Cagayan affairs are in better condition than formerly. Some Indians have already been reduced to the obedience of your Majesty, and the others are being pressed to render it. I hope for a good result. May our Lord give the outcome which He knows to be most desirable. May He preserve the Catholic and royal person of your Majesty, with increase of kingdoms and states, as we your vassals desire and as Christendom needs. Manila, July 30, 1630. Sire, your Majesty’s humble vassal,
Don Juan Niño de Tavora
[In the margin: “It is well. Have a copy of this letter sent to his Majesty, so that he may be informed of everything.”]
Government touching judicial and military matters
Sire:
After having concluded my despatch, and while awaiting that of the royal Audiencia in order to sign it (they having before communicated with me in session concerning the matters of which they were to write), I learned that the auditors had sealed the letter, and that they were sending it by a different way, as they did not wish me to see or sign it. That is a singular innovation; but, in order to avoid greater disturbances, I undertook, while they were assembled, to tell them what evil they were doing in trying to make such an innovation, which was so unsuitable; for I would not hinder them from writing freely whatever they might judge fitting to the royal service of your Majesty, nor would I be angry if their opinion were different from mine. Neither were they to write anything which should be untrue, and which I could not see; thus would they avoid interrupting by such innovation the peace and concord with which we had lived during these four years. I entreated them to comply with the obligations of their office, namely, to live in harmony with their president, and to write their opinion with the truth that is required, showing that malice does not move them but only the desire of right action. [I told them that] they should do as in previous years, namely, allow me to sign the letter. I warned them of the disservice which is being done to your Majesty in the president and auditors not being in accord; and I protested to them that it was they who were declaring war, since they were persisting in trying to make me suspect that they were writing things against me which they did not dare to say to me. That is the manifestation which they might make in case of any treachery or knavery on my part. They had little to answer to these arguments, but for all that they were not willing to regulate their conduct as they should, but to persevere in their theme. That would have obliged me to make the demonstration which the case demanded, had I not considered rather the service of your Majesty than the action which the vehemence of their passions deserves.
Attack on the orders of the government, by the auditors commanding the royal officials to pay them their thirds [of salary], notwithstanding any order of government.
2. Jointly with this they made another attack on the government, namely, to notify the royal officials by an act that they should immediately pay them their thirds [of salary] notwithstanding any order that they might have to the contrary, as such was not from your Majesty. That they said because of the order of the government that nothing be paid without its decree. That order was given by all my predecessors, and the auditors themselves ratified it when they were governing, as will be seen by the enclosed records. I resented this action, because of their boldness in trying to oppose the orders of the government, and because of the slight foundation which they had for it: for never was more owing to them than the third for April, as the treasury is without a real at this time; and we do not have in the entire city any place to get the money, and with great difficulty are we able to get a meager aid for the soldiers and sailors. That third is paid the auditors in June or July, which is the time when the silver comes from Nueva España. And now because it arrived about ten days ago, and their third has not been paid them, because I am here in Cavite, attending to the despatch of the ships, they were so impatient that, not having taken the trouble to remind me of their need so that I might order them paid immediately, they enacted the act above mentioned—copy of which, together with the reply of the royal officials, I herewith enclose. Last year they themselves asked me not to pay them the April third until that for August was due, as they wished to receive them together. That shows how little inconvenience follows their not having received it this year in the month of July. Surely, all these actions are the offspring of their natures, [and show the] duplicity and deceit with which they are arming themselves in order to break the peace, perhaps because they have seen that the inspector who was expected did not come this or last year, at whose coming I was hoping to have rest. But since he has not come, it will be necessary for me to do myself what I wished to have done by the hand of another—namely, to give the auditors to understand the respect which they ought to have for their governor and president. This said, I shall now go on to answer the points of the letter which I have heard from them themselves, and which they say are the ones which they wrote to your Majesty. In passing, I shall answer to that Council the chief complaints, which, I suppose, are the ones that may oppose my method of governing. It is no little consolation that all of them have to do with points or controversies of justice, and not defects which transgress my obligations; for it is those that could give me some pain.
That it is not advisable that the royal Audiencia carry the burden of visiting the prison of Tondo and that of the Parián of the Chinese.
3. The first point is in respect to the royal Audiencia petitioning that it be ordered that they visit the prisons of the village of Tondo and of the Parián of the Sangleys. This does not appear just; for although those prisons are near Manila, and inside the district of the five leguas to which the [jurisdiction of the] Audiencia extends (which is the argument on which they take their stand), still those places have their alcaldes-mayor, and are separate jurisdictions, and it belongs to those officials to make their visitation of prisons as the Audiencia do in theirs. It is true that the alcaldes-in-ordinary and those of the court (who are the auditors themselves) arrest in Tondo and in the Parián by virtue of the five leguas; but they do not put the prisoners in the prisons of those courts, but in that of the court, or the prison of this city. The example which they have cited to me—namely, that the prisons of the suburbs of Mexico are visited on Saturdays by the auditors—is not well taken in this case; for those prisons are in charge of the corregidor, and separate, because the city is large and needs those different prisons. But the prison of Tacubaja, which is one-half legua or slightly more from the city, is not visited by the Audiencia, because it has its own alcalde-mayor. And it is certain that because Sangleys are confined in these prisons of Tondo and the Parián, the royal Audiencia is claiming the right to visit them, for all their anxiety is to acquire very full authority over that people. I have written your Majesty enough on this point. It would be advisable for your service to have this royal Audiencia prohibited from trying any cause concerning the Sangleys.