I had information that they were sending thither Chinese and flogging them, in form of justice, according to the Chinese usage.  This moved me to enter a petition in regard to it in the royal Audiencia, demanding that this be stopped.  I was ordered to give an information, and I did so, as fully appears by the copy thereof which accompanies this.  When the governor learned of this, he was much angered at me, and complained bitterly of me—­saying that this proceeding was in opposition to him; and that I should have first given him an account of what I wished to petition, which I should have done very willingly [illegible in MS.] had I thought it of any use.  But as he had seen what occurred, it appeared to me—­with the report of the Audiencia, and what I had before said to him in regard to the mandarins not bearing insignia of justice—­that any further discussion of the subject with the governor might be dispensed with, and that it was my duty to petition as I did.  The Audiencia took no action, because the governor issued an act commanding that the mandarins should not administer justice, or bear their insignia of chastisement through the streets.  The Audiencia commanded that this act be joined with the information which I had given, and the mandarins went back to their own country.  As it appeared to me well that your Majesty should know of this affair—­of which you will find full details in the information of which I speak—­I have thought it best to give an account thereof to your Majesty, so that your Majesty may be pleased to command that the procedure be established in the case of mandarins coming from China to this city, and direct in what state they are to go through the streets; for the tokens of authority which those mandarins bore were excessive.  I have even gone so far, in order that this may be better investigated, as to have a picture made of the style in which they went about, a copy of which will go with this, since the brief time prevents me from having another copy made.  I have also had placed upon it what each figure signifies, the explanations being in the petition which I placed before the Audiencia, a copy of which goes with the documents above mentioned.

On the twenty-ninth of April of this year it was God’s will that there should be so great a fire in this city that, within two hours, there were burned one hundred and fifty houses, among them the best of the city, and the thirty-two built of masonry, one of which was mine. [15] Not having any people to help me, I could not save its contents, and only with the greatest difficulty did I save my library.  The cause of the lack of people to aid in putting out the fire, and taking out from several of the houses what they could, was that the governor had ordered the gates of the cities locked so that no Chinese or Indians could enter—­although they would have been of much use, as they have been in other fires which we have had.  In the passion of my grief, for