There are very few in these islands capable of handling the arquebus, although they used to be the best and most skilful soldiers in the Yndias.  The cause of this is that they have so devoted themselves to trade that they have no desire for anything else.  Nevertheless, your Majesty ordered, in the instructions given to Gomez Perez, when he came here to govern, that those who drew pay from your Majesty as fighting men should not be allowed to trade.  Afterward in a clause of the letter of January, 1593, replying to another of his, your Majesty ordered the same thing.  This has not been complied with, however, and as the captains and higher officers are rich and rewarded by their salaries and grants, it is not just that they be merchants, as is the case.  They are so diverted from military exercise that they are as useless as if they were in Toledo; and elsewhere they engross, by their large shipments, the space required for the merchandise and freight of the citizens.  Your Majesty therefore spends the revenue on them and their soldiers uselessly; and it is necessary that this be corrected, in order that affairs may return to their normal condition.

The city was sufficiently supplied with public endowments, because in addition to what the governor held, he made a grant to it, in the name of your Majesty, of the shops and rents of a new parian, which had been built after my arrival for the Chinese, outside the walls, on the border of Sant Gabriel.  Consequently there comes in from the property more than four thousand pesos annually, which is fully sufficient for necessary expenses, and in the future should be used for public buildings, which are needed.  None such have ever been attempted, except the wall and fortifications which were built by the governor Gomez Perez.  In respect to the traffic of the citizens of these islands and the administration of their commerce, your Majesty made suitable provisions by a decree of the same month of January, ninety-three.  This is as is necessary; and since the returns from all the merchandise from Nueva Spana come to them without limitation, there is left them no just ground for complaint.  When I came here I found that, although the said decree is so precise, the execution of it was so far forgotten here that, when I took steps for its observance, it was ill received, as will appear by the accompanying reports thereof.  Nevertheless, the execution of the decree will be attended to on my part, until your Majesty may decree otherwise.  There is no doubt that by this is decreed what is expedient for this kingdom; and if the officials took proper care to execute your Majesty’s orders, these difficulties would be obviated.  But, as I have before written, it is not done with due exactness.