We are ordering that the collection of one and one-half per cent imposed on money coming to this land be discontinued; and, in order that the Chinese might bring us an abundance of supplies, with horses and cattle, as they had begun to do, it is decreed that no duties be imposed on the grain, biscuit, flour, and all other provisions brought by them, in order to encourage them to provide this land abundantly with these supplies.  Moreover, besides the above reason, the amount collected from this source for your Majesty is very small.  Your Majesty will order what you shall be pleased to have done in this matter.

Section 9. [50] By virtue of a royal decree of your Majesty, the bishop added another parish priest to the benefice of this cathedral church, so that there are now two priests and a sacristan.  Orders have been given that their salaries shall be paid from the royal exchequer, in conformity with another royal decree lessening the amount to be secured from the tithes.

Section 10.  Your Majesty ordered a royal decree to be issued, commanding us to send a report on the recommendation made by the bishop of these islands, that it is expedient that a brief be procured from his Holiness, in order that the authority which he granted to the bishop in the foro interior for twelve years be also granted to him in the foro esterior. [51] Since this concession has been made by other pontiffs to the religious of the mendicant orders, the claim made by the bishop has seemed to us both fitting and necessary—­as also that the grant be made for several years more, because eight of the twelve years have elapsed.  Since the orders possess this authority, it is just that the bishop shall not remain without it, because cases arise in the foro esterior, which, although they should go to the apostolic see, fail to go, on account of the great difficulty and length of the journey between here and Rome; and thus penitents might not secure absolution, or would be unable to fulfil the obligations that they owe to their consciences.  And, if your Majesty be pleased to order that this brief be obtained, it is our opinion that the same authority be conferred, tan in absolvendo quam in dispensando.

Section 11.  Your Majesty commanded your royal decree to be issued, ordering that the hundred pesos and hundred fanegas of rice which are given annually as alms to the religious, besides the wine for the saying of mass, and flour for the host, be given them.  This ordinance has been observed, and the supplies given them conformably to the decree.

Section 12.  Certain slaves are brought to these islands from Yndia and the settlement at Macan; as your Majesty has given no orders as to the collection of duty on them from those who bring them hither—­as is paid on those from Santo Domingo and other places to Nueva Espana and Piru—­your royal officials have not collected on them, or on those slaves who are carried from these islands to Nueva Espana.  We ask your Majesty to order as suits your pleasure in the regulation of this matter.