Sire:
On the occasion of a letter written to your Majesty by Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenzá, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of the royal Audiencia established therein, on the seventeenth of August of the past year 623, petitioning among other things for permission to come to España, the Council advised your Majesty of what occurred to them with regard to the appointment to that office. Your Majesty was pleased to order that persons be proposed for it, and that a relation be made, in the report of the Council, of the pretensions of Don Alonso; and that action be immediate, so that he whom your Majesty should appoint might sail in the trading-fleet bound for Nueva España—or, if he should be in the Yndias, that he might be advised so that he could sail in March of the coming year for Filipinas. [Your Majesty also ordered] that Don Alonso’s pay should run until his departure thence in the first vessel, and one year longer, in order that he might come here. In fulfilment of your Majesty’s orders, it appears that the demands of Don Alonso Fajardo are reduced to a better office in reward for his services and those of his father and forbears; and that your Majesty, by providing what you deem best, make good his pay during all the time while he should be detained there without power to embark, and one year longer, to enable him to come to these kingdoms, offering his person to serve in this interim at the order of his successor. Don Juan Fajardo, his brother, wrote to me, the president, in a letter of November 4 of the past year that, since Don Alonso desires leave to go to España, it must be after there has been time to conclude the inspection that was ordered to be made of him and the Audiencia, and after your Majesty has assigned him a post in the Council of War with an adequate salary. In accordance with the charges against him, Don Juan petitions that the permission be revoked until he himself shall return from the expedition of Brazil and come to this court. Will your Majesty show him the favor that may be your pleasure.
The Council having examined personally the services and merits that follow for this office (which carries a salary of eight thousand pesos de minas, of four hundred and fifty maravedis apiece), those who are considered most fitting to receive that office—which must be held for eight years, in accordance with the order given regarding it—are proposed to your Majesty. The first two have seven votes.
Don Geronimo Agustin, of the habit of Calatrava, who has served from the year 88. In that of 89, the duke of Terra Nova, while governor of Milan, assigned him a Spanish infantry company of arquebusiers in the regiment of Lombardia. The same year he went to Flandes, where, at different periods, he served for ten years with appointments and infantry companies; and the last three years as captain and sargento-mayor of the regiments of the masters-of-camp, Don Yñigo de Borja, Don Alvaro Huaser, Don Fernando Giron, and Don Alonso de Leyla. He commanded some of the regiments; and for special services that he performed, the king our sovereign (may he rest in peace), your Majesty’s father, granted him four hundred reals[1] income in Milan. In the year 60–[?] he was appointed master-of-camp of a regiment of men in the fleet of the Ocean Sea, in which he has served. Embarking with his regiment, he went to the Terceras to relieve three ships of Yndia which had arrived there in a dilapidated condition; and afterward went with the marquis of Santa Cruz to the undertaking of Alarache. Thence he went to the Mediterranean Sea until he sighted Tunez [i.e., Tunis], in whose bay were burned twenty-two pirate ships and one galliot.[2] On his return from the expedition, he took part in the expulsion of the Moriscos[3] from Valencia, Aragon, and Murcia. Finally, he went with his regiment to La Mamora, and was in full command of all the companies in which served the seigniors and cities of Andalucia and three hundred soldiers of the coast of Granada. Through his determination, the men whom he headed were landed; and they gained and occupied those positions, responding with great courage to their defense and to the fortifications. In consideration of that, he was in the former year of 617 considered for the offices of governor and captain-general of the province of Panama and those of Chile, and as president of the royal Audiencia of those provinces. On account of your Majesty’s assurance in his person and services, you granted him the office of viceroy of Mallorca, which he holds at present.
Don Gaspar Ruiz de Pereda, of the habit of San Tiago, has served for more than thirty-six years in the Terceras, in the expedition to Ynglaterra, in the States of Flandes, and in the fleet of the Ocean Sea, where considerable pay and appointments were granted him. Afterward he served in Bretaña; and the Council of State entrusted to him matters touching the right of the infanta to that state.[4] He was corregidor and war-captain of the four towns of the seacoast. He attended to the preparation and building of ships and the despatch of fleets satisfactorily. At the conclusion of his office, he returned to that coast, and became superintendent of it all from La Raya of Portugal to Francia. The king our sovereign (may he rest in peace) granted him the government of Habana, which he exercised for nine years. In the residencia taken from him he was regarded as free from blame; and, on his arrival at these kingdoms, was appointed corregidor of Malaga. Later, on account of the satisfaction given by his person, your Majesty appointed him inspector-general in the States of Flandes.
The following three have five votes apiece.
Don Juan Nino de Tavora, who, having been gentleman of the bed chamber to the archduke Alberto, and cavalry captain in the States of Flandes, is at present master-of-camp of Spanish infantry there. With his services and capacity there is entire satisfaction. He is the son of Don Gabriel Nino, formerly chief master-of-camp of the king our sovereign who is in glory.
General Don Juan de Venavides, of the habit of San Tiago, is the son of the marquis of Jaralquinto. He has been in the service for the past twenty-two years, seven of them with additional pay under the marquis of Santa Cruz in the galleys of the kingdom of Portugal, and thirteen years with the pay of thirty reals [sc. ducados?] per month in the trade-route to the Yndias. He made five voyages, in that of 610 going as captain of one of the infantry companies of the trading-fleet of Tierra Firme. That same year, the flagship of the galleons having been lost at the departure from Buen Aire, he, having escaped naked, stayed to rescue the men of the ship; and having done this, took them in a patache to Cartagena. In the year 613 he went as admiral of the trading-fleet of Nueva España. On the return trip some ships of the fleet were lost in a storm. He was carrying in his ship more than one million [pesos] of silver belonging to your Majesty and to private persons. The masts and the rudder were snapped in twain; the ship began to leak at the bow; and yet he repaired it and anchored in the port of San Lucar without having thrown anything overboard. In 615 he again filled the same office of admiral, and, the flagship from Honduras having been wrecked, he saved many of its crew. In 617 he was recommended as commander of the trading-fleet of Nueva España, and was granted the office of its admiral. Finally, he was twice proposed as commander of the Filipinas fleet. On January 13, 620, he was appointed commander of the trading-fleet of Nueva España, from which post he came with good reputation and fame. Licentiate Pedro de Vergara Gaviria, in a letter that he wrote to your Majesty from Vera Cruz, where he was inspecting the royal officials, declares that he has seen in his person an excellent zeal and a manner of procedure quite different from what is said there of other commanders, and accordingly he is obliged to give account of it; and that the honors and rewards that your Majesty would be pleased to bestow on him will be well employed. In the year 623, he was for the second time granted the office of commander of the said trading-fleet of Nueba España (whence he had come the year before); he took the fleet and brought it in safety. While at the port of Vera Cruz, the Mexican Audiencia committed to him, on the occasion of the rebellion of that city, the fort of San Juan de Ulua, and appointed him as its commandant, and as military captain of all that coast. He served in that capacity until he returned to España, desiring to obtain the quiet and peace of that kingdom. In the residencias that have been taken of the appointments as commander that he has held, he has been declared a good official, and worthy of greater honors and emoluments. This present year he was proposed for the office of commander of the trading-fleet of Nueba España.
The master-of-camp, Don Francisco Zapata Ossorio, knight of the habit of Santiago, has served for twenty-two years, sixteen in Flandes, at fifty reals [sc. ducados?] pay. He was later captain of a Spanish infantry company, with which he took part as occasion offered. He, went to Napoles and was there governor and military captain of the province of Calabria. In the residencia taken of that office, he was exonerated. He commanded the galley of the Napoles squadron at the appointment of Cardinal Çapata, in the absence of the regularly-appointed commander, with pay of one hundred and fifty reals [sc. ducados?] per month. In the year of 622 the said cardinal appointed him master-of-camp of the seven companies of Spanish infantry that went to the state of Milan, and captain of one of them, namely, the one that belongs to him as master-of-camp. He came with the permission of the duke of Alva, who wrote to your Majesty recommending him and mentions the said Don Francisco. Your Majesty has ordered him to go to visit the duke of Lorena; also that, going to Flandes, he be given there the first regiment that falls vacant, and that in the meanwhile he enjoy the salary of master-of-camp of halberdiers—namely, one hundred and sixteen ducados per month. His father served more than fifty years, and was in the battle of Lepanto, in the States of Flandes, the war with Portugal, the Terceras Islands, and the expedition to Ynglaterra; he served twice in the inspection of many men in the department of Sevylla, and served in the government of Alcantara, and as corregidor of Joro, and lastly in that of Cordoba. His uncle, Don Juan Çapata Ossorio, was bishop of Çamora; and his other ancestors, paternal and maternal, died in the service.
Don Garcia Giron has four votes. He has served since the expedition to Ynglaterra. He was lieutenant of the cavalry captain, Don Fernando Giron, his brother, in Lengua-doc [i.e., Languedoc], whence he went to Bretaña as arquebusier captain. He took part in all the sieges and in all the reënforcements that occurred during his time, many times having in charge convoys. When the said his brother took two thousand infantrymen for the fleet, he served on it. The adelantado-mayor of Castilla gave him command of a galleon, and later the command of twenty companies when coming from Vigo. When some thirty companies went to Ytalia with the count of Fuentes, he took charge of them by order of the duke of Medina-Sidonia. On those occasions and in Flandes, while serving as captain and sargento-mayor, he gave an excellent account of his person and served with satisfaction to his superiors. In the year of 610, his Majesty who is in glory bestowed upon him the government of Cartagena, I mean of Benezuela. At the expiration of the time for which he was appointed, he was granted the government of Cartagena, and now he has been given that of Habana.