You inform us that in a council held in the time of your predecessor, which consisted of himself, the auditors of the Audiencia there, and the officials of my royal exchequer, it was decided to give, distributed among them and the archbishop of the metropolitan church of that city, and other officials of the said Audiencia, three thousand four hundred fanegas of rice at the price at which my tributes are given to me; and when you saw that they had not my order for this, you ordered that the said grant of rice should not be continued, and that what had been received should be restored if I did not decree otherwise.  In this order, and in discontinuing the four hundred pesos which were given to the governor’s secretary, you have done well, and this action was advisable, and conformable to justice; and you are to understand that, if there are other affairs of this kind beside those which you have pointed out, they are to be corrected, and an account of everything given to my fiscal, so that in respect to them he may fulfil the obligation of his office.

You have done well in having ordered that the money from the treasury of property of deceased persons in that city—­which used to be taken to the treasury at Mexico without benefit in the property for their souls or their heirs, being divided or invested by order of the court having the jurisdiction in such matters—­should be placed in my royal treasury and be paid in the said treasury of Mexico from the money which on my account is to be sent to those islands.  What you have decreed in regard to this is just and expedient; and as for what you mention in regard to the proceeds of the bulls, you will do the same if the circumstances and conditions of their collection allow of it.  You will act according to previous directions.

You say that the licentiate Andres de Alcaraz, my auditor in that Audiencia, wished to go to Mexico last year in the ships which left those islands for Nueva Espana; and that, he did not do so because he was sick, and because of your urgent request that he should not desert the Audiencia until the other auditors thereof should become proficient in the despatch of business and the duties of their offices, on account of the lack of harmony among them.  As it is fitting that those things which you mention in general terms should be explained in detail, you will advise me what they are, and in regard to what persons, since as president of that Audiencia you are in duty bound to give the information, so that, having been considered, provision may be made according to justice; and in the meantime you ought to correct and warn them in such manner that all shall be peaceful and that scandal shall cease—­for this is the sole cause of bad government, of justice losing its prestige, and of those who are appointed to remedy evils being the authors thereof.  In order to do away with this, I have had letters written to the other auditors (a copy of which is sent you), warning them that they must be subject to your person, and maintain the respect and ceremony due to you by virtue of your office.  Of the rest which you mention in that clause I have been informed.