The treasury accountants of the City of Mexico have this year exceeded their authority, contrary to the provisions of section 24 of the last ordinances which your Majesty gave to the said treasury accountants, and ordered them to observe, in the year 609. For the ordinances of this royal Audiencia made in the year 1596 are in force—sections 67 and 69 of which treat of the manner in which the accounts of the royal officials are to be audited; and section 29, of the powers given to them for the exercise of their offices—and section 22 of those given to the said accountants in the year of the foundation of that tribunal, which was the year 1609; and the said section 24, lastly, rules that after auditing the accounts in this Audiencia, they shall be sent to Mexico, so that, having been examined, the officials there may inform your Majesty of their opinion. Not heeding that, they have, by extending their jurisdiction, rendered decisions against the royal officials of this treasury in the review of their accounts, and have added things to these, which [these royal officials], as they do not bear them in mind, judge to be unnecessary. It can easily be understood that since your Majesty, by the said section 24, ordered these accounts to be audited here by the president, two auditors, and the fiscal, because of the long distance to Mexico, they are not again to be judged by an inferior tribunal; since these ministers are not to be accused twice for one cause, nor even are additions to be lodged against them, as those in Mexico do. Will your Majesty order them to refrain from sending such despatches through their tribunals, without having your Majesty’s new commission for it, thus annulling the said ordinances and sections. I assure your Majesty of what I can testify, that the royal officials in few regions serve with greater fidelity and trust than those here, with continual aid in the documents and other things in their charge. [In the margin: “Have what the royal officials write about this matter brought.” “This section was copied.”]
Your Majesty orders me to give you information as to how General Rodrigo de Guillestegui, who is commander of the vessels that sail to Nueva España this year, may be granted reward. According to his good service here and his great capability, the future succession [to the command] of this fort, or that to the post of master-of-camp, will be very well entrusted to him.
I knew the master-of-camp, Don Luis de Bracamonte, in Flandes, all the time while he was in those states. He served there for seven years in a most satisfactory manner, when he came to these islands with pay of eighty escudos. With that pay, he served in the government of Terrenate until your Majesty appointed a person to that office. He is poor and out of employment. I beseech your Majesty to be pleased to show him honor and to reward him, since his rank and services deserve it.
Your Majesty also has here one Captain Don Antonio de Vera, captain in this camp, who has served for many years, of which I can testify as an eyewitness from the States of Flandes. He desires your Majesty to reward him with a habit; and beyond doubt that will be well bestowed, and a great encouragement to those who are serving here.
I found Admiral Don Cristoval de Lugo i Montalbo here, a man of very well-known character, and who has rendered excellent service in Milan, and in the wars of Saboya and Piamonte [i.e., Savoy and Piedmont]. I have busied him in the post of chief commandant of Pintados, and as my lieutenant in military matters of that province. He deserves honor and reward from your Majesty.
Your Majesty conceded for another lifetime to my wife, Doña Maria de Ssalaçar (whose parents and grandparents served your Majesty well in these regions), the encomiendas that her mother possessed. Inasmuch as I am so liable to die at any occasion in your Majesty’s service that may arise, which desired end I shall endeavor to attain; and since she cannot remain decently as a widow in this country: I petition your Majesty, in consideration of all my services and those of her father and grandfather, to reward her, and to concede to her, for the time while she holds it, absence from the said encomiendas, that she may enjoy them wherever she pleases to dwell. For that will not result in any harm to a third party, nor can the personal presence of a woman be of any service to your Majesty. This reward can not serve as a precedent, while there are many other precedents in other parts of the Indias to private persons (and they not of my position) [that render it possible].
The almiranta arrived July 29, and its being able to get here seems miraculous, as this is the season when there are no vendavals. I am giving employment to all the paid substitutes possible, in order to stop to some extent the so great waste of the royal treasury, which such men use up without any profit.
I found the deanship of this holy church vacant because of the death of Don Francisco Gomez de Arrellano. On the twenty-eighth of the past month the archdeanship fell vacant because of the death of Ssantiago de Castro. I have made presentations in the following dignities in your Majesty’s name, for your royal patronage, ad interim, and I trust that your Majesty will confirm them: dean, precentor, schoolmaster, archdean, one canon for the precentorship, one cura for the schoolmaster, canon, one racionero, in the ration of Lorenzo Rramirez—all persons of proved virtue and deserving of these rewards. May God preserve your Majesty. Manila, August 4, 1625.