We, the undersigned notaries of the king our sovereign, attest that Andres Martin del Arroyo, by whom this copy appears to be sealed and signed, is such royal notary as he has called himself therein. To the writings and acts that have passed, and pass, before him, entire credit has been and is given, in and out of court. So that this may appear, we affix our signatures. Given at Manila, June eighteen, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six.
Augustin de Valenzuela, notary-public.
Francisco de Rueda, royal notary.
Sebastian Damas, notary of the assembly.
[The act of the commissary of the Inquisition, dated November 26, 1635, presented to the governor and concerning the libelous protest issued by the archbishop and religious (q.v., Vol. XXV, pp. 243–244); and the records of the trial and acquittal of Francisco de Rivera q.v., ante, pp. 73–86, taken in part from the present document) follow.]
Act, and head of the process for Captain Juan Dominguez, the pilot. In the port of Cavite, December twenty-two, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five, General Don Andres Pacheco de Tholedo, lieutenant-governor and captain-general, castellan and chief justice in this said fort for his Majesty, declared that inasmuch as it has come to his notice that Captain Juan Dominguez, who is captain of a company of marine infantry and pilot-in-chief of these islands, has attempted to absent himself from them, and to go in a champan to the kingdoms of Castilla by way of Yndia, without permission of the governor, of all which the said judge has been advised by certain papers without signature that were given to him, and by other circumstantial evidence that he has had: In order that the said crime may be punished, in accordance with the military ordinances, he ordered that an official investigation be made by the department of royal justice, according to military usage and procedure, and that the witnesses be examined in accordance with the tenor of this act and head of the process. Thus did he enact, and he affixed his signature.
Don Andres Pacheco de Tholedo
Before me:
Agustin de Balençuela, notary-public.
Testimony. In the port of Cavite, December twenty-two, one thousand six-hundred and thirty-five, the said judge summoned before him, for the said investigation, the chief gunner, Daniel Alvarez, an inhabitant of this said port. The oath was taken from him in due form of law, before God our Lord and with the sign of the cross, under which obligation he promised to tell the truth. Being questioned according to the tenor of the act and the head of the process, of this other part, this witness declared that he knows Captain Juan Dominguez, and that what he knows and what occurred is as follows: About twenty days or so ago, Bartolome Martin, an artilleryman, and both a countryman and a friend of this witness, said that Captain Juan Dominguez had communicated with him, and asked him whether he would like to go to España by way of Yndia; and, if so, that he would take him also; for he, together with ten or twelve others who were sailors, was going to take a friar of St. Dominic to Yndia. The latter was going to take papers and despatches from the archbishop and the orders in the city of Manila; and they were giving the said Juan Dominguez four thousand pesos for this enterprise. The said Bartolome Martin replied to him: “Captain Juan Dominguez, I am equipped to go to Terrenate, to serve in my post as artilleryman under General Don Guillermo Somante. On my return from the voyage, I think that I shall go to España, the same way by which I came. Therefore, I do not care to go.” This is what this witness knows, and what he has heard. It is the truth, under obligation of the oath that he has taken, by which he affirmed and ratified it. He declared that he was competent to act as a witness, and that he is forty years old. He affixed his signature, and the said judge signed it.
Daniel Alvarez
[A rubric, apparently that of the said judge, is at the foot.]
Before me:
Agustin de Valençuela, notary-public.