278. Item:  No supernumerary commissioner shall be appointed without being examined, and giving bonds for the administration of his office.  No dependent or member of a household of our said president and auditors may be appointed to such commissionership, under penalty that the clerk appointed contrary to this ordinance shall lose all fees and salary for the time during which he shall occupy himself with the commissionership.

279-280. [The number of lines on a page in a record of inquiry; the number of words in a line; the excellence of handwriting required; the dating of reports of examinations.]

Bailiffs

281-284. [The bailiff’s [portero] duties; his fees those of the bailiffs of the royal council; a lodging to be given him in the building of the Audiencia; tardiness fined one peso; excessive fees to be repaid sevenfold to the exchequer; presents for good news not to be accepted—­penalty, fourfold repayment to the exchequer; the bailiff to enforce rules of precedence.]

Jail Wardens

285-286. [The warden [carcelero] shall accept no gifts from prisoners or others for them; shall not oppress them, or relax their imprisonment, or dismiss or arrest them without warrant; his oath.]

287. [His fees are those assigned to alguazils in the official table of fees.]

288. [A separate ward must be provided for women.]

289. [Nightly inspection is required.  If prisoners escape through the warden’s fault or negligence, he must suffer their penalty, or pay their debt]

290. [A full record of the prisoner’s name and the circumstances of his imprisonment must be kept]

291. Item: He shall not entrust the keys of the prison to any Indian or black, on pain of being compelled to pay in his own person and estate the damage and injury which shall follow from his having so entrusted the keys.

292. [Warden and jailers are to have no business dealings or familiarity with the prisoners, or eat or gamble with them.]

293. [The jailers must live in the prisons.]

294. Item: There shall be a chaplain in the prison, to say mass before the prisoners daily; and the ornaments and other things necessary therefor shall be provided and paid for from the exchequer fines.  The jailer shall take care that the chapel or place where mass is said shall be clean.

295. Item: He shall cause the prison and the cells thereof to be swept twice a week; and to be provided with clean water, so that the prisoners may drink without paying any fee.  No jail-fee shall be charged to boys arrested for gambling, or to officials of our Audiencia arrested by order of our president and auditors—­under a penalty of a fine of four times the amount, paid to our exchequer.

296. Item: No permission or opportunity for gambling shall be given in the jail, for money or other things except food.  Wine shall not be sold to the poor; or, if sold, shall be sold at the price it is worth, and no more.  No jail-fees shall be received from the poor under penalty of a fourfold fine for our exchequer.