalties for your service for long periods, in order to investigate the truth, so that he may understand and learn the tricks, crimes, and criminals, and that he may know the persons in whom he can trust—not only as his agents, but also so that he can ascertain how your Majesty can best provide suitable measures [for reform]. For in no other way can the holy desires of your Majesty, which are those of God, who rewards the good and punishes the evil, be obtained. If he be not such, he will be confused during his inspection by schemes, impositions, and covetousness, but if he be such, he will be the consolation of this country, as I trust in God, and your Majesty will hold it securely in order and justice, in peace and true obedience, and with renown. Your Majesty will then know the evil and the good men, and the excesses of many, and mine. You will obtain great possessions for the royal exchequer and render great service for God our Lord. But otherwise, if he be not such a person, he will serve as a help to the ruin of the country, and as an encouragement to future officials, especially the governors, so that they may act worse. And since thin country has gone from bad to worse because of the officials that it has had, especially the governors, until its present condition has been reached, if your Majesty does not visit an exemplary punishment on those officials, in accordance with each one’s guilt, it is quite clear that those who shall govern in the future will complete its ruin. For the security of that, I think it will aid much for your Majesty to send a stringent order to Mexico and to Sevilla, so that the property sent by the governor, and what he has sent by third persons under various heads, be investigated, which can be ascertained with reasonable efforts; and that it be secured by levying an attachment on it, or at least by placing it in a depositary; or as your Majesty may deem best to order it, for it is understood that such property is in very great quantity. Although I do not dare to affirm this, there are some who with the information and even more that they have of the coming and going of these things relating to the governor are persuaded that the sum [thus sent away] will amount to little less than one million [pesos], and at least to a great sum. I think that all that sum will be necessary, if his inspection or residencia be well made, and that much more will not suffice for the pecuniary part. To do it your Majesty will have sufficient grounds by reason of the advices, letters, and report that have already reached and will reach you concerning his affairs. Will your Majesty decree what is most to your royal service.
I began to take the residencia of Don Juan de Alvarado, as soon as I received your Majesty’s decree, and I give account of it in a separate letter that I am sending to your Majesty with it.
Of that of Don Juan de Silva, which your Majesty also ordered me to take, I have informed your Majesty in other letters, that that order reached me jointly with that of the fiscal, and that for certain reasons of convenience I deemed it best to take that of the fiscal, and afterward to enter upon that of Don Juan de Silva. The country has been so scandalized by what occurred in that of the fiscal, Don Juan de Alvarado, because of the violent demonstrations made by the governor in favor of the fiscal, that many witnesses of those who swore, came to me to ask me not to take Don Juan de Silva’s residencia, because there was not one man who would tell anything that he knew when summoned. Some of the witnesses they tried to kill at night, and others fled the city, having been threatened, it is said, by order of the governor, after the charges against the fiscal were published, until which time he and the governor thought that there could be no witness who would dare [say anything]. On that account the demonstrations that arose were greater, and I was requested, considering the condition of the affairs of the country and the many objects of the governor, to do the same in the residencia of Don Juan de Silva. [This was desired] on account not only of the many connections that it must necessarily have with many cases related to it, with which he has had connection during the time while he has been here; but of other private persons, his friends, who are involved in the residencia, especially one Josephe de Naveda Alvarado, a relative of the fiscal, who was secretary to Don Juan de Silva, and also served him in other offices of great danger. It is well known that this man, for Don Juan’s sake, has committed the most dangerous and insolent acts that one can imagine, during that time and at present. He is also secretary to this governor, whose especial favor he enjoys. Whence I am persuaded beyond all doubt that nothing good will be done, for what the governor would not do through Josephe de Naveda and the others is much more than what he would do through the fiscal. It is not many months since, because of a royal decree that your Majesty sent to the Audiencia ordering the investigation of the property of Don Juan de Silva and its sequestration, I found, on attending to it, a process where it appeared that this Naveda owed Don Juan de Silva eight thousand pesos. On taking it to the Audiencia to have justice done there and to have it paid, notwithstanding your Majesty’s decree, the governor seized the process and kept it, forbidding us, with frightful demonstrations [of anger], to discuss it longer. Consequently, I thought it best to postpone taking the residencia until I could see whether matters would mend, which God is wont to bring about by methods unthought of—notwithstanding that the governor, under pretext of service to your Majesty, told me often to take the residencia, for, in the presence of the greatest and most serious offenses, both he and his associates would come out as if they were angels. This was the motive of the pressure that he brought to bear; and, even though he should have more crimes than the sea has sands, yet because of him nothing would be said against the others. That would mean not to take the residencia, and for me not to obey your Majesty’s will, with the loss of great sums, and much detriment, to the royal exchequer; for it is certain, Sire, that those who would come out as if angels—and some of them, especially Naveda, according to the report and outcry of the country—would not pay what they owe with many lives and with many hangings. For such are the devices that the governors have used here for the destruction both of the royal treasury of your Majesty and of this country. However, with the lapse of time and hoping for opportunity, I made investigations as secretly as possible with most of the notaries in this city, inasmuch as two or three others that remain are of the governor’s household—to the end, as I have told your Majesty, that they may serve his purposes. They (and if there were others, it would all be miraculous)[13] and given with the greatest fear in the world; with which your Majesty will see that not even in secret and under oath do men dare to speak. Then continuing, the time came in which the governor arrested me, without considering what I had in charge at your Majesty’s command. Consequently everything is at a standstill, until God shall remedy it. Hence, Sire, as I have said, the obligation of conscience makes me give account to your Majesty; and I think, for a conclusion of this matter, that I am not excused from some particulars.