On this said day, month, and year aforesaid, I, the notary undersigned, read and made known the act herein contained, decreed by his Excellency, to the treasurer, Salvador de Aldave, official of his Majesty’s royal treasury, in his own person.  From him I took and received an bath, which he took before God and the blessed Mary, and on the sign of the cross +, in due legal form, under which obligation he promised to tell the truth.  Being asked what tributes this deponent has collected from the villages which it is said he holds as his encomiendas in the provinces of Yloco, and the amount thereof, and what persons have collected them in his name, he said, under obligation of his oath, that Bartolome de Vega, a soldier, who about fifteen or twenty days ago came from the province of Yloco, told this deponent that in this year of seventy-six he had collected, from the said villages, tribute from two hundred Indians.  This tribute did not come to the hands of this deponent, but went to the factor Andres de Mirandaola in payment of a debt of the royal exchequer, owed to the said factor, and which this deponent was ordered by his Excellency to pay, although he did not owe it.  Thus this deponent has received nothing out of what the said Bartolome de Vega collected this said year, of the said two hundred tributes, beyond one hundred and sixty pieces of white cloth from Yloco, which the said Vega gave and delivered to this deponent—­a little more or less, he does not remember exactly.  This said treasurer said that he was making this declaration to execute his Excellency’s order, and protests that he should incur no loss, because the content of the said act ought not to extend to his case, as he is not the proprietor of the said office and duty of treasurer; and because, in all the time that he has held it, he has received neither salary, gratuities, nor allowances, as will appear by his Majesty’s books.  To those he refers, because he, as holding and occupying the said office which the treasurer Guido de Lavacares had held, has conducted and exercised the said office as others have done, who at the present day hold encomiendas of Indians.  This he said was his declaration, and he so made it, and signed the same with his name.

Salvador de Aldave

Witness, Anton Caballero.

Before me, Diego Aleman, notary-public.

I, the said Fernando Riquel, had this copy made from the original acts, which are in my possession.  Therefore I here affixed my name and customary flourishes, in witness of the truth.

Hernando Riquel

Letter to Felipe II by Francisco de Sande

Catholic Royal Majesty: