By another royal decree of the nineteenth of August of said year, your Majesty orders that, if it should appear necessary to me, certain offices of notaries and magistrates in these islands should be sold, under the condition that the persons who should be the highest bidders should obtain confirmation of their title within three years.  These offices are of very little profit, and of none at all in some places, as the land has been settled so recently, and there are few inhabitants and little business therein.  As it is continually becoming more populous and well established, it would be more advantageous to postpone the sale of these offices for some years, until they shall be worth more.  I will make the necessary investigations, as your Majesty commands me, and will advise your Majesty of the prices offered.  If I find that for any of them I can obtain its value in the future I will have it auctioned.  In the meantime I will make endeavors to have them sold for a price that can be profitable to your Majesty’s royal exchequer.

By another decree of the twenty-seventh of August of said year, your Majesty orders me to give my opinion of the arms that are in the fort of the city of Manila, and those that are needed.  In three forts which your Majesty has here, there are twenty-four heavy pieces, two small ones, and some culverins, as will be seen below.

In the stone fort there are three swivel-guns, located in the three casemates, of about twenty quintals’ weight.  On the first floor over the rampart, there are seven heavy pieces, extra thick and strong at the breech.  Two are of about forty quintals’ weight, three varas in length and carry a ball of cast iron weighing sixteen libras.  Two others are of wrought iron, of sixty quintals’ weight, three and two-thirds varas in length, and carry a ball of cast iron weighing fifteen libras.  One cannon is of fifty-five quintals’ weight, four and one-third varas in length, and carries a ball of cast iron weighing fourteen libras; one culverin, five and one-half varas in length, weighs one hundred and one quintals one arroba, and carries a cast iron ball weighing seventeen libras; another piece of thirty-five quintals’ weight, three varas in length, carries a cast iron ball weighing twelve libras.

The fort at the point has one cannon weighing twenty-five quintals; three small cannon [sacres], weighing twenty-two; and a half-sacre weighing thirteen—­the last, with its apparatus, being four varas in length.

The cavalier of the beach has a piece, extra thick and strong at the breech, of forty quintals’ weight which carries a ball weighing fifteen libras; and one half-sacre, of thirteen quintals’ weight.

At the river there is a large swivel-gun with cross-bars, weighing thirty quintals; one cannon weighing twenty-six quintals, one sacre weighing twenty-two quintals, four half-sacres weighing thirteen or fourteen quintals, and two esmeriles [a small piece of ordnance] weighing four or five quintals.