a new impost.  They resolved, in fact, that I had no authority to do this, and were even on the point of declaring me excommunicated.  The city was so upset and disturbed by them that open scandal almost resulted.  I do not now discuss the character of this assessment, for your Majesty will see the justification for imposing it.  All I have to say is that certainly, in addition to my ordinary difficulties with the bishop, this last trouble is due specially to the president and the auditors, although they know well how necessary and useful the wall is.  It was because of the lack of it that the English, when they plundered the ship “Sancta Ana,” were able to get away with their booty so safely.  It would have been possible to attack them and to force them to give it up in the island of Oton, where they lay at anchor for some days, if it had not been that the president and auditors were unwilling to run the risk of leaving the city when it had no wall.  If we had had any, no matter how few the people in it, it would have been safe.  But they have not said or done anything to help me.  On the contrary, they have joined the bishop in denouncing and attacking this tax because it affects them.  They have loaded themselves with cloths and merchandise in such quantity that their share of the tax is likely to amount to something; and this they would be glad to avoid, like the good merchants they are.  I at least do not know any other rich people here than the president and auditors; and that is the only reason why they object to the tax, to which they incorrectly give the name of “impost.”  This it certainly is not, for it is assessed once only and upon men such as the Peruvians and Mexicans, who are going away, and will not be obliged to pay it again, even if it is demanded.  It is a great pity, Sire, that the theologians, when they are not invited and ought not to be invited to do so, meddle thus with this matter, as they do with everything else which is decreed; and that they should wish to act in all respects as a superior tribunal.  This they do not only in the interior court of conscience, but with outward proceedings in the exterior court by excommunications, declarations, and the taking of measures to stop that which is being done.  It is this disturbance and interference for which in other letters I beg your Majesty to command a remedy.  The ecclesiastical tribunal has certainly possessed itself and gained the mastery of everything here to an extraordinary degree; and this is not consistent with exemplary conduct and life in the clergy.  From the bishop down to the humblest of them, they are as good merchants as the most secular and the most skilful tradesmen.  It is because the two per cent affects and includes them all, as I have said, that the theological council finds fault with it, declaring that it is not just.  It is fortunate that they do not directly affirm it to be unjust; but assert that I err in laying this assessment, which the laws themselves declare shall be laid for expenditures