Don Juan Niño de Tavora
[Addressed: “To his Majesty. Cavite, 1629.”] [Endorsed: “Governor Don Juan Niño de Tavora. Treasury. Seen and decreed in the margin, July 11. Take it to the fiscal. In the Council, November 23, 630.”]
[The findings of the fiscal]
1. The fiscal says that he has read this letter. In regard to the first point, concerning the ship which is to take the cloves, he thinks that if affairs move with the security and ease which the governor ascribes to them, the profit is a matter of considerable moment, and that the governor should be ordered to undertake it. But, inasmuch as many things enter into that question which pertain to the Council of War, he requests that the matter be examined and discussed by them before any resolution be taken. He also thinks that it will be necessary that a copy of what concerns the Council of Portugal be given that body, on account of the relations which the execution of this measure have and may have with Goa, Malaca, and other points of Eastern Yndia which fall within the demarcation of the said Council.
2. In regard to the second point, concerning the cultivation of the land, he thinks that it ought to be accepted; for the amount of money risked is little, and will be spent to establish a known gain. He only stops to consider that, in order to carry out this measure and the preceding one, the governor requests further increase in the situado which is generally given from Mexico to those islands; and he does not know whether the royal treasury of that city is at present able to furnish that increase, because of the loss which his Majesty’s incomes have sustained from the inundation[5] and other troubles which have come upon them, and the heavy burdens of the said treasury.
3. In regard to the third point, concerning what is owed to the fund of the goods of deceased persons—a sum which exceeds forty thousand pesos, because the governors have used it on various urgent occasions that have arisen and have not repaid it—the fiscal recognizes how just it is that an effort be made to repay and satisfy those funds, but he finds this unadvisable at present for the royal treasury; for it is first necessary to liquidate the accounts and investigate how all that sum was spent, and whether it could have been avoided, and why the governors have not always made it up from the situado which has been sent to them all these years. That must depend on the investigation which shall be made in the inspection which has been ordered to be made of the governors, auditors, treasuries, and royal officials of those islands. This point must be set down in writing, as it is so essential, so that the inspector who shall be appointed may have it well in hand. After knowing the result and report of the inspection, orders will be given as to what shall be just in regard to the payment and integrity of the said fund of the goods of deceased persons. A royal decree must be despatched, so that this indebtedness be made no greater in the future, and so that the governors take upon themselves no authority to make payments out of the said fund; and such proceeding shall be strictly prohibited to them, as it was by another decree which was despatched to Piru in regard to this same matter, and the custom of the viceroys in making payments from the fund of the goods of deceased persons.
4. In regard to the fourth point, concerning the sale of the office of [secretary of] government and war, which the governor says he has sold for fifty-four thousand pesos, the fiscal will place before the Council what will be advisable for the investigation of this matter, when the purchaser shall come to ask for the confirmation of this sale. For the present, what he has to note is that only ten thousand pesos of the said sum appear to have been in cash; for the forty-four thousand pesos remaining were received in salary-warrants which were said to be owing from the treasury to the said purchaser and to other persons. That mode of payment has many inconveniences, as has been alleged on other occasions; and order must be given that it be avoided as much as possible.
5. In regard to the fifth point, no definite measures can be taken until the accountant and royal officials have been heard, and the custom ascertained which has been in vogue in appointing and removing the minor officials of the royal treasury; for in the majority of cases, it is usually in charge of the royal officials, to say who shall help them, and they remove or appoint as they deem best. If there has been or is anything that contradicts this, it is where such minor officials are paid and are given title by his Majesty.
6. In regard to the sixth and last point, it will be advisable to look up and collect the acts cited in it; and in the meanwhile the fiscal thinks that order should be given to pay the fees to the minor officials, as was declared by the royal Audiencia. Madrid, November 30, 1630.
[A copy of certain sections of the present letter follows (those of the fifth point) with the decree of the Council and the statement of the fiscal, all of which is given above. Several of the summaries of decrees of the Council are dated July 11, 1631. The following statement, relating to the fifth and sixth points, completes the document.]